√A Chapter 01: 【Awakening and Forgetting】 9/16/2030 9:16

√A Chapter 01: 【Awakening and Forgetting】 9/16/2030 9:16

LABO Basement Area 1, Inner Ring

Watase

MY consciousness is inside endless darkness. A closed-off world with nothing in it. Sight, sound, touch, smell, taste—I’ve been severed from all my senses. There’s no world around for me to interact with.

What the heck is going on? What happened to me?

Fragmented memories and emotions flicker through my mind as I rack my brain for answers: the smell of blood and mind-boggling pain, imminent death and the fear of what was coming, something dreadful trying to erase me for good—

Did I…freakin’ die…?!

No, I didn’t. I just heard a thumping heartbeat. The sound of my heart beating. I can hear. I have control of my five senses. My body and mind both exist together.

I’m…ALIVE!

“…tain! Please come back to us, Captain!”

I open my eyes to the sound of a woman speaking right over me. The first thing I see is the faces of two people I don’t recognize. To my left is a tall woman wearing orange coveralls over her broad and muscular shoulders. She gives off an air of maturity, with cleverness lighting up her amber eyes and her vulpine facial features.

She cries out in relief when she sees me awake. “Ah! You’ve finally come to! I’m so glad you’re okay!”

“Wh-What?”

The other woman stares down at my bewildered face and lets out a reassured sigh. “Thank God! You didn’t even twitch when we called your name. I thought you’d kicked the bucket!” She speaks like a young boy with a youthful voice. She’s short, baby-faced, and has a tooth protruding beneath her upper lip. She’s wearing the same orange coveralls as the other woman.

But I don’t recognize either of them. Wh-Who are they? Who’s this captain?

Confused beyond confusion, I scan my surroundings. I’m inside an unfamiliar building. I seem to have passed out in a corridor. Fluorescent lights illuminate the corridor where thick doors are lined up at equal intervals. Because there are no windows, I can’t tell whether it’s day or night.

“What is this place…? Why the heck am I—” Intense pain suddenly courses through my head, stopping me short. “AUGH!”

“Captain?!” The women raise their worried voices.

My arms come into view as I instinctively clutch my aching head. Apparently, I’m wearing the same orange coveralls as them. Thick leather gloves cover my hands and waterproof rubber boots protect my feet.

Incoherent images of disasters, accidents, and rescues zip through my mind. Is this some sort of firefighter uniform? Does that make these women, and myself, firefighters? But…I don’t feel like one.

I have no recollection of being a part of a fire brigade. Or more like I have no recollection of anything at all. For whatever inexplicable reason, I have no idea who I am.

“Who…in the world am—”

The woman with the protruding canine tooth creases her brow at my utterance. “L-Lieutenant! Captain’s not acting right!”

How was I supposed to respond to that?

The more mature woman being called lieutenant studies my face. “…Captain, do you not recognize us? Do you know your name?”

“My name…? Uhh, I’m…” I falter without an answer.

KA-BOOM! The air trembles with a roaring sound that shakes the ground.

“Wh-What was that?!”

Ignoring my shock, the women exchange apprehensive looks.

“Another explosion?! Let’s move out, Moribe!”

“O-Okay! Wait here, Captain!”

“Wha-?! H-Hey!” With no understanding of the situation, I chase after them. Running, I shout, “Wait for me!”

The baby-faced woman called Moribe glances over her shoulder. “Captain?! I told you to wait!”

“I-I can’t, not until you tell me what’s going on! What was that sound? What’s going on?!”

“HUH?! You don’t even know the situation we’re in?!”

“N-Nope…”

“You’ll figure it out if you come! This way!”

I see a large iron door at the end of the corridor past her. The lieutenant operates the terminal beside it, and the door slides open with the sound of releasing air pressure.

An intense wave of heat surges through the opening and is upon us in seconds.

“What the…?!”

A sea of fire blazes on the other side of the door, the corridor beyond engulfed in flames. Sparks are flying in every direction and a heat haze distorts visibility. I tremble with fear before the fiery inferno, but the women quickly take action as if they’re unfazed by it.

“Moribe, get a hose ready!”

“Roger! Outta the way, Captain!” Moribe shoves me aside and pulls a hose from the fire hydrant on the wall. The lieutenant takes it and points the nozzle toward the wild flames. “Lieutenant, here comes the water!” Moribe twists a valve on the hydrant, releasing a pressurized stream of water.

Forcing back the raging fire with that surge, Lieutenant shouts, “Moribe, search for survivors!”

“Roger!” Moribe immediately starts shouting at the top of her lungs to the burning surroundings. “Is anyone here?! We’re members of the rescue squad! We have come to save you!”

Hearing her say that confirms it for me—they aren’t firefighters, but rescue workers.

In other words, I’m most likely also— My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of a faint reply being drowned out by Moribe’s voice. I strain my ears. And then I hear it from the first room in the fiery corridor—a young girl’s voice muffled by the crackling pops of the angry flames.

“H-Help me…!”

Someone’s on the other side of that door?! I launch into a run, weaving my way between the few gaps in the violent flames. The door has been crushed and distorted by the heat. I kick it open and hurtle into the room.

It’s an expansive office bigger than the average Japanese apartment. The fire has already spread to this room filled with desks.

Sparks singe my hair and thick smoke burns my eyes and lungs. Enduring the pain, I rake my teary eyes over the area until I spot a girl crouched under a desk in a corner of the burning room.

“A-Are you okay?!”

The girl looks up at the sound of my voice. But the moment her eyes meet mine, she screams. Her face freezes with dread as if she has just encountered the devil in hell.

Why is she giving me that look when I came to rescue her?! Hesitation stops me dead in my tracks.

<Don’t stop! Save her!>

I gasp. I don’t know whose voice this is. It almost seems to be echoing from within me. But everything makes sense now. I finally realize why I’m here.

I came here to save her! The moment that realization sticks, I feel my divided body and nerves become one again.

<Go save her!>

The voice echoes through my head for the second time, propelling me into action. I lunge into the blazing inferno.

Area 1, Outer Ring

SOMEONE yanks me by the collar before I can rush into the flames to help her.

“Captain! You can’t just blindly charge in like that!” Moribe sternly informs me.

I argue urgently, “But if we don’t do something, that girl will—”

“I know that! I’ll take care of it! Lieutenant, back me up!”

“Roger!” the other woman shouts from where she was spraying the hose a short distance away and turns the hose on the middle of the room.

The stream of water blasts the flames aside, carving a narrow path through the fire. She angles the hose up, aiming for the ceiling next, where the water shatters into spray on impact. Moribe charges into the room as if clad in the light drizzle. It’s perfect teamwork. She pushes her way through the flames, mist, and steam.

“Score! Survivor secured!” She returns from the fire with the girl on her shoulders.

“A-Amazing! Great job!” I applaud her in the heat of the moment.

Moribe shoves the girl into my arms without taking a moment to bask in the successful rescue. “What’re you complimenting me for? I’m not a rookie! Anyway, take care of this girl for me, Captain!”

“Why?! Hey! Come back here!”

Moribe breaks into another run, shouting the same lines as before. “Is anyone here?! We’re here to rescue you!”

But no one responds. This girl seems to be the only person in this corridor.

I quickly lead the girl by the hand to a place that’s not on fire. Once we get there, she sinks to the ground and stares out at the swaying flames in terror. Clueless about how to proceed, I merely stand like a dumb rock beside her.

After a hard fight, the lieutenant succeeds in dousing the fire on this floor. She shuts off the valve sending water to the hose and looks back at us. “The fire has been extinguished. You’re both safe now.”

Moribe returns from scouring the corridor for survivors and sweetly addresses the girl, “Are you hurt anywhere, miss?”

“N-No…,” the girl stammers.

Clad in a gothic Lolita outfit, she appears to be in her late teens. Her face is pale and she has frighteningly good looks, but she also gives off the impression of frailty.

I wanted to save her, but I was completely useless in both the rescue attempt and putting out the fires. Moribe eyes me suspiciously as I wallow in my powerlessness.

“…Earth to Captain? You there? You’ve been acting strange.”

“S-Strange how?”

“Like you’re completely worthless baggage? And your word choice and actions are unusual for you. Did something happen?”

“S-Sorry. I’m equally as clueless…” I start by apologizing before getting to my question. “…There’s something I want to confirm with you. You guys have been calling me ‘Captain,’ so I take it that means I’m the captain of a rescue squad?”

“Well, duh. Where did that question come from?”

“Here’s the thing…I don’t know. Who am I? What is this place?”

“HUH?!”

Everyone goes slack-jawed at my admission.

Moribe wryly asks, “D-Don’t tell me you’ve got amnesia? You’re pulling my leg again, aren’t you, Captain?”

“No… I wish I was, but I’m not…”

I know what amnesia is. And the fact that it doesn’t occur often. But it’s also true I have zero knowledge about myself. Only the memories pertaining my personality and current situation have unnaturally vanished.

How could this be anything but amnesia?

The lieutenant’s suspicious voice cuts into my thoughts. “Please hold on a moment, Captain. Did you hurt your head by any chance?”

“My head? Now that you mention it, I had a horrible headache a few minutes ago…”

“I thought so… There’s a possibility you hit your head on something. Your confusion and forgetfulness are likely temporary symptoms caused by the impact.”

“Do you think my memories will return with time?”

“I do. However, if you suffered any brain damage, there is a possibility your amnesia could become permanent. And there have been cases of people dying when the damage is left untreated.”

“People have died…?!” My heart plummets.

“Captain, how bad is your headache? Do you feel like throwing up?” Moribe rattles off questions, sounding worried.

“N-Nothing hurts right now. I don’t feel nauseous either.”

“Then you should be in the clear, but…let me check to be sure.” Moribe grabs my arm, rolls up my sleeve, and checks my wrist. I hadn’t noticed I’ve been wearing some sort of metal wristband.

“What’s this?”

“It’s called a Vital Checker. It’s a device that automatically checks the wearer’s vitals.”

On closer inspection, I see several numerical readings and five green lights lit up on the digital device.

A relieved smile replaces Moribe’s frown. “Your status is all green. No irregularities with your pulse, blood pressure, or anything else. You’re the picture of health.”

“So I don’t have to worry about dropping dead any time soon…?”

“This isn’t a proper medical exam, so we can’t relax yet. Make sure to go for a real checkup later.”

I take her advice to heart.

Just then, out of the blue, the lieutenant gasps. “Oh no! We have to inject the girl with medicine before it’s too late!” She pulls some sort of ampoule-like container from her pocket. Holding it out toward the girl, she says, “Miss, please extend your arm for a moment.”

“N-No…I don’t want that shot…” the girl fearfully resists.

“Don’t say that! You’ll be in serious danger without it!” She seizes the girl’s arm. Not taking no for an answer, she rolls the girl’s sleeve up and injects her with the ampoule.

“Ah!” the girl moans, trembling.

I cock an eyebrow at that display. “What are you injecting her with?”

“It’s called AD,” the lieutenant explains. “Put in layman’s terms, it’s a drug that prevents radiation exposure—an anti-radiation drug.”

My heart lurches. I don’t fully understand what it means, but an ominous feeling creeps into the back of my mind. “Did you just say it’s an anti-radiation drug?”

“It was provided to us by this facility for use during our mission. We can’t survive in here without injecting ourselves with this drug. After all, every nook and cranny of this building is contaminated with radiation.”

“What?! Stop right there. What’s all this about radiation and contamination? What the hell kind of place is this?”

“A nuclear energy research facility equipped with a small-scale nuclear reactor for research purposes. And that very nuclear reactor just went through a meltdown about two hours ago.”

Meltdown. A nuclear reactor meltdown. This should be the first time I’m hearing that information, and yet, an icy chill snakes along my spine.

“Wh-What exactly does that entail?”

“A meltdown occurs when something causes the reactor core to melt, and the nuclear fuel leaches outside the containment chamber. It’s an extremely serious accident accompanied by frequent explosions and fires. As a result of the meltdown, radioactive materials are spreading from the leak and contaminating this entire facility with radiation.”

“How can that be?! This place doesn’t look contaminated to me—”

“Radiation is invisible to the naked eye and odorless. But it’s definitely here, eating away at our bodies as we speak,” she says clerically, retrieving a small device from her pocket. The palm-sized metallic black box is equipped with a green display with numbers on it. “This is a portable device for measuring radiation. The reading it’s currently showing is 1,108 mSv per hour. This number is equivalent to twenty million times the radiation dose in nature.”

“Twenty million…?!”

“Exposure to abnormally high levels of radiation causes serious negative effects to the human body. This includes vomiting, sores, organ failure, neurological disorders, genetic disorders, and brain cell damage.”

“…!” The lieutenant’s matter-of-fact explanation causes all the hair on my body to bristle with fear.

“All of these health problems can occur with exposure to 100 mSv and above. Meaning we are currently being exposed to extremely dangerous levels of radiation. This environment is so deadly we shouldn’t be able to set foot inside it under normal circumstances.”

“Are you screwing with me?! How can you remain so calm under these hellish circumstances?!”

“Calm down. Please let me finish my explanation,” she sharply tells me off, shutting me up. She continues her explanation with the drug in her hand. “Injecting AD offers almost one hundred percent protection against the effects of radiation exposure as long as you are in an area with low levels of contamination.”

“One hundred percent?!”

“This is a special drug containing medical-grade nanomachines that detoxify and discharge radiation sustained by the human body. Unfortunately, it only lasts for a mere sixty minutes, and we don’t have a large supply of it either.”

“Th-That doesn’t sound good…”

The drug sounds unrealistic, but seeing as she explained it with a straight face, it’s probably real. I feel the chilly tingle in my spine again.

“H-Hey, will we be okay without taking that shot too?”

“What? We only just injected ourselves with it—” The lieutenant stops midsentence and sharply inhales.

Moribe gasps and chimes in, “Oh yeah! When was the last time you gave yourself AD, Captain?!”

“N-No clue… Could be more than sixty minutes ago…”

“That’s bad! Very bad! You’d better inject yourself to be safe! You should have some AD on you!”

I frantically fish through my pockets and, sure enough, find a single ampoule. “Found it! How do you administer this stuff?!”

“It’s easy! All you’ve gotta do is pop off the lid and press the tip against a vein in your arm,” Moribe instructs me.

“L-Like this?” Urged on, I inject the ampoule. The fluid in the container enters my body with the prickling pain of a shot being administered. As the drug courses through me, I feel something fade from my mind.

What is this feeling? Is it the drug’s effect? Something doesn’t seem right, but at least I’m safe for now.

Yet administering the drug to myself doesn’t calm my nerves one bit. No way can I easily accept being dropped into this crazy situation, and without any memories at that.

“…Hey, can you answer me this? Who am I? What’s happening right now? And where’s the exit…?”

“The exit, you ask?” The lieutenant’s expression darkens. “We’ll take you to it now. I’ll explain the situation to you on the way there,” she says and starts walking.

Me, Moribe, and the girl trail behind her.

Between Area 1 and Area 2, Outer Ring

Connecting Passageway

GUIDED by the lieutenant, we walk through what looks like some sort of connecting passageway. A gigantic iron door blocks our path forward, but it opens when the lieutenant operates the terminal beside it. Beyond is yet another corridor lined with doors on both sides. It continues for about fifty-five yards before turning at a dead end.

This is a ridiculously large and complex facility.

“Captain, what would you rather know about first? Your personal information or the situation?” the lieutenant asks as I’m taking in my surroundings.

“Good question. Let’s start with my personal information, please.”

“Very well. Then you should know your name first. It’s Watase Kasasagi.”

“Watase Kasasagi… That’s my name?” It feels odd listening to someone list facts about who I am.

She nods and goes on, “You’re a thirty-two-year-old single man. You’re a member of the Rokumei City Fire Department’s Special Elite Rescue Squad SIRIUS. Your rank is fire lieutenant and you’re the captain of our squad. In other words, that makes you our direct superior. Does any of this ring a bell?”

“No…I can’t remember anything.”

“I see…” The gravity of the situation colors her expression.

Uncomfortable leaving it at that, I ask a question instead. “…By the way, what’re your names?”

“Forgive me for not introducing myself sooner. I’m Fire Sergeant Kazami Tachibana. I serve as lieutenant in your squad.”

“Uh, so should I call you Ms. Tachibana?”

“No, please just call me Tachibana. You don’t have to be overly formal with me,” she answers in a monotone voice.

I’m nodding my agreement, when Moribe enters the conversation. “And I’m Jun Moribe! A twenty-year-old firefighter!”

“You’re twenty? Pretty young.”

“Yep! I’m a rookie officer who just joined this year. My nickname is ‘SIRIUS’s Lady Suicide Squad Captain.’ Let’s get along!” Moribe exclaims, her self-introduction cheerful.

I’m a whole twelve years older than her and her boss, but she doesn’t seem too concerned with typical hierarchical work relationships.

“…Say, Moribe, is SIRIUS a pretty tolerant squad?”

“Whoops! My bad! I usually try to keep my word choice and temper in check, but I get caught up in the heat of things in the field and lose track of it sometimes!”

“Nah, don’t apologize. Doesn’t bother me. It actually makes it easier to get along with you.”

“Wait, really? You sure are understanding today, Captain!” Moribe smacks me on the shoulder.

She’s definitely overly friendly, but she seems to have the skill to back it up. So I can let it pass. Besides, she has nerves of steel, keeping cheerful under these grim circumstances.

Next, I turn to the girl we rescued. “And what might your name be, young lady?”

“…!” She jumps and hides behind Moribe.

She reacted the same way when I found her in the sea of flames. She must still be frightened to death.

As I’m weighing my options over how to interact with her, Moribe intervenes. “Oh dear, Captain, it looks like someone doesn’t like you. You’ve got one intimidating face, so it makes sense why.”

“I do? I wouldn’t know…”

“Don’t let it get you down too much. You’re mostly handsome, aside from your face,” Moribe ribs, then drops to eye level with the girl. “Would you care to tell me your name, little miss?”

The girl holds her silence for a long minute before muttering, “...It’s…Yuuri.” She answers with only her first name.

That name strikes a chord with me. I feel like I’ve heard it before. Scouring my mind doesn’t bring up any solid memory of it, though.

I give up trying, and ask Tachibana for more information that might help. “Now that the introductions are over…could you explain what exactly is going on here?”

“All right. Let me start by telling you more about this facility,” Tachibana says, beginning her solemn report. “We are currently in the underground section of a nuclear research facility located on the outskirts of Rokumei City. This facility’s name is the 6th Laboratory of Atomic and Biological Organization, or LABO for short. It’s a facility with two aboveground and underground floors, with the latter housing a nuclear reactor for research purposes.”

“LABO is the name of facility?” I ask, the abbreviation nagging at the back of my mind.

“Correct. And it was at 6:19 this morning—the morning of September 16, 2030 to be exact—that explosions of unknown origins occurred in the basement levels.”

“Explosions? Did they cause the fire we just fought?”

“Yes. Although the cause of the explosion wasn’t known, they sent a rescue request to SIRIUS’s headquarters. So we rushed to the scene and commenced searching for survivors around 6:30.”

I look at the sturdy watch on my wrist. The digital display reads 9:27 am. The accident occurred about three hours ago.

“Our team of five rushed to the scene. We split into two-member cells, with me and Moribe as one cell, and Dojima and Hiyama—other rescue workers on our team—as another cell to rescue survivors aboveground. You set up a command post on the first floor and gave us orders from there.”

“So we have two other teammates?”

“Yes, we do. Unfortunately, we lost contact with the Dojima/Hiyama cell. We then lost contact with you. This was around 6:35, a mere five minutes after we commenced rescue operations.”

“You lost contact with us? What happened?”

“The three of you might have gone down to the basement floors at the time. Reception is terrible down here, so our radios are practically useless now.”

“I see… But why’d we even go down to the basement floors?”

“This is just my guess, but wouldn’t it be to search for survivors? Members of LABO’s staff told us that the basement floors had already been evacuated and only the upper floors had survivors in need of rescue, but…”

“That wasn’t true?”

“It wasn’t. Moribe and I headed to the basement when we found out there were survivors there as well. But the fires were far worse than we had anticipated, and we lost sight of the survivors while we had our hands full… We had no choice but to set up a makeshift base underground and resume our rescue activities from there.” Tachibana takes a breath and looks me in the eyes. “…Right after that, around 7:15 am, an eerie announcement about a ‘Case N’ was broadcast throughout the facility.”

“Case N? What is that?”

“Given the nature of this facility, it’s probably code for nuclear. We believe that a meltdown occurred in the reactor area around that time. We measured the radiation levels right after the announcement and discovered that they had grown abnormally high, so that’s our theory for now.”

I organize the information Tachibana told me and what I’ve seen for myself to start piecing the puzzle together. What concerns me right now is the steadily growing radiation levels.

“Then shouldn’t we make a break for it? And soon?”

“Yes, we should, but…” Tachibana’s voice trails off, her gaze locking on what lies ahead—a door with the words “Emergency Staircase” written on it.

“That’s the exit, right? Let’s go!” I run to the door and throw it open as if it’s the light at the end of the tunnel. Through the poor lighting I see a metal spiral staircase continuing endlessly into the darkness above. I ascend it with the others, only to be stunned by what’s waiting at the top. “Wh-What the hell is this?!” I groan.

A metal wall blocks the stairwell entrance to the first floor aboveground. We can’t leave the staircase with this in our way.

“And there you have your answer… All exits leading to the surface are currently blocked off by these bulkheads… Meaning we are trapped in LABO’s basement floors.”

“We’re trapped?! Why?!”

“We don’t know. All we do know is that, after announcing there’s a Case N, the PA system indicated they were locking down every bulkhead in the facility. So there’s probably no way out of here…”

“Can’t we just contact someone outside and have them open it for us?!”

“Won’t do any good, ’cause we can’t get in touch with them,” Moribe answers instead. “Every landline phone in here is dead. And like I said before, the radios barely work.”

“Can’t we just break this damn wall or force it open?!” I slam my fists into the bulkhead, but it doesn’t even budge. I can tell from punching it that it’s extremely thick and sturdy. “Dammit! Open up, you piece of shit!”

No matter how hard I punch, kick, or slam into it, the bulkhead is completely unaffected. This isn’t something physical strength can overcome.

“Tch! Looks like we can’t do anything to this without explosives or something.”

“I hate to break it to you, but we don’t have explosives on us. We don’t have any equipment that can destroy it,” Moribe says with a sigh.

Listening to them helped me finally understand the situation. Ultimately, these damn bulkheads have severed the surface from the basement floors.

“…Is there any other way out?”

“None. We’ve tried every possible thing for the two hours we’ve been trapped, and nothing worked. We can’t go through the air ducts. The elevators are out of order. We can’t break through the ceiling either,” Moribe ruefully informs me.

“…Dammit!”

“It gets worse. This facility is supposed to have a flawless sprinkler system, but it’s not working. Fires are breaking out all over the place, and we’ve got no way to figure where they’re coming from.”

“Wh-What the hell? Then we’re totally screwed, aren’t we?!” I start cursing. “We’re being radiated as we speak, fires are everywhere, and we can’t escape?! How the hell did this happ—”

“Chill out, Captain! How do you expect Yuuri not to be afraid if the rescue workers lose their cool?!”

Moribe’s pointed advice draws my attention to Yuuri. She’s hiding behind Tachibana, staring at me, fear-stricken.

“Ah… S-Sorry.”

She’s right. I shouldn’t have a pathetic breakdown in front of an already-scared girl. Amnesia or not, I probably came down here to save people.

“Come to think of it, what are you doing in LABO, Yuuri?”

“I-I’m…related to a staff member, and got caught up in this accident by chance…”

“I see… That’s unfortunate…”

It really is unfortunate—for her and us. I want to do something to get us all out of here, but even I know that won’t be easy. There’s just too much I don’t understand about the current situation.

Why won’t the bulkheads open?

Why has the sprinkler system shut off?

Why did I lose my memories?

“…Hey, Tachibana, what should we do now?”

“I would like to explain that to you in detail as well. Let’s move to the makeshift base we have set up near here first.”

I have no choice but to go along with her plan. My shoulders slump as I make my way down the stairs.

We’ve been trapped in a basement full of rampant fires and radiation. And yet I’ve gone and forgotten how to survive through a crisis, how to save others, and even who I am.

I’m clueless about how to proceed from here. But in any case, I have to take action. My gut tells me that if I don’t move forward, this basement will become my grave.

As powerless as I am without my memories, I have to fight in order to survive.