by Shouji Gatou
Sousuke got a few meters from the directed explosive and pressed the trigger, buffeted all the while by powerful winds. A sharp ripping sound met his ears. Fragments went flying, but were gone in an instant. Mist streamed out of the one-meter hole. He adjusted his grip on his wire and kicked lightly off the roof, letting gravity drop him into the newly-made opening. The brittle interior wall broke below his feet, and he dropped straight into the cabin.
Sousuke released the wire holding him to the Arbalest, and then took the submachine gun hanging off of his shoulder in hand. The sudden depressurization of the cabin was producing a white mist, which was being sucked out of the hole that Sousuke had just made.
“It’s just one guy! Kill him!” someone screamed from the tornado of cloth and paper scraps that flew wildly around the cabin. He saw two men with guns pointed at him, their intent to kill. Sousuke fixed his own aim, fired, and then fired again; both of the men collapsed in an instant.
Ignoring both the plane’s shaking and the wind whipping around the cabin, Sousuke made his way to the front in a run. He passed through several doors and passages, and met several more enemies on the way. Bullets rained down; gunshots assaulted his ears. Sousuke would dip down to dodge or fly behind something before immediately returning fire.
Bullets ricocheted with sparks and roars as his enemies fell, one after another. After having to deal with the Alastors on the cruise ship, it all felt incredibly easy. Unlike robots, human opponents could succumb to intimidation, panic, and rage. Of course, that came with its own problems; their reckless fire was putting holes in the cabin walls, blasting away important cables, fuel pressure tubes, and circuit boards. It was like they’d forgotten that they were in an airplane.
That’s not good... he thought uneasily as the plane began to violently rock in mid-air. The lights flickered, and fires burst into being here and there. He could hear a strange tone coming from the engine, too.
Their altitude continued to drop.
After felling the last man in the cabin, Sousuke looked around him. Tessa was nowhere in sight, and the cockpit was the last place ahead of him. Did they take her to the cargo hold below? he wondered. Or...
A shot hit Sousuke in the back. He gasped from the sudden shock, but could tell that his bulletproof vest had stopped it. He turned around unsteadily, and pointed his gun at the person who had fired at him.
“Whoa, there! Hold your fire, soldier!” Harris was standing at the cabin’s entrance, a high-caliber pistol in one hand. He had Tessa in an arm lock, and was using her skillfully as a shield.
“Sagara-san?!” She looked more surprised than relieved. She must have never expected that he would burst into a plane in flight like this.
“Colonel. I’ve come to get you,” Sousuke said, pointing his gun straight at her. Turbulent winds swirled the open flames in the cabin. The noise and vibrations were getting worse. He could see fire burning outside the windows, too; the engine must have broken down and ignited.
“It’s over,” he said. “Give her to me. The plane is going down; we still have time to evacuate.”
“No.” Harris grinned, beads of sweat forming on his haggard face. “I’m finished either way, so I might as well take her with me.”
“Have you completely lost your mind?”
“I’m perfectly rational!” the man shouted hysterically. “If I return empty-handed, the organization will kill me. If you take me hostage, I’ll end up the same way. You’ll pump me for information, then throw me out, and then the organization will kill me.”
Sousuke scowled, saying nothing.
“But I can at least deny you what you want,” Harris went on. “I can still kill both of you. I just have to run out the clock.”
A bead of sweat rolled down Sousuke’s forehead. This man was serious; he’d made his peace with dying here. Furthermore, the rocking of the plane and the whipping of the wind all around them made it hard to get a clean line on Harris as he used Tessa as a shield.
“Ironic, isn’t it? A sea captain like me, about to die in the air...” There was a hint of black humor in Harris’s tone, behind the anger and despair. “Your Mithril may think they’ve regained the momentum, but that’s all about to end. Amalgam is large and decentralized. They can’t be crushed with force alone. And even in terms of force, they’ve just finished a radical expansion.”
“What did you say?” Sousuke asked.
“Professionals, Sagara Sousuke; not those well-armed small-timers you’ve been facing so far,” Harris taunted. “Amalgam hires mercenaries, too. If not for Mr. Iron’s—Gauron’s—cancer, he would have been their leader. His substitute, Mr. Kalium, was distinctly inferior in ability... but for better or worse, you killed him back in Hong Kong.”
Gauron had cancer? Though surprised by the revelation, Sousuke remained keenly aware of the time. He could hear the tense voice of the de Danaan’s flight control officer in his earpiece:
No time left. This is your last chance. Escape.
“They’re calm and cunning,” Harris said. “They’ll stamp out every one of you. Why don’t you join me in the next world early, so we can watch it play out together?”
“You’re lying,” Sousuke said scornfully.
“Going to shoot me, then?! You might hit her!” Harris continued to mock Sousuke, who was focused on his aim. “You won’t fire because of the fear of what might happen. That’s who you people are—just a sad bunch of wannabe superheroes. You’ve got that annoying air about you.
“But reality is harsh, and the world is cruel. The people on that ship will learn that, too, some day. To reverse fate, to conquer it, you need to take that cruelty for yourself. It’s my organization that can do that! Only Amalgam can end everything!” Harris shouted, spurred on by madness. The fuselage of the plane was starting to make a strange creaking noise. There was a movement in Harris’s right hand. The pistol was pointed at Tessa’s neck.
“Stop—”
That fraction of a second felt like an eternity. Still, the targeting was difficult. The shaking of the plane threw his aim off. And yet, Sousuke fired. With exceeding calm, he fired. The shot hit the wall, sparking as it broke through. Harris, shot in the chest through the wall, pulled the trigger even as he stumbled. Tessa toppled forward. Sousuke couldn’t see from his position if she’d been hit or not.
“Tessa?!” he shouted.
“I... I’m fine!” Tessa’s voice was more vibrant than he expected. She was safe, it seemed. Harris was lying face-down, and completely still.
There was no time left. Sousuke ran up to her, took her by the arm, and hurried immediately to the closest hatch. He turned the emergency lever and yanked it open. Tessa’s hair and skirt went flapping in the wind. “Sagara-san, the parachutes—”
“Don’t have any,” he said, cutting her off. “Sorry.” It would have been impossible for him to jump into the cabin and have a firefight with a heavy parachute on. His options had been to steal one from the plane, or retrace his steps and return to the Arbalest—he’d intended to decide what to do based on the situation. But they didn’t have time for either option now, and the plane would probably break to pieces before it hit the water.
“Do you mean we’re finished?” Tessa wanted to know.
“I have one last card to play,” Sousuke told her. “Listen, hold tight to—”
Just then, the plane’s wing snapped in half. The plane began to roll, and seconds later, it was in pieces. Sousuke and Tessa were blown out the open hatch, into the void. Tessa tried to hold tight to his arm, but the buffeting winds and centripetal force proved too much for her, and she ended up letting go.
“Tessa!!” The sound of the explosion and the roaring wind consumed even Sousuke’s own cry. Her small body, batted around by the air currents, grew further and further away in his vision.
The shattered fuselage, the snapped wings. Tessa was falling amidst the fragments. Things were burning all around her, but the wind remained terribly cold. The faint light
of the moon illuminated the place where the ocean met the horizon in the darkness. How long would it be until she hit the water? Her consciousness grew hazy as gravity pulled her relentlessly downward. Yet, she was able to notice a figure approaching; he was gliding through the night air, carefully manipulating the wind with his limbs.
It was a skydiving technique.
Sagara Sousuke’s body slammed into Tessa’s. The two tumbled through open space, clinging to each other. It surely didn’t change the fact that they were doomed, but he seemed determined to struggle to the end. He moved his mouth close to her ear, and screamed something to her. The touch of his lips against her earlobe... it was a sweet sensation. Yet the words themselves were anything but: “Hold on to me, tightly!” he yelled. “Don’t let go!”
“What?” Tessa cried back.
“Brace for impact!” Sousuke told her.
It was then that she noticed the form of the white AS approaching, consuming her vision to the right. The Arbalest, having detached its wing pack and gone into freefall, was slowly growing closer. Just as she grabbed Sousuke’s chest, they slammed into the giant’s hands. The AS had caught up with them and scooped them up from the side.
The impact forced the air from Tessa’s lungs in a groan. Her head was swimming, and she couldn’t tell which way was up.
Sousuke shouted again. “Open!”
There was one final jolt. With Tessa and Sousuke held tight in its hands, the Arbalest deployed the parachute sack on its back. As she watched a parachute many times larger than a human-sized one unfurl into the sky, Tessa reflected that it was a miracle she hadn’t bit her tongue.
The wind died down instantly, and the area around them grew silent. The wreckage of the burning plane had passed over them, to plunge into the sea hundreds of meters away. The Arbalest, holding them both in its hands, slowly descended.
《It’s a night of close shaves,》 the AS remarked through external speakers. 《I performed a few rough calculations, and the chance of success for your nonsense mission was one in 256. Even with the Christmas miracle effect on our side—》
“Shut up,” Sousuke demanded curtly.
《Roger.》 The AI fell silent again, and the only sound became an intermittent flapping noise as their parachute fluttered in the wind.
“Colonel. Were you hurt?” Sousuke asked Tessa eventually.
She had been staring into space, but the words broke her out of her trance. “What? Ah... a few bruises, most likely... but I think I’m all right.”
“Good,” Sousuke said with a sigh of relief. “The squad would kill me if anything happened to you.”
“I wonder about that...” Tessa said, a bit sulky now that the initial relief had passed. “I’m sure they’ll act very concerned, but they don’t really care about what happens to a useless half-wit like me.”
“Colonel...”
“Yes, yes. I know. I don’t really mean it. I just...” Tessa swallowed her words. She felt two inches tall. Why is it always Sousuke who comes to save me like this? she wondered. If it were anyone else—Clouseau, or Mao—I wouldn’t have to feel this way...
Is it really all right for you to put yourself in danger for someone like me? Do I really have that much value to you? I can’t, can I? Because you wouldn’t do anything that would make her sad... Is it comradeship? Duty? Confidence that you’ll return alive? It was probably a combination of all of them, but that fact just made her even more depressed. He wasn’t here for the reasons she wanted him to be: out of an earnest love for her.
When Harris had taken her hostage, in the end, he’d taken the shot. If it had been Kaname instead of her there, he probably wouldn’t have been able to, even if it meant that she died as a result. There was a difference at play here. A definitive one.
There’s nothing to be done, Tessa thought, remembering Captain Sailor’s words. He’s right; the longing is entirely on my end, not his. It’s not me who has an instinctive grip on his heart, but her. The world she’s a part of. I understand, because I find that world dazzling and alluring, as well...
Can what I feel truly be called love? Can anyone testify that I’m not simply looking for somebody to escape into? Can anyone testify that I truly love this man, right here, right now? Unable to bear the silence any longer, she asked him, “Sagara-san.”
“Yes?”
“Do you love Kaname-san?”
After a pause, he said, “I think so.”
“More than me?” she specified.
Sousuke’s face tensed. But after some consideration, he answered clearly: “Yes.”
Tessa had known it was coming, but his words still hit her like a physical blow. It was perfectly natural that he would say so, though. Sagara Sousuke wasn’t the kind of man to dissemble when the truth was clear. That was part of his appeal; it was a cruel fact of the world.
Tessa turned her eyes down and whispered, “You said it so easily.”
“I’m sorry,” Sousuke simply told her.
She’d had a silly fantasy she’d been clinging to these past few days. She’d dreamed that they’d have the party with everyone at the base, and after the feast was over, she’d find a way to be alone with him. He’d say, “Happy birthday, Tessa,” and then...
She tried hard not to cry, but she couldn’t help it, and the tears flowed from her eyes. She wanted to run away, but she couldn’t. Not while she was in the hands of the descending AS.
“I’m sorry. I’m... fine. I just... I’m a bit disappointed, I suppose,” she said, forcing a smile onto her face. Seeing Sousuke so tortured by her reactions just tightened the icy grip on her heart. “Ahh, this was supposed to be an easy mission, and I let it go completely off the rails. I was useless from start to finish... What an awful birthday.”
Sousuke didn’t say anything, likely forcing back an instinct to make excuses or offer words of encouragement.
He’s faithful. Truly faithful. That’s why I love him, of course... It’s why I want to be with him. But I suppose wanting something to be so doesn’t mean that God will listen, even on Christmas Eve...
Fate. Harris’s final words lingered in her mind. Perhaps this is fate, and my attempts to reject that are what’s throwing everything off inside of me. She felt like she understood, for the first time, the feelings of the people they’d been conveniently dismissing under the label of “terrorists” for so long.
The Arbalest carrying them both neared the ocean surface. They could see the faint lights of an allied helicopter arriving to save them.
Pacific Chrysalis
“Uruz-1 to Uruz-2. How are things going? Any progress?”
Mao wasn’t sure how many times Clouseau had asked her that now. A dozen, for sure, at least. I’m working my ass off, you know, she thought resentfully. If I screw up with the vault lock, I could trigger an internal detonator and ruin everything. I need to be careful, but fast. Why can’t he understand how hard this is?
“Dammit. I’m starting to feel like a writer with a looming deadline...” she whispered, then wiped some sweat from her forehead, and resumed tapping on the keyboard.
“What was that?” Clouseau asked.
“Nothing,” she said innocently. “Just executing a virtual protocol QRD. Almost there.”
“You’ve said ‘almost there’ a dozen times tonight,” Clouseau accused her. “The Japanese Coast Guard and SDF have caught on that something’s wrong. We’re out of time. I need precise figures, not ‘almost there’—”
“When I say almost, that’s what I mean!” said Mao, finally losing her temper. “Ten seconds at best! A hundred minutes at worst! Stop jabbering on and buy me time, dammit! You’ve become a real wet blanket since you got your commission, you know!”
“Who wouldn’t, with people so irresponsible serving under them?! I pity Colonel Mardukas and Major Kalinin. And you just—”
“Finally!” Mao proclaimed as something on the display suddenly caught her attention. It was asking whether to send the final signal to disa
rm the lock, with a “Yes/No/Cancel” prompt. After a moment’s consideration, she selected “Yes” and pressed the enter key.
With a muffled sound, the tightly locked vault door ahead of her slid open, as if it had never been locked at all.
“What is it?” Clouseau wanted to know.
“It’s open.”
There was a moment of silence before he responded, “Understood. I’ll buy you fifteen minutes, so get documenting already.”
Just then, Mao remembered the other person who was supposed to be with them. “How’s Tessa?” she asked. “Is she safe?”
“Sagara got it done,” he responded briefly. “Now hurry.”
“Roger. Out. Okay, you heard the man! It’s a fire sale! Get going!” Mao shouted to the PRT soldiers waiting nearby, before running into the vault herself. She ignored the works of art and jewels housed there and made a beeline straight to the back. In the middle of an otherwise unextraordinary wall, there sat a door; the room they were after lay beyond it. Fortunately, her work on the main door had disarmed the lock here, too.
Mao stepped into the room behind the vault. The space there was as large as a school classroom, full of electronics and medical equipment; examination tables the size of large coffins, with a multitude of sensors surrounding them. Mao knew a lot about electronics herself, but even she couldn’t tell what it was all for. How am I supposed to investigate this? Mao wondered. If Tessa were here, she’d probably be doling out orders by now...
“Lieutenant. Where should we start?” one of the soldiers asked.
After struggling for an answer, Mao just shook her head, and said, “Anywhere! Take as many pictures as you can and carry out everything that’s not nailed down. No need to be gentle. Hack into the casing and yank out the hard drives!”
Even so, she reflected, this was clearly a major score. They could investigate later at their leisure, and what they found should tell them a little about what the enemy was doing... and why they were so determined to find people like Kaname.