Commander, Discovered

To cut to the chase: the hunt for the man who'd hoped to pull off a coup ended in failure.

"Haa..."

Finding the bastard — Garen, Garron, whatever his name was — had been surprisingly easy. Easy enough that we'd beaten Berta's own people to him, and this city was practically their backyard. Even accounting for the head start we'd had by moving first, it was a meaningfully fast result. Shien's superhuman senses, paired with Lucy's guidance — she might as well have been a local — had both paid off in full.

Speed, however, was not the same thing as timing.

Urgh...

Just thinking about it again brought the dry heaves crawling back up my throat.

A corpse, pierced through in a dozen places and mutilated beyond anything I wanted to remember. I wasn't sure whether to call it a mercy, but the killer had left the face untouched, so at least we'd been able to identify him. That didn't make the thing on the ground any less cold. Or any less dead.

Thanks to the Vice President's protection, we — the ones who'd reported the body — weren't framed for the murder. That was something. It didn't stop a brand-new trauma from taking up residence in my head.

We should hurry.

Hm?

I smell blood.

I should have understood what Cardia meant the moment she said it.

The scraps of a Commander's composure still rattling around in this body were the only reason I was still functional. Actually standing over a corpse, though — there were no words for that. I'd steeled myself for it a hundred times over, but at the end of the day I was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠still someone who had never gotten used to people dying. And of all the ways to find him, we'd rounded a corner and there he was. My body had lunged forward before my brain could catch up. Under ordinary circumstances, it wouldn't have been strange at all if I'd still be throwing up now.

I'd come close, too. How I held it down, I have no idea.

"Sorry... Commander..."

"I told you, I'm fine."

I shook off the memory as best I could and gently patted Shien, who was curled against my chest.

She'd been like this ever since we got back to the lodging. Shien seemed to have decided that all of it was her fault. That she'd let that idiot walk himself to his own grave. That I'd had to see the scene. And —

Urgh — hk...

C-Commander?!

— that I'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠come apart, too. All of it, in her mind, sat on her shoulders.

If I'd managed to keep a straight face the way I usually did, it might have been different. I had absolutely no immunity to that kind of thing, though, and it had shown. It really hadn't been easy.

Then again, I wasn't sure this was even guilt. It felt just as likely that she was doing it on purpose — wrapping herself around me to comfort me. And honestly, it worked. Having something to hold onto quieted whatever was still shaking inside me.

Lucy, for her part, had taken one look at us, declared it made her jealous, and stomped off to shower.

Anyway...

"What do you intend to do with that?"

Right. That. What was I going to do with that.

I turned my head at Cardia's words and looked at the table.

Sitting there was a jet-black sphere the size of a baseball — recovered from the man who'd had several extra breathing holes added to him, and who would never breathe through any of them again. It matched, almost exactly, an artifact buried somewhere in my hazy memories.

The Vice President hadn't come in person; he was too busy containing the fallout, and had sent it over through an aide. Fair enough. One of his senators had just been taken off the board. He'd be run off his feet — and since the removal had been physical rather than political, even more so.

According to the aide, Berta had run its own investigation and come up with nothing. So they wanted to commission us, as the specialists, to analyze the artifact. That was the official position, anyway.

The thing's origins were murky, and it was important enough that handing it over this readily felt wrong. Still... if one extra trauma was the price of admission, maybe that was a bargain.

"We're taking it with us."

"Isn't that rather dangerous?"

"It's worth the risk."

I had no idea what was sealed inside it. I had to find out. Shutting it down safely would have been ideal, but that was beyond us with the forces we had on hand. At the very least, we could respond if something came crawling out of it. Watch it closely, carry it carefully, and get it home.

I was turning that over while indulging Shien, who kept burrowing deeper into my arms, when —

"...Commander."

"Hm?"

"Behind me... hurry..."

Shien, who had been quietly nestled against me, suddenly unwound her arms and rose to her feet.

"Stay behind me for a moment, Commander."

"...Cardia?"

Cardia, too, stepped in front of me, planting herself there like a shield. I didn't understand any of it. Their hands guided me anyway, and I ended up tucked behind Shien's back with no idea why.

There was no time to ask.

Before I could get a word out, Cardia pushed up the sleeve of the white coat she always wore. She set her other hand against her forearm — and drew it across.

A thin, wet sound. Blood welled.

"C-Cardia?!"

"Ah. Did I startle you?"

I cried out at the sudden self-inflicted wound. Cardia herself was perfectly calm. The cut had looked shallow, but the bleeding was anything but. The blood running down her forearm transformed in an instant into a translucent film, wrapping around us — and then the film swelled outward, sealing us inside a sphere.

"I'm sorry. I didn't have a choice."

A dull, grinding thunk.

"There was a bug."

A black spike was embedded in the sphere.

No — it had already been embedded.

"...Huh?"

Cold sweat slid down my back.

What... had just happened?

I'd been watching. I was sure I'd been watching. And I still hadn't registered it. I understood, in some abstract way, that an exchange had taken place — but what, exactly, had happened, and how?

If Cardia hadn't blocked it, that thing would have gone through me. I would have ended up just like him —

No. No. They'd noticed first. They'd known, and they'd protected me. Look: not a scratch. I was safe. I wasn't in danger.

More importantly — from where?

"Aha. Caught me?"

As if in answer to the question I hadn't asked, something rose from the shadow beneath the table where the sphere sat, and slowly took on a human shape.

She was darkness.

The long hair trailing nearly to the floor. The eyes like a night sky that had swallowed every last star. The alluring cut of her dress, the gloves that reached her wrists, the heeled shoes. Even the air around her. Everything about her seemed to reject the very concept of light — nothing reflected, nothing gleamed. It was all simply, purely dark.

Yes. Nothing but dark.

And this woman, unfurling her darkness as if it were something to be proud of...

I had never seen her before in my life.

"W-who..."

"I dressed up for you. It's been a while since ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I bothered... well? Do you like it?"

On the surface, it could have passed for ordinary conversation. But if I said that something unconcealable had been leaking through her voice between every other word — would anyone believe me? I had no proof. It was nothing but a feeling. If someone asked, though, I would swear it had been there.

Something like... yes.

Madness.

"...Cardia."

The woman kept chattering on with a smile. Shien, who had been listening in silence, let out a low growl.

"The barrier... drop it."

"I can't."

"Won't even take a second. Drop it."

"A second is more than enough time for the Commander to get hurt. I can't."

"Nngh..."

Shien ground her teeth, furious.

I've become dead weight.

Should I not have come in person after all? If I'd done what Calia said — if I'd just sent the others — would that have been better?

"What, are you scared, Commander?"

"..."

"I didn't even shoot at you, and you're already scared? You're not, right? Right?"

Just as I was starting to sink into self-loathing, she dug her fingers into the gap, as if she'd been waiting for it. I could tell, dimly, that this was what she wanted. My thoughts rolled into the mire anyway.

Is that it?

I can't even take responsibility for the things I say — and now I'm scared on top of it?

Am I the kind of person who can't do anything but talk a good game...?

"The one who's scared is you."

The thing that hauled my mind back up was a single line from Cardia.

"What?"

"For someone putting on such a show, you must have been pretty terrified to show up in your real body."

That's a clone?

I hadn't seen the attack coming. I hadn't even seen it in the air. She looked overwhelmingly strong just standing there — and that wasn't even her real body?

Then how strong was the original...?

"...For a bat, you sure talk a lot."

"Mm. And?"

While I was still reeling, the Blood Barrier made it impossible for either side to touch the other, and the whole thing seemed about to collapse into a staring contest —

"So? Can you actually win?"

A dagger came from somewhere and detonated the woman's shoulder.

Embedded, pierced — those words weren't right. Detonated was the only word that fit. Where the blade had passed, there was nothing but a round crater, as if a shell had hit her. And just as Cardia had implied, not a single drop of blood came out.

The owner of that dagger —

"You crazy bitch! Get the hell out of here already!!!"

— delivered the line at the top of a very healthy set of lungs.

Hadn't something like this happened before? There was a difference this time, though. Back then they'd at least been colleagues, so it had stayed verbal. This time she'd gone straight to fists. Well — daggers.

She'd clearly come running straight out of the shower. She was soaked from head to toe, barely holding a single towel in one hand —

"Lucy! Clothes! Clothes!!!"

"Is THAT what you're worried about right now, Commander?!"

I clapped my hands over my eyes in horror. Lucy squawked right back at me.

Look, not getting my throat cut was important, I grant you. But there are two kinds of life to lose, all right? I was genuinely, truly grateful she was protecting me. I would have preferred she protect my social life while she was at it.

"...How fun."

The voice that arrived then was mineral — not a scrap of feeling in it. When I looked, she hadn't moved her eyes at all. She'd only lifted the corners of her mouth.

Then she dropped every scrap of offense and walked toward us, heels clicking against the floor.

Someone, somewhere, might have called that smile pretty. Meeting it head-on, it was the most skin-crawling thing I had ever seen.

"I only came to say hello today, so I'll be going. But..."

A soft tap.

At her feet, now close enough to touch, something like a tentacle unfurled in the shape of a hand and dragged slowly, lingeringly, across the surface of the barrier. Her gaze never left me. It looked exactly as if she wanted to do something to me with that thing.

Cardia made a face of pure disgust and started ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠firing spikes from the surface of the barrier, one after another. The woman let them punch through her body and didn't seem to care in the slightest. She simply melted, slowly, as if to prove she was a clone after all — and left me with a single line.

In that last moment, as she came apart, she fixed me with a look that went straight through the bone. It was the first time I thought I saw her eyes gleam.

That... skin-crawling encounter had been only a little while ago, and now —

"...Commander."

"Ah — huh?"

"Take them off. Right now."

What was it this time... why was she doing this to me...?