Inside the blank void of the erased interval, Inori Yuzuriha drove the Void Genome's needle into her own body and pressed the plunger all the way down, injecting everything.
——One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.
Nothing happened. Not the phantom realm that was supposed to accompany an Apocalypse Virus vision, not even the iconic flowing ribbons of crystallized steel or the great spiral of a double helix — nothing. It felt no different from an ordinary vaccination. Painless. Anticlimactic.
"That's it?"
Inori was still frowning in puzzlement when she suddenly sensed something wrong behind her.
She spun around—
And saw King Crimson wrapped in chains of light.
Ribbons of steel-bright radiance coiled around the Stand, binding it tighter and tighter like something closing around a vital point. It thrashed in that cascade of silver-white light, its skin spraying silver from every surface — visible suffering in every motion, and yet it made not a single sound.
"Hey — what's happening to you?"
Inori's unease sharpened into something close to alarm.
The last thing she ever wanted was an unexpected complication. Had she been right to worry that the Void's power might conflict with King Crimson? Or — had all the energy that should have taken root in her own body been redirected entirely into King Crimson instead? …How was that even possible? This wasn't some Requiem Arrow. She had considered the Void Genome might cause some kind of change in King Crimson, but actually witnessing it was something else entirely.
The phenomenon didn't last long. When the seven-second Time Erasure window ended, King Crimson had returned to normal.
It simply hovered there, motionless and silent. No molting, no dramatic shedding of a previous form — none of the spectacle that usually accompanied a Stand's awakening and evolution. It looked as though nothing had happened at all.
The only difference: a tree-shaped mark had appeared on the back of her Stand's hand — dark lines etched like a Command Spell, echoing the Christmas Tree. The symbol of the Power of Kings obtained.
The same mark now appeared on her own hand as well. This was the proof that she could, from this day forward, extract the power of another person's heart. Her sacred seal.
——But something had changed.
Without needing any sign, without needing proof, Inori could simply feel it — something about King Crimson was entirely different from a moment ago. It was a kind of evolution. Some of King Crimson's most pitifully weak parameters had just undergone a dramatic improvement.
"King Crimson · Void."
"…So that's how it is."
A small smile crossed Inori's face.
It wasn't some dazzling new trick, exactly, but for where she stood right now, it was exactly the reinforcement she needed — a lifeline arriving precisely when she needed it most.
King Crimson · Void — derived from King Crimson as its base, this form emerged after the Void Genome was injected into Inori as its host. It allowed King Crimson to manifest in the way recognized by this world: as a Void. Its effective range had been radically improved, correcting the original Stand's limited reach, and it could now operate as a remote-control type Stand. The tradeoff was a slight reduction in raw destructive power and speed.
Moreover, as a manifestation native to this world's own nature, King Crimson could now choose to fully materialize — and in doing so, could be seen even by ordinary people who were not Stand users.
In other words: the standard King Crimson was Inori's Stand. The current King Crimson · Void was Inori's Void. It could operate independently at a distance, following Inori's instructions without her being present — a direct answer to her most urgent need: to keep her identity hidden, to protect herself from exposure.
However — when King Crimson left her body, Inori reverted to an ordinary girl. She could still use Time Erasure, but her enhanced physical parameters would vanish entirely. Whenever she chose, though, she could recall her Void and allow King Crimson to return inside her, restoring the Rank A strength and speed to her body.
An unexpected gain, all things considered. Still, there was one pressing issue.
"Where's my sword? Where is my enormous sword?"
Inori pursed her lips and pointed an accusing finger at the blank-faced Red King.
She pressed and prodded around her own chest with the hand now bearing the Void mark — nothing. No response whatsoever. That Void greatsword — the single most powerful Void in the entire world, capable of slicing through Endlaves like paper, providing its wielder with flight, generating a defensive barrier with a single sweep to intercept incoming fire, and in its most terrifying evolved state, capable of firing a precision laser beam clean through two satellites — all of it, gone? Pushed out of existence by this ugly freak?
She had been fully planning to draw her sword and go on a rampage outside.
"..."
King Crimson was now a remote-action Stand, but without Inori giving it explicit direction, it still could not speak of its own accord. Faced with its inexplicably furious master, it blinked its green eyes with an expression of complete innocence and pressed its mouth firmly shut — it knew Inori did not appreciate its face.
"Fine. Come back here, King Crimson."
The Void tree mark on King Crimson's hand faded. It was once again a Stand visible to Inori alone.
Whatever she said aloud, Inori had come to rely on it deeply.
After all this time together, she had long since accepted and grown accustomed to its appearance. No matter what she might say in the moment, she thought of it as her most dependable partner. Without it, even breathing felt off.
Guess this was one of those "ended up loving it" moments.
——Now, it was time to throw Funeral Parlor a lifeline.
...
...
Gai Tsutsugami was cornered.
He and Kyo were barricaded inside a small records room. Ammunition was nearly spent, Kyo had taken a bullet through the shoulder, and the tenacious GHQ soldiers would find them any moment now.
This had been a gamble — he knew that better than anyone. Launching a raid this extreme while fully aware the enemy would be on guard was essentially inviting destruction. But if he hadn't come, the one thin thread of a lead he'd found would have been severed. His dream was to save Mana. It was the only belief that had kept him alive through a mercenary career that could only be described as hell.
From the day he survived that church in Roppongi ten years ago… his life had always been this — gambling with his life, winning one impossible fight after another, until he had built the Gai Tsutsugami that stood here now. Built Funeral Parlor.
Even knowing it was blades and fire ahead, as long as he could see Mana Ouma's silhouette through the flames, Gai would charge in without hesitation — push, fight, draw out capabilities in himself he hadn't known he possessed.
"Gai… I'll go draw their attention. You take the chance to run."
"It's no use."
Gai understood with cold clarity. At this point, the situation was beyond recovery.
This White Bone Christmas Tree was like a labyrinth that kept rearranging itself — every corridor they tried led to another confrontation, and the relentless attrition was wearing him down. Worse, Kyo was wounded, and getting them both out of here was now something he could barely envision.
Even if Kyo were willing to sacrifice himself, Gai had no desire to allow it, and he knew it would accomplish nothing. GHQ weren't mindless zombies.
Gai lifted his gaze to the gray ceiling, to the light slanting through the door and window from the corridor beyond. He hadn't expected a single misjudgment to undo everything he'd worked toward for so long. When the intelligence about the Void Genome had reached him, he had taken it as a stepping stone — a rung on the ladder to something greater. Instead, he'd overplayed his hand completely.
Still — even captured, Gai was not afraid for his own survival. He would endure whatever discomfort came, and he would find a way out again. He always did.
"Quadrant, do you read me?"
He opened a channel to Quadrant, Funeral Parlor's chief strategist.
"Gai? What in the world is happening out there?"
"Before anything else — order Ayase and the others to fall back."
"I've already given that order." There was an edge of difficulty in Quadrant's voice. "But Ayase refuses to withdraw no matter what. Tsugumi eventually had to manually eject her cockpit. She's making quite a scene right now."
"Gai — you're not actually planning to—?"
"I failed, Quadrant."
Saying those words aloud felt foreign in his own mouth.
"Pull everyone back immediately. Retreat to the exclusion zone."
"And after that," Gai said with perfect calm, while Kyo beside him stared with wide, disbelieving eyes, "you will take command of Funeral Parlor."
"Don't worry about me. I'll find a way out."
"Don't be absurd!" Quadrant's voice came back sharp — he could hear the strain beneath the stoicism, could piece together from Gai's weakened tone exactly how bad it was. Even so, he could not accept this. "You are the only person who can lead Funeral Parlor!"
"Arguing about this serves no purpose, Quadrant."
"This is my order. Trust me. I will find my way back to you."
"Gai…"
Only three people heard those words — Gai, Quadrant, and Kyo. All three understood what the situation truly meant. Funeral Parlor had never been pushed this far, not in all its history, because Gai's strategy had always led them to what they needed and brought them home intact. They admired him for it; they followed him because he had earned it — both the charisma and the judgment of a true leader.
Now that leader was down, and for Funeral Parlor, it was the equivalent of the sky caving in.
"Still alive, Gai Tsutsugami?"
Then a low, magnetic male voice cut into their comms channel without warning.
"If you want to leave this place, then listen to what I say."
> Author's Note: The Remote Void form of King Crimson will probably only appear in this volume — it's going to acquire another ability later, and the combination of remote operation plus that new ability would be completely broken.