Koishi didn't want to believe what she was hearing. She hadn't agreed to this. She'd never have agreed to this.
"But...but we promised, didn't we? You said that we wouldn't kill anyone!"
Sango's face darkened. The guilt on her face spoke volumes even before the first words came out of her mouth.
"...I was hoping they wouldn't resort to the mindcoil this early on. I needed to convince you to work with us, Koishi-san...even if I had to, well, say things I didn't mean."
It was as if Sango had leapt over to her and stabbed her in the chest. She didn't realise how much trust she'd put in Sango until now, and all it did was make this hurt even more. Koishi wasn't sure whether to be heartbroken or furious, and fell somewhere in between.
"You...you lied?"
"I didn't want to, I swear, but what would have happened if I'd told you the truth? Would you still have been willing to fight if I'd said there'd be casualties? I didn't just do it for our sake, Koishi-san, I did it for yours! You would have died if I hadn't convinced you - they'd send out those fishmen of theirs to tie up the loose end, and I wouldn't be around to help you!"
Sango was both frustrated and upset, her whole body hanging rigid as she spoke. Mokou tilted her head slightly at the mention of fishmen, but beyond that had to settle for spectating on the argument without a word to contribute.
"I...but...she didn't do anything to deserve this, did she? Maybe she was a mean person, but she doesn't deserve to die, does she?"
Koishi looked over to Cirno's still-unconscious body, floating around in front of them. For a moment, she tried to picture herself doing the deed, mentally giving her a stab to the back of the neck for a quick and painless death.
The thought still made her feel physically ill.
"Believe me, Koishi-san, I don't want to do this either. If there was some way, any way for us to avoid this scenario, I'd take it. But the fact is...the Cirno you know is already gone. They're just using her as a weapon now. I'm...I'm really sorry, but..."
Sango reached into one of her pockets, pulling out a small knife with a coral pattern running down its hilt. The glint bounced off her own Ring of Breath for a moment, making it seem that tiny bit more threatening.
"It's for her sake. I can't just sit by and put her through what the Claw have planned for her."
Mokou let out a heaving sigh, occasionally turning her eyes to Cirno with a look of guilt. If she'd just paid more attention, she could have stopped this from happening in the first place.
"...There's nothing? Absolutely nothing at all we can do for her?"
Sango shook her head heavily. Even from here, Koishi could see Mokou's lip tremble. Eventually the phoenix managed to force a few words of response out, almost choking as she spoke.
"...Do it. Just...do it now. Make it quick, before I change my mind."
Sango nodded towards Mokou, glad that she was willing to accept the circumstances. She placed one hand on Koishi's shoulder, sighing.
"...It's my first time, too. I just hope it's not always going to be this scary..."
Koishi was trembling as Sango started to make her way over to Cirno's body, knife still in her hand. The dolphin took deep breaths, her fingers shaking slightly as she tried to work up the nerve.
They said that Cirno was gone. That her mind was no longer her own, that she couldn't think for herself anymore. That she was just a slave to the Black Claw, and that death was a mercy for her.
And yet there was a lingering doubt in Koishi's mind. A feeling of disagreement. A niggling idea that there was still something deep down that they just hadn't found a way to reach.
"...Hm?"
She became suddenly aware of a burning feeling in her chest. She looked down, suddenly remembering the tendrils and coils along her body, culminating in the closed eye over her heart. The eye was flickering, desperately trying to open, but not quite strong enough to finish the deed.
Not quite knowing what she was doing, Koishi reached downward and pulled it open with one hand.
The shot burst straight from the third eye towards Cirno, a light violet beam that Sango and Mokou were lucky enough not to be in range of. Both of them ducked away on instinct, thinking it was an attack from some unseen accomplice until they turned back and saw its true source.
As the beam enveloped Cirno, Koishi felt her body begin to grow heavy. It started to become a struggle to keep her eyes open, like there was no-one present in her head to do the deed.
"The hell are you doing?! ...Tororetsu-san, you're the one who knows all this crap. What's going on?"
The fatigue only grew stronger over time, until Koishi couldn't keep her eyes open any more. She was only vaguely aware of the beam fading as the world disappeared around her.
"I...I don't know! I've never seen anything like thi-hey, Koishi-san!? Are you okay? Speak to me! Koishi-san!"
She felt someone shake her by the shoulders as the beam finally died off.
Then nothing.
-----
The world she woke up in was different from the one she left.
Most of the time, when people imagined taking a voyage into the mind of another, they saw themselves leaving the cold, harsh, logical world of reality and entering a fantastical realm where you would float around while surrounded by thoughts, hopes, and dreams.
For Koishi, it was the other way around.
The first feeling that came to her mind as she regained consciousness was that she was cold. Very cold. Understandable, given that she was lying in a field of snow, and the blizzard above her showed no sign of letting up.
"H...Hello? Sango-san? Mokou-san?"
There was a stutter in her voice as the cold hit her. She lifted herself to her feet, her legs still trembling slightly, and started to look around herself. The world was white, with snow as far as the eye could see, and not a soul in sight.
"Haa...where is everyone? And...where am I?"
She vaguely remembered opening her third eye, pointing it towards Cirno. The next thing she remembered, she was here, alone and already freezing cold. She walked onwards in the hope that she'd come across some sort of shelter before she froze to death.
Other way around, dummy. You're the telepath.Sango's words rung in her ears. She was psychic, to a degree, or so she'd been told. This world, like Cirno, was focused on ice. And the last thing she remembered was a feeling of her mind...shifting, for lack of a better word, moving out of her body and somewhere else.
So...am I in Cirno's head now?Much to her relief, Koishi caught sight of a mansion in the distance before she lost any fingers to the cold. The entire structure was made of carefully-formed ice that looked strong enough to survive any hit Koishi could dish out, and the doors hung open as if to welcome her. Unsurprisingly, she accepted the offer, closing the door behind her to keep the chill outside.
She didn't know how a mansion made of ice could keep her from freezing to death, but all that mattered was that it was warmer in here than it was out there. The main hallway was ornately decorated, showing none of the obvious signs of disuse or disrepair.
"Hello...?"
Her voice echoed through the corridors of the mansion, but after a few seconds pause there was no response. Koishi's first steps into the mansion were careful, but contrary to her concerns there was no monster ready to swallow her the moment she stepped in.
This, it seems, was the conscious part of Cirno's mind - the part that made up her character and personality. There were many doors, many paths, but as Koishi looked around she found that most of the doors were blocked off, held in place by a series of black tendrils running along them.
The mindcoil...?In the end, there was only one path for Koishi to follow through the mansion, its doors hanging open again as if in preparation for her arrival. To say that she was disturbed by the thought was an understatement, but the alternative was waiting around for the rest of time, so she strode forward regardless.
The corridors of the building had mirrors running along all of their walls, so with every glance to her side Koishi felt like someone was walking beside her. Unconsciously, she started walking the tiniest bit faster, afraid that something was ready to jump out from inside the mirror and eat her alive.
As she moved further down the predetermined path, she started to make out a sound, the first one to break the silence beyond her own footsteps. It was a voice, distant at first, but growing louder the further she travelled. Slowly, the vague and distant sound became clear as it echoed through the corridors of the mansion.
Somewhere in the distance, Cirno was crying.
"Ah...!"
Koishi started to run now. It wasn't loud, blatant crying, more the vague sniffles you'd get as you tried to keep your voice down. The sound only grew louder as she moved forward, until finally she came to a pair of majestically decorated double doors, even more overblown than the rest of the mansion.
Slowly, and carefully, Koishi pulled the door open and stepped inside. She'd found herself in some sort of throne room, her feet treading on an ornate red carpet. It ran the length of the room, coming to an end at a chair that may as well have been made of solid gold, it looked that costly. The figure sitting on it was clad in a regal blue robe, the same colour as the icy walls that made up her little fort. A weighty golden crown was balanced awkwardly on her head, as she looked downward as if in deep contemplation.
It wasn't her who was crying, though. The sound was coming from the room directly behind the throne, the one whose double-doors had been blocked off by the strongest of the black lines Koishi had seen up until now. Her instincts brought her halfway across the room before a voice boomed out.
"Stop right there."
The robed Cirno stood up, with her robe still swaying behind her. Her face carried a confident, regal suave that the real Cirno had never shown in all of her days.
"I've got no idea how you made your way here, but you'd better start making your way back out. You're not welcome here."
She spoke loudly, so as to not be drowned out by the sobbing behind her. That was Koishi's main concern right now - she could see that the mindcoil's efforts were focused here, so if she could destroy that barrier the rest of it would likely come apart itself.
"Cirno-san...I'm trying to help you. Right now I need to get that door open, and-"
"Help? Me? Ha! Good one, good one. Almost makes me wish I didn't have to throw you out."
She laughed heartily, oozing pride and confidence. Behind her, the sound of her own crying still rung out loud and clear. She was in two places at once, split apart in her own psyche.
Koishi put two and two together. This wasn't Cirno she was talking to - this was the ambitious, power-hungry side of her, the one that had been engineered to take over. The rest of Cirno's emotions had been locked away by the mindcoil.
And if she didn't get rid of that, Sango would end up killing Cirno for sure.
"Look, listen to me. If we don't get that door open again, you are going to...die. I'm doing this for your sake."
A hint of malice rose to Cirno's face.
"Komeiji, I don't need your help. And I sure as hell don't need to let out that wuss over there. Now, get out of here before I have to SHOW you just how well I can handle myself."
This was going badly. Koishi knew that arguing with her right now was unlikely to work, but if the alternative was fighting then she had to at least give it a try. She wouldn't be able to handle Cirno on her own in any form, that was for sure.
"But don't you get it? You must have seen the fight from here. You lost to Mokou-san, rememb-"
"Bullshit!"
Bringing up her failure had been Koishi's one chance, but at the same time it was the one thing she point-blank refused to accept. Cirno lifted an arm up from beneath her robe, revealing a glistening silver blade held beneath.
"Alright, that does it. You can kid me all you like, but when you start claiming I'm a loser, that's when you go too far!"
The robe fell to the floor, showing that Cirno was wearing a long blue dress beneath it, a zig-zag white trim running along the bottom. She weighed the sword in her hand for a moment, then charged down the room towards Koishi with all her might.
*The crying in the background stopped.
It took all of Koishi's reflexes just to dodge the blow. She leapt to the side as the sword crashed down into the ground where she'd stood only moments beforehand, rolling clumsily to the wall. By the time she'd made it to her feet, Cirno was already coming at her again, the blade's edge shimmering for a moment in the light.
"Kyah!"
The sword stabbed into the wall inches from her head, creating cracks in the ice. Cirno growled to herself, struggling slightly to pull the weapon out again and giving Koishi enough time to break away.
Looking quickly around the room, she found nothing that she could think of using as a weapon. The only notable pieces of furniture were candlesticks at the corners of the room, but they were far too heavy for her to even think of wielding. She grimaced, one of her hands curling up into a fist, before looking down on it she had a moment of epiphany.
She didn't have Sango. Or her trident. But she wasn't quite unarmed.
"Dammit. You don't get it, do you?! I'm not the sort of loser who needs to depend on other people to get by! I'm perfectly fine all by myself!"
Koishi wasn't sure if this Cirno could even hear the crying coming from the room behind her, but by the time she was ready to land another swing Koishi was ready for her. She pressed down on the dolphin emblem on her left glove, not taking the time to charge the attack - mainly because she didn't have it.
"Iruka Shot!"
Within instants the bullet had formed in her hand and started its journey toward its target. It struck Cirno's blade, knocking off her balance just enough for Koishi to trip her up in the same fashion Mokou had. Cirno proceeded to eat a faceful of carpet as she fell to the floor, sword held tightly so that it didn't fall to her side.
"Gh...lucky hit! Try doing it again, I dare you!"
She propped herself up with her blade, turning straight to Koishi. Another shot was in the middle of being charged, stronger than the one before it. Cirno paid it no mind, standing up and getting ready to block the moment it fired.
She stopped the bullet with the sword, but she couldn't stop the recoil sending its hilt slamming into her face. The impact was enough to knock her backwards a few more steps as she grit her teeth, clearly in pain.
"I...I'm fine! No harm done! Now it's my turn to rough you up!"
Cirno started charging again with reckless abandon. It was clear now she had no intention of letting up until one of the combatants stopped moving. She was set to kill Koishi now, or die trying.
But even now, Koishi couldn't shoot to kill. It was a fragment of Cirno's personality she'd be killing off - the proud, confident side that told her to keep going when things got tough. Even if she saved her after that, she wouldn't really be the same Cirno she'd been before.
Still...what else can I do...?She'd achieved nothing, it seemed. All she'd managed to do was make sure it was her hands that were stained with Cirno's blood. Her will faltered at the last moment, and the shot she'd been charging vanished in her hands.
"Take THIS!"
Cirno swung down maniacally, and this time Koishi was too slow to dodge completely. The blade drew a line from her neck down to her armpit, tearing through the fabric of her outfit and drawing blood. Koishi cried out in pain as she pulled away, grabbing at the cut with her arm and running away at full speed.
"Kyahahaha! How does it feel now, huh?! Remember the days when I was the one getting picked on? The one everyone called stupid, pulled pranks on, beat up for lunch money? Well, who's laughing now!?"
Cirno didn't even bother to attack this time around, twirling her blade around as she returned to her demented laughter. Koishi could only stumble further away, still clutching at the wound on her chest, as she continued.
"Yeah, maybe I had to do some bad things. Yeah, maybe I had to hurt some people and break some rules, but who cares about that crap!? People like me because I'm strong, not because I'm smart! I have friends now, right?! I can't lose, or those people will stop giving a damn about me!"
To start with Koishi thought she was seeing things, but Cirno's eyes were beginning to water up. She let off little sniffles, her voice rising to a yell.
"Don't you get it, Komeiji!? I'm the strongest because I NEED to be the strongest! If I let up and lose now, then people will stop liking me! So don't even bother crying about how it's unfair, got it!?"
She was charging again, with tears hanging in her eyes and screaming all the way. She was set to run Koishi through without remorse.
Running on instinct alone, Koishi put together a plan. She had just enough time to dash backwards, behind the throne and with her back to the doors. She felt the mindcoil's black tendrils on her arms, shivering as it touched her skin. As Cirno dashed at her again her mind screamed at her to dodge, but she worked up the nerve to stay where she was. If this plan was to work, she had to move away at the last possible moment.
"Now, hurry up and DIIIIIIIIE!"
The sword came swinging downward, set to cleave Koishi in two.
Now!Her body was primed, dodging to the side with something resembling fluency this time. The sword continued its sweep, even though the intended target had moved away.
There was an audible sound of snapping as it cut clean through the black tendrils at the gap between the doors.
A heaving groan echoed through the hall, and the entire room began to shake. The coils around the wall flailed lightly before shattering violently, firing fragments across the room. Koishi had to duck in order to avoid one hitting her in the face; soon after, she saw the fragment disintegrate into thin air.
Cirno - or at least, this side of Cirno - took a moment to realise what she'd just been tricked into doing. She stared at the doorway in horror, as its heaving metal doors began to open.
"N...No! You can't...!"
She dropped her sword and pushed back, holding the door shut with all her strength. Her face contorted with the effort, but she fought on regardless through sheer desperation.
"I...I can't...I can't let her out! No-one likes her! If I get seen with her again, no-one will ever like me!"
The tears were plain on her face again as she pressed herself against the doors, struggling to keep them shut. Koishi pulled herself to her feet, still grimacing over the wound that Cirno had managed to give her earlier. There was a tragic side to her story now - the mindcoil had all but faded, but the beliefs it had feasted on had always been there. The mindcoil just allowed them to roam free without letting any of her other feelings get in the way.
*"Dammit! Dammit, dammit, dammit dammit dammit DAMMIIIIIIT!"
She was slowly losing ground, the door pulling open ever so slightly. Even knowing that this girl had tried to kill her minutes ago, Koishi couldn't help but feel sad witnessing this. At last, Cirno's strength left her, and she fell backwards as the door opened in her face.
A figure wordlessly stepped out from within. It was a second Cirno, the polar opposite of the first - dressed in tattered rags, with tearful eyes and a heartbroken expression. She looked down at the self-proclaimed ruler of the mansion, but there was no malice in her eyes - only disappointment.
The two stared at one another in total silence, but the tension was evident. The mindcoil had done its damage. At this rate, she had no idea what would Cirno would be like when she woke up - at its worst, the two sides might split into outright separate personalities.
"Look...you two."
Koishi was nervous as she spoke out, immediately feeling two pairs of eyes fall on her. She gulped slightly before pressing onward.
"I...I understand you two had your reasons to split apart. But you're both parts of one greater whole, so you need to accept each other and move on."
Understandably, neither side was exactly fond of that idea. The humble half simply shot her a glare, while her proud side wasted no time in rebutting her argument.
"Yeah, like there's a point in that! When we worked together, we pulled off jack shit! And when she took charge earlier on and tried all that studying and crap, we got the crap beaten out of us! At least when I called the shots, people respected me for something!"
The death glare quickly made its way from Koishi to the proud Cirno after that one.
"But think about what the two of you could do together. Cirno-san...well, uh, rich Cirno-san, I can tell you've got a lot of will and determination. If you and, uh, not-so-rich Cirno-san worked together, you could easily do enough studying to pick yourself up."
"...But who'd like me?"
Now both of them were wearing the same expression - the look of loss, embarrassment, shame.
"I'm only working so hard to keep up with everyone else. And even then, there are people that breeze past me without even lifting a book. Who would give a damn about some idiot who can barely scrape an 70 when she studies...?"
Both of them turned their heads downwards, looking generally depressed. The poorer Cirno sat down on the floor, looking her counterpart in the eye. Each side was unconsciously blaming the other for the failings of the whole, and they stared with contempt at each other in another awkward silence.
Koishi reached down, and placed one hand on each of their shoulders.
"I'd like you. It takes a lot of willpower to work that hard, Cirno-san. I'd respect you for putting so much effort into doing the right thing."
Both Cirnos were stunned for a moment, looking at each other in confusion. They turned to Koishi with identical expressions of awe.
""Y-You mean...you would...be my friend?""
Both of them spoke in unison, their voices matching with perfect pitch. Koishi nodded in response.
"Of course. Who wouldn't like a girl as determined and good willing as that?"
The two Cirnos looked at Koishi in wonder and amazement, then turned to one another. A childish, pure smile rose on each of their faces, until the pair reached out and embraced like two sisters, reunited after years apart. Koishi's heart grew a little warmer at the sight, momentarily forgetting all the circumstances that had brought her here.
"...haah..."
The two Cirnos moved closer together, until they reached the point where they merged into one another. Koishi felt her legs buckling, her strength leaving her as she collapsed back to the ground.
Her work here was done.
-----
"...san! Koishi-san!"
Sango's arms shaking her violently quickly pulled Koishi back awake. The dolphin's eyes were flooded with concern, but as Koishi began to finally respond to her movement, it started to give way for relief.
"...Y-You're alright!? You're alright! PHWEEEEEEE~!"
Sango grabbed Koishi with all her strength, pushing her by the chest. Over her shoulder, Mokou sighed with relief at the sight.
"Y-Yeah...sorry about that, Sango-san."
They were back in the alley from before, she noticed, and the costumes were thankfully absent. Maybe they'd been set to take her to the hospital - how long had she been out for?
"H...How's Cirno-san?"
Sango stood to attention at that, her grip on Koishi growing a little more tense.
"Um, uh...I haven't done it yet. I didn't realise how hard it was, and then there was you passing out, and..."
She frowned. It was clear she was taking Koishi's passing out as an excuse not to go through with the killing. Koishi smiled, on two counts; one, she had decided that Sango was a good person, even if she'd had to wrong her in the past.
Two - from what she was aware, Sango didn't have anything to worry about any more.
"Sango-san...check Cirno-san's eyes."
Sango tilted her head at that one.
"Phwee?"
"Just trust me on this one."
Although she clearly had no idea why she was being asked to do it, Sango nodded. Holding Koishi closely with one arm to be safe, she walked past Mokou towards the fallen Cirno, still passed out. She reached down, carefully lifting up one eyelid.
The eye beneath it had returned to its normal light-blue tint.
"...Oh...ohhh..."
Sango let go of Koishi, examining the other eye quickly to check if it wasn't a trick of the light. Sure enough, the other eye was back to its lighter colour as well - a sign that the mindcoil had disappeared.
"...Heh. Not bad, Komeiji-san."
Mokou caught the gist of Sango's surprise without hearing a word, offering a thumbs-up from her spot against the wall. Koishi stood up, nodding in return.
"Thank you. I...can't say I know what I did in there, but it looks like it was enough."
A relieved smile drifted onto Mokou's face. She had wanted to save Cirno to, but like Sango she'd been all but resigned to the mercy kill. Seeing that they wouldn't have to resort to it was the best news anyone could have given her at that moment.
Sango finished her inspection of the body, still looking down in wonder. She reached into a pocket, pulling out a small cellphone with (unsurprisingly) a dolphin strap attached to it. She hit a number on speeddial and put the phone to her ear.
"...Ma'am, this is Agent Sango reporting. I need to bring the Sirens to you, right now."
Koishi and Mokou turned to Sango in surprise, even though the conversation wasn't directly aimed at either. Sango's expression was still incredulous as she spoke, as if unsure of what she was saying.
"...Yes, I know protocol says to keep it secret, but this is serious. ...She just performed a successful mindcoil extraction. ...Yes, I've checked. ...Yes, I did it twice."
The voice on the other side of the phone murmured something. Sango nodded in response.
"Yes, ma'am. Understood. Agent Sango out."
Sango hung up, placing the phone back in her pocket. She sighed, looking head-on at the two Sirens she was working to protect.
"Well, looks like you two are gonna be meeting the boss a little sooner than we'd planned..."
-----
おまけ
"Wait, we're meeting Sango-san's boss?!"
"She just said that, Komeiji-san."
"But what sort of woman would Sango-san work for?"
"Uh, well...that's a good question, actually."
"Maybe...it's a whale lady?!"
"Damn, I hope it's not a jellyfish..."
"Or what if it's a shark? Or an octopus?! Or even-"
"Stop badmouthing my boss, phwee! I'll get demoted if you two keep it up!"
Next Episode:
Shadowy Figures! Fighting The Secret War?!"Tororetsu-san. What were your friends saying there?"
"PHWEE?! F-Friends?! I have no idea who these people are, ma'am! Really!"
-----
As a warning, updates for this and just about everything I'm writing will probably be much slower now that university is starting up. Glad I managed to wrap this arc up before the actual work started. :V