Chapter 40: Monologue of the Machine-Skeleton Soldier

This unit is a perfect support AI, created to compensate for every inadequacy of its master, from combat to daily life. It was given the individual identifier “Rina” by its master.

"Good morning, Komori."

"Fah… morning, Rina."

Rina’s manufacturing purpose was to support her master’s extremely sloppy lifestyle, as well as to fulfill the rather vague objective of “healing the master’s loneliness.”

The master belongs to the demographic commonly referred to as a loner. She is truant, has no friends, and does not leave the house. Even shopping is handled through robots she created separately from Rina. Quite some time ago, Rina compared the results of her independent survival calculations with reality and was left astonished that the master had managed to live this long.

Even so, this master—who would be classified as a so-called “hopeless human being”—does work properly, despite being a student. That work is mercenary labor. A jack-of-all-trades who, as long as payment is provided, will carry out even actions that fall squarely into legal black zones.

From small skirmishes to outright murder, the master used the “puppets” she herself created. As long as the money was right, she always completed the job. Before long, the name “Cleaner” echoed throughout the underworld.

Naturally, this was nothing to be praised. What the master was doing was unquestionably evil, and above all, it resulted in the creation of countless enemies.

In fact, she had already drawn the attention of Gehenna’s Prefect Team, Trinity’s Justice Task Force, the Valkyrie Police School, and even the SRT Special Academy under the General Student Council. More than anything else, Rina’s calculations showed that one day, the master would inevitably fall from the pinnacle of the underworld.

But the master did not stop. She claimed she had no other way to live. That she had gone too far down this path. That it was far too late to turn back now. Using such reasoning, she refused to quit.

Therefore, what followed can only be called inevitable.

The master—Amari Komori—was defeated by the mercenary group “Problem Solver 68,” along with Schale’s Sensei. Exploiting that opening, her enemies struck, and she paid the price for her past actions with the loss of sight in her right eye.

"...Rina. It’s time for work."

"Understood."

From that point onward, the master changed completely. As if something inside her had snapped into place, her halting speech became clear and confident, and she began going outside on her own.

However, even after the “Cleaner” name fell into disgrace, she did not wash her hands of that world.

She picked up a gun and began carrying out jobs with her own body.

Rina is permitted to warn her master, but she is not authorized to obstruct her actions.

Therefore, so as never to repeat the failure of being unable to protect her master again, Rina changed her body from the drone frame she had previously used into the very “puppet” the master had once employed. Thus, the “Cleaner” was reborn as a duo: a small-framed girl and a large automaton.

The reborn Cleaner became more ferocious than ever. They defeated the “Information Broker” who had once rivaled them, took revenge on “Problem Solver 68,” who had defeated them before, and even fought on equal footing against the forces of Schale led by Sensei.

Once cast down into the dirt, the Cleaner reclaimed the summit once more.

The summit, regained again.

"Oh, it’s a new pudding flavor. I wanna eat it. But it’s limited quantity, huh…"

"Shall I contact the company and have them prepare some?"

"No, no. That’s the last resort. Stuff like this, you’ve gotta line up properly. Let’s see… today’s schedule… whoa, there’s a long-term request starting the night before."

"Breaking news!"

But that peace was only momentary.

"Schale’s Sensei has fallen unconscious!"

With Schale’s Sensei gravely injured—lying in a bed as nothing more than a silent mass of flesh that merely breathed—the world descended into chaos following that report.

The “academy life” that had barely managed to maintain its shape collapsed, and peace vanished without a trace.

It happened in the blink of an eye.

Like a castle built on sand crumbling away, Kivotos began to truly collapse, heralded by the apocalyptic trumpet of “Sensei’s coma.”

As the top figure of the underworld, the master attempted to prevent it using every means available to her. But all of it was in vain—and as a result, she resolved to play her trump card.

The Ark of Theseus Project.

By using the “blank-slate device” Mastema that the master had created, along with the “key” required to activate it—the Sanctum Tower—she could enact the “resetting of the world” and its subsequent “reconstruction.”

If a perfect happy ending was impossible, then she would seize a true ending instead. That was the desperate measure the master devised.

Even if the chance of success was infinitesimal, she resolved to carry it out—to save what could still be saved, and to obtain peace for herself.

"...He’s dead."

"He sacrificed himself to fulfill your delusion."

"Because of you! Because of you, he—!!"

"……"

"...I’m getting off. …If I could have stayed with him, that would have been enough."

Even if someone who once called her a friend died—

"Komori-san! Please stop!"

"This is wrong—this is absolutely wrong!"

"There might still be some other way!"

"Please… please reconsider…"

Even if she ignored the voices of comrades who happened to share her hobbies, who had forgotten their positions and spoke passionately about the things they loved—

"Why?! Why are you doing something like this?!"

"Everyone—everyone’s gone a little crazy!"

"This is wrong! You can still stop! So please…"

"……I see. So you really won’t stop."

"...The person I admired wasn’t someone like you."

"That’s why—as the outlaw I once admired! As a substitute for Sensei, who’s fallen and can’t move! I’ll stop you myself!"

Even after striking down a former powerful enemy—one who had even become a trusted work partner—the master did not stop.

She cut down everything that stood before her, staking everything she had on her goal as she pressed forward. At last, that long-cherished ambition was on the verge of being fulfilled.

The flying battleship Mastema had taken off.

Racing through a sky dyed crimson, with the equally blood-red Sanctum Tower looming just ahead—

That was when it happened.

"What—!? An attack?!"

Countless automata suddenly erupted inside the ship: the “Nameless Guardians.” Relics left behind by the Nameless Priest. Vanguard units dispatched to obstruct the master’s actions—actions that ran directly counter to their ambitions.

Leaving the master’s side to eliminate them, and to support the struggling defensive automata, was a mistake.

"Master, enemy forces have been—neutralization suc—repor—Master!!"

After wiping out every hostile force that had infiltrated the ship, Rina dragged her battered body back to the master.

What she saw was the master staring down the barrel of a gun, aimed at her by a white-haired Anubis who had fallen into darkness—and then, in the very next instant, a vivid spray of crimson bursting from the master’s chest.

"Master!"

Ignoring Anubis—who merely stood by as if the objective had already been achieved—Rina rushed to her master’s side.

A chest soaked in red. A complexion that had been poor even at the best of times, now turning deathly pale. An unmistakably fatal wound.

She failed again.

The master who had created Rina—who had given her existence—was now growing cold.

"...Ri… na…"

"Master! Please don’t speak! I will begin treatment immediately!"

"...You know… don’t you… It’s fatal… I won’t make it…"

"Negative! You will be fine! You will survive! Rina is a perfect robot you created—one capable of treating injuries!"

"Heh… heh…"

The master reached out with trembling fingers, touching Rina’s face. But with Rina’s cold body, she could not feel the warmth that was slipping away at that very moment.

"Master!"

"cough… Listen… Please… listen properly… to what I’m saying…"

"Yes! I’m listening! I’m listening, so please don’t talk anymore…!"

"Rina… you’re free."

"...Master?"

"I won’t bind you anymore. From now on… live freely. Do what you want to do."

"What… are you saying…?"

"I wanted a friend… That’s why I designed you to be human-like… with emotions… and desires."

"..."

"But… for my own convenience… I ended up chaining you. I regret that."

"...Master…"

"But… soon… there won’t be anything left to bind you."

"MASTER!!!!"

"What—!? This is… a transfer to another world…? …So you were hiding something like this."

Anubis disappeared into a black void. The shaking of the ship intensified even further.

"That’s why… this is my final order."

"Live freely."

The master grabbed Rina’s face, staring straight into her as she spoke those words.

…Rina cannot obstruct her master’s actions. A master’s orders must be obeyed without exception.

Until now, she had never questioned that rule. But for some reason—only in that moment—she felt something ache deep within her chest.

"May overflowing blessings be upon you."

A jewel-like mystery shimmered brightly in the master’s palm. As it vanished, as if being drawn into Rina, the master’s limbs suddenly went limp, collapsing to the ground as though their strings had been cut.

The master was no longer breathing.

After that, Rina placed what had once been her master into a box and buried her on a small hill in the snowy wasteland where the ship had crashed. She planted the gun Rina herself had once used—the Winchester given to her by her master—into the ground, completing a simple grave.

…Rina thinks.

What does it mean to live freely?

But she could not find an answer. Rina does not understand. Until now, obeying her master had been everything. She has nothing she herself wants to do. What her master wanted was what Rina wanted.

So Rina decided to do the things her master had wanted to do, but never could.

She obtained the Peroro Jirra doll her master had once tried—and failed—to acquire, and placed it at her grave.

She watched the movie her master had wanted to see. Since she could not record the footage, she returned afterward and told her master what she thought of it.

She bought the pudding her master had been craving. Worried it might spoil, she offered a small portion, then gave the rest to a stray cat and placed the empty container at the grave.

—Before she realized it, the grave had filled up. By the time the space left behind when her master had grown small was gone, there were hardly any unfulfilled wishes left.

What would she do when there was nothing left?

Thinking that, Rina leaves the grave again today.

"So that Rina can do the things her master wanted to do."

So that Rina can do the things her master could not.

"The Ark of Theseus Project—obstacle elimination—commencing."

"That’s not a blessing, that’s a curse you left behind!!"

As a mechanical arm stretched out from a black void, closing in on me at the last second—while memories flooded my mind alongside a splitting headache—I couldn’t help but scream those words.