Artist's commentary
Karindou 4 Koma Extra Story Pseudo Short Story [Ghostrick Live] 15
"Mistress!"
"Col, we'll talk later! Rescue Ran, and round up everyone here as witnesses! I have to help Ryuuto!"
"Understood! Pink!"
"I,I'mam!"
"Cuey, you handle the little mistress!"
"Y, yes!"
Having given the orders, Elza didn't wait around for the maids to start bustling around, but instead rushed over to the fallen Ryuuto and checked his condition. Fortunately, since he was shot at point blank range, the bullet went straight through him and missed his vital organs, but due to the amount of time that had passed since he was shot, she was worried about his blood loss.
"Hey, are you still alive?"
"...A...Ah... It really hurts and my head is spinning, but... I guess so..."
Nodding at the weak response, she immediately start to use healing sorcery and close the wounds. His ragged breathing became more normal, and he didn't look like he went into shock due to blood loss, so she petted him once on the chest.
"Can you stand?"
"...Sorry, my body... won't move..."
"I see... It's not a fatal would, but you've lost a lot of blood, so I guess that's normal. That's fine, just keep lying down and wait until help comes!"
"I, really... caused you a lot of trouble... and then, you save me like this..."
Thinking it would be pretty hard to fall asleep on the hard floor, Elza took off his lab coat for Ryuuto to use as a pillow. Hearing his soft whisper, she hit Ryuuto's forehead. It made a small and clear pesh sound.
"Ow"
"Seriously, I was planning on chasing some bizarre murderers to get back Ran's body, and something crazy like his happens."
As she said this, Elza continued to hit his forehead. Peppepeshpesh, supepesh. Finally finding a rhythm to hitting, he gave a strained smile, and Ryuuto closed his eyes.
"Yes... I got you involved without even knowing it. I planned to continue what my grandfather did... To follow in his plans... But I made a terrible mistake. In the end, all I did was follow those guys, unable to do anything but grasp at their tails... And now, my grandfather, who grabbed the tail and cost him his life... would have yelled at me for my foolishness..."
"I don't want to listen to you complain about what happened here, idiot. You were in charge of this incident, and the one in charge has to be there to take responsibility, and can't just up and die to avoid it. Anyway, for you, this incident has only just begun. Aside from getting others involved in this, if you were just following them, as long as you kept at it, you'd eventually run into their backs, and proudly tell them about the Lord Inventor. And then..."
As she was speaking, Elza noticed Cuey, who was there fidgeting and wondering if she should interrupt her. Elza stuffed the rolled up lab coat under Ryuuto's head and lifted his body, and finished up.
"You think that all you did was follow, but it's possible that you might have been stepping on their toes? Have more self confidence. Like you have with all your other research results."
As he heard the footsteps grow distant, Ryuuto sighed and quietly murmured, so that no one else could hear.
"Was she berating me or praising me... I couldn't tell at all. What a strange feeling, it reminds me of my late mother."
With tears dripping down his face, he gave a smile of either peace or determination.
"Oka~y, anyone insolent enough to resist will get their d*ck chopped up in a blender~ Girls will have cream made inside them with an egg beater~"
"Pink, the little mistress and Cuey are here, so don't say such gorey things. Just that if they piss us off too much, we will take action, so for the sake of their bodies, they should be follow directions."
As they gave their quite scary and painful sounding threats, Col and Pink-chan tied up the researchers with rope pulled out from under their skirts. Fortunately, they were not drawn into the supernatural battle, but because of it, everything seemed unreal to them. And with a wizard being part of it, they knew that there was no way they could possibly come close to matching one, the researchers lost any will to put up even a fruitless struggle, so it didn't look like there was going to be any opportunity to use the blender or egg beater.
"Lolint, don't try to run away while we're not watching you."
"...? By Lolint, do you mean me, pink one?"
Suddenly being called by an unfamiliar name by Pink-chan, Giganov (little girl) blinked in surprise. Pink-chan, who seemed annoyed by that response, straightened her shoulders and walked towards her, and with an oddly dangerous look in her eyes, whispered to Giganov (little girl).
"I told you, don't call me by my color. It pisses me off, since it's right... Anyway, Onee-sama said we're acting like you're dead. So we can't use your name in front of people who know you. We can't call you something like old man, since you don't look like one. It's inconvenient to not have a name to call you by, so I thought up this alias. It's an alias, you were also named Gigant, and since you turned into a loli, it's Lolint. That name suits you perfectly, and you deserve it. If Onee-sama hadn't told me not to, I'd strangle you do death right now, so be thankful that all I'm doing is giving you an alias. And your thanks to Onee-sama should be deeper than the oceans."
"Hmph... Then, until I decide on a new name, I shall be called Lolint. Understood. And, pink one, it is not just to Bullet Squall that I am thankful, but to you as well for thinking up a name, even if it's just temporary."
"I told you, my name is Pink-chan, I don't know whether you know that or not, but I'm going to pound it into your brain! You might look like this, but inside you aren't cute at all. You've gotten me all out of sorts..."
The tied up researchers were, for some reason, arranged in an orderly fashion like a real life Sokoban. Lolint (alias) watched Pink-chan return to the researchers, and looked up at the fallen drake.
In front of him, she thought the bloody drake twitched slightly, as the previously giant body shrank and the evil shapeshifter reverted to its original form.
(...Is this the fate of those who continue their evil ways? ...How pitiful. Or maybe this is what happens with wizards, and I should be afraid? Or... I should feel empty, fighting for my own selfish desires?)
If she had died during combat, what kind of corpse would she leave? She tried thinking about that now. Would she have died proudly as a soldier, or died miserably, as someone complicit in the evil they perpetrated? Now that she resolved to live on, she felt that either way, it would have been a pointless death.
Glancing to the side, there was the Etranger copy. Maybe it was because she was stained with lust and born to exact revenge upon the main perpetrators, but while the miasma she had emitted had subsided, it felt like her eyes were filled with dark emotions as she gazed at the fallen shapeshifter. They were eyes of someone with complicated feelings, and were a definite sign that was self aware.
"...You are self aware as well."
She, who was thought to be a copy that had no emotions, was self aware. It was no more unbelievable than Ran, the precedent. They, who created "them", never thought to check the copy for an individual personality, and just saw her as nothing more than a non-self aware ghost with a weak existence, which contained the grudge. It was because she had a firm self awareness that she was able, for 20 years, to maintain her existence without fading or naturally disappearing. After the first lot, the copies could only be recreated with weak existences. Their end, while quite cruel, was a harsh fate, and he knew there was no way to really know their thoughts.
What was she? Just like her, she had deeply held beliefs that were wrong, and thought of her revenge to escape her suffering as a means to keep her going. But... that long pain was for only one person, and she continued to endure it without escaping. The question of whether she ever changed her mind, went through her head.
'Who are you?'
"..."
Before she could put her question into words, a glance and the natural response came, and Lolint shut her mouth and said nothing. She hadn't expected a response, and she felt guilty over the fact that her actions had helped to make "them" suffer, or perhaps she was prepared to be cursed and killed by that grudge, but the reality that she was no longer her previous self of Giganov was shoved into her face. This Etranger copy had absolutely no interest in Lolint, and her gaze returned to the shapeshifter.
More than likely, if she had said she was Giganov, she wouldn't have believed it.
(Bullet Squall, I think I'm now starting to understand what you said... The thought that the proof of my existence only lies inside of me was wrong. To have someone else not acknowledge me is so sad. It makes me want to cry...!)
The lack of any visible trace from her time as the anti-tank foot soldier Giganov in this tiny body was a little sad and disheartening.
As Elza came running, Cuey, who had been so nervous that she looked suspicious, smiled in relief.
"Why's Ran still inside? You should be able to open it."
"Ehh... Uhh..."
Her relief that she would understand only lasted a second, and in response to her question, she watched as Cuey used her strength to rip apart the lock, and with a worried look, Elza turned her attention to the glass box.
The opening where Cuey had destroyed the lock was already half open, and inside, gasping for breath, was Ran, crouching against the on of the glass sides.
"...It looks like that took a lot out of her. Ran, I'll carry you on my back, so let's hurry back home and rest. Or would you rather a princess carry? You can request whatever method you want. I'd recommend being carried with your legs wrapped around me."
Opening the glass door, with a slightly less? dirty joke, Elza entered the box. Ran did not respond with her usual cold tsukkomi, and just continued to crouch.
It was like she was keeping away from Elza.
"Ran? ...Ah, after having all those horrible memories dug up, you naturally wouldn't like that kind of shock. I'm sorry. I promise I won't do anything, and if you don't want me, then Col or Cuey can do it. You won't have to worry if it's them, right? And when we get home, you can take a nice long bath and sleep until all your tiredness goes away, and when you wake up everything will be back to normal."
Saying that, Elza held out her hand. Ran looked at the hand, and gave a slight response with her own hand, but then immediately looked away.
"She's been like this for a while... When someone comes close, she makes a sign of refusal and tries to escape."
She's probably rejecting reality. As Cuey's huge eye started to fill with tears, Ran looked down and bit her small lip in an apologetic way.
(I see, Ran right now is... Hah, both Ryuuto and Ran, today I have to be the serious one.)
With a wry smile in her heart, Elza took a test forward. Ran stayed pressed against the wall, trying to back away, as Elza unheedingly continued forward. Ran looked away as she crouched down in front of Ran, staring at her face, and once again, offered out her hand.
"Ran."
"...N...No..."
A quavering, dry voice.
"What happened to your energetic and fierce words from earlier. Come on."
"I... Won't take your hand. I can't take it..."
"Why?"
"Because I'm a fake!! I'm not Etranger Shutulia, I was Etranger's copy...! I didn't know anything, and deceived everyone... I deceived them into thinking I was Etranger... All of you... Tamaryuu, Shizuki, all my friends, everyone! I deceived everyone! A fake like me... shouldn't have a family..."
Burying her face in her knees, with her shaking hands put together, she looked like someone repenting her sin, looking for atonement, a sinner confessing.
"I knew about that."
At these unexpected words, Ran's head popped up. There was the gentle smile that was always messing around while kindly watching over her.
"...Even though I myself didn't know... How long...?"
"Since the beginning. And Seren too, she could tell right after meeting you. Since we're a necromancer and that necromancer's apprentice, it was clear that you weren't just a normal ghost. And as to knowing the truth that you were a copy, that was just earlier... While I was on my way here, I got that information."
With a glance, she looked at Ryuuto... the source of that information. His breathing had become a lot more stable, and he was resting as ordered.
"Then... Then you understand!? I'm not the real one, the real one doesn't exist anymore! I was just created from Etranger, and in truth, I wasn't born into this world..."
"And so what!?!"
Ran's explosion of feelings was suppressed by a single yell from Elza. Grabbing her shoulders, Ran felt like a fool as she was captivated by Elza's eyes staring at her.
It was the first time that she felt that this person's eyes, which gently reflected a vision of herself, seemed so beautiful.
"It's true that your beginning was being created as a copy, and your memories were given to you. But, the things you've gained since then, your self and self awareness, the memories and experiences you've accumulated, those were not a copy of Etranger's memories. They were gained by none other than you yourself! You don't think you were born? But you are here, now, right!? You've already gone beyond being a copy of Etranger, you are the one and only Ran Schtlehertz in the world!"
"...The one and only... in the world..."
"Yes. Though you are a fake Etranger, up to now, in my... no, in our eyes, in Tamaryuu's, in the eyes of everyone here, you aren't Etranger. We all see you as an individual, as Ran, the only one in the world. To us, you aren't a fake, you are the real Ran, and nothing else. Is that a reason why we can't be family?"
"A... Aaahh...."
The face of the person who held her tight, who loved her, became blurry.
She felt her overflowing emotions, warmly, taking the form of irreplacably beautiful jewels, stream down her cheeks.
They were the tears, not of the existence created as Etranger's copy, but of the girl Ran Schtlehertz.
"I... I... I can be Ran...? I, Etranger's fake, can be the real Ran...!?"
"You can, no one but you can be the real Ran. If you wish it, we will accept everything. So if you wish, take this hand. And then... let's go home, my beloved sister."
She was barely conscious of the fact that she placed her trembling hand lightly on the outstretched hand.
And then she unabashedly dove into the chest of her precious family.
"Onee-chan...! Onee-chaaan...!!"
"This is the first time you've called me that. I'm sorry for putting you through all this, Ran..."
"Aaaaah...! Uwaaaaaaaah....!!"
The hand softly hugging her and patting her head, was very comforting.
"Such beautIful lOve betweeN sIsters!?"
The unexpected and unpleasant voice caused her body to immediately tense up.
"HOw NIce, wIzard, yOu saved yOur sIster! But there wIll be NO happy eNd fOr yOu, yOur sIster wIll become the basIs of weapONs whIch wIll take cOuNtless lIves, aNd wIll suffer fOr eterNIty!!"
"You, you're still alive...!?"
In front of the shocked Lolint, the shapeshifter who was thought to be dead struggled, and let out a shrill voice that perhaps was meant to be mocking. Lolint immediately reached towards her waist, but her real body was no longer there, and she remembered that she couldn't fire her real body on her own, and clicked her tongue.
Ran, still out of breath, grasped Elza's kimono tighter. Elza glared at the shapeshifter, anger clearly visible in her eyes.
"What do you mean by that. Your stupid plan failed. I won't let you use Ran or those born alongside Ran anymore!"
"FOOOOOOOl! There's NO value IN usINg these faILures aNymOre!! What's ImpOrtaNt Is the research data! Hehehe, just because the experImeNts WweEre dONe here, did yOu thINK the data Is ONly here!? As LONg as I have the data, my plaN IsN't Over!!"
"...I see! That's right, this place was completely isolated and hidden from the outside, but it was connected to the outside by an internet connection! So you sent a backup of the data somewhere else though the internet!"
Hearing Mifi's words, Pink-chan gave an ah.
"That's rIght! If we have that data, we caN use a differeNt veNgeful spIrIt aNd coNtINue my plaN! WONderful, wONderful, wIth the weapON bOrN frOm thIs, thOse fOOlIsh humaNs wIll KIll each other, It wIll truLy be wONderful!! My ONly regret Is that I wON't be able tO see that wIth my OwN eyes!!!"
The shapeshifter continued to smile in victory.
...But, as the shrill voice echoed, one person, Col, tilted her head.
"However, I have a feeling that has already been suppressed..."
'Thaaaaaaat's!! Right!'
As Col voiced her doubts, a voice came out from the speakers used for announcements around the facility.
'Ufufu. You noticed the hacking, but didn't you think it was strange for it to be such a weak hacking was done, as if to waste your time at such a critical moment? Bad guys are so lacking in common sense.'
"W, what... WhO!?"
'I, the "electronics queen" had a grip on your tail. All the data you had there has been deleted, and I've taken control of your system. And since you were sending the data in real time, it was easy to find where it was being sent, and I've already hacked it and deleted everything you sent, including the data, and took control of that system too, and I'm currently tracing where it was sent from there. Now, they're in a panic as their eyes and ears have been cut off. I've also leaked the transmitted data to the Sweepers, so soon your bases will be turned into chaos. Ufufufu.'
"Wow. Aiina-sama, you're great."
Pink-chan was clapping disinterestedly. The shapeshifter, taking offense at her words, started tensing up his muscles.
"AIINa...? AIINa FIO FOxrIder!? The geNIus hacKer that both the pOlIce aNd the uNderwOrld arOuNd the wOrld have beeN huNtIng fOr Is really the daughter Of the FR busINess cONglOmerate!? Y, you fOx bItch!!!"
"Ohohohoho! A fool! There is a fool there! Elza-san, please tell me, what kind of stupid look does that fool have on his face!? Ohohohohoho!"
(Ah, that idiot... is stepping on a landmine...)
Behind the happy laughter, the voices of the maids desperately trying to convince her to stop could be faintly heard. Elza could image Aiina being provoked by his words and responding in kind, and Elza laughed dryly. Aiina was essentially a good person, but when she had her last name turned into an insult like "fox bitch", the blood rushes to her head, in contrast to her normally mild mannered personality. Due to her being raised well, she really didn't badmouth others, and when this happens, Elza didn't want to touch it. Because her revenge would take in her specialty field, an electronic war.
"...Mistress, by Aiina's orders, a separate force has neutralized the ones patrolling inside the facility. Afterwards, there was a mysterious explosion on the mystery ship that the Sweepers were chasing, and it is currently on fire... It's only a matter of time before it sinks. Also, it seems that, in numerous locations all around the world, there were explosions all at the same time..."
"...I see."
The maids acting as Aiina's support had tapped the Sweeper's information, and between the time that Ran was kidnapped and them entering the facility, Mifi had been receiving information over a wireless radio about the other possible location, the mystery ship. She said this with an unreadable look on her face, and Elza just nodded with a similar look.
Most likely, once Aiina got a hold of where the data was sent, she used the system to purposefully cause a problem in the power source. They were sure that the other locations that had received the data had the same things happen.
The locations of the global criminal organization were destroyed as revenge for just 1 of its members badmouthing her. When you think about it like that, should you feel sorry for them or laugh?
"W, what, the... I speNt all thIs tIme ON my plaN, aNd t, these stupId IdIOts...!? Gah"
Everyone looked around at each other with the same wry smile on their face, and he took advantage of that momentary lapse. With Aiina's shrill laugh becoming like background music, the shapeshifter groaned and drew in his breath, and immediately after, the sound of something wet and moist bursting filled everyone's ears.
A sharp, broken off piece of the floor was thrust deeply into the shapeshifter's throat, courtesy of the Etranger copy.
Everyone was a loss of words. Even Aiina, as she continued laughing, could tell something had happened, and stopped her shrill laugh. Wary of what the Etranger copy might do, Col readied her gun, but Elza stopped her. Ran, still clinging to Elza's chest, desperately tried to look away and gather herself, and caught sight of the scene.
Maybe he was trying to get a grip on the piece stabbed into his throat, but with his fingerless hand, his slow actions had no use, and all it did was drive the piece even further into it and his huge body flopped around. The shapeshifter shuttered in his death throes as his hand fell limply to the floor. A feeling of relief from knowing that it was finally over went through the maids as they relaxed, as the sudden atmosphere that had gripped them dissipated. And then.
The Etranger copy was sent flying by some invisible force.
Not only Cuey, but Col and Pink-chan couldn't understand the mysterious event right in front of them. They could only watch as the Etranger copy was suddenly sent flying.
Mifi was the only one out of the maids that could see "it". She and Elza looked upwards in surprise, as Ran, who had flown upward from Elza's chest, and the Etranger copy gazed angrily at "it" and shouted.
"'...It's not over yet!!'"
"AaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!!!!"
At the same time as they shouted, a howl of anguish violently shook the place.
The wailing went beyond a merely loud sound and like a shockwave, shook the walls and floor, destroyed the nearby large scale machinery, and the monitors on the machines blew up one after another. A normal human couldn't block it out by just covering their ears, and it was like a relatively powerful sonic attack to someone with a good sense of hearing, and Col, who was holding her ears, lost her sense of balance and fell to her knees.
"U... w, what happened!?"
"It's him... Just now, right after he was finished off, he transformed! He turned into a vengeful spirit and left his body, and is hiding in there!"
It was Mifi who responded. Mifi, who had the raw talent of a spirit user, could see it, and the moment he died, the shapeshifter's blackened soul escaped from his body.
Mifi was pointing at the huge black spiritual body in the form of a woman, which was suffering and squirming in pain... The body of E.S. Multiple cracks had formed in the cylinder from the shockwave of the wail, and spiritual fear was leaking out of it.
Finally, the wailing turned into an insane mocking laugh, and E.S.'s black spiritual body turned lighter, and it looked like a slightly darker and older Ran. However, the face was horribly disfigured by the crazed laughter.
'Kiiiihihihihihihihi!!! I should thank you for kIllInG me! Now the plan can contInue! Even wIth the data lost, as lonG as I have E.S., we can analyze It and reconstruct the data!! Now I have the last laugh!!! Hi,hihihihi! Iiiihihihihihi!!!'
Making a face like Ran that's ugly with crazed laughter, E.S. slipped out of the cyclinder. Elza clenched her fists and glared at it.
"That guy... Not twice, but three times he's mocked Ran and ones just like Ran!! Just give up and die, you evil bastard!"
"Guh... This heretic!!"
"It's too late to cry and apologize!"
Looking at E.S. as she floated in the air, Col's inner ear had recovered and she stood up, along with Pink-chan, whose eyes had changed to show her demonic nature. A gigant bullet and 10 knives were coming to attack her. They passed through E.S. and created a big hole in the wall, or were repelled.
'E.S. Is a spIrItual body, so she can't be physically harmed, you fools! You can't capture me now, so you mIght as well sIt there lIke the IdIots you are! Hihihi, kihihihihihiiiii!!'
"Damn! He's planning on going through the roof and escaping above ground!"
With an ear piercing laugh, E.S. started to disappear into the ceiling. The one who responded to Elza's shout was Cuey. Just thinking that it can't be allowed to escape, the constantly changing situation had gotten her thoughts all humbled up. But now she exploded like there was no confusion.
I can't allow this. By the time she had thought it, her legs were already moving.
"S, stop... Stop!!!"
"Cuey!? What are you doing!"
What came out of the normally timid Cuey's mouth was an unimaginably powerful angry voice. Eyes blazing with anger, in front of everyone, Cuey's body became giant sized.
Her maid uniform tore, as did the underwear gripping her body, and the specially made shoes, as her clothing was shredded apart. Not worrying that her naked body was completely exposed, her body turned back into her true cyclops body, and tried to grab E.S.
Her hand passed through E.S. Undaunted, she reached out her hand again,
"...Enchant Weapon!"
Elza's instantly cast spell affected Cuey, and her magic infused hand successfully grabbed E.S.'s leg.
"If a bare fist with magic can hit a spiritual body, then it can also touch it... As expected of the mistress!"
"Cuey-chan, you have to hold on no matter what!!"
"U, uh...!!"
Cuey had turned into a single eyed giant, around 12m tall and seemingly squashed down by the small room, but she held on with all her strength.
'W, what...! Hey, that bIg!?!'
E.S.'s height off the ground was only about half of Cuey's giant height. And with the difference in their bodies, as E.S. tried to force her way towards the ceiling, she just sunk more into her body. Cuey's hand slowly kept going up, touching the ceiling.
But it couldn't match the strength of Cuey's grip. In trying to escape, the hand holding E.S. was pulled, and as they struggled, her head and shoulders created a hole in the ceiling and cause a slight earthquake, as they went upward, and they started to go into the upper floors. E.S. continued to drag Cuey upward, and as Cuey was pulled into the hole created by her own body, a gap could be seen between Cuey's tiptoes and the ground.
"Cuey-san!!"
(The little mistress is worried about me... But, I can't let go! I absolutely can't let go!!)
Hearing Ran's voice, covered with scratches and wounds with even more being made, she put even more strength into her hand.