Winning Side

Tanaka

"How could you do this to so many innocent people?" she dared to ask me.

"Thousands of souls sacrificed—"

She wanted to say something more, but she stopped suddenly. That was for the best. Were she to continue, I may have never forgiven her.

"Innocent? Innocent, you say?" I asked—no, I shouted back at her.

What about them was innocent? What did this girl see in them to call them "innocent"? It made no sense. It was so ridiculous that I found myself laughing.

"What part of those monsters is innocent? All they had to do was make sure not to break one rule. All they had to do was keep themselves from doing evil. Yet, they couldn't even do that!"

It was as simple as that. The curse affected those who had done evil.

"There's nothing wrong with getting rid of such people! Only by getting rid of them can we make the world a safe place. If anything, you should thank me! I've rid this world of monsters, yet you're still blaming me?"

Thieves, murderers, bullies, hooligans. Anything went; as long as they had done enough evil, the curse would take them just like any other curse.

"Still, that's way too many people! Surely not all of them were that bad!" Chigira added naively.

"If the world wasn't such a bad place, then there wouldn't have been so many semono, would there?"

Every word she spoke sounded like it came from a kid who knew nothing about the world.

It's the world she herself had once ruled, yet she knows so little about it?

That thought made me realize how much of a danger she was to the world. The human heart was made to do evil for its own sake, yet she blindly trusted in kindness?

"That's why we have this curse, so that one day people learn to truly be kind to one another, to protect one another!"

I knew that everything I was doing was for the sake of the humans I wanted to protect, yet she couldn't understand such a simple fact.

"Still... that's not how it works!"

That's all she said. Just like a kid left without arguments, she protected herself by simply denying facts. How could such a simple being hold so much power? How could my creator have fallen for such a girl? How could she be so dumb, yet so lovely—

I found myself glaring at her in wonder. My mind was filled with hate for her, love for her, fear of her, and a wish to end her quickly.

"Still..." she spoke again.

"Be it good or bad, that's not how people should be treated! Everyone should be given the chance to choose!"

I was left dumbfounded.

"If they wish to do bad, then let them do bad! If they wish to one day turn the page, then give them the chance to do so! People shouldn't be ruled with an iron fist—in a world bound down by rules!"

Chigira shook her head.

"No, people shouldn't be ruled at all! This world should be free! Just like how it once was, before you, before Tyrant, before anyone tried to seize power! Each person should have the freedom to choose what they want to do themselves and hold themselves accountable when the time comes! It shouldn't be decided by someone else through hideous curses!"

Only after she'd finished her speech did I notice what was going on below me. Somebody else had joined the fray, killing my semono as if she were some top-of-the-line shinobi.

Whatever. She wasn't a threat. 

I lifted my gaze back to the real danger, but she wasn't there anymore. The moment I picked her presence back up, she was behind me.

"If only he hadn't created someone like you, then this tragic story wouldn't have had to exist either! Everyone should have had the choice of what to become, and you shouldn't have been an exception!"

Is she taking pity on me!?

I had no time to turn around. I felt a kick push me down, and the next moment I found myself flying towards the ground.

I teleported near her again, but she bounced away. I tried to catch up to her, but I couldn't.

She wasn't just flying now; she was teleporting.

"How?"

It made no sense. I teleported around, and she did the same. I attacked with sound, but she heard it from far away. If I didn't know better, I would have thought she was using the power of the curses.

"Wait a moment, it can't be..."

I gave up on trying to fight back. I let her throw me around, only so I could focus on finding out what was actually happening.

Her smile confirmed it. It wasn't my imagination. She really was using the curse to move around.

 There was no way she would have learned to control it by herself in such a short time. No, there was no way she should have been compatible with a human curse.

"Pfft! Ahahahaha!"

When I finally understood what was going on, I couldn't help but laugh again.

That's an assassin. That pawn. That insect found a way to communicate with her. More than that, he was now a part of her.

Chigira smiled at me right before smashing me into a nearby building.

"He says you're a bit late to figure it out," she said with a kind smile, her fine shape coming out from the dust raised by the impact.

*****

"May he eat all of the tasty food he wants, and may he find safety in his bike rides."

*****

Shino

It wasn't only communication. I felt like I was one with Chigira. Through that small twig, I had reached her heart. We saw what the other was seeing, and we felt what the other was feeling. I felt her pain but also her happiness when she spoke to me again.

Yet above all, I felt uncertainty. She wouldn't let me know what was holding her back, but I knew she was pondering something, so I did what I could to calm her down.

"Chigira, sorry for going away. In return, let me teach you a couple of tricks."

If neither of us could defeat Tanaka alone, then we had to do it together.

"Are they complicated?"

Her worries were still past my level of understanding...

I took one more look at Operator. Whatever she had been doing to be able to draw so much of Sezaru, I wasn't sure I wanted to know anymore. She had my back, and for that I had to find a chance to thank her one day.

I jumped on top of the nearby tower rising out of the station, closed my eyes, and let its cursed energy come over me.

The next moment, my consciousness and Chigira's became one. I was in her head.

"Welcome! Do you want to take a bath? Or maybe you want dinner? Or maybe..."

She didn't finish her sentence, expecting me to stop her. Instead—

"Have you got any flower ladies with green hair? I think I could use one right now."

I felt the confusion in her as it turned to joy. She laughed. It was a cute laugh.

"Hihi! We sure do! So use this one as you want!"

Chigira took a cringy fighting stance and lunged at the man. After a couple of well-placed strikes, Tanaka had finally figured out what was going on, but even so, we weren't afraid of him anymore.

The ground under his feet cracked, and he was thrown off balance. Chigira took advantage of that moment and flew towards him with her blunt sword ready to strike.

Still, she wasn't quick enough. Tanaka teleported above her with his fist raised. Connecting that hit would have done a lot of damage—no, no matter how grave the damage was, I would have stepped in regardless. 

I teleported Chigira out of his way. She appeared behind him and kicked him over the head.

It took a couple of extra steps, but the result was the same, for she now managed to slash him. It was a shallow cut he had parried with his leg, but a cut nonetheless.

We kept that pace up. Whenever Tyrant teleported, I would use Kikazaru to detect him and Mizaru to teleport Chigira.

Now able to see through his strikes with my eyes, Chigira had little trouble dodging. Her physical prowess had also been enhanced, and she was now finally using her body to fight.

With each blow exchanged, our advantage became clear, and we soon pushed Tanaka into a corner. 

From that corner, he grinned. No, he had been smiling for a while. Being the crazed man he was, I didn't pay attention. Was he smiling because he was getting beaten up, or did he have an ace up his sleeve?

The answer I was looking for came the moment I and Chigira stopped for a second. We both had the same reason to doubt that victory would come so easily, and we were right to be cautious.

From behind Chigira, mountains of dust started pouring towards the man. No, it wasn't only the dust but also all of the mono. I saw one fading before the operator touched it, and that dust went the same way.

"Maybe you're right," Tanaka said.

"Maybe I shouldn't let such evil creatures roam the earth. Maybe I should keep it safe myself!"