Chapter 40 - 4.3

Chapter 40: Chapter 4.3

Rematch

"So. Which one are you?" I asked the girl who'd been standing behind me. "You'd think you could tell by looking at me."

She had red eyes, and a red military uniform. There were several sabers at her waist. She was obviously the one we'd fought to the death in London, and her name was—

"Hel..."

She wasn't Alicia. The girl who was standing here right now was Hel. The enemy we had to defeat.

"I think we can assume that the treatment's been completed—using your companions' lives," Siesta said, coming up to stand beside me. She watched Hel with stern, piercing eyes. She must have heard about that earlier, maybe from Chameleon.

"Companions? Who would those be?" Hel tilted her head, as if she genuinely didn't understand what she was hearing.

I'd seen that expression just a little while ago, when I asked Seed whether he felt guilty about killing his children. New novel chapters are published on

"Do you seriously not know?"

Was that the difference between humans and plants? Did these guys give top priority to their seeds' prosperity?

"What about Chameleon, then? Even in London, you two were working together..."

"I only used him because he was a perfect cover," Hel replied casually. "I imagine he thinks the same way. Chameleon has no interest in me as an individual. To him, I'm just a symbol, a red military uniform."

...Actually, when Alicia had been the dominant personality in Hel's body, it had taken Chameleon several weeks to find her. With their sharp ears and noses, Bat and Cerberus might be different. Did these people not view each other as individuals normally?

"Unlike you people, I have no interest in playing at being comrades." Hel sneered at Siesta and me with her frosty red eyes.

"...That was a very significant way to put it." Siesta stepped in front of me, facing Hel a few meters away. "What is it that you really want to say?"

"Oh, nothing. Only that you seemed to have been on very friendly terms with her."

"Her"... She meant Alicia. That was why Hel had been talking about "playing at being comrades."

"That's right. That's why we're here to save Alicia." "I know. That's why you're going to kill me."

The next instant, the ground bulged up, and a tangle of thorny vines like bramble canes shot up from it.

"Meaning I'm allowed to kill you as well, aren't I?" The bramble whips turned on Siesta and me.

"What the heck are those?"

"It means the enemy wasn't stupid. I'm sure they've planted the entire island with their seeds." Siesta analyzed the situation for me, using a term I'd heard only a short while ago.

"...Okay. So we have to fight the whole island, huh?"

Right now, everything on this island was preparing to attack us, with their survival instincts in high gear. Quite literally, the seeds had already been sown.

And yet as she faced down the enemy of the world, the ace detective didn't even flinch.

"Actually, this is a very fitting place for our final battle." "Isn't it? For your last moments, I mean."

Siesta's musket and Hel's red sword took aim at each other, forming a straight line.

"I'll win. And I promise I'll make Alicia's wish come true." "No, you're going to die here. You can't save that girl."

There was a single gunshot, and the sound of a sword slicing through the air.

With that, their rematch was on.

I only wanted to be loved

Siesta and Hel's fierce battle had already lasted for more than ten minutes.

"My, my. How kind of you. If you'd shot through her heart or her head, you two would have won."

In the next instant, briars burst up right under Siesta's feet. "...!"

She instantly withdrew, retreating to stand beside me again. A few meters beyond the riot of brambles, the girl in the military uniform unsteadily got to her feet, holding her shoulder.

"So my master is that important to you."

The red eyes beneath her service cap had reverted to Hel's cold ones. There was no doubt about it: Hel was in charge now, and she switched with Alicia's personality whenever she wanted...!

"However, I won't lose to anyone who's that na?ve. This time, I will carry out my mission as SPES."

Hel's red eyes opened wide, and she sprang on us with her sword. At the same time, a horde of brambles attacked us. If we tried to fight, Hel would probably flip back to Alicia. In that case, we wouldn't be able to lay a hand on her—

"Oh, it really was a lie." Quietly, Siesta murmured.

It sounded a lot like what she'd said to Bat three years ago, on that hijacked

airplane. That sentence meant shit was about to get real.

"What are you talking about?" Hel tilted her head, caught by surprise. However, the briars didn't stop moving. They surrounded Siesta and me... and then withered away.

A drop of water trickled down my cheek, and I looked up. "Rain?"

There was a helicopter up there, high in the sky. Was it scattering some sort of liquid...?

"Weed killer," Siesta said. "It's a custom-made, super-fast-acting variety.

Don't worry; it has no effect on humans." "Always ready for anything, huh...?"

It had been a counter for that biological weapon, a technique that killed plants and left humans alive. Ms. Fuubi was probably the one in that

helicopter. "...!"

Hel, still holding her military sword, attacked on her own, while Siesta swung her musket like a blade again.

"What? What about me is a lie?"

However, Hel's hands were trembling slightly around the grip of her saber.

In response, Siesta said:

"You have no real interest in SPES, do you." She spoke without mercy.

"...I've told you over and over. I am obeying fate...and acting in accordance with the will of SPES. That's why I'm—!"

Her red eyes were wavering. For the first time, Hel seemed genuinely off balance—and there was no way Siesta was going to let that opportunity slip past her.

"You said so yourself," Siesta reminded her. Her expression remained steady.

"You are a completely new being, created by Alicia's defensive instincts. Meaning there's no way instincts as a member of SPES could have taken root in you."

...! So that was what this was about... If what Hel had told us earlier was true, the one who'd had SPES abilities and instincts to begin with was Alicia. Hel was only an acquired personality Alicia had created in self-defense. By rights, Hel shouldn't have instincts as SPES.

"That means you're just a fake who's been desperately trying to get close to SPES."

Hel was staring at the ground, and Siesta verbally cut right through her. "Then...," Hel murmured. When she raised her head, her face was suffused

with anger. This was the second time I'd seen her this way. "Why would I do that?! What reason do I have to do all this for SPES...?!"

That's right; she'd been just as angry back then, too. Siesta must already have realized it, in that instant.

Once again, the detective spoke to the girl in the military uniform, as if reasoning with her gently.

"You probably wanted your father to love you."