>

“They?”

As in more than one person? So it wasn’t just the secretary?

“That secretary... was brought here a year ago... by the cybernetics engineer.”

The one who’d strengthened the Seageists? That’s right. Fam said the engineer showed up a year ago, too...

“The engineer said they were giving me an operation... to make my brain more powerful... and implanted a chip in my skull. Ever since then... I’ve been unable to move of my own free will...”

“A chip?”

“That ring sends... orders to the chip...”

Wait, the ring that Fam’s electromagnetic waves destroyed?

“Rosalind, can you pick up that ring for me?”

Maybe it could lead us to the engineer.

“Hmm... This? What is it? It looks like some kind of toy...”

Rosalind seemed confused as she picked up the pieces of the ring. She was probably talking about the ornamentation.

“Oh, I’ll help.”

Shirley had been standing next to Rosalind, so she bent down to pick up the pieces, too.

“Squallow, is there anything else you remember about the engineer? I could use some kind of clue to help figure out who they were.”

“Their name... face... and voice... were probably all false. Thinking back... they were carefully hiding their true nature. I don’t know if anything I have... will help you. No... There is one thing...” Squallow took a breath as he paused to remember. “Once... they revealed their true self. We were trying to bring life... to the seas here... We had hundreds of creatures in aquariums... But one of them made the engineer scream...”

“Scream?”

Was there something in the aquarium they didn’t like?

“What was inside?”

“A turtle...”

And just as Squallow answered me...

“Garnet, wake up,” Shirley commanded.

“Yes, ma’am,” the android answered.

“What?!”

What was going on?! Hadn’t Fam shut her down?!

Right before my astonished eyes, the secretary jumped on Rosalind and grabbed her arms, but that wasn’t enough to stop a vampire.

“Hmph! You’ll have to do better than that!” Rosalind laughed.

But...

“Watch out!”

Rosalind had no idea there was another enemy right behind her.

Fwoosh!

A needle shot out from Shirley’s medical gun, piercing Rosalind’s neck on contact.

“Aah...”

It was enough to stop her dead in her tracks. It was the same Time Stop that Shirley had used to freeze the turtle at Ryugu Palace.

“You let your guard down because you thought that I was no match for you in combat. Well, you were essentially correct, but there’s more to fighting than just brute strength.”

“Shirley...”

“Yes? Is something the matter, Rekka?”

Shirley stood up, as did her secretary, Garnet. Smoke was still billowing out of the android’s body, but she was up and about now.

“Oh, you’re wondering how Garnet can still move? That’s because I prepared for this. A year ago, when I infiltrated these pirates, that girl...” She pointed at Fam. “I knew that gremlin was always hanging around the captain. I couldn’t have all my work being ruined by her electrical interference, so I put a powerful protective coating on Garnet and on the ring, the master chip that controls the captain, as well. It looks like it wasn’t quite powerful enough, though.”

Shirley kept talking in a light and easy tone like she was just explaining a magic trick. But what she was really saying was...

“Shirley, you were the one behind all this?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

She’d been the one who infiltrated the Seageists and implanted the chip in Squallow. She’d been the one who made him attack Berano. She’d been the one who was after the Mermaid Princess’s Tear.

“...You know, I did think it was a little strange.”

“You mean about me?”

“You hated turtles so much, I couldn’t help wondering how you managed to make it down to the sea dome when the only way to get there was the turtlebus.”

I thought it was strange, but I hadn’t given it too much thought. I figured it was just like how people who were afraid of heights or cramped spaces would still get on airplanes to go on vacations. I figured she’d found a way to put up with it for a short while if the payoff was high enough. But it looks like I was wrong.

Shirley laughed.

“You’re smarter than you look, Rekka. If you came here aboard the pirate ship, then you know we got in through the undersea ducts, right? I came in the same way just before the others to confirm it was a viable option. I had a helper, you see.”

“A helper?”

“That’s right... Marle, was it? I took her daughter hostage and threatened her. Of course, she never saw my face. I didn’t want her having a change of heart and telling everyone I was with the pirates.” Shirley seemed almost proud as she spoke.

“No, Shirley... But why?” Tetra looked like she was about to cry. After thinking Shirley was her friend, she was taking this the hardest.

“Shirley, why did you want the Mermaid Princess’s Tear so badly? Why, when it meant hurting so many people?”

“For my ideal world, of course. Remember what I said? I want a world where it’s always warm like spring, where your friends are always with you, and where nobody ever hurts anyone else. In order to make that world a reality, I need the Mermaid Princess’s Tear.”

“That’s why you did this?!”

“It’s something very important to me. You said you’d help me, didn’t you, Rekka?”

“This has to be some kind of joke!”

“It’s no joke.”

I was yelling, but Shirley was calm. There was a keen glint of light in her eyes behind her glasses.

“I want to be happy, you see.”

I was floored.

“There’s no one in the world I can trust, so I’m going to win my happiness on my own. I won’t let anyone stop me. Not anyone. Now, Garnet....”

“Ye... Mistre...”

“I made Garnet’s AI and her body all by myself, so I don’t have to be scared when I use her. She’s a tool, made for me and me alone. She will never betray me.”

Garnet’s face was blank. Perfectly expressionless. Her joints were creaking, and she was definitely moving slower than before, but with Rosalind down, I wasn’t sure if we could take her.

“You... You...” And then Fam, shaking with rage, turned her right arm into a blade. “You’re the ones who did this to the boss!”

“Wait! Fam!”

“I’ll make you pay for this!”

Fam readied her blade in a charge like she hadn’t heard a word I’d said.

“Garnet!”

“Yes, Mistress Shirley.”

Garnet obeyed Shirley’s orders and intercepted Fam.

“Damn it!”

I was too slow on the draw, but I whipped out the stungun to try and help her. She was just too fast, and the room wasn’t that big. Before I could even level the gun, they were within arm’s reach of each other.

“Take this!”

Garnet threw out her arm in front of Fam’s blade without the slightest hesitation.

“What?!”

With a clank and a screech, Garnet’s arm was split in half by the blade. And just when I thought the blow would cleave the rest of her, too...

“Gwaah!”

Garnet thrust her knee up into Fam’s stomach, knocking her to the floor as she coughed up blood.

“Oh, no, Fam!”

I wanted to help her, but once she was down, Garnet came after me.

“Damn it!”

I fired the stungun again. Garnet tried to dodge, but she staggered as her malfunctioning legs gave out from under her. She must’ve been in even worse shape than she looked. The blast caught her square in the chest. Sparks flew everywhere as it overloaded her android body, and she collapsed in front of me.

Good. Now Shirley should be defenseless...

“Rekka!” Tetra screamed.

I looked up and realized that Shirley was running at me from behind Garnet. I tried to fire the stungun at her, but...

“Garnet! Emergency overload action!”

“....aaaaaAAAAAHH!”

Shirley’s order forced Garnet, who was now far past her limits, to her feet again. Her eyes were flashing red like a siren as her roundhouse kick hit me hard in the right arm and knocked the gun out of my hands.

“Gah!”

My elbow...!

The impact from the kick spun me around, and I tumbled to the ground. I honestly thought I’d lost my arm at the elbow, but it seemed like the skin was still attached and keeping it together. I was sure the bone was shattered, though.

“Aah... ugh...”

But Garnet had paid a price, too. I heard the sound of something exploding inside her body, and more smoke billowed out of her as she fell back to the floor. Now it was just me, Shirley, Tetra, Rain, and Squallow.

“Shirley!” Tetra cried.

“You’re in the way,” Shirley replied coldly.

“Gyah!” Tetra shrieked.

“Tetra... Kyah!” Rain shouted next.

Tetra and Rain tried to stop her, but Shirley knocked them out of the way as she headed for Squallow.

“Grr... nngh...”

Squallow still couldn’t move, but he was glaring at Shirley with a deadly look in his eyes.

“Okay! Time for you to be useful again!”

“What are you...”

“Oh, you want to know what I’m doing? Here, I’ll show you.”

Shirley took out a syringe filled with blue liquid and loaded it into the medical gun, injecting it into Squallow’s neck through a gap in his armor.

At first, nothing happened after the injection, but soon Squallow started to moan in pain.

“Ugh...!”

Then there was a popping sound as his shoulder began to swell up.

Flesh. The flesh of his shoulder started to burst up from underneath his armor, pulsating eerily. His chest, his back, his calves, his thighs... His entire body started to change, distorting his silhouette into something strange and twisted.

“What...”

It was so shocking, I couldn’t do anything but watch.

“Gaaah!”

A scream escaped Squallow’s lips. It lasted for several minutes, but then he fell silent and went back to groaning.

“Guuuuuh...”

His already huge body was now even bigger, but grotesquely transformed in such a way that if you didn’t know it was Squallow to begin with, you might think it was a monster. What looked like they were probably his eyes were dull and milky white, and what I thought was his mouth was dripping with drool. There was no sign of sanity left.

“What I just injected him with was an evolution inducer. It changes a person’s body depending on their goals. More specifically, this is a failed version of that serum. The reaction was too strong, and it drove even the toughest soldier insane in minutes. The test subjects went on rampages from the pain... That’s why I call these things Berserker Cells,” Shirley explained, smiling proudly as she stood next to the hideous form of Squallow.

“What the hell? If you use that, you’ll also...”

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that. I’ve got this.”

Shirley took out a toy ring that matched the one Garnet had. It was the master chip.

“But... Fam destroyed the chip in Squallow’s brain!”

“Rekka, weren’t you listening? I’m the one who gave him the operation. Of course I gave him the same anti-gremlin coating I gave Garnet.”

Garnet had kept functioning for a while even after being hit with the electromagnetic waves. If Shirley hadn’t forced her to overload in order to defeat me and Fam, she might still be operational even now. But wait, if Squallow had that protective coating, too...

“The reason Squallow can’t move right now is because I’m freezing him with the master chip. Unfortunately, it looks like the other half of it was destroyed, so I wasn’t able to stop him from talking, but this half is still more than enough to control his body. I’m sure glad the gremlin’s power didn’t quite reach me,” Shirley said with a deliberate sigh of relief.

“Then... I can just destroy it again...”

Fam was barely able to move, but she used the last of her strength to try and take off her headband.

“Oh, now that would be a problem.”

“Guuuuuh...”

Instantly, Squallow’s left arm shot out like a spear and impaled Fam’s stomach.

“Gah...”

“Fam!”

Blood fell from her mouth like a waterfall. It was... so much blood...

Squallow’s arm, now stained red, retracted from her abdomen and began to shrink. But even when it did, it couldn’t quite go back to its original size, so now his left and right arms were different lengths.

“I aimed for the head. I guess it isn’t quite as accurate as it needs to be.”

“Shirley!”

“Don’t scream. She loved her captain. I’m sure she’s happy he would be the one to take her life.”

Shirley clapped her hands together.

“Surely now you understand that you can’t win, right? I’m about to ask you a question. If you don’t want to die, then just answer ‘yes’ or ‘no.’”

Shirley looked at me, Tetra, and Rain in turn.

“I’m going to make my ideal world now. If any of you want to join, then I’ll take you. In exchange for implanting a chip in your head, that is.”

“Why are you asking something like that?”

“You don’t get to ask any questions. Now answer me.”

She was right. There was no way we could win right now. I didn’t have any cards up my sleeve. If I just did what she wanted, I could survive. But then she’d implant a chip in me, and I’d spend the rest of my days as her doll. The answer was obvious.

“I refuse!”

“Absolutely not!”

“No!”

And we all felt the same way.

“...”

For just a moment, Shirley looked disappointed. And then...

“Kill them.”

She gave Squallow the order to attack.

“Guuuuuh...”

Squallow’s twisted arm lashed out like a whip, knocking Tetra and Rain backwards.

“Tetra! Rain!”

They both slammed into the wall and slumped to the floor, no longer moving.

Damn it! Who cares if I’m practically missing an arm? My legs are still working. My mind is still working. Am I just going to lie here on the floor?!

“Damn...!”

My legs were stiff and flailing, but I managed to get to my feet. I glared at Shirley.

“Shirley...”

I took a step towards her, and then another. But before I could get close...

“Squallow.”

Squallow’s arm shot out towards me like it had with Fam.

“Gah!”

My insides were... torn apart...

The strength left my knees, and I fell to the ground. I almost passed out from the pain. Actually, I think I did pass out. The pain just brought me back. My vision flashed black and white, eventually settling on a weak dimness. I could hear my own breathing in the distance. I could feel someone standing next to me as my mind faded away.

“You’re still alive, huh?”

It was Shirley’s voice. I could feel her breath on my ears.

“If you nod, I’ll save you.”

“...No!”

“I see. You’re a fool, aren’t you?”

I heard what sounded like a small sigh.

“I’m going to change the world all by myself... Let’s go, Squallow.”

“Guuuuuh...”

There was a sound like something large slowly dragging itself across the floor, and then they were gone, or at least I couldn’t sense them. But that was generous. Really, all of my senses were fading.

Jeez... This is the second time I’ve almost died like this, huh?

There didn’t seem to be an open hole in my stomach, but I could tell that my insides were a mess. I didn’t know how long I’d blacked out, but things were starting to look really grim for me. Last time, Satsuki and the others had come to save me, but I probably wouldn’t get that lucky again.

Tetra, Rain, Fam... I’m sorry.

If only somebody could break the Time Stop on Rosalind. Oh, but then there was...

“R... R...”

“I’m right here. Is something the matter?”

Really, she never changes...

“Sorry... that I couldn’t change the future. But hey... I guess if I die, the War of All never happens... right?”

“It will likely be avoided, according to the predictions of those who sent me here.”

“I see... At least... there’s that...”

I hope it works out, because I’m starting to...

“But I have to say, Rekka, you’re acting as if you’re at death’s door.”

“...Huh?”

Yeah, well, I don’t know what it looks like to you, but I’m definitely going to die here...

“Oh, can you maybe not see?” R said as if she was just realizing that now. “Well, he’s definitely going to save the girls first. And he’s doing some sort of ‘prince awakening Sleeping Beauty’ thing, too... You should just pray he gets to you in time, Rekka.”

What was she talking about? Was... someone there? Whoever he was, he was saving the girls—Tetra, Rain, Fam, and Rosalind—first. That was just fine, but I was really hoping I didn’t slip away during his Sleeping Beauty and the prince routine...

But my prayers went unheard, and my life ended at a young age... Or, at least, that’s what I was on the verge of by the time my “help” finally arrived.

“Man, look at you. I’m really not into gore, you know...”

“Stop being stupid, and save Rekka!” I heard Tetra yell.

The man shoved something warm inside my mouth.

“Here, swallow this down. Otherwise you’ll die, you hear?”

I used my tongue to gulp it down, just like he’d said. Instantly, the pain vanished, and my stomach was back to normal. Even my nearly severed right arm had healed itself.

“...Raul.”

The first thing I saw when my vision came back was the thief who’d gone to get us an escape craft. Tetra, Rain, Fam, and even the now unfrozen Rosalind were all looking at me with worried expressions. Raul was the only one with an easygoing look on his face. He laughed.

“Good thing you didn’t die, huh? Oh, and since I’m the one who saved you all, I think you pretty ladies should give me one personal possession eac—bwargh!”

I punched him.

“Oww! What the hell was that for? I just saved you!”

“Thanks for that, but I think I’m going to punch you again!”

“What?! Then I’ll show no mercy, either! Baron Punch!”

Wow! He saved my life, but I felt more angry than grateful! How often do you get to see that? Raul and I knocked each other around for a while, and when we both ran out of energy, we sat down on the floor.

“...So, how did you manage to save us? We were all seriously wounded, me especially.”

“Rekka, do you believe in fantasy?”

“I’ve lived it, actually.”

“Hahaha! That sounds like a fun life.”

It’s not an easy one, though.

Raul laughed for a moment, and then the corners of his mouth rose up in a nihilistic smile.

“You ever hear the myth that eating the flesh of an immortal grants you immortality, too?” he said.

“...Are you implying that you’re immortal, and you just fed us some of your flesh?”

“Bingo!”

“...I won’t ask where from.”

“Surprised?”

“Sure, I guess, but...”

Come to think of it, he’d been a phantom thief for 500 years and his wound on Berano had healed instantly. There was a lot of weird stuff going on with this guy. Still, immortal? Wait a second...

“Hang on, if I just ate your flesh, does that make me immortal now, too?”

“Hmm... Haha! No, don’t worry. Think about what would happen if that were true. You’d have immortals everywhere. The whole universe would instantly be full of them!” Raul slapped his knees as he laughed. “Well, I suppose it’s not totally wrong, but it is an exaggeration. If you ingest the flesh of an immortal, your body temporarily gains the power to return to its original, healthy form. You can see how anyone who made a miraculous recovery that way might think that they’d become immortal, right?”

Your body returning to its original, healthy form, huh? That would explain how my arm had healed itself after almost being sheared off.

“So is that what happened to my arm?” Fam asked.

“Huh? Fam, your arm...”

When she said something, I realized that Fam’s cyborg arm had turned back to a normal girl’s arm. I mean, sure, a cyborg arm certainly wasn’t her “original” form, but was this stuff really that powerful?

“That’s crazy...”

“I guess so,” Raul laughed.

I was used to seeing crazy things—or at least, I thought I was—but I guess I still had a lot to learn.

But regardless, I was alive now. I thanked Raul once more, and then got down to business. Raul didn’t know what was going on, so I explained the situation.

“Do you know where Shirley went?”

“I passed her on my way to meet up with you. But when I saw what happened to Squallow, I hid before they spotted me. She wasn’t looking like her usual self, either.”

After watching her go, Raul had decided to come find us next. It was clear to him that we’d been defeated, and as long as we weren’t dead, he knew he could help.

“So, yeah, that’s why I had to give up on following her. But I can guess where she is.”

“Try me.”

“That new warship Fam was talking about? By the time I got into the dock, it was already complete. The whole construction schedule was probably set up so it would finish today.”

In other words, Shirley had gotten on the spaceship and left.

“Damn it! Then there’s no way to know where they went...”

I pounded the floor in frustration. Raul gave an exasperated shrug.

“Don’t tell me you’re thinking about chasing her.”

“Of course I am. I haven’t saved Squallow or Shirley, and I haven’t gotten the Mermaid Princess’s Tear back.”

I hadn’t saved a single story yet. I couldn’t give up here.

“Aww, damn it... Fine! Kid, let me tell you something.”

“What?”

“You don’t need to get the Mermaid Princess’s Tear back.”

“Huh? Why...?”

“The jewel the pirates stole from Ryugu Palace was a fake. I swapped out the real thing before they even got there.”

“...Huh?”

What the heck was he talking about?

“But the Mermaid Princess’s Tear is a pretty azure jewel, right? Squallow definitely had it. Rain saw it, too.”

“Yes, I’m certain that was the Tear...” Rain agreed.

“I chose something that looked similar enough that you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”

“But how could you prepare such a detailed fake? Only the clan of the mermaid princess and the king of the mermen are supposed to know about it. How did you even know what it looked like?” Rain didn’t seem convinced.

How he’d known what it looked like was a good question, but better yet...

“Why would you do that in the first place?”

He was a thief, so I could understand stealing it. But why he’d bother swapping it out with a fake was beyond me. It sounded like Raul was trying to trick the pirates.

“I just told you that I’m immortal, right?”

“Yeah.”

“A long, long time ago, I was the one who gave the original mermaid princess the Tear.”

“What?!” we all screamed in unison.

“Th-Then you’re the god in the legend, Raul?” Rain asked.

“Aww, don’t call me a god. It makes me feel silly. Old stories always get blown out of proportion down the line. The Mermaid Princess’s Tear once had a much more boring name, too, you see. It was called the Weatherstone.” Raul waved his hand dismissively and shied away from Rain’s gaze.

“Hmm, so what are you saying? In order to protect the present you once gave an old flame, you beat the pirates to it and swapped it out for a fake, then stayed on Berano until they attacked?”

The rest of us were too stunned to react, but not Rosalind.

“She was nothing like that,” Raul chuckled. “But she was quite the looker, I’ll have you know. At first, I’ll admit there were ulterior motives. But really, she had a pretty heart... Very different than somebody like me. And, eventually, I started to think I wanted to protect that pretty heart of hers.”

Raul’s eyes narrowed, and he looked at the floor. Was he remembering something from his past?

“...I wanted to protect the planet she loved. That was all.”

“And that’s why you swapped out the real one for a fake?”

“That’s right. Berano’s royalty has kept the secret of the Mermaid Princess’s Tear for generations. But there are always people trying to find out secrets like that, so I took the extra step of spreading the rumor that it was just a valuable jewel.”

Right. That way, even if someone did come to steal it, they’d just be looking for a jewel and not something more.

“Somebody who was just after a jewel could be easily conned with a fake. So when I heard that the Seageists were after the Tear, I quickly snuck into Ryugu Palace. I left a different valuable jewel in its place so they’d steal that instead. Then I could just return the original afterward.”

And that’s why Raul had been waiting for everything to finish playing out in Ryugu Palace City.

“Of course, I very discreetly passed the news on to Queen Muse that the Seageists were coming. But she didn’t do anything to prepare... Well, since the Seageists’ boss is the former merman king, she probably didn’t even believe me.”

But she didn’t know that Squallow was under someone else’s control... and that’s why...

“So, where’s the real Tear?” I asked.

“The real tear is,” Raul pointed at me and said, “inside your stomach.”

“Huh?! Wait! How?!”

It’d been a day full of surprises, but this was the biggest one yet.

“The first time we met, by which I mean the time you gave me that nasty lariat, remember how you thought you’d swallowed something?”

Huh, yeah... That’s right. I thought it was Shirley’s ring, but it turned out to be a small pebble or something. Wait, don’t tell me...

“The Mermaid Princess’s Tear flew out of my pocket, and you swallowed it.”

“What was it doing in your pocket?! Take better care of your stuff!”

“You can’t honestly expect me to be prepared to take a lariat like that on the street.”

“It was your fault for dine-and-dashing!”

“Even immortals get hungry, you know.”

Raul and I yelled at each other for a while, but it was such a waste of time that I gave up.

“I guess that explains some things, though,” I said. “Like what you were doing in my room, or why you showed up in the canal, or why you followed us here.”

He’d been trying to keep an eye on the Mermaid Princess’s Tear. He couldn’t just come out and say that something so important—especially not something he stole—was inside my stomach. If I was a bad guy, I might misuse it. And he probably hadn’t tried to take it by force because Rosalind was with me.

“Well, that’s about the size of it. The Mermaid Princess’s Tear is right here, so there’s no need to go chasing after Squallow,” Raul said, trying to bring the discussion to a close.

But...

“No, I still haven’t saved anybody. So I’m going.”

Raul frowned.

“Man, you really don’t get it, do you? If it weren’t for me, you would be dead right now! So why are you trying to chase her again? You don’t even know where she went...”

But before he could continue yelling at me...

“No, we still have a clue,” Rosalind said, interrupting him.

She was staring at Garnet, who was still lying on the ground.

“She left her behind, huh?”

Bad guy or not, it was still horrible of Shirley to just leave her like that...

“Hey, if you’re not broken, answer us,” Rosalind demanded.

“Pi... ga...”

“Hmph. She’s still partially operational. Rekka, that’s your cue.”

Rosalind moved aside so that I could talk to her. Garnet still couldn’t move, so I lifted her up and leaned her against the wall. Then I got down on my knees next to her and thought for a moment about what I wanted to say.

All the bloodline of the Namidare did was give me a chance to bring a story to a happy ending. Shirley’s story was an attempt to create “an ideal world.” Not just any ideal world, but hers. She wanted to be happy. That was a normal wish. One that everybody had. But how Shirley was trying to achieve it was wrong. That much I was sure of. So my question for Garnet was...

“Garnet, tell me. Why did Shirley decide to create an ideal world?”

“Rekka, shouldn’t you ask where she went?” Rosalind interrupted in a slightly stern voice.

“We have to stop Shirley, but just beating her up won’t solve anything. It was the same with you, wasn’t it, Rosalind?”

“...”

I hadn’t solved Rosalind’s story just by beating her in combat. I’d had to learn about her past, her motives, and the beginning of her story. That was how I was eventually able to get through to her.

“I want to save Shirley’s story. It’s normal to want to be happy, but the way she’s acting... If she’s that desperate to be happy, it must mean she’s been through something really horrible. She wouldn’t have to go to such lengths otherwise.”

Shirley’s smile last night when we were playing was genuine. I couldn’t imagine a truly cold-blooded person smiling like that. That’s how I knew there had to be something in her past... Something that had driven her to this.

Garnet’s head turned upward to look at me with a creaking sound. She stared straight at me with mechanical eyes.

“...You’re going to save Shirley?”

“Yeah.”

“...You’re the first person who’s ever said they’d do anything for her.” Garnet’s mouth was still moving awkwardly, but her voice sounded relieved. “Shirley is a genius created by the pinnacle of genetic technology. She’s been training in all of Estashion’s technology since the day she was born, and she started working with the adults at the head of the government at a young age.”

“A created genius?”

So like an even more amazing version of mixing the genes of talented men and women?

“No friends.”

“No time to play.”

I recalled the things Shirley had said at the hotel and gritted my teeth. If she’d really spent her whole life in an environment like that, then she couldn’t help feeling that way, could she?

“At first, I was just a little doll with a learning-enabled AI implanted in me. Shirley always looked so sad when she played with me... Eventually she moved my AI to another body and upgraded me over and over until I could help her with her work. Work was all she cared about. It felt like she was working so much so she wouldn’t have to think about anything else.”

So she was trying to drown her loneliness in work?

“But just over a year ago... something happened.”

“What?”

“Shirley has been working on a certain project for three years.” Garnet kept talking, unblinking. “The chip that was implanted in Squallow’s brain was originally the type given to all Estashionian citizens at the age of ten as an initiation into adulthood. It enhances a person’s mental capacities.”

“I remember hearing something about that,” Raul said.

“The name of that chip was the Peacemaker Device, and it was part of a project that was attempting to use them to eliminate crime and dangerous ideologies. On occasion, it was also used to bring the will of the people together.”

Get rid of crime and dangerous ideologies? That sounded nice on the surface, but it was really no different than using the master chip to control someone, was it? And this was on a much larger scale.

“The people weren’t opposed to a mind control project like that?”

“That’s why the project was carried out in secret. But just a little over a year ago, the details became public. The backlash was overwhelming. The people came very close to obliterating their own government.”

That made sense. It was hard to imagine who wouldn’t be mad after finding out about something like that. I know I would be. But what did this have to do with Shirley’s story?

“So what happened then?”

I motioned for her to continue, and Garnet—even though she was an android—looked like she was about to cry.

“The Estashionian government put all the blame on Shirley, the project head, and tried to have her executed.”

“Executed?!”

“...So, Shirley was betrayed?” Tetra bit her lip and put her hand up to her chest as if to quell the pain inside.

She’d spent her whole life without making friends or having fun, only to end up being used like a scapegoat...

“Hmph...”

Rosalind didn’t say anything, but I could tell that she was displeased. Maybe she was thinking of Suzuran back when she was still Silver Slayer, a homunculus created only to kill her. There was certainly a similarity between the two of them. Shirley’d even been betrayed. It wouldn’t be right to compare which of them was worse off, but...

“Shirley took me and fled from the government.”

But before she left the planet, she’d had Garnet remove her chip. The government could track her with it, so she knew she had to get rid of it in order to get away.

“So that’s what happened to Shirley...”

“Yes.”

“I understand.”

I nodded, but before I could stand up, I heard a voices in the hall as pirates swarmed into the room. They were all badly injured and their clothes were in tatters.

“Fam! What the heck is going on here?!” one of them asked.

“What happened to you all? You’re bleeding!” Fam replied.

“Some weird woman showed up with a monster and stole our new ship! Some of the others went with her. We don’t now what’s going on...”

According to what they said, the woman—probably Shirley—had taken a few of the pirates with her, including some of their lieutenants. Those who tried to stop them were attacked without mercy. Shirley hadn’t only done her surgery on Squallow. She’d probably implanted this “chip” in some of the other crewmembers, as well.

“Fam, do we have a ship that can chase her?” I helped Garnet to her feet as I talked. She still seemed barely aware of what was going on around her. “The faster the better, even. Something that can catch up to the new ship’s warp speed... Like the one in the docks right now.”

“...And you want me to get everybody to help you? To save that woman...” Fam spat out those words with a bitter expression on her face.

“I won’t deny it. I want to help Shirley. But I want to help Squallow, too.”

“...”

“Fam, your story can’t have a happy ending without Squallow and the Seageists, right? I’ll help you. So help me, too.”

Fam didn’t answer right away. She looked down a little and thought about it.

“Fam, what is he talking about? Who are these guys?” one of the pirates asked.

“Everyone...” Fam said as she looked up. “We’re going to save the boss.”

“Wait, you can’t mean...”

“You can ask questions later! Get the ship moving first! Everybody in the family owes the boss a debt, and now’s the time to repay it! Now it’s our turn to save him!”

For a moment, the pirates fell silent. But seeing how serious she was, they all ran out of the room with determination in their eyes.

“We’re going, too. Don’t fall behind,” Fam said as she looked over her shoulder before running after the pirates.

“Yeah. Garnet, you can tell us the rest on the way.”

I offered Garnet my shoulder as I went to follow Fam.

“Wait.”

But Raul stepped in front of me.

“You’re not done talking with me. You’ve got the Mermaid Princess’s Tear in your stomach. I can’t let you anywhere near Shirley.”

Raul was looking at me with a stern expression. I could understand why he wouldn’t want the Mermaid Princess’s Tear anywhere Shirley could get her hands on it. But...

“You understand, don’t you, Raul? Your whole plan depends on her thinking that she had the real Tear. But once she realizes that she doesn’t, Shirley’s going to attack Berano again.”

“...”

The tear was necessary for keeping Berano’s climate stable, but it wouldn’t make a difference with no one left to enjoy it. Until the problem with Shirley was solved, Berano wouldn’t be safe.

“If it’s really that important to you, then you can do surgery on me or something to take it out.”

With Raul’s power, any wounds from the surgery could be healed instantly.

“But there’s no time, so do it while we’re on the ship on the way out of here. We might need to go into warp to catch her, but once we leave warp, you can take an escape pod and leave on your own.”

“...I still don’t get it. I mean, that works for me, but I still don’t get it. Shirley tried to kill you. Why are you going after her?’

“The reason’s simple,” I said.

“And what’s that?”

“Because that’s the normal thing to do.” The corners of my mouth turned up ever so slightly. “If a friend of mine gets kidnapped, I want to save them. If a child is crying, I want to help them. And if my friend is doing something wrong, I want to stop them, even if I have to punch them to snap them out of it. That’s all there is to it.”

That was how I decided to live my life the day I found out about my bloodline.

“Raul, everyone... what will you do?”

“Hmph. I’m going with you, of course. Do you even have to ask?” Rosalind was the first to respond.

“I want to stop Shirley, too,” Tetra said. She formed her hands into tiny fists in front of her chest and nodded. “I don’t want her to do any more awful things.”

“...Me, too,” Rain said in a strong voice through lips tightly pursed in determination.

“Come on now. Rain, you’re not that strong. What will you do if you follow the boy? It’s dangerous!” Raul quickly stood in her way and tried to persuade her to give up.

“Raul...”

But the purity in her eyes made him look away.

“You have watched over Berano and the merfolk for centuries, and on behalf of my clan, I thank you. But for now, please don’t try to stop me.”

“But I made a promise to her. I promised I’d protect Berano! I can’t let you go anywhere you’ll be in danger.”

“Raul...” Rain said softly.

She then closed her eyes and paused for a moment. When she looked up at Raul once more, the look in her eyes was even more resolute than before.

“Did the purehearted princess you loved ask you only to protect the merfolk and not the mermen?”

Raul’s eyes went wide.

“I’m going to save Squallow. And I’m going to change the world so he can come back home,” Rain said. “My mother and Squallow protected my world, and now I will change it to bring us into the future. Just like I promised my mother when I was little, I will grant the wish of the red fish prince and the blue fish princess.”

Raul frowned for a moment before finally putting a hand to his forehead and muttering that he’d given up.

“In the end, I’m just a wimp who sees only what he wants to see. When I look into eyes like yours, Rain, I realize how small I really am.”

Raul chuckled and slapped his hands against his cheeks. In an instant, he was back to his usual easygoing expression.

“I’ll follow you anywhere. If there’s anything I can do to help, just ask.”

“Will do,” I said as I nodded.

Now that everyone was on the same page, I headed for the spaceport, half-carrying Garnet along the way. Fam gave us a ride in some kind of vehicle that hovered above the ground, so we were all at the ship and ready to go in no time.

“Take off!”

With a shout, the ship’s floor rattled, and the scenery outside began to descend beneath us. Soon we couldn’t even see the mountains anymore. Just the sky above. We’d be in space shortly.

“All right, it’s time to hear the rest of what Garnet has to say. We need to know where we’re going, so tell us that first.”

“All right. Shirley is...”

Suddenly, my pocket started to vibrate. It was my cell phone. I knew Iris would be on the other end.