Well, there was one other.
“Matsumoto! How many seconds left?!”
“Just as many as I need!”
“Tch, you’re crazy!”
Professor Matsumoto shouted back and forth with Kakitani while he stood at the control room’s terminal, desperately trying to hack into the satellite system. It wasn’t the answer she wanted, though. His cry was like a faint howl on the verge of despair.
Still, it didn’t break Kakitani’s spirit. She grinned, baring her teeth and steadying her legs. For a long time—so long it nearly made her want to laugh—she’d spent her days getting hurt. Her motives had nothing to do with her late grandfather’s wishes or Toak’s ideals. Kakitani Yui simply enjoyed Toak’s work, the mad scramble against their fears of a crumbling world.
Kakitani realized early on that she wasn’t like other people, and the world was too restrictive for her. She hated the idea of going down a carefully laid path filled with rules. This was why she’d gone hunting through the house her grandfather left behind, the grandfather her family detested so much.
There, she found the disabled Elizabeth. She turned Elizabeth on and learned about Toak’s work and her grandfather’s philosophy, and that changed her world. She had always been told that her grandfather, Kakitani Yugo, had caused nothing but trouble for her family. Through Elizabeth, she learned all about his life, and she became aware of whose blood it was that flowed through her veins. It was then that Kakitani Yui took on her mission as a descendant of Kakitani Yugo. Her subsequent work and rise through Toak’s ranks were like none other.
Now she was smack-dab in the middle of the fight that would determine whether humanity saw tomorrow, and she gave everything she had as an experienced fighter in this final showdown.
“How many humans’ll find themselves backed in a corner like this before they die?”
It would be cheesy of her to say she was fine with dying, but her life did have a use. Even idiots had utility. Everything depended on how you applied it. Human lives were no different.
“Grrr…”
Kakitani used her military knife to slice off the hand of the AI trying to grab her, then shot a hole through the head of the AI behind her with her pistol. That was her last bullet, so she used the gun, now nothing more than a lump of metal, to smash in the head of the AI in front of her.
Something latched on to her arm just then, and she leapt in the direction it was being twisted to keep her bones from breaking. She dragged the attacking AI down with her, snapping its neck. Arms wrapped around her from behind, lifting her up and pinning both her arms down. Just as she was about to be snapped like a twig and squeezed to death, Elizabeth shot the AI down. Kakitani landed, freeing her arms with a swing.
Then came her next opponent, and the next, and the one after that, and another, and she defeated that one, and the one that followed, and yet another one, buying even one more second if she could. It didn’t matter if she expended her life in the process.
“Shit! The door!”
Kakitani turned back to see the warped door shoved out of the way, providing the AIs a second route inside. The number of AIs pouring in instantly doubled, and Kakitani and Elizabeth were no longer able to hold them back. Even a human and an AI fighting with all they had wasn’t enough to resist the AIs swarming in.
One intact AI aimed the gun in its hand at the rear of the control room, at Professor Matsumoto’s back. The moment she saw that, Kakitani moved, trying to put herself in the line of fire, but another AI snagged her foot. She didn’t cover as much distance as she’d wanted to—she didn’t make it. The muzzle lined up with Matsumoto’s back, and the AI pulled the trigger.
“Rgh… Aaaaaaah!”
An animalistic roar filled the room, overlapping the gunshots. The AI’s precise shooting emptied the gun’s clip in a mere two seconds, and the bullets flew toward Matsumoto’s back…where they all punched into someone else’s massive back blocking the way. The interloper’s huge body shuddered with each bullet, but his heavy flesh kept every single one from reaching Matsumoto.
“Onodera!”
“Shut…up…idiot…”
Blood spilled from his mouth as he protected Matsumoto from the bullets, his arms wrapped around the professor. This Toak warrior had already suffered fatal injuries, yet he didn’t fall even after taking a hail of bullets, making himself a wall between Matsumoto and the hail of gunfire. The professor’s breath hitched as he felt the imposing human shield.
“Kou…ta… Now I…can…”
Onodera slid to the floor, drawing a smear of blood down Matsumoto’s back as he did. Kakitani would never forget in her entire life that, in Onodera’s last moments, his lips spoke the name of the one he loved most. Then again, that life of hers might only last a few more seconds.
“No, we made it,” the professor said, tearing Kakitani away from her resignation—something that was very unlike her. The few seconds Onodera gave them by sacrificing himself had allowed Matsumoto Osamu to complete his final job.
It’s not like in the stories. The deciding moment comes unexpectedly quickly, just as it did now. Matsumoto had already hit the enter key for the last time.
“I’ve taken control of the satellites. No stars will be falling to Earth now,” he said.
“Is this really the time for pretentious phrasing, AI nerd?” Kakitani snapped.
“What a horrible thing to say to me when I’ve just pulled off my greatest achievement.”
This exchange would likely be their last, since stopping the satellites from falling didn’t mean they also stopped the AIs from pouring into the control room. It wasn’t reason enough for the AIs to retreat. Both Kakitani and Matsumoto would be crushed.
“Still, we did what we had to,” Kakitani said. Who else was given the gift of dying in an emergency situation, filled with such a sense of accomplishment? In that way, Kakitani felt grateful toward fate for giving her this blessing.
“Nope, not yet! It’s not over yet!”
That harsh call to the two humans and one AI still alive in the control room destroyed any sense of accomplishment they had.
. : 6 : .
MATSUMOTO THE AI was the one who’d rained on their parade after Professor Matsumoto won the digital war that decided humanity’s fate. Kakitani and Professor Matsumoto had hoped to relish this triumph, partly for the sake of people like Onodera who’d sacrificed themselves for the win, but it wasn’t to be. They’d stopped the AIs’ plan to wipe out everything on the planet’s surface by dropping the satellites. Instead of abandoning their plan of destruction, the AIs managed to pull off one last futile attack.
“Should have expected as much from my damn little brothers! Looks like they moved to the next-best plan!” Matsumoto shouted, cursing the masterminds behind the deadly images on the air monitor.
Just as Matsumoto said, it was the Brothers who bought time and made one last attack. It was the logical decision once they’d realized Matsumoto’s true goal in the last moments but knew they wouldn’t make it in time. They chose the best method for contributing to the AIs’ victory.
“They dropped a satellite before the countdown ended!”