Seijirou Kikuoka straightened his collar.
He looked exactly as he always did: meticulously combed hair, square plastic frames, and a cheap gray suit. The image never changed. Only the person looking at him did.
To Satoru, he was a diligent civil servant.
To Shouichi Shinkawa, he was a thief who stripped others of their rights.
To Nagashima, he was a civilized brute who had arrived bearing hope.
Kikuoka rolled his neck. Perhaps the number of decisions weighing on him lately had finally begun to take its toll. Keycard in hand, he walked at an easy pace toward the isolated room where the girl was being treated and confined.
The card spun deftly between his fingers, a small sign that he was in an unusually good mood.
It moved like an obedient coin in a magician's hand. His hands themselves, however, were hardly elegant. The knuckles were broad, and the rough creases across his straightened fingers resembled dried riverbeds. Thick calluses covered every joint.
They were not the hands of a bureaucrat who spent his days handling documents and typing at a keyboard.
Few people ever noticed those details: the true breadth of his shoulders, the worn ridges across his knuckles when he made a fist, or the faint scar near his eyebrow, concealed behind his frames. None of it was particularly well hidden.
People simply overlooked it without realizing they had.
His bright, practiced smile could have belonged to a veteran of the service industry. He had the manners of a man skilled at reading a room and carried himself like any other overworked cog in the system.
That same mild, inoffensive smile remained on his face as he entered the dim observation room. Flickering indicator lights and the faint glow of monitors provided the only illumination.
It was livelier than usual today.
With Kikuoka's arrival, there were three people inside.
"Oh, Mr. Kikuoka."
The young man, who had been bent over the data, pushed his heavy glasses up his nose and straightened to greet him. Nagashima, who had noticed Kikuoka even earlier and chosen to ignore him, offered nothing more than a cold glance.
Kikuoka smiled at the young man as though he had not noticed the doctor's hostility.
"How are things, Higa-kun?"
"Everything's good on my end. The equipment over there has already been calibrated. As for the subject, her condition is surprisingly good. How should I put it? She doesn't look like someone bedridden with a terminal illness."
Short and thin, with an anime character printed across his T-shirt, Takeru Higa looked like the very definition of an otaku.
"Dr. Nagashima has devoted a great deal of effort to her," Kikuoka said with a soft laugh. "He even managed to overcome AIDS, one of modern medicine's greatest challenges. You could say she is no longer sick at all."
"That's incredible... It isn't my field, but I truly admire what he's accomplished."
There was nothing in Higa's voice but sincere respect.
"And how are things on your end, Doctor?" Kikuoka asked as he approached Nagashima.
Nagashima stood with both hands in the pockets of his lab coat.
"What exactly are you asking?"
"Haven't you explained the situation to Miss Konno? At this point, I think the person closest to her ought to tell her at least something."
"Tell her what? That she doesn't have long to live? That an important experiment is coming, so she should make herself useful before her life runs out?"
"That would be far too heartless."
Kikuoka raised both hands.
"We've made our preparations, but Miss Konno is still the person directly involved. She deserves to know something about what is happening. Otherwise, asking her to enter a tournament and fight without warning would be rather abrupt, wouldn't it?"
"You already told her part of it a long time ago. Who really murdered Makoto Kaizuka, for example."
"That? Even I'd almost forgotten about it."
"You can stop pretending, Mr. Kikuoka. I've already spoken to Yuuki. Her condition has improved enough for her to log into a VRMMO and move freely again. The moment she learned that, she began acting as though she already had a goal in mind. I'm sure you know who she's been in contact with. All we're doing now is giving her a push in the direction she chose."
"I see. Kaizuka-kun must hold a very special place in Miss Konno's heart."
"As though you didn't already know that."
"Of course I did. In a place like this, two people robbed of their freedom and future by illness could find comfort only in someone who truly understood. She had no one but him, and he had no one but her. They were each other's only companions, the only reason either could keep moving forward."
Kikuoka adjusted his glasses.
"Now that we've come this far, all I can do is look forward to the conversation they'll have when they meet."
His smile remained unchanged as he continued.
"Higa's preparations are complete, so we'll need to move her. His team will take over Yuuki's observation from this point on. You may stay and watch, Doctor, or you may leave."
Nagashima met his gaze.
"I'll move her myself. The thought of any of you touching her makes me sick."
"All right, all right."
Kikuoka sighed.
"Higa can wait for you outside."
He patted Nagashima on the shoulder and leaned closer.
"Don't try anything unnecessary, Doctor."
Their eyes met from inches apart. Then Kikuoka turned and left the darkened room.
Higa felt the icy tension between them and rubbed the back of his head. When Nagashima's sharp gaze fell on him, he shrank in place and gave an awkward laugh.
"Um, Dr. Nagashima... could I ask you to handle it? She's still extremely frail, and you know far more about the necessary medical precautions than I do."
"Then get out. I'm about to open the sterile room, and the instant noodle smell on you is unbearable."
"...It's not like I ate the garlic-flavored kind," Higa muttered.
The older man looked sharp enough to cut him open, however, so he quickly backed down.
"You know where Test Chamber 3 is. Just move her there while I notify the rest of the team."
With that, he slipped out the door.
Nagashima watched the small engineer leave, then turned toward the glass. Beyond it, the figure on the bed lay tangled in a thicket of medical equipment.
Alone in the room, he released a long sigh.
...
The moment Higa stepped into the corridor, he found Kikuoka waiting for him.
"He threw you out faster than I expected. I thought the two of you might exchange a few words."
"There was obviously nothing for us to talk about..."
"I thought he might at least ask you about Fluctlights. They are what drove him this far, after all."
Kikuoka gave a small shake of his head.
"Mr. Kikuoka, I was thinking..."
Higa hesitated.
"Let's leave that aside for now. As I said, I'm only interested in what those two will say when they finally meet. We've spent most of our time getting to this point. At last, we can relax for a moment. All we have to do now is watch, don't we?"
Kikuoka smiled with easy confidence.
"I just wonder whether this is really all right..."
"By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your bread until you return to the ground. You came from it. You are dust, and to dust you will return," Kikuoka murmured. "Whatever happens from this moment on has nothing to do with us. We will simply watch as dust returns to dust, and earth to earth."
He cast one long look at the door.
Then a slow smile crossed his face, and he led Higa away.
...
Once, the girl had seen the sky.
Once, her eyes had been covered.
She had dreamed of the ocean and walked across waves that were never real.
She had been born in a gentle cradle, then carried into a cage steeped in sorrow. Confined to that tiny place, she still dreamed of freedom across an endless world. Her waking sleep had lasted for three years, protected from everything beyond her new cage by the gentle lies of those closest to her.
In that small, lonely kingdom, she was its only princess.
Her family was gone. Her guardian had left before her. There was no prince and no knight, only real demons waiting beyond the walls.
But every dream had to end, and the sleeping princess had to wake.
It was time to see the sky again and truly dream of the ocean.
Time to return from her cage to the cradle.
Time to leave this cruel castle behind and begin one final journey.
Yuuki slowly opened her eyes.
Bright sunlight and a gentle breeze caressed her body as her long black hair spread behind her. Here, there were swords, elves, and wings that could carry her into the sky.
She was no longer Yuuki Konno.
She was Yuuki, the Absolute Sword.
The violet had vanished from her clear eyes. In its place burned a brilliant gold, bright as the flame of life blazing within her soul.
"Experiment commencing. Subject condition: good. Vital signs stable. Electronic signal transmission stable. Fluctlight activity detected. Official recording begins."
"Protective layers one through three engaged. Physical sensation successfully isolated. FullDive compatibility rising steadily."
Test Chamber 3.
The staff worked with practiced efficiency. Across from them stood a white machine containing a cocoon-like FullDive pod. Inside lay the subject they were observing.
"She's burning her Fluctlight already?" Kikuoka said. "Whatever she wants to say to Satoru must be intense."
"B-but with the tournament brackets, the two of them..."
Higa was still struggling with the problem.
"The tournament is only a way to send Satoru-kun the message. All they truly need to do is meet. Don't tell me you've actually been calculating when they might face each other in the finals."
"Wait, wasn't that the plan?"
"For us, the sooner they meet, the better. Ideally, they'll be placed in the same group as soon as the tournament begins."
Nagashima stood to one side, silently watching the white pod.