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 - Confession, and Erosion
A light rain had begun to fall.
The lights of Café Noir bled and wavered across the wet cobblestones of the alley. From inside the shop, the low sound of Genichiro Kurosawa grinding beans leaked faintly into the street.
Miyu stood in the empty alley behind the shop. She had no umbrella. Thin raindrops soaked slowly into her black hair, which hung down to her waist.
(I'm not trembling because of the cold.)
Miyu was aware of the slight tremor in her fingertips. For the past few days, she had been thinking continuously. The misreading of the kanji on the street billboard. That word "puppet"—Mahiro had read it as "kugutsu." Orcus had used the exact same reading in his stream. It couldn't be dismissed as coincidence—one piece of evidence after another, piling up.
And then, today.
Miyu had sent Mahiro a short message. "Please come behind Café Noir after school." That was all.
Footsteps approached.
Miyu raised her head. Mahiro, who had climbed the slope, stood at the alley entrance slightly out of breath. His usual hunched posture. His wet bangs clung to his dark brown eyes.
"…Miyu."
Mahiro stopped when he saw her. His usual gentle smile stiffened slightly.
"What's wrong? If you stay out in the rain like that, you'll catch a cold."
Miyu's throat tightened. That voice. That gentle voice—right now, it was the most terrifying thing of all.
"Mahiro-kun."
Suppressing her trembling voice, Miyu looked straight at him.
"There's something I have to tell you."
Mahiro said nothing. Only the sound of rain echoed through the alley.
"I… am Shroud."
The moment she said it, something deep in Miyu's chest seemed to collapse with a sound.
Mahiro's eyes wavered—just barely. That was all. No surprise, no anger, no denial. He simply, quietly, accepted her confession.
That reaction froze Miyu's spine cold.
"I was the one chasing you. I was the one who declared, as a hacker of justice, that I would target Orcus."
Miyu's voice blurred with tears.
"So… so please, tell me."
Miyu took a step closer to Mahiro. Her slender fingers grabbed the shirt at his chest. The wet fabric crumpled.
"Are you… Kurokabe no Orcus?"
Silence.
The rain fell quietly between them.
Mahiro closed his eyes. Seconds. A silence of just a few seconds that felt like eternity.
Then he opened them.
On his face floated a smile Miyu had never seen before. A calm, quiet, somehow resigned smile.
"…Yeah."
Just one word.
"I am Kurokabe no Orcus."
Miyu's fingers slid off his shirt.
(I knew it.)
(I knew it was true.)
For an instant, the world vanished into pure white. The next moment, all the colors returned. But everything, everything, was a different color than it had been a moment ago.
"…Why?"
Miyu's voice was hoarse.
"Why you… why is that Orcus…"
Mahiro's expression didn't change. That calmness was cruel to Miyu.
"You can win."
Mahiro said quietly.
"The next match—you win. I lose. That's fine. You can hate me. If you hate me, that's enough."
"Don't be ridiculous!!"
Miyu's hand struck Mahiro's chest. A dry smack echoed through the wet alley.
"'You can win,' 'you can hate me'—that's not an answer! That's not an answer at all!!"
A second time. A third. Scattering tears, Miyu kept striking his chest.
"Do you know how much… how much I came to love you!?"
A fourth time. A fifth. Her fingertips were going numb. Still, Miyu couldn't stop.
"And yet… and yet, you're… the Orcus I hated…!"
Miyu's fist fell limply against his chest.
Mahiro didn't move. He neither caught her nor dodged—he simply stood there. Deep in his eyes, Miyu saw something dark and deep sunken. It wasn't sadness, nor regret. Something colder, something else entirely.
(Those eyes…)
A chill ran down Miyu's spine. For a moment, she thought she saw a dark ultramarine light flicker deep in Mahiro's pupils.
Orcus's eyes.
"…Sorry."
Mahiro murmured softly.
That one word pushed Miyu past her limit.
"I've had enough."
Miyu stepped back from Mahiro. She covered her tear-soaked face with both hands.
"I'm… going home today."
"Miyu."
"Don't call my name!!"
Miyu ran without looking back. Her heels clattered unevenly against the wet cobblestones.
"Mahiro-kun, you… idiot!!"
Miyu's cry dissolved into the rain and vanished.
Mahiro was left alone in the alley.
The thin rain soaked his short black hair. From his bangs, a droplet traced down his cheek. It wasn't a tear. But it didn't not look like one.
"…Well, whatever."
Mahiro murmured softly.
No one noticed that the tail end of that murmur didn't belong to his usual self.
"…Hey, Orcus."
Mahiro stared at his right hand. His rain-soaked fingertips trembled slightly. That tremor came neither from cold nor from sorrow.
From inside, something was laughing.
—Finally, the nuisance is gone.
A low, composed voice echoed in the back of Mahiro's mind.
"…Shut up."
—Why? You want this more than anything right now. To spill everything to that woman. You never have to act in front of her again. You want to be free, don't you?
"…That's not it."
—It is. You're always like this. Rather than get hurt, you run. Rather than be hurt, you want nothing from the start. But you know, Mahiro. Wherever you run, I'm always there.
Mahiro clenched his fist tight. His nails dug into his palm.
"…You are me."
—Yeah. That's why I know every one of your desires. Hey, Mahiro. Let's forget everything. That woman, this pain. I'll destroy it all for you.
At the edge of Mahiro's vision, the raindrops warped black.
That night, Mahiro put on the full-dive gear "Neve" in the secret room of his home.
Deep in the closet, a six-tatami space surrounded by soundproof sheets. His mother Eri was on night shift again—no one else was home.
(Maybe you're right.)
Mahiro turned on the Neve.
(Having lost Miyu, I… don't want to return to reality anymore.)
The startup sound. In his vision, the Virtual Commons login screen rose up.
(If I'm going to run, it's here.)
Mahiro executed the login.
The sensation of his body dissolving into light. His consciousness losing the contours of reality.
—That was the moment.
A giant hand seized Mahiro's consciousness from within.
"—gh…!!"
A scream that wouldn't become sound.
From the depths of his consciousness, something pitch-black surged upward. The sensation of his body was being repainted, fingertip by fingertip, into something else.
—Finally. Finally, I can come out.
A low, delighted voice.
Mahiro's consciousness was swept down to the very bottom of his body. As if sinking to the depths of a deep sea.
"…Miyu."
With his last strength, Mahiro called her name.
—It's useless. That woman already abandoned you. In your place, I'll destroy everything. Just as you wish.
At the edge of Mahiro's vision, something like black mist began slowly to take human form.
Pitch-black armor. A giant wall-type shield. Long black hair undulating like shadow.
Kurokabe no Orcus stood there.
"Haha… finally, it's my turn."
Orcus looked down at his own hands. He slowly clenched and unclenched his long fingers.
"Mahiro. You can rest now. The next time you open your eyes, it'll be after I've ended everything."
Just then, in the real world, the door was pounded violently.
"Asuka-kun! Asuka-kun, open up!"
It was Ritsuko's voice.
Ritsuko was staring at the bracelet on her left wrist. The biometric sensor was showing abnormal values. Mahiro's full-dive connection time had already exceeded six hours. Disrupted vital signs. A precipitous drop in consciousness level.
(This is… bad.)
Ritsuko checked Mahiro's vitals on the monitoring terminal provided by the management company.
(He's exceeded the limit for Dissociation Syndrome.)
Ritsuko felt her spine freeze. Her duty as a monitor. She was obligated to report to the management company immediately.
(If I report, Mahiro-kun will be protected. But that would completely corner him socially.)
(But if this continues, his personality will…)
Ritsuko kept pounding on the door.
"Asuka-kun! Answer me!"
There was no answer.
Ritsuko made her decision.
She took out not the management company's terminal, but her own phone. She scrolled through her contacts with trembling fingers.
(Who is the one person who can save him?)
Ritsuko selected a single number.
It was Miyu's number.
Miyu was lying face-down on her bed in her room at home.
She had cried so much her head hurt. Her eyes were swollen and wouldn't open properly.
(Mahiro-kun is Orcus.)
(The one I hated.)
(The one I was trying to defeat.)
Miyu buried her face in her pillow. The tears still wouldn't stop.
Then her phone vibrated.
Seeing the name on the screen, Miyu gasped.
'Kasumi Ritsuko.'
(Mahiro-kun's homeroom teacher…?)
Miyu pressed the call button with trembling fingers.
"…Hello."
'Asougi-san. I'll get straight to the point.'
Ritsuko's voice was more urgent than Miyu had ever heard it.
'Asuka-kun is in danger. His Dissociation Syndrome has exceeded the limit. If he continues the full dive, his personality will be completely—'
"…!"
Miyu sprang up from the bed.
"Where is he!? Where!?"
'His apartment in Sector North. I'm sending the address now.'
Miyu was already putting on her shoes as she ended the call. She didn't wipe her tear stains. She didn't fix her hair.
(I called him out.)
(Because I said those things.)
(I drove Mahiro-kun into a corner.)
Miyu bolted out of the house.
When she arrived at Mahiro's apartment building, Ritsuko was waiting in front of the entrance.
Behind her black-rimmed glasses, Ritsuko's eyes had lost their usual composure.
"Asougi-san. We're going in."
Ritsuko used a spare key to open the door.
(A spare key… Sensei had one.)
Miyu didn't comment on it. Now wasn't the time.
The two headed for Mahiro's room.
A six-tatami room. The closet was wide open, and beyond it was a space surrounded by soundproof sheets.
Mahiro lay on the bed, still wearing the full-dive gear.
Miyu gasped.
Mahiro's face was slick with sweat. His lips were pale. His breathing was shallow and fast.
"Mahiro-kun!"
Miyu rushed to his side.
At that moment.
Mahiro's mouth moved.
"…Ah, you came. My beloved young lady."
The voice that came from Mahiro's mouth was not his own. That low, composed voice.
Miyu jumped back.
"…Orcus."
"Correct. It's me, Miyu-san. Ah, don't be afraid. I'm merely borrowing Mahiro's mouth to speak."
Mahiro's face on the bed twisted eerily. Only one corner of his mouth rose.
"You did this to Mahiro. You understand, don't you? You abandoned him. You broke him."
"No… that's not true."
"It is. You didn't believe in Mahiro. You doubted and doubted, and in the end you threw him away. Your justice was, in the end, just a shield to protect yourself."
Miyu's knees trembled.
Ritsuko stepped in front of her.
"Be silent. You are not Mahiro-kun."
Ritsuko knelt beside Mahiro and reached for the Neve's emergency stop button.
"Whoa there. I'd advise against that, Sensei."
Mahiro's mouth laughed.
"If you force-stop now, Mahiro's consciousness will scatter along with mine. He'll vanish completely. If you want to erase me, you'll have to properly tear me off from the surface. Beat me in Hollow Clear."
Ritsuko's hand stopped.
"…Is that true?"
"I have no reason to lie. I don't want to erase Mahiro. If he vanishes, I vanish too. So I'll be waiting, young lady. For you to come to the virtual space."
With that, the strength drained from Mahiro's face.
He returned to the sleeping face of the unconscious Mahiro.
Miyu collapsed on the spot.
"…It's my fault."
Miyu pressed her hands to the floor. Tears fell onto the hardwood.
Ritsuko gently placed a hand on Miyu's shoulder.
"It's not only your fault. I bear responsibility too. I should have protected him sooner. But… now isn't the time to talk about that."
Checking Mahiro's condition, Ritsuko spoke to Miyu.
"Asougi-san. You are Shroud. You were chasing Orcus in the underworld. Then you understand. His condition. If the Dissociation Syndrome exceeds its limit, the alternate personality Orcus
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