√A Chapter 09: 【Misery and Suspicion】 9/16/2030 12:15

√A Chapter 09: 【Misery and Suspicion】 9/16/2030 12:15

Radiation Level: 3,961 mSv

Remaining AD: 6

Area 6, Outer Ring

Cargo Lift

WE had hope until then. The cargo lift we finally found after all our searching is supposed to be the only escape route from this death trap of a facility. But the control panel that operates it has already been destroyed—almost like it was intentionally broken. In the place of our crushed hopes we find the remains of a mysterious girl none of us know.

Everyone is dazed by this completely unexpected turn of events.

Tachibana stumbles over to the girl’s body. “I-I must…check her vitals…” She removes the Vital Checker from her wrist and wraps it around the girl’s. All five lights turn deep red. That’s likely a sign the person is dead. Tachibana lays the girl on the floor as she orders, “Moribe, give me a hand. I’m going to perform CPR.”

“O-Okay.” Moribe hurriedly sits down next to the girl.

Tachibana performs cardiac massage fifteen times. Moribe performs artificial respiration two times.

The girl doesn’t respond. Incapable of helping, I watch over them in a haze.

Fifteen compressions. Two rescue breaths.

Fifteen more compressions. Two more rescue breaths.

Still, the girl doesn’t respond.

Ukita crouches down beside her and sadly announces, “…You’re wasting your time. She’s long dead….”

The two rescue workers continue performing CPR regardless.

Fifteen compressions. Two rescue breaths.

Fifteen more compressions. Two more rescue breaths.

Fifteen more compressions. Two more rescue breaths.

Eventually, Tachibana’s watch alarm goes off.

“Hey, Tachibana! It’s time to administer AD!” She ignores me too. It’s almost like she can’t hear or see anyone else. “Tch!”

I let her continue while I pull out the AD and inject myself first. I administer injections to both Miss Ena and Yuuri next. Yuuri always fights us when it comes time for hers, but she’s in so much shock, she lets me do it without a peep.

“Come on, Tachibana! Inject yourself!”

Tachibana is muttering something under her breath that’s not in response to me. I strain my ears to pick up on that breathless voice. “Don’t you die on me, Nagisa!”

Moribe sharply inhales when she makes out what Tachibana muttered. “S-Sis, this girl isn’t Nagisa…!”

Who’s Nagisa? I’m full of questions after hearing that unfamiliar name. Tachibana relentlessly performs CPR without listening to anyone.

Moribe grabs her by the shoulders and yells, “Lieutenant! Stop it already!”

“Ah!” Tachibana finally stops. She darts her eyes around the lift as if she’s just come back to her senses. After a moment of silence, she looks at me and murmurs, “…I’m very sorry, Captain. I did everything I could, but she is dead.”

Tachibana’s voice and face are devoid of life. Terror ices my spine. “T-Tachibana…are you all right?”

“I apologize for worrying you. I am well now.” Her assertive tone is so severe it rejects any further questions.

For a few minutes there, Tachibana was definitely not acting like herself. Her attitude rebuffs any attempts at prying into why.

At any rate, there’s one thing that’s been made clear here—another person has died on my watch!

Hope turned to despondence, we depart the cargo lift room, leaving the girl’s remains where we found them.

Area 6, Outer Ring

Factory

THE Procyon lets out a shrill warning cry in the factory. Alarmed, I check the display—it’s reading 4,001 mSv. Contamination has spread to the factory, shooting the radiation levels up to the first danger standard.

The whole facility could be over 4,000 mSv now if this is anything to go by. That’s a problem just as dire as the dead body we discovered. This hellhole of a facility has now become a danger to our lives even with AD.

“Tachibana, Moribe, Ukita, inject yourselves with AD, stat,” I urge them. “I know you have a lot on your minds, but you need to do this.” I hand out the AD and they administer it in silence.

Our lives have been extended for another hour, but with our escape routes severed, it’s nothing more than a stopgap on our way to certain death.

We’ll have to inject AD five more times before the lockdown officially ends. We’ve already used up the AD we had on hand. I’m fairly certain we combed over most of the facility, so if we didn’t miss a supply of AD lying around, we’ll all be exposed to radiation in an hour.

Do we have to check all the same areas again? Go over it with an even finer toothed comb? That thought is like a jolt to my brain. With our one hope crushed, all my fatigue is catching up to me at once. My body isn’t in perfect shape anymore, either, what with my cracked ribs and the cut on the back of my head. And I shouldn’t forget the countless bruises, scrapes, and burns I’ve gotten along the way.

The others’ faces are equally filled with loss and despair. No one is saying anything. They’re likely just as confused by these unexpected events as I am.

Heavy silence hangs over us. But an abrupt voice from my pocket slices through it.

“—sagi…—…ead me? …Kasasagi, do you read me?!”

It’s a transmission from Commander Murakami! I hastily whip out my PDA and respond, “I read you! This is Kasasagi, over!”

“…—sagi! I finally got a hold of—…—” The transmission has more static noise than ever. The commander talks without waiting for my reply this time. “—…—ception is extremely unstab—…—is will probably be the las—…—nsmission—…”

“Commander! I can’t hear you!”

“—…idn’t find anyone with—…—gun. –ouldn’t confirm if there’s a kill—…”

He seems to be saying that they couldn’t find anyone with a gun or confirm if there’s a killer. I keep my mouth shut and try to catch everything he has to say.

“According to—…—rapped there aside from you guys—…—…—…the ones possibly trapped inside are—…—including the deceased—…—Dojima and Hiyama—…—resear—…—…—I repeat…” Commander Murakami is desperately trying to convey the information we need to know through bursts of static.

“…—rapped with you are—…—Dojima and Hiyama, two researchers—…—…—…—…—…—…—wo research—…—three high school stude—…—…—girl—…—…—…—…—gh school students…—…one girl—…—…—…—…————”

The transmission ends there. Static is all we can hear now. Pocketing the PDA, I confirm what I heard with the others. “Was that a list of the people trapped down here?”

Tachibana thoughtfully answers, “Yes. He was probably trying to tell us who else might possibly be in the basement floors with us.”

“Did you make out what he was saying?”

“From what I could piece together, he said, ‘The ones trapped inside aside from you guys, including the dead, are Dojima and Hiyama, two researchers, and three high school students.’ I think?”

“Wait, he said something else after that. One girl, right?”

“A girl?”

Everyone’s gaze turns toward the lift at once. He was probably talking about the young lady we found in there. Most of the people he listed are already dead: Dojima, Hiyama, the two researchers, and the one girl.

Their loss should be mourned, but Murakami’s list told us something of even greater importance—those three high schoolers were included in the list of people still trapped down here.

“Dammit! So those kids didn’t get out after all!”

Miss Ena blanches. “This is horrible! We must’ve overlooked them! They must be unconscious somewhere down here!”

“Calm down, Miss Ena. They could be moving around the areas like we have been.”

“How?!”

“Our search has basically taken us in only one direction at a time. It’s reasonable to think we’ve been going the opposite direction from them.”

“Then that’s all the more reason to get on with the search right now!”

Ukita puts out his hand, stopping her from running off. “Wait just a minute, Ms. Tsubakiyama. We have something more important to think about first.”

“What could be more important?!” she shrieks.

“The dire situation we currently find ourselves in. When you stop and consider there was a mysterious girl’s body right next to our intentionally destroyed escape route, you have got to ask yourself—what in the world have we gotten mixed up in?”

No one has an answer.

Tachibana breaks the oppressive silence. “…Then let’s sort out the situation first. If you ask me, I think the young girl died trying to escape.”

“Based on what?”

“Please take a look at this and see for yourself.” Tachibana pulls a security card from her chest pocket. Written on the front of it is “Level N.”

“Level N?! How did you get this?!”

“It was on the floor next to the girl’s body. She must’ve made her way to the lift using it. I assume she was searching for a way out of here just like we are.”

“Okay, say she was—how did she get a hold of the highest level card? Who in the world is she?”

“I don’t know. All I can say for sure is that she desperately dragged herself all the way here after being shot by someone—but lost hope and her hold on life after discovering the only exit was destroyed.”

“That’s a good theory… The next question is who in their right mind broke the lift controls?”

A look of fear crosses every face.

Moribe frowns as she asks, “Someone broke it? It wasn’t accidentally destroyed?”

“No way. The controls weren’t damaged by accident, no matter how you try to spin it. Someone did it intentionally.”

“But what’s there to gain by doing that? Destroying the lift traps the culprit down here with the rest of us. And I find it hard to believe anybody would wanna stay in this hellhole,” Moribe groans.

That’s as good of a question as any. Is there someone down here with us who wanted to destroy the escape routes so badly they’d risk getting trapped?

“…Wasn’t it the killer?” Miss Ena ventures in a subdued voice.

“The killer?! What are you getting at?”

“I’m talking about the culprit who murdered that girl. Whoever it was is most likely the same person who killed the three people in Area 3.”

My mind flashes back to the grotesque way we found the researchers’ slaughtered bodies. They’d been pumped full of bullet holes, just like that girl. It’s the same M.O.

“You’ve all been trying to forget about those three bodies up until now, haven’t you? We’ve shelved away any discussion of it by going along with the theory that the killer had already escaped. You all figured we could just look for the murderer after we got out of here, no?”

“Y-You’re not wrong.”

“But that assumption has been totally invalidated. They couldn’t have escaped as easily as we assumed… So I’ll say it again: this was no mere accident!” Miss Ena’s barbed voice echoes through the silent factory.

I swallow the lump in my throat. “...What’s that supposed to mean, Miss Ena?”

“Seeing as a girl was shot to death right next to our escape route, it’s only natural to infer someone did it while she was trying to escape. Murders have been happening in the basement of a facility that’s impossible to escape from… Doesn’t it make more sense if the killer’s the one who created this enclosed space in the first place?”

“Impossible! Why would they do that?”

“Perhaps they wanted to kill someone so badly they remained in the basement to do it? Think about it this way: if they killed their target during the lockdown, all the evidence would go up in flames with the bodies.”

“Drop it, Miss Ena. You’re speculating too much! All you’re doing is getting people spooked over nothing!” I raise my voice in objection to her out-of-control conspiracy theories.

“Hold on a second, you two,” Moribe interjects. “I didn’t think it had anything to do with our situation until now,” she says as a preface before gingerly continuing, “...but word has it that terrorists have recently invaded this city.”

“Did you say terrorists?!” I’m astonished by that abrupt word drop. “Moribe, are you being serious here? Do you have a good reason to think it’s related?”

“I know rumors lack credibility, but plenty of them have been floating around. A lot of similar disasters and incidents have been occurring all over the city lately… Another huge research facility was bombed just yesterday too.”

Miss Ena is in total agreement with Moribe’s tentative theory. “Terrorists targeting a nuclear reactor makes perfect sense to me. All those explosions and fires, along with the sprinkler system being suspiciously shut off…when you think about it, those are clearly human acts.”

If there really is a terrorist organization on the loose, then the bullet wounds to several of the deceased would make more sense. It’d also explain the frequent occurrence of unnatural incidents and why someone would go after a nuclear reactor, but it feels like we’re grasping at straws here.

Ukita seems to have come to the same conclusion as he lets out an exasperated sigh. “Terrorism? Preposterous. Have you people been watching too many movies?”

“Care to repeat that?” Miss Ena scowls at him.

Ukita goes on refuting her theory. “Are you people totally unaware of how strict this facility’s security is? We have a 24/7 security team made up of JDSF soldiers equipped with rifles and riot guns. Only in fiction could a terrorist ever dream of bypassing our security and pulling off this kind of stunt.”

“Oh, I’m sure that sounds good on paper, but the instant someone opens the lid on your almighty defense system, the whole thing goes down the drain like the load of crap it is,” Miss Ena sneers.

“Hey!”

“Are you so blindly confident that you’d ignore the possibility a terrorist took advantage of a hole in your PERFECT system to sneak inside? Case in point, there’s some random girl who slipped in unnoticed and died. That defense system you put all your faith in isn’t looking so dependable right now.”

“Are you that desperate to make this incident our facility’s fault?! The accident is one thing, but we aren’t responsible for a murderer on the loose!”

Sparks are flying between Ukita and Miss Ena as if they’re loose cannons about to explode at any second now.

The most unexpected person speaks up then. “I agree that we should at least take the involvement of terrorists into consideration.”

“You think so, too, Ms. Tachibana?” Miss Ena asks, surprised.

“Yes, somewhat. But even if we hypothesize that a terrorist was here, I still believe they escaped before the bulkheads lowered.”

“You do? Based on what?”

“Because if the terrorist is trapped in here with us, why haven’t we run into them in the nearly five hours since the lockdown?” Tachibana looks around the group. “With a gun, they could take any one of us hostage, steal our AD, or get away with practically anything else in this confined space. It’s very strange they haven’t tried anything on us yet.”

“But you heard that last transmission. Your commander said no one has escaped to the surface with a gun,” Miss Ena argues. “How do you explain that?”

“Simple: they just had to get rid of the gun. They could have slipped into the huge panic before the lockdown and escaped outside facility grounds unchecked. Those are my thoughts on the matter.”

It’s a perfectly thought-out and logical reasoning that fits Tachibana’s personality.

“Hold it, Lieutenant,” Moribe says, joining the debate. “Isn’t it too soon to draw conclusions? Aren’t you always telling me to assume the worst when we’re on duty?”

“That’s a completely different matter from this! We aren’t detectives!”

Miss Ena doggedly pushes the argument with her. “It’s important to keep the worst-case scenario in mind, Lieutenant Tachibana. We’re in a whole other league of danger if there’s still a terrorist—or terrorists—roaming this basement, no?”

Ukita snorts. “Are you implying one of the nine of us still trapped here is a terrorist? What rubbish. We’d be in a far, far worse predicament if someone with evil intentions was among us.”

Everyone is arguing their own thoughts and opinions on the matter. To me, every opinion feels like it has some validity. But we’re only digging our own graves by wasting time debating them. I open my mouth to tell everyone to think calmly, when an agonized moan rips past my lips instead.

A sharp shock crashes through my brain like a tidal wave. My vision turns to black, immediately followed by countless scenes flashing through my mind.

Wh-What the hell?!

Scenes from the past several hours whisk through my head. Starting from when I woke up in Area 1 to everything I’ve experienced up until Area 6. They zoom past my eyes like a movie on fast-forward—and then vanish.

“…?” The abrupt phenomenon leaves me confused. Through my blurred vision I can see everyone eyeing me.

“Wh-Why did you suddenly bend over? Are you all right, Captain?”

I’m incapable of answering Tachibana. The shock has rendered me speechless.

Wh-What the hell was that just now?!

This was nothing like looking back on old memories. It’s totally different from reminiscing. In a fraction of a second, I’d relived everything that’d happened up until now in minute detail.

I don’t know what caused this bizarre phenomenon or what it was. But thanks to that curious case of instant recollection, I was able to make several connections between all the things I’ve seen and heard so far.

Okay, okay…let’s say there really is a terrorist down here with us… Which of the nine people trapped is the most likely suspect? Distrust toward the others rapidly billows within me. Is Ukita the most suspicious?

Ukita was the one who constantly emphasized the facility’s strict security system and how a terrorist could never slip past it. But he’s a staff member at LABO—it’d be a piece of cake for him to let someone in. And if he had, it’d make sense why he grew irrationally defensive over Miss Ena pointing out flaws in the system.

But misgivings have a way of summoning more misgivings.

Wait…doesn’t that increase the chance of her being the culprit instead?

When I think about it, Miss Ena has the flimsiest reason for being here. She said someone from LABO told her to come, but she has nothing to support that claim. And while she introduced herself as a teacher, anyone can allege they’re whatever they want when we have no way to confirm it with the outside. There’s little reason to trust her.

But that’s also not enough of a reason to pin her as the culprit. I decide to go back to the drawing board of suspicious people.

What about Tachibana and Moribe, then? I consider them for all of a second before tossing out the idea. There’s nothing suspicious about them. They’ve been acting with everyone’s safety in mind—I can probably trust them unconditionally.

Maybe I’m going about this all wrong… What if this very facility is where I should be placing my doubts? Isn’t it strange that we’re still on lockdown after all this time? Is it really due to the system trying to prevent a radiation leak?

Doubts keep summoning more doubts, making everything seem dubious. I push back those feelings and look around at our ragtag group of survivors. My eyes go from Tachibana, to Moribe, to Ukita, to Miss Ena, and then—I realize Yuuri is missing.

“Y-Yuuri’s gone!” I shout as soon as I realize it. The others look back at me in wide-eyed surprise.

“Y-You’re right! Since when?!”

“You don’t think she ran away again, do you?!”

Moribe and Miss Ena shout one after the other, just as the sound of a gate opening goes off in the distance. I whip around in time to see Yuuri disappear beyond Area 5’s open gate.

“I see her! She went into Area 5!”

We break into a run after her.

Area 5, Outer Ring

I charged into Area 5’s outer ring, but Yuuri is nowhere in sight. I shout orders to the others as I rake my eyes over the area. “There’s a chance we’ll get separated as we search! Meet me back in the infirmary in ten minutes, whether you find Yuuri or not!”

Everyone shouts back in agreement before breaking off into groups to cover more ground. Tachibana and Moribe head toward Area 4. Miss Ena and Ukita handle the closer rooms. And I go straight for the inner ring.

Yuuri doesn’t know the inner ring is a contaminated zone! I can only pray she didn’t run—

<Go! Save her!>

“…!”

A voice echoes in my head, interrupting my own thoughts. That “voice” has come back to nag me for the first time in a while.

Guided by the voice in my head, I sprint to the contaminated zone. I slip through the connecting passageway into the inner ring. The Procyon instantly lets out a shrieking warning beep. It’s reading 9,355 mSv now—much higher than before.

“Yuuri! Where are you, Yuuri?!” I yell at the top of my lungs as I search every nook and cranny of the inner ring. After entering several rooms, I finally find her. “Yuuri!”

Yuuri turns around with a start. “Ah! …Captain Kasasagi, you came for me, didn’t you?”

“Of course I did, you dummy! Save the chitchat for later—it’s dangerous here, Yuuri! It’s a contaminated zone!”

“Is it…? You always worry after me like this, don’t you, Captain Kasasagi?” She’s perfectly calm after hearing this area is contaminated. She’s not acting like herself. She looks me square in the eye and asks, “So then why…why did you do such a horrible thing to me back then?”

“Back when…?!” I sharply inhale at this accusation of doing something I don’t remember. I hesitantly ask her about it. “Wh-What did I do to you…?”

“Did you truly forget? I very nearly died. I was scared to death of being abandoned in a sea of flames…”

“What? I don’t understand, Yuuri.”

“And yet you were also the one who saved me… What’s the big idea?”

I’m shaken to the core by her accusations. Tremendous unease explodes inside my chest. I have a horrible feeling she’s trying to tell me something dreadful—a truth I don’t know and should never learn.

“Y-Yuuri…what’re you trying to say…?!”

“I can’t know if you don’t! So please tell me what is truly in your heart…!” The moment she walks over to me, a bizarre scene replays in my head like video footage.

☢☢☢☢☢☢☢☢☢☢

It’s yet another memory I have no recollection of.

I’m in a strange, spacious place.

Large towers loom all around me.

The smell of rusted iron hangs in the air.

Something is grabbing my wrist.

There I see a “monster.”

I spot a broken wristwatch out of the corner of my eye.

As soon as I see that, pain so intense it feels like my brain is being crushed crashes over me!

☢☢☢☢☢☢☢☢☢☢

It was an extremely disturbing memory. A shaky moan spills past my lips: “Ahh…aaahhhh…”

What filled me to the brim during that memory is spine-tingling fear. And I feel the same visceral reaction to the girl in front of me.

“U-Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!” I spin on my heel and run as fast as I can. I bolt from the room and slam the door behind me. The bang snaps me back to my senses.

What the hell am I doing?! Why am I running away from Yuuri?! That’s Yuuri in there! Not that “monster”! Telling myself that doesn’t stop me from shaking. Fear, anger, and malice boil up from the depths of my memory. Just as it’s about to crush my mind—

“Ghh!” Sharp pain rips through my head. “Guh! AGH! GAAAAAAAAAAHHH!” I hold my head and scream. My voice echoes through my skull. My thoughts are muddled by the severe pain.

What the hell is this?! I’ve never—

—felt anything—

—like this until now.

Wait! Is this—

—radiation damage?!

Is it because I’ve entered contaminated zones too many times?!

It feels like something is poking its nose around in my brain and scrambling it. The pain spreads throughout my body and squeezes my stomach in a vise.

“GHH! GAAAGHH!” I throw up. Since nothing’s in my stomach, all that comes up is stomach acid mixed with blood, and it splatters all over the passageway. My consciousness is quickly fading away.

(My memori)es were shatt(ered bac)k then and my past self’s—

—memories—

My--…

……

“—A-Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” I scream again and force my consciousness back into place.

My awareness and memories have become discombobulated from the unbearable pain. There’s red vomit at my feet.

What the hell just happened? What was I doing?! I dig through my chaotic memories and instantly realize I was looking for Yuuri. Damn it all! If I’m this screwed up because of radiation damage, then Yuuri is in serious danger! I can’t leave such a frail and fragile girl in this dangerous place for long! Worry for Yuuri is all that fills my mind.

Something strange happened to me. I get the feeling my past memories returned for a few seconds. And I have this nagging sense I felt an entirely different emotion toward Yuuri, but all of those irrelevant feelings and factors have been blown right from my mind.

“Yuuri! Where are you, Yuuri?!” I bellow as I search the inner ring. But she’s nowhere to be found. With little choice left to me, I return to the outer ring, where I spot Tachibana and Moribe.

“Oh, Captain!” Moribe and Tachibana run over to me. “Did you find Yuuri?”

“I spotted her inside the inner ring a few minutes ago, but then I lost sight of her!”

“We’ve also had no success finding her. We secured the perimeter around the Area 4 gate so she couldn’t go through there, either, but…” Tachibana trails off. The three of us exchange looks.

“So she just vanished on us? How? Did we simply pass each other?”

“I don’t think so. What I want to know is how Yuuri even got into Area 5 in the first place.” Tachibana puts that question out there for all of us to ponder.

“Oh yeah, that’s a very good question…”

A Level 5 or higher card is necessary to open the security gate into Area 5. But all the cards we’ve obtained until now have only been distributed to Tachibana, Moribe, and myself. There shouldn’t be any other cards.

That’d mean Yuuri has been secretly keeping a high-level card from us. Why would she have kept quiet about that? I’m suddenly unsure of her motives.

Alas, Tachibana sighs to break the deadlock. “…Debating it here won’t lead us to the answer. Let’s head to the infirmary for now. It’s almost time for us to regroup.”

“What? Already?” I glance at my watch—it’s 12:35 pm, just about time for us to meet up. It appears I spent longer on the search than I thought.

Feeling a faint sense of denial over where the time went, I make my way to the infirmary with the others.

“Tachibana, the inner ring is contaminated. I’m worried about Yuuri’s health,” I inform her as we’re walking.

“It’s contaminated?”

“Yes. I told Yuuri that too. But she still ran away from me.”

“I don’t believe it. Why would she do that?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. She’s run away from me like this before…”

Tachibana drops her gaze to the floor and hangs her head.

“The AD will last us for close to another hour, but she’ll be in real danger if we don’t find her before that. I hope she’s able to get a hold of some AD on her own, but I wouldn’t bet on it.”

Tachibana doesn’t respond to me. She merely mutters “Please be safe…” under her breath and speeds up.

“Ah! Hey!” I call out to her back, but my voice isn’t reaching her. There’s something unnatural about the way she’s been acting. I slow down to ask Moribe about it. “Hey, Moribe…don’t you think Tachibana’s been out of sorts for a while now?”

“How so?”

“As if she’s not all there. She’s been like that ever since she called the deceased girl we found in the cargo lift ‘Nagisa’…”

Moribe’s face freezes. “Did she mutter Nagisa’s name again?”

“She didn’t, but she’s acting the same way she did then. What’s this about a Nagisa? How did the always calm and collected Tachibana lose all bearing like this?”

Moribe heaves a heavy sigh and quietly says, “I really don’t want to talk about this much, but…I’ll tell you, Captain.”

“I’m listening.”

“Nagisa is the name of the lieutenant’s little sister. She passed away more than ten years ago. She was her precious kid sister.”

Her reply takes my breath away. “She died? How?”

“A gas explosion took out the apartment complex they lived in while the lieutenant was at work… Nagisa would be around the same age as Yuuri or the girl who died by the lift if she were still alive.”

“So Tachibana sees her kid sister in those girls…?”

“Yeah… I’m pretty positive Lieutenant Tachibana still blames herself for being out of the house when the accident happened. Even though she’s not the least bit at fault for it.”

I shift my gaze forward to Tachibana. A heavy past weighs on those slender shoulders as she picks up the pace. She suddenly looks back at us. “What are you both doing? We need to hurry.” Her expression is back to normal, so we respond to her the same as usual.

“Yeah. Sorry for slowing down, Tachibana.”

“Roger that. Getting the lead out, ma’am!”

I jog after her, all the while hoping I can become a pillar of support for my squad members who are being haunted by painful pasts.

Area 5, Outer Ring

Infirmary

WE arrive at Area 5’s infirmary first, and Miss Ena and Ukita show up not long after. But no one found Yuuri. So we lost sight of her after all.

I lower my head to the dispirited group. “…I’m sorry. I basically let her get away.”

“It’s not your fault, Captain. Everyone who looked had the same result,” Moribe says in my defense.

“Isn’t it actually Captain Kasasagi’s fault?” Ukita throws out there. “I really have to wonder about his innocence in this.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, this has been bothering me for a while now, but…didn’t Yuuri always act like she was scared to death of you?”

I can’t deny I sensed the same thing.

“Excuse me, Mr. Ukita, but would you care to clarify that?” Tachibana inquires, as if she hadn’t noticed it herself.

“None of you saw it? The poor girl was practically shaking in her boots every time our captain here so much as said a word to her.”

“She was…?”

“Furthermore, she made herself scarce while we were searching Area 3. I always suspected she left to get as far from you as possible, Captain Kasasagi.”

Tachibana clenches her jaw at that revelation. Moribe intervenes on my behalf. “Hold your horses, Mr. Ukita. I agree that she showed signs of fear, but…survivors tend to become extremely frightened during a disaster.”

“Hmph. Think what you like. But what do you have to say for yourself, Captain Kasasagi? Do you have any idea why she acts that way around you?”

“N-No…,” I say in an unreliable, weak voice.

I don’t have any concrete evidence to refute his suspicions. Did I do something horrible to Yuuri before I lost my memories?

“How can you be sure about that, hmm?” Ukita presses. “And while we’re at it, how did you even lose your memories?”

“H-How am I supposed to know?”

“Amnesia caused by external trauma typically fades with time. Yet you show no signs of recovery after all this time—don’t you find that strange?”

“S-Strange how? Are you trying to imply something here, Ukita?”

“I sure am. To be frank, I’ve always suspected that Captain Kasasagi may be lying about his amnesia.”

Everyone sharply inhales.