"What's wrong? Were you scared?" Mahiro asked, a faint, teasing smirk playing on his lips as he observed the Seitenshi's reaction.
"...Indeed, a little," she admitted after a moment's pause, a delicate, wry smile gracing her features. Her hands, sheathed in smooth white silk, clenched subtly at her sides before relaxing, a visible sign of her internal composure being restored. "However, this is very much in line with your style, Mahiro-sama. I can see that Tina-chan is not a bad child at her core. She must have been coerced or manipulated by someone, correct?"
It was clear the Seitenshi had already forgiven Tina in her heart. While the assassination attempt had caused a significant commotion, the fact that there had been no casualties allowed her magnanimous nature to prevail. She no longer held any intention of pursuing the matter through official channels.
As far as she was concerned, Tina's "punishment" was to assist Yotsuba Mahiro in properly managing Arcadia and to learn how to live peacefully as the child she truly was. In some ways, this ruler of Tokyo was even more indulgent and forgiving towards children than he was.
And now, their meeting at the café had concluded.
They had already left the relative sanctuary of Arcadia behind. However, instead of stepping into her waiting extended limousine, the Seitenshi had surprised him by gently tugging on his sleeve, insisting they walk the entire way back to the Holy Residence. It was a symbolic journey, moving from the revitalized ruins of the 39th District towards the gleaming, artificial prosperity of the city's center.
To her earlier question, he gave a simple, confirming nod. "That's right. Tina is a mechanized combat soldier, part of the 'NEXT' series developed by the American branch."
"To transform such a small child into a mechanized soldier…?" the Seitenshi whispered, her voice laced with palpable pain. Though such horrors were not unheard of, having it confirmed still struck a deep chord of sorrow within her. To conduct such brutal experiments on innocent children...
"Yes. But you don't need to worry; that particular pipeline has been permanently shut down. The one behind it, a scientist named Ayn Rand and his organization, have already been… dealt with."
Upon hearing this, the Seitenshi immediately started, her graceful steps faltering for a second as she looked at him with wide, incredulous eyes. A sudden, terrifying connection formed in her mind, and she turned to face him fully, her expression deadly serious.
"Then… the meteorite that fell on the North American continent… Mahiro-sama, was that also your doing?"
"Yes," Mahiro stated without a hint of hesitation or concealment, as if discussing the weather. "It was too much trouble to deal with them piece by piece. Dropping a meteorite was simply more efficient. …What's with that look?"
He turned his head to find the Seitenshi had come to a complete stop. She was staring at him, her gaze intense and filled with a solemn, almost fearful gravity.
"...Mahiro-sama," she began, her voice low and earnest. "Who exactly are you?"
His defeat of the Stage Five Gastrea, Scorpio, with his supernatural abilities was one thing. It could, however tenuously, be rationalized as some form of advanced, lost technology or a unique mechanical soldier, even if he himself denied it. But this… to single-handedly wrench a celestial body from its orbit and call down heavenly judgment? That was an act that carried the aura of a deity, something far beyond human comprehension.
"Who am I?" Mahiro found the question amusing. "Seitenshi-sama, when we first met, I believe I already gave you my introduction, didn't I?"
The Seitenshi cast her mind back to their first encounter. It was her first time issuing a direct commission to an IBO agent, and she had chosen this Yotsuba Mahiro, who was rumored to be able to perfectly complete any task. When he had arrived at the Holy Residence, he had said:
"Greetings, Seitenshi-sama. I am Yotsuba Mahiro, currently affiliated with the Tendo Civil Security Company."
And when she had pressed him on his origins, puzzled by his complete lack of records within the Tokyo Area, he had replied with that infuriatingly calm smile:
"I am an Adjuster Mage from the Fourth Research Lab."
The Seitenshi let out a soft, exasperated sigh. "Mahiro-sama, please be truthful with me. Upon investigation, there are no records of a 'Fourth Research Lab' anywhere in Japan. And a 'mage'... isn't that a concept found only in fairy tales? Please, do not deceive me with such… childish fabrications."
"Of course you wouldn't find any records," Mahiro said, clasping his hands behind his head as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "The reason is simple: I am not from this world."
"..."
The Seitenshi said nothing, but her silence and the look in her eyes spoke volumes—"Do you truly take me for a fool who would believe such an outlandish story?"
People were like that. When confronted with a reality that shattered their understanding, their first instinct was always denial. It was a fundamental, self-preserving reflex.
Seeing her disbelief, Mahiro could only shrug helplessly. "If you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do… But you've seen my capabilities with your own eyes. Do you genuinely believe that even the most advanced mechanized soldier could accomplish what I have?"
Even the legendary first and second-ranked Initiators, the ones who had slain other Stage Fives, could not have done this. One had to understand that those two Cursed Children had only managed their feats by entering the dreaded [Domain] state. And after their victories, they had vanished completely.
Most likely, their Gastrea virus corrosion rate had exceeded the critical limit, finally consuming them and turning them into Gastrea themselves. After all, [Domain] was, in essence, the absolute limit of the corrosion rate, a final, desperate state of perfectly utilizing the Zodiac Gastrea's power at the cost of one's humanity. Just like Senju Kayo, just like Enju and Asaka… they all carried that terrifying potential within them.
"If you really don't believe me…" Mahiro's tone turned dangerously playful. "How about I pull down another meteorite for you right now? A private demonstration, just for the Tokyo Area?"
"Please, do not even joke about such a thing!" the Seitenshi cried out, her composure breaking entirely. Even knowing he was likely teasing her, she couldn't bear the terrifying thought that he might be even one percent serious.
Seeing the genuine anxiety on the girl's face, Mahiro couldn't help but laugh. "Don't worry, I won't destroy the Tokyo Area." At least, not at this very moment, he added mentally. There were still so many children left to gather, after all. He could afford to wait.
"So… is that why you hold such hatred for humanity?" the Seitenshi asked, her voice softening. Seeing his unflinching demeanor, she found herself beginning to believe him, if only because no other explanation made sense.
"You're not quite right there, Seitenshi," Mahiro corrected, his tone shifting to something more analytical. "Firstly, even if I am an Adjuster Mage, by biological classification, I am still human, just like you. Secondly, I don't hate the humans of this world; rather, I genuinely look down on them. I feel a profound sense of disgust and shame that we share the same species designation."
"I think you are being far too extreme, Mahiro-sama, and I cannot agree," the Seitenshi countered with sincere conviction. "While it is true that many people harbor malice towards the Initiators, there are still those who are willing to strive and fight for a better future for them. There is still good in this world."
But Mahiro remained unmoved. "Extreme? I think I'm being remarkably merciful, all things considered."
He tilted his head, a look of genuine puzzlement on his face. "I remember a saying from my old world… how did it go? Ah, right. If you shoot everyone, you might wrong some innocents; but if you shoot one by one, the guilty are bound to slip through the net. I simply don't have the time or the inclination to meticulously sort the few good apples from the vast, rotting barrel. When the corrupt and the complacent form the overwhelming majority, it's already a terminal diagnosis for the society. It's like a patient with late-stage cancer; when the malignant cells have metastasized to every organ, do you truly believe that person can still be saved?"
However, just as the Seitenshi opened her mouth to deliver another earnest, albeit futile, rebuttal, a beautiful, melancholic melody suddenly drifted through the air, cutting their philosophical debate short. Mahiro looked up towards the source—a busker playing a violin on an overpass that spanned a central five-way intersection. A slow, genuine smile replaced his previous cynical expression as he turned back to the Seitenshi.
"This was supposed to be a nice walk, maybe even a bit of a date," he said, his tone lightening considerably. "But talking about the annihilation of humanity is such a mood-killer, don't you think? How about we go up there and just listen to the music for a while?"
"...I-It's not a date!" the Seitenshi retorted, a vivid blush instantly coloring her porcelain cheeks. It was a rare, tsundere-like reaction, a stark and charming contrast to her usual serene composure. Yet, even as she denied it, her body moved honestly, following him up the concrete steps of the overpass without further protest.
At the top, they quickly found the source of the singing. It wasn't the cheerful performance of a typical street musician. A little way ahead, a tattered straw mat was spread out on the cold ground. The atmosphere surrounding it was heavy, devoid of any artistic pretense.
When the Seitenshi drew closer and saw the singer, her breath hitched and she brought a gloved hand to her mouth in a gasp of pity.
The singer was a young girl, dressed in ragged clothes, her face smudged with grime. Despite the dirt, her well-defined features hinted at a delicate beauty. A greasy, threadbare shawl was draped over her thin, frail-looking shoulders, yet her voice never wavered, pouring out in a clear, melancholic melody. She held a chipped begging bowl in her hands, singing her plea to the indifferent passersby who hurried past. Beside her, a crudely written sign explained her plight: 'I am an Initator from the Outer Districts. I need money to buy food for my little sister. Please, spare some change.'
Mahiro didn't say a word. He simply glanced at the Seitenshi, his eyes conveying a silent, powerful message: "You see? This is the reality your 'good people' have created." To force a child into such a pitiful existence…
The Seitenshi, moved by a surge of compassion, slowly approached. She paid no mind to the unpleasant scent clinging to the air or the risk of soiling her immaculate white dress. She knelt gracefully in front of the girl, her voice soft as a whisper.
"Excuse me…"
"Yes?" The young girl stopped her song, tilting her head up with a practiced, hopeful smile. Almost immediately, a flicker of confusion crossed her small, dirty face. "This voice…"
The Seitenshi, however, was too shocked to notice the girl's recognition. A soft cry of alarm escaped her lips. The Initator's eyes were tightly shut, covered by a simple strip of cloth. She was blind.
But that was supposed to be impossible. While the Gastrea virus eventually led Initiators down a monstrous path, before that point, their physiques were incredibly robust. They possessed miraculous regenerative abilities and near-total immunity to disease, allowing them to survive in conditions that would kill a normal human. For a Cursed Child to be blind could only mean one thing…
"…What happened to your eyes?" the Seitenshi asked, her voice trembling slightly, even though she dreaded the answer she already knew was coming.
"Ah, these?" The young girl reached up and gently touched the cloth covering her eye sockets. Her tone was disturbingly matter-of-fact, devoid of any bitterness. "They were blinded. With molten lead."
The Seitenshi's delicate frame shuddered. Her lips parted, but no sound emerged. Her throat had constricted, suddenly and painfully dry. It was one thing to hear reports of such atrocities from her subordinates, who often softened the truth. It was another thing entirely to have the brutal reality presented so plainly, right before her eyes, by its victim.
"It… it wasn't done by others," the girl added, perhaps sensing the Seitenshi's horror and mistaking it for a different question. "I did it to myself."
"Why…?" the Seitenshi managed to choke out, her heart aching. "Why would you do such a thing?"
"Because Mother hated my red eyes," the girl explained simply, as if it were the most logical conclusion in the world. "She said they were cursed and frightening. So I blinded them… but she still abandoned me and my sister in the end. And besides blinding myself to beg… I have no other way to support my little sister…"
"..."
The Seitenshi was rendered utterly speechless. For such a cruel, senseless reason… A bitter taste filled her mouth. Her hands, clad in their pristine white silk gloves, flew to her chest, clutching the fabric over her heart as a wave of suffocating pain and guilt washed over her.
"Big Sister, you don't need to be sad for me," the blind girl said, her smile never fading. Despite her own tragic circumstances, she was offering comfort. "I'm already used to it. And… Big Sister, you must be the Seitenshi-sama, right?"
"…You could tell?" the Seitenshi whispered, stunned.
"Yes. Because your voice, Seitenshi-sama, is so very pure. I would never mistake it." The girl's smile widened. "My sister and I… we like you very much. Thank you… for all your efforts for us Cursed Children. Thank you."
With that, the young girl bowed deeply from her seated position.
Those words of thanks, filled with such genuine gratitude despite the suffering, felt like a volley of sharpened swords piercing the Seitenshi's heart. The pain was so acute it was physically crushing. She bit her lower lip hard enough to hurt, though she knew this self-inflicted pain was nothing—nothing—compared to what this child had endured.
No wonder Mahiro-sama kept saying I was naïve and out of touch… He was absolutely right. This was her first time truly walking the streets of her city without the buffer of bodyguards and official visits. She had heard the reports, seen the statistics, but only now, kneeling on the cold concrete, did she understand the true, visceral meaning of heartbreak.
"I'm sorry…" Tears welled in the Seitenshi's eyes, overflowing to trace clean paths down her cheeks. "I am a failure as a leader… to have allowed you to suffer such painful things…"
She reached out with her white-gloved hands, completely disregarding the grime, and gently, reverently, cupped the young girl's face.
"Seitenshi-sama, please don't cry," the blind Initator pleaded, her own smile finally wavering with concern. "Everything we've endured… it's not your fault…"
"Why?" the Seitenshi sobbed, her regal composure completely shattered, revealing the heartbroken young girl she truly was underneath. "Why can you still smile after suffering so much?"
The strong front she had maintained for so long was crumbling, and the torrent of empathy and guilt she had suppressed for years was finally breaking free.
"Because... there's no other way."
That single, simple phrase—'there's no other way'—struck the Seitenshi with the force of a physical blow, plunging her into a stunned, horrified silence.
"You see," the girl continued, a bitter, practiced smile gracing her lips, "I can only survive by begging like this. So of course, I have to keep smiling. Besides that... I don't know what other expression I'm supposed to make." Her shoulders slumped in a gesture of profound weariness. "But recently, the times I get beaten or cursed at have been increasing... It's getting a little uncomfortable. I just wish I could get hit a little less each day."
Hearing this, the Seitenshi felt as if her own heart were bleeding. She desperately searched her mind, reflecting on what she, the ruler of this entire area, could possibly do for this one girl, for all the Cursed Children suffering in the shadows of her city. Her gaze, filled with a helpless, pleading desperation, involuntarily lifted and found Yotsuba Mahiro, silently begging him for an answer he seemed to already possess.
Just then, a sharp clink echoed from the young girl's begging bowl. It wasn't the sound of a coin. It was the metallic ring of a pull-tab from a soda can.
Yet, even faced with this cruel mockery, the young girl managed a slight, trembling smile and bowed her head deeply in a wordless gesture of thanks.
The two young men who had tossed the pull-tab, their faces twisted in sneers, turned back to jeer at the girl. Their cheap hats obscured their view, preventing them from recognizing the ruler of Tokyo kneeling in the dirt before them.
The Seitenshi stared blankly at the worthless piece of metal in the bowl, her mind reeling. 'How... how could anyone do something so needlessly cruel?'
She was so overwhelmed she couldn't even form the words aloud, her thoughts a chaotic whirlwind of pain and disbelief.
She had met many Cursed Children before. But they were either powerful Initiators serving in Civil Security or the happy, safe children living within Arcadia's embrace. She had never truly understood the lives of the others—the ones scrabbling for survival on the filthy streets of the Tokyo Area she was supposed to govern. For the first time, she began to deeply, fundamentally doubt everything she had ever done. Did any of my efforts... did any of it truly have any real meaning?
Without warning, Mahiro's cynical words from earlier echoed in her mind, now feeling less like an attack and more like a painful prophecy.
However, that train of thought was violently interrupted by the distinct, chilling click-clack of a handgun's slide being racked.
The Seitenshi's head snapped up. She saw Yotsuba Mahiro standing there, having drawn that strange, blocky pistol of his. He aimed it emotionlessly at the two retreating men and pulled the trigger.
There was no deafening gunshot. Instead, the two men instantly seized up, their bodies convulsing in silent, unimaginable agony. Steam began to rise from their skin as if all the moisture within them was being forcibly and violently evaporated. They writhed soundlessly, their mouths open in silent screams, before slowly collapsing to their knees, their struggles ceasing as life was extinguished in a torturous, desiccating hell.
When Mahiro pulled the trigger a second time, a faint pulse of light enveloped the two shriveled corpses. They disintegrated into fine, grey dust, which was then caught and scattered by the city breeze, leaving no trace behind.
"I didn't expect the Ichijou Family's 'Rupture' magic to be so... practical," he remarked casually, holstering the CAD-based pistol as if he had just taken out the trash. He completely ignored the Seitenshi's pale, horrified expression as he walked over and crouched before the blind girl.
"Little sister, let me ask you something," he began, his voice now gentle. "Do you know about Arcadia?"
"Are you talking about... the sanctuary in the Thirty-ninth District? I've heard about it from my friends."
"Then why haven't you gone? If you went, you wouldn't have to beg like this anymore, right?"
The young girl, unaware of the brutal justice just delivered on her behalf, simply shook her head. "Big Brother, it's not that I don't want to go... it's that I can't. I'm blind. I can't do any work. And I have a little sister to care for. If I went, I'd just be a burden to everyone. So... I can't go."
Hearing this, even Mahiro, who had witnessed countless tragedies inflicted upon the Cursed Children, felt a heavy sigh escape him.
How could anyone despise such an obedient, sensible girl? What is so wrong with red eyes? They didn't kill your families and friends! If you're so brave, go outside the Monoliths and take your revenge on the Gastrea! What kind of courage does it take to bully little girls?!
His disgust for the humans of this world grew exponentially, matched only by his profound sorrow for the girl's plight.
He knew he couldn't restore her sight. The information body had been permanently overwritten; the damage was too old. Even Shiba Tatsuya's Regrowth had a 24-hour limit, and his own superior version could only reverse damage up to 48 hours. These wounds were a permanent scar.
"It's alright," he said, his voice firm and reassuring. "Even if you can't do anything. Even if you are blind. Trust me, the doors of Arcadia will always be open for you. No one there is a burden."
He then stood up and made a quick call to Kyouka. "Big Brother, you are...?" the girl asked, tilting her head.
"I am the one in charge of Arcadia. My name is Yotsuba Mahiro. You can call me Mahiro-nii."
He gently stroked the girl's hair just as Tina and a few other Initiators arrived on the overpass. With quiet efficiency, they gently guided the blind girl away, heading off to retrieve her younger sister as well.
Left alone on the overpass, the Seitenshi remained crouched on the ground, her eyes locked on the solitary pull-tab resting in the bottom of the begging bowl, her mind a thousand miles away.
"Alright, don't look so defeated," Mahiro's voice cut through her thoughts, not unkindly. "This is reality. The one you, sitting so high up in your Holy Residence, could never see."
The Seitenshi pursed her lips slightly, a flicker of defiance and shame in her wet eyes. She took a deep, shuddering breath, filling her lungs with the polluted city air, and slowly exhaled. She lifted her gaze to meet Yotsuba Mahiro's, her expression one of complete surrender and newfound determination.
"...Mahiro-sama," she whispered, her voice raw but clear. "What should I do? Please... teach me."