Terminal Lucidity
Hina and Chori supported Minel all the way back to the room.
He wrung out the last of his strength just to keep walking, and finally managed to sink onto the bed.
Thud.
The moment he settled into the soft mattress, thoughts of home rose unbidden. A quiet comfort and warmth welled up from deep inside him.
This is how I was lying when I first entered the Backrooms, isn't it?
Minel turned his head. Hina and Chori were watching him with anxious faces.
"Are you okay?"
"Are you okay?"
They asked with the same expression and the same tone.
Minel forced a small smile for them.
"No."
Hina asked quickly,
"What exactly does your body feel like?"
"It won't listen to me."
As if something had occurred to her, Hina unfastened her bracelet and held it out. Minel regarded her with a questioning look, and she explained.
"You got hit by lightning like a downpour. There might still be electricity left in you."
Minel took the rubber bracelet and slipped it onto his wrist. In that instant a sharp tingle raced through his entire body, and then suddenly everything felt loose and easy—as if that single jolt had reset every nerve.
He returned the bracelet.
"I'm fine now."
"Really? Truly?"
"Yeah. Thanks."
Minel sat up in one motion. He stretched and checked himself over; aside from stamina that had bottomed out completely, he was normal.
Chori sat down right there with a bright, open smile.
"That was incredible! To hunt a monster that huge! Even thinking about it now, I still don't know how you did it."
Beside her, Hina stroked Chori's hair.
"It wouldn't have been possible without Chori. Because you lured the monster all the way to Miller's base, we could land that first shot. If we'd fired with a clear line of sight, it would have dodged easily."
Looking at the two of them he was so fond of, Minel said quietly,
"We got lucky."
Hina and Chori thought he was simply being modest. Minel was only stating the facts.
The lightning that Shocker wrapped around its entire body was close to omnipotent. It scorched everything nearby at all times and could electrocute targets at range whenever it wished. It let that massive frame move at terrifying speed and granted a defensive field that turned aside cold weapons capable of harming monsters. Merely encountering it piled on Mystery, so almost no one could keep their wits just by facing a Shocker.
They had been able to hunt one only because the Backrooms Field Guide had revealed its weaknesses, because they had met Chori who could freely cross the corridors, and because they had found that heavy sniper rifle at Miller's base.
But more than anything else, the decisive factor had been Minel's own high electrical resistance. Without it he would have been electrocuted to death before he could even try anything.
The arcade they had run into the moment they reached the 2nd Floor. The rare machine they discovered inside had, of all things, been the kind that raised electrical resistance.
According to the Backrooms Field Guide, rare arcade machines appeared with vanishingly low probability. The chance that it would also be precisely the one that granted resistance perfectly suited against a Shocker—how high could that really be?
Minel took out the Backrooms Field Guide and studied it carefully. Ever since entering the Backrooms, an uncountable chain of luck had followed him. It was no longer something that could simply be dismissed as good fortune.
It was only a hunch rather than a solid conjecture, but he suspected this inexplicable luck might be the influence of the Backrooms Field Guide itself. Unfortunately, the Field Guide did not interpret itself. It would have been useful to have a blacksmith appraise it. Next time he met one, he decided, he would entrust the Backrooms Field Guide to them.
"Here."
When Minel came out of his thoughts, Hina was holding out Shocker's heart that she had extracted for him.
"Why?"
"Didn't you take it out to check it?"
"……."
Might as well look, since it was already out.
Minel regarded the still-throbbing heart and opened the first page of the Backrooms Field Guide.
The core organ extracted from the ribcage of the lightning beast Shocker. It pulses endlessly. It accumulates electricity on its own and reacts sensitively to shock, terror, and the sounds of battle, discharging in response. Do not touch with bare skin. Can be used for a variety of purposes.
The thighbone that had also been described as usable for various purposes had gone into weapon reinforcement. This would probably serve in a similar way.
"It's useless for now."
"……."
"Hold onto it for the time being."
Hina stared at him for a moment. Her eyes held the quiet question of whether he was truly entrusting such a precious item to her. Minel said nothing more to her and turned to Chori instead. Rather than adding unnecessary words, that would be the better way to earn trust.
"Can I meet your mother?"
At those words Chori sprang up and nodded vigorously.
"Ah! That's right! Mom said to wake her right after we hunted the Shocker! Let's go meet her right away!"
Excited, Chori dashed to the iron door, heaved it open with all her strength, and slipped straight into the darkness.
"Will it be okay?"
Hina's cautious question. Minel studied her face and asked quietly,
"Do you want to leave now?"
"It's not that... but we did keep our promise."
She was right. What Chori's mother had asked for was only that they kill the Shocker. The two of them would be able to find the path to the 3rd Floor on their own. Chori weighed on her mind, yet Hina was still prioritizing the party's safety.
"It's fine. She's trustworthy."
At Minel's gentle words Hina turned to look at him.
"You were suspicious too, Minel. We don't know what might happen if we go into that room."
"No. I know."
Hina narrowed her eyes. Minel's gaze was relaxed and calm.
"Is it a hunch?"
"Yeah."
Hina nodded.
"If that's what you think, Minel, then alright."
"I have one question."
When Hina's eyes went round, Minel spoke quietly.
"How about traveling with Chori?"
Hina blinked.
"T-together?"
"Yeah."
"You don't mean accepting her as a party member, do you?"
"Yeah."
"N-no. Well, I'm fine with it, but there's no way Chori's mother would allow that..."
"……."
Hina suddenly stopped speaking. She covered her involuntarily opening mouth, blinked several times, then looked toward the darkness-filled room and continued quietly.
"Y-you don't mean... you're going to kill her, are you?"
"It might come to that."
"N-no, Minel. I-if you do that, Ch-Chori will..."
Hina could not finish. At that moment Chori came out of the room. Her face was terribly dark. Tears welled in both eyes as if she might burst into sobs at any second.
"Mom says to come in..."
As Minel started forward, Hina caught his arm. She looked up at him with eyes that shook as if the ground itself were quaking. Her mouth opened, words about to spill, when Minel spoke first.
"It's okay."
"……."
"Trust me."
His voice was strangely calm and warm. Strength left Hina's hand; she finally nodded.
"Alright."
Minel offered a small smile and entered the room alone.
In one corner where deep darkness had settled, Chori's mother's upper body glowed with a soft yellow light. She looked at Minel with an expressionless face. Only a short while ago she had been skin and bones, her body hunched; now her back was straight.
"I thought you'd run, yet you walked in here on your own."
Her voice was clear, and strength rode the end of every sentence. Her eyes were sharp as glass; her consciousness was lucid.
Minel knew what the change meant.
"I know the situation."
"Is that so? How?"
"My mother was sick as well."
Simple words. The meaning they carried was large.
Chori's mother's eyes lowered slightly. She no longer regarded him with wariness.
"How... did she pass?"
"It was cancer."
"……."
"Right before the end, she regained her health. Briefly."
Terminal lucidity. The final flame burns brightest just before it goes out. It is the same for the sick. A patient whose consciousness had been cloudy suddenly becomes lucid, eats as if nothing is wrong, talks with family, looking bright or energetic—then within hours their health collapses and they meet their end.
Guilt colored Chori's mother's face. She closed her eyes and opened her mouth quietly.
"I'm sorry."
"As expected, the Shocker has nothing to do with the 3rd Floor?"
"That's right. I asked because for Chori to live alone from now on, monsters like the Shocker can't be roaming around."
Live alone. In other words, she herself would no longer be here.
Minel nodded.
"You were gambling."
"I have almost no strength left now. I'm simply doing my absolute best to protect Chori."
As Minel had expected, Chori's mother had other intentions. But they were not meant to put him and Hina in danger; they existed solely to protect Chori—so that even after she was gone, Chori could live safely in the Backrooms.
"How do we get to the 3rd Floor?"
"I just told Chori. She'll guide you on the path."
Small breaths trailed the ends of her words as if she were short of air. The change barely showed, yet Minel noticed it at once.
"How much time is left?"
"I've woken up too many times in a row. I won't be able to suppress the Wildness any longer. An hour, or maybe even less."
She clenched her mouth shut, as if trying to hold down something bursting up from inside. Her eyes flickered yellow at intervals. The accumulated Wildness was writhing wildly through her body.
"Does Chori know?"
Chori's mother smiled weakly. Deep resignation lived in that smile.
"No. That child doesn't know anything."
"No. She definitely knows."
"……."
"Say your farewells."
Chori's mother shook her head.
"I can't. If my emotions get intense... I won't be able to hold back the Wildness that much. I could turn into a monster just from saying goodbye."
"……."
"I can't see Chori anymore. Like this... like this... I have to disappear."
Her lips trembled; she squeezed her eyes shut. If she did not, she would not be able to endure wanting to see Chori right that instant.
Shing—!
The cold sound of metal. Chori's mother's eyes went wide as full moons.
"I'll prevent the worst."
"……."
"I'll bring Chori."
She quietly regarded Silence. Looking at the blue light held in the blade, it felt as if she were seeing that sunlight of the distant real world for the last time. She could find no courage at all. Yet with that blue light, the Wildness would be put cleanly to rest.
"Please."
Minel nodded and went outside.
Chori was sobbing bitterly in Hina's arms.
"Chori. Your mom wants to say goodbye."
"……."
"Let's go in."
No sooner had Minel's words ended than Chori stopped crying at once. She rubbed her eyes hard with both arms and regained her composure with only a few breaths. Minel took her hand. Relying on that hand, Chori entered the room where her mother waited once more.
"Minel..."
"It'll only take a moment."
Minel showed a faint smile again to the worried Hina.
The door closed firmly.