Invited by the girl who called herself Shion, Senano stepped into the room.
“Please, come in.”
“…Yes, all right.”
Senano followed behind Shion, but she remained constantly conscious of keeping a certain distance from her.
Perhaps understanding that, Shion gave a somewhat lonely smile and leaned against the wall away from Senano, as if to avoid creating any unnecessary misunderstanding.
“Now then, hello again. And thank you. Um…”
“Senano. Mikama Senano, second-year. Your junior… ah, but don’t expect polite speech from me. Let’s just get along for the sake of surviving this together. You don’t need to use polite speech with me either, and Senano is fine.”
Saying that, Senano deliberately acted a little cheeky.
It was her own way of trying to ease Shion’s anxiety, even if only a little, and help her feel at ease.
Even if the other girl was her senior, the one who had come to help was Senano.
She needed to give her a sense of relief, and when the time came, make sure she would follow instructions.
“Mikama Senano… huh? Wait, are you that genius they say might become the youngest person ever to reach S-rank!?”
“Heh, that’s right. And by the way, the one perched above my head is my personal NARROW. A custom-made new model.”
“Huh… I thought it was a hallucination I was seeing because I got so scared I was losing my mind.”
Now that she said it, a person walking around with a bird on their head in a place where Aberrant Entities were present really did look strange.
All the more so when the bird was faintly glowing.
“This one’s pretty capable. At the very least, it was useful for scattering that huge swarm of snakes a little while ago.”
“Snakes… could those have been the ones that came out of the windows?”
“That’s right. Sorry to get to it so quickly, but could you tell me what you know?”
At that question, Shion nodded and first pointed to a certain spot.
A window should originally have been there, but it had been covered over with cardboard and newspaper, and then sealed with packing tape so thoroughly that not even a gap remained.
More than that, even the glass panes in minor places like cupboards had been covered so they couldn’t be seen.
The room was unnaturally extreme, as though it feared window glass itself, and with no light coming in, it was dim.
“They come out of the windows. So first of all, stay away from the windows. You absolutely have to keep that in mind.”
“There really was something snake-like in the windows. So that means this room functions as a kind of safe zone, then?”
“Yeah. We, Kareno’s squad, were using this as one of our bases while we explored. Though I’m still just an apprentice until graduation, so mostly I stayed in the back, writing down the things needed for reports and being taught how to move in actual combat.”
As though recalling her companions, Shion’s eyes filled with tears, and she hugged her knees as if curling in on herself.
Even so, she did not stop explaining. Perhaps she had her own pride as an Enri Bearer.
Senano quietly listened.
“At first, we thought it was an anomalous individual of the Shadow Serpent Shutter Screen. Did you know that two local Enri Bearers who were supposed to be used to handling it had gone missing?”
“…No, this is the first I’ve heard of that. All I knew was that your group had gone missing.”
“The truth is, there were Enri Bearers who disappeared before us. The Enri Agency asked our squad to rescue them too. But in reality, it was something else. This is beyond us. It’s a high-level Aberrant Entity.”
Once she had said that much, Shion started trembling, perhaps from fear.
Senano found herself wanting to stroke her head and reassure her, but she held herself back and urged her to continue.
An Enri Bearer must never carelessly touch anything.
Even if the other person was the one being rescued.
“Does it have any weakness? Like, would it die if you broke the windows?”
“I don’t know. But at the very least, I think breaking the windows is a bad idea. At first, the vice leader suggested the same thing and smashed one, but every shard turned into a snake and came at us. Do you know what happens if one of those snakes bites you…?”
“No.”
“You turn into glass, and then shatter into pieces. …Senpai died like that, screaming…!”
“Calm down. I’m here.”
Senano slid a box of sweets across the floor and gave it to Shion.
“It’s all right. I survived even after encountering a calamity-lord-class, and I even won a fight against an S-class.”
“…Y-you’re that strong?”
“Of course. Otherwise, do you think I’d have come charging in here alone? Relax. This incident is practically already solved.”
“…I see. Right.”
Shion nodded and picked up the box of sweets.
Then she took out a piece of chocolate and popped it into her mouth.
“…It’s been a while since I ate something good. You know how the issued supplies aren’t all that tasty, right?”
“That’s true. That’s why I usually buy other things with my own money. Once we get out of here, I’ll show you. It’s pretty good, and there’s a wide variety. It’s a little pricey… but well, it’s the kind of amount an Enri Bearer can earn in no time.”
Saying that, Senano stood up.
Then she began moving her arms and legs as if doing warm-up exercises.
“…You’re going already?”
“Yes. I’m worried about the kid I left behind. So I need to finish this quickly and get back.”
“…………I see.”
Shion nodded and raised her face, looking like she had made up her mind.
“Actually, there’s one thing I still haven’t told you. We might have found this Aberrant Entity’s weak point.”
“Why didn’t you say so before?”
“Because we weren’t sure. So rather than taking a reckless risk, we wanted to evacuate. …But…”
Shion stood up and looked at Senano.
The frightened demeanor from before had vanished somewhere, and what stood there now was an Enri Bearer.
“All the senpai who were kind to me died. I want to avenge them.”
“…You’ve got guts.”
Senano grinned.
She didn’t dislike people who said things like that.
(TL Note: I’m starting to also really like this Shion character. I love characters that pull it together for a good cause.)
“So, what’s this weak point?”
“The innermost part of the top floor. The window at the very end of the hallway. That one window was strange. It kept rippling the whole time, even though no snakes were coming out of it.”
“I see… It might be the nest of the boss. All right, guide me there.”
“Okay.”
Shion stood in front of the door and took a deep breath.
Then she slowly opened it.
She stuck only her face out and looked left and right, but no one was there.
Carefully stepping out of the room so as not to make any noise, Shion beckoned Senano over.
“This way.”
“Understood.”
Senano left the room as well.
And just as she closed the door behind her—
“Mikama-san, I’ve been looking for you!”
A familiar voice came from deeper in the hallway, and she turned around.
There stood Yoshiba and Kiba side by side.
Their backs were straight, their posture neat as though they were welcoming an honored guest.
Both of them were smiling quietly.
But there were no wrinkles or distortions in those smiles, not the slightest tremor, as if they were pasted-on masks.
Only the corners of their eyes were unnaturally raised, and the depths of their pupils were sunken, as though rejecting daylight.
Even though it was daytime, the far end of the hallway was dark, and their feet could not be seen, as though they had dissolved into shadow.
Only the 『smiles』 floated there in stark relief, staring fixedly this way.
Once again, the voice echoed, “Mikama-san.”
And yet, neither of their lips moved even slightly.
“…Shion, what were the names of the Enri Bearers who disappeared first?”
“Yoshiba Takeo and Kiba Yoshito.”
“I see. So we were lured in.”
The two of them should have been standing side by side at the far end of the hallway.
But in the next instant, the distance between them had shortened.
There had been no footsteps, no movement of walking.
Senano blinked involuntarily.
In that instant, they had drawn nearer again.
Their smiles did not break in the slightest.
The corners of their mouths, the corners of their eyes, all exactly as they had been when she first saw them.
Only their pupils had gone cloudy, writhing with some shapeless thing.
“Mikama-san.”
This time, the voice pierced her ears more clearly than before.
But still, their lips were not moving.
Only then did she finally realize the voice was not coming from the two men, but from the window beside them.
The men drew closer again.
There were less than ten meters between them now.
Only the smiles floated there pallidly, as though absorbing the hallway’s light,
and within that cold symmetry there was nothing human.
“Senano-chan…!”
“It’s fine. These things are moving along the adjacent windows. The positions where they stand are always right next to a window. They won’t come right in front of us immediately. And—”
Hibari, perched on Senano’s head, spread its wings and circled above the two men.
At the same time, a vortex of flames took shape around them.
“They’re not my enemy! Run! Hurry and guide me to that place!”
“Okay!”
Obeying her words, Shion ran.
Chasing after her back, Senano ran as well.
However, her steps were peculiar and rhythmic, and even as she moved, she continued offering up her dance.
“We’re going up the stairs like this. Senano-chan, stay with me!”
“It’s fine, don’t worry about me and just keep going. I’m confident in my stamina, even like this!”
Senano cast a glance behind her.
All she could see was Hibari heading toward them now, leaving behind a pile of ash.
Apparently, Yoshiba and Kiba had already been dealt with.
“…I wonder if we can pass that ash off as cremated remains.”
Roughly tossing aside the transceiver from her breast pocket, Senano spat that out under her breath.