Red Nocturne

by Shūsuke Amagi

  "That's wrong, Leerin," Nina shivered.

  "Nina?"

  Nina's face was a shade of pale green.

  "No matter how strong a person is, he's the same if he has no reason to become strong. Besides, I'm not strong. Leerin, you think I'm strong to fight the Wolf Faces......my, power......" she crouched.

  Leerin went to her and crouched down with her. Sweat beaded Nina's forehead. "I have something to protect, so I, I want to protect it......And then, I......"

  "Wh, What happened?"

  "Nothing," she frowned and stood up. Her face was still green. No sign of recovering.

  "Hurry, we're running out of time."

  She walked away and Leerin ran to keep up with her.

  He hadn't considered where to run off to. He just happened to be there while running away.

  "Ah ha, Ahha......" Roy panted. He was standing on the roof of a certain building, standing in the shade of a water tank. He gritted his teeth then breathed in deeply.

  "You bastard!" he screamed.

  Roy was born in a peaceful city. No filth monsters had ever attacked that city. The city kept a certain distance from other cities. Roaming buses only came a few times a year. The city rarely had outside influences. It was a city with peace as its pride. The city that Roy grew up in. Roy's grandfather had fought filth monsters in the past, telling them stories of those fights in the old days. Still, that city did meet filth monsters in the end.

  The shocked Military Artists fought desperately. Wearing protective suits, they fought the filth monsters. About a hundred or so of them were dispatched, and tens of them died. Everyone fought in desperation. The elders who had had experience devised the strategies for the youngsters to carry it out. The fight had a miraculous win with just one stain. Tens of people died out of the hundred or so Military Artists, and one person fled.

  Roy Entorio.

  In a battle they had never fought before, everyone used all their Kei except Roy. The death of Military Artists revealed the city's negligence in its defense despite the victory. Besides, the dead Military Artists all had families. And Roy Entorio fled the battle. The Roy who was an elite among the people of his age......... Those whom Roy mocked as being weaker than him had rushed forward to open a hole in the filth monsters. They had died under the weight of the fallen filth monsters. And seeing that, Roy had fled, an escape that no one would ever forgive.

  "Damn........."

  And he had then come to Myath, sent to Myath like rubbish by his family.

  "Damn......"

  Roy had once again run away. Given up the pride of a Military Artist and lured by Ignasis, he had run away from Nina Antalk.

  "That woman.........Just you remember! I'll kill you."

  But the person he hated wasn't Nina.

  "She's just a normal person. How dare she treat me like that!"

  He had never told anyone of his secret in Myath.........But Leerin Marfes had seen through him.

  "Unforgivable."

  "Ah, I see........."

  Roy lifted at face at the sudden voice.

  "This is what it means to fall. You act what you call righteous, switching good and evil around. So cute. A fall can't be a fall if it isn't this tragic." The voice came from above.

  "Who is it!?"

  Someone stood bending above the water tank. Roy hadn't noticed him. The person straightened and Roy could now see his face. He was the Military Artist that was with Leerin, named......Savaris Luckens.

  "Is it ok to be here?" Roy asked.

  "How could I......I just happened to have time now! I'm not the type who works diligently, not like you, wasting time in a boring place."

  "Uh......"

  "Well, I saw what you did."

  "What.........?" Roy confirmed his current location. He was quite far away from where Leerin and the other girl were. "How could you have seen........."

  "I saw it and also heard what you said to yourself."

  Roy was shocked. Too shocked to feel the insult. He himself couldn't have seen and heard anything at that distance. Luckens had the kind of strong Internal Kei that Roy couldn't even imagine possible.

  "I was ordered to protect her. Considering that you might harm her, I've to resolve this problem......"

  Roy retreated. He no longer doubted that this person was a Military Artist who was too strong for him. He thought back on how the City Police had confiscated Luckens' Dite, but did that mean anything? He wasn't sure.

  "It'd be good if things over there are settled. If possible, I want to settle this quickly too! Since I can't predict the future."

  "Uh........." Escape. Roy decided. No time to turn his back on Luckens. He kept retreating, stepping back. He would sustain heavy injuries if he accidentally bumped into any buildings while moving at high speed. He didn't even have the time to put Kei into his feet, and suddenly found Luckens' face before him. A pressure pressed down on Roy's head.

  "There's a strategy to retreat, but a Military Artist who likes to run away won't do!" Savaris said as he grabbed hold of Roy's head and shook it.

  "Ah Uh......"

  Roy found it hard to breathe. Unable to strengthen his body through Kei, he could do nothing but suffer the consequences.

  "I don't have the obligation to teach you. I do want to see how you'd react, as someone who can do nothing but abuse the system of the society." Savaris loosened his hold, enough for Roy to breathe. But the next moment he increased the pressure. Roy would never forget the feeling of having the bones of his head almost shattered.

  "Anyway, I won't kill you yet. Come with me for a sec!"

  Roy had no strength to struggle. It only took Savaris a few jumps to reach his destination.

  Military Artists had assembled some distance from the edge of the city. Savaris let go of Roy. Being tossed onto the ground, Roy coughed. Before he finished coughing, he was back on the roof.

  "Looks like they're going to greet the filth monsters' attack here!"

  Roy went numb.

  "I want to know what you'd do as someone who had fled a battle. What would you do next?" Savaris looked at the closest filth monster, widening his eyes. The Military Artists out there should be able to see it clearly at this distance.

  "Not much time till its arrival."

  "Humph!"

  "Oh."

  Savaris' foot on Roy's back kept him from moving.

  "Allow me to confirm! Can a Military Artist who has fallen once stand back up? You're a Military Artist of this city, aren't you? Would a Military Artist begin life anew or head for the same failure? And after losing, can you stand back up and have a fresh start?"

  Savaris wanted to know. "If you don't get prepared, time won't wait for you!"

  The Military Artists outside the city called to each other to defend the city. They moved in a fluster. The shooting team began to fill in the Kei cannon. The faces of those in the fighting team turned green. Filth monsters were coming.

  The Kei cannon fired. The condensed Kei cannonball hit the filth monster and exploded, shattering a number of scales. The filth monster's cry of pain echoed throughout Myath. Eyes bloodshot with outrage and pain, the monster headed for the city and was greeted with another Kei cannon ball. The filth monster didn't halt its advance. With blood spurting from its body, it hammered through the air purification shield and entered the city.

  Savaris removed his foot from Roy's back.

  "Ahhhhhhhh............" Roy trembled from head to toe. He could do nothing but give voice to his terror.

  "No way? Didn't you feel you were once an elite?"

  "No, no! Nooooooooooo! I don't want to fight!" he crawled, hoping to move away from here. He wasn't even thinking of using Kei. No, perhaps he didn't even realize that Savaris had moved his foot from his back.

  "Aah!"

  Savaris was bored of this sight.

  "Ah!" Roy screamed. Savaris had shot Roy's body with small balls of Kei and shattered the bones of his head.

  "Just lie here
and sigh about your current situation," the Heaven's Blade successor jumped off the city to land on the head of a filth monster. "First phase. A mature form? I'm interested in killing, but her word is the same as the Queen's order," he sighed and put his hand on the filth monster's head.

  "Fu----"

  He released his Kei. External type Kei – Drip. His Kei seeped slowly through the filth monster's scales and into its cells, beginning to destroy it from its inside. Savaris left. No one would discover what he did here. What Myath's Military Artists saw was the filth monster's movement slowing down. They had to seize this opportunity. All Kei cannons fired their shots. Explosions covered the filth monster. Its body collapsed and bits and pieces fell away as the dust cloud cleared. Someone should have been asking questions, but doubt disappeared in the tide of cheers. Savaris watched this from somewhere else. His gaze moved from the dead filth monster to Roy.

  "Is Layfon also as useless?"

  The Layfon who fought to protect and betrayed it all. Would he redeem himself or repeat the same failure? This was the only reason why Savaris was looking at Roy.

  "I don't want to fight a fellow Heaven's Blade successor, but I just don't want to disappoint myself," he murmured and turned his back on Roy. How was Leerin doing? He must hurry and confirm her situation.

  Nina was swaying by the time she reached the entrance to the Mechanical Department.

  "Are you......all right?"

  Nina panted, leaning against the wall of the lift. Her face was pale, but her eyes emitted a light that showed she was fighting within herself.

  "Why to such a degree........." Leerin paused.

  The downward lurch of the lift put Nina's internal organs into a wreck, yet she refused to give up and lose to it. She considered Leerin's words. "Didn't I say it before? The power I possess now is far from what I truly am. Only in a dream can this power be realized, and the result is my losing to what I should have defeated, and my being protected by what I want to protect."

  Leerin listened to her talk about her powerlessness, but at the same time, she didn't feel Nina was weak.

  "This is a necessary experience to me. The fighting experience. The experience to expose my weaknesses. The experience to become another's strength. I lack all these experiences. Nothing is more important than the will to stick through to the end, and that's what I need to make up for what I lack."

  So that was why Nina was tolerating it?

  "But Nina is strong!" Looking at the light in her eyes, Leerin thought the "strong will" that she said was already in her grasp.

  "No......"

  And Leerin saw the first tremor in Nina's gaze.

  The lift stopped and opened its door. Nina staggered out. Leerin went over to steady her. She didn't refuse her help. They could smell the oil in the machines. Tubes covered the place in a complicated pattern. The path curved in between the gaps of the tubes. The dimly lit Mechanical Department gave off a pressuring atmosphere.

  "My comrade was injured in the Mechanical Department," Nina watched the scenery in the Mechanical Department of Myath. "At that time, I had a feeling of "My goal is this." That might not be the reason! I, I can't forgive myself. People probably think it's natural to borrow someone else's power when my strength isn't enough, but I can't rely on someone else's strength. I think that but I can't not do that. I can't forgive the me like that."

  Leerin felt a strong sense of self-reproach from Nina. Not allowing herself to lose. That kind of determination was Nina's most powerful weapon and also her biggest weakness.

  For some reason, Nina's words put unease in Leerin.

  "How about you relax a bit?"

  "What?"

  "I understand some of your feelings," she said, remembering her own experience. "In the past, I had thought of growing up. I wanted to become an adult so I could earn some money......"

  She had to work to help the orphanage. Though she couldn't earn a large sum of money like Layfon, as long as she could earn some...... "But I knew it wasn't easy to become an adult. My......friend was like that. The living condition at the orphanage has improved but he was exiled from the city......"

  Leerin had a shock too when she heard Layfon had been participating in underground matches. But she wasn't as disappointed as the younger children in the orphanage. She just felt very painful that Layfon was shouldering everything himself.

  She smiled at Nina's shocked expression. "What he did has brought happiness to the orphanage. Even if he didn't do that, I thought it'd be better if we did something afterwards. The money he left behind was limited, but we could make preparations. I need to learn more so I can do more for the orphanage."

  What she was doing now was for the sake of Layfon's past efforts. Hence, she had chosen to study. "Your comrades know what you try hard to do. It's ok even if you fail. It's all right to fail many times now so you won't fail in the most important moment."

  "Don't say that so easily!"

  "Then failure can't be forgiven?"

  "What?"

  "I'll forgive. Uh......On the other hand, I know he thinks he can't be forgiven."

  On the day when his deed was exposed, he kept mumbling "sorry" as the children from the orphanage looked at him with icy gazes. He had done all he could. His shoulders slumped. So lonely and tired......Watching him, Leerin wanted to cry. She felt regret and resentment for not having noticed what Layfon had been doing.

  "Reproaching yourself is the same as reproaching others. That's what I think, so rather than reproaching yourself, why not just strive forward?"

  "I see......"

  "Nina should have a lot of people that you worry about? You must lift your spirit for their sake!"

  "That......Yeah!" Nina smiled and nodded. "I don't know the situation, but I can't go back yet. For the sake of this......" She must save Myath.

  "I feel like you're the hero of a story," Leerin smiled. A story to release the world from pollutants.

  The tense atmosphere had eased.

  "Resolving different people's problems in a different place. I feel that what Nina is doing now is like what a hero would do!"

  "My personality isn't that good."

  "Personality has nothing to do with whether something can be done."

  "Perhaps......But I'm still immature!"

  Leerin smiled, admitting Nina was stubborn. The two of them finally arrived at the center of the Mechanical Department.

  "This is........."

  Wrapped in thick planks, it looked like a small hill.

  "It's similar to the one in my city. Leerin, has Myath recovered?"

  She checked the bird.

  "Still weak."

  The bird still couldn't stand. It could only move its beak. Was it because the supply of Selenium had been cut off? Anyway, they must put it back quickly......

  "Yes," Leerin nodded and headed for the hill. Nina grabbed hold of her sleeve.

  "Uh?"

  "......Come out!" Nina restored her Dite to stand before Leerin.

  "......What a shock!" Someone appeared from the shadow, and Leerin's eyes widened.

  "Thanks to you, my clones have returned to the Aurora Field."

  The man wore the mask of a beast. He felt different from the Wolf Faces. He felt alive. His meaning was clear. His eyes contained within them an intense goal like Nina's. A dazzling light shone in the depth of the mask.

  "I see. I can't defeat you people if I don't strike the real body?"

  "That's the dream of Ignasis."

  "So you're staying somewhere safe while your clones fight? Ignasis really is a coward."

  "Military Artists are not allowed to be cowards? That's unfair, the weakness of this world."

  "What did you say......?"

  "Military Artists are people given the fate of war......Have you ever asked why? What's the difference between the strong stringed by fate and the weak? It is as if your fate is already planned by others. And you've never doubted?"

  "Don't tempt me with words!"<
br />
  "Negotiation collapses. No need to tempt you anymore," he restored his Dite. "But you'll soon regret your ignorance."

  His blade was like a saw. It wasn't made to cut, but to dig. Leerin felt an evil air from that person.

  "Nina........."

  "It's ok!" The greenish color remained on Nina's face.

  "Haikizoku works for its own purpose. The collapse of the power balance must be painful!"

  "You........."

  "Isn't it natural to use what you have?"

  The man moved. Leerin failed to catch his movement. All she saw was Nina being struck back, flying to crash into a tube.

  "Nina!"

  "Stay back," Nina shouted.

  Leerin retreated. She still had Myath with her, so the man would probably chase after her. Nina's figure disappeared as the noise of fighting sounded from every direction.

  (But if this continues............)

  Myath was still weak. It might die if Leerin didn't take it back into the place, but she couldn't move with the fight going on. She didn't know how Nina did it, but Nina continued to fight.

  "What should I do............"

  Myath was losing its body heat. Leerin controlled herself. She must find a chance to close the distance.........

  "No........." she breathed in deeply. She must not let the man win. With Leerin's physical condition, it was impossible for her to run this distance. The life in her hand was trickling away. She looked for a sign of life in Myath's gem-like eyes.

  The small eyes reflected something that she couldn't comprehend.

  "This......What is this?" But Leerin saw it. She saw it. As if she was looking through a looking glass – Nina. But the sound of fighting continued in the Mechanical Department. Nina shouldn't be reflected in Myath's eyes.

  "This......What is this?"

  Something else covered Nina. A golden goat and a young girl with long hair.

  "What's going on?"

  (Haikizoku.........An Electronic Fairy.) The voice sounded in Leerin's ears. She looked around but didn't see anyone.