Chapter 68: 68

Chapter 68

Labyrinth of Darkness

Translated by LyraDhani

Edited by LyraDhani

chapAs the simulator deployed and moved into the virtual space, Tsugumi recognized that the light had instantly disappeared from his vision, and cheered in his heart.

–Inaba-san-san and the others, you are so right.

They had made an excellent guess as to the Demonic Beast that Hyuga would choose. Their insight was truly worthy of respect.

…I have to make sure those people never become my enemy. Tsugumi closed his eyes to focus his nerves as he thought of this.

–The Minotaur was a fearless monster from Greek mythology.

King Minos, who ruled the land of Crete, incurred the wrath of Poseidon, the God of the sea, and the result was the Minotaur, a monster with an ox-head and human body.

Minotaur grew more ferocious as it grew older and was finally imprisoned in a huge labyrinth. The monster continued to create a small-scale hell within the labyrinth until it was vanquished by the hero Theseus.

–Tsugumi would now attempt to challenge the horror of the “Minotaur, King of the Labyrinth”.

When this Demonic Beast once descended into this world, a member of Rikka and two A-class Magical Girls were cruelly shattered. It took a total of ten days to defeat the Minotaur, which was known as one of the most difficult enemies among A-class Demonic Beasts.

The Minotaur had three major special abilities. One of them was this [Labyrinth]. In mythology, the labyrinth was a vaulted space with no ceiling, but this labyrinth was surrounded by cold stone walls above, below, left, and right, making it impossible to sense even the flow of air. Perhaps the nature of the confinement was emphasized more than in historical fact.

If the Kraken, which he had fought before, had the ability to establish its position, this Minotaur had the ability to set up the position in advance.

The second special ability was the darkness that made it impossible to see what was in front of one’s eyes. In this darkness, even if a Magical Girl tried to brighten the scenery using her ability, no light would ever come on. It was as if the concept of light had disappeared.

Tsugumi calmly scattered his searching thread, keeping a wary eye on his surroundings. The fact that his vision was blocked was certainly dangerous, but it was not the essence of the Minotaur’s horror.

“….As I thought, the thread breaks in the middle.”

Tsugumi muttered to himself as he looked deep into the darkness.

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–The stretched threads shred one after another as they progressed beyond a certain distance. If he had not heard about this from the people in the Countermeasures Headquarters beforehand, he would have felt impatient.

Then Tsugumi felt a strange sensation under the floor and flew directly to the side as if to avoid something. At that moment, with a loud thud, a large object came flying out of the ground. It was a new stone wall.

–The wall is moving…!

Looking for signs of the surrounding area, the walls would rise or sink from all sides with a creaking sound, changing the course of the labyrinth.

In the past, the hero Theseus used the “thread” given to him by Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos, to conquer a labyrinth that was thought to be inescapable. However, that method did not work in this labyrinth. On the contrary, just meeting the Master of this labyrinth was difficult.

A labyrinth where the directions to the correct answer changed every second. It would be a bad attraction.

Magical Girls who set foot in this labyrinth must overcome this hellishly difficult labyrinth and defeat the Minotaur, the main body of the labyrinth.

–But that couldn’t be the only difficulty that stood in their way.

The thin threads around him swayed, even though there was no wind. The moment Tsugumi recognized it, he used Transportation to fly to the next road. The entirety of its true identity was recognized only by the feel of the threads connected to it.

It was a large arm, more than two meters thick. The arm appeared the moment Tsugumi moved out of the way, and with a sharp whistling sound, it descended precisely where Tsugumi had been standing. And then the great arm vanished like a puff of smoke.

[“Listen, Hagakure-san. The greatest horror of Minotaur is not the darkness or the changing labyrinth. It is the great arm that attacks through partial Transporation without any sign. You know better than anyone the horror of Transportation ability, don’t you?”]

In the Countermeasure Headquarters, Inaba had told Tsugumi. …He had heard the stories, but there was certainly nothing more troublesome than enemies with than the ability of [Transport].

The attack came from the darkness, where even pre-movement was unrecognizable. And even if they were able to prevent the attack, they would forever lose their nerve unless they could conquer the labyrinth. That was how the three Magical Girls ran out of strength.

In other words, this Demonic Beast – Minotaur – specialized in the ability to kill at first sight.

Even if they knew about its abilities beforehand, if their abilities didn’t match up well, even a Magical Girl of Rikka’s level would have a hard time.

“–But, it can’t get through me.”

Certainly, Minotaur’s abilities were powerful. But because its abilities were so outlandish, Minotaur’s own strength was not that high. Once the main body was found, Tsugumi’s victory was almost confirmed.

Tsugumi was superior in exploration and even in mobility. Which one was faster, Minotaur’s labyrinthine changes or Tsugumi’s Transportation–If he couldn’t win after all this arrangement, he wasn’t qualified to be a Jukka.

Then Tsugumi quickly pointed to the back of the labyrinth and the edges of his lips lifted.

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“Now, the hidden Demonic Beast is done for.”

◆　◆　◆

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“…It’s hard to see. Why did you choose this one, Ao-chan?”

Suzushiro’s mouth twitched in frustration as she stared at the monitor.

The multiple screens in front of her showed scenes of the labyrinth from various angles. The labyrinth, which should normally be invisible, was covered with a green light as if they were wearing night-vision goggles. As a person looking at the screen, it was hard to see.

“Well, it can’t be helped. I didn’t expect it to look like this on the monitor…”

Saying this, Hyuga looked away, as if she felt bad.

“Hmm. This is what happens when you try to be mean to people, okay? Ao-chan, you’re going to be a high school student from April, so you should be a little more mature.”

“…Yes. You’re right.”

Somehow, an atmosphere of wanting to say, “I don’t want to hear it from you,” could be sensed, but it would be wise not to say it out loud.

–And yet, she’s still going on with guns blazing.

Suzushiro thought this vaguely as she stared at the monitor, which was hard to see. The first time she saw Hagakure Sakura fight was against Radon, but she had the same vigor as then.

Her gait was sparkling and light, almost as if she were dancing. In her appearance, there wasn’t any fear of death or hesitation. It was a new sight for Suzushiro, who always saw government-affiliated Magical Girls with a shadow on their backs.

–Yeah. I guess you and Tsugumi don’t look that much alike after all.

Nanase Tsugumi, trembling with fear but facing difficulties head-on, and Hagakure Sakura, smiling and moving forward as she kicked down the obstacles in front of her. Both were certainly likable, but their essence was too different.

It was true that their faces were very similar, but it was probably just someone else’s likeness. It was said that there were three people in the world who had the same face, it wasn’t that strange.

Hagakure Sakura on the screen was repeatedly teleporting as she moved forward. It seemed she had a clear destination.

As Suzushiro gazed at the image curiously, Yukino, who was sitting next to her, muttered.

“I guess she is repeatedly teleporting to the destination where the outstretched thread has been broken.”

“Yes, why?”

“The fact that the labyrinth creates a wall and cuts the thread means that it doesn’t want her to go beyond. It will require some calculation of frequency and direction, but with that much mobility, she’ll get to the right answer eventually. Yeah, she’s excellent.”

“Hmm. That’s a lot of work. I don’t think I can do that kind of calculation.”

When Suzushiro answered, Yukino let out a sigh of exasperation.

“In your case, you could fill the labyrinth with poison water and that would be the end of it. …I wish I can just be clever and use my head.”

Saying this, Yukino cowered her shoulders. At Yukino’s self-deprecating response, Suzushiro laughed and patted Yukino on the back.

“Yuki-chan is so good at jokes! Even if you don’t humble yourself like that, everyone knows Yuki-chan is amazing!”

“Wait, Suzushiro. That hurts, no, that really hurts!?”

Yukino complained. It seemed she inadvertently put a lot of force into it.

“–Both of you. I don’t care if you’re messing around, but it’s about to be settled.”

Toono said in a soft voice. As if guided by her voice, she stared at the monitor.

“Oh, the neck fell off.”

Suzushiro’s honest impression was answered by Mibu with a happy smile on his face.

“Not only the head, but it’s also already been sliced in half, isn’t it? Well, if she can defeat that Demonic Beast, she’ll do just fine as an A-class! –Hyuga thinks so too, right?”

Mibu asked Hyuga in a light tone of voice. The gazes of the people in the room were drawn to Hyuga.

Hyuga’s cheeks puffed out in dissatisfaction, then she looked away in a sulky manner.

“Hmm. You all are so naive to admit it at that level. If it were me, I could easily conquer that labyrinth in five minutes. …But I certainly was the first one to bring it up. I have my grievances, but I won’t complain anymore about that person belonging to Jukka.”

Despite the auspicious words of the latter half, though she still seemed unconvinced, Hyuga approved of Hagakure Sakura. This meant that, for the time being, the immediate problem had been settled.

“Well.”

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Suzushiro slowly stood up and looked around the room. Then she looked at everyone’s faces and smiled, opening her arms and announcing in a cheerful voice.

“Let’s all go back to the conference room!　–This time we have to introduce ourselves properly!”

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