In a near-future Tokyo where everyone lives part of their lives in the metaverse, the popular sport 'Hollow Clearer' allows players to battle as fantastical avatars. The scene is split between idol-type and Vtuber-type competitors. Asuka Mahiro is a high school student who fights as the most hated villain avatar in Japan: 'Blackwall Orcus.' Only his teacher, Kozue Ritsuko, knows his true identity.
Meanwhile, the brilliant and elegant young lady Asogi Miu is secretly celebrated in the underworld
Persona Non Grata - The knight of justice is shattered by evil.
Ground Zero, the official battle arena of Virtual Commons.
Tonight, the circular coliseum—two hundred meters in diameter—was wrapped in an eerie, feverish heat. The spectator seats weren't physical chairs but a sea of light teeming with countless avatars. The concurrent viewer count had already surpassed eight million before the match even began.
"Hey, look. Lord Gran is entering."
"The Blue Knight... the real thing...!"
A single beam of blue light poured down onto the center of the arena.
Emerging from within that light was a young knight with short-cropped silver hair. The blue armor covering his entire body reflected the light, shimmering in iridescent colors. A cloak of optical camouflage material hung from his back. His clear blue eyes stared straight ahead.
Gran Chevalier. The top ranker of Hollow Clearer. A nationally beloved clearer boasting a fanbase of roughly 1.8 million.
The moment he thrust his right fist toward the sky, the spectator seats erupted in commotion.
"Gran! Gran! Gran!"
Cheers like the rumbling of the earth. The swarm of avatars swayed like waves.
Gran quietly lowered his fist and opened his mouth.
"To answer everyone's expectations, I vow today to fight fairly and squarely, using only my swordsmanship."
That voice was young, clear, and resonated to every corner of the arena.
"I will resort to no underhanded tricks whatsoever. As a knight, with pride."
The crowd's fervor rose even higher.
"We believe in the victory of justice!"
"Crush that villain for us!"
No one doubted Gran's victory.
At that moment.
The opposite side of the arena suddenly went dark.
The light vanished. The sound vanished. The air grew heavy.
From within the darkness, slowly, jet-black armor stepped forward.
Kurokabe no Orcus.
Long black hair that rippled like shadows. Dark navy-blue eyes. A mouth perpetually curled in a faint sneer. At his feet, shadows writhed as if possessed of their own will.
On his back hung his signature massive wall-type shield. The jet-black shield was as heavy as a gravestone, and every time it was planted against the ground, it gave off a dull thud.
The spectators' cheers transformed in an instant into screams of hatred.
"Get lost, Orcus!"
"Die, villain!"
"Kill him, Lord Gran!"
A storm of jeers. The hatred of anti-fans blanketed the entire arena.
But Orcus was smiling.
"As always, you're nothing but dogs who know how to bark."
A low, composed voice. And yet, it reached every corner of the arena.
Orcus turned his gaze toward Gran. His navy-blue eyes caught the knight's clear blue eyes head-on.
"'Fight fairly and squarely, using only swordsmanship,' huh. A beautiful oath. It almost brings tears to my eyes."
Gran furrowed his brow.
"What are you trying to say?"
"I'm asking whether a clown dressed in the armor of hypocrisy has any right to speak of justice."
The arena rippled with unease.
Orcus continued.
"Who is your justice for? Isn't it just a stage prop for self-satisfaction, meant to bathe in the applause of the audience?"
"Silence!"
Gran's voice turned rough for the first time.
"I will not permit you to insult my justice!"
"Insult? I'm merely stating facts."
Orcus deepened his sneer.
"Every time you raise the banner of justice, someone unseen is trampled beneath it. You don't notice. You don't even try to notice. That is the true nature of your justice."
Gran's expression shifted slightly.
"On what grounds...?"
"I'll show you the grounds during the match."
Orcus hoisted the wall-type shield onto his shoulder.
"Now then, let's begin, Sir Knight of Justice. Let's see how long your convictions hold up."
The starting gong rang out.
Gran drew his sword. The blue blade deflected the light. His swordsmanship was the crystallization of orthodox technique. A stance without waste, precise footwork, a honed, single strike.
"Haaah!"
A flash.
The blue sword slammed into Orcus's wall. A sharp metallic clang. Sparks scattered.
But the wall didn't budge.
"Light. Is your justice only that heavy?"
"Not yet!"
Gran attacked in rapid succession. Two flashes, three flashes, four flashes.
Clang, clang, clang.
The wall absorbed everything. Orcus didn't move a single step.
"It's useless. Your sword isn't a sword for protecting people. It's a sword for affirming yourself."
"That's not true!"
Gran pressed in further. But his sword path was slightly disturbed.
Orcus's words had lodged themselves in the depths of his heart like tiny thorns.
"Hit the mark, did I? It's written all over your face. You, yourself, distrust your own justice more than anyone."
"Shut uuup!"
Gran raised his sword high.
In that instant, Orcus moved.
He slammed the wall into the ground. A shockwave boomed. The ground shook, and Gran's stance crumbled.
"Guh...!"
Orcus mercilessly swept Gran's legs with the edge of the wall.
A leg sweep bordering on a foul.
Gran's body floated into the air and was slammed into the ground.
"Underhanded...!"
"Underhanded? On a battlefield, who gives a damn about underhanded or not? Do you want to play knight, or do you want to win?"
Orcus looked down at the fallen Gran.
"You're always like this. You hide behind the word 'fair and square' and avert your eyes from what you truly need to face. Am I wrong?"
Gran clenched his teeth and stood up.
"I... I believe! That justice will always defeat evil!"
"That cry of yours only sounds like the self-justification of self-satisfaction."
Orcus raised the wall.
"It's over, Blue Knight. I'll crush you along with your justice."
The wall came down upon Gran.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
BOOOOM.
The massive wall pressed Gran's entire body into the ground. The blue armor creaked and screamed.
"Guh... ah...!"
Gran's face twisted in agony. He couldn't breathe. The weight of the wall compressed his lungs.
Orcus placed one foot atop the wall and surveyed the spectator seats.
"Look. Your knight of justice is suffocating beneath my foot right now."
The spectator seats were engulfed in shouts of rage and screams.
"Stop it! Let Lord Gran go!"
"Don't kill him! Please!"
Orcus deepened his smile.
"Rest easy. I won't kill him. He still needs to live and taste the defeat of his justice."
Orcus lifted the wall.
Gran coughed violently, crawling on the ground. His appearance was a far cry from the gallant knight who had entered the arena.
"Match over, then."
Orcus thrust his fist of victory toward the sky.
The arena shook with screams of hatred and despair.
The match had ended.
Gran remained on his knees on the ground, unable to move.
His silver hair was disheveled with sweat, and his blue eyes were moist with tears. The wound on his right cheek was painfully red and swollen.
"My... justice..."
His murmur reached no one.
Private Hermitage Academy. The server room of the Information Science Building.
Miyu removed her headgear and let out a deep breath.
On the monitor before her, Orcus's match data was displayed alongside analysis results. As Shroud, she had been analyzing this match from the back layer.
"Something's wrong..."
Miyu furrowed her brow.
She cross-referenced Orcus's past match data. Attack patterns, movement speed, reaction time, and the content of his verbal attacks.
There was an unnatural consistency.
Orcus fought in ways that provoked fouls. But he never dealt attacks exceeding lethal thresholds. Even after victory, he never prolonged his opponent's suffering more than necessary.
That meticulous restraint was so thorough it hardly seemed like the work of a villain.
Furthermore, Orcus's verbal attacks weren't mere slander.
"He sees through his opponent's past... their ideology... their weaknesses, with precision..."
Miyu recalled Gran's fighting style.
Orcus had denied Gran's "justice." That wasn't just an insult. He had precisely struck at the contradictions Gran harbored within, his self-doubt—those very things.
"Cruelly precise..."
Miyu's fingertips stopped above the keyboard.
This insight.
This ability to see through a person's essence.
She had seen it somewhere before.
No. She hadn't seen it. She had heard it.
At that café.
In Mahiro-kun's philosophical discussions.
Miyu felt something cold run down her spine.
"...No. It's unrelated."
She shook her head slightly.
But the doubt, once born, refused to disappear.
Orcus's words and Mahiro's words overlapped in her mind.
Justice is light, but the stronger the light, the darker the shadow it casts.
Those words—Mahiro-kun had said them.
But they were also words that wouldn't be strange coming from Orcus.
Miyu closed the investigation file.
Her hands were trembling faintly.
The day after the match.
Café Noir.
The small coffee shop renovated from an old traditional house was quiet again today.
Mahiro was sipping coffee at his usual seat.
"Sorry I'm late."
Miyu entered the shop, looking slightly flustered.
"No, I just got here too."
Mahiro noticed something about Miyu's demeanor.
"...You look tired. Something wrong?"
"Huh? Nothing like that."
Miyu smiled. But that smile seemed just a little forced.
She sat across from Mahiro and ordered coffee.
"Did you watch the Hollow Clearer match yesterday?"
Miyu asked, feigning calm.
"Yeah... Gran Chevalier's match, right? I saw it."
Mahiro answered quietly.
"Justice lost."
"Yeah."
Mahiro wrapped both hands around his coffee cup.
"Justice can't save everything. That's just how it is."
Miyu's chest skipped a beat.
Orcus's words.
No, these were Mahiro-kun's words.
But they were the same.
"...What do you think of a world where justice is defeated?"
Miyu looked into Mahiro's eyes.
Mahiro paused for a moment, then spoke quietly.
"Justice is light. But the stronger the light, the darker the shadow it casts. The more dazzling the light, the deeper the darkness. That's how it works."
Miyu felt the hand holding her spoon tremble faintly.
The stronger the light, the darker the shadow.
The same thing Orcus had said during the match.
No, Orcus had denied Gran's justice more directly.
But the underlying philosophy was the same.
The relativity of good and evil.
The two sides of light and shadow, inseparable.
Miyu saw, in the boy before her, the shadow of the villain she had been pursuing.
"...I suppose so."
Miyu managed to smile.
Mahiro had noticed her unease.
(She's troubled about something.)
Mahiro sipped his coffee.
(So am I.)
By the classroom window, wishing to disappear, living as a villain.
He still couldn't tell Miyu about that contradiction.
That night.
Mahiro, in the depths of his bedroom closet, donned his full-dive gear.
His consciousness sank into virtual space.
Darkness.
Deep, endless darkness.
At its center, Orcus was waiting.
"Hey, Mahiro. Feeling good?"
Orcus wore jet-black armor and wore a faint sneer.
"...You enjoyed yesterday's match, didn't you."
"Yeah. It was the best. I never knew the audience's hatred could taste so delicious."
Orcus slowly approached Mahiro.
"You felt it too, didn't you? That exhilaration. That pleasure. That is your true self."
"No."
Mahiro denied it quietly.
"It's not wrong. What you need isn't time spent with Miyu. It's the moment I am hated. That's the only way you can feel your own existence."
Orcus's words pierced Mahiro's heart.
"...Shut up."
"I'll get dirty in your place. You can just stay ignorant. Isn't that right?"
Orcus's shadow coiled around Mahiro's feet.
"Stop it...!"
Mahiro tried to remove the gear.
But his body wouldn't move.
Miyu's smile surfaced in his mind.
"Don't think about her. The more you think about her, the more I'll devour you."
Orcus's voice echoed in the depths of his head.
"...I still want to be me."
Mahiro's voice was swallowed by the darkness.
The next morning.
Tokyo Metropolitan Sector North Third High School.
During first-period Information Science class, Ritsuko observed Mahiro from the podium.
Mahiro sat by the window with vacant eyes.
His gaze wasn't on the blackboard but on the empty sky outside
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