stupidbutts

❝script 14❞

Shiki's Route ( shiki VS n )

Two sounds rang through the empty air in rapid succession: first, a painful-sounding moan, then the metallic clashing noise of something being slashed down.

グンジ (Gunji)

"...Damn."

For a second, Akira had the sensation that he was floating in midair. He craned his neck around to figure out what was happening.

Someone had pulled him close. At the edge of his sight, he caught a passing glimpse of Gunji with his lips contorted in distaste.

Then whose arm was this around him—?

シキ (Shiki)

"...Idiots."

A clear voice rippled through the air; something about it almost made him nostalgic.

Jet-black hair. Scarlet eyes. He saw a man overflowing with absolute faith in his own strength.

アキラ (Akira)

"........."

Akira looked at Shiki, staggered.

—Why was he here? Before anything else, that single question rose up to dominate his thoughts. Incapable of outright asking him, Akira finally began to swivel his gaze around in search of answers. What he discovered left him even more dumbfounded.

The ground was covered in a steadily spreading pool of blood. At its center lay Emma and Gwen.

シキ (Shiki)

"Get in the way, and you get eliminated."

The katana in Shiki's hand was wet with blood.

...Had he killed them?

Akira looked up at Shiki again and realized he was not at all his usual self. He always emanated a slow-burning, smoldering aura of violence and bloodlust, yet now it blazed forth from him like a raging inferno. His impassive calm had largely vanished, and he was doing nothing to rein in his wild rage.

シキ (Shiki)

"...You."

Shiki hissed in a voice so taut that it came out like a groan. The expressionless Nano turned slowly to face him.

ナノ (ｎ)

"Why are you fixated on him?"

シキ (Shiki)

"Fixated?"

Nano's blank eyes shifted to Akira.

ナノ (ｎ)

"Do you need him?"

シキ (Shiki)

"...Hell if I know."

Shiki spat his reply out with a grimace.

シキ (Shiki)

"I came to take back what's mine. Nothing more, and nothing less."

Those words bowled Akira over.

...Shiki came to take him back?

But he was primarily shaken by the effect it had on him to hear Shiki say this. Normally he would revolt against every word Shiki spoke—

...No. It was just that his head couldn't keep up with these rapid new developments. His brain felt slow and numb. He was in an abnormal state of mind.... That should be enough to account for his reaction.

—However....

There was a fact he couldn't afford to forget. He needed to confirm its veracity. Squinting to see through the strengthening rain, he tilted his head back to get a better look at Shiki.

アキラ (Akira)

"Are you... really Il Re?"

Shiki glanced at him. He didn't appear particularly surprised.

アキラ (Akira)

"Emma claimed that you're Il Re."

シキ (Shiki)

"It's got nothing to do with me. It's what that foul little man just decided to call me. I have no interest in drugs."

What was going on...? This didn't fit with what Akira had been told.

Yet Shiki didn't seem to be lying.

ナノ (ｎ)

"You longed for it."

Nano said softly. His hollow, husky voice crept slow and steady through the air.

ナノ (ｎ)

"I know that you long for it. So I leave it for you to find."

シキ (Shiki):

"...What?"

Shiki's bearing underwent an instant transformation. Murderous fury gathered in his eyes as he fixed Nano with a penetrating stare.

シキ (Shiki)

"You're saying I would be desperate enough to borrow false strength from drugs? That I long for it? Only the scum of the earth do that. The lowest of the low. You don't think much of me."

ナノ (ｎ)

"You yourself were defeated by the illusory power that you scorn... and even now, it still gnaws at you."

シキ (Shiki)

"........."

Shiki's desire to kill seemed to double. The cold, pouring rain stood no chance of extinguishing the resentful fire in his eyes.

ナノ (ｎ)

"This is why you take the measure of your own power by crushing fools who rely on temporary, borrowed strength. You crave that reassurance."

シキ (Shiki)

"Shut up. Don't project your folly onto me."

ナノ (ｎ)

"Then you should have discarded it, rather than taking it. Undiluted Nicole comes straight from me, and you loathe me more than anything."

Undiluted Nicole—?

This meant that Nano had been in the habit of passing liquid Nicole—the source of LINE—to Shiki. In which case, the suitcase Nano had once entrusted to Akira might have contained pure LINE. In hindsight, he could vividly recall how Shiki's normally emotionless face had been consumed by visible anger in the moment when he first saw it.

シキ ( Shiki )

"........."

Without warning, Shiki shoved Akira away and raised his sword to point diagonally in front of him. As the rain washed away the blood staining the blade, it began to regain its keen gleam.

ナノ (ｎ)

"By giving the undiluted fluid to those who oversee Igura, you spread LINE far and wide without ever dirtying your own hands. Because you want to kill those infected by Nicole... and the more compatible they are as carriers, the better. Doing so is what keeps you from utterly falling apart.... Is it not?"

シキ ( Shiki )

"I told you to shut up."

Nano's voice was gently, leisurely, and yet unswervingly driving Shiki towards the brink. Soulless blue eyes vied with tempestuous red. Whoever surrendered to his emotions and lost sight of the bigger picture would lose the upper hand.

And right now—

シキ ( Shiki )

"I've never forgotten you. Your—

—insanity. Not once since the day we first met on that battlefield."

Shiki's voice echoed heavily through the air so laden with ferocious emotion that it came out sounding suppressed.

...A battlefield.

Shiki had witnessed Nano in action as a living weapon. Akira couldn't even begin to imagine it.

Drenched in rain, the white honed blade came to point straight at Nano.

❝i've never forgotten you❞

This took place during a minor spate of civil war that broke out several years before World War III erupted into being.

With his prominent reputation in the criminal underworld, Shiki sometimes infiltrated the battlefield at the direct request of military authorities, people who wielded great influence over the shadowy parts of the national government. On the surface of things, he appeared to be the same as any other regular soldier, but all of his personal records were filled with falsified data.

It happened late at night, when Shiki was on the way back to his garrison after performing reconnaissance on the enemy base. Glimpses of red firelight flickered between the thickly clustered trees. By the time Shiki returned, the encampment had transformed into a hellish inferno.

—A nocturnal ambush. The only thing in sight was raging smoke. The sound of groaning. The stench of blood. The camp went up in fire, its flames dying the gruesome night in vivid hues. Corpses clad in military uniforms lay piled on the ground, like countless copies of the same doll, carelessly cast aside.

But Shiki had long since grown accustomed to seeing dishonored dead bodies. He was neither shocked nor appalled. The only element of it that surprised him was the fact that an enemy unit had been skilled enough to take all of them out without being detected. As far as he could tell from surveying the gory aftermath, his fellow soldiers had scattered and fallen without being given any opportunity to resist. Where could the enemy forces have attacked from? The security here was virtually airtight; surely it must have been difficult to overcome.

An indolent breeze brushed away the burnt stink of smoke, and as the haze began to clear, he saw people standing here and there amidst the dead. They wore black combat uniforms. They weren't from the camp. There were about six of them.

This would seem to suggest that a mere six men had destroyed the entire encampment—containing many times their number in soldiers—in hardly more than the blink of an eye. He'd never heard of such a formidable special unit. Or was this their debut battle?

As Shiki studied the shadows standing surrounded by smoke and fire, he found his eyes drawn to one man in particular. He was positioned in the middle and wore a different uniform than the others.

He was poised atop a heap of corpses, his back to Shiki. Shiki wasn't paying special attention to him simply because he had a different uniform. Something about the man's aura had caught his notice—in a way, something about him seemed almost out of place. The man's body was completely relaxed, without a trace of tension anywhere. He wasn't just standing still. He stood there with every muscle hanging limp.

It didn't matter how many battles you'd encountered. It was all but impossible to go out on the battlefield without a care in the world, utterly unguarded. Yet from behind, this man appeared defenseless, as if he'd crumple in a helpless heap if someone attacked him from any angle. He showed no signs of exhilaration, no thirst for violence.

Now that Shiki studied them more closely, the other soldiers loitering around were much the same: they looked as vague and purposeless as wandering ghosts.

—Had they really wiped out the whole garrison by themselves?

The visual evidence would seem to speak for itself, but Shiki couldn't help doubting his eyes now. He continued observing the scene in front of him, and eventually his gaze shifted back to the man he'd focused on earlier. He jerked, startled.

The man was looking over his shoulder. His eyes seemed just as soulless as his slack-muscled body. The shadows created by wavering flames danced across the side of his face as he silently looked in Shiki's direction. Shiki was nowhere near him. He lurked far away, deep in the shadows, motionless—he should have been undetectable. And yet the man was looking at him. Straight at him with vacant eyes that contained only pure, empty darkness.

He felt his pulse begin to speed out of control. He couldn't master his sense of panic; he found it hard to breathe. He couldn't even look away—it was like the man's eyes had him pinned in place. His ordinarily calm thoughts became wild and unreliable, as if his head were on the verge of spontaneous combustion. Nothingness crept in through his sight and invaded his body, his brain. Then Shiki realized what was happening to him. He recognized this trembling sensation.

—He was terrified.

For the first time in his life. Terrified of this man before him. True nothingness. It seemed like a kind of madness.

In an instant, Shiki seized his knife and broke into a run, charging at the man. He didn't spare a single thought for what might happen next. The only thing he wanted—was to erase the source of this horrible fear.

The other soldiers turned around and started attacking one after the other. Their power far exceeded anything he had ever encountered before despite his long history of experience in war. It was a struggle to cut his way through them, but he persevered,
slashing right and left, driven forward by an impulse he found hard to believe or comprehend.

He didn't remember much from those moments. Time became an ambiguous thing; the scenery blurred and flowed past him.

Maybe he'd completely lost his wits.

Besides, he was only looking at one person. A single man, embraced by nothingness.

Shiki leapt at him.

シキ ( Shiki )

"...Why didn't you kill me then?"

Shiki asked, fixing Nano with a knife-sharp stare.

シキ ( Shiki )

"Why did you let me live?"

ナノ (ｎ)

"I wanted... to savor your fresh-born fear."

シキ ( Shiki )

"...What?"

Nano gave a slow blink. His blue eyes shined purple.

ナノ (ｎ)

"Fear, born when your illusion of invincibility shattered. And the compulsion it gave rise to. I saw everything in your eyes. I was certain you would pursue me."

シキ ( Shiki )

"........."

ナノ (ｎ)

"You do not loathe me alone. You hate and fear everything that comes from me. The more powerful you are, the more devastating a shock it is when you meet with defeat."

It seemed as if he might dissolve in the rain and melt away at any moment, yet somehow his outlines remained oddly distinct. He held out his hand. A trace of shadow entered his blank eyes, and he curled his hand into a loose fist.

ナノ (ｎ)

"As long as fear haunts your heart... you will never overcome me. No matter how intense or violent your hatred might be you cannot defeat me."

He spoke plainly, flatly, emphasizing only his last few words which sunk as heavily as stones in water. His voice contained not a particle of emotion.

Despite that, Akira seemed to pick up on a hint of pity in Nano's tone.

Who was he pitying?
Shiki, or...
perhaps himself?

シキ ( Shiki )

"........."

Shiki's blade cut a fierce arc through the air as though to say that he had no words left; the flames of his fury had consumed them all as fuel. The rain pounded down harder, hitting everything in sight, creating a kind of closed space.

Akira could no longer even feel the coldness of the water dripping down his temples and his cheeks.

シキ ( Shiki )

"Your blathering ends here....!"

Shiki was already tilting forward to attack.

Nano's left arm, which he had been holding extended, descended back to his side. A tension as fragile as thin ice filled the air.

Right now, Shiki was drowning in anger and hatred. The first to succumb to emotion would be the first to fall. Anyone could see who had the upper hand.

( ――It didn't matter if Shiki lost. )

That thought came out of nowhere to pop into the back of Akira's mind. It shouldn't make a difference to him which one of them emerged the victor. He was an onlooker who had come to be there by mere happenstance; he hadn't sought to get involved.

But in that case... what was this feeling that ached and smoldered in every corner of his head? Shiki would be defeated, he thought to himself. And the feeling only grew stronger. He was an aloof, arrogant man who overflowed with absolute confidence. He had tormented Akira and controlled him against his will. Because of that... Akira didn't want to see him fall at the hands of another, right in front of his eyes, now of all times.

If Shiki fell Akira himself would be too pathetic to live.

アキラ ( Akira )

"...Stop it!"

Though his thoughts were still in turmoil he found himself gripping Shiki's arm.

シキ ( Shiki )

"Out of my way!"

He shoved Akira away with fearsome force.

Shiki was only looking at Nano. He wouldn't let anyone else interfere. This was his own personal Armageddon.

アキラ ( Akira )

"......?!"

Someone grabbed Akira from behind all of a sudden, trapping his arms. When he cast a hurried glance back, he discovered Kiriwar looking down at him, smirking. Gunji and Arbitro stood beside him.

アルビトロ ( Arbitro )

"...I see. I was not aware that he had his own past trauma to deal with. How unexpected."

アキラ ( Akira )

"You....!"

キリヲ ( Kiriwar )

"Keep strugglin' and I might have to break something...."

They must have been watching the whole thing from a slight distance, so as to avoid coming to any harm themselves. It was exactly the sort of plan this tasteless narcissist seemed likely to concoct.

グンジ

"Can I join the fun over there?"

Gunji jerked his head at Nano and Shiki. He wore a big, innocent smile just like a little child.

アルビトロ ( Arbitro )

"You may not."

グンジ ( Gunji )

"...Aw, why not?"

A calculating light gleamed in the masked man's eyes.

アルビトロ ( Arbitro )

"If this wraps up neatly we'll be able to operate without the meddling of a middleman. And it's as clear as day which one of them will win."

アキラ ( Akira )

"........."

Weighed down by despair, Akira turned his eyes on the raging battle.

シキ ( Shiki )

"...Die!"

Shiki attacked with a hoarse cry, launching himself at Nano like a bullet. The distance between them vanished in a breath, and a single stroke of his sword flashed like lightning in the darkness so fast that it seemed to slice the very air in half. Shiki's crazed momentum granted him more than twice his usual speed and power. For a second, it seemed as if he must reached his mark.

And then Nano's body gently wavered.

❝SCRIPT 15, PART 1❞

{ FINAL }

Without seeming to expend any special effort, he avoided what had appeared to be an unavoidable blow. His movements looked almost leisurely, as if he'd predicted the exact trajectory of Shiki's attack before it actually happened.

アルビトロ ( Arbitro )

"Heheh."

Next to Akira, Arbitro smirked.

Shiki reversed the path of his blade, transitioning into a follow-up slash without a single millisecond of delay, but Nano evaded his second attack in the same way. His body shifted away from the sword's silvery arc as lightly as though the wind were blowing him about. Shiki couldn't even graze him.

アルビトロ ( Arbitro )

"This is the true power of a military weapon. Even the notorious Shiki can't lay a single scratch on him... how very magnificent."

A military weapon.

Akira turned his gaze on Nano. Though his movements were nimble, his face still bore no expression whatsoever. He simply regarded Shiki with empty eyes, like a living gun
training its sights on its target. It was eerie. Yet the wordless emotions welling up in Akira went much deeper than merely feeling creeped out.

Surely Nano had come to despair in everything around him. He must have given up on the whole world.

He'd given up on himself as well as all others.
He'd completely closed his heart.

Eyes sunk in darkness. That was what let him kill people without feeling a thing. He'd spent so many days of his life imprisoned in a laboratory, utterly deprived of personal freedom and dignity. Akira felt that he could understand the sorrow of that experience,
if only a little bit.

シキ ( Shiki )

"...You...."

Shiki questioned Nano in a low voice, though his onslaught of attacks never paused for a second, and his breathing had become slightly faster. Nano remained as elusive as an apparition of the dead.

シキ ( Shiki )

"What's your goal?"

The rainy darkness.
The sound of steel cutting the wind.
The shining white blade.

シキ

"What are you trying to accomplish? ...Answer me!"

Shiki shouted. Water splashed up from his feet in great sheets as he lunged forward.

ナノ (ｎ)

"My answer is obvious."

He replied, dodging Shiki's rising sword. His sodden bangs covered his eyes, hiding the look on his face.

ナノ (ｎ)

"To return all ignorant souls to the void from which they came."

シキ ( Shiki )

"You think too highly of yourself!"

Shiki dropped into a crouch, rotating as he swept his blade in a broad counterattack.

Nano, who had taken several steps back, halted a short distance away from him. He stood still, his breathing unhurried, his pallid coloring muted and blurred even further by the veil of the rain.

Shiki, in contrast, was breathing with his shoulders, his whole body cloaked in black bloodlust.

They were polar opposites, yet the rain silently sliced through both of them.

ナノ (ｎ)

"...This world is overflowing with the foolish fruits born of every form of arrogance."

Now the voice that rang out in Akira's ears seemed to be laced through with a thin, taut thread of steel; so unlike the husky, lifeless voice he'd spoken in before. He couldn't see Nano's expression. But something about the sound of those words made a shudder crawl down Akira's spine.

ナノ (ｎ)

"Life, nature, civilization... the power to produce and reproduce is a wondrous thing. Yet once it crosses a certain line, it degenerates into an ugly mass of covetousness.

Human beings are such weak creatures. They have no fangs, no claws, no special tricks to protect themselves. A single naked human is totally helpless. Their very weakness is what drives them to try to claw their way higher. And, once they reach a height from which they can gaze down on others, they become transfixed by the delusion that they can have it all to themselves."

シキ( Shiki )

"That's why people need power. Absolute, individual power to spare them from having to rely on anything for help."

ナノ (ｎ)

"That is a mistake. One person's rampage invites resistance from those around him. Many people end up as victims.... Yet those blinded by their own greed are unaware of the dark consequences of their actions.

This cycle of destruction and rebirth has occurred throughout human history. And it will continue far into the future... forever.

The eager elation that comes with ascending in power is so sweet, so unlike any other sensation. But it is also temporary. A mere illusion."

シキ ( Shiki )

"...Perhaps I've been caught up in that elation. Perhaps I still am."

It sounded as if he were murmuring to himself; a hint of euphoria seeped into his voice. Akira was slightly taken aback when he stole a glimpse of the look on Shiki's face.

He saw a definite smile playing about Shiki's lips, though it only lasted for the briefest of moments.The same fierce, murderous flame still blazed bright and glittering in his eyes, unchanged. Shiki was enjoying this battle. He was having the time of his life pitting himself against his archenemy. He must prefer the raging inferno of a single second to long, idle stretches of serenity.

ナノ (ｎ)

"Destruction and rebirth, endlessly repeating. I have no interest in watching humanity rise from its own ashes—increasingly degenerate, a pale shadow of what came before."

There was a quiet gravity in Nano's voice.

ナノ (ｎ)

"But the ones who fight their fate—hideously, foolishly—to the very end: they are the ones who shine the brightest before they fall.

That is what I want to witness. The moment they fall. Those foolish souls, knowing themselves to be on the brink of destruction yet unable to stop themselves from
dirtying their hands with their own greed. Squabbling amongst themselves like beasts and only realizing their own doom far too late to prevent it."

...Everything is going as planned."

シキ ( Shiki )

"In other words, you were using me for your own self-satisfaction."

Shiki shook the rain from his blade and pointed it straight at Nano.

シキ ( Shiki )

"That's why I said you think too highly of yourself. Do you imagine you've become some kind of god?"

ナノ (ｎ)

"My individual actions do not have the power to change a single thing. None of it adds up to more than a scant fistful of sand, mere dust in the wind.

I simply want to bear witness. To appreciate the aesthetics of self-destruction.... And in the end, I want to see what will happen."

Nano said. He slowly laid his hand over the left side of his breast.

シキ ( Shiki )

"What will you try to see?"

Rather than reply to Shiki's question, Nano removed his hand from his chest and ran his fingers through his wet bangs, pushing the hair away from his face. His deathly white face became visible. On his lips rested a taunting smile completely unlike any other expression he had shown in the past.

Shiki, who must have been sensitive to the shift in Nano's bearing more than anyone else, furrowed his eyebrows and glared back at him harder than ever. Nano simply stood there for a few moments letting the rain hit his face. Then, all of a sudden, he laughed deep in his throat. The muffled noises grew louder and louder until he was laughing at the top of his lungs, as if he couldn't control himself.

アルビトロ ( Arbitro )

"Has he lost his mind?"

Scarce seconds earlier, Nano had been as listless as a corpse. Akira and Arbitro were stupefied by his transformation, while the executioners grunted as though it bored them. His laughter pealed through the rain, soaring up unburdened to be swallowed by the sky.

シキ ( Shiki )

"...Stop it."

Nano kept laughing without paying any heed to Shiki's command, but at last his laughter began to die down, and his lips curved back into a mocking smile.

ナノ (ｎ)

"You're a fool to the bone. You can't beat me. You lose every time you fight me, and yet here you are again. Like a broken record."

シキ ( Shiki )

"........."

ナノ (ｎ)

"Why don't you learn your lesson? You'll never defeat me. Ever. And do you know why? Because I'm familiar with a feeling you've never once experienced—a feeling that downright terrifies you."

Nano's voice was rife with vivid scorn, as if a completely different personality had taken over his body. His words were sharp, barbed—they stabbed through the ears of all who listened.

Shiki's eyes lit up with fresh hatred.

ナノ (ｎ)

"You can't attain true strength without first knowing weakness.... Maybe you've seen your own small share of suffering, but no matter what you've been through, I've been through—am still going through—torture a thousand times worse.

You can't even imagine what it's like. That's what gives me strength. That's why my strength remains."

シキ ( Shiki )

"Hold your tongue!"

Shiki seemed ready to leap forward and strike at Nano again. Nano, for his part, strode forward without hesitation—completely unguarded as though daring Shiki to attack him.

ナノ (ｎ)

"I wonder what you would do... if you had a taste of how I've suffered."

His voice abruptly softening, Nano smiled and extended his left hand toward Shiki.

シキ ( Shiki )

"........."

ナノ (ｎ)

"Would you be able to stay strong even then?"

シキ ( Shiki )

"...What do you mean?"

ナノ (ｎ)

"This blood of mine that you hate so much. My blood itself, which gives people a false illusion of new power, is the ultimate symbol of your weakness.... Do you understand what I'm getting at?"

Nano rolled up his sleeve, baring his outstretched left arm. He brought the exposed white skin to his face and bit it ever so gently, as if showing off, his eyes never once leaving Shiki. Blue veins trailed just below the thin surface of his skin.

ナノ (ｎ)

"LINE is my blood diluted dozens of times over. A normal person who ingested it in its undiluted state would go mad and surely die.

And there's more. The very act of forcing yourself to accept my blood would, in a way, be the ultimate test for you. Can you master it?"

シキ ( Shiki )

"Ridiculous. Who would stoop to taking your blood...."

ナノ (ｎ)

"I'm asking you if you can master it.

Do you desire true power? Do you long to overcome me? Can you embrace your greatest weakness and master it?

...Just as I have."

シキ ( Shiki )

"........."

Shiki went on glowering at Nano, his mouth clamped shut. The archenemy he'd been pursuing for so long was now confronting him with a choice that, if anything, resembled the whispered temptations of a devil. On the inside, Shiki had to be wracked with a storm of conflict.

True, no one could become genuinely strong without first understanding what it meant to be weak.

...But no, that was a different matter. Akira's instincts warned him that what Nano had offered Shiki just now was in fact something else entirely. If Shiki let himself be provoked into accepting Nano's offer—there would be no turning back afterward.

ナノ (ｎ)

"...So what will you do?"

Nano extended his left hand toward Shiki again. His rain-slick smile seemed to shine enticingly.

シキ ( Shiki )

"...I've casted everything aside for the sake of attaining power. I cut down my own flesh and blood."

Shiki had bowed his head, the air around him growing disturbingly quiet and intense.

His sword slipped through his fingers.

It clattered to the ground with a sound that seemed to shatter Akira's ears. Akira stared at the scene before him, so transfixed that he forgot tthe executioners were holding him prisoner.

アキラ ( Akira )

"........."

シキ ( Shiki )

"...I'll surpass you over and over if I have to....!"

Shiki tilted into a run, rushing up to Nano and seizing him by the shoulders. His red eyes glittered darkly, shot through with—

—brief but unadulterated madness.

As Nano let Shiki grab him, a smile spread across his mouth, and his lips formed silent words.

"A born fool," he said—

アキラ ( Akira )