by Kamiya Yuu
She was a little more trained as compared to girls her age—but she was ultimately a human made of raw flesh and flood.
That was why,
“Don’t mind me.”
Marie said as she looked back at Halter’s eyes.
Skeptical, Halter asked,
“Can you endure it?”
“We don’t have any other options, right? If you find me a nuisance, leave me behind.”
“That’s not what I mean, of course?”
A disappointed Halter immediately frowned the moment he heard the lines of a pawn.
Marie slowly got to her feet, and Halter saw that her limbs were quivering slightly. She was not physically tired, it was a mental issue—she was mentally damaged
Naoto Miura’s death had caused a great shock to Marie Bell Breguet’s heart.
…It was all in vain.
That was what her voice and face showed, and Halter sighed.
The genius, idealist, somewhat arrogant, competitive girl—was just a girl after all.
This girl still could not accept the fact that someone close to her died.
However—there was no room for her to accept this current situation.
Halter sternly said,
“You fine, Marie? Hear me out.”
“…”
“There’s no time to rest. I’m going all out to climb this, so don’t let go no matter what. Speak up only when you can’t handle it, and other than that, shut up.”
Marie gasped, and wordlessly nodded.
Alright, Halter too nodded back.
“—Now then, let’s go.”
● ● ●
“—Ah.”
Marie seemingly rolled off Halter’s back as she tumbled onto the path floor.
She could no longer move a single finger—correction, it was moving, but it was not due to her own will. Her limbs were already limp, and unable to stop. Her muscles were completely frozen solid.
—Halter spent 1 hour, 58 minutes and 34 seconds climbing up this vertical drain that was approximately 72km long.
During this time, Halter had been running and jumping up the vertical walls, and Marie continued to cling onto Halter’s back, never letting go in any way. They ascended vertical through the use of the prosthetics that were beyond normal specifications, accelerating and decelerating—Marie continued to endure this ordeal of a process that would have caused a normal human body to lose consciousness.
But she was at her limit.
…She was unable to stand up.
Marie was utterly breathless as she crawled on the ground. Her lungs were crushed, her heart was seemingly broken apart as she shrieked. Her entire body was covered in annoyingly sticky sweat, and tears appeared on her eyes that were devoid of sadness. Her vision flickered, and she felt nauseous. Her bones were aching, seemingly snapped—but even so.
And so,
“Ah…haa—”
Or rather, so what about that?
“You can’t stand, Milady?”
Halter knelt down beside her head as he said this calmly.
—Who does this bastard think he’s talking to?
Marie wanted to curse out, but failed to do so. She could only let out a little groan like a frog being crushed.
Her blurred, teary vision showed Halter’s icy face. A human body could not match a cyborg’s, btut Marie could not help but feel anger.
He’s seeing me like this, yet why does he—
But because of that anger, she managed to regain some strength.
She tried her best to control her trembling hand, and starting from her pinky, folded each finger tightly into a fist. She slammed the floor, regained her strength, bent her knees, ans straightened her waist.
She took a breath, and gritted her teeth.
—I’m still moving
She was still alive, unlike him, who was already dead.
“Don’t force yourself.”
Alright,Halter carried Marie up, and she was left breathless. She was furious and embarrassed to be treated like a child again, her blood boiling.
Though she wanted to say something, Marie kept her mouth shut. In fact, it was impossible for her to stand up and walk in this state.
“Anyway, let’s get out of here. Be the baggage for a little while.”
Marie nodded in response to Halter’s words, and closed her eyes.
She began to think of what would happen later.
In other words, she recalled what happened till this point.
—Naoto Miura’s dead.
She bit her lips. She did not have the instincts he had, and could only gather all the information that appeared to her for understanding purposes.
What exactly was that gigantic weapon she saw at the lowest level? Surely it did not seem to be some decent thing itself. Even if she did not consider it to be violating a treaty, there was no place for it to be used. How could such a monstrous thing be used appropriately? It would simply destroy and sever everything. The ones who would use such a thing…terrorists?
I got involved in this.Her chest felt tight. It was not that sort of a foolish thing. There was definitely no such terrorist group that could build such a massive thing at the lowest level of the city and ensure its secrecy. There was no way the group would be so well funded in finances, materials and manpower. If such a thing was done right below their feet, which government would be so incompetent to not notice such a situation?
—Do you, of all people, have the right to call others incompetent?
Her eyes felt hot. Thus, the enemy had to be the ‘military’—or at least a person of considerable standing in the ‘military’. The enemy had already used a clock tower itself as spare parts, so in that case, one could consider that along with the ‘military’, the Mie parliament would also be enemies.
—That information’s what you obtained from that Naoto you killed.
Her head was in pain. There was another detail; why was AnchoR at such a place? She was mocked by RyuZU, but there was no doubt in the intel that AnchoR was deported to Tokyo. Was she moved to Tokyo before being moved to Mie again? In that case, why Mie? If that was the unit the Kyoto ‘military’ had, would it not be appropriate to return it back to the original user? Such a huge dissonance would mean that it had something to do with that gigantic weapon. Surely this would be the crux?
—No matter what you do now, he won’t return.
Marie could no longer bear this as she rolled off Halter’s shoulder.
She crawled on the floor, cuddling her knees like a fetus, but she was unable to endure the nauseousness that arose in her, and vomited,
“Uu, gguu, guueehhhh…!”
She vomited out onto the path a few times. There was no color of blood to be seen in the vast amount of vomit.
—Ahh, I didn’t damage my internal organs. Marie thought. She really started to hate herself for being concerned with such trivial matters.
“…How terrible.”
“Yeah. It’s really terrible.”
Halter repeated with a stoic voice,
“…I failed. Utterly.”
“Yeah, you really failed terribly there.”
Halter silently agreed.
He did not give any cheap consolation, and his tone was not appealing in any way, but she was thankful this time.
She affirmed,
“—Naoto’s dead, right?”
“I guess? It’s impossible to survive that fall from there.”
Halter nodded mercilessly.
—It’s all your fault.
“—Am I right!!?”
Marie lost herself in her fervent emotions as she slammed her fists onto the floor.
A sharp pain echoed even through her bones, but it did not matter. It was nothing much compared to the nauseating feeling of her innards being tumbled around.
Marie’s eyes sharpened, and the emerald eyes were lit with a dim flame and she said,
“—This is quite the high price to pay.”
“Of course. You might have to pluck the hairs out of your ass here.”
In response to Halter’s words, Marie nodded, and stood up.
They had to be quicker, even for just a second; they had something to do no matter what.
Oh, yes.
She was the one who got involved. She merely spent her free time and shook a tree, luring out a wild tiger. Because of this, he lost his life, so she had to bear responsibility herself. There was no time to show regret, and in such situation, she could not allow herself to be crushed by her guilt.
—I’ll just enjoy myself with such a luxury once everything’s done.
Marie wiped her dirty lips with the sleeves of her coat, and said,
“…AnchoR’s supposedly moved to Tokyo, but she appeared in Mie; this definitely has to do with that weapon.”
“Well, it’s natural to think of it that way.”
“In that case, there’s definitely contact between Mie and Tokyo. At the very least, there’s a person supporting Mie with enough authority to move an Initial-Y series unit that was moved into Tokyo.”
“Also, don’t forget that there’s one person with the expertise to control that AnchoR.”
Marie nodded.
RyuZU was shocked when AnchoR attacked; in other words, she did not think it was possible for such a thing to happen, or at the very least, that was what she believed. AnchoR was an automata who continued to remain sleeping in the basement of Kyoto.
“…Maybe somebody modified her, or took over control of her through an external device.”
“That mask looked very weird. Well, no matter what I just said, there’s a need to contact one of the five Enterprises just to make the technology in the mask.
Halter rubbed his chin, and continued,
“The Vachrons? Or the Patteks…Lunge seems a little little suspicious too. I heard that the Odemas are one of the cleaner ones, but I can’t say that they’re completely spotless.”
“…No matter which once, it’s something to talk about once we get back to the surface.”
She let out a sigh.
“First, we need to hear what Tokyo has to say.”
● ● ●
They got up to the surface, and it was almost dawn.
What they saw at the entrance was the abandoned factory that was complete in facilities, but could no longer be used. They quickly exited the industrial complex, and soon arrived at the Ring Rail station.
They rode on the train, and after a little shaking, arrived at the streets of Ise.
The prior night, Marie’s group arrived at the Grid with the ‘Platform’ through the ‘Cylinder Train’.
But they still could not return to Japan.
Marie simply patted the dust off her clothes, and along with Halter, got off the Ring Rail, wandering deep into the bustling shopping streets in front of the station.
It was around dawn, and the shops on the streets still had their shutters lowered, but there were people walking to and fro. Unlike the bustling streets at the edge of the Industrial Complex, the streets here were full of life.
After taking some turns, both of them arrived at an old building, an empty hotel.
It seemed like a shop for drunk customers to spend the night. They were skeptical as to whether it was really in business, but after entering, found the facilities to be unexpectedly tidy.
They booked a single room, entered it, and Marie immediately walked to the communicator that was installed.
She picked the phone receiver, and dialed the phone number for the Breguet’s secret lines.
With the help of this Breguets’ secret line, she managed to make contact with Tokyo.
And a few seconds into the call, she heard the voice from the other side,
“—Ohh, Professor Marie, it has been a while since you contacted us.”
In the face of the cordial voice, Marie was a little hesitant as she responded.
“It has been a while.”
”…Did something happen?”
“Well…yes, actually. A lot of things happened—really.”
Marie blurted, seemingly wanting to vent, and lowered her eyes.
If she were to take this head on, she would definitely cry; suppressing this emotion with all she had, she turned to the receiver, and continued with a calm,
“Please excuse me. I don’t have the time for relaxation now…I shall ask you directly now. Do you know where the Initial-Y series unit I asked you to investigate is located at now?”
“No. What do you imply, exactly?”
“We met it, just a few hours ago.”
“What!?”
The other party raised the voice, seemingly surprised,
“Are you in Kyoto?”
“No. Right now, I’m in Grid Mie.”
“Mie?”
“There…was an anonymous provision of intel. We intruded and entered the bottom of the city to confirm it, and we found something really terrifying.”
And then, Marie began explaining about the massive weapon she found in the level that should not exist.
She existed the appearance and capabilities her eyes could at least determine, and also AnchoR, who seemed to be deployed there for security reasons, and the combat ability that was beyond logical thinking. She also explained her observations that the Mie parliament and the ‘military’ were the enemies, and the shadows of the Enterprises behind all these—
Once Marie explained everything, the other party groaned,
”…How did such a thing happen?”
“There is something I want to confirm. There was no doubt that the Initial-Y series unit was sent to Tokyo, right?”
“…The ‘military’ did move her from Kyoto to Tokyo. There were records of it, and also eyewitnesses accounts. She was taken out from a container, so this can be confirmed.”
“Then, I guess she was sent from Tokyo to Mie?”
“I guess…there’s no way it doesn’t have anything to do with that weapon.”
“That’s what I think too. Mie and Tokyo are heavily linked in this incident. Do you mind checking for me who was the one in charge of the Initial-Y series unit being moved into Tokyo?”
“That in-charge may be in collusion with the collaborators from Mie, huh?”
“Yes.”
”Give me a little time. How about that?”
“I’ll leave it to you.”
Marie intended to hang up, but the other party hurriedly added in,
“And another thing—I’m not certain, but something strange may be happen in Tokyo.”
“…”
“The Tokyo ‘military’ seemed to have gathered their forces together. As you know, Tokyo runs on a federal system place with multiple Grids in it. It seems many Core Towers and Clock Towers are unmanned because they gathered most of their forces in one place.”
That is. Marie groaned.
The Core Towers and Clock Towers that were left empty, the suspicious movements of the ‘military'; she did not like it, but she inadvertently thought about the incident at Kyoto that happened some time back.
That incident where Kyoto was to be purged along with its 20 million citizens…
The party on the other side of the phone seemed to be pondering the cause and effect, and said,
“Leaving aside history, Kyoto was simply just a sightseeing city, so that can’t be the reason in this case. If the Tokyo area is to all fall together, it’ll affect the entire Asian region.”
“So the question here is how to let it fall, huh? But that’s…”
In an instance, her vision went dark,
Marie gripped the receiver firmly in her hand, and hissed,
“According to this logic, Kyoto too should not be allowed to fall.”
In summation, this was an issue of logic and binding principles.
Why did the humans, organizations, ideals that said ‘yes’ to killing 20 million conclude so firmly that it would affect the entire Asian region? This would surely be
disadvantageous to them, but why did they make such a decision? In other words, There had to be another reason that allowed them to do that.
There was only silence to Marie’s words,
“…I suppose. Yes, it happened beside.”
“Anyway, please follow through with what I requested. I’ll continue to gather some intel here. If we investigate this any further, we’ll definitely find many suspicious things about this.”
Understood. The other party said, and repeated what was requested.
“Anyway, please be careful, Professor Marie. The enemy is a terrifying opponent.”
“…Yes, thank you very much.”
After a brief reply, Marie finally hung up the phone.
She bitterly let out a sigh, and feeling vexed, she could no longer control her emotions as she kicked out with all her might, ostensibly wanting to send the bed beside her flying.
“Serious! They’re all like this!”
“Don’t lose your temper, Milady.”
Halter’s reproaching voice could be heard from behind.
Marie looked back over her shoulder, and glared at the face of the big man seated on the chair,
“Yeah yeah, so what if I’m throwing a tantrum? What? You want to be my sandbag here?”
“I’ll gladly do that if that’ll get you to calm down.”
Halter said tauntingly as he curled his lips.
At that instant, Marie raised her eyebrows—and quickly shook her head.
I’m like an idiot, she muttered.
“Well, fine. I’ve decided what I want to do. Let’s go.”
“…Goodness, we just escaped from danger there, didn’t we? At least think about me.”
Halter continued in a rebuking manner, and Marie impatiently snorted,
“Whatever, I can do this by myself.”
“That’s not it. Get it already, Milady. Calm down a little, no, are you even calmed down? Are you doing all this out of desperation?”
