Chapter 9: Stand Up
Eliseo's Journal - Date Unknown
What a thing.
To think mutation would appear in my grandchild's body in this form—
There were no problems seen in Apollonia's body during the growth process.
Atavism?
How merciless is the god of pharmacology?
To make my grandchild—Luciolla's body bear a congenital burden.
Is the karma of the past not letting me go, not forgiving me, continuing to eat away even at those I love?
This is a curse...
On top of that, on top of that!
They say those guys are still continuing the research without learning their lesson.
A single letter from an unknown sender that arrived one day taught me that fact.
Who on earth, from what source, delivered that information to me? I never found out, but the information was verified immediately.
Footage of experiments on mice that had become a topic in certain circles.
Seeing the effects of the drug shown there, I guessed everything.
As someone who was once involved in development, I know.
This is their doing.
And they have still not reached success.
Surely Boris and Isaak are thinking this.
If only we had the data 'Irina Report' that Yuri took away—
But even if they obtain it and complete the Elixir, what it brings will likely not be human happiness.
As long as those who create and handle it take life lightly and see it only as material, the Elixir will be nothing but a poison that robs people of their humanity and continues to birth further sacrifices and tragedies.
These are the people who once stepped into human experimentation using Irina. Letting their curiosity as researchers guide them, they will likely step further into forbidden territories beyond.
Surely even now, someone is becoming a sacrifice for that.
That could be a future neighbor, or perhaps the child of a friend.
And those experiments will go around and end up increasing children like Luciolla.
I must stop it.
I can no longer just keep the secret in silence and fulfill my natural lifespan.
I am no longer young, but there are things I can do.
For example, how about using the name of Sea-Wraiths as bait to invite those guys to this island and strike them all at once?
Yes. Lure them in and cut off the source.
For that, first I will paint a picture.
And it can't be just any picture.
A masterpiece!
That is all I can do.
□
"After Grandfather died, I found the journal by chance. Reading it, Lou learned everything."
Luciolla said this in a voice somewhat more mature than before.
"Eh? Eh? Those legs... that's..."
Yuriu looked back and forth between Luciolla's legs and my face in confusion.
The prosthetics she was wearing had a different silhouette from typical human legs. A smooth, plate-like material curved supplely like the hind legs of a wild hare, the tips resting directly on the ground.
"Those are sports prosthetics."
"Ah! Now that you mention it, I might have seen them on TV! But, Lou-chan, why do you have prosthetics like that...?"
"Lou, you used those to jump back and forth between the East and West Wing roofs, didn't you?"
They were lightweight prosthetics made of carbon fiber blades, specialized for sprinting and jumping.
"E-Even so, Shishou, for Lou-chan to do such a thing..."
"Ursna-san, do you know what the women's world record for the long jump is for double-leg amputees?"
As a former long jumper, Ursna should know much more about this than I do.
She remained silent with a pained expression for a while, but eventually squeezed out an answer.
"Records of over six meters... have been set..."
Hearing that, Belka leaked a whisper. "That's double what I can do..."
"Come to think of it, that makes sense."
Fido showed a rare look of genuine admiration.
"I've heard that prosthetic development has been advancing rapidly in recent years. In official competitions, athletes using cutting-edge prosthetics were actually setting better records, and it became an issue. The able-bodied folks can't rest on their laurels anymore."
He closed with a heavy dose of irony.
Common sense is something that is constantly overwritten. My old man said something like that once, didn't he?
"Good grief... Lou just keeps surprising me."
When I was first told that her Sirenomelia was actually just prosthetics, I had unconsciously assumed that was the extent of it. I was satisfied with the fact that Luciolla, who shouldn't have been able to stand or walk, could actually walk independently, and I stopped thinking beyond that.
After the incident with Herbie, I had almost subconsciously excluded Luciolla from the list of suspects.
But like a false bottom, she had been hiding yet another layer beneath her legs.
The real Luciolla could run at a level comparable to an able-bodied person—no, she could run even faster, and she could jump too.
"Lou wasn't some pitiable, disabled girl who lost her legs. You were—"
You could fly.
"Saku, sorry for keeping quiet."
Luciolla's voice as she said that was her usual, adorable voice. At the same time, those words implied an admission of everything.
"So that is how it was..."
Lilitea spoke with admiration, yet also with a hint of frustration.
"The marks on the roof of the West Wing, the ones that looked like the soil had been dug up... those were made by Luciolla-sama's special prosthetics."
What Luciolla was wearing was vastly different in shape from a normal foot. If she ran and took off with those legs, the footprints left behind would also be unique.
"Exactly. At the time, we didn't know what they were. We didn't have a clue. That's why I showed the photo and asked, didn't I?"
When I directed the conversation toward her, she flinched. Ursna.
"And then Ursna-san said this: 'Seabirds sometimes dig up the soil with their beaks. These are traces of that.' But Ursna-san... actually, didn't you realize what they were the moment you saw the photo? That they were footprints made by sports prosthetics."
Ursna didn't answer.
"As a former track and field athlete... and a long jumper at that, you must have realized it, right? And at the same time, you realized the culprit was the mistress you serve, Luciolla."
"I-I...! I would never..."
"So you spouted nonsense on the spur of the moment to cover it up. You lied to protect your master, didn't you?"
I threw those words into the empty air while looking up at the ceiling. I didn't want to create an atmosphere where I was directly interrogating Ursna.
"Ah... Aaaah! O... Ojousama... I am so sorry...!"
"It's okay, Ursna. Sorry for getting you involved."
Ursna collapsed in tears like a little girl, and Luciolla smiled at her.
"Quite the admirable master-servant relationship."
Seeing the two of them, Chardina spoke.
"I wish my children would learn from them."
"Ojou. That's uncalled for. Ah, are you still holding a grudge about me attacking you with 'Ra' for an entire game of Shiritori the other day?"
"Ah, that. Ojousama ended up sulking halfway through, didn't she?"
"That's exactly the part of you two I'm talking about!"
Chardina and her two subordinates suddenly engaged in a noisy exchange.
"Ahem... By the way, you. Did you know about that child's legs from the beginning?"
As if pulling herself together, Chardina pointed at Luciolla's legs and asked Ursna.
Ursna shook her head weakly.
"No... I didn't know. It's the truth. I truly didn't even know she had prosthetics to begin with..."
That was probably true. Her surprise when Luciolla's prosthetics were first revealed had been genuine.
Luciolla had kept her prosthetics a secret even from Ursna, who was close to her.
If they find out I can walk, they'll tell me to go outside the island more often—
Luciolla had given that as her reason for staying silent, but in truth, there was another grave reason.
It was for this day. To ensure no one could figure out her range of movement during the crimes.
"Lou, I want to ask one thing."
"What?"
"Dmitri going to the West Wing at that timing—was that also because you guided him?"
"...Si. I told him, 'If you're looking for something, it might be in the West Wing, especially somewhere on the third floor. Grandfather used to go in and out of there often.'"
"So he thought he was the only one who heard good information and went to the West Wing in high spirits. And you attacked him there. Then you made the body disappear on the spot. You used the sheets... didn't you?"
When I mentioned the sheets, Luciolla showed a slightly surprised expression.
"Correct."
"And the dying message left at the scene, you wrote that too, Lou?"
Luciolla didn't show much reaction to that, simply lowering her eyes slightly to indicate affirmation.
"You quickly disguised the scene, then immediately returned to the East Wing. Come to think of it, Lou. You were collapsed in your room soaking wet because you had jumped across the roofs in the storm to get back. That injury too."
"Nn. Landing... I messed up and fell."
Her face as she smiled bashfully looked like nothing more than an ordinary girl.
"You're amazing, Lou. Jumping across a place like that... I could never do it. Just... to be able to do that, how much training did you..."
I choked on my words there.
Right. How much practice did she pile up all alone?
I realize it now. That open space I found behind Eliseo's atelier. That sandbox.
That wasn't Luciolla's playground.
No matter how special the prosthetics are, they don't grant freedom of movement just by having them. To be able to run around freely, days of blood-sweating effort would have been necessary.
Luciolla had been doing that there. Keeping it a secret from everyone, day after day.
Conditioning her body, practicing to master the prosthetics, practicing jumps over and over.
All alone, self-taught.
The depth of that obsession is unimaginable.
"I started training my body three years ago. And then, one day, I begged Grandfather to have these made and ordered for me."
Luciolla tapped the floor with the toe of her prosthetic.
"Moving my body how I wanted was fun. That's all. There was no obsession or anything."
She wanted to say that she didn't start training for the sake of the crimes, but purely because she sought physical freedom.
"I see. So it was just a coincidence that the results proved useful this time."
"Si."
Thinking back, Luciolla never let Ursna, whom she trusted, nor anyone else touch her body.
It wasn't just to keep them from realizing she had prosthetics, but to keep them from noticing her honed physique.
"B-But Lou... where were you hiding those things until now?"
Belka's question was reasonable. But now, the answer was clearly displayed before our eyes.
"Lou wasn't hiding them."
"What do you mean...?"
"They were in our line of sight from the very beginning. Those."
I pointed to the empty wheelchair left forlornly in the corner of the room.
"Lou's wheelchair? What about it......... huh?"
Looking at it again, Belka seemed to understand too.
The armrests on Luciolla's wheelchair were cleanly missing.
"Ah! The armrests are gone!"
"Those armrest parts were the other pair of prosthetics."
"Ehh!"
"Right. Lou's wheelchair was custom-made. The armrests had a unique shape, and she told us Eliseo designed them for her."
The blades and the attachment parts were docked so well, completely incorporated as parts of the wheelchair, that we naturally overlooked them.
Luciolla carried her second pair of legs with her at all times, meaning she could swap them out whenever she wanted.
There was no need to ask about the attack on Ivan again. The actual crime scene, Room 111, was close to Luciolla's room. After attacking Ivan, she guided us to Room 303, and during that time, she hid the body and the evidence.
I had wondered if a grown man's body could be moved so easily, but Luciolla could have simply placed him on her wheelchair to transport him with ease. Ivan's body hasn't been found yet, but she could have moved it anywhere.
"Is that so... You... You did it! Dammit... acting like you didn't know anything... you tricked us!"
Perhaps getting used to having a knife held to her throat, or regaining some composure, Katia raised a resentful voice.
"Saying you knew nothing about the Sea-Wraiths research data, telling us to search for it ourselves if we wanted it! In reality, you set this whole thing up! You defective little brat!"
Her desperate roar had enough force to make one flinch. Yet, Luciolla accepted it without changing her expression, calm as a sea on a windless day.
"While sorting through Grandfather's belongings, I found that journal by chance. The day I read it, Lou's life, her past... changed completely. Grandfather never told me anything about the past, no matter how much I begged since I was little. I understood the reason why."
So Luciolla had already found Eliseo's journal. And learning of his magnificent past, she inherited her grandfather's will.
"So what if you found out about the trouble the old geezer caused in the past! For that... you threw away your own life and killed us one by one!?"
"Apollonia."
"Hah...?"
"The child born by Grandmother during the human experiments, Apollonia. That is the name of Lou's mother. Remember it well."
Luciolla brought her face dangerously close to Katia's and whispered. The tone of her Italian held a terrifying power.
"What was written in the journal wasn't some fairy tale from long ago. It was a reality connected to Lou's life. These legs, the way Grandfather lived and died avoiding people's eyes, everything... everything... was because of that incomprehensible drug called Sea-Wraiths. Mother continued to lament giving birth to Lou with legs like this. She continued to grieve. In the end, her mind broke, and she threw herself into the sea, taking Father with her."
Her parents' death... wasn't an accident.
"Grandfather lost his life too. Connecting with no one, never leaving the island, just painting until he died. It was all brought about by your research."
Her grandfather's dying wish.
Cleaning up the past.
Revenge.
"Grandfather mustered his last strength to paint 'Azure Swimming Sea-Wraiths' and announced it to the world. Adding that he would yield the work to the person who offered the appropriate price."
"Ah, yesterday, he certainly said something like that," Fido said, seeming to trace his memory.
"I see. So that was a trap to lure in the bunch seeking the Sea-Wraiths."
Amusing, Fido bared his fangs as if to say.
"In the end, what was the appropriate price!?"
"One Kopek."
"Eh? Sakuya, what did you say...?"
"It was... One Kopek, wasn't it? There was a hint in Eliseo's journal. That it was a joke only the members of the old research team used to say to each other."
The Kopek is a subsidiary currency still used mainly in Russia and other places.
"I don't know how much it is in Japanese yen. But one thing is certain—the value is incredibly low."
"T-Then... the only correct answer was the person who offered the lowest price for Eliseo's final work!? No one would offer such a price!"
"Yeah. Except for the guys who knew that joke. That's exactly why it became bait to lure them in."
Sea-Wraiths. And One Kopek. Obtaining that information, Eliseo's old friends must have realized everything.
That Eliseo—no, Yuri, who had once parted ways with them, had made contact.
And Eliseo gave information about the island only to those who offered One Kopek, telling them to visit at a specified date and time.
It was a message only those in the know would understand.
Come to the island, and I'll give you the Sea-Wraiths research data—that was the message.
Research data—to them, that was a treasure far greater than any painting Eliseo left behind.
And so Ivan, Lyle, Katia, and Dmitri—the four of them came.
Yuri, who had been in hiding for years. Thinking he finally felt like handing over the research data on the verge of death, they came to the Demoniac Villa.
"But when we actually arrived, Eliseo was already dead! There was only a granddaughter who knew nothing of the circumstances, and a new maid. Give me a break!"
Katia shouted with a face like a demon.
"Grandfather... finished painting, set the trap... and then died as if his strength ran out."
"Hmph. So you guys hurriedly lied to Luciolla about being relatives and decided to stay at the mansion? You probably thought you just had to search for the research data somewhere in this mansion in secret during your stay. Did you figure you could fool a sheltered granddaughter?"
"I see. So that's why they were pretending to be relatives."
Yuriu patted Fido's head admiringly.
"That's right! The granddaughter said... she knew nothing. That putting it up for sale and contacting us was all done by an agent Eliseo asked before he died! We had no choice but to find it ourselves and take it home quickly! But then a storm comes! And a weird group like you guys barges in! We were forced to play house even more!"
It seems things were a series of unexpected events for them too.
"However, that granddaughter saw through everything... or rather, she had firmly inherited Eliseo's will. Talk about jumping out of the frying pan into the fire."
If so, Luciolla's mental strength and ability to act in executing such a plan were terrifying. Even so—
"Not everything went according to Lou's plan. Us encountering a storm and visiting the mansion—she couldn't have predicted that."
"I suppose not. Of all days, detectives wash ashore on the very same day she invited the bunch she wanted to erase. From Luciolla's perspective, that was nothing but bad luck."
Even so—even after hearing that I was a detective, Luciolla didn't cancel her plan.
The targets were all gathered, and outside was a rare, perfect stormy night.
She probably decided that if she let this day pass, there would be no other opportunity.
"It might have been a difficult path. But instead, Lou steered towards staging an impossible crime by utilizing us as witnesses."
Ivan's case was exactly that. Targeting the moment we were all gathered in the lounge to make the call, making us think Room 303 was the crime scene. By doing so, 'her disabled self sleeping in her room on the first floor' would be removed from the suspect list.
"But speaking of bad luck, the first incident, Herbie-san's case, was also one. His visit, and his subsequent death, were also unexpected. Lou, isn't that right?"
Instead of answering, Luciolla closed her eyes.
Perhaps she is now recalling this long, long day.
"I thought it was a trial. A trial from God standing in the way of Graphio and Lou's goal."
A trial interfering with a battle on which a young girl had staked her life.
But perhaps that conversely ignited a fire in her heart.
Luciolla instantly incorporated even the unexpected death of Herbie into her plan, trying to stage a fictional culprit called the Siren.
At the same time, she delivered a monologue so compelling that in a normal case, one would think the mystery was solved, attempting to remove herself from the list of candidates for subsequent crimes.
"Lou's feelings of trying to protect Graphio were probably genuine. But at the same time, you were already directing your consciousness toward the subsequent crimes... toward your true objective, weren't you?"
Whether she was encouraging her faltering self, or whether she had no conflict or fear, I don't know.
But in any case, it's an indomitable spirit.
"Um... I understand that... but... Katia-san is..."
Yuriu, who had seemed deep in thought for a while, spoke up for the first time in a long time.
"She's not Eliseo-san's old research partner... right? Because the age doesn't match."
"True, if Katia-san were Eliseo-san's friend from back then, she should be well over seventy now. But that part is simple. Basically, over the long years, the team was inherited. Isn't that right?"
At my question, Katia made a grim expression, but finally opened her mouth as if resigned.
"That's right. By the way, Ivan... that guy was Eliseo's colleague. His real name is Isaak."
"Isaak..."
A name that appeared in Eliseo's journal. Indeed, his age matches Eliseo's.
However, the fact I was told next was something I doubted my ears at.
"And Dmitri, he's the same."
"The same?"
"I'm telling you, he was also a member of the research team back then. His name is Boris."
"Boris!? The one whose name appeared alongside Isaak!? But, no matter how you look at him..."
He's a child.
Katia lifted the corners of her mouth as if amused by my reaction.
"Hmph. He was a particularly crazy guy even within the team. After all, he kept administering the drugs born in the research process to himself. As a result, despite rumors that he's over seventy, he kept the appearance of a teenager."
"Se-Seventy!?"
"Only in appearance. His insides are tattered. He has no stamina. Besides, if you looked at him under the sun during the day, the cracks showed everywhere, and there were dangerous side effects he couldn't tell people about. Like the rash on his neck. He tried desperately to hide it with a scarf, though. Hmph, in the end, it's just a byproduct. There's no such thing as a free lunch."
He had used his own body as a test subject?
Katia looked somewhat satisfied at having surprised us.
"If Dmitri is actually that old... then Katia-san, you are his..."
"Mother? No way."
Glaring back at me, Katia spat out the words.
"Reverse, reverse. I am that guy's daughter. It's a fact I don't really want to admit, though."
For a moment, she had a distant look in her eyes.
"In the end, the research we're doing is stuff that can't be brought to light no matter what until it's established. We inherited top-secret research and kept it within the inner circle. That's why even this time, we didn't entrust it to others but came to this island on our own two feet. We can't entrust important data approaching the core of the research to some nobody hired with money."
"But it seems there was someone among you who didn't think that way."
"Hmph... Lyle, huh."
Right. He said he was a treasure hunter.
He was likely an outlaw hired with illicit money and sent in.
"He was different from us. He didn't care about the success of the research; he was an outlaw hired for money. There was no way we could trust him. So..."
"So you caught him off guard and poisoned him?"
Katia shrugged her shoulders without remorse. "That's right."
"To begin with, over the long years, factions had formed among us. Thinking, 'I'll outwit the others and complete the Sea-Wraiths with my own hands.'"
"Grandfather surely sensed the discord in your team somewhere and tried to utilize that competitive spirit."
Luciolla spat out coldly.
"Hah. Maybe. And getting lured in one after another and caught in one fell swoop, it's pathetic."
In contrast, Katia sounded half-desperate.
"The talk is over. Now it's just this person. I will make those who seek the Sea-Wraiths disappear from this world."
The knife was pressed shallowly into Katia's neck.
"Wait, Lou!"
"I won't wait. I swore to end it with Lou's entire body and soul. There is no hesitation."
"Then, are you going to kill us too, since we've learned of its existence?"
"Saku... that is............"
She won't. Lou won't do such a thing.
I know. I asked a mean question knowing the answer.
"I understand your grudge. I might not be able to share it... but I understand the feeling of having something like a curse planted in your body."
No hesitation?
Lou is a bad liar.
I reached out to Luciolla's trembling fingertips.
"Did your Grandfather wish this for you? Did he say he wanted you to inherit his revenge? Wasn't the reason he took you in and raised you with care when you had no one else because he wanted you to be happy?"
Come on, Lou.
Please, take this hand.
Just a little more. Yes.
Throw away that knife and reach out to me—
"Too baaad. Time's up."
The declaration by the Millionaire Phantom Thief Celebrity.
Simultaneously, the entire building shook violently.
As if a missile had fallen—
No... wrong. It did fall.
A missile!
"No way! It's not six o'clock yet!"
I looked back at the clock.
"Are you talking about that grandfather clock there? That's ten minutes slow, you know?"
"What...?"
"Ah! I-It's true! Sakuyaaa! Geez...!"
Belka turned her beloved pocket watch toward me with a pale face.
The hands were already pointing to six.
"The clock... was slow...?"
I looked at Ursna's expression to confirm. Meeting my eyes, she shook her head as if she didn't know.
The hands of the grandfather clock—
"Char...! Did you delay it!"
"Did I? There's no proof of that, is there?"
Chardina made a peace sign by her mouth and showed me a charming smile.
Following that, terrifying explosions echoed consecutively outside the mansion.
Tomahawk missiles were raining down from offshore onto the island.
Eventually, they fell onto the mansion as well.
Cracks ran through the ceiling, and debris, dust, and the chandelier came crashing down.
"Everyone! Get down! Run outside the man—"
Run where?
The missiles are attacking this entire small island.
There are no boats to launch.
There's nowhere to run... and yet.
Chardina. She was sitting on the sofa with majestic dignity amidst the raining missiles.
As if convinced that they would never hit her. That they couldn't hit her.
"Wait a minuteee! Are you seriously planning to destroy the mansion!? If you do that... the research dataaaa!"
Amidst the roar, Katia screamed like a baby while twisting her body.
A thick pillar toppled between us and Luciolla, making an ear-splitting noise.
"Sakuya-sama! It is dangerous!"
"No! I'll save Lou!"
The moment I tried to climb over the fallen pillar, a missile smashed through the window glass and landed right next to me.
Immediately after, the floor bowed heavily like a bathtub plug being pulled, sinking downward.
I saw my own right arm fly off.
Surely, everyone must be calling out to each other here and there.
But my ears were completely paralyzed by the shock of the explosion, and I couldn't hear anything.
In silence, my body fell into the abyss along with the rubble.
And so, I died—
□
I can't die. Not yet!
Vomiting blood, I pushed aside the rubble sitting on my stomach and stood up.
"Gof... Guh... Lilitea... Lily! Lou! Everyone!"
The place I fell into was that underground cavern.
The bottom of the mansion had dropped out due to the tremendous bombardment.
The rubble that fell with me was piled up like a mountain in front of me.
Beautiful morning sunlight streamed in from the large hole opened by the collapse.
Surely, this is the first time in tens of thousands of years that sunlight has entered this place.
"Lilitea-chan! Are you okay!?"
Yuriu's voice came from behind. She called out while brushing off the thickly rising dust.
"Yuriu-chan! You're there! Are you safe!?"
"Shishou! I'm fine! But Lilitea-chan protected me and got hurt...!"
"It is a scratch. Lilitea is perfectly fine."
"Waaah! You're acting tough—!"
Beyond the dust were the figures of Lilitea and Yuriu. Both escaped with just scratches. But for a moment, my blood ran cold.
"Fido and Belka are............"
Just as I was about to check on the safety of my other companions, I saw a miraculously beautiful figure at the summit of the rubble.
"..............Lou."
Bathing in the sunlight with her whole body, Luciolla de Sica stood there.
Her clothes were torn and tattered, and a single streak of bright red blood flowed without hesitation from her forehead.
Her honed body, exposed beneath the rags, was toned enough to fascinate and powerful enough to grip one's heart.
Like an athlete—like a mythical creature.
"Luciolla!"
It was Ursna who called that name before me. She was a little distance away from me, looking up at Luciolla from there.
Perhaps her leg was injured; she was desperately trying to head towards her master using her elbows.
"Please don't be reckless anymore! I beg youuu!"
She called out desperately, but Luciolla was staring in a completely different direction.
Ahead of her gaze was—
"Ahahahaha! Would you look at that!"
Katia.
Half of her body was out of the water, bent like a hairpin, laughing madly. Did she escape danger by hiding underwater?
Katia pointed into the water and screamed.
"Here! It was this place! The 'Irina Report'!"
"What!?"
I hurriedly scrambled up the nearby rubble.
"Hah!"
On the way, I saw a person buried under the rubble.
From the clothes, I knew immediately who it was.
"Ivan...!"
After being attacked in Room 111, he must have been carried here. His favorite cane was lying near the corpse. And dried, hardened blood adhered to the handle of the cane.
It implies he was struck from behind with that and died.
To think I'd find him in a form like this—
Shaking off the distraction, I climbed the rubble.
Eventually, I climbed to a vantage point and peered into the sea from there.
I can see it—.
Even that underground cavern, which was so dark, now had light streaming in due to the collapse.
The light vividly illuminated the water that had been pitch black.
On the underwater wall—in a recess halfway down, something like a sealed metal box was submerged.
Rusted by years of erosion, and covered with various marine life.
"That's it! That must be it! Eliseo... to think you hid it in a place like that! Kyahahaha! But Sea-Wraiths! It will be complete with this!"
The pitch-black underground cavern. In the water beneath it.
Eliseo sank the relic of the past in that place where essentially no one could see it.
And yet, light ended up shining there.
Like me, Luciolla opened her eyes wide at the sight before her.
Even Luciolla didn't know where Eliseo had hidden the 'Irina Report'.
Another explosion overhead. Followed by the entire underground shaking dully with a Zuzuzu.
The bombardment hasn't stopped yet.
Due to the shaking, the box is about to slide out of the recess at any moment.
Below the recess is a complete abyss. If it sinks further, recovery will be difficult.
"I... I have to pull it up quickly! At that depth, I can still—!"
Sensing this, Katia panic and tried to dive into the sea.
"No!"
Luciolla leaped from atop the rubble and tackled Katia.
"Don't get in my way—!"
A dry gunshot.
Luciolla's body stiffened for a moment.
Soon, blood spread on the water surface.
"Lou...! Luciollaaa!"
Before I could think, my legs were moving forward.
"Don't come any closerrr!"
The bullet Katia fired pierced my thigh.
I jumped into the water regardless and reached out to Luciolla.
Kyuiiiii—!
At that moment, a pure white shadow emerged from the water.
A majestic marine creature.
Once the White Devil—now, Luciolla's only friend.
"Gra... phio."
Luciolla called that name weakly.
"Gah...!? Wh... wha...!?"
In an instant, Graphio had captured Katia's body with those jaws Agito.
As if he were a guardian protecting what Eliseo hid.
No, that's wrong.
Graphio just tried to protect his friend.
"What do... think... you... damn...!"
Katia couldn't move, bitten at the waist. So she fired her pistol wildly at Graphio.
Holes opened in Graphio's white body, and fresh blood flowed.
"Stop! Graphio! That's enough! It's enough!"
But Graphio never let go of his prey.
"Le... go...! H-Hey! Wait! Are you serious!? Eh!? Y... You'll die! Gabo...! I... in a place like this... No! Ga...!? Gobobo...!"
Katia struggled until the end, but there was no way she could match the king of the sea in the water.
She was mercilessly dragged underwater, and eventually stopped moving.
Having finished the battle, Graphio surfaced again with smooth movements and shook his tail fin slightly as if snuggling up to Luciolla.
Kyui
Luciolla rubbed her cheek against him as if answering her friend.
"Thank you, Graphio... Sorry. I'm sorry............"
At that time, a particularly large tremor hit the area.
Large and small rubble fell from overhead, churning the sea surface.
The 'Irina Report' slid down deep into the seabed.
"Sakuya! Over here, over here!"
Hearing a lively voice, I turned that way and saw Belka waving from beyond the pile of rubble. Fido was next to her too.
"You were safe!"
"Never mind that, hurry—! This place is going to collapse!"
Belka pointed to the stairs leading to the surface. The same stairs we used when we came down here last night.
I saw Yuriu lending a shoulder to Ursna and heading toward the stairs.
"Lou!"
I reached out to Luciolla again.
"Come with me!"
Despite my call, Luciolla wouldn't look back.
"It's all over! Run! We're leaving this place together!"
Please. Please—
"Lou!"
She—finally looked this way.
"Saku... where?"
"...I'm here. Over here."
There was no light in her eyes anymore.
She was directing an unfocused gaze into the void.
"Lou... seems to have bled... too much. It's... no good."
Blood flowed endlessly from Luciolla's abdomen.
She stopped pressing the wound and leaned her back against Graphio's large body.
"Is it all... over?"
"...Yeah. It's over. So..."
Luciolla shook her head weakly.
"I can't go back. Because Lou... killed so many people... right?"
Her body tilted little by little, sinking into the water.
"Wait... This way! Come over here! Don't go! Not that way!"
When I tried to push through the water to get closer, Graphio cut in between me and Luciolla.
He wrapped his fin around Luciolla's small body as if protecting her.
I won't give her to anyone—
Graphio seemed to be saying that.
"Lou!"
"Hey... Graphio. Outside... is wide... isn't it."
Graphio hooked his large fangs onto Luciolla's clothes.
And the two sank together.
Immediately after, a huge piece of rubble crashed down right in front of me, and my body was blown backward greatly along with the spray.
"Sakuya-sama!"
It was Lilitea who caught my body.
"Hurry, this way. Everyone else has already evacuated."
"Lily... I... I..."
"Come on, stand up!"
Lilitea grabbed my shoulders and shook me.
But I couldn't move my body.
"I couldn't save her... Anyone. Not anyone!"
"Sakuya!"
Lilitea slapped my cheek as I spewed words out of emotion.
It was a good slap, with her hips put into it.
"Whining comes later! Now, stand up!"
Amidst the rock face crumbling like rain, Lilitea pulled me and aimed desperately for the surface.
During that time, Lilitea kept a face as if she were angry.
No, she was definitely angry.
"Lily............ thank you."
She showed no reaction to my words.
Surely, it didn't reach her ears, drowned out by the sound of the bombing.
Just as I thought that, Lilitea said this while facing forward.
"You stupid person."
Her profile was truly beautiful.
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