Chapter 37:
"...Have you read something that you shouldn't have?" Mina asks.
"And if I were?" I replied.
"...Then it would be problematic on our end if you knew" her voice sounds cold.
"Even if I knew, what can I do? I'm only just one person" I state a fact.
"...But I feel as though that you're a very dangerous person. I can't let you walk away knowing something vital"
"Come now Mina, I'll shut up about what you're doing. I'm only just a passerby here, I can't fight all 8 guys with guns pointed at me" they'd shoot me the moment I do something funny. And because of my disguise as a janitor, all of my toys aren't with me right now.
"...It's funny for you to say. Seeing as you managed to slip out of Kei with Histoire's help" damn. If they deduced that much then that's one less trump card.
"And besides..." she adds.
"Besides…?"
"...you're her brother after all. It is par for the course when we've made a deal"
"What? Do I have to cross the river just because I'm someone's brother? So much for sibling equality"
"...If your jokes are finished, then can we proceed? I would prefer it to be quick"
"..." I look around briefly, finding my last chance before they turn me into a human pencil.
"...Gentlemen, if you would be so kind" without letting me say another word, she proceeds.
"Yes, ma'am!" one of the men shouted. Their trigger fingers start squeezing…
"Histoire!"
*BANG!*
"GAaaaaaaaah!"
"R-R-R-R-R-R-R!"
"Huuuu.."
*THUD!**THUD!* *THUD!* *THUD!* *THUD!* *THUD!* *THUD!**THUD!*
"What…!?"
8 lightning bolts shoot down from the ceiling above. They all strike at their target's heads and crawl its way from the brain to the spine towards the rest of the body through the nerves. They shake and spasm a bit as the bolts of electricity courses through their body. It ended as quickly as the lightning came and all 8 of the men falls onto the floor, unconscious.
*SCHING!*
"Damn!"
I took that chance to make my getaway the instant I got close to the window, it freezes almost instantly thickening it in the process. Fog formed from freezing the molecules in the air, crawls from the wall of ice to the floor as though directing me towards the only person standing behind me. That person holds a staff...
"...It would seem that I have to take care of you personally" ...and points it at me.
"Mina, wait!" my fairy friend popped out from my shirt.
"Ah, Histoire. I'm glad to see you there" her response to the fairy wasn't like a response to an old friend.
"...Won't you consider coming to our side?" she proposes to her.
"To your side? What do you mean? This whole war is meaningless"
"...Meaningless? I did believe at some point that this war is meaningless… but now, it feels oh so meaningful now"
"Mina, come to your senses. You have read books about wars in the past and how you are adamant about making Lowee a safe haven for everyone. In what meaningful way has your opinion changed?"
"...I still believe that those wars were meaningless…" Mina replied, her cold expression lingers.
"But this one has meaning…! With this war! With her! I can finally be able to be with them again! To see them again!" her voice sounds like a lawyer convincing the jury that a crime is perfectly justifiable.
"'Them'? What are you talking about?"
"...Don't you want to see them as well, Histoire?"
"What are you talking about?"
"...The CPUs..."
"...!"
"...!"
Both of us stiffen as those 3 letters escape her mouth. I could feel cold sweat running from my head down to my legs. My heartbeat beating erratically like a drummer bashing away at his drum set. My mind went blank, as it watches itself piece together the bigger picture of what is happening. From how the war has been taking so long to conclude to the underlying reason that it still exists. Everything fits. And it's downright chilling.
"B… But the CPUs are…"
"Yes, they are. That is why we will bring them back to the living. With her and her so-called formula..."
"W-what… formula are you even talking about?!"
"...Neptune, Noire, Uni, Blanc, Rom, Ram. All of them will be returning back to life. Don't you want to see them again?" her eyes have changed. Her pupils have now narrowed, as though resembling a madman in a madhouse. Even her tone feels so frozen that it sounds nothing like the Mina that was introduced to me.
"...Mi… na..." with a disconnected calling to the scholar looking woman, Histy couldn't help but let it out of her. Her voice sounds shaken as though she's almost freezing. I can hear her gulp audibly as though wanting to pull out the rest of her voice that her throat had sunk.
"...With her. I won't be able to suffer anymore. I'll be able to see those children again!"
"...Finally, I'll be able to reunite with the children that Nepgear stole from me!"
Saying that it's mortifying is an understatement, each word she says cuts through the air like a frozen icicle. Histy stays quiet. She can't say a word. She couldn't say a word. Every breath her fellow Oracle says. Every vibration her mouth releases are like a cold and heartless knife.
"...Rom, Ram, Blanc. I'll finally, finally…!"
"...And to that end… I'll..." she faces us with her cold eyes, her staff pointed.
"...I'll kill you ALL!" and with a scream more than a shout icicles suddenly shoot out from the tip of her staff and races through the air towards me. I snap out of my confused state and let my instinct guide me.
"...!"
*SHING!* *SHING!* *SHING!* *SHING!*
"Ah...! Mina, stop!"
After dodging, I run towards the table in front of me and flip the table to its side. I take cover from it as she continues using firing off her icicles towards my cover.
*SHING!* *POM!* *SHING!* *SHING!* *POM!* *SHING!* *POM!* *POM!*
Some fly above missing her target while some hits the table. I make a quick peek and saw a face of a woman that had gone mad like it was a totally different person.
"Mina! Come to your senses! There's no way the CPUs are ever coming back!" Histy shouts, still trying to reason with her.
"...They'll come back!They'll come back! They'll come back! They'll come back!"
*POM!* *SHING!* *SHING!* *POM!* *SHING!* *POM!* *POM!* *SHING!*
"I know how much you miss them! I know how much you cared about Rom and Ram! But they're gone now! We can't change that!"
"Shut up! You don't know! You don't know the many endless nights I cried because of that! How many times I visited their graves!"
"Mina!"
"How many times I think it was all a dream! How many times I wanted to be all just a dream! You don't know!"
*POM!* *SHING!* *POM!* *SHING!* *POM!* *POM!* *SHING!* *SHING!* *POM!*
"What did you do Histoire!? Supporting that CPU-of-a-killer that murdered her only sister!"
"There was nothing I could do…!"
*POM!* *SHING!* *POM!* *SHING!* *POM!* *POM!* *SHING!* *SHING!* *POM!*
"Nothing!? What a convenient excuse you have!"
*POM!* *SHING!* *POM!* *SHING!* *POM!* *POM!* *SHING!* *SHING!* *POM!*
"While the rest of us were mourning for our loss, you were doing your duty as an Oracle!"
"That's because Nepgear needs me!"
*POM!* *SHING!* *POM!* *SHING!* *POM!* *POM!* *SHING!* *SHING!* *POM!*
"So you're telling me that Neptune's death didn't affect you!? That you couldn't cry because that murderer of a Sister needs you!?"
"It did Mina! It did!"
"Then why!?"
*POM!* *SHING!* *POM!* *SHING!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!*
"...Tch!" this is bad, her shots are getting accurate. And I literally don't have anything going for me here.
"You don't understand Mina! What I had to go through as well!"
"Then enlighten me!"
*POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!*
Her shots are now solely hitting the table. I can feel from my back the wood is starting to tear off from being shot so many times. I need to get a move one soon before I'm impaled by frozen bullets of hers.
"I had to think about every day. Every day knowing that she killed off Neptune, her sister! How I was unable to stop her from doing it to her own sister!"
*POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!*
"Each and every single day was a constant reminder that it was a mistake telling her about that sword!"
*POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!*
"Each and every day for me was a constant reminder that I planted the idea in her!"
*POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!* *POM!*
"Have you ever thought that it was easy for me!?"
"BULLSHIT!"
*SHING!* *SHING!* *SHING!* *SHING!* *SHING!* *SHING!* *SHING!*
"Shit!"
Suddenly spikes of ice shoot from the floor, impaling anything that it comes across with. My instincts suddenly pulled me to the side as half of the table I use as cover is broken down by the spikes that have suddenly appeared. They stand tall towards the ceiling limiting my escape routes.
"Mina! Listen, stop this nonsense! I know how those girls mean to us! I know too well!" Histy pleads with a croaky voice, a testament to how her voice laid her heart bare.
"But those girls are gone now! And this senselessness isn't going to bring them back!"
"...!" my instincts suddenly trigger warning signs at me.
"Shit!" I make a break for it, away from the imminent danger.
*BOOM!* *BOOM!*