Another Miracle (1)
"Um... so, the bracelets we had made back then? These are them. Ta-da."
Mary Tepes's avatar broke into a triumphant smile and threw a single photograph up on the screen: two women's hands, fingers laced together, and around each wrist a bracelet of pure white.
"Wh-what are you talking about?! It's M, for Mary! No — I mean, it isn't an S, it's a C written there, okay?! That is not a letter anyone could misread!"
Charlotte is spelled Charlotte. The letter set down beside Tenka's arm in the photograph was, of course, a C. At the viewer's sudden and wholly unprovoked smear, Mary had let out a shriek.
"Haa... anyway, after that I happened to run into Tama-senpai, too. We shopped a little longer, and then we went our separate ways."
There was no need to go into what that particular "shopping" had actually consisted of. So thinking, Mary glanced over the chat.
"How was Tama-senpai, you ask? Well, she was the same senpai as always."
Mary seemed to think for a moment, then went on.
"Oh. She came walking up in a baseball jacket with her hands in the pockets... and it suited her awfully well. Tama-senpai has a wild, rather feral look about her, in all sorts of ways. A sukajan? No, it wasn't that. Just a jacket with nothing drawn on it."
"Her real look? No. What are you talking about? This side is the real one, isn't it? Tama-senpai is a cat-eared pretty girl in real life, too, you know?"
No one seriously believed it, but Anathema Production's official position was that there was, at any rate, no person inside — as it was for most broadcasters who had started out as VTubers.
Mary had been spinning out these little trifles when she caught one comment in particular and changed the subject.
"'Oh, so Shutang's birthday is tomorrow'... Yes, that's exactly right! This is the sort of vital fact I simply must announce to all of you."
"But the servants who came in partway through might not have heard. —Yes! And so, by way of explanation: tomorrow is the day of birth of this noble True Ancestor queen, Mary Tepes!"
Mary declared it beaming, already wearing the look of someone who could hardly bear how much she was looking forward to tomorrow.
The chat flooded over with people sick to death of hearing it, and yet it was perfectly obvious that, deep down, they found this side of Mary adorable.
Heh. Not a bad reaction.
She had been angling for it, at least in part, and inwardly Ninomae smiled, satisfied.
The truth was that Ninomae herself had no fierce need to be celebrated on her birthday no matter what. She would be glad if a great many viewers congratulated her, certainly, but it never rose above lovely if it happens, and if it doesn't, oh well.
"W-well! It's not as if I'm asking you to congratulate me, okay? I just want you to know!"
For "Mary Tepes," however, it was a slightly different story. Arrogant and stiff with pride, and yet housing inside all of that an innocent girl who wanted to be loved — that was the character Mary was, and so Ninomae conducted herself according to her own reading of her.
"And, um..."
What she brought up next, though, came in a rather more careful tone.
"Actually, today isn't only the day before my birthday. There's something else, too......"
It was not an easy thing to raise lightly, not from the position of someone meant to be the star of her own stream. But if the one raising it was Mary, who looked out for others in her quiet way, then even a subject like this would not seem strange. No — before any of that, it was something she wanted people to know, as Ninomae.
"Today is Sister's birthday, too. Yes. We're exactly one day apart, you know?"
"Mmm. I don't think she's watching at the moment. She said she went out today for something quite important..."
"...You are watching? Why?"
"No, no — more importantly, what happened to the person you were supposed to meet?!"
"No, seriously, what are you doing?! You said you were meeting someone high up, didn't you?!"
Even so, that preposterous remark left Ninomae no choice but to let out a scream of pure disbelief.
"How is it?"
"It's good."
"Do you truly think so?"
"No. This isn't going to end until I say it's good, now is it."
Hm. That might not have been wrong. Han Seoyeon nodded without quite meaning to, and accepted it.
"I had been given to understand that Lord Bartholomew was, for a cleric, quite the moderate sort......"
The reaction had been entirely too unabashed, and the woman across from her could only offer a wry smile for it.
A colonel's insignia was fixed to the dress uniform of the United States Navy, with several ribbons pinned alongside it. Considering her age and her sex, the rank alone made her a markedly unusual case — and with the Navy Cross among the ribbons on her chest, she stood out all the more.
"It seems I have a way of becoming distinctly extreme whenever the matter touches Miss Ninomae and Shutang. Or so I'm told."
"Oh. So you are aware."
"Not awareness. A third party's objective testimony, if anything."
Han Seoyeon smiled faintly and slipped the smartphone back into her pocket. The Shutang outreach, she appeared to have decided, had gone far enough.
"Well then. Let us finish disposing of the less important matter. Colonel Evans."
"No — this is the main point, isn't it?"
At that, the soldier, Rachel Evans, pressed a hand to her brow. She would really rather the woman not lose track of which things came first.
"A joke. I don't confuse public business with private affairs in that respect."
"Ah. I see. In that case......"
And this time, it was Rachel who produced a smartphone.
"Would you pull the gacha for me first?"
"...Aren't you the one losing track of your priorities?!"
"But it's the rate-up period for my favorite character."
"Mmmmm. That can't be helped."
Through Ninomae's example, Han Seoyeon knew precisely how deadly earnest mobile gamers became over their gacha. It was hardly a great labor... Sighing, she pressed the ten-pull for her anyway.
"Right. Then this time, let us actually discuss the less important matter."
"So it really is you mixing public and private— no. Never mind. Let's leave it there."
Saying so, the two of them rose, pushing back their chairs with nothing between them as to who ought to go first.
"Ah, it's about that time. —Come along, Lord Bartholomew. I'll show you how the Bremen Project is coming along."
Colonel Rachel turned toward Han Seoyeon and grinned, a sharp fang glinting for an instant between her lips.
Before long the two had left the room and started down a narrow passage. A few sailors went by at the salute, and Rachel returned them with the ease of long habit.
The space was exceedingly cramped, yet no one voiced a complaint about the fact. Well — considering they were inside a submarine, there was nothing to be done about it. If anything, managing even this much could be called a remarkable feat.
Thinking so, Han Seoyeon quietly peered through the single small window she had spotted in all their walking so far.
And their eyes met.
"...It has been some time since I last saw that, as well."
No — to say their eyes had met was probably an awkward turn of phrase. One generally reserved that for living things.
It was a dragon. Not the kind that appears in the legends of the East, and a little different, too, from the beasts Western tales of heroes are forever casting as something to be slain. Set aside the two heads, and the enormous creature was shaped very much like a serpent — and yet half its body looked as though it had been gnawed away, the bone laid bare.
"We're grateful you provided Quetzalcoatl's corpse. Sixty percent of the material for this new weapon's development is being drawn from that."
Colonel Rachel said it with a crooked grin.
And then the submarine's speed began to fall, enough to feel even from inside. They had reached the destination, by the look of it.
"Anyway, let's move along. There's a great deal I mean to show you."