"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
The shadow said nothing.
✦ ✦ ✦
Tell me, Scarecrow...will I... go to heaven? she asked the shadow, utterly at peace.
✦ ✦ ✦
But the shadow answered firmly, “No.” Rather coldly. “You’re going to hell.”
✦ ✦ ✦
"......"
✦ ✦ ✦
Surprised, she was briefly stunned, but soon...
✦ ✦ ✦
Of course I am... just like you...
✦ ✦ ✦
She nodded, smiling what must have been the
✦ ✦ ✦
most beautiful smile she had ever produced.
✦ ✦ ✦
All of that had happened in her mind alone.
✦ ✦ ✦
Pigeon’s expression remained exactly as it had been the moment she’d been flung aside. Her neck was twisted, and did not move. She lay on the floor with her limbs thrust out askew.
✦ ✦ ✦
She never once moved, never once responded.
✦ ✦ ✦
"............"
✦ ✦ ✦
A shadow looked down at her.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was the only thing that remained just as it had been in her vision. Black hat, black cloak, a strange, inhuman silhouette.
✦ ✦ ✦
"............"
✦ ✦ ✦
The shadow stared at the corpse for a moment longer, but then it turned. . .and was gone.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi’s reaction was frighteningly fast.
✦ ✦ ✦
She ran without a glance behind her, jumped onto her bicycle, kicked the ground, and was pedaling at top speed a moment later.
✦ ✦ ✦
"...mmm!”
✦ ✦ ✦
The swifiness of her movement surprised Makiko, but she soon gave chase.
✦ ✦ ✦
Her legs were still evolving, but they could already reach speeds of more than fifty kilometers per hour.
✦ ✦ ✦
...she chose to run away?
✦ ✦ ✦
Glaring after Nagi, Makiko felt like she’d overes-timated her. But she soon changed her mind.
✦ ✦ ✦
oh...she doesn’t want the security guards join-ing in. She ’s drawing‘me away to protect them. I see, well done.
✦ ✦ ✦
She grinned. Kirima Nagi would be the ideal
✦ ✦ ✦
prey.
✦ ✦ ✦
Try as she might, she could not pull ahead of her pursuer. Their speed was identical. . .no, she realized that the thing chasing after her was probably not at full speed. She was merely following her prey, waiting for Nagi to tire. Like a wolf chasing a deer.
✦ ✦ ✦
What now?
✦ ✦ ✦
There was a three-way fork in the road ahead, and for a second she hesitated.
✦ ✦ ✦
Should she head toward a populated area? Maybe the police could help...
✦ ✦ ✦
No. . .that was out of the question. Nobody would believe her, and the monster behind her would kill them before she could even try to explain.
✦ ✦ ✦
Think! What now?
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi leaned her body abruptly to one side, taking the road into the mountains, away from innocents.
✦ ✦ ✦
From behind her came a sound. “Ah ha ha ha!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Loud laughter. “Beautiful, Nagi-Chan! You really are Kirima Seiichi’s daughter. Taking the future of all mankind on your little shoulders, are you?”
✦ ✦ ✦
The shrill voice seemed to stab her in the back.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi shuddered.
✦ ✦ ✦
What now? No, I just have to grit my teeth and do it!
✦ ✦ ✦
She turned her bicycle off the road and went down the grassy bank. It was a steep slope, and the bike tumbled precariously as Nagi clung to it in desperation.
✦ ✦ ✦
"......!"
✦ ✦ ✦
Fear Ghoul bounded after her with a sneer of a smile on her face.
✦ ✦ ✦
What, you thought that little burst of speed would let you get away?
✦ ✦ ✦
If she had thought the steep slope would make her go faster, then she was mistaken. Placing herself below Makiko only meant...
✦ ✦ ✦
“Ha!”
✦ ✦ ✦
With a cheerful shout, the monster kicked off the ground, leaping into the air.
✦ ✦ ✦
Twisting as she fell, she hurtled past Nagi as though she was leaping down a flight of stairs several steps at a time.
✦ ✦ ✦
As she landed, she turned back toward Nagi.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi’s eyes were opened wide but she did not even have time to brake. The monster’s arm swung once, crushing the front wheel and knocking her sideways.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Augh!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi rolled helplessly across the ground, re-flexively breaking her fall like Sakakibara Gen had taught her.
✦ ✦ ✦
She jumped to her feet hurriedly, but Kisugi Makiko was already right on top of her.
✦ ✦ ✦
She ran, but she had not been able to get away on a bicycle, so she could hardly expect to do so on foot...
✦ ✦ ✦
“Hee hee hee hee......! Go on, Nagi-Chan,
✦ ✦ ✦
scrabble, scramble, more and more! Pathetic!” The high-pitched laughter followed right behind.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi was running out of breath. Her body was no longer steady, rocking side to side as she ran on.
✦ ✦ ✦
Yet her eyes remained the same, filled more with anger than with fear, glittering with power that her current predicament had not been able to diminish.
✦ ✦ ✦
Even now, there was something in Nagi stronger than her fear. Makiko couldn’t tell what it was; she could only discern fear. She had no idea what the other emotion was. Her prior victims had all become terrified much faster.
✦ ✦ ✦
The indomitable warrior? Even so...
✦ ✦ ✦
At first she had been looking forward to destroy-ing something so strong, but now that Nagi was showing so few signs of fear even while in mortal peril, she had moved beyond Makiko’s comprehension.
✦ ✦ ✦
"............"
✦ ✦ ✦
Makiko stopped for a moment.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi realized this quickly, from the sound, and glanced back. She was calm. She knew exactly what was going on.
✦ ✦ ✦
"............!"
✦ ✦ ✦
When she saw Nagi’s eyes, Makiko felt the blood rushing to her head. What was she?
✦ ✦ ✦
I thought fear was a universal absolute! But it means nothing to her? No, thatis impossible!
✦ ✦ ✦
Even she must crumble before complete, over-
✦ ✦ ✦
powering fear!
✦ ✦ ✦
“Enough screwing around!” she shouted. She
✦ ✦ ✦
kicked a pebble lying near her feet. It flew with astonishing speed and accuracy and struck Nagi on the right thigh.
✦ ✦ ✦
".........!"
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi fell over, sliding through the mud and
✦ ✦ ✦
right into a puddle from the momentum. The bag on her back opened, spilling its contents. There was a weapon...some kind of a nightstick...and several different kits in the water.
✦ ✦ ✦
She flailed her limbs, trying to get out, but her leg was numb and her body would not respond properly.
✦ ✦ ✦
She tried to move forward anyway, but Kisugi Makiko was already standing in front of her.
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi backed away, but Makiko stepped forward, maintaining the same distance.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi’s back came up against a tree behind her.
✦ ✦ ✦
She could move no more.
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
She considered moving to the side, but then she saw a look in Makiko’s eyes. She knew that either way she moved she would be attacked instantly.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi stopped moving. Her lower body was in the muddy water, both hands beneath the surface.
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
She glared fiercely up at Makiko.
✦ ✦ ✦
Makiko’s face twisted so violently she could almost hear it.
✦ ✦ ✦
"...fear me!” she snarled.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi did not react.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I told you to fear me! Scream! Cry! Beg like a pathetic worm! Panic!” Makiko shrieked, hysterically.
✦ ✦ ✦
"............"
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi’s expression never changed.
✦ ✦ ✦
Makiko’s scowl grew deeper, but then she had an idea, and her grin returned. “Oh, right. . .I didn’t tell you about Sasaki Masanori yet, did I?”
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi’s cheek twitched. When she saw that,
✦ ✦ ✦
Makiko gave a satisfied nod.
✦ ✦ ✦
“You may not have known it, but...he wasn’t
✦ ✦ ✦
human. He was like me. Well, he was a little different, technically, but the same kind of thing. His real name was Mo Murder. His employer ordered him to investigate me and to kill me if circumstances called for it. You see? He was an assassin. He’s killed dozens of people. Ha ha ha! You can’t judge people by their appearances. Especially when they aren’t even people!”
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
At last Nagi groaned.
✦ ✦ ✦
“You think I’m lying? Aw, too bad. It’s all true.
✦ ✦ ✦
That man was using you, but I was one step ahead of him. Because you stuck your nose out, I was able to polish off a powerful enemy. I owe you one,” Makiko said, with a distorted smile.
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi lowered her head, but even now, she was not afraid. Nagi’s weak point, which Makiko could sense, remained the same, unchanging.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was “the death of someone important to her.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Dying herself was far better than having that happen, and it was her one great weakness.
✦ ✦ ✦
That’s why Makiko was so annoyed. This left her with no real way of getting at Nagi.
✦ ✦ ✦
Was Sasaki Masanori important to Nagi? That
✦ ✦ ✦
hardly seemed likely. He was a stranger, someone she had just happened to run into, but it must have damaged her a little. His betrayal more than anything, probably. Nagi might not be scared yet, but she was rattled.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I’m going to turn Sasaki Masanori-san into the serial killer. Instead of me, of course. Pigeon already placed all the evidence needed in his house while he was out looking for me! Ha ha, he was an assassin, after all. It won’t hurt him any to add a few of my murders to his list.”
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
“You may think you’re some sort of hero, but you were played like a puppet by a killer. How pathetic!
✦ ✦ ✦
Everything you tried to protect was an illusion. There is only one absolute in this world...fear.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Her voice grew stronger. Nagi’s head was down.
✦ ✦ ✦
She wasn’t moving, but she was whispering something.
✦ ✦ ✦
“..................not...”
✦ ✦ ✦
Her voice was too soft to hear.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Eh? What?” Makiko stepped closer.
✦ ✦ ✦
not that I’m not scared. I’m just.
✦ ✦ ✦
She couldn’t quite make it out. Makiko stepped even closer, her face right next to Nagi’s. “What? I can’t hear you.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I’m just. . .worried.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Worried? About what?”
✦ ✦ ✦
that it’ll fail.”