Right up until I passed through the door, my head was a mess.
A situation where I can't go back to the officetel either.
So where I'm supposed to stay from now on, how much money I have left.
Whether I can ignore it all like this and go on living my actual life.
And so on.......
Between the absurd things that had happened to me and the practical problems, my head felt ready to burst.
But.
All of it was pointless worrying.
Right now there are handcuffs on my wrists.
And I'm still in a swimsuit!
No, and it isn't only the handcuffs.
This is the inside of a small bus with its interior remodeled.
Every seat has been torn out, and in the middle of the bus, only the one seat I'm sitting in is left, all by itself.
And it isn't an ordinary seat either.
A chair of bizarre design that belongs in an underground torture chamber, fitted with wrist restraints, ankle restraints, even a waist belt.
And I'm tied to that chair right now!
The one saving grace is that the seat cushion is soft, maybe?
Anyone looking at this vehicle from outside would never imagine the interior looked like this.
Because it's painted bright yellow, like a kindergarten shuttle bus.
"Bored?"
That man glancing back at me from the driver's seat.
Of all things, he's dyed his hair a yellow similar to this vehicle's color.
'Surely he didn't match it on purpose?'
"We're still a long way off, so get some sleep."
He seems about my age, but he's been speaking casually to me right off the bat, since the moment we met.
That guy is also the one who put these cuffs on me.
When I came out of the pool with Ryu Do-ha, that guy and the other Formless Special Division people were waiting for us.
"I'll sleep on my own when I feel sleepy."
I badly wanted to snap at him about why he was speaking so casually to me and why he'd cuffed me again, but for now I decided to hold it in.
The Formless Special Division.
After all, it wasn't the first time they'd put cuffs on me, and everyone from that outfit had made a poor first impression....... but seeing Ryu Do-ha, they didn't seem to be such a bad organization.
Besides, honestly, right now I'm exhausted mentally and physically.
I might as well get some sleep, like Yellow Head said.
.
.
.
......?
I opened my eyes at the feeling of my groin going weightless.
"Wh, what is this?!"
This bus I'm riding in.
It's falling!
"It's fine, it's fine."
That is all that Yellow Head says.
No, what's fine about it?
We're still falling!!
And it's dark outside the window.
As if we'd entered a tunnel, all I can see out there is darkness rushing past upward.
At this rate.......
"Heeelp!"
"I'm telling you it's really fine."
I wrung out every last ounce of strength, down to the strength I used as a nursing infant, trying to get free of this damn chair, but.......
The restraints must be high performance, because my body doesn't budge at all.
Regardless of my desperate effort the vehicle keeps falling....... and I'm tied to this chair, unable to move.
The only thing I can put faith in.
This soft cushion my backside is planted on.
Please.
Just as I was entertaining the ridiculous hope that with this much cushioning I might barely survive even if my whole body shattered.
The falling speed gradually begins to slow.
And.
BOING, BOING.
The bus arrived at the bottom with a cute spring sound.
Yellow Head gives me a thumbs-up.
"Told you it was fine, didn't I?"
"......."
I don't have the presence of mind to answer.
The headlights come on.
Beyond the front windshield, what's visible is a dark tunnel.
The vehicle begins moving again.
"Haa......."
A sigh of relief leaking out.
And only then does the question surface.
'Where on earth is he taking me?'
A little later the bus stopped.
Yellow Head pops out of the driver's seat and comes toward me.
"Where is this......?"
Instead of answering, he begins undoing the restraints wound around me one by one with practiced hands.
My body has quickly regained its freedom, but what's visible outside the window is still nothing but darkness.
"I asked, where is this?"
Yellow Head raises one corner of his mouth obnoxiously.
"They said not to take that glove off."
"What?"
"The glove you've got on."
A glove?
Only then does the leather glove wrapped around my left hand register.
A brown leather glove worn on the left hand only, not both.
"They said it's there to hold your power down."
My power.......
Right, 'Submergence.'
But.......
"Told not to take it off? By whom?"
"Sister Do-ha."
Ryu Do-ha said that?
"You'll have a lot of questions, but...... they'll probably notice soon that we took a detour."
"......What?"
'A detour?'
Yellow Head checks the watch on his wrist.
"However long Sister stalls for us, a pursuit team will be put together soon......."
"Hold on! Who's coming after us?"
"Who do you think? My colleagues. Come on, let's go."
That is all he says before getting off the vehicle.
The instant I hurry after him and step off, cold air hits my face.
Beneath the headlights lighting the darkness ahead, gravel is laid down, and beneath that, old rails are exposed.
Yellow Head is walking forward along those rails.
"Hurry up! But don't run!"
'No, why are his colleagues chasing us?'
When I hurry after him, he turns and shouts at me.
"I said don't run."
"No, why are your colleagues coming after us?!"
"Because we broke off partway!"
"What?"
"Ah, be quiet and just walk. You can't get there by running."
Broke off partway? What does that mean?
He must have read my expression; Yellow Head added shortly in an irritated voice.
"I'll explain everything once we get there, so just follow what I say for now. Got it? So walk. Don't run."
"......."
When I slow my pace at that, Yellow Head walks ahead again.
The only light source here is the vehicle's headlights.
The space the light doesn't reach is simply darkness itself.
And we're walking toward deeper darkness right now.
CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH—
The sound of gravel underfoot echoes along the tunnel walls.
"Can't you at least tell me where we're going?"
I asked, unable to bear the surroundings growing darker and darker.
At which Yellow Head glances at me and answers.
"A secret place only Sister and I know about."
A secret place?
One only the two of them know?
"Hey, you're thinking something weird, aren't you?"
"......No."
"Nothing weird about it. Even I only went once when I was a kid; this is my first time since becoming an adult, after all."
"Then why are you taking me to this secret place?"
"You said just tell you where we're going."
"No, it's because you suddenly said someone's chasing us."
At my words his steps stop.
"Us? No, they're chasing you. Hey, I'm the one with more to ask. What exactly are you? Why would Sister hide you and give up her own secret place to do it?!"
"......."
"But you know why I'm not asking? My role is to jump when they say jump. And like I said earlier......."
He taps his wristwatch.
"There's no time. Once we get there we'll have more than enough time to talk anyway, so for now just follow me and don't say anything."
"......."
When I shut my mouth, he taps his watch once more in warning and walks ahead.
Fine, for now let's follow him.
I don't know the reason, but since he says someone's chasing us.......
.
.
.
When I look behind me, the vehicle's lights are visible far off.
'We've walked quite a way.'
The surroundings have grown dark enough now that I can barely make out my own hand in front of me.
My jaw trembles at the strengthening cold.
Has Yellow Head forgotten that I'm in a swimsuit right now?
At this rate I really will freeze to death.
"How much further do we have to go?"
"Almost there."
I hunched my body up tight and kept walking.
A little further on, the light of the headlights that had been reaching us disappears entirely, and all that's visible is darkness.
CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH—
I advance relying only on the footsteps ahead of me.
And just as I'd walked on until I couldn't help but open my mouth.
CRUNCH.
The footsteps ahead stopped.
"Here it is."
A voice from the darkness.
But.......
'What does he mean, here......?'
Nothing is visible.
The question lasted only a moment.
A red light comes on in the darkness.
Like the North Star hanging in a dark night sky, the red light illuminates somewhere, as if guiding us.
What's there is an iron door thick with rust.
Faint lettering remains on the door.
<Manggok Station>
'Manggok Station? Was there ever a station like that?'
It has a rather unpleasant ring for a station name.
Yellow Head's face, stained red by the light as if drenched in blood.
He walks to the door without a moment's hesitation.
The door opens smoothly despite its rusted appearance.
"Hurry up and come in."
Yellow Head gesturing for me to hurry in.
When I followed him inside, what revealed itself before my eyes was.
An old platform.
"What on earth is this place......?"
"They usually call it an abandoned station, or a ghost station."
He said it calmly and dropped down onto a chair with dust piled thick on it.
Dust flies in every direction, and the color of the chair revealed beneath the flying dust is.
A red as red as blood.
The chair's shape is unfamiliar.
A design with an old-fashioned quality you don't see on today's subway platforms.
"You should sit too. We've got to hole up here a good while."
Ignoring that, I looked around.
Orange-tinted water is seeping from the ceiling ahead and falling in drops, and dust lies so thick over everything that even drawing a small breath feels like it's piling dust in your lungs.
That alone was unpleasant, of course, but what's grating on my nerves is this dank quality I can feel on my skin.
A few incandescent bulbs hanging from cords barely drive back the darkness, but even they are flickering as if about to go out, and those stairs, visible if I so much as raise my head.
The top of the stairs is covered in black mist.
A sight that stirs unpleasant imagination just by looking at it.
"We have to hide here? For how long?"
"About five days?"
......What?
"We have to stay here for five whole days?"
"Yeah."
.......
Is he insane?
How am I supposed to stay here five days?
I'll come down with lung disease and cough up blood and die before that.
"Put this on first."
He takes something out of the bag at his waist and throws it to me.
Catching it, I see it's clothing.
Not ordinary clothing but a kind of work suit with the top and bottom joined.
It's thin as a plastic bag, so it'll have almost no insulating effect, but.......
In my current situation of wearing nothing but a swimsuit, it feels like gaining a thousand troops and ten thousand horses.
"What about shoes?"
When I ask while scrambling into the clothes, Yellow Head snorts.
"What am I, your stylist?"
"......."
"If you're dressed, sit down for a minute. I'll go over the rules you have to keep."
'Rules I have to keep?'
I brushed off the dust and sat beside him.
"Here, take it."
He holds something out to me.
Five ten-thousand-won notes.
And old-series ones, the kind you don't easily see anymore.
"What's this for?"
"Can you go five days without eating anything? There's a kiosk if you go to the opposite side of the platform. You'll have to get food and water there from now on."
"There's a kiosk? Is it even open for business?"
"A train will come in once a day."
A train?
"Didn't you say earlier this was an abandoned station?"
"It isn't an ordinary train, of course. Anyway, the kiosk opens for business when the train comes in, so if you're going to use it, go then."
At his words I reflexively looked around.
A train really comes to a place like this......?
"Is this place also something like a Ghost Story, by any chance?"
"That's right."
"And you want me to go to a kiosk that exists inside a Ghost Story and buy things myself? You could just go yourself! You're the expert!"
"Of course I'd rather go myself. But last time I got caught stealing something there. If I go it probably won't end well."
.......
Caught stealing?
He thought about stealing from a kiosk in a place like this, not even somewhere ordinary?
I'm too stunned for words.
"Just take it. In return, I'm the one paying, aren't I?"
"......."
I had no choice but to reach for the money, but Yellow Head didn't let go of it.
"Why?"
"Don't use new-series notes if you happen to run short."
"......."
"This place is a space in a time period where new-series notes don't exist yet."
.......
My head is starting to ache.
"And if I use new-series notes?"
"Then you'd be regarded as a human who shouldn't exist in this space."
A human who shouldn't exist.......
That's far too frightening.
"There are a few more important rules......."
His eyes suddenly widen slightly.
He's looking at something behind me.
When I turn, what's visible is.
The incandescent bulbs, their light steadily strengthening.
"What crap timing."
"......?"
"A train's coming soon. You aren't hungry, are you?"
"What......?"
"Then skip the kiosk today. The passengers will be flooding in here any moment."
"Passengers? People are coming here?"
"Not real people, obviously. What you have to keep is simple. Never exchange words with them. Even if they speak to you, even if they touch you, just stay still. They won't do anything severe, so don't worry."
"......."
Don't exchange words, don't react even if they touch me?
"And absolutely do not board the train. That's all you have to keep. Then there's no problem at all."
With that, he gets up from his seat.
"Where are you going?!"
"I told you. I got caught stealing something. The kiosk owner wanders around sometimes."
'No, so why did you steal anything in the first place?!'
"I'll be in the men's restroom. The kiosk owner can't come into the men's restroom. Anyway, see you later! Be careful!"
"Then let's go together! I'll go to the restroom too!"
"No! You can't come!"
He shouts urgently and runs for the restroom.
Is it because of the incandescent bulbs pouring out blindingly bright light, or because of this unease filling me right now?
The sight of his back as he runs looks hazy and far away.......
'Damn it.'
This is no time for that.
The platform is changing.
Orange liquid no longer runs from the ceiling, and the floor tiles that had been broken a moment ago are gleaming like new.
And.......
CLACK. CLACK. CLACK.
And the sound of countless footsteps coming from the stairs.
Just as Yellow Head said, people are coming down the stairs.