After the Storm, and Before the Storm (Premium) Read online

  Prologue

  Control AI Workspace

  “Ngh... There’s so much work...” A certain white cat was hard at work in a space populated by countless screens.

  It was control AI no. 13, Cheshire.

  Once in charge of spreading culture, he was now the odd-job AI, constantly dealing with various tasks piled up on him by the other AIs.

  Now, while Cheshire was working in this space, he had clones currently leading new Masters through the tutorial, and an avatar acting as a duelist.

  This ability to split himself and thus divide his processing power was what had gotten him the role of the odd-job AI.

  “I’m not at my best, either,” he grumbled. “Using my real body took away a whole lot of my processing power...”

  Recently, in the ruins near Quartierlatin, he’d unleashed his power as Infinite Multiplication, Grimalkin and crushed an army of pre-ancient weaponry.

  Doing something like that wasn’t without its costs, though.

  Unlike how it was with controlling normal clones, using the main body to its full potential left a burden on his processing power. In other words, it made him tired.

  “Nngh... But I need to clear some of this work to open up processing power for my match as Tom...”

  Tired or not, he still had work to do.

  All the administrative work was done by just thirteen AIs, so breaks were out of the question, especially when there were those who were even more tired than Cheshire. It was a vicious circle, like in a typical employee-exploiting business.

  Then again, perhaps you couldn’t expect any rest while managing Infinite Dendrogram — a world that was active 24/7 and constantly had several hundred thousand people connected to it.

  It made sense that they would have to use so much of their processing power.

  “Looking back at it, the first two thousand years here before launch were sooo easy... Even if you ignore the hell I went through because of Rockfell and Fanlong.”

  Cheshire grinned wryly as he recalled the time when he was The Lynx, Schrödinger Cat. Those were the names of the King of Kings and the Draconic Emperor of that time.

  It was now called “The Era of the Peerless Three,” but from Cheshire’s perspective, it was “The Era of the Peerless Two and an Extra.”

  Most of his memories of that time consisted of nothing but getting into trouble made by two people who were basically walking glitches.

  “Our recent incident reminds me of that time.”

  Cheshire had needed to deal with the pre-ancient civilization’s weapons back then, too. Remembering how hard it all was, he felt a bit nostalgic.

  “Oh, also...”

  He then remembered a certain newbie Master... who probably couldn’t be considered new anymore.

  Ray Starling — the man who’d taken Cheshire’s words about freedom to heart and then defeated half of Acra-Vesta, against whom Cheshire himself was hopelessly incompatible.

  Cheshire wondered what the young man was up to right now.

  “He’s probably having a hard time...”

  The young man had been caught up in all sorts of happenings ever since he’d started.

  The event in Quartierlatin had been preceded by the battle against Monochrome in Torne and the trouble with The Lunar Society.

  “I can’t get a break myself, but I really hope he doesss.”

  A rest without anything special happening. A silence after a typhoon.

  Cheshire thought it wouldn’t hurt for Ray to have that.

  Beginning Episode: Break Time

  Episode One: College

  April 3rd, 2045, Reiji Mukudori

  On the first Monday of April, I woke up earlier than usual.

  We’d gone through the enrollment guidance and procedures and introduced ourselves to our fellow freshmen on Friday, so today, we were going to start classes and our college life.

  It was just a weekend, but somehow, it felt like a whole year had passed since Friday.

  The weekend was just that impactful, I guess, I thought.

  First I’d picked up a search quest that had culminated in the battle against Monochrome. Then I’d gone to change my job at Quartierlatin’s ruins, only to end up fighting Hell General and the whale.

  The weekend had been almost as packed with happenings as my first few days in Dendro, everything from coming online until the conclusion of Franklin’s Game at Gideon. I felt like I’d done nothing but fight the whole time.

  Now, though, I had to focus on my college life. My parents had told me that I could only live by myself if I made it into Tokyo University, one of the country’s best universities. I’d done just that, but this would be pointless if I didn’t keep up with my studies. It’d make for quite a bad joke if I went on to repeat a year because of too much Dendro. What would my parents think? Seriously. They already had enough to worry about with my siblings, so I didn’t want to add to that.

  I’d balance my real and Dendro lives to be a proper college student.

  Speaking of my siblings, I got a call from my sister. She congratulated me for enrolling into college, which was so normal of her that it actually worried me.

  She’d been traveling all over for as long as I’d known her, and she was now busy working in a different time zone, which was the reason why it had taken her so long to contact me.

  Being busy with work was a good thing, though. For example, as busy as it would make them, authors who were having their work adapted into anime must surely be happy.

  Not like my sister worked in that sphere, though.

  We chatted and reminisced (some memories made my legs tremble) for about half an hour before she asked if I wanted anything for my enrollment party, to which I answered that I wanted some foreign sweets, preferably from famous confectioners.

  That might seem inconsequential, but when it came to such things, my sister was a person you had to be specific with. If I were to just tell her ‘anything’s fine,’ she would bring something far out of reasonable limits or something incomprehensible.

  Shu had done that once, and he’d received a gift that had somehow gotten him into major, life-threatening trouble in Aokigahara. That was only a little while before the Un-kra world tournament, when he’d been shaping up to be a great martial artist, and even then, the gift had almost gotten him killed.

  If I got into something like that right now, it’d make a mess of both my school and Dendro life, so I went and asked for something harmless.

  Despite the slight bit of fear, my chat with my sister was fun, and it ended without a hitch.

  Still, for some reason, I heard an explosion right before we ended the call, which made me think, Man, she never changes, huh?

  It honestly felt like she was living in a world and genre a whole lot more dangerous than even Dendro.

  ◇

  I made it to college pretty early.

  It wasn’t far from my apartment, so I just used my bike.

  First I went to the student cafeteria and ate some breakfast while checking the syllabus on my mobile for the details on the various courses.

  Unlike in high school, where all but a few classes and timetables were decided for you, in college, you have to choose your curricula and set your timetables yourself. I’d looked at it at home, but this could decide my life, so I had to be careful with it.

  “For my required foreign language... I’ll just take English II. I’m sure you can’t go wrong with the ability to talk with those from the Anglosphere.”

  Although we had some really accurate translation apps these days. Dendro, for instance, translated everything into Japanese for me, no matter wh
ere the speaker was from.

  Rook and Figaro were from the UK, Chelsea was American, Xunyu was Chinese... no, wait, Singaporean. And going by his name, Hugo was French.

  You could probably find a lot more interesting nationalities if you looked hard enough.

  “Gotta pick one more, right...? What should I go for?”

  I was interested in Greek because of its relation to Nemesis, but I didn’t have that option here.

  She was based on Greek mythology, right? As far as I knew, “Vengeance is Mine” was a biblical quote from the New Testament.

  Oh, well. Nothing could be done if Greek wasn’t an option.

  Still, what other language could I go for?

  “Heya, Rei! How are ya?” Someone slapped my back and greeted me with a cheerful voice.

  I turned around and saw someone familiar. “...Natsume.”

  This girl with unruly hair and a bit of face paint was a fellow freshman: Soprano Natsume. She was one of the four other freshman Dendro users I had met during the introductions.

  Though her first name was read as “Soprano,” it was actually written in Japanese kanji for “high” and “sound.” Such names had once been rare, but it was at least one in five people now. It had been that way since I was in elementary school.

  “That’s my name!” she exclaimed. “Anyway, what’re ya up to?! You okay? Wanna do some cat’s cradle?” Natsume presented me a cat’s cradle wrapped around her hands.

  “...Why?” I asked.

  “Brain exercise?”

  What’s with the questioning tone? You’re the one who offered.

  “Mukudori, Natsume, good morning,” yet another person greeted us.

  “Oh. Good morning, Akiyama.”

  “Morning, Suba!”

  It was Subaru Akiyama, another fellow freshman Dendro user.

  Unlike Natsume, Akiyama wasn’t the kind of person who’d touch you upon greeting or randomly ask to play some cat’s cradle. However, she was wearing a long-sleeved maid uniform.

  College had no rules for clothing or hair styles, but constant cosplayers like her were few and far between.

  Then again, she claimed that it wasn’t cosplay. During the introductions last week, Akiyama had said she was juggling her college life and work as a maid in a certain household, and this was her uniform.

  I’d asked why she didn’t just change, and gotten the un-maidlike response of, “Changing a bunch of times per day is a pain.”

  The other two Dendro users I’d met were guys who were about as... interesting as these two.

  I was probably the blandest among us Dendro freshmen.

  That made me realize that the higher years had people like Miss Eldritch and Tsukikage. Tokyo U sure was full of weirdos.

  “I must say, you’re early,” said Akiyama. “I know we agreed on something for the first period, but it’s over an hour away.”

  “Oh, I just wanted to think about my timetable.”

  The thing we’d agreed on was related to classes.

  We five liberal arts freshmen Dendro users would split up and take a look at the available courses. We’d all look at different classes and take notes and stuff to help each other decide what courses to take.

  Whether someone wanted something easy, useful, or nothing at all depended on them and them alone, but it wouldn’t hurt to have more info. The syllabus didn’t contain everything, after all.

  I could ask B3, though. Kozue Fujibayashi was a diligent girl who could teach me a lot.

  There was also Miss Aberration, but... we were in different departments, and I felt like her help would cost something I could never repay. So a strong “no” from me.

  “We haven’t even started looking around. What’re you so troubled by?” asked Natsume.

  “The second foreign language. I still don’t know what to pick,” I answered, and both of them looked at me in confusion.

  “I thought you’d just go for German.”

  “Yes. I think it would suit you well.”

  I had only one response to that strange opinion: “...Why?”

  The two looked at each other, then back at me, and then said simultaneously: “Because it would fit your in-Dendro edgy chuuni fashion.”

  “All right, when we meet in Dendro, I’m dueling you both.”

  What was so chuuni or edgy about my gear? How rude.

  Though, yeah, I’d just go for German. That seemed cool.

  “Your newest set is just crazy,” said Natsume. “Ah, in a good way, I mean.”

  “You even ate a devil...” muttered Akiyama.

  I said nothing.

  They were talking about the video uploaded shortly after my battle against Logan. I had no idea who, but someone had recorded it in its entirety.

  “Hmm... But that vid looks a bit R-rated, so maybe most edgy kids can’t see it?” one of them said.

  “Well, it does seem inappropriate for minors.”

  “Don’t talk about me like I produce adult content!” I exclaimed.

  What do they think I am?!

  “Ah. I just got mail from Draggy,” Natsume said as she looked at her mobile.

  “Draggy” had to be Dragon Kasugai — another fellow freshman.

  Just like with Natsume’s “Soprano,” “Dragon” was only the reading, and it actually used Japanese kanji when written.

  He had a mohawk and wore sunglasses, so he might’ve stood out even more than Akiyama and her maid uniform.

  “He says he’s tired after yesterday’s mixer, so he’ll take the first period off,” said Natsume.

  “It’s the first day!” I shouted, wondering if all colleges had this level of freedom. “Is that really okay?! What about our agreement?!”

  “Planning tiiime!” said Natsume, instead of responding.

  “Let’s ignore the classes with the lowest priority,” said Akiyama.

  “Wouldn’t that be a bit mean to the professors?” I asked. It didn’t seem good to remove those from the running without even trying.

  “That’s true. Then let’s make it fair and roll for it,” Akiyama said as she took out some dice.

  “Why are you carrying those around?” asked Natsume.

  I could ask the same about your cat’s cradle, but I won’t.

  “I like gambling.”

  “That’s not something I’d like to hear from a maid,” I muttered.

  Those long sleeves made her seem like a capable maid, but this and her refusal to change from her uniform made me believe that she was actually pretty slovenly.

  Still, she’d made it into Tokyo U, so maybe she was a diligent student.

  ...One who was about to pick her classes by rolling dice.

  Still, we had to remove some classes to make up for Kasugai’s absence, so we had no choice.

  “Oh? Lexy mailed me, too,” Natsume said as she took out her mobile again.

  “Lexy” was her nickname for Alex Fuyuki, the last of the freshmen Dendro users. Like the name implied, he was half-Japanese, and he always wore an overcoat — even indoors.

  It was a chilly spring right now, but what would he do when it was summer?

  “Oh, dear,” she added.

  This gave me a slight sense of déjà vu. “...What did he say?”

  “He’s not coming today.”

  “He’s skipping not just the first period, but all the classes?! It’s the first day!”

  Isn’t that, like, really dangerous?!

  “Wait, he could be sick,” I composed myself. “Warm clothes don’t make you immune to colds, so...”

  “He says he’s busy with Dendro.”

  “He’s not sick?!”

  While I was here worrying about my life-Dendro balance, Fuyuki was going and tossing it aside on the first day.

  Then again, maybe I wasn’t in a position to say anything to him.

  I could totally imagine myself skipping college if, for example, the battles surrounding the ruins were happening now.

  It wasn’t unl
ikely that I’d be in such a situation eventually.

  That aside, I was kinda worried about Fuyuki’s college life right now.

  The guy was actually skipping the entire first day of college.

  Would he be all right...?

  Side Story: A Certain Arrest

  April 3rd, 2045, Tenchi

  The island country known as Tenchi was located to the east of the continent.

  It was considered “different” even by Dendro country standards, but not due to its culture or appearance.

  The extra-fantastical Fairyland of Legendaria or the floating country of Granvaloa beat it out in that regard.

  Tenchi’s culture was a unique reflection of Azuchi-Momoyama or Edo Period Japan, but that wasn’t what made it stand out.

  It was the fact that it was in a state of constant civil war.

  The country had a de facto leader, the person with the job of “Conquest General,” but the feudal lords under him... the “daimyos”... constantly waged war on each other. In fact, you could say that even the Conquest General was just the daimyo with the greatest amount of land, as proven by the fact that his status could often be taken from him.

  In Tenchi, conflict and death were part of daily life. The reason for the constant civil war wasn’t clear. The separate parties had their own reasons, but the conflicts kept continuing in an endless chain, and as of yet, no one had united the entire island under a single flag. Even if most of the daimyo families were destroyed, the larger ones would split, increasing their number again and continuing the conflicts.

  They fought as though it was in their DNA. At this point, that was part of Tenchi’s identity as a country. Many of the Masters who learned about it would call it “the country of strife.” This aspect of the country was reflected in its people. The median level of Tenchi tian fighters was over 300. Being a country of conflict had made it a breeding ground for warriors far stronger than those from other countries. One of the reasons for this was surely the fact that tians were a better source of EXP than monsters.

  It was often said that history would’ve gone completely differently if Tenchi had stopped infighting and invaded the continent. But even now, after the explosive increase in Masters, Tenchi continued to be the land of strife.