Project Alice-02 (3)
Ally, who had been running ahead of her, suddenly collapsed.
Slice.
“......Huh?”
Crash!
Then Ally’s body sprawled limply across the floor.
Liss, who had been running behind her, froze blankly.
“Big Sis...?”[1]
Splatter.
When she looked down, bright red liquid was spilling out in waves.
“Urk, ggh...”
Ally’s lower body was gone.
To be precise, everything below her navel, the hips and two legs that should have been attached, was nowhere to be seen.
The cut was clean. From it, all sorts of things that should never have spilled out were spilling.
That terrible color froze Liss’s thoughts solid.
"......Big... Sis?"
It was a trap the Cultists had installed.
Probably a device meant to stop intruders.
Originally, it had faced outward, so there was no reason for it to activate in this hallway.
But when the research facility was half-destroyed and part of the building collapsed, its direction had shifted toward the corridor.
“Ah, aa...”
Splatter.
Ally had been unlucky enough to get caught in that trap.
Liss had gone completely blank, but her sister’s groan snapped her back to herself.
“Big Sis...!”
Ally’s upper body trembled.
Her lower body was nowhere nearby, as if it had been blown away.
Things spilled out in a horrible mess, and Liss sank down in front of them.
“No... Big Sis, why is this...!”
“Ggh, grk...”
Only the sound of bubbling blood came from Ally’s throat.
Liss fidgeted helplessly, but there was already nothing she could do.
“Big Sis! Don’t close your eyes! Stay with me...!”
All she could do was cry.
The girl held onto her sister’s body as it grew colder and colder.
A beastlike scream burst out of her, along with desperate denial and despair.
“Big Sis, Big Sis...!”
“......Li, ss.”
Below her, her pale sister opened her mouth.
The words leaked from her painfully parted lips.
Ally stammered in a murmur.
“My, little sister...”
“Big Sis! Don’t talk! I’ll, I’ll go call p-people...!”
“So, rry... ggh, cough!”
“Don’t talk! Please, Big Sis...!”
“Big Sis, always, wanted to stay, by your side...”
Had she already sensed her own end?
Ally’s expression was far too peaceful.
She only parted her lips and looked up at her little sister with clouded eyes.
“Listen, to me...”
“No! I told you not to talk! The church, the church people can fix you...!”
It was already too late.
Her sister knew that, and her little sister knew it too.
“You know... my little sister, hrrk... if you, end up, going outside, alone...”
“I’m not going alone! I’ll never leave you behind, Big Sis.”
“I’ll give you, my name...”
“No, no... I, without you, Big Sis...”
“So, you... at least you, live as Alice.”
Ally. Liss.
Names split so simply it was almost ridiculous.
But now that her sister had given it back to her, it would become one name again and scar over.
“We promised we’d always be together! We have to be together...!”
“So, rry...”
That was not what she wanted to hear.
Tears kept welling up, and Alice could barely breathe.
“Don’t apologize...”
In front of Alice now lay only an experimental subject who had lost her name.
The girl could not let go of the body that had grown even colder.
Too many moments flashed through her mind.
In those brief passing scenes, hot tears gathered and fell in drops.
-It’s okay. We’ll definitely be happy someday.
The words the experimental subject used to say like a habit.
Alice sobbed.
“We promised we’d be happy... Big Sis, you said everything would be okay...”
"......Big... Sis is... okay."
The experimental subject was the same.
Beyond eyes that would soon go out, clear tears flowed hotly.
A truth she barely managed to breathe out.
“Alice being, happy... is Big Sis’s, happiness...”
So.
“You have to... be happy.”
It had been a harsh life.
Born without knowing why, suffering, hurting, yet loving someone, dreaming, despairing, hoping again and again, almost grasping everything in the end, only to lose it all as if it had never been anything but an illusion. Such a dreamlike life.
“I love you. My little sister.”
The dream ended.
With those affectionate words as her last, the experimental subject no longer moved.
Her lips closed and would not part again. Her nose no longer needed to draw another breath.
“Big Sis.”
Alice hugged the dead experimental subject.
She was not warm.
She did not smile.
She did not hug Alice or soothe her.
She only lay there with her heartbeat stopped, eyes peacefully closed.
“Ah, aaah...”
Her sister had left.
The nameless experimental subject died, and only Alice remained in that place.
For some reason, Alice could not let go of the experimental subject as she screamed.
***
Her memories after that were hazy.
She had completely lost her reason, so only fragmented scenes remained.
‘Big Sis.’
Alice was eventually rescued.
Valter Droit and Javert Droit had been active on the church’s front line at the time.
After clearing out the research facility, they found her while searching for the remaining civilian survivors and took her in.
-To think such a young child survived...!
-Javert, go call the priests!
A life that somehow continued.
Afterward, Alice stayed in an orphanage run by the church.
A few more years passed, and with Valter’s help after he had become headmaster, she entered Grandia Academy.
-Miss Alice.
-I am called Viktor.
Until, a few days later, she met the boy of her destiny.
The girl’s life had been that twisted.
‘I hate this.’
Alice.
Every moment she had spent in the research facility remained in her like scars.
A Nightmare she could not shake off, could not overcome... and must not overcome.
Recently, at least, that pain had seemed to fade as she spent time with good people.
But as if mocking Alice, that Nightmare had become reality again and appeared before her eyes.
<Miss Alice.>
“......”
OZ.
The faceless man was looking at her.
That alone swept the girl under a heavy wave.
-It’s a drug specially prepared for this project, you see?
-I prepared it so the experimental subjects would suffer as much as possible.
The torture she had suffered in the lab.
-I do hope you fulfill my dream.
Those painful moments, and her mind worn down by repeated Nightmares.
The pitch-black drug injected into her wrist every time.
The researchers smiling beyond the glass window.
Alice-02, left behind in such a miserable state.
Her sister, who had sparkled even in that gutter and protected her.
-You had another scary dream, didn’t you? You couldn’t sleep and kept crying.
-As if you’re okay. Come here, into Big Sis’s arms.
-If we ever manage to escape someday, I want to go to so many places. The sea, where they say endless saltwater gathers, mountains where all kinds of plants grow together, snowy fields where white ice crystals pile up... Ah, I want to visit that place called an academy too, where kids our age gather!
-Let’s build a quiet house and live there, just the two of us.
And then, the hallway again.
The smell of blood she still remembered so clearly.
-Big... Sis is... okay.
-Alice being, happy... is Big Sis’s, happiness...
A scene that had repeated countless times.
A dream that never let go of her whenever she fell asleep.
The moment of farewell that had festered.
-You have to... be happy.
-I love you. My little sister.
Painful, yearning memories tangled together at random.
Before she knew it, tears were running down her cheeks.
Her heart felt cold, as if it had stopped, and she wanted to strangle herself right away.
Bad thoughts urged the girl on, stirring the familiar nausea she felt toward the past.
‘Big Sis.’
Bzzt, bzzzt.
The crown floating above Alice’s head shook.
The crown flickered as if covered in noise, and soon its edges began turning pitch-black.
‘Big Sis... where are you?’
The girl’s nausea searched for someone.
The experimental subject who had looked so much like her.
The experimental subject whose corpse had not even been properly collected.
And the experimental subject she had been prouder of and trusted more than anyone in the world.
‘Where are you?’
Big Sis.
‘I’m scared.’
Gnaw, gnaw.
As if it had been waiting for this moment, the Nightmare gnawed away at Alice.
The girl stood frozen, unable to even think of resisting.
Her consciousness drifted farther away.
Once again, it seemed the concept beyond the window was trying to cross over.
While Alice was falling into a mental collapse, not even knowing she was being devoured like that.
“Miss Alice.”
Tap.
Someone’s hand rested against her cheek.
It held warm body heat, a temperature that somehow set her at ease.
It was not her sister, but it was a voice that called her as kindly as her sister had.
“......Ah.”
The masked boy.
He was wiping away her tears.
Between the droplets brushed away by his fingers, a whisper reached her watery world.
“Please look this way.”
“......”
“I’m here.”
“......”
“Take a deep breath. Slowly. Don’t push yourself.”
“......Suu, haa. Suu, haa.”
“Good.”
His hand stroked her cheek as if she had done well.
The Nightmare’s rampage had already settled.
The unstable crown had also regained its form.
Alice, who had been dazed out of her mind, collapsed as she felt the warmth on her cheek.
“Sir Vik...tor...”
Her voice sounded like a plea.
This time too, it was your hand that caught me.
[1] Big Sis is how a Korean-speaking girl addresses an older sister or an older girl she is close to, carrying an intimacy that “sister” does not quite cover.
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