Vol 8 Chapter 1.1 (1/2)
You don't feel it?
Something off.
Ring the alarum bell!
I gin to be aweary of the sun,
Ring the alarum bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack!
- Macbeth, Act V Scene V
Brains floated in the middle of the transparent columns.
Human brains.
How many? Ten, twenty, thirty... perhaps more than fifty. There seemed to be a light source at the base of the column, for the entirety of it emitted a soft, white glow.
Safu stood right inside this terrifying and wicked scene.
”Safu―”
s.h.i.+on staggered as he tried to break into a run, and fell to his knees. He had no strength in his legs. His heart pounded rapidly. His wounded, bleeding, and exhausted body was crying out for mercy.
I can't go any further than this.
He looked up. A stream of sweat travelled down his cheek and moistened his mouth.
Safu still stood silently, gazing at s.h.i.+on. She hadn't changed at all. Nothing about her had changed: the length of her hair, her stature, her unwavering gaze.
Lost Town, No. 6. They had made a hurried parting at the station. The Safu he had seen then was standing in front of him now.
She didn't look worn out. She didn't look wounded.
”Safu... you're safe.” You're safe. You managed to stay safe. You managed to live. We were able to see each other again, alive.
I love you, s.h.i.+on. I love you more than anyone else.
Her confession had reached him through his ID card. A cutting-edge communication device had mediated these flesh-and-blood feelings.
Her voice was coming back to him.
”s.h.i.+on, you came.” Safu's voice. A little low for a girl's, yet always crisp and taut. He missed it.
It moved his heart. It squeezed his chest.
Oh, how I've missed it.
Safu, we've been separated by a pretty long distance, haven't we? I feel like we haven't seen each other for a century.
”I knew. I believed you would come...” Safu smiled. Then her face crumpled into an expression both happy and tearful. ”I was waiting all this time. Waiting was all I could do. I could only wait for you here...”
”Mm-hmm.”
s.h.i.+on raised the upper half of his body, and took a deep breath.
”I knew I had to come sooner... I'm sorry, Safu.”
Safu shook her head, and c.o.c.ked her head to one side. She blinked, and a faint agitation crossed her eyes.
”s.h.i.+on, your hair...”
”Huh? Oh, this hair. Well, a lot of things happened, and... I'll take my time and tell you everything later.” I'll tell you everything about what I experienced while we were separated. There are so many things I want you to hear, to listen to. One evening wouldn't be nearly enough to cover everything.
”You must have gone through so many hards.h.i.+ps... more difficult than I can imagine. I'm sure that getting here wasn't the average stroll in the park, was it? But you still came. For me... that's more than enough. Thank you, s.h.i.+on. Thank you so much.”
”Like her dying words or something,” Nezumi muttered from his spot beside s.h.i.+on. It wasn't a cold voice. But it was flat and emotionless.
Safu's eyes moved slowly in response to the mutter, and fell on Nezumi.
”You must be Nezumi...”
”Yeah.”
”Nice to meet you. I've always wanted to take a look at you. I wanted to know what kind of person you were.”
”Here I am. Usually, I look better. This isn't the state I'd like a lady to see me in, but unfortunately I didn't have the time to wash my face or change into my good suit. Do forgive me.” Nezumi also had his gaze fixed on Safu. He stared at her without blinking.
”Safu, I have something I want to ask you.”
”...Alright.”
”Are you the one who controlled the main computer to lead us here?”
There was no answer from Safu. A moment's silence pa.s.sed. s.h.i.+on looked up at Nezumi, still on his knees.
Safu, control this Facility's computer? There's no way she could have.
He swallowed the words just about to leave his mouth.
It couldn't be. But that was the only possible explanation.
Nezumi's grey eyes slid slightly aside.
”Yeah. That's the only explanation.” His words tracing s.h.i.+on's thoughts almost exactly, Nezumi continued in an expressionless voice. ”You said so,” he said to s.h.i.+on, ”you said someone was calling. Thanks to that someone, we were able to get this far. Granted, this isn't the kind of place I'd be terribly excited to see. But that aside, I can't think of anyone else who'd be the precious sort to send us welcoming emissaries from inside the Correctional Facility. She's the only possible person.”
He had no choice but to nod. s.h.i.+on himself had been feeling Safu calling him. He had been urged on by this voice, and been led thus far.
But if that was the case, that meant Safu was somehow involved with the core of the computer system.
But how? How was it made possible for her?
”s.h.i.+on.” Only Nezumi's lips moved as he called s.h.i.+on's name. ”How long are you planning on sitting there for? You can wait for as long as you like, but there won't be any coffee coming.”
”Ah―”
Of course. What was he doing? He'd come this far: what was he doing squatted on the ground?
He willed strength into his legs, and stood up. His feet were unsteady. He managed to dig his heels in, but barely. Nezumi never tried to reach out to him. s.h.i.+on also had no intentions of clinging to the figure that stood beside him.
They were wounded, exhausted, and had spilled the same amount of blood―no, it must have been much more arduous for Nezumi.
Clinging was the last thing s.h.i.+on wanted to do. Even if he were to lean on Nezumi and manage to stand, taking the next step would probably prove immensely difficult. If he could stand with his own strength, he would be able to advance with his own strength as well.
Safu was still watching them. Her hands were clasped tightly together as if in prayer, and she remained still.
”It wasn't me,” was Safu's short answer. ”I don't have that kind of power.”
Nezumi's brow furrowed slightly.
”I only thought it... I only kept thinking in my heart that I wanted to see s.h.i.+on.”
”Then who is it? Who brought us here?”
”Elyurias.”
”Elyurias!” Nezumi and s.h.i.+on cried in unison.
Elyurias.
They had heard the name from Rou, the elder who had long lived in the underground realm. He was a man who had been involved in the foundation of No. 6 as a city-state, and had lost both his legs to the parasite wasp as its first sacrifice. He was an old and close friend of s.h.i.+on's mother, Karan.
Rou had said it.
Elyurias was a great sovereign. No, I am sure she still is. She probably still reigns even now.
s.h.i.+on ran a hand over his pocket. The chip that Rou had given him was in there. Once he rescued Safu safely from the Correctional Facility, he wanted to take his time to decode it thoroughly. Here lay the answers to the puzzle. The mystery of No. 6. The mystery of the underground realm. And more than anything, the mysteries surrounding Nezumi. Answers existed to these questions. There must also be considerable amounts of information loaded onto the chip concerning Elyurias, the queen.
His heart raced slightly at the thought. But he had forgotten cleanly about the chip after stepping into the Correctional Facility. He hadn't even recalled it once. They had not had the time. He had been running constantly, pus.h.i.+ng the limits of his mind and body. One misstep, one moment of decision could invert life and death. He had to survive even one second longer―survive and move forward. This thought had occupied his mind completely.
Elyurias.
To think that he would hear this name coming from Safu's mouth.
”Do you know Elyurias?” Nezumi's tone wavered for the first time. A faint agitation crept into his voice.
”I don't. But... she was the one who led you here. She awakened me completely... she taught me the truth.”
”The truth,” Nezumi repeated, as if to cross-examine her. ”Truth, huh. Safu, why did Elyurias or whoever it is invite us here?”
”I don't know.”
”Where is Elyurias now?”
”I don't know... but―”
”But?”
”But I think she must be... very close. I have a feeling she is.”
”Is that just your intuition, or―”
Safu s.h.i.+fted on the spot.
”Bombarding me with questions, aren't you, Nezumi?”
”I won't get any answers if I don't bombard you. We haven't come here to have a leisurely chat. There's a pile of things we have to know, that we ought to know. If you could just give us the answers, that's efficient for all of us. Don't you think, Safu?”
”You're right. But I can't answer even half of what you want to know. You're not looking for the kind of answers... that you can obtain easily, right?”
”So you're telling us to go out and search for ourselves if we want answers.” Nezumi exhaled. ”Which means, to sum it up, you don't know anything.”
”I don't know anything about you, Nezumi. But I do know... about s.h.i.+on.”
Safu exhaled as well. ”Because I wished it. I wished strongly that I would get to see s.h.i.+on. Elyurias heard my wish. She told me...”
Safu's lips trembled.
”I will grant your wish. I will bring you to the person you most want to see... that's what she said. And she didn't break her promise.”
”So Elyurias can freely control the computer system?”
”I don't know. I don't know who she is, or where she is, or why she started to talk to me all of a sudden... I don't have a clear idea... of anything.”
”She spoke? To you? From beside you?”
Safu refuted the suggestion.
No, not like that.
”She... spoke from inside me. When I was falling asleep, she called to me directly.”
”Wait, what do you mean by―”
”That's enough.” s.h.i.+on took hold of Nezumi's arm. Nezumi's slid his gaze languidly from s.h.i.+on's fingers to his face.
”It's alright, that's enough, Nezumi. We're not here to have a leisurely chat, or to interrogate Safu.”
We've come this far. Now we have to escape.
There were two people up to this point, and from here on there will be three.
Nezumi continued to stare at s.h.i.+on, and blinked.
”'Stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once,'[2] huh. I don't know how easy it'll be for us compared to the lords going home from a banquet.”
”That's awfully pessimistic of you.”
”I'm careful. I don't do the naivety thing. It's probably known all over by now that we're on this top floor. Scary old men might be storming up from downstairs right this moment.”
”Nezumi, there's only one route that leads here, and that's the elevator we just came with. No one can enter unless that elevator moves. All the facilities in this building are programmed into the computer system.”
”And what makes you so sure that the system's gonna stay on our side? Are you saying you can see when and where our situation is gonna change?”
”Well―”
He was at a loss for an answer.
”We can't even put a finger on who or what this Elyurias person is. Don't forget that. Think before trusting someone whom you don't even know the truth about.”
Nezumi was right. Neither s.h.i.+on nor Nezumi had any definite information about Elyurias. What they had was what Rou had told them, and what they had heard from Safu.
He knew they could not cling to ambiguous things. They could not make a blindly positive interpretation. It took firm resolve to believe in another person. Trust was hollow without resolve. It was a fake, papier-mache indulgence masked with a thin wrapper. And even a millimetre of indulgence was enough to cost him his life.
”Safu,” s.h.i.+on spoke to the girl in front of him. ”Could you take us to the main computer... the mother computer, it might be called... the core of the system?”
Safu nodded. There was no time for hesitation, anxiety, or prolonged thought.
”Follow me.” She turned her back, and started to walk.
”Let's go,” s.h.i.+on encouraged. Nezumi showed a slight hesitation.
”Can we trust her?”
”Safu?”
”Yeah. Can we just follow her innocently like this? Can you say for sure that she won't betray us?”
”I can.”
”And you're absolutely sure?” A cold smile played on Nezumi's lips. Declaring absolute trust in someone was not a virtue for Nezumi; it was closer to foolhardiness.
”Nezumi, I have three people I can trust one-hundred percent, no matter what happens to me. Those people are Safu, my mother, and you.”
I can believe them, no matter what. Believing has supported me. I don't think it's naivety. A simple and superficial trust will corner a person into trouble one day. But someone who can't trust anyone sincerely is fragile. The only foothold they have is an unstable one on sand.
I can believe, no matter what happens. I can keep on believing to the end. That's resilience―it can't be anything else.
”If... If any one of these three were to betray me, then I would resign myself to it. Even if I were to lose my life over it, I wouldn't have any regrets. When I start doubting Safu, or my mother, or you... when I stop being able to believe in you, that's the same as annihilation for me.”
The smile vanished from Nezumi's face. The colour in his eyes darkened. It made Nezumi look like someone in endless thought in search for the truth, or a lost man wandering at his wit's end.
”s.h.i.+on, you don't feel it?”
”Feel? Feel what?”
”Something off.”
”Off... about what?”
Nezumi watched Safu's back in silence.
”Alright, fine, we'll do as you wish. It seems like the only path open to me is the one that follows yours, anyway. Took me long enough to realize it, but I guess I have to steel myself if I want to get anywhere.”
”Does that mean you trust me?”
”Don't get carried away, idiot,” spat Nezumi as he began to walk. It was hard to tell that he had a bullet wound in his leg. s.h.i.+on couldn't help but drag his own foot. His wounded leg felt heavy, as if it were not his own.
They moved further in amongst the transparent columns with Safu in the lead. Some moments later, they hit a wall. It was white with a faint tint of yellow, like the floor. The wall split open silently as Safu stood in front of it.
”The inner chamber of the palace, huh?” Nezumi licked his lips.