▼ 2:39 pm
Area 5, Outer Ring
Infirmary
FORTUNATELY, we make it to the infirmary without bumping into anyone. We lower the kids off our backs and onto the beds, and immediately tend to Natsuhiko’s wounds. Tachibana checks his blood type with the antigen analysis device, then inserts the IV into his wrist and begins the blood transfusion.
Meanwhile, I use as much Chiron as I can to seal up his wounds.
“Tachibana, do you think Natsuhiko can be saved?”
She wraps the Vital Checker around his wrist and announces, “Both his breathing and his pulse are very weak. But his vital signs are just barely stable… He’s in an unpredictable condition, but I believe he should stabilize with the blood transfusion now that the wounds have been sealed with Chiron.”
I’m relieved from the bottom of my heart. But that relief is short-lived as Tachibana continues to speak with a grave expression. “Captain, while we are waiting for his transfusion to finish, please tell me what happened after you left the surveillance room.”
“Here’s what happened…” I tell Tachibana everything I’ve done until now, starting from my journey to Area N to put out the fire so the lockdown will end. I fill her in on how there was neither a fire nor a melted reactor, and how I had to knock out Salyu because she attacked me right after I found Natsuhiko.
After hearing me out, Tachibana lowers her head and puts her finger to her chin in thought. “So that’s what happened… It’s all so strange, I don’t even know where to begin questioning you…,” she starts, then looks me in the eyes. “Captain, what do you think about LABO?”
“In what sense?”
“Like you said, not only were there no fires in Area N, but there wasn’t even a single reactor. The machines there were something entirely different.”
“You don’t think those are reactors either?”
“I don’t. I have never seen or heard of a nuclear reactor with that shape and set up. Though I can’t entirely discredit the possibility it may just be a new model that hasn’t been announced to the public yet.”
The chances of that are slim. The moment we discovered there were no fires was the moment we gained solid proof LABO has been lying to us. I don’t know why they are, but I have a hunch.
“…Either way, the fact that there wasn’t a nuclear reactor raises the question if LABO was ever a nuclear energy research facility to begin with,” I speculate.
“But that is strange in and of itself. Since there’s no nuclear reactor, that should mean the radiation we have lived in fear of these past few hours never really existed. And if it doesn’t, what caused my horrible headache and my skin to go numb for the hour I had a reduced dosage of AD?”
“Those are all good questions… When Moribe and I entered the contaminated zones, we also had symptoms including a headache, vomiting, and blacking out.”
Plus, Ukita seemed genuinely scared to death of the rising readings given by the Procyon. With how much he’s been on our backs about not digging into the secrets of this facility, I assume he knows the truth behind those machines in Area N.
What was Ukita afraid of, then? Was he deceived by someone as well? Or—
“…Even if there’s no nuclear reactor, there could still be something lethal spreading through the facility. Something comparable in danger to radioactive materials…”
“That’s a valid possibility. Then the question is: What were those machines in Area N?”
As I consider the possibilities, a fragmented memory flashes into my mind. “Now that I think about it…I feel like I’ve seen those things somewhere before.”
“You have? Before you lost your memories?”
“No. Recently. Like several hours ago. I’m pretty sure it’s—” The memory is right there at my fingertips when the door is suddenly thrown open. “What the?!” I spin around and come face-to-face with Ukita.
He grins when he sees us staring back at him in shock. “My, my, my, if it isn’t Captain Kasasagi and Lieutenant Tachibana. Why, I didn’t expect to find you here when I heard that sound,” he drawls. “And what are you two up to, hmm?” The light of sanity wavers unsteadily in his eyes. He shifts them to the beds. “Natsuhiko? Sannomiya?! They’re terribly injured! Where have they been all this time?!”
I carefully pick my words. “I went to Area N to put out the fire and took them under my protection when I found them there.”
“What?! You actually went to deal with Area N…?” Ukita’s eyebrows snap together. He nods several times to himself and growls in a low voice, “I see, I see. I finally see the whole picture… So you were the real traitor all along.”
“How did you come up with that?! Why does going into Area N make me the traitor?”
“Shut your trap. I don’t have the patience to listen to your excuses any longer.”
“Wha—”
“You know, I trusted you, Captain Kasasagi. I believed you were a just person who put his life on the line to save lives. That’s why I put my own life on the line to save others too…!” Ukita shoves his hand in his coat pocket and whips out a pistol. The very one I had them split into three parts.
“Are you bluffing right now, Ukita? That gun is a paperweight without the magazine!”
“Shall we test how much of a paperweight it really is?”
✦ ✦ ✦
One glance at his deranged expression tells me he isn’t bluffing. I step in front of Tachibana and try reasoning with him. “Wait, Ukita! Hear me out before you fire that thing! Your superiors might not have informed you of this, but there’s no reactor in Area N!”
“What…? You’re going to spout nonsense with a gun pointed at your face?”
“Trust me! It’s the truth!”
“Well, truth or not, your role in this ends now!” Ukita cocks the hammer and my damn body stays rooted to the spot.
In the same second that feels like eternity to me, Tachibana shouts, “Watch out, Captain!” and pushes me out of the way.
A gunshot rings out a moment later, and the bullet drills a hole into the wall. As I roll onto the floor, I whip out the weapon in my pocket.
“How?!” Ukita’s eyes widen with disbelief.
I’m gripping the pistol I found on the floor in Area N. When I point it at him, he turns tail and bolts from the room. I could’ve shot him in the back, but I obviously don’t pull the trigger.
“You’ve finally shown your true colors, Captain Kasasagi! But don’t forget I’ll be the one to bring you to justice!” Ukita shouts like a madman as he disappears into the corridor beyond the open door. His footfalls fade into the distance.
Once we can’t hear him anymore, Tachibana cautiously asks, “Um, Captain, where did that pistol come from?”
“O-Oh, right, I forgot to tell you about it… I picked it up in Area N. It was on the ground next to Natsuhiko.”
“I-I see…” Tachibana appears frightened by the pistol.
I shove it into my pocket and change the topic. “We need to get outta here now. Staying here any longer with Ukita knowing our whereabouts is dangerous.”
Natsuhiko’s blood transfusion isn’t finished yet, and Salyu shows no signs of rousing. They’re at major risk of getting hurt if we run into another deranged attack like that.
“…Miss Ena is in danger too.”
“Ms. Tsubakiyama is? Where is she anyway?”
“I left her in a room back in Area 2. The way Ukita is now, I fear he’ll attack her too.”
“I-I fear so as well. Let’s keep Tenkawa’s blood transfusion going while we move to meet up with her.” Tachibana wraps the blood pack and transfusion kit around Natsuhiko’s body.
With Natsuhiko on my back, and Salyu on hers, we depart the infirmary.
✦ ✦ ✦
▼ 2:44 pm
Area 2, Inner Ring
I cry out in horror when we make it to the room in Area 2. “What the hell happened here?!”
A rectangle big enough for a person to fit through has been carved out of the door to the room I locked Miss Ena in. Destroying the control button was meaningless. I rush through the hole into the room.
No one’s inside. Did Miss Ena wake up and run away before this happened? I don’t see her or any bloodstains.
At least she got out okay, but…who in their right mind did this?! How the hell did they break down the door?
My ears pick up an unsettling sound coming from far down the corridor outside.
“…What was that sound?” I share a look with Tachibana and we stealthily peek around the corner to the far end of the corridor. There I spot Moribe’s back about fifty feet from us.
She’s wandering around muttering to herself with blood dripping from her head and the engine cutter firmly gripped in her hands. “Where…where did that cretin go…?” She’s talking to herself. Her delusional voice echoes through the corridor as she converses with empty space. “I knew it… Then I have no choice. I can’t protect everyone otherwise… I have to be the one to kill ’im… I’ve gotta do it even if it’s painful for me…” she says sinisterly, as if she’s chanting a curse. Listening to her gives me the chills.