Part 169: The location of the IBN 5100 is once again revealed

Calling out from the other side, huh?

Kiryuu Moeka is cornered. I'm convinced.

"...Do you remember sending a D-mail?"

"D... what?"

"D-mail. A mail that can be sent into the past. You sent that. To your own phone. I thought it was about a phone model exchange, but that was a lie. You tricked me and changed the contents."

Her mail typing skill is so fast I call her a masseuse, after all. It should be no trouble for her to type out a meager 36 byte message while Daru and I were preoccupied with the Microwave Ophone (Temp).

"And as a result, the world line changed. Don't you remember?"

Ordinarily, once the past is changed, everything until that point is undone, but according to the precedent set by Faris and Rukako, Moeka should undoubtedly remember that mail.

"...I don't... know it."

"It's not that you don't know. You just don't remember. Remember. You need to remember, or else."

Of course, I'm not talking seriously. At this most, this is just to put pressure on her. I didn't really prepare anything to make her remember.



Tears start streaming out of her eyes. I look closely the entire time. Maybe it's because of when I pushed her down and we started struggling.



(I was going to comment that this scene wasn't as painful as I remembered it being, but here it goes!)

The charming lines of her collarbone, her plump breasts, her sexy underwear. Those breasts move up and down as Moeka painfully breathes in and out. On the base of her nek is the bloodstain I drooled out earlier. It's completely dry, like a scab. By all rights, it wouldn't be strange to mistsake her for a cool, beautiful woman.

But now Moeka has a large shadow under her eyes, her skin is rough, and her face is pale. She's more sick than cool. Her entire body reeks of death. So dangerous it's hard to approach.



I regret not noticing that essence of hers sooner.

"I really don't know... I would remember it if I could... I don't... know... Not one single bit..."

Moeka's glance isn't fixed. She moves her sights from me, to the ceiling behind me, to the night sky outside the window, but her slowly murmuring voice shows she's thinking fairly hard. Just a little more. Just a little more and she'll run out of energy.

"Then let me change my question. Two weeks ago, you should have received a strange mail."

"...?"

"The sender was your own phone, but that mail's sending date was several days into the future."



I grin.

"Do you remember that? That was the D-mail you sent. Tell me the contents."

"If I tell you...?"

"I'll return your phone."

"...damn... it..."

She suddenly curses at me.

"...I won't... tell you."

"Why not?!"

"It concerns... the Rounders..."



Just what could it be? I think back on words Moeka explained herself.



She said something like that. Which means...

"The IBN 5100."

I try tricking her directly, and get a good response.

"It's related to that, isn't it?"

"How much... do you know...? About the mail..."

"I'm the one asking questions here. Just answer."

"...I won't... say. That's betraying... FB..."

"So you choose FB over your phone, huh. How loyal of you."

But Mayuri's fate depends on this. I can't give up. Moeka still hasn't calmed down. She's been closing and opening the fingers of her restrained hand for a while now. She wasn't trying to escape my restraint, but simply just twisting her body. Licking her lips. Shaking her head to brush the hair out of her face. She's almost dependent on her phone. It's like she's suffering from withdrawal.

She doesn't have any energy left. Soon she won't be able to resist. If I can get her to talk, then I'll just wait until she does.

"Is it really that painful to not have your phone? Why are you that dependent on it?"

"I can't... talk... up front..."

"You're doing it right now, aren't you?"

And when she attacked the lab, she blended in with muscular men, and threatened us. But Moeka strongly shakes her head.

"If I can't... do mails... then I'll be..."



"From the world? You trying to be a hermit lady? You mean you're scared you'll be abandoned by the Rounders, don't you?"

"...No. Not by the Rounders... but by FB..."

That's the same thing, isn't it?

"So don't say 'the world'. When you're the one who mercilessly killed a sinless girl... When you're the one who erased Mayuri from the world...!"

"...I didn't kill her."

"Right. Not in this world line. But in another world line, as a Rounder, you came to steal our time machine. And then you killed her. You killed Mayuri...!"

In another world line. When I called Moeka out to Radio Kaikan, she told me.



That's why it didn't matter if they killed her.

"...if FB told me to... I killed her... I think. Definitely."

"Just who is FB? Just where is that bastard?"

That time, it ended without me hearing it. But this time, the Rounders shouldn't appear. In this world line, it feels like Moeka's position is clearly different.

"I won't... tell you..."

"Then let me tell you something good. Right now, I've got you detained, but if you're hoping to be saved, just forget about it."



I strike the finishing blow to the frowning Moeka.

"I came here, five days from now, using the time machine SERN wants. That's why I know. In this room, all alone, you kill yourself. Your beloved FB doesn't save you. Nor the Rounders, nor SERN, nor the Committee of 300."

"..."

"No matter how many mails you send, your boss won't reply, right? How could that be? You've already been abandoned."

Moeka's expression warps.





Guilt throbs in my chest. Surely just now, I've wounded the girl here before me.

It's not the same level as killing Mayuri, my reason whispers. You have no reason to sympathize with this murderer, my feelings furiously claim. But even still, it doesn't feel good to hurt anybody, no matter who they are.

What do you mean, insane mad scientist? I'm hesitating to hurt someone I should hate. I'm nothing but a hypocrite.

"You don't need to cover for FB, so tell me everything."

I turn a blind eye to the throbbing in my heart and force myself to talk, but Moeka shakes her head even harder.

"...FB didn't betray me... I'm not abandoned!"

"Then why do you think you kill yourself in four days?"

"You kill me... And forge a suicide..."

"I wouldn't blunder like that. If it were me, I'd time leap after killing you. I can undo your death."

"I..."

"Just who was the one in this room with a dead-looking face when FB wouldn't answer them?"

"But..."

"How many days has it been now? How often does FB usually contact you, and when did that stop?"

I repeat my question. More like a demand than a question.

"Usually... every day..."



"10 days without contact. Correct?"

Moeka looks up at me as if clinging.

"I... haven't... been betrayed..."

"You have been betrayed."

"I believe in FB..."

"You were thrown away."

I say it clearly.

"They just used you. Now you're used goods."

"FB isn't... that sort... of person..."

"Then what sort of person was he?"

"She was... gentle to me... like a mother... I finally... found a place... of comfort...!"

She? Mother?



But I imagined the head of an evil organization to be an old man. Guess I was completely wrong.

"I'd talk to her about my worries... she'd always reply right away... Like a friend, but with the gentleness... of an embrace..."

"Have you met her?"

Moeka strongly shakes her head.

"You haven't met? Even though she's like a mother, like a friend, your place of comfort?"

If they had met, then I thought I could've gotten her to lead me to her.

"It’s a rule... for the Rounders to hide their identities from each other..."

"Even though you've contacted each other, you've never met. Well, certainly, that would be against the rules. But you like FB, and wanted to meet her. Am I wrong?"

"That's wrong, wrong...! If we met... I'd get disillusioned... so I never... wanted to meet."

"Has she ever said she wanted to meet you?"

"She never said that... not once..."

"So no phone calls, either?"

Moeka turns away her face, then she faintly nods.

"You don't think she's avoiding you? Is it really just because of the rules that such a kind, gentle boss lady hasn't met you? Also, why won't she contact you? Try to think of the reason. It's the same as deposit fraud. You've been tricked."

"Don't you badmouth FB...! She's not... like that...!"

"Before she stopped contacting you, what were the contents of her last mail?"



...The IBN 5100. Moeka, you dummy, you unconsciously let your tongue slip!

To leave it means that two weeks ago, Moeka had already obtained the IBN 5100. Moeka was originally a Rounder, so her duty was to investigate and collect IBN 5100s. And then, around the time Moeka sent her D-mail, I might've carelessly told her that I found my IBN 5100 at Yanagibayashi Shrine after her incessant nagging. The Yanagibayashi Shrine storehouse's lock was broken. The IBN 5100 that should have been dedicated there disappeared.

Thinking from there, the true contents of Moeka's D-mail are... the IBN 5100's whereabouts.

When I finally crack the code, it's no big deal. It's not puzzling at all, but pretty damn straightforward. So in the end, Moeka artfully used me, too. I'm almost filled with dry laughter, but I desperately hold it back.

"And where was that?"



(Anime episode 19 cleared.)