Chapter 4.3

She's there, beside me, always

"Siesta!"

Without stopping to think, I ran to her.

The contents of most of the cylindrical culture tanks weren't visible from the outside. However, one tank was filled with white smoke, and in it, I'd glimpsed a face I knew and loved.

Pale silver hair. Long eyelashes, made obvious by her closed eyes. And beauty that could only belong to one person. I was positive: Her name was—

"No, don't look!"

"Ow-ow-ow-ow! Your finger! It's digging into my eye!"

Natsunagi had covered my eyes tightly from behind, and it felt like she was trying to crush my eyeballs.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Siesta's not wearing anything! Don't look!"

…Ah, I see. I hadn't noticed at first glance because of the smoke, but apparently, she was naked.

"What's she doing here, though?"

Putting a little distance between myself and the tank, I thought.

Siesta had died a year ago. However, her body had been put in frozen storage, then equipped with an artificial intelligence and reborn as SIESTA the maid. SIESTA's artificial heart had been damaged in combat the other day, and she'd been transported to a hospital.

"She's supposed to be in treatment now…" Just as I was wondering about that—

"Yes, and this is the hospital, Kimihiko."

A third party had spoken.

Involuntarily, I looked at Natsunagi. Her eyes had widened, too, and she was looking around the room.

Don't tell me— As I turned back to take another look at the girl who was asleep in the tank…

"Where are you looking? I'm here. Right here."

The voice was coming from the breast pocket of my jacket. My smartphone was in there. I took it out a little apprehensively, and…

"Are you stupid, Kimihiko?"

There was a girl in a maid uniform on the screen, and the first thing she did was call me names.

"…What are you doing, SIESTA?"

The white-haired girl was elegantly drinking tea, as if she was living there inside the phone.

"Why so surprised? I am merely an artificial intelligence, so I'm able to migrate myself to digital devices."

"When did you hack my phone…?"

"I haven't. I'm just sending my data to it via Bluetooth."

"Easiest move ever!"

Had I enabled the connection by entering the room where her main unit was? "Huh… Then if I sent an email to one of the facility's computers, could you

read it, SIESTA?"

"Yes. By all means, Nagisa, let's discuss topics like 'What's the fifty-third thing you can't stand about Kimihiko?' later on. I think it will be fun."

"Don't host comedy events with terrible themes, and don't think of fifty things you can't stand about me!" …Yeesh. I never thought I'd be forced to dish out comebacks in a place like this. "By the way, where did you get that tea you've been drinking?"

"Virtual goods purchase function. You'll be billed for it at the end of the month along with your phone charges, so there's no need to worry."

"How does that even work…? Haaah. You look like you're doing well, anyway. That's great."

"Yes, thankfully."

In my hand, SIESTA smiled. Siesta's physical body was apparently still in treatment, but at the very least, SIESTA the AI was fine.

"But SIESTA, did you say this was a hospital?" Natsunagi set a hand on my shoulder, peeking in at the smartphone.

"That's right. The physician who's treating me is currently living here."

Here, at SPES's former hideout? That seemed incredibly careless.

"This facility, or hospital, is particularly well-suited to treating irregular entities such as myself. After all, pseudohumans were developed here."

…I see. Then it was the perfect place to treat her. It looked like her doctor was out at the moment, though.

"By the way, did that key prove useful?" Out of nowhere, SIESTA asked about the master key. The journey we'd been on for the past few days had begun when she'd given it to me.

"Yeah, it gave us a hint. We still have problems left to field, though." As I spoke, I waved the key at her.

"I'm glad to hear it. In that case, return that key via the tray over there."

"Could you be any less emotional…? Well, we probably won't need to use it again anyway."

Now that Siesta wasn't going to use it to break into my house, it was probably fine to give it back.

"And? It's rather late to ask, but what brings you two here?" On the screen, SIESTA cocked her head. Come to think of it, we hadn't explained that yet.

"Kimizuka and I are traveling the globe in search of information about how to defeat Seed…or something like that." Natsunagi spread her hands in a weary, exaggerated shrug. She'd seemed to be enjoying herself pretty well so far, or had that been my imagination?

"Oh? Just you and Kimihiko, alone together, hmm?" The corners of SIESTA's lips curved up slightly, and she gazed out of the screen at Natsunagi.

"…So, since it doesn't look like there's anything else in here, we'll need to move on." Natsunagi looked away pointedly, scanning the room.

Yes, the best way to handle the white-haired maid's teasing was to ignore it.

There's no telling who she learned it from, but she'll mess with you for ages.

"Yeah, let's go down one more floor. I want you to come, too, SIESTA."

Whatever that change on the elevator was—my gut was telling me that it might lead us to the answer we were looking for. Quietly, I clenched my fists.

"Yes, that's fine. However, more importantly, the physical distance between you and Nagisa is even smaller than before. Is it because something happened on this trip, while you were alone together?"

"You don't have to tack on a joke now! Go on, focus on Kimizuka! He's gazing at the elevator and looking resolute, all right?! He has his game face on!"

"Natsunagi, don't use my game face as a punch line."

 And so the enemy of the world was born

"So this is their central nervous system, huh…?"

Gazing at the enormous mechanical system several meters ahead, I sighed.

Several huge monitors sat in a row against the wall, with computer keyboards and control panels that would have looked at home in a jet cockpit in front of them. We'd gotten back into the elevator and taken it down here, to the second basement. This seemed to be one of the facility's vital points.

"I had no idea this existed. Could it be a SPES database?" SIESTA, who was still in my smartphone, gazed at those enigmatic machines with deep interest. It was still only a possibility, but the information about Seed that we needed just might be in there.

"How do we use these, though? I can't even tell where the power source is." Natsunagi looked puzzled. Yeah, we'd have to boot up the system before we did anything.

"—Biometric authentication," I said. Natsunagi's eyes widened slightly. "I think the mechanism that woke up in the elevator back there might have been triggered by the same sort of authentication system."

I'd ridden that elevator a year ago, and one thing was different now: I had that seed. The elevator's authentication system might have mistaken me for Chameleon, a SPES executive.

"That means there's a good possibility that we'll be able to get in that way as well." I walked over to stand in front of the machines.

I was about to trick the system. "...…"

No response. Okay. Just as an experiment, then, I typed randomly on a keyboard, finishing off with a hard, flashy clack! Only the dry keystrokes echoed

in the silence.

"…Nothing's happening."

I waited another ten seconds, but the machines just sat there.

"Well, when Kimihiko starts trying to look cool, it rarely ends well. This isn't surprising."

"—Why am I the only one who never gets to be an MVP?!"

"I'm about…to trick the system."

"Stop imitating me, stop reading my mind, and stop making fun of all my embarrassing moments!" I said all in a rush at the annoying white-haired maid on my screen.

"Kimizuka, could you scoot over a second?" Natsunagi waved her hand at me, shooing me away, and took my spot in front of the machines.

And the moment she did— "…! It…turned on…?"

For a moment, that orange light flowed through the enormous, keyboard-type control panel, and then countless lines of text began to stream across the displays above it. The biometric authentication had worked…but for Natsunagi? Why? She'd only inherited a seed, like I had… Oh, wait. I get it. She's not like me. She's not like any of the other SPES executives, either.

"It's Hel. She was the only executive Seed trusted."

Trust. Since Seed had been planning to use Hel as his vessel, I didn't think that five-letter word accurately described their relationship. But Natsunagi had used it. It had to be because she knew Hel had wanted Seed to love her.

"Well, that activated it. SIESTA, can I leave the rest to you?"

"Yes, now that we're through the first barrier, I should be able to infiltrate the database."

Taking the baton from Natsunagi, SIESTA vanished from my smartphone. A moment later, she'd taken up residence in the display in front of us.

"It looks as if I can access a list of the seeds Seed has, the experiment data from the children who were candidate vessels, and various other pieces of information about SPES. Is there anything you're particularly interested in?" She was shuttling back and forth between multiple screens, pulling out files. It looked like she was physically hacking in.

"Right now, our main objective is finding out about Seed's weaknesses." I remembered the letter Siesta had left me in London, the one I'd read before coming to this island.

Siesta had been looking for the specific reason Seed couldn't adapt to Earth's

environment. That should be the key to subjugating him, and it was what we most needed to know right now.

"I'll try accessing Seed's personal information."

With that, SIESTA temporarily winked out of sight. Before long, a 3D model with a geometric pattern on it popped up on the black screen.

"—The primordial seed, huh?"

That seed was Seed's main body, and the progenitor of all the clones.

However, as I watched the model revolve, I could see that the primordial seed was a little different from Chameleon's seed. There was an outer shell around the main part. What was that shell protecting it from?

"Seed is planning to take the form of this seed, get inside a human body, then take over and use it as his vessel." Natsunagi looked up at the screen, narrowing her eyes. "He's tried that and failed many times before. That's the whole reason he made this research facility: to raise a sturdy vessel that could withstand his seed." She bit her lip. She was remembering her past self, and the friends who'd fallen victim to him.

As she said, human bodies didn't adapt to the primordial seed easily. Bat hadn't even been able to completely adjust to an ordinary seed, and he had lost his sight as a side effect. The primordial seed would probably demand a much greater price, and a massive amount of nutrients, from the body that became its vessel. That meant Seed was constantly searching for a human vessel that wouldn't let him overpower it, one that wouldn't wither.

"It's likely that Seed became even more powerful in the process." Suddenly, we heard SIESTA's voice from inside the machine. "I believe that, as he was entering the bodies of living creatures in his seed form, he learned about their composition on a cellular level…and eventually, he acquired the ability to take on human form. That's also why he can create clones that have special organs."

…I see. Seed had been constantly evolving ever since he reached this planet.

That had to be out of obedience to his survival instinct as well. "Even so, he must have a weakness."

If he didn't, he wouldn't want a human vessel badly enough to do something this big. Whatever kept him from adapting to Earth's environment would be his weak spot.

"Yes. However, at this point in time, I don't see any data that fits that description." SIESTA, who'd returned to my phone, shook her head.

Well, it was never going to be that simple. In that case… "SIESTA, can you check into the past movements of Seed and his clones?"

Even if the exact information we wanted wasn't there, with a vast database like this, there had to be something we could pick up on indirectly. If Seed had been using the sacred text to issue orders to his subordinates, it wouldn't be odd for him to have left a certain amount of detailed data behind.

"It does appear to be possible…but it's a bit frightening to hear you say that, Kimihiko. Rather stalkerish, really."

"Who'd stalk the enemy? Going through the trash of a girl in your grade is one thing, but…"

"Um, no, it's really not. And you seem like you just might do that, Kimizuka, so it's scarier." Natsunagi hugged her shoulders and leaped backward. That's weird. Why would she be so afraid of me? "…Oh, but wait. If you were stalking someone and going through her trash, would it be because you just couldn't get her out of your head? Because she was the focus of incredibly intense, hopeless love? …If so, then…maybe?"

"No. And I was playing dumb; don't waste it."

Even during that pointless exchange, SIESTA had been analyzing the data, and a detailed record of the actions of Seed and the other members of SPES had begun scrolling across the screens.

"—It's Hel." Natsunagi had spotted the name of her other self.

"She did more than anybody else, huh," I murmured. The screen was filled with Hel's past actions over the span of several years.

As a SPES executive, as Seed's right hand, she'd carried out her work more faithfully than anyone else. She couldn't have known she was fated to be consumed as Seed's vessel one day.

"The other executives don't seem to have done anything too attention- grabbing, though." As she examined the data, Natsunagi seemed to have picked up on something. She sounded mystified.

"Cerberus and Chameleon, you mean? Well, they did seem less like the cautious types and more the sort that lurked in the shadows and worked undercover, but… No, hang on." Just then, an idea had run through my brain like a jolt of electricity. "Is that what it is?"

Looking at the monitors, I double-checked the clones' action patterns. "SIESTA, look into the histories of Seed and his clones again…and get times, places, and what the weather was like that day."

"Understood. I'll work enough to pay for my virtual goods." SIESTA went back into the database and began accessing information.

"Kimizuka, you can't mean…" Natsunagi's red eyes were wide. Apparently,

she'd come to the same conclusion I had.

"Yeah. We may have found Seed's weakness."

Of course, a theory was just a theory. Without sufficient examples and solid evidence, it would probably end as a fantasy. Even so, I'd seen a glimmer of hope. If we could organize the data, deduce and deduce again, then verify it, I was sure—

"Kimihiko, I'm sorry. I can continue extracting data, but we may not have that much time," SIESTA said from my smartphone. The next moment, I got a call from an unfamiliar number.

"…With this timing, I think you'd better pick up," Natsunagi prompted me.

She looked grave.

I hit the TALK button. "Hello?"

From the receiver, I heard "Kimihiko? Listen carefully."

It was the voice of a girl I'd spoken with just recently. She sounded as if she was trying not to panic.

"Return home immediately. Within the next twenty-four hours, Seed is going to attack Japan."

It was the Oracle, Mia Whitlock, prophesying a global crisis.