Chapter 5.1

Another storyteller

Somewhere in Japan, in a certain abandoned factory… "Bat, are you okay?!"

As rain drummed on the factory roof, the sapphire girl called my name. She didn't have to shout it; I could hear her just fine, but apparently my wounds looked ugly enough to really shake her up.

"…Ha! This is nothing."

That said, I was practically blind, so it wasn't like I could see them.

We'd fled into this abandoned factory, and I leaned against a rusted pillar, grinning. We'd left the Saikawa residence and had been on the run from the enemy for more than half a day.

They'd struck out of nowhere. Seed seemed to want his new vessel more urgently than we'd figured. That said, the guy hadn't shown himself yet. I'd gotten messed up this bad by a lowly SPES survivor. Apparently, my time in the big house had done a number on my skills.

"People don't bleed that much when it's nothing!" For some reason, the sapphire girl was yelling at me. She'd found a spot where the bleeding was particularly heavy and was trying to stanch the flow with her handkerchief.

"Which of us is overprotective?" I joked. It was so awkward being taken care of by a girl who was twenty-odd years younger than me.

"You can't call this 'overprotective.' If you were Kimizuka, I'd have to hold you close and pat your head to keep you from bawling."

What does that guy do with his time?

"Well, to be honest, having my right ear out of commission actually is a problem."

That ear was where the seed was attached. If it was busted, I couldn't use my bat-like hearing. When the enemy attacked, I would be none the wiser.

"I guess that's just what I get for letting that guy get away back then. I was lazy. What goes around comes around."

The SPES survivor who was chasing us was the man who'd tried to attack the

sapphire girl with a crossbow at the concert. If I'd had time for a smoke, I guess I should have used it to go after him.

"Is he a pseudohuman, too? When we were running, I saw something that looked like a tentacle."

"He's a half-pseudohuman like me; he just forcibly attached a seed to himself.

Back when I was still in the organization, I heard his ability was using poison." The arrow that had grazed my right ear had been coated with something toxic.

What a typically crooked, "survivors on the run" type of move. I couldn't remember if the guy's code name had been Jellyfish Man or something a little cooler, but either way, his role in this story was tiny. So maybe that meant I wasn't wrong to have a smoke instead of chasing him. Ha-ha!

"I hope Kimizuka gets here soon…," the sapphire girl murmured in a small voice as she patched me up. The text had given us an early warning about the enemy's attack, at least.

"You're awfully honest about your feelings when he isn't around."

"…You aren't allowed to mess with me. You're a cool older man; you should know these things." Speaking rapidly, she bound my wound tightly with her handkerchief. She's an open book.

"Do you really think he's gonna come back with a way to beat Seed?" I wanted to know if the girl trusted him that much.

"Yes, I trust him," she said immediately. "That's why I took the mic instead of the pistol. Because I believed him."

"…Oh, that's right." She could say that because she'd resolved to walk alongside her friends, instead of living for revenge. She could smile now because she hadn't resented, hadn't doubted. She'd forgiven, believed, and left her hesitation behind. People would probably roll their eyes at that and say she was all talk, but Yui Saikawa would shut them all up with a single mic. She had the strength for it. And I'd definitely never had that.

"Saikawa! You okay?!"

Just then, the factory's heavy door opened. "Kimizuka!"

The timing was like a reminder that those who had faith would be saved. Although the sapphire girl didn't stop treating me and run to him, she shouted excitedly at the messiah who'd just walked in. "I've been waiting for you for ages… Honestly! We haven't been able to talk for three days, so I intend to have you thoroughly spoil me. And the fight— I'll overlook it."

"Ha-ha. Sorry about that."

"? Kimizuka, you're being genuine… I suppose that does happen sometimes." The sapphire girl looked bewildered, but her friend's return had relieved her.

Wow, she trusts the guy that much? Should I be jealous about this? "Huh? Where's Nagisa?"

"Oh, she's running a bit behind. She'll be here later." As he spoke, I could hear Kimihiko Kimizuka's voice coming closer. Without my sight or my right ear to help me, it was hard to judge the distance.

"Sorry. It feels like the handkerchief around my wound is coming undone," I told the sapphire girl, indirectly asking her to retie it.

"Huh? Oh, honestly. You're a lot of trouble, too, aren't you, Bat?" …But for some reason, as she came over to me, her voice was light and happy.

Sorry, but I'm not giving you this girl, I silently told the guy who was standing in front of us.

"Bat, thank you for protecting Saikawa all this time."

"Ha-ha! Hey, I didn't do it for you." It sounded like a fight over a girl, peppered with jokes. Geez, why do I have to do this? I thought, but I played my part. "We've been enemies since we met, you and I. There's no way I'd do anything to help you."

I'd never side with this guy, and vice versa. That's how it's always been.

"But you've cut your ties to SPES, haven't you, Bat? In that case…," Yui said. "Ha! I only joined SPES because there was something I had to do anyway." Let me confess, once again, that I never felt anything like loyalty to SPES. "Long ago, I had a sister who was much younger than I was. The family we

were born into was the pits, so the day she turned six, she was sent to a certain orphanage so there'd be one less mouth to feed at home. When you live in the slums, it's a common story."

As I spoke about the past, I lit my last remaining cigarette, working by feel.

"I was so green back then, though. I seriously thought I was gonna get out of that dump of a world one day and go get my sister. I didn't even go to school; I just worked. When I was thirteen, I started doing business under the table, too, so I could make more money faster. Then, while I was working as a mule—I learned about SPES."

I tipped my head back, blowing a tall column of smoke.

"Before too long, I figured out that those guys ran the orphanage where my sister was. Thought it was fishy, so I wormed my way into SPES."

"And that's why you joined…"

"Right. However, the more checking around I did, the surer I was that my sister was in danger, and I didn't have a moment to lose. So I resorted to a forbidden method."

"You stole one of Seed's seeds?" This time, the question was in Kimihiko Kimizuka's voice.

"Yeah. I figured if I had ears that could hear voices a hundred kilometers away, I'd find my sister again someday. As a matter of fact, I used those to steal information and locate the orphanage…but she wasn't there anymore. But I believed that if I followed orders and kept flying around the world, I was bound to see her again someday. After more than ten years had gone by—"

My sister had died.

"Or actually, I should say she'd been dead all along. I spent more than a decade collecting information, and in the end, I learned that my sister had died in an experiment ages back. That was also when they tumbled to my plot and decided to punish me, ten years after the fact."

The result had been that hijacking, four years ago. That was how SPES and I had parted ways in earnest.

"Even then, I didn't give up. I'd sworn to myself that I wouldn't die until I'd seen my sister again. See, as I was zipping all over the world as a SPES member, I'd heard a certain rumor."

"—The vampire," Yui murmured quietly. She'd seen him, too.

"Yeah, that's right. They said he had the ability to bring the dead back to life.

If that turned out to be true, I'd be able to see my sister again." "But that ability isn't…"

"Right. His ability to resurrect the dead wasn't what I was hoping for."

Scarlet's "undead" had lost everything but the strongest instinct they'd had in life. They were nothing but zombies. I couldn't genuinely get my wish that way.

"And so my dream finally collapsed. It'll never come true."

"So instead, you said you'd cooperate with us?" Kimizuka's voice asked.

If my own wish wouldn't come true, had I at least tried to help someone else out?

"Ha-ha! Hey, c'mon. You think I'm that noble?"

I'd never taken him for the type to make crappy jokes. I stubbed my cigarette out on the concrete floor.

"I've been wrung out like a dishrag. This is all that's left of me—my stubborn mulishness. I wouldn't even call it a will, really. If I had to give it a name, what's driving me now is an inner impulse, the petty desire for revenge—"

My body had recovered a little, and I forced myself to my feet. "Bat…?"

"Stay behind me."

I sheltered Yui Saikawa, who'd sounded mystified, behind my back. "The one thing I still had to do was—"

I pointed my gun at the man who'd been pretending to be Kimihiko Kimizuka

all this time.

"…kill you with my own two hands—Seed."

  Villain

I fired with no hesitation, and the bullet punched right through Seed's forehead.

—Except…

"I see. So you caught on," he said calmly. He barely even reacted to it. Apparently, just putting a hole in his skull wasn't enough to stop this enemy from moving.

However, the tone of his voice and the way he spoke were completely different from what they'd been before. My blind eyes couldn't see him, but he'd probably shed Kimihiko Kimizuka's shape and resumed his own form. I was pretty sure his default had been a youngish white-haired guy.

"No…" Beside me, Yui sounded dazed.

Her excellent vision had made it easier to get tricked. The man in front of us was Seed: the father of all the pseudohumans, and our greatest enemy. He could change his shape at will, and he'd come to steal Yui Saikawa, his vessel, while pretending he was here to save a friend.

"How did you know?" Seed asked quietly. My gun was still trained on him. "Yeah, I can't hear sounds a hundred kilometers away anymore. I shouldn't

really have been able to unmask you at this point."

But too bad, Seed. You're special.

"Every cell in my body, every drop of blood, has been yelling all this time. It would never let me miss the heartbeat of my sworn enemy. Even if you run to the far side of hell, this surge won't stop."

I fired again, aiming for the spot where I sensed the enemy. "And why would I need to run?"

There was no sense that I'd hit anything, though. All that came back to me was a cold, emotionless voice. And then—

"Look out!"

A light impact ran through my lower abdomen. It wasn't an enemy attack, though… The sapphire girl? I let her knock me over.

"…I pushed down an adult."

"No, that was a good call. You saved me." Patting her head carelessly, I got back up.

"I see. So the girl has also begun to use my seed properly?"

I could hear something whirring, cutting through the air. Seed was probably whipping his tentacles around. The sapphire girl had detected the attack before I did, and her quick thinking had kept me from taking a fatal injury.

"It's thanks to Bat's special training, not you," Yui told Seed. "My left eye can read your movements perfectly now…!"

That was the new way Yui had learned to use her left eye. Ordinarily, when people begin to move, they use muscles in other areas of their body first. The sapphire eye can register these warnings, these little warm-ups, a few seconds early. It's a feat she can pull off because she's capable of seeing each individual fiber of her opponent's muscles. Of course, she hadn't had enough training yet to use the full extent of her ability.

"With this power, I can evade any attack. You may be a pseudohuman or an alien, but we'll never lose to you."

Even so, Yui bluffed and declared her intention to fight alongside me. And what did I say to that trusty ally?

"No, you cut and run, right now." I told her, briefly, that fleeing before the enemy was the best move. "I'll buy time. I can put in that much work. Which means, little lady, you better—"

"—No!"

She must have known I'd say that, too. Even without using that left eye. "What is this? Don't tell me it's the 'You go on ahead, I'll handle this'

routine? That's such a cliché these days," Yui snapped, as if some sort of dam had burst inside her. "It doesn't suit you, Bat. You sound like a poser. The only people allowed to say that stuff are, like, high school seniors who have that protagonist type of personality: a guy who feels omnipotent to the point where it's rather cringey, but is oblivious about that. You, Bat, are a cool, older hard- liner who was once our enemy but has been kind enough to take our side, and people like you aren't supposed to say things like that. Because, I mean—"

"Get down!"

Apparently, just this once, my intuition had beaten that left eye. As I shielded Yui Saikawa, the tentacle told me as much by stabbing into my back.

"I mean, it makes it sound like you've decided this is where you'll die, you know?"

Yui seemed to be crying.

That's strange. I always thought people were happier about it when you saved their lives.

"Everybody's got a role to play." The severe pain was trying to make my mind shut down, but I did my best to speak calmly. "Nagisa Natsunagi inherited the previous Ace Detective's wish and is taking down the world's enemies. Yui Saikawa, you shouldered your parents' feelings and keep singing. And I have a mission to be the last one on the battlefield."

"That's just… All that, just to protect me…?"

"…Ha-ha! Don't get the wrong idea. It's not to protect you, little lady."

I straightened up, turning my back on Yui. "I'm staying here for one reason only: to slaughter that guy with my own two hands."

I wasn't sacrificing myself in order to save somebody. My role was to end my sworn enemy personally, right here.

"—I see. So you're a defective variety as well?"

The next moment, Seed started radiating a miasma-like aura so intense that I didn't need eyes to sense it. I guessed that countless tentacles were heading my way.

"Then, as your parent, I must prune you from the vine."

The tips of those sharp tentacles streaked toward me like whips. —However. "You're the one who should be cut down, Seed."

I heard something like spraying body fluid. A sharp blade had severed the tentacles with a single stroke.

"Charlie…!" As her companion arrived, Yui seemed relieved.

"I'm sorry. An enemy attack held me up." The blond girl swung her sword, shaking Seed's fluids off its blade. "In exchange, I hunted down all the survivors."

I see. So she'd dealt with the guy who'd rotted my ear, too. Her arrival was going to make my wish come true now.

"Can I count on you?"

"…You mean that's my role in this situation, don't you?"

It's great that she's so quick on the uptake. That nasty cop turns out some pretty good agents.

"…! Charlie, why?!" As her friend picked her up, Yui cried out, bewildered. "I'm sorry, Yui. You can hit me as many times as you want later." With that,

carrying Yui Saikawa, the girl who'd showed up to help turned her back on me. "I hope you safely carry out your mission."

With that classic agent line, she took off.

The only sound that still lingered in my ears was the sobs of a young girl. "Is this the development you were hoping for?"

I thought I could hear something scorching—but that was a sound I knew meant Seed's tentacles were regrowing.

"If so, it was a poor move. If you let the vessel escape when she's on the brink of death, the survival instincts of the seed inside her will grow stronger, and she'll be more compatible as my vessel."

Yeah, probably. The attack on Yui at her dome concert the other day had only been a threat. By exposing her to mortal danger, he'd boosted her survival instincts, making her a more durable vessel. However, that had no bearing whatsoever on this situation.

"Ha-ha! How many times are you going to make me say it? I stayed here for one reason: to kill you myself."

I turned the tip of the tentacle that grew from my right ear on Seed.

"Ah. So that seed isn't completely dead yet?"

No matter how hopeless my position might get, I still had this. A kid killing his parent—that's an oddly amusing development, don't you think?

…Ha-ha. Nice. At the very, very end, this got entertaining. At least until the curtain came down, it could be fun to make like the protagonist of this story and act like a hero.

"Obey the laws of nature and breathe your last." Seed's countless sharp tentacles sped toward me.

And, with my last fight staring me in the face, what did I say? "Ha-ha! You're the one who's gonna die!"

Hmm, yeah.

Apparently, once you've been a villain, it's a pretty hard role to shake.