40. The Red Frog
"It's time to eat!"
With the declaration of war, Rin fired a giant soap bubble.
The projectile speed was too fast to take evasive action.
Collision was inevitable.
Then, I had no choice but to destroy it before impact.
It was more a spinal reflex than a thought. Instinctively, I swung my arm like a sword.
Kling.
A hard, metallic sound rang out.
Before I knew it, my forearm had discarded skin and flesh, transforming into a mesmerizingly sharp silver-white blade.
Engraved on its mirror-polished flat was a single maxim:
"The best part is no part."
It was an engineering aphorism I remembered seeing somewhere.
Though it shouldn't exist in my memory circuits, my body's OS deeply understood its meaning. The blade fit my body as if it were an organ that had been there since birth.
I flashed my silver forearm as if to sweep away the ominous air.
Chirin.
A sharp, yet pleasant sound like a wind chime echoed across the silent pond.
It was a superb piece of work.
For the first time, a crack appeared in Rin's expression, which had remained composed until now.
"What is that sword?"
I simply stated the words that spilled from my mouth.
"It's The Wind Chime Blade."
Using that name as a signal, I threw myself toward the pond.
I landed on a single lotus flower.
The lotus, apparently equipped with a high-performance AI, instantly authenticated my chassis information as a new user and fell under my control like an extension of my limbs.
With a single thought, I piloted the lotus, rapidly ascending to the same altitude as Rin's floating lotus.
Finally, we siblings stood eye to eye.
Now, I would cut off my sister's head.
Otherwise, Oto would dissolve.
Without hesitation, I readied The Wind Chime Blade and leaped toward the lotus Rin was riding.
Continuing the motion, I swung The Wind Chime Blade horizontally to decapitate Rin.
However, there was no sensation of cutting flesh, nor the impact sound of striking metal.
As I scanned, I saw that Rin had firmly caught my blade with her white teeth.
"Ow, ow!"
Pain signals backflowed.
Even transformed into The Wind Chime Blade, this was my forearm itself.
Every time she put force into her jaw, agonizing pain, as if my bones were being crushed, was input directly into my brain via the neural link.
I tried to pull it out, but the power of Rin's jaw was immense, like a vise. The enamel of her teeth seemed to exceed the hardness of my sword.
At this rate, it would break.
Then, instead of pulling, I had to push.
With all my might, I thrust the bitten blade deeper.
Ghiiin!
With a harsh scraping sound, the blade slipped.
Without prying open her teeth, the blade slid horizontally, slicing Rin's head in two, top and bottom.
Effortlessly, the upper half of Rin's head danced in the air.
There was no blood or flesh on the exposed cross-section.
Instead, ultra-high-density integrated carbon nanotube wiring, microscopic semiconductor chips, and actuators were arranged in orderly fashion.
It depicted an intricate and beautiful geometric pattern, like an overhead view of a futuristic city at night.
From the severed circuits, kaleidoscopic sparks scattered.
Like a handheld sparkler bursting, particles of light overflowed pachi-pachi, acting as signals to summon surrounding matter.
The sparks attracted all constituent materials of the cross-section like magnets, instantly initiating reconstruction.
What rose in place of the lost cranium was slimy, gleaming red skin and giant eyes covered in poisonous warts.
From Rin's lower jaw up, she had transformed into the head of a Red Frog in the blink of an eye.
Meanwhile, the severed original upper half—the top of Rin's head—did not fall to the ground but hovered in the air.
Her bob-cut hair spun at high speed like helicopter rotors, generating lift.
The "half-head" turned into a drone circled around me, buzzing with a heavy bass sound, radiating intense anger from its upturned eyes.
The "Red Frog" in front of me was also furious.
Rin, now half-frog, half-human, struck a pose like a sumo wrestler stomping the ring.
Then, the modern yukata she wore melted into goo, becoming red slime that covered her entire body. Her human limbs swelled, joints twisted, and before my eyes, she was remade into those of a giant amphibian.
Naturally, I should have attacked during that opening.
But bound by the universal stereotype that "one must not attack an enemy while transforming," or perhaps overwhelmed by the grotesque metamorphosis, I could only stand still and wait for those precious three seconds.
The transformation completed.
Lotus flowers floating in the pond were sucked one after another onto the body of Rin, now a complete Red Frog.
They attached to the red skin with a peta-peta sound, like armor plates or reinforcement parts. With each lotus absorbed, the frog's mass increased exponentially.
To avoid getting caught up in it, I piloted my lotus to take a significant distance.
The frog continued to enlarge.
Eventually, its gigantic body swelled to a size that used the entire vast pond as merely a bathtub.
As a finishing touch, the drone head circling in the air—Rin's original upper half—mimicked a pure white towel and plopped onto the giant Red Frog's crown.
The appearance was exactly that of a giant bright red frog soaking in a hot spring with a towel on its head.
It was truly a Blood Pond Hell.
Because the frog's body temperature was so high, the sulfuric acid in the pond boiled, turning into seething hot water.
Normally, it would become a "boiled frog" and self-destruct, but regarding this one, it was better to discard such hope. The hotter it got, the more its metabolism rose, energy charged, and I could see it growing healthy and strong.
The frog's size was now a mountain range.
A majesty rivaling Everest, once called the highest peak on Earth.
Faced with such a scale difference, I had no idea where to attack.
It wasn't an opponent I could manage with just one Wind Chime Blade.
A sense of despair weighed on me, making me want to raise a white flag inside my CPU.
The Red Frog inflated the vocal sac at its throat greatly.
Gugegegeeee...
With a croak like an earth tremor, a giant soap bubble was spewed out, flying toward me.
I received the message.
And immediately pressed the "Mute" button.
Then, directing a chillingly cold gaze at her, I rejected all incoming message packets from her, permitting only transmission from my side.
The opponent had turned into a colossal body like a mountain range, but the command tower at its peak seemed able to receive communication normally as before.
I sent my telepathy dispassionately.
"Rin. I love Oto very much, but honestly speaking, I did have the will to cherish you too, who somehow settled into the position of my little sister. After all, even if your personality is broken, you are my sister. There was certainly a bond, whether it be circuit-lines born from the same corporate production line, or the camaraderie of fellow countrymen. But, you know, as of this moment, I have come to hate you—hate Rin. Do you know why? The reason is simple. Because I absolutely hate frogs."
"..."
The soap bubble bombardment from Rin stopped abruptly.
She must have been shocked.
I pressed on.
"That is why I hate Rin."