A true fiend
"That is the true meaning of SPES, and our real objective."
As I stood there, stunned, the guy's right arm began to regenerate from the wound in the blink of an eye, while a new body began to form from the severed arm on the ground. It wasn't fully human-shaped, but it was rapidly acquiring all the bumps and hollows of a body.
"It's like a cutting…"
"Yes. Exactly." Charlie nodded.
"Charlie, I can still tell you don't understand."
"…Well, I thought I'd lighten the mood. It was getting too serious, you know?"
Don't lie. Everybody already knows you're kinda dumb.
"A cutting is when you clip a stalk off the parent plant, put it in the ground so it sprouts roots, and grow another plant from it. Basically—"
"It's a plant…clone?"
Exactly. That was what Seed had meant when he'd called himself a parent. All the members of SPES were his clones. Seed was the original pseudohuman.
That was why he could take on Cerberus's and Bat's forms, and why he could use their powers. It was actually the other way around—Seed had shared his abilities with them.
"I am a plant that reached this world by accident—a 'primordial seed,' as it were. The most fundamental desire of all living things, plant or animal, is to leave descendants. I create clones from my own body, as I've demonstrated,
then sow them across the planet's surface in the hopes that they will find prosperity."
"…Do you think that makes it okay to kill people who've done nothing wrong?"
"What problem could there be with eliminating an invasive species that obstructs the spread of my seeds?"
"—You're the invasive species!" My finger pulled the trigger and fired at the root that had grown from Seed—but it was a no-go.
"Even minutes after its birth, its instinct to protect its parent seems to be functioning."
The newborn pseudohuman from Seed's severed right arm still looked like a mud doll, but it had unsteadily gotten to its feet and shielded him from the bullet. It crumpled to the ground, as if its strings had been cut.
"…Doesn't that make you feel sad at all?" I took in the sight of Seed's comrades, who lay around him. He'd said he hoped for the prosperity of his seeds, but what he was doing was the exact opposite.
"These were necessary sacrifices, to ensure the continued existence of my seeds. Don't worry; their seeds haven't been wasted."
As he spoke, Seed took an object like a small, jet-black rock from the clone that had just collapsed. It was the same as the thing Hel had removed from Cerberus's chest earlier.
"A seed…? You mean that rock?"
If I remembered right, Siesta had said those things were like cores that created pseudohumans. When Seed had called himself "the primordial seed," was that what he'd meant?
"That's right. Some of the seeds of our departed comrades have been inherited by her."
"…! You mean Hel…?"
That must have been the "treatment" Chameleon had mentioned. So they'd transplanted seeds from Hel's comrades into her? No wonder we hadn't passed a single soul on our way here.
"Where is Hel now?"
From what I'd heard, Hel's personality was probably in charge now. In that case, we had to find a way to defeat her and rescue Alicia as quickly as possible.
"As she isn't here, there is only one place where she would conceivably be,
correct?"
…! With Siesta?! "Kimizuka! Ma'am is—!" "Yeah, I know. Let's hurry."
Then, just as we'd turned to go—
"Do you imagine escaping will be that simple?"
I heard a familiar, unpleasantly polite voice from some untraceable location.
"Chameleon…!"
The very guy who'd taken Alicia from right under our noses. He was probably using his ability to make himself invisible, but he was definitely in the room with us right now.
"Ha-ha. It appears as though I'll be able to entertain myself here as well."
Here as well? Don't tell me…
"Kimizuka!"
Keeping her gun trained on empty space, Charlie signaled at me with her eyes.
"Yeah, I know."
Chameleon was talking as if he'd already fought a battle somewhere— meaning he had to have fought Siesta while she was off on her own mission. But Chameleon was here now, which meant… It couldn't mean… But would Siesta lose to a guy like him?
No, wait. Of course. If he'd been with Hel, who was back to her old self, then—
"Kimizuka, let me handle this." Charlie urged me to go to Siesta. "I'll hold them here. Hurry—"
"I would prefer not to be ignored."
Chameleon's voice sounded as if it was moving all over the place. Not only could we not finish him off, but there was no telling when an attack would come flying at us. It was about ten meters to the door. How was I going to get that far—?
"You've interrupted your parent."
And then, Seed vanished. "Ghaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
The next thing we heard was Chameleon's scream.
For the first time, I got a clear look at him. He had silver hair and rather bland Asian features. Seed had his right hand clamped around his neck and was holding him suspended in midair.
"I was talking just now. Why did you break in?" "…I'm…v-very…sorry…"
Chameleon barely managed to get the words out. A colored fluid was welling from his mouth.
"I am only letting you live so you can guard that. Don't forget yourself," Seed hissed, then slammed Chameleon into the floor.
He wouldn't have done it to protect us. He'd only been punishing the guy for disrespecting his parent. However—
"Seed, why did you give us so much information about SPES?"
What were you even doing here? Why did you stay after you massacred your comrades in order to keep Hel alive? If you're SPES's commander-in- chief, wouldn't you normally be the one to go defeat Siesta?
In response to those natural questions, Seed said…
"Because if I side with either of them, the plan won't come together." With that enigmatic reply, he blinked out of sight.
"Of course he can use Chameleon's abilities too, huh…?"
Where had he gone, though? I could only hope that it wasn't wherever Siesta was.
"Kimizuka, go now." Charlie pointed her gun at Chameleon, who'd collapsed on the floor, and urged me to leave.
"Damn… Dammit…!"
However, Chameleon shakily got to his feet, clearly in agony. He cloaked himself again and attacked us from all sides. We couldn't even see his shadow.
"I'm sick of watching this same move over and over." Charlie fired at empty space.
"…Ghk! You have fine instincts," I heard Chameleon say. Had that
random shot grazed him?
"Instincts? Huh. You tell funny jokes for a reptile," Charlie retorted. Urging me to go with a glance, she squeezed the trigger again. "The stench of your breath makes you obvious."
If a girl said that to me, I'd never recover. Smiling wryly, I broke into a run, leaving the rest to Charlie, but then—
"Kimizuka!"
Something flew through the air, and I caught it in my right hand. When I opened my fingers, it turned out to be a key.
I already told her I don't have a license. "Let me ride behind you someday." "…Yeah, I'll practice."
And if I crash your beloved bike today…cut a guy some slack, all right?
If we meet again, away from this island
After that, I hopped on Charlie's bike and headed for the opposite side of the island, gunning the engine the whole way. There were no civilians here and no need to obey traffic laws, so it didn't matter if I'd never driven before. I just gripped the handlebars and thought only of getting to Siesta as fast as I possibly could.
I couldn't believe Siesta would lose to a guy on Chameleon's level. But if Hel was with him, fully revived, then just maybe…
"…Dammit."
My thoughts went in the worst possible directions.
But if something happened to Siesta, Charlie and I would be no match for Hel, which meant Alicia's rescue would fail as well. And that meant Siesta's safety was top priority—
"…No, that's wrong."
Even if Alicia wasn't part of this at all, if Siesta was in trouble—I would have gone to help her without hesitating.
"She's trained me really well."
Praying that I'd make it in time, I roared along on Charlie's beloved bike. "…! Siesta!"
When I found her, roughly two hours after we'd last seen each other, she was lying facedown on the ground.
Letting the bike tip over, I ran to my partner. "Siesta! Hey!" I picked up her prone body and rested her on my knees.
Her small, pale face was covered with sand. As I brushed it off with my fingertips, I called her name over and over.
"This isn't funny! You promised you wouldn't go off and die without telling me! Remember…?!"
No, this wasn't gonna work. I needed to calm down, now more than ever.
Calm down and do what I could, take the steps I needed to save Siesta. "Gimme a break, all right?"
I rolled up my sleeves, laid Siesta back down on the ground, and put my hands against her chest.
I set my right hand on top of my left one, straightened my elbows, and pushed with all my weight behind it.
"—Five centimeters."
Chest compressions don't work unless you press down that far into the rib cage. Strangely enough, this wasn't my first time performing CPR. After all, I get dragged into this stuff all the time.
I was grateful for that coincidence now as I pressed down on Siesta's chest. She'd been so strong physically, and yet her body was so delicate that it felt like I could break it with far less pressure than this.
"Don't you dare—die…!"
I kept on compressing Siesta's chest to a regular rhythm. Ten times, twenty…thirty.
Next, I had to give her two artificial breaths. I secured her airway, pinched her nose between my fingertips, then took a deep breath.
"Forgive me."
Keeping my eyes wide open so I wouldn't miss, I leaned in toward Siesta's lips, and just then—
"I hadn't considered the possibility that you might come here." Her blue eyes blinked open.
"…Heeeeeeeey! You stu— Y-you!" I leaned back so far that my legs gave
out, and Siesta sat up.
"Hmm. Who'd have thought you'd come to me? That's a problem. You've thrown off my plan." While she was busy being confusing, she brushed the sand and dust off her dress. "Was it because your love for me was far more obsessive than I'd thought?"
"…I don't really know what's happening, but I'm going to object to that analysis anyway."
"And another thing, Kimi—performing CPR is fine, but you're generally supposed to make sure the person isn't breathing naturally first."
I was still hugging the ground, and Siesta looked down at me coldly. "Wait, your heart was beating the whole time?"
"Well, no, it wasn't, but…"
"So it stopped?!" Then why are you yelling at me?
"Oh, no, no." Siesta waved a hand from side to side, dismissively. "My heart didn't stop. I stopped it."
"You…stopped it?"
I was really lost now, so for lack of anything better to do, I just took the hand she'd held out to me and got to my feet.
"Well, an enemy who was a bit of a pain picked a fight with me, so I was playing dead."
"…I've been asking you for three years: What the heck are you?"
I wasn't even surprised anymore. I was so appalled, my knees were trembling.
An enemy who was a bit of a pain… Ah, I think I get it. Chameleon must have gotten the impression that he'd killed Siesta, and felt his job was done.
"Well, 'a pain' may not be the word. I'm oddly incompatible with that one." Siesta closed one blue eye in a deliberate wink.
Still, could normal people literally play dead? "What kind of body do you have anyway? Geez."
Smiling wryly, I was about to retaliate with a karate chop, when— "Huh?"
—the next thing I knew, I was sitting on my butt on the ground. "What's the matter?" she asked.
"Uh, I just sort of…"
Siesta gave me a blank look. And then…
"Did the relief make your legs give out?" she asked with a little smile.
"Because I was fine?"
"—. Quit smirking. Don't let your lips wriggle like that, either." "May I be frank about what I'm feeling right now?"
"No. Don't. Don't you dare. I'm not listening to anything you say." "I think you're adorable, Kimi."
"Aaaaaaah! Aaaaaaaah! I can't heeeear youuuuu!"
Dammit, why did I have to take this humiliation? All this after I'd driven here full-tilt on a bike I couldn't even ride. After I'd actually attempted CPR.
It was so weird. This was obviously weird…
"What should I do? Shall I stroke your head after all?" "Absolutely not!"
"How about a hug?" "No way in hell!"
"Or to borrow your turn of phrase, 'press my boobs against you.'" "You can't just do that. I mean it. To me or any guy."
"Oh, but you already touched my chest a minute ago, didn't you?" Siesta giggled. "Thirty times, even."
"Not fair. Siesta, you're trying to kill me, aren't you? Socially." "Heh-heh. You really are fun to tease, Kimi. —It really was fun." "…Siesta?"
Suddenly, her smile grew slightly melancholy.
When I saw her face, I knew everything. I'd been right next to her, watching her profile, for three years. No matter how little I wanted to, I knew what had happened, and what was about to happen.
"Siesta."
"What?"
"Let me take you up on that hug after all, just once." I stood up and turned around.
A lone girl stood there.
"If we survive and meet again, away from this island."