Episode 10: The Knight of Frills

* * *

I'm Luna. I stopped counting my age a long, long time ago.

My favorite food was grilled aminorocha. Least favorite was dwelling-star crystals. Nobody in this dimension would have the faintest clue what either of those were.

"Don't go, sis!"

Where I came from, people didn't live on planets. We traveled from star to star with a massive fleet, producing fuel as we went, surviving by drifting through the cosmos.

"Well, can't be helped. Days like this happen, yeah."

The Knight of Frills. That was my title. A name the media and military brass hyped up on their own. Basically, I was just a figurehead they paraded around.

"There's no chance of winning. None. You're just going to die."

Our ship, the Raomkina, was currently under attack by a hostile nation... well, back home the concept of "nations" was kinda vague. Point was, a rival fleet had ambushed us. A meticulously planned operation, too—they were dead set on wiping us out.

"What. You think I'm gonna lose?"

"Sis... you know the truth..."

My adorable little brother. His eyes were the spitting image of Mom's. His mouth was probably more like Dad's.

I didn't look like either of them. Because I was a Designer Child, factory-produced for military use. Well, Dad and Mom gave me plenty of love anyway.

"Sis... let's run away... together..."

So he grabbed my hand, but I had to shake it off.

"See you later. Have a big dinner ready when I get back."

I climbed into my unit—the Copper Knife—and launched into the endless expanse of space.

Watching my home shrink behind me, I deployed my full division.

The neural-linked controls let me operate thousands of humanoid weapons simultaneously.

"...You're kidding me."

But what appeared on my monitors wasn't thousands. It was tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands.

How much budget and manpower had they poured into this ambush? I actually laughed.

"Haaah..."

I drew the cigarette smoke deep into my lungs, then breathed it out.

"Come at me, you bastards. I'll beat every last one of you into the ground."

So that's how I fought and died. But hey, the people back home barely scraped by, and—well, how do I put it—I became what they call a hero.

Super popular with the public. Apparently tons of books and biographies got published.

"The battlefield hero, the Knight of Frills—one for every household!"

—That ad ran six months after I died.

I was a factory-produced human, and my neural activity had always been monitored. Meaning they could easily mass-produce perfect copies of me.

(I wonder what kind of people bought the other mes. Probably did some awful stuff to them. Did any of them end up happy? Man, this feels like total crap.)

What happened to my brother, I wonder. Was he still doing okay? Seeing all those copies of me being mass-produced—how did that make him feel?

(Maybe I should've stayed behind and protected him instead.)

He must've suffered. He must've cried more than anyone. And I couldn't even know that.

Because this me—this individual unit of me—woke up thousands, or maybe tens of thousands? Could've been even longer than that. Some absurdly distant future, in a completely different dimension's universe.

The Boundary Region Trading Company. Those economic monsters dwelling in the cracks between dimensions took the discarded, unsold units of us, slapped on God-knows-what modifications, and resold us cheap to monsters in other dimensions.

(But whatever. It's not like I could protect anyone anyway.)

Everything was pointless, and all I could think about was wanting to die already.

But lately, just a little bit.

"Luna-san, over there—it's an exit!"

A boy covered in wounds ran with everything he had, pointing toward the light.

(I hope this kid finds happiness.)

I didn't matter. At least let this kid—

(But it's all pointless anyway.)

—Yeah, in the end, none of it mattered. Man, I wished I could just die already.

* * *

It was a vast blue lake, with crumbling buildings sunken into it.

"Luna-san, the sounds..."

Kotoyorozu-kun murmured. Yeah, now that he mentioned it, the constant artillery fire we'd been hearing had gone silent at some point. Mef-chan had probably died.

"...Let's just focus on what we need to do."

The space beyond that dark corridor was a world faithfully recreating one that had once existed. A beautiful blue lake, countless buildings toppled and broken. An overcast sky and a space stretching out to infinity.

(—It's bright. The upper layer was the nighttime sea. And the underground layer was memories. I see.)

Things someone had wanted to protect were probably kept here. That was the feeling I got. Someone like me, who'd lost everything, understood that sickeningly well.

"Something's over there."

Something small was lying in the lake's shallows. It seemed to be moving faintly.

"Is that... a dog?"

It was closer to a puppy in size. It had fluffy fur, but it seemed to be made of machinery—it creaked with every step. Six legs. A little different from anything we knew.

"Woof woof!"

The puppy noticed us and bared its tiny fangs in a threat display.

"Th-this thing..."

"Hm? What's wrong, Kotoyorozu-kun? Not good with dogs?"

"This is... the Mother Case. ...The source of this Apocalypse."

(This tiny, frail little creature? With those itty-bitty fangs?)

It clicked for me. Why this world was so extreme, so thoughtless. Why it had loved humanity so desperately, so relentlessly. The answer was this little puppy.

"Alright. Let's smash it."

When I muttered that, the dog barked even harder. I felt bad, but it couldn't be helped.

"Luna-san, get back!"

"Wha—"

Kotoyorozu-kun yanked my arm. The instant he did, massive chunks of scrap metal came crashing down around the dog. Wires extending from the scrap embraced each other, assembling a mechanical body.

"OWOOOON!"

What took shape was a Guardian. Identical to the one upstairs that had been weaving masks. Or maybe these two were units from the same series.

(Either way, if we can't beat this thing, it's game over?)

What a pointless story. Mef-chan put her life on the line for nothing, and us coming here was for nothing too. Because no matter how you looked at it, there wasn't a shred of a chance.

(So, what's the easiest way to die?)

Just as I thought that, Kotoyorozu-kun quietly murmured.

"That thing's missing parts."

"...What?"

"The back armor's missing. It's exposed. It's guarding that spot. And that's not all—it's an outdated model. Its processing is slow. Against that thing, we have a chance."

I was stunned. This kid hadn't given up at all. Come to think of it, he'd been like that since the day we met. He'd never once given up. I... admired that about him. Deeply.

"Luna-san. Please."

"What?"

"The rest."

I didn't need to ask what he meant. I thought I should stop him. But—

"Get underwater!"

He shouted and broke into a run. As brave as any hero. Without a single weapon.

"oooOOOOOOON!"

The foolish, pitiful, massive Guardian screamed and clumsily swung its ugly body to crush Kotoyorozu-kun. He dodged by a hair's breadth and kept running, still brave.

"Guh—"

But that reckless courage couldn't last forever. Dozens of iron needles hurled by the massive machine pierced his body. Red blood. Flesh tore, and bones shattered.

(...Stupid kid.)

I just stood there, watching. Frozen. My body trembled faintly.

"oooOOOOOOOON!"

The enraged machine turned its gaze toward me, standing there motionless. Like a broken record, it hurled iron needles at me. They pierced through me—but I wasn't there.

"—Drop dead, you bastard."

I'd extended my threads beneath the water's surface, moving 99% of myself behind the massive machine. What it had just skewered was nothing more than 1% of me—patched together with threads on the surface.

"Die."

The threads extending from my wrist shifted shape into a silver rapier. Just like Kotoyorozu-kun said—its back was wide open. I threaded through the gaps in the machinery and drove the blade precisely into its weak point.

"Ohh—"

A faint, agonized groan. I'd felt the impact. Slowly, the machine crumbled. The scrap metal that had been held together by wires splashed into the water and fell to the ground.

"Kotoyorozu-kun!"

I rushed to him, gasping for breath.

(Again, I couldn't protect them.)

If he hadn't charged out and created that opening, I'd never have had a split second to extend my threads. He'd known from the start that he'd get torn to shreds.

"Luna... san..."

Coughing up blood, the fallen boy smiled. I held him in my arms.

"You idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!"

He was smiling so I wouldn't worry. How painfully sweet was that.

"How is it? Has the taste of blood in your mouth stopped at all?"

"...Nope, still super there."

Obviously. Because he was physically gushing the stuff.

(Wait. Could Azure Academy's technology save someone in this condition?)

Right. It wasn't time to give up on protecting anyone yet. If we hurried back to the surface, maybe we could still save him.

"Hold on! Let me stop the bleeding—"

"...Luna-san."

Kotoyorozu-kun staggered to his feet.

"Idiot! Don't move—"

"Not yet."

"—What?"

A tremendous spray of water blotted out my vision. An impact like a dump truck slamming into us. I was thrown into the air.

(Kotoyorozu-kun—)

He'd been sent flying too. I desperately grabbed him midair and braced for the landing.

"Gahh—"

We slammed hard into the ground. More than the pain, all I cared about was whether Kotoyorozu-kun was okay. His body was already riddled with holes. In my arms, he lay limp and still.

"—What the hell are you guys..."

There were Guardians. Massive, dog-shaped Guardians. And it wasn't just one or two.

Dozens of Guardians crawled out from the bottom of the lake and watched us in silence.