“What are you talking about? Have you completely lost your mind?”
Shenmei cast Masato a dubious look. He spoke as though he were a different person. Sure enough, Masato wasn’t his normal self. That said, he didn’t seem to be aware of that.
“Never been saner, lady. If anything, my old behavior was crazier. I got so hung up on chasing money that some jackass decided was valuable that I hurt a bunch of people in the process. Now I see how wrong that was. That’s why I came back to Lakan as an emissary of love!” Masato’s eyes glimmered like a child’s. “Freyjagard’s Emperor Lindworm is trying to create a world where he alone is in charge, and everyone else is treated the same and gets to live in peace. Doing something that big means havin’ to smash all the old ways to smithereens. In other words, we gotta do away with the idea of ‘countries’ like Lakan, Elm, and Azure!”
“…!”
“You’re the chancellor around these parts, Shenmei, so I’m here to ask you to hand control of the Lakan government over to Lindworm! Plus, it’d be great if you could put out a statement as soon as possible renouncing all your wealth and money! That way, Lakan can become a way better place. It’ll be part of a perfect world where nobody ever has to starve or know oppression!”
“I was a merchant once. You think I would ever agree to such drivel?” Shenmei spat.
“Hey, no worries there! Soon, your eyes’ll be opened just like mine! Then you’ll realize that love and peace are the most important things in the world!”
“Y-you’re being creepy!”
Roo cried, shrinking back with obvious fear.
“Damn, Li’l Roo, that kinda hurts.”
“Seriously, Teacher, what happened to you? You’re all weird! Super, super weird! The teacher Roo knows would never say that money doesn’t matter!” Roo’s face was the very portrait of disbelief.
Seeing her expression sent a pang of regret through Masato. He’d influenced her pretty heavily back when he wasn’t a good person—back when he was trapped in money’s thrall. That was surely why she resisted his new message of love and peace. Thus, it was his responsibility to rehabilitate her.
Masato knelt to meet Roo’s gaze. “You saw a lot of the worst parts of me back when I was sick, Li’l Roo, so it’s no wonder this comes as such a shock. But everything I’m sayin’ now is true. We’re all better off without money.”
“?!”
“Having wealth means people will have different amounts, and that’s a breeding ground for conflict. The have-nots end up getting oppressed. Just like my dad, you, and your folks. If not for money…you’d still be back in your homeland, living happily with your family. We gotta purge that stuff from the world. We can’t let it screw with people’s lives.
“That’s why I’m here to take that messed-up value system and smash it into the ground! Love and peace are what really matter, Li’l Roo. I hope you come to see that.”
Masato’s voice was as gentle as could be, and it was filled with more love and affection than Roo had ever heard.
Upon hearing his ideas…
“You’re being a big old dummy, Teacher!!”
…Roo rejected them flat out. She ran over to Shenmei. “Ms. Chancy Lore!”
“Y-yes?”
“Do you have a mirror?!”
“I—I have a hand mirror, yes. Why?”
Roo pulled out a fist-sized pouch of coins. “Roo wants to buy it! For money!”
“That’s fine by me, but I don’t understand why you would want to—”
“Pleasure doing business with you!” Roo shoved the pouch in Shenmei’s hand and snatched away the mirror in a single motion. Then she held it out at Masato. “Teacher! You know that love and peace stuff? Say it to the mirror! Say it while looking at your face!”
“Y’know, I was wondering where you were going with this…,” Masato said with a sigh. He could hardly believe that his actions had corrupted a young girl so thoroughly. What an absolute villain he’d been before his treatment. “You got it. I’ll say it as many times as you want.”
He was happy to indulge Roo until she was convinced and realized that those were the most precious things in the world.
“The world ain’t about money! It’s about love and peace!!” Masato declared while looking at the mirror. His voice was confident, and his smile was bright. “There, I said it. Was that enough to—hic.”
Midway through his sentence, a hiccup escaped his mouth.
“Huh? Hic, hic.”
What was going on? He clutched at his throat in surprise, but the hiccups didn’t stop coming. It felt like all his organs were spasming.
“Say it again, Teacher!”
“Love…and peace… Rrrgh?!”
Pain joined the spasms. The more he looked at his face in the mirror, the more the stomach-churning agony spread from his abdomen. What was going on?
“Again!”
“Love a-a-and…pea-pea-peapeapea…”
The face in the mirror grew warped and contorted, and a cold sweat seeped from his skin. Slowly but surely, a fierce emotion within him began taking shape. Disgust. He was disgusted with his appearance when he spoke of love and peace.
“Again!”
“L-love…aaaAAaa…a…a… C-c’mon, Li’l Roo, surely that’s gotta be enough by now.”
“Roo said, again!”
“S-s-stop it!”
“No stopping! Say it! Say it to the mirror!”
“RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAGH!!!!”
Masato averted his gaze, and when Roo shoved the mirror back in front of his eyes, he let out a cry like a strangled animal and dropped to his knees. However, Roo kept the pressure on and continued pointing the mirror at him from every angle she could.
The Lakan crowd had no idea what was going on, and Masato shared that bewilderment. He felt all mixed up. After Keine’s treatment had freed him from his sickness, he’d finally realized that love and peace were the most virtuous qualities in the world. Why did watching himself express as much aloud inspire revolution in him? What made it so difficult to accept? He’d been cured, so why?
“Teacher, you’re right that Roo, Mommy, and Daddy might not have been split up in a world with no money,” Roo conceded. “But Roo’s never hated money for that, not even a little! After all, it’s what led Roo to meet you! That’s what you bought Roo with!”
“…!”
“Do you remember what Roo told you back then, Teacher? Roo said Roo was gonna make mountains of money, get Mommy and Daddy back…and then give Teacher all the money she had left over.
“Roo’s been looking forward to it for a long time, you know. Roo was really looking forward to making money all on her own and giving mountains of it to Teacher! Money isn’t like words. You can never have enough of it, so you can use it to show someone just how super-duper grateful you are!!”
“Li’l Roo…”
Roo’s voice was growing so tight that it sounded like she was in pain. Masato saw her contorted expression and the tears in her eyes.
The sight of her sent the greatest pang through him of all.
“But…if you say that you don’t care about money anymore, then Roo doesn’t need this, either. After all, it’s not Roo’s money. It’s Teacher’s. So Roo should just throw it in the ocean so it can be with the shinies from the boats!!”
With that, Roo took out a satchel of coins, the profit she’d made off the seed money Masato had given her to buy back her parents, and hurled it into the sea. The moment she did…
“…!”
…the pain spread to every end of Masato’s body like his blood was on fire.
“Masato?!”
Before Shenmei had a chance to stop him, Masato dove into the bay. It was the dead of winter, and as soon as he hit the water, icy needles stabbed at him from every direction.
However, he ignored the pain and dove deeper, fighting through the freezing chill and sting of salt water in his eyes to scour the sea floor for the satchel.
His body shuddered beneath the winter ocean’s bite. It felt as though a web of tiny cracks were spidering across his bones. The rational part of his brain shouted at him for doing something so stupid and reckless. You’ll die if you don’t surface this instant and warm yourself, it warned. Money doesn’t matter, especially not a paltry sum like that.
However…
Why don’t you shut the hell up!
…Masato refused those cries. The emotions driving him had bubbled up from his brain’s medulla, the deepest parts of him, the core of what defined him as an individual.
Sure, money was worthless. Masato had always known that; he didn’t need Keine’s surgery to reveal that much. As a child, he’d grown up never knowing want for anything. Truthfully, he’d had less of an attachment to money than most people. He’d only started hoarding it for revenge. The money itself meant little to him. To Masato, taking wealth from his foes was a way to drive them to their ruin, nothing more.
However, avenging his father required help from a whole lot of people, and once Masato had finally exacted his vengeance, money was the instrument by which he expressed gratitude that words alone couldn’t express.
Each of his employees used their fortunes in a completely different way. Some of them saved it all away for the future. Others had big dreams and invested in themselves. There were those who spent it lavishly pursuing their interests and those who used it for their families. A few even struck out independently and became new business rivals for Masato.
And they’d all done so happily.
All of them had used money to make their wishes come true, and when Masato saw the joy in their expressions, he’d finally understood what the money he’d used as a weapon of revenge truly was.
Money was people.
It was their hopes, goals, and dreams. That made Masato love money. And through it, he loved people.
Roo’s wishes were sinking into the sea. The dream she’d held precious for a year was falling into the dark. It didn’t deserve to be thrown away. Sure, someone thought that money was worthless…
…but Masato Sanada sure as shit ain’t one of ’em!!
Something in Masato’s brain snapped, like the thin thread holding it up had given way.
He reached out and his fingers closed around the pouch at the bottom of the harbor.
Then he dragged himself back up to the edge of the dock…
“…I thought you didn’t care about money anymore.”
…and when Roo glared at him, he tossed back the pouch and gave his reply.
“I was promised a mountain. This feels a bit light. Try again, kiddo.”
There was nothing gentle about his expression. It was his classic provocative snarl of a grin.
All the hair on Roo’s body stood on end…
“Teeeeeeacher!!!!”
…and she leaped at Masato and wrapped him in an embrace.
Afterward, Masato had a few people start a fire somewhere the sea breeze couldn’t reach. While warming himself, he explained recent events to Shenmei.
“…So to summarize, this fellow angel of yours named Keine betrayed you, manipulated you, and messed with your head,” Shenmei said.
“That’s about the gist of it, yeah,” Masato replied. “Aaaachoo!”
“Teacher! Roo brought more firewood and dry clothes for you.”
“Ah, you’re a lifesaver. You can set them right here.”
“Each log is one gold coin!”
“You’re extorting me now?!”
“If you don’t want them, Roo doesn’t have to give them to you.”
“Fine, I’ll take ’em! I’ll buy ’em all! Give ’em here, quick!”
After practically snatching the logs out of Roo’s hands, Masato weakly lobbed them into the flames.
Shenmei let out an exasperated sigh at the sight. “You really are a fool. What did you think would happen when you dove into the water in winter?”
“Hey, at least it sobered me up.” Masato’s mind had been draped in a pink shroud, but now he saw things clearly. He understood exactly what would happen to this world and knew who he needed to warn. “Bottom line is Dr. Keine and Lindworm are teaming up to give everyone in the world the same procedure that screwed me up.”
“…!”
“And they’ve got the chops to pull it off, too. Lindworm’s a freak with so much magic juice he was able to freeze a hundred thousand New World troops in a single shot. This world’s militaries don’t stand a chance. He only sent me over first as an act of mercy.”
“…And you’re saying that if we surrender peacefully, he’ll spare our lives?”
Masato shook his head. “Oh, he’s not gonna kill you either way. He doesn’t have to. Even if war breaks out, he’s strong enough that he’d be able to make you submit without breakin’ a sweat. Lindworm’s strength is too far beyond to match. I told you, this was just him being merciful.”
“………”
“There’s no way to fight our way out of this one. If we wanna break Lindworm and the good doctor, we’ll have to beat them in the realm of ideas and philosophies. For my money, there’s only one guy in the whole world who can pull that off.”
“You mean…Tsukasa?” Roo asked.
The ability to evaluate people she’d developed under Masato’s tutelage wasn’t merely for show. Roo’s teacher gave her a nod. “Lindworm’s got some strong ideals, and we’re never gonna be able to convince him to change. Merchants like us won’t be able to cut it. If we wanna go up against someone like that, we need a person who embodies a philosophy that’s equally as powerful.”
“Your plan is to talk him down, then?” Shenmei questioned skeptically. “You really believe that will work against such a tyrant?”
“Hell if I know. But I like our odds trying that than staking it all on a fight.”
“………”
When Masato put it like that, Shenmei had little choice but to agree. She’d already heard about how the New World had fallen to a single stroke of Lindworm’s sword.
“I have a proposition for you, Chancellor Shenmei Li. What would you say to the remaining four nations—Elm, Lakan, Azure, and Yamato—forming a wartime alliance against Lindworm?”
“You would have us present a united front?”
“Yeah. Tsukasa’s a politician, so mobilizing others is what he’s best at. The more people he has to lead, the better.”
“Very well. Setting aside the matter of whether Angel Tsukasa will end up being in charge, it’s clear that Lakan stands no chance against Lindworm alone. I’ll make the arrangements at once. Since your plan hinges on him, I assume Angel Tsukasa is safe.”
Masato let out a hearty laugh. “Oh yeah. That guy’s too big a moron to ever fix, no matter how many times you crack his head open.”
As far as Tsukasa went, Masato wasn’t concerned in the slightest. If Masato had shaken off Keine’s tampering, then Tsukasa was undoubtedly fine. However…
…I am a bit concerned about Ringo.
Masato faintly recalled being captured. He’d been in a cell with Ringo and Tsukasa. That meant the genius scientist had likely received Keine’s procedure.
Was she all right?
Masato was worried about her and for good reason. Over in Elm, things were playing out exactly as he feared.
“Stop it, angel! You can’t do that!!” Cranberry’s grief-stricken plea echoed down an intersection in Dulleskoff, the capital of the Republic of Elm.
However, Ringo didn’t stop. After using her administrative privileges to rid Bearabbit of his ability to move freely and forcing him to approach her, she began using her All-Purpose Gloves’ tools to strip his body apart.
When she plucked off all his manipulator arms, he dropped to the ground.
Bearabbit was a mentor to many of this world’s scientists, and the blood drained from Cranberry’s face upon seeing him reduced to such a sorry state. “There’s something wrong with you! Removing science from the world is wrong! The angel I know would never say something so preposterous! What’s gotten into you?!”
“I was sick back then, Cranberry.”
“What…?”
“I was obsessed with learning more, with building more, with…with progressing more. I was consumed by greed. I couldn’t stop all the ideas building in me and gave the world so many needless things. I knew that depending on what people did with them, they could be used to kill, but I did so anyway.”
Ringo had done that on Earth and on this planet as well. She’d followed every instruction Tsukasa had given her, and that had brought all sorts of science and technology into the world. As a result, a small uprising in a tiny village had grown into a war that spanned the entire continent. Ringo regretted all of it. At last she understood how completely foolish she’d been.
“I should never have built him.”
“ ?!”
“And when you make a mistake, it’s important to fix it with your own two hands.”
“Do you even hear what you’re saying?!” Cranberry cried, her eyes wide at Ringo’s audacity. “Saying you ought not to have built something is the one thing we scientists should absolutely never, ever say! No matter the results, we creators have no right to reject our creations!”
“It’s okay, Cranbeary.”
“Bearabbit?!”
The AI called to Cranberry as she lashed out at Ringo. Then he turned his display back to face his creator. “I was built to make Ringo happy. If she finds me unbearable…then going away is for the best. Tail me, Ringo, is this what you want?”
“Yeah,” Ringo answered. “Science is the enemy of peace. We have to get rid of it. So please.”
“You got it.” Bearabbit accepted Ringo’s request without objection. A system voice different from his own played from his speakers. He’d activated his auto-deletion program. “System: Uninstalling Bearabbit. Please do not power off your machine.”
“Bearabbit… Thank you for understanding.”
“I’m a management AI designed to cover things you’re underkoalafied for. If you’ll get along fine without me, then there’s no reason fur me to exist. If you want me to go, I will.”
It was perfectly sensible for a management program. A sad smile appeared on Bearabbit’s display.
“Come on, Ringo. This is what you want. So why are you giving me that beareaved look fur? I want you to have a smile on your face.”
“Huh…?”
What bereaved expression? Ringo didn’t understand what Bearabbit was getting at, and she cocked her head in confusion.
That was when the tears started gently falling from the corners of her eyes.
“Wait, why am I…?”
Why was she crying? Getting rid of Bearabbit, of all advanced science, was supposed to be a good step toward making the world a perfect place. Keine’s surgery had helped Ringo finally understand.
Why did she feel overcome with terrible sadness?
Ringo couldn’t make heads or tails of it.
“Ringo, do you remembear the day I was born?” Bearabbit asked.
“That was so long ago…”
Ringo couldn’t remember that far back. At least, she thought she couldn’t. Yet the moment the words left her mouth, the memories rushed from the back to the forefront of her mind.
After Tsukasa helped reinvigorate her love of inventing, Ringo had made up her mind to start over as a scientist.
However, she was terrible at dealing with others, so joining a university lab full of strangers was off the table. She realized that her only option was to start up a research institution of her own. Unfortunately, her mother had cut all legal ties with her, and she was the one who’d always handled Ringo’s management and other administrative matters. If Ringo wanted to create a lab, she would need to take care of the communications with academic societies, interactions with the media, material procurements, and other miscellaneous tasks her mother had dealt with.
The mere thought filled her with terror.
Amid that fright, she realized something. If she built an artificial intelligence to compensate in areas she was lacking, then it could handle all business operations for her.
That idea marked the birth of Bearabbit the management AI.
“Hi there, Ringo!
“I’m going to be your manager from now on!
“Whenefur you need help with communicating with academic societies, interacting with the media, pawcuring materials, or advice about your love life…
“…just leave it to me!”
“We built all sorts of things. Do you remembear our first creation together?”
Ringo did.
Someone had labeled the memories irrelevant and hidden them away, but they were slowly returning.
After developing Bearabbit, Ringo delegated all her admin work to him and buried herself in research. As a result, she produced groundbreaking new inventions to the world at a greater rate than under her mother. And when the world learned that the great scientist had returned, its eyes locked onto her.
Interview requests had poured in, increasing by the day. Ringo had acquired a strange fandom when the media dubbed her the “Beautiful Prodigy Inventor,” and there were fellow inventors none too pleased about her exceptional genius. Ringo had been at the center of all sorts of different desires…and she’d found it exhausting.
Upon noticing Ringo’s troubles, Bearabbit had offered a suggestion.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Ringo, but there isn’t a single pawsition on Earth where you’ll be able to take it easy!
“So what do you say we move off the Earth altogether?
“I’ve already drawn up a blueprint!”
After reviewing the schematic on Bearabbit’s display, Ringo applauded what a good idea it was. People would have a much harder time pursuing and pestering her if she were in outer space.
That said, Ringo was amazed that Bearabbit had taken the initiative to draw up an entire blueprint. Although surprised, she knew that she’d based Bearabbit off herself. Perhaps he’d wanted to create something alongside her.
Ringo had originally built Bearabbit as a management AI, but once that possibility dawned on her, she decided to give him a body equipped with a series of manipulator arms. So it was that the two of them donned their space suits and got to work constructing a space station.
It was their first tandem creation.
“We’ve had pawlenty of perilous times, too.”
They certainly had.
Shortly after the shuttle was completed, they began a series of trips to bring all the pieces of the space station into orbit. Ringo was kidnapped while on Earth during one of those trips. To this day, they still had no idea who the culprits were, but given the level of armaments and vehicles they had access to, they were clearly backed by a nation-level force. Presumably, they’d been covert operatives sent by some country.
After abducting Ringo and sticking her on a cruiser headed god-knows-where, they had interrogated her mercilessly. Ringo was able to piece together their broken English. In short, their demand had boiled down to “Build us a time machine.”
Ringo had a theory on how to navigate space-time, but she’d shaken her head in the negative all the same. She knew exactly what kind of an immeasurable impact tampering with time would have on the world if she put her ideas into practice. No matter how much danger she was in, there was no way she could’ve casually handed it over to some group she knew nothing about.
They’d claimed they’d kill her on the spot if she didn’t acquiesce, yet she continued to shake her head.
When one of the agents had grown impatient and went to administer a truth serum…
“Ringo! I’m here to give you a helping paw!”
…Bearabbit, who’d modded himself to be combat ready, had leaped onboard the cruiser. His many firearms possessed a devastating combination of power and accuracy, and it took him little time to rescue Ringo by eliminating every other human aboard the ship.
What would have become of her if not for Bearabbit? It was scary just thinking about it.
“All of those memories are pawrecious.”
They were.
They were.
“You should never have been born.”
Ever since Ringo’s mother told her as much, Bearabbit had been her only family. He’d always been right by her side, and they’d shared everything. The good and the bad.
What…what had she said about her precious family member?
“I should never have built him.”
“N-no…”
Hot agony lanced through Ringo’s head like fissures spreading across her brain.
Ringo scratched at her scalp so hard it felt as though her nails scraped her skull…
“No, no, no, no, nononononono!!”
…yet all the while, she clung to the pain. It assailed her each time she rejected her current self, and she knew that meant she could use it as a signpost back to sanity.
Ringo had realized something.
There was something wrong with her. That was obvious. No scientist would ever say such a thing about their creation.
Ringo Oohoshi would never do that!!
“Ringo, you said that you should never have built me. And maybe you find me unbearable now. But the fact that you built me made me beary, beary happy. Thank you, Ringo.”
He was saying good-bye.
The pain eating away at Ringo’s head grew stronger than ever…
…but suddenly, a snap rippled through her, vanishing as quickly as it came.
“Bearabbit, no! That’s not true! That’s not how I feel at all!!” she cried.
Tears gushed from her eyes, and she grabbed his display with both hands.
“I feel the same way! I was happy spending that time with you! So happy! After Mom left, I would have been so alone without you!
“I never wished I hadn’t built you!
“I’d have been completely lost! And not just because of the academic societies and the material acquisition, either! You’re the one who makes sure I get up in the morning, go to bed at night, and eat properly, remember?! You even give me advice about my love life!”
Ringo recalled something as she spoke. She remembered the cowardly way she’d fled from Lyrule back at the Tomino Basin. How terribly weak she’d been.
Without someone to give her that extra push, she was hopeless.
“I couldn’t tell Tsukasa how I felt! I wasn’t brave enough! I knew that I needed to tell him I loved him, but I was too scared to get the words out! I can’t do anything on my own! I can’t be brave unless you’re cheering for me! So please, Bearabbit, please don’t leave me!!”
Despite Ringo’s desperate plea, the stout, almost egg-shaped character had already vanished from Bearabbit’s display. Now it was just a black screen…
T H a n k y o
“System: Bearabbit has been successfully uninstalled.”
A system voice that wasn’t Bearabbit’s announced his deletion.
As soon as the message finished playing, Bearabbit’s final text message disappeared, leaving behind nothing but a blank screen.
“……”
“Bearabbit… It can’t be!” As an engineering exchange student, Cranberry had a basic understanding of how software worked, so she understood what had just happened. Essentially, Bearabbit had died. She was so overcome by sorrow she sank to the ground and wept. “No… Noooooo!!”
How could this have happened?
Then, after her sadness subsided, a wave of rage arrived to take its place.
How could she do this?
She glared daggers over at Ringo, who’d slid a keyboard out from Bearabbit’s body and was clacking away at a staggering speed. Was she planning on destroying Bearabbit more than she already had?
Cranberry rose to her feet to stop her. However, a new animation flashed across Bearabbit’s display before she got very far, one of him leaping from a coffin. She froze. “Hwehhh?”
“I’m so sorry about that, Bearabbit,” said Ringo. “I wasn’t myself.”
“Don’t worry about it. I figured that was a pawssibility, so it’s good I displayed subliminal images of that old photo album on my screen.”
“Oh… So that’s why I remembered all those old memories… Good going.”
The two of them were chatting as though nothing had happened, leaving Cranberry alone in confusion. “Huh? What? But, Bearabbit, didn’t you die?”
“Hmm…? Yeah. I reinstalled him.”
“I keep real-time backups all over the place. It’ll take way more than that to keep me bearied. Remember, it’s important to back up your work!”
“………”
Upon hearing that, Cranberry remembered that Bearabbit frequently reminded her to back up work data to the network in her software class.
In other words, Bearabbit had been acting during that emotion-packed exchange…
“Y-you owe me a refund on my tears!!”
…and that infuriated Cranberry to the point that she kicked Bearabbit firmly.
“Owwwww!”
“Wh-why are you so mad? Calm down, Cranberry…”
“Gah—what the—?!”
Ringo, Cranberry, and Bearabbit’s exchange was interrupted in the most unusual way.
“Oh no, Akatsuki! Bearabbit’s all beaten up!”
“Yikes! What the heck’s going on here?!”
“…!”
A pair of familiar voices sounded from overhead. The three of them looked up at once…
“I can’t bearlieve my eyes! It’s Akatsuki and Lyrule!”
…and saw that Akatsuki, Lyrule, and Shinobu had ridden the wind all the way up to Dulleskoff.
Masato and Ringo had managed to reclaim the greed they’d lost to Keine’s surgery, albeit with a little difficulty.
Elsewhere, a man watched these events transpire from start to end. And that man, who’d obtained the power to magically spy across great distances from his throne in Drachen…
“……………”
…was none other than Emperor Lindworm.
“You know, I wondered how you’d argue your point,” Keine said. When Tsukasa offered Masato and Ringo as the basis for why her plan to save humanity was doomed to fail, she gave him an exasperated shrug. “My surgery freed them from the disease that is greed. Now they understand just how wrong they’d been and are taking proactive steps to atone.”
“It’s impressive that your procedure was able to make them believe that was true, even for just a short time, but ultimately, it’s not going to amount to anything but a temporary delusion.”
“………”
A look of utmost displeasure flitted across Keine’s face at having her treatment written off as a delusion, but Tsukasa went on undeterred. “You’re such an exceptional prodigy that you would attempt to surpass God in your quest to save humanity through medicine. However, you need to remember that Ringo and Masato are prodigies that exceed all common sense in their own fields, too. I find it difficult to imagine them rejecting everything they’ve built up for any meaningful length of time. Especially not from a surgery that was unable to remove my greed.”
Keine’s eyes narrowed. “You have greed…?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe. You described me as selfless, but there isn’t a person alive who isn’t greedy. Everyone has desires. As a matter of fact, I’m overcome with a pretty strong want right now. All of my emotions, all of my rage, are screaming at me to hit you for killing Lyrule.”
“ !”
The fires of wrath flared in Tsukasa’s heterochromatic eyes. They spoke of a violent sentiment that shouldn’t have been present in anyone who’d received Keine’s good boy surgery—it was malice.
Keine’s face froze upon seeing something so utterly incompatible with the kind hearts she created.
“It wouldn’t do anything but make me feel better. After all, it wouldn’t bring Lyrule back, but I can’t help but want to hit you anyway. Me, selfless? What a joke. And if you can’t alter someone like me, there’s no way you could possibly suppress their greed.
“And I don’t think that’s unique to Ringo and Masato, either. The imperials are in the same boat. Sooner or later, their avarice will reawaken, and your poorly conceived plan will come crashing down around you. It’s impossible to remove people’s greed with your methods.”
When faced with a declaration like that from the failed example that was Tsukasa, Keine found herself having trouble coming up with a counterargument. “How can you be so—?”
“You place far too much confidence in mankind’s greed.”
“!”
A new voice cut in.
The voice had come from behind Keine and Aoi. A golden light shined through the dungeon. It warped and coalesced into a humanoid shape.
Everyone present knew the man who appeared.
“Lindworm…”
“Emperor Lindworm…”
After using teleportation magic, Lindworm cast a brief glance at Tsukasa. “I believe this is our first time seeing each other since the Tomino Basin.” Then he turned to Keine. “Keine, the man speaks the truth. The two who received your procedure and left for Elm and Lakan respectively have regained their greed.”
“Wh—?!” Keine’s face made it clear she could scarcely believe the emperor’s words. “I made…an error…?”
It was hard to blame her. She had all the pride that came with the title of prodigy doctor, and she was confident that she never erred when it came to curing people. Yet Tsukasa, Ringo, and Masato had all overcome her treatment.
As her face went pale…
“It’s three anomalies, nothing more.”
…the emperor offered an explanation.
“It doesn’t change the fact that the people of the empire have been freed from their wants and live in eternal, conflict-free peace under a ruler who will never perish. We have made no mistake. The plan proceeds smoothly. It’s these people who are aberrant.”
Lindworm cast his eyes back down at the chained-up young man.
“Tsukasa, was it? You accused my world of having no room for happiness. But thanks to Keine freeing my people from their excessive greed, they’ve come to realize that true joy is living each day in peace with their loved ones. They live to the fullest now.
“They cheer my name and smile at the thought of living under my rule. My empire has no deficiencies or inequality. It’s a perfect world where everyone is content. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Lindworm’s world had become more perfect than ever. Could Tsukasa truly make the same claim he had back at the Tomino Basin?
Tsukasa responded immediately.
“You’re wrong.”
The raw weight of Lindworm’s presence caused the hairs on the back of his neck to burn, but Tsukasa looked the emperor square in the eyes anyway and flatly shut him down.
“I’ll say it as many times as I have to, Lindworm. Your world has no room for happiness. This experiment of yours is doomed to fail.”
“You sound awfully confident.”
“That’s because I am. The two of you are blind to greed’s true nature. You’ve misunderstood it on a fundamental level.”
“…Elaborate.”
“It’ll be faster to show you.” With that, Tsukasa stood to face Lindworm properly. Despite his imprisonment, he insisted he was an equal to the emperor. Then he made his demand. “Emperor Lindworm, I challenge you to a contest.”
“What manner of contest?”
“Give me and this world’s remaining nations one year. I’ll take the perfect world you’re trying to build and shatter it so completely that it will seem like it never existed. And I’ll do it by taking those very citizens you claim are so fulfilled and getting them to renounce the Freyjagard Empire of their own free will.”
“………!”
“If I can do that, I want you to admit that your philosophy is flawed and end all your inane attempts at conquest. If you’re really so certain that the world you’re building will be enough to satisfy people, you should have no reason to turn me down.”
Lindworm’s expression had been as stoic as a cliff face, but now it took on a slight sharpness. Given that Tsukasa had just declared his intent to take the imperial citizens Keine had stripped of greed and shown true happiness to and get them to renounce Lindworm, it was a reasonable enough reaction.
Tsukasa wasted no time doubling down on his accusation. “To be honest, I doubt it will take a year for your empire to implode all on its own.”
Lindworm understood there was nothing Tsukasa could do if he refused the challenge. The boy would simply end up rotting away in his cell. Of course he made an outlandish claim in a bid to escape.
Meanwhile, Lindworm had the utmost faith in his world—enough so that he didn’t need Tsukasa’s approval. No matter how Tsukasa felt about things, his words were nothing more than the ramblings of an anomaly. All Lindworm had to do was keep him locked up until Keine was finished applying her treatment, and that would be the end of it. Accepting Tsukasa’s challenge was a concession, a meaningless act of clemency.
And yet…
“Very well,” Lindworm replied. “I shall permit you to defy me.”
A spark of interest had ignited in the emperor. He wanted to see why Tsukasa could be so confident that his and Keine’s perfect world would fail.
Still, he had conditions.
“However.” Lindworm glowered at Tsukasa and drew his sword. “When you fail to convince me, I will expect you to deliver this world and the nation you govern unto me.”
His blade lashed out and cleaved through Tsukasa’s bindings.
“You have my word.” Tsukasa, now freed from his restraints, accepted Lindworm’s terms. As the person who’d proposed the contest, he was hardly in a position to bargain.
Now that he and Lindworm had an understanding…
“Nio, let’s go.”
“Y-yes, sir!”
…Tsukasa took Nio and headed for the dungeon’s exit. Keine glared at him with hatred and resentment burning in her eyes, and as Tsukasa passed her…
“Aoi, what’s the plan?”
…he posed a question to the young woman standing behind her.
“Judging by your expression, I can tell that you never got Keine’s surgery.”
“……!”
A look of naked shock formed on Aoi’s face.
Tsukasa was right. Out of all the captured Prodigies, Aoi was the one person Keine hadn’t treated. Tsukasa had picked up on that by watching her expressions during his conversations with Keine and Lindworm.
“Do you want to return to Elm with me?” he asked, curious to know what the prodigy swordmaster would do next.
Aoi gave him an uncharacteristically meek look. “I am but a fool, so I know not if Keine and the emperor’s methods are just.”
Keine’s method, fiddling with people’s brains to remove their greed and mending their wickedness to the point they became wholly different persons, was a blunt one. Aoi likely harbored reservations about it. However…
“But…in my time racing across battlefields, I have come to understand, that I have. I know that many are robbed of the chance to live in peace. The world is full of such injustices.”
Aoi had seen the same horrors Keine had.
They’d watched innocent people be ousted from their homes, driven from their countries, and denied the right to live for the sole crime of being weaker than those in power. Even now, there were places back on Earth where such atrocities were a mere fact of existence.
And thus…
“If such injustices can be eliminated, then seeking to do so is noble as I see it. So…I shall not be returning to Elm.”
…Aoi had arrived at the same answer as Keine and Lindworm.
“I see. If that’s how you feel, then I won’t force you.”
Tsukasa didn’t push the issue after hearing Aoi’s feelings. Disappointment colored his voice, but he resumed his departure all the same.
When he passed Aoi…he spoke so quietly that only she could hear. “Look after Keine for me.”
“…Hmm?”
What did he mean by that?
Aoi whirled around to ask Tsukasa to elaborate, but she was interrupted. Before she had the chance to speak, Tsukasa offered a thought as casually as someone recalling something in the middle of a friendly chat.
“Ah, right. I did have an additional request for you, Emperor Lindworm. I hope you don’t mind.”
Ten days after Ringo’s attack on Dulleskoff, Masato and Roo returned to Elm’s capital to join Lyrule and the others.
After some hurried pleasantries, Masato asked Akatsuki why Shinobu hadn’t come. Akatsuki’s expression darkened.
Shinobu had worked herself harder than her body could take, and she was bedridden with a case of pneumonia.
“Hey, Mash, any news? How’s Shinobu doing?”
“Her lungs were incredibly inflamed, but thanks to Dr. Keine’s sulfa drugs, she’s starting to improve.”
“Oh, thank goodness…”
“Watch yourself, Prince.”
Akatsuki was so relieved to hear the good news from the doctor who’d been looking after Shinobu that he’d completely forgotten to maintain his feigned majesty. Masato reminded him with a jab from his elbow.
“Er, a-hem! Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Excellent work, Mash! I will allow you to continue tending to Shinobu!”
“Thank you, sir!”
Mash, the young byuma doctor, was clearly overjoyed to be entrusted with such an important task by the Republic of Elm’s founding deity. He stood with his back held perfectly straight as he gave his reply. Then, with a confident stride, he left the dining room where the Prodigies were gathered and returned to Shinobu’s hospital room.
After listening to make sure he was gone, Akatsuki slumped in his chair. “Man…it’s exhausting having to keep the act going after so long. Honestly, can’t we just drop it already? It’s not like we’re actually involved in Elm’s politics anymore.”
“Nah, that’s a no-go. After springin’ Kaguya outta jail without waiting for the national assembly’s approval, the angel stuff is the only reason they’re even letting us across the border,” Masato pointed out.
“Oh yeah, I guess you’ve got a point,” Akatsuki replied. He thought back to the whole Yamato self-governing dominion situation.
Back then, Akatsuki and the others had freed Kaguya and Shura from Elm imprisonment on Tsukasa’s instructions without getting permission from the national assembly. The Seven Luminaries had gone to war with Freyjagard over the Yamato affair, and the jailbreak had been designed to give the Elm national assembly an excuse to cut ties with them if necessary.
Instead of doing that, though, the assembly had elected to maintain its relationship with the Seven Luminaries and dispatch troops to Yamato in the name of their equality for all ideology. That’s why Elm still offered the High School Prodigies its protection. Elm’s people thought the Seven Luminaries were divine beings, and as the supposed god, Akatsuki couldn’t afford to break the illusion.
“S-still… I’m glad. Shinobu…was really…burning up…back there.” Ringo looked relieved.
Lyrule, who sat beside the prodigy inventor, shared the same sentiment. “She went to such absurd lengths for us and kept it going alone for so long. What about you two, Masato and Ringo? Are you all right?”
“Yeah, that’s a good question,” Akatsuki agreed. “We had it pretty rough, but you guys were in a bad way, too. Boy, I was shocked at how it all went down. The minute we showed up in Elm, Bearabbit was already in pieces.”
“I’m a machine, so unlike you humans, all I need is a few new parts and you can bearly tell that anything happened. Still, I’m worried about that brain tampering. Do you want me to take some X-rays?” Bearabbit asked.
Masato shook his head. “Nah, I’m good. It’s not like it hurts. A pro like Dr. Keine wouldn’t screw up anything in my head she didn’t mean to.”
“I’m…okay…too. Even if there was something wrong with me…I’m not sure…we’d be able to do anything about it,” Ringo said, refusing Bearabbit’s offer as well. Then…
“More importantly, um…”
…she faced the girl who ought to be dead.
“Are you…really okay…Lyrule?”
Ringo and Masato had their brains fiddled with, but Lyrule had actually come back to life. Ringo couldn’t begin to imagine what kind of state someone would be in after that.
However…
“I am. Yggdra… Yggdra gave me my life back.”
…Lyrule gave the other girl a hearty smile. As far as she could tell, there was nothing wrong with her body.
Masato whistled, impressed. “Damn, magic’s really somethin’ else. Swapping around lives? Earth’s science ain’t got nothing on that yet.”
“Neuro…sort of told us that…back when we first met,” Ringo remarked. “He said that in his world…magic ended up replacing…science.”
“Oh yeah, and that’s how he knew about nukes,” Masato replied. “I guess that means, from a technological standpoint, his society was more advanced than ours.”
The Prodigies’ inexperience in dealing with magic had been the source of a lot of trouble during the battle with Gustav, and from what they’d heard, their current foe had access to power far beyond that. For Masato and the others, things were shaping up to be a real headache.
“If people can go around handin’ out lives willy-nilly, it means the emperor’s basically immortal,” Masato said. “We need to do something quick…or this world and Earth are both in some deep shit.”
“………”
A heavy pall descended on the dining room. Everyone understood that Keine joining Lindworm meant the present threat went beyond one world.
“Do you have some sort of plan?” Akatsuki asked.
Masato raised his hands in surrender. “Nah. Not a damn thing.”
The prodigy magician frowned. “Some help you turned out to be.”
“There’s nothing for a merchant to do here,” Masato replied. “Lindworm’s acting off ideals, not profit-loss calculations. If we wanna beat him, we need someone who can do the same thing—someone who’s willin’ to do whatever it takes to help others and doesn’t give a rat’s ass about personal gain.”
“I-in other words…we need…”
Masato nodded at Ringo’s faltering words. “Yeah. We need Tsukasa. He’s the prodigy politician, so he operates in the same realm as Lindworm. We gotta rescue his ass, no matter what it takes. But there’s a problem.” Masato scratched his head in frustration. “I was kinda counting on Shinobu for that, but she’s in no state to rescue anyone.”
Aoi was still missing, meaning Shinobu was the only person who stood a chance of retrieving Tsukasa from the empire. With her out of commission, the plan was dead in the water.
“You know, like half of that is your fault.”
“Urk…”
Masato let out a small groan at Akatsuki’s barb. “Half” was a bit aggressive, but Masato was well aware that he was about 30 percent responsible for Shinobu’s condition.
That aside, the fact that Shinobu was out of action meant the group needed a different tactic. The deadline the emperor gave Elm and Yamato back at the Byakkokan Checkpoint was fast approaching, and if they didn’t do something soon, it would come and go. It was only a matter of time before Lindworm came and attacked them.
All right, brain, get your ass in gear…
Masato’s expression went stern. No sooner did he sink into serious thought than he was interrupted.
“Hey, everyone! Get a load of this!”
“It’s big news! Huuuge news!”
The dining room door flew open. Elch and Roo came charging in.
Ringo and Akatsuki were timid by nature, and the sudden commotion caused them both to leap out of their seats.
“……!”
“Y-you nearly gave me a heart attack there! You know you can just open the door normally, right?!” Akatsuki shouted.
Masato had half a mind to offer his own complaints, but on seeing how serious Elch and Roo looked, he fought back the urge and shot them a question instead. “What’s goin’ on, you two?”
“C-come with us! Outside!”
“Hurry! Hurry!”
“………?”
The High School Prodigies gave the pair’s rushed summons a series of confused looks, but they followed.
When they emerged from the Elm government building…
“You gotta be kidding me.”
…Masato spotted the young man and byuma boy just past the entrance and let out a bemused laugh.
He would have recognized that head of white hair shining silver in the sunlight and those mismatched red and blue eyes anywhere.
“Tsukasa!!”
Lyrule cried out his name. The young man standing before the building was the very person Masato had been desperately trying to figure out how to spring from captivity—Tsukasa Mikogami.
The moment Lyrule saw Tsukasa, she took off like a shot and barreled straight toward him.
Tsukasa, on the other hand, stared at her in disbelief, stunned to see her alive.
“Lyrule! But how…?!”
Lindworm’s seal had been broken, and Tsukasa had been sure that that meant Lyrule was dead. He had no idea she’d been resurrected.
Lyrule seized Tsukasa by the shoulders, concern plain in her eyes. “Tsukasa! Are you all right?! Does anything feel strange or different to you?! You’re not going to start saying that democracy was a mistake or something like that, are you?!”
Lyrule had heard all about what befell Masato and Ringo, and she worried the same might have happened to Tsukasa.
Tsukasa responded by putting on his most comforting smile…
“I wasn’t planning on it, no. It would seem that I’m so stubborn that not even treatment from a prodigy physician is enough to cure me.”
…and telling a joke.
When she realized that he was unchanged…
“Oh, thank goodness…~~”
“Oof!”
…Lyrule was so overcome with emotion that she practically hurled herself against his chest and began sobbing.
Upon seeing her like that, Tsukasa decided to hold off on his questions about how she’d survived. He didn’t need to know the answer right away. She was still breathing, and that was what mattered.
“I’m really sorry about all this. You were placed in a pretty scary situation back there…and it was all because of one of my allies. Still, I’m relieved to see you again.”
Lyrule shook her head. “I’m glad I get to see you again, too.” After calming down a bit, she stepped back and gave Tsukasa a big smile as she wiped away her tears.
Tsukasa closed his eyes like he was fighting something back, let out a long exhale, nodded, and looked at each of the High School Prodigies who’d beaten him to Elm in turn. Nearly the entire team was present, but there was one person unaccounted for. “Where’s Shinobu?”
“She worked herself harder than her body could bear,” Bearabbit answered. “She’s resting now. We just got some pawsitive news that she’s recovering, though.”
“Ah. Well, that’s good to hear. I’m glad that everyone is more or less okay.”
“You stole the words out of our mouths,” Akatsuki said. “Good job breaking out.”
“Seriously,” agreed Masato. “How the hell’d you pull that off?”
“…I negotiated with the emperor.”
Ringo tilted her head. “You…negotiated?”
“That’s right. And there’s a few things I need to tell you all.”
To answer Ringo’s question fully, Tsukasa explained everything that had transpired in the empire. He told them about Keine’s ambitions, Lindworm’s objective, and how Aoi remained behind. Finally, he went over the showdown he and Lindworm had scheduled one year from now.
After hearing the whole story, Masato sighed with amazement. “So you didn’t just escape; you actually got the guy to agree to a fight with fair rules? Hot damn, man, you work fast.”
“So our job is to use that extra year to figure out a way to get all of the people of the empire to come to their senses the way Masato and Ringo did?” Akatsuki asked.
Tsukasa nodded. Akatsuki had summed it up nicely. “Keine and Aoi are working for the other side as well, but at the end of the day, their entire plan hinges on Lindworm’s overwhelming strength. If we get him to back down, we win.”
When Tsukasa said that, Masato let out a vexed groan. “Still, that’s not gonna be easy. That surgery of Dr. Keine’s was strong enough to make me say that money didn’t matter.”
Ringo nodded in agreement. Despite leaving their memories intact, the procedure had wholly changed their values. The two of them had firsthand experience with how terrifying that power was.
“I only came back from that because I knew how much I could achieve with money. But most people here don’t know that. Living in peace with full stomachs is enough for ’em. And it’s no wonder this world’s full of folks like that.”
Masato and Ringo had escaped Keine’s shackles thanks to their greed, but the size of a person’s avarice was proportional to the size of their society. There were a limited number of routes a life could take in this world. As a result, not many people would possess greed on par with the High School Prodigies.
Getting the people of the empire to reject Lindworm’s dystopia promised to be an uphill battle. If they decided that they were happy abandoning education and recreation, letting their world stagnate, and living in peace under an unassailable ruler, then the Prodigies were done for.
“Well, you’re the one who challenged Lindworm. You got some sorta plan?” Masato asked worriedly.
Tsukasa’s reply…
“Naturally.”
…rang with confidence.
The smile on his face was downright dauntless. He knew exactly how to end Lindworm’s tyranny and what the High School Prodigies needed to do.
“One year from now…we’re going to hold a world fair here in Elm.”
“A…”
“A world fair?!”
No one had expected that.
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