My breath catches in my throat.
There is no end in sight to this damned black forest.
It is pointlessly vast. Damn it.
Branches snared my ankles, fog blinded me, and the damp earth dragged at my feet with every step I took.
Even so, I cannot stop.
I can still hear Apocalypse Bird crying behind me.
Senior Nova...
She is still alive, right?
No.
She has to be.
No matter how damn irritating she can be, she is someone precious to me—and even if she does not look it, she is a good person who quietly looks after us.
So I cannot turn back now.
Senior Nova is buying us time.
Just like always, she grinned like nothing was wrong and shoved me onward.
That means I cannot let that time go to waste.
I need to find the mercenary before the Hunter arrives.
More precisely, before the Hunter completely corrupts the mercenary, before the mercenary is swallowed by revenge.
I tightened my grip on Repentance and ran faster.
I heard branches snapping ahead.
The Hunter.
That fake with the exact same face as Team Leader Mir was running slightly ahead of me.
She lightly vaulted between the branches and looked back.
"Still following me?"
"..."
"More persistent than I thought?"
I did not answer.
I had to conserve my breath.
I had neither the time nor the leeway to trade words with that fake.
But whether she knew what I was thinking or not, the Hunter kept laughing.
"Still, you will be too late."
"You know, people..."
"Or Abnormalities, I suppose, are probably the same?"
"The really interesting thing is how easily they fall apart when you touch their most painful memory."
"...Shut up."
"Oh... You reacted."
The Hunter giggled.
"It is okay. Do not worry."
"It is not completely too late yet."
She stepped on a branch and leapt high into the air.
Her black cloak fluttered amid the fog.
"More precisely, it is about to become too late starting now."
At that moment, a faint light appeared in the distance.
A cabin.
The cabin where the mercenary was.
An old wooden house stood embedded in the forest.
As though it had been meant to be there from the beginning.
The Hunter landed in front of the cabin.
I stopped a few steps behind her.
My breath came out raggedly, and my hands were slick with sweat.
Standing before the door, the Hunter turned toward me.
She had the same brown hair as Team Leader Mir.
She looked at me with the same face and the same smile.
Yet she was completely different.
No. She could not possibly be the same.
That smile did not put people at ease.
Those eyes did not see people.
The corners of her mouth formed a twisted sneer, and her eyes held nothing but an emptiness pretending to be warm.
That was why I could be certain.
That thing was merely something imitating Team Leader Mir.
To call it the same kind of being as her—a warm, kind person—would itself be an insult.
"You are late."
"You looked like you were in such a hurry. Guess you are not much after all?"
I raised Repentance.
"Move."
"And if I do not want to?"
"I will cut you down and go in."
"Wow, scary... But can you actually do it?"
The Hunter smiled without the slightest hint of fear.
Then she placed a hand on the doorknob.
"But what should we do? Your guest has already been waiting."
Click. The door opened.
The Hunter entered first.
"Come on in."
"You need to meet the protagonist of Act Two."
I clenched my teeth.
Apocalypse Bird's cry rang out from behind me again.
Cawwwww—!!
Senior Nova.
Please... just hold on a little longer.
I rushed into the cabin.
It was unnaturally quiet inside.
A fireplace with embers still glowing stood to one side, and an old chair sat lonely before it.
Tools that looked as if they had been used for hunting hung carelessly from the walls, while animal bones dangled from the ceiling like trophies.
And one person stood in the middle of the room.
A person wearing a red hood, holding an axe in one hand and a long gun in the other.
The Bloody-Scarred Mercenary looked almost exactly as she had in Lobotomy Corporation.
But at the same time, she was different.
The mercenary I faced now did not know me.
The relationship we had built over several weeks in Lobotomy Corporation—
the time we had shared through the glass of the containment room—
none of it existed for the mercenary in this play.
The mercenary slowly raised her long gun.
Her wary eyes fixed on me.
If I had been the wolf, she would probably have pulled the trigger without even asking.
The muzzle pointed at my chest.
"...Who are you?"
Just as I thought...
To her, I was nothing but an unfamiliar intruder.
A nameless obstacle that had appeared to interfere with her revenge.
The Hunter slowly walked behind the mercenary.
"An interloper."
"An audience member who came to ruin your story."
The Hunter smiled at me.
"Or perhaps not? Not even an audience member."
"Audience members are supposed to sit in their seats, after all."
The corners of her mouth twisted further.
"That thing is a foreign substance that crawled up onto the stage."
The mercenary narrowed her eyes.
"An interloper?"
"..."
"Move."
There was unmistakable anger in her low voice.
I did not lower Repentance.
"And if I do not want to?"
The mercenary's finger settled on the trigger.
"I will shoot."
"You probably will."
I let out a short breath.
"But before that, let me ask you one thing."
"Why are you so determined to kill it?"
The mercenary narrowed her eyes.
"...What do you know?"
"Nothing. Of course I do not."
"I do not know your family, and I do not know your village."
"That is why I am asking."
"..."
"Why?"
Silence passed for a moment.
The mercenary's grip tightened.
"You do not know anything."
"How I lived after that day."
"How much I resented it."
"How badly I wanted to kill it."
"How many nights I endured thinking of nothing but revenge."
"You do not know."
The Hunter smiled in satisfaction.
"Yes. That is how it should be."
"You have to kill that wolf."
"...That is right."
The mercenary clenched her teeth.
"I have to kill it."
"The wolf. No matter what."
The Hunter smiled gently.
"Yes, good."
"That is your story."
"You were a florist's daughter, but you lost everything to the wolf."
"So should you not learn from the Hunter?"
"Then, once you have learned, you go to kill the wolf."
"It is a wonderful story, is it not?"
"Simple, vivid, and the path to revenge is beautiful too."
"That is right..."
I muttered quietly.
"I will admit that. I do not know those memories. I do not know your pain, your sorrow."
"But I know how far you will break."
"...What?"
"I have seen it."
"How far you will break."
The mercenary narrowed her eyes.
"What pointless nonsense. What does it matter if I break?"
"What will happen to me has already been decided."
"I kill the wolf and get my revenge."
"That is the end. That is what I have to do."
I looked at the mercenary.
"The end?"
"Yes, the end."
"Once I get revenge, everything ends."
"The wounds, the rage, the pain, all of it."
"Do you really think revenge will end it?"
"Yes."
"Then that is even stranger."
"That person."
I pointed to the Hunter.
"She is strong, right?"
"She lives in this black, dark forest."
"She fights Apocalypse Bird too."
"She taught you how to fight."
"..."
"So why is the wolf still alive?"
"Why is she leaving you in pain?"
The cabin fell quiet.
The fire in the hearth spat with a pop.
"That... that is..."
"Because I... I have to do it."
"Because revenge is something I have to do myself."
The Hunter smiled gently.
"That is right. Revenge is not something another person can do for you."
"It only has meaning if you do it yourself."
I nodded.
"Fine. Let us say you are right."
"Revenge is something you have to do yourself."
"But if revenge matters that much, do you remember the family you are taking revenge for?"
"Of course! I remember... do I...? Huh...?"
"You cannot remember their names, can you?"
"You said they were precious enough for you to seek revenge, precious enough for you to stake your life on it."
"Then should you not remember their names? Is that not strange?"
"What was your father's name?"
"Or your mother's?"
"Did you have any sisters?"
-
"What was the name of the grandmother who took care of you after that incident?"
"..."
"Do you remember?"
The mercenary tried to answer immediately.
She clearly meant to.
Her lips moved.
But no words came out.
"Father..."
Her voice grew quieter.
"Mother..."
She remembered.
They had certainly existed.
They had been precious to her. She had loved them.
And the wolf had killed them.
She knew that.
She knew it for certain.
Yet she could not remember their names.
Their faces were blurry too.
So were their voices.
The warmth of their hands—
the food they had eaten together—
the conversations they had shared in the flower shop—
all of it was hazy, as though it lay beyond a veil of fog.
What she remembered was
blood, fire, the wolf, and revenge.
As though those were the only things that mattered to her, only those remained vivid.
"...Why?"
The mercenary's breath trembled.
"Why can I not remember?"
At that moment, an unfamiliar memory flashed through her mind.
A white containment room.
One with thick glass, where she had been inside.
And beyond that glass stood a black-haired boy.
"...Mercenary."
A familiar voice.
"Are you okay today?"
"..."
"...Thinking about the wolf again?"
"...I will kill it."
"Okay."
The boy nodded without much expression.
"But eat before you kill it."
"..."
"If you do not eat, my management score goes down."
"..."
"...That comes first. I will be coming in to do Instinct work soon, so wait for me."
The memory broke off.
The mercenary's eyes wavered.
What was that...?
Her family was blurry.
But that voice was clear.
Another memory flashed past.
"...Mercenary."
"..."
"How are you feeling today?"
"...Not great."
"Then today is not a great day."
"Still, hold on."
"..."
"Even if you kill it someday."
"Until then, stay alive."
The memory broke off.
This time, another memory came.
"Hello. Starting today, I am Han, the employee assigned to you."
"You... Are you the one I saw yesterday? You survived."
The mercenary's breathing became ragged.
"...Hunter."
"Hm?"
The Hunter smiled as usual.
But for the first time, that smile felt unfamiliar to the mercenary.
"My head hurts. And... that person..."
"I do not think he is someone I am seeing for the first time. His name... I remember his name."
"Han."
At the same time, the Hunter's eyes narrowed.
"...What are you talking about?"
"I do not know."
"But I remember."
"My family's faces are blurry."
"But I remember that person's voice."
"It is strange... That cannot be possible. I definitely met him for the first time today... so why are my memories of him clearer than my memories of my family? My head... My head feels like it is going to split apart."
The cabin became unnaturally quiet.
The only sound was the mercenary groaning in pain as she clutched her head.
"...Hunter."
"Tell me. You are... so strong, and you taught me the path of revenge. You have to know, do you not?"
The Hunter's hand slowly came to rest on the mercenary's shoulder.
"It does not matter."
"..."
"What matters is that they died, and that you must have your revenge."
"That is enough. And should you not ignore trivial problems along the way?"
For a brief instant, the mercenary looked at me.
It was a familiar gaze.
The look she had when I managed her: cold and murderous on the surface, but secretly pleased underneath.
"...Hunter."
"Yes?"
"...You know my family's names, do you not?"
The Hunter did not answer.
"...I do not know them."
"..."
"Why do you know them, Hunter?"
At that moment, the Hunter's smile stopped.
That twisted grin vanished completely.
The air in the cabin turned ice-cold.
"...Ha."
A short sigh.
Then the Hunter smiled again.
This time, there was no warmth.
No teasing mockery either.
It was a cold, mechanical, empty smile.
I had not known Team Leader Mir could smile like that.
It was fucking terrifying.
"Another error."
"..."
"The actor..."
The Hunter slowly raised her long gun.
"Has begun to doubt the script."
Click. The gun cocked.
I immediately tightened my grip on Repentance.
"Hunter...?"
In an instant, the mercenary's expression changed, and she gripped her axe.
"No, ha... I am tired of acting now, too."
"Han, be ready. And give me the full explanation... later."
"Starting with that subspecies thing you mentioned before we came here, all the way to everything you told me when I had no memories after entering this place. All of it."
"You... remembered."
The mercenary pressed a hand to her brow.
"Not all of it, damn it."
"But it is connecting, little by little."
"The things you said."
"And..."
The mercenary glared at the Hunter.
"What that bitch is hiding, too."
"Still, I wanted to confirm one final thing."
"Whether that bitch could actually answer what I said, and whether I was walking the right path."
"Looks like I am not."
"At least, she is not it."
"Are you done talking? That error is ruining the lead of our play."
"But do not worry. It may hurt a little, but it will be fixed soon enough."
The muzzle—
this time, it was aimed not only at me, but at the mercenary too.
"Errors can be fixed. Close your eyes, and let us start again."
Bang—!!
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