It felt like a lot had happened, but in the end, all we had accomplished was killing one enemy.
My body moved on its own, and there was no result to show for it. I was exhausted, mentally and physically.
When I climbed back onto the bus, worn down by fatigue, Vergilius—who looked less displeased at the sight of Dante than he had before—welcomed us.
"You look somewhat more useful than before, Dante."
""
Dante had been worried about that too. But what did that mean for us now?
"You're concerned about the enemy you let slip away."
"There's no need to worry... it was the road we were meant to take anyway. Charon?"
So there was no need to worry. But what did he mean by "the road we were meant to take"?
"Step on the pedal. I'll run with lots of excitement."
With those words, Charon started driving in the direction the enemies had fled.
Seeing that, I cautiously raised a hand toward Vergilius.
"Do you have something to say, Sinner No. 14, Saramago?"
"Are we really following the enemies who ran away just now?"
If so, I wanted to rest a little. If we were chasing them, we'd probably be fighting again soon, and I'd need to recover my stamina for that.
"Yes. Is that all?"
I nodded quietly. Then I turned my body so I was facing the window and closed my eyes for a moment to recover my strength for the next battle.
Sa—
Saramago—
"Mr. Saramago, Mr. Saramago!"
"...Nn, huh?"
Waking from sleep, I looked toward the source of the voice.
There, right beside me, was Ishmael, leaning in close and whispering. Had she come to wake me?
"We'll be arriving soon. Please wake up."
"Yes, but could you move back a little? Ishmael... ma'am? We're a bit too close..."
At that, Ishmael flinched and hurriedly put some distance between us.
"...Sorry. Back on the bus, everyone was so casual with each other."
Ishmael said that with a slight blush. She seemed a little embarrassed that she'd spoken with her face so close to mine.
"If you're awake, I'll go back to my seat."
With her expression already back to normal, Ishmael said that, and I gave her a nod before looking out the window.
I watched the back-alley scenery pass by outside for a while. Then, as if it were time to get off, the bus's engine noise stopped.
"No one's still asleep, right? It's time to get off. If you understand, everyone disembark."
At those words, the Sinners filed off the bus. I thanked Ishmael, who was getting off a little more slowly, for what she'd done earlier.
"Thank you for waking me up earlier."
"It's nothing. I was the one trying to wake you, so you don't need to worry about it."
I was about to thank Ishmael again, but a cold voice came from behind me.
"Save the small talk for later. Get off quickly."
"For now, let's get off quickly!"
Following Ishmael, who hurried off without another word, I got off the bus as well.
What greeted us after disembarking was a horde of enemies, a little larger than before. Predicting another annoying fight, I raised my weapon again.
Then came Otis's shout from behind.
"We have the Manager with us. Don't be scared!"
Hearing that, I gripped my weapon tighter and faced the enemy.
An enemy swung a weapon from behind.
Whoosh—
"Aaah!"
This battle wasn't much different from the last one. If there was any difference, it was that there was an enemy with especially troublesome attacks.
Ah, another attack's coming.
Whoosh—
"Waaah!"
Had Dante learned another way of fighting from Faust or something? For those troublesome attacks, he responded with defensive actions tailored to each Sinner's specialty.
That was why I was desperately dodging attacks right now.
There didn't seem to be many enemies left now, so couldn't they help already?
Thwack!
"Crush it flat!"
The enemy attacking me was smashed into a pulpy mess by Heathcliff's vigorous bat swing, spraying flesh and blood everywhere.
"Huff— huff— thank you."
"...Hmph."
Heathcliff barely seemed to hear me as he turned and started boarding the bus. Was the battle over?
"This battle ends here. Everyone, get back on the bus."
Before I could even look around, Faust's voice called out that the fight was over. I needed to get back on the bus and rest quickly.
Tap... tap...
When I finally dragged my exhausted feet back to my seat, Gregor, sitting in the row ahead, spoke to me.
"Hey, buddy, you okay? You looked rough earlier."
If you saw that, shouldn't you have helped instead of just watching?
"Don't even ask. I feel like I'm going to die from shortness of breath. Why does this company make a doctor do work like this..."
As I was complaining and resting in my seat, Ishmael spoke to Faust, who had just boarded the bus.
"Excuse me."
Faust stopped moving and answered Ishmael.
"What is it?"
Seeing that Faust was willing to listen, Ishmael began voicing her complaints.
"I joined because I was told we could keep moving forward without stagnating."
"But right now... it's nothing but meaningless violence, like we're not even rats."
At that, Don Quixote suddenly barged in.
"It is not meaningless! Those are evil beings attacking us!"
Angered by Don Quixote's attempt to derail the point of the conversation, Ishmael snapped irritably.
"Shut up. Be quiet for once."
This looked like something I should stop. To keep Ishmael from spiraling, I quietly spoke up.
"Ishmael, you seem a little too emotional. Why don't you calm down a bit before you speak?"
My sudden interruption seemed to catch Ishmael off guard. She stared at me for a moment, then let out a sigh and spoke to Faust in a calmer tone.
"...Hah. Anyway, if all you're going to order is this kind of hired thuggery, maybe we should think about doing something else."
Was it possible to quit this company? I should submit my resignation right now...
"Did you not read the employment contract properly?"
My body stiffened at the sudden sting of guilt.
"...Resignation cannot be permitted."
And with that, my dream of quitting vanished. Still... it had been a happy dream, however brief.
"...Do you really think a contract remains valid even if the things said during signing were lies?"
Was this not a dream?
"Of course it remains valid."
Shouldn't a contract be void if the contents are false?
"If there are lies in the contract, then the contract's validity..."
My words were cut off there.
"There were no lies to begin with."
And then my words overlapped with Ishmael's.
""...Huh?""
"Did you really think I would make Mephistopheles into nothing more than a transport bus?"
There seemed to be some kind of secret here.
Unexpectedly, the answer that would resolve our confusion came not from Faust, but from Charon in the driver's seat.
"Mefi is always hungry. So it cries."
The bus is hungry? What could a bus possibly be hungry for? It wasn't even alive. Was that a metaphor?
""
Dante seemed to have the same question, and asked while looking at Faust.
"The byproduct produced when the engine 'ingests' fuel..."
"You all can become stronger through it."
What was that supposed to mean? The idea of the bus "ingesting" an engine made no sense, and neither did becoming stronger through a byproduct.
"Mr. Yi Sang should know well. If one draws out all possibilities from within the mirror."
Faust's words were continued by Yi Sang.
"Growth, too, is without limitation."
And then he uttered something incomprehensible.
"Is the me in the mirror still me, or another someone?"
"
Was "possibility" something related to this thing called a "mirror"?
"Follow me."
With that, Faust started heading somewhere.
What I saw when I followed Faust was something wrapped in chains, yet still radiating light.
"This is the engine of the bus we're riding, Mephistopheles."
This glowing thing... was Mephistopheles's engine?
Then Faust handed Dante something shaped like a flower and said,
"This is energy called Sin. It's the byproduct that comes out when the bus ingests something, as I mentioned earlier. Would you try touching the engine with this flower in hand?"
At those words, Dante slowly moved his hand toward Mephistopheles's engine.
The event that occurred the moment that hand finally touched the bus's engine was, as expected, beyond my understanding.
Shrrrk
Something called Sin vanished from Dante's hand, and chains shot out from the bus's engine toward Ishmael's heart.
The chain flew straight through and pierced the area around her heart, creating the same kind of hole as when we first made our contract.
Then red light spilled out from that hole...
"I'll grant them silence... faster than anyone else."
Suddenly Ishmael's outfit changed, and she spoke words I couldn't imagine coming from her.
The other Sinners seemed to be seeing this phenomenon for the first time too. Some of them widened their eyes, others just stood there dumbly with their mouths hanging open.
The only ones who remained calm were Faust and Yi Sang.
Then Ishmael's outfit returned to normal, and she became the usual Ishmael again, looking shocked as she said,
"What just happened? Suddenly there are things in my head I've never experienced before...!"
"Calm down. It was merely a matter of briefly calling forth another possibility of you using the mirror."
There it was again: "mirror." What on earth was this mirror thing that made everyone talk like that?
Unable to suppress my curiosity, I spoke up.
"Faust... ma'am, what exactly is this mirror?"
"Regarding the mirror, it would be more appropriate for Mr. Yi Sang to answer than I."
At Faust's words, Yi Sang began speaking in her place.
"As I said before, it is merely a reflection of oneself from another world."
Then Faust continued.
"And through Mephistopheles, we simply project the possibilities reflected there onto our bodies. This is the valuable ability we'll be using from now on."
I still didn't fully understand what they were saying, but I could grasp the rough idea.
So basically, it was something like a gacha system in a gacha game?
When I thought about it again, projecting some possible version of yourself from another world meant they could forcibly create almost any possibility and dress the Sinners in it.
Considering that, this system seemed like it was originally meant to be used as Limbus Company's gacha system.
I'd wondered how a game with only twelve characters could even have a gacha system, but the developers had apparently built something interesting.
And Ishmael, as if her earlier complaints had vanished, spoke in a completely different tone than before.
"I see... so that's what you meant."
"There's no need to rush too much, Ishmael. As the bus heads onward, naturally..."
But Faust's words were cut off by Vergilius, who suddenly stole the floor.
"Naturally, you'll be assigned something more important than the work of common street trash."
"You may be eager to reach your destination, but... endure it."
Did Ishmael dislike Vergilius interrupting Faust? She clicked her tongue lightly while looking at him.
"...Tch."
"Since we're drawing out one of the possibilities among all our selves in the mirror world, some memories will be overlaid as well."
"You'll get used to it soon."
Hearing Faust's explanation, Rodion said with an uneasy expression,
"What? That sounds a little dangerous."
"At this rate, won't I stop being me? Hah-hah."
She finished speaking and laughed as if it were a joke, but apart from that, her anxiety was reasonable. If you called forth another world's self and overlaid memories and experiences onto them, wasn't there a chance the "me" here would stop being me?
Rodion had asked Faust, but suddenly Vergilius fell into thought after hearing her words. What was with him?
"......"
Whether Vergilius was thinking or not, Faust paid him no mind and continued her explanation.
"You are not the Ship of Theseus."
"Though personality and memory may be borrowed, it is not designed to strip you of your agency."
At that, Yi Sang added an explanation.
"Though the me reflected in the mirror may be quite different, once outside the mirror, even that form loses its shape."
...Was that not an explanation, but just him saying whatever he wanted?
Faust glanced at Yi Sang for a moment, then quickly turned back and continued.
"...How we grow will depend on Dante."
"You will be overlaying the various possibilities of the mirror world at the most effective timing."
So basically, character switching.
"Are you speaking of metamorphosis?"
That was Otis's interpretation of Faust's words. Metamorphosis was an English word meaning shedding.
Since changing into something else was similar to shedding, it was a pretty good metaphor.
"Yes, you could call it a kind of transformation or metamorphosis."
Faust agreed.
"My, where did you learn such a difficult word?"
"I picked it up. I used to do work that made me meet a lot of different people."
Otis answered Rodion's question kindly.
Gregor had been lost in thought ever since hearing the word "transformation" come out of Faust's mouth earlier.
"Transformation, huh..."
Perhaps noticing that the Sinners' conversation was becoming less and less useful, Vergilius urged them on.
"Is the small talk over?"
"Let's clear the road first. We'll be stuck together long enough anyway, so save the rest for later."
It was time for another battle.
Ishmael had transformed into the new Ishmael from earlier.
From Faust's explanation, the identity Ishmael was now wearing was that of a possible Ishmael who had become Section 5 of the Shi Association, an association of Fixers specializing in assassination.
The Ishmael I knew originally carried a mace in one hand and a shield in the other, but Shi Association Ishmael wore only a single red-bladed sword, similar to a Japanese katana, at her waist.
And with the sword came a change in Ishmael's fighting style as well.
"Hup!"
Slash
Rather than a front-line fighting style, her movements were specialized for assassination. Just now, she had swiftly closed in on an enemy that had left itself open while attacking me, and split its body in two.
"...Are you all right?"
"Hah... yes, thanks to you. Thank you."
Her personality seemed to have changed a little too. It felt like her energy had dropped by two levels compared to the original Ishmael. Would the other Sinners be like that if they changed identities too?
As the battle neared its end, Faust's outfit in front of us changed into something different, just as Ishmael's had earlier when her identity shifted.
Her weapon, too, had changed from the usual Zwei Hander into something like a broom a fictional witch might use.
[Faust knows all outcomes.]
Then Faust suddenly muttered something incomprehensible, and brought the tip of the broom down onto the ground.
Clang!
The spot she struck sounded as if it had cracked, and a shockwave rippled outward from the broom's tip.
Crack!
The enemies caught in that shockwave were reduced to pulp.
A person suddenly changing clothes in the middle of battle, then striking the ground with a transformed weapon, and the earth cracking as the enemy died. What on earth had my common sense been up to until now?
Apparently the enemy Faust had killed with the shockwave was the last one. With her outfit back to normal, she shook off the various things clinging to the human body and said,
"That was [E.G.O]. If Dante gives the order, you can use it too."
E.G.O. It seemed to be pronounced "ego." But what on earth was this ego that could calmly perform such absurd feats?
...And why did it seem like only Dante and I didn't know anything about E.G.O.? Was I being excluded or something?
"
"Ah, Dante, so you don't know about E.G.O. E.G.O. is something you can think of as the materialization of an individual's self."
"The Sinners can imperfectly manifest that E.G.O. through Dante."
So I could use it too?
"You don't need to worry about how to use E.G.O. When the time comes, the method will naturally come into your head."
...Had she read my mind?
Ignoring my question, Faust finished her explanation there and soon boarded the bus after leaving only a few words for the Sinners.
"Then let's return to the bus."
What welcomed us back on the bus was a dispiriting remark that drained even more strength from us.
"The road's open. But if Mefi had just kept running, the road would've opened anyway."
Hearing Charon say that, Dante seemed to get irritated that all his effort had been rendered meaningless, and started getting angry instead.
<>
Even though Vergilius couldn't hear Dante's words, he seemed to guess what he was saying from the clock sounds that were ticking more than usual, and began speaking without waiting for Faust to translate.
"Calm yourself, Dante. You can't make a child who hasn't even learned to walk run. If there's a chance to walk, you should walk first before you run."
Reasonable enough. Even though the Sinners' coordination was poor and every battle turned into a chaotic brawl, no one had died. That could also be interpreted as meaning the rats we were up against were perfect for testing Dante's orders and basic knowledge.
But Vergilius didn't seem content with merely persuading Dante, because he continued in a lower tone.
"And... Dante. You are the Manager... your job is to 'manage' them. I am the guide. Where we go, and how we carve the path, is for me to decide."
Vergilius glanced at Dante's reaction and added one more line.
"Understood?"
Vergilius's red eyes emitted a threatening light.
"Don't argue."
Hearing that, Dante quietly rebelled, taking advantage of the fact that Vergilius couldn't hear him.
<>
"......"
Hearing that, Faust began thinking about how to translate Dante's words.
"He's ticking away, but what is he saying, Faust?"
Only after hearing Vergilius's urging did Faust speak.
"He said nothing of note."
Was she just planning to hide anything that might cause trouble?
Seeing her act like that in front of someone radiating such murderous intent, our Manager really did have quite the iron stomach.
"You do affirm things quite grandly. In the future, a nod will suffice, Dante."
Vergilius seemed to believe Faust's words without question.
...It seemed his level of trust was entirely different from ours.
As soon as the conversation ended, Mephistopheles's distinctive engine noise began to rumble.
"Then let's go, Mefi. Yay."
"Charon, how do you feel?"
"Very. Excited. Charon feels like flying."
"...Good."
Is the driver's mood usually that important when a bus starts moving?
<>
"Vergilius, he asks where the destination is."
Vergilius let out a sigh, as if Dante was exhausting him.
"Hah... I believe I said this before, Dante."
Of course, Dante didn't seem willing to let Vergilius off the hook.
<>
Apparently realizing that the ticking was asking the question again, Vergilius let out a low sigh.
And with that sigh, the bus suddenly lurched forward and began moving ahead.