Looking at this girl—trembling from head to toe, her face streaked with tears, utterly wretched in her agony.
Especially that signature black sailor uniform, and the cursed blade lying discarded at her side.
Haimer's brow rose ever so slightly.
"Well now."
"Looks like I arrived right on time."
Miserable.
Truly, spectacularly miserable.
Haimer leaned down slightly, his gaze settling on Tendou Kisara—currently curled up on the floor, looking more wretched than words could describe.
The black sailor uniform clinging to her body had lost any trace of its original high-quality fabric. The ribbon at her chest—which should have been a vivid crimson—was now coated in dust, a grimy, ashen thing hanging crooked and limp. Much like its owner, it had lost every last shred of vitality.
And then there was her face.
Her dark hair was plastered to her cheeks in tangled, messy strands, obscuring her eyes and turning what should have been a rather refined face into an utter wreck. Tear tracks covered her cheeks—some dried, some still glistening—carving rivulets through the grime like tiny riverbeds.
Where was even a shred of the Tendou family heiress's dignity now?
She looked exactly like a stray dog abandoned on a roadside—drenched by a night of rain and then viciously kicked for good measure.
Haimer didn't rush to look away. Instead, his gaze made a slow circuit.
Tendou Kisara's consciousness appeared to have already scattered. Her pupils had lost all focus, glazed over in a dull, ashen haze. Her breathing was faint as a dying kitten's—more air going out than coming in.
However.
Haimer's dark eyes narrowed slightly as he caught a detail.
Even though Tendou Kisara's body had completely collapsed into this sorry state—even though she no longer had the strength to so much as cry out in pain—her jaw remained clenched shut. Locked tight.
Even in unconsciousness, that savage ferocity seeping from the very marrow of her bones—the kind that screamed of wanting to tear someone apart with her bare teeth—hadn't dissipated one bit.
Now that was interesting.
A body as fragile as wet paper—one missing organ away from being half-dead. And yet she still possessed this kind of vicious tenacity.
This madness—this willingness to burn herself to ashes if it meant dragging her enemies down to hell with her.
"Truly excellent qualities."
Haimer murmured softly.
He then prepared to do some basic triage on Tendou Kisara's condition.
However.
Haimer did not choose to fully restore Tendou Kisara's long-dead kidneys.
It wasn't that he couldn't. For a God—as long as Divine Power wasn't sealed—even directly reshaping a human's soul and reconstructing their body from scratch was hardly a difficult feat. Let alone a single organ.
But the thing was—regarding Tendou Kisara as a person, Haimer had already formed an impression before crossing worlds.
To engrave the night her parents were murdered into her memory. To remind herself every waking moment what she lived for. She had chosen to endure the agonizing pain that gnawed at her nerves around the clock, dragging her broken body forward rather than accept an artificial organ transplant.
Tendou Kisara had refused to accept even a single cent's worth of grace from the Tendou family.
Using pain as kindling.
To fuel the flames of vengeance.
This obsession. This madness.
One could say that the people in Black Bullet all had a screw or two loose.
But healing her on a whim right now would actually interfere with the resolve Tendou Kisara had endured for over a decade.
"Better to just do a simple patch job."
After thinking it over, Haimer chose to rein in his Divine Power, merely stabilizing the life-threatening acute organ failure raging inside Tendou Kisara's body—forcibly dragging her back from the brink of death.
He also tidied up the chaotic mess of energy currents inside her.
As for that missing kidney—he'd let it stay missing for now.
And so.
As Divine Power gradually flowed in, Tendou Kisara's breathing began to stabilize. Her complexion slowly shifted from that deathly pallor, regaining a touch of color.
A few seconds later.
Tendou Kisara's eyelashes trembled.
Her consciousness hadn't fully returned. Her field of vision was a blurred mosaic. All she could make out was a single silhouette, backlit and hazy, standing right in front of her.
The sun hadn't fully set yet. Orange-red afterglow squeezed through the cracks of the broken window, landing squarely behind that figure, gilding its outline with a rim of gold.
So bright.
So warm.
"Is that... an angel...?"
Tendou Kisara's lips murmured, the word slipping out on pure instinct.
She had been certain she was going to die. Certain this was the end.
And yet—
Light had suddenly appeared before her eyes.
Someone was there.
That light was too blinding to make out any features. She could only vaguely sense a presence. In a situation like this, her sluggish brain couldn't think of anyone else who would appear at a moment like this—aside from those beings from fairy tales who came to guide departed souls to paradise.
An angel?
Now that was a fresh one.
"Pfft."
Hearing this title, Haimer couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.
The faint holy radiance he'd just been cultivating nearly crumbled on the spot.
"An angel, huh?"
Haimer raised an eyebrow, looking at this girl who had finally woken up.
"Miss, your eyesight seems to need some work."
"Those winged creatures and I are not remotely in the same line of business."
Hearing this voice, Tendou Kisara's vision gradually cleared.
At last, she saw the person before her.
—A man she had never seen before. So handsome it bordered on unreal.
Black hair, black eyes, features so striking they were almost excessive—as though some divine sculptor from a myth had stepped straight out of legend.
But.
It was precisely the amusement lurking in those eyes that made every hair on the back of her neck stand on end.
Dangerous!
Extremely dangerous!
That was Tendou Kisara's very first thought after her consciousness fully returned.
Like a lone wolf, gravely wounded and on the verge of death in the wilderness, suddenly catching the scent of an apex predator.
It was pure survival instinct.
Tendou Kisara reflexively tried to push herself up. One elbow struck the hard floor with a sharp crack; her other hand groped tremblingly toward the blade lying beside her.
Cursed Blade: Yukikage.
As long as...
As long as she could grip the hilt...
"..."
Tendou Kisara's hand stopped just centimeters from the hilt.
Not because she didn't want to move—but because she couldn't.
Haimer had only used Divine Power to yank Tendou Kisara back from acute organ failure. Her body was still hollowed out like an empty shell, limp as cooked noodles. Even lifting a single finger took monumental effort.
But.
Even so.
Tendou Kisara still clenched her jaw, her gaze boring into Haimer without blinking.
Those eyes—bloodshot and reddened from strain—were brimming with distrust.
But not a trace of fear.
Very good.
Looking at Tendou Kisara's defiant, unyielding demeanor, Haimer silently awarded her high marks.
After all, she had already been reduced to this state. Not a single functional part left on her body. Lying on the ground no differently than a dead dog.
And yet there wasn't the slightest hint of surrender in her eyes.
That was more like it.
In a situation like this—having just scraped back from the gates of death, so weak she could barely breathe—she could still maintain this level of vigilance. Assessing danger at the first opportunity, searching for a weapon, preparing to fight back.
This ferocity.
She truly was excellent material.
"Stop wasting your energy."
Haimer sat down cross-legged in front of Tendou Kisara without a care, completely unbothered by the dust on the floor dirtying his pants.
"Your body has temporarily stopped going on strike."
"But the way you are right now, you couldn't even pull this sword from its sheath."
Hearing this.
Tendou Kisara's hand trembled once, then fell limply to the floor.
She gasped for air, chest heaving violently.
Since she couldn't move her body—she'd use her mouth.
"You... what did you do to me?"
Sensing that the agonizing pain that had been ravaging her organs had truly vanished, disbelief colored Tendou Kisara's voice.
"Nothing much."
Haimer shrugged.
"I just forcibly rebooted your body while it was on strike, that's all."
"You won't die for now."
"But that missing kidney of yours, plus the life force you've been overdrawing—solving those problems for good will require other methods."
"That said, that's a matter for later."
"Later?"
Tendou Kisara's sharp mind latched onto that word immediately.
She painfully adjusted her position, propping her back against the leg of the nearby desk. That tiny bit of support gave her a marginal sense of security.
By the fading light of the sunset, she finally had the chance to scrutinize this mysterious savior—or rather, uninvited guest—who had appeared out of thin air.
He looked about her age, early twenties at most. But his bearing was nothing like what a young man should possess.
How to put it.
Tendou Kisara had a strange feeling. What she was facing didn't feel like a person.
A gentle smile hung on his face, yet she couldn't read a single one of his thoughts.
"Who exactly are you?"
"Haimer."
Haimer gave a characteristically concise answer.
"Just... that?"
"What else?"
Haimer tilted his head, looking at Tendou Kisara.
"Would you like me to report my blood type, home address, and recite my family tree going back eighteen generations while I'm at it?"
Tendou Kisara fell silent for a moment.
Completely and utterly stumped.
After all, ever since that night her parents were murdered, she had been like a bird startled by the mere twang of a bowstring—bristling with thorns against everyone. Especially against someone of unknown origin whose strength was clearly unfathomable.
But.
The facts were right in front of her.
This man called Haimer had saved her life.
And moreover...
"You just now... you walked out of that black vortex, didn't you?"
Tendou Kisara's gaze swept toward the spot where Haimer had appeared—the center of the dojo. Right now, it was completely empty. Nothing there at all.
But she was certain.
In the last second before she lost consciousness, she had seen it with her own eyes—space tearing open like a wound, a pitch-black vortex materializing out of thin air.
That was absolutely not a hallucination. Nor was it anything that existing technology could explain.
"That's right."
Haimer made no attempt to hide it, even giving a nod.
"I came from another world."
Tendou Kisara stared at Haimer for several long seconds.
Another world? A portal?
Under normal circumstances, even if Satomi Rentarou had said something like this to her, she would have been certain he'd lost his mind.
But the problem was—
That supernatural healing. That bizarre entrance. And the absolute certainty in this man's eyes, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Every detail was screaming at her—this man was not joking.
She actually found herself believing it.
Or rather—in a crumbling world already teeming with Cursed Children and Gastrea, adding one more visitor from another world to the mix didn't seem like such an outlandish thing to accept.
"Then what are you doing here looking for me?"
"Don't tell me you were just passing through."
"Nobody crosses between worlds and just happens to save a woman on the brink of death."
Tendou Kisara drew a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down and cutting straight to the heart of the matter.
Nobody would cross the boundaries between worlds without reason to save a complete stranger. Let alone appear with such precision at the exact moment she was at her most wretched, most desperate.
What was the angle?
Money? She couldn't even pay her rent right now.
Her body?
Tendou Kisara glanced down at her current state—filthy, ashen-faced, unwashed for days, reeking of stale sweat. A self-deprecating smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth.
"It's precisely for you."
Haimer's gaze fell squarely on Tendou Kisara.
"For me?"
Tendou Kisara was momentarily stunned.
Then she tugged at the corner of her mouth.
"What could I possibly have that's worth scheming over for someone from another world?"
"Money? You can see what kind of place I'm living in."
"My body? While I'm fairly confident in my looks, I don't think I'm quite at the level of making someone from another world lose their mind."
"Or could it be..."
Tendou Kisara's hand tightened on the hilt. Her eyes turned ice-cold.
"You're someone sent by the Tendou family?"
"If that's the case, then I have to say—this performance of yours was truly convincing."
As the former heiress of the Tendou household—ever since witnessing her parents attacked and killed by the Gastrea that had suddenly appeared within the family compound—Tendou Kisara had harbored an intense aversion to everything related to the Tendou clan.
"The Tendou family?"
"I'm sorry."
"It seems my sudden appearance has given you the wrong idea."
"Although, before I arrived, it appears something rather unpleasant had just happened to you."
"But I really should be clearer about this."
"To be precise—one of the things I came for is indeed your body."
"Your body has tremendous talent."
"And I happen to have a fondness for talented people."
Talent?
Tendou Kisara furrowed her brows.
If she had any talent to speak of, it was probably that cursed blade she'd nearly lost her grip on moments ago, and the still-incomplete Tendou Sword-Drawing Art: Zero Style that had already tormented her into this wrecked state.
Beyond that, she had nothing. She was even missing functioning kidneys compared to a normal person.
"Don't tell me you're some kind of recruiter for a shady organization?"
Tendou Kisara asked with sharp wariness.
After all, in this chaotic age, organizations that used special abilities as bait and waved the banner of salvation to lure people to their deaths were as common as weeds.
"Of course not."
Haimer shook his head.
"Then what are you?"
"I am a God."
The moment those words left his mouth, Tendou Kisara went blank on the spot.
She had mentally prepared herself for all sorts of answers—an alien, a mutant, something along those lines. The one thing she hadn't expected was this.
A God?
And yet—
Faced with such an answer, Tendou Kisara had been pushed so far past her breaking point by the cascade of absurdities today that something inside her simply snapped.
She laughed—and shook her head—tears nearly streaming from laughing so hard.
"Ha..."
"Hahaha."
"A God?"
"Sure. Why not."
"Today's show has really been something spectacular."
"First, that idiot Rentarou comes out of nowhere telling me to give up my revenge and embrace a new life."
"Then my pathetic body nearly gives out and shuts down for good."
"And now—oh, now this is the best part."
"A self-proclaimed God just pops into existence right in front of me."
"If the heavens are having a laugh at my expense, they've certainly gone all out with the punchline."
Heh.
A God, is it?
If Gods actually existed in this world!
Then all these years!!
Where were the Gods?!
Does this world truly have Gods?!
Don't make her laugh!!
"If such a thing truly existed! If this world really had Gods! Then the world wouldn't have turned into the hellhole it is now!!"
"That's because I am 'evil.'"
____
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