Orientation
[Hmm, I suppose I ought to call her Miss Ui.]
[Oh my, look at you! You're adorable! How about dressing up a little more?]
[Younger than I expected? But why does it feel like she's living better than us?]
[Whoa, is floating a ring above your head the latest fashion these days?]
[No way that's it. Probably something like a Singularity from wherever she lives.]
[Like my arm, maybe? Looks like she got some kind of fancy procedure.]
[A ring floating above her head... To think I would meet an angel with mine own eyes while still alive! I could die without a single regret!]
[Too classic. If we just add a little more red here...]
"Hwaaaah?! Too fast!"
Overwhelmed by the flood of text pouring out at breakneck speed, Ui decided the first order of business was to make it stop.
[Wait! Wait! Please stop for a moment! I don't understand a single thing that's going on!]
Fortunately, it worked. The terrifying cascade of messages halted, and a single line began to appear, slow and deliberate.
[Sorry. The Sinners all wanted a turn writing... It's fine now.]
[Sinners? Dante, do you travel with criminals?]
[Easy to misunderstand if you're hearing it for the first time. We call them Sinners, but just think of them as employees. It's only a title.]
What a bizarre way to refer to one's staff, Ui thought. Even if they were subordinates, was there really any need to treat them like convicts?
As her mind settled, a couple of earlier remarks snagged at her attention: "Singularity" and "procedure." She knew the concepts well enough herself, yet somehow the way they used the words seemed to point at something different from what she understood. "Procedure," in particular, almost certainly did not mean simple wound treatment.
[Come to think of it, a few of you mentioned Singularities and some kind of procedure earlier. What did you mean by that?]
For several minutes after that message, there was no reply. Then a long block of text began to appear.
[Dante finds that question rather difficult to answer, so Faust shall explain in his stead. Miss Ui does not appear to be a resident of our City.]
[First, a Singularity is a technology possessed exclusively by the twenty-six corporations that make up the City—the "Wings." For example, K Corp. has HP Ampoules that instantly heal any wound, while U Corp. has dimensional preservation packaging that can preserve anything. On a grander scale, there is W Corp.'s spatial warp technology.]
Instant healing for any injury, preservation of anything at all—even spatial teleportation. The girl gaped at technologies that sounded like something straight out of a science-fiction novel. Into that stunned silence, the person calling herself Faust continued.
[As for procedures, they are, at base, exactly what Miss Ui already knows. However, this City has many varieties. Among them are body-enhancement procedures, as well as procedures that replace the body with machinery.]
[To think such advanced technologies are so widespread... That's truly amazing.]
[Amazing... is it.]
This message seemed to come from someone other than Faust. Something in the resigned tone piqued Ui's curiosity.
[It is I, Yi Sang, whom you met briefly earlier. If it is not too much trouble, would you explain the world in which you dwell?]
"Come to think of it, we haven't heard a thing about where this kid lives. The way she called Singularities and body-enhancement procedures 'amazing' makes it sound like she doesn't know a damn thing about this hellhole... Hmm. So that thing over her head—is it natural, then?"
Heathcliff muttered the thought aloud. The other Sinners and Dante shared the same curiosity, even if they said nothing. Vergilius, who had been briefed on the situation and was now watching from the side, likewise concluded that a girl this pure could not have been born and raised in the City.
Yi Sang took the PDA from Faust and posed the question. A reply arrived soon after.
[I live in Kivotos. It's a city made up of academies—exactly as the name suggests, countless academies each governing their own districts... Faust said your City is composed of corporations called "Wings," so if you swap those for academies, it should be easier to picture.]
[I attend Trinity General Academy and live in its district. Among the academies in Kivotos, Millennium Science School is known for its advanced technology, but even they haven't developed anything that reaches the level of the "Singularities" you described. From my perspective, all of you seem like characters who stepped straight out of a science-fiction novel.]
<Kivotos... Never heard of the place.>
"It is certain this girl is not merely playing a prank. What we confirmed earlier through the Mirror was not some floating image or photograph—it was the girl herself."
"It would seem we have connected to another city... or perhaps another world entirely, one of which we were previously unaware."
Faust spoke. Sinclair, who had been a student until recently, scratched his head in wonder.
"Academies are probably schools, right? A city made of schools... It sounds so bright and cheerful. Completely different from how bleak it is here."
"In that case, is there no adult leading them? How can a city function with only children?"
That was the question Outis raised. Yi Sang found it reasonable as well and sent a message to the girl.
[From what I can gather, students form the overwhelming majority of the population in your world. Are the academy representatives, the police, the military—all of them students as well? Are there no adults at all?]
[To answer the first question: yes, that's pretty much how it is.]
[As for the second: most of the adults in our world are robots or animals. Apart from them, there's Sensei, who works at Schale. He came from outside Kivotos. He's kind and reliable, but unlike us, his body is fragile—even a single bullet puts his life in danger.]
"A world that runs just fine with nothing but little brats... What a sight that must be. More than that—threatened by a single bullet... Sounds like she's saying they're fine with that sort of thing. And they haven't even received body-enhancement procedures."
"Immune to bullets, maybe? Whatever. S.O.B. Never trusted the damn things anyway."
"Ryōshū, why would you say that while looking at a kid..."
Sinclair answered with a face gone pale at the sight of Ryōshū's terrifying smirk. Her only reply was a snort of laughter.
"More importantly, this one is astonished that the teacher of that... Schale place came from outside! Does that mean travel between other worlds is common there? I shall ask this time!"
Don Quixote took the PDA from Yi Sang for a moment, beaming as she sent her question. The reply that came a short while later carried a faintly weary tone.
[I think you're the one who called me an angel earlier... I'm not an angel. It's called a halo, and every student in Kivotos has one. If you said something like that in front of the Sisterhood here at Trinity, it would definitely cause a huge scene.]
[And other worlds... They're not common, but they do show up every once in a while. Though looking at how we're talking like this, maybe there are more than I thought. Unless you've all built a city underground in Kivotos and are living in hiding, that is.]
[By the way, Yi Sang... when I said your City's technology was amazing earlier, you seemed a little sad. Is there a reason for that?]
"Not an angel, yet she has a halo... Then it must be the blessing of an angel?!"
"There's no way. From what the girl said, it's just a trait of the people who live in that place called Kivotos."
Ishmael cut off Don Quixote's theatrics. Outis rested her chin on her hand, re-examining the information they had gathered so far.
"Sisterhood...? Nuns, then? That Trinity district where the little one lives must be quite the religious area."
"Heh. Nice life they've got. We don't even have the luxury of believing in that sort of thing. Hm? Yi Sang, what's wrong?"
Gregor let out a long, resigned sigh—only to notice that Yi Sang's expression was more serious than usual.
"Ah. I am merely deliberating how to answer Miss Ui's final words. Judging by her face and the mention of being a student, she appears to be around Sinclair's age, or perhaps a little younger. I wonder whether I can properly explain the place in which we live to a child such as her..."
"Yeah, that Kivotos place she lives in sounds peaceful and lively—nothing like here. Can someone who's lived like that really face true cruelty head-on?"
Rodion agreed with Yi Sang. Kivotos had its own hidden cruelties that the LCB team knew nothing about, but compared to the City they amounted to nothing. After a stretch of silence, Yi Sang began operating the PDA.
"I shall try. How the child will take it, I cannot say."