The call from “Kyoya” came shortly before noon. He said he was in the neighborhood and wanted to see her. He didn’t say why, only that it was a pressing matter. Sayaka set aside her suspicions. After all, being reluctant to come to the hospital was very much like him.
He hadn’t been a particularly happy camper either when he’d visited with Mephisto. And hearing him say he wanted to see her thrilled her more than it awakened any doubts.
The place was a nearby coffee shop.
There were ten or so people in the place when she got there, along with the lingering odor of tobacco smoke and Sheridan Fanu singing “The Hunter of Martin River.” But no Kyoya.
As she stood there, a man with a short mustache — who must’ve been the proprietor—approached her and said that her date would be back in five minutes and asked her to wait here. He showed her to a window seat.
Sayaka furrowed her brows. All the seats were occupied. In front of her were a young couple, a woman in a colorful and ornate scarf and long dress, two salaryman types in suits.
“It’s full.”
The proprietor turned around. “What? Oh, here’s an open seat in the middle.”
Sayaka looked back. The woman was raising a coffee cup to her lips. “There’s somebody there too.”
“Eh?” the proprietor burst out. “Um, are you sure? You’re not nearsighted, are you? Follow me. Right here.”
He walked ahead of her and indicated the place. Sayaka felt a surge of fear. A woman was sitting right there. And yet the man saw only an empty space.
“This should do, no?” he said stiffly, and walked off.
Sayaka stood there. She couldn’t leave. The woman raised her hand. Sayaka pressed the thumb of her right hand against the ball of her middle finger, releasing the safety on her laser ring.
The woman beckoned to her. Against all her natural instincts, as if pulled by an invisible string, Sayaka walked over and sat down across from her.
“Who are you?” said Sayaka.
“You don’t know?” the woman asked softly.
For the first time, Sayaka realized that the scarf was covering the woman’s mouth. Then how did she drink the coffee? And another thing caught her attention. In the valley between the swell of her breasts, peeking out from the plunging neckline of her dress was a dark red oval like a birthmark.
She saw her reflection in the woman’s black eyes. Fighting the sensation of being sucked into them, Sayaka was sure she had seen them somewhere else.
“I have been with you always. Only you haven’t realized it. I have been so lonely. My beloved husband awakened first to the possibility, but you continue on unawares. No, you forcibly suppress it. You don’t wish to set me free. What tremendous power. Ordinarily, that most detestable of human qualities, that they have been endowed with from the start, could easily be strengthened in other ways. I’m surprised the world has ingénues like you left in it.”
“W-what are you talking about?”
Sayaka could hear the blood coursing through her veins. There was no way she should understand what the woman was talking about—but nevertheless she did. This woman was telling the truth!
She reached out and took hold of Sayaka’s right hand. Not a cold, dead hand. A warm and living one.
“A good thing you were unaffected by that memory restoration machine. You lost your memories and everybody claims to have seen nothing. That was to preserve your sanity. As a result, since that time, I have been able to appear like this, albeit not yet in perfect form.”
The woman tightened the grip of her hand. Sayaka felt her bones creak.
“Stop it!”
“You cannot escape. Because I will return to you.”
“No!” she shouted, jerking her right hand.
Her hand came away so smoothly that she arrested its movement at once, and managed to stop herself just before it collided with the window glass.
Sayaka noticed that she was alone. The customers all around her stared at her with startled expressions. She blushed and looked at the window. “Ah!” she said, and smiled.
Kyoya was standing there. He waved, and walked into the coffee shop. “Sorry. There was something I had to do. All taken care of.”
“No problem.” She smiled again, as if what had just happened hadn’t. “I’m glad you asked me.”
“Yeah?” Kyoya grinned and reached for the coffee cup.
Huh? Sayaka said to herself.
“What?”
“Oh, nothing.”
“In that case, all the better. So you didn’t notice?”
“Eh?”
Kyoya raised the coffee cup to his mouth. The rim covered his nose and mouth. For a moment, she could only see his eyes.
Sayaka gulped.
“Wasn’t I drinking coffee?” Kyoya calmly asked.
Sayaka nodded. She’d mistakenly thought that woman had ordered it. She steeled her nerves and betrayed no fear.
“I first drank it at the palace,” Kyoya went on. He took another sip. “Took to it right off. I order it as a matter of course now. Oh, that’s right. My preferred beverage is Deimos beer, right?”
“Who are you?”
“Come with me and you’ll understand. Don’t worry. Women aren’t my thing.”
“You and that woman just now, are you partners?”
“Ah. Not exactly. You might rather say we hate each other’s guts. Thanks to her, we have been imprisoned for ages. Two thousand years, seeing and hearing hardly a thing. A man loses the will to work under those conditions. Hey, what do you say we pretend we’re on a date?”
Sayaka got to her feet. The laser ring on her right hand was fully charged.
“Take it easy.” Kyoya put down the cup and wiped his mouth. “If you don’t want to, you’re free to leave. But if I don’t do the job I came here to do, it’s back in the brig. You can’t run away. Give it up. Come with me to the castle. We’ll have fun.”
“Don’t move!” Sayaka thrust out the ring. Kyoya — his doppelganger — quickly raised his arms. The other customers followed suit. “Let’s take this outside. We don’t want to inconvenience the other people here.”
“Fine with me.”
Kyoya stood up and marched outside in front of her. Sayaka paid the bill. The proprietor stared blankly back at her.
The two set off in the direction of Kawadacho Philanthropic Hospital.
“So where are we going?”
“The police.”
“The palace guard, you mean?”
“More or less.”
His nonchalance gave Sayaka a strange feeling. Aside from that recent look he gave her, she could easily think of him as an otherwise harmless master of disguise. She soon understood just how far this was from the truth.
They hadn’t gone a dozen steps from the coffee shop when five dark shadows surrounded them holding firearms and laser guns.
“Who are you?”
One of the men smiled. “We’re agents with the Information Bureau. Chief Yamashina’s orders.”
“So you’ve been watching the whole time?”
“Twenty-four seven.”
Sayaka lowered her ring.
“Who are they?” Kyoya asked.