The Justices gathered in the ruined unit. After they passed through the gate separating the park district from the skyscraper district, the Hidden Pool Waterfall, Primeval Wood of Mystery, and Flat Shallow Coast flashed by in seconds, segueing into a sea of clouds. Normally the clouds functioned to keep strangers out, but the Justices passed through instantaneously, like they had some special passcode.
The clouds cleared to reveal the Dragon’s castle.
But instead of the closed space it had been up till now, it was an ordinary space like U’s Main Stream. The castle was clearly visible from every angle.
The Dragon’s castle…
Has finally…
Been exposed
ASes watched anxiously to see what would happen.
The Justices broke down the castle doors with a crash and flooded in.
“Yaaaaaah!” they roared.
The broad entrance hall was instantly filled with troops. They pushed and shoved up the staircase carrying hammers, chains, and drills, then ran headlong down the hallway. Chaotic destruction reigned in every corner of the castle.
The courtyard was no exception. The troops busted in with their shoes on and trampled the rose garden. The pink and black rosebushes were mercilessly ripped from the ground, torn to pieces, trampled underfoot.
Justin delivered a message to all the ASes in U:
“We will not back down! The Beast’s origin will be brought to light!!”
In between his fingers was the rose petal he’d picked up while interrogating Belle. He had determined the location of the Dragon’s castle by analyzing data in the petal.
“He will pay for his sins before all of U!!”
A phalanx of corporate logos emerged behind Justin as he spoke. The Justices had more corporate sponsors than ever before.
“Heh…”
Justin turned to count the logos with a satisfied smile.
The Beast will finally be unveiled!
ASes thronged the streets, watching the drama unfold. On the huge screens lining U’s Main Stream, a live broadcast from the Dragon’s castle played alongside larger-than-life images of the Dragon himself overlaid with the words “WHO IS THE BEAST?”
I wonder who he really is
Everyone wants to know.
They say he’s some psycho killer still on the loose.
I heard he’s a corrupt tax-evading businessman
The Dragon’s image was quickly blotted out by thoughtlessly cruel comment bubbles.
Get lost, Beast!
You’re worthless.
He might as well just disappear
Mr. Reseggnation and Hey-o Doggo were livestreaming the castle situation on their YouTube channel.
“Hey, Dragon!” Mr. Reseggnation screamed. “You watching this?! Huh?!”
“I doubt it,” Hey-o Doggo said, ever the rational one.
“Kids around the world are on your side! Are you watching? Are ya?!”
“I told you, he’s not. Unfortunately.”
Hey-o Doggo started reading out the names of children from around the world who had sent messages.
“Here’s Ian, age thirteen, Harper, age fourteen, and Amelia, age twelve.”
“Grown-ups are bullying the Dragon!”
They were calling in their complaints from their phones.
“You listening, Dragon?!”
“Next we have Oliver, age eleven, Liam, age ten, Emma, age nine, and Aida, age ten.”
“I feel bad for him!”
“You’re good people, kids. So sweet.”
“Next are a couple of our regulars: Camille, age sixteen, and Jake, age thirteen.”
“Somebody save him!”
“Thanks for all your comments, guys! Keep it up!”
“Now let’s hear from Jiali, age thirteen, Yiran, age twelve, Junjie, age thirteen, and Haoran, age twelve.”
“We need to cheer him on!”
“Hear that, Dragon? You’re one lucky dude!”
“Next we’ve got Charlie, age eighteen, Leo, age nine, and their friend.”
“There’s still time.”
“Yeah, it’s not too late.”
“Next is Tomo, age eleven. I recognize that name.”
“L-let’s support…the Dragon…”
“Anything from Kei, age fourteen?” Hey-o Doggo asked, but Tomo ignored him and kept talking.
“W-we should all…cheer him on…”
Suddenly, someone else burst into the feed with Mr. Reseggnation and Hey-o Doggo.
“Agh!”
“Get real, loser!” The pudgy young intruder, who was wearing goggles, pointed mockingly at Tomo’s viewer number. “You’ve got, like, three viewers!”
Mr. Reseggnation and Hey-o Doggo protested.
“An intruder! Where’d he come from?! This is awful!”
“Who are you?! Go away!”
Other young people started laughing at the viewer numbers in Tomo and Kei’s video chat.
“No one cares!!”
“The Dragon can go to hell!”
“Screw the Dragon!”
“Quit that! This is our stream!”
“Get out! Darn it! Stop!”
More teenagers laughed at the desperation of the two boys.
“They’re trying way too hard!!”
“Bite me, Dragon!”
“Get bent!”
“Enough already! You’re so mean! Stop!”
“Jerks! You’re all idiots! Get outta here!”
Mr. Reseggnation and Hey-o Doggo dropkicked the invaders’ chat windows over and over.
“……!!”
I jumped up in shock. Hiro was yelling at me over the phone.
“Meet me at the old school!”
“Got it!”
Forgetting all my worries from just moments ago, I took off running down the riverbank. As I ran, I pushed my earbuds into my ears. The devices pinged. The U app started up on my phone. The body-sharing began.
I put my hand on the door to U and shoved it open.
The Dragon’s castle towered before my eyes, smoke curling from different parts of it. I climbed over the splintered door. Inside the entryway, the carved banister and pillars had been reduced to rubble by the rampaging Justices. I climbed the grand staircase and ran down the hallway. Holes had been punched in the walls, doors were off their hinges, and the glass ceiling was shattered.
When I reached the ballroom, I gasped.
Mermaids littered the floor. They were badly wounded and struggling for breath.
“Oh…!” I ran to them in horror. Kneeling, I lifted the white sea slug mermaid in my arms.
“Why…?”
Who attacked them?
The wounded mermaid looked up at me, her eyes barely open.
“Protect…our master…,” she whispered.
Her words touched my heart. Such a tiny thing, and yet she was so worried about the great Dragon. My eyes filled with tears. I wanted to fulfill her wish—but how?
Footsteps thundered through the castle.
“Huh?!”
Justin burst into the ballroom, trailing the other Justice leaders. Crossing his arms menacingly, he gazed down at the battered mermaids.
“They refused to tell us where the Beast is,” he said.
“How could you do something so awful?” I pleaded, looking up at him.
“Don’t worry about them. They’re just AI,” he said casually, tilting his head like it was no big deal.
I was so furious I felt like my hair was standing on end. To him, everyone was merely an object to be controlled. Troops ran into the room.
“We can’t find him,” they informed Justin.
“Then we’ll leave.”
They quickly filed out the door. Justin looked back at me and said, “Burn the castle down.”
I gasped.
“We’ll smoke him out like a rat from his hole.”
With that, he strode off.
“……!”
I was left behind to bite my lip in helpless desperation. Just then, the pretty white sea slug mermaid signaled to me with her eyes.
“Look…behind…you.”
I did as she said. One of the gates was blocked off with stones. I was sure it had been open before; I recognized the spiral pattern above it.
“I will tell…only you,” the mermaid said, slowly closing her eyes, as those words had taken her last drop of strength.
A square gap opened in the stone, and it began to recede in pieces split by cracks.
A hidden passage appeared.
I passed through the gate and climbed the crumbling spiral staircase. The pixelation was even worse than before. It seemed on the verge of collapsing. At the top of the stairs, I saw a balcony.
“……!”
The Dragon lay collapsed on the floor.
“No!!” I screamed, running to him.
He struggled to sit up, grasping the balcony banister as he panted and groaned. It didn’t seem like the Justices had injured him. Instead, he appeared to be suffering in the same way he had on the night we danced, when he had suddenly hunched his back beneath invisible blows. Was an invisible hand beating him now, too?
“It’s all right. Try to calm down,” I said, standing beside him. I tugged at the hem of his cape, trying to lead him out of the castle. “It’s dangerous here. Escape with me.”
But the Dragon only whispered with ragged breath, “Just gotta get through this… I just gotta get through this…” He seemed to be talking to himself.
“…‘Gotta’?”
It was strange to hear him say that—like a kid, almost. He looked at me with kind eyes.
“Belle… I’m sorry I never told you the truth…,” he whispered, gripping the banister.
“No—wait!!”
Before I could stop him, he jumped over the banister and began to fall.
“Wait!!”
Twisting as he fell, he caught an updraft and soared toward the Main Stream, leaving the ruins of his castle behind. I stared after him helplessly.
As Justin had promised, flames licked up from the Dragon’s castle. Fire engulfed the building within moments. The photograph over the fireplace in the Dragon’s room burned with everything else, the flames obscuring the woman behind the cracked glass.
In minutes, everything was burned to the ground, as if the entire castle had been made of paper.
Kamishin and Ruka were sitting side by side in the Ino Station waiting area, looking at their phones, when Shinobu came in.
“Hey, Shinobu, look at this. Everything’s going to hell in U,” Kamishin said, holding out his phone.
An online newscast was broadcasting footage of the burning castle. The scene cut to an image of Belle searching for something. The chyron read, “Belle appears.” Shinobu stared at it.
“…Suzu.”
“Suzu?”
“Do you guys know where she went?”
“I dunno…”
“Earlier Suzu was telling me about her elementary school,” said Ruka. “Is that anywhere near here?”
“……!”
Shinobu’s head jerked up like a puzzle piece had just fallen into place. He glanced around and ran out of the station.
“H-hey, Shinobu!” Kamishin shouted in confusion. Ruka ignored him and took off jogging, too.
“Huh? …Ruka!!”
Kamishin gave up and followed.
Around the same time, I was arriving at the classroom in the old school.
“Suzu! What took you so long?!” Hiro hollered.
“Sorry!”
“I’m running an autosearch of pages that might be relevant,” she said. On the large monitor, windows were popping up all over a world map.