EP.6 — On a Starry Night, Part 14

-Tap, tap-tap!

Footsteps. Then the sound of ragged, heavy breathing.

When Ash turned his head toward the noise, he saw a familiar figure sprinting toward him.

It was Billy.

He had come running at a dead sprint, and now he gradually slowed his pace.

"…!"

At the sight of Ash — and of the Star Counter — he let out a sigh that was closer to a groan.

Then he walked over, slow and deliberate.

At last Billy came to a stop and looked down at the face of the man lying on the ground.

His friend, the Star Counter — both arms gone, his chest ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠torn wide open, and yet wearing a smile more peaceful than he had ever worn in life.

"…Goddamn it."

A strangled curse burst out of Billy's mouth.

It was impossible to tell what he was holding back. One thing was certain, though — it wasn't rage. If anything, it was closer to relief, or a hollow, empty ache.

For a moment, his lips moved.

He seemed to be trying to say something — anything.

"Goddamn it…"

But in the end, all that came out of his mouth was that one short curse, with a dozen emotions churning inside it.

Billy stared at his friend's face for a long time. Then, at some point, he turned his head.

He saw Ash, watching silently from a short distance away.

"Ash. Can I handle the body?"

Ash's optical sensor flickered faintly.

"…Surely you don't mean to take his neck, as with Velma—"

"No. I'm doing it because I don't want that."

Billy clenched his fists.

"When you're dead, you should rest. That's what's right. I can't let them put him through that kind of indignity. I'm going to burn him. Before anyone finds out. Before the corps get their hands on him. Right here."

"…You mean to cremate him here?"

"Yeah. Right here."

It was nonsense.

This was the Spiral Generator — the beating heart of Vortex itself. Even if the Star Counter had slaughtered a great many of the security forces, surely some would remain.

And it would only be a matter of time before reinforcements arrived.

But Ash nodded.

"Very well. Let us do that. But we have no time, so we must hurry."

Billy, having nothing to say in reply, rose straight to his feet.

Then he pulled off the exploration suit he'd worn this whole time — the suit soaked in sweat and blood, the Omnicell BioTech emblem printed stark across it.

He laid the long garment over the body. At the cold touch of his friend's corpse, Billy flinched for a moment, but he soon patted the man's shoulder a few times and stood up.

Then he drew a lighter from inside his jacket.

A scuffed silver lighter.

-Ting.

With a bright metallic ring, a small red flame leapt to life.

Billy stared at the flame for a moment, then threw it, just as he was. The lighter traced a shallow arc through the air and came down on the exploration suit.

But—

Perhaps because the suit was built for the Outer, the fire did little more than leave a faint scorch before sputtering out.

That was when it happened.

Ash extended one arm.

A blue plasma flame flickered to life at his fingertips.

Like a man transferring flame from hand to kindling, Ash swept his fingertips over the surface of the suit.

-FWOOSH!

The moment ultra-high-temperature plasma touched down, the fire surged violently. It devoured the Star Counter and Omnicell's exploration suit alike — and perhaps, too, the worn-out heart of someone who had suffered long enough.

Billy, who had been gazing at the flames with a dazed look, turned his head to Ash and spoke.

"Thank you."

Ash shook his head.

"…Do not thank me."

"Huh?"

"That is a request."

"…All right."

Thick, acrid smoke rose into the air.

But neither of them moved away.

At some point, a low electronic tone flowed from Ash's voice module.

"The Great Clod bore me with form, and wearied me with life; it eased me with old age, and grants me rest in death."

An unfamiliar language.

An unfamiliar rhythm.

But the resonance carried a power that was unmistakably solemn, and deeply mysterious. Billy stared blankly at Ash, then opened his mouth.

"What does it mean?"

"…The world shaped me and made me endure a weary life, then eased that burden with old age — and at last, grants me rest in death."

Ash's gaze never left the fire.

"It is, in truth, a verse on the cycle of life and death… but today I recited it as a farewell. With a wish for comfort."

"Hm…"

A faint smile drifted across Billy's face.

"Well, it sounds nice."

"Does it, now."

That was all the conversation they had.

Ash and Billy watched the fire burn.

-Crackle.

The smoke kept rising, drifting toward the pitch-black sky.

Just as, in life, he had counted the stars without end.

Blue dawn light settled over Santa's Rest Stop.

The ground-floor lobby was sunk in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an unusually heavy silence. Santa sat perched on the counter, watching the news over the rim of his sunglasses, while Zero and his brothers, seated in the corner, stared at the front door without so much as a twitch.

And then there was Akina.

She stood before a table, fidgeting aimlessly with the premium lubricant and repair kit that had been laid out and waiting in advance.

On the screen of the PDA resting on the table, the news bulletins kept scrolling past — and beneath them, the comments as well.

All of it swam before the girl's blue eyes.

"I can't just sit here anymore."

At that, Anna rose from the stool at the bar.

Zero sprang to his feet in time with her movement.

"My thoughts exactly. Let's go."

The moment the two of them turned to grab their weapons—

"Sit down."

Santa's low, gravelly voice rolled through the rest stop's first floor. Anna's head whipped around.

"How can we possibly just sit here?! You saw the news! Something's clearly happened!"

"That's exactly why I'm telling you to sit."

Santa ground his cigarette butt out in the ashtray and jerked his chin toward the monitor he'd been watching.

"What happened? No. Something huge has happened. Most of the corporations involved are probably already moving, fast and quiet. And at a time like that, you lot — who don't know a damn thing about the circumstances — barge in? You think that would help Ash?"

"Even so, we have to help him!"

Zero pushed back, but Santa shook his head firmly.

"Sometimes doing nothing is what helps. So sit. Don't make a scene."

Santa slid his sunglasses down slightly and shot a glance at the girl frozen in front of the table.

"…You feel the same way too, don't you? Shorty."

"…"

Instead of answering, Akina rudely switched off the PDA she'd been watching. Then she opened her mouth toward the restless Team Blaze.

"Don't go."

"Young Lady!"

"He told us not to come. Exactly that, in exactly those words. So the right thing for us is to stay. That's what he decided, isn't it? I trust his judgment."

Her voice was trembling.

But the faith inside it was unshakable.

Still, Anna shook her head as if she simply couldn't accept it.

"But Akina, that was earlier. And right now, he's not answering his comms at all."

It was true.

Right now, Ash was in complete communications blackout.

No signal whatsoever.

That was exactly what it looked like when a comms module was switched off — or destroyed.

Neither possibility was a good omen.

"…Even so."

Akina bit her lip.

"Even so, I'm going to wait. He told me he'd come. You all know it, don't you? Our mister — he doesn't talk nonsense."

Her stubbornness left Anna and Zero with no choice but to fall silent. When Ash was absent, the final decision-maker of Team Blaze was the technomancer, Akina.

All they could do was kill the time, chewing on their anxiety.

"Huh?"

That was when it happened.

Wolf, standing beside the window, shouted as though he'd spotted something.

"A car is coming!"

He pointed a finger at the front door.

Every gaze snapped outward at once.

Wolf was right.

A single rough-hewn black vehicle was gliding into the rest stop's parking lot.

No corporate emblem anywhere on it — it looked to be privately owned.

The car came to a stop.

A moment later, the passenger-side door opened.

And from within it, an enormous shadow slowly revealed itself.

"…Ah."

A gasp burst from Akina's lips.

Without a second's hesitation, she sprang up, kicked the door open, and ran out.

"Mister!"

Cutting through the cold dawn air, the girl burst outside — and there, standing before her, was Ash, battered half to ruin.

His black exploration suit had been shredded to rags, and his steel body was covered in black soot and deep scars.

And that wasn't all.

The armor plating on his left shoulder had been torn away, leaving the internal circuits laid bare, and steam hissed from the hydraulic cylinders in his legs.

Even his teal optical sensors, always so clear and bright, blinked with difficulty, struggling to hold on to their ring of light.

"Ah. I have retur—"

But his bearing was as dignified as ever.

His archaic speech was as unchanged as ever.

"…returned."

And so Akina sprinted the last of the distance and threw herself into his broad embrace. The smell of oil and burnt metal hit her all at once, but she didn't care.

"…I have returned."

At those words, the tears she'd been holding back finally broke free. But she didn't sob. Instead, she smiled — a smile as bright as anything.

"Heh, hehe. You came back, Mister?"

Blue eyes, glittering with welling tears.

"…"

Looking into those eyes, Ash could not manage a single word more.

He simply held Akina — his own blue star, shining so vividly — precious and close, in his arms.