By the time we headed out of the Factory, things had changed considerably in the open space between the buildings. There were a number of canopy tents set up on the open side of the square bracket that was formed by the three buildings, with tables, chairs, and flat-pack shelves set up underneath them. It was like the headquarters for some sort of outdoor event, and I could hear the sound of a large generator running. They even had floodlights set up, ready to be used at night. The preparations weren’t fully complete yet, but it looked like most of the large packages had been unloaded at this point.
The Torchlight operators were currently a short distance away, setting up their own tents. These weren’t the sort of compact tents that the US forces had been using at Kisaragi Station, but the kinds of larger tents I’d only ever seen in a display at an outdoor shop, designed to sleep several people. If this was all I saw, I’d just assume they were a bunch of extroverts with money and time on their hands who’d come out here to have a good time.
Sasazuka noticed us and came over from the canopy tents.
“I’m sorry for the wait,” she said. “You’re welcome to set up your own tents now.”
“Okay,” I replied. “Will over there be fine?” I pointed to the opposite side of the canopy tents from where Torchlight were setting up theirs.
✦ ✦ ✦
We got our luggage out of the trucks and set up our tents on the edge of camp. Ours was red, while Runa and Tsuji’s, bought by DS Research for the occasion, was khaki. Since Runa and Tsuji both had no camping know-how whatsoever, they just ended up watching idly as Toriko and I pounded in tent pegs, but Migiwa came over, so we had him take care of their tent for us.
“You’re used to camping, huh?” Tsuji observed, sounding impressed.
While chucking our sleeping bags into the set-up tent, I responded. “Not really. We just did it once before, in the other world.”
“Hmm, and you weren’t scared?”
“We were.”
This was our first time pitching a tent since Christmas, when we’d stayed overnight on the Otherside. Which meant this was our first proper camping experience in this world. Well, no, it was kind of questionable if staying at the Farm in the Mountains, and with such a large group, counted as a proper camping experience.
Regardless, we were done setting up, so we headed back to the canopy tent. Sasazuka was there talking to her subordinates, and turned towards us.
“Kamikoshi-san, have you already gone to see the Cattle Barn?”
“No, not yet.”
“I haven’t either, so why don’t we scope it out while we discuss plans?”
Toriko and I headed to the Cattle Barn with Sasazuka and Migiwa. As it had in the Factory, the air suddenly cooled as we entered the building.
Sasazuka turned back to look at us. “What do you suppose it is? The air feels different...”
“The other building was the same way,” I replied. “But I don’t think it has anything to do with the buildings. It feels hot and humid outside because the sun is beating down on us, but maybe the entirety of the Farm is actually cool.”
“I see... Now that you mention it, I did feel a chill all those times we came here to work on construction. If you’re correct, it will probably get a lot cooler very quickly once the sun sets.”
“I would like to check with the two of you, but all of the gates are closed, yes?”
I nodded in response to Migiwa’s question.
“Every gate in the Residence Building is closed. But I still get the feeling this cold air is coming from the gates.”
“Yeah,” Toriko agreed. “I think the gates still mess with the air even when they’re not open.”
Sasazuka let out an exasperated laugh. “If it weren’t for the occasion, I’d want to stay far away from this place.”
Obviously, I wouldn’t have wanted them here on any other occasion either. No matter how horrifying it was, this was an exciting place full of doors to an unknown world, and it was also a hideaway in the forest that I shared with Toriko.
That said, we needed carpenters to help us maintain our hideaway, and given that they were funding its maintenance, I couldn’t ignore our sponsor’s wishes. There was always the option of going bankrupt and becoming denizens of the Otherside, but that was just an option, not one I wanted to pick—not now, at least.
Not to toot my own horn, but I think I’ve become a lot more sociable.
The four of us walked through the Cattle Barn, looking around. It was a little more familiar to me than the Factory. The Round Hole was in the basement of this building, and we’d needed to pass through the complicated layout inside this building to get outside. The tight, twisting corridors were gloomy, and forced us to go up and down stairs unnecessarily. The operators who came to handle construction had gotten so fed up with it that they smashed through some of the walls to make shortcuts for us. That had improved things a bit, but until the service entrance was completed, the route from DS Research to the Farm had been pretty inconvenient.
Sasazuka flipped the light switch, turning on the lights on the walls and ceiling, which quickly brightened the room. There was similar lighting strung up in the hallways, so even in the middle of the night, it was easy to get around the Cattle Barn, at least in the areas we passed through regularly. That said, the building was mostly disused, and lacked that lighting, so it was still creepy.
“I want to make a kill house for training here,” said Sasazuka. “What do you think? Will that be a problem?”
I looked around. There were lines of concrete enclosures with wooden fences. It felt like a disused cattle barn, which was where we got the name. “Sure. We have no plans to use this building.”
“Thank you.”
“Will you be using the Factory for anything?” Toriko asked Sasazuka.
“We have no plans as of yet, but since it seems to have been built as a factory, maybe we could set up some machines there and put it to use in future. If there’s a need for that, that is.”
Yeah, I guess that makes sense...? Nothing was coming to mind at the moment, but it was worth considering. I made a mental note of it.
“Is making a kill house that easy?” I asked.
“For our current purposes, it’s simple. If we were using live ammunition, we would need to use materials that prevent ricochets, but we’ve only brought toy guns.”
“Oh, really?” Toriko asked, sounding surprised. Sasazuka cast an amused look in our direction.
“Yes, they’re electric guns that fire BBs. It’s not that easy for us to use real guns, after all.”
“Yeah, go figure... Ah ha ha.”
Of course, she said all of that knowing that we carried around real guns all the time. I had to wonder what Sasazuka thought of us breaking the law on a regular basis, even more often than a PMC.
“In our preliminary meetings, we had discussed using Urumi-san’s ability in our training. Does that look like it will be all right? From your perspective,” asked Migiwa.
I thought about it. It was awkward, since we’d just had a bit of a fight, but she seemed stable for now.
“I think it should be fine. Runa herself described the camp as a sort of graduation exam, so maybe that’s how she’s looking at it. I think she’ll be a good girl until the camp is finished, at least.”
“No telling what she’ll be like after that, though,” Toriko added, sounding less than satisfied. She must not have been amused that I, the one who got kidnapped, was being soft on Runa.
“Do you think she is getting along with Tsuji-san?” Sasazuka asked.
“They seem to be getting on well enough,” I replied. “For now.”
“For now, huh?”
“Well, we have to expect they will argue over a thing or two. And that might go on forever.”
“You’re kind of...taking the long view of this, huh, Migiwa-san?” I observed.
He smiled. “In my estimation, this is what it means when you accept talented problem children into an organization.”
Maybe that was the kind of thing only a man who had managed an abnormal organization like DS Research for as long as he had could have said. “And is it the same with me?”
“Ha ha ha,” Migiwa laughed like I’d said something funny.