Chapter 33: Case of the Nutcracker

Act V: From Russia with Love

At Mafuyu-san's direction, the four of us, Index-san, Misaka-san, Drosselmeyer, and I, were all escorted down to the basement through the kitchen doors. Past the rows of sinks, work surfaces, and cook tops, we were shown into the servant's quarters where Drosselmeyer had once stayed.

"What the heck was that?" I asked as I followed the toymaker into the room, "Why did you go and attack Hinata-san?"

"I'm sorry, I overreacted," Drosselmeyer said, turning around, "I got so worried about my wards that I lost my composure."

"That's no surprise, considering who you are protecting." Index-san said as she came in a few moments later. Misaka-san didn't appear.

"A-re?" I said, "Isn't Misaka-san coming?"

Index-san shook her head. "She had to make a telephone call. She may come back later."

Yet, even as she said this, the nun closed the door and locked it behind her. "Things are starting to fall into place, and there are a few more things I want to confirm about this case," she said, "But first, we need to address the elephant in the room."

She approached Drosselmeyer and examined him closely. So strong was her gaze that the man struggled out a protest. "What? What is it?"

"You look so much like him," Index-san muttered, "I was sure you were a relative, but…"

Her dazzling blue eyes bore into his cold grey ones, and she scrutinized his every feature. Then, after a few agonizing seconds, she spoke. "Did you bleach your hair?"

At once, all the color drained out of the man's face, and he collapsed onto a bed, stammering, "N-no, I'm just old."

"Very old!" Index-san agreed, "Far older than anyone would suspect."

I marveled at the nun. "Wait, you know who he is?"

Index-san nodded. "Drosselmeyer, I think it's better if you revealed yourself before I do it for you."

The man licked his chaps nervously. "What do you mean?"

Index-san backed away and sat on the bed opposite to him. "You left plenty of clues about who you are, though you may not have realized it. On the way here, you mentioned the Russian Orthodoxy, meaning that you have some relations with them. On top of that, you know an awful lot about me, which means that you are in deep with the inner circle of that congregation."

Her eyes locked onto him intensely. "Then, you showed us that the Nutcracker is more precious than we imagined, since you refer to it as though it was a person and not merely a toy. Furthermore, his costume is very similar to a known style of European dress uniform, and it clued me in to the Nutcracker's true identity. In fact, there is a photo of that exact same uniform worn by a certain heir of a certain Russian imperial family."

At first, the man named Drosselmeyer stared back defiantly, but the nun's gaze wore down all his resistance. In the end, he sighed in defeat. "As expected from the keeper of all Grimoires, nothing can get past you."

He stood up and bowed to us. "At your service, my real name is Grigori Rasputin."

"Rasputin?" I repeated, pulling out my phone, "You mean the Russian mystic who bamboozled the Imperial Family and led them to ruin during the Russian Revolution?"

"The same," He nodded.

"But that's impossible," I exclaimed, "You're supposed to be dead!"

The man laughed a harsh croaking laugh. "Yes, I should have been, and many history books said I was. Why, even my daughter believed for a while that I had perished in that dreadful winter in 1917."

"My background is well known to historians, though my motivations have been egregiously exaggerated or outright fabricated, especially by those who sought to discredit me. Certainly, my work had granted me many benefits, and I took full advantage of them, like sending my daughter to the best schools in Russia and otherwise enjoying the trappings of the nobility."

"And what exactly was your position in court?" Index-san asked, "What duty did you accomplish, such that the Czar favored you so highly?"

Rasputin answered, "I came under the employment of His Imperial Majesty because of my healing abilities. I had trained in the healing arts known only to Orthodox monks and starets, and my abilities were eagerly sought out by the Russian aristocracy. Essentially, I was employed as a nurse for the Czarevich Alexei, who was suffering from an ongoing illness."

"And what was that illness?" Index-san asked.

"Hemophilia, the Royal disease," Rasputin answered, "The poor boy was suffering from even the smallest cuts and bruises, and the royal physicians did little to curb his affliction. On the contrary, the medicine was so primitive, that all I really had to do was stop the doctors from outright killing little Alexei." His nose wrinkled in disgust, and he snorted. "Honestly, could you believe them? They were using bloodletting on a boy who couldn't heal his wounds!"

"So, you were working for the royal family until winter 1917." I said, "Then what happened? How did you survive the assassination by Prince Felix Yusupov?"

"By the skin of my teeth," the man said, "I knew my life was in danger as long as I was close to His Majesty. Why earlier that same year, I was targeted for assassination by someone I thought was my friend. I knew that Prince Yusupov was jealous of my proximity to His Majesty, so from the very beginning, I was suspicious of his invitation. Nevertheless, he still ranked far above my station, and I couldn't refuse his overtures without losing face in court."

"Fortunately, I had made friends with the servants and staff members, and the wine and cakes they served me were never poisoned. Miraculously, Yusupov's gunshot didn't hit my heart, though I think his lack of training and general nervousness might have been a factor. Nevertheless, when they left to create an alibi for themselves, I was left alone in the basement, hurt but alive. Somehow, I was able to escape the palace before my assassins came back, and I sought sanctuary in a neighboring church."

"That's not how Prince Yusupov described your death," I said as I scrolled through the internet on my phone, "He claimed that you had attacked them when they came back, and that he later found you in the palace gardens and had shot you two more times! He then says that you were dumped into the Little Neva and then you had drowned in the frigid river water."

Rasputin laughed harshly at that. "The reports of my death have been grossly sensationalized to demonize me. Obviously, Yusupov wanted the glory of killing the hated Grigori Rasputin, and the truth of my escape proved inconvenient. My guess is, they roped in a poor homeless man, dressed him up to look like me, and killed him to stage my death."

"So, you escaped the murder and went into hiding," I said, "Then what happened?"

"For a month, I laid low in the church, until all the uproar died down. After the incident, I no longer felt safe in Petrograd. Not only were my assassins still at large, but I also felt the tension that gripped the city. The War was going badly for Russia, and people were starving. I knew that soon, there would be a Revolution, and I didn't want to get caught up in the middle. So, I disguised myself as a regular peasant and escaped back to my home village in Pokrovskoye."

For a few minutes, nobody spoke. Somewhere upstairs, a bell had chimed, and then the ceiling was thundering with hundreds of tiny feet running through the hallway. While we waited, I slowly digested what I had heard. Then, once the cacophony died down, Index leaned in closer.

"Tell me about Marie and the Nutcracker. Who are they, really?"

Rasputin hesitated. "I can't. They're too precious to me, and besides…"

He trailed off, as his eyes flickered towards the door.

Index-san nodded in understanding. Then, she closed her eyes, clasped her hands together, and began to sing. All at once, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up on their ends and I felt a wind blow from some unknown source. Moments later, the very air grew very still, and I could hardly hear anything from the outside world.

Index opened her eyes. "It's okay," she said, "Just now, I set up a temporary confessional for us. No one will hear you, except me and Otohime-chan. At the very least, you can let me set the scene for you."

She closed her eyes. "In March 1917, Czar Nicolas II abdicated the imperial throne, and he and his family were placed into house arrest. Then in August, they were moved from St. Petersburg to Tobolsk, where they stayed until April of the next year. After the Bolsheviks took power, the imperial family were taken to Yekaterinburg, where they stayed until their deaths."

Her eyes opened again. "However, Alexei was suffering from Hemophilia and didn't go with his family to Yekaterinburg. Then, the remaining family briefly stopped at your village, in Pokrovskoye. The Czarina even mentioned the visit in her diary."

"Yes," Rasputin nodded, "His Majesty and his family saw me recovering in my home, and they were overjoyed to see me alive. It comforted me to learn how they were cared for by the state, but even I could tell what was waiting for them in Yekaterinburg. To His Majesty, who was still under the impression that he was needed by the Russian government, I counsel him about his grim fate. In turn, he gave me a mission. He said to me, 'If what you're saying is true, and I am going to my doom, then will you do me one last service?'

'Anything for you,' I replied, to which he said, 'My son is innocent of my crimes, and I do not wish for him to share in my fate. Take my son from Tobolsk and flee Russia. Let him live a normal life and find some way to cure his illness.'"

Another moment of silence passed as we processed Rasputin's story. Absentmindedly, I scrolled through my search of the prince's name. Immediately, I saw a cute boy sitting on an upholstered chair and wearing a sailor uniform. Scrolling down further, I came upon the same boy in his tiny forest-green uniform, and my heart trembled at the thought of all his sufferings.

"So, the Nutcracker's true identity is Alexei?" I asked, "How did you change him? And why?"

Rasputin opened his mouth to speak, but Index stopped him. "I'm sure there is a method behind the magic. As for the reason, I think it's pretty obvious. Moving a normal boy through a war-torn country is hard enough without having a debilitating disease hampering your efforts."

"There were other complications too," Rasputin said, "The boy had a large target painted on his back. If anyone knew who I was spiriting away, then neither of us would have survived the journey."

"So, that explains who the Nutcracker is," I said, "But what about Marie? Who is she, and how does she play in this drama?"

Rasputin grunted. "Her full name is Marie Pasternak, a peasant girl with whom Alexei had taken a fancy to. When Alexei was suffering, it was she who nursed him back to health. Even though she was a servant's daughter, the couple became inseparable, and Alexei refused to leave Tobolsk without her. Her parents were sympathetic to the Soviet Revolutionaries, so naturally they were reluctant about marrying her into the Royal family. As a result, I had to play the Friar Lawrence to their Romeo and Juliet. As an Orthodox Staret, I officiated their elopement."

"As an Orthodox Mage, I used the story of the Nutcracker to craft a disguise for the couple and to keep the prince safe. As a wooden doll, Alexei survived the grueling journey far better than a hemophilic boy, and simultaneously, his Identity was hidden away. Marie was tasked with keeping his heart—his krakatook—safe, as it was the only way to restore him back to his normal self."

"So how did you leave Russia?" I asked, "I assumed that you were stuck in the middle of the country with nowhere to go."

Rasputin nodded. "Yes, our escape from the country would have been difficult, if not impossible, were it not for the Czechoslovak legion."

"I'm sorry, but who?"

"The Czechoslovak legion," He repeated, "It was a foreign army fighting in the Eastern front of the Great war. They were being transferred to the Western front through Vladivostok. However, they got stuck along the way, due to some government bureaucratic nonsense. Long story short, they mutinied in Chelyabinsk and took over the Tran-Siberian Railway. It was an ideal situation for me to smuggle Marie and Alexei out of the country."

"So, you disguised yourself and your wards, and blended in with the legionaries?"

"Not with the soldiers, no," Rasputin responded, "The Bolsheviks were pushing against the legions, and thousands of Russians were fleeing the country. I simply disguised us as a peasant family and joined in with the mass exodus through Vladivostok."

"So, you fled from Russia in 1918 and survived all the way to the present day?" I asked skeptically, "How did you survive for so long, and what have you been doing in the past century?"

"The spell I used to cast the Nutcracker story effectively halted our aging, though not completely, as you could see." Rasputin pointed to his hair. "Together, we emigrated to America, and we lived in Los Angeles, among many other Russian émigrés. To earn a living, I opened a traditional Russian toy store and made many toys and figurines to all sorts of customers. That's where we lived for the next few decades, undercover. I dared not to revert my enchantments, for I feared for Alexei's safety, and I feared that I would be discovered by Soviet agents who were infiltrating the States."

"I moved to Academy city a few weeks ago, after Chairman Accelerator came to power and lifted the ban on magicians. I had heard about some new research into Hemophilia, and I was eager to find a cure for Alexei."

Suddenly, there was a sound like shattered glass, and all at once, the sound from the outside world filtered in through the gaps. Then, we heard a knock on the door and a familiar voice speak. "Index? Otohime-chan? Are you in there?"

"Touma?"

"Oni-chan!"

Index-san and I cried out in delight at the sound of his voice. Immediately, I went to unlock the door and threw myself into his arms.

"Oof!" Oni-chan grunted, as I squeezed his waist.

"Konbanwa Otohime-chan," He said, ruffling my hair, "Genki desu ka?"

"Mmph!" I nodded, beaming, "I'm glad you could make it!"

He smiled back at me, and then turned to Index-san.

"How was the interview?" He asked, "I hope I wasn't interrupting anything."

"Mm-mm!" Index-san shook her head, smiling. "Not at all, we were just wrapping things up."

"Excellent," Oni-chan beamed and turned to Rasputin, "How do you do? You must be Drosselmeyer-san. It's an honor to meet you."

He reached his hand out for a shake, but Rasputin hesitated. Instead, the latter held a hand to his chest and bowed respectfully. "The honor is mine."

Glancing down on my phone, I was shocked to see that it was well past five. At that moment, Hinata-san poked her head in and greeted us cheerfully. "My, you sure took your time in there, didn't you?" she quipped, "It's getting quite late, today, so why don't you join us for dinner?"

"Oh no," Oni-chan protested, "We wouldn't want to intrude."

"Not at all," Hinata-san said cheerfully, "it will be our pleasure to serve you!"

With a cute curtsy, she gestured for us to follow her. Together, the four of us, Index-san, Oni-chan, Rasputin, and I, all filed out of the servant's quarters. All at once, we could see the kitchen now alive and active as the staff bustled about, preparing for dinner. Past the chefs and maidservants, we left through the kitchen doors and into the dining hall.

As soon, as we emerged, our little group were pulled apart by the other children. Rasputin was swarmed by the children who were eager for more of the Christmas magic. Meanwhile, Fremea glommed onto me, and pulled me away to sit with her. That left Oni-chan and Index-san, who were invited to sit on the staff table, along with Ms. Clavel.

Surprisingly, Misaka-san was nowhere to be found. In vain, my eyes wandered around in search for her, just as Fremea was telling about her day. Yet there were so many little boys and girls, that I could hardly focus on anyone. All the while, the maids contributed to the cacophony, as they bustle about, carrying dishes of food, and tending to the kids in need.

In desperation, I tried to use my other vision. I closed my eyes and felt the tell-tale twitch in my eye muscles. As they opened again, I was again greeted by a sea of blue and grey. As I combed through the crowd, I was startled for a second, for I thought I saw a point of red. Yet, when I rubbed my eyes and my vision turned back to normal, that point of red was gone.

Between the lines: At the corner of happy and healthy

"I-na!" Hamazura Shiage sighed as he leaned forwards on the wheel. "Why does the boss get to dine inside, while we sit out here in the cold?"

Takitsubo and Kinuhata collectively rolled their eyes. After the incident in Yotsuba Liberal Arts School, they were the only ones uninjured enough to guard the boarding school. When Kinuhata came to pick them up from the hospital, that Kamijou boy decided to tag along with their merry band of darksiders. Hamazura's was overjoyed to offer a ride, but the girls were less enthusiastic. For the entirety of the journey, the girls were largely ignored, as Touma and Shiage sat in the back and talked incessantly. Admittedly, some of their topics were pretty interesting, including Accelerator's ascension to chairmanship, and other events transpiring around the world. Throughout the drive, Kinuhata sighed exasperatedly as Takitsubo watched the boys with undisguised contempt.

Suddenly, a tapping on the glass brought them out of their reverie. Turning around, they gawked as Misaka Mikoto stood next to their car, waving at them. Suspicious, Kinuhata rolled the window down just enough for them to talk. "What?" she said coldly, "What do you want?"

"A peace offering," Misaka said as she lifted a large bag of white take-out boxes. "Can I come inside? It's awfully cold out here."