Chapter 96: Chapter 1.9
The tale of the happy swallow
I was deep, deep in the light.
I turned my face away, squeezed my eyes shut, but the light was so bright, it seemed to penetrate through my eyelids.
I was born as a terribly nebulous being: the second personality of a girl. That girl—my master—had been physically frail since she was small and had created me in an attempt to escape the pain of her medical treatments.
As I shared my master's suffering, I hugged my knees, locked away in a world that held no one but me. Still, what I found hardest to bear was the "light" the girl radiated.
That smile, bright as the summer sun. The only reason she could smile like that was because I was bearing half her pain for her, but as she talked cheerfully with her friends, she had no idea. I couldn't have hated her more.
We were two sides of the same coin, though, and one day, we finally switched places.
"Your name is Hel. Code name: Hel."
When I opened my eyes, the first voice I heard was Seed's. My name was Hel.
Code name: Hel.
When he called my name—when I, who was no one, had my existence recognized—it felt as if a ray of darkness had appeared in the light. I couldn't imagine anything more pleasant than the chill of that darkness.
"You have a mission. In order to protect your comrades, destroy the world." With that, Seed had handed me a book.
"Destroying the world is my duty?" "Destroying the world is our method."
I cocked my head, puzzled, and Seed—Father—went on.
"You have only one duty. No matter what happens, your duty is to survive."
Looking back, maybe Father only said that in order to make his plan a reality. A plausible white lie so that he'd be able to use me as his vessel someday.
Still, when he said them, a certain emotion settled within me. I'd acquired a bond that let me experience a desire to live. As a result, I began to destroy the world in accordance with the book. Later on, I would learn that it was a book of prophecies known as "the sacred text."
"I know this isn't right."
Even as I told myself that, I swung the red sword Father had given me.
I thought things were best this way. A single black drop had fallen into that dazzling light, and I clung to the stain. If doing so would get this world, and Father, to acknowledge me... If my mission was to be the world's enemy, then I'd live for that alone.
If I'd made one miscalculation, it was this: Although I'd hated that light and my master more than anything, somewhere along the way, I'd begun to treasure them. That hesitation and weakness had created this battlefield, and the thought made me smile bitterly at my own pathetic weakness.
"—No. It wasn't 'somewhere along the way.'"
It had been like that all along. Nagisa and I were two sides of the same coin, a reflection in a mirror.
My envy had belied my affection.
"Are you still alive?"
I'd fallen to my knees. Far overhead, the golden eyes of Ouroboros looked down at me. This was Father's survival instinct, its physical manifestation. Did this mean I would have to cut off its head before anything I said could reach him?
"Will you get up again? Will you give me more blood?"
The snake coiled in midair, and its red tongue flicked. My blood contained Father's DNA; it probably wanted to absorb it and build up its strength.
"Don't misunderstand, all right?"
Stabbing my saber into the ground to use as a support, I got to my feet. How could I go back into combat against it? How could I stand up again? Apparently, the snake didn't know. Well, it was only instinct, with no memories or emotions, so there was probably no help for that.
That person had definitely said it, though:
"Father ordered me to live, no matter what."
Sorry, but I promised. Leveling the red sword Father had given me, I charged at the enemy dominating the space under the great tree.
"Don't worry, Father. You don't have to do this anymore. Your first survival instinct has already been satisfied."
Slashing through the briars that sprang up from the ground to attack me, I ran toward him.
He was still unconscious on his feet. Most of his armor had crumbled, and there were cracks in his body. His eyes were blind, and I didn't know whether his remaining ear could hear. He'd lost his awareness and his emotions. He was simply waiting to dry up and wither away. Even so, I shouted at him.
"What you wanted to leave behind is alive on this planet! The sapphire eye, the ruby sword, a heart of lead—All of them are here!"
Pseudohumans weren't the only things Father had left in this world. A sapphire eye that could see through anything, even human hearts. A ruby-colored sword lit with the flames of passion.
A heart of lead that hadn't broken, even after death. Father must have wanted to protect all those things, really.
"—The ears that could have heard you are already gone."
The tail of Ouroboros whipped toward me, slicing through the wind. I was sure I saw the snake smirk at me, but in the next moment, its golden eyes widened in surprise.
That attack had been aimed at my heart, but it stopped dead just before it reached my chest.
Why hadn't the blade touched me? Exactly who had stopped it? I didn't even have to explain.
"The survival instinct you always prioritized will remain on this planet as your undying legacy: the love that protected your children to the end! That last wish will never die!"
That had to be the true essence of the primordial seed's first survival instinct.
The name of the emotion that Father had lost long ago.
"...! You stay out of this...!"
Ouroboros glared at its host. I was only a few meters away by then, and it struck at me with its enormous fangs. I parried with my saber, and the blow knocked me back a good distance.
"...Maybe I pushed myself a bit too hard."
I'd been thrown onto the concrete. When I tried to get up, my strength failed me, and I dropped to my knees. I hadn't had Alicia's heart for very long—and only a few days ago, this body had basically been dead. The fact that I'd gotten back up at all should have counted as a miracle.
"—Ha...ha-ha." The snake laughed, as if it were eating away at the faint traces of emotion it had absorbed from Father. "Those who've violated the principles of life have no right to live again—or to defy this survival instinct."
Then Ouroboros gave a great howl. It attacked with its poisonous fangs again, and again I was thrown back.
"Sorry, Hel. I overslept."
...But it was the detective's assistant who'd thrown me off this time. "That's just what I'd expect from my partner. You came to save me." With
an intentionally fake smile, I let him help me up.
Then I heard a gunshot. The detective had also woken from her nap and
was battling Ouroboros with her musket.
"Sheesh. You two aren't exactly unscathed either, you know." I sighed, looking at the boy; he was bleeding from his forehead and stomach.
"Yeah. Well, you know, I couldn't keep that promise." He bit his lip. Promise. No doubt he meant the one he'd made to me a few days earlier,
while he was carrying Nagisa Natsunagi piggyback at the laboratory. If he did anything to make my master cry—I'd kill him twice.
Did that mean he was trying to protect her through me now? If so... "That promise will never expire. Stay by my master from now on." I gripped my red sword again, turning to look at the enemy.
"—You're going?" Realizing what I was about to attempt, the boy held me back for a moment.
"Yes. You should go to your partner, too. I'm sure she could use some help."
"...Yeah. But you're..."
His eyes were damp, to my surprise.
He couldn't be feeling sympathy for me, the enemy, could he? If he was, I felt like I might laugh just a little... But no, it wasn't funny. I hoped his indecisiveness wouldn't hold him back... But we could deal with that by having his partner train him properly. I started toward the primordial seed again and turned back to the boy one more time.
"I'm glad I was born."
When I said it, for a moment, his eyes widened in surprise. Then he gave a soft smile.
Why had I wanted to tell him that now? I wasn't sure, but my heart was calm.
"Take care of my master, Kimihiko Kimizuka." With his name as my final words, I ran like the wind.
On the way, my eyes met the white-haired girl's blue ones.
A year ago, I'd asked the pair of enemies who stood in my way how they could trust each other so much. I'd been sealed within my master's body before I'd managed to understand their relationship. Now, though, I understood. No... They'd told me as much back then.
"It was their bond."
Ouroboros's tail was right in front of me, and as I murmured those words to myself, I unconsciously cut it off with the shining red sword. Exchanging one last, wordless look with the Ace Detective, I launched myself off the ground.
"This is how she and I should be."
Maybe it's another sort of bond—although that would be wrapping things up too neatly, I thought, smiling wryly.
In the end, at the very least, I'd formed a bond with Nagisa Natsunagi.
Now I had to tell Father about it. That was my final mission.
"My legs will not stop."
Using my word-soul ability, I gave myself an order. In response, the sword in my hands blazed red. I'd channeled all of my seed's power, and even my own mind, into that red sword. Then I'd use it to destroy the primordial seed itself—the Ouroboros was bound to die as well. I ran toward Seed on legs that would never stop.
Father was at the foot of the building that had been pierced by the tree. That tree had grown even bigger; by now, it had almost swallowed the fifty- meter building.
"I will take responsibility for all our crimes."
The wounds we'd inflicted on this world would never fully heal.
Shouldering all the sins, the bloodshed, and the weight of life, I ran across the battlefield.
All the cells in my body. The power of the seed engraved in each cell. My own consciousness. I focused all of these in the palm of my hand, channeling them into the ruby sword.
"I believe that this was love."
And then... "Hel...!"
With Kimihiko Kimizuka yelling behind me, I ran my sword through the primordial seed's stomach.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" What was this emotion?
It wasn't anger or sadness—but I had to scream. I couldn't help it.
With the strength that could have shattered all the bones in my body, I impaled Seed with my sword and pinned him to the towering tree.
" ! Hah..."
A small groan escaped Father's lips, just above my head.
At the same time, I heard the monster's dying shrieks behind me. Our final enemy had just perished.
"—H...Hel?"
I heard a familiar, beloved voice.
It was the voice that had given me my name six years ago.
"Yes. Code name: Hel. I'm right here." I responded just as I had on that day, but the answer I gave was different. "Father, let's go home. Back to the world where we belong."
When I looked up—Was it my imagination? I thought his lips held the faint suggestion of a smile.
"...Yes. I am a little tired."
Father sounded almost like an ordinary human, and his words were the last thing I heard. Falling against his chest, I slowly, slowly closed my eyes.
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