The hallway is quiet as 11 walks over to the still body on the ground. Hikari lies face-down on the carpet, the two steel blades protruding from her back like wings.
11 pulls them out, one after the other. The red-stained steel comes out whispering. 11 drops them, feeling it difficult to breathe. It’s as if a knife is being twisted inside her, wounding her nerves until they’re snapping free.
“I didn’t want to do this,” she says quietly. “Mother. I didn’t want to do this.”
Mother’s reply is less than sympathetic.
> You are fulfilling your duty. This is your purpose. Now finish the task, Gier 11, and move on to the next one.
11 looks at the blades by her feet. And shakes her head. “I… can’t.”
> You are not making sense, 11.
>
> Fulfil the Protocol.
>
> This is your purpose.
>
> It is the reason you or I exist.
11 feels like she’s moving underwater. She sees herself picking up the mage-blades, holding one in each hand. They feel heavy. Too heavy to seem real. She goes back to Hikari. The girl is lying still, her silvery hair spilling from the darkness of her drawn hood. Through the holes on the cloak, 11 can see the girl’s gashed skin, oozing with blood.
My blades cut right through her.
The thought sickens 11. She feels her Core grind painfully as if she’s having a heart attack, impossible as that may be.
She sheathes her blades. “My purpose is fulfilled,” she tells the Mother-System, scanning Hikari’s chest through her back. “Target has no heartbeat. She’s not going to do any more harm.” She waits, expecting Mother to argue, but the S-M-S is silent.
11 turns away and starts down the corridor, hoping to get as far away from this place as possible.
But at the end of the corridor, she is met by a group of armored knights wielding heavy shields. They surround her, drawing swords.
“Don’t move!” one of the knights commands. “Surrender your weapons!”
11 tries to explain, but she doesn’t get one word out before the knight’s head explodes into red mist.
The other knights stand horrified, as another one of them flies backward through the wall in a screech of metal and wood.
11 whips around just in time to see another rock fly past her face, straight through the knight next to her. The knight clutches his stomach, guts spilling from between his fingers.
“God damn it, Hikari!” 11 starts sprinting towards the girl. “What the fuck is wrong with you?!”
At the other end of the hallway, Hikari digs her nails into the ground, pulls out a chunk of concrete and with blinding speed, hurls it through the air at the now remaining knight.
11 snatches the projectile from the air. The concrete chunk explodes like a grenade, covering the air around her with dust. Before 11 can clear it away Hikari is right on her, a tiny foot shooting out from the dust to kick her right in the chin. 11’s world turns as she sails into the ceiling, her head bursting through the floorboards. On the other side, she gets a nice view of a roll of privies, complete with stench and all. She pushes herself back down angrily, in time to catch Hikari’s next kick.
“I’ve got you!”
The girl twists violently, snapping the ankle held in 11’s hand. Shocked, 11 lets go and takes the kick square in the side of her head. She stumbles but recovers quickly, and with blades drawn she cleaves apart the air, forcing Hikari back.
With a groan, the walls around them start to crumble, bringing the ceiling down in a hail of broken bricks and chunks of human waste.
Hikari shrieks and jumps away, trying to dodge the feces as they plop to the ground. Her broken foot gives out under her and she stumbles, right in the path of 11’s next slash.
The blade stops inches from the girl’s neck, but the force is enough to shatter the entire row of windows next to them. Sunlight streams in like a flood through the broken glass.
“It’s over, Hikari,” she says, keeping the blade a hair’s breadth from the girl’s jugular. “Stop this. Right now.” And then without really meaning to she adds, “Please.”
Through Hikari’s eyes, 11 sees for the first time what looks like fear. Then in a strange turn her body starts to move on its own, positioning herself in front of the windows so Hikari is covered in shadow. 11 doesn’t know why she does this, only that she wants to.
Hikari’s smile looks genuine, despite the circumstances. “You sound like Dad,” she remarks. “He never could stand up to me either.”
Shouts of men have begun coming from every direction. 11 can hear footsteps thundering above and below them, converging in the hallway where she and Hikari are. Beside her, a gust of wind bellows through the empty window-frames, pushing a flurry of flower petals tumbling across the corpse-covered floor. Like little pink butterflies, they brush gently over torn limbs and spilled entrails, rolling and pooling together at Hikari’s pale, bare feet.
Her eyes flicker suddenly to something behind 11.
11 turns her head a fraction, realizing too late her mistake. Hikari jumps up, her foot twisting back into position and kicks 11 so hard the world explodes into static.
11 finds herself sprawled across the grass in a courtyard. The castle stands to her right, a few hundred or so yards away. She gets up, her head feeling like it’s going to split open. A jumble of information is dancing across her vision and 11 shakes them away with difficulty. She feels the onset of that familiar anger coiling out of her, the same kind of rage she felt back on the bridge just before the river-girl took control of her body.
No. Not river-girl.
Aiyano. Aiyano Chinen.
11 forces down the waves of nausea and takes up position among the berry bushes, digging her heels deep into the moss-covered footpath. With a sonorous crack, her wings unfurl and 11 jets to the sky in a roar of blue fire.
She crashes back through the wall she came out from, burning to a halt on the carpet. Bodies scramble out of the way, screaming in fear and confusion. Some of them start to raise their weapons but a look from 11 makes them back off.
11 tries her scanners but there’s too much noise in her head. She turns to the group of men and shouts, “Where is she?”
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The knights all look to each other. The light bounces off their shiny armor as they quiver inside them.
“Where is the girl?!”
One of the knights point further down the hallway. “I saw the monster heading towards the Sovereign Hall, m-my… lady?”
11 takes off, her wings blazing.
Crashing through the heavy doors, 11 finds a room full of bodies.
Hikari holds her umbrella above her head, slowly turning it under the lantern light. The hall she is in looks like a throne room with a granite seat high above on a podium. But what safety this place might have once provided is no longer there. An old man lies in a crumpled heap at the foot of the podium stairs, his richly decorated tunic torn to ribbons. In his withered grip is a sword with what looks to be two iron snakes wound around its decorated hilt, but the rest of the weapon has been shattered to pieces.
“Doesn’t look damaged,” Hikari says, folding the umbrella. “That’s good, for her.” She runs a loving hand along the umbrella's edge. “I would’ve hung that stone-eyed bitch otherwise. She and her little boyfriend.”
11 attacks without warning. Hikari raises her umbrella to block. Steel screeches as the weapons clash. 11 turns with a backhand slash, then a forehand and an overhead, varying the direction and speed of her cuts. Hikari’s smile wanes with each blow and even though none land past her umbrella, she’s slowly losing ground, backing into a flight of stone steps leading to the granite throne above. 11 advances, feeling her blades hum as she slashes with both of them at the same time. Sparks burst from the glowing steel and Hikari titters back, losing balance. 11 lunges, plunging her blades towards the girl’s chest.
A sharp pain spears into 11’s back, between her shoulder blades. She falters and stabs her blades past Hikari straight into the stone steps. 11 curses in frustration just as another stab of pain bursts into her shoulder blade, then another. At first she thinks it’s her heart, before realizing what it really is. She turns and catches the next arrow before it can hit her.
At the entrance to the grand hall is a squad of archers, led by a balding man dressed in a smart doublet of royal blue. “Keep firing!” he screams, waving one fat arm through the air. "Fire, fire, fire!" He has an eagle stitched into his clothing and the bird seems to jump along with the man's heavy-handed movements. "Kill them! Kill them!"
The archers notch, draw and loose another volley at 11 and Hikari, seemingly not caring which one they hit. Perhaps they are aiming for both. 11 does not get to find out because Hikari is now standing in front of her, directly in the path of the oncoming fire.
The umbrella unfolds and 11 watches as against all logic, the arrows glance harmlessly across its surface.
“For Nranhana’s sakes aim, you fools!” the bald man screams, his potbelly jiggling as he snatches a bow from a nearby archer. "I'll do it myself!" He draws an arrow and before he can let loose, Hikari says in an amused voice,
“Finire.”
With an almost relaxing sigh, the man is speared cleanly through by a ray of brilliant red light.
The archers stop firing. They take one look at their leader, at the smoldering hole in his chest, and flee, dropping their weapons and dignity without a second thought.
"Finire fortissimo!"
Laughing, Hikari aims her umbrella at the men and fires more beams, impaling any who cannot get away in time.
The bald man does not pay his dying archers any mind. He stares at his missing chest, touches the edges of the hole gently as if to make sure it’s real, then drops down dead.
11 reaches across her back and yanks an arrow out of her. “Will. You. Stop. Killing people!” She lunges, tackling the little girl as she turns around, stopping her massacre once and for all. “I don’t want to kill you!” She pins the girl with one hand and with the other grips the arrow like a dagger. “I don’t! I don’t! But you’re giving me no choice!”
The girl looks at her calmly.
“They’re only humans,” she says softly, “and they were attacking you.”
“You were killing them long before that!”
“I was getting back what was mine.” The girl glances up at where her umbrella is dropped. “Is that not a 'logical action' for me to take? That umbrella is the only thing I have left in this world to remind me of what I’d lost. Is it so wrong to want it back?”
11 finds herself momentarily lost for words. “It’s not wrong,” she tells the girl finally, “but it’s not right either. It stopped being right the moment you killed for it.” She positions the arrow above the girl’s chest. “I’m sorry, but you’ve left me no choice.” Then with a cry of anguish she plunges her arm down sharply, driving the arrow straight through the girl’s skin and into her heart.
The girl doesn’t even flinch. She looks into 11’s eyes, and then laughs.
“You know, this is the first fight we’ve ever had. You used to always let me have my way.” She bucks suddenly, throwing 11 off so that she can be on top. Blood drips from her wounded chest, spilling down the arrow shaft and onto 11’s face. “But now that we’re both dead I can’t think of a better time to tell you how much that infuriated me.”
The girl pulls at the collar of 11’s shirt, tearing through it to reveal her exposed neck. She bites down, sinking teeth into flesh. 11 cries out and shoves the girl hard, tearing herself free.
Both girls take a step away from each other to catch their breaths. 11’s head is pounding. The wound on her neck is already beginning to close, but an ache has started inside her and does not go away. She looks for her blades. They are still stuck inside the stone steps. Before her, Hikari has yanked the arrow out of her chest and is licking at the blood sticking to it. All around them are bodies of humans the girl has slain.
So why is it so hard for me to take her life for it?
Without waiting for the answer 11 dives for the stairs. From the corner of her vision she catches Hikari kicking something at her. She rips one blade out and backhands the steel helm as it reaches her, separating it into two. The halves continue their altered path, embedding into the stone walls behind her.
Hikari yanks swords, shields, and spears from the ground and hurls them with such speed they turn into missiles. She tears arms and legs straight from the bodies around her and throws them like boomerangs. Then, she throws what’s left of the torsos too.
Sparks and gore paint the hall as 11’s blades glide through metal and flesh. She doesn’t stop to think, doesn’t really know how to anymore. Insider her mind, images and scenes flash across her eyes too fast to make sense. She can hear warnings blare but has no idea what they are for.
Cloak rippling behind her, Hikari leaps over 11’s head to land at the top of the podium. She grabs the ornate throne and rips it straight from its foundations.
"Catch!" She launches it down at 11, as if all that iron and stone weighs nothing.
This time, 11 puts power behind her slash. In an explosive clap the throne is pulverized, bits of stone and marble flying all over. Pieces dig into the tapestries and the crooked portraits on the walls, scattering across the blood-soaked floors. Before the sounds of rolling thunder can stop Hikari is shouting again.
“Fatuus Paramnesia!”
Thunder is drowned by a mechanical whine. A translucent gear materializes from the tip of Hikari's umbrella, spinning and growing until it’s as big as the girl. 11 has never seen such a spell before but deep down she recognizes it all the same.
Eternal Heaven technology.
11 charges, raising her blades to deflect the hail of bullets as they come screaming from the gear, trailing hellish tails of red like hundreds of tiny comets.
A storm of sparks surrounds her, filling the air with metal and ash.
“This is more like it!” Hikari shouts over the cacophony of shrieking metal and clanging steel. “I knew you were holding back!”
11 climbs the stairs, her arms moving so fast the sleeves of her shirt disintegrate. All around her, bodies convulse as they’re peppered with shrapnel. The walls and ceiling start to crack and fall apart. Chunks of timber fall, smashing through the remaining chairs on the podium. 11’s hair escapes from its ponytail, flying wildly in her eyes, but she does not slow. Her vision tunnels until she can see nothing but her target.
“I. Said. Enough!”
With a burst of blue and gold 11 disappears into a ball of neon fire, scorching through the storm of bullets. Lightning crackles through the hall, engulfing the podium in an electrical explosion that shatters everything within it. Hikari’s screams bounce from everywhere as thunder sings through the hall.
11 lands in the ruins of the throne. She drops her blades, steam hissing from the molten, misshapen steel.
The rest of the throne room falls apart. Debris crashes down from above, crushing shelves and tables, squishing bodies into paste. At the doors, more knights are trying to come in but they are forced back by the destruction. Pillars lining the walls begin to topple, shaking the building as they collapse. 11 staggers out of the way of a falling pillar, and that's when she feels Hikari's presence.
She whips around, catching a glimpse of a bubble of smoke dissipating back into the girl's opened umbrella.
"How...?" 11 breathes. "That should've..."
“I knew you were stronger than you made it seem,” says Hikari, gingerly stepping around dead bodies and falling debris. “You know, I had fights with a few Giers before you, but none of them could use a sword like you can. Looks like all that practice paid off in the end, huh!”
11 tries to think of a response. It’s becoming too difficult. Somewhere at the back of her mind is Mother, instructing her to perform her duty, but she can barely hear the commands. She clutches her head. The world is swaying, shaking. She’s barely aware of Hikari standing in front of her.
“Have you started to remember?” the girl asks softly. “Do you know who you are now?”
11 tries to take a step but falls to her knees. She presses her fists to her temples, willing the pain to stop.
“What’s… happening to me?”
She feels a small hand touch her shoulder.
“You were never just a God Gier. You were human first.”
The pain overcomes her then. 11 doubles over and screams.
"NO!"
She lashes out with a fist, feeling it connect with Hikari.
I can’t be human. I can’t be Aiyano.
God Gier 11 springs up, looks around wildly.
If I was, it would mean those memories are real. Memories of Hikari, and of Mia, and of Dr. Oswald and the ships and...
She grabs a nearby steel sword amidst the falling rubble.
Of that man in the brown suit and glasses… my Daddy...
Hikari crashes through the wall back into the hallway. Armed knights begin to gather, surrounding her with weapons pointed. She growls at them, hoping to scare them off, but notice that they are not looking at her anymore. She lifts her head and follows their gaze, in time to see her sister bearing down like a bolt of righteous lightning, steel sword held high over her head.
And memories of how I killed him…