PandoraHearts ~Caucus Race~, Vol. 1 (3 page)

“WACHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”

An enormous sneeze shook the room like a volcanic explosion. As it did…

Mini-Alices poured from Alice’s body.

“I’m hungry!” “Starving, starving.” “Hey, Oz!” “Bring me meat!” “Or you there, Seaweed Head. You can go instead.” “Meat.” “I want
meat
.” “I want to eat
good
meat.” “What kind of meat is ‘good meat’?” “The meat of meats.” “Really meaty meat.” “The king of meats.” “That’s weird.” “Meat is already the king of foods.” “She’s right.” “It’s a fact.” “Good meat is the meat king of kings.” “That sounds strong!” “How cool!” “I want to eat it.” “Feed it to me.” “Tonight’s dinner was supposed to be steak.” “Grilled meat?!” Grilled meat, hee-hee, pretty amazing, huh?” “What are
you
bragging about?” “Then
there’s meat in the kitchen?” “There is.” “There is, there is.” “What if there isn’t?” “If there isn’t, there isn’t.” “How philosophical.” “Philosophical?” “Philosophical meat?” “What does that taste like?” “Flavor that makes you think.” “Is it yummy?” “…It makes you think.”

“…Huh? What’s going on?” Oz muttered, dazed.

It was a scene straight out of a joke, or possibly a nightmare. With that explosive sneeze, about a hundred—no, more—tiny Alices had materialized from Alice’s body. They were only about fifteen centimeters tall, and they’d spread all over the room, wriggling and squirming.

Closer inspection showed that each one was rather cute, like a doll. Still, the sight of more than a hundred of them swarming and chattering was terribly creepy. Not only were they all over the floor, but some were stuck to the ceiling or crawling over the walls, and they were all yelling, “Meat! Meat! Meat!”

“Oz, what is this?!” Gilbert shouted.

“How should
I
know?! D-does this happen with colds?”

“Not that I ever heard…”

The situation was so weird that Gilbert felt more irritated than shocked or aghast, and he clicked his tongue. It wasn’t a loud sound, but the mini-Alices had sharp ears. Moving in unison, they all turned to look at Gilbert.

The silent, fixed stare of a hundred tiny creatures was a little—no,
very
—eerie.

Gilbert felt a chill run down his spine. The mini-Alices were whispering among themselves.

“What should we do?” “Should we eat him?” “For starters, sure.” “But depending on how we cook him…”

“That’s a pretty dangerous topic, midgets!” Gilbert yelled, although he was backing away quickly. Even as he did so…

“Meat!” “Meat!” “Meat!” “Meat!” “Meat!” “Meat!” “Meat!” “Meat-meat-meat-meat-meat-meat-meat-meat-meat-meat—!”

With their eyes glittering viciously in their adorable faces, the hundred-plus mini-Alices rushed at Gilbert like a tsunami.

There was no way for him to fight. —Gilbert prepared to die.

“…?!”

“Gil!” Oz was calling him, desperately.

Gilbert’s consciousness slid helplessly into darkness—

The swarm of mini-Alices had mobbed Gilbert, kicked him mercilessly, and disappeared into the hall.

The only ones left in the room were a dazed Oz; Gilbert, on the ground and unconscious; and Alice, breathing hard on the bed, as if she was in pain. Worried, Oz looked from Gilbert to Alice and back. He ran to Gilbert first and discovered that he’d only passed out, and that nothing was really wrong.

With a short sigh of relief, Oz immediately turned and ran to Alice.

“Alice!”

“Those little…”

Alice tried to stand, but it was as if she had no strength left, and she sat down flat on her behind.

“I told you, don’t push yourself.”

Oz soothed Alice, making her lie down.

Alice tried to bluster that she
wasn’t
pushing herself, but there was absolutely no force in the glare she sent at Oz.

“Those were… Those midgets are my ‘strength,’” Alice muttered, letting her head fall to the pillow.

“Your strength?” echoed Oz.

“I felt like something inside my body was restless earlier, and…it overflowed, just now.”

Apparently that sneeze had been the trigger.

That said, Oz couldn’t immediately accept the idea. It was just too strange.

Stunned, he gazed at the door the mini-Alices had disappeared through.

He couldn’t even imagine the sort of ruckus that had to be enveloping Pandora Headquarters right now.

“…Arrrgh, I can’t.”

Alice tried to sit up, but her body wouldn’t listen to her. She muttered in frustration.

“Alice, you’ve got to lie still.”

As Oz chided her, concerned, Alice gazed up at him with unfocused eyes. Her small lips moved: “Please.” Oz saw, and he nodded. As Alice’s consciousness faded, she murmured, “Please get back my strength.”

“All right,” Oz said, without hesitation. “Tell me what to do.”

“…I don’t care how you do it. Stomp on them or wring them to death, or do anything you want, but kill them. If you do, they should turn back into ordinary strength and come back to me.”

Alice spoke as though she was delirious. Then her eyes slid shut. Oz called, “Alice!” in spite of himself, but Alice’s only response was her labored breathing. She seemed to have completely lost consciousness.

This was a far cry from the Alice who was sometimes violently energetic and cheerful. Oz knit his brows as though he was in pain.

“—Alice’s strength.”

Nothing about the situation seemed real, but he knew exactly what he had to do.

He had to save Alice.

Oz opened a hand in front of his face, then balled it into a fist. With an expression that made it look as if he was praying, he pushed the fist against his forehead. “…Okay,” he muttered, and although his voice was quiet, his tone was determined.

Finally, he stretched out the hand to Alice’s forehead, fixing her tousled bangs. Then he turned on his heel.

“Just hang on, Alice.”

He left the bedside, heading for the door. As he passed the fallen, unconscious Gilbert, he said, “Sorry, Gil. Once I get back, I’ll take care of you properly.”

He put a hand on the doorknob. Opened the door. Ran out into the hall. The hall was littered with fallen Pandora employees; like Gilbert, they’d probably been attacked by the swarm of mini-Alices. It looked like a scene of carnage. At the sight of the tragedy in the hall, Oz caught his breath.

Fortunately, although they were unconscious, none of them seemed to be injured. Silently apologizing to the fallen employees, Oz ran down the hall.

He knew where he was going.

If the mini-Alices were made of the same stuff as Alice, there was only one place they’d go.

Oz ran, thinking that it might already be too late.

He was headed for—

“The kitchen!”

The faces of the kitchen staff, the people who’d complemented him on his apron and showed him the basics of cooking, flickered through his mind.

Let me be in time
, Oz prayed, and ran faster.

| 14:00 |

By the time Oz reached the kitchen, the mini-Alices had already occupied it.

Almost all the mini-Alices had gathered there and were working the kitchen staff like slaves, forcing them to prepare meat dishes. Anyone who showed even a glimmer of defiance was bitten mercilessly. They may have been cute, but at heart, they most certainly were the B-Rabbit.

The kitchen was filled with countless greedy voices calling, “Meat! Meat! Meat! Meat!”

With a pot lid for a shield and a ladle for a sword, Oz confronted the terrifying, carnivorous horde, and—

The battle in the kitchen was the stuff of legend.

| 16:30 |

“…There she is. That’s the last one,” Oz muttered quietly.

Behind Pandora, near the edge of the property, up in the bushy green leaves near the top of a maple tree. Oz’s voice had been very soft, but in response, he had a sense of someone flinching and a cute little “Eek!” drifted down from the treetop. Through the gaps in the leaves, he could see a tiny, doll-like shape.

It was a mini-Alice.

With the help of the kitchen staff, Oz had managed to vanquish the horde of mini-Alices who’d been terrorizing the kitchen. However, just when he thought he’d defeated them all, he’d spotted a tiny shadow sneaking out of the kitchen.

He’d chased it all the way here.

Above his head, a trembling voice spoke. “Don’t erase me, don’t erase me, don’t erase me…”

The personality of this last Alice was apparently nothing like that of the real Alice or the other mini-Alices. She seemed to be quite a scaredy-cat.

“Don’t erase me, don’t make it hurt, don’t pick on me, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

Brr-brr-brr-brr.
Her tiny body trembled in the shadows of the leaves.

Oz still held the ladle in one hand. In the kitchen, he’d used it to smack lots of mini-Alices, turning them back into strength, but…

“…”

Oz glanced at the ladle. Then he dropped it, letting it fall by his foot.

I really don’t think I can smack that one
, he thought.

“Okay.” He nodded. “Let’s go.” Then he got a grip on the maple tree and began to climb.

“…Wow…”

He’d shinnied up the trunk and reached the top of the tree. As Oz clung to a large branch, his eyes found the last mini-Alice, and he gave a small cry.

Brr-brr-brr-brr.

The mini-Alice was crouched down, trembling, trying desperately to hide behind a maple leaf. Registering Oz’s approach, she gave a small “Yeep!” like a songbird’s cry, and looked at him with tear-filled eyes.

“Don’t pick on me, don’t pick on me,” the mini-Alice whispered, over and over.

Sh-she’s so cute… What should I do?
Oz thought.

“Um, umm, listen, miss…”

“Eek!” The mini-Alice shuddered violently.

“It’s okay, don’t be scared.”

“Don’t pick on me, don’t make it hurt!”
Brr-brr.

“I won’t pick on you, and I won’t hurt you,” Oz said, trying to calm the frightened girl.

At that, the mini-Alice poked her face out from the shadow of the maple leaf and looked at Oz.
Really?
she was thinking uneasily.
Really?
He could tell as plain as day. Oz smiled at her. “I promise,” he said.

The very idea of erasing the little thing seemed cruel.

…That said, the mini-Alice was a fragment of Alice’s strength. He couldn’t just leave her like this.
For now
, Oz thought,
I’ll get us both back down to the ground.
He wouldn’t find the answer by sitting up here worrying.

“Come here, Alice. Let’s get down.”

“Down?”

“Uh-huh. It isn’t safe up here. I won’t do anything rough, I mean it. Okay? C’mon.”

“…Promise?”

“I promise. I never break my promises, either. Trust me.”

“…Okay.”

Answering in a tiny, tiny voice, the last mini-Alice began to walk from the end of the maple branch back toward Oz. She still seemed a bit uneasy, as if she didn’t completely believe him.

“Slowly. Go slowly,” Oz cautioned, and he gently reached out a hand toward the approaching mini-Alice. At first, she shrank back fearfully from Oz’s outstretched hand, but he waited patiently, and at last she put out her own hands and caught his index finger.

Oz smiled. Mirroring him, the mini-Alice smiled bashfully, too. Her adorable expression made Oz sigh. In the next instant:

Huh?

He felt a rush of vertigo. A chill raced down his spine.

Oh no…!

The strength was rapidly draining from his body. The feeling in his legs, which were wrapped around the thick branch, seemed to melt away.
He felt weak. His vision lost all color, beginning to dim.

“Oz?” the mini-Alice asked, puzzled. His body was flooded with a sense of impending crisis, but his arms and legs wouldn’t do what he told them to.

He could feel himself beginning to tip.

Gravity was pulling at him.

He was going to fall.

Blast it, why?! Not here…!

Forcing his hand to move, he grabbed the mini-Alice and hugged her to his chest.

At the very least, he thought, he had to protect her.

Aah… I wonder if it’s going to hurt when my head hits the ground. I bet it does. I hate pain—
he thought, rather nonchalantly, as his consciousness receded.

Behind his eyelids, he saw drifting golden snow, fluttering and sparkling.

“—Oz!”

Just before he passed out, Oz felt as if he’d heard somebody calling.

It was a voice he knew well…

Oh. Gil?