In an area about 500 meters away from the Newark Liberty International Airport.
"Hello man, my name is Nakamura, I'm Japanese. Are you okay?"
"What the…."
"Sumimasen."
*Wham!*
Oh geez, I'm sorry about that. I know assaulting you from behind and stealing your motorcycle is not the most moral thing to do but there's no other way for me here. I really had no choice.
…
Yes.
Along with Lily, we knocked out an innocent passerby from behind. From then, we took him to a nearby deserted park, left him in the bathroom and took his motorcycle. No matter how anybody sees it, this is an organized two-man crime at its finest.
But what can I do about it?
There's a reason why I'm acting like the protagonist fatefully thrust into wrongdoing in some hero drama series.
Even though I'm aware as to how ridiculous it must sound to just suddenly buy a plane ticket and fly over the Pacific Ocean to get to New York where that person was located in.
「#19 Wall Street, Penthouse in J.P. Morgan Building.」
Well, whatever. It's a good chance for me to see Lily in action as the ultimate agent the Bandersnatch multi-purpose elite taskforce has to offer.
Starting from passport preparation, airport schedules, to the location Heimlich was in, I never expected her to find out and catch on to everything so quickly.
With that thought in mind, I seat Lily to the front and get on the motorcycle. Hmm, but the only experience I have with motorcycle is an old EXIF 125cc I used to ride during newspaper deliveries.
From the looks of it, this motorcycle I'm on is a Kawasaki Ninja 10R!
It really does make me feel pressured.
And I don't even have a license yet, is this really fine?
Though it's not like we can walk over to Wall Street by foot, and if we tried hitchhiking in this suspicious outfit we're in, the only place we'd be going to would be the police station.
So, like I said, we had no choice.
And if, by some chance, the owner of the motorcycle from back then is reading this, please see it in your benevolent mind and come to an understanding.
We didn't mean to.
◇ ◆ ◇
"I didn't think he'd really come."
Looking down at the wall of skyscrapers decorating the city, Heimlich slowly opens his mouth.
"Considering it's only a simple entertainment, things are progressing way too smoothly. As expected, Isabel-onee-chan really is amazing.
"Kuku. Well, maybe I was just lucky~?"
Behind Heimlich. On the buffalo-leather sofa in the guest room. Sitting there, lazily sipping wine is no one other than a crimson-haired woman, Isabel.
"I really wouldn't have imagined in my dreams for that idiot to come chase us all the way over here for some useless bitch. Although I'm not sure how he found out our location."
Heimlich mutters, as if curious.
"From what I heard, some agent from Ladies in Black decided to tag along with him."
"Hmm, are you scared by any chance?"
Heimlich pays no attention to Isabel nonchalantly shaking her shoulders at him.
"Never. This is my territory he's in."
Failure was impossible.
Those insects are only a moth diving headfirst into a fire; that's the kind of existence they were.
"This is why those low-bloods will always be stuck in the bottom."
Rather than cool logic, they force their emotions and passion first. Infinitely stupid, and foolish beyond belief. Their one-dimensional, overly simplistic, and flat personality bring tear to my eyes when I think about it.
That's the kind of people they were.
And Heimlich was different.
Heimlich was always the one to stare down at other atop the hierarchy's pyramid. In competition with others, he was always the one to take from and triumph over others, and to those who gave him humility, he always rewarded them back with hundred times the humility he received.
And in that life of his, this bastard by the name of Siyoung gave him a wound that no one else was able to inflict onto him before.
Yes.
"Maria."
A woman fit for someone like Heimlich, someone atop the summit of this world. A woman that only he could have, and someone that was worth his while.
Someone like her, he took her away.
It's a humiliation beyond imagination.
That's why retribution was in order.
Humiliation times hundred, thousands.
No, even if it has to be hundreds of thousands times.
◇ ◆ ◇
"Oi, used goods."
Dorothy doesn't answer. She does nothing but sit on the bed with her head shaken down, helplessly staring out the window to gaze at the vast, open, moonless sky.
Perhaps Dorothy's lack of response has come across to Heimlich as ignorance and irked him somehow; he pulls strongly on the leash wrapped around his hand.
"You stupid bitch, say something when your master calls you!"
"U, ah…. u! I'm sorry…!"
Dorothy moans in pain, and begs for forgiveness.
"Hmph. Well, whatever. It'd be too boring if you acted obedient everytime, anyway."
Heimlich laughs to himself, clearly entertained by something.
"Even if you're only a substitute for Maria with no use for anything besides your body."
"Uuu-"
Hearing that, Dorothy bites her lip in anger. Though her clenched teeth, her lip rips and blood drips down below her.
"The promise, you'll keep it?"
"Ahh, of couse. Even if it's for someone useless and good-for-nothing like you, I'm someone special that can give you the 'Blackhazel name' you want so much."
"…Yes."
Dorothy nods in submission, wordlessly agreeing with him.
For her, something like defiance no longer exists.
'There's no other way but this.'
There's no place for someone like me to return.
'That's why, there's no other way.'
This digesting and nauseating piece of scum before my eyes has Blackhazel's name.
He has the same blood as Onee-sama.
That why, even if I had to go through something pitiful and cruel as this, even if I have to bow down before this man as his slave…
If I can take someone with the name Blackhazel as my husband and take that name for myself…
I'll be able to stay beside Onee-sama as a "real Blackhazel" in any way possible.
I'll be able to look at Onee-sama, even if she was at somewhere far and unreachable.
'That's why, there's no other way.'
◇ ◆ ◇
Onee-sama always had an expression of happiness everytime she talked about her Onii-sama.
To be honest, when she said someone else was going to join out family I felt a slight pang of jealously, but on the other hand I couldn't help but feel a little hopeful.
Just who is this person to excite Onee-sama with bliss just by imagining about him?
What kind of person could this new 'Onii-sama' be like to the two of us?
But, our long-awaited first encounter with Onii-sama was as horrible as it can be, so much I don't want to even think about it once now.
If you asked me whether as to it improved from there, then the answer would still be negative.
Elegance and manners seemed to elude him, and he was nothing but useless in everything.
All in all, I felt pretty betrayed.
But what infuriated me beyond what my patience could handle was that Onee-sama's attention was always directed toward him.
Before he came, the spot beside Onee-sama was always reserved only for me.
The smile Onee-sama used to have always belonged to only me.
In the end, I was only a selfish child that wanted to act spoiled as I liked.
Just because I was afraid of no longer being next to Onee-sama. Because I was afraid of losing the only home I had. Because I was wrapped on this childish emotion called 'jealously' I had.
That's why I tortured him so, and I never showed him a genuine smile. Even if we were siblings, I never talked to him with the familiarity a sibling would exchange each other with. No, I never tried to.
Because I was a bad girl.
Because I'm a 'fake' that can't ever become a Blackhazel.
There's no way a Prince Charming on a white horse or a miracle would come all this way to save a 'fake' like me; something convenient like that doesn't exist in this world.
Miracles are miracles; because they don't happen.
Yes.
That much I know.
That is why this is my 'punishment'.
A punishment given to me because I'm a bad girl that tortured my brother for no reason.
A punishment given for a mere fake to be attempting to take the place of someone 'real' and stupidly dreaming of a dream lasting hundred days.
It's my last selfish request, as I bless the two of them on their happiness, as I drift away from them further and further.
◇ ◆ ◇
-And then, a miracle happened.
"It's-a-me."
That person who was so devoid of elegance and manners and was useless in everything.
That person who couldn't even arrive on a common pony, much less a white horse.
"Open up there, I say."
That 'Onii-sama', was before me.