–+–
“Can you hear me? Sandrone? Columbina?”
Belle’s voice came through from Eous, carrying a faint echo from the adjusted equipment.
“We can hear you. Loud and clear,” Sandrone answered.
“Then let’s move out!”
Eous took off on its short little legs and plunged headfirst into the Hollow entrance, through the twisted curtain of light that shimmered with a riot of black.
Sandrone took Columbina’s hand and followed close behind.
The familiar smell of rust hit them at once.
Once Sandrone found her footing, she swept her gaze over the area.
“Five targets in total. We focus on one at a time. Lock onto one, recover it, then move to the next. No switching targets halfway.”
“Got it,” Belle answered at once.
“That should make us more efficient.”
Sandrone took Aha’s ticket from inside her coat and handed it to the girl beside her.
Columbina accepted the ticket, pressed it against her palm, lowered her eyes, and closed them.
For a moment, even the wind seemed to stop.
Through Eous’s eyes, Belle watched the scene and held back the urge to scratch her head.
—That’s it?
She’s sensing it with her eyes closed?
Belle had expected some kind of precise detector, a blinking screen, or at least a small device that could scan the area.
But the result was… just standing there with her eyes closed?
While holding a piece of paper?
Columbina stood still, the ticket in her hand, lashes lowered and face calm, as if she were taking a light afternoon nap.
Sandrone crossed her arms and watched her.
Hm?
Ticket?
She froze.
That bastard Aeon of Elation had given them something else before, hadn’t he?
Sandrone frowned as she thought it over…
Ah!
She snapped back to herself and struck a fist into her palm.
A shameful memory came rushing back—the so-called safety rope!
When they first arrived in this new world, there had been too many things to remember.
She’d somehow forgotten about it.
But… when she went out to buy breakfast that morning, she went alone.
Why hadn’t the safety rope triggered then?
Sandrone couldn’t figure it out for a moment.
Could it be… the safety rope had already stopped working?
Sandrone thought it over in silence.
“This way.”
Her pink pupils glowed with faint light as she raised a hand and pointed northwest.
“Received.” Belle shifted the HDD’s scan focus in that direction at once.
“I’ll look for a route…”
Seeing the two of them move, Sandrone chose to put the matter aside.
Forget it.
She’d deal with it later.
–+–
The route that followed went far more smoothly than Belle had expected.
The direction Columbina gave stayed steady from start to finish, like an unseen anchor that fixed them to the right path.
But Hollows never offered straight roads.
Blocked passages, sudden Hollow fissures, and packs of Ethereals forced them to adjust their direction every so often.
Wise kept his eyes on the terrain data mapped by the HDD, his fingers moving fast across the keyboard as he helped his sister find the route.
“Go straight ahead. There’s a Hollow fissure up front. Once you pass through it, you’ll be…”
Belle’s voice stopped.
Below the Hollow fissure ahead, the energy signals of several Ethereals were packed together.
Sandrone noticed the brief pause and stopped walking.
“What’s wrong?”
“There’s a Hollow fissure up ahead. Going through there would save us a lot of time…” Belle slowed her words a little.
“But a group of Ethereals is blocking the entrance. If we go around them, we’ll have to backtrack to the last fissure and take another path. The detour would add… about thirty minutes.”
Sandrone didn’t answer.
She turned her head toward Columbina.
The girl’s gaze passed over the restless Ethereals and landed on some unseen point farther away.
“No need to go around.”
Her voice was soft, yet carried a steady certainty that put people at ease.
“What?”
Before Belle could react, Columbina pulled Sandrone over to a ruined wall and bent down.
Her slim palm rested on a concrete block as tall as a person.
The movement was light and casual, as if she were only brushing dust off it.
The next second—
“Whoosh!”
The concrete block turned into a gray-black blur.
It tore through the air and slammed right into the middle of the Ethereal pack dozens of meters away.
“Boom!!!”
Fragments burst apart.
Dust rolled outward.
Seven or eight Ethereals vanished into the ripples of the shockwave, leaving not even scraps behind.
“Wha—”
Belle lost her voice for a moment, her eyes wide and round.
“…Ehn-nah?” After coming back to her senses, she couldn’t help making a Bangboo sound.
Belle opened her mouth in shock.
She looked at the screen, where the energy signals had been wiped into dead silence in an instant, then looked at that slender hand, the same hand that had just tossed a several-hundred-pound object like it was nothing and was now brushing dust from its palm as if nothing had happened.
“…”
She decided to leave the question of “does this make any sense?” to her future self.
“…For the next Ethereal groups,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady, “do we still need to take detours?”
“From now on,” Sandrone said, her voice as calm as ever, “just plan the shortest route.”
“…Okay.”
As expected, anyone Nicole introduced had to have some serious tricks up their sleeve…
Belle silently deleted each long route she’d planned to avoid fights.
–+–
They found the first part before long.
Columbina stopped in front of a tilted pillar.
“It’s here.”
She pointed at the tilted pillar.
Behind it stood a wall that was still mostly intact.
Belle looked and looked in the direction Columbina was pointing, but saw nothing.
Then Sandrone and Columbina pushed something out from the shadow between the pillar and the wall—
A box?
Belle’s thoughts jammed for half a second.
The box reached almost to Sandrone’s chest.
Its red-and-white paint was so bright it hurt to look at, and a ridiculous clown mask grinned from one side, its smile stretched almost to its ears.
A huge, flashy thing like that had been sitting right there in the shadow at the base of the wall, plain as day.
And yet Belle had stared at the spot for a full thirty seconds and somehow hadn’t noticed it.
“This…” Belle’s voice drifted a little.
“How did I not see that at all just now?”
Sandrone didn’t explain.
She reached out and peeled the ticket off the lid.
Pop.
With a small sound, the clown mask sagged like it had lost all its air.
At the same time, the box’s glaring, almost provocative appearance seemed to pull itself back.
It was still eye-catching, still flashy, but the strange visual paradox of “how did I not see it?” had vanished.
Belle didn’t ask further.
She had already seen more than enough impossible things today.
One more didn’t matter.
“We found the box. Let’s leave the Hollow and rest for a bit.”
Belle glanced at the data on the HDD.
“You’ve already been active for several rounds past the recommended safe activity time in the Hollow. Even if your Ether aptitude is high, you should still take a break.”
Sandrone crossed her arms and gave a small nod.
“Fine.” She paused.
“It’s time for lunch anyway.”
“Columbina.” Sandrone turned to the girl beside her.
“The box.”
Columbina stepped forward and placed her slender fingers on the edge of the box.
She gave it a light press—and the huge box rose from the ground like a balloon, floating in the air beside her.
“…” Belle shook her head and chose to stop thinking.
“I’ll have my brother drive over to pick you up,” she said, her voice light again.
“Thank you.” Sandrone nodded once more.
“You’ve worked hard, Belle. Get some rest too.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. It’s what I should do.” Belle patted the Bangboo’s round head.
“Let’s go. Time to pull out.”