–+–
The feeling under her feet changed from empty nothing to hard man-made floor tiles, followed by the sharp click of her heels striking the ground.
It was as if some unseen hand had turned down the color in her sight.
The pure white void vanished in an instant, replaced by a dull, stifling mix of yellow and lead-gray.
The air smelled of old rust.
Dry concrete dust stirred in the wind.
This place looked like an abandoned, half-open subway hub.
There was no roof overhead, only a few rows of station canopies that had held up better than the rest.
A thick layer of dust coated their metal frames.
Bright but hazy daylight spilled down from above, lighting this dead, silent place.
The tracks themselves were still fairly even, but several subway cars had derailed.
Some had tipped onto their sides.
Others lay across the platforms.
Huge claw marks gouged deep through their metal shells, almost down to the bone.
And in every corner of the platform grew clusters of giant black crystals, marked with strange dark patterns, like some twisted plant life that had sprouted from the ruins.
“Cough, cough…!”
Sandrone covered her mouth and nose in disgust, waving her other hand hard in front of her face.
“This air quality…”
She lowered her head and swept her gaze over her spotless clothes.
The rubies set into her black high collar and fitted bodice gave off a faint glow in the dim light.
Her white thigh-high stockings and black skirt with gold lace trim were now skimming far too close to the dust-covered floor.
“…How long has this place been abandoned? There isn’t even a shadow of a living person around… What, are we supposed to survive in the wilderness now?”
Sandrone frowned and looked around.
This space made her feel uneasy.
It wasn’t strong, but there was an unseen pressure here, trying to cling to her skin like moss.
“There’s a kind of… invasive energy in the air.” She made the judgment with sharp instinct, her voice dropping a little.
“It’s not elemental power, and it isn’t a fluctuation from the Kuuvahki either… Shame I don’t have any equipment on hand. I can’t analyze it further.”
Sandrone let out an annoyed breath and turned by habit toward her companion.
Columbina stood quietly beside her, as if listening to some faint sound carried on the wind.
Her bare feet, however, were floating half an inch above the ground, as though an invisible film had cut her off from this filthy world.
No matter how the dust swirled below, her graceful ankles and pale pink toes remained spotless, so fair they looked out of place against the gray ruins around them.
“What a handy ability,” Sandrone muttered.
Then, all of a sudden, there came a bright little pop, like the cork of a champagne bottle being pulled free.
The sound rang out in the silence.
A faint burst of festival noise followed, along with a ridiculous honk from a party horn.
Colored paper and glitter fell from the sky as a gaudy piece of card stock appeared out of thin air, wobbling as it floated in front of the two of them, waiting to be taken.
Sandrone frowned and stepped forward, pinching it between her fingers.
[Joyous Troupe Tour Ticket: First Stop]
On the back, a line of crooked childish handwriting had been scrawled by hand:
[Dear audience members:]
[Welcome to the Cretan Hollow! Here we have old trains, angry… ████]
[Current Program: Lost Lambs of the Old Subway Station]
[Suggested Action: Walk! Walk! Until you find a living person who can serve hot coffee! Intelligent Constructs count too~]
[Special Gift: In light of your touching exchange in the void just now, Aha has decided to play matchmaker.]
[Lovers’ Safety Rope~]
[Instructions: In this dangerous world, getting too far apart will make you lonely! From now on, if the straight-line physical distance between you two exceeds five meters, it will trigger “Irresistible Absolute Attraction.” In simple terms, you’ll snap together like strong magnets. Please hold hands at all times and enjoy this sweet journey of perfect closeness~ ♥]
“…”
Sandrone read the last line with no expression.
Columbina tilted her head and murmured, “Aha?… A god I’ve never heard of.”
Riiiip.
The ticket turned into a cloud of paper scraps in Sandrone’s hand.
“That bastard!!!”
Sandrone ground her teeth.
The white bow on her chest rose and fell sharply.
“What does ‘play matchmaker’ mean? What does ‘afraid of being lonely’ mean? And what ‘sweet journey’? Who wants to be tied to someone like conjoined twins?!”
“Five meters?” Columbina, on the other hand, seemed rather interested.
She even tapped the ground lightly with the tip of her foot, clearly in a good mood.
She closed her eyes and tilted her head a little, as though sensing something.
“The local residents are still some distance away…” she murmured, her tone so soft she might have been talking about the weather.
“Since we’re still safe for now…”
“…Sandrone~ Shall we test it?”
“Test what? What’s there to test about a stupid prank like this—hey!”
Before Sandrone could react, Columbina suddenly sprang backward.
Her movement was like a bird leaving its nest.
Her light gauze dress fluttered as she widened the space between them in an instant.
One meter.
Three meters.
Four meters.
Five meters…
The very moment Columbina’s heel crossed the five-meter line—
Bzzz!
A huge, brutal force appeared out of nowhere.
“Eh—!”
Sandrone didn’t even have time to adjust her stance.
It felt as if an invisible rope had been tied around her waist, and her whole body flew forward out of her control.
At the same time, Columbina clearly hadn’t expected the force to be so strong either.
Her slender body became a blur through the air, and the graceful landing she had planned turned into a complete loss of control.
Sandrone’s eyes widened as Columbina’s delicate face rushed closer in her sight.
She could even see the slight curl of the other girl’s lashes.
There was no room to brake.
Some strange power forced the distance between them down to zero.
“Wait, stop—mmph!”
Sandrone crashed straight into Columbina’s arms, as if she’d hit a soft mass of cotton.
Then the force dragged them both down together in a tangled fall.
Thud!
Even with Columbina beneath her as a cushion, the impact still left Sandrone dizzy.
The world spun, then stilled, leaving only a ringing in her ears.
She lay on top of Columbina, her cheek buried right in the soft hollow of the other girl’s neck.
She could clearly smell that familiar cool scent, faint and clean, like winter mint.
From somewhere in the void, a laugh drifted over.
It sounded bright, gleeful, and far too infectious.
“…It seems what they said was true.”
The girl beneath her let out a small laugh.
A weak breath brushed Sandrone’s ear, sending a fine shiver through her.
Sandrone’s eyes flew open.
She pushed herself up, only to realize how awful their position was.
She was straddling Columbina’s waist, her skirt spread like flower petals.
In her panic, both of her hands had landed on Columbina’s chest, and even through the fabric, the feeling was impossible to ignore.
Columbina just lay there in silence.
Her loose hair spilled across the floor tiles.
At some point, her pale pink eyes had opened, and now they gazed up at the person above her, soft as water and looking far too innocent.
Worst of all, Columbina didn’t push her away.
Instead, her arms slipped around Sandrone’s waist, and she gave her back a light pat, as if soothing a startled animal.
“Let… let go!”
Sandrone’s face turned bright red as she tried to get up, only to find that the damned “safety rope” was still in effect.
The instant her body left Columbina’s, that familiar tug appeared around her waist again, like an invisible hand dragging her right back.
“Mmph!”
She was pulled back onto Columbina before she could brace herself.
Her forehead almost hit the other girl’s chin, and her cheek sank into Columbina’s neck again.
The tip of her nose brushed against cool, smooth skin.
“Sandrone, your face is very red,” Columbina said, her voice still calm and flat.
“Is it because you’re nervous?”
“It’s because I’m mad!” Sandrone’s cheeks turned even redder, the color reaching the tips of her ears.
She clenched her teeth and pushed her upper body up again, though this time she didn’t blindly try to stand.
Seven seconds.
Eight seconds…
Rustle, rustle…
Feeling the restless little hand at her waist, Sandrone stared down at the innocent-faced girl beneath her and snapped in shame and anger, “You—! When did you become so… so awful?! Let go already!”
“But I want to hold Sandrone.” Columbina met her gaze without a hint of guilt.
Her tone stayed calm, though there was a faint trace of teasing in it.
Fourteen seconds.
Fifteen seconds…
That reply was so direct it felt like punching cotton.
All of Sandrone’s anger got stuck in her throat.
She held herself up on her arms and felt dust grains clinging to the fabric under her palms.
“The ground is covered in dust! Doesn’t it bother you?!”
Columbina heard this and tilted her head slightly, as if she were giving the question real thought.
Yet not a bit of disgust showed on her face.
Instead, she tightened the arms around Sandrone’s waist and pulled the body trying to escape back toward her.
“It’s all right,” she said softly, with a trace of pleased laziness in her voice.
“This position… doesn’t make me uncomfortable.”
“Who cares whether you’re comfortable?!”
Sandrone shot back like a ruffled cat, though her voice had clearly lost its rhythm.
“I-I’m only saying… standing up and hugging is still hugging! There’s no need to do it in this position, right?!”
Twenty-two seconds.
Twenty-three seconds…
The moment the words left her mouth, the air seemed to freeze.
Columbina blinked, but did not answer right away.
In that choking deadlock, Sandrone’s tense body suddenly paused.
She took a deep breath, forced herself to calm down, and tested the pull by slowly pushing herself up.
At last, that rough force vanished.
“About thirty seconds…”
Sandrone clenched her teeth and stood up at once, without the slightest hesitation.
“This damned safety rope!”
Once steady, she looked down and saw that her white thigh-high stockings were already smeared with dust from the floor.
Her carefully kept skirt looked even worse, and there was a suspicious black stain on it.
Sandrone finally snapped.
“Aha, was it—!”
She slapped the dust from her skirt with force and ground out through her teeth, “Just you wait!!!”
Right then, a screeching scrape that set her teeth on edge came from the shadows around them.
Clearly, the “local residents” of this area had run out of patience and didn’t plan to keep watching.
Several twisted figures slowly appeared, surrounding the old platform.
Sandrone’s hand froze in the middle of brushing off her skirt.
The emotion called “embarrassed anger” was replaced in an instant by cold alertness.
Columbina, meanwhile, rose at an unhurried pace.
Eyes closed, she lightly dusted off her skirt, seeming not to care about the approaching monsters.
They were several upright humanoid monsters, thin and tall, with long limbs.
Most of their bodies were covered in matte black crystalline exoskeletons, and spikes jutted from their backs.
At the edges of their joints and torsos, exposed lines of glowing green energy flowed.
They had no faces.
Instead, each one had a floating round luminous core, with deep black at the center and a faint pink halo around the edge.
Its right arm extended into a sharp crystal blade the same color as its body.
Sandrone swept her gaze over them, and her frown deepened at once.
She made no effort to hide the disgust in her voice.
“Ugly. Uglier than the Wild Hunt of Nod-Krai.”
She complained, but her eyes stayed sharp as they moved across the monsters.
“That damned bastard should’ve at least sent Pulonia here too!”
The monsters seemed enraged by her voice.
They let out a soundless howl, and several black shadows leaped at once, lunging from different directions.
“Columbina, we…” Sandrone gripped her hand by instinct.
“It’s all right, Sandrone.”
Columbina’s voice was soft and steady.
She seemed to have noticed the flaw in Sandrone’s memory as well, but she did not point it out.
She merely stood there in silence.
She didn’t even raise her hand.
The next second, countless dark blue threads shot out from the walls, the ground, and even the air around them.
Sharp threads crossed and wove through the air, piercing, wrapping, and binding the Ethereals that had pounced at them.
Crack.
With a light sound, all the threads tightened at once.
The monsters had no time to cry out before they were cut apart with ease, breaking down and fading into the air.
“…” Sandrone stared at the scene, stunned for a moment.
“You… got your power back?”
In her memory, Columbina should have been weak.
Was there something wrong with her memory, or had she forgotten something important?
A faint sense that something was off slipped through her heart.
“Mhm,” Columbina answered softly.
Sandrone stared at her calm face for a long while.
There wasn’t even a trace of fatigue there.
At last, she relaxed a little, and the worry in her heart slipped away.
She turned to look at the monsters as they vanished and muttered, “Where the hell did that Aha throw us?”
Before the two of them could keep exploring the area, another burst of noise sounded, followed by another rain of paper scraps.
The ticket Sandrone had torn apart before appeared again, whole and untouched.
Only now, a few new lines had been added, the handwriting even more crooked than before and easy to tell had just been written.
[Whoopsie, my bad, my bad! I forgot about that big toy of yours with no self-awareness! Honestly, it’s such a huge lump, but it has no presence at all!]
[Additional Reward: Loyal Guardian—Pulonia]
[How to Redeem: After leaving this Hollow area, tear off the ticket stub to summon it. Honest deal for young and old alike~]
Sandrone pinched the ticket.
Veins stood out on the back of her hand, as if she might rip it apart again in the next second.
In the end, she stopped herself and threw the ticket to the ground with a vicious flick.
Then she lifted her foot and planted her thin black heel right in the center of the ticket.
With plenty of anger, she twisted her ankle and ground down hard, as if trying to grind the smiling face of that bastard called Aha into the concrete floor of the ruins.
Only after venting did she pull her foot back.
She glanced at the “evidence” on the ground, now marked with a clear heel print, and gave a cold snort.
Columbina thought she would leave it there, but Sandrone stayed frozen in place for a moment longer.
At last, as if she had given in to something, she bent down against her will and picked up the wrinkled ticket with two fingers, her face full of disgust.
She looked it over, took a clean white handkerchief from her pocket, and wiped the dust and heel mark from the ticket with a touch of temper.
Only after folding the ticket with care and putting it away did she notice Columbina watching her without a word.
Sandrone froze a little.
“Ahem… Pulonia is Alain’s unfinished final work, after all.” Her stiff tone tried to cover that trace of awkwardness.
“…Why did you open your eyes again?”
“Because I wanted to look at you.”
Columbina answered softly.
Her voice still sounded airy and distant, and Sandrone’s stiff figure was reflected in those water-like eyes.
Sandrone opened her mouth with some exhaustion, about to say something to refute that painfully direct honesty.
But the strange mood was torn apart by a sudden burst of noise in the distance.
Bang!
The sounds of fierce fighting and gunshots came from the open area outside the platform.
Then came a few broken, panicked shouts:
“Oh, crap, I forgot to reload!”
“Friend! Friend, hold on! Time out! Just a tiny time out! We can talk this through!”
Sandrone and Columbina looked at each other.
“…Go take a look?” Sandrone raised a brow.
Columbina took her hand with perfect ease.
“Mhm. Let’s go take a look.”
–+–
T/N: Aha’s more of a plot device.
We alr know that zzz is in a completely diff universe compared to hi3, hi, and hsr.