Chapter Three - 7

1916, The Trenches, The French-German Front

 

7

 

“Saved? You're gonna have to figure that out yourself.”

With that, Snowy abruptly stood up from their chair and disappeared through the door. It seemed to me that they genuinely had disappeared.

I stared at their back.

For a moment, it seemed the world stood still, as though time had stopped. I came to my senses and went after Snowy.

When I opened the door, someone was lying on their back. It was Snowy.

“What happened?”

“Oh my god, this hurts so bad...”

There was an arrow lodged in Snowy's chest.

“Jesus, are you okay?”

“Hey, if I pull this thing out, do you think I'll start bleeding?”

“Probably.”

I picked Snowy up and took them back to the living room. Even when I had their entire body weight in my arms, they felt weightless. I put Snowy on the couch and turned on the small desk lamp in the room.

“Did Geoffroy do that?”

“Yeah.”

“Was Geoffroy there?”

“Yeah.”

“Where?”

“Castle.”

“...Lapis Lazuli Castle?”

“Yeah.”

“It's 1916. That was centuries ago. What are you saying?”

“You remember what happened.”

“Marie and I killed each other.”

“How?”

“I was almost killed by Geoffroy. He used the cross to throw me in the river. But I survived and returned to the castle. I intended on killing him, but I couldn't. So Marie and I committed suicide. I stabbed Marie, and Marie stabbed me.”

“No, that's not right!”

Seeing how seriously Snowy looked as they denied me, I lost confidence in my memory. To begin with, for me, memories were more like memo pads, where I didn't even know if I was the one who'd written them. Even when I carefully try to dig into my memory, I can't tell whether or not the event actually happened. That's probably the influence of the purely memory-dependent phenomenon of reincarnation on my physical brain. My head was full of miscellaneous notepads. In fact, even “Marie” and “Geoffroy” were just words written on notepads. However, just because the notepads existed, that didn't prove that I had actually experienced what was written on them. Maybe my memory was failing me. Or maybe it was growing distorted. So if Snowy said “That's not right!”, I really had no room to argue.

“Is my memory distorted? Or is it the past that's distorted? Did you change the past?”

“None of those,” Snowy whispered. “Nothing is distorted.”

“Anyway, wait here. It's okay, your wound isn't deep. I'll call Marie. She's a nurse now.”

“Leaving so soon?”

“You don't want to be in pain forever, right?”

“Let's talk some more.”

“Talk? About what?”

“How about those corpses that disappeared from the trenches.”

“Now isn't the time for this. I'll tell you whatever you want as soon as you're better. Marie's still asleep. Just in case, I'll let you have this gun. If the person who attacked you shows up again, just point it at them and pull the trigger. Can you do that?”

“Don't patronize me.”

I left the room, even though I felt myself being pulled back. Being mindful of my steps, I ran up the darkened stairs and headed back to the room where Marie was. There was no sound except my own breathing, my own footsteps, and my own heartbeat. I quickly opened the door and slid into the room. I called Marie's name. There was no reaction. My voice was absorbed by the empty bed and disappeared. The bed where Marie was supposed to be sleeping was empty.

Wondering if I had the wrong room, I carefully checked my surroundings. My luggage was on the bed next to me. The scenery seen through the window was the same. This was definitely the room I was in a moment ago. Then Marie had just gone off somewhere.

I felt intense heart palpitations. Sweat ran down my back. Marie had disappeared. It was hard to believe she'd do that on her own. Had Geoffroy come back for her after all? Had he taken her somewhere?

I took out the Berthier I kept under the bed, pulled the bolt, and loaded a round. I ran out of the room with the Berthier at the ready. I suddenly saw a vision of Geoffroy in the darkness of the hallway. I almost pulled the trigger. It was just an illusion. I walked down the hall, feeling the cold on my fingertips.

I gently opened the door to the next room. Hale was sleeping inside. The darkness seemed heavier around his bed. That wasn't darkness. It was blood. I ran to Hale's side and shook him by the shoulder. I felt his shoulder was thoroughly soaked in blood and reflexively let go. There was no reaction. Hale was dead, his throat slit end to end. I picked my gun back up and left the room.

“Marie!”

I finally called out to Marie.

No voices returned, not Marie's, not even a soldier's. There was absolutely no way every single one of the strong soldiers who'd survived the battlefield could sleep through my cry. Frightened, I opened every door there was. However, all I found were more scenes of horror. Rolo, Isidore, Vincent, and Paul... they were all dead. Their necks had been torn open and they'd bled out. Every time I opened a door, I got dizzy. I felt like I'd wandered into a nightmare. It was all such a mess.

I ran down the stairs. I was worried about Snowy. I shouldn't have left them alone in the room. I ran into the living room.

Snowy had also disappeared. There was still a mark on the couch as though someone had been lying there until moments ago. I touched it and could even feel the residual warmth. I looked for Snowy. When I looked in the corner of the room, it was completely white for some reason. Suddenly, my legs started to shake, and I gradually lost sensation in my fingertips. The white filling my field of vision expanded, and soon I was completely covered in white. I couldn't stay standing. Before I knew it, I was on my knees.

A paralytic gas. Probably sprayed from an aerosol can. I should have realized it when I saw all the soldiers had been killed in silence. They were probably killed in their sleep after inhaling a poisonous gas spread throughout the building.

Using my rifle as a walking stick, I somehow managed to move my unsteady legs and rolled out the window Geoffroy had broken earlier. I lay on the cold ground for a while, struggling to catch my breath. The white curtain over my eyes gradually raised, exposing a starless night sky.

I kept one eye on the shadows of the trees and buildings. Geoffroy might have appeared again and attacked me, so I held my gun with trembling fingers. I was more afraid of pain than death. The only ones who can kill me are Marie and myself, but Geoffroy could torture me until I was on the verge of death. What if he cut my head off? Would I not die? I probably wouldn't die. No matter how close to death I came, the only thing that could kill me was the dagger held in Marie's hand. Those daggers brought us together, and they brought about our ends.

I wondered what would happen if Geoffroy shot me in the head. Would I survive long enough for Marie to kill me? No. Geoffroy will just never shoot me in the head. He won't get the chance. In other words, everything that happens in this world is predetermined, and nothing happens except what's supposed to. Even if another person tries to kill us, they can't do it because no one can go against fate's decision. Geoffroy has already tried several times, but he can't defy fate.

If my reasoning was correct, then my killing Kito in the library in 1989 was also predetermined. In other words, the birth of the “exception” Kito is no longer an exception. If that were the case, then the world would just be a circle, and we would continue to be reborn until we met each other again in the library in 1989, and end up killing each other again.

I'm sorry about that.

It has to change. I'll change it myself. I swore that to the night sky. But I didn't feel safe. I can't rely on my memory. After all, even that I would swear that may have been predetermined.

I calmed my breathing and lay there until I could move my body again. To the east, the sky was beginning to turn a pale navy blue. I sat up, checked that my arms could move, and cracked my knuckles one at a time. Then I stood up, stretched my legs, and tried walking. I didn't even need to use my gun as a cane anymore.

I was hesitant to go back inside. The dormitory was probably still full of gas. I picked up a bunch of rocks off the ground and circled the building, breaking each window one by one as I came to them. The windows on the second floor were broken by thrown rocks. My purpose was to let the gas escape, but I also wanted to check the reactions from inside. There were none, as though the dormitory were empty. With the windows smashed, the building looked like a ruin.

I found a gas mask on the corner of the building. It was simple, with a single round vent hole and glass to protect the eyes. I also found a pair of protective gloves lying nearby.

A transport truck was parked nearby. I looked under the canvas cover, then in the driver's seat. There was no one there, and there were no signs that the truck had been used recently. I noticed something black lying next to the front tire. It was Snowy's hair clip. I called out their name. Snowy. It felt like the same was significant to me. I probably knew Snowy before. But even though I did, I'd forgotten them.

Snowy was the culprit.

That was impossible. Snowy hadn't left the living room since they were captured by Rolo and company. That meant they couldn't have taken Marie or killed all the soldiers.

I looked out at the distant eastern sky. I heard the sound of shelling. Guess the war was continuing today. But I knew that the fighting at Verdun would be over by Christmas. The French and German armies would suffer approximately a combined 700,000 casualties, and the battle would end with the French retaking the region of Verdun. The curtain would fall on a fruitless war of attrition. The trenches in which we fought will be abandoned, and future generations will remember them as scars left by war.

Something was hanging from a dead tree beside the transport route. I squinted my eyes and looked at the flickering shadow. Unbelievably, it was a human. I ran under the tree and looked up at the hanging figure. They were hanging from a considerable height by a rope around their waist. There was a rod-like protrusion coming out of their chest. It was an arrow. Their pale fingertips, coming out of bloody clothes, were shaking unnaturally. Their hair clip had come off, and under the loose hair was the unmistakable face of Snowy. Snowy wasn't moving. They swayed in the breeze like a dried leaf.

Suddenly, a small hole burst open in the tree trunk. I instinctively ducked. It was a bullet hole. I ran and hid behind the tree.

It was definitely Geoffroy. He'd tried to lure me in using Snowy as a decoy. I could guess his location from the angle of the bullet hole.

“Where is Marie!?” I shouted.

There was no answer.

Dawn was slowly breaking. I jumped out from behind the tree and ran for the parked transport truck. I heard a gunshot, but lucky me, it missed. Geoffroy wasn't much of a sniper. I took shelter behind the truck and cocked my gun.

I aimed my sights towards the old trench. Geoffroy was definitely there. I held my breath and focused. There were two people crawling out of the old trench. It was Geoffroy and Marie. Geoffroy had a rifle slung over his shoulder and a revolver in his right hand, pressed to Marie's temple. The scene looked familiar. Marie was standing motionless next to him, as though she'd already been shot down.

I took aim at Geoffroy's forehead. But I wasn't brave enough to pull the trigger. If my aim was even a few millimeters off, I would hit Marie. Marie won't die from a bullet. Unless she's hit with the dagger, she won't die. If my shot missed, I'd have to finish her off with the dagger.

“Why did you kill all the soldiers?” I asked while hiding myself.

“I just escorted some troublesome extras off the stage,” Geoffroy replied, moving underneath the tree where Snowy was hanging. “Soldiers aside, this freak who called themself a detective was even more of a nuisance. I don't know how, but it seems they have a rather troublesome ability to jump through time and interfere with fate. Back in the day, I used to run into them once a year, though I don't remember their face. Back then, I had my knights immediately riddle them with arrows. But if there are transcendent beings like gods or angels in this world, I think this might have been one of them. I heard they always appear with the daggers and interfere with you two. But when I stabbed them with the dagger, they died easy enough. Being able to jump through time isn't anything special. They bled the same as anyone else. I stabbed them over and over again. By the time I was done, even killing an angel had lost its luster. Everyone's the same once they're dead. As you can see, all that's left is another mangled corpse.” Geoffroy never once looked up at Snowy. He kept his eyes squarely on me. Even though he was far away, I could hear him clearly. I didn't take my eyes or gun off him.

“I have Marie. Raine, come out.”

I did as I was told and left the truck. The tip of his gun glistened in the slowly emerging sunlight.

Marie looked at me and gave an awkward smile. I closed one eye. It was a secret signal we'd devised.

“Were you the one who removed the bodies of the four recruits?” I asked.

“What are you talking about?”

“Four dead bodies disappeared from an underground bunker. We don't know who did it or why.”

“I don't know anything about that, but I won't deny I blew off a German soldier's head with a bomb. I did it to get out of the army.”

“Did someone else do it?”

I had the map of the trenches in my mind. Then I remembered the scene immediately before the corpses disappeared. The four bodies were floating on the water's surface like pieces of driftwood. Driftwood? Washed away? The fact that the corpses disappeared even though no one removed them suggested that they had been washed away into the trench. The trench was flooded with water. Rolo said his glasses had been washed away so he was looking for them. Was the water in the trench flowing?

I remembered the power of the siege cannon that punched a hole in the bunker, and the harsh storm of bombardments that had destroyed the surface until it looked like the moon. When all those fragments of memory combined, they formed an image.

The areas that had been struck by shells were gouged deeply, creating the appearance of lakes without water. In other words, huge depressions. A powerful shell landed, both creating a depression and destroying the trench passage. The water that had filled the trench rushed into the depression like a river with a broken embankment. That created flow in the muddy water in the trench. The bodies floating in the bunker were washed away into the shell lake. That's how the corpses disappeared without encountering Hale, Rolo, or anyone else walking in the trench. They must have been swept away before I'd even met Rolo. (See figure)

 

I had managed to solve the mystery of the disappearing bodies. However, that hadn't changed my current situation in the slightest. I had thought that solving the problem might make a big difference, but I'd been naive. The answer gave me nothing.

“Are you still going to continue repeating this pointless farce?” Geoffroy asked.

“I don't really have a choice, do I?”

I closed one eye and gave Marie another signal. Marie responded and pushed away Geoffroy's gun arm. The two bodies that had been so close separated. I pulled the trigger. Geoffroy's chest arched back, and the pistol that had been in his hand flew into the air. He hit the ground on his back. My shot had hit.Marie ran towards me with a smile on her face. I went to welcome her with open arms. However, behind her, I saw Geoffroy raise his body. I raised my gun again and loaded a shot. Marie stopped in surprise. Geoffroy lifted the rifle off his shoulder.

“Marie! Run!”

At the same moment I called out, Geoffroy's gun gave a burst of flames.

A bullet tore through Marie's throat. Marie slowly fell to her knees, vomiting blood. I ran to her side. An unbelievable amount of blood was flowing from Marie's neck.

“Marie...”

I called out to her. She looked back at me with wide eyes. She looked like she didn't understand what was happening. Her mouth was open and she was trying to speak. But her voice was gone. Every time she tried to talk, more blood flowed from the hole in her throat.

I grabbed my gun and walked up to Geoffroy. Thanks to the bullet I'd fired earlier, he was already dying. His hazy white breath was coming out irregularly. Without hesitation, I fired another shot into his chest. He was still alive. I tried to shoot him again, but there were no bullets left in my gun, so I decided to give up. Torturing and killing. What I was trying to do was no different from Geoffroy. I pulled the dagger from the sheath on his waist and returned to Marie.

I stabbed Marie with the dagger. Marie died with a peaceful look on her face. I'm sure we'll do better next time. We think things like this as we stab each other with daggers. By now, the rule of the daggers was our obsession. I believed that if we didn't die by the daggers, we wouldn't be able to see each other again. The curse of the daggers, which I'd always hated, was now the only salvation left for me and Marie.

I turned and looked back at Geoffroy. Geoffroy was still on his back, using the last of his strength to lift his gun. I could see him struggling to pull the trigger. The muzzle of the gun was aimed square at me.

Take the shot.

I'm ready to die.

 

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