Unsolved Case (4)
The Otherworld.
If the Chemical Works' headquarters was the heart of hell, the System Control Branch was its brain.
Commonly called the Company, it was the organization that processed every incident systemically and corrected errors.
"It's quiet."
A man in a suit glanced at Melkidu's system logs and yawned lazily.
He was a low-level employee, but even they were managers known as agents.
"Quiet? Don't be ridiculous. There's a mountain of work. We're just not doing any of it."
There was no firing at the Company—and no resigning, either.
"Ugh, do you know how long we've been doing this?"
"Anyway, why all the fuss? Being security must be nice. You can walk around as you please."
"They say Yahweh came."
"Hm. Yahweh." It took him a moment to reboot a part of his brain he hadn't used in a long time.
"What! Yahweh?"
The man jumped to his feet in surprise, but his colleague remained indifferent.
"Keep it down. Do you know what'll happen if this facility is exposed? Yahweh is even here in Melkidu."
The man who had been watching the monitors sat back down.
"...What happened?"
"The team leader said dozens of agents were taken out at the entrance. If they'd all been rammed the same way, the Company's factory grounds would be a wasteland."
"Good grief. But you let Yahweh into the building? No—more importantly, did the branch chief approve this?"
"You don't seem to get it. This isn't at that level. The president personally ordered it."
"Rete-sama..."
"Yahweh probably came because of the true note problem. The fortunate thing is the president was apparently near the Vale of Wailing. Her instruction was to buy time until she could get to the Company. That's why they let Yahweh enter without bloodshed."
The man frowned.
"President Rete herself? Is that necessary? The Otherworld has the most managers of any system. If we mobilized all the overseers and agents across the world, we could stop it."
"They eliminated the Chief Secretary, Monoras."
The man's mouth fell open.
"No way."
"At first I thought the same. If Rete were to revert everything in hell to demons, Monoras could consume all the demons of hell. And what he would eat is none other than the strongest creature in the real world—Imir."
His colleague turned his head.
"Who do you think did it? Yahweh? No—someone who travels with Yahweh. Someone who can control the Chains of Gehenna. In a narrow scope, that's the same power as Rete-sama."
Only then did the man grasp the gravity of the situation.
"Keep quiet until Rete settles this. I don't think it'll be resolved easily."
"And if it can't be resolved?"
"Then..."
His colleague turned back to the monitor.
"One of us—or them—will see an end."
Why was it taking so long?
After passing the factory grounds and entering the office building, Shirone and his group waited in a guest room for about two hours.
"I can't take this anymore!"
Son Yujeong leapt to her feet.
"I'm going to meet Mortasinger right now. Anyone who gets in my way, I'll smash."
Shirone said curtly.
"Son Yujeong."
Her shoulder twitched.
"Sit down. Don't mess this up."
"Ugh. Fine."
She bowed her head and turned, about to sit when—
"I knew you'd do that!"
She slammed off the floor and lunged, snapping her right baton at the door.
At that moment the door opened.
"You lot are—"
The sight of Rete's familiar face made Son Yujeong bare her teeth.
"Out of the way!"
Shirone's eyes widened.
"Hah!"
As the tension in her movement snapped, it was as if a string had been cut—Son Yujeong collapsed.
"Ow, sorry, please..."
Rete watched Son Yujeong writhing—the face of the Licera attached at her waist more precisely than the girl herself.
'Annoying.'
If it weren't for the head of an escapee who knew hell so well, Shirone wouldn't have made it in time.
'Is this fate, too?'
She raised her eyes and scanned Shirone, Rian, Etella, and Shagal one by one.
'Yahweh, Gehenna, Tai Chi. How many years of karma is this?'
A top-tier VIP.
"Hello. I'm Rete, president of the Chemical Works. So we finally gather like this."
No one answered.
Rete strode over Son Yujeong and sat at the table opposite Shirone.
"All right, I'll concede."
A long stare-down followed. Rete closed her eyes as if resigned.
"I will be offered. If it is the most beautiful me the Otherworld can have, you won't complain."
"I'm not in the mood for jokes."
Rete slammed the table.
"Then what do you expect me to do? You can't free the true note! It's impossible by the system!"
"It is possible. If you purify hell."
"Then all the demons would be annihilated! What do you think the job of an Otherworld administrator is? Do you know how hard I work to manage this place?"
Rete was riled.
"Yahweh, Buddha—honestly, they don't get good treatment in the real world. They're stuck in ideologies and beliefs. Why come here and act like thugs? Why cause trouble only in hell?"
Fighting humans was Satan's job. She only wanted to keep the system intact.
"Think of me a little. Just as the heavens exist for humans, I exist for demons. All you're asking is for a war."
Shirone liked the sound of the heavens-for-humans line.
"Here's a proposal. I'll remove the demon realm in the real world. In return, you take on the karma here. The amount of karma you take would be enough for every demon in the Otherworld to live for ten thousand years. There's room to negotiate."
"I'll destroy the demon realm. But I won't give up the true note. And I hear there's a way."
Rete blinked.
"Hm?"
"You can escape through the Siok. There should be an open slot. Because I killed someone." More precisely, a mage recently killed one more, leaving two vacancies.
"Haah."
Rete leaned back in her chair.
"This is maddening. Of course the Company will write code related to the Siok, but do you even know what the Siok is?"
"Fanatics."
"So that fanatic thing... Never mind. I'll show you directly. How about it?"
From the corner, Son Yujeong shot a sulky look.
"I'll get to meet Mortasinger, right?"
"Mortasinger? Oh, of course. He's on the Siok candidate list. Honestly... he seems talentless."
Rete stood.
"Let's go. Opportunities to tour the System Control Branch, the Company, are rare."
Rete's mind turned quickly.
'I have to stall.'
Yahweh, who possessed an agape heart, was a tyrant in the Otherworld but different in reality.
'Satan's law will take care of it. If we finish him in the real world, the Otherworld will be safe.'
She had spoken to Gyorogi.
"Then let's depart."
Hiding her thoughts behind a pure smile, Rete opened the door and stepped into the corridor.
A number of suited men waited there.
Even among agents, their presence was on a different level from those Shagal had taken out at the entrance.
"Who are they?"
Rete introduced them.
"They're the Chemical Works' board of directors. There's also the branch chief of the Company. They'll guide you."
An old white-haired gentleman bowed.
"I am Branch Chief Venistov. You seem interested in Hidden Code matters. I will attend to you."
He led the way as Venistov and the board fell into formation with Shirone's party down the corridor.
"Agent."
When Shirone muttered that, Rete spoke.
"This place has the most managers among the five systems. Handling emotions is that much harder. But agents can do it. They've understood Hidden Code since their inception."
"Emotion equals logic, then."
"Yes. From an outside-world perspective, an agent is an autonomous process performing a specific task. They regard Hidden Code as naturally as humans regard gravity."
Invoking an outside-world perspective was meant to win Shirone's trust—but it only made him feel how dangerous this place was.
"This is where they regulate the concentration of the flames..."
Venistov added brief explanations of each department as they passed, in keeping with the tour.
'Following Rete's orders,' Shirone thought.
If she could make the Otherworld comprehensible to him, future negotiations would be easier.
Venistov pointed to a staircase.
"Let's go up to the twelfth floor. That's where Siok candidates undergo testing. If you go there—"
"Wait."
Shirone cut him off.
"What is that door?"
A door stood alone with no department name engraved on it.
"There is one of those doors on every floor. There's one on the twelfth as well."
It felt like a lie stretched to the point of poisoning; everyone aimed to divert attention as much as possible.
"So what is it?"
"...It's the door leading to the engine room."
"Engine room?"
Venistov glanced at Rete. She pressed her lips together and nodded.
"I'll show you. Follow me."
Instead of explaining, he opened the door and they boarded a spherical lift that descended underground.
They heard heartbeats as the sphere carrying them plummeted at a terrifying speed.
At the mouth of a straight tunnel, an awful white noise thudded against the walls.
It sounded like hundreds of thousands of people screaming in different voices.
"Beyond that wall is the central processing device that handles all the demons of hell."
"Is that so. Really nothing special."
Shirone sneered; Rete looked aggrieved.
"That's why I brought you. There's no ulterior motive. It's a core device, yes, but it only processes information. I didn't want to show it to you—for your sake."
The Otherworld's devices were made of living things and were hardly beautiful.
"I want to see it with my own eyes."
Rete sighed and nodded; Venistov strode forward without hesitation.
"Here."
Between valleys large enough to contain a human city, a massive brain-like thing hovered.
'No, it's not a brain.' From nail-size to the thickness of a man's arm, countless fetuses clung together.
They made all manner of noises; even the usually composed Rian frowned.
"What... what is this?"
Rete said, "I told you you'd regret it. As you can see, they're fetuses—mostly aborted children. They don't have human logic, but they have emotions. The terror of that death leaks them into the Otherworld."
Shirone's expression soured.
"Central processing device..."
"Yes. Only fetuses can compute the demons of the Otherworld. The Company was established here because, according to the Law's topography, such demons flow in. They're demons of chaos—no logic, only emotion."
The group watched the writhing fetuses, holding themselves still to avoid falling.
Below the ravine, flames burned.
'Poor children,' Etella, who had been looking sad at the rear, suddenly knitted her brow.
'Ugh!'
A sharp pain in her womb made her hand go to her lower abdomen.
'No way? That can't be.' Shagal, linked to her by the Tai Chi chains, turned to Etella with a hard expression.
"You—"
"It's nothing. Don't worry about it."
Shagal's probing interest was brusquely shut down by Etella, who was anguished by a chilling possibility.
'I haven't had my period since coming here. I thought it was because I was already dead.'
Could there be another reason?
'Maybe... it's possible.' She had fallen into hell while still gestating.
"Mm... ah! Mm... aaa!" The abandoned fetuses cried.