“Ch-cheating?! I would never! I love my wife!” Veltol nodded firmly. “I understand. We shall tell your missus you are not cheating.” “You weren’t cheating, but you were doing something else, weren’t you?” Emi said. Matoi held the prescription bag up to the suspect. “This is potassium cyanide, toxic to the human body. The circumstances tell me you meant to pour it into that woman’s glass.” “I see… It really was poison…” The suspect fell to his knees. “My wife is pregnant… We’re having a girl very soon. But I’m broke, and the Silver Flame yakuza group said they’d give me money if I put that in the woman’s drink. They didn’t tell me what it was… I mean, I knew it couldn’t be anything good… I hesitated for a few days, and I was finally prepared to do it today, but…what bad luck…” “Negative.” Matoi shook her head. “You don’t have bad luck. You have good luck.” “Huh?” “You may not have been fully composed, but you still didn’t realize you’d dropped the poison you were going to use today. You hesitated for days even though you needed the money. That tells me you felt guilty about this act. Had you done it, you would have regretted it for the rest of your life. Think of your partner and your child.” “Yeah…” The suspect hung his head, and Sihlwald extended her hand. “We’re detectives, not the police. We don’t care about the consequences. We’ll just pretend we didn’t see anything,” she said while helping him up. “…Thanks.” “You mustn’t dirty your hands, for the sake of your partner and your unborn child, too.” Matoi’s words were strong and passionate. “Yeah… You’re right…” He dropped his shoulders, terribly distressed. “What’ll you do now?” Emi asked. “I have to cool my head first, but then I’ll go home and see my wife. Also…take this.” He took a hand-size disc out of his pocket. It was connected to a small chain and had intricate design and a whiteish-silver color. Matoi’s jaw dropped at the sight of it. “That’s…” It was an amulet with six eyes, made of mithril. “Where did you get this?” she demanded. “I picked it up west of Outer Shinjuku this morning. By the church in the high-rise area. It’s probably real mithril, so it should earn some decent money. Might not be enough to thank you, but just take it.” He gave it to Emi. She looked at the amulet and murmured, “The church in Outer Shinjuku…” “I’m going now. Thank you, really.” He left the parking lot. Once he was out of sight, Emi said, “Okay, the job is done… But aftercare is just as important for a Great Detective. I’m not strong enough to take on the Yakuza Guild myself, though. Will you three help me?” “Affirmative.” “Naturally. Leave it to us.” “Here come the bangs and booms! Let’s go!” The four detectives walked away into the night of Kabukicho Street. After that, Silver Flame was attacked a second time, and the resulting loss of power decreased their influence on Shinjuku City. They were weakened so badly they had no way to punish a man who’d failed at his job. Month of the Gryphon, Day 4, 2099 FE, 00:11 After work, the four detectives had dinner at a restaurant before returning to the Chabatake Detective Agency and passing the time as they pleased. Veltol played games on his PDA, and Sihlwald watched in boredom. Emi was taking a shower, while Matoi ran on silent mode after taking a shower herself. “Phew, nice and clean,” Emi said as she came out of the bathroom. Half-naked. “Emi…please get dressed before entering mixed company,” Veltol urged. “I don’t mind anyone here looking at me.” She plopped down on the lounge chair with a smile and began smoking an electronic pipe. “Great job today. Simply solving a case is a second-rate detective’s work. Stopping a case before it takes place is what a first-rate detective does.” “…I’ll take that as praise,” said Matoi. “Although I couldn’t have deduced that we would wipe out the Yakuza Guild office.” “That…was fun, according to my analysis.” “Yeah, that was a valuable experience. Ah, Matoi. You haven’t brushed your hair after showering, have you? May I?” “I haven’t…but I don’t think it’s necessary.” Only Doc could do it. And Emi was not Doc. If anything, it would irk Matoi. She didn’t want anyone else touching her hair. “C’mon, you’ve got such pretty hair. If it wasn’t necessary, they wouldn’t have made you so cute.” Emi beckoned her. “C’mere.” This reminded Matoi of someone. Her idea circuit didn’t finish processing before she naturally moved a stool in front of Emi. “There we go. Good girl.” “…Uh-huh.” Emi took a brush out of her desk and began brushing Matoi’s hair. Her motions were soft and gentle. Matoi noticed the small box next to the six-eye amulet on Emi’s tidied desk. She didn’t need to run a scan to tell it was a memory cube. The ones in Matoi’s era tended to be larger and board-shaped, but box-shaped memory cubes also existed. “What is this?” Matoi asked. “An artificial spirit I made a long time ago is in this cube. I took it with me when I quit my job at Technoram.” “Isn’t that misappropriation…?” “It’s not a crime if no one finds out.” “Should a detective be saying that?” “Hee-hee-hee.” Emi giggled. “I threw everything else away when I decided to pursue my mother, but I brought this with me. It’s like a family bond.” “Does it have a name?” “Hmm? No, I haven’t set it to start learning yet, so I haven’t given it one.” “I see.” “…Sorry about yesterday.” “Why the sudden question? What are you sorry about? Searching for data that merits an apology… I guess there is some, but nothing that really needs rehashing.” “I mean when I called you a machine, even if I was just explaining.” Matoi searched her conversation log and found the incident during their talk in the underground. “I feel I shouldn’t have said it.” “…Like I told you then, it is mere fact that I am a machine. There is nothing for you to worry about. And no biological parts besides skin and hair are used to make self-regeneration smoother.” “That’s not the point.” Emi thought carefully about how to express this. “See, I think of you as a person, and I want to treat you as such.” “…Machines can’t be people.” “Oh, we’re talking about the definition of a machine and a person? Great.” Emi chuckled. “Why were you sent to the past?” Matoi tilted her head. “Because…we were on the brink of defeat, and she chose to change the future instead?” “Defeat was more likely, but not set in stone, right? A one-percent chance is a big difference from zero percent.” “That’s pedantry.” “For starters, even if time travel worked in theory, there’s no guarantee it would actually be successful. I feel like you’d be better off fighting instead of fixating on what-ifs.” “Hrm…” Matoi’s idea circuit considered raising the logic level to a debate, but she felt she would lose even then and decided against it. “I think it’s because…” Emi stopped brushing Matoi’s hair. “…she wanted you to have a longer life.” “…” Matoi looked down and swallowed what she’d planned to say. “…I’m not good with you.” “Hee-hee, really? I like you, though.” Emi affectionately caressed Matoi’s head. “This might be our last case, both for you and me. So if everything ends and we change the future of doom, will you really disappear?” “I don’t know. Sihlwald said I wouldn’t, but theory says I will. And I don’t doubt my mother’s theory.” “But I’m sure that won’t happen. Your mom is wrong, and you’ll go back to a peaceful future, or maybe you’ll stay here and become a detective at my agency. Hey, that sounds great, actually. You should do that.” “…I’ll consider it.” Matoi did not meet Emi’s gaze. She couldn’t. Emi’s hopeful words were not necessarily desirable for Matoi, who had made her peace with her fate already. She felt they might make her have regrets. Still, Matoi—even as a machine—couldn’t help but wish Emi was right. And so the night went on. I don’t want to disappear. A slight chink appeared in her once-ironclad resolve. She had met kind people in this time period. Month of the Gryphon, Day 4, 2099 FE, 16:00 “I don’t sense anyone around,” Matoi said. “There aren’t even slums around here. The place is deserted,” Emi said. Veltol, Sihlwald, Emi, and Matoi were in front of a building on the western side of Outer Shinjuku. It was located on the former Ome Kaido road by what was once Ogikubo Station. As Matoi said, there was no sign of anybody nearby. On top of being in Outer Shinjuku, all development had been stopped in this location, which was supposed to be turned into an office complex. “So this church…will be the last crime scene,” said Veltol. He and his three companions stood before a church with a six-eyed amulet on its roof. This institution revered the god of the past and the future, Horodict. “Horodict…one of the Six Great Gods of Alnaeth, who rules over time.” Emi took out of her pocket the silver six-eyed amulet given to her by the subject of the previous day’s adultery case. She gazed at it before looking back at the church. “No doubt about it. My mom is here.” They were surrounded by high-rise buildings, all in terrible condition, abandoned mid-construction, or weathered from the extreme climate of the cryotolerance zone’s border. “This church feels out of place…,” Sihlwald said. Veltol nodded. “Yes, it is rather odd.” A brand-new church in the middle of a forest of bleak buildings was definitely not normal. “Spatial distortion detected. Comparison with data from the Man-Eating Gyoen dictates that this is a beyondization.” “Now…will we be finding ourselves in the dragon’s den?” said Emi. Veltol placed his hand on the door. “I’m the dragon!” Sihlwald cut in. “Suggestion. Emi said that in a figurative sense, meaning whether we will find trouble or treasure.” “…I know that!” “This will be the stage for my showdown with my mom. And considering the time of the causality divergence point, the future might depend on the results of this battle. Let’s go.” Emi opened the door, and the group set foot in the church. It was a bizarre scene inside. First was the size—about the same area of a medium-size park. The contrast between the exterior and interior was characteristic of beyondization. “—ough…” The place was dark, covered in red carpet, and furnished with a sofa. Candles on the floor created a path, and one candle was lit by blue fire. “—enough…” The rest of the candles’ flames turned blue, almost in a chain reaction. “Not enough…” They heard a voice. All eyes were set on its source. The center of the church was surrounded by chairs. A giant six-eyed symbol was drawn on the ceiling, as though it were watching everything in the church. In the middle of the chair blockade was a magic circle drawn in blood, and there… “Mom…” “Causality interference one hundred; space-time divergence maintained at ninety-nine percent. Target confirmed to be Emilia Chabatake.” A fox therian in religious vestments and rust-colored bandages covering her whole body. The culprit behind the magi-eye owner serial murders. Member of the Guild. Killer of Emi Chabatake’s father—Emi’s own mother. “Mom! Mom, it’s me! It’s Emi! Let me talk to you!” Emilia turned her head to Emi and said, “It’s not enough…” The Collector wailed and sniffled. A bizarre sight. “It’s still not enough. So close, so close, it was so close…” “Mom… Please…” “Oh, Emi. I didn’t see you there. It’s been so long. How are you?” “…!” Emi took a step back. Emilia’s switch between insanity and lucidity was much too seamless. Veltol placed his hand on Emi’s back to soothe her. She nodded and stared at Emilia. “Can we talk, Mom?” “Yes, of course. I can tell you anything you want, Emi.” “First, what is this place?” “This is the Rust Church, a barrier created by the beyondization of my magi-gear thanks to the vessel of the Collector. I normally lock it inside the bandages, but now I’ve turned it outside. I needed the toughness to complete this arduous quest, since I’m not an immortal. I wore the beyondization myself and used its revision power to obtain pseudo-immortality.” Emi’s next question was what most pained her to put into words. “…Why did you kill Dad?” “Oh, Emi.” Emilia thought a little before saying, “Have you ever heard of the trolley problem?” “…That’s an old thought experiment, right? Five people are tied to one track, and another person is tied to another one. You can control the railroad switch. If you pull the lever, you save the five people, but the other person dies. Either you actively save them or passively let them die.” “Yes. I had the lever right before my eyes. So I killed him. So I had to continue killing. I had to take responsibility for killing my beloved. I killed them for salvation.” “You mean Dad’s death would save other people…?” “That’s right. By killing him, you would pursue me. That is the departure point of destiny; treading the path to this one-in-a-googolplex world is my duty. That way, so many people will be saved. He was merely the first piece.” “…What do you want to do with the magi-eyes?!” “What I want…? Oh, I’ve only wanted one thing since the beginning…” Emilia reacted with honest confusion at Emi’s question. “To see the future…in order to save the world…” Outrageous. Her tone was rational, yet there was a tinge of madness in the words she spoke. “Save the world…?” Matoi repeated. “Question. You are not acting to destroy the world?” “I—I-I-I’m offended… I have no such intention. Only the opposite.” Emilia looked down. “I—I, I saw it, with the god’s eye the Guild gave me. Everything turned to ash; the end of the world; the future of doom.” “God’s eye…?” “I was collecting the magi-eyes to see the future in more detail. The god’s eye adapts to me as I take other magi-eyes. That way, I—I—I can see more branches, m-m-more opportunities, more choices. So many it would make you f-f-fa-fa-fa-faint—” “Emi, stand back.” Veltol stepped forward. Emilia was once again seized with madness. She held her head in her hands and swayed back and forth. “Just a little, I need just a little more to save the world, but it’s not enough, still not enough, I still can’t see it… I can’t see salvation… I need more eyes, I have to eat more eyes, I have to see more, I can’t see more, but I’m trying so hard…” “Oh, so she was eating the eyes. If you’re so hungry, just eat your own!” Emilia froze at Sihlwald’s remark. “My…own?” She raised her head, eyes opened wide. “Ahh! Ahh! How didn’t I realize?! Thank you, dragon! Thank you! That’s it! You’re right! My eye! How could I not see?!” The Collector touched her own clear-blue eye. “I had the answer here all along.” Her eye glowed with mana. Matoi analyzed the surging output. “That’s…!” Emilia dug her fingers deep into her eye at the same time as Matoi yelled: “That’s the other Eye of the Horodict my Great Sister lost!” Fresh blood spurted. Emilia dug three fingers deeper and deeper into her orbit. A splashing noise echoed in the church. She snapped and pulled it out. Emilia held her own eyeball in her hand. “How could I not realize…? I had it here all this time.” The Collector took the jewel into her mouth. She chewed, then swallowed. Veltol watched everything in bafflement until he could finally say, “That is no regular lunacy.” He realized Emilia’s peculiarity. “It is fanaticism. A devotion to a goal, albeit to an abnormal degree.” “Ha.” The therian laughed. “Ha-ha.” She could not hold it in. “Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” Her shrill cackling reverberated in the quiet church. “I saw it… I saw it, I saw it, I saw it, I saw it, I saw it, I saw it! I fiiiiiiinally saw it! Hee! Ee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!” She wildly scratched her head and spread her arms wide. “My wish, my hope is fulfilled! O great Horodict, god of the past and the future! Show me the future with your holy eye! The eschaton is upon us, right here and now! Ahh, so you all will defeat the root of the doom soon to arrive! Become the saviors!” Finally… “Emi…” …she pointed her remaining eye to her daughter. “The future is in your hands.” Then Emilia collapsed. She fell faceup, sprawled across the middle of the magic circle. “Mom…?” Emi whispered, looking at her motionless mother. “The Collector Emilia’s vital signs…have ceased,” Matoi reported after running a scan. “What did she want to do…? All this stuff about saving the world, becoming saviors… Is she really dead?” “I will not tell you to cheer up,” said Veltol. “I know this cannot be the end you hoped for. But even so, an end has been reached.” “…Yeah.” Veltol gently put his hand on Emi’s shoulder. “Let us mourn her first. Matoi, has there been any change?” “Let me measure the space-time divergence. It’s rapidly dropping… Ninety…fifty…” Matoi’s expression turned brighter every time she said a number. “Space-time divergence, zero percent!” Zero percent—that meant Matoi’s quest was complete. “Does that mean the future has changed…?” Veltol asked Matoi. “That should be the case.” “Mission complete!” Sihlwald headbutted Veltol out of joy, her horns digging into his midsection. “But…” “But what, Matoi?” Sihlwald asked. “Something’s off… If the future has changed, I should disappear due to the causality correction…” “That’s only a theory, right? Let’s just be happy you didn’t disappear!” “No, wait.” Emi put a hand on her mouth with a stern look on her face. Then Veltol furrowed his brow. “Emi, did you notice?” “Yes. Why did Mom die…?” “What d’you mean?” Sihlwald asked. “Think about it,” Emi replied. “Why would somebody with regeneration powers thanks to beyondization die simply by pulling out her eye?” “Because that’s the truth we had to expose for the Collector to die?” “Even then, the church wouldn’t be still standing. What if…Mom wasn’t delirious, but everything she said had a meaning, and solving the Collector’s beyondization means the completion of her ritual…?” “Then what?” Matoi asked. “Matoi, what’s my causality interference value?” “…Still one hundred.” “…Then we can make a hypothesis. And that is, this case hasn’t been solved yet…” Chills ran down everyone’s spines. “What?!” Sihlwald crouched low into a combat stance. Veltol and Matoi, too, took stances to react quickly. Matoi looked at the Collector’s body in the center of the church and said, “The magic circle is active. Visual sensor analysis detects…a spatial distortion…?” The backdrop changed. The church began corrupting, with Emilia as its epicenter. Then giant pillars appeared. A red carpeted path. A throne at the end. Veltol recognized it. “The Demon Castle…” It was the spitting image of his castle five centuries earlier—the throne chamber of the subterranean Demon Castle’s inverted keep. Some of the pillars were broken, the carpet was ragged, and the throne was in shambles. It was as it looked after Veltol’s battle against the Hero Gram. “The beyondization… Did it recreate my Demon Castle…? I cannot imagine Emilia did this herself. It has to be someone else’s doing—” “Spatial distortion increasing!” Matoi cut in. “This reaction… It’s a portal?! And it’s opening!” An eye. A portal in the shape of a giant eye opened in the middle of Emilia’s corpse. Blood spurted, and an arm grew through the eye. A bony arm, thin like a withered branch. Decidedly not a human arm. Long and large. “That arm… Causality interference value one hundred!” Matoi yelled at the sight of it. “Space-time divergence rate growing from zero to 0.000000000000000000000001 percent…and it keeps growing rapidly! And this…a countercurrent of aether from the portal… Aether clock sync…? Current date—” Impossible. “—2149 FE?!” Matoi stated the inconceivable truth. “The aether coming in here is from fifty years in the future… From my future!” Veltol’s gut told him he must not let that thing escape the portal. “Destroy the magic circle!” he ordered. Sihlwald and Matoi dashed forward. Veltol and Sihlwald donned their soul armor, while Matoi booted up Gulagalad. But then everyone stopped in their tracks. The thing burned Emilia’s body in black flames, instantly turning it into ash, and something emerged from the cinders. The skull-like head of a dragon with two twisted horns piercing the heavens. A cloak as though made of darkness itself. A body steeped in shadow, its limbs as spindly as twigs. Eyes burning red like dazzling flames peered from within the skull. “Immortal factor pattern identified…,” said Matoi. “That’s…” Everyone gulped at the sight of it, and the last Hero from the future spoke its name: “…the Eschaton Demon Lord…Veltol…”
Chapter 57
18 min read