Now that the communication line with Shifty was open, he told her everything that had happened without holding back.
Of course, all the credit for finishing it went to Rapi.
Either way, Shifty would still be wearing that same suspicious expression right now.
That a Nikke had fought instead of him, or that Rapi had taken it down alone.
Neither story made much sense.
But Black Smith was still belching out black smoke.
That was undeniable proof it had only just been active.
So Shifty had no choice but to believe it.
“Understood. We don’t have combat data, but... the wreckage of that Rapture is real, so I suppose it’s fine. And the core looks like it was destroyed not long ago. Good work, Rapi.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“But what happened to the mission? Judging by that infected unit, I can make a rough guess...”
Shifty’s gaze shifted toward Black Smith’s red coffin.
The place where the captured entity dragged Nikkes in and stuffed them away.
And the place where a human-like silhouette could be seen.
“Yeah. The missing Nikkes... and Marian are definitely in there.”
Rapi turned and looked at the Commander.
She said nothing, but it was clearly a request for permission.
Bill answered in a flat voice.
There wasn’t a trace of emotion in it.
He only stared blankly at his own right hand.
“Open it.”
Rapi hurriedly began opening Black Smith’s red cockpit.
Anis moved with her and found five corpses whose lower halves had been melted away.
“Marian...”
In the final broken cockpit, Marian was still breathing weakly, her red eyes flickering.
Her condition was beyond obvious.
The outer shell had mostly melted, and much of her body had already corroded away.
“So fast...”
Black Smith’s digestion speed wasn’t supposed to be this quick.
It was common knowledge that it usually took hours to strip a body for parts.
But this pace was... far faster than normal.
“Rapi, give me a hand up.”
Seeing her expression, Bill held out a hand from below.
He could probably climb up on his own.
For a moment, Rapi thought that, but then she remembered Shifty was here.
“Be careful.”
“I will.”
Rapi grabbed his hand and pulled.
He was definitely heavy.
It felt like hauling up a compact car.
But for her, it wasn’t much of a burden.
Nikkes were weapons that handled tons of weight; this much was nothing.
He seemed to lurch forward, but he landed safely on top.
“Fast.”
Bill checked Marian’s condition in the cockpit.
Then he muttered the very question Rapi had been thinking.
“Rapi, how many minutes has it been since we met this thing?”
“I can’t be exact, but the engagement has probably been about fifteen minutes.”
“For now, let’s get her out.”
The two of them worked together to pull Marian free.
The connection at her waist shifted dangerously, but Marian still managed to lean against Black Smith and gasp for breath.
“It’s an infection reaction... I think it’s already too late...”
“I know.”
Bill slowly drew his gun.
Normally Shifty would have explained it, but he already knew.
An infected Nikke had to be put down by the Commander.
It was something no one else here could do in his place.
“Haa...”
He had steeled himself.
He already knew this would happen.
That she would die, and that he would have to be the one to kill her.
The sun was sinking.
Far in the distance, the moon was slowly becoming visible.
It was the hour when day and night coexisted.
Twilight.
“Should I do it?”
Maybe she could see his hesitation.
Anis covered Bill’s hand with her own and asked.
“No.”
Before Rapi could even react, he pushed Anis’s hand away.
“Before that, I have a favor to ask. You two here, and you too, Shifty.”
“Huh? Me too?”
Bill nodded.
“Give me five minutes. Go stand over there. I need to say something, but it’s a little embarrassing.”
“B-but if time passes...”
“I’ll handle it. Just this once.”
His earnest request must have reached her, because Shifty nodded.
“Understood. But if anything happens, please call Rapi or Anis.”
“Will do.”
Bill tossed the communication device to Anis, then watched them disappear behind the building.
No one was left to interrupt him now.
He knelt before Marian and met the red eyes staring back at him.
Was it Marian on the other side, or the devil ruling her mind?
There was no need to wonder.
“Listen carefully.”
His voice trembled.
“I don’t know if you can hear me right now. But remember this one thing.”
The hand holding the gun slowly rose.
Click.
The bullet was chambered.
If he pulled the trigger, it would fire and pierce through her brain.
But not yet.
There was still something he wanted to say.
“If you wake up, remember at least one person. Anyone is fine. It doesn’t have to be me. Rapi, Anis... if you remember even one of us, then that’s enough.”
His grip tightened.
Now was truly the time to shoot.
And yet one thought kept swirling in his mind.
The reason he had resolved to shoot her was because he knew she would be reborn as a Heretic.
If that wasn’t the case.
If she were simply left behind as a corpse afterward.
Could he really bear it?
As he stared blankly into her eyes,
“He...re...”
Marian’s hand wrapped around the gun.
Bill flinched and looked at her.
Those red eyes still gave him no clue what she was thinking.
But this...
There was no explanation other than her own will.
Her gaze looked different.
The eyes that had been clouded just moments ago now held a tender emotion.
As if to say it was okay.
As if to say he didn’t need to feel guilty.
“Live, Marian. Survive... and let’s meet again.”
The gunshot rang out, and red liquid streamed down her forehead.
The hand that had been holding on fell to the ground, and her head drooped weakly.
Her eyes remained open, staring into the void.
Bill closed them with his palm.
“You’re here.”
He heard the sound of two sets of footsteps.
They had come after confirming the gunshot.
“Are you all right?”
Rapi looked at his back.
The broad back that had seemed so huge during the battle now looked tightly hunched in on itself.
He was a mysterious man, but his heart was no different from anyone else’s.
“Anis, do you have any bandages left?”
“Huh? Why bandages?”
“Just give me some.”
When Anis handed them over, Bill slowly wrapped Marian’s head.
After covering her head completely, he wiped away the liquid running down her face.
Nikkes didn’t normally need bandages.
But this was an act of respect for the end of a life.
No one would object to that.
“Let’s go.”
Bill started walking ahead.
Rapi and Anis followed behind that small back.
――――――――――――――――――――――――
About five hours later.
The three of them stood inside the elevator descending to the Ark.
There wasn’t much conversation.
After everything they had just been through, that was understandable.
Rapi understood.
Anis did too.
“Haa... I’m feeling a little better now.”
After staring downward for a while, Bill rubbed his eyes and let out a breath.
Then, to break the suffocating silence, Rapi spoke.
“Commander, you...”
She couldn’t finish the sentence.
It wasn’t that Rapi had stopped; Bill had answered too quickly.
“I don’t know.”
“Huh? You don’t know?”
The question had come from Rapi, but Anis was the one who reacted.
She had just been getting bored of the silence, so she had been waiting for an answer.
But she could only be shocked by such a blunt reply.
“Yeah. I don’t know.”
“Why?”
“Then let me ask you the opposite. Why should I know?”
“Uh... well... I guess?”
Thinking about it, that was obvious.
Even if he could use some unknown power, that didn’t mean he could know where it came from.
He himself used a gun naturally without knowing how it worked, after all.
“Then... does that mean the Commander isn’t human?”
This time, it wasn’t even a question, just a mutter.
No human should be able to wield power like that.
Her suspicion wasn’t wrong.
But,
“No, I think I am human?”
“Huh? No way.”
“If I weren’t human, how would I have passed the physical exam?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah.”
A physical exam.
The Commander’s role was to give orders, not to fight.
But at the end of the day, he was still a soldier, and he had to have excellent stamina and no serious illness.
Bill was a rookie who had just graduated from the academy.
Which meant he had passed that exam normally too.
“Huh? But how? Wait...”
“That’s what I’m saying—I don’t know. The result came back normal, so here I am. Of course, they checked before I entered the academy too.”
“But that still means it was normal, doesn’t it?”
“Exactly. Which makes it even more mysterious.”
“Can I touch it?”
Bill held out his arm.
Anis poked it with her finger and even squeezed his wrist.
“This is weird... it gives a little, but it won’t sink in past a certain point. Rapi, you try too. It’s soft, but firm.”
Since Anis was still busy touching his right arm, Bill held out his left.
Rapi asked permission with a polite, “Excuse me,” then pressed on his arm like Anis had.
“This is...”
It was just as Anis had said.
His skin gave way as much as it was pressed, and the flesh beneath shifted naturally.
It wasn’t hard like metal, and it wasn’t slippery either. It was ordinary human skin.
“Press harder. That’s the real test.”
At that, Rapi put more force into pressing his arm.
Her fingers pushed in, but that moment of resistance was brief.
Her fingers were gradually forced back.
As if trying to slam together the same poles of a magnet, they couldn’t go any farther than a certain distance.
An indestructible body.
Suddenly, she wanted to test its limits.
She overlapped both hands and slowly increased the pressure.
Her muscles bulged, and both hands trembled.
Even her normally expressionless face ended up with her lips lightly bitten.
But the result didn’t change much.
Bill’s skin calmly endured the pressure.
“You think it’s weird too, right? Honestly, that makes me curious about what the inside looks like.”
Bill gave a small grin at that.
“What? You want to open me up? You’d probably see my blood vessels... muscles... and tendons moving.”
“Huh? Uh, uh?”
Hearing that, Anis suddenly pictured the arm being cut open in front of her.
She hadn’t wanted to, but in her mind his arm was already being dissected, bright red blood gushing out in vivid detail.
Could she really look at something like that?
It felt like she’d already seen too much... but she shook her head hard.
“N-no, that’s a little...”
“Why? If I relax, maybe it’ll work.”
“N-no, no, no. I’m f-fine. Really.”
Thud.
While Anis was waving his arm around, a vibration ran through the elevator as the ground and floor met.
Thinking they had finally arrived home, Anis smiled with relief, but Bill was frowning.
“What is it? Why are you making that face?”
“Turn around.”
Beyond the transparent elevator.
There stood a mass-produced Nikke.
“Doesn’t that look like trouble to you at a glance?”
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