“So, let me ask this: what are you, yourself, after?” Leonard tried again. “What are you fighting us for? And don’t give me some grand motivation like revenge against Amalgam, or resistance against our control of the world. I want to hear as simple and honest a reason as you can give me.”
“To get Chidori back and return to a normal life,” Sousuke told him. “That’s all.”
“Impossible,” Leonard told him bluntly.
“It’s not.”
“Yes, it is. Even if you get rid of me, someone else will come for her eventually. There’s no way society will accept her into their ranks,” Leonard predicted. “And Mithril isn’t made up of angels, either... Sooner or later, they’ll begin to hunger for her power to change the world. They’re an organization, after all, no different from any other.”
Sousuke said nothing.
“But if I correct the warped history, she’ll be able to live life as a normal human,” Leonard hypothesized. “No one will go after her. She’ll live in peace, fall in love, have children, and grow old... Just as you wanted for her. It’s the only way to resolve this.”
Given his earlier explanations, Sousuke thought, it might be true. A corner of his jumbled mind was telling him that Leonard was right, but that he was missing something important. Why was it that he found himself rejecting that resolution?
No, he knew why. Because if it happens that way, I won’t be in her life, he realized. Every word Leonard said—fall in love, have children, grow old—stung at his heart. I won’t be there. I won’t even be able to watch her from afar.
“But then there’d be no point,” he finally said.
“A challenging dilemma,” Leonard agreed. “I struggled with it, as well. I’d like you to struggle the same way.” Then, he lifted up a piece of concrete and threw it down the stairs.
Sousuke threw a piece of his own, and they remained lost in their work for several minutes in silence. At last, they worked together to pull out a steel girder, which caused much of the rubble blocking the stairs to come crumbling down all at once. When the dust and smoke cleared, there was a hole just big enough for a person to pass through.
“Well, now we’re safe,” Leonard whispered, climbing through the hole. He was completely defenseless now, but Sousuke couldn’t bring himself to attack. He followed after, and they made it safely to the next floor up, a narrow corridor that formed a T-intersection with the stairs.
The ceasefire was over. The enemies stood a few meters away from each other, facing each other in the darkness.
“All right,” said Leonard. “Shall we resume our attempts to kill each other?”
There’s no risk of starting a fire now, Sousuke thought silently. We can both use guns and explosives. Furthermore, this was his best chance to kill Leonard. Even in the Laevatein, he had little chance of victory against the man’s Belial. But here on the ground, things were better. It was his last chance to eliminate a possibly massive future threat.
“It’s fine. Don’t hold back.” Through the dust and the darkness, Leonard Testarossa smiled. It wasn’t his earlier smug smile. He seemed almost burning now, staring right at him, hoping for a fight. This was the smile of a madman, who had no further attachment to this world.
Sousuke was suddenly seized with the thought that he couldn’t possibly kill this man. It wasn’t that he’d lost his nerve; he’d just lost all of his earlier hostility. Listening to Leonard’s words had produced a hesitance inside of him.
If... If Leonard’s goals are achievable, wouldn’t that be the best way to return Kaname to a peaceful world? he wondered. Will killing him now prevent that? I don’t care what happens to me. Chidori... Why aren’t you here? After a moment’s hesitation, he finally said, “Not now.”
“All right,” Leonard agreed. “We’ll vent our frustrations on each other another day.” Then he walked away from Sousuke.
He’s vulnerable, with his back turned, Sousuke thought. I can still catch him by surprise. It will probably be my last chance. But nevertheless, he didn’t make a move. Leonard disappeared into the darkness, and the chance to shoot him was gone.
“One last thing... I’m going to see my goal through, even if the whole world turns against me.” Leonard’s voice resounded through the corridor. “You can sit back and watch if you wish. But the next time we meet, I won’t show a shred of mercy. I’ll do whatever it takes to kill you.”
Sousuke couldn’t find it in him to respond. He stood there dejectedly, until he heard the enemy’s footsteps recede into nothingness.
Change the world? he wondered. Now that he was alone with his thoughts, it seemed absurd again. These rejuvenated doubts proved to him that he was still in his right mind. But he had a more important task remaining...
“Chidori...” he said to himself. If she were somewhere inside the ruins, he had to find her before the enemy did.
Kaname and Tessa passed through the dome’s hatch and proceeded down a narrow tunnel. They’d left Lemon outside of the dome; it was hard to imagine he’d still want to come in with them.
déjà vu, déjà vu, déjà vu... Kaname’s thoughts repeated themselves again and again. The closer they got to the core, the worse the indescribable pressure and exhaustion that assailed her became.
It was only five meters or so. Why did their finish line, that tiny room in the dome, still feel so far away? It was that feeling of despair at the ninth station of Mt. Fuji, when the peak was in sight, but no matter how you climbed, you never seemed to reach it.
And both of them felt it. Hand in hand, they communicated without words.
I’m scared. Hang in there. Almost there.
It’s hard. Can’t breathe. Don’t give up.
It was even hard to tell which of them was doing the complaining, and which was doing the encouraging. Stepping through those several hundred meters that felt like eternity, the two girls arrived at the center of the dome.
“This is...”
At the core of the first TAROS lay a corpse, covered in electrodes. It was secured, mannequin-like, at the center of a receptacle the size of a large bathtub, hooked up to countless cables and tubes.
It was a woman—and apparently a young woman, at that. She wasn’t rotted or bleached to her bones or mummified. It was as if she’d turned into wax, or to ice that had gone cloudy. Her body still had its luster; her copious bosom and slender legs remained perfectly preserved. If you poured varnish on a freshly-dead person, they’d probably look like this—that was the thought her smooth lines inspired in Kaname. Less a corpse and more a sculpture...
She couldn’t make out her face. The countless electrodes that crowned the so-called sculpture’s head obscured it like a helmet, and the head was at the exact center of the dome, probably to increase the experiment’s precision.
“Who is she?” Tessa and Kaname asked together at the exact same time.
“The trial subject from 18 years ago. I don’t know who it is, though.”
“Then why is the corpse in this state?”
“No... The actual corpse rotted away a long time ago,” they explained. “What we’re seeing now is the residue of her existence. Her mind and form have manifested physically all these years later, building up through the omni-sphere.”
It was like an icicle forming in a limestone cave, crafted molecule by molecule by the power that lingered here. A rift in time. This crystal—the woman’s residue itself—was the Whispering. My power is limited now, but some day... yes, some day in the future that nobody knows is coming, I’ll be reborn. A greater power is controlling me now. It won’t be eternal. Ten years? A hundred years? There’s no telling. An unknown amount of time...
“Get ready,” said the fused consciousness of Tessa and Kaname. She took a plastic explosive out of the bag in her hand. She attached an electric fuse and lay it at the sculpture’s feet. She rolled out a cord from a reel and attached it to a detonator plunger.
“We’re blowing her up?” they asked.
“Yes,” they answered. “We’re blowing her up.”
That was her objective. This sculpture—this crystallized catalyst—was receiving tau waves sent from another time and relaying them into higher-energy iota waves, which were causing things like Michel Lemon’s madness. By destroying it, they could free Yamsk-11 of its curse. But they couldn’t stop the same crystal from growing again someday. They’d have to destroy it again another time.
No... Wouldn’t that be the greatest contradiction, the most wasted effort? They couldn’t stop the appearance of the Whispering. It was eternal. In that case...
She heard a voice.
How intelligent of you, my daughter. Thank you for coming.
A voice she’d known for a long, long time.
Yes, it’s me. I’ve been waiting for you to come. I’ve called to you many times in the past. Every time, you resisted me and shut me out. But you’re here now, as you were always meant to be. You can’t shut me out any longer. Accept my power. Take in my soul.
If there is a god, then we are the closest thing there is to it. We are the three Fates in one: Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos. There’s no longer any need to fear. Hold out your hand. Open your heart. Let out a cry and embrace infinite joy.
That’s right. This is how it’s always been for us. Your hesitation is just... killing time...
“Kaname-san?!” Tessa screamed desperately. Her voice went beyond simple fear and despair.
The next thing she knew, Kaname was standing in front of the “sculpture” formed in the middle of the TAROS, stroking her exposed cheek.
“We’re here to destroy it! Get back!” Tessa warned her, gripping the detonator.
“Destroy...?” Kaname whispered, as if possessed with a fever. Whatever had been pounding in her skull all this time was gone now. The déjà vu had stopped, as well. Her vision was clear. It was like breathing her first unimpeded breath after a bad case of nasal congestion. “There’s no need to destroy it now.”
“What?” Tessa asked.
Kaname left the sculpture and walked up to Tessa, knowing exactly what to do next. She took the arm of the bewildered girl and quietly took the detonator from her. Tessa reached for it in surprise, but she batted the hand away and tossed the detonator aside.
“What are you—” Tessa began to ask, but Kaname quickly stole the gun away from Tessa’s belt and slapped her across the cheek. As the other girl lost balance, she grabbed her by the collar and pulled her up close with all the strength she had. Tessa gasped.
“Let’s go, Tessa. There’s nothing left for us here,” Kaname whispered. Behind her, the statue audibly shattered.