Chapter: 104. The Approaching Mythical Beast (4k4)
“Nameless beast?”
Yukino blinked her eyes curiously, her face full of excitement as she asked:
“What is that? Can Oniichan summon animals?”
“No, it’s not that kind of ability…” Kanade scratched his head, finding it difficult to explain.
Nagi wasn’t surprised by the term that Kanade had mentioned.
On the official promotional website for the original game “Hoshi Hikaru 2”, the character profile for the male protagonist “Tsukimi Kanade” explicitly listed “Nameless Beast” under the section for his supernatural abilities.
Nameless Beast.
Categorized as a “Physical Enhancement” type of supernatural ability, it enhances physical strength and allows the user to utilize some elemental attacks.
In the “Hoshi Hikaru” series, it is a very common ability because of the vast range between its strength limits, with attack methods covering both melee and ranged forms, making it applicable to most situations in the early to mid-game. Thus, many disposable characters’ abilities are set to be this.
Likewise, this ability is also the cause of many misunderstandings about the male protagonist “Tsukimi Kanade” in the early to mid-game.
In “Hoshi Hikaru 2”, Tsukimi Kanade follows the classic hot-blooded path, seemingly “awakening” a clichéd ability, which in reality is a unique power beyond everyone’s understanding, capable of awakening a “second” ability in desperate moments like a true hot-blooded protagonist.
Indeed, as the protagonist of the “Hoshi Hikaru” sequel, it’s unclear if the game scriptwriter intended this for gimmicks or simply wished to refresh the game experience, but in the later parts of the story, it will reveal his aspect of “dual abilities”, aligning with the title’s “Dual Throne”.
If you choose the male protagonist “Tsukimi Kanade” to play the game, you can experience a very comfortable gaming experience because his abilities are extremely powerful and practical.
Meanwhile, although the female protagonist “Hoshimi Nagi” possesses a mechanism that is equally powerful, even slightly unorthodox, the feeling of playing it is incredibly clunky and even inhumane, to the point of being considered a form of “self-torture difficulty”.
—Who would have thought that in a situation where Kanade demonstrates such combat power, he would also be considered a Nameless Beast?
—Could this also be seen as a fate-determined development?
Nagi thought to herself.
Because in the original game of “Hoshi Hikaru 2”, the awakening time for the male protagonist Tsukimi Kanade is quite early in the game.
However, due to amnesia afterward, he was temporarily treated as an ordinary person until he was caught up in an extraordinary event during high school, where he instinctively used his powers to save the heroine Hikari Mana during a crisis. But since this power derived from Kanade’s awakening time coincided with his first “rewriting”, its external manifestation was very weak, resembling a “Nameless Beast,” which led people in the early to mid-game to perceive it as his ability.
In reality, Kanade’s ability has two different branches based on different heroine routes and player modifiers within the storyline.
These are the “Eternal Light,” which leans toward “humanity,” and “Star-Eclipsed Beast,” which leans toward “beasts.”
In the later stages of the plot, players can choose the name of Kanade’s ability to obtain very important characteristics corresponding to the respective inclination.
Among these, the personal lines of Amemiya Chika and Tsukimi Yukino can only choose the inclination toward humanity, while Alice Astrea’s route allows only the inclination toward beasts; as for Hikari Mana and the hidden heroine, the selection is free.
In other routes that do not involve the heroine’s personal line, players must forcibly choose the side that has more tendencies based on the modified abilities they have already acquired.
—What inclination does Kanade’s current ability actually lean towards?
At the same time, Mana, who had overheard, noticed another curious point—
“…Nameless Beast? If that’s the case, is it related to that strange space Tsukimi-kun mentioned before…” Mana recalled a question that Kanade had asked her earlier, and couldn’t help but inquire.
Mana was well aware of the ability “Nameless Beast,” but whether in terms of its external manifestation or the actual effects it can produce, it has nothing to do with that strange consciousness space and doesn’t possess any “reversal” capabilities.
Mana’s question suddenly reminded Kanade of something as well.
Since awakening their abilities, an ability user inherently masters general usage of their power in their subconscious, even though it doesn’t dive into the principles or detailed full capabilities. Still, there would be a basic understanding.
However, within Kanade’s subconscious, he found no connection between his awakened ability and the peculiar pure white space, even though the dark flames seemed to line up with the flickering flames in that space; aside from that, there was no relation.
Regarding his awakened ability, Kanade indeed felt that, to some extent, it resembled the Nameless Beast, like in the aspect of physical enhancement, but the difference lies in that the Nameless Beast requires the user to augment themselves to the limit corresponding to the entity of that nameless beast, whereas his ability allows him to freely designate a target and then instantaneously strengthen to the limit of that target.
Although the external performance seems very similar, the internal principles are vastly different.
Because the target has no upper limit, based solely on one’s subjective will, one can freely decide the level of strength desired.
It’s almost like cheating.
However, there are some restrictions; first, the target itself needs to be sufficiently clear; concepts like “invincible” cannot be chosen as a target, but if the target is set to something like “instant healing from fatal wounds” or “attacking power capable of easily ripping apart any object,” which seem invincible, then a modification can be made.
For example, if he focuses on the imagined cheating effect as a target and modifies it one by one, theoretically, he could become truly invincible… Such thoughts are limited to theory because they involve another key limitation of the ability—
Frequency.
Kanade couldn’t quite understand the reason for this frequency’s existence, but the corresponding concept was injected into his subconscious along with the awakening of his power.
In Kanade’s subconscious, there’s a crystalline ring resembling a clock, within which the dark flames hover at its center, like the focal point of that clock. Surrounding the ring are seven notches, two of which are already shattered, proof of the number of times he has already used it.
Seven times.
This number reminded Kanade of the legend of “Seven Heavenly Days of Creation.”
This is the total number of times Kanade can use the “rewriting” ability. Although he can use already modified abilities normally without rewriting, the already modified counts cannot be restored—
……
“Ah, I really don’t get it…” Kanade sighed deeply.
At this point, Yukino and Nagi had already been excused and returned to their rooms to rest, leaving only Kanade and Mana in the kitchen washing dishes.
Taking this opportunity, Kanade revealed his true ability and some effects to Mana, seeking her opinion as someone who had long since awakened her powers, making her evidently more reliable than a novice like him.
“Then, can Tsukimi-kun use this ability to create such a space or reversal ability?” After silently listening to Kanade’s speech, Mana thought for a moment before lowering her voice to ask.
“No… that’s not possible. My rewriting range seems to only pertain to myself, and I can’t create any space… As for reversal ability, it’s a bit conceptualized about the past…” Kanade shook his head in response to Mana’s question.
Mana then tried to use “Fictional Sovereignty” on Kanade, but unexpectedly—though logically—it yielded the result that Kanade’s ability could not be replicated.
The last time Mana encountered a similar situation was with Nanjo Akane.
After gathering the information about the “protagonist” from Yako that Kanade had conveyed, Mana was not surprised by the result.
If a “protagonist” truly exists, they must have some exceptional quality.
……
……
As the two exchanged information, in Nagi’s room.
At this moment, Nagi stood on her room’s balcony, closing her eyes and concentrating on the sounds carried by the wind.
This stemmed from the Garuda’s ability—contractors can use their beasts’ powers even while the contracted beast is “asleep,” much like how a phoenix’s regenerative flames can function without summons.
“…Seven times? What a middling result…” Nagi sighed softly at the information that had been weighing on her mind.
In the world view of the “Hoshi Hikaru” series, the strength of a supernatural ability is related to the user’s obsession and hatred toward the world.
The origins of this claim were first publicly revealed through the male protagonist Tsukimi Kanade in “Hoshi Hikaru 2”.
In the first round of the original work, outside of the personal lines with the heroine Tsukimi Yukino, the number of times Kanade could use his abilities was five, awakened through the death of Tsukimi Yukino, reflecting the strength of his ability. In the personal route of Tsukimi Yukino, this count decreased to three, making it one of the most challenging routes for the male protagonist Tsukimi Kanade in the first round.
As an aside, in the first round of Tsukimi Yukino’s route, players who managed to extract one wheelchair opportunity for an H event and complete the game are referred to as “Ultimate Sister Complex,” and received a trophy titled “World’s Number One Sister Complex” in the achievements system.
Yet in the second round, the range for freely interacting increases, allowing players to cultivate the affection levels between Tsukimi Kanade and female characters prior to advancing, subsequently sacrificing them strategically before entering their routes. Through this unusual method, Kanade’s wheelchair count can be increased; the higher the affection level of the deceased heroine, the more counts Kanade gains at awakening—the highest recorded was thirteen, achieved by a deranged hardcore player who maxed out the affection level with all female characters before sacrificing them.
This was the result that Nagi originally sought to achieve—by sacrificing herself to leave Kanade with lifelong regret, granting him thirteen wheelchair counts.
Unfortunately, this sudden turn of events caused Kanade to awaken early, ultimately resulting in a meager count of seven.
“…This level is far from enough; I can only hope for a second awakening, right?”
————————————-
Time passed unknowingly into the evening.
As the vice president of the student council, Mana decided to fully fulfill her responsibilities in President Seiryu’s absence and went to check if there was any need for her in the student council.
Thus, after dinner, only Kanade, Yukino, and Nagi remained in the Shiki Hall.
After experiencing a day filled with various information bombards and moving, Yukino was utterly exhausted and had returned to her room to rest early.
This presented Kanade with what seemed like a good opportunity.
He took advantage of the absence of Mana next door while Yukino’s room was not only the farthest from Nagi’s but she had also gone to sleep early due to her fatigue…
—Isn’t this the perfect chance to drug her!?
—Huh? Why does that sound so bizarre?
However, Kanade quickly set aside that sense of discomfort and secretly took out the sleeping pills from the box sent by Kurokawa.
He muttered to himself, “This is all for examination, for little Nagi’s health,” as he tossed the sleeping pills into the freshly prepared warm milk.
Kanade had noticed last night that ever since Nagi was reverted to her younger self, she demanded a warm glass of milk every night to fall asleep.
“Could it be that little Nagi was like this before? No wonder her development is so impressive…” Kanade recalled Nagi’s generous figure since middle school and couldn’t help but sigh.
As he watched the sleeping pills dissolve rapidly in the pure white milk, Kanade stirred it with a spoon and found no residue or strange smell.
Despite this, unease crept in, so he carefully poured a little out and tasted it himself.
“Okay, the taste is fine… Wait, no, why do I feel like I’m becoming a real creepy loli-con? Everything is for examination! It’s science! Yes! That’s it!”
Once everything was ready, Kanade carried the steaming milk to the front of Nagi’s room.
His hand holding the mug trembled slightly due to nervousness and the intense sense of moral conflict.
—It’s fine, since this is something the Ark Academy prepared, it surely won’t be exposed…
Standing before the door, Kanade took a few deep breaths to force himself to calm down before he reached to knock.
“Coming~” Nagi’s youthful and adorable voice came from behind the door.
This was the time the two had agreed upon the previous night.
Every night at this hour, Kanade would come to coax Nagi to sleep.
What had started as a way to indulge little Nagi’s spoiled behavior became his excuse to get close to her at night.
As the door slowly opened, Nagi’s cute head peeked through the crack.
At this moment, she wore an adorable cotton nightdress adorned with many cute rabbit patterns on the light pink fabric.
This was a batch of clothing urgently procured by Ark Academy in response to the reversal incident.
As a side note, the supplier was the Tenjouin Corporation.
With Nagi and Amamiya’s covert involvement, the clothes she obtained were, to a certain extent, a result of her secret manipulation, such as the slightly sheer white stockings—after all, normal children’s clothing doesn’t have such suggestive designs.
“Good evening, little Nagi.” Kanade managed to control his anxious heart, revealing a natural smile as he greeted Nagi, “Here’s tonight’s milk~”
“Thank you, Tsukimi-kun~” Nagi smiled as she took the milk and took a small sip.
“…It’s so sweet.”
Seeing this scene, Kanade silently cheered in his heart: “Great! It didn’t get exposed!”
But at that moment, Nagi, with a smile on her face, was internally—
—This, this is… sleeping pills!?
Nagi’s brain nearly shorted out from the incoming information.
The moment she drank the milk, her contracted beast’s power activated instinctively, clearing the sleeping pills from the milk and relaying the information to her mind.
She immediately realized what had just been added to the milk she drank.
—W-Why? Why would Tsukimi-kun want me to drink sleeping pills?
—W-What does he intend to do to someone who is asleep!?
Nagi’s mind was in utter chaos, but she still maintained an innocent look as she continued to drink the milk slowly.
As the milk was gradually finished, all traces of the sleeping pills were eliminated by Nagi’s ability.
Consequently, Nagi learned the specifics of all components in the milk—
Not only were there sleeping pills, there were even some strange pink liquid components…
—W-What is Tsukimi-kun planning to do to me while I’m asleep!?
—Has his creepy loli-con tendencies finally become uncontrollable!?
