As I've said before, to maintain "A Tale Just For Someone," that special Reality Marble, Nursery Rhyme's true body can't leave this place. The one moving around outside has always been her split-offs.
Like the Nursery Rhyme at the research workbench. Like the Nursery Rhyme who drops by Satomi Rentaro's house. Those are all split-offs.
One particular Nursery Rhyme split-off was playing "Piggy Kart" with a group of Cursed Children.
A bunch of kids—each riding a little pink pig—used fishing rods and carrots to steer their pigs and race along a prebuilt track… No, not "race." It was a "pig racing" game.
After a few rounds, Nursery Rhyme decided it wasn't entertaining enough, so she put a few small items on the track.
And then things got lively—
"Onee-chan! Sofia-oneechan! Why are you throwing turtle shells at me?! I'm your little sister, aren't I?!"
Olivia, who'd gotten smacked by a turtle shell, didn't go flying off her pig's back… nothing like that happened. Since it was a game, Nursery Rhyme obviously wouldn't let these adorable kids get hurt.
Getting hit by a turtle shell only made you dizzy and nauseous—just a bit worse than motion sickness.
"If you pick up an item, of course you use it right away. Otherwise, when you grab the next one, wouldn't you be wasting it?" Sofia said brightly, showing not the slightest guilt about screwing over her own sister. "I just tossed the item forward. If it hadn't been you in front of me and it was someone else instead, I would've hit them, right? So… this is all your fault, Olivia!"
"That is the cleanest blame-shift ever, Sofia-oneechan!"
To make sure everyone had fun, Nursery Rhyme had also set up a comm channel during the race. If you shouted into it, every racer could hear you.
"Since you started it, don't blame me…"
Olivia was furious. She had to make Sofia understand the consequences of ticking her off!
"Here I go… take this! Slime block!"
"What?!"
A green slime suddenly appeared up ahead, and Sofia's face went pale. She'd already cranked her speed to the max to pass someone, so she had no room to dodge at all.
And then—
With a soft "pfft~," Sofia and her pig sank straight into the slime block together.
[Item]: Slime Block.
[Effect]: When placed on the spot. Any racer who hits it is stuck for three seconds.
For those three seconds, Sofia watched racer after racer who'd been behind her pass her one after another, and it felt awful.
Besides Sofia and Olivia, everyone else's misfortune was pretty entertaining, too.
Yuzuri's item was also a turtle shell, but hers wasn't meant to be thrown. Instead, three shells orbited around her; if another racer collided with her, they'd get smacked by a shell. A defensive item.
When Yuzuri rammed in on purpose, Erin panicked and used a Speed Potion. She did get away from Yuzuri, but because she couldn't handle the sudden acceleration, she crashed into the edge of the track. Thanks to Nursery Rhyme's "no injuries" game design, she came out perfectly fine.
Isabella set a trap on the first lap, and then on the third lap she stepped on it herself. Not only did she stun herself, she also blocked Hirata Mikoto right behind her.
Later, Olivia got lucky and picked up the item Carrot. She tossed all the carrots onto the ground, and the mounts of Nursery Rhyme (in second), Hirata Mikoto (in third), and Isabella (in fourth) were immediately lured in—they stopped running and started eating right there on the spot, which let Yuzuri, Erin, Sofia, and the others pass them.
After the race ended, Nursery Rhyme—who'd only taken third, yet still wore a smile so bright it was almost dazzling—turned to the others and asked,
"Well? Did everyone have fun?"
The kids moved as one: they all faced Nursery Rhyme, nodded hard, and said together, "We did!"
"Again—! Let's do it again, Nursery Rhyme-chan!" Isabella waved her arms excitedly, like she had endless energy to burn. "This time I'm definitely taking first!"
All kids were the same. If they had fun, they wanted to keep playing.
"But… there are some strangers outside Paradise. Nursery Rhyme has to go take a look," Nursery Rhyme said a little awkwardly, her fingertips unconsciously pinching the hem of her skirt. Her voice was so gentle it was like she was afraid of disturbing the air. "You keep playing. I'll be gone for a little while."
"Oooh… okay…"
Everyone was disappointed that Nursery Rhyme had to leave, but they were good kids. They knew they couldn't burden her with their own selfishness.
"Come back soon, Nursery Rhyme-chan."
"When Nursery Rhyme's around, everything is fun."
"Be careful, okay?"
See? They were all so well-behaved.
So well-behaved it made your chest hurt.
So why… why were kids this good and this sweet hated by so many people? It made no sense…
...
Tōyama Hiroki leaned under a massive, gnarled old tree and lit himself a cigarette.
"Cough—! Cough, cough, cough…"
The way he lit it looked cool and practiced, like a seasoned smoker, but after just one drag he started coughing nonstop.
"Yeah… figures." Tōyama Hiroki stared at the cigarette between his fingers, his voice rasping like it had been sanded raw. The ember flared and dimmed in the gloom, lighting the exhausted curve of his cheek. "This taste… no matter how many times I try it… it still makes me feel sick…"
Even as he muttered that, he brought it to his lips again and took another deep drag—almost greedy—like he was trying to wring some empty comfort out of that familiar bitterness.
Then an irritated voice came from behind the tree.
"If you hate it that much, why don't you just quit already?"
A petite girl poked her head out from behind the trunk and glared at Tōyama Hiroki.
"Seriously, you're doing it again—sneaking off to smoke while the rest of us are working. You're barely even a brat and you're already copying adults. Don't tell me you think you look cool like this?"
"You don't get it, Eika. Cigarettes do stink, sure, but right now… only that sting makes me feel like I'm still human…"
"Wake up. You're sixteen. You haven't lived enough to start preaching life philosophies," Takatsukasa Eika snapped, holding nothing back. "If you want to act world-weary, wait another fifty or sixty years until you're an old man. And also—during missions, use my codename. How many times have you been punished? Why won't you learn? 'Dread Scorpion.'"
"Fine…" Tōyama Hiroki shrugged, unconcerned. "'Bald Eagle.'"
"You… honestly." Takatsukasa Eika let out a sigh, utterly at a loss with the man in front of her. "Get up and help. We've been running around on the job nonstop, and you're the only one hiding here slacking off. What is that supposed to be?"
Thinking of the mission, Tōyama Hiroki frowned in confusion.
"Some Civil Security officers went missing, that's all. Does the organization really need to make such a big deal out of it? They even sent us—just to find people?"
"They're just a few low-ranked Civil Security officers. The organization has no idea how many disposable pawns like that," Takatsukasa Eika said blandly, habitually rubbing her fingernails. "What they found is what the organization actually cares about."
"A little while ago in Tokyo, a Sealing Designation item that can summon a Stage V Gastrea was stolen—'Legacy of Seven Stars.' And the two little girls who took 'Legacy of Seven Stars' right in front of everyone…"
"They're the targets. Especially one of them—the girl called 'Scorpio.' People in the organization are paying an extremely high level of attention to her. Our orders are to find her and bring her back… dead or alive."
"The missing Civil Security officers disappeared while searching for the targets. All we know is they seem to have run into a very powerful Stage IV Gastrea—and then, in an instant, their vital signs vanished."
"Suddenly. No detected decline, no warning at all. They didn't even have time to leave any intel."
"Before their vitals cut out, their last location signal was right around here." Takatsukasa Eika tapped the tree trunk lightly with a finger and spoke with a half-smile. "That's why the organization sent us. Looks like you weren't listening when 'Nest' was briefing the intel. This careless about missions… you really do want to get punished again, huh?"
"My job is fighting. Only fighting. Everything else isn't my problem." Tōyama Hiroki casually flicked away what was left of his cigarette and ground it out under his heel. "The organization thinks the same way."
"Who knows…" Takatsukasa Eika lowered her lashes. "To the organization, we're just tools. Tools shouldn't try to guess what the user is thinking. They just kill whoever the user wants dead."
"That's not a tool. That's a weapon."
"Shut up. Weapons are a kind of tool!"
"Is that so?"
Takatsukasa Eika drew in a deep breath, letting the cool air linger in her lungs as if it could soak through and dissolve all the fatigue and clutter she'd been carrying. Then she slowly exhaled it all, like she was throwing an invisible burden into the trash.
Yeah… except the air was tainted with the harsh, chemical, cheap-cigarette bite that clung sticky-deep in her nose, tightening her throat and making even breathing feel uncomfortable.
"Alright. For the sake of our lives—and so we don't get treated like failures that should be discarded—let's toss everything we just said into the incinerator in our memories and pretend none of it happened."
"Understood."
Tōyama Hiroki always answered like that—limp and listless, like a third-year high schooler dragging himself to an 8 a.m. class. But Takatsukasa Eika was used to him being like this.
...
"Then say it with me… everything for the Goshoukai."
"Everything for the Goshoukai."
"May the glory of the Goshoukai endure forever."
"May the glory of the Goshoukai endure forever."
When Nursery Rhyme saw the group in the forest, she couldn't help feeling puzzled.
"So there are lots of people like Hiruko Kagetane and Satomi-oniisan too?"
Why did Nursery Rhyme say that? Because these people who'd appeared near Paradise—and Satomi Rentaro and Hiruko Kagetane as well—shared one thing in common…
Their bodies had been modified. Part of their flesh had been replaced with machinery.
Before humanity discovered Cursed Children, people tried all sorts of ways to fight the Gastrea.
Four scientists known as the "Four Sages" joined forces to carry out the "New Human Creation Plan"—replacing frail human bodies with Varanium machinery to create super soldiers capable of killing Gastrea.
But the plan was terminated quickly. Super soldiers could indeed kill Gastrea effectively, but the cost to create each one was terrifyingly high. After humanity discovered Cursed Children, the plan was abolished.
Hiruko Kagetane and Satomi Rentaro were super soldiers born from that plan.
The one responsible for both of them was one of the Four Sages: the former top head of the Japan branch of the New Human Creation Plan, Muroto Sumire.
Hiruko Kagetane possessed an Imaginary Device: Repulsion Force Field, able to deflect anti-tank rifles. He could also apply that force field directly to enemies—either crushing someone flat, or concentrating the force into a point to pierce through them.
Satomi Rentaro had the 21-Form Varanium Artificial Eye in place of his left eye, along with Super Varanium Alloy prosthetics replacing his right arm and right leg. The boosters in his foot topped out at 150 kilometers per hour. His right hand could knock a small bus flying, and the attack speed of the built-in magazine exceeded the speed of sound.
They all used artificial skin made from plastic-elastic material and silicone to conceal it, but that little trick couldn't fool Nursery Rhyme. With one glance, she could tell that among those sneaky people in the forest, four of them were super soldiers like Satomi Rentaro—parts of their bodies replaced by Varanium machinery.
"I thought the only super soldiers in Japan were Satomi-oniisan and Hiruko Kagetane. I didn't see these people when I was watching. Did they come here from another Area?"
"And… since that plan was quickly abolished because of the appearance of Cursed Children, Satomi-oniisan and Hiruko Kagetane never met any super soldiers besides themselves. So why would these four be acting together?"
"Mr. Knight, what do you think?"
Because thinking was too tiring, Nursery Rhyme tossed the question to Mr. Knight. At the moment, she was sitting on his forearm, her little feet in gray-black furry long boots swinging gently and freely, as if she were lounging on a swing.
But clearly, Mr. Knight didn't know the answer either.
"Mmm… is that so?" Nursery Rhyme tilted her head and didn't dwell on it. "Then I won't think about it."
She clasped her hands in front of her chest, her face lit with an innocent, radiant smile as she said with eager anticipation,
"Then… next, what kind of game should Nursery Rhyme make them play?"
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T/N: mannn its been so long idk if theres any mistakes, if there is let me know please
4 chaps meeting this weeks quota, i was too focused on something elseeeeeeeeeeeee ive been playing 7daystodieeeeeeeeeee
bonus chaps
100 stones -> 1 chapter
200 stones -> 2 chapters
300 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
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