As Kouenji Rokusuke and the others made their way to the Black Sphere Space—
Chris and his group, who had stayed behind in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, had naturally readied themselves to answer the presiding god's summons.
But time slipped by, second by second.
Five minutes. Ten minutes...
Until someone, stopwatch in hand, watched a full half hour pass without the slightest change.
"Half an hour, gone already..." No matter how you looked at it, the presiding god surely wouldn't make them wait this long.
Sakayanagi Arisu rested a hand against her chin and broke the silence, her voice thoughtful:
"It seems the exact timing of the teleport isn't measured against the objective time of the Time Chamber or the outside world. Instead... is it decided by the subjective observation of the presiding god—and whatever entity stands behind it?"
Hearing this, Hayasaka Ai's eyes narrowed slightly beside her.
After mulling it over for a moment, she extended Sakayanagi's line of thought:
"You mean... while the presiding god is observing the real world, Kouenji and the others—as the first to go—get to remain in the exam venue and take the test. And only when the god's gaze turns toward the Hyperbolic Time Chamber does the program's clock start ticking for us."
Hayasaka Ai glanced around at the pure white space. "So right now, because 'It' isn't looking our way for the moment, we're actually wedged into a crack in time—thanks to the special nature of the Time Chamber?"
"Hehe, Hayasaka-san, you're quite clever."
Sakayanagi Arisu nodded with a smile, not stingy with her praise:
"You know how to draw inferences from a single example. It seems letting you join our team really was the right call."
As she spoke, she brought up Kamuro Masumi with a hint of regret.
"If only Kamuro were as sharp as you~"
Too bad Kamuro Masumi wasn't here—otherwise, given her temperament, she'd definitely have snapped back.
Hayasaka Ai, for her part, offered neither agreement nor denial to Sakayanagi's compliment.
She merely turned her head toward Chris and Ichinose Honami, who stood at the center, as if waiting for the two of them to weigh in.
Ichinose Honami pursed her pink lips and ran a quick calculation:
"If it really is as you two suspect... then at the Time Chamber's ratio of one day to every minute in reality, we probably have quite a lot of time left in here."
"We really can't just sit around waiting."
Chris picked up the thread and stretched lazily. "Then let's use whatever time we've got left for another round of simulated training. Otherwise those nearly-a-thousand class points we spent will have been thrown straight down the drain."
Ryuuen cranked his neck impatiently and spoke up.
"Perfect. Right now we don't have the Soul-Release Blade—that hard-counter weapon—on hand."
"Let's see just how long Jogo, that special-grade cursed spirit, can tank us head-on when he's not being countered!"
Chris chuckled. "Back during the midterm exam, the reason we couldn't deal any real damage to Jogo was simply his special constitution as a cursed spirit. But that doesn't mean he's completely immune to harm."
He paused. "Besides, with the Enma Blade in hand, there's really no need to worry all that much."
After all, the Enma Blade was, by its very concept, a 'Blade of Severance.'
Magic, energy, barriers, even souls—all of it could be cut.
Like traveling from the human realm to the demon realm, or even slicing open the very gates of hell with a single stroke...
In a certain sense, the Enma Blade was far more worthy of its reputation than Sukuna's loan-shark 'World Slash.'
Ryuuen curled his lip in disdain:
"Then let's leave the Enma Blade out of it for now. Jogo's not like the Darkness Devil anyway—he doesn't have some turtle shell you can't crack without special means. I wanna see just how long the bastard can hold out."
Hearing this, Chris was about to nod in agreement. Suddenly— "Huh?" Karuizawa Kei, standing off to the side, let out a soft startled cry.
Chris followed the sound with his eyes.
In the space of a single blink, the Time Chamber scenery peeled away like a shattered mirror.
When his vision refocused, the surroundings had already been swapped out, restored to how they'd looked the first time they set foot in the presiding god's space.
An enormous white God Sphere hovered silently in the very center of the room.
Chris put on a look of surprise:
"Looks like our guess was wrong?"
Sakayanagi Arisu, however, showed no sign of panic:
"Whether we guessed wrong or not, we can only verify by comparing it against the time difference of the next teleport."
"After all... it's also possible the presiding god was watching us inside the Time Chamber the whole time, and only just now remembered to pull us out."
Ichinose Honami had no mind for these metaphysical rules; she clasped her hands together, unable to hide her worry:
"If that's the case... then it means Yotsuya, Amasawa, and the others really were held up for over half an hour in reality before their exam even started?"
Ryuuen let out an irritated sigh and strode over to the God Sphere:
"Who the hell knows what's going on out there!"
"Either way, all we can do right now—and all we have to do—is hurry up, redeem our gear, pin down the target for this exam, and get moving!"
Chris nodded in agreement.
He turned to Shiina Hiyori, who stood at the edge of the group, so quiet she'd practically made herself invisible, and spoke gently:
"Hiyori, you can try using the Black Sphere Watch on your wrist to pull up the past-seasons item shop. See if you've got enough points."
"As I recall, you and Hayasaka should have enough to redeem the Blank Card Box. As for Kei and Amikura, they're still a bit short for now—they'll have to wait until this exam is over. But two Card Boxes are already plenty for us to work with."
Shiina Hiyori obediently raised her hand.
She tapped open the Black Sphere Watch, swiped a few times across the floating virtual screen, and after confirming the redemption, the girl reported softly:
"Just barely enough..."
Chris then turned to look at Hayasaka Ai.
Seeing that she'd successfully redeemed a Card Box as well, he went ahead and opened the Black Sphere Watch on his own wrist.
As for whether the mysterious shop had any items that could directly boost his combat power—of course it did.
Things like Sianweistan, the T-Virus Serum, or even the Spider-Man Bloodline could all give him a considerable boost.
But aside from mechanism-type time-slowing items like Sianweistan, the rest of the bloodline enhancements were hardly cheap.
To Chris, they always felt like they were missing something.
He also disliked overly mainstream enhancement paths.
With that thought, Chris turned his gaze to Ichinose Honami:
"Ichinose, do you have any ideas?"
"I don't think there's anything in the shop that suits me right now. I plan to hold onto my points and wait until we're inside the exam venue, to see whether the Mysterious Merchant has any special items tailored to this exam."
At this, Ichinose Honami's movements paused, and she spoke up to confirm:
"Senpai, you still have over two hundred points left, right?"
"If you're sure you won't need them, then I'll spend mine without worrying. After all, your two hundred-plus points... would definitely be enough for an emergency, right?"
Chris rubbed his chin and said with certainty:
"Barring anything unexpected, it's absolutely enough. A whole Darkness Devil is only worth two hundred points, after all. If something really pricey showed up, there's no way we could afford it right now anyway."
Ichinose Honami nodded.
As she went through the redemption, out of the corner of her eye she suddenly caught sight of Sakayanagi Arisu—who, rather than upgrading her Soul Gem, had redeemed a vial of T-Virus Serum instead.
"Sakayanagi-san didn't upgrade her Soul Gem, but redeemed the T-Virus instead...?"
Ichinose murmured with some hesitation, "It seems her upgrade cost isn't cheap either."
Chris looked a little puzzled. "Is yours expensive?"
Ichinose's fingers worked across the Black Sphere Watch's screen a few times, pulling up the upgrade interface, and she spoke with some hesitation: "I'm not sure if my guess is right..."
"I get the feeling the items the presiding god first sold us are like they've been gutted. You have to spend points to complete them before they return to their original base strength."
She pointed at the list on the screen. "My Ruby's upgrade cost is about the same as Ryuuen-san's template upgrade—both need a hundred S Points."
"But it looks like there are further upgrades after that... though the prompt says it requires an Instance Card for some special trial?"
Chris sighed after hearing this:
"That presiding god's pretty nasty, pulling all these sunk-cost tricks straight out of pay-to-win gacha games."
"If we get the chance later, let's try fully upgrading an item and see what it actually turns into."
Just as Chris—the pot calling the kettle black—was talking away—
"Ahem!" Ryuuen coughed loudly, cutting off everyone's chatter:
"Enough. Since we've all bought our loadouts, let's take a look at this round's monster info and get going—we're on a clock!"
Chris nodded, not bothering to ask why Ryuuen wasn't saving points for an upgrade.
He directed his gaze to the enormous light screen that had appeared above the God Sphere.
[Target: Godzilla]
[Traits: A perfect life-form capable of rapid, multi-stage evolution. Current form stands 118.5 meters tall. Feeds on nuclear energy; can unleash a nuclear-fusion Atomic Breath whose beam can spread and sweep laterally. Absorbs energy from injuries to accelerate its mutation, making it extraordinarily adaptive—a walking natural disaster that radiates a destruction-class pressure all on its own.]
[Value: 180 S Points]
[Time Limit: 24H]
[Failure Penalty: Erasure]
[Friendly Reminder: Just ten minutes ago, it was only worth 150 points. Here's hoping that by the time you get there, it hasn't evolved up to 200.]
Seeing that last line of the prompt—
Sakayanagi Arisu, for once, put away her smile:
"Put that way... we really can't wait a single second longer."
"Presiding god, teleport us now."
[Granted.]
...
Just as Chris and the others were being teleported into the exam venue—
In the skies above Tokyo Bay, in reality.
A formation of U.S. B-2 stealth bombers had already crossed the air-defense net and reached the heart of the battlefield.
As their bomb bays opened, several MOP heavy bunker-busters were dropped one after another, aimed at Godzilla's back!
Faced with this rehash of an old trick, Godzilla gave its response.
It dipped its head slightly, its body arching like a drawn bow.
Then it powered up the dorsal fins along its spine—coral-sharp and flickering with a dazzling purple glow. "Vwooom—!"
Several blinding beams of Atomic Breath shot out from its dorsal fins!
As its massive body twisted—
these purple beams, like an interwoven net, precisely struck the bunker-busters still falling through the air, as well as the B-2 bombers circling above the clouds!
"KA-BOOOM—!"
Blinding fireballs bloomed one after another across the sky.
And on the ground below—
the skyscrapers swept by the Atomic Breath along its path melted and collapsed as fast as butter dropped into a hot pan! And this was only the beginning.
Seemingly enraged to its very core by those earlier bunker-busters—
Godzilla opened its massive maw and let out a roar: "GRAAAH—!!!"
As it charged up, a mass of purple light more dazzling than the sun gathered in its mouth.
Then, it whipped its head violently to the side!
Sweeping straight across half of Tokyo!
Everything in its path—skyscrapers, overpasses, even mountains—was instantly vaporized.
In a heartbeat, it all sank into a raging sea of flame.
And it was at this very moment that Chris and his group, borne on a beam of teleport light, barely materialized right beside Godzilla's enormous foot!
The instant they landed—
a scorching heatwave, enough to suffocate, surged at them head-on.
Karuizawa Kei looked up at the colossus spewing its destructive purple beams overhead, then at the scorched-earth hellscape before her eyes. She swallowed reflexively. "This... this is way too insane..."
"Can we... can we really beat a monster like this?"
Even with Combat Suits, in front of this thing they probably wouldn't even qualify as something stuck between its teeth!
Chris took a deep breath.
Feeling the searing air lingering in his nostrils, he made an immediate decision:
"Hiyori, Hayasaka!"
"Quick! Get us into the Mirror World first!"
Chris spoke rapidly. "Ryuuen and I are fine for now, but with the ordinary material of your Combat Suits, you probably can't withstand heat of this level for long!"
Ryuuen glanced up at the sky and added at just the right moment:
"According to the data readings, this beast is currently unloading the energy it's built up inside itself. And this is only the beginning!"
"If we wait for it to release all that energy... the surrounding temperature will spike to at least two thousand-plus degrees!"
Ryuuen spat. "Whether Chris, Ichinose, and the rest can hold up is anyone's guess, but you lot will absolutely get roasted to a melt in an instant. Get moving, now!"
At his words—
Hayasaka Ai and Shiina Hiyori didn't dare hesitate for even a moment.
Fortunately, back when they'd gotten their Card Boxes in the presiding god's space, they'd already completed their transformations ahead of time to save the trouble.
Now, all they had to do was pull out the phones they carried in their pockets and use the screens as the reflective medium—the mirror surface.
And they could open a passage straight into the Mirror World!
In truth—
if they went strictly by the original setting of Kamen Rider Ryuki, the Mirror World—a mirrored parallel dimension born when Kanzaki Shirou's sister unconsciously tore open reality—was actually quite a cumbersome place to enter.
It even came with the strict rule that "wherever you enter, you must exit from that same place."
By comparison, the American version of Kamen Rider Ryuki had much looser rules.
But even so, it wasn't something just anyone could enter at will.
This time, however, the Mirror World they opened was one Chris had molded using the Reality Gem.
Aside from the time limit, Chris hadn't fussed much over such trivial details.
Otherwise, going strictly by the original setting, just the journey of entering the Mirror World alone would have been enough to kill an ordinary person without a Card Box's protection several times over.
"The passage is open! Get in, quick!"
Hayasaka Ai and Shiina Hiyori hurriedly tossed everyone in, one by one.
Had no one interrupted or stopped them, moving everyone across wouldn't actually have taken much time at all.
And fortunately—
Godzilla paid absolutely no mind to the few "human ants" that had appeared at its feet.
Right now, its mind was consumed by a single thing!
To spew out all the excess nuclear energy hoarded within its body in one great breath!
And then sweep away every last one of those flies that dared to stop it from chowing down!
Battle—exhilarating! Spewing—exhilarating!
The Mirror World. As Shiina Hiyori and Hayasaka Ai stepped inside—
the passage sealed shut behind them.
Through the glass curtain walls along the roadside—still linked to the real world and displaying scenes from outside—
the group watched in silence as the Tokyo beyond was reduced to a sea of fire beneath the purple death-rays.
Even Ryuuen, who had faced the Darkness Devil before, couldn't help but click his tongue in shock:
"Damn... is this seriously something a carbon-based lifeform can pull off?"
"If we hadn't bought these Blank Card Boxes in advance... the moment we landed, we'd have had to tank this monster's breath with our bare bodies."
"The hell's up with the presiding god's teleport targeting? Why not just dump us right in the muzzle of its cannon while it's at it? Doesn't it leave us even a second to prepare?"
Ryuuen couldn't help but curse.
Sakayanagi Arisu steadied her breathing and spoke with pursed lips:
"Being able to use the Blank Card Box to open the Mirror World and hide at a time like this is already a stroke of great luck amid our misfortune."
She extended a fingertip and lightly touched the glass curtain wall:
"Honestly, before coming in, I'd assumed the Mirror World would exist entirely as a side-mirror image of the real world. In that case, even hiding in here, we'd still have to worry about the skyscrapers outside collapsing."
"And then, hiding in here, we'd never escape the fate of being buried alive in the end."
The girl let out a slight sigh of relief. "It seems I was overthinking it."
Chris answered offhandedly:
"A 'copy' and a physical reflection are two completely different concepts. As it looks now, this place is most likely a parallel dimension that clings to reality yet runs relatively independently of it."
Meanwhile, Ichinose Honami hadn't been idle either. She raised a hand and tapped open the Controller radar she'd redeemed back in the presiding god's space.
Looking at the several green dots on the screen, not all that far from them, Ichinose's eyes lit up and she quickly spoke:
"Everyone, look—there are signals from Amasawa-san, Kushida-san, and the others over here!"
"From the location and how the dots are staying still... I'd guess they found a sturdy shelter ahead of time and are hiding out."
Amikura Mako leaned in for a look and analyzed quickly:
"They really aren't far from us... judging by the coordinates, they should be in an underground air-raid facility or a subway station."
She turned to the group and suggested:
"Let's head over and take a look. I imagine that even an underground shelter won't be short of reflective surfaces for us to get back out through."
"Besides, while we can hide in the Mirror World for a while, we can't stay here too long. Godzilla out there is clearly going to be venting for quite some time yet."
Amikura Mako pointed at the behemoth still madly spewing Atomic Breath beyond the glass wall:
"Rather than rushing out now to face the disaster head-on, better to find them first and get a clear picture of what's actually going on."
Ichinose Honami took a deep breath of the Mirror World's faintly cool air.
She glanced at Chris, and seeing no sign of objection from him, agreed:
"Mako's right—for now, this is our only option."
"The situation's far too chaotic right now, so this really is all we can do for the moment. Let's move out!"
Just as the group was preparing to advance along the mirrored streets toward the underground facility—
Shiina Hiyori, who had stayed silent the whole time, suddenly spoke up with a note of confusion:
"...There's a question I've never quite figured out."
"If the only enemy we have to face in this exam is Godzilla alone..."
"then when Amasawa-san, Kushida-san, and the others took the advance test, what exactly was their mission objective?"
"It surely can't have been a contest to see who could survive longest under Godzilla's feet, could it?"
At Shiina Hiyori's question, the group was momentarily stunned.
Chris turned to glance at her and answered casually, "Who knows."
"Blindly guessing at things like this easily leads you into a dead end."
"Since they're not far off, going over to ask them face-to-face is obviously far better than us speculating in a vacuum here."
Hearing this, Shiina Hiyori nodded obediently and said no more.
____
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