A voice laced with static came through the bone-conduction terminal.
“—This is Lily. I’m continuing to monitor the situation inside.”
Shinonome closed his eyes and listened closely to the voice. Its owner was Lily, his partner—an android who had infiltrated the crowd of hostages. The slight delay in her processing was because the chassis she was equipped with was not the latest model. Even so, Shinonome took pride in the fact that her accuracy in assessing situations was inferior to no other model.
“One of the perpetrators who approached me earlier has now been fully analyzed for pulse and breathing patterns. I’m reporting the results.”
“Go ahead.”
“Biometric responses closer to relief than impatience were detected. There is a high probability that the subject believes they have the upper hand.”
Shinonome let out a quiet breath. Believing they had the upper hand meant, in other words, that they had begun to let their guard down. At the same time, the fact that they were handling the hostages with that much composure spoke to how deeply rooted the situation was.
“Lily, we got a response from above. We can’t accept any of the perpetrators’ demands.”
A moment of silence fell over the connection. The processing had taken only a few seconds by Shinonome’s estimate. But to him, it felt agonizingly long.
“—I have a proposal.”
“I’m listening.”
“If I am destroyed here, the surrounding security network will loosen momentarily. Use that opening as the signal to storm the building.”
Her voice was utterly matter-of-fact. In a tone as casual as if she were discussing the weather, she laid out a plan based on her own destruction.
“…You mean you’ll be destroyed. Do you understand what you’re saying?”
“Yes. There is no problem. I am an android. If that is the optimal choice for accomplishing the objective, there is no reason to hesitate.”
Shinonome was left speechless by her reply. It was a purity of rationality that no human could ever voice. Yet that answer also forced him to confront how she understood the very concept of life.
Iris, who had been listening to the call beside him, was quietly running the same kind of calculations internally. If she had been in Lily’s position—she would most likely have reached the same conclusion. It was the answer called rationality, as an android.
Shinonome gripped the terminal for a while, his gaze wandering through empty space. But he understood better than anyone that there was no other way to break the deadlock.
“…All right. I’m leaving it to you.”
His voice carried a bitterness he could not conceal. It was the right decision. But being right did not necessarily make the heart feel lighter.
“Count on me, Lily.”
“—Understood.”
The call ended. Shinonome stared silently at the terminal for some time. Eventually, he raised his head as though changing his expression and turned toward the suppression team waiting nearby.
“Proceed with preparations. The moment Lily is destroyed, we go in. Don’t miss the signal.”
The officers moved swiftly into position. Iris watched the entire sequence in silence. She said nothing, but a quiet tension dwelled in the depths of her gaze.
The negotiations remained deadlocked. Holding the hostages as shields, the perpetrators continued buying time without losing their composure. At the center of the hostages was a pregnant woman and several small children—including the same little girl who had held Kujo’s hand earlier.
But amid the taut atmosphere, the situation began to take an unexpected turn.
The condition of the pregnant woman at the center of the hostage circle visibly began to worsen. A cold sweat beaded her forehead as she clutched her abdomen and breathed painfully, tightening the already strained air around her. If things continued like this, not only the mother but the life inside her would be in danger.
“Mom…! Mom, are you okay!?”
The little girl was the first to notice something was wrong. With tiny trembling hands, she rubbed the pregnant woman’s back and desperately continued calling out to her. Before long, the girl turned a tear-filled face toward the leader of the perpetrators.
“Please…! Help my mom! I’ll do anything!”
At her desperate plea, Kujo could do nothing but clench his fists. If he moved now, he might make the situation even worse. Tormented by his helplessness, Kujo had no choice but to watch events unfold.
The leader stared down at the girl for a while, then twisted the corner of his mouth into a smile.
“Huh. You’ll do anything?”
The man pulled a spare handgun from inside his jacket and forcibly placed it in the girl’s small hands.
“Then—shoot that man you were holding hands with earlier. If you can do that, maybe I’ll think about your mother.”
The girl’s expression froze.
“You can do it if you’re a good girl who listens to adults, right?”
The leader’s gaze slowly shifted toward Kujo.
At that moment, Kujo steeled himself. He gave the girl a faint nod. It’s okay—he conveyed that with a direct, trusting gaze.
The girl’s hands trembled as she gripped the gun. Her face a mixture of fear and despair, she nevertheless took one step, then another, toward Kujo. Her movements were heavy, as though she were shackled.
“…I can’t.”
The words escaped in a hoarse voice amid her tears.
“I can’t do it… I really can’t!”
That was when it happened. At the leader’s signal, another perpetrator pressed the muzzle of a gun against the back of the girl’s head. They would not even let her drop the gun—a merciless, inescapable situation was being constructed around her.
“Hurry up.”
Along with the cold command, a finger slowly settled onto the trigger of the gun held against the back of the girl’s head.
But—in that instant—
The girl pressed the muzzle of the gun in her own hands beneath her chin.
“Execute operation.”
With an utterly smooth motion, free of hesitation, she pulled the trigger.
What burst into Kujo’s vision was not blood or brain matter.
What erupted was—a blinding flash that dyed his entire field of view pure white.
“W-What the hell…!?”
The entire hospital lobby was swallowed by brilliant white light in an instant. The perpetrators cried out in near screams, stumbling around blindly after losing their sight. Kujo’s eyes were seared by the light for an instant as well, yet he could not look away.
That little girl—still wearing the face of a little girl, she was leaking a faint mechanical whir from inside her body. Her construction was so precise that she was indistinguishable from a human child. Even her trembling fingertips were no different from the real thing.
That was the true identity of the little girl.
“Now! Move in!”
At Shinonome’s command, the suppression team waiting nearby poured into the hospital all at once. The perpetrators, blinded and having lost control, were subdued in no time. Several gunshots rang out, but the suppression team dealt with each of them precisely.
Within minutes, every member of the group had been restrained, and an air of relief quietly spread through the hospital lobby.
“Agent Kujo!”
Iris, freshly repaired, hurried toward Kujo, weaving through the freed hostages.
“Agent Kujo, are you unharmed?”
But Kujo’s gaze was not on Iris.
Beyond her stood the girl who had quietly sat down after emitting the flash—or rather, an android in the form of a little girl. A faint mechanical whir continued to leak from her body now that her performance was over. Her trembling fingertips were no different from those of a human child. Even knowing that the tears of fear on her face were an act, Kujo felt his chest tighten at the sight.
“…Who is that girl?”
At Kujo’s murmur, Iris quietly followed his line of sight.
“That is Lily, Shinonome’s partner android. I understand she is a specialized unit trained to infiltrate cases involving children.”
“I see…”
For some time, Kujo could not move from the spot. An android was supposed to be a tool—that was what he had repeatedly told himself. But the scene before him quietly shook that simple conclusion once again.
His heart had been deeply moved by the sight of her carrying out her performance while trembling, intent only on saving the mother and without balking at her own destruction. Not because it was an order. Not because it was rational. He could not shake the feeling that something had truly dwelled in those trembling fingertips.
Among the freed hostages, the pregnant woman was also placed on a stretcher by medical staff and carried away. Word soon reached the scene that neither mother nor child was in life-threatening condition.
In a corner of the lobby, where the confusion was beginning to settle, Kujo continued silently watching Lily.