“Chifuyu. I’ve been looking all over for you.”
In the secret complex underneath IS Academy... Ichika stepped from the long, dark hallway leading to the operations room, to find Chifuyu reading through some papers.
“Ichika. What’s up?” She didn’t seem shocked to see him, even though he had strict orders for bed rest. In fact, she didn’t even turn her chair to face him. There was a coldness there that he couldn’t quite place his finger on.
“Aren’t you surprised, Chifuyu?”
“.........”
She’d acted as if the changes in his body were completely expected. The healing—rather, repair of his wounds. His unnaturally-heightened senses. And, more than anything, his uncanny synchronization with his IS. As incredible as it was, it was all being taken as a matter of course.
“You must know something,” he said.
“‘Something’?”
Chifuyu pushed away the stack of papers and stared up at the blank, featureless ceiling.
“Probably everything you want to know.” She still didn’t turn to face him. He couldn’t read her expression. “Or maybe...”
“Hm?”
“Maybe more than you want to know.”
“......?!” There was already a mountain of things he wanted to know. Ichika shivered as he realized that the truth went even deeper, that there would be no turning back.
“Are you ready to find out?” She finally turned and looked at him, her stare as sharp as a blade.
“I...” He’d never intended to push it that far. Curious or not, when it was put to him like that, he wasn’t ready. As if to remind him how childish his decision to bother her with it was, Chifuyu turned her eyes back to her papers. “Chifuyu, I...”
“Enough talk.” Ichika fell silent for a moment which seemed to last forever. And then, just as he was working up the courage to speak again, the door opened behind him.
“Mm? Aren’t you being a bit too strict with him, Chichan?” The voice was as playful as could be, but something about it terrified Ichika deep down inside.
“Tabane?! What are you doing here?!” Why was she in the secret complex beneath IS Academy? How did she even get there?
“You should know, Icky. There’s nowhere I can’t get to.” Tabane’s words would have been playful if they weren’t so twisted. Her abject, gleeful self-confidence set him on edge.
He didn’t know what he wanted to do. Didn’t know what he should do. But there was one thing he did know. Chifuyu and Tabane had spent so long by each other’s side that the shadow which fell between them was far deeper and darker than he could comprehend.
“That’s right, Icky! I’m going to tell you everything about your parents that Chichan never did!”
“My parents...?”
Why that, all of a sudden? That had nothing to do with what he was wondering.
“Yup, Icky! It’s actually a really important part. Isn’t it, Chichan?”
Chifuyu could barely hold back her rage as Tabane mockingly turned to her.
“Enough, Tabane!” she snarled.
“Ahaha! This so isn’t like you, Chichan! You’re supposed to be cool, controlled, even regal! Watching you melt down like this is hilarious.” Tabane opened up a projection display and tossed it toward Ichika. Columns of numbers and impenetrable lines of text filled the screen.
And a single photo labeled ‘Project Mosaica.’
“Look here, Icky.” Tabane pointed to a part of the photo. “You know what that word translates to in Japanese? It translates to ‘Orimura.’ This is who you really are. The second viable fetus created by madmen seeking to surpass humanity.”
“What the...” Unable to understand what Tabane meant, Ichika wavered. As he did, she joyfully launched into a monologue.
“Now, the Orimura Project produced a great deal of interesting data. Some of which was later put to use in Germany. But enough about minor details. Here, look at this picture.”
A young girl with dark hair cradled an infant. Who was it? He didn’t even have to ask. It was Chifuyu.
“Orimura Project Experimental Subject #1000. The first successful result. Our very own Chichan. Isn’t it just so poetic? ‘A thousand winters’ for the thousandth subject.”
“......?!” Struggling to understand, Ichika slowly turned his gaze to Chifuyu, who looked for all the world like she wanted to run and hide. “Wait, no... Chifuyu, why? How...”
He could see the pain on her face, making it clearer than any words could that what Tabane said was true. She’d never told him. She couldn’t have told him. He never would have understood.
“But wait, there’s more! The Orimura Project was going fine, until one day, it was suddenly canceled. And why do you think that might be? It’s because there’s absolutely no reason to waste your time developing the ultimate human when I’m right here.”
The ultimate human. The once-in-a-generation genius. More perfect by nature than any man could imagine building. The Orimura Project was laid out to create something which could never exist naturally. But with nature having outdone it, it was meaningless.
“And that was the end of the Orimura Project. But there was just one hitch. Along with two successful specimens, there was one more off-the-books skunkworks project. And that was a problem. Whatever could be done about that? It couldn’t simply be disposed of. Not for reasons of sentimentality or mercy, no, no. It was just an experiment. But because of how absurd its numbers were.”
“Its... numbers?”
“See, just having Chichan meant the success of the Orimura Project. She’d be the mother of a new mankind. But then, Icky. Then you came along. You, the chance to drive humanity’s transformation faster than it ever could have proceeded. You, with that forbidden Y chromosome.” The words poured from Tabane’s mouth like a song, like the chanting of an eldritch curse. “That’s the problem the backers of the Orimura Project created for themselves. They wanted to create something which surpassed humanity. But they ended up with something that wasn’t human.”
Tabane sighed theatrically.
“And that’s when Chichan made her decision. She chose. Chose the one thing more important to her than the rest of the world, more important to her than her own future... You, her beloved little brother.”
And when she had, she threw away everything else. Absolutely everything. Everything she’d been promised. Even the little sister she didn’t even know she had.
“So, Icky. The truth about your parents is, you have no parents! You’re just a wreck drifting ashore from the sea of DNA. ...And that’s why I want to say this.”
Smiling, she leaned in, with words barbed enough to tear out his heart.
“You monster.”
In that moment, Ichika’s world ended, replaced by a void of despair.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Ah!” Charlotte suddenly gasped in shock. The chain of the silver bracelet Ichika had bought her the summer before had snapped.
“What’s wrong, Charlotte?” Laura asked curiously, stopping her stretches to look over at Charlotte.
“Oh, uhh, nothing.” Charlotte papered it over, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that it was an omen.
Why is my heart pounding like this? Where was Ichika, right now? What was he doing? She couldn’t help but be worried for him. As she looked out the window, a cloud passed in front of the moon.
“I hope you’re okay, Ichika...” she whispered.
It wasn’t just a bad feeling, though. The worst had come to pass.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Ngh...”
Ichika stood on the precipice of despair. Just a single push would send him tumbling to the waves below. That’s why Madoka couldn’t let it escape. Not this time. This one-in-a-thousand chance. With reflexes even quicker than an IS’ autopilot, she plunged a dagger into his chest.
“It’s over.” Madoka pulled out the bloodstained knife and cast it aside, her expression twisted with madness. “I didn’t even care about you at first. You didn’t matter. But then I realized. Oh, yes, I realized. You were the only way to hurt Orimura Chifuyu.”
Her face contorted into a parody of a grin.
“DAMN YOUUUUUU!” Chifuyu cried out, her rage red-hot.
“That’s it. Perfect. You finally have to notice me now, Orimura Chifuyu.” Madoka turned to face her—only for Chifuyu to dive by her toward Ichika. Toward her beloved little brother, as his lifeblood spilled out on the floor.
“You...” As she wrapped her arms around Ichika, Chifuyu glared at Madoka. “I’ll kill you. I’LL KILL YOU ALL! No matter what.”
“I was wondering when you’d work yourself up to that, Chichan.” Tabane smiled. Turning her back, she strode away.
“Come, then. When you’re ready to take on the world.” She beckoned to Madoka. “We’ll be waiting, Chichan.”
Waving, she disappeared even more adroitly than usual.
“Waiting for you at the end of the world.”
The words hung in the air as only the blood-spattered siblings were left...