Chapter 245: Atsuomi Ayanokōji's Sincerity, Allspark (Patreon)

Chris and Ryuuen returned to the training space.

It was dead quiet.

Of the group left behind, everyone except Koro Sensei, even Jiraiya and Gojo Satoru, was practicing Ki cultivation.

Koro Sensei, who'd been coaching up front, sensed two new presences appear out of nowhere. He pushed off with a tentacle, vaulted straight over to them, and chuckled:

"Nurufufufu…"

"Chris, Ryuuen, back so soon? Don't tell me that contract beast only wanted to take you out for a stroll?"

Ryuuen clicked his tongue in irritation at the teasing.

"More like it led us around in circles."

"The Phoenix waited for us the whole time, and only started leading the way once we'd followed it."

"Then, halfway through the chase, we ran into some creepy barrier."

"Only the Phoenix could pass through. The two of us got blocked completely."

Chris thought it over for a moment, then offered his own guess to back up Ryuuen's account.

"Maybe it's because this place is a special space provided by the Black Sphere. It's kind of like our world, but not exactly the same."

"I think the Phoenix could get in because we can use system items here. It basically exploited a bug to slip through."

Koro Sensei propped his chin on a tentacle and nodded in understanding.

"In that case, we can't force the issue for now."

"A lot of students are off campus visiting their families. Even if you wanted to head into the Backrooms and look for the Phoenix right this second, you couldn't just leave without baggage."

"After all, the two most important items for going into the Backrooms are both in your hands, Chris. If you went ahead of everyone…"

But Koro Sensei hadn't finished his sentence.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, who'd been meditating with his eyes closed, opened his dead-fish eyes.

Thanks to the Parasyte in his right arm and its extraordinary senses, he'd caught every word of the conversation.

He spoke up at once, with a different opinion.

"If this is really urgent, even a ten-minute delay could ruin everything."

"Never mind that Chris's contract beast has been trying to find him since last night…"

He stood up and brushed the dust off his trousers. "If we wait until everyone's assembled tomorrow, it'll be too late. The variables will multiply."

Hearing Ayanokoji's analysis, Suzune Horikita, who'd been focused on circulating her Ki, snapped back from a brief daze.

"He's right."

"So what if some classmates are off campus right now?"

"We live in a modern information society. Distance doesn't make messages get lost or garbled."

"Besides, time in this training ground flows like the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Even if we finish all the remaining 24 hours of special training here, it'll be four-thirty in the afternoon outside at most."

"By the time we've regrouped and headed to the White House, that much real time… is more than enough for the classmates visiting family to wrap up their personal business."

Koro Sensei knit his nonexistent brows slightly.

He looked at Ayanokoji, then at Horikita.

The two students' arguments didn't seem to have any real holes.

They'd put it a bit harshly, but in the face of an apocalypse, efficiency really did come before sentiment.

After a little more thought, Koro Sensei nodded and conceded.

"Kukukuku… Koro Sensei agrees, you're right."

"As for a final meeting with family, how much weight it carries against saving the world is up to each student."

"But since everyone chose not to flee home the moment they learned the Black Sphere's rules, I'd guess they're the type who prioritize the present and have resolved themselves accordingly."

"So… once training time here ends, let's go find the director."

"Besides, Sensei is rather curious whether we can use this chance to go take a look inside the 'Backrooms'!"

…

Soon enough, the 24-hour special training flashed by inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber-like space.

When everyone reappeared in the real-world Advanced Nurturing High School, the sunset outside had only just begun to slant.

Without needing a word, the group split into two teams on tacit understanding.

One part followed Koro Sensei to the director's office to discuss borrowing the route to the Backrooms of the White House ahead of schedule.

The other part, led by Chiaki Matsushita, headed quickly to the campus shopping district to rush-buy supplies they might need to survive in the Backrooms for a while.

After all, judging by how time flowed in Gojo Satoru's world, they couldn't rule out time anomalies on certain Backrooms levels.

And since most Backrooms levels were resource-barren worlds anyway, being prepared never hurt.

As for Chris…

Leaving aside his identity as the mastermind behind it all.

Given the absurd number of layers of his Steel Heart, he didn't need to worry about fasting, and starving him to death by ordinary means was practically impossible anyway.

Naturally, Chris chose to follow Koro Sensei, and on the way he sent Miyabi Nagumo and the others a heads-up on Line.

But when Chris and the others arrived, they found out something.

Miyabi Nagumo was already discussing the White House route with Sakayanagi Seimori.

That made sense. He was, after all, the Student Council President in every real sense now, and she was one of the upperclassmen's undisputed main leaders in the Black Sphere exam.

It wasn't hard for Nagumo to get in touch with Sakayanagi Seimori.

The snag was that Sakayanagi Seimori, being a competent politician, was currently scheming to pry loose some of the special items Atsuomi Ayanokōji had taken from the Backrooms.

Helping the White House search for its explorers was, in effect, part of that deal.

So Sakayanagi Seimori's attitude toward Nagumo and the others was somewhat ambiguous.

Fortunately, the tug-of-war ended with Koro Sensei's arrival.

When he saw his own daughter standing outside the office with Chris's group, waiting,

Sakayanagi Seimori grasped the urgency of the situation instantly.

He stopped haggling with Nagumo over the fine details of splitting the profits and dialed the dedicated line to Atsuomi Ayanokōji, the White House's head, directly.

By agreeing to the demand the other side had raised earlier, Sakayanagi Seimori secured the handover procedure for Chris's group to enter the Backrooms.

Throughout the negotiation, Sakayanagi Seimori kept the composure a politician should and showed no hint that anything was wrong.

But Atsuomi Ayanokōji was likewise an old fox who never committed without seeing the payoff.

Putting together the pieces of information passed to him one after another, it wasn't hard for him to read between the lines.

Only, people who've felt the pain themselves think differently.

Atsuomi Ayanokōji had been dragged into an exam hall by the Black Sphere, and he'd watched an ally die in that hall before him.

So he wasn't going to be too picky over an urgent matter that so clearly involved something serious.

For now, though the White House had stockpiled some items, none of them could harm the Godzilla he'd once encountered.

Since his own people couldn't carry the banner of saving the world, the hope inevitably had to rest on these students chosen by the Black Sphere.

He really didn't want to wait until the day this world became an exam hall and then mourn too late.

And so the two sides quickly reached a consensus.

…

Meanwhile,

far from the Advanced Nurturing High School, aboard a train speeding through the Tokyo urban area,

Honami Ichinose, in street clothes, had received messages on her phone from both Chris and Amikura Mako.

"They're moving up the schedule, huh…"

Honami Ichinose lifted her lovely eyes and watched the city scenery rush past the window, a strange wistfulness in her gaze.

She'd wanted to use this rare chance to leave campus to go see her little sister and finally have a long talk.

She'd wanted to hug her mother, to tell them in person that she'd grown up and had the strength to carry her own life.

She'd even wanted to quietly share a little girlish secret with her sister.

To tell her that at this school she'd met a boy who was strong and gentle, someone she admired.

So her family wouldn't have to worry about her anymore.

But then it hit her.

A scene like this, rushing home to visit family on the eve of a mission, a warm farewell that felt like leaving last words…

It gave off way too much of that anime vibe, the kind of character who's about to get written out of the story!

So in the end she held back her impulse and planned only to look on from a distance, just enough to confirm they were safe.

And now she couldn't even have that one tiny wish?

Ichinose pressed her pink lips together, a little bitter inside.

But in the end, the girl quietly deleted, one character at a time, the long-edited message she'd been about to send her sister.

When the train pulled into the station and the doors opened, she didn't even check the exit route. She turned decisively and stepped into the return train across the platform, about to depart toward the school.

In fact, among those who left campus today, quite a few made decisions similar to Ichinose's.

But most of those were the people forced into this school by various factions, who had no real family they wanted to visit.

And among ordinary students who were willing to risk their lives in the Backrooms yet also had family to say goodbye to, plenty were hoping to get lucky.

They figured they'd just go take a look from afar.

Even if they dawdled ten-odd minutes and then took a taxi back to school, they'd surely still make it in time.

Chris and the others, naturally, saw no need to wait for such people.

After all, realistically, they could even pick Ichinose up and go straight to the Backrooms entrance without gathering at school.

The reason they'd chosen to announce it widely…

was in itself a kind of quiet screening of these people.

Would those with weaknesses and strong attachments snap after being beaten down in the perilous Backrooms, and grow strong enough to become the backbone of the team?

Nobody could say for certain.

But one thing was sure: a personality that still hedged its bets and dithered in the face of something that decided the fate of the world…

was absolutely not the top pick for exploring an extreme environment like the Backrooms, which lay outside the Black Sphere exam's control, where nobody even knew whether the extra safety-net lives they carried would work.

So when Honami Ichinose rushed back to the school's assembly point,

she saw that the specially arranged school bus wasn't even half full, and the driver was already starting the engine to depart.

Ichinose glanced around the cabin, a little surprised.

"The people who left campus with me can't just be these few. Aren't we waiting for the others?"

Chris, who'd deliberately taken a seat near the door to wait for Ichinose, shook his head lightly at her question.

"That's the school's call."

"It's meant as an invisible test, using the gap in return times to weed out those whose mindset isn't suited for the Backrooms."

Ichinose sighed, a trace of reluctance crossing her delicate brow.

"But what if some classmates started heading back the moment the notice went out, and just missed it because home is far and traffic was bad? What then?"

"Isn't it a bit heartless to exclude them like that?"

Chris glanced at the scenery receding past the window and reassured her offhandedly.

"Part of me would love to say coldly that 'luck is part of strength.'"

"But from what Sakayanagi said earlier, when you all left school, the staff already had people tailing you, keeping real-time records."

Chris leaned back in his seat, his voice softening.

"For those who turned around right after the notice and passed the test, I doubt the school will be stingy with resources."

"Odds are they'll arrange a car to take them straight to the White House entrance to meet up."

"That's a bit of a guarantee for them, too."

Hearing this, the last of Honami Ichinose's worry was put to rest.

She could only nod helplessly and tilt her head back to stare at the white ceiling of the cabin, saying nothing.

…

Thanks to the transcendent standing the White House and the Advanced Nurturing High School now held,

and with a dedicated green-channel route cleared and opened,

the school bus carrying Chris and Ichinose sailed through without a hitch and soon reached the White House base hidden in the forested hills outside the city.

Stepping off the bus, they saw a vast cluster of buildings whose size and surrounding facilities were about on par with the Advanced Nurturing High School.

Honami Ichinose couldn't help murmuring in awe:

"So Ayanokōji and Amasawa came out of a place like this…"

Her imagination ran a little wild as she turned her head toward Chris.

"Senior, don't you think, with an atmosphere and setup like this, there was no need to send them to the Advanced Nurturing High School at all?"

"And then the entrance to the Backrooms just happened to appear on their side."

"Could it be because… they already knew some inside story…?"

Just then, several staff in white coats, clearly following Atsuomi Ayanokōji's orders, came forward to disinfect the two of them and point out the way.

Chris glanced at her.

"Unless someone in the White House can see through the future, or came back from it,"

"I don't think anyone could've simply foreseen this. It feels more like coincidence."

Honami Ichinose puffed out her pink cheeks slightly, half understanding, and followed close behind Chris.

The two crossed a long, ultra-modern corridor and came to a heavy-duty elevator that required iris and fingerprint authentication.

In the gap while they waited for the elevator to descend from deep underground,

the staff member guiding them suddenly spoke up.

"Chris."

"Mr. Atsuomi Ayanokōji asked me to pass along a message to you."

Honami Ichinose looked over.

She found that the staff member had at some point turned to face them, standing ramrod straight.

"For the continuation of the world, if you and Ryuuen are willing to cooperate with the White House,"

"every item the White House has collected will be open to you, yours to use."

Chris raised an eyebrow.

"Cooperate?"

The staff member nodded stiffly.

Just then, the elevator settled at the bottom floor and the heavy alloy doors slid open.

The man shut his mouth at once, went back to his wooden blankness, and bowed, gesturing for them to enter.

Chris and Ichinose exchanged a look. Both were a bit puzzled inside, but, bold with skill, they stepped into the elevator side by side.

After all, Koro Sensei, Gojo Satoru and the others had left the school too.

Even with their output suppressed, the Black Sphere system's restrictions didn't apply only to them. The White House's items couldn't truly show their power either.

Going by the physical stats and combat skills Jiraiya, Koro Sensei, and the rest had now, if it came to a break, rampaging through this place wouldn't actually be hard.

And Koro Sensei had been waiting there for some time.

Seeing Chris and Ichinose finally arrive,

the smile on his big yellow face grew even wider, and he stepped forward to greet them.

"Kukukuku, you're even earlier than Sensei expected."

"Did you start rushing back the moment you got the message, before you even reached home?"

Koro Sensei reached out a squishy tentacle and gently patted Ichinose's shoulder with a sigh.

"What am I going to do with you, Ichinose…"

"Ah, yes. This kindness that keeps the big picture in mind at all times, that is the nature the world needs most!"

Ichinose was a little flattered and hurriedly waved her hands.

"No, it's nothing, Koro Sensei."

"Actually, when the notice came, I hesitated, too."

"It's just… I'm a Fixed Participant chosen by the Black Sphere, and everyone's expectations are on my shoulders."

The girl lowered her head, her expression complicated.

"When it comes down to it, I can't just act on my own feelings."

"Compared to my own small regrets, there are more important things here that I need to do."

Koro Sensei shook his head with a smile and gave Ichinose another look full of tender pity.

Then he put the smile away, turned to the White House personnel standing not far from them, and said flatly:

"I remember that at the very start, you pulled Ryuuen aside for a private contact, didn't you?"

"Now that Chris has arrived too, whatever you want to cooperate on, or whatever chips you're holding, there's no need to keep hiding it anymore, is there?"

The senior staff were visibly taken aback at being called out so bluntly by Koro Sensei.

They looked as if they hadn't expected Ryuuen to spread it around so fast.

But in truth… they were wronging Ryuuen.

Apart from Chris, who was the presiding god,

the only people who'd really heard that deal were Atsuomi Ayanokōji, who was watching everything from the monitoring room, and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, a White House product whom Ryuuen had brought in as an advisor.

No one else.

You could say Koro Sensei had simply picked up on all of it with his far-beyond-human senses.

Which was why

Atsuomi Ayanokōji, who knew everything, couldn't let this awkward misunderstanding fester.

"Koro Sensei, please don't misunderstand."

A man's low voice came over the speakers.

"We made contact in private for the sake of secrecy."

"Otherwise, once certain things get out, they can easily cause needless trouble, which is something none of us wants right now."

Koro Sensei merely snorted in disdain.

"In that case, since there are no outsiders here, say it plainly."

"Otherwise, once we're in the Backrooms, we won't have time to play negotiation games with you."

Atsuomi Ayanokōji chuckled and explained with a touch of helplessness.

"Actually, the cooperation I'd like with Chris is very simple."

"On your return, if the interior space of that item of yours called the 'Map of Mountains, Rivers, and the Realm' holds a White House explorer confirmed alive,"

"and he's willing to release that person, then for that head he can pick any one item he likes from our underground item vault."

"I know someone among you has an 'Item Illustrated Guide' that can appraise objects. When it comes to telling good from bad among otherworldly items, you're far more authoritative than we blind folk. You can't lose on this."

"There is just one item that's an absolute bottom-line exception, which you can't choose or take away."

"As for Ryuuen's side…" Atsuomi Ayanokōji paused. "Because of its special nature, the details can only be explained after you enter the Backrooms and see for yourselves the temporary laboratory we've built inside."

"And of course,"

To show the White House's sincerity, Atsuomi Ayanokōji decisively tossed out another chip.

"As a gesture of good faith, before you step into the Backrooms proper, I'll let you each pick three items from our outer storeroom to protect yourselves!"

But before this seemingly generous offer had finished echoing,

Arisu Sakayanagi, who had arrived here with the first main group, stepped forward and challenged him.

"Mr. Ayanokōji, as far as I know, ownership of the White House's anomalous items doesn't rest solely in your hands, does it?"

"Is it appropriate to use shared property to trade private favors?"

Atsuomi Ayanokōji neither confirmed nor denied, his voice coming coldly over the speakers.

"All I'll say is that these chips aren't covered by the deal I made with your father."

"Young lady of the Advanced Nurturing High School's director, there's no need for you to poke at me here."

Under the stunned gazes of the White House personnel around her, who hadn't known her identity,

Arisu Sakayanagi turned her face slightly. She couldn't be bothered with Atsuomi Ayanokōji's response, which sounded tough but was really guilty, and simply pressed on:

"With your intelligence network, you can't have trouble figuring out what our most urgent matter is right now."

"I hope your so-called cooperation and that mysterious forbidden item are truly worth it."

"Don't waste our precious time."

Atsuomi Ayanokōji put away the edge in his tone and said earnestly:

"I can't guarantee anything else, but at least on seizing the right moment, I like to think I'm not bad."

"I won't waste more time on talk. Once you're in the White House laboratory inside the Backrooms, you'll learn everything."

With that, there was a soft click, the broadcast was cut off from his end, and Atsuomi Ayanokōji's voice vanished.

That left the group staring at one another in the spacious underground chamber.

Just then, Gojo Satoru, who'd been standing in front of the Backrooms rift giving off an eerie yellow light, suddenly pulled down his blindfold, and his pale-blue Six Eyes fixed on the edge of the rift.

He stretched out a finger.

He was looking at the huge mechanical gates, clearly made of human metal, built around the rift to observe and stabilize the passage.

Gojo turned to the others with a confident grin and said:

"The shape of this entrance is a little different from the ones that popped up in my world."

"But the flavor of the warped space at its core hasn't changed."

"I'll go in first and scout the way for everyone, your teacher here insists."

Jiraiya rubbed his chin, put a hand on the scroll at his waist, and followed Gojo through the door, which glowed with a yellowish halo.

Naturally, the remaining students weren't about to stay put and wait obediently for the two teachers to confirm everything was perfectly safe before going in.

People like Arisu Sakayanagi and Ryuuen had been through several Black Sphere exams. They weren't going to balk at this little bit of unknown risk and demand that the teachers chew their food for them first.

Almost the instant half of Jiraiya's body slipped past the doorframe,

Ryuuen, the closest to the Backrooms entrance, strode in after him without a flicker of hesitation.

Miyabi Nagumo and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka followed right behind without a word.

Chris and Honami Ichinose, having arrived late by school bus, had been standing at the back of the group.

Now, naturally, they crossed the curtain of light together with Koro Sensei as the last batch, the rear guard of this expedition.

…

As the sticky, dazed feeling that comes with a world switch faded,

Chris opened his eyes and found that the surroundings, though not as clean and bright as outside the White House base, were hardly sinister or terrifying.

Thick gray soundproofing mats were laid underfoot, and the walls weren't the crude sheet metal of an ordinary construction site but prefabricated modular units like those in a modern factory, all bolted together.

As they arrived,

Gojo Satoru and the others, who'd gotten there first, had already gathered in a ring in an open area ahead, apparently studying something.

Honami Ichinose didn't hesitate. She immediately tapped her Black Sphere Watch.

A streak of light flashed and her necessary gear was equipped in an instant.

The moment she settled into the mode, she caught a faint strange sound and turned to Koro Sensei.

"Koro Sensei… I think I hear something, faintly."

"Can you hear it?"

Koro Sensei's face turned a serious deep purple, his tentacles tensing slightly, and he nodded.

"Yes, I do hear it."

"It sounds like the grinding of heavy machinery gears meshing… though I can't tell yet whether it's coming from the 'special item' that White House director mentioned, or from some unknown enemy lurking in the Backrooms."

"In any case, everyone, stay on combat alert."

In the few short seconds the two spent trading intel,

Chris had already raised a hand and opened the Controller's holographic radar panel.

On the 3D scan, around the dense green dots marking their companions,

several red hostile dots had somehow appeared, scattered here and there!

Chris arched a brow and casually tapped the nearest red dot to pull up its details.

"Ding—"

[Target: Cellphone AllSpark Mutation]

[Value: 0 points]

[Traits: Primitive mechanical life, born when energy scattered from the Allspark is forcibly infused into basic metal constructs. With no moral restraint from the Matrix and no underlying code to guide it, its mind is in a primal, chaotic state, and its head holds nothing but pure destructive urge. Its behavior pattern closely matches the Decepticons, and even visually it shows Decepticon-like berserk traits.]

[As a hastily spawned inferior product, its armor and attack power are extremely low. Unless you lie down on your own and let it crawl into your unprotected, private, vulnerable spots to strangle you… this thing is practically no threat to humans.]

Koro Sensei, who'd been standing close, leaned in and read the display.

Seeing that detail after detail described the same kind of strange existence called 'mechanical lifeforms,'

he scratched his smooth head in surprise and marveled:

"Nurufufufu… There are even monsters worth zero points…"

"But what surprises Sensei more is that this 'Allspark' can create mechanical lifeforms with independent consciousness out of thin air. It isn't just an AI?"

Morishita Ai, who'd been following Chris the whole time and had habitually kept her expressionless face without saying much, suddenly spoke up in a soft, eerie voice at Koro Sensei's remark.

"Since these mechanical lifeforms appear in concentrated numbers around this outpost the White House built, and they're mutated by energy radiation…"

"Then this might be connected to what that White House director said earlier."

Morishita Ai looked at Chris. "That thing called the Allspark could very well be the core item he said 'absolutely can't be taken away.'"

Chris thought about it and didn't seem too surprised.

He just switched off the Controller panel and said flatly:

"Maybe."

"We still need to ask the people who got here before us and already poked around up front about the specifics."

Honami Ichinose stood to one side.

She turned to look at Chris, who was once again speaking without a beginning or end, and doubt welled up in her.

Who was Senior talking to?

But seeing that Chris and Koro Sensei had already started toward the spot where everyone was gathered, Ichinose could only set aside that subtle confusion for now and hurry after them.

At the sound of footsteps, Arisu Sakayanagi turned toward them.

"Right on time."

"We just finished using the Item Illustrated Guide to scan all the items Atsuomi Ayanokōji had his people leave here."

"Besides consumables that restore your condition, like the [Golden Apple] and [MC Milk],"

"the ones that count as valuable, with some strategic worth…"

Arisu Sakayanagi curled her lip in distaste. "are only the [Ox Talisman], which hugely boosts the user's physical strength, and the [Bamboo Copter], which lets you fly past terrain limits."

Chris picked up the thread.

"Is that all the sincerity they've got?"

"I remember Director Ayanokōji saying that Ryuuen and I could pick any item we liked."

"By the way, didn't your father strike any kind of deal with him? I assumed politicians never settle for less than something extra."

Arisu Sakayanagi pursed her pink lips, still stewing.

"Precisely because there was a deal, I'm sure this isn't the limit of what they can bring out. That's why I'm annoyed."

"Do they think they're sending off a beggar?"

Chris thought for a moment and soothed her without committing either way.

"Don't rush to a conclusion. Let's wait and see."

"After all, there's an [Allspark] that can radiate and create mechanical life. That item's value can't be low."

"And since it touches the machinery field, it may well really involve Ryuuen…"

He hadn't finished speaking.

A voice suddenly rang out behind Chris. It was Atsuomi Ayanokōji's.

"So that item, the one that scatters strange energy and lets machines be reborn, is called the Allspark?"

"A fitting name."