[724] Face Off (1)
Labyrinth Andre — World 283.
Shirone suddenly understood.
'Immortal Function.'
The answer he'd been wrestling with for days seeped through the circuits of insight.
The only way to break Andre's seal was to expand his consciousness to infinity and open this world.
'But... why must I do that?'
How is that any different from killing myself?
"We're! Working! Hard! Today, too!"
Lines of worker ants, exuding cheerful pheromones, stretched to the horizon, hauling food.
At Queen Ganette's suggestion, Shirone was moving along with them, carrying the flesh of a dead insect.
"Shirone, working is fun, isn't it?"
A worker that had overtaken the line turned back and sprayed pheromones at the thoughtful Shirone.
"Yeah, of course."
Wiping sweat from his brow, Shirone smiled.
"Just thinking all the time isn't good. If you get lost in thoughts about thoughts, you'll really lose sight of what's important."
"What's really important? What do you mean by that?"
"Hmm…maybe it's the reason you think at all?"
"...."
Shirone stopped and blinked. The worker brushed dust off and continued.
"Whatever you actually face, you'll find it's nothing like what you imagined. Sometimes not thinking is the right answer."
'Thinking about thinking...'
Imprinted in these little creatures' genes was their own definition of the hive's emptiness.
- The Ganette Colony is not complicated.
The queen's words lingered in his mind.
"Good work today!"
After his shift, Shirone arrived back at the Ganette Colony and washed in the water cistern.
Ants didn't usually bother with such things—they communicated by pheromone—but Shirone was human.
'I've worked hard; I can use a little, right?'
He wiped the dirt off and went down into the colony, where noble ants blocked the passage.
They were all males, full of hostility toward Shirone, who was resting in the princesses' quarters.
"Move aside."
As Shirone pressed forward, their net of murderous intent prickled on his skin.
Darean, who had made a bad first impression, stood in his way.
"You think you're getting special treatment? No way. You're the princesses' toy. The moment they get bored you'll become food."
Whenever that animalistic malice showed, Shirone remembered where he was.
'They're just acting on instinct.'
So he couldn't blame them.
"Move. I get how you feel, but I'm a different species. There's no reason for us to fight."
"Do you know? The Ganette Colony's food supply is getting tight. The army ants have been expanding."
"And?"
Darean's chin pointed at Shirone.
"I want to see how nutritious humans are. It's the duty of nobles to know."
Skirmishes were already common, and nobles—worried about heirs—were on edge.
'They say nothing is insignificant, but...'
Shirone's life wasn't insignificant either.
"Move. I'm the queen's special guest. That should be the order, right?"
"Maybe in peacetime. In wartime..."
As Darean opened his mandibles like scissors, a pheromone burst from behind the nobles—the Thirteenth Night.
"Stop."
The nobles turned unpleasantly; the Thirteenth Night radiated a grave air.
Darean shoved the nobles aside and advanced.
"You giving orders to nobles now? Do you think we're pushovers just because you roam the battlefield?"
The Thirteenth Night's body, fresh from today's skirmish, was littered with wounds.
"I'm saying this for Darean's good. That human is the queen's guest and, above all, strong."
The nobles had no real combat experience; they couldn't handle such a thing.
"Hah! Because he uses the same thing as you? Then I suppose we must obey you too."
"Don't twist it. It's Princess Merot's instruction. She said to make sure he has no discomfort while staying here."
If Merot, the top-ranking princess, had said so, the nobles had no grounds to touch Shirone.
"Lucky you. How about you go charm him somewhere?"
Shirone followed the path Darean opened and descended, sighing as he left the nobles' quarter.
"Thanks. You saved me a fight."
Soldiers obeyed nobles, but the Thirteenth Night was an ant who had mastered embodiment arts.
"The army ants' deployment is worrying. The mood's off. Lay low for a while."
After the Thirteenth Night withdrew and Shirone reached the quarters, hospitality unlike the nobles' hostility greeted him.
"Welcome back, Shirone. Rough day, huh?"
Princesses swarmed around, chattering with overlapping pheromones.
"How was the outside? Lots of dead insects?"
"What color was the sun? Color 2837?"
When Merot appeared, the princesses fell back in unison.
"You're safe. That's a relief, Shirone."
The nearby skirmish was hot gossip even among the princesses.
"Army ants are different. They minimize labor and instead mass-produce soldiers."
On the way to the quarters, Merot explained the situation.
"They take territory step by step. If a full-scale war breaks out, the damage will be huge."
But moving the colony wasn't an option.
"If war comes, I'll fight. But Shirone, you don't have to stay in the colony."
It sounded more serious than they'd let on.
"You don't need to be dragged into war. If you want to leave, go tonight. I'll allow it."
"Merot..."
Ants were small creatures.
To Shirone, who had lived in the human world, they weren't beings he'd sacrifice his life for.
'Is there any value better than life?'
Back on the dirt floor of the quarters, Shirone lay with his arm as a pillow and thought.
'I don't want to disappear like this.'
What if someone showed an ant and told someone to give their life for it?
If it were a joke they'd call you mad; if serious you'd get slapped.
'No—it's not because they're ants. Nothing is more precious than one's own life. There must be another way.'
Even Shirone, who explored other worlds, wouldn't open the Immortal Function.
How long had he been sleeping?
Thunder outside slowly lifted Shirone's eyelids.
'Is it raining?'
He was on the colony's lowest level.
"It's not rain!"
He sprang up, pulled the external module from his artificial brain, and information flooded in.
"Hold! Defend the queen's chamber!"
"Kieek! Get out, hideous things!"
Shirone vaulted out of the quarters and froze at a sight that stopped his heart.
'Army ants.'
They were twice the size of Ganette soldiers and their heads were three times as large.
Each time those massive mandibles crossed, an ant's neck was sheared off.
"You can't die yet! Protect me!"
Army ants, attacking under cover of night, sent the male ants from the upper levels fleeing.
The nobles who usually flaunted their bulk were no match for the army ants.
"Where are the soldiers? Protect me!"
Darean sent out pheromones of terror, but only army ants poured in.
"Die, insignificant species!"
"Kuaaah!"
As Darean was tossed and flipped beneath the army ants, the Thirteenth Night swooped in.
Law of the Earth — Ant Hell.
A 'Dina' fell over the scene, and the army ants biting Darean were shredded to pieces.
"You..."
Clinging to the last shred of noble pride, Darean refused help—but he was already unable to move.
"Shirone."
The Thirteenth Night turned to him.
"I will protect the queen."
The queen couldn't be moved with the colony, so in an ambush she was the most expendable.
"I am the Thirteenth Night."
It was a happy life, to be able to have a name.
"Wait! You should protect me! The queen is—!"
Ignoring Darean's pheromones, the Thirteenth Night left. Shirone snapped back to reality.
"Merot!"
Army ants were already prowling the princesses' chambers; screams came from all directions.
"Merot! Merot...!"
When he reached her chamber, three army ants were pressing down on Merot, their mandibles at her throat.
The sight of those razor-sharp jaws pressing under her jaw sent gooseflesh up his arms.
"Shirone..."
Merot saw him and opened her mandibles.
"Run! Get out of here, quickly!"
At that moment, something rose in Shirone's mind:
'Whatever you actually face, you'll find it's nothing like what you imagined.'
—You realize it's nothing at all like you thought.
It was the pheromone of a nameless worker ant.
"Run! You can't stay here!"
As Merot fought tooth and nail to hold an army ant, the ant holding her jaw tensed.
"Stay still! I'll cut your throat!"
Just as Merot's neck was about to be cut, the flash of a Photon Cannon shot in and struck the army ant's head.
The fallen army ant was checked by its comrades with their antennae; they lifted their forebodies and cried out.
"What? To think such beings exist...!"
Before pheromones could even disperse, the army ants hit by the Photon Cannon were flung into the walls.
'When you look closely, all life is the same.'
For beings born into endless cycles of rebirth, rank means nothing.
'Those ants are no different.'
Having found a way to stop the war, Shirone approached Merot and held out his hand.
"Are you okay? Can you move?"
"Shirone... what was that just now?"
She'd heard of magic, but she hadn't expected such power.
"Come. There's something I want to show you."
There was no reason to hesitate any longer.
* * *
Labyrinth Andre — World 847.
"Kill them! Pay them back for what they did to us!"
Shirone's code was 427,621.
Countless citizens, realizing there were no longer any codenames with powers, surged on the temple.
"Damn it! Let go! You can't touch me—I'm Code 800,000!"
Gale, being beaten with clubs, couldn't hold back and thrashed, but fists kept coming.
"Shut up! What's the difference between you and me? You only tormented me because your rank was a little higher!"
Gale, who'd used his high Code Nine to harass women, was now receiving the cruelest revenge.
But the rage of the low-code residents wasn't limited to those who had wronged them directly.
"Kill them all! Just kill them!"
Drein, once the king of codenames, lay unconscious, but the kicks didn't stop.
"You're the worst! You! You are!"
Standards of rank had evaporated; people were simply destroying everything in sight.
"Shirone, I'm scared..."
Panika trembled, hiding behind Shirone.
"It's okay. I'm here."
In a world where rank discrimination had vanished, Shirone was the only one who could still use power.
That had kept even the residents from approaching him—but that restraint had long since lost meaning.
'There is no rank among humans.'
From here there's no noble and from there no lowly.
"Shirone? Where are you going?"
At Panika's question, Shirone gave a sad smile.
"There is no life that doesn't deserve to be saved."
He spread his arms wide as if to embrace the whole world and slowly closed his eyes.
A single tear rolled down.
'May everyone be happy.'
There was no longer any reason to hesitate.