Led by Ariel, I arrived at the storage room.
In the massive, unlit hangar, countless Replicas lay with their eyes closed inside their individual cases.
It was an eerie sight, reminiscent of corpses in coffins.
Among them, Ariel stopped in front of one particular case.
A girl with striking yellow twin tails and golden eyes.
"Are you going to wake Sati?"
"...Yes."
This Replica’s name was Sati.
Like Ariel, she was one of the members encountered early on—a Replica you met near the beginning of the story.
She had what was commonly called a tsundere personality, and along with Ariel, she ranked among the more popular characters.
Strictly speaking, she was stronger in boss-fight-type stages than in the main stages, but...
For now, rather than waking an efficient Replica, I decided to wake the one Ariel wanted, if only for her morale.
Sati often spent time with Ariel in the side stories, and it seemed Ariel wanted to wake a close friend first as well.
Ariel took several batteries from the sack stuffed full of them and fitted them into the apparatus attached to Sati’s case.
Then, with a loud mechanical whir, the device powered on, and the girl—who had been sleeping without even a sound of breathing—opened her eyes.
"Sati!"
"Ugh... Ariel? What? What happened...?"
The moment Sati opened her eyes, Ariel cried out in delight.
Sati’s golden eyes slowly scanned the surroundings, then stopped when they reached me.
A shadow suddenly crossed her bewildered face, and her formerly gentle expression crumpled in an instant.
"You...! Urgh."
Her face twisted with rage, Sati tried to spring out of the case at once, but her body was apparently still stiff. She swallowed a brief groan of pain.
"Sati, calm down first."
"Why is that bastard here?!"
Despite Ariel’s attempt to calm her, Sati clenched her teeth, glaring as she shouted at Ariel.
"Hey, Sa—"
"Don’t call my name!"
When I opened my mouth to calm her down, Sati shouted the instant she heard the first syllable of her name.
Her reaction was far more violent than Ariel’s had been.
"Say another word, and I’ll put a hole through that shameless face of yours."
Her hostility made it look as though she might march straight to her personal maintenance room, grab her weapon, and shoot me.
I felt like I would really die if I said anything else.
"Sati..."
"Let go of me."
Even reunited with a friend she had missed, Sati roughly shook off Ariel’s hand, steadied herself on her own, and left the storage room.
They said there was always another mountain beyond the last. This one would not be easy either.
She was far pricklier than she had been at zero affection.
After watching Sati leave through the corridor, Ariel withdrew the hand she had reached out toward her.
"...I’m sorry. I guess it’s still hard for her to accept."
"No. That was the reaction I expected."
She hesitated before quietly apologizing, and I answered as though it was nothing I had not anticipated.
The affection of most Replicas, Ariel included, had fallen to zero. I would have been an idiot not to notice.
Maybe anything below zero simply was not displayed separately.
It seemed the newly awakened Sati had headed alone to her personal maintenance room. Left standing alone in the storage room, Ariel and I decided to return to the Leader’s room for now.
"Mission report! That’s what it was, right...?"
Standing in the Leader’s room with a sack full of Power Stones and batteries we had brought back, Ariel gave me a salute as though reporting the results.
It had been a formal reporting procedure where, after receiving the results screen, one random Replica delivered a predetermined line.
But perhaps she found it awkward after saying it herself, Ariel lowered her hand with an embarrassed smile.
"Right. Have you forgotten because it’s been so long?"
"Yes. Though I never thought the day would come when I could say it again."
I chuckled at how awkward she looked giving a report for the first time in so long. Ariel answered with a bitter smile.
A brief silence followed.
"What should we do about Sati...?"
Looking toward the corridor behind her, Ariel asked for my opinion, clearly worried about Sati.
Considering that fiery temper of hers, it was obvious things would only get worse if I went to see her right now.
"Let her be alone for now."
"But..."
At my suggestion that we leave her alone for the time being, Ariel seemed troubled. She trailed off, as though swallowing the words she wanted to say.
The degree was different, but Sati’s attitude right now was not all that different from Ariel’s yesterday.
"She needs time to sort out her thoughts. Just like you did."
"You didn’t give me any time, though..."
When I assured her not to worry, Ariel immediately turned her head away with a pout, sounding as if she were sulking.
She seemed to be referring to how I had recklessly gone to the surface yesterday and nearly gotten myself killed.
"Ahem! I was confused then too."
Her complaint ruined the pleasant mood enough to make me clear my throat. I raised a fist to my lips and offered an excuse.
At my flustered reaction, Ariel soon let out a little laugh. As though she had only been teasing me, she smiled wistfully again.
"Try talking to her tonight or tomorrow. You’re not the one who can persuade Sati. I am."
With that gentle smile, Ariel suggested that I give Sati enough time and try speaking with her tonight or tomorrow.
Perhaps Sati was so angry not only because I had returned after vanishing without warning...
What angered her even more was likely the fact that the friend who had suffered the most because of my absence was calmly staying by my side.
That was why Ariel had to be the one to persuade her.
"...What about you, Leader?"
"Me?"
In response to my suggestion that she speak with Sati, Ariel suddenly brought me up and cautiously asked what I intended to do.
There was no way I should be the one to go see her.
"If I go, I really will end up with a hole in my head, you know?"
I shrugged at the absurd question, then laughed and tapped my own forehead as I explained it to Ariel.
From here on out, it was up to Ariel’s judgment.
*
"Haa..."
With a short sigh, Sati sat in her room and sighed again.
What is going on?
She sat there, raking a hand through her hair as if at a loss, brows furrowed while she sifted through memories that felt as vivid as though they had happened just moments ago.
Seven years had passed since the man who had been the Leader disappeared.
It had been the moment she entered a case in the maintenance room.
The situation had been even more hopeless than when she first met Ariel.
With the disappearance of the Leader she had once liked, even if only a little, the surface stopped providing them with anything at all.
As though it truly was the end now.
The Power Stones that had once dropped in quantities far greater than they could use.
The batteries that powered their movements.
They could find absolutely nothing anymore.
A meaningless war of attrition.
Younger Replicas searching for the Leader.
A war situation and surface purification efforts that showed no sign of improving.
The reclamation of the surface, which had once seemed hopeful, had returned to square one, and the Under City, which had found light, was swallowed by darkness again.
"I use the most batteries, right? I’ll go in first. It’s not as if I always need to be moving anyway."
Her comrades gave up their right to move of their own accord.
And yet the warehouse supplies had continued to dwindle.
Faced with extinguished hope, there had been no other choice.
Using the excuse that she consumed a lot of batteries too, Sati gave up moving, putting on a brave face for Ariel.
The last thing she saw before the case closed.
All she remembered was Ariel crying terribly.
She thought she would never wake again.
When Ariel entered this case too,
peace would finally come to this Under City as well.
That was what Sati had thought as she closed her eyes, alongside the consciousness that would never return.
But why...?
Yet the moment she somehow opened her eyes again,
Ariel had returned with the former Leader.
She simply could not understand the situation.
How could Ariel stand calmly at that man’s side?
How could she refrain from hitting that bastard, who had vanished without leaving even a single letter?
...Everything was simply confusing.
You suffered the most.
She removed her hair tie and ran her fingers through her hair, clenching her teeth as anger she could not possibly let go of welled up inside her.
You endured more than anyone.
It was even harder to bear because she could still vividly remember Ariel, who had never once gotten angry at any of the Replicas, breaking down sobbing in that man’s room.
Honestly, Sati had done something terrible to Ariel.
Even if that bastard had been beside her, she should not have treated Ariel that way.
Amid the unchanging scenery of the Under City, where she could not even tell the time,
she heard a light knock at the door. Tap, tap.
"Sati, are you in there?"
Her friend’s voice came from beyond the door.
Ariel could have opened the door at any moment, but she was deliberately knocking from outside.
"Did that bastard... come with you?"
"No. I’m alone."
When Sati asked the brief question toward the door, Ariel’s voice answered that she had come alone.
Without a moment’s suspicion, Sati threw open the door.
Fortunately—or perhaps not—he was not there.
Looks like she wasn’t lying.
After looking around to make certain the man really was not there, Sati let Ariel into her personal maintenance room and shut the door.
If he had made Ariel lie to her, she would have made sure he got a punch or a bullet—or something.
Was he not that oblivious, at least?
Once the door was closed, Sati asked Ariel,
"What happened?"
"Just what you saw. The Leader came back."
Ariel answered Sati’s question by repeating the fact she obviously already knew.
Of course Sati knew that. She had seen it.
But was Ariel still calling that man the Leader after he had abandoned her?
"I saw that too, I know!"
Her voice rose before she could stop it.
When that man was gone, Ariel had been everyone’s Leader.
What was she thinking, handing that place over so easily?
Ariel, who had held out until the very end, had been their pillar.
"The Leader said he was shocked too. He suddenly opened his eyes and found himself here."
"That’s obviously a lie!"
Ariel was innocently believing every word that man said.
Ariel’s bright smile only made Sati angrier.
He suddenly opened his eyes and found himself here? Was that enough for Ariel?
Was she really okay with such a ridiculous excuse?
Unable to continue, Sati simply clenched her teeth. Ariel smiled again and said,
"Even if it’s a lie, it’s okay."
"What...?"
Sati was left stunned by Ariel’s attitude as she smiled it off, saying that even a lie was fine.
"He’s here now. That’s enough for me."
"You really...!"
It was an answer far too innocent.
Sati nearly unleashed her anger on Ariel, but barely held herself back, swallowing the words and only clenching her teeth.
Right. Ariel had always been like this.
And Ariel was not where that anger should be directed.
Either way, Sati needed to settle things with that bastard once and for all.
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