Resolve 2
A day had passed since Ash returned from Underland.
"Mmmmm..."
Waking from her sleep, Akina sat up with a groggy stretch, extending her arms and legs until her joints popped. She turned her head toward the small window and found the sun already high overhead.
"Huh? Oh no."
She'd stayed up late repairing Ash's body, and somewhere along the way she had slept clean through the morning without meaning to.
"Aww... I really overslept."
Flushing with embarrassment, she rolled her neck a couple of times in her usual routine to work the stiffness out—and then paused, feeling an odd emptiness. Ash, who had been sitting cross-legged on his charging port right up until she'd drifted off, was nowhere to be seen. Apparently he'd gotten a head start on the day.
"...You could've at least woken me up. Honestly, old man."
Touching her burning cheeks, Akina climbed out of bed and grabbed her worn towel and wash kit.
A short while later, she returned to her room feeling fresh and scrubbed, and changed into her work coveralls. After straightening her collar and tucking back a few stray strands of hair, she set out to look for the old man who still hadn't come back to his room.
The first place she thought of was the rooftop. When nothing unusual was going on, Ash would always head up there and stare out at the sprawl of Sanctum for hours on end.
"Hm? Nobody here?"
But today the rooftop was empty. Only the occasional cool gust of wind swept across it. Her search having come up short, she headed straight back down to the first floor—where a voice drifting from the treatment room behind the counter made her stop in her tracks.
Inside, Rudolph and the ninjas had gathered, the old pathfinder looking like he'd only just regained his senses.
"...I see. I'm glad everything worked out in the end."
"It's all thanks to you, Boss. But how are you feeling? Are your wounds all right?"
"Of course I'm fine. Santa may be a grumpy old bastard, but his hands are nothing short of miraculous."
"That's a real relief to hear."
"By the way—I hear you're a pathfinder now?"
"I haven't received my license yet, but yes. I've decided to follow Ash."
"...Ash, is it. What manner of man is he?"
"Ash... hmm. He's not a man I could pin down in a single word. But one thing I can say for certain—he is more than worthy of my trust and my blade."
"Hoo..."
The air inside was a little stiff, earnest in an awkward way. And since Akina wasn't particularly close to either party, she began quietly backing away to slip off unnoticed.
Her retreat failed beautifully. Zero had already sensed her presence and turned his head, finding her at the doorway.
"Ah. Young Lady. You're awake, I see?"
Ever since they'd agreed to join the same team, Zero and his siblings had taken to calling her Young Lady. The title made Akina shudder from head to toe every single time. No matter how she heard it, she just couldn't get used to it.
"Ugh, stop calling me that! Seriously, I get goosebumps every time I hear it!"
"Then what should we call you?"
"Hey, you. Shrimp. Squirt. Kid. Take your pick."
"...How could I ever address the Young Lady with such a vulgar title?"
At that absurdly polite stubbornness, Akina let out a short sigh. They'd had this exact conversation yesterday, too—and the result was right in front of her eyes.
She gave up arguing about the title and cut to the chase.
"Do you happen to know where Ash is? When I woke up, he wasn't in his spot."
"Ah. Ash? I saw him in the back yard a little while ago."
"Really? Thanks!"
With that brief exchange done, Akina turned on her heel and headed for the back yard.
Traces of the raucous party they'd thrown a few days ago still lingered there—like the tables that hadn't yet been hauled back inside the shop. And seated across from each other at one of them was an unexpected pairing of two women: Ifrit, lounging in a posture that had all but melted into her chair, and Siren, sitting ramrod straight and perfectly proper.
"I watched the broadcast. Pretty striking stuff."
"What do you mean?"
"You carved Rest-Men apart. Clean and thorough."
"..."
"You know how I feel about them already. Those cockroach bastards—I want every last one of them dead. So thanks to you, I got one hell of a show."
Ifrit giggled as she topped up Siren's glass.
"Looking at it now, maybe the traitor cockroach isn't half bad after all?"
"...Are you talking about me, Senpai?"
"You understood perfectly, so why are you asking, you brat."
Smirking, Ifrit suddenly rolled her heart-shaped glowing eyes this way and that, then said:
"Just one thing disappointed me, though. That... Jenny, was it?"
Her gaze, which had been staring into empty air, slid toward Siren. The smile was gone from her face.
"You should have killed her."
At that frost-cold remark, Siren flinched for an instant.
Ifrit paid it no mind. She tipped her own glass back and drained it dry, then set it down on the table with a sharp clack.
"That's not me being snide. I'm saying it as your senior."
She leaned forward. The slouching lounge-lizard posture was nowhere to be found now—only the razor edge in the eyes of a veteran pathfinder who had crossed more kill lines than she could count.
"This is that kind of town. Half-baked mercy will get you killed. And it'll get your comrades killed right along with you."
"..."
"I'm telling you this because I know you're softer than you look. So the next time you run into that woman—don't hesitate. Kill her. Not for your own sake. For the sake of the people who'll be fighting beside you."
Siren sat quietly, turning something over in her mind—then, just as Ifrit had done, she drained her full glass in a single go. And she said:
"Thank you for the advice, Senpai."
"Sure, sure. So what was it you wanted to tell me?"
At Ifrit's prompting, Siren hesitated a moment, then lifted one arm and laid it on the table. It was the arm of Undine, the wave-patterned tattoos standing out vividly against her skin.
"I want to give this arm back to you, Senpai."
"...Huh?"
"I'm going to be learning the sword directly from Ash now. And before that happens... I think I should return it. This power was never mine. From now on, I'm going to stand on my own strength. Nothing but my own."
Ifrit, who had been staring at her open-mouthed, heard herself mutter:
"Shit. So that's what Ash was talking about back then."
—You would be wise to give it some thought now.
Had that bizarre humanoid predicted this entire situation? A strange chill crawled up her spine.
He'd already been a little scary before. Now Ifrit found him scarier still.
"Did Ash say something to you?"
Snapping out of her reverie, Ifrit refilled her empty glass.
"Never mind. It wasn't meant for you. And the arm... honestly, that's a shock. Never in a million years did I think I'd get it back like th—"
"Oh! So you two are making up now?"
"Kyaaah!"
"What the hell?!"
The sudden voice made both women jump. They whipped their heads around in unison to find Akina standing directly beside them, apparently having materialized out of nowhere.
"Y-you! You! How long have you been standing there?!"
"Hmm... since you started talking about the arm?"
Watching Akina casually spin her own arm around in a lazy circle, Ifrit shook her head in defeat. To think she hadn't even sensed the little brat approaching.
That was how much Siren's offer to return the arm had shaken her.
"Anyway! What's going on here?"
Ifrit forced the topic in another direction.
"Have you guys seen our old man? I heard he was in the back yard."
"Oh, Ash? He was grilling me with questions about shooting, and then headed off toward the parking lot. Something about repairing the Revenant."
Akina turned her head.
The Revenant was sitting right next to their table.
"Um? The Revenant's right here, though?"
"Probably went to grab tools. The ROA armored car's still parked out front."
"Ah, got it!"
With one more quick bow of thanks, Akina set off for the parking lot in front of the rest stop.
There stood ROA's new armored transport, flaunting its full majesty—set against the backdrop of Jack O'Lantern's howls of astonishment.
"Holy sh—! How is this even real?!"
Jack and Dullahan had abandoned their tool-grabbing mission halfway through, clambered aboard the armored car, and were now glued to the interior monitors.
Akina wandered over, puzzled.
"What's up? What's so interesting?"
At her words, Jack whipped his head around and waved her over.
"Oh! Akina! Come here, you gotta see this!"
The two men were watching the Revenant's dashcam footage. Apparently they'd pulled it out mid-repair to check exactly what the hell had happened on the drive.
Curiosity got the better of Akina too, and she climbed up beside them, craning her neck.
On the screen, the Underland car chase was playing out in full. The moment where the vehicle ran along the top of a pipeline like an acrobat, then launched skyward and barreled straight into the tunnel, was breathtaking.
Above Dullahan's visor, a short message flashed in sheer disbelief:
"Heh. Heheheheh."
Jack O'Lantern burst into a dazed, empty-headed laugh.
"How is that even possible? The whole chassis was tilted that far over and it wasn't scared even a little?"
"Honestly, I can't gauge him anymore. What the hell even is Big Bro Ash? The data card he gave us only had basic operation manuals and reference material, I swear."
Watching the two men glued to the screen as if they wanted to climb inside the monitor, Akina stifled a quiet laugh.
Oh. They're all talking about Ash too, aren't they?
Rudolph and the ninjas in the treatment room. Ifrit and Siren in the back yard. And now Jack and Dullahan right before her eyes.
Each of them, in their own corner of the rest stop, was having their own conversation. Yet strangely enough, if you listened closely, every single one of those conversations circled back to Ash.
Some spoke of him as a man worth trusting and following. Some staked their futures on a single word from him. Still others watched his reckless exploits and marveled out loud.
Everyone was talking about Ash.
While she had slept—while she hadn't been looking.
The realization tickled something deep and strange in Akina's chest. She felt oddly proud. Almost boastful about it.
Heheh! See that? Our old man's the best, isn't he?
Chasing that silly little thought, Akina found the smile at the corners of her mouth growing wider all on its own.
"By the way, what'd you come out here for?"
At Jack's sudden question, Akina explained the reason she'd come all this way.
"I was looking for Ash. Have you seen him by any chance?"
Jack finally tore his eyes from the screen.
"Huh? He just went into the shop with Santa gramps. Didn't you see them pass?"
"Santa's grandpa?"
"Yeah, said they had something to talk about, and headed inside."
Jack hopped down from the vehicle, glanced around, then tilted his head back and pointed upward.
"Oh, there he is. Boss!"
Akina followed his fingertip and looked up.
The rooftop of the rest stop. There stood Ash, side by side with Santa, gazing out over Sanctum in quiet conversation. At Jack's shout, Ash turned his head this way—
—and spotting Akina, raised a single hand in greeting.
—Did you sleep well?
At the amplified electronic voice, Akina beamed and waved both arms back in a big, floppy hello.
"You two, I'm heading up first!"
Akina hopped down from the armored car with a lightness in her step.
Then, without a moment's hesitation, she pushed through the doors of the rest stop and charged up the worn old stairs.
To meet Ash—the man everyone, everywhere, was talking about.