5: The Enchanted Bullet

Avoiding detection from enemy soldiers that had spread further throughout the underground facility, Sousuke arrived at the lowest floor. If Kaname had avoided capture, she’d be passing through the basement to head for the exit on the other side, he knew. Tessa would, too. If he headed in the same direction, there was a good chance they’d find each other sooner or later.

It was difficult making his way through the underground labyrinth without a map. All he had to rely on were his compass and his instincts. His enemies probably weren’t fools, so they would also find Kaname and Tessa eventually. No, they might already have them in custody...

I have to hurry, he told himself. Despite the heightened risk of being found by the enemy, he moved swiftly through the twisting, interweaving corridors and stairs. He didn’t bother to conceal his footsteps or the light from his Maglite. He’d have to keep pushing on swiftly if he wanted any chance at finding them.

It was pure luck that he didn’t run into any enemies before arriving at his destination. Sousuke came out into a vast hall in what looked like the center of the facility, which was a wide open space.

Before he’d even walked a few meters, he discovered a man slumped against the wall. “Lemon?” he asked. Keeping an eye out for threats around him, he ran up to his friend and shook him by the shoulders.

Lemon looked up with a groan. “Sousuke...”

“Lemon,” Sousuke replied. “What are you doing here?”

“That’s what I’d like to know. But... well, it’s been an eventful time. Kaname-san and Testarossa-san are with me here, somewhere. Ah, my head hurts. I want to throw up,” Lemon said vaguely. He sounded like a man with a bad hangover.

“With you?” Sousuke asked anxiously. “Are they both safe?”

“Yeah. Over there...” Lemon pointed to the large dome at the center of the hall. “They went inside. I don’t know what happened. I tried to go with them but my head went nuts... and I couldn’t go any further. Pathetic, I know. I’m sorry.”

“Wait here. I’ll check it out.” Kaname is so close, thought Sousuke. He couldn’t just stand around knowing she was out there. But before he could run to the dome, Lemon grabbed his arm and stopped him.

“Don’t, Sousuke.” He felt another wave of déjà vu. How many times had it been now? Sousuke tried to shake him off in annoyance, but Lemon held him tightly. “It’s... strange over there. It’ll make you crazy if you get too close.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know the logic behind it, but only the girls can go in. I think you have to be a Whispered.”

“Have to be a Whispered...?” Sousuke echoed. Feeling a chill go up his spine, he gazed at the dome they had disappeared into. The structure, covered in blocky protrusions, did have a supernatural sort of air around it.

It was fortuitous that his allies were here, but luck wouldn’t remain on their side forever. The enemies would arrive here eventually, and they couldn’t afford to hesitate.

“Chidori! Are you there?!” Sousuke called out to the dome. “Can you hear me?! It’s not safe! Come out quickly!”

There was no response.

“Chidori! Colonel!” he tried again. “We have to get out of here! Come on!” But again, there was no response. It’s so quiet here, he thought. They have to have heard me. Though the greater risk is that the enemy might, too...

Wait... there was movement. Just as Sousuke was about to shake off his hesitation and run for the dome, two figures came out of it: Kaname and Tessa. They were walking towards him slowly, huddled side-by-side.

Thank goodness they’re safe, he thought, and heaved an internal sigh of relief. Kaname looked just the same as she had nine months ago when they’d last seen each other, in tight jeans and a turtleneck sweater with her distinctive black hair... She seems to have lost a little weight, he thought. But it’s her. It’s really her. I’ve found her. We’ve made it!

All the emotions he’d kept locked down for so long began to fire up inside of him. There was so much he wanted to tell her, and he was angry at himself for not figuring out in advance what to say when they found each other again. He wanted to tell her everything he hadn’t been able to say to her before. But even more urgently, he wanted to run to her and hold her... He wanted it so much.

Sousuke took a step forward as all of Lemon’s words about it being dangerous to approach the dome flew out of his head. It should be fine for a little while. I can’t wait any longer...

“Chidori...” he whispered, and was about to run out when Chidori Kaname pointed a gun at him and fired.

“What the...” Sousuke had no idea what had just happened. It hadn’t actually hit him; the bullet she’d fired had hit the ground right in front of his foot, letting out a spark and a sharp echo. But still, she had fired in his direction.

“Chidori. It’s me! Look!” he called to her in confusion as he halted. It was dark here... Maybe she’d shot at him by accident? That had to be it. “Lower the gun. You’re safe n—”

Kaname fired again, interrupting him. This time, it hit closer to his feet. “Don’t move,” she said, her voice gentle.

Sousuke stared at her in disbelief, and there, he finally realized it: Kaname and Tessa weren’t huddled up side-by-side. Kaname was dragging Tessa along with her, threatening her with a pistol like a hostage.

“What are you doing, Chidori?” he began to ask. “What in the world—”

“I told you not to move,” she reminded him. “If you come any closer, I’ll shoot Tessa first. So, stay back.”

“I’m sorry, Sagara-san,” Tessa whispered faintly. There was blood dripping from the corner of her mouth.

Was she struck? he wondered. Did Kaname hit her?

“I don’t fully understand,” Tessa went on, “but... I think Kaname-san is—”

“Hush, Tessa,” Kaname chided. “You need to keep your mouth shut.”

“Ah...!” Tessa let out a cry as the other girl twisted her arm.

“What’s going on here?” Sousuke tried to ask again. “It’s me, Chidori. Don’t you know me?”

“Of course, I do,” she answered. “It’s been a long time, Sousuke,” It really was her. It really was Kaname. “I wanted to see you so much. Even now, I wish I could just throw myself into your arms...”

“Then why are you doing this?” he demanded to know.

“There’s an important job that only I can do,” Kaname explained. “Sofia asked me to, so I have to go... I still love you, but if you try to stop me, I’ll have to kill you.”

Sofia? Job? What is she talking about? he wondered. Out loud, he said, “Chidori, stop joking around. Now’s not the time.”

“Yeah, I know. And I wish I was joking around... you’re kinda clinging to that idea right now, right? I know it’s probably confusing, but just be brave and accept this, please. That’s what will allow us to make the world better.” With a violent motion and tear-filled eyes, Kaname pressed the gun to Tessa’s head, and pleaded with Sousuke. “Please, Sousuke. Trust me. Let me go. If you don’t, I’ll kill Tessa and you’ll die, too. I really don’t want that!”

“Don’t talk nonsense!” he pleaded. “Put the gun down and get away from her!”

“Why won’t you understand?!” Suddenly, Kaname slammed Tessa in the side of the head with the butt of the gun. The girl staggered and started to fall, but Kaname yanked her back up by the braid. “I hate this! I decide what I’m going to do! Nobody can control me! Not even you have that right, Sousuke!”

“Chidori?!” he cried out in alarm. None of it made any sense. The fire that he’d felt just moments before had been doused, replaced by a chill that he’d never felt before—a creeping sensation he could never have even imagined.

That voice, those words, that speech pattern... They sounded like Kaname, but they were completely at odds with her actions. He felt like he was talking to an artificial intelligence that had been modeled on her, instead. How could she say something like that after striking the defenseless Tessa? Kaname continued walking towards the exit to the hall, dragging Tessa with her. There was no way he could shoot her to stop her.

“Wait,” he called after her. “Where are you going?”

“You love me, right?” Kaname replied. “So, don’t follow me.”

“You can at least explain! Do you even understand what you’re doing?!”

“Of course I do! So don’t follow me!”

“Come back to your senses, Chidori!” Sousuke yelled, striding towards her. This is absurd, he told himself. I’m not letting her go after coming this far. Shoot Tessa? Shoot me? It must be a bluff. There’s no way she’d do that. I just need to jump on her and wrestle the gun away. It might get a little rough, but these are desperate times... I don’t have a choice. Then we’ll get out of here, and I can investigate—

“Sousuke!!” Tessa screamed, and a gunshot rang out.

Kaname had shot her in the head. The 9mm bullet opened a gaping hole in her temple and scattered her brains out the other side. Tessa’s body let out a little tremor before slumping to the ground, and a large blood stain began to spread across the floor. She didn’t even let out a final cry. She had died on impact.

“Te...” he choked out. Tessa. It can’t be...

Kaname turned the gun again at Sousuke, who was frozen to the spot. “I told you! It’s your fault! I told you... I told you to stay away! You’re the one who killed her! Now make it right!”

Incredible. Don’t you even realize that you’re the one who killed her?! He couldn’t think any longer. His mind was blank. Sousuke ran towards Kaname with all his might, hoping to constrain her.

“It’s your fault!” Kaname cried, and fired again without any hesitation.

Sousuke felt a heavy jolt in the center of his chest, and his breathing became shallow. She fired again. A second time, a third time, again and again she hit him... His bulletproof AS operator’s uniform just barely managed to stop the shots.

“Chidori...” he moaned. I don’t believe it. As he stood there, unsteadily, she took the gun firmly in both hands and took aim at his unguarded head. “Don’t—” he tried to say.

“Goodbye, Sousuke.” Kaname smiled. She fired.

The last thing he saw was the muzzle flash. The bullet landed just above his forehead, blasted away part of his brain, and killed Sousuke on the spot. He didn’t even have time to curse in despair.

Silent darkness and emptiness. That was all this world contained.

No... There was a voice.

It said to him, It’s okay. You don’t have to try so hard. I promise I’ll wait, so don’t worry...

A faint light appeared in the darkness.

His vision—which had narrowed to a point—rapidly expanded, and a scream that tore from his throat. The sound combined rage, sorrow, self-loathing, and a fear that seized his heart. It sent the muscles of his body into a violent spasm, bringing him upright.

“Sousuke?!” Lemon was looking at him with an expression somewhere between terror and exhaustion.

They were still in that great chamber, Sousuke having collapsed at some point. Lemon was crouching by his side, and Tessa was lying about five meters away. Her head seemed to be intact.

I wasn’t shot, he realized. I just lost consciousness...

Kaname was nowhere to be seen.

“I’m not... dead?” Sousuke asked, touching his forehead. It was whole. He checked his chest and his stomach, where he’d been shot before, and found no sign of a hit there, either. “What’s going on? And... where’s Kaname?”

“She... left,” Lemon told him slowly. “You tried to run at her but then suddenly collapsed.”

“I did?”

“Then she shoved Testarossa-san away and ran off. I didn’t think I could catch her with my leg in this condition, so there’s nothing I could’ve done... I don’t think,” Lemon said uncertainly. He looked pretty confused himself.

Sousuke stood up, heaving for breath, and walked over to the collapsed Tessa. Aside from the strike across her face, she had no visible injuries. There was no sign that she’d been shot, either. She looked just fine, fortunately, but... “What did you mean, ‘I don’t think’?”

“I could’ve sworn I saw her shoot you to death,” said Lemon. “Both Testarossa-san and you. But I guess it was my eyes playing tricks on me, or... ugh, that déjà vu again. From what I’ve been gathering about how all this works, what I saw might have been a ‘potential future,’ one where Kaname-san resorts to lethal force. But I wonder why that would happen when the déjà vu has otherwise stopped...”

Lemon’s right, Sousuke realized. He’d been hit by waves of déjà vu since he’d first entered the great hall, but it had stopped a short time ago. “Chidori...” he said, tottering up to the door she’d left through.

He had to catch up to her. She’s gone mad, he told himself. That’s the only explanation for why she’d shoot me like that...

“Wait, Sousuke. It’s been at least three minutes,” Lemon protested. “You’ll never catch her.”

“Let me go!” Sousuke shook off Lemon’s hand as he tried to grab him, still dragging his leg.

“Be rational! If we get separated here, we’ll never find each other again!”

“She... She’s sick. She’s not in her right mind—”

“Look out!” Lemon dove at Sousuke and knocked him to the ground, at almost the same time they heard gunshots all around them.

Sousuke looked up, startled, as gunshots echoed throughout the hall. Enemy soldiers had come in through the south entrance and were now firing at them. He could tell that they were about 100 meters away, but couldn’t pin down how many there were.

“I guess they caught up with us,” he observed to Lemon, realizing the degree to which he’d let his guard down. Cursing his own foolishness, Sousuke returned fire with his carbine. There was no sign he’d hit anyone; it was too dark, and they were too far away. He couldn’t even be fully sure of their position.

“We’d better get going,” suggested Lemon.

“Right!” Sousuke agreed. While firing a few suppression shots with one hand, he threw an incendiary grenade with the other. There was a flash and an explosion that created a wall of fire and smoke between them and the enemy soldiers. That should blind their night vision goggles and infrared scopes, he thought.

Lemon was trying to help Tessa up, despite his injured leg. Sousuke ran over to them, hefted Tessa onto his back, and made a beeline for the nearest exit.

“Hurry!” he urged them, as more gunshots came from another direction. The enemy soldiers were surrounding the hall. “Lemon, do you know the way?”

“This way.” They exited the hall with Lemon taking the lead, hurrying north at the T-intersection. But Sousuke stopped, hesitantly.

“What are you doing?! They’re coming!” Lemon shouted back at him.

Sousuke looked down the hall’s other direction. The light from his Maglite revealed new footprints on the dust-covered floor. Kaname’s footprints... he thought. If I run off at full speed, I might just catch her...

“Sousuke?!” Lemon shouted again.

Should I leave Tessa and Lemon behind to pursue Kaname? Sousuke wondered. The direction she’d gone in would be swarming with enemies by now. Chasing her now would be reckless, he reminded himself. From the way Leonard had talked, they were unlikely to kill her, at least... Meanwhile, it would probably be impossible for Tessa and Lemon to escape without him. They might let Tessa live as a useful information source, but Lemon would be killed for sure.

But Kaname... I only just found you again... “Dammit!” Sousuke shouted, his heart fighting against his head. At last, he shook off the powerful yearning, turning around to run back to Lemon. If I go after her now, I’ll just end up dead, he told himself. His best option was to run away with the other two. I’ll get another chance to save her, he reasoned. Out loud, he asked, “This is the way?”

“Most likely,” answered Lemon. “If we climb up a staircase on the northern side, she said that we should come out on the surface on the other side of the plant.”

Sousuke fired at an enemy peeking at them from around the corner. While trying to keep the opposition in check as much as possible, he headed for the back door of the facility.

Kaname felt quite sure about what she’d done. She’d killed Sousuke. She’d killed Tessa. She was entirely convinced she’d shot them to death.

Poor Sousuke and Tessa... Thinking about them caused her chest to ache. But while it was a painful and sad thing in principle, the truth was that she didn’t need them anymore. Shallow sham friendship and tragic sham lover, she reminded herself. What good would it do to keep going through the motions? They’d be pressing the world’s reset button soon either way, so none of these deaths or events really mattered. Nothing mattered, except her own survival.

But first, she had to find out what exactly was going on.

Leonard Testarossa of Amalgam... He must have known this would happen. He’ll have already been laying the groundwork, she reasoned. The earlier her—the person she’d been just ten minutes ago—might have refused to cooperate with him unconditionally.

But now, it’s different, she told herself, because I finally understand his exceedingly simple solution. It was the same mission that Sofia had entrusted to her. She knew at long last that she was the only one who could save the world, and her understanding of that noble mission filled Kaname’s heart with pride.

After walking alone down the wide corridor for a while, she ran into a man; it was Leonard. He was sitting at the center of the hallway, legs crossed, on an old folding chair.

“Did you wait long?” she asked him.

“Not long at all,” Leonard told her with a smile. “It seems you’ve finally awakened.”

“Yeah. Sorry it took so long.” Smiling back at him, Kaname walked up to Leonard and imperiously took his collar in both hands to bring him up to a standing position. “Is everything ready?” she asked.

“Almost,” Leonard told her. “I’ve been working at it for six months now.”

“Shall we, then?”

“As you wish, my lady.”

“I’m a little cold,” she suggested, and Leonard quickly took off his crimson coat and put it over her shoulders. “Thank you,” she said modestly. “You’re very kind. You won’t be rough with me again?”

“There’s no need for that now, is there?”

“No, I won’t be selfish anymore,” she told him, knowing that there was no longer any need to fight it. Together, they walked further down the hallway to where his troops were waiting for them.

They were carrying her roughly down the hall as they ran, which might have been why Tessa woke earlier than expected. She seemed woozy at first, but quickly recovered to the point of insisting that she could walk.

“Are you sure?” Lemon asked, cautiously.

“Yes,” Tessa told him irritably. “What with your injury, you’re worse off than I am, anyway. But where is Kaname-san?”

“She left without us,” Sousuke said, running down the exit hallway. “I don’t know what’s going on, but she definitely wasn’t in her right mind. What happened in there?”

“Well...” Tessa hesitated.

“Tell me! What happened to her?!” Sousuke’s voice was straining as he lost his temper and grabbed her by the shoulders. Tessa looked shocked for a second before her expression turned a mix of regretful and indignant. At last, he said, “I’m sorry, Colonel. I’m just... confused.”

“It’s all right,” Tessa said. “I feel the same way.”

“I ran into Leonard before I came here,” Sousuke told them next. “He seems to know something. He said that Chidori would go to the bottom floor even if he didn’t interfere... and meet a spirit.”

“I see. He must have been quite confident, then...”

“About what?”

“That this would happen to her,” Tessa clarified. “Although I couldn’t have predicted it, for reasons that are still hard for me to explain: a sort of ‘shadow’ of the TAROS’s original test subject has been gestating over time in that facility’s core. Mental waves passing between future and past via the omni-sphere created a crystallized consciousness. The crystal itself is the true ‘Whispering.’

“It’s like the relay antenna broadcasting our knowledge to us in the present,” she tried to explain further. “I came to these ruins in order to destroy it. I thought that with the Whispering gone, we could stop the flow of black technology.”

“Leonard said Chidori was the Whispering,” Sousuke told her.

“She is now,” Tessa agreed. “I don’t know how it happened or what powers are at play... Or why it chose her...”

Perhaps because he’d been hearing so much fantastical nonsense lately, Sousuke understood what Tessa meant without much difficulty. He didn’t understand the precise mechanisms involved, but he had an idea of what had happened to Kaname now. “Her mind’s been taken over?” he asked. “By the Whispering?”

Tessa neither confirmed nor denied this theory. She just kept walking in front of him, trembling as she squeezed the next words out of her throat. “I’m sorry...” Her tone was tormented, full of regret, mortification, and a terrible sense of guilt. “I didn’t realize,” she told them wretchedly. “If I’d known this would happen, I would have kept her away at all costs... this is all my fault.”

Sousuke couldn’t find it in him to comfort her. You think that would have helped? he thought bitterly. You already let her go so easily...

He was doing everything he could to keep himself from laying into Tessa. She must have picked up on his mood because she didn’t say anything more, being fully aware that excuses and apologies couldn’t take back what had already happened.

Perhaps unable to bear the awkward silence, Lemon was the one to comfort her. “It’s not, Testarossa-san. I’m the one who insisted on coming with you,” he added, “and none of us could have expected this outcome.”

“Thank you,” Tessa said emptily. “But there’s no taking it back...”

I’m the worst, Sousuke thought. Why didn’t I encourage her? Why couldn’t I tell her, “it isn’t your fault,” the way Lemon did? I’ve made more than my share of mistakes, so why can’t I let this go?

I know why, he thought gloomily. It’s because it’s about her. Despite all my improved understanding, I still can’t give up my fixation.

Moving through the dark corridor, Sousuke whispered too quietly for anyone to hear, “Chidori...” I almost had you, he thought regretfully. If I manage to see you again, what will I have to do?

Kalinin received a transmission.

“This is Alpha Leader. Three enemies sighted in region F3: two men, one woman. We traded fire, but lost sight of them. No dead. One light injury. Continuing pursuit.”

That was the report from his subordinates, who had finally arrived on the bottom floor just as Sousuke and the others were escaping. “One woman” was probably a reference to Teletha Testarossa.

“Continue pursuit, but remain cautious,” Kalinin ordered. “All you have to do is slow them down. Don’t kill the woman, if possible. She has valuable information.”

“Alpha, roger.” The responding voice was interspersed with gunshots as it cut off.

Even with a relay station, the signal was bad. Moving squads of a few dozen men around an underground labyrinth was backbreaking work, and until just recently, the soldiers’ confusion had made it difficult for them to proceed to the lowest floor.

It was because of that bizarre déjà vu, of course. It hasn’t driven us all mad, at least, but it throws a significant wrench into communication and coordination, Kalinin thought. Some were forced to repeat orders multiple times, while others found it difficult to explain their current location and status. The confusion became more frequent the further in they went. In the end, a pair of teams had almost engaged in friendly fire, with only Kalinin’s warning beforehand allowing them to avert catastrophe.

That sense of déjà vu had just recently lifted.

Something strange has happened down there, Kalinin intuited in a corner of his mind, remembering what Leonard had told him previously. Chidori Kaname had survived the helicopter crash, arrived on the bottom floor under her own power, and there, guided by destiny of some kind, she and the Whispering—

No, don’t think about it, he told himself. All that mattered was that their teams could move unhindered now.

Their vanguard, Alpha Team, seemed to have allowed Sousuke and the others to escape. But Kalinin had already placed another team nearby the exit from the basement floor. No matter how incredible his skills might be, Sousuke couldn’t escape on his own, and Kalinin’s subordinates would shoot him to death without hesitation. If Teletha Testarossa tried to resist, she’d suffer the same end.

Is it all right to let them die? Kalinin asked himself, the question flitting through his mind for the umpteenth time. Don’t worry about it, he told himself sternly. If they die here, they die here. The hesitance in his mind disappeared, and he even managed to convince himself that it was for the best.

During the attack on Merida Island, he’d decided not to delete the “worst case scenario” resupply point data he’d secretly prepared in the de Danaan’s databanks. He’d still had his doubts then, even after Leonard’s premonition about the solar flares came true. The de Danaan had managed to retrieve important supplies and survive because of his hesitation in that moment.

But now that he’d committed himself to achieving Leonard’s objective, he wouldn’t show them an inch of mercy. The sense of unease that had haunted Andrey Kalinin for so long—that the world they lived in was somehow wrong—he felt keenly, and it was stronger than ever now. So, no matter what happened, from now on, he had to purge with great prejudice those who stood in the way of that objective. Even if they were his former allies.

And Sousuke... you’re no exception, he thought. If it’s your destiny to die now, then so be it. But, if it’s not—and if you mean to try and stop me—I hope you’re prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice.

“Halt!” a subordinate nearby shouted, taking aim at the man and woman who had just become visible through the lingering dust and darkness: they were Leonard Testarossa and Chidori Kaname.

“Hold your fire,” Kalinin ordered. He didn’t have to try hard to stop the mercenary; once the two figures were clearly in view, the man quickly lowered his gun. Leonard was in his AS operator’s uniform and Kaname was in a crimson coat, walking towards them with steady steps. They appeared to have met up successfully.

However... Kalinin couldn’t help but think that Chidori Kaname had a relaxation about her that almost seemed unnatural. She was a mere seventeen-year-old girl, yet walked as though she were queen of the world...

No, he reflected, perhaps she is the queen of the world. He and Fowler and the others were simply her unworthy retainers, taking the smallest scraps from the power they represented.

Out loud, Kalinin told them, “I’m glad you’re safe.”

“Likewise to you all,” Leonard said with a shrug.

“Sagara and the others will try to escape through the northern emergency exit,” Kalinin said next. “We should have them surrounded soon.”

“Sagara?” Chidori Kaname said, sounding out the word with scowling uncertainty. “That can’t be right, Kalinin-san. I already killed Sousuke and Tessa.”

“What?”

“I killed them,” she insisted. “I shot them both in the head.”

“But my team’s report said—” Kalinin began. He was more surprised by how casually she said it than by the thought of his subordinate’s report being wrong.

Leonard interrupted, holding up a hand to stop Kalinin mid-sentence. “Never mind,” he told him. “It doesn’t matter.”

“But—”

“Never mind, Mr. Kalium.”

If ordered to be silent, Kalinin knew he had no choice but to comply. “Three unidentified enemies are escaping, then,” he said. “But we’ll have them neutralized soon.”

“I see. I leave it to you, then.”

“Sir.”

“We have no more business in these gloomy old ruins,” Leonard announced. “Prepare to withdraw at once.”

“Yes, sir.”

“See you later, Kalinin-san.”

Kalinin watched the two leave as leisurely as could be, and felt unsettled in a way that was difficult to describe. No, it wasn’t just that... He felt a sense of loss, as well. Then he contacted Kaspar, who was on standby on the surface. “Mr. Tin,” he ordered. “Status.”

“I’m in position,” said Kaspar. “Still no sign of Weber.”

“I expect he’ll be coming to the aid of Sagara and the others soon enough. The minute you see him, eliminate him.”

“Oh, of course,” said Kaspar, laughing through the transceiver. “I’m going to enjoy this.”

《Rifle shots detected. Eleven o’clock. Assigning designation: Echo-4.》

After receiving his AI’s report, Kurz whispered in the cockpit, “So they’re on the move.”

His M9 was currently laying low three kilometers to the northeast of Yamsk-11. He’d been crawling his way down for over two hours, moving slowly so that the enemy wouldn’t detect him. Using ECS and regular camouflage as appropriate, he’d kept his data link usage to the minimum and maintained maximum caution. Once he’d arrived at the closest possible point, Kurz had stopped his machine, placed his M9’s hands on a nearby exposed rock, and used his high-sensitivity vibration detectors to get a handle on the situation.

He got a hit. There were repeated gunshots coming from under the plant. He couldn’t pick up footsteps, but he could tell that it was different forces fighting each other. He isolated a certain rifle sound—the aforementioned Echo-4—enhanced, and then replayed it. The reverb makes it hard to be sure, he thought, but it sounds like Sousuke’s carbine. The rifle had a rhythm to it... Maybe most people couldn’t pick it up, but Kurz could. That was Sousuke’s rhythm.

“That bastard, he really did survive.” He said with a smirk, and turned on voice input. “Estimate E4’s specific bearing, distance, and vector.”

《Understood. Processing complete. Estimated bearing: 261. Distance: 1800. Vector: 73-10.》

Kurz brought up the digital map data on his screen and zoomed in. He didn’t know how far down Sousuke was, but he knew he was moving in his own direction while under fire by pursuers. He’d be moving faster than this if he was alone, so he was probably with a wounded person, or perhaps a woman, or a child. It could be safely assumed that Tessa was with him, as well.

Sousuke was trying to escape out the back of the plant, but the situation was grim. It seemed there was already an enemy squad fanned out near the Yamsk-11 plant’s back entrance in the mountains, which meant that he wouldn’t be able to escape without Kurz’s support. The enemy had probably anticipated this eventuality and would have stationed Kaspar out there, waiting for Kurz to act.

From outside, Kurz was able to pick up a faint allied signal. “Uru... to... ruz-6. ...ruz-7... 6.” The signal was choppy with a lot of digital static, but it was definitely Sousuke’s voice.

“Uruz-7 here. Do you read me?”

“Uruz-6. Status report,” Kurz responded urgently, without wasting time on banter. He was using an encrypted channel, but still wanted to keep his output to a minimum.

“Currently esca—ant underground. Current lo—asement corridor near 32a-71a. Currently enga—enemy heading west-northwest. I’m with Ansaz and Lemon. Lemon is wounded. How are things above?”

Sousuke must have been on the move while they were talking, because the signal was getting stronger and stronger.

“There’s an enemy ambush around 33c-70a,” Kurz replied. “Just one squad, I think.”

“Can you support?” Sousuke asked immediately. He’d probably assumed that if Kurz was observing, he could give them cover fire.

“I can, but there’s a lambda driver-mounted AS hiding somewhere nearby,” Kurz told him. “The sniper. I’ll need to take him out first.” If he provided sniper cover for Sousuke’s escape first, Kaspar would learn his location and destroy him immediately.

In other words, Sousuke couldn’t escape until Kurz took out Kaspar. “It’s not just the sniper,” he told Kurz. “There’s a chance we’ll see Leonard’s machine, as well.”

That incredible machine—the one that had destroyed the Arbalest in Tokyo—was here as well, which meant Tessa’s brother had survived. It was a difficult situation by any measure.

“Got it,” Kurz replied shortly. “But the imminent threat is still the sniper. If we can destroy it, we can probably get the Laevatein to you.”

That meant putting Gebo-6 at risk. After he finished off Kaspar’s AS, Kurz would take out the enemies waiting in ambush as quickly as possible. And while he did that, he’d have to send a non-invisible Gebo-6 to drop the Laevatein to Sousuke, all before Leonard could react.

Kurz didn’t know if the Laevatein could beat Leonard’s machine, but having it in action would at least open a path to escape.

“Got it,” Sousuke told him. “I’ll wait at the exit for as long as I can. Good luck.”

“Yeah. Just hang on,” Kurz responded while feeling his own heart racing. Me? Take out Kaspar? Is that even possible? But Sousuke is dead if I fail...

Sousuke couldn’t even count how many stairs he’d been up and down that day. Returning fire at his pursuers while lending a shoulder for the struggling Lemon, reaching another landing and firing again... It was that, over and over.

“Kurz and the others are fine for now,” he reported.

“Right,” Tessa nodded, opening a digital map on her portable terminal. “I just received the data from his machine,” she told them. “I have the layout of the enemies waiting above us. From what he can see, it’s one squad.”

Tessa showed them the digital map at maximum magnification, which showed the location of the eleven enemies picked up by Kurz’s passive sensor scans.

Sousuke made an objective judgment: if they kept climbing the stairs, they’d come out of an emergency exit in the mountain slope. There would be several buildings just outside, and the enemy seemed to be scattered around those in a semicircle formation. They’d probably want to keep their own losses to a minimum and take them alive, if possible, which would explain why they weren’t just charging in to pincer them.

Either way, it was clear that if Sousuke and the others surfaced, they’d wind up at the center of a ten-man crossfire. Even poking their heads out would be risky. On top of that, the men they were up against were Kalinin’s subordinates. They probably had excellent aim and restraint.

“We’re trapped,” he announced solemnly.

Tessa and Lemon weren’t amateurs, so they didn’t lose their heads at Sousuke’s report.

If they had the support of an M9 on the surface, they might be able to escape. Kurz could fire into the surrounding houses and neutralize half the enemies at once. Then the smoke from the explosions would obscure vision enough so that a Pave Mare could rush in and drop the Laevatein. Sousuke could board it in twenty seconds, and with the Laevatein at his side, he might be able to buy time against Leonard...

But Kurz was the key to all of it, and he was currently locked down. The enemy sniper’s AS would take him out the minute he began firing. That made defeating the enemy sniper their priority. Leonard could wait.

“So, what’s the plan?” Lemon asked despondently. He seemed to have reached the limit of what his exhaustion and injuries would allow.

“We’ll have to hold them off at the exit until Kurz works something out,” Sousuke answered.

“So it’s all up to him, huh? How are his skills?”

“Beyond anything you can imagine. But... it’ll still be difficult.” Sousuke knew that the only way for a normal M9 to take out a lambda driver-mounted AS was to catch it unawares. If he failed to down it with his first shot, he’d be dead. And given how Kurz had been talking, that lambda driver-mounted machine was a powerful enemy...

“How much ammunition do you have left?” Tessa asked, her voice tinged with exhaustion.

“I could hold out for about five more minutes, if I’m careful,” Sousuke responded, switching his carbine’s selector from burst to single-round. Then he pulled his handgun out of its holster and spun it around before giving it to Lemon, who might be exhausted, but was still probably a better shot than Tessa. “This is a faithful companion of mine,” he told Lemon. “Treat it with care.”

“Got it.”

“Colonel, handle surveillance and communications.”

“Very well,” Tessa said without any hint of complaint.

They continued up the sloping and narrow tunnel until there seemed to be no more stairs ahead of them. Limping and helping each other as they went, the three kept going through the darkness. Sousuke sometimes sent out a shot behind him, and in that moment, Tessa would help Lemon to hurry forward.

At last, they came to a dead end. After checking for traps, Sousuke kicked open the rusted metal door and came out into a small, damp room. It was an empty space with minimal ventilation and lockers filled with cleaning tools. Across the room, there was a thick door that would likely take them to the surface.

“We’ll make our stand here,” he decided. “Lemon, take the back entrance.”

“Got it.” The door to the outside wasn’t locked. Lemon opened it a crack, and that was enough to bring blessed fresh air blowing in from outside. Sundown had been a while ago, so it was pitch black outside.

Sousuke shouted out as a bullet landed nearby; it must have come from the enemy hiding outside. He saw a spark before his eyes and heard a ringing in his ears. It seemed to have come from an entrance to a building about fifty meters away. He traded fire with his attacker while keeping ammo usage to a minimum, just enough to keep them at bay.

“They’re coming from behind, too!” Lemon shouted sharply, pointing his gun in the direction they were coming from.

“Buy us time!” Sousuke yelled back. “As much as possible—” A bullet flew into the room from the corridor, grazing past Lemon to ricochet around them.

“Dammit!” Lemon fired. Sousuke fired. Tessa huddled up in a corner. The roar of the gunshots and metallic clinking echoed around them.

The enemy was well trained enough to know that they were just buying time. At this rate, they’d run out of ammunition and soon be overwhelmed.

“We’re surrounded!” Sousuke screamed. “Kurz, where’s that support?!”

Uruz-7’s demand went in one ear and out the other, as did the reports from Gebo-4 and 6 and the messages from his AI, Yukari. A duel between snipers came down to finding the enemy before he found you. They were both hiding as carefully as they could, focusing all their knowledge and concentration on a battle of nerves.

Kurz didn’t have time to think about anything else. He had to predict the enemy’s location using just his night vision display, a map of his surroundings, electronic information, climate conditions, and all the other data on his screen.

Where is he? Kurz wondered.

Any heat sources? Kaspar’s machine had its ECS on, but with its generator set to minimum it would be outputting very little heat. With so little human activity around the ruins, Kurz thought, there must be a telltale sign somewhere... But his infrared sensors only showed complicated patterns in the blue to yellow-green range, denying him an obvious location for the enemy.

Any sounds? he wondered next. In ruins this quiet, he might just be able to pick up a low-running palladium reactor. But all the M9’s high-sensitivity directional microphone could pick up was the gunfire being exchanged between Sousuke and the others. If the enemy was keeping as quiet as he was, it was unlikely he’d be able to trace him by sound.

Anything electronic? Not likely. Using an active anti-ECS radar would be like projecting a searchlight into the darkness, so neither he nor his enemy were doing it. The fairy eye wasn’t picking up on any lambda driver force fields at all, which meant Kaspar must have shut it off to avoid detection. On the other hand, that confirmed to Kurz that if he could down his opponent with his first shot, he’d win.

Where is he? Kurz knew that he would have to intuit the answer based on knowledge of terrain, vantage points, and what he knew about his opponent.

Screw the tech, he told himself. Let’s think about Kaspar’s position.

He’ll know as well as I do that the battle between Sousuke and the others is going down in the northeast of the ruins. He’ll be positioning himself to offer support fire if needed, just like me. So he has to be somewhere with a sight line to Sousuke, instead of hiding beyond the hill line. Still, I can say for sure that he’ll be as high up as he can. He’d need to be up high to find me.

A building in the ruins? The east side of the plant, among the winding pipes and silos? There were about ten places Kurz could imagine, which wasn’t enough to narrow it down.

He’ll have to be on the lookout for the transport helicopters, too, and for the likelihood of other M9s hiding nearby. So, he won’t be too close to the plant itself. That narrows the candidates down by about half, Kurz reasoned.

Still not enough. What about considering the machine’s weight, and escape route after firing?

If he’s firing a high-caliber sniper cannon, he’d want to avoid anywhere with too much dust, which would be stirred up by the shot and make it hard to aim a second. Hard to imagine he’d be inside a building, especially since most of the ones here are in danger of collapse...

Kurz made a mental checklist of a few other highly specialized elements in his mind before narrowing down the options. “And then there were three...” he mused: the roof of one of the government buildings in the ruins; the large statue of Lenin at the center; and a steel tower that loomed over the plant’s north side. It had to be one of those.

Now let’s consider his personality, Kurz thought next. Kaspar’s not a flashy guy, and he’s always been steady when it comes to the sniping part of the job. He’ll hide wherever he’s least likely to be spotted, and that will give him the easiest shot. Even if with a lambda driver-mounted machine, he won’t rely on a hard sell or luck.

The roof of the government building, then? he guessed. Firm footing, clear sight lines, and probably the widest vantage point, locationally speaking. It would let him deal quickly with attacks from other directions, and offer support fire to allied helicopters arriving with aid.

But would Kaspar really take up residence in such an obvious place? Kurz wondered. Out loud, he said to his AI, “maximum magnification.”

《Roger.》

His screen displayed a zoom-in of the building in question. Kurz tried viewing it with various modes: infrared, amplified light, passive EM... but he just couldn’t be sure. Kaspar might be there, or he might not. He scanned the other two locations with passive sensors, and got similar results. If he could study it all a little longer, things might come clear, but...

One of the three. If he was right about that, it would come down to instinct. Kaspar’s a logical sniper—that’s one thing I know for sure, Kurz reminded himself. And he knows all about me. He probably knows how I’ll be approaching the problem, too. So maybe he’d be somewhere else? But what if he’s anticipating me realizing that, as well?

“Uruz-6, hurry up! Sousuke and the others will be killed!” said Gebo-6’s voice, urging him on. They were waiting to fly in from a spot just beyond the ridge.

Kurz tried to ignore this but failed. He felt a new swell of urgency rising inside him. “Wait a minute,” he snapped back. “Almost got it.”

Time was the element that gave his enemy an advantage. Kaspar didn’t have to worry about allies in danger; he had all the time in the world to look for Kurz. Kurz’s condition was entirely different. No matter how skilled Sousuke might be, his ammunition was limited. He only had a few minutes before his resistance reached its limit. Kurz had to defeat the enemy before then—no, as soon as possible.

He had to hurry.

The building in the city center, or the tower in the plant... Kurz had narrowed it down to those two locations. Kaspar was in one of them.

His infrared sensors showed him a yellow-green reading, indicating a slightly higher temperature, on the building’s roof. But there was a similar color pattern on the top of the tower. Both were roughly a match to an AS’s size.

Which is it? Which one is him?

“Uruz-6, hurry!” Gebo-6 urged.

Kurz felt even more nervous. The building had the higher temperature, and there was something unusual about the flow of wind there... Could it be an AS in invisibility mode disrupting the wind patterns? The shape on the temperature reading looked like a humanoid lying in an ambush position, as well. It must be that. It had to be.

He made his decision and took aim.

Infrared mode. 24x zoom. Manual control. Distance: 3390 meters. Wind speed: five knots from the southeast. The power of a 76mm round makes moisture and the coriolis effect irrelevant. Margin for error, thirty centimeters.

He aimed two meters to the right of the center of the temperature reading, where he expected the cockpit to be.

Kaspar... I’ve got you, he whispered in his mind, and then pulled the trigger. He felt a jolt as his 76mm muzzle flashed and the low trees around him were blown back. The shot flew through the night like a dart.

The shot was a hit.

No... All it seemed to do was blow up chunks of concrete. There was a large amount of rubble and dust stirred up by the impact, but no AS. He’d just hit the building.

That means—

He looked again to the steel tower, but it was too late. A red machine was dangling from the tower’s summit, having already fired. The enemy’s shot was on its way.

It hit.

Kaspar had learned of Kurz’s location the moment in which he made his shot. He’d fired immediately and hit his target with precision.

Kurz’s M9 had been lying on its front, so the enemy’s shot hit the M9 in the head—the area that would be the forehead on a human—piercing through its radar, ripping apart the drive system and dynamic relay, breaking through the rear cockpit block through the upper torso armor. The shot’s explosive kinetic energy wreaked havoc on the electronics, the shock absorbing system, and the operator beyond them, before it continued out the machine’s back, just above the hips.

Kurz didn’t even have time to bat an eye or click his tongue.

With his ECS lifted and lambda driver force fields up, he checked for attacks from other enemies. After confirming that there were no more hostile ASes in the area, Kaspar made his report to Kalinin.

“Mr. Kalium,” he said, “I just finished off Weber.”

“Are you certain?” Kalinin asked.

“He’s done. He’ll have died instantly.”

“I see. Then move on to the enemies resisting in the northeast.”

“We’re to take the woman alive, correct?” Kaspar asked, seeking confirmation.

“If you can,” Kalinin affirmed. “The others don’t matter.”

“Roger.” Kaspar ended the transmission, then leapt his Eligore off of the steel tower and towards the northeast. Kalinin didn’t seem troubled at all that his former student had been killed, but then, Kaspar hadn’t felt any remorse, either. In fact, it had brought him a sort of elation that was rare for him these days.

You were so close, Weber. That building in the center of town really was the best candidate... I definitely would have camped out there, if I hadn’t known it was you I was facing. I avoided it because of that, because I knew you’d see it.

I had a subordinate set a small gas burner on the roof of that building. It was a minimal heat source, but enough to put doubt in your mind. And you fell for it. I’m sure you were rushed. You didn’t have time to think it through. But that’s why you failed.

Did some part of you believe that you’d get a second shot? Kaspar wondered. Or were you simply lacking the necessary concentration in that moment? Yes, you committed too early... You should have thought it over for one minute more. Then you might have out-thought my trick.

Sorry, my student. It was nice knowing you.

You had natural talent. Five years ago, one of my employers brought me an ‘interesting kid.’ That was you. You said you wanted to kill the man who killed your family... a former Japan Red Army terrorist, wasn’t it? I decided to throw you into battle to test you, and in turn, you showed me a glimpse of your potential. Your observations, focus, and ability to visualize ballistic trajectories told me you had promise. That’s why I took you on.

Yes, you were a genius. You absorbed two hundred years of sniper know-how and skill in no time at all. In a year, just one year, you became the greatest sniper on my team, Kaspar marveled.

But you couldn’t summon the spirit.

You soaked up every bit of knowledge I had, like planning, reading maps, communications, camo, and surveillance, as well as the secrets of rifles, ammunition, and trajectories.

But, my student... The spirit never came to you.

You died never having known the moment in which everything becomes one. That moment when all of creation comes together, time stops, and you feel like you can control every molecule. We call it ‘seeing God,’ too. It happens when it happens.

The final determiner doesn’t come down to logical calculations. You never understood that. And that’s why the spirit never visited you.

I gave you your revenge. I passed on most of my skills to you. But you turned your back on me and left, Kurz Weber. You never really had what it takes.

I really am sorry, my student, he thought regretfully. Then Kaspar’s Eligore jumped a second and third time through the ruins, hurrying towards the battlefield on the northeastern side.

Sousuke heard a series of distant explosions from the plant’s south side. There were two shots from high-caliber AS sniper cannons, followed by... the sound of an AS getting hit and exploding. Sousuke couldn’t see anything from his current position, and knew that if he stuck his head out to look, he’d get a bullet in it for his trouble. His gut feeling, though, was that a split-second sniper battle had taken place, resulting in one AS’s destruction.

“Uruz-6,” he radioed, “Report status.”

There was no response.

“Uruz-6,” he tried again. “Did you eliminate the target?” Then he thought, It can’t be... Desperately, he repeated the call. “Kurz, respond!”

“The ADM link is down,” Tessa said, her finger dancing on her tablet. “We’re not receiving data. I’m not even getting an SOS signal, which can only mean his M9 is disabled.”

“Is he dead?” Lemon shouted while trading fire behind them.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But he’ll be out of the fight, at the very least...”

“He wouldn’t be killed that easily,” said Sousuke, while firing out the door. “We’ve been through worse than this. He’ll be fine.” I’m almost out of bullets, he realized. Just about twenty left. I can’t fend off the enemy soldiers much longer.

“You’re right. But at this rate—”

“Don’t give up, Tessa.”

Tessa said nothing.

“You still have responsibilities,” Sousuke insisted. “I will get you back home. Don’t give up now.”

At length she responded, “All right.”

But then, as if to shatter Sousuke’s stubborn sense of confidence, the enemy’s red AS arrived. This was the lambda driver-mounted Eligore—an upgrade to the Codarl model—and it landed in the center of the path they’d have to take if they wanted to leave the room where they were hiding.

No... Sousuke thought desperately. The Eligore was a sniper model, armed with a high-caliber 76mm rifle. If the sniper Kurz had warned him about was appearing in the open like this, that meant...

“Kurz...” he cried out.

“Weber-san...” keened Tessa. “No...”

“Get down!” Lemon shouted at them, as the red Eligore swung its arm down to pry open the room where they were hiding, tearing the rusty roof free from the aged concrete below. They’d managed to take cover so as to avoid immediate injury, but now they were in plain view to the outside. Lemon whimpered weakly as the concrete fragments fell around him.

“You’re on your own now,” a man’s voice said through the AS’s external speakers. “Kurz Weber is dead. Time to pack it in.”

Sousuke knew that a sniper only came out into the open when it was clear that the battle was over, and he had no reason to doubt the man’s words. Still, he muttered, “It can’t be...”

“We hope to take the woman alive,” the voice continued. “Hand her over, or we’ll have no choice but to kill you all.”

Tessa was clearly holding up against the psychological shock this news represented as Sousuke met her eyes. Mustering up all the will she had, she shook her head and mouthed the word, ‘No.’

He knew that if Tessa didn’t want to be forced to give up information on her comrades, she would have to die with them: that’s clearly what she wanted as well. But wouldn’t her survival lead to the possibility that she might be rescued, Sousuke wondered, increasing their chance for a counterattack later? Couldn’t she help to bring Kaname out of her stupor? Those almost delusional hopes led him to hesitate.

Just then, Sousuke heard a whisper through the FM radio band in his ear. “Sousuke... you read me?” came a weak, halting voice. It’s Kurz, he thought. He’s alive.

“Yeah, I read you.”

“I fucked up, man,” Kurz confessed. “My machine’s busted. I think... I don’t have much longer.”

Sousuke knew that the destruction of his M9 had probably dealt Kurz a mortal wound. The world would be growing dark around him, and his body would be telling him it was giving up.

“But... I can manage one shot,” Kurz finished. “Listen, Sousuke... Get the pilot of that red AS... outside his cockpit.”

“Outside? How—”

“Whatever it takes, just do it.”

Sousuke said nothing back as the red AS looked down on them. The soldiers behind it were holding their fire, but remained on their guard. Sousuke had about fifteen rounds left in his carbine, as well as a single smoke grenade. What kind of bluff can I manage with that, he wondered? How can I lure a sniper I’ve never even met before out of his cockpit? That sniper...

Sniper, he realized. Of course...

“I’ll do my best,” Sousuke whispered into the radio, dropping his carbine onto the ground. Yanking Tessa towards him, he pulled a knife from his belt and pressed the tip to her throat.

“Sousuke?!” Lemon shouted in shock.

“Don’t move,” Sousuke hissed back at him, using Tessa as shield to keep his body perfectly hidden, along with what remained of the wall behind him. Tessa didn’t resist, seemingly curious about where he was going with this.

“Oh? And what’s this, now?” the operator of the red AS asked.

“I want to negotiate.”

“Negotiate?”

“If you want the girl, you can have her,” Sousuke told him. “But I want my own safety guaranteed. If you refuse, I’ll kill her.”

“Please, she’s not worth that much to us,” the AS sniper scorned. “I was only told to bring her alive if possible. I’m just as happy to kill you all at the first sign of resistance.”

“Then you should be just as happy to let us all live,” Sousuke retorted. “Let me go, then you can take her unharmed.”

“Are you stupid or something?” The red AS’s shoulders shook, reflecting the laughter of the pilot inside. “Sagara Sousuke, was it? I’ve heard of you. You wouldn’t kill that girl just to save yourself. Drop this absurd bluff right now.”

“It’s not a bluff,” Sousuke said, his body flush against Tessa’s. “I can’t afford to die yet. I’ll do whatever it takes to stay alive, so let me through now.”

“You really think I’ll let you go?” the AS operator asked flatly.

“Your other option is to blow us both away,” said Sousuke. “You can do that trivially enough.” Now, what will you do? he wondered. I know you won’t let us escape. As you said, you have no qualms about blowing us both away—your AS could do it in a second. It would be simple... Yes, extremely simple. That’s why I don’t think you’ll do it. It’s just too easy.

I’m making sure not to say, “You’re not good enough to kill me and not her.” That would be overdoing it. My actions alone should be enough to provoke you.

Well, what now? You can’t kill just me from inside that machine...

“Hm...” the enemy operator pondered.

Do it.

“Goodness me. I’d heard you were stubborn, but...”

Come out, Sousuke mentally dared him.

There was a pause that seemed to go on forever, and then the red AS’s chest slid sharply and he heard the cockpit hatch open. The machine was locked in its standing position as the pilot made his way out of the back of the head.

Good boy, Sousuke gloated to himself.

The operator showed himself, rifle in hand. He was suntanned and Aryan, with a glint in his eyes that told Sousuke immediately that he was a veteran. He had large eyes, a wide brow and a Roman nose. “Sagara, was it? Even for a last gasp, this seems excessive,” the man said from his AS’s shoulder.

“Call it what you like,” Sousuke retorted. “I’m going to survive this.”

As the man showed himself, Tessa seemed to realize what he was going for, and he felt a different kind of tension enter her body. Now they just had to wait.

Yes, Sousuke told himself. I’ve done everything I can. He had no gun now, just a knife and smoke grenade. Throwing the knife at the man would be pointless. He’d either be riddled with bullets before it hit, or the man would take him out with one precise shot.

The rifle in the man’s hand shone dully. Is that what he’s going to hit me with? Sousuke wondered. Without harming Tessa as I use her as a shield... he’ll try to get me right through the forehead.

The man’s eyes were merciless as readied himself. There was no way out for Sousuke, now. Kurz, he thought, I did as you asked. But if you are where I think you are, you’re too far away...

1650 meters: that was the distance to the target given by Kurz Weber’s scope. He didn’t have a laser or a computer to confirm that estimate, but felt that the number was probably accurate.

Kurz’s body was a mess: his right leg was completely limp, and his left leg dangled at a strange angle off his knee; he wasn’t even sure if his spine was still attached to his lower half. There were metal fragments stuck into his back, which had cracked his ribs and shredded his internal organs upon entry. He was bleeding from a head wound, and he couldn’t hear out of his right ear.

I’m going to die here, Kurz realized. There’s no doubt about it. He was sure of that much. But I’m not dead yet, he told himself. There’s got to be something I can do, right? Just one thing...

What else? Use my rifle. Using his arms, which were still functioning, Kurz crawled his way out of the M9’s trashed cockpit. Each movement of his body sent a shot of pain through him, but soon even that felt distant.

He crawled up to the weapons rack—which had been blown out of the cockpit—and with great effort, pulled out his rifle. The old bolt action... he thought wistfully. It survived, too. He unwrapped it from its packaging and pointed the rifle at his target. It was at this point that he’d gauged the distance with the scope: 1650 meters.

There’s no way I’ll hit, he thought ruefully. If I could get four hundred meters closer, then maybe... Kurz could see Kaspar through the scope, just getting out of the red AS’s cockpit.

Sousuke did great, but the guy’s just too far away. He couldn’t do it. It was over. Sousuke, he thought regretfully, I’m sorry. You’ll need to handle this yourself. I can’t help you. Now, at the very end, Kurz spared some thoughts for his other friends:

Tessa, the other operative and friend present today, came first. Tessa, Kurz thought sincerely, Give up on that perpetual downer and find yourself a good man.

Then, Mao... Lonely little Melissa,. I wanted to be sweeter to you. Will a woman like you cry for me? he wondered. I’m not sure if I want you to or not. Maybe we shouldn’t have slept together...

And Kaspar, he thought last of all. I guess I am a failure. I didn’t take it seriously enough. To the very end, I couldn’t beat you. I couldn’t call the spirit or become a true sniper.

But Kaspar... When it was time to take that revenge shot, when I had the man I’d been searching for in my scope in south Lebanon... I couldn’t fire. Because Lana, a total innocent, was standing behind him on the stairs. She was only eight years old. It was clear the shot would go through him and hit her.

You told me to shoot anyway, Kurz recalled. You said it was my first and last chance. But I couldn’t do it, and then you made the shot, instead. And yeah, you’re right... Because of that, the man died. My revenge was complete.

But it wasn’t worth Lana’s life, Kurz thought towards his former mentor. Your “precise trajectory” didn’t just blow off that man’s head; it also took her spine, and a few of her organs with it. She’s still in the hospital, even now. In a normal hospital, she would have been dead already. You knew it would happen, and yet you still fired. That’s why I left. If that’s what a ‘real sniper’ is, they’re freaks. You’re a freak. I don’t want to be a freak.

But in that case... Kurz pondered. Can I really let him just have my friends? That freak? Can I really just give up and abandon them, just because he happens to be 1650 meters away?

“Let’s try for it...” he whispered to himself. He had only one bullet, and he wouldn’t be conscious much longer. His candle’s flame was flickering: he had ten to thirty seconds, tops. Just peering through the scope made Kurz feel like he was being sucked into the darkness.

He lay down on his stomach and readied his rifle into the most stable position. Given that he couldn’t exactly stand, it was the only position he could hold now, anyway.

1650 meters; Kurz knew that there was no way his .308-caliber could hit at that distance. He’d never heard of any sniper landing such a shot. It was even 130 meters further than the miraculous shot he’d once seen Kaspar make.

Resting the stock firmly on his shoulder, Kurz wrapped his hand around the grip, and pressed the lower part of the stock against the ground to stabilize it. Grabbing his right shoulder with his left hand, he managed to keep himself low on the ground. His right cheekbone touched the frame, creating a straight line between his right eye and the scope...

Read the wind, he told himself. Here it’s northwest, fifteen knots. There it’s north-northwest, ten knots. There are air currents, too. Gotta take it all into account...

Of course, the temperature and humidity mattered, too. Air pressure, powder ignition speed, swelling of the gun and the bullet—they could all have huge influences on the trajectory.

How much would the bullet spin or pitch? There was a phenomenon known as tumbling, which would increase proportionally to the square of the distance traveled. At this distance, even the slightest roll would have a huge effect.

And there was a larger element at play: the Coriolis effect, caused by the Earth’s rotation. They were close to sixty degrees north latitude; higher latitudes made the effect especially significant. It could move a bullet eastward by at least thirty centimeters.

There were also a variety of extremely delicate issues, all of which Kurz instinctively took into account as he set his final aim. It was a complicated calculation, one which even modern computers couldn’t successfully complete. Only a human could perform this art.

Kurz mixed together all these elements into a single mental equation, and then purged clean the result. All you have to do now is picture the trajectory, he told himself. This would be a super calculation, relying purely on instinct. Fix the crosshair on the point needed... several meters away from the target. But it wasn’t enough yet.

His irregular breathing moved the crosshairs up and down slightly. Kurz needed more concentration. It wasn’t enough to just thread the needle. He had to dot an eye on a dragon painted on the needle.

‘There’s no way I can hit that’ would be the natural thought, but somehow, a different set of words drifted into Kurz’s mind: Ah, I can do this... He felt no surprise, no joy at having made this realization—just silent confidence.

Suddenly, Kurz could see things he’d never been able to see before. He could feel his muscles relaxing, the heat of his blood beginning to fade. He could even see the color of the wind in motion. The imagined bullet’s trajectory became crystal clear, and he could see the movement of every surrounding molecule.

He wasn’t even thinking of Sousuke at this point. He wasn’t thinking of Mao, either. He wasn’t thinking of Lana in the hospital, or his dead family, or the middle school teacher who had been his first crush. They had all left his mind. He even forgot who he was aiming at.

Who was that guy again? he wondered distantly. Ah, who cares. Just land that bullet in him...

The moment came immediately: this was the transcendent moment into which he’d pour his entire life into a single target. You know, Kurz speculated, I could shoot him from even farther away than this...

Something had descended upon him. Something invisible, something beyond the physical world. The space around him warped and the passage of time seemed to slow.

Kurz realized that he’d already pulled the trigger.

The shot fired, and it all went as he’d imagined it. The firing pin fell as expected, the powder ignited as estimated. The bullet expanded as anticipated, and proceeded, spinning, down the barrel of the gun.

This enchanted bullet cut through the air as it flew, tracing an arc that showed Kurz’s perfect reading of the wind as if were being drawn to the designated location.

1650 meters: he knew that it would hit. Kurz Weber’s last thought was, Take that, asshole, and then, with his rifle in his arms, he let the empty darkness have him.

He’s going to hit me, thought Sousuke at the exact moment he saw the blood spurt from his enemy’s chest. The bullet came from out of nowhere, entering through Kaspar’s back and out his front. It had gone straight through his heart.

“What...” Kaspar spluttered, his eyes widening in shock. He wasn’t looking at Sousuke. He’d managed to use his last bit of remaining strength to look in the direction, far in the distance, from which Kurz had made his final shot. Kaspar said nothing more, but his lips mouthed the words, There’s no way he could have hit...

And yet, he had. Kurz’s shot was right on target, and Kaspar’s legs went limp as he plummeted from his AS’s shoulder.

Kurz... Sousuke moved in that same instant, throwing his last weapon—his one smoke grenade—and yanking Tessa by the collar. He shouted out, “Gebo-6, the sniper’s neutralized! Bring in Al!”

“Roger!” Fischer, pilot of the Gebo-6, responded on the comm. He must have also realized what the situation was, because he’d kept his ECS in silent mode while he waited just past the ridge, just far enough away not to be seen. Now that the sniper was neutralized, he could fly in, drop the Laevatein, and then take shelter using the terrain.

This was, of course, assuming that Leonard’s own AS wouldn’t be making an appearance in that ten second interval...

“Tessa,” Sousuke shouted, “the beacon!”

“Right!” she replied, recognizing that they needed to let their allies know where in the swirling smoke they were located. Crawling over to her tablet, Tessa tapped at it and put out a radio beacon with their location.

Once they’d recovered from the shock of Kaspar’s death, the enemy soldiers had resumed firing. Sousuke heard bullets whiz over his head.

While firing back down the tunnel they’d come from, Lemon shouted, “They’re coming from behind, too! I’m almost out of bullets!”

“Figure something out!” yelled Sousuke, creeping forward to pick up the carbine he’d dropped earlier. Fifteen shots left, he thought, firing at an enemy who’d come charging at them through the smoke. The first shot missed, but the second took him down. He fired again at the enemies coming up behind him...

“Gebo-6, where are you?!” Tessa screamed.

A mechanical voice came over the radio before Gebo-6 could actually respond. 《Almost there, Colonel: ETA five seconds.》

“What? The cargo hatch just—”

《Descending now.》

The sound of rotors, engine noise, and an AS being released from its hydraulic bolts could be heard all at once. Gebo-6 arrived from the sky above to drop the Laevatein at just the right time, and it landed right in front of Sousuke, with its head-mounted machine guns on full automatic.

《Hurry, Sarge.》

“Al!” Sousuke shouted, tossing his carbine aside as he ran towards the roar of the guns, knowing there wasn’t a second to lose. The Laevatein held out its right hand while opening its cockpit hatch. Once he was in its palm, it swung it as if to throw him onto the back of its head.

Sousuke managed to keep his balance midair and slide into the cockpit. The hatch closed before he could even give the order, and Al went through the startup sequence on his own. They were on full speed ahead, abbreviating every checklist item. The usual settings, the usual master mode, the usual search mode... It was like the machine was hurrying him along.

《Targeting detected! Two, one...》

Sousuke grunted as they made a leap, just barely dodging the 40mm shot coming from the southwest. A 40mm shot powered by the lambda driver... Sousuke thought belatedly. Leonard! He’s shooting at us from somewhere in the ruins. If Al hadn’t expedited the startup procedure, they would’ve been hit for sure.

《Enemy AS, two o’clock, distance eight. It’s that rat bastard.》

“Yeah,” Sousuke agreed, “it’s Leonard.” Twisting his machine in midair, he used the Laevatein’s head-mounted machine guns swiftly to fire down on the enemy soldiers. Tessa and Lemon are still down there, he thought. I have to protect them. A rain of .50-caliber bullets kicked smoke up all over the area.

As he landed, Sousuke realized that Gebo-6 had already retreated behind the ridge, and that it wouldn’t have time to call him back to get the others on board. “Pick them up,” Sousuke ordered.

《Roger.》

The Laevatein squatted down before the room in which Tessa and Lemon were hiding, its auxiliary arms extending from either side to grab the weary Lemon and panicking Tessa. Another attack was incoming—multiple 40mm shots. As expected, Leonard was serious, and he wasn’t holding back one bit.

Sousuke dodged the first shot with his two charges in hand, then blocked the second with the lambda driver. But the force field didn’t fully hold, and he dodged just in the nick of time.

He wouldn’t be able to block Leonard’s shots once he got close enough, and he didn’t have an anti-ECS sensor. His opponent was probably invisible already, which meant he had no way of locating him...

“Can we use the fairy wing?!” Sousuke shouted to Al.

《Charging in without tests again?》

“Just do it!”

《Roger!》

The massive amplifiers attached to each of the Laevatein’s shoulders, dubbed the fairy wing, slid open and expanded. The machine’s generator let out a roar as it revved up to maximum output, with electricity flooding into the shoulder units as the air around them warped with exhaust.

《All power lines secured. LDC, electric charge rising. LBS, contact. One, activation successful. Two, activation successful. Interference radius increasing. 50, 100, 200...》

Despite its name, the fairy wing wasn’t for flying; rather, this was an amplifier which Mira and the others had built based upon the hard drive which Kaname had left behind in the mansion at Niquelo. They’d initially called it “the lambda driver canceler,” because it temporarily negated the functions of any lambda driver nearby.

Sousuke didn’t understand at all how it worked, but he’d been told that the fairy wing expended vastly more power than the lambda driver alone, so it would render the Laevatein’s own lambda driver unusable for a time, as well.

There was one other factor in play: for the fairy wing to work, its operator—i.e., Sousuke—would have to be in the right mindset. Just as he had to visualize a shield to block bullets, or an arrow to pierce through force fields, he had to form the image in his mind that “paranormal phenomena doesn’t exist.”

Sousuke hadn’t been able to imagine that at all the first time he’d heard about it, but now he could. He just had to go back to his old mindset. In other words, he had to tell himself, “It’s all a fraud; it can’t possibly exist.”

Disappear... Sousuke thought. In that instant, the fairy wing responded to his wish, warping the surrounding air for just a second as the canceler’s effect burst out for several hundred meters around him.

That was the only change. Nothing else happened. In a way, it was the sign that the fairy wing had worked... The point of the unit was to make sure that “nothing happened,” after all...

“Did it work?” he finally asked Al, just as a large cloud of dust rose up around the ruins about three hundred meters in front of the Laevatein. Leonard’s black AS, which had been flying invisibly, now plunged straight into a building.

It had worked. The enemy lambda driver had lost its power, and Sousuke exclaimed with surprise as an alarm sounded out. Despite having plunged to the ground mid-flight, Leonard’s machine seemed to have regained its footing, dropping its ECS in favor of firing immediately from the ground.

Leonard must have realized that Sousuke couldn’t use his lambda driver, either. Sousuke ran evasive maneuvers, but because he was holding Tessa and Lemon in his auxiliary arms, he had to be careful. I don’t have much power, either, he realized. The fairy wing had sapped his energy, which rapidly forced him into conserving his movements.

“Dammit!” Sousuke cursed, pulling his Boxer shotcannon from the hardpoint on his machine’s back and returned fire.

He couldn’t use the demolition gun. He couldn’t even fire it without his lambda driver’s assistance. And Leonard’s AS was agile even without a lambda driver, capable of moving from obstacle to obstacle as it returned fire.

Perhaps on the lookout for attacks from Sousuke, Leonard’s AS wasn’t reckless in its approach. but if it came to a full-on shootout, the Laevatein wouldn’t stand a chance. What to do? Sousuke considered.

《Warning. Temperature spike in LDC-1 detected. Range of influence decreasing.》

The fairy wing on his left shoulder had overheated from the strain. The cooling system couldn’t keep up with the heat the explosive electricity generated. It would break down soon, and Sousuke knew that it was only a matter of time before the one on his right shoulder suffered the same fate. If the lambda driver canceler shuts down, he thought grimly, I’m finished. He had no way of beating Leonard’s machine in a straight fight. He couldn’t even retreat. They’d all be killed. All of them...

《Sergeant. I’m sure you realize this, but...》

“Yeah,” Sousuke responded while returning fire. If I’m going to retreat, he thought, I’ll have to do it fast. He’d have to withdraw at top speed while keeping Leonard’s machine at bay, get picked up by Gebo-6 waiting over the ridge, and escape as fast as possible.

《We will have to abandon retrieval of Uruz-6. Given my analysis of the ADM data—》

“Don’t say it,” Sousuke ordered.

《—he is already dead.》

“Shut up!” None of us know that for sure, Sousuke told himself optimistically. Kurz could still be clinging to life. If we treat him quickly, he might just pull through. We might be able to save him. I survived wounds at least that bad, didn’t I? Kurz is too stubborn to die from something like that. We can’t leave him behind. There’s no way. What would I say to Mao when we got back?

《LDC-1 disabled. LDC-2 temperature rising.》

The left shoulder unit would burn out soon. He didn’t have time. Studying their positions on the digital map with a cool head, Sousuke found that Al was completely right; every element told him there was no way to retrieve Kurz from his current location.

《Your decision, Sarge.》 Al didn’t push him any further than that, waiting patiently for Sousuke’s reply.

After a long pause, Sousuke gave it. “Withdraw,” he ordered shortly.

《Roger.》

Setting his shotcannon to automatic, Sousuke threw out all the grenades he had, detonating them in midair with his head-mounted machine guns. While Leonard’s machine was held in check, the Laevatein used its remaining power to go leaping and jumping across the mountains.

Gebo-6, standing by at low altitude, began to accelerate and ascend. Ignoring standard withdrawal procedure, Sousuke’s Laevatein latched onto the lower half of the Pave Mare with his emergency hook, with Gebo-6’s pilot accelerating to top speed without comment. Dangling from the helicopter with one arm, the Laevatein left Yamsk-11, heading east.

“They escaped, eh?” By the time Leonard’s lambda driver was working again, Sagara Sousuke had nearly completed his escape by helicopter. Realizing that pursuit was futile, Leonard turned his machine around. I could fly after the helicopter and catch up with it, he speculated, but if that canceler activated again, I’d be finished. The Belial had numerous strengths, but the ability to survive a thousand-meter fall without a lambda driver wasn’t one of them.

A canceler, eh? He knew it was possible in theory, but Leonard was genuinely shocked that Teletha and the others had managed to complete one. And he felt like that red-and-white AS had given him more trouble than the Arbalest he’d fought before. It had managed to dodge his lambda driver-assisted shots, he recalled, which was impressive, even considering the distance from which he’d been firing.

Of course, that didn’t change the fact that Leonard held the advantage. It had occurred to him during the fight that his opponent’s machine might not have an ECS counter-sensor. He’d disengaged his invisibility with the assumption that doing so meant little against a third-generation machine, but...

Ah, well, he thought regretfully. The next time they fought, he’d be more careful and better prepared, and he would take him down. “Even so...” he said out loud.

Kaspar, you failed this time, Leonard thought to himself next, snorting as he gazed down on Wilhelm Kaspar’s corpse. His red Eligore was in a bad way as well, having taken a hit while unmanned during the chaotic battle with Sagara Sousuke.

Kaspar’s loss was a serious blow. Fowler and Sabina were both very talented operators, but there was simply no replacing Kaspar’s sniping abilities. He was just the person Leonard wanted on his side for the upcoming battle.

He received word from Kalinin as he and his men reached the surface. “Soviet air force approaching from the southwest,” Kalinin reported. “Two companies or more. Should we open fire?”

The Soviet Army was approaching. Leonard didn’t know how they had picked up on the fighting in the ruins, but it also wasn’t especially unexpected. It was their territory, after all.

“No,” he decided. “There’s nothing left for us here. Hurry up and withdraw.”

“Roger.”

“Ah,” Leonard added. “Also, Kaspar is dead, but it seems he finished off Mithril’s sniper first. I’m told he was one of yours.”

Kalinin remained silent for just a second. “Then it’s a significant loss for their side, as well,” he finally replied. “Weber’s skill was a greater threat than even Sagara Sousuke’s AS.”

“Does it hurt?” Leonard inquired.

“I’ve thrown away my capacity for pain,” Kalinin told him stonily.

Leonard and his men quickly loaded their remaining forces in the helicopter and left the deserted town behind.