“I wasn’t trying to hide that I did it,” Monkey said, but then stopped herself. “No, I suppose I was trying to hide it. I didn’t want you looking at me like you are now.”
“I’m not being critical,” Rat said. “I’ve always had this look on my face. Was born with it. I don’t mean anything, really. Anyway, you only did it because you sensed that someone had decided to make a preemptive strike before your budding alliance could form. In order to keep everyone alive, you cleared the stage. Isn’t that it?”
He was mostly correct. If she were to append anything, it would be that she hadn’t merely had some vague sense that someone was going to make a move—what she clearly sensed was the intent to kill. Monkey wasn’t the only one who intended to put a swift end to the Zodiac War before the fighters ever left that starting room—but this person had decided on a completely opposite approach. Had Monkey delayed her response by a fraction of an instant, the battle might really have ended then and there.
“I see,” Rat said. “And you don’t know who wanted to kill everyone?”
“I don’t,” Monkey replied. “I didn’t have time to find out. It was all I could do to escape—to let everyone escape.”
“I said you can drop the modesty. I bet if you wanted to, you could have figured out who it was and taken them out instead of running away. Tell me I’m wrong.”
“I won’t say I couldn’t have,” Monkey admitted. “But I don’t use my power like that. Great power must be used correctly.”
“Correctly, eh? I think maybe whoever wanted to kill us had it correct. Their way would have ended the Zodiac War a whole lot quicker than this exhausting peace plan of yours. You go through all this time and trouble to make your peace negotiations and to offer your ceasefires, but don’t you think that if you just wielded whatever power it is that you have to end this battle in an instant, you’d save more lives, and faster?”
Monkey was lost again. She asked, “What do you mean?”
“I mean—aside from yourself, think about what kind of people take part in the Zodiac War. What reason do you have to go and break your back over saving the lives of their kind? The world would be better off with all of us dead. That includes me. And if you’re going to say that every life is equally precious, or that nobody is truly bad to the core, or some cliché like that, well, those are just hollow words from someone who won’t face reality.”
“If that’s truly what you’ve decided,” Monkey said, “then you’d better quit being a fighter right now. You don’t have what it takes to fight.”
The words came out a little more harshly than she’d intended. Maybe he did provoke me after all. Despite that vague realization, she continued, “You said no one in the world has saved as many people as I have. But no one else has failed to save as many as I have. There are many who I tried to save but couldn’t. More than I could ever count. And more than I could ever forget.”
Rat listened.
“I’ve seen countries destroyed,” Monkey said. “I’ve seen senseless massacres. I’ve seen perversions of justice that are seared into the backs of my eyelids. I’ve seen humans hunted. I’ve seen slavery. I’ve seen treachery and betrayal. I’ve seen inhumane weapons, human trafficking, elders left to die in the wilderness. I’ve seen children kill their parents, and I’ve seen children culled. I’ve seen cultural suppression, the mass destruction of historical sites, natural resources exhausted, discrimination and prejudice. I’ve seen revenge strikes and counterattacks, male chauvinism and the subjection of women, famine and plague. I’ve seen all of it. I’ve seen it with no end. I’ve stared at it. I’ve seen reality. And after all that, here I am—still saying my ‘hollow words.’ Still having chosen my way. I chose to use the power of words not to end a war but to end all war. I’ve been through hell, but I still want us all to get along. I still want us all to be happy.”
Then, gently, she added, “Don’t underestimate my ‘hollow words,’ boy.”
The boy had fallen back into silence—or rather, back into sleep. Monkey didn’t think he was sulking, but she wondered if she had gone too far, and regretted it. Monkey thought, Children really are hard to deal with. And now that they were again only two, the uncomfortable silence hung in the air unbroken. No matter the grandiose words she spoke, no matter who called her a hero, how pathetic was she if she couldn’t manage to communicate with one child? That just goes to show how much I have yet to learn. To the best of her inexperience, she thought about what to do next.
Monkey had been planning on waiting for everyone to calm back down before proposing her peace plan again, but if what Chicken had said about the state of things aboveground was to be believed—and Monkey had no choice but to believe it for now—then the Zodiac War was progressing at a far more rapid pace than the pacifist had expected. This battle had already seen three victims. If Rat’s hunch was to be believed—and with nothing to substantiate it, Monkey still held reasonable doubts—then Chicken too was dead. Of the original twelve fighters, only Rat and Monkey and at most six others remained.
Maybe I was being too naïve, but I’m surprised that so many fighters are so actively engaged in killing. Even if the judge says we can have any wish fulfilled, isn’t staying alive worth something? Besides, everyone here is resourceful enough to be able to fulfill most any wish through their own efforts.
Take Rabbit, for example. From what Chicken had told Monkey before leaving for the surface, the man was a necromanticist who could command the dead in battle. With that kind of power, there was little he could want that he couldn’t get for himself. What reason then did he have to risk his life to fight? Sure, once nominated for the Zodiac War, participation was compulsory—that was an invitation one dared not decline—but she had expected to see a difference in the actions of the fighters who approached the game with eagerness and those who did so with reluctance. That was why the people in charge took steps to keep the Zodiac War moving, such as making the combatants swallow poison jewels. But judging by the pace the warriors were setting, such steps seemed hardly necessary.
Do I wait a little longer and watch for the right opportunity? Or do I go aboveground now? I need to make a decision.
And then she didn’t need to make a decision. Rather, she didn’t have the chance to make one.
There came a loud noise, amplified by the echoes of the narrow sewer passages, and too loud to be ignored. The echoes masked the direction of the sound’s source, but wherever it was, it was coming closer.
“Nezumi, wake up!”
Rat groaned and said, “Just five more minutes.”
Monkey kicked him.
“Ow! I thought you were against violence.” Rat sat up. “Wait, what’s that noise? Sounds like a helicopter or something.”