And Thus the World Ended

"Ohohoho! Just as I thought—if it was you, Miss Izumi, I knew you would come here!"

She turned at the voice. There stood Senior Kurokami's character, one hand planted on her hip, laughing. An assault rifle was slung across her back, but nothing about her suggested she had come to fight.

All the same, what Izumi was doing was nothing short of trespass—trespass in the name of war. The moment Senior Kurokami breathed a word of it to Senior Namikawa, it would be a disaster.

"My, you do seem to be enjoying yourself!"

Fortunately, Senior Kurokami did not look inclined to raise any alarm.

"Wh-wh-what brings you here, Kurokami-senpai?"

Even so, she could not let her guard down until the very end. Relax it here, and a betrayal later was always possible. Ashen City was a game in which alliances meant next to nothing. Trusting someone else was not a thing one did lightly.

"D-did you come to go to war with me too, Senpai...?"

"Not at all. I'm standing here to offer you an alliance, Miss Izumi."

"...An a-alliance?"

"Yes. Right now, aren't you about to fight Miss Tsubaki and Miss Nekoto?"

"Th-that's—I was going to call off the war with Aki..."

She had not told Aki so directly, of course. But if she simply never went looking for her, wouldn't Aki take the hint on her own? They were bound together as 2nd Generation, after all.

"Hm? A moment ago, Miss Tsubaki headed out to propose an alliance to Miss Nekoto."

"Uh..."

She had not thought of that.

Ah. Now that she remembered—when Aki killed her earlier, she had said she'd heard about Senior Namikawa. This was bad.

Honestly, she had believed that once she stole every last one of Senior Namikawa's materials and secured even a modest foothold, there was no way she could lose to her senpai, no matter what happened. But if Aki was in the picture, the story changed. Aki was a veteran of Ashen City, and judging by her streams she was quite good at games besides. Not as good as Izumi, of course! Even so, if an Aki like that sealed an alliance with Senior Namikawa, the situation would turn hopelessly against her. In the time Izumi had died to her senpai twice, Aki would have been steadily building up her own base. However wide the gap in skill, the picture that formed was one of being crushed flat by money.

"Ugh..."

"Which is precisely why you should ally with me! If their pact goes through, that's two—Miss Tsubaki and Miss Nekoto. And if Miss Rinze steps forward to help Miss Tsubaki as well, that's three, isn't it? However confident you are in the game, Miss Izumi, I do think that would be a little much."

She was right. Boxed in by three under the present circumstances, Izumi had no future. It would be a one-sided feeding. What she needed, just as Senior Kurokami said, was an alliance.

"O-okay. Then I'll... a-ally with you, Senpai."

"Then Hikazumi is revived, right here, after all this time!"

Ohohoho! Senior Kurokami's laughter pealed across the waste.

"Sh-shut up."

"First of all, Miss Nanase, Miss Yukari, and Miss Ayaka all said they have no interest in the war. So you needn't worry that the other side might grow any larger."

"Th-that's a relief."

Well. Honestly, splitting four against four and having everyone fight at once sounded like it could be fun, but if it came to that, the rest would all try to defect to the other side, and it would never work. No one was going to team up with a friendless, oblivious loser who could barely hold a conversation and came preloaded with a communication disorder.

A pity, but that was reality. Akabane would certainly choose to be her enemy, and Utsumi would follow Akabane for the sake of Ayakari. Nacchan might still come their way out of consideration for Black Star, but frankly Nacchan's skill at the game was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nowhere near the level of being helpful.

Any way she looked at it, more people meant a disadvantage for their side. A two-against-three was far more comfortable.

"...B-but, Kurokami-senpai, why do you want to a-ally with me?"

Struck by the question all at once, her senpai answered with a click of her tongue.

"Because I'm a villainess young lady, obviously. Isn't that only natural?"

"...Pardon?"

"Well, you may be the one backed into a corner at the moment, Miss Izumi, but the bad person who declared the player kill and the war first was you. So I, as befits a villainess, have simply taken the villain's side."

"I-I see."

"So don't you let your guard down either, Miss Izumi. At any moment I might suddenly betray you and cross over to their side. Ohohoho!"

Izumi was thinking the exact same thing, but she did not bother saying so. What mattered was that the moves available to her had multiplied.

"Th-then first, let's head back to your base, Senpai..."

"Have you taken everything you need?"

"Yes. With this much, e-even if the fighting starts right now, I should at least be able to manage the b-barest response."

What she had gathered was the materials she had mined earlier, plus about forty percent of what had been sitting in her senpai's warehouse. Asked whether it was seamless and perfect, she would have had to say no—but hauling every last piece of it had been impossible anyway.

"Lovely. Then, before we set out, just a moment..."

So saying, Senior Kurokami produced a sheet of paper, wrote something on it, and set it atop Senior Namikawa's warehouse. A quick look showed what it said.

A declaration of war, plain as day.

"Why did you betray me?!"

Across a battlefield snarled with gunfire, a gray-haired man's scream tore the air. The other man standing opposite him gave the question no answer. He only fired, quiet.

"You said I was a precious comrade! Was that all your 'precious' was ever worth?!"

As if the endless cry had struck something in him, the black-haired man slowly opened his mouth.

"I told you last time, didn't I? The world is survival of the fittest. It isn't the one who betrays who's in the wrong. It's the one who gets betrayed."

Bang! The gunshot cracked once more. And what the bullet punched through was the gray-haired man's chest.

"Ghk—!"

With a groan he coughed blood and collapsed. The sky he saw through his blurring sight was that ashen gray, familiar to him now.

"Damn... you..."

And before the man closed his eyes for the last time, what reached him was—

Shuuuuuu—

A sound like something ripping the air to shreds.

"Ohohoho! With this, it has been proven beyond all doubt that Miss Tsubaki is a cut below me!"

"C-congratulations...?"

Senior Namikawa would hardly have walked out of her base carrying every piece of gear she owned, so she would not be starting over from nothing the way Izumi had. Even so, seizing the initiative mattered enormously in a war like this, and Senior Kurokami killing Senior Namikawa single-handedly was a massive score.

Senior Namikawa was pouring her fury out at Senior Kurokami through the chat. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Senior Kurokami, as if long used to it, let that fury slide off her without a care.

"Hehehe. A villainess young lady, by her very nature, proudly turns the whole world against her. Being my classmate earns you no exception!"

"Hmm..."

From the moment Senior Kurokami and Senior Namikawa had started in on each other, Izumi had been securing the sightlines around them against whatever might happen, but she could not see another soul nearby. Senior Yuzuki, perhaps, she could have dismissed—but she had been certain Aki would come for their backs.

Oh. Now that she thought about it, Senior Namikawa had only gone to propose the alliance to Aki. Aki had never once said she had accepted.

Then maybe, just maybe, their only opponents right now were Senior Namikawa ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and Senior Yuzuki?

If that was the case, they could march straight to Senior Namikawa's base and, as the rightful price of victory, conduct a perfectly justified shakedown...

"Hm? What was that sound, Miss Izumi?"

"Huh?"

Snapping back at Senior Kurokami's words, she realized something strange really was sounding from the sky. How was she supposed to describe it? Like the tremendous roar an aircraft makes when it punches through the wall of the air.

"...Ah."

They were finished.

In the same instant the realization hit her, Aki's chat came up.

"K-Kurokami-senpai."

"Yes? What is it, Miss Izumi? Do you happen to know what this sound is?"

"Yes... I mean, um. I think we're going to have to start all over, fr-from the very beginning..."

"...What are you saying?"

"Ah. It's here."

The moment the words left her, from farther off—more precisely, from her base and Senior Kurokami's—a tremendous roar erupted, and a mushroom cloud bloomed into the sky.

And Ashen City was destroyed.