“Please, wake up.”
“Nnngh...”
“Please, wake up. Hurry, please.”
The voice called out to me when I was sound asleep, forcefully dragging me back to consciousness. I managed to force my eyes open, and looked up to see someone’s face peering in through the door of the tent.
“They’re not here, please get up.”
“Huh? What? Who...?”
As I squinted, my eyes finally came into focus.
I didn’t know this kid.
There was an unfamiliar kid’s head poking into the tent.
“Huh?!”
Its eyes had no whites. They were totally black.
Looking at me emotionlessly as I lay there in shock, the kid said, “It’s your turn.”
“Wha...?” came a muffled voice of protest from beside me.
“T-Toriko! Wake up!” As I turned to Toriko, I realized something.
It was still night. The tent was wrapped in darkness, so even Toriko in her sleeping bag just looked like a dark mass to me. There was a faint light seeping in from outside the fabric, but not enough for me to be able to see someone’s face.
When I looked back, the kid’s face had vanished. But the tent’s fastener was left open halfway.
I didn’t remember anything more than it having been a kid. Not its gender, its facial structure...not one single other thing.
As I felt around for the lantern left next to my pillow, Toriko groaned and covered her face with her arm.
“What...? Bathroom...?”
“Th-There was a kid.”
“A kid...?”
“It wasn’t human, though.”
I hesitantly poked my head out of the tent. The air felt too cool, even in light of the fact we were up in the mountains. It was totally dark outside, with the exception of the bare minimum of light illuminating the area around the canopy tents, and there was no sign anything was out of the ordinary.
Looking to the side, I saw Runa and Tsuji’s tent.
The entrance was wide open.
“Toriko, something may be up after all.”
“Huh...?”
I turned to look back at her. Toriko was kneeling, but still half asleep. Her eyes were closed, and she swayed slowly from side to side.
“Wake up.”
“Ngah!”
Pinching her nose got her to open her eyes. I ignored her defiant look and put on my shoes.
“I’ll go check on our neighbors.”
“Ah! Wait, wait.”
Following my usual habit, I grabbed the pouch that had the bare minimum of tools I’d need, and headed outside as I put my arms through the sleeves of my jacket. I approached Runa and Tsuji’s tent and poked my head inside. There were two sleeping bags there, side by side, but they were both empty. Their shoes had gone missing too.
“Where’d they go...?”
“The bathroom, don’t you think?” Toriko said, rubbing her eyes, as she caught up.
“Even if they did, would they really leave the tent open like this? I’d understand more if it was swelteringly hot outside.”
“Weren’t you just saying something about a kid?”
“Oh, yeah. Yeah, that’s right.”
Once I explained what I had seen, Toriko frowned.
“I don’t like it. Was the kid a ghost or something?”
“I don’t think it was a ghost, so I guess it was a ‘something.’”
“Can you see anything with your right eye?”
I swept the area with my eye, then shook my head.
“I don’t see anything. Not around here, at least. I mean, in this darkness, I can’t even—”
“Hm?”
While I was in the middle of talking, Toriko suddenly turned around.
“Huh? Just now...”
“What is it?”
“I felt... Ah! There it is again!” Toriko said, sticking her arm forward in a half-hearted way. “It’s tugging on my arm! It’s weak, but I’m not just imagining it...!”
I looked at the area around her left hand with my right eye. I couldn’t see anything—the same as when something had pulled on her hand in Satsuki Uruma’s research room at DS Research.
“Don’t tell me...”
“Nah, this is different. Unlike that time, it’s incredibly weak, or more like restrained.”
She’d answered before I could ask the question. Apparently we were both thinking about the same thing.
“It’s like it’s trying to take me somewhere... You think it’s okay to go?”
I thought back to what the child’s face had said. “They’re not here, please get up.” Had it been in reference to Runa and Tsuji?
“I guess we see where it takes us...” I said. “It’s the only lead we’ve got at the moment.”
“Okay...”
Toriko let her arm go limp as she began walking. I followed. I pulled a light from my pouch, and flipped it on. A white light lit our way.
We crossed the yard, led by who-knows-what. The three-story Residence Building was a darkened silhouette against the night sky, towering over us like a wall. All was quiet in the Torchlight tents, and no one challenged us. I feel like they should’ve had a guard standing watch, though...
“Huh? Here?” Toriko murmured as she came to a stop. We were at the entrance to the Cattle Barn. Through the gaping entrance, the light of my flashlight shone on the corridor that had been hastily assembled out of plywood.
“It wants us to go in here? Inside the chimera house?”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” I groaned.
We both stood there awhile, sharing a mutual distaste for where this was going.
“Toriko. We’re going to want guns...” I said after composing myself.
“Yeah, you’re right.”
As Toriko reached to pull her gun out of her bag, she let out a small groan of realization.
“It’s gone,” she said.
“Huh? The thing pulling your hand?”
“Yeah. When I moved my left hand, it was like I shook free.”
Toriko groped around in the air for a while, but eventually gave up and lowered her hand. “Looks like it’s no good. I can’t feel it anymore.”
“I guess we’ll have to go it alone from here,” I replied.
Toriko took out her gun, and checked the magazine and safety. “What will you do, Sorawo?”
“Sorry, but do you think you can handle it? It’d be pretty bad if I accidentally shot Runa or Tsuji.”
“Got it.”
“Hold up, there’s a light switch here, isn’t there? Where was it again?”
“On the wall...somewhere around there?”
We followed the power cord to the switch, then flipped it. The lights didn’t come on.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this... Sorawo, don’t you think something’s wrong here? My left hand is tingling. Like when Runa did her renovations during the day.”
So this place is turning into an interstitial space, then?
Runa had only remodeled the individual rooms inside the chimera house. But if their influence had spread this far... This could be bad.
“Let’s go. We gotta find the two of them.”
We steeled ourselves, then stepped into the chimera house.