Chapter 41 - 4.4

Chapter 41: Chapter 4.4

The monster cries

"—!"

"You just wanted love. You wanted someone to see and accept you. That's all."

"No!"

Hel's pupils had dilated; she adjusted her grip on the hilt of her military sword and raised it high. The blade closed in on Siesta's throat—but Siesta dodged it lightly, and the tip sliced through empty air. Hel's attacks didn't seem as spirited as they had earlier. Siesta's theory had been right on the money.

"Then why are you so upset?"

I fired at Hel's feet to keep her at bay.

"...!" Hel scowled a little, retreating temporarily.

"Let me rephrase that. Why did you switch personalities with Alicia back there?" Siesta asked a second question as she kept her gun trained on Hel. "Because you actually hoped I wouldn't aim at anything vital if you did? ... No. You just wanted to hurt her."

"...Well, I won't deny that. After all, I was born just to take on the pain of the dominant personality. Maybe I had some desire for revenge."

"Yes. Yes, that's right. You have emotions. You aren't a plant...and you're certainly not a monster," Siesta said. "However...you're still lying."

"...Lying..."

"The real reason you're forcing Alicia to take that pain isn't a thirst for revenge. It's jealousy."

"—! Silence!"

Hel flew into a rage. By the time I realized what was happening, she'd leveled her sword and locked blades with Siesta.

"You were jealous of Alicia. She'd caused you all that suffering, and yet she'd found companions in myself and my assistant. You hated her so, so much...and you envied her."

"No... No, no!"

"I'm not wrong. You just wanted to be loved. You wanted friends." "Silence!" Hel's red eyes glowed.

"You are going to kill yourself, here and now...!"

The next moment, Siesta had drawn her handgun from its holster and set it against her own temple.

Hel had used her ability, that power to interfere with human consciousness and control actions.

However—

"Siesta, you're not going to die."

When I spoke, Siesta promptly released the gun.

"Wh-why...?" Hel stared at us, confused, and Siesta explained.

"It's simple. I trust my assistant more than anyone else—even myself." Siesta glanced at me, then spoke to the ultimate enemy who dominated the field in front of her. "Even if my mind tries to embrace its own death, if he firmly denies it, then I'll believe him without a second thought. That's all it is."

"...! Then..." Hel's eyes turned to me. At that— "Assistant, you won't die, either," Siesta said to me. It was the spell that held our odd partnership together.

We both trusted each other more than we trusted ourselves. That was all it was.

Really, that was all.

This one minor thing, unconsciously cultivated over those three years, made us invincible.

And that was the one and only way to cancel out the brainwashing inflicted by those red eyes.

She could say whatever she wanted to try to take control of my mind, but if someone I trusted more spoke to me, I would be free again.

To me, that "someone" was Siesta—and to Siesta, it was me.

If you say that's a deus ex machina development, well, at least call it the power of our bond, all right? It had taken three years to develop, too disgustingly stubborn for us to break even if we wanted to.

"—! A bond? That's just— That's not...!"

She didn't want to admit it, but she couldn't summon the words to deny it, either.

Hel dropped her sword, holding her head. This was probably the plan Siesta had come up with.

If we were going to save Alicia, of course we couldn't kill her body. We'd have to remove Hel's personality—and so Siesta had struck at Hel's psychological contradiction, trying to destabilize her emotionally.

"That's right, Hel. You don't have to obey that sacred text. You don't have to kill anyone else. You can have friends without those things. You'll create bonds, too."

I could see what Siesta was trying to do. "You don't have to force yourself to listen to what that Seed guy says..."

But before I could continue—

"I can't afford to lose." Hel retrieved the red-hilted military sword. When she raised her head, her eyes were blazing red.

"Hel, you're..."

"I admit it." As Hel turned to face Siesta, she wasn't wavering the tiniest bit. "I wanted to be loved. I wanted to be needed. I wanted someone to say that my birth had meaning... But nobody would have done it. It isn't that I wanted companions, no matter who they were. I just wanted Father to love me. I wanted him to accept me."

Hel pointed the tip of her blade at Siesta.

"And I'll live, fight, and destroy the world for it. That is my survival instinct."

It was something completely unbreakable, an enormous evil—a conviction. "That's fine."

The only one who could confront this enemy of the world was the ace detective. With her gun at the ready, Siesta accepted the declaration of war.

"We've killed the plants. We've rendered your red eyes useless. All you

have left is that sword. Let's settle this, shall we?" "Getting cocky because this is gun versus blade?" "No. It's because this is me versus you."

"You're really irritating."

"No matter how we met, I'm sure we never would have gotten along." "You've got that right. So let's end it here." Hel lowered her center of

gravity, poised to draw her sword.

With lightning speed, she slashed at Siesta—and just then... "...! An earthquake...?"

Out of nowhere, the ground bulged upward; with a roar, it began to crack.

Did we miss some of the roots? I wondered, and I'd braced myself, when— "Assistant! Look out!" Siesta shoved me hard, sending me flying.

The next instant, the ground jolted up dramatically. A large rift opened between me and Siesta—and something emerged from the ground.

It looked like a huge reptile, and its grotesque coloring seemed familiar. However, it was much larger than it had been before, a full ten meters long now. As the earth rumbled, it bellowed—and then it spotted its target.

"Siesta...!"

The biological weapon had been revived: Betelgeuse. Its eyeless head was turned toward Siesta and Hel. "—Over here, monster...!"

I squeezed the trigger of my Magnum until I was out of bullets...but Betelgeuse didn't seem to care. It faced the others, ribbons of drool trickling from its enormous lower jaw.

"Is it...hungry...?"

Betelgeuse was a monster that ate human hearts.

There were two people on the other side—and a hungry monster was bound to prioritize numbers over anything else.

"Siesta!"

Beyond the huge monster, I caught a glimpse of a girl with pale silver hair. Immediately afterward, there was a howl like a whale's moan—and then a large burst of red like a flower.

In that last instant, my eyes met the girl's, and she seemed to be smiling.

To the most......person in the world

"Bitten by my own hound."

After the dust cleared, what I saw—was Betelgeuse's enormous body. Even after its vicious rampage, it was lying on the ground, with Hel's foot planted on its head.

And— "Siesta..."

My partner was lying on her back. Red blood was dripping from the left side of her chest.

"They were keeping it isolated in the lab, but maybe the smell of food drew it here," Hel commented, then stabbed her sword into Betelgeuse's neck. The monster seemed to be dead already.

"Oh, I want you to stay where you are for a bit. Don't move."

Her red eyes glowed...and I stopped in my tracks. Before I even knew what I was doing, my feet were trying to run toward Siesta.

"I've lost a little too much blood..."

Keeping me pinned with her ability, Hel walked right in front of me toward Siesta, her steps unsteady. Now that I was paying attention, I saw that the left side of Hel's chest was also deeply wounded, and dark red blood was streaming down her front.

"Now then." Hel reached down toward Siesta. "...! Don't you touch her!"

I tried to run toward Hel...but my body wouldn't move. It was like I'd turned to stone. If I wanted to undo the brainwashing from those red eyes, someone I trusted from the bottom of my heart had to be there with me. And she was gone.

Now I was sure of it: Siesta was alive, inside Hel!

"No, that... That's—ridiculous..." Hel's red left eye glared at the blue one right beside it. "You won't...get away with this... Taking...over my body...

without...permission..."

"Be quiet. I'm talking with him right now." The girl squeezed her eyes shut tightly. When she opened them again, both were blue.

"Siesta, you..."

"I went and made you cry, didn't I?" There was no mistake. It was her.

She was borrowing the body of Hel, her mortal enemy, but the one speaking to me was Siesta. That fact made my knees go weak, and my eyes grew hot again.

Siesta was still alive. "Siesta, I'm..."

"Assistant, there's no time, so listen carefully." But Siesta didn't bask in the joy of our reunion. She just kept on talking to me. "The thing is, my heart is rather special. For example, by moving my own consciousness into it, I'm able to hold on to my sense of self inside someone else's body."

"That's..."

Was it similar to the phenomenon of memory transference? There had been cases all over the world of organ transplant recipients inheriting the memories and preferences of their donors.

Since Hel had stolen Siesta's heart, Siesta's memories and awareness had also been partially transplanted into Hel. That was how Siesta was borrowing her body to speak—

"I came up with several different plans, but it really would have been difficult to defeat Hel in the truest sense of the word."

"...! Siesta, are you saying you—?!"

"Yes, this was the only way. I had to infiltrate Hel and repress her mind.

That was the only way to oppose her."

...! Meaning that back then, Siesta had intentionally... She'd known she was going to die!

That wasn't— That was just ludicrous!

"I told you, didn't I? A real ace detective resolves the incident before it occurs. I'd known for a long time that things would turn out like this."

"No... That's not fair... All along, you..."

So she'd been able to see our destination right from the start?

In that case, why... Why?

"Because if I'd told you, you would have stopped me." Siesta, wearing

Hel's form, gave a rather lonely smile. "I have a favor to ask you, Kimi." "...No way."

"Listen."

"No."

"Are you stupid, Kimi? This is no time to be stubborn and you know it," she said, putting out a hand and stroking my head. "I'll infiltrate this body and keep Hel's vicious personality in check. If I do, Alicia's personality should wake up again."

"...! She will?!"

"Yes. After all, this body has Cerberus's ability... You understand what that means, don't you?"

...Ah, I get it. The three heads of Hades' guard dog. She was saying this body could house up to three people. Alicia and Hel had already been there, and now Siesta had joined them.

"She may have lost her memory again, but I want you to ask for her help— and someday, I want you to defeat SPES."

That had been Siesta's true secret plan.

The one and only stratagem to defeat Hel and let Alicia live.

"—! But then what happens to you? If Alicia's personality wakes up, then yours will disappear along with Hel, right?! Don't you dare... I won't let you!"

Sacrifice Siesta to save Alicia? If that was the solution, I didn't want it! It didn't matter what form she took. We could even be enemies.

As long as you, your mind, is still alive somewhere, that's enough for me.

So I won't let you do anything this selfish!

"I thought you'd say that." Siesta gave another ghost of a smile. "It's going to be all right, though. Alicia has things I don't. I'm sure you'll be able to get along well with her. Remember those two weeks," she told me gently.

"—I told you, don't act like this is decided! I haven't agreed to..." Just then, the ground rocked under my feet.

Had I lost too much blood? No, that wasn't it... I smelled something sweet. In one buoyant moment, a euphoric and fuzzy feeling swept over my mind.

Through dimming eyes, I saw that an enormous flower had bloomed from the corpse of the biological weapon.

It was pollen.

The sweet-smelling powder drifted to us on the wind.

"...Maybe this is fate as well. It's been three years since then." Siesta gave a troubled smile.

Three years... Oh. The Miss Hanako incident at the cultural festival, three years ago. This pollen was the drug that had rampaged through my middle school.

"So it came from a flower from this thing's body, huh...?"

I knew what these conditions meant, even though I desperately didn't want to.

"No... I don't want to...forget..."

The very first side effect of ingesting this pollen was memory trouble. Inhaling this much of it had to carry a substantial risk. I might forget these three years entirely, and all about Siesta, everything—

"It's all right."

Maybe Hel's body had an immunity to the pollen; Siesta was still standing firm. As I swayed, she let me lean on her shoulder.

"Well, you may forget a little. What happened here, for example, or the things I've told you. Still." She smiled. "You won't forget me. You won't abandon your mission. You'll sigh and whine that it's not fair, and you'll keep working with Alicia for me."

"That's...not okay... I won't..."

By that point I couldn't even stand, and I sank down right where I was. Black was creeping in at the corners of my vision, and it was getting harder to hear.

"I'm...your assistant... I won't...be...anybody else's...partner..." "...Ha-ha. That's a nice thing to hear, here at the end."

I was sitting down. Putting a hand on my shoulder, she smiled softly at me. Was this another side effect of the pollen? Was I hallucinating? Hel was our mortal enemy, but right now, I could only see the partner I'd spent three

years with.

"I don't...want to forget... You'll... I'll...always..."

"I'm telling you, it's all right. Remember what I said? This whole time, we've trusted each other more than we trust ourselves."

"...So, I should...believe...what you say?" "Exactly. Have I ever been wrong?"

...No, she hadn't. Not once.

You were always right. Way too right.

Every once in a while—I wanted you to be wrong.

But my throat wouldn't let those words out.

"The next time you wake up, I'm sure I won't be there anymore, but..."

Live. And thrive.

Was it my imagination? Siesta looked like she was crying. She wouldn't cry, though.

Was it because she was in a different body?

With large tears trickling down her cheeks, Siesta grabbed my shoulders and shouted.

"Listen to me!

I won't forget you, Kimi!

Even if a ruthless enemy hijacks my mind, even if I forget everything else, I'll remember you!

It may take a while! A week, maybe!

Or a month!

Or a year!

It may take a long time! Even so, I promise—!

This body will come to see you, one more time! I swear, I swear it will!"

After I heard all that, I slumped over onto the ground.

In the last glimpse I caught of Siesta, she was smiling through her tears.