The Dream Continues (3)
KRAAANG—!
A massive pair of shears came crashing down toward the ground.
I threw myself sideways on pure instinct.
If that thing hit me, I was dead. Instantly. No time to even reach for a K Corp ampule.
The ground where the shears struck tore open. The solid stone path that made up the village split like paper, and from the cracks, red flower petals erupted in a violent spray.
"Whoa~"
Nova stepped back, whistling.
"Get hit by that and you'd really be cut clean in two, huh~?"
"Obviously!"
"Just checking~"
"What is there to check?!"
KRAANG!!
The shears came down again before the words had even finished leaving my mouth. Right where I'd been standing.
And again—
KRAANG!!
And again—
KRAANG!!
Without a shred of hesitation, the thing that looked like Deputy Leader Doyun kept swinging those shears. Like pruning a tree. Like clearing weeds. Mechanical. Emotionless.
"Nova, how does that thing actually stack up against the real Deputy Leader Doyun? Do we have a shot at winning?"
"Ah~ it's fine. Compared to the original, that thing's not even half as strong. Still, a fragile long-range shooter like me would probably die pretty quick. Maybe I should thank it for putting me out of my misery~?"
"Stop joking around. So if I hold out, we can win, right?"
"Sure~~ Just hang on a little. I've already cracked open some Enkephalin—I'll have my aim locked in soon~"
Ha... I should've just tanked a hit and called Team Leader Mir. I could've been riding the bus right now. Damn it...
Even mid-conversation with Nova, the thing charged us again.
"A flower shop daughter must love flowers."
KRAANG!!
"The flower shop daughter is a good child."
KRAANG!!
"The actor must fulfill their role."
KRAANG!!
The stage was coming apart piece by piece. Debris flew. Petals whipped through the air.
I clenched my teeth and gripped Penance tight.
"It really doesn't listen, does it. Just the same lines over and over."
"Of course~"
Nova raised Abraxas.
"Look at that face—it never planned on talking. Feels a little more rigid than the real Doyun, doesn't it?"
A little?!
BANG!!
A golden bullet streaked out and punched through its shoulder.
It didn't stop. Didn't even flinch. In an instant, the wound sealed over like a branch sprouting new growth, and it just kept repeating the same words.
"Whoa~ that's actually kind of annoying..?"
And then—
SHHHHHHRAAAK!!
The sky turned red. Thousands—no, tens of thousands—of petals rose into the air. Every single one sharpened to a razor edge.
"Han~ get ready~"
"I know."
"No~ don't you feel like we might finally get to die this time~?"
Nova leveled Abraxas.
"This might be a little dangerous~?"
SHHHHHRAAAK!!!!
The petals came down like a storm.
KAGAGAGAK!!
Sparks flew off Penance. Every petal was sharp as a razor blade. They scraped the blade. Grazed my arms. Sliced past my cheek.
SLASH!!
A red line opened on my right arm. It stung. Then it burned.
"That hurts."
"Don't think of it as getting hit by flowers~"
BANG!!
"Those are knives~"
Golden bullets burst through clusters of petals. But there were too many.
SLASH!!
My thigh this time.
SLASH!!
My shoulder.
SLASH!!
The side of my neck.
Shallow, thankfully. Nothing fatal. But if they kept stacking up, I was in real trouble.
I drove forward through the storm of petals, aiming for the imitation of Deputy Leader Doyun. I had to reach it.
Something coiled around my ankle.
"...!"
I looked down. Flower stems—I had no idea when they'd climbed up. Dozens of them wound around my legs like snakes.
"Ah.... I'm fucked...."
CRUNCH.
The stems cinched tight. I heard bone creak. My breath locked in my chest.
"Han~ need a hand?"
BANG!!!!
A golden bullet tore through the stems and shredded them apart. I scrambled back immediately.
At the same instant—
KRAAANG!!!!
The massive shears obliterated the spot where I'd just been standing.
"It really only wants to kill us, huh~"
"Senior."
"Hm?"
"Isn't that kind of the default for Mental Dungeon bosses? Trying to kill us?"
"You've got a point there~"
Even in the middle of all this, she was completely unfazed. Impressive, in a way.
Then the villagers around us started to move. The entire village. Walking straight toward us.
"Ah...."
Nova covered her face.
"I really don't like this. It's gross."
BANG!!
BANG!!
BANG!!
Villagers' heads burst. Chests punched open. Bodies collapsed. And still they kept walking, kept coming back.
"The actor must fulfill their role."
"The actor must fulfill their role."
"The actor must fulfill their role."
"This is genuinely grotesque."
I swung Penance.
SLASH!!
One villager split clean in half. Behind it stood ten more—no, twenty, thirty. No end to them. They just kept resurrecting and closing in on us without pause.
And that thing still repeated the same words. Like a broken recording, looping endlessly.
Then the mercenary opened her mouth.
"...Why."
For a moment, everything seemed to freeze.
"Why don't I remember?"
It didn't answer.
"A flower shop daughter loves flowers."
"Why?"
The mercenary asked again.
"If I'm the flower shop daughter."
"Shouldn't I at least know what flowers I like?"
"..."
"A flower shop daughter loves flowers."
"Then."
The mercenary's eyes wavered.
"What's the shop called?"
"What's Grandma's name?"
"What did I do at the flower shop?"
"Why don't I remember a single thing?"
Its movement stopped—just for a fraction of a second. Barely anything. But it stopped.
"A flower shop daughter loves flowers."
"No."
The mercenary's voice rose.
"Why do I love them?"
"Why don't I remember?"
"Why?"
"Why?"
"Why?!!"
Crack.
A fissure appeared on Doyun's body. Tiny. Like glass.
"..."
"A flower shop daughter."
Crack.
"Loves."
Crrrack.
"Flowers."
The cracks multiplied.
I understood.
Doyun wasn't persuaded. Of course not—it was never something you could persuade.
That thing is a device. A device for maintaining the role of the flower shop daughter.
In the play, its actual role is a supporting character at best. Something that can never rise above a bit part.
So when the protagonist of this story—the mercenary, the lead—asks a question that reaches into territory a mere device can't explain...
An error occurs. Because a supporting character like that has no narrative grounds to answer with.
She remembers the result.
She was the flower shop daughter. She loved flowers.
But there's no process. No memory to ground any of it.
So she can't answer. She can't hold the story's internal logic together.
"Why?"
The mercenary spoke again.
"Why do I have to be the flower shop daughter?"
CRACK.
Another fracture split across the Deputy Leader's body—horizontal this time, and larger.
"A flower shop..."
"Daughter..."
"Loves..."
The words wouldn't connect.
A device that had lost its narrative coherence could no longer play any role in the story. It just kept looping the same fragment over and over.
I gripped Penance.
"You know what to do, right?"
"Yep~"
"I'm ending this."
"Oh~ looking cool."
I ran. Straight at it.
It raised the shears one last time.
KRAAANG!!!!
I twisted Penance and deflected the blades. Already weakened, it was far more manageable than before—something I could handle.
Shears and sword collided, and a heavy shock slammed through me. But I didn't give ground.
I remembered what I'd learned fighting the mercenary—concentrate power into the hands, and the moment an opening appears, cut through with a full-force rotation.
I timed the gap and swung with everything I had.
The massive pruning shears split clean in two. Its body reeled.
In that instant—
BANG!!!!
Abraxas's golden bullet punched straight through its chest.
"A flower shop..."
"Daughter..."
"..."
"..."
Its body crumbled. Shattered into pieces, scattering into thousands of petals that drifted up into the air.
And the village began to collapse.
The flower shop caved in. The villagers who had seemed unkillable melted away. The flower fields blackened and burned.
The host applauded from above the audience seats.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
"Excellent."
"Act One has concluded. The assigned supporting role has been lost, after all."
"Then we shall begin Act Two. Shall we call it... The Hunter?"
At the same moment, the world flipped over. The flower fields vanished, and a black forest took their place. Thick fog. The damp smell of wet earth.
And then—
BANG!!
A gunshot rang out.
Nova lifted her head.
"You hear that~?"
"Yeah. Loud and clear."
High up in a distant tree, someone sat swinging their legs. A hunter's hat. A cloak. A long rifle in their hands.
A very familiar face. The kind of face that, every single day after work, would thrash me and Yuri under the pretense of training.
"Oh?"
A woman smiled.
"Doyun's already dead? He went down way too fast."
She swung her legs like she'd just seen something entertaining.
"You're better than I expected. You two... this hunt's actually going to be fun."
Nova covered her face.
"Ah~ I really didn't think we'd run into our Team Leader here~"
Team Leader Mir—or rather, the thing that looked exactly like her—slowly raised the long rifle.
A metallic click of a round being chambered.
And the corner of her mouth curled up.
"But you know what? From here on out, it's going to get really hard. Look forward to it."
I'm so fucked. How the hell are we supposed to beat that...
