Missing Link (3)
Even after Shirone's story about humanity's good and evil ended, the party stayed silent.
Iruki fell into thought.
'I see.'
A Gaian who had mastered the heart.
To those who can form a whole out of anything, good and evil, merit and affection would mean nothing.
'Ultima was broken.' It wasn't about what action was taken, but how that action was defined.
Shirone continued.
"I don't know what became of Cain after that. The Omega's last record is that it vanished in a haze of smoke. In the end he left reality and fled to the Undercoder."
Even if the records didn't show it, Melkidu's behavior—the thing Shirone's group had witnessed—told the rest.
"I thought about it for countless nights. I agonized over it."
Cain said.
"Where did it go wrong? No, was it even wrong? Why did I have to make that decision? Was it truly evil?"
The group listened.
"In the end, the conclusion was that everything's a roll of the dice. I just tossed the dice. You don't know what number will come up."
That the cold world chose Abel, and that in that moment he plunged a knife into his brother's chest.
"Yeah, chaos. We are creatures of chaos."
Cain tapped his head.
"Before I can call myself 'I,' there are commands that move me. Up here, on the top of this head, special signals come to us. Electrical sparks—maybe preternatural—what we call impulses...
There's a missing link.
"Ultimately, humans are nothing but puppets of a signal coming down from far away. Even the heart. In other words, we can't do anything on our own, and therefore we can't change."
It was a bleak conclusion about the Veron matter.
Shirone asked, "Does reaching that conclusion ease your guilt at all?"
"...That's always the problem." Cain looked back at the portrait of Lilith.
"Melkidu is a world built on an evil methodology. Countless sinners gathered there. Even though I'm trapped here, I've heard many stories. Whether they acted knowingly or it was a momentary mistake, sinners end up thinking the same thing: what if that day hadn't happened...
Pleasure is momentary.
"Of course, some stayed because they liked it here. That sort sanctifies Melkidu with all sorts of rhetoric...
Cain looked at Curtis.
"Even if I don't go to prison, even if the incident is erased, what I did doesn't simply disappear."
There is no sanctuary for demons.
Iruki said, "One question. Shirone said Lilith was supposed to have been killed by Adam—so how did humanity's lineage continue to this point?"
"She didn't die."
Shirone said.
"Of course Lilith died, but the seed of the mitochondrial Eve remained."
A miracle.
Or perhaps a curse.
Kra-rum!
On the night thunder and lightning fell, Adam came to the village to check on his family.
He headed first to his wife's house, and through the roar of the downpour heard a scream.
"What...?"
Turning, he unexpectedly arrived at Abel's house, and the smell of blood was thick in the air.
When he opened the door, he found Abel's corpse and Ruluwa in shock.
"Ah?????"
Ruluwa regained focus and said, "Dad."
"What happened?"
Adam, a Gaian who had fought wars, was used to death—but not like this, not in Eden.
"C-Cain oppa..."
Ruluwa explained in a trembling voice.
When Adam learned the whole story, a murderous light flashed terrifyingly in the Gaian's eyes.
"Stupid bastard."
As he stepped out the door, Adam said, "Don't leave this place tonight. In the morning, go find your brothers."
"Yes, okay."
Ruluwa nodded repeatedly, but as Adam departed her expression turned cold the instant he was gone.
"...What's going on?"
She raised both hands and inspected her body.
"Why me?"
Had she become Lilith?
At the moment she was stunned by Abel's death, it felt as if her mind opened and vast memories poured in.
'These are my memories from long ago. From before I gave birth to Ruluwa. But Ruluwa's life remains in my mind too.'
How much she had loved Abel, too.
Because of that she could fool Adam, but honestly she doubted her own identity.
'Ruluwa with Lilith's memories, Lilith with Ruluwa's memories—which am I?'
After a long time thinking, she stood.
"I am Eve."
There was no single identity.
It was a collective name for life itself, endlessly repeating generation after generation through ages without end.
'What am I to do now?' As she sank into that answerless worry, dawn came and Adam did not return.
She went to Lilith's house.
In the hush, she found her own body collapsed on the floor, its neck broken and bodily fluids seeping out.
"Haha."
The reason her husband had killed her was probably not unrelated to Cain's disappearance.
"Ahahaha! Hahahaha!"
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
"It's over."
Thus the Gaian era in Eden ended, but Eve's life was only beginning.
She slipped among her siblings.
Sometimes demure, sometimes lively, acting countless personalities, she spread her descendants far and wide.
'Forget.'
Whoever Eve loved would become kin; it would not be love but a murky lust.
'Forget everything.'
With each generation, her descendants devolved into primitive forms left with only animal desire.
'Love me! More!'
Each time the taboo was broken they grew stronger, and daughters became new Eves who spread across the world.
'Pleasure! Sensation! Endless desire!'
The reason mitochondrial Eve is inherited only by women is this:
"Grrr! Sniff! Sniff!"
Because they are all Eves...
"Therefore."
Shirone said, "Wherever it originated, all humans born on this land are children of Eve."
Iruki let out a long breath.
'Now there are so many mutations that even doing an epidemiological study is meaningless...'
Conceptually, Eve is the mother of humanity.
"Yeah. What the mother truly dreamed of was brilliant and beautiful love. But because all humans are her children, their only recourse was to surrender to pleasure. And then they eventually met you, Shirone."
Everyone turned to Shirone.
"Hexa, you are the exception. It means you alone among humanity are not a child of Eve. Paradoxical as a virgin bearing a child, but it's also a signal and proof sent to this world by a god with a mind. To the mother, you are special."
"So that's why Uorin..."
The group understood.
Why the Kashan empress obsessed over Shirone, and why Shirone avoided her.
Then Adam spoke.
"Still the same, that gaze."
As Kido kept his guard up, Uorin shot back with a vicious look.
"Don't treat me carelessly."
Though faded from the primitive form, as humanity evolved memories of Eden returned.
"You killed me. You saw me with my neck broken. With what face do you appear before me now? No."
Uorin sneered.
"Actually you don't even have a face. What reason do you have to keep living in such a pitiful state? In that hideous form?"
Adam looked at Kido.
"Is that goblin your lover now? Your tastes never change."
Uorin bared her teeth.
She could face anyone in the world and not lose, but married life was no easy thing.
"Don't talk nonsense. I'm not the one you knew. Do you know how many generations I've passed through?"
"Of course I know. I too took this form and went against the tide of human history with you."
Adam had shed his flesh.
If Lilith had lived a new life through Eve's power, he imitated humanity as an apparition.
Male and female, young and old—politicians, doctors, beggars—he had been countless humans experiencing Eve's history.
"Why?" Uorin asked. "What's your reason? You hated me. Why should anything you do matter to me?"
"To take responsibility."
When he left Eden, he had intended to die.
"Lilith, you committed something you cannot take responsibility for. That must be the evil you created. But I could not free myself from that responsibility either."
Adam reached out his hand.
"Come with me. The end of the world we created is coming. Isn't it time we did something for humanity, at least once?"
"No."
"If it's because of Shirone, give it up. He won't come to you. He knows what you did."
"Hmph, I don't care. What do you think I endured through these long, tedious years? I'd rather use this body and the power I perfected over countless generations for—"
Uorin clutched Kido's arm.
"I'd rather give them to this goblin. Consider this your last warning. Never show your face before me again."
"You've got clear eyes."
Adam looked back at Kido.
"Don't let it be said you love Lilith. That woman will siphon you dry. You'll wither endlessly."
"Shut up."
Kido thrust his spear forward.
"Whether you're an ex-husband or whatever, I don't care. I love her. Of course... I'm a goblin."
That added clause only proved he was thinking about an ex-husband.
'Damn it! I can't help it!'
Because that man long ago had already won the heart of the woman he could never have.
Adam laughed.
"Do you even have the nerve to say that while looking at me? Fine. Don't worry. Lilith won't care a bit whether you're a goblin or not."
"What?"
Kido didn't understand.
"You..."
Refusing to avoid Uorin's murderous gaze full of life, Adam stepped back.
"Lilith, if you cannot live for humanity, leave with that goblin. The moment your history falls entirely into Havitz's hands, you commit another sin." Even in hatred, Adam knew the weight of his words.
The Gaian flesh dissolved and the gray-white brain bobbed up and sank into the darkness.
"Phew."
Kido, tension released, rested his hand on Uorin's shoulder.
"You okay?"
"Don't touch me."
At the cold voice, Kido—momentarily lost in thought—slowly withdrew his hand.
"Sorry."
That made Uorin even more irritated.
"I don't know what you're thinking, but don't mind Adam's words. I'll never do anything with a goblin."
Kido nodded.
"I know."
Thirst pressed in again, but he accepted the vast lack with his whole body.
'I love her. At least... she doesn't push away the fact that I love her.'
Kido didn't know.
That his savagery and his intelligence would make Uorin recall a past she wanted to forget.
But he had an inkling.
'A lot must have happened. Things she wouldn't tell anyone. Still, it's okay.'
To Kido, Uorin was still the most beautiful and noble empress of Kashan in the world.
"Kido."
And the man that empress loved was...
"Take her to Shirone."
A human who shone so brightly the monster dared not even compete.
"All right."
Kido answered in a hoarse voice and smiled.
"Let's go, to Shirone."