[Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIrIB1YE_Ik&list=RDAIrIB1YE_Ik&start_radio=1]
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"I hope that one day..."
"I hope that one day your suffering will be healed, just as you pray for the chance to begin again..."
"May you still have a future... and another chance. So... I... grant you my forgiveness."
After a brief pause, Mika spoke softly, her expression gentle and full of compassion.
"After all, compared to all of us becoming unhappy in the name of fairness, that would surely be a better ending. Even if Atsuko is saved, your future will still be filled with suffering."
To everyone else, Arius Squad were the ones who had attacked the Eden Treaty signing ceremony, destroying the treaty, hurting countless people, and standing alongside Mika as the principal culprits.
Even if a trustworthy adult were willing to vouch for them, it still would not truly change their situation.
"Perhaps you'll have to face malice even deeper than what I received, then accept a judgment that may not be fair to you. Or perhaps, to avoid that fate, you'll have to set off on a lonely life of escape. Either way, it will be a miserable future where you can never again stand openly beneath the sunlight..."
"Pink-haired girl! How much longer are you going to dawdle in there?!"
Ignoring Kei's angry shout, Mika changed the subject.
"But even so... if you're willing to believe that even the faintest glimmer of light awaits your future, then save Atsuko, and save yourselves as well. It's already too late for me... but you still have time, don't you?"
Kei shouted back, "If you don't come help right now, then neither they nor I will have any time left!"
Mika remained unmoved.
She could tell that Kei still had plenty of room to spare against that siege.
Making that strange child, who had piqued her curiosity and then kept ignoring all her questions, work just a little harder was the last tiny bit of selfishness Mika had left.
"And besides... with Sensei helping too, everything will be fine... so..."
Closing her eyes, Mika clasped her hands together before her chest and offered a sincere prayer for those she had once hated.
"May happiness fill the road ahead of you. May blessings be with you..."
Before the emotion in the girl's voice had even faded...
Crackle...
The sound of electrical static echoed through the choir room.
Mika opened her eyes in surprise.
The gramophone she had thought was broken had somehow begun playing.
"Ahaha, wasn't it supposed to be broken?"
She smiled, closed her eyes again, and listened.
It did not take long for her to recognize the familiar melody.
Kyrie eleison.
"This is... a hymn seeking mercy."
An ancient hymn taught during Trinity's worship classes, praying for mercy from the Lord, unseen, impossible to prove, whose very existence could not even be confirmed.
"Though I never really liked this hymn..."
Mika nodded with a smile.
"But... I suppose you're right. Yeah."
She turned and stepped out of the room, meeting Kei's gaze just as the latter arrived, flushed red with exhaustion and breathing heavily.
Feeling the anger radiating from her, Mika simply smiled and waved.
"Sorry for making you wait! But... ta-da! Making my entrance at the most critical moment☆ That's the kind of feeling, right?"
"...How boring."
Though Kei's face remained cold, with traces of lingering irritation, inwardly she was filled with uncertainty at the hymn that seemed to echo throughout the entire basilica.
Could this phenomenon be...
A miracle?
Unfortunately, she had no time to search her database for similar records.
A shrill screech came from ahead.
Mika walked to Kei's side and looked toward the mass of enemies gathering in the distance, led by Saint Barbara.
She stepped forward again, gently shielding the stunned Kei behind her.
"It's your turn to rest now. Besides, even if you don't like stories like that... from here on, it's the villains' time."
Kei's expression shifted uncertainly.
Mika, however, focused all her attention on the enemies before her, opponents that even Kei had needed to face with all her strength.
Smiling, she addressed them.
"Why are you all in such a hurry? No one gets through here. Beyond this point is the stage where the heroes are carrying out their battle of salvation. Villains like us don't have the right to enter."
The creatures, having long since lost all intelligence and capable only of obeying orders, naturally could not understand a word she said.
With her voice neither loud nor soft, it sounded almost as though she were speaking to herself.
But wasn't there still one listener behind her?
Unaware of Kei's increasingly unpleasant expression, Mika took a deep breath, determination filling her face.
"All right, Sensei. Go save the children who deserve to be saved. Leave the enemies here to me."
"...Aren't you done talking already?"
Feeling that every sentence out of Mika's mouth was a veiled jab at her and that it simply never stopped, Kei's face darkened.
She shoved Mika aside and, carrying a mixture of grief and indignation, charged straight toward the Justina mobs.
Watching Kei's departing figure in surprise, Mika blinked.
She could not help admiring how proactive the other girl had suddenly become.
Just then, the music reached the vocal passage.
Wanting to give Kei the chance to shine, Mika remained where she was and softly sang along with the melody.
"Kyrie eleison..."
...
Time passed second by second.
The guards around Beatrice grew fewer and fewer, yet no reinforcements arrived.
"...Why... hasn't anyone come...?"
Beatrice murmured blankly.
"Where's Barbara? Why hasn't anyone..."
Hearing those words clearly, I almost burst out laughing.
I had a pretty good idea what was happening.
Mika and Kei must have tied up Barbara and the rest of the enemy forces.
If that was the case, then I absolutely couldn't let their efforts go to waste.
At that moment, music began to play.
For an instant I thought my silver ring was warning me of another powerful enemy.
But the melody sounded familiar.
Hadn't I heard it yesterday morning when I visited Mika in her cell?
"No!"
Beatrice suddenly flew into a rage, screaming,
"No! How dare you play a hymn of mercy in my domain! What trick did you use? I destroyed every instrument and every gramophone! Did you actually bring about a miracle?! No! Students must sing of hatred, contempt... and curses!"
She was almost hysterical.
"You were supposed to remain in a hell where you deceive and hurt one another, nothing more than beings for us to exploit!"
"Shut up."
"...What?"
I looked at her with utter disdain.
"The only one who belongs in hell... is you."
Beatrice froze.
Then she descended into even deeper madness.
"Y-you actually dared... to say that to me?! Aaaaah!!!"
She began transforming once again.
Suppressing my emotions, I forced myself to remain as calm and as fast as possible.
I raised my pistol.
This was the perfect opportunity I had been waiting for all along.
Bang.
I pulled the trigger.