Inori didn't rush to deal with Gai Tsutsugami.
Knowing he had been completely and utterly defeated, with no hope of turning the tables, Gai could only die with the regret of a lifetime spent failing to save Mana Ouma. He sat slumped on the ground, the light slowly draining from his eyes.
"Shu, can you still stand?"
Inori turned and walked toward the back. Shu Ouma was still lying on the floor, gasping, his body riddled with crystals. His wounds were severe, but the thing he'd feared most hadn't come to pass. Inori hadn't let them down. She had beaten Eve's will. Even if he died right here, he would have no regrets.
But Inori bent down and helped him to his feet, a faint smile on her lips.
"I saw the resolve you showed back there. Now it's time to put an end to all of this."
"Huh?"
Shu was confused. Wasn't it already over? With Shuichiro Keido and Eve both eliminated, was there still some unknown enemy?
"Use your hand to absorb all the Apocalypse Virus in the world."
"Can I do that? But I, I..."
He assumed she was asking him to do it, and anxiety flickered across his face. He wasn't afraid of dying. He didn't feel betrayed that Inori was pushing him toward death. He simply didn't think he had the ability, and had no idea how to carry out an operation of that magnitude.
"I'm asking you to give it to me."
Inori could read his thoughts from his expression, so she flashed another small smile and, before he could react, had already slipped his gauntlet Void onto her own wrist.
She was still wearing this second skin, which meant Yet to Come's power was still in effect. If the Apocalypse's progenitor Eve herself could be absorbed entirely, then the lingering virus scattered across the world as a prelude to the Apocalypse was nothing to her.
"Inori?"
Shu called her name in alarm, but Inori acted as if she hadn't heard. She took from his hand the all-encompassing King's Heart, Shu's own Void. Inori didn't possess the kind of tenderness that would make her sacrifice herself for the sake of the world, but her body had more than enough capacity. A quick estimate told her this was ACT1: Ever Crown's debut activation. The time remaining before Yet to Come's limit expired was ample. There was no need to worry about accidents.
"Leave it to me."
Inori gave a firm nod, then in one swift motion drew every last crystal out of Shu's body. The pain and pressure vanished. Shu felt as though he had been reborn, but he had no time to celebrate. He was about to press her for an explanation when he noticed that Inori, despite having absorbed such an enormous quantity of virus, showed absolutely no change. Not a single crystal shard, not a single flake.
"Right now, I am completely immortal. Don't worry about me."
With that, Inori took two steps back and raised her gauntleted right hand high. A pillar of light tore through the space around them, returning them to the original rooftop platform. The Void's light pillar smashed through the ceiling glass and pierced straight up into the heavens.
In the original story, Shu and the other Inori had used this Void together to absorb the virus that had spread across the entire world. But now Inori alone was enough, because she was currently the Ever Crown, the undying Nameless Monster in an immortal body.
On the frontlines outside, where Funeral Parlor and GHQ forces were still clashing fiercely, every soldier on both sides saw that beam of light. And it wasn't just them. In the quarantine facilities, on the streets, patients on the verge of death came back to life as though resurrected. Tens of thousands of crystals were drawn toward the light in Inori's hand, an uncountable rain of glittering shards sailing through the air, converging on the apex of the Ivory Christmas Tree.
The crystal cancer that had plagued this country for a full decade was swept clean in a matter of minutes. Inori was satisfied with how this finale looked, even if the road here had been a little bumpy.
"Never thought the one doing this in the end would actually be me."
She was gathering into herself every wound the Apocalypse Virus had ever inflicted upon this world. But she felt nothing special at all.
Using the freshly acquired King Crimson ACT1, she had summoned the future King Crimson ACT2 into the present.
...Though, while absorbing the virus, Inori noticed something that nagged at her.
If this was truly the end, then no enemy in this world should be able to oppose her anymore. If that was the case, then how had ACT2, which would inevitably appear in the future, come into being? Were aliens going to invade Earth in the near future?
Forget it. Future problems for the future.
Inori shook her head. When she came back to herself, the absorption process was already complete. Silver-white motes of light still drifted around her, and standing at their center in her scarlet finery, the girl looked like a forest queen attended by a host of tiny sprites.
With this, the Apocalypse Virus would never exist in this world again. She had defeated the will of God and prevented the world from entering the crystallization era.
"My crystals..."
Gai Tsutsugami stirred at last. He touched his own cheek; the Apocalypse's corruption that had marked him was gone too. Inori's Void had indiscriminately absorbed the virus from the entire world, healing every life regardless of whether they were grateful to her or considered her an enemy.
"So, still want to pick a fight with me?"
"...Just kill me."
Gai straightened up, closed his eyes, and stood with the posture of a man awaiting execution.
Inori studied him for a moment. Half his face had been beaten to a pulp by her own hand; anyone else would have died on the spot. But Gai had once been a candidate for Adam, and the conviction of fighting for Mana to the very end was what had kept him standing this long.
"You know what? Forget it~"
After a long silence, Inori gave her answer with a light laugh. No more needed to be said.
Gai and Shu both turned the same disbelieving expression toward her. Showing mercy to a man who had tried to kill her, that kind of compassion was nothing like the Inori they knew.
"This isn't my mercy. It's Mana's."
"There's still a long road ahead. This country is a wreck, and I still need you to devote your strength to me. What do you say, Gai Tsutsugami? Or would you rather cling to your death wish? I can oblige you if you insist."
Inori had always known what Mana wanted. Of course Mana hoped her little brother and her childhood friend "Triton" would live. Inori hadn't planned to let Gai off the hook. She held grudges. Even knowing his true motives, she still wasn't keen on sparing him.
But... she softened in the end.
There was no special reason.
They had been comrades for a long time, after all. And when he'd turned on her and cooperated with Keido, his original intent had been to free her from "Diavolo." Inori didn't consider herself a saint, but she had that much magnanimity.
Overthinking it would only be a tangent. Or maybe it was simply this: if he asked her to kill him and she just went ahead and did it, she'd lose face. It would be boring. Watching how he reacted to an unexpected pardon was far more interesting.
"...Hah."
Gai closed his eyes and drew a long, deep breath. He was thinking about what meaning his life still held. The lifelong dream of saving Mana Ouma had been fulfilled, and the price he'd paid for it had been immense. What remained after a dream was realized was emptiness and uncertainty. He didn't know what he could do with his life going forward. But he had a feeling that if he followed this girl, he might find a new direction.
"Hmph. It seems I'll have to address you more respectfully from now on."
He opened his eyes. The tension drained from his shoulders, and as he looked at the familiar smile on the girl's face, something inside him finally settled.
Yes, Mana. It's over.
"Hmm~ is that so? Why don't you call me 'big sis,' same as Shu?"
Inori laughed with visible satisfaction.
The two boys who had been at each other's throats moments ago exchanged a glance, then both ducked their heads to stifle a laugh. They had been childhood friends, once the most important people in each other's lives. Now that the chain of fate binding them all together had been severed, they could finally set everything aside and face one another honestly.
"I mean, you and Shu are the same age, right? And I'm a replica of his sister, which basically makes me his sister, so obviously you can call me that too. Hehe."
"Come on, let's hear it~"
"Quit joking around, Inori."
Even Shu couldn't watch this anymore. The embarrassment in the air was palpable. Gai turned his face away, his expression caught somewhere between exasperation and suppressed amusement, clearly holding something back.
"Ayase and the others will be worried. Let's head back to everyone."
"Okay~"
Inori gave a cheerful nod, and the face that floated into her mind was Hare Menjou's round, adorable cheeks.
From now on, she would finally have true freedom. No more spending every day worrying about viruses and catastrophes. The country was still in shambles, and the wounds the Apocalypse had left behind wouldn't fade so easily from people's hearts. But at least they would never multiply again.
Hey, Inori. Do you feel like something's off?
Mana spoke up suddenly, her tone uncertain. Not anxious or afraid, just a simple puzzlement.
What is it now? I even spared Gai for your sake—what more do you want?
Something's wrong with our body.
Relax, Yet to Come will wear off soon.
It's not that... I don't know what it is either. I just feel exhausted. I... I want to sleep for a while.
Then sleep.
Inori didn't think much of it. She figured the fatigue was probably the toll of the Stand's evolution on her body. She'd maintained Yet to Come for quite a while now; feeling exhausted was perfectly normal. Never mind Mana, even she herself was starting to feel unsteady on her feet.
Her body was deeply fatigued, her very bones aching, but her spirit was soaring, buoyed by the thrill of final victory.
"Gai, you take the wheel."
"I want to sleep in the back for a bit... I ate too much virus, I'm tired."
...
...
Yet to Come deactivated.
The shameless goldfish dress vanished, and the familiar King Crimson reappeared before Inori. Her brief "ultimate lifeform trial pass" had expired. The heavy coat and Funeral Parlor uniform returned to her body; despite wearing nothing underneath while clad in the goldfish dress, there was no crowd-pleasing wardrobe malfunction.
Because the moment the ability deactivated, Inori's spirit and body reverted to the point in time just before Yet to Come had been activated. The borrowed minutes from the future timeline filled the gap. Inori remembered everything that had happened during those minutes, but her body had skipped over them as though it had undergone Time Erasure. That also explained how she'd changed outfits instantaneously, and why no embarrassing scene occurred when the ability wore off.
Inori sat with her back against the wall of the truck bed. The jostling of the vehicle gave her the illusion of being on a journey. Despite her exhaustion she couldn't fall asleep, and her mind drifted to the coming schedule. The virus was gone, but GHQ's overseas headquarters wouldn't loosen its grip on this country anytime soon. She would need to find ways to keep everyone safe going forward.
"So cold."
The same old problem. She rubbed her arms, then felt a wave of drowsiness wash over her. Why did such a short trip feel like it would never end? No good... too sleepy.
She took off her coat, draped it over herself, and settled in for a nap.
She was completely unaware of one fact: in that moment, the coat and the truck floor had "sandwiched" her between them.
...
...
Gai Tsutsugami rarely drove as a commander, but for a former mercenary it was basic training. He steered smoothly off the cross-sea bridge and stopped in front of a quiet stretch of forest. The barbed-wire fence of the quarantine zone was just ahead. This was not far from the shore where he and Inori had come aground the night they fled the Ivory Christmas Tree.
"Inori, time to get out."
Shu opened the door and stepped down, rapping the truck wall twice.
No response.
"Huh? That's strange..."
"What's wrong, Shu?" Gai climbed down from the cab, his expression sharp as he walked over.
"She seems to have fallen asleep."
"That woman... if she's going to sleep, she should at least wait until we get back." Gai pressed his fingers to his temple and knocked on the truck wall himself. Still no response. He sighed. "Can't be helped. Shu, we'll carry her out. You take her on your back."
"Okay."
Shu nodded.
Gai was still badly wounded, and heavy lifting was out of the question. Saying it like that felt a little rude to Inori, but she probably wouldn't mind. Thinking along those lines, Shu reached up and pulled open the truck gate.
"Hey! Inori, wake u—?"
His voice cut off. He felt as though he'd plunged into an ice bath. His expression froze, his mouth hung open, and not a single word came out.
"What is it? Has she started crystallizing?" Gai rushed over when he saw Shu's face. He followed the boy's gaze into the dim interior.
The truck bed was empty save for a few odds and ends and some cargo racks. All that remained was the black coat Inori had been wearing when she arrived. Inside it sat her phone and various communication devices. Her sidearm, still in its holster, had been tossed aside.
Inori Yuzuriha had vanished.