A train passes over cold metal tracks.
That train was a peculiar one. The moment it hits, any living thing loses its life. There are no exceptions. No variables. On the tracks where such a train passes, 'four people' are tied up. These four people were more important to the girl than anyone else. They were friends and family who had built bonds since childhood and endured difficult times together.
But the girl could do nothing. They were already tied to the tracks, and the only thing she could do was helplessly watch them die.
At that moment of despair, a devil whispered softly into the girl's ear.
"Don't worry. There is a way."
The devil was a woman with red skin and dozens of eyeballs. An appearance that could not be seen as human no matter how you looked at it, but the girl had no leisure to mind such things. Because a lever had abruptly risen from the empty, barren plain.
The devil gently took the girl's hand and placed it over that lever.
The lever was an item made to change the train's tracks. If she just pulled it, the four people could be saved. The girl was delighted at the devil's explanation, but soon her face was dyed with despair. Because on the switched tracks, another person was tied up.
Just like the four people, he too was a precious person to the girl. A benefactor who helped her not lose her humanity, a virtuous person who showed kindness without any reward. A man who sometimes seemed frivolous, sometimes seemed depressed, but everything he did for her was a gift and a miracle. To the point she wondered if it was okay to be this happy.
However.
To the devil, such things didn't matter at all. Bonds? Affection? Friends and family? Not a factor to consider. So the devil whispered into the girl's ear with a sweet voice.
"The choice is yours. I'll give you plenty of time."
Leaving those words, the devil scattered like a mirage. Only the girl remained alone before the lever, trembling.
Even while this happened, the train kept moving. The girl made no choice and heard the sound of the train and tracks scraping against each other. While doing so, she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood and thought.
The lever gifted by the devil.
That this was not made to save people, but to kill them.
Until the train came right before her eyes.
She thought.
Late December. The year was already entering its final stretch. The effects of winter had seeped not only into Kivotos but also into Arius, bringing a cold that felt like one's lungs would freeze. The chilly mist made one's mouth dry and parched, and water pooled in alleys had frozen, creating ice sheets.
'Outside must be less cold than this.'
Arius is chilly enough as it is. Until November, wearing multiple layers of clothing was barely enough to endure, but now even that has its limits. Only by putting hand warmers on the back of the neck or inside clothes did the chill feel like it was fading. Kenji let out a deep sigh and replaced the hand warmer on his neck with a new one.
'Summer would be better than this here.'
He grumbled quietly, then took a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth. Lighting the tip with a lighter, the acrid smoke rose upward, driving away the cold chill. White mist and gray smoke mixed and rose toward the ashen sky.
Kenji stared blankly at that sight, then took steps toward the abandoned house where the Squad stayed. But the Arius students he usually encountered several times were nowhere to be seen today. Thinking about it, it had been like that recently. Since entering December, their numbers gradually decreased, and after mid-month, not a single one was seen.
By this point, he couldn't help but know.
'Beatrice is preparing something.'
Since Kenji came to Arius, Beatrice's movements had been surprisingly moderate. She didn't seem to interfere with anything particularly, nor did she reveal herself externally. Like a 'MacGuffin', she just stood backstage, only watching the stage blankly.
That changed a month ago, after the Squad received Beatrice's summons. From then on, everything began to feel strange. Not only did the number of surveillance and frequency of training that usually followed decrease, but the occasional glances from others were also filled with hostility.
'That bitch must have done something.'
Kenji twisted the corner of his mouth and laughed.
Beatrice has moved? That's not something to avoid. Rather, it's something to welcome with open arms. That was the provocation for it in the first place. Carrying curses she barely used on her lips, openly showing hostile expressions. Weren't those things done hoping Beatrice would attack him?
A long-awaited situation. Kenji recalled the contract made with the man in the black suit. One of the most core clauses was 'in cases where harm is inflicted on oneself or those around them,' and Beatrice would probably have someone else carry out the deed instead of acting directly.
'The Squad will most likely take that role.'
Then all conditions are met.
First, inflicting harm on Kenji.
Second, inflicting harm on those around him.
Both are included. If that happens, he'll be able to leave damn Gematria and act freely. But his mind isn't entirely at ease. The pain he would feel when attacked is bothersome, but what bothers him more is that Beatrice chose the Squad as the means of attack.
If something was going to happen anyway, why choose the Squad of all people?
'It's obvious. Because they're the kids with the deepest connection to me in Arius.'
Kenji answered his own question and let out a deep sigh. Before he knew it, he had arrived at the building used by the Squad. He once wiped the slightly hardened expression from his face, then grabbed and turned the doorknob. The door opened with a creaking sound.
The sight visible beyond the faintly visible field of view was utterly ordinary.
Late afternoon, evening was still some time away but the sun had begun to set. Sunset colors decorated beyond the horizon, and light seeped through the opened window crack. Before such light, Misaki stood with a dazed expression. She was scratching her bandage-wrapped neck with her nails as if it itched.
"Misaki."
When Kenji called her name, Misaki turned her head. The lifeless eyes seemed to regain vitality.
"……Sensei."
"Got winter allergies? Why are you doing that all of a sudden."
"……Just, something…… something's bothering me."
Misaki's nails poked deep into the bandage. Kenji watched that and approached her.
"What's bothering you? A cold?"
"……I'm not in the mood for jokes."
Misaki said while slightly furrowing her brow. Then Kenji's expression also became serious in turn. He stood beside Misaki and looked down at her eyes.
'Something's bothering her…… huh.'
Is she hinting at something ambiguously? Or is Misaki unrelated to Beatrice? He couldn't know. He couldn't even be sure if the Squad was truly Beatrice's 'blade' in the first place, so there was no way he could define her this or that.
Kenji let out a small groan, keu-eung, and patted Misaki's shoulder.
"If you're not feeling well, go inside and rest. There's no training for a while anyway."
"That's true but…… Never mind. I should do that."
Misaki let out a deep sigh and nodded.
"I'll do as you say, Sensei. You should rest appropriately too."
"Sure. But where are the others?"
"Azusa and Atsuko are on reconnaissance. Hiyori is on sniper training. Saori is…… I'm not sure either. She disappeared in the morning and hasn't returned yet."
"I see."
Kenji nodded slowly.
While most training was currently suspended, some training was still being conducted. Reconnaissance and sniping seemed to be among them. Kenji grabbed an apple from the table and took a crisp bite, then became lost in thought while watching the gradually setting sun. Misaki stared intently at him, then awkwardly muttered.
"Um…… Sensei."
"……? What."
"You might get angry if I say this."
When Kenji tilted his head in puzzlement, Misaki slightly chewed her lip and continued.
"Avoid meeting the Leader if possible."
"……Reason?"
"She's been acting suspicious lately. She seems to avoid talking with us, and sometimes I think I hear sobbing sounds from her room."
"Hmm……."
Indeed, it was suspicious. Saori's personality, to put it nicely, was steadfast, and to put it badly, rigid. At the same time, she was pure and not good at lying. So if she was suffering from some unknown reason, she wouldn't have hidden it.
If there was a reason she had to hide it.
'A secret that must not be revealed.'
Could she be the only one who knows a secret, like a curse transmitted only by word, that no one should ever find out? Kenji hardened his face coldly and tapped the table with his finger. A habit he had whenever he thought things over.
"……Thanks for letting me know first. I'm not particularly angry, so don't worry."
"……Yeah. But I might have said something unnecessary, so don't push the Leader too hard."
Misaki said while scratching her cheek as if embarrassed. Kenji's obsidian-colored eyes scanned her.
"The Leader must have many worries too. Among them, there are definitely things she can't tell us. The Leader is…… she's the leader who commands a whole unit, after all."
"……."
"Please."
Misaki uttered while looking up at Kenji. Kenji stared at her with an expressionless face, then brightly smiled and nodded.
"Alright, I'll handle it appropriately. Now go in and rest."
"Okay. Um…… th, thank you."
She muttered in a voice that seemed to crawl away while blushing. Kenji held a pleased smile and roughly ruffled her hair. Misaki grumbled but didn't avoid his touch.
After Misaki returned to her room like that. Kenji leaned against the wall and erased the expression from his face again. With his left hand, he tapped the wall, and with his right hand, he repeatedly threw the apple into the air and caught it.
He turned things over in his mind. His senses, developed to the extreme, captured even the movement of his brain matter as his thoughts continued. It was a wondrous thing, but Kenji turned his attention elsewhere.
'Saori is acting strange.'
Then did Beatrice persuade Saori? Perhaps Azusa and Atsuko, who went on reconnaissance, were organized into an assassination team. Hiyori isn't an exception either. The possibility that she positioned herself at a sniping point disguised as sniper training couldn't be ignored.
'……Misaki's words themselves could be a trap.'
Kenji thought that far, then suddenly held back a bitter smile at a sense of self-reproach. After spending so much time together, I'm suspecting those kids first. He let out a sigh into the air, haa*, and leaned his head back.
He knew it was reasonable suspicion. The rationality in his head was also insisting that it was right. But on the other hand, there also existed a heart that didn't want to suspect those kids. He wanted to believe. If possible, he wanted to block Beatrice's attack together and kill Beatrice together.
But.
"……Sensei."
The voice that reached him pulled Kenji back to reality. Kenji caught the apple thrown into the air and turned his head toward where the voice came from. And so he saw. Beyond the door that opened with a worn-out hinge sound, he saw Saori with her head deeply bowed.
Soon, she opened her mouth again with a trembling voice.
"……There's something I need to talk about."
"……."
"Can you come out with me?"
Kenji didn't answer immediately. Instead, he smiled bitterly and placed the apple on the table. Saori didn't rush him either.
A brief standoff. Heavy silence.
The air felt pressed down, making it hard to breathe. Is it really true? Or is it just an illusion felt because the current situation is messed up?
But one thing was certain.
"……Alright."
Reality always flows in an undesired direction.
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