“Run! There’s a shooter!” people were shouting. The cries swallowed the exhibition hall, and the attendees scattered. We could tell where the gunshots had come from—the very back of the hall.
And we knew what was waiting there.
“I sure didn’t see this coming,” said Kuroe, who was holding one of my hands.
“It’s too soon,” said Shirona, holding the other. Then they each took a weapon out of our bag. Kuroe had the shield that could repel any projectile. Shirona took the mallet that could crush steel. A couple of sancta we’d brought along just in case.
“When you say you didn’t see this coming, does that mean your friend is even farther off the path of righteousness than you’d expected?” asked Elaina, who was pushing against the onrushing crowd and looking into the distance, where we could see a large mechanical doll stumbling slowly around and firing almost at random with its gun. “I have to admit, I didn’t think we were going to be facing someone who would fire a weapon in a place like this.”
She sighed: most unexpected.
“We can’t be sure about that. I think it’s possible the doll has gone rogue,” Riviere said calmly, likewise keeping a watchful eye on the automaton. Incidentally, she was standing on a chair to help bolster her height so she could see. Not very ladylike.
She went on, “I see a man near the doll who looks like he’s panicking. I’m guessing this is a rampage he wasn’t counting on.”
“Either way, we’re in for a real fight now,” said Elaina.
“That would seem to be the case.”
They sounded so relaxed about it. Me, I was behind them, feeling like my absolute desire not to get anywhere near that thing must be written all over my face—and body language. The conversation was punctuated by more gunshots from the far end of the exhibition hall, while the screaming voices of the fleeing crowd got farther away in the other direction.
You know, I was feeling remarkably calm myself despite the danger of the situation. “Kuroe, Shirona, listen to me. You two don’t have to fight!” I said, puffing out my chest as best I could.
They looked at me, surprised, and I made a show of holding up my own weapon, another of the sancta we’d brought—the boomerang that never missed its target. “I’ll take out that mechanical doll with this sancta. You don’t have to worry.”
I was an adult experienced in the ways of combat. I would take the lead and protect the two of them! In the handful of months since I’d started working at Riviere Antiques, I’d found myself in battles big and small. What did I have to fear from a clockwork doll firing a gun that was still way over there?
“You just watch.” I took up a stance, then flung the boomerang with all my strength. “Yaaah!”
It went flying, slicing through the air, twirling at an incredible rate. It made a beeline for the rogue doll, almost as if drawn to it, and struck it square in the head.
Then it broke.
I mean the boomerang.
…Long pause on my part.
Maybe my strength had been too much for the boomerang to withstand, or maybe the clockwork doll was just too solid; I wasn’t sure. Whichever it was, the boomerang snapped in half and clattered to the floor. Some tools just don’t want to finish what they start!
“Looks like that was a bust.”
“So it would appear.”
The twins just shook their heads at me.
That wasn’t supposed to happen! Worse, the clockwork doll looked like it hadn’t even noticed my attack. It just kept firing away. That made me really angry. It could have afforded to at least look annoyed or something.
“Sigh! Looks like I’ll have to handle this,” said Elaina when she witnessed my abject failure. She took out a sancta of her own: the bow that never ran out of arrows. “An eye for an eye. A ranged weapon for a ranged weapon. I think it’s time for a bow attack.”
“A bow? That’s what you’re going to use?”
“In a manner of speaking.” Elaina was already training her gaze on the doll, as sober and serious as it was possible to be.
She drew the bow back and let it loose. The arrow flew straight past the gunfire and hit the automaton in the head. We could hear a little smack.
Just for an instant, the doll looked in our direction. I could almost hear it saying, “Huh? Was that a mosquito?”
Without missing a beat, Elaina fired another arrow. She was probably angry.
Smack. Still not very loud.
Sancta really were something else, though—just like the name said, these arrows never ran out. Elaina fired several more in quick succession, each one pinging off the doll’s head. Finally she threw down the bow. “Doesn’t look like it’s helping,” she said.
We knew now that neither the boomerang nor the arrows were going to do us any good. That doll was tough stuff; it was going to take some force to smash it.
Kuroe and Shirona, who had been watching us, seemed to have reached the same conclusion. They stepped up in front of us.
“Thanks, both of you,” Kuroe said.
“It is our turn now,” said Shirona.
They bowed respectfully to us, and as they stood up again I thought I saw the slightest of smiles on their faces. The expressions bore a striking resemblance to the ones they wore when we first met.
“Are you sure about this? It’s dangerous out there,” I said, stepping forward, but they shook their heads.
“We’re created things ourselves. Much better suited to attacking it directly than you soft meatbags,” said Kuroe.
“This was always our job,” Shirona said.
Thanks but no thanks, huh?
The two of them waved to us and set off at a brisk pace through the exhibition hall.
Straight toward the gunshots.
Almost as if they wanted to get away before we could stop them.
Maybe they were the most suited for this job; maybe they’d come here knowing they were going to get in a fight with that automaton. But still…
“We’ve seen them this far. I wish we could help them to the very end,” Riviere, still looking like a little girl, said as if she had read my mind. “We didn’t come here today just to enjoy the show.”
That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it? She peered at me.
“Is it that obvious?” I said.
“It’s the sort of thing you would think at a moment like this.” Riviere giggled.
If she knew that, I was sure she also knew what I wanted to do.
“Do you have any other sancta with you?” I asked.
“I just might.” Riviere nodded and reached into her bag. “Just be aware that this thing is going to exact a price when you use it.”
The most helpful powers always came with a cost.
So saying, Riviere took my hand.
The rampaging clockwork doll seemed set on destroying others of its kind—other dolls and mechanical creations. Almost like it was trying to get rid of any interlopers, or at least make itself the most noticeable thing in the exhibition hall. It worked its way along, annihilating every doll it came across.
“P-please! Stop! I’m begging you! Ahhhh…” a man was shouting, but the automaton ignored him, continuing to point its guns forward. It was aiming at one small doll—a doll holding a shield.
I knew that shield. It was a sancta that could protect the user from any attack.
And boy, did it ever. The gunshots rained down on it, but behind the shield, the doll stood utterly calm, no matter how close the automaton got.
“Hup!”
The doll didn’t even look perturbed as she jumped into the air, flying straight over the mechanical doll’s head. Even then, the bullets wouldn’t penetrate her defense.
The automaton reflexively fired toward the shield anyway.
With both its arms raised into the air, it was obviously wide open. I’m sure it figured that didn’t matter; there was just one little doll coming at it. It wasn’t worried.
Until the moment the mallet smashed into its head.
“You are not very smart,” said Shirona as she buried the mallet in the mechanical creature’s head. It had been too busy firing heedlessly to bother with her.
Kuroe had gotten close to the automaton head-on, protecting herself with the shield. But Shirona had been waiting in the wings to jump on it the moment its attention was distracted. A perfect combo assault.
For the first time since they had started, the gunshots that had sent the exhibition hall into chaos stopped. The automaton slumped, its arms still pointed over its head. What goes up must come down, and Kuroe, shield and all, came crashing on top of it, knocking it to the ground.
If they’d been fighting a human, that would have been the end of things for sure.
But they weren’t.
“Wha—?”
The automaton shambled to its feet again. Its head was smashed, but that was all. Not looking very concerned, it pointed its arms—its guns—at the two girls.
They must have been shocked. But not just because the enemy hadn’t fallen.
In the instant before the mechanical creation blew off their heads, a whip came cracking in from the side, wrapping itself around the doll’s arms. Then, with a good tug, it tore them clean off.
Now bereft of its weapons, the mechanical doll crashed to the floor again, and this time, it stayed there.
“Are you both all right?!” I shouted, throwing aside the stolen arms and rushing over to the girls.
They looked at me in astonishment. “Is that you, Lady MacMillia?” Kuroe asked.
“But how?” asked Shirona.
They knew as well as I did that that doll wasn’t so fragile that a whip should’ve been able to pull off its arms. They looked at me in amazement, shaking their heads.
I puffed out my chest again. “An antiques shop that takes on a job is an antiques shop that sees a job through,” I said. I held up my hand, on which I was wearing a ring—one that drastically increased the wearer’s physical power. Riviere had used it before.
We sure hadn’t come here just to enjoy the show.
“You… It’s you!”
Just past the toppled doll, a woman with golden hair lay on the floor. She was looking at Kuroe and Shirona with wonder. That had to be Sophie.
“We found you!” said Kuroe.
“Finally,” said Shirona.
The twins looked at each other, then dodged around the mechanical doll and headed over to Sophie. She, however, looked completely confused. “How can you…move?”
Weren’t they just dolls?
They shouldn’t have been able to move.
Not unless there was a prayer upon them.
Not unless someone had prayed for them.
But Sophie had never prayed at the cathedral.
“We’re here to rescue you, Sophie!” Kuroe said.
“That is the prayer imbued in us,” added Shirona.
Then, slowly, the two of them sat down in front of Sophie.
It must have been really hard on them when they gained consciousness—after all, it had been years since the prayer had been offered. And the one who had offered it was long dead.