Carelessness / Awakening

Defeating them was one thing, but killing them was another! If she really killed them, she would probably become enemies with them.

So Akame fought very carefully, afraid that she might accidentally cut Hata no Kokoro's arm.

But reality slapped Akame in the face, because Hata no Kokoro did not reveal the slightest opening.

Even so, Akame remained as careful as possible. If she accidentally hurt her opponent, then her opponent would really die.

Suddenly, something unusual in the sky made Hata no Kokoro and the others stop what they were doing and turn their gazes in that direction.

A dazzling magic circle floated in the sky, and even Hata no Kokoro was slightly alarmed by the magical energy contained within it.

Before she knew it, Hata no Kokoro had changed into the Great Fling Out mask, expressing the surprise in her heart.

Hata no Kokoro knew very well that materializing Servants consumed a great deal of a Master's magical energy. Koizumi alone had supplied the energy for Yakumo Yukari, Reimu, and herself to materialize—and there was also Remilia, whom Hata no Kokoro did not know about.

In other words, Koizumi alone was supplying magical energy to four people. Not only that, he could unleash such a large-scale attack. Although its power was not especially great, maintaining that scale required considerable output. It was probably comparable to an Anti-Army Noble Phantasm to some extent. Did her Master really possess such an enormous amount of magical energy? Hata no Kokoro was astonished.

Come to think of it, she had always talked about gambling for the title of strongest! Should she challenge her Master as well, once he had perfectly mastered Remilia's power...

The poor shrine maiden had challenged him before, so there was no need for Hata no Kokoro to do so. She knew she could not beat him.

"Master really has grown stronger!" Hata no Kokoro changed into the Fireman Mask, representing happiness.

Hata no Kokoro had experienced Koizumi's growth more deeply than anyone. In less than two days—perhaps only a single day—he had gone from being brutally beaten by her to being able to hurt her.

Hata no Kokoro had witnessed just how hard Koizumi had worked during that day.

Since her Master had displayed such ability, then perhaps she should put in a little more effort as well.

Looking at Bulat, Akame, and Lubbock, who were also standing there dumbfounded, Hata no Kokoro's aura suddenly surged.

Hata no Kokoro put on the Hannya mask, activating several Personal Skills at once.

Rank A Emotion Roulette, Rank A Emotion Contagion, and Rank A++ Noh Art...

Akame, Lubbock, and Bulat's pupils suddenly contracted as a heavy pressure filled their hearts.

Not only that, for some reason, they could feel their previously calm hearts suddenly becoming chaotic.

An inexplicable fury filled their hearts, continuously disrupting their thoughts in battle.

Cold flashes gleamed. In the blink of an eye, countless blade lights engulfed Bulat and the other two as Hata no Kokoro's combat power suddenly rose.

Akame and the others could not help but smile bitterly. It seemed that their opponent had not used her full strength from the beginning.

Moreover, based on their observations, her masks did not seem ordinary. They were probably connected to the sudden shift in their emotions. Looking at her now, she clearly did not intend to end this battle with them so easily.

After exchanging glances, Akame and Bulat immediately charged forward.

Lubbock, meanwhile, continued laying threads around them, intending to use them to bind their opponent.

Seeing this, Mine and Sheele did not say a word before immediately slipping away. There were two reasons. First, Leone and Reimu had their arms around each other's shoulders, so they had probably talked things out. There was no reason to keep fighting.

Second, Najenda had begun summoning them. They still had to listen to the Boss.

Thus, Mine headed toward the base with Sheele, who was responsible for protecting her.

Incidentally, Leone had also received Najenda's notice, so she casually asked Reimu whether she wanted to come along.

Reimu frowned slightly. She was quite interested in Night Raid's base. She had slept in the wilderness for an entire night, and if possible, she did not want to keep sleeping like that.

Sleeping on the ground was really bad for her waist, even though Servants did not need to worry about such things.

Still, Reimu did not particularly like this kind of life. Her previous life had been better than this.

At least she had once had the Hakurei Shrine to live in. Now she actually had to sleep out in the wilderness...

Reimu was actually rather unhappy about that, but neither Koizumi nor Hata no Kokoro had said anything, so she could not really complain. After all, the majority's opinion was the main opinion sometimes. Reimu's opinion alone did not amount to much.

"What? You're not coming? You'll have to go there later anyway, won't you?"

Leone draped an arm around Reimu's shoulders and spoke to her in an extremely suggestive pose.

Reimu's expression was very cold, but the blush on her face was obvious.

Compared with the bold big sister Leone, Reimu was still somewhat conservative. But... where exactly was Reimu conservative when she wore a shrine maiden outfit with exposed armpits? Koizumi had never understood it. This girl clearly dressed rather revealingly!

Still, Koizumi figured that only Reimu's mindset was conservative. Her clothing was quite open.

"Fine... I suppose you're right..." Since Leone had put it that way, Reimu did not intend to refuse.

Besides, if Koizumi needed her, he could quickly summon her over with a Command Seal.

Honestly, the usefulness of Command Seals was especially apparent at times like this.

Unfortunately, Koizumi liked using Command Seals in unnecessary ways. For example, he liked summoning her and Hata no Kokoro over while he was asleep, only to accidentally break someone else's tables and chairs. Or he liked ordering her to shut up. It was simply boring beyond belief!

Carelessness

The magic circle's radiance flashed overhead, but because of Reimu's barrier, the people of the Imperial Capital could not see it.

But that did not mean the people inside the barrier could not see it... As the skull-masked figures sensed the magical energy above them, they could only scream curses in their hearts. With that level of magical energy and such a large magic circle, you were still only a Master!

They had assassinated so many targets in life, but this was the first time they had encountered someone as bizarre as him.

The next moment, countless barrages fell from the sky, throwing up sparks all around them as smoke and dust filled the air.

Koizumi remained extremely calm, continuously using his perception to track their movements.

As long as he was not struck by their daggers, there was no doubt that nothing would happen to him.

But he might need to be careful around that female assassin. He did not know why, but Koizumi could sense that something was off about her. She was like a rose covered in thorns, and he did not dare touch her carelessly.

If he got himself killed by being reckless, things would probably go terribly wrong.

So what if Koizumi now possessed a vampire's incredible vitality? If he got himself killed while fooling around, it would be truly embarrassing.

However, Koizumi had a vague guess about that inexplicable intuition in his heart—it was Reimu's power.

Logically speaking, whenever he formed a contract with a Servant, the contract would imitate and feed back an identical share of that Servant's strength and abilities to him. Based on Lady Remilia's power, that strength merely lay hidden within his body, waiting for him to awaken it. Therefore, only by becoming stronger could he master more and more power.

Remilia's power had been the first he mastered. After that, Reimu's power had begun awakening, while Hata no Kokoro's power had also shown faint signs of stirring.

Reimu's power currently manifested as intuition. After all, Reimu possessed the Personal Skill Rank A Instinct. This skill perfectly reproduced Reimu's sharp intuition. Anything that relied on intuition would never be wrong, and the intuition Koizumi had felt earlier was probably brought to him by that Personal Skill.

Hata no Kokoro's power currently manifested as the ability to sense others' emotions. That had awakened even earlier than Reimu's power.

For the time being, he could only sense others' emotions. If he could spread emotions like Hata no Kokoro, then emotions that suddenly arose in an opponent's heart during battle could easily affect their fighting.

Unfortunately, Koizumi had yet to fully figure out Hata no Kokoro's power. Lady Remilia's power alone was enough to keep him studying for a while. It seemed that when he returned to Chaldea next time, he would have to make time to train.

Otherwise, if he kept diving straight into Singularities like this, Koizumi was truly afraid of getting utterly crushed without sufficient strength.

Like now, when a group of assassins failed to carry out a stealth assassination and immediately decided to gang up on him instead.

If he did not possess Lady Remilia's power, would they not have succeeded in beating him to death?

Therefore, no matter when it was, sufficient strength was the only pass that could guarantee his safety.

As he sighed inwardly, the skull-masked assassins before him were blasted to death one after another by Koizumi's barrage.

Come to think of it, these people could practically form an army of their own...

But then Koizumi suddenly thought of something. How could a single Singularity have so many Assassins appearing out of nowhere?

They all wore skull masks and looked like some kind of cult, but the sheer number of Assassins was itself suspicious... Could it be that they had not been recorded on the Throne of Heroes as individuals, but as a group? Was that why so many of them had been summoned?

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

While Koizumi was still thinking, daggers shot toward him one after another. Some even gave him a dangerous feeling; they were probably coated in lethal poison. Assassins were quite skilled at using poison.

He did not need to dodge at all. He simply materialized Gungnir and casually swung it, knocking the daggers away.

Compared to other Classes, Assassins were indeed weak in combat. If they had nothing particularly outstanding about them, that was probably all they could do. Compared with Assassins, Koizumi considered the power of Caster Cú Chulainn, Berserker, and Saber to be far more formidable.

Even the Lancer Remilia had taken first blood from did not seem very strong.

With that thought, Koizumi did not take the Assassins before him too seriously.

But suddenly, a sense of danger rose in Koizumi's heart, making him instinctively guard against his surroundings.

"You lost!"

A pleasant voice sounded behind Koizumi. Before he could react, a soft body had already leaped onto him. Before he could react again, a fragrant scent filled his senses, and the next moment, piercing pain erupted from within his body.

At that instant, Koizumi seemed to realize what had happened, and his face instantly turned livid.

"It's... poison..."

His pupils contracted. Koizumi's vision gradually blurred, and his body slowly began to fall. All that remained was a faint, slender figure and... one sentence.

"I'm sorry, but my entire body, even my bodily fluids... is filled with deadly poison..."

That was the final sentence Koizumi heard before his consciousness broke off. So that was it. It really had been impossible to guard against.

He had wondered why she had leaped onto him. It turned out that mere contact was enough to poison someone to death.

It truly matched his intuition—a rose covered in thorns...

Within Chaldea, Yakumo Yukari silently watched this scene, seemingly not worried that Koizumi would die from it at all.

Remilia felt stifled inside. No, it had gone far beyond mere stifling. If she could have gone there herself, Remilia would probably have charged straight at that assassin with Gungnir and stabbed her wildly.

Even if Remilia refused to admit it, there was no doubt that Koizumi held a very important place in her heart.

"Hey! Gap Youkai... If you have some contingency plan, you'd better say it now! I'm in a very bad mood!"

Remilia's tone remained as arrogant as ever. Even though Yakumo Yukari was stronger than her, she would never back down.

Of course, Yakumo Yukari was long accustomed to Remilia's arrogance, so she patiently explained.

"Did you forget that our little Master already died once at the very beginning? When you were summoned..." Yakumo Yukari smiled, as though she were in a particularly good mood.

"Didn't you taste that there was something wrong with our Master's blood?"

Remilia frowned slightly. That did seem to be the case. At first, she had thought it was simply because she had just been summoned and her magical energy was abundant, but apparently that was not it.

Unconsciously licking the corner of her lips, Remilia began thinking.

"It seemed that my servant's blood was filled with an abnormally enormous amount of magical energy. If that is the case, it would explain why an ordinary person could casually share the burden of supplying magical energy to so many Servants."

"That's right. Not only that, he has an extraordinarily complex connection with Gensokyo. Strictly speaking, our little Master stands on the same level as those two above. Do you think someone like that could be poisoned to death so easily..."

When she mentioned that connection, a complicated smile appeared on Yakumo Yukari's lips.

It was an emotion called sorrow and resolve.

Awakening

What was going on? I had clearly been poisoned... Why was my consciousness still here?

Vaguely, Koizumi seemed to see something. It was a very strange vast ocean.

There seemed to be something like a whirlpool within it. That whirlpool gave Koizumi the feeling that if he approached it, his consciousness would disappear.

So Koizumi did not approach the whirlpool. After only taking one look from its outskirts, he chose to flee quickly.

Still, Koizumi found it strange. He had clearly been poisoned earlier, so why was he fine now?

That Servant had said that her entire body, including her bodily fluids, contained deadly poison, and he had indeed been poisoned.

She had come close to him, and the fragrance of the poison had mixed into the air and entered his nose.

The deadly poison erupted, unleashing piercing pain from within Koizumi's body and instantly causing him to lose consciousness.

But what was happening now? Koizumi looked around. This was a pitch-black space.

"..." What was going on? He could not speak, yet his consciousness could still sense the surroundings, and this power...

Koizumi could feel that this power seemed to be hidden within his body, so the answer became clear.

Had his consciousness sunk into his body? Had this power protected him? Was that what had happened?

Such questions flashed through Koizumi's mind. Whose power was hidden inside him? Could it be...

Right, he remembered. This was Yakumo Yukari's power. Yukari possessed a very special Personal Skill.

Rank A Root Connection. According to the description of this skill, Yukari was a youkai born from, and arriving at, the Root.

She was an existence that freely overturned and manipulated all boundaries. She created new existences from their essence and denied existing existences from their essence. For Yukari, who possessed this skill, ordinary parameters became meaningless.

If he had not seen wrong, that whirlpool should be the legendary Swirl of the Root...

Had he witnessed something like that? Koizumi could not help but smile bitterly.

Legend had it that the Swirl of the Root recorded every beginning and ending in the world.

The knowledge recorded within it was inexhaustible. It was the ultimate destination that every magus in this world wished to reach.