“If you can, then let’s hear your proof. If you can’t, then stand up and face your own doubts! Who’s the real enemy here? Anyone could understand that if they just thought about it calmly!!”
Kamijou took one deep breath at Saiji Tatemiya’s angry shout.
He closed his eyes.
He neatly arranged all the information in his head and started to verify it piece by piece.
Think.
Whose points are correct—the Romans or Amakusa?
Where is the contradiction?
“I can’t. I still don’t trust you completely.”
“…Why not?”
“Even if everything you say is true,” began Kamijou slowly, “then why did Orsola run away from you? I first met Orsola walking around by herself near Academy City. Stiyl explained before that the Roman Orthodox Church and Amakusa would have been fighting at the time. I think she probably looked for an opening in the fighting and
ran from both parties
. But if that’s the case, then why?”
“…”
“What you’re saying could be a lie. And even if it’s true, that doesn’t mean the enemy of our enemy is our friend. So I’ll ask you. Why did Orsola Aquinas run away from you?”
If they were truly Orsola’s allies, then she wouldn’t have had any reason to run away.
Tatemiya smiled quietly at Kamijou’s implicit declaration. It was a very weak smile, like he was tired of life. “She was the same.”
“The same?”
“Yeah. The same as you, man. She did come to us asking for help—but at the very end, she wasn’t able to trust us completely. She probably thought this about us. ‘They have no reason to help me at the cost of making the largest Crossist denomination, Roman Orthodoxy, their enemy. They must be after the method of deciphering the
Book of the Law
.’ ”
Kamijou fell mum.
Tatemiya’s eyes appeared to both be watching him and gazing at something far in the distance.
“Man, barking up the wrong tree, that’s for sure. Why would we need to get our hands on that book?”
“? Then what did you try and save her for?” asked Kamijou carefully.
“
We didn’t have a reason
,” answered Tatemiya without missing a beat. “And we never did, either. We’ve done it this way since the beginning. And our current generation is even more exceptional. Why on earth do you think our priestess, that girl, was ordained our leader at such a young age? She stood before an evil dragon that could swallow mountains whole, just to protect one young girl’s dream. She defended a small village from a big military force so that she could hear the one person’s dying request. And from behind, we watched her this whole time. It may only have been a little while, but for us, it feels like we’ve done so forever.”
Saiji Tatemiya spoke as though he were chasing the illusions of bygone days.
And as if boasting about his own family.
“That is why we do not mistake our path, and why we do not mistake how we use our strength—and how we’ve led ourselves along the straight and narrow. Many things are easier said than done—but she would actually do them. Her example taught us that people could become this strong. That people could become this kind. That all of that was within our reach.”
Quiet dominated the air.
Tatemiya gritted his teeth to break the silence.
“…And that path she lived her life walking—we destroyed all of it.”
“What?”
“Our deaths—our inexperience—caused the priestess to suffer. She was always the last one standing, and she began to believe it was her fault that everyone around her was falling. That ain’t a joke. Our minds and bodies were what caused everything—the fact that we wished to stand together with her on the battlefield, and the fact that we fell in the process. And now we’re in this sorry state. The priestess didn’t do anything wrong, but we forced her to leave the place she belonged by herself.”
Tatemiya talked as if stabbing his own face with a sword.
His voice, wrung from deep in his throat, contained vivid emotion.
“We stole her home with our inexperience. That’s why we need to offer her home to her again. One where nobody gets hurt, one where nobody must grieve, one where everyone fights to put smiles on others’ faces. A home where we all stand as one without hesitation to protect someone’s happiness.”
“…”
“That’s why we extended a helping hand to Orsola—because she wanted help.
“Because we thought our priestess’s home should be a world in which people would do that normally.”
In the end, they weren’t actually fighting for advantage or disadvantage, as they assumed from interorganizational deals. They were just fighting because the circumstance dictated it—not because they were looking to gain anything from it. The circumstance in
question was too deeply entwined with the history of their group, so they couldn’t get Orsola to understand. It had just created a misunderstanding. Was that it?
That was only
if everything Tatemiya was saying were true
, though.
Kamijou had begun to want to believe his words. But there was still no proof for any of them. Even if he felt like he wanted to trust Tatemiya, he couldn’t find any evidence that would let him do so absolutely. He gritted his teeth. Who should he believe? Who was telling the lies? Many thoughts spun round and round in his mind, when…
…suddenly, they heard an ear-splitting yell from far away.
No—it was nothing so lackluster as a yell.
A shriek. A scream. A screech.
And if he had to guess
, it had come from a woman. But did it really come from a person? Kamijou wasn’t even confident enough to say that. The high-pitched whine, like fingernails scratching glass or a chalkboard, physically made people cringe. And yet within the loud reverberation was plenty of raw human emotion. Fear. Denial. Despair. Agony. It was like a mud-soaked sponge being wrung out—he could tell that the repressed sound, unbecoming of a human, was soaked in all-too-real
human
-ness.
Index looked at Kamijou. He didn’t look back at her. “Or…sola?”
“I’ll ask you one more time…Did you say you were entrusting her to the Roman Orthodox Church, man? I thought she trusted
you
—not the Roman Orthodox.”
“…” Those words made Kamijou think back.
“I would like to make certain—you are helping now because you were requested to cooperate by the English Puritan Church, yes?”
—Why would Orsola Aquinas have been so reluctant to ask him that?
“That’s right
…
”
—Why did she look so relieved at that short statement?
“So then you are of English Puritan descent, not Roman Orthodox?”
—And she asked again, to make absolutely sure…
“It’s nothing crazy like that. Oh, and just so you know, I don’t have any pull with them. I’m from Academy City, after all.”
—And those words, which he hadn’t thought about very hard, made her so relieved…
“I
…
see.”
—Those two words—how much meaning had been packed into them?
She probably had faith until the very end.
Faith that Touma Kamijou was someone she could trust herself to as long as she needed.
“…Shit!”
Kamijou clenched his teeth in anger. He quickly turned in the direction he’d heard the shriek. In hindsight, he should have just gotten her into Academy City even if they risked danger. That was it—that was all he had to do to make her safe!
“Give me a goddamn break. Why the hell did it turn out like this?!”
“Don’t panic. It’s not like that scream was her dying. The Roman Orthodox Church has their own stuff going on—they wouldn’t be able to kill Orsola Aquinas right here and now. Actually, I’m completely certain of that.”
“What?”
“I mean that if you hurry, you can still save her. But if you misstep here, who knows what will happen? Given the situation, I’m not gonna ask you anymore whether or not you trust us, man. We have our own circumstances, but securing Orsola’s safety is the most important thing. So I don’t care if you and I remain enemies or not!”
His shout implied that they were in a race against time.
“But just promise me this! That you’ll get back Orsola Aquinas from the Roman Orthodox and take her somewhere neither they nor we can get to her!!”
His eyes were serious.
Serious enough to make Kamijou falter.
And then.
Suddenly,
ker-click
—he heard a footstep. He took his eyes from
Tatemiya. He turned around to the noise to see two sisters in black approaching, as if parting the darkness in front of them. They must have been from the Roman Orthodox Church.
One was tall, and one was short. The taller one was hoisting a wheel, bigger than a small round table, that looked like it came off a carriage. The shorter one had four leather pouches hanging from the belt around her waist. Coins or something must have been inside, because they jingled every time she took a step. The pouches were about softball size, so if they were filled with coins, they would have been as heavy as shot puts.
The taller sister drew an old leather notebook from her sleeve pocket and flipped through its pages; then, after nodding about something, she came over to Kamijou. Perhaps there was a photograph in there.
“You are the outsiders assisting us, yes? We have come to take custody of the imprisoned heretic leader. The enemy of God…Is that him?”
As she spoke, the younger sister moved toward Saiji Tatemiya, seated with rune cards stuck on him, in anticipation of the answer.
The four coin pouches at her hips jingled.
“Hey, wait a second!” called Kamijou, but the short sister didn’t seem to hear.
For a moment, she reached a hand toward Tatemiya but then hesitated, realizing something. She went around him, carefully observing the rune cards attached to him.
Instead, the taller sister stared at Kamijou’s face. “What is it?”
“Before you guys pull out of here, can you let me see Orsola one more time?”
“Unfortunately, I must decline. Though we have secured Sister Orsola’s safety, we cannot call the situation safe just yet, since we don’t know the true state of the enemy forces. In cases such as these, our rules state we must give first priority to the safety of our own personnel. Once we have safely seen her back to Rome, we will send you an invitation.”
A perfect answer—so perfect that he had to frown.
“No, no. I’m not convinced. What was that scream from before, anyway? Wasn’t that Orsola’s voice? Is that the kind of noise that someone who’s made it to safety would make? Anyway, I want to see her again. You don’t mind, right? I just want to see her for a bit, say a few words, and that’s it. We won’t be seeing each other for a while, so I have to at least say good-bye.”
“But our rules state…”
“Ah, jeez! Why are you so annoying about rules? Is Agnes over there? I’ll just go over and ask her myself!”
Kamijou grabbed the tall sister’s shoulder and brusquely pushed her aside.
“…” She relaxed her shoulders, as if amazed at seeing how much of a worrywart he was.
Then she took the giant wheel against her back and placed it in front of her like a shield with a dull noise.
Index’s face immediately warped with nervousness. “Stop, Touma—?!”
But before she could finish…
Boom!!
The wooden wheel exploded.
“…?!”
For an instant, Kamijou didn’t know what happened. Like a shotgun, hundreds of sharp fragments came flying, but only toward him. Once his thought process caught up, he covered his face and chest with both hands. A moment later, the countless splinters hit him right in the hands, legs, and gut. By the time he had begun to feel pain, his feet had already left the ground. As the stupid-sounding
ka-boom
hit him, he found himself being blown five or six meters back.
Index’s clipped shriek reached his ears.
Out of the corner of his eye he could see Tatemiya trying to stand, but he stopped abruptly when a few rune flames singed his hair. He bared his teeth like a chained wild dog. The shorter sister appeared a little shaken up. She looked at the taller sister and asked,
“S-Sister Lucia…Umm, well, i-is this okay…? Didn’t…Didn’t Sister Agnes tell us to avoid needless contact with our
guests
…?”
“Be quiet, Sister Angeline. Damn, Agnes, this is why we shouldn’t have let these heathens slip so close to us—we should have chased them away sooner. We all listened to your optimistic command to leave them be, and this is what happens…,” muttered the taller sister to herself as if to calm her own emotions, shooting a glare at the shorter sister to silence her.
Her eyes had changed color. It was an abstract change, but that’s what Kamijou thought. The taller sister’s eyes had heat enough in them to melt butter into a puddle as she looked at Kamijou.
He was speechless—was this the same kind of nun as the ones who had given him bread and soup at the campsite?
“If only you weren’t so weirdly obsessed with a
scream
, then we would have had less to do…Damn, why—why, this heretic, with his hand, on my shoulder, my shoulder, my shoulder. Sister Angeline! Find me the soap—no, the detergent! This is terrible. I am in the worst of moods. They spoke to me. Would you say a few words to them? I simply cannot stand it—I need to wear a mudguard apron or something.”
Blood silently rose to the tall sister’s face.
Her face wavered to and fro as her mouth produced a monotone voice.
“This is all getting more and more and more complicated. What are we to do? Let us say that Amakusa member resisted and killed you both. Ah, yes, that seems like the easiest option. After that, we must only seal Amakusa’s lips, and there will be no problems.”
The line sounded like an ad-lib correction for a stage play whose scenario had gone awry.
It sounded like a threatening voice, but Kamijou couldn’t find it in him to answer.
Quite a few wooden shards had struck him, but they weren’t actual blades in the first place, so his wounds were shallow.
But right after that…the slender shards piercing his skin suddenly began twisting up and down by themselves.