No6_Volume8_9ave.pdf

NO. 6 | Asano Atsuko

Volume 8

You don't feel it?

Feel? Feel what?

Something off.

CHAPTER 1

Ring the alarum bell!

I gin to be aweary of the sun,

And wish the estate o' the world were now undone.

Ring the alarum bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack!

At least we'll die with harness on our back. 1

- Macbeth , Act V Scene V

I love you, Shion. I love you more than anyone else.

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.

A scene he had never seen before. It was orderly, inorganic, and sterile. Not a single stain

marred the smooth floor. The chamber was odourless and almost soundless. But that in itself

was terrifying. Shion felt that this scene was more terrifying than any he had seen until now. He

couldn't hear the tearful cries, the screams, or groans. There were no corpses, no flowing blood,

no faces distorted in agony. But this scene here was so much more wicked than the picture of

hell in the basement that he had witnessed and burned into his memory.

Safu stood right inside this terrifying and wicked scene.

"Safu―"

Shion 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 Shion. 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, Shion. I love you more than anyone else.

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005. 158.

NO. 6 | Asano Atsuko

Volume 8

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.

"Shion, 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."

Shion 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 cocked her head to one side. She blinked, and a faint agitation

crossed her eyes.

"Shion, 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 hardships... 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, Shion. Thank you so much."

"Like her dying words or something," Nezumi muttered from his spot beside Shion. 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 passed. Shion 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.

NO. 6 | Asano Atsuko

Volume 8

"Yeah. That's the only explanation." His words tracing Shion's thoughts almost exactly,

Nezumi continued in an expressionless voice. "You said so," he said to Shion, "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. Shion 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?

"Shion." Only Nezumi's lips moved as he called Shion'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. Shion 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 Shion 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.

"I 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 Shion."

"Then who is it? Who brought us here?"

"Elyurias."

"Elyurias!" Nezumi and Shion 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

Shion'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.

Shion 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

NO. 6 | Asano Atsuko

Volume 8

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, pushing 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 shifted 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 Shion."

Safu exhaled as well. "Because I wished it. I wished strongly that I would get to see

Shion. 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.

NO. 6 | Asano Atsuko

Volume 8

"She... spoke from inside me. When I was falling asleep, she called to me directly."

"Wait, what do you mean by―"

"That's enough." Shion took hold of Nezumi's arm. Nezumi's slid his gaze languidly

from Shion'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 Shion, and blinked.

"'Pay no mind to the order of your exit. Please return home promptly,' 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 Shion 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," Shion 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," Shion 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."

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