No Game No Life, Vol. 9

  Copyright

  NO GAME NO LIFE, Volume 9

  YUU KAMIYA

  Translation by Daniel Komen

  Cover art by Yuu Kamiya

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  NO GAME NO LIFE Volume.9

  ©Yuu Kamiya 2016

  First published in Japan in 2016 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.

  English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.

  English translation © 2019 by Yen Press, LLC

  Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Kamiya, Yu, 1984– author, illustrator. | Komen, Daniel, translator.

  Title: No game no life / Yuu Kamiya, translation by Daniel Komen.

  Other titles: No gemu no raifu. English

  Description: First Yen On edition. | New York, NY : Yen ON, 2015–

  Identifiers: LCCN 2015041321 | ISBN 9780316383110 (v. 1 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316385176 (v. 2 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316385190 (v. 3 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316385213 (v. 4 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316385237 (v. 5 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316385268 (v. 6 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316316439 (v. 7 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316502665 (v. 8 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316471343 (v. 9 : pbk.)

  Subjects: | BISAC: FICTION / Fantasy / General. | GSAFD: Fantasy fiction.

  Classification: LCC PL832.A58645 N6 2015 | DDC 895.63/6—dc23

  LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015041321

  ISBNs: 978-0-316-47134-3 (paperback)

  978-0-316-47138-1 (ebook)

  E3-20191004-JV-NF-ORI

  SKIP START

  Okay, it’s time to recap. You may object, asking, “Where’d that come from?” Unfortunately, you have been overruled. Stories always need recaps. Just look at those Games of the Year that subject you to an annoying recap with every load screen. I hope that puts you in the mood to tolerate at least one recap. If not, go ahead and skip it.

  Our setting is Disboard, the world on a board. A world where all violence has been prohibited by the Ten Covenants and everything is decided by games. Into this world came a brother and a sister from Earth, who are good at nothing except games.

  No, that was a bit too much of an understatement. Let me rephrase.

  A brother and a sister, Sora and Shiro, both socially incompetent shut-in losers, who build up their kung fu at failing at life.

  Together, they are “ ” (Blank), the two-in-one gamer who reigns undefeated in every sort of game. Otherwise, they are pretty much useless. They then appeared in Disboard—specifically, in the Kingdom of Elkia. This is the last country of Immanity, the human race, which has been pushed back into its last city, on the brink of extinction. So Sora and Shiro were like, Well now, let’s see here… and casually grabbed the throne. And they started playing games against the various other races of the “sixteen seeds,” or Ixseeds, who have various totally broken abilities like magic and superpowers. It’s too bad these two don’t get along with the class’s honor students like Love and Friendship and Justice. They’re always hanging around with those troublemakers like Fraud and Cunning and Trickery.

  So they beat Flügel, Werebeast, Siren, Dhampir, one after the other. Then they beat Old Deus—the gods themselves. Yet, they didn’t enslave or subjugate or oppress any of these guys. Instead, they took them under their wing. The Kingdom of Elkia turned into the Commonwealth of Elkia. It’s history’s first multiracial commonwealth, and it’s spreading like wildfire.

  This all happened in the span of a few months. This steady build brought Elkia from its knees to the top of the world. Which also means it’s now considered one of the greatest threats in the world. But whatever. Continuity is power. Even in the case of horrible human beings, credit must be given where credit is due.

  …Anyway. Perhaps you’ve heard of the second law of thermodynamics: the law of increasing entropy. That law that says things would rather dissipate than concentrate. Hey, it’s not a hard concept to understand. I bet everyone’s had some experience with it.

  It’s the mystery of how your room would rather get super messy than stay clean.

  It’s how you struggle to gain favor with your crush, but then you make one wrong choice and suddenly, you’ve lost them. You work like a horse to earn money, but then gamble it all away on junk. When playing a game, you have to actively try to win, but losing takes no effort at all. You get the point. Basically, it’s easier to destroy than to build, easier to lose than to keep.

  Now, all you dear readers who have skipped to this point: How about I segue from a recap into a spoiler? You know Sora and Shiro? The law of entropy applies to them, too.

  They lose everything.

  Yes, everything. The throne, the position of agent plenipotentiary—everything. Everything starts crashing down from that one phone call. Who would have thought they’d get a call in the middle of a fantasy world with no reception? Who would have thought they’d get a call at all? It’s not as if they ever had any friends. So they pick up gingerly and this is what they hear:

  “We request an audience with you, O King of Immanity, O Spieler. We—are Ex Machina.”

  Now we return to the Kingdom of Elkia in the Commonwealth of Elkia, back when it was alive and well. The stately Elkia Royal Castle stood tall in the center of the capital, and it bore a placard. This enormous placard dangled from a spire, as stately as the castle itself, and it announced:

  CLOSED FOR BUSINESS.

  In the Elkia Royal Castle that was now closed for business… Scratch that—the Bl4nk Productions Castle, as the wooden board nailed onto a stone slab would have it. In any case, the castle was now deserted, with every last one of the staff having been given time off. The only sounds that echoed within its walls were the footsteps of a young redhead, Stephanie Dola, better known as Steph, and—

  “Okay, stop!! Holou, you really think you’re gonna be a star like that?!”

  “…If you don’t have the drive…just quit…!”

  —likewise from the LESSON ROOM indicated by the wooden board on the assembly hall—

  “I know not even the meaning of the word ‘drive’! If I may quit, then quit I shall!!”

  “Gahhh!! We say quit, and you just go ahead and do it?! Kids these days!”

  “…This is why…no one, respects…your generation…!”

  Thus was the tearful declaration of the uncomprehending little girl, and the weary sighs of the two from that very same generation that no one respects.

  The former was Holou, a little girl with a floating inkpot tha
t was roughly the same height as her body. She was a god—it was impossible to mistake her for anything else. To be more precise, she was an Old Deus, Ixseed Rank One.

  The latter were Sora and Shiro, a brother with an “I PPL” shirt, and a sister with white hair and red eyes. The two of them were—though one would desperately like to mistake it or hide it—the monarch of Elkia.

  Steph was glaring at these two horrible excuses for human beings, bewildered by the sheer spectacle of them bringing a god to tears.

  But Sora continued his rant, completely oblivious. “Tomorrow’s supposed to be your big debut! The hell are you thinking performing steps like those today?!”

  If you were wondering what it was that Sora and Shiro had to close the castle for, here is your answer. They were now in the business of producing a pop idol: Holou, the Old Deus.

  Steph hung her head as she questioned the siblings’ sanity.

  “Holou hath acted in accordance with thy requests! If thou hast objections, ye must state them in full!!”

  Ignoring her, the seated Sora and Shiro sighed once more at Holou’s protests.

  Suddenly, they got up and broke into song and dance.

  Steph was at a loss for words. It was perfect.

  “Hff… Hff…! Like that! Y-you get it?!”

  “…W-we can’t, keep this up… Please, just get it.”

  Sora and Shiro collapsed onto the floor, out of breath.

  “That accorded not with your description!!” shouted Holou, stamping the floor.

  In a way, making a god stamp her feet was kind of an achievement. Sora and Shiro snickered.

  “Merely following the music is the work of an amateur! A pro expresses herself in order to rouse the audience!”

  “…Not that there, is an audience… But I guess this is the, console version… And, it’s not like you play…when people are, watching.”

  The two of them had achieved the top scores even in music games and karaoke. Holou, as a god, was perfectly capable of replicating what she saw right down to the letter. But—

  “There’s no point in ripping off others! Express yourself! You’re not a machine. Sing from the heart!”

  “Thou shalt explain the meaning of ‘expression’ and define this ‘heart’ from which thou wouldst have me sing! And clearly!”

  Holou wailed at these incompetent producers who only gave vague instructions.

  …Incidentally, Steph had been calling Sora’s and Shiro’s names all the while, for a total of four times.

  “C’mon, Holou! One more time! ‘(Save Me) Godly Summer ,’ from the top!”

  It seemed there really was only one name the two of them would respond to. In light of their continued disregard, Steph drew in a deep breath and shouted:

  “PRODUCERRRRRRRS!!”

  “Hmm? Oh hey, didn’t see you there, manager babe.”

  “…You can just, call us ‘P’… Mmkay?”

  Sora and Shiro turned deliberately toward Steph, now that she had addressed them correctly.

  “I thought you were jok— Well, no, I honestly didn’t…”

  Nothing Sora and Shiro said could ever be written off as a joke. Steph, of all people, must have known that by now. And yet, with what little hope she had, she asked them why they had vacated the throne, given leave to all their attendants, and closed the castle.

  “But still, I have to ask. You’re closing the administration? Do you want to destroy the country?!”

  Her cry, in other words, was a plea to locate the whereabouts of the monarch’s misplaced minds.

  “Whaaat? You want us to work our staff twenty-four seven? Talk about a corporate scandal…”

  “Is it not preferable to a rumor that the boss is insane?!”

  But Sora had been so focused on Holou’s song-and-dance routine that he merely answered.

  “Do you know, Sir, what people are calling you two?!”

  As Steph snapped her finger at them, Sora and Shiro wondered:

  —Wait, what could it be?

  Perhaps “the monarch of national resurgence, who has vanquished higher races one after the other and overcome the gods themselves”…? But it wouldn’t end there. Sora and Shiro imagined the kind of slander that would be mixed in.

  “They call you the Discredited King! They trust you even less!!”

  “What, that’s all? …Hey, wait, that’s actually kind of a cool name!”

  “…Nah, it’s…kinda lame…”

  The brief bit of stress dissipated with Steph’s answer; Sora was hyped up, while Shiro felt let down. The fact remained that they didn’t give a shit, which irked Steph to no end.

  “Look at all you’ve done, only to be scorned rather than celebrated. Do you know why this is?!”

  It seemed to offend Steph more than it did Sora and Shiro.

  —How to explain it…?

  They ruminated on this intractable problem before Sora’s expression turned mysterious—

  “We trick people into falling in love with us and bet Race Pieces without asking anyone. Just how do you expect anyone to be like, ‘Oh yeah, I trust you!’? We’re obviously just frauds, perhaps even lying bastards.”

  “Ah-haaa! I’m so glad you’re aware of all this! Now do something about it!”

  —and he asked back just why anyone should trust him. Steph answered with what could be described as a song and a dance. She twirled with the grace and sensitivity of a ballerina.

  “I understaaand, people can’t change just like that. You just have to take little steps, one at a time—so you can stop being a fraud who won’t even let me in on what’s going on! How about we start with you telling me why you closed the administration?!”

  Her ballet dance gradually became more heated, until it transformed into a break dance punctuated by a shout.

  —Holou could learn a thing or two from her, Sora and Shiro both thought.

  “Why we closed the administration…? No real reason… There just wasn’t anything to do.”

  There’s no useful move for Elkia to make at present.

  But this first reason failed to convince Steph.

  “What do you mean there’s nothing to do? What about the commercial associations? They were just getting started!”

  …Commercial associations… Mmm… What was that again?

  “The traders and lords who’ve been fattening themselves up on all the new resource export! Don’t you remember the other day? You two got them all to play a game by the Covenants to shove your papers down their throats!!”

  “Oh yeah. Don’t worry, I remember. Those pretentious douches, right?”

  He didn’t lie. He remembered. He just didn’t mention that he’d forgotten.

  Sora and Shiro thought the same thing.

  —This is what I hate about nation-building strategy games.

  They knew well that the idea of a multiracial commonwealth would be hard for people to swallow. Then on top of that, they had to deal with the people’s reactions to this meteoric rise and reformation. The economic and legal stuff wouldn’t be able to keep up, and it was just one domestic pain in the ass after another. Not least among which were these nouveau riche smart-asses and all the uproar they caused.

  “So. What about them? We dealt with them, didn’t we?”

  “The way you did was like adding fuel to the fire! Don’t you see people are just getting more upset?!” Steph pointed fiercely to the two siblings. “It’s time for you to show your leadership as the monarch! It’s a test of your personal charisma!!”

  And in such a time, for the monarch to be one like this… Steph’s face seemed to say, All right, forget it. She worried that if the castle—the de facto seat of the Commonwealth—was to be shut down, then even the advisers—

  “…If there’s, one thing…we don’t have…it’s…charisma…!”

  “Why do you think we stay inside all the time? Chew on that!!”

  The two had not the slightest confidence they could be loved— However! They
sneered boldly in their conviction that they would be hated, and furthermore—!

  “Thus, we have demonstrated beyond all doubt what exactly Elkia is currently lacking!”

  “…It’s…a charismatic…figurehead…to rally, the people…”

  “In other words: Our first priority is a national project to raise the ultimate idol!”

  The two of them shouted out the second reason and looked at Holou, who, for her part, was just silently writing more questions on her scroll with a pout.

  “Yo, Holou! You hear what we just said?”

  She had heard. She just wasn’t convinced. Her face said it.

  “Your argument cohereth not! What business hath Holou with thy lack of charisma?!”

  “You don’t have to do anything with it. You just have to use your mad charisma to win us authority.”

  Yeah, like the Shrine Maiden and the Eastern Union…! Sora smirked. No need to have the actual head of state be trustworthy so long as there was a figurehead to bring the nation together.

  “Holou hypothesizes that your true meaning is that Holou should be like her host.” But if they just wanted her to be like her host, the Shrine Maiden… “Holou’s host doth neither sing nor dance! Ye must state the reason for which Holou must become an idol in this inscrutable sense ye describe!”

  “This is the nineteenth time you’ve asked! So I’ll answer you as I have all eighteen times before: Heaven wills it!”

  As far as idols were concerned, there existed no greater talent than the one who stood before them. To not make her into an idol would be to desecrate the treasures heaven had bestowed upon them. Sora explained as much and soon felt Steph’s icy gaze piercing through him.

  “…So basically, this idol thing is just something you personally want to do.”

  “A cheeky one, you are; really cheeky! This plan is a perfect fusion of my arbitrary desires and actual benefit!!”

  As he spoke, Sora thought: Let’s imagine it. A state whose authority is personified in an unmatchable, literally goddess-level babe, the perfect idol…

  Sora knew, as did Shiro: I’d move there immediately!