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Nanana’s Buried Treasure Volume 8 Chapter 5.1

Episode 19: <<Game>> Overtime ~The Essence of Humanity~

「Where the hell did they go?」

A violent act by the Nanaejima General Security was taking place.

While the commotion outside was happening, Asumi and the other members of the 7th High School Community were searching for Taisei and Haruto, who were missing. While they were searching inside the royal castle, the pitch black humanoids started going crazy and attacking.

This is truly an abnormal situation.

There, Asumi and the others meet Isshin Yuiga. After hearing Isshin’s story, Asumi learns that Taisei and Haruto are the ones responsible for the humanoid’s rampage. And so the first thing Asumi wants to do is to apologize to M.

The second thing she wanted to do was ask her to stop the humanoids from causing so much trouble, then help negotiate with the Nanaejima General Security as the organizer of the <<game>>.

Then Ausmi happened to witness something.

Taisei Amagi and his two shikigami dressed as shrine maidens, and Naidhart D Polnaref fighting against the onslaught of humanoids. Leading the tough looking humanoids was a large man wearing the cloak that M had worn.

Also…

「Tsujimi-kun?」

Tetsunoshin Tsujimi is holding the girl named M, who is bleeding profusely and losing consciousness, with tears in his eyes and grief on his face.

‘Kishaaaa’

More humanoids crawled out from the giant man’s cloak and charged towards Asumi and the others.

「Tanabe-san, please.」

「Leave it to me.」

Tanabe (aka Izura Soryu) twists it’s body like a giant snake and spits a beam of water from its mouth. The water beam is fired at a high speed and it cuts the approaching humanoids from side to side in an instant. The humanoids whose bodies had been cut in half disappear one by one into a black mist.

「Thank you for helping me, Asumi.」

Taisei steps towards Asumi and the others and thanks them.

「More importantly, what’s going on here, Taisei」, Asumi asks while looking down at the bleeding and unmoving M who is in Tetsunoshin’s arms.

「The moment the winner was decided, M suddenly started bleeding. I followed her all the way here and this is the mess I found. It seems that the big guy is now M.」

「? None of that makes sense.」

「So, right before the third stage started, M-chan over here was acting strange, right? Maybe someone who had been behind the scenes came out. And now they are using the big guy over there.」

Then Asumi remembered.

「By behind the scenes, do you mean the person who is in charge of the leprechauns from behind the scenes that you told me about before, Taisei?」

「Ah, yes.」

Taisei Amagi’s nickname is the <<conqueror>>. He is said to be the leading expert among the <<challengers>> of the <<ruins>>. Asumi had heard Taisei’s theory on the leprechauns. He said that the leprechauns are humans, but the person controlling them is not human. If Taisei’s guess was correct, then the person who had been controlling this girl M, was now controlling the giant man.

But there was something Asumi really wanted to know.

「Taisei, she is… this girl M, who was the organizer tonight… who exactly is she?」

Taisei looked away and spoke.

「She seems to be someone important to Tsujimi-danna.」

「!」

「I think Tsujimi-danna was probably only participating in the <<game>> for the sake of that girl.」

Of course, Asumi know the leprechaun’s purpose of hosting this <<game>>. That’s why she was able to immediately understand the situation before her. The serious injury to the girl in front of them was a punishment for her failure as the organizer. That’s why…

「…because I caused M to lose.」

「I didn’t want this to happen either. I didn’t know about any of this!」

Asumi finally understood what the masked girl had shouted at the end of the second stage while tears fell from her eyes. The girl had been forced to act as the organizer M.

「Yun…. please…. wake up.」

Tetsunoshin embraced the motionless girl, praying with all his ability.

Asumi, who was staring at the two of them in a daze, was seeing them shaking.

What… have I done?

Unpleasant memories from the past come back to her.

Because of me, Tetsunoshin Tsujimi committed a violent crime and was expelled from school. Because of me, his life is ruined. I’ve ruined and taken away everything from his friends, his idols, and the people he loves.

Now, once again, I had taken something important from the person I loved. I did it again.

The guilt welling up inside me made it difficult for me to accept the reality in front of me. My knees went weak. I could no longer support myself, a person who had committed a sin that could never be atoned for. I felt like I was going to collapse to the ground.

I want to crouch down and close my eyes. I want to run away from everything… But that isn’t allowed.

As I was collapsing, someone grabbed me by the arm. I was forcibly pulled up by the arm and I looked up. The one who grabbed my arm was Taisei Amagi.

「Stand up, Asumi.」

Taisei glared at me with an angry look on his face.

「….but.」

「Is it okay to let this end without doing anything again?」

I was shocked.

「Is it okay to let it end? Won’t you regret not doing anything? Is it okay to do the same thing as last time?」

「Ugh.」

Taisei can see right through her.

「You have to have changed! You must have gained strength from starting over, the strength to get what you want! Now is the time to prove it!」

「….Teisei.」

「So first, stand on your own two feet! Show your strength of will! Then the people around you will move with you!」

「The people around me?」

「That’s right. Don’t forget, you are not alone.」

I look around. I see the members of the Seventh High School community, my irreplaceable friends.

I grit my teeth and put strength into my weak legs. Even though it was painful, sad, and difficult, I muster up the courage to do my best. I was now the student council president of the Seventh High School, the leader of the community, someone who pulled everyone along, so I have to stand up for myself. I have to stand up of my own volition.In order to get everyone to lend me their strength, I have to show my will.

I take a deep breath, wipe away the tears that had formed in the corners of my eyes, then take a look around. Taisei Amagi, Misao Imawano, Masaoki Kishitani, Kuroko Ooki, and Neidhart D. Polnareff are all there.

Asumi expresses her will to her friend, 「From now on, I’m about to do something selfish. I need everyone’s help.」

Every responds with 「Let’s go!」, as if they’d been waiting for this moment.

Asumi speaks to the guy who is holding the girl in front of her, 「Tsujimi-kun, let us help her… no. Let me atone for my sins.」

In response to Asumi’s request, Tetsunoshin lowers his head and turns his face away.

「Nishi, you don’t need to do that for me…」

「Wait. We won’t take no for an answer Tsujimi-danna」, Taisei interjects.

「Is that right?」

「Tetsunoshin, I don’t know how you feel, but you are still one of us.」

After Taisei, Imawano Misao and Kishitani Masaoki spoke. They had fought alongside him in the past.

After a moment, Tetsunoshin nodded at the words of his former comrades.

「Sorry. Everyone, please lend me your strength.」

Hearing this, Asumi smiles.

「Okay, let’s save her.」

The first to react to Asumi’s smile was Neidhart D. Polnareff, who had been watching from the sidelines. He gave a wry smile and seemed somewhat embarrassed as he knelt down.

Tsujimi set the girl down.

Seeing Haruto’s sincere attitude as he was now eye level with him, Tetsunoshin slowly lowered Saki’s body to the floor. Haruto clutches his Nanana collection, <<Miltz Mehr’s pocket watch>>, and holds it over Saki’s body. He uses all his strength.

「What are you planning to do?」

「The ability of <<Miltz Mehr’s pocket watch>> is ‘manipulation of one’s own time’. It is usually used to accelerate, but the opposite is also possible. In other words. It can slow down, make the flow of time infinitely slow. That’s what I’m using it for on her right now.」

「To slow it down… I see!」

「She’s clearly in critical condition. She’s bleeding badly. If we don’t do anything, she’ll soon die. So we’re slowing down the flow of time to stop her condition from worsening any further.」

「No way….」

「Right now, I’ve limited her time to one-sixtieth of what it should be. One normal minute is one second for her now. This should buy her a lot of time」, Haruto explained, but his expression twisted in pain.

Using his ability to manipulate time on someone else was clearly over his limit.

Asumi asked, 「Haruto, how long do you think you can use that Nanana collection in that way?」