Interlude B
My name is Copycat.
I’m nothing but a mimic. A humble criminal.
Ahhh, I blew it; I messed up. I was so close, but I fumbled it.
Perhaps I was a little too excited. Perhaps I was a little too delighted.
As a matter of fact, yes, as a matter of fact—both were supposed to sink.
There should have been no hope on those ships. Ahhh, perhaps it wasn’t in the cards, wasn’t meant to be.
I’m tired of being a copycat.
I’ll finally take a stroll as myself—ah, it’s been so long.
I’ll walk below on my dear, beloved world.
Several days later On the ocean
“Gah-ha! You’re a riot, buddy. After all that about cuttin’ ’em loose, you let me cut you in half with my Kukri knife tryna protect ’em!”
“Well, I figured if I let that happen, I’d never get to see those kids smile.”
“You shouldn’a bothered; I was gonna stop at the last second anyway.”
The conversation on the ship was cheerful, if violent—until the tone of the captive man’s voice suddenly changed. “Oh, that’s right, Luchino… Can I ask you something?”
Elmer’s arms and legs hadn’t been restrained; he was comfortably sitting in a chair with Aging keeping an eye on him, while Rookie was sitting a good distance away.
A few days had passed since they captured the target, and Rookie hadn’t looked in on him at all. Now, it seemed he’d gotten his thoughts in order, and he finally assumed his neutral “president” facade to see Elmer.
That said, he hadn’t questioned him about anything. He hadn’t said anything at all, instead simply observing him.
And this time was no different; the boy’s only response was a wordless glance. Elmer took that as consent and calmly asked his question. “Why is it that you hate Huey so much?”
“…”
Rookie glared at him silently, but Elmer just nonchalantly returned his gaze until the boy finally caved and murmured, “…This is revenge.”
“Revenge.”
“I intend to exact it for myself…and for my ancestor’s grudge through the generations.”
“What do you mean? If you don’t mind telling me, I’d really appreciate it.”
Elmer poked his nose right in as artlessly and irritatingly as ever. Still, Rookie wanted to reestablish his own resolve for himself, and so he laid out his reason. “You must know already. My ancestor Huey Laforet…killed my other ancestor…Monica Campanella, his own wife.”
“…”
“Ever since then, the Mask Makers and her revenge have been passed down through the generations in my family. Do you think it’s absurd? I’ve inherited nothing but blood and vengeance for the sake of an ancestor I never knew from generations ago.”
“…No, if you say that will make you happy, then I won’t stop you, but…” Elmer was being unusually evasive, and Rookie frowned suspiciously.
“What’s the matter? Disagree?”
“Well, it’s just, uh, some things are starting to make sense… So that’s the story that got handed down to you and yours.
“I see, I see… That really is…very like him.”
That same day America A certain FBI facility
“Let me just say this: Why have we been taken into custody?” Nile asked with some irritation.
“Well, let me just answer your question, you goddamned menace. And that goes for all of you,” a bespectacled man snapped back. Victor Talbot—an immortal who served as the deputy director of a special department of the FBI—had a twitch in his temple. “Nile, do you understand this is because you got too rough out there? Huh?”
“I will consider how to prevent such an encounter again. However, I do have one regret. When we were planning the maneuver, I encountered an enemy titaness… She and I planned to fight each other once we had finished with the group in red, but she and her allies fled by ship immediately afterward.”
“You’re not sorry about any of it! Aaah… I swear, you people… Can’t you let me have one quiet day? Huh? You’re gonna work me to death until I revive and you work me to death again so I can revive and you can work me to death again in an endless goddamn cycle—is that the goal?! You’re gonna work the therapists to death, too, what with all the trauma from those blindfolded kids, but they’re innocent victims! So until we catch those criminals, I’m taking everything out on that dumbass Huey!”
“Peace, Victor, and set that aside for the moment. Have you learned the identity of those who were hunting us?”
Denkurou’s voice did seem to mollify Victor somewhat, and he shook his head quietly.
“Frankly, all I can say is we’re still checking into it. We know the Mask Makers are a mercenary group, but we’ve got nothing on that cult. After all, the guys we had in custody evaporated, and even the corpses are just plain gone. All we’ve got are bloodstains and little bits of meat. Well, in our hands, those are clues enough. Now let’s pray that dumbass Elmer’s got some good dumb luck.”
“Now that you mention it… Is it true Czes was on the other ship?” Sylvie asked.
“Hmm? Yeah…,” Victor answered disinterestedly. “The little punk was on a nice cozy family trip with some of the new immortals. What a joke.”
“As long as he is unharmed, I could not ask for more. But does that mean he and his family are elsewhere in this facility?”
“No, uh, well, you see… Argh, fine.”
Victor was suddenly being very cagey, but the three of them stared him down until he shook his head and gave up.
“Right now, they’re…in Japan.”
That same day A certain tourist spot Kyoto, Japan
After they’d climbed a long stairway flanked by rows of souvenir shops, they finally saw the building painted in tasteful shades of primary colors. The melody of a distant flute matched the constant motion of the city, lightening their footsteps.
Until—
“…Ahhh, dammit. There’s something I need to get off my chest.” Just as he reached the top of the stone steps, Firo spun around to face Ennis and Czes. Whatever it was had clearly been worrying him for some time. “I shoulda said this a long time ago, but…I’m sorry our trip turned into such a mess. It was my fault.”
Ennis and Czes smiled at him as he earnestly apologized.
“That’s not true, Firo. We did encounter some trouble along the way, but it’s thanks to you that Czes and I both made it safely to Japan.”
“She’s right, Firo. Even if Victor did give us crap for ten hours—it sure beat having to swim from the middle of the Pacific!”
The Prochainezos and the boy who lived with them had been caught up in the seajacking of a luxury cruise ship. In the end, they’d made it to Japan, and now they were walking through a uniquely Japanese tourist site.
Naturally, they weren’t simply rescued from this huge international incident and politely told to enjoy the rest of their trip. However, Claudia had considerately entreated the director to claim the three as “staff for publicity work in Japan,” and they’d joined her group on a special charter flight to the country.
There were investigations and police interviews on the Japanese side of things as well, though, and the trio had ended up face-to-face with Victor for the first time in a long while, as he had come all the way to Japan to help explain the situation.
“Technically, this shouldn’t even be possible. You beat the shit out of those seajackers, and yet here you are waltzing into Japan a few days later. It’s the end times. The world is ending! God, sometimes I wish it would!”
“Isn’t it your job to make sure that doesn’t happen?”
“Shut the hell up, you rotten lowlife! Dammit… That movie company’s got some serious clout over here, too. Well, the damage to the Entrance was miraculously light compared with Exit, but we still have to keep all relevant parties under observation for a while. Consider this an exceptionally special special exception, courtesy of the McDannell Company!”
“McDannell meaning the movie company, not the aircraft corporation? Huh. Didn’t know even a movie company could push you around.”
“Exactly, the aircraft corporation is McDonnell. —Wait, no! The FBI does not yield to pressure of any kind! It’s just, uh, the FBI didn’t yield, but we have to fudge some stuff for the rest of the world when we’re handling cases that involve immortals, and so we owe a few favors to some people in the movie industry… But that doesn’t matter now! Y’know, I wouldn’t mind if you’d paid for your crimes, but an active lawbreaker taking a leisurely cruise? What kind of fool do you take me for, you little—?!”
Firo and Czes had had to listen to similar complaints and lectures for half a day.
They’d both been mostly asleep for the second half of it, but Victor had obliviously continued his dissertation. At any rate, the three of them were now enjoying their sightseeing in Japan, although there was a distinct possibility that one of Victor’s men was tailing them.
It sounded as though there had been a large number of deaths on the Exit, and Firo had been tempted to feel guilty that they were having a good time after escaping the worst of it. However, he didn’t want that affecting Ennis and Czes, so he’d decided to take the plunge and start sightseeing.
At their hotel, his friend the photographer had cheerfully gotten his camera gear ready and told them he would come over to take some photos in the evening. They would have preferred to get some photos of them sightseeing as well, but he seemed likely to use up all his film on scenic shots.
The photographer was Japanese, born and bred, and he was going to act as their guide on this trip. From what they’d heard, a couple more friends of his had been on those ships, and until the previous day, he’d been away paying the two of them a get-well visit. Apparently, they’d fallen down some stairs as they tried to find out whether their sweetheart was all right.
Their guide had a peculiar connection to the affair, but for now, the three foreigners wandered around tourist sites without him. All three were proficient in Japanese, and this was actually Czes’s fifth visit to Kyoto, so they’d made their way around without any trouble.
That was when Firo had apologized out of nowhere. Ennis and Czes hastily denied that it was necessary.
Regardless, Firo shook his head with remorse. “No… It really is my fault. The thing is…some part of me still didn’t want to use the knowledge I got from eating old Szilard. I thought I could protect you two even without that awful stuff. If I’d just used everything I had at my disposal earlier, maybe I could’ve helped end it sooner, before things got so bad, you know? …But I’m through hesitating.”
“Firo…”
Ennis sounded worried, but Firo nodded firmly.
“I promise you. I’m me, and I always will be.
“Even if I do have the old bastard’s knowledge in me, I won’t end up like him—”
Ennis smiled a little at his declaration.
“Laying it on a little thick, aren’t you?” Czes muttered, fiddling with the brim of his cap.
But then…
“And even if I’ve got Lebreau’s knowledge in me, I won’t end up like him, either,” he murmured to Czes. The boy looked up, mystified.
“What? What did you just say…?”
“Huh? Uh, yeah. Er, Szilard ate an alchemist who ate Lebreau, so… I’ve got his knowledge, too.”
“What are you talking about, Firo?”
Czes looked thoroughly baffled, and Firo fell still.
And then—
“I mean, you know… Lebreau got eaten by somebody Szilard ate…”
“Ah-ha-ha! You’re so funny, Firo!”
Czes flashed him one of his innocent smiles, and a flurry of question marks surfaced in Firo’s mind.
America A certain FBI location
“Oh, really…? So Czes and everyone with him are enjoying their trip, while we get detained.”
As Sylvie glared at him coldly, Victor dodged the issue entirely by speaking to Denkurou.
“I tell you what, I can’t believe it’s been three hundred years since I last saw you, Denkurou! What happened? From what I hear, you fell into the ocean up at the North Pole and got turned into a popsicle!”
“…Hmm… So that is the version of the tale that reached you, Victor?” Denkurou’s expression hardened slightly, and he mulled over the issue for a few moments. “There’s no way around it. Both versions are disgraceful, so allow me to relate the one that is at least accurate.”
“What?”
Victor, Nile, and Sylvie looked up, intrigued.
“I did not fall into the ocean; I fell victim to a sinister artifice. I was put to sleep and shut inside a box, then dropped into a crevasse. I remember everything clearly until I lost consciousness.”
“Who did that? It wasn’t that geezer Szilard, was it?” Victor asked. “No, he would have eaten you once you passed out.”
Denkurou thought for a little while—then seemed to come to a decision and spoke.
“The fellow who ensnared me is one with whom you are well acquainted…”
On the ocean
“I don’t think you’ll believe me,” Elmer began, “but I will argue, for the record.”
“No, I don’t think I’ll believe you, either, but I’ll hear your argument. For the record,” Rookie answered curtly.
Elmer drew a short breath, then calmly laid out the facts he knew. “Huey wasn’t the one who killed Monica. Back then, he didn’t see everything besides himself as part of some experiment… In fact, her death was probably what triggered the change. What made him who he is now.”
“…”
“Huey didn’t kill Monica, and neither did I. It was another alchemist. People back then used to say he was just as much of a genius as Huey.”
“…And who would that be?” Rookie asked gravely.
Elmer quietly replied with the name.
“…Lebreau.”
Kyoto A certain tourist spot
“Honestly, Firo, that’s a terrible joke!”
With a shrill giggle, Czes broke into a run.
“Wait, h-hey! Czes!”
“I’ll go on back to the hotel! You two enjoy some alone time!”
Ignoring Firo’s attempt to stop him, Czes kept going.
He ran.
And ran.
And ran.
How long had he been running? He couldn’t hear Firo’s voice behind him anymore.
Czes’s small figure slipped through the throngs of tourists in the hot sunlight, trying to find anywhere he could be alone.
“Ah-ha-ha, aah, I swear.”
As he ran, he murmured to himself.
“Geez, Firo. Why…why would he tell such an awful joke…?”
Somewhere along the way, Czes had reached a less crowded spot, and he looked down, panting.
He was at the top of the stairway on the main approach to the temple. Quietly, he sat down on the stairs and tried to catch his breath. But even as he gasped for air, he couldn’t seem to take a breath, and even as he smiled like a little child, cold sweat was forming on his face.
“Ah-ha…ah-ha-ha, wh-why—why would Firo…tell a…joke like…?”
He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t breathe. His laughter came out like a series of tiny gasps, and his smile vanished.
Like a child who’d awoken from a dream full of hungry monsters, Czes was remembering the trauma from before.
“What scares you is the unknown.”
That was what the red monster had said on the train.
After that, Czes had experienced uncharted heights of pain and indelible terror; he’d known something was wrong the whole time he was on the ship, and that feeling had come crashing back far stronger than before.
He was right. It’s “the unknown.”
I have no idea why Firo would tell a lie like that.
Firo had said something peculiar, that was all—and yet an inexorable chill had fallen over Czes, along with the urge to be sick.
He realized he was laughing to hide those feelings, but apparently, this was all he could do. The revulsion made him want to collapse right where he was—
—and then, that voice reached him from the steps below.
“Are you all right, Czes?”
The sound of the flute stopped, and the wind died. The man smiled quietly at Czes, as if he had timed it that way.
And for Czes, time itself had stopped, too.
“……Huh…?”
His voice was barely a whisper, so weak it was nearly impossible to tell the word from a breath. Czes stared at the figure in front of him.
The man spoke to the boy, his fellow alchemist, with a hint of bashfulness in his voice.
“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it, Czes?” The shy smile was so perfect on his lips, it was as if they had been made for each other. The happiness behind it was so sincere, the smile junkie would have been delighted.
However—when Czes saw it, a whispered protest slipped from his mouth, fainter than the whine of a mosquito’s wings.
“It’s…not true… It’s a lie.”
The moment he said the name, that glimpse of his past became his present.
“…Fer…met…”
“The fellow who ensnared me is one with whom you are well acquainted…”
Making his decision, Denkurou told them the name.
“…It was Fermet.”
“Lebreau… Lebreau Fermet Viralesque…”
Quietly, Elmer murmured the man’s name. Unusually for him, there was a slight shadow in his smile.
His quiet words became more of a comment for his own sake, as he gazed into the distance. “True, I didn’t know him all that well. We didn’t talk much, and he couldn’t stand me, for some reason.”
The memory of his conversation with Czes the previous year, on the roof of that castle in Northern Europe, rose in his mind. Personally, Elmer didn’t mind only running into the guy once a century, so his memories of him weren’t as deep as the ones of Huey or Czes. The only thing he knew for sure was that he had been Czes’s guardian.
“He wants his face to be forgettable, so no matter what he actually does, it tends not to stick in your memory.”
He hadn’t heard anything about the man in several decades, and his own memories were fuzzy. As he retraced them, though, he gradually remembered Huey’s assessment of him.
“The last time I ran into Fermet was around 1931 or ’32, so… Come to think of it, I wonder when Czes ate him.”
He remembered Czes’s confession, up on the roof.
It had been such a tragic story; Fermet had brutally abused Czes until the boy had finally eaten him.
He was a villain, but I didn’t think he was the type to do those things to someone who was practically family.
True, he did have some weird feelings for Czes…but I thought he was craftier than that. He would abuse him without letting him catch on directly, wouldn’t he…?
Somewhere in Kyoto
“It’s…a lie…”
This is a dream.
“It’s a lie, isn’t it…?”
It’s an illusion.
The boy was shaking, while the man in front of him smiled quietly and began to reminisce.
“You look well. I remember you loved to sprinkle sugar on snowballs and eat them, but I suppose you’ve outgrown such a bad habit by now?”
“Ah…wah…aAAaaah…”
“It’s not a good idea. There’s dust from the atmosphere in snow, and these days there are chemicals in it as well… You’ll make yourself sick.”
The next moment, everything was swimming.
Czes had stopped breathing entirely, and he looked down at the man ascending the stairs toward him. Czes obviously had the higher vantage point, but the man seemed to be towering over him.
The man’s eyes were hidden by his thick bangs, and Czes couldn’t see what color they were or where they were looking. There was something creepy about the whole upper half of his face, as though if you brushed back his hair, you’d find three eyes instead of two.
Czes recognized him, though. Most of his hair was considerably shorter than it had been before, but Czes remembered his face far too well.
“It’s a lie, it’s a lie…,” he repeated over and over, hollow-eyed.
The anxiety he’d felt ever since he boarded the ship expanded inside him, all in a rush—
“Come now, Czes.”
—and at the man’s next remark, it exploded.
“Have I ever lied to you?”
“Ngh…!”
With a short scream, Czes jumped up reflexively.
But that was as far as his legs could take him. They didn’t even try to run.
The next thing he knew, the man was just a few steps below him. He stopped there, quietly. “Czes. My adorable, dreadfully clever Czes. I bet I know what you’re thinking now. Why is he alive?”
“…Ah…AaaaaaAAAh…”
“That’s right. You’re thinking it right now, aren’t you? I know I ate him with my right hand!”
“Au…mph…aa…”
Czes’s breath escaped from between trembling lips, while the man’s own lips formed a smile.
“It seems I was right. I’m glad. I knew you were still the Czes I remember.” Exhaling with seemingly heartfelt relief, the man continued calmly. “You see, I know you better than anyone.”
“Wh…why… Why… Why, why, why?!”
But the man went on impassively, paying no attention to the boy’s desperate, strangled cry. “My, this job was a big one, but so worthwhile. Now that we’re immortals, Czes, it’s truly essential to get the most out of life. Without that sense of fulfillment, we’ll just end up as living corpses, like Begg.”
As he spoke—
—the man who had been the Mask Maker’s weapon Life, the demolition expert responsible for Carnea’s presence on the ship, and a SAMPLE executive reflected dispassionately on his recent “game.”
“I tell you, when I spotted you on the Entrance, I was so elated I nearly took off my mask and goggles in spite of myself. If you’d asked me my name, I wouldn’t have been able to give you a false one, so I really wasn’t sure what to do. I was so frightened of the idea that I even let you get away that time.”
“Ah…”
The man in black who’d materialized in front of him on the ship had been Fermet. But even now after learning that fact, Czes’s voice didn’t come back.
“The biggest advantage of immortality, Czes, is that you can live any number of lives. Yes… And with those many lives, you can create fascinating toys like Illness, Carnea, and Luchino Campanella. It’s very hard to decide which of them is best, but…right now, you’re here with me, so we’ll say you’re the most important one.”
Czes was still rooted to the spot. Fermet slowly spread his arms wide, whispering to him softly.
“Are you happy? You can smile, you know.”
“…—… N…no… You…can’t be…Fermet.”
Even then, Czes persisted in denying reality.
Fermet’s smile vanished, and he shook his head with concern. “I hope you’re aware— I’m not a clone, nor am I a fake. I am the same Fermet who joined you on the Advena Avis.”
“Ah…… Ah…” Czes was about to lose his capacity for speech entirely, when Fermet quietly asked the one question Czes didn’t dare to ask.
“Now then, that leaves us with a rather awkward puzzle, doesn’t it?”
“…”
A question Czes knew he must never even think.
“If I’m here now…who in the world did you eat?”
“………!!!”
Czes’s mind went utterly blank.
On reflex, he thrust out his right hand and set it on Fermet’s head where he stood a few steps down. Now all he had to do was think I want to eat, and Fermet’s life would be over.
All of who he was would disappear into Czes.
That was how it should have gone, but—
“You did manage to eat me before, didn’t you, Czes?”
The man’s tone was more familiar than it had been before.
To Czes, his next remark was a finishing blow.
“But now…you can’t, can you?”
“—”
Nausea surged through his whole body.
Even though Czes was the one holding Fermet’s life in his hands, his thoughts wouldn’t go any further.
His instincts were also telling him not to eat. His soul as an immortal had warned him that this man was pure poison.
“ ”
Czes couldn’t move, couldn’t speak.
The man smiled at him softly. “There, you see?”
Entertained, amused, delighted—
“What did I tell you? I do know you better than anyone… Ha-ha, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
In that brief moment, Fermet had changed into someone else. His laugh echoed off the mountains—and tourists walking a little ways away looked over, wondering what was going on.
Fermet seemed to notice the stares, quietly stopped laughing, and—
“All right, let’s play again, Czes.”
—wearing a gentle smile, he patted the boy’s head with his right hand.
“Who knows when I’ll turn up? It might be tomorrow—or it could be a hundred years from now.”
Even though Fermet was using his right hand, the boy put up no resistance. The man looked at him, then quietly left.
To Czes, he seemed to waver and vanish, like a heat mirage on a summer’s day.
But that was wishful thinking. If only he had been nothing more than that.
“Aah! Czes, we found you! I’m so sorry; I wasn’t thinking when I said that name… I didn’t mean to hurt you; I’m sorry, so—”
Firo was saying something, but Czes couldn’t hear it.
When he saw Firo, when he saw his family there in front of him, the truth hit full force before relief could set in.
This was reality.
“Ah, aaah, AAAaaaAAAaaaaaaaAAaaaaAaaAaaaah…”
“C-Czes?!”
“AaaaAAAaaaaah! Waaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Czes had finally gotten his voice back, and the first sound to leave his mouth was—
“AAaaaaaAaaaaah! AAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
—the scream of the child he appeared to be, a lost boy who’d strayed from his parents.
As he listened to the distant echoes of Czes’s wailing—
“Ahhh, what marvelous cries. I’m getting all worked up.”
—the man responsible for the sound, in many different ways, walked confidently through town.
“Maybe I said a bit too much. Well, it’s been a long time since I last talked with Czes; I couldn’t help being a little giddy.”
He sounded different from how he spoke to Czes, and different from Life and the demolition expert, too.
Speaking as himself, as a person he’d never shown to anyone on the Advena Avis, the man strode boldly forward beneath the sun, as if proclaiming to the whole world that his hidden self was alive again.
And then the melody of a band that was popular in the U.K. issued from inside the man’s jacket.
“…How are you, Fermet?”
The voice from the receiver belonged to an immortal—one who had not been involved in this incident.
“Well, if it isn’t Huey! What’s the occasion? Are you mad I used your name without permission?”
“…Perish the thought. Any actions the guinea pigs choose to take still fall within the parameters of the experiment.” The man’s voice held no emotion at all, and he asked only what he wanted to know. “By the way… I believe you gave your companions some liquor to drink—”
“Relax. It’s just the failed stuff, and I only gave it to three of them. Besides, they’re not my companions. They’re tools. Disposable ones. Hardly worth mentioning,” the young man answered simply. He looked over at the large station wagon that was stopped up ahead.
Inside were the big gorilla-faced man, who was completely unscarred, and—although there was no telling how they’d escaped—Bride’s two secretaries.
“For the record, I would like to ask: What was your objective? What was so worth sinking two ships?” Huey’s tone suggested he already knew the answer.
Fermet was a simple criminal, not a terrorist, but he seemed to be relishing every moment of this as he answered the terrorist’s question.
“It was Czes. He was looking so happy, you see. I like smiles, too, but—”
Huey Laforet knew.
Fermet’s answer sounded facetious—but he was perfectly serious.
“—it’s been a while, and I just wanted to see tears in his eyes again!”
As a matter of fact, he wasn’t lying or hiding anything at all. He’d wanted to torment his “toys”—Czes, Carnea, and Luchino—nothing more.
The young man who’d caused this incident for such a petty reason gazed up at the blue sky over Kyoto with a pleasant smile.
Lebreau Fermet Viralesque.
The man Czes believed he had eaten; the man others believed had been eaten by a different alchemist.
To Czes, and perhaps to other alchemists, too, he was despicable and vile—
—and he had now returned to their world.
Boldly, confidently…
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