063y's Frozen Heart

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Chapter 1

A lost civilization.
A lost future.
An endless era of dulled grays and steel, devoid of the life of human activity.
A sole army battles an unknown enemy—the
Flowers—that pushes humanity to the brink of extinction.
The soldiers in this army are called prisoners.
Their acts and very thoughts are placed under supervision.
Among them, a man once fought on the front lines.
Much was expected of his battle prowess. But now he sits
imprisoned and locked in a cell of a secret base.
He was captured by a resistance organization comprised of soldiers who were
branded as defectives by the army after they developed their own wills.
A woman—a member of this organization—interrogates him.
They were both once soldiers who fought the Flowers.
But now they have no choice but to stand opposed,
all because of their philosophical differences beyond their struggle with the Flowers.
The woman bombards the man, her enemy, with question after question.
Though it is your duty to slaughter the Flowers,
is it not foolish to serve those who value your life so little?
Hearing this, the man gives a simple response.
All fights are foolish. I have nothing to protect, nor have I had anything taken from me.
He would surely be punished if his superior officer heard this, but his feelings are genuine.
The Flowers have put humanity in a dreadful predicament.
If they do not fight back, the world will meet its swift end.
He understands this. He knows better than most that humanity must fight.
But deep down...
From his own perspective, he has no particular reasons to hate the Flowers.
If they were to take his child, he would not rest a single moment.
If they were to take his wife, wrath would consume him.
But the man's heart has no such intrinsic dignity or attachment.
He is simply given his missions quickly and quietly.
And because he has no reason to run, he fights as he is told.
Fighting...
Fighting is always foolish.
The woman is taken aback by the man's remark, having expected rigid words of loyalty.
You fought as a proper soldier. Did you ever question the ways of the army?
Her question is dubious.
I have never questioned or opposed. I don't care one way
or another about the army, the Flowers, or the world.
He gives an honest answer.
The army was not watching, after all. What good would lying do?
Though his cold answer bewilders her, the woman continues.
I assume that means you have no interest in Resistance activities.
Of course not, he replies curtly.
If he received a direct military order to contend with the
Resistance, he surely would have done so.
But given that he cannot be issued orders in his current
predicament, he has no reason to defy the woman before him.
This bewilders her all the more.
Every one of your companions has voiced their hatred of the Flowers.
You're the odd man out.
She gives a faint smile, though she may not even realize it.
Her smile stirs distant memories in him.
This is their first time meeting, and yet her face is so familiar.
More than familiar—it's almost like the two had once shared smiles together.
Her smile is a gentle ray of sunlight, and in its warmth there is no need to fight, no others to worry about.
But when the man voices his honest thoughts, the woman replies,
"We have never met. Both you and I have spent our days fighting the Flowers."
A cold, callous voice.
But she is correct. His sentimentality was simply a delusion.
The man is surprised to discover such a common emotion inside of him.
He's not sure whether or not the woman picks up on his confusion.
Seducing your interrogator? Maybe you're the odd one.
There is delight in her smile.
A smile so kind, and so pretty...
I'd love to talk with her more, he thinks.
It is his honest thought.
For the man who never questioned his daily struggle against the Flowers, yet lived
without a hint of hatred toward them, this is the first time he
has ever shown any interest in another person.
The time he has found freedom.

Chapter 2

Humanity lost nearly everything with the sudden appearance of the Flowers.
The army placed their soldiers under its absolute control to eliminate the Flowers,
carrying out warfare day in and day out to wrest the planet from the enemy's grasp.
Of them, one man was captured by the Resistance—an organization that broke away from the army.
He thinks back on his time fighting on the frontlines.
His battlefield prowess was unparalleled. He was granted cutting-edge weaponry in the war against the
Flowers and placed in a facility with the most advanced medical technology.
But he was not free.
Combat training was his life. Eliminating the enemy took precedent in all things.
Until the moment his body gave out, he would fight to whittle down the Flowers' numbers even slightly.
It was the daily routine the army gave him, and his only reward was the permission to keep living.
It was expected. Natural.
Ironically, he only began questioning his life when he came to learn of the Resistance.
Though labeled defectives after attaining free will and rebelling against the army,
though the world itself concluded they were superfluous, they were determined to live their own lives.
They made him consider what it meant to be free.
Where does the satisfaction of freedom come from?
The man is now a prisoner of the Resistance and his actions are, of course, quite limited.
It was not his intention to get captured.
But he does not feel restricted in his predicament. If anything, it stirs a curiosity in him.
He does not sense a righteous conviction in the Resistance woman who questioned him.
And yet, he sensed her profound fixation on the pursuit of freedom.
Is it not foolish to serve those who value your life so little?
She had spoken plainly.
Those are the words that define him, the man believes—the words he has been looking for.
As luck would have it, he is given another opportunity to speak with the woman.
The woman approached him several more times since his first interrogation,
and they would speak of their lives every time they met.
By appearance, they couldn't be more different. But they quickly realize their ways of thinking align.
It did not take long for their feelings for one another to grow amicable.
It seems we seek the same thing, do we not? the woman asks, her tone serene.
I'd say so. We've got the same things on our minds, and we're looking for the same things.
The man answers matter-of-factly.
He does not yet know if they are truly one and the same.
And yet...
Even when their chats were discordant or not entirely factual, they were genuinely delightful.
The man laughs and smiles so often when they are alone together
that his life before feels like a distant dream. The woman smiles much the same way.
I never thought I could click with someone else through conversation before.
I never thought I'd be so interested in another person.
One conversation leads to another as though they are comparing answers.
They cannot be so optimistic as to hope for a blissful future.
But above all else, the man feels bliss in being alive,
in having the chance to share in the woman's feelings.
And yet...
He will soon learn their pleasure is short-lived.
One day, time on his hands without the daily routine of war, the man takes a small device he
kept hidden on his person and uses it in an attempt to access the Resistance's data.
He had no intention of causing harm—he simply wanted to know more about the woman.
He assumed he could extract data from Resistance servers and
impress the woman with information she had not yet mentioned.
However...
What he finds there is information that he—that any mere soldier—is best off never knowing.
He learns that the military uses cloning for soldiers.
That he and the woman are a cloned pair, modeled after an existing couple.
When a clone is born from the cultivation tubes, they are implanted
with memories of being married and having lost a child, and then deployed into battle.
A love beyond all reason, and the shared pain of having lost an innocent child.
Such soldiers would never question the reasons behind why they fought.
But with each iteration, that system began exhibiting errors.
This man was born as little more than a man, and the woman little more than a woman.
They had been placed in separate bases so that they would never meet,
and experimentally implanted with different memories.
But as fate would have it, they were brought together all the same.
Feelings were born within the man for the woman who was meant to be his wife.
Data on the Resistance server had not even been encrypted. The defective
woman must have known that the two of them were once predetermined family.
She knew this, and used it. Or perhaps it was because of the very fact that she was defective.
She placated him, knowing he would come to harbor feelings for her,
and instilled in him a freedom she could manipulate.
Indeed, her goodwill was all a lie.
All that blissful time they shared was a lie.
Upon learning the truth, the man is shocked.
So great is his despair, he can scarcely control it.
He can no longer stay here.
He grits his teeth and makes a decision in anguish:
He will escape this place that separates him from a fate far more wicked and cruel.
His true freedom depends on it.

Chapter 3

The man who fights the Flowers decides to opens his heart to the
Resistance woman who captured him.
In his captivity, he finds freedom for the first time.
He finds bliss in the time he spends with her.
But it is all a lie.
He finds data on the Resistance servers.
He learns the truth—he and the woman are clones, implanted with
memories of being a couple who lost their child, and made to fight as the army commands.
The man now realizes: The woman knew all of this, and she feigned friendliness to placate him.
In his disappointment and despair, he makes up his mind—he must escape this place.
One day, fighting breaks out between the army and the Resistance.
The man grasps this golden opportunity to leave the Resistance base.
Other Resistance members do not chase him far.
They are few in numbers to begin with.
Evidently, the Resistance cannot spare a single member to track
down an escaped prisoner when the fighting gets serious.
His escape is an easy one.
He will surely find his way back to the army base if he keeps running.
But there is one person who has stuck to his trail.
The defective woman. She alone has pursued the man.
Panicked by his absence, she set off in search of him to set him
right without having to rely on the help of her comrades.
Her breath is ragged as she stands before him, pointing a gun.
The distant affection lingering in him pangs.
She was using his feelings against him.
And now, it seems she insists on killing him by her own hand.
How lively their conversations once were. But now, there is only silence.
A dry, desolate wind blows between them.
The man pushes down the stinging sorrow in his chest and points his own gun at her.
He rests his finger on the trigger to rid himself of these pointless emotions that drag on endlessly.
But then, he notices something unusual in the woman's face.
Tears stream down her face. But it is not from the fear of death.
Her jaw is clenched, her fingers quiver, her brows knit in perplexity—in truth, they are tears of sadness.
Weren't you using me to your own ends?
The man questions her tears.
I was. I used your fate and my own so that I could be free.
As though ridding herself of the trauma burned into her heart, she continues speaking her truth.
Once she was disposed of as defective, and after the
Resistance took her in, she learned that she was a clone.
She felt as though her whole life, her whole being was
rendered into nothing, and she fell into despair.
Though she was once a soldier who fought the Flowers, she no could no
longer hold onto the motivation to
fight, becoming nothing more than a weak human who did no battle.
The world had no need for her, yet she still desired life. And so she sought a future in which she could live.
The Resistance's cause hardly resonated with her. And yet she
devoted herself to her work so that she could make a place for herself.
And then one day, they captured a man.
She knew they were created to be a married couple—their compatibility was all but guaranteed.
She believed she could easily manipulate him into giving up information.
She did her work as usual, protecting the niche she carved out for herself.
For a time, things went just as planned.
But the feelings she had for him slumbering in the depths of her
mind arose with more power than she ever imagined.
As she tried to win him over to their side, she enjoyed the conversations they shared,
she sympathized with his thoughts and opinions, and ultimately fell deeply in love with him.
She knew it was false. Things were unfolding according to this terrible fate,
though she thought she could run from it.
I couldn't fight the feelings, she declares.
Tears well from her eyes.
When the man hears this, he knows.
He too has feelings he cannot fight.
Is there any point to fighting them?
Inevitably, he cannot find one.
He simply need follow them.
Making up his mind, he lowers his gun.
He fearlessly steps toward her in spite of the barrel pointed at him and speaks softly.
Even if everything is a lie, I still want to live my life with you.
His honest feelings are at once predictable and genuine.
They are not married, nor parents, but strangers.
Even if their spark was nothing but fabricated memories, the desire to remain together is real.
The woman lowers her gun with trembling hands.
Tears continue to stream down her face.
The man extends a hand to her.
Let's run away. It doesn't matter where.
We're getting out of this world that's hell-bent on using us.
She gives a firm nod to his invitation.
And so begins their escape journey.
The feelings they share for each other are their only truth.
And by their own hands, they will find true freedom.

Chapter 4

A pair of clones created to be family.
Through ill-starred fate, they met, fell in love,
and decided to run away together.
Away from the world that wished to toy with their hearts.
Years go by.
Neither of them have returned to the military
base or the Resistance hideout.
They live quiet, modest lives scattered
across lands far from civilization.
Their lives are neither leisurely nor dignified,
but they understood this the moment they decided to run.
They knew they were not long for this world.
They knew their deaths were not far off.
I'm sorry for dragging you along on this life.
The man speaks with dry, aged lips.
There's no need to apologize. I'm the one who chose to go with you.
The woman's lips are similarly parched, but they smile in return.
They know it, understand it, accept it.
They know they are inferior clones of an original pair.
The makeup of their bodies is not the same as that of a pure human.
Without the military's newest bespoke maintenance routines and provisions,
their physical bodies and organs cannot sustain function.
In essence, neither can live life to their satisfaction so long as
they remain free. In a few years' time, their lives will cease.
Chronologically, they are not even twenty years old.
And unlike what their false memories recalled, they never had a child.
Though their background was that of a married couple,
they were never given reproductive organs in the first place.
This world does not want them to be parents.
Life is hardly necessary in a world that battles the Flowers.
Yet they chose to be life partners, to become that married couple.
They were not forced into marriage—they chose it.
At the end of their journey, there are no other humans there to bless their relationship.
There are no other living beings at all.
Wherever they live, wherever they visit, there are no children.
The world's struggle against the growing forces of the Flowers goes on,
and the army loses soldier lives and creates new ones every day.
Both the man and the woman once fought against the Flowers.
But victory for humanity is not their goal, so they evade the Flowers entirely.
They have no reason to fight, so they have no need to engage.
They will leave behind no legacy, and they do not fight to protect anything—they simply live.
In the eyes of the army and the Resistance both, they live useless, lonely, and empty lives.
Nor will they ever have the chance for a glorious death in battle.
This world is in ruins. Its condition will only worsen, and there is no truth worth rejoicing in.
There are only the faintest rays of light.
The man could have lived a full life if he remained in the army under strict supervision.
He would have met and fallen in love with another woman, living his life to protect her.
Perhaps that mundane life would have been ideal for him.
Yet both he and this woman acted of their own will,
joined together in matrimony of their own will, and they regret nothing.
They often have questions, certainly.
How are the other clones faring? What about the ones who birthed them?
Perhaps they have found satisfaction in their own ways, but the man and the woman
believe they are more free than those people will ever be.
Painful though it is, they accept this death.
Difficult though it is, this is the life they wish to share together.
This is the true essence of freedom, they believe.
No matter how things end, we will face it together. So long as I'm with you,
I can find happiness anywhere.
The man speaks gently, his body weakened.
We will be together to our last breath. So long as I'm with you,
I can accept whatever awaits us.
The woman speaks warmly, her brittle bones creaking.
A lost civilization. A lost future.
An endless era of dulled grays and steel, devoid of the life of human activity.
The only sound is that of their own voices. No legacy
will remain to recount the path they walked.
翻訳待ち

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