Chapter 6

Drip. Drip. A cold liquid was trickling into Yuuma’s mouth. Only half-conscious, Yuuma reflexively moved to spit out the liquid. Before he could do so, however, he realized that the liquid was actually surprisingly delicious. Not too sweet and with a refreshing acidity, like lemon peel. He swallowed greedily. As the liquid coursed through Yuuma’s body, his head began to grow clearer, and his eyes, which had been squeezed tight, started to flutter open. A sharp, hot pain shot through his right shoulder and back, however, and he groaned quietly. “Ugh…” “Don’t move yet. Drink more,” somebody whispered close by. Drops of the bittersweet liquid continued trickling into his mouth. The pain slowly grew fainter as he desperately worked the liquid toward the back of his throat. “That’s probably enough…,” the voice said. “Just…a few more drops…,” Yuuma begged, his eyes still closed and his own voice ragged. “Later. I still need to treat Kenk.” Yuuma sensed the owner of the voice stand up. He heard footsteps slipping softly away. Kenk… That’s right… Kenk was injured, too… Memories from the past few moments began to flood back into Yuuma’s groggy mind. Kenk as he stood in front of Yuuma, wielding a pipe in both hands. How he came to Yuuma’s rescue and then was knocked aside like a ragdoll. And then a girl with long black hair, dressed in a familiar school uniform. She materialized out of the darkness, holding something strange and white and fleshy in her right hand… “…Kenk… Watamaki…!” Yuuma’s eyes flew wide open. He sprang up into a sitting position, as if he had just been stung. Sharp pain shot through his shoulder and back, but that was nothing compared to how bad the pain had been earlier. Yuuma took a quick look around. The first thing that he noticed was the walkway, strewn with scraps of metal and plastic debris, and then a row of large capsules arranged overhead. Now he remembered—he was in Playroom 01, at the Althea amusement center. And those capsules were Caliculus devices, fulldive VR machines used to play the VRMMORPG Actual Magic. Glancing down at his own left hand, Yuuma saw a dim blue pattern of glowing circuitry that extended to just below his elbow. It seemed to be an extension of his QREST, the thin-film quantum device on the back of his left hand. The same hand that was clutching a single card. “So…it wasn’t a dream…,” he whispered. His thoughts were interrupted by the voice from earlier. “It’s all right… It looks like he’s just unconscious.” Turning in the direction of the voice, Yuuma saw a crouched figure about five meters away. The person’s back was turned toward him. There was also another person laid out spread-eagle on the walkway. It was Kenk—Kenji Kondou. Yuuma squinted, trying to make out the face of whoever was crouching next to Kenk. It was… “…Sawa!” Yuuma jumped to his feet, shouting his twin sister’s name. He had been sitting with his legs sprawled out in front of him. Tossing aside the metal bar in his hand and slipping the card into his jacket pocket, he slammed the ground with both hands, lobbing himself into the air like a spring and back onto his feet. Yuuma had always been the indoor type. Normally he would never have been able to manage such an acrobatic feat. He rushed toward his sister, not even noticing what he had done. “Sawa! Is Kenk…” …all right? Yuuma wanted to say, but the words caught in his throat before he could finish. His sister’s face was currently visible in profile. It was the same face he had spent every day of the last eleven years and eight months staring at; there was no doubt about that. It looked a lot like Yuuma’s, only a little more severe in appearance. Cool as a cucumber, or maybe just full of herself, depending on the perspective. But where was her school uniform? She’d been wearing it when they left the house that morning, when they arrived at Althea, and even when they entered the Caliculus capsules. Now it was gone, every last stitch. Instead Sawa was wearing some sort of skintight, crimson-colored bathing suit thing. Her chest was fully covered, as was everything from her hips downward, but the milky white skin of her arms and waist was exposed. The QREST on her left hand had also grown, just like Yuuma’s. Sawa’s QREST, however, gave off a red glow and reached past her elbow. Sawa’s clothes and QREST weren’t the only things about her that had changed. Two membranous, bat-like wings jutted out from the back of her swimsuit, and the horns on the headband she always wore seemed to have gotten bigger, too. At least she didn’t grow a tail, although now she looks less like a human and more like…