“I found her…my beloved.”
“…”
Mika Harima met Seiji Yagiri’s mumbled statement with silence. She glared at the head under the dark knight’s arm. Masaomi looked at her and back, wincing with both pain and confusion.
“H-huh…? That is the same face, isn’t it…?”
“Masaomi! Forget that—we’ve got to stop your bleeding!” Saki cried, rushing over to examine him. The next moment, shadows writhed around Masaomi’s leg, covering up the bullet wound and stopping the bleeding.
“Aaagh!” he yelped, briefly jumping from the pain, but the next moment, the shadow wriggled in complex motions, then spat out the little bullet that had been wedged deep in his leg.
“?!”
“I do not condone that my body should have sparked a conflict that leads to the loss of life. I cannot erase the memories of those who know me, but I will at least minimize the victims before I leave,” said the figure, her words simple and economical.
“This isn’t your fault, Celty… It’s all my fault!”
“Human boy. Let me ask you: If you had not met the Headless Rider, would you still be here in this place, shooting your friend with a gun?”
“…!”
Mikado had no way to refute this. He had set up the Dollars, and when they had come together for their first in-person meeting, it had materialized the extraordinary sight of the Headless Rider and brought him into her orbit.
If that hadn’t happened, then Mikado might still just be a normal high schooler right about now, and he might not have become estranged from Masaomi and Anri.
“By being in this town, my existence caused Yagiri Pharmaceuticals to go astray, Seiji Yagiri to drown in a meaningless love, and Mika Harima to give up the face she was born with.”
“Meaningless love…? What does she mean?” Seiji asked. He was gazing at the living head, his face the very picture of bliss.
Celty did not reply to him. She continued her speech.
“These are only a few examples. Many people here have found their lives manipulated and twisted out of shape by the illusion of the Headless Rider.”
“Celty…? What are you saying?” Anri wondered, worried.
The dullahan’s head looked at her and said without any discernible emotion, “I will be direct, girl of the cursed blade. I have no memory of living around you people. I am simply telling the truth as I have reconstructed it from the information I’ve collected.”
“What…?”
“It is clear that my presence has caused the gears of this city to go out of alignment. That much should be obvious, just from looking at this day’s chaos alone.”
“No…it’s not! You’re wrong! It’s not your fault, Celty!” Anri shouted. “There are people whose lives were improved and saved because they met you! People like me…”
“Girl of the cursed blade, salvation is but another kind of misalignment.”
“Huh…?”
“I am nothing but a system. Following a greater will, I exist within a limited area, warning chosen individuals of their death. There is no need for you humans to know the meaning behind this, and knowing it would not bring you any understanding.”
She sat astride the horse, imperiously observing the shocked crowd of young people.
“I regret that you have wasted your time being manipulated by a system that was not meant to exist in this place. It is an outcome that leaves no one happy.”
Then she produced a path into the sky from the shadow at her feet and pulled on shadow-made reins to point the horse toward it.
“I will return to my homeland and my purpose. By offering my words of parting to Mikado Ryuugamine, the human whose fate was most disturbed by his proximity to me, I conclude my duties within this city. Forget about me, human.”
“Hey, wait…wait up!” Seiji called out, stumbling toward her, but the black shadow tangled around his foot and sent him tumbling to the ground.
“You did not fall in love with me, only an individual part of me. I have no obligation or desire to return that emotion,” Celty replied robotically, in the very systematic form she had described.
“I’m not giving up! If you’re going back home, then I’ll go to the other side of the world for you!” he yelled, still tangled up, a true stalker.
As she watched Mika rush over to him, Anri Sonohara silently issued her own disagreements.
That’s not true. Celty is lying.
The one who’s had the deepest connection to her…
The one whose life was the most changed by her…
She was just about to speak out loud, to utter the name of the man who would make Celty pause, when…
✦ ✦ ✦
“Celty…you’re being a liar today.”
✦ ✦ ✦
The man spoke for himself, standing behind her.
It was not a powerful voice. If anything, it was gentle.
But it carried across the rooftop, crystal clear—and caused the headless horse to pause its forward motion.
Celty did not reply to him. She swung the reins.
“…What is it, Shooter? Move.”
It was as though she couldn’t hear his voice.
Instead, the man behind Anri declared, “Let’s see. Did you perhaps mean, ‘Move it, Shooter. If you stop now, then the point of lying will be lost’? Or am I mistaken about that?”
“…”
The head under the dark knight’s arm swung around toward him. It caught sight of Shinra Kishitani dressed in his coat, looking notably clear-eyed and gazing right back at her.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Human… Who are you?”
✦ ✦ ✦
Anri was shocked.
It wasn’t only her. Mikado, who was aware of their relationship, looked as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
But Shinra himself just smiled gently and said, “All right. That one’s more like ‘Why are you here? Seeing you only makes the parting more difficult, so I thought that pretending not to have any memory of you would make you give up! And why are you talking under the assumption that I haven’t lost my memory anyway?!’”
He was speaking her mental state aloud, imagining her thoughts the way a stalker might his victim. The head did not show any emotional reaction, however.
“What? What is this human saying?”
“I don’t doubt that you have recovered your memory. But I also trust you that much. I believe that you still have your memories of this city.”
“What nonsense is this? I have no memory of the last twenty years.”
“Either way, I don’t care. It was just a hope of mine. See, simply talking with you has cleared it up for me. I knew you were a kind and gentle soul, Celty. You’re too kind, in fact.”
Shinra was not uninjured. He had dulled the pain, but his condition demanded that he stay bedridden, just like Kadota. He rapped his crutches together, however, not giving away any signs of discomfort.
“Ah, let’s see. This one is more like ‘Stop it! I’m not meant to be here! My presence caused you to be terribly injured, and it completely ruined Mikado’s life!’”
“This is a waste of time. I do not understand what you are saying.”
“‘All I wanted to do was clear up the confusion in the city before I disappeared for good! I figured that if they found out I was a cold, cruel monster at heart, they would all want to forget about me! So if I act like I’ve lost my memory of them, they’ll all give up on me! And you’re the one I want to forget me the most, so why are you ruining this for me?!’ …Is that right?”
“Nonsense.” Celty snorted, head facing in his direction.
But Shinra just smiled at her. “Don’t be like that. Look at me, Celty.”
“…”
The head was already looking at Shinra, though. It was her body that had its back to him.
“Enough, human. Your ramblings are nonsense.”
“Whoa!”
She extended her shadow to spin around Shinra and tangle him up. With her back still facing him, she kicked lightly at Shooter’s flank.
“Go.”
Qrrrrrrrrrr, Shooter trilled, stamping his hooves on the spot without stepping forward. He seemed to be pushing her, urging her, but Celty ignored it.
“Go! Yah! Yah! Move, Shooter!”
But by this point, Mikado and the others understood: Shinra was probably correct.
“Celty…”
“Wait, Celty!”
Anri and Mikado called out to her. Shooter gave another mournful whinny, then began to walk up the path of shadow stretching into the sky. Celty said nothing more; she simply rode onward up into the darkened expanse.
As though she wanted to melt into the deep of the night and vanish entirely.