The Resolve (3)
While Akina was wandering here and there around the rest stop, Santa and Ash had climbed up onto the rooftop, where they gazed out over the panorama of Sanctum for a long while in silence.
Santa's usual sly smirk was nowhere to be found. His face set in a hard expression, he slowly lit a cigarette.
"You work as a Pathfinder long enough, and sooner or later a thick line gets drawn. A line that separates the people on your side from your enemies."
Grey smoke drifted and curled against the glittering backdrop of the city.
"Greenhorns not even a month on the job get tangled up with Halloween, then with Vortex after that... Looks like you lot are headed for big things."
"A tiresome joke."
"Not a joke. You've got to swim in deep water to grow big."
"Or die early. Wouldn't you say?"
At Ash's rejoinder, Santa gave a dry snort.
"Can't argue with that."
"A question, old master."
"Ask away, and I'll answer with all my heart, just as it is."
Ash considered for a moment, then resolved to work through things step by step, starting from what could be called the origin of their present situation.
He pointed at his own chassis.
"Let's start with this. Where did you get these parts? From the look of it, Vortex is scouring the city with their eyes on fire searching for them. This is hardly the kind of thing you'd find in some little workshop in the Gateway District, is it?"
Santa glanced sidelong at Ash's chassis, then turned his head away and exhaled a long, deep draw of smoke into the air.
When the grey haze hanging over them had finally faded, he spoke.
"...I took a commission. An analysis job."
"A commission?"
Ash pressed back, caught off guard by the unexpected answer.
"You told me before, plainly, that you'd acquired it through a trade."
"It was a trade too. Paying back an old debt, you could say."
"...Then what exactly was this commission?"
"They asked me to analyze the Vortex tech inside it. The KERS."
"And who asked?"
"Foundation."
Ash's optical sensors flickered once, briefly.
"Foundation? Foundation Systems? One of the Trinity — that Foundation?"
"Surprised? A bigger fish showed up than you expected?"
"...I won't deny it. But why would Foundation make such a request?"
"Hmm."
Santa tossed the cigarette butt down and ground it out with his boot, then immediately pulled out another and lit it.
"There's an official reason and a real reason. Which one do you want?"
"I'll hear both and judge for myself."
"Suit yourself."
Santa shrugged and went on.
"First, the official one. Vortex has no intention of ever selling KERS-equipped products on the open market. They plan to keep it for use inside their own Society alone."
"Hmm? Why ever so? From the little I've used it, it seems a remarkable technology. It would sell like wildfire, surely?"
"Short-term, yes. Long-term, no."
Santa turned his gaze back to Ash.
"Vortex is the corporation that supplies all of Sanctum's power. And then there's KERS. Sure, right now it'd be nice to move product. But think about it over the long haul — what happens when KERS isn't used by individuals like you, but gets installed in core facilities and factories across every corporation in the city?"
Ash nodded slowly.
"...Power consumption would drop."
"And that'd be the best-case outcome. Once KERS hits the open market, people will tear it apart and steal the technology. Private citizens and corporations alike. The more people research it, the more efficient it gets. And the further that goes..."
"...the more Vortex's profits shrink."
Santa nodded.
"Honestly, from their point of view, KERS is a revolutionary technology they'd be better off never having invented. But it's undeniably attractive, too. So they want it for themselves alone. Inside their own Society. Quietly."
Ash stroked his jaw and fell deep into thought.
A moment passed.
Then he let out a low electronic tone.
"So you're telling me Foundation stole the thing and brought it to you in order to break Vortex's monopoly on the technology? For the KERS analysis? It sounds a little off to me. The causality doesn't quite connect."
"Of course it doesn't. Like I said, that's the official reason."
"Then what is the real one?"
At that, Santa looked at Ash through his tinted goggles and answered in a voice heavier than before.
"The real reason is..."
He worked his mouth for a moment before continuing.
"Soon, Vortex is going to declare a hostile takeover."
"...Of whom?"
"Foundation Systems."
At that name, Ash was momentarily at a loss for words.
"...A merger."
Watching Ash murmur the word under his breath, Santa went on.
"The KERS is currently the core technology of a weapon Vortex is developing in secret. Foundation, who will soon be locked in a takeover war with them, wants to know exactly what that weapon is before the fight starts."
"Wait. Wait just a moment. You sold us a chassis carrying their most critical, most secret technology? No — it should have been buried as deep as they could hide it. Why in the world would they—"
Ash's voice module cut out mid-sentence.
Because he remembered the three conditions Santa had set when he sold him this body.
And one of them surfaced more vividly than the rest — the second condition.
"Accumulate data. And share it with me."
"...Oh. Oh no."
Ash grabbed his own head and shook it slowly back and forth.
"I got played. Beautifully."
Santa came over and, with an awkward smile, laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Ha. Haha. Ash, it wasn't just that, all right. You remember how it was back then, eh? How hard that Akina kid hounded me. I was only trying to recommend the best model available—"
"Take your hand off."
"Oh, should I? That's probably for the best, huh? Ahh, looks like I got some dust on it without noticing."
Santa hastily withdrew his hand.
Ash lifted his head just slightly, his teal optical sensors flaring as he fixed Santa with something very close to a glare.
"You told me there wasn't a single soul in Sanctum worth trusting. You're really doing this to me?"
"I was going to tell you!"
"When? Five months from now, when the installments end?"
"Sooner than that! And honestly, what business would a rookie Pathfinder ever have running into Vortex? I figured you'd be lucky to poke around a Level 1 Outer ruin!"
"So what, this is my fault now?"
"Bad luck, that's all it was, why are you getting so—"
Santa's voice trailed off.
Ash's optical sensors were still burning into him. That look — whatever you wanted to call it — those teal eyes of his were blazing so fiercely they were hard to meet.
"Awright, I'm sorry! I really am!"
And that was precisely why Santa never noticed:
Half of the fury Ash was showing him right now was pure theater.
He wasn't actually angry. Not truly. The moment they had blown Memoryphilia to pieces in Underland, they had been fated to cross Vortex one way or another. The chassis had only moved that reckoning up a little sooner.
But Ash said none of this aloud.
Now was the time to squeeze this situation for everything it was worth — to extract as much as he could from it.
"Enough."
Ash cut off Santa, who was still stacking up excuses even now.
"What's done is done. There's no point pointing fingers after the fact. You didn't do it out of malice, old master."
"R-right? Right?"
"That said, I cannot simply let the matter pass, either."
Ash rapped a knuckle against his own chassis.
"I've grasped the situation well enough. And looking at it now — this thing isn't a product I bought. I've been helping them collect data, haven't I? In which case, the ledger needs to be rebalanced, no?"
"Huh? What, what ledger?"
"The one where we ought to be receiving credits from you."
"Credits? Okay! Done! I'll refund the four hundred thousand you paid for the first month!"
"The room where Zero and his siblings are to stay — isn't it a touch too cramped? Four of them, mind you. And one of them a young lady, at that?"
"I'll remodel the second floor, make it bigger? Or, hell, I could put a modular housing kit out in the back yard. How's that?"
"My anger is subsiding, little by little."
The instant Santa moved to breathe a sigh of relief at those words, Ash added:
"Ah. And one more thing."
"What now? Hey, you brat, isn't this a bit much? How much are you planning to bleed me—"
"I need your help, old master."
"...Help? What kind of help?"
"From the look of things, you have some manner of connection to Foundation. Am I wrong?"
At that, Santa fell silent for a beat.
He pushed his goggles up once, then answered Ash's question.
"Less a connection than a kind of debt, I'd call it. But why do you ask?"
"I've been thinking. Now that we've crossed Vortex, how should we respond? And the options I've settled on come to four in all."
"That many?"
"The first: return this chassis. But that option is unusable. We already shattered the Dreamweaver — handing back the body will not shield us from Vortex's wrath."
"True enough."
Santa nodded.
"Next, the second: stay in Sanctum and never set foot in the Outer. But that is a stopgap at best. For the little girl's dreams, and for my own goal, we must eventually go to the Outer regardless."
"That's right too. You're Pathfinders, after all."
"The third option is to join hands with Vortex. To place ourselves under their banner outright."
Santa cocked his head.
"That one's a hard pass, I'd say."
"I share the sentiment. The moment we enter their fold, we surrender every ounce of initiative we hold. That is not the path of a warrior — it is the path of becoming a dog."
Ash paused briefly, then named the last option.
"Which leaves the fourth and final road: to press onward, just as we are. To meet the enemy's threat head-on. As I see it, there is no other way — but how does it look to you, old master?"
"So in the end, it comes down to a straight fight."
"Indeed."
"Hm. I follow what you're getting at. But what did my relationship with Foundation have to do with any of it?"
Ash answered his question.
"Just as Memoryphilia rode on Vortex's back — I wondered whether we might ride on Foundation's. Judging by everything we've heard so far, they need my data just as desperately, no?"
At that, Santa's eyes went wide — and then he burst into roaring laughter.
"They called in the father, so now you're going to bring in the mother? Is that it?"
"A flippant way of putting it — but correct."
"Khh-hh. Escalating the table with a counterbluff. Okay. Okay!"
Santa gave a great, hearty nod.
"Don't you worry about that part. I'll go fetch you one absolutely terrifying mother."
Just then, a commotion rose from the parking lot below the rooftop.
"Boss! Hey, BOSS!"
Ash looked down and caught sight of Jack O'Lantern waving both arms overhead. Akina was beside him.
Spotting her, Ash raised one hand and pushed his voice module to maximum volume.
"Did you sleep well?"
Akina heard the greeting and flailed her arms in reply.
Watching the girl kick off from the armored vehicle and go sprinting into the rest stop, Santa turned away.
"Aigoo. Here comes that loud little gremlin now. I'm off, Ash. We'll talk details later — there's still plenty of night left before the activation window."
Ash nodded, Santa flapped his hand a couple of times, and he vanished through the rooftop entrance.
Akina, who had bounded up the stairs in a single burst, plopped down beside Ash and chattered away about this and that.
Most of it was about the conversations she'd overheard on her rounds. Apparently all anyone talked about was uncle this and uncle that — and somehow she seemed quietly proud of it. Ash let out a low chuckle.
And so the two of them sat side by side, trading small talk against the glittering backdrop of Sanctum.
"Hey, so, um."
At some point, Akina spoke up.
"What was the serious talk about? When I was heading down earlier, Santa's face looked really off."
"The old master? What did his face look like, exactly?"
"Mmm... like this?"
Akina did an impression of Santa's expression — eyes wide and bulging, mouth curved into a grin. It was quite the memorable face.
Watching her, Ash rested a hand gently on her shoulder.
"We'll be facing Vortex soon. There were things I needed to ask the old master about it, so we talked at length."
"That's right! Vortex!"
Akina shot to her feet.
"Upgrades! You're going to need way more upgrades! And with all those credits coming, which parts should we swap out this time?"
Ash answered quietly.
"This time, upgrading me alone will not be enough."
"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"
Ash gazed at her face for a long moment. Then he rose from where he sat and took a single step toward Sanctum, shimmering with its ten thousand lights.
Somewhere in that riot of neon, a great predator called Vortex was no doubt baring its jaws. And perhaps an abyss even more terrible than that — the abyss called Omnicell.
"..."
Until now, Ash had carved his way through everything with his blade and his blade alone.
But now—
Now, the strength of one man might no longer be enough to protect them all. Somewhere along the way, without his noticing, far too much had come to lean against his back.
He could not lose it all a second time.
After gazing out over the city for a while, Ash spoke.
"A powerful enemy threatens us. The time for banking on fortune through my strength alone has passed."
He turned slowly and met Akina's eyes as she looked up at him.
"And so, I have made a resolve."
Akina tilted her head at the solemn phrasing.
"What resolve?"
Steel ran through the electronic voice that answered her.
"A resolve to give everything I have — to pass on all the teachings of Kunlun to every one of you."
Akina, who had no idea what those words meant, only tilted her head again, puzzled.