Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume15 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 22===

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“Nice to see you again, Heivia. And the girl…what was her name again?”

She smiled brightly.

If that was all, it would have been an innocent girl’s smile that inspired a protective desire in all who saw it. Her bright green special suit was held tight against the minimal curves of her slender body and a large ribbon provided a florid touch that felt out of place. Her allure combined the cuteness of a younger girl with the seductiveness of an older girl. But that was exactly how she had fooled so many people, relaxed their tension, created an opening, and ultimately consumed them.

“But it’s too bad. Quenser was the one I most wanted to see. Look, it’s Hand Axe! I went to a lot of trouble getting the real deal, so I have to make its debut worth it.”

“What…are you doing?”

He knew. He knew who this was in front of him.

But Heivia raised his voice with a look of utter disbelief.

“Why the hell did the Faith Organization let you out of your cage!? Is everyone in this world a crazy girl!?”

“Love and hate are complexly intertwined, Heivia. Just like how I came to love explosions. Ah ha ha! It’s just like the stereotype that, if you look into a serial killer’s background, you’ll find they were terribly abused when they were young. Y’know, where you can say everyone involved was a victim. Ha ha ha ha ha!!”

Myonri was clearly shaken and Heivia immediately switched from his handgun to his knife. It too was a “self-defense” item he had taken from the diligent New Yorkers. It was a survival knife with a blade measuring more than 40cm, but he was not trying to show off.

His enemy’s primary weapon was bombs.

If he moved in close, she would have more difficulty using them without being in the blast radius herself.

“Nee hee hee!!”

One wrong step and they would plummet down. Heivia started running across the ceiling beam and the slender girl named Skuld only laughed maniacally. As the bare blade targeted her unguarded slender throat with a horizontal slash, she actually held out a clay-like block of Hand Axe plastic explosive.

Instead of blocking it with a solid barrier, she was causing the blade to slip as if with oil. Heivia shuddered when he felt the attack miss and then Skuld used her soft-looking lips to stick a pen-shaped electric fuse into the sliced explosive.

Since it resembled a party game where two people held either end of a skinny chocolate snack in their lips, the action carried a seduction not usually found in such a young girl, but the situation was dire.

Her blonde twintails fluttered around her in what seemed like a self-celebratory dance, but Skuld Silent-Third was preparing the explosive despite being less than a meter from her opponent!?

(Is she relying on her Elite special suit!?)

“Oh, while it can handle blades and bullets, this thing can’t protect me from a major explosion.”

She seemed to have read his mind. And at the same moment, Skuld readily detonated the bomb inside her own young hand.

“!!!???”

Something odd happened.

It was different from a normal explosion that spread destruction in a sphere from the central point. It was more like an infinitely-extending blade of light. When Skuld swung her arm, the scorching blade passed by Heivia’s face and burned right through all of the jungle gym-like beams in its path.

(This is worse than at Madagascar!? What kind of movement was that!?)

The blast had been concentrated in a single direction.

The bomb had detonated in her hand, but there was not a drop of blood on the body showing its minimal curves through the green special suit. She licked from her palm to her fingertips in a very seductive way for such a young girl.

“This is nothing unusual.”

“Damn you…!”

“Any old fireworks craftsman can do the same thing. Explosions are all about fluid dynamics, so it’s the same as the flow of water or air. If you restrain the blast with a sheet of metal and intentionally leave a single hole open, the explosively-expanding combustion gas will be naturally guided through there. Of course, the guns you’re so familiar with use the same basic principle.”

There had to be more to it.

In theory, you could create a bomb with a single metal pipe. But if an amateur actually tried it, they were guaranteed to blow themselves up in the process. Massive amounts of knowledge and technique were needed to realize that theory. And the mass murderer named Skuld had done so with her own two hands instead of factory equipment.

It was just like that boy who would rely on adlibbed methods and pull them off with no practice whatsoever.

She had inherited it.

It was like the girl carried that powerful enemy inside her undeveloped chest.

Myonri frantically raised her shotgun once more, but Skuld simply held out her hand. Another explosion drowned out the gunshot. It was like a magic trick. The single shotgun shell had to contain tons of small metal balls, but the beautiful serial killer did not have a scratch on her. Had she diverted their path with a solid shockwave barrier?

No…

“…When using explosions, the most important thing is to know what your opponent is thinking.”

With a sticky smile reminiscent of sweet nectar, Skuld embraced her own slender body. Her fingers traced across her own minimal curves. She pulled in her long blonde twintails as well, her spine trembled, and she shook from self-produced sensuality.

“I thought the feeling in my wrist when I stabbed or strangled someone was all there was. But the reality was different. Bombs have their own sensation!! You set up a trap no one is expecting, you actually detonate it, and you rule their heart with fear. Ohh, it’s so wonderful!! Take…whatever her name is there. You were afraid before you even fired. You feared that shotgun couldn’t possibly kill a true monster. So even though you had the overwhelming advantage of aiming a gun at me from a distance, the sound of no more than a tiny explosion caused you to shrink down and shift your own aim. Is there…is there any other killing method that lets you feel their soul more than this!?”

“Shut the hell up…”

Their military training no longer mattered.

It was the same as the incident from the sealed Madagascar Report. Whenever this girl made an appearance, the rules of war collapsed.

“I’ve had enough of your bitching. You’re no more than a wandering ghost who lost her place to die, so I’m not going to let you sully that bastard’s name!!”

“Nee hee. Is that the Legitimacy Kingdom’s obsession with honor?”

He swung his knife and used the handgun he had decided against earlier, but Skuld jumped to another steel beam a step behind her and he could not do any real damage. She stayed the same distance from him while her twintails and ribbon fluttered around her in a nightmarish and fantastical dance.

The goddess of death and war performed an elegant dance. And seeing that, Heivia raised his voice.

“Myonri, prepare to fire!”

“B-but I can’t hit her!”

“Don’t let the title of serial killer get to you. Whether she’s ‘awakened’ or broken through her limits, she’s still human. Aim for the power cables for the halogen lights!! The footing is already limited, so fill these metal beams with a powerful electric current and not even she will be able to escape!!”

“Oh, that’s what you’re going with? Emotional sacrifices are so boring. It’s a death as bland as a chain burger.” Skuld placed a hand on her delicate-looking hip and sounded exasperated. “Well, I don’t really care what happens after I’ve had my fun. And I believe I’ve more than half completed my initial objective.”

“?”

“Look down below.”

The twintail girl sneered as she placed her lightly-clenched fist below her navel and pointed her index finger straight down.

“I still haven’t caused any direct damage, but I have detonated a few bombs inside the gym. If everyone heads for the exits at once, what do you think’ll happen to those 50,000 people?”

“You perverted necrophile girl!!”

“Ah hah hah!!”

Heivia and Myonri knew not to, but they could not stop their eyes from briefly glancing down. And in that instant, Skuld Silent-Third climbed through one of the square maintenance hatches.

Their target had gotten away, but Myonri actually wiped the sweat from her slender chin and breathed a sigh of relief.

“That achieves the bare minimum of our objectives…right? The Information Alliance group is up there. Wraith, Melly, and the giant Oh Ho Ho.”

“…I’m not so sure.”

Heivia used his handgun to shoot out several of the large halogen lights hanging down from the steel beams. They scattered some glass and a lot of sparks.

“Wh-what are you doing!?”

“I’ve created a peaceful explanation for those explosions. Hey, Myonri, you’re good with computers, right? Rewrite that online encyclopedia that anyone can edit!! Say that in the Central American ocean the pressure change from a storm can cause incandescent and halogen bulbs to burst from internal pressure. The actual reasoning behind it doesn’t have to hold up to scrutiny. Just give them something they can look up and accept for the time being!!”

“I thought we couldn’t access the actual internet here!”

“I don’t know if it’s a virtual space or a fake server, but just get it out there so those people will see it!”

People were susceptible to multiple sources. You might hear rumors around you and then find confirmation on the screen in your hand…but in some cases, they both had the same source of information.

As Skuld had said, no direct harm had been done yet. There was nothing Heivia and Myonri could do here except prevent the people from trampling each other in a panic.

“Myonri, let’s head up top.”

“Eh? I’d rather not. A powered suit and those serverless unmanned weapons will be fighting on that flat roof. Even if the battle will end without our help, a single stray bullet can still kill us!”

“This won’t end that easily,” spat out Heivia. “I don’t care how many of those damn Martinis die, but if Skuld escapes, she’ll cause far more damage. And I’m not just talking about Manhattan. You saw the nightmare of that sealed Madagascar Report with your own eyes, didn’t you? Didn’t you see and agree to seal it all away because it felt like having your nose shoved into some old man’s hairy asshole?”

“…”

“If you want proof, just face your own trauma. That’s all you need to explain what a threat Skuld is.”

Myonri gulped.

That was all. She had no rebuttal for Heivia’s seemingly incoherent argument.

They both approached the maintenance hatch Skuld had left through.

They climbed up onto the flat and supposedly safe roof.

They saw the scene they had expected but not wanted.

“Oh, perfect timing. I’m about ready for a second helping☆”

There was a single smile there.

And it was surrounded by hell.

Despite her confidence, Melly Martini Extradry was trapped in the scraps of the many Bullmites that had protected her.

The powered suit that had supposedly carried the Information Alliance idol Elite had what looked like giant claw marks running across it and an orange horizontal line had sliced through it at about chest height. The size was larger, but it was shaped just like the real idol. The cockpit’s empty space was exposed and it lay collapsed and sparking in a more gruesome fate than for a normal tank or armored truck.

Wraith Martini Vermouthspray held her small hand to the right side of the young man who lay protectively over her. She was desperately trying to stop his bleeding. It looked more like it was caused by a gunshot than an explosive blast, so it may have been a flying screw or nail rather than the actual explosion.

The girl held her slender body in her arms and her back trembled as she basked in the afterglow. Yes, the afterglow. It was already over.

She really was worse than at Madagascar. The serial killer had evolved through the acquisition of bombs.

“Well, this was a shock for me too,” she said. “I really thought there was someone inside that powered suit, but it was being remotely controlled.”

Come to think of it, the 4m ringlet curls controlled by that Elite had fallen on her butt during the makeshift chaff attack meant to eliminate the coordination of the Bullmites in the university building. And when she had avoided carelessly answering the call from her father, had it been to prevent Oh Ho Ho’s real location from being found out? She could not have anyone tripping her up until she had actually saved her father.

“That sure was elaborate,” spat out Skuld.

That was all. Her brief arousal was already cooling.

“But I guess that was the peak of my surprise. Are those all the tricks up your sleeve? If so, it just wasn’t enough. I want a dinner that will really fill my belly. So bring out the next serving already. Or do I need to visit the second and third restaurant?”

“Your attempt to cause a panic in the gym failed, Skuld…”

“Does the Faith Organization need a reason to attack the Information Alliance? Or does a serial killer need a reason to kill people? It’s just who we are. What more can you say?”

“It’s not like you’re going to follow the Faith Organization’s rules either! You were convicted under Faith Organization law, abandoned, and thrown in prison!! You expect us to believe a serial killer is diligently doing her job!?”

“Ah ha ha!! Diligently? Well, does it look like I’m doing a good job?”

If she was trying to kill Royce so that his daughter, Oh Ho Ho, would spread further chaos through Manhattan, then Skuld could not have carelessly attacked Oh Ho Ho. She had only learned the powered suit was empty after slicing it in two, so it looked planned but was fundamentally flawed. Was there no way of controlling her?

“Al – so. None of that matters and I don’t care. I have no hard feelings for the Legitimacy Kingdom that defeated me in Madagascar or the Faith Organization that used me as long as they could and then judged me like they were the heroes. I have no complaints. I’m satisfied as long as I can kill. I don’t even need a war. Back at Madagascar, I made myself valuable with my skill as a Pilot Elite, so the higher ups would cover things up. Those circumstances are all that’s changed. I’ll make myself valuable in some other way and have someone important create an environment where I’m free to kill. There were no deep reasons behind it. That cruel IV had its uses! The passage of time may have blurred, but everything but the killing and the memories of killing melted away from my mind. What is that if not freedom?”

No matter what, that mass murderer could not forget the taste of killing.

She did not need to use a vast conspiracy or a superpower’s interests as an excuse. She was a purer and crueler slaughterer who faced the killing head-on.

“Still, there is one thing I want.”

Skuld Silent-Third wrapped her young hands around either side of her small face and lightly twisted her slender hips as she tried to restrain the pleasure signals rising within her. Her entire body radiated something far uglier than unrequited love.

“I wanted to see Quenser. I wanted to see my teacher who taught me this new art of bombs!! See, now I can kill even more people. You were wonderful, teacher, but I can kill far more. So now it’s my turn to teach you. I can give you a lovey-dovey hands-on lesson in how to enjoy bombs!! Heh heh. Ah hah hah hah hah!!”

“…You’re completely insane. Do you have threads sewn between the wrinkles in your brain or something?”

“Quenser Barbotage was normal.”

In an unexpected turn, there was no emotion in her voice at all.

It was the stereotypical form of someone who could not control the switch between mania and depression.

“He was normal, but he could still kill without a second thought. Had you not noticed after spending so much time with him? He was far worse than a serial killer like me. I mean, he couldn’t have survived that long otherwise. How many Objects and the armies around them do you think ''my teacher'' has blown away in the past? Killing and remaining normal is a frightening thing. How could he do it?”

She did not need to say any more.

Myonri was enthralled and stood stock still, but Heivia moved almost automatically. He had a knife in his right hand and a handgun in his left. He charged toward the twintail girl in order to suppress her at a range of less than 2 meters.

“Oh, right, right. What are you going to do about that?”

Meanwhile, twintailed Skuld had no gun or blade.

Her voice was as casual as someone making an invitation to chat over tea.

“Does the term Ragnarok Script mean nothing to you? What about active self-denial? A mysterious external factor was injected into the Martini Series, but where do you think it really came from?”

“Wha-…!?”

Heivia still had not shaken his doubts.

Even if this was Skuld Silent-Third, could she really have had such an overwhelming advantage on a roof full of unmanned weapons and a powered suit? What if the Martini Series had lost control there? What if a switch had been thrown and either Wraith or Melly had attacked Oh Ho Ho? After what had happened to the powered suit, would he be safe without that kind of armor? Could he really trust that those Martinis were defeated? What if he turned his back on the group that included the monster who had shot Quenser?

“That’s just in the way, don’t you think? It just ruins your fun.”

“!?”

The next thing he knew, Skuld was moving toward him.

The slender girl’s right hand had latched onto Heivia’s handgun. But not in order to take it from him. Quite the opposite. She pressed the muzzle against her soft-looking belly and repeatedly pulled the trigger.

Dry gunshots rang out and the impacts to her soft lower body caused the girl to double over.

“Kee hee.”

But the gun ran out of ammo in no time.

The handgun in his hand was no more than a lump of metal.

“Hee hee hee hah hah!! Yes, yes. That’s right. Pain is only another form of pleasure and defeat is the motivation needed to grow!! Right, Quenser? This is the place. This is the best. The most enjoyable aspect of life is the moment when you stand back up from overwhelming defeat to turn it all around!!”

Even if her suit provided some defense against bullets, that had still been suicidal. The bullets might not break through, but the shock still reached her, so it could have torn her muscles or damaged her organs.

And yet.

That murder fairy named Skuld showed only a smile of ecstasy.

“The Ragnarok Script?”

She questioned the thing she herself had just mentioned.

“Do you really think that exists? Ah ha ha!! Investigate all you like, you’ll never find it. After all, it never existed.”

“What are you…going on about? That’s what caused this entire mess…!”

“You take something that doesn’t exist and make it look like it does exist to produce a certain effect. Isn’t that how the Information Alliance does things? Of course, it was based on a psychological safety device set in place by the powerful people who control the formless Capulet AI Network. If the Martini Series ever gained more popular support than those powerful people, they could leak that supposed vulnerability to end that boom. …Our agents dug it up while infiltrating the Information Alliance and it was reinterpreted into a form we could use more easily. That is the Ragnarok Script.”

“…”

Ragnarok.

That was the final battle in Norse Mythology. Afraid of his prophesied death, Odin planned out a way to stop it but ultimately earned enough resentment to get himself devoured by a beast just as the prophecy foretold. It was a merciless myth with no chance for recovery.

Yet if he had never taken the prophecy seriously, nothing would have happened in the first place.

“When their self-confidence is shaken and they lose sight of themselves, those Martinis succumb to the AI far more easily. So there was no need for active self-denial. The Faith Organization has far more experience when it comes to matters of the heart.”

Skuld sounded like she was letting them in on a juicy secret.

“In Faith Organization terms, it may be a lot like banning Mary adoration or Thor worship. And as long as the true result of the lie is effective, the rest doesn’t matter. The Martinis really are bound by the nonexistent threat, aren’t they?”

Similarly, Heivia had lost his valuable firepower due to this girl’s words.

There was nothing he could do with no bullets in his gun. Since her skintight special suit was blade-resistant, his options were limited with his knife.

“We whisper about the Ragnarok Script and the Martinis are bound. Even if they know it doesn’t exist, they can’t cleanse the damage to their soul. It’s like a curse. Maybe this is the result of controlling the Information Alliance’s fear with Faith Organization methods.”

“Tch…!?”

“Oh? What are you going to do? I don’t think you have time to swap magazines.”

He did not have time to be surprised by each and every one of her actions. As soon as Skuld let go of the empty handgun, she dropped a small piece of plastic explosive to her feet, detonated it, and used the blast to rotate her own body. Her weight shifted in a way that wouldn’t have been possible for a normal human and she sent a roundhouse kick as heavy as a demolition hammer toward the side of Heivia’s head.

As long as it was enjoyable and fun, she did not care what happened to her own body.

Heivia responded to the lunatic’s joy by lowering his arm. He did not let his arm be broken to protect his head. He dropped the empty handgun and slid it into the gap between the roof and the raised heel of Skuld’s pivot leg.

“Oh?”

She lost her balance and the axis of her roundhouse kick wobbled.

Skuld missed and, before she could straighten back up, Heivia tackled her childish hips. He placed the knee of her roundhouse kick on his shoulder and flipped her over. No, his hand would still have held the large survival knife.

They collapsed in a heap with Skuld on her back and Heivia on top of her. He held the survival knife in both hands with the tip in the center of her flat chest. Skuld used both hands to push back up, but he had the mounted position. No amount of squirming would let the slender serial killer escape from below the boy. As he pushed down on the knife with all his weight, it slowly moved down millimeter by millimeter. The sharp tip was definitely approaching Skuld’s vitals.

“Enough…”

Heivia shouted with the bloodshot eyes of something other than a soldier who killed for his job.

“I’ll kill you!! I won’t let anyone else end this. We screwed up in Madagascar! We should’ve done this from the beginning!!”

“Oh? Are you forcing yourself? Quenser is one thing, but I thought you acted as the brakes.”

Skuld was weaker. She could not overturn things here, so she could only watch as the blade slowly but surely reached her heart. Even if her Pilot Elite special suit was blade resistant, the weight would still reach her. The blade might not be able to cut the fibers, but the weight would gather on one point, like she was being stepped on with high heels, and her young ribs and sternum would be broken.

But as she lay on her back, Skuld continued to smile.

And she was not forcing it. Nor was she escaping to a paradise only she could see.

All of a sudden, Heivia realized Hand Axe plastic explosives were scattered at the vertices of an equilateral triangle with Skuld and her seductive bodylines in the center. Her inappropriate outfit added to the illusion that this was a magic circle drawn out on the floor and she was holding a blasphemous sacrificial ceremony using her own body.

The girl licked her lips in a way far too sinister for her lovely facial features.

“When using an icepick, the trick to silently breaking the window to reach the lock inside is to use a triangle. You make a crack and remove the bare minimum of glass at the vertices. And can’t you look at this roof the same way?”

“Damn you…!!”

He could definitely kill Skuld like this.

But to be certain, he had to take his time slowly pushing the blade down. He could not end it right this instant.

That was why Skuld Silent-Third’s slender white throat moved alluringly as she laughed.

“I’ve made it so I’ll fall. I’ll break off the roof around me. And there are 50,000 people below. I’m covered in my full stock of Hand Axe, so if I go out in an impressive explosion, just what color of flower will blossom down there?”

“…!!!???”

“Don’t give me that look. It might not cause that much damage at all. With that many people together, their flesh will function as a barrier. Ah ha ha! So how about you pray for a miracle, Brake Boy?”

He could not let go with his hands. It was his weight bearing down on them that was restraining Skuld. If he let go and released her, she would cause even more harm.

Myonri was overwhelmed and had fallen into a seated position, so he could not rely on her. Everyone else had been defeated, so he could not expect support from them either.

There was nothing he could do.

He knew the tragedy that was about to occur, yet he could find no plan to stop it!?

“Here’s what Quenser would do.” It was entirely out of place, but Skuld sounded like a dreaming maiden. “The options are to safely draw back or charge forward despite the danger. He would definitely charge forward. He would prioritize defeating his enemy over protecting himself and allowing the situation to grow even worse. I understand him. I understand the human being named Quenser Barbotage…”

Just then, something changed.

It was a gunshot.

Right into the center of her flat chest.

A bullet was fired from the self-defense handgun held by a small bloody hand.

“Wrai…th…?”

The black-uniform girl did not respond to Heivia.

She had walked over at some point and she had not hesitated to pull the trigger while looking down on the twintailed murderer.

“Don’t joke.” Her voice was trembling like she was about to cough up blood. “Quenser Barbotage would never do that!! He…that complete moron was such a hopeless ‘human’ that he would make a split-second decision to protect an enemy soldier being targeted by the world’s largest Object!! He was a fundamentally different creature to you or me!!”

The special suit provided some protection against bullets.

But only some.

“I…see.”

Skuld’s eyes wandered aimlessly as if seeing something that was not here and words escaped her mouth.

“Teacher. I was wondering why I didn’t see you here… So ''that’s'' what happened.”

As if to say she would not allow her to say anymore, Wraith pulled the trigger several more times. She seemed to be bringing the serial killer back to her senses through sensible pain. Skuld had trouble breathing, so she could no longer hold back the knife. Just as her limiter broke and her strength dropped, Heivia used his full weight to drive the 40cm survival knife’s tip into the center of that childish chest.

Thanks to its blade resistance, the special suit itself did not tear.

But the same weight as being stepped on with high heels would destroy the girl’s slender body.

This would end it.

This would settle the entire issue surrounding the Martini Series and the Ragnarok Script. There was no need to worry about the Object losing control. The Manhattan would no longer be a threat.

“I…will not die.”

But the girl’s smile was like a curse at this point.

The mass murderer announced her immortality like the monster in a cheap horror movie.

“I’ve killed enough to know. This pain isn’t coming from my organs. More, more, more. Drive it in more. Crush my organs with my broken ribs and sternum…”

“Shut up and die. We don’t need anything extra. If you’ll just die here it’s all over. I’m not Quenser, so I’m not going to feel sorry for you.”

“Ha ha. Brake Boy, you can’t do it. Only my teacher can kill me. That must have been destined from the moment we were born.”

What meaning did that serial killer see in her own death?

Was it just one more for the pile? Or was she the one exception, so it was a treasure meant only for someone she cared for?

“Or so I thought. How disappointing. But in a way, I guess you could say I achieved my objective. For my purposes, it didn’t have to be Royce.”

“What…?”

Heivia felt like his entire body was covered in tiny insects.

She knew something.

They had already passed the minor issues of the Martini Series and the Ragnarok Script.

The world would roll toward the precipice any number of times.

She probably saw it as a way to bring herself closer to Quenser who had defeated her and had a killing method greater than her own. Just like a stalker’s obsession could gather more information than a professional detective or intelligence agent, she had thoroughly investigated everything about him. Heivia was certain of it.

If only the powered suit had not been remote controlled. If only Oh Ho Ho had been killed by Skuld sooner, this would not have happened.

This extreme evil inspired that sort of misguided regret.

“I went a little overboard and sliced it in half, but can you hear me, Miss Powered Suit? Or whoever’s controlling it, I mean.”

“What are you doing? What more could you do!?”

“You don’t know?”

She actually looked surprised.

And then Skuld Silent-Third made the worst possible move.

“That girl over there is the one who killed my teacher, Quenser Barbotage, right? I feel bad leaving someone in the dark, so we need to make sure everyone knows.”