OUKA ran out of strength and fell on the floor of the halted train.
“Ouka!” Kiriko dragged herself across the floor to him. Cliff and Lovel appeared from hiding and peered at Ouka’s face.
“Ouka…” Lovel said, her face white.
“Ouka?” A question hung in Cliff’s voice.
“Stay with me, Ouka!” Kiriko begged.
Ouka forced a weak smile to reassure them. “Don’t ya worry. We’re still alive, Spinoza and me both.” Relief washed over all three faces. Ouka directed just his eyes to Cliff and Lovel as he apologized. “…But I’m sorry to say I don’t think I can show ya the way there. Dram’s reached his daily limit too…”
Dram laid face-down in a corner of the train car after succeeding in his life-or-death struggle to save Ouka. He had used his full two hours, taking him out of the fight for good.
“Nor can I…” Kiriko admitted weakly. “But Sephiroth is just ahead.”
Cliff and Lovel shifted their eyes outside the train. A massive door stood in the darkness at the end of the platform.
Ouka locked his eyes on the door and said, “Go, kids… And if you happen to reach Sephiroth sooner than Grinzam, please name him instead.”
Cliff and Lovel nodded in silent agreement. They disembarked the train together and disappeared into the facility past the platform.
Kiriko waited until they left to ask, “…Are you all right, Ouka?”
“That’s my question. You doing okay, Kiriko?”
“It hurts something terrible and I can’t walk anymore, but they aren’t life-threatening injuries.”
“We’ve become a sorry mess, huh?” Ouka said. Kiriko giggled. He smiled at her and then shifted his eyes to Spinoza on the floor. “…Why did he do it?”
“Why indeed…” Kiriko seemed to feel the same way. Sorrow and a hint of loneliness overtook her voice as she said, “I don’t understand what reason could drive Torah Lord Spinoza into supporting Grinzam to the death. What mattered so much to him to betray us, to sacrifice Alita and everyone else…?”
“Because I’m the same as him.” Spinoza slowly rose.
“…!” Words escaped Ouka. Spinoza dragged only his upper body upright, and looked at Ouka and Kiriko.
“Th-The same? How?” Kiriko asked, her voice cracking.
“I was raised by the Church too. The Church kept on picking up children and raising them to do their bidding. Me, Jair, and Grinzam were kept like pets by the Church, for the sole purpose of devoting our whole lives to researching the cubes,” Spinoza spat with disgust. “Then, one day, Catalina appeared before us hopeless men. She was an amazing woman, just like her daughter Lovel. That’s why I swore to bring her back to life with Grinzam.”
“…!”
“We were able to use the Church to its full extent. Now that we’re finished with it, all that’s left is to activate Sephiroth and crush the Church. Doing so will prevent any more people like us, and poor women like Catalina, from being born into the world. Grinzam and I fought for over eight years to make this tragic wish a reality.”
Ouka listened to Spinoza in silence. After a slight pause, Kiriko quietly asked, “Torah Lord, I have one question for you… Did you arrange for Sephiroth to go berserk during the unveiling?”
Another long silence. Forever seemed to pass before Spinoza answered, “Yeah, I removed the Restrictor… I did it to make the military and Church pull out of their research on the cubes. I thought Heaven’s Gunner could stop him right away.”
“I can’t believe you…!” Kiriko blanched.
“I didn’t shy away from any method that would help bring Catalina back to us. You were all nothing more than pawns in my plan.” Spinoza smiled as though he had given up on everything in the world. Kiriko’s shoulders trembled, and she dropped her eyes to the ground as if it hurt to look at him.
But Ouka blatantly pointed out, “That’s a lie.” Kiriko’s head jerked toward Ouka. He held the frowning Spinoza captive in his gaze and clarified, “You bit out between your teeth, ‘I didn’t make it in time,’ when Alita died. I don’t think your expression then was fake.”
Ouka thought of the injuries Spinoza had inflicted on him. The bullets had hit his arms, shoulders, and legs, none of which were fatal enough to kill him. Strange wounds, considering that Heaven’s Gunner’s Engrave Incantations endowed him with the ability to aim precisely at his target.
“You must’ve regretted it all this time…that your plan created so many victims… Lemme guess, you wanted to use the red cube to bring Alita and the others back from the dead?”
Spinoza’s expression fell away.
“He’s right, isn’t he?” Kiriko said, tears in her voice. “We obediently followed you because that’s the kind of man you are. Am I wrong, Torah Lord?”
Spinoza buried his face in his hand. A pause stretched between them until he bitterly muttered, “For heaven’s sake…you two never lost your naiveté, no matter how much time passed.”
A dry click echoed outside the train. Ouka and Kiriko whirled their heads toward the open door. Looking like nothing more than a deranged, beat-up corpse, the Golem crawled into the train car.
“…No,” the word fell from Ouka’s lips like a drop of rain. In its one remaining hand, it held a gun. “emeth” glowed from the piece of skull it still had attached.
“Heaven’s Gunner!” Kiriko exclaimed. Ouka wrapped his arms protectively around her.
Spinoza’s voice fell on his back. “…You don’t know what you’re talking about, Ouka. There are only four red cubes. We can’t bring back the nine people who died in that accident.” Grief filled his voice. Ouka prepared himself for death as Spinoza vented, “We aren’t God! There’s a limit to what we can regain once it’s lost…! Which is why I chose to live the way I did!”
Dry gunfire cracked through the train car.
“…Eh?” Ouka said, his voice hollow. He didn’t feel pain anywhere.
Heaven’s Gunner’s bullet had pierced through the left side of Spinoza’s chest with absolute precision.
“Torah Lord, why?!” Kiriko rushed over and tried to put pressure on the bullet hole.
Spinoza held back her hand and quietly admitted, “I allowed nine people to die…all to bring one person back…”
“…!”
“I shouldn’t live any longer, now that Grinzam’s wish has come true… This is about the only thing I can do for Alita and the others…”
Ouka finally understood everything.
Alita and the others hadn’t been disposable pawns. They mattered just as much to Spinoza as Catalina. He must have been distraught with grief and regret when he let them die—enough to want to kill himself.
Yet, for all he wanted to die, he didn’t take his own life. After all, their deaths would truly be meaningless if Grinzam’s plan never succeeded. He had lived in purgatory until today to make their deaths mean something, planning to atone for his sins with his life once everything was over.
“Spinoza…!” Ouka took Spinoza’s hand.
Tears in her eyes, Kiriko called his name, “Torah Lord Spinoza?”
But he could no longer answer them. Warmth seeped from his hands. Heaven’s Gunner quietly crumbled behind them.