The real-life Cerberus he’d glimpsed on the shopping street in Koenji a month earlier had been a boy with a lingering childishness, bangs hanging down to his eyes. Haruyuki hadn’t even gotten the chance to ask his name, but he had an idea what school he went to.
The black trousers Cerberus had been wearing were cut from a stylish fabric with a dark-gray checkered pattern visible when the light hit right. And a mere seven hours earlier, Haruyuki had seen the exact same uniform on Tomochika Kyobu and Rioh Koshimizu of the Seven Dwarves. Which meant that Wolfram Cerberus was a student at their school, Shirakabanomori Academy.
It was summer break, so he wouldn’t be able to find Cerberus just by standing watch at the school the way Niko had once found him at Umesato. But if he could somehow manage to connect with the school’s local net, he might be able to dig up his real name and address.
After letting his thoughts drift this far, Haruyuki sighed. He shouldn’t be thinking of himself right now; he needed to take care of Chiyuri. After all, she had just lost a friend. He was about to try to say something consoling when he heard her voice first.
“There’s no way I could transfer Legions,” she said, her head still hanging, and then she lifted her face to look at him as she continued. “But, like, there isn’t a one hundred percent possibility that the White King won’t revive her for me with some other condition, right?”
“…That’s a convoluted way to say it. Just say the possibility’s not zero. Geez,” he noted, but he was completely ignored.
“Is it possible or not?” she demanded.
“…I mean, no one knows what she’s thinking, so I can’t say there’s no way, but…”
“Then you ask her, Haru.”
“Huh… Whaaaat?!” Reeling, he shook his head vigorously back and forth. “Then she’ll put up the trade conditions on me and not on you.”
“I’ll help you out with whatever it is,” she told him.
“Okay, look,” he protested somewhat pathetically, but in his heart, he was a bit relieved. He could hear a hint of Chiyuri’s usual cheer and unyielding will in her voice again.
Even if this cheer was an act based on a faint sliver of hope, the possibility of resurrection really was not zero. The White King was in fact Haruyuki’s current Legion Master, and she wouldn’t go taking his head off on the spot if he did go to her with some wild request… Probably.
He had made up his mind and was about to respond that he was on board when he heard the whisper of a voice, and his whole body stiffened.
…Someone…
Chiyuri cocked her head dubiously to one side, and he silenced her by holding his index finger to his mouth as he focused his entire self on his ears.
The only thing his avatar’s auditory system captured was the dry wind blowing through the groups of rocks. He couldn’t hear anyone talking or any Enemies crying out. But the instant he started to relax with the assumption that he’d been hearing things…
Someone, help me…!
He heard the voice again, slightly louder in volume this time.
Chiyuri apparently also heard it and gasped. “That voice!”
They both leapt to their feet and whirled their heads around. Behind them were rocks more than twenty meters tall, the business buildings of the real world transformed. To their left, Green Boulevard stretched out straight to the northwest, while to their right was the Higashi-Ikebukuro Intersection, and in front of them, the two-legged stone statue. He stared intently in every direction, but he saw no sign of a person.
Since the interiors of buildings weren’t recreated in a Wasteland stage, it was unlikely there was anyone inside of the rocks. But unlike the ground, these rocks were not indestructible, so there was a possibility that, for instance, someone could be shot several meters into one with the force of a collision and be buried by the collapsing rock immediately after. If that were the case, then the only way they could find the owner of the voice was to destroy all of the nearby rocks one after the other. But he had no idea how many days it would take to smash them all with their bare hands, and the Change would probably come before they could finish anyway.
If they could at least figure out what direction it was coming from, Haruyuki thought, perking up his ears once more. But even after waiting a minute or so, he still hadn’t heard the voice again.
Abruptly, Chiyuri raised the large bell of her left hand. Bending her elbow to the limit of its range of motion, she turned the opening of the bell straight up and then brought it directly down toward the ground.
Rather than a dull thunk as the bell dug into the rocky foundation, he heard a clear sound, a tooooong like a crystal mallet gently tapping a metal sphere in the air. He clearly felt the sound waves penetrate the ground and radiate outward.
Chiyuri stayed motionless for a time with the bell still pressed against the ground, but then she suddenly lifted her face and shouted, “That way!” She dashed forward with incredible speed, and he hurried to chase after her.
Racing along the rocks to the southeast, she turned right after about thirty meters and plunged into a narrow gorge. She ran the same distance again and then abruptly screeched to a stop.
“It’s…around here…,” she said, her gaze racing over the area.
Haruyuki pushed back the urge to ask her what that sound before was and also searched the area.