Chapter 1.4

That was how we did things

From the scramble intersection, we looked up at the eight-story shopping mall. A huge tree grew straight up through its center, and thick branches had broken through windows and walls.

"Saikawa…"

In the crown of the tree, which was practically part of the structure now, we could see a fruit-like object. Saikawa and other regular citizens were trapped inside its eye-catching ripe skin.

"It doesn't look like scaling the outside is going to work." "Then we'll just have to go through the inside, huh?"

That enormous tree had suddenly sprouted and impaled the building. There was no telling what the inside would look like. Even if we made it up to the fruit, we wouldn't be able to rescue everybody at once. If we could retrieve Saikawa, though, the flow of nutrients should stop, and that would save the civilians.

As I was thinking, I looked up at the building again and spotted a helicopter in the dark sky. Were they taking an aerial survey of the damage?

"…Hm?"

Just then, a long, thin tentacle stretched up out of nowhere and grabbed the helicopter's tail rotor. There was only one way I could see that playing out.

"Assistant!"

Even before I could move, Siesta's sharp voice hit me, followed by the rest of her: She'd tackled me, pushing me to the ground to protect me. The next instant, an explosion pierced my ears.

"...! Siesta!"

We were a good distance from the crash, but even then, an intense blast of heat hit us. The black smoke was so thick, I couldn't open my eyes. I called out to the detective…but there was no answer. I couldn't even sense her presence. No way… I raised my head, and just then, a gunshot rang out. The bullet split the wind, cutting through the smoke.

"It's a hundred years too early for you to worry about me."

Siesta stood in front of me, musket at the ready. She knew I'd never catch up to her.

Beyond the distant flames from the explosion, I spotted the silhouette of an enemy I'd seen just the other day.

"—It's been a long time, but I see you haven't changed." Out of the gradually clearing smoke, Seed spoke to Siesta. He normally couldn't tell humans apart, but Siesta had been a candidate vessel, so perhaps she was a special case.

"You, on the other hand, take on a different shape every time I see you." Siesta was expressionless. She must have been watching her enemy transform

ever since their first encounter six years ago.

However, Seed looked nearly the same as he had when I'd met him a week ago. His long white hair was mixed with strands of gray, and he wore armor that came up to his neck. His face seemed lifeless, his features androgynous. He had the eyes of a creature that had abandoned all emotions and everything else. As if he'd cut them off and thrown them away.

"I do think you used to be a bit more human, though," Siesta said unexpectedly. Even if Seed was a plant that had flown here from outer space, Siesta seemed to imply that he'd once resembled us.

"What are you getting at?" Granted, Seed didn't seem able to understand human words. He cocked his head, mystified.

He wasn't playing dumb. He also wasn't doing what Hel did when she'd been pretending not to notice her feelings of love. The fact that Natsunagi had bombarded him with her strong emotions and still hadn't managed to defeat him was proof: The primordial seed had nothing resembling feelings.

"Enough arguing. I've already issued the order." Four tentacles stretched from Seed's back, and thick briars grew from the cracked ground. The seeds he'd sown all over the world were ready to sprout.

"The vessel will be complete soon. For now, I'll eliminate the enemies who threaten my survival instinct."

Then Seed's tentacles and the tips of all the plants under his control streaked toward us. As he said, there would be no resolving this through debate. We were heading into the genuine final showdown.

Still, even if he'd taken damage the other day, would we have a fair fighting chance against him? It was nighttime, so we couldn't expect any help from the sunlight that made him weak.

"What do we do, Siesta?" I asked, coming up to stand beside the world's most reliable partner.

"It's fine. I've got an idea."

Yeah, that's it. This reassuring feeling. She'd always protected me this way, with that big metaphorical umbrella of hers. Yes, she'd picked me up just like this, and…

"…Hm?"

Throwing me over her shoulder, Siesta started forward and skillfully dodged tentacles as they stabbed into the ground. Then, leaping as if she were taking flight, Siesta threw me past Seed.

"Not fair!"

I tumbled right into the entryway of a building. The exact one we were here for, so—

"Take care of Yui."

"…For once, could you explain what you're doing before you do it?"

 To all living creatures

Looking back, whenever Siesta said she had a good idea, it was usually a bad one for me. I didn't have time to complain right now, though.

"I'll be back in ten minutes."

Turning away from the battlefield, I set off to rescue Saikawa.

Ten minutes. Would Siesta be able to withstand the enemy's attacks that long? For now, I had to believe in her. She'd chosen to send me, and I needed to respect her choice. Besides…at this point, I couldn't see her choosing to sacrifice herself.

I made my way through the mall, the former heart of a space for teenagers. Just a few hours ago, it must have been bustling with people, but now it was changed beyond recognition.

"So I can't use the escalators or the elevators."

The building's power was out, and it was dark. The huge tree stretched up through the center of the floors, and viny plants grew thickly all over the place. Pushing my way through them, I spotted a stairway.

I was pretty sure this building had eight floors. From there, I'd have to get up to the roof, then jump down onto that big fruit. I had a mental image of how it should go, but would it really be that easy to rescue Saikawa? …There was so much to think about that it was giving me a headache.

Siesta was fighting with Seed, and Saikawa had been captured. Charlie was still in the hospital in critical condition, and Natsunagi—

"...…!"

As a rule, nothing I did could change their fates, and I knew there was no point in thinking about it now. Even so, as I ran up the stairs two at a time, the girls' faces came to mind.

I'd been alone. The next thing I knew, though, they were with me, by my side. I'd gained so many things that were important to me, without even

meaning to. When people found something more precious than themselves, I was sure they—

"!"

I saw a figure huddled on the landing between the fourth and fifth floors. "Are you okay?"

Was it a shopper who hadn't gotten away in time, or a civilian who'd been snatched by a tentacle? I couldn't see that well in the dark, but I reached out toward the hunched back.

"—Gah, aaaaaaaaah!"

The huddled figure gave a piercing shriek, then whipped around and leaped at me.

Like a zombie, it made a grab for me. It wasn't as strong as I'd thought, though. I swept its feet out from under it, pinned it, and held a gun to its head.

"You're…"

My gun was trained on an enemy I'd met on the battlefield many times: Chameleon.

"…No."

It didn't take me long to realize this wasn't the actual Chameleon I'd fought. It was a doll. When I'd encountered Seed at the SPES laboratory a year ago, he'd been cutting off bits of his own body and making temporary clones. This doll was probably something similar; it didn't have as much strength as a pseudohuman, and it was hard to define it as either animal or plant.

"Forgive me."

Even so, I murmured to it briefly, then shot through its head. The Chameleon doll shriveled up; it was like watching a plant die in fast-forward.

"—I, w—"

At last, with a strangled whimper, the doll vanished.

Ow?

I thought about what that expression of pain meant.

Was the impulse to scream from pain different from "emotion"? Seed had no emotions whatsoever. In that case, the clones he'd created—

"Complete the mission," said a voice behind me.

When I turned, there were enormous, razor-sharp claws right in my face. "—!" I lost my balance but managed to dodge, then got a good look at my

attacker. "You're as huge as ever, Cerberus."

The pseudohuman Cerberus was a hulking, priestlike man who was around two meters tall. Just as he'd done during our previous encounter, he had transformed fully into a beast-man.

"Sorry, but I don't have time to deal with you, either." With no hesitation, I pulled the trigger, finishing the enemy with three shots.

"—I, wa—" Cerberus cried in a thin voice. This was another hastily made plant doll. It would have taken a lot more than that to stop the real Cerberus, but with those three shots, he toppled toward me, apparently dead.

He was two meters tall, and yet, as his body fell against me, he seemed to weigh practically nothing. He began to dry up and crumble away. At the very end, the proud wolf murmured something in my ear.

"—I want to live."

I want to live.

Not Ow. They'd been saying they wanted to live.

Both Chameleon and Cerberus. All living creatures. They all want to survive, to live. Just as I'd wanted to bring Siesta back from the dead and had wanted Natsunagi to live.

"Everybody's like that."

Belatedly, I understood. The fear of death was a basic emotion, an instinct nobody could deny. Dolls, plants, pseudohumans… When I let those words affect me, I almost forgot.

Hel and Bat, of course, but also Chameleon and Cerberus, and the clones I'd fought all this time—They feared death just as ordinary humans did. They got angry and occasionally showed other emotions.

The loyalty Cerberus felt toward Seed, the sadism Chameleon inflicted on Natsunagi, and the hostility he'd showed me. Those were all clear examples of feelings. That's right: Unlike the primordial seed, the clones had unmistakable emotio—

"—No, that's wrong."

Like a jolt of electricity, one theory raced through my brain. Maybe I'd— maybe we'd—had the wrong idea all this time.

"That's why you…"

Just then, a tremor made me stumble. There was a fierce battle going on outside, and I had no time to stand still. I hurried for the roof.