▼ 12:25 pm
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.
The time indicated by the shattered dial is 6:19 am.
As soon as I see that, pain so intense it feels like my brain is being crushed crashes over me!