Chapter 47

EPILOGUE The Ever-Reliable Birdway Queen_Period. [Nov. 10 / Source: Oahu, a security camera in the lounge of an international hotel in Honolulu] It had been a few hours since they’d taken the Hawaiian Islands back from the fierce attack of the PMC Trident and the sorcerer’s society Gremlin. Kamijou and the others had assembled at a hotel used frequently for the president’s press conferences and scandals alike. Among their number was Lindy Blueshake. Conscious of the young girl, Roberto faced Kamijou’s group and said, “We just got confirmation that Trident has disarmed and surrendered. We can assume the problems plaguing Hawaii have been put to rest for the moment.” “…You don’t look so happy about it, though.” “Because we only found Trident.” The president heaved a sigh. “They were being helped by people with occult powers. And a lot of them, too. They had blended in with the others by wearing the same silver uniforms. If there was one in every single group, down to the smallest of squads, there would have been several hundred. But we’ve been investigating every single Trident member we’ve arrested and haven’t turned up a single one. They had taken down a few sorcerers among the soldiers before Trident had even made its big move, but even those had vanished. Had they taken advantage of the commotion on the islands to escape? Considering their numbers and connections, a massive amount of Gremlin sorcerers had been aiding Trident. They would have had far less protection than Cendrillon or Salonya—nevertheless, they were clearly quite skilled. Their vanishing act even threatened to overshadow the impact of Cendrillon and Salonya, the actual big shots in this affair. That was who Kamijou and the others were up against. They weren’t just some random assortment of people. Each individual was on the extreme end of idiosyncrasy, and now they’d also shown off how strong they were as an organized group. “Gremlin…” “Our only leads are Salonya, who had her own tight security detail, and that Cendrillon girl. But the rest of them might move to stamp out any hints that couldn’t be covered up right away.” To where had Gremlin vanished after their withdrawal? The sorcery side supposedly had its own theories and official stances, but they’d shown such finesse that one could be forgiven for forgetting about such things. Kamijou gave a bitter scowl. “And the final mastermind is still untouched.” “Aurey Blueshake,” said Roberto, exhaling in annoyance. Hamazura knotted his brows. “But nobody knows where she is, right? You might have to search beyond the USA to find her… Can you really pin her down in a day or two?” “She’s a lady with many enemies,” said the president. “In all honesty, I’d be surprised if we saw her at all for the next decade. That said, we can use her unexplained absence against her.” “?” Kamijou and the others looked at the president with dubious looks on their faces. Ignoring them, Roberto pointed at Lindy with his thumb. “Finding Aurey would be too tough. But with the little missy’s help, we can snatch away the power Aurey prizes so much.” [????? / Source: location unknown, camera identification number unknown, a recording provided with external video and sound] “Trident has failed.” Hearing the words of her aide, Aurey Blueshake sighed. “And Gremlin?” “Our hotline to them has been severed. They’ve likely terminated our cooperative agreement, ma’am.” “…We’ve been forsaken,” said Aurey. “The fool. My financial power can easily survive a failed operation or two. For now, let’s wait. They’ll come crying back soon enough.” “Is there an alternative plan for taking control of the United States, ma’am?” “Now that Salonya’s control has been broken, the situation in Congress will have partially collapsed. But we still have plenty of pieces ready to control the information war during the next elections. We may not be able to acquire a majority, but we can still throw our opponents into disarray. First, I’ll create a political vacuum for myself and buy time, during which we can contact Gremlin or even another organization and prepare for our return.” Then it happened. Aurey glanced at the TV they’d left on. Even when she was overseas, almost all news traced back to her, so she didn’t generally watch TV. It was like reviewing information that she herself had made. But this time, things were different. The female newscaster on the screen said, “Breaking news.” “?” “The American Bar Association has made an announcement regarding Miss Aurey Blueshake, also known as the media queen. In accordance with the intentions of her lifetime inheritance, her management group has officially conferred all her assets and economic infrastructure to her only child, Lindy Blueshake.” Aurey’s thoughts completely stopped for a moment. “I haven’t heard about this… I’ve said nothing about this!” A moment later, her laptop was open, and she was checking her internet banking account. But she never completed the process. When she entered her ID and password, she received only one simple sentence: “You do not have permission to view this page. Your password may be incorrect.” “It’s my account!” she screamed as the emotionless newscaster continued her explanation. “As Miss Lindy Blueshake is eight years old, her guardian, a Mr. Harzack Lauras, is regarded as the most likely recipient of the fortune. However, we’ve also gotten word that Miss Aurey was intimately involved with today’s incident in Hawaii. Some speculate that if this is true, then most of her assets will be spent on patching up the situation and on reparations…” It was disappearing. Her wealth. Her economic infrastructure. Her network. Her power. The power she’d used to hire a PMC, contact a sorcerer’s society, and gain control over the United States’ information networks. And that wasn’t all. If she lost her power, she would also lose all the people supporting her. Her opportunities would disappear, too. “Damn it! Call up the team of lawyers at holdings! Like hell I’ll let them take away my power with this…this farce!” “We can’t…” “Do it anyway! Even at this very second, we—!” “This was never aboveboard to begin with, ma’am! It’s like bugs have eaten away at the holes in your plan! But they’re doing all of this legally! The president must be behind this. A trial won’t solve this problem!” “…Matters such as bankruptcy are already being sorted out for her child companies and equities, but apparently this is only a measure to minimize stockholder losses. The market value of Blueshake’s group is plummeting, and it’s not clear how much trust her organization will have once the new system is in place…” “It just never ends…” Her throne. Her empire. Everything she’d worked so hard to build was crumbling before her very eyes. Aurey clenched her teeth, then grabbed the coat hanging on the wall. “M-ma’am, where are you going?!” “Out. The proxy is twisting my words however they want. If I make an appearance at the government—” “If word of where you are gets out, you’ll be assassinated!” “Ugh!” “You’ve made too many enemies, ma’am. There’s no guarantee you’ll get back the assets you need to protect yourself. And even if they don’t kill you, judging by this breaking news, they’re already hunting you as a major culprit in this case. If you go out there, they’ll arrest you!” “I know it’s risky! But if I can just get my money back! My power—” “You’d probably get back what Miss Lindy has. But if you create a new company and transfer all those assets there, it might look like all the money you got from her just vanished! They’ll set it up that way for sure—all to whittle away at your power!” “Then… Then… What should I do…?” Her aide couldn’t answer right away. Now that she’d lost all her financial connections, he didn’t have any reason to stay by her side. This room would cease belonging to her in the near future. There was no way for her to know what would become of her after that. She’d lost her money, but her enemies remained. No. If they knew Aurey’s assets were all gone, the factions she’d been keeping control over would also explode into rage. The chances were by no means low that the fire of wrath would be lit in the people supporting her backroom business once she stopped paying them. Perhaps certain factions would even take into account how Aurey had abused Lindy and bring her daughter gifts in the hopes of roping her to their side. “I, um, I have an idea, ma’am.” The last resort for someone who had lost everything. The most reasonable choice available to her—that was what the aide, as commanded, told her. “…W-wouldn’t you best defend yourself by coming out of hiding and allowing yourself to get arrested, ma’am?” “When I’m penniless…?” “Yes, ma’am.” “Me? Go to j-j-jail…?” “Yes, ma’am! It won’t be long before someone lets it slip that we’re here. If you’re going to act, now is your only chance!” [Information] [Manual%> Confirmed disconnection from Knowledge 12.] [Manual%> Confirmed connection to Unknown.] [F.C.E. rebooting…] [F.C.E. surveillance network reconstruction completed by username Unknown.] [Nov. 10 / Source: Oahu, a security camera in the lounge of an international hotel in Honolulu] Kamijou and the others were watching the breaking news on the lounge’s big TV. This one wasn’t about Lindy Blueshake’s inheritance, though. A different news story came on directly after it. “…Twenty-seven organizations in partnerships with Academy City have issued a joint statement.” The voice was cool and calm. “‘We are greatly concerned by mounting evidence that citizens of Academy City have intervened in today’s incident in Hawaii. We do not wish to give them the power to sway the future of national governments, much less the future of the great nation that some call the world’s police. Everything we’ve done has been in service of building partnerships with other nations to increase mutual benefit, but this is rooted first and foremost in other nations. If Academy City can dispatch personnel to alter the course of another nation’s history, that cannot be called a partnership. We are neither subordinate to nor slaves of Academy City.’” After a brief pause, the newscaster continued reading the statement. “‘Therefore, these twenty-seven chief organizations will hereby unilaterally break off all partnerships with Academy City. This is a necessary step to protect our country.’” Kamijou paled. His efforts to save someone had produced unintended consequences. Perhaps… Perhaps this was why Gremlin had started the crisis. “…Aurey Blueshake wasn’t the only one peeping through the F.C.E.,” he said. “Were those partner organizations interfering in the network…?” And then he recalled something. Who was it who had told him that Gremlin was here in Hawaii and encouraged him to foil their plans? Her. She, too, was a sorcerer. And unlike those in the English Puritan Church, she didn’t belong to the side of peace, law, and justice. “Birdway…” He looked around. She’d disappeared. When had that happened? “Birdway!” He glanced at the hotel lobby from the lounge exit, but he didn’t see her or any of her subordinates out there. He took out his cell phone. Even though he knew she might not pick up, he called her anyway, and surprisingly, he got a response. “Can’t put two and two together without asking, eh?” “Did you make us come here because you knew this would happen?” “Twenty-seven was a little more than I thought, though. Decisions take time to make, and all those corporations are too specialized to run themselves in isolation. I expect they’ll merge into three or four bigger groups in the near future.” “Answer my question, Birdway. Are you…? Were you…?” The severance of twenty-seven major partners from Academy City. Internal strife on the science side. It was the perfect avenue for Gremlin to gain a huge amount of power. “Were you with Gremlin all along?!” He was terrified of learning the answer to that question. Birdway’s response, however, was quite simple. “…I’ll leave it to your imagination.” That was all. She hung up. As Kamijou tightened his grip on his phone, the breaking news announcement continued to play. “…While the partners responsible for this statement lack the technology to compete with Academy City, they did lend many cutting-edge unmanned weapons to them for World War III, which are confirmed to still be in use in postwar peacekeeping efforts. If Academy City doesn’t return these weapons, they may be looking at a large-scale conflict between its own military forces and…” [Nov. 10 / Source: Oahu, a customer’s cell phone camera in the lobby of an international hotel in Honolulu] “Were you with Gremlin all along?!” As Kamijou went into the lobby upon noticing something was wrong, Mikoto followed him and heard those words. She wasn’t able to hear the rest of his conversation, and the person on the other end of the line seemed to hang up rather quickly. Kamijou stared at the small screen of his phone for a few moments. He was confused. The look of hopelessness on his face didn’t suit him one bit. That’s not good, thought Mikoto, partly out of instinct. She’d seen that look before. Once, she’d been wrapped up in a major incident involving cloned humans. It drove her body and mind beyond their limits until eventually, she’d tried to get rid of the mastermind herself, even though she knew it was suicide. At the time, she’d made that exact face. The very face he was making now. What had he just found out? And where was he about to go? Mikoto didn’t know the exact details, but there was one thing she felt safe assuming. Anyone with that look on their face wasn’t headed toward the finish line. Even if their road went on and branched out for decades, centuries, their ultimate fate would be destruction—a pit to hell itself. Kamijou was standing at a crossroads. She clearly knew that one mistake would drive him off the path entirely. But… …I’m here now. Mikoto faced forward, stifling the oppressive feeling in her heart. She took a single step. A step straight toward him. …I’m not just here to watch. I’m not just going to learn what happened after it’s all over this time. I’m here right now. I have the power to change reality before me! How had it been for him? When he’d confronted her as she embarked on a suicidal mission to solve the clone issue, when he’d felt pressure so intense it could distort the air around them, what had his determination felt like? No, it didn’t matter if they felt exactly the same way or not. Not if she could bring him back. …I took his hand and came here with him for a reason. She could reach. She would make it reach. …All because I wanted a chance to bring him back to where he belongs! And then. The boy finally turned off his phone and muttered something to himself. “…I was wrong.” A quiet voice. A very hoarse voice. A voice with no enunciation, a voice hard to even make out. But Mikoto felt like those three words had nailed her feet to the floor. His admission of defeat stabbed through the gaps between the gears of her mind like a strange curse. “I was wrong! Birdway was manipulating me from the very start! Why? I had plenty of chances to figure it out. Dawn-Covered Sunlight gave me all the information on Gremlin. I should have realized it could have meant she had an ulterior motive!” “Dawn-Covered Sunlight…?” “I’m talking about Birdway. Leivinia Birdway. She and her lackeys took advantage of what happened today in Hawaii. She pit Academy City and its partners against each other and tried to do massive damage to the science side! …And there’s no guarantee the former partners will abide by the science side’s rules, either. If Gremlin wants the science side’s power and technology, they’re the perfect people to strike a deal with!” The balance between science and sorcery would utterly collapse. Gremlin would throw everything into disarray. “…Misaka, I’m not going back to Academy City.” He was clear. Clear in his intent to set foot into a strange new world. “I have to make up for this failure. I can’t go home until I do. I have to solve everything that results from my mistake. I don’t have the right to go back until I do!” “…A failure.” Her near-paralyzed mind trembled. And in those tiny shakes, she gained strength. “It wasn’t a failure.” She’d be clear, too, this time. She spoke. She was able to speak. No matter how overwhelmed she felt, there was one thing she needed to set him straight on. “I don’t care who took advantage of what. We—you—protected the people of Hawaii from Gremlin! I won’t let you deny that. I won’t let you get it in your head that you failed by saving those people.” “Birdway worked the fact that people would be saved into her plans. If the conflict between Academy City and its ex-partners gets worse, the folks we saved will think other people are getting hurt because they were rescued! I can’t let them carry that burden. Dawn-Colored Sunlight rescued me from the Arctic Ocean. They used me. I have to carry this alone!” Kamijou retorted. There was a difference between someone who chose freely and someone who was only mixed up in things. This time, Kamijou had decided to fight right from the beginning. He’d chosen, and he’d clearly chosen incorrectly. So now he was trying to shoulder everything on his own—he thought that doing otherwise would turn the people without the chance to choose into scapegoats. He didn’t want people to blame the civilians he’d saved in Hawaii for all this. And maybe that line of thought was correct. Maybe Mikoto couldn’t tear it down with hastily made counterarguments. In which case, her only option was… “…Then I’ll help you carry it.” “…Misaka?” “If we chose incorrectly in Hawaii, then, well… I was one of the people who messed up, too! If I’d chosen differently, maybe things would have turned out differently. If I’d ever had the chance to talk to Birdway, maybe I could have figured out what she was up to before all this happened! But I missed it. So I’m not letting you carry this burden by yourself. Just because you say you messed something up doesn’t mean you need to carry it all on your own!” After saying all that, Mikoto felt just a little bit better. Maybe part of that was how dumbfounded the boy looked. As if to deal the finishing blow, she added one thing. “We’re walking the same path. Don’t ever forget that.” [Nov. 10 / Source: Oahu, the camera of a portable game device forgotten on a lobby sofa in a Honolulu hotel] However, Misaka had forgotten one thing in particular. At last, she remembered what the hard sensation in her palm was all about—but then closed her grip over it more tightly, hiding it in her hand. Two rings. The tag rings from Cupid’s Arrow. A one-of-the-kind pattern had been etched into them by electrolysis. The technique used to create this kind of jewelry gave rise to stories—ones not based in science—that tag rings were charms that could prevent adultery.