Artist's commentary
Karindou 4 Koma Extra Story Pseudo Short Story [Ghostrick Live] 15
"She's pulling Cuey up as a giant? I guess turning her into a perpetual machine wasn't just a boast...!!"
"Perpetual machine... that!? That's something pretty amazing to possess!"
Mifi, worried about Cuey as debris rained down on her, had a grim expression upon hearing Elza's words.
"But how could that happen!? That's made up of "us", and he wouldn't be able to be in tune unless it's a copy like me or have my hatred..."
"...The answer is the hatred."
"Ryuuto!"
Ran, protected by Elza, turned back to look at the voice answering her question. Ryuuto's face no longer looked pale, and he unsteadily walked towards them as Pink-chan was trying to hold him back.
"It'll be dangerous if this keeps up, so please evacuate this way."
"You fool, what are you doing!! He's injured, so evacuate him and bring him somewhere safe!"
"I, I'm sorry!"
Pink-chan lowered her head as she was scolded, and continued to say "hurry up!", but Ryuuto held up a hand to stop Elza.
"Please. I may be carefree and do things at my own pace, but in this situation, I can't just sit idly by, and more importantly, dealing with him takes priority over me? ...He has embraced a powerful grudge, and from that hatred, it transformed him into a vegeful spirit at the moment of his death, and... if you use a similar spiritual body, he can take control of E.S., who only has a sense of self born from negative emotions. For something other than an E.S. copy, to be able to forcibly become attuned and override a transplant rejection, I think it's probably the hatred that turned him into a vengeful spirit has the same wavelength as the spirit waves of E.S. In any case, E.S. is still incomplete, and I don't know if he thought it out that far, but for a complete body, the only necessary emotion, the one that's left is only hatred. Of course, if that happens, it's only a matter of time until E.S. self destructs due to the discrepancy. It's clear that they aren't preserving the spritiual body composition for analysis... Ah, I've talked for too long, I, I feel dizzy."
"This isn't the time for that! Just spit it out, tell us what the mistress wants to know!"
"Wait, he's suffering from blood loss so don't shake him... Whoa, it looks like he's literally going to spit it out..."
As Mifi gripped Ryuuto by both shoulders and shook him, Cuey's body was now partway through the hole in the ceiling that it had made, and debris that was falling through was now dirt with some strange things mixed in with it. Looking at what fell near her feet, Pink-chan stepped back in surprise.
It probably had once been white, but being covered with dirt had changed its color. It was a skull, clearly not human, but something that had a similar shape as a human.
"Is this a monster bone!?"
Looking up, the mountain of rubble made by the hole was now being covered by an endless rain of dirt. Among it, differently shaped bones, both big and small, could be seen. The number of them was more than one would normally expect.
"They must have hit a graveyard, I didn't think there was a graveyard where this many monsters were buried so close by...! And for it to be above... right above us!"
"Yes... It wasn't just criminals, but also a large number of monsters that were executed, and the corpses that couldn't be handled normally were secretly sold to my grandfather, that's the reason for establishing this underground facility here, and for my research into spiritual bodies, it had a good field enhance effect so I bought it."
"The ruins of an execution site...!"
Hearing this, Elza hit her palm with her fist, just as the hole in the ceiling grew bigger.
"Okay, now that I know where we are, I can set up the coordinates, and get there first with a teleport. Also, it's somewhere where people won't go, so even if we do something that draws a lot of attention, we should be able to talk our way out of it!"
In reality, she was thinking that they won't be able to resolve this before E.S. gets above ground. With a fully spiritual body, she would be invisible to anyone without spiritual sense, and though cute, Cuey was an obvious one eyed giant, so if she appeared above ground, depending on the location, lots of humans might see her. Unlike the old days, where it could be managed by news control and manipulating invididuals' memories, in these modern times, with the fast speed of news, it would be impossible to stop the explosive spread of news. Even if you stop one source of news, in that the time it took to do that, it would have more than doubled and spread to all different sources. As a result, the information contained in the memories of an unknown number of people in an infinite electronic ocean must be continually erased, and for all practical purposes, would still remain forever. If done poorly, there's the danger that humans would fear the monsters, and start an all out war to exterminate them.
Now that the worry that she might be immediately seen by the public when they get above ground was gone, the next thing to consider was how to defeat E.S. before the public could see them.
"I said she'd self destruct? Elza-kun, you don't need to do anything, if will self destruct on its own. You know that, so the copy doesn't need to follow E.S., she can just say here?"
As Ryuuto said, the Etranger copy was staring at the hole in the ceiling where the dirt was raining down, with no indication of her moving. However, Ran shook her head in disagreement.
"No. Since she's alive, that "me" has a chance to win. But, by using the huge amount of energy that was created to take over a mass of spiritual energy like "us", a mere copy of a vengeful spirit like us doesn't have the spiritual energy to fight it. We know this, and it's vexing... We can't do anything."
"...I realize that that copy has a sense of self, since I've been listening to your conversation with it, even if you attack it, it won't go unconscious. But, how do you know that?"
"It's 'me', so I know."
Ran had been in torment over her origins, so the fact that she was implicitly saying that she was the same as the Etranger copy was surprising to Ryuuto. At the same time, he realized that it might be true. The truth that she was a copy had tormented her, but it made her grow and she became stronger. Or maybe how Elza reached out her hand to her and felt about her had made her grow. Ryuuto did not understand the intricacies of people's hearts, but in any case, as Ran held on to Elza's shoulders with a serious expression and a little embarrassment, he knew that she wasn't Etranger or a copy anymore, but just an existence with a definite mind known as Ran.
"So it's because you have the same origin? Similar to the sympathy between twins."
"Perhaps. So I don't plan on waiting until it self destructs, we have to release them. When he possessed her, E.S. cried out, so as something that's foreign, he is probably forcibly suppressing her consciousness, and within E.S., Ran's brethren are wracked with pain. They suffer from him, and will be destroyed, and I can't allow that. They are the same as Ran, so they're like my sister, and as the elder sister, I will save my sister."
"You are an amazing person, to accept those who you've never met for just that reason. ...Yes, there is one way. Even though she's being forced, it is certain that E.S. considers him to be something foreign, so those inside E.S. should be trying to resist, and if we use that, he can separate him from E.S."
"Separate? Is that possible!?"
"Removal of the core. E.S. binds them together and forms them into one, and the core stabilizes E.S.'s form. Right now, E.S. has been automatically activated in an incomplete form, neither creating or emitting energy, but just like when they are normally activated, the negative emotion that would activate the energy creation has them half awakened, and they should be fighting for control of E.S.'s consciousness. If that situation continues, the core will be lost and control will break down, and it won't be E.S.'s form, but their own form will begin to assert itself, and E.S. will start to break down. That would be your best chance. You must be careful, the core is superficial so as a partial suppression countermeasure, when it activates, that part of E.S. will turn ghostly and can't be touched physically, and as the most important part, it's naturally deep inside, so even if you touch it spiritually, E.S.'s spiritual body will act as protection that must be penetrated in order to hit it directly. And if you try to remove it, with E.S. under his control, there will be resistance."
"Hmph... Since we don't have the equipment or time to prepare a 'surgery', it'll be difficult to remove it. In that case, I'll hit it with sorcery with lots of penetrating power and destroy it."
"Yes, if it can't be removed, then there's no other option except to destroy it... But that would be difficult. Especially for you."
Ryuuto's voice changed from his casual and somehow cheerful researcher explaining voice to a serious voice. Elza was thinking of a way, and was half surprised by the change in his voice, and her expression hardened.
"What do you mean by that? Does E.S. have a higher magical resistance than a drake?"
"No, the problem is what the core is. You have two options. Wait for E.S. to self-destruct and sacrifice them and recover the core in its original form, or... destroy the thing that you've been searching for on behalf of your sister for years."
Silence filled the room.
"...No, no the core can't be...!"
With shaking lips, that was all she could manage to put into words. Ryuuto nodded and confirmed the thoughts that she didn't want to be true and couldn't form into words.
"It is. The core of E.S. is the remains of the girl known as Etranger Shutulia."
"You bastard!"
Her stricken face distorted with rage, she grabbed Ryuuto's collar.
"I know that you aren't the one behind all of this, and I'm trying to keep that in mind. Ah, I know, I know it in my head... But... But, you did this!"
"Yes, despite the circumstances, I was the one who planned to use her remains as the core, if you don't like it, you can beat me if you want. But, that won't change the fact that you have to choose an option. You know that, wizard."
"You...!?"
Elza was pissed at his indifferent way of speaking. As she clenched her fist and was about to hit him, a cool, soft hand grabbed her fist and stopped her.
"Ran, why, why are you stopping me! It's his fault that you!"
"But I was born because of his research. And since I was born, I was able to meet Tamaryuu, Shizuki, everyone... and accepted by you. So I'm here, and not just another Etranger copy, but Ran Schtlehertz. And..."
Gently, she brought Elza's fist down, and had her left go of Ryuuto's collar, and then Ran suddenly slapped Ryuuto's cheek.
"...That was something I had to do for the rest of 'us'."
"I was expecting to be retaliated against at more of a life threatening level."
"Our malice was offset by our thanks. If you want true revenge, that is done by the "me" of hatred."
Since this was about research, he immediately understood and scratched his head with a strained smile. As he had told Elza on the way here, he had started his research with the goal of rehabilitating his grandfather's reputation, but eventually, he really got into the research to make a perpetual machine for the good of the world. All the while realizing that this method was illegally messing with corpses.
And the copies' malice, through several bits of good luck, had created the miracle called Ran, and just as they planned, their revenge was ready. Though they could not do it, they could expose the ones behind it, and cause the loss of the results of their research and data.
Taking away what they wanted to do, what they came here to do. That was the true revenge against them.
"I... see, that's true. What about you, Elza-kun, if you still want to hit me, then go ahead?"
Elza was surprised by Ran's thoughts and restrained actions. With a sigh, she shrugged. This had made all her previous anger disappear.
"If Ran is fine with this, then I can't say or do anything more. That's how I feel."
"Haha, I think if it poorly I would probably be killed and so had a close shave with death. So, with this situation, it looks like you are still determined, umm, Ran-kun, yes?"
The maids didn't dare to say anything as the situation between Elza and Ryuuto progressed as they watched in rapt amazement. Lolint understood that meant that Ran had a true sense of self. Ran was the focus of all of their attention, as she looked up at the ceiling. He had probably reached the foundations of the building, as dirt with a slight bit of concrete was still intermittently falling onto the mountain of debris from the huge hole.
"I'll do it."
"The little mistress will be able to get inside that and extract the core!?"
Mifi, excited, thought that the little mistress looked so cool in this final last resort, but it got stuck in her throat. Elza looked at Ran with a serious look in her eyes.
"Ran. You're saying you will destroy the original remains yourself."
Thinking similar thoughts and getting excited like Mifi, Ran nodded without hesitation.
"You said it before. We can't leave them suffering and being destroyed along with him. I feel the same way."
"But, if you do that, your body will never be complete again!"
"Maybe so. But, I can't be happy getting back my body and not saving 'us', and I'll regret it greatly, I'm sure. So, the least I could do is destroy it with 'my" own hands. The 'we' gave me a chance to become me, and now it my turn to save 'us' who wished to save me!"
Her gaze didn't have an ounce of doubt. Realizing Ran was serious, she touched Ran's cheek.
"Even if I try to stop you... you wouldn't listen?"
"Yes, even if you tried to stop me with everything you had, I'd still do it. And, in the end, that isn't mine, but Etranger's remains. And even if it were to be retrieved, I was originally a copy that had that missing, so I'm not sure if it would have any effect on my body, and while it might be bad for Etranger, she'd let me destroy it. ...Even though you saved me, I'm sorry for saying something so selfish, Onee-chan."
"It's all right. A younger sister is supposed to say selfish things once in a while."
As she hugging her slender body and patting her head, Ran hugged her back. Feeling this, Elza was overcome with emotion and hugged her even tighter.
She had voiced her determination. So this was no time to hesitate to offer to help.
"But, how are you going to destroy the core? Since you've decided to destroy it, the mistress' sorcery would be the most effective way I think."
"I want to respect Ran's intention. So my turn will only be after Ran fails."
"I won't fail. It's not as if I was expecting this to happen, but I've had a little practice, so I think it will be fine."
Releasing from the hug, Elza followed Ran's gaze and understood without anything more said.
"Practice... ah, you mean that? It's true, the mistress made quite a bit of progress in a short amount of time."
With red and purple eyes, their gaze was turned towards Col, but her expression instantly changed and she clapped her hands together. She realized that what Ran needed for what she wanted to do. It was her two favorite guns, the .357 magnums.
"I see, the bullets Onee-sama uses in combat mode were enchanted by the mistress. With those, you can even shoot spiritual bodies!"
"It's a good idea, but unfortunately it won't work. E.S.'s anti-spiritual shot resistance is quite high, and something on the level of a tank won't work, let alone small arms like a magnum. If you're going to shoot it, you need something like an anti-tank rifle. And I think it would be impossible for you to fire something like that."
"That's..."
It was the only method that she could think of where she herself would end it, so hearing Ryuuto's criticism made Ran's hand stop. But, even though she was discouraged, anyone could see that she hadn't given up yet.
"Then, is there a gun that's more suitable?"
"Ah, wait..."
Seeing Ran's hand still held out, Lolint pulled out the Gigant from Col's apron waistband, and presented it to Ran.
Ran, was being offered a gun by a little girl that (she could only think) she was meeting for the first time. It was even bigger than a desert eagle, which she hadn't even tried to shoot. Ran couldn't hide her confusion.
"Anti-tank monster barrel AT14C-7G, nickname Gigant. During the cold war... well, this is an anti-tank handgun that was never mass produced, and if you apply Enchant Weapon on the bullets, it should be equally effective on spiritual bodies as enchanted bullets. It's destructive power is real, and in any case, it blew off that huge lizard's arm."
"...Are you bragging?"
Ignoring Col's tsukkomi, Lolint continued.
"However, the caliber is much larger than a normal magnum, so that's only if you could use it with those slender hands. We are close to the time limit, so if you can't, then you should quietly let your sister... that sorcerer over there take care of it."
At that, Ran hesitated, but then deciding something, her expression hardened and grabbed the Gigant.
"That gun is not something that you can wield as you are now. But you... still intend to do it?"
"It's meaningless unless I do it. And, there's a way for me to fire it! I don't have 2 trump cards like Onee-chan, but I have 4 hands to wield a gun!"
Ran turned around towards everyone, who didn't understand what she meant. She grabbed the hand of the Etranger copy, who continued to stare at the ceiling.
"Lend me your strength! The two of us will free 'us' from him!"
'!?'
Surprised, she tried to pull away her hand, but in a reversal of when the Etranger copy was pretending to be used and kidnapped Ran, this time Ran tightly gripped the Etranger copy's hand and wouldn't let go.
"Now, we can do it. Let's do it, we'll sever Etranger's, 'our' hatred!"
'Sever... hatred...'
Excited by Ran's fervor, the black stagnant hatred became oddly hot. While she couldn't accomplish it herself, it was an extremely nostalgic feeling.
There was no hesitation.
Though separate, their feelings that surpassed time became one. What would there be to be hesitant about?
'...Yes, we'll do it.'
The fire taking hold, the Etranger copy grasped Ran's hand back.
The blood drank in the name of conviction and punishment, history of the disgusting place etched in their minds.
The one who had seen the old days of bloodshed let go of their hands, as their feet touched the rooftop of the completely decaying building. 3 human sillouettes appeared in the sky.
The building shook with a slight tremble. Near by.
"People won't draw near here. The hatred and regrets accumulated here have corrupted the atmosphere, and any normal people who have not taken any preparations will suffer mentally. The only ones who would enter here are those are strongly resolved, or fools who did not think at all."
Elza, who had the resolve, gave that assessment. However, the feelings of the dead who embraced salvation, hatred and envy, searching for the light of the living, killing, trying to take what they could before anyone else. Those feelings did not concern Elza at all, and she focused on one thing..
"...He could good at preparing. That Lord Inventor, even all of this was probably within his calculations."
If it was, out of the countless formulas, one stood out, the possibility that he was a great actor. The act was to get the important characters involved in an uncertain plot without them realizing it, and have them advance towards the last scene in this unwritten script. Or perhaps, to keep on adding unrelated characters to his prepared stage, until they got to his expected ending, a battle where everything comes out.
Knowing that she was overthinking it, she was unable to suppress a complicated smile.
(Ah, if that's the case, it's fine. I'll let myself be used as needed.)
'Here it comes!'
There was an extra large vibration, immediately followed by E.S. bursting out of the ground. It looked like a work of art, with her body exposed to the night sky, appearing in the faint moonlight. Still gripping E.S.'s leg and not letting go as it burst through the ground, pulled along, was a giant hand, followed by the rest of Cuey's giant, dirty body, ruining the building like it was paper mache.
'Gaaaaah! Let goooooo!'
"I'll never... urg, let go...!!"
Struggling and floundering, E.S.'s upward movement was stopped. Looking as though the upper half of her body had grown out of the ground, Cuey wasn't at all concerned that she was exposed, and had finally started pulling E.S. down.
With one hand grabbing its leg with all her strength, her other hand was still underground, thrust horizontally into the hole she had made, using her legs and torso to wedge herself sideways, resisting against E.S.'s power. They were about equal, with Cuey having a slight advantage, but there were many cracks in the pavement above her, and she could see there were some unnatural bulges starting to form. It was clear that this balance would soon be disrupted.
E.S.'s bad luck was that her small initiative could be turned into something extremely good.
"Astral Bind!"
From underground, faces warped with regret and malice and pain, countless hands of limitless hatred reached out towards E.S. in the sky and bound her. At first, E.S. shook off the the coiling, invisible hands were shaken off and escaped from them, but the swarming hatred coming from underground only continued to increase, surrounding E.S. and turning the cursed voices of the dead spirits towards it. With Elza's magical power bolstering them, the hands of hatred latched on, stopping E.S.'s movements.
(No forgiveness)
(No escape)
(This time, our malice will be lifted)
'W, what are you...!? Kiiiiii, hiiiii! D, don't get closer, don't touch meeeeee!!!'
Hearing the voices produced by the countless grudges, E.S. screamed in fear. They had been awakened by Elza's sorcery, fallen into and staying in the underground facility, the strange remains buried in secret in the ground. Like hair wildly waving in the night sky, the grudges had no mercy for their enemy trying to complete his goal.
While this was happening, Ran and the Etranger copy approached E.S.'s nether regions, where the core was located.
Unlike its pre-activation state, it was faint and could only be confirmed visually, but they could confirm that the core was there. They wielded the Gigant, which was loaded with bullets that had been strengthened by Enchant Weapon before they had teleported.
Ran and the Etranger copy were holding onto the back part of the grip with their left and right hands, and the front part of the grip with their right and left hands, respectively, with 2 fingers on the trigger.
'We've gotten this close, there is still quite a bit of a distance, but can you hit it?'
"I'm not confident. But, no matter where I aimed, I always hit somewhere vital, so I believe I will."
'I see... Then, I'll believe as well. Just like 20 years ago, the day we entrusted our hope to you.'
"Yes. I'm sure I can do it. And you are here too."
Two thumbs cocked the heavy hammer.
'W, what are you doing...? Hey, no, you, stooooooop!!!!!'
E.S. noticed the two of them, and cried out as the hands of hatred held it, unable to move. Even if it had planned to stop them, it was already too late. Because it would have been after the Gigant's recoil had blown them backwards.
The air twisted, and a shockwave like a powerful blast of wind was created, and a bullet tinged with the light of magical energy was driven into E.S.'s spiritual body. The bullet gouged out a large spiral into the spiritual body, and without slowing it down, it reached her remains, and amazingly pierced through the middle of the tailbone.
With a hole in the middle, the brittle remains were demolished by the ensuing shockwave. The bullet flew on, making an exit wound out of E.S.'s spiritual body, and disappeared into the sky.
Cuey thought it was strange, feeling the leg she was gripping suddenly disappear. Looking at it, she saw E.S.'s shape dispersing due to the loss of the core.
E.S.'s beautiful body quickly turned black, like how it was before activation. Losing her outline, she began to disappear into a black mist between the gaps in the hands of hatred. The scattering black mist split apart into 4 parts, 3 of which gathered and took on the same shape as the Etranger copy. The 4th part stayed as a black mist.
'Ah... E.S.... My E.S....!! How could... ugah!?'
Already, the black mist could not longer form into a shape, and moaned in anger, as a vengeful ghost approached to devour it.
That initiated it, and the vengeful spirits that had created the hands of hatred, the dead spirits, all rushed towards the black mist.
'Uwaaah!! D, don't come here, agah, guaaaaaahh!!'
They didn't stop.
One of them tore off with its teeth, another tore off with his hands, struggling against each other to get at the black mist. They knew what the source of them not being able to find peace and turning into a vengeful spirit was.
'Gyaaaaaaa! Stop, stop iiiiiiiiiiiit!!'
They didn't.
Even has he begged them, they didn't stop.
Piece by piece, it was torn away, taken.
Not letting him lose consciousness, or go crazy, or be reincarnated.
Only the fear of mercilessly disappearing.
Just before his existence vanished, he heard 2 cold voices.
Then he was exterminated from this world.