Vol 7 Chapter 1.1 (1/2)

Finally, you are here.

CHAPTER 1

Will I set up my everlasting rest

From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last.

-Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act V Scene III [1]

A white light stabbed at his eyes.

It was blinding.

The light was overpowering.

The place overflowed with light, and glittered.

It was unmistakable―it was the world of No. 6.

Yes, No. 6 had always been like this. Br.i.m.m.i.n.g with light; releasing it. I've returned. s.h.i.+on clenched his hand into a tight fist. He was thumped on the back.

”Take a deep breath,” Nezumi said. ”Breathe out and get rid of all your emotions. A split second of hesitation or excitement can cost you your life. Keep your head.”

”Got it. You too. Follow me, and don't fall behind.” Suddenly, he felt the urge to laugh. It tickled in his chest.

”What?” Nezumi drew his chin back. ”What're you grinning about?”

”No... just thinking about how great it feels to say 'follow me' to you. Before, I was always the one to be told that.”

”―You know, s.h.i.+on, you're―” Nezumi closed his mouth mid-sentence, and shook his head.

The door opened fully. The light hit them head-on.

”Let's go, Nezumi.” s.h.i.+on unclenched his fist, and glided out into the white light.

He smiled? Nezumi shook his head, and chewed his lip. He felt suffocated, though only a little. How can he smile at a time like this? And from the bottom of his heart, like he was really happy. It wasn't bravado. It wasn't fake. In a moment they would be stepping into the Correctional Facility, and yet, s.h.i.+on had smiled. He had been able to smile.

Just thinking about how great it feels to say 'follow me' to you.

What the h.e.l.l? What are we, a couple of students making idle chatter and laughing on the way home from school? Why? Why is it that you seem not to feel nervous at all? Don't you understand what kind of situation you're in right now?

He could hurl as many insults as he liked. But, Nezumi muttered under his breath, but it's still amazing. He couldn't help it; his feeling of awe was stronger than his desire to insult the boy.

I can't smile like that. Give an innocent and carefree laugh―it's just not gonna happen with me. Right now we're about to step into a danger zone that might as well be a minefield. I can't spare the energy to laugh.

He wasn't afraid. He wasn't going to flinch. But he was tense. This stance prepared him for battle. He needed this s.h.i.+ft in mind and body so that he could manoeuvre himself out of the way of an attacking enemy; so that he could turn around and sink his fangs into the enemy's throat. s.h.i.+on had none of that. He didn't even have the fighting mentality.

Numerous times, Nezumi had felt frustrated at him. Where did you leave your fangs and claws behind? he would think. He had even slapped s.h.i.+on's cheek out of sheer frustration.

He had thought that s.h.i.+on was frail. He was far weaker, far more fragile than Nezumi. Like a newly-hatched chick, he was defenseless and powerless... he had not a single skill to survive in this harsh reality. But that didn't mean that Nezumi scorned or looked down upon s.h.i.+on.

On the contrary, he had felt that he needed to protect him. If he didn't protect him with all the strength he had, s.h.i.+on would not be able to survive. He would be crushed. Nezumi had earnestly believed so once.

And he had utterly misunderstood. I made unfounded a.s.sumptions, and that was my foolish mistake. He had realized it long before.

s.h.i.+on was not weak at all. That was why he had been able to come this far. He had not been crushed; in fact, he was far from it: he had survived stoutly. He had come crawling up with his own strength. He had emerged from this brutal reality, stood on this ground, and even smiled.

Smiled, huh. That's right. You'll do things your way and I'll do it my way, and we'll overcome this.

He regulated his breathing.

It starts here, s.h.i.+on.

He couldn't predict in the faintest what was going to happen, what was waiting for them.

Or a miracle?

A return alive, or no return at all?

He couldn't predict what lay a pace away.

What's going to happen...?

When we've run past the finish line, will you still be laughing? Will you be smiling as you are, unchanged from now?

”Let's go, Nezumi.” s.h.i.+on glided into the white light. He had to follow, so as not to fall behind. Nezumi nodded, and stepped out into the light after him.

Point X. It was marked as such on the floorplan. It was the door at location po1-z22. It was the only point where the underground blank was connected to ground-level.

When the door opened, it made a pa.s.sage-way between the underground realm and the Correctional Facility. There was a difference in air pressure, perhaps, for there was a slight air flow.

s.h.i.+on ran to the right. The floorplan that Fura had filled in for him rose in his mind as if he were actually seeing it in front of him.

”Fifteen paces to the right. We're safe until there. There are no sensors. Beyond that, we've got stairs.”

”And there?”

”Laser beams: one on the second step, running 45 degrees; one on the stairwell, 15 centimetres above the floor, running parallel; one on the eleventh step running 60 degrees. As long as we don't touch those, the surveillance won't go off.”

”Hm. Pretty lax.”

”Only up to here.” This was the bas.e.m.e.nt floor of the Correctional Facility. Excluding Point X, there was no contact to outside areas, so naturally, there were no windows or doors. Facility workers, personnel, and visitors who had the appropriate identification chip and didn't need to worry about the sensors came down by the stairs or elevator―the legitimate route. But other than that, the only way to get here was through the underground realm.

Adding to that fact, none of the departments here handled confidential material, and the risks of infiltration were infinitely close to zero. It was understandable for security to become lax.

No one had probably predicted that Point X, or location po1-z22 would ever open.

”Nezumi.”

”Hm?”

”How much time do you think we can buy?”

”One―no, at least two minutes.”

Two minutes? Can we buy that much? The change in Point X had probably already been registered by the security system. Could they even buy two minutes until the monitoring staff realized and took appropriate action?

”Inukas.h.i.+'s working his magic,” Nezumi said. ”It's probably a bit of a hullabaloo up there.”

”Hullabaloo?”

”You'll see in time. The joyous festivities are only beginning. Anyway, we've got two full minutes. It's ours to use.”

”Two minutes, huh.”

”Feels like an eternity, doesn't it.”

”Sure does,” s.h.i.+on said drily.

Second step, 45 degrees; stairwell, 15 centimetres parallel; eleventh step, 60 degrees. They emerged at the top of the stairs. It took a bit of time, since they couldn't just dash up. Approximately 1 minute, 06 seconds left.

From this floor began the ground-level part of the Correctional Facility. There was an entrance hall, where the largest number of people came and went. Personnel came through a different gate than that of prisoners, and gathered on this floor. From here, they dispersed to their respective workplaces. Everyone was cross-checked minutely at the entrance, but once they were through, it seemed like inspection on the rest of the floor wasn't as thorough. The higher the floors, the more strict it became.

The top floor was where they were headed.

It was the deepest and furthest part of the Correctional Facility, encircled by many layers of security networks. They were not headed for the imprisonment facility, which protruded like a b.u.mp from the main tower.

It was the furthest part of the Correctional Facility. That was where Safu was.

s.h.i.+on knew in his guts.

Safu was a certified elite. Such chosen ones were furnished with the best educational environment from a young age. Investing ample time, money, and labour into developing elites was a fundamental political policy of No. 6.

s.h.i.+on couldn't imagine No. 6 taking an elite that they had raised so carefully to throw her into prison with the rest of the inmates. If she had been arrested in connection with him, then his mother Karan wouldn't have been safe, either.

But it had been Safu who had been taken, and not Karan.

Then it must mean that she was arrested not in connection with him, but on the conditions that she herself fulfilled. The fact that she was elite, perhaps, and without parents, or perhaps because she was female―

”Sample Collection Status―I remember there being a section like that in the Health and Hygiene Bureau's data,” Fura had said. Sample. Mock-up. Specimen.

No. 6 was taking samples from within the city, and apparently in secret. Citizens were being extracted, unbeknownst, to become specimens. There was no way this wasn't related to the rumour of agitation and abnormalities trickling out from inside the city.

s.h.i.+on knew this too, in his guts.

If Safu was a sample who fulfilled their various requirements, then she was valuable. They would probably need a suitable facility in which to handle such a valuable sample.

That was why Safu had to be on the topmost floor, the Special section of the furthest part of the Facility. He wasn't one-hundred percent sure, but it was very likely.

s.h.i.+on felt a violent chill.

Not at No. 6, but at himself.