The Search
No matter how far firearms advanced, there was still every reason to admit that explosives were the more devastating of the two. A grenade, after all, was a weapon of mass slaughter.
A gun focused its destructive power on a single point. A grenade took that same powder and flung shrapnel in every direction. Faced with either in a world like this, which would be the greater threat?
Hard to say. A gun looked as if it were begging someone to pull the trigger, and a grenade looked as if it were shouting for someone to yank the pin. Drop either into the hands of a person who had no idea what it was, and the tension was real all the same. Their shapes were that intuitively dangerous. Even a complete novice could use them without any trouble.
"This is an object that crossed over from the other world. Do you happen to know what it is?"
"Uh, well. It's round, and it fits right in the hand. It is kind of cute, I guess."
"I see. Setting aside the pin stuck in it, which is a little inconvenient, it does seem rather cute."
The moment I claimed ignorance, Hamil yanked the safety pin free. Whether he understood that pulling it meant the thing was no longer safe, he simply stared straight at me. At least he was still gripping the safety lever. Whether he meant to or was only holding it by chance, I couldn't tell. Did he even know that if he let go, the grenade would actually explode? I could read nothing in that expressionless face, so for now I had to stay calm.
If he had truly brought it here knowing nothing, then it would be fine to call it my own guess and advise him to put the pin back in. But if Hamil was suspicious of me—if he was already wondering how I had known how to use a gun—then saying the wrong thing in front of him would only deepen that suspicion. I couldn't open my mouth lightly.
"Um, if you don't even know what that thing is, wouldn't it be better to leave it the way it was? This is making me nervous."
"I pulled the pin, and nothing happened. It's fine."
I was not fine. Swallowing hard, I kept watching his face. He was definitely suspicious of me. He seemed to know exactly what a grenade was, and to be sounding me out on purpose. So was the right move to trust that it wouldn't go off and simply sit still? What if his hand slipped off the lever by accident? Then both of us would blow apart right here.
The moment that bus hit me, I had been fated to become a ghost. That didn't mean the life I'd been given again was something I could afford to throw away. I was sorry for the original owner of this body, but unless she appeared and demanded it back, or grabbed me by the collar in a dream and asked why I had stolen it, I would rather be alive. Even stuck in a woman's body, living was better than dying. And if I was ever going to return this body to its owner, I was better off keeping it in one piece. For my own sake, and for hers, I had an obligation to stay alive and whole.
The suffocating standoff with Hamil, whose thoughts I couldn't begin to guess, dragged on. It seemed I would have to give some answer before he either backed off or hauled me in. What could I say that would get me out from under suspicion? No matter how I turned it over, nothing suitable came to mind. And then a bell began to ring outside, and with it a woman's scream, torn raw.
"Aaaaah! Sister Victoria!"
"Q-quickly, a healing prayer for Sister—! Sister Victoria, please come to!"
"I know how to use a healing prayer. Where is she? What's happening?"
Nuns went sprinting off in a panic. Amid the chaos outside, Hamil pushed the safety pin back into the grenade. So he had known how to use it all along. He must have been testing me with it. Thank God I had kept my mouth shut and stayed still. If I had pretended to know anything about grenades, or let even one slip of the tongue escape, I really would have been burned at the stake.
"It seems something has happened."
It was a relief, as far as it went, that Hamil seemed ready to postpone my interrogation. I couldn't simply be glad of it. Sister Victoria was being helped into the infirmary by the other nuns, and one look at the habit torn open down the front, pale skin showing through, was enough to understand what had happened. Someone had stabbed her with something sharp. The other nuns had healed her at once, so the wound itself was gone, but the black habit was soaked until it glistened, and it was easy to guess that every bit of that sheen was blood.
Sister Victoria had been hurt. That kind woman. From the things the other nuns let drop in passing, I had already gathered that the original owner of this body was a delinquent, and Victoria had been good even to someone like that. Talk of drugs and the like, with nothing to back it up, didn't sit well with me at all, but it probably meant the original owner's conduct had been enough of a disaster to earn that kind of gossip. The good person who had believed someone like that could become better, who had cheered her on, had been hurt. It wasn't even my affair, and still it felt bitterly unfair. Why did something like that have to happen to Sister Victoria?
Was this how good people ended up, in that world and in this one alike? Like the neighbor lady who gladly made dinner for the child her own mother wouldn't look after, and then died of cancer. Like the old man who came by every day with snacks for the children, calling it a way to pass the time, and was killed by a robber with evil in his heart.
And even so, there was nothing I could do. All that remained was the same helplessness that had followed me all the way from my previous life. I could read an article about a child harmed by an adult with bad intentions, or about victims suffering because of people running frauds worth billions, and beyond muttering that they were bad people, what was there for me to do? It was the same now. Sister Victoria had suffered something horrible, and there was still nothing I could do for her.
For a moment I felt like a fool, for having crossed into a fantasy world and secretly gotten fluttery over how pretty the nuns around me were. This world was hardly different from the one I had left. The same good people, the same bad people, and me in the middle of it, an ordinary person with no power at all.
Having seen Sister Victoria like that, Hamil spoke to the nuns who had brought her.
"The item Sister Victoria was carrying has disappeared. When she collapsed, did any brother or sister see a black staff like this nearby?"
"Ah... I was the first to find Sister Victoria, but I didn't see anything like that. If something had been lying there, the other sisters would surely have gathered it up for her sake."
The moment I heard that exchange, I understood what Hamil suspected. Someone had attacked Sister Victoria in order to get the gun. Whether this place was a convent or a cathedral, this was not someone slipping into a house of worship to steal an expensive statue or a bit of gold. If they were taking an object these people didn't even know how to use, then they must have stolen it knowing exactly how lethal a gun was. In that case, even if I had left the safety on, they might know well enough to take it off.
"The one who committed this act clearly attacked her out of desire for it. Please seal the cathedral so that not a single person may come or go. And a search must be conducted."
"I-is it that precious an object?"
The nun who had laid Sister Victoria on the bed turned her eyes to the gun in Hamil's hand. If he said it was expensive, of course she would be interested. I didn't like that look one bit. Sister Victoria had collapsed, and this was the moment to get greedy?
"It is a dangerous object. It is the weapon that brought Sister Selenia, here with us, to the brink of death."
"Oh! Th-then I will. I'll make sure no one can leave. The bell has rung, so everyone will stop what they're doing and gather in the nave until orders come down."
"The bodies of the priests and the nuns will have to be searched, and every corner of the cathedral as well. I ask for your understanding. Should this weapon fall into the hands of the wicked, innocent lives may fall before anyone has time to act."
"I'll remember!"
Was the office of Inquisitor that lofty, or had word already spread of the weapon that had dropped me while I sprayed blood from every part of my body? The nun ran from the infirmary with her face gone ashen, and Hamil gazed at me in silence. More precisely, at my body. A blanket covered me, but beneath it I was naked. I wasn't a woman, and yet shame washed over me. I hauled the blanket up to my shoulders and curled in on myself.
"Wh-what are you looking at me like that for? Do I have to be searched too? I'm not wearing anything under here. When they treated me, I think they took all my clothes off..."
"Sister Selenia, you have been with me the entire time, have you not? Sister Victoria left this room carrying the gun. I know perfectly well that neither of us had the time to commit the crime."
"..."
Hearing it put that way, he was right. Ashamed of the foolish thought, I dropped my head. Whether I did or not, Hamil went on in a serious voice.
"Sister Selenia, you seem to understand well enough how dangerous a gun is. It is an object that deals death in an instant, without any warning. That is why I wish to ask for your help. A body search is necessary, but while I might manage the male priests and monks, I cannot lay hands on the nuns. The women, then, will have to be entrusted to you, Sister Selenia."
"M-me?"
"There is no one more suitable than you, Sister Selenia."
At that demand, my mind went blank.