The Fog That Listens
And then there was her.
“First attempt… confirmed that even a bicycle triggers the same phenomenon if it has navigation running. This should work, right?”
Having visited The Company before, Arin knew how to write reports, but this method was new to her. She typed with uncertainty, slipped the phone back into her pocket, and stepped up to the road entrance.
This time she would walk without the bicycle to see if the phenomenon still occurred. The thought of covering that long distance on foot brought a faint wave of helplessness and irritation. She sighed and took a step forward.
“I just wish it would come from over there.”
She muttered the complaint only she could make and kept walking. Roughly ten minutes later, a voice drifted from the breast pocket of her school uniform.
Four hundred meters to destination.
“So I’ve walked about a kilometer now?”
Arin noted that the phenomenon activated simply by walking once navigation was on. She turned the volume up, set the phone on the ground, and backed away.
Listening to the distance announcements grow shorter, she retreated as far as she could, slipped behind the barrier, and hid while watching the fog thicken.
One hundred meters to destination…
The fog, dense enough to swallow the streetlight glow, reached the spot where she had left the phone and swallowed it in an instant—then stopped.
Calling fog “stopped” felt odd, yet to Arin’s eyes the approaching mass had clearly frozen in place.
You have arrived at your destination.
She kept her eyes fixed on the scene, waiting to observe how the fog would behave without people nearby and how it would look from outside. The navigation app, which should have ended automatically, kept speaking.
You have arrived at your destination. You have arrived at your destination. You have arrived at your destination. Recalculating route. Recalculating route. Recalculating…
The endless loop sounded as though the fog itself had gained awareness and was searching for her, using the navigation to speak on its behalf.
While watching and looking for a way out, Arin suddenly felt a chill along her back and turned around.
The fog was behind her as well.
Ah~ I’m screwed.
She looked around. Fog crept closer from both front and back, hunting for the phone’s owner. High soundproof walls sealed both sides. No exit.
After a brief hesitation she sighed, scratched her head, and climbed over the barrier.
Her foot caught on the edge; she hopped a few awkward steps on the other side and laughed sheepishly even though no one was watching.
Wanting to finish quickly, Arin walked straight toward the fog and waved, signaling it to take her. It gave no reaction. Only after she shouted did the fog surge forward.
You have arrived at your destination.
“Yeah, good job finding me.”
She stepped into the fog of her own accord. Splashing sounds and approaching handprints flickered at the edge of her vision. She closed her eyes, committing to memory that the entities inside relied on sound rather than sight.
“Mmm…”
Once the phone was back in her pocket, she confirmed it was set to vibrate and called J.
Normally an Entry Team member would report to an Entry Team superior, but Arin was technically on loan, classified as a usable anomaly rather than a regular agent, so she skipped the usual chain.
Problem during the operation?
“Nah, not really. I just want to try something and need some supplies.”
What do you need?
“A small soundproof box big enough to hold a phone—anything from a soundproof booth to a sealed container. Also wireless earbuds and a mannequin.”
………Requested from Support Team. They’ll arrive in five to ten minutes.
“Thanks~”
Arin sat on the curb, swinging her legs while she waited. When headlights appeared in the distance she waved.
“Huh?”
Expecting a Support Team vehicle, she froze when a blue sedan approached instead.
Loud exhaust and music blared from the open windows. She frowned, scratched her chin, and walked to the passenger side to knock on the glass.
“Wandering around this late, kid? Bad people might snatch you up.”
“Where you headed? Want a ride?”
The window rolled down. A burly man in a tank top and shorts, gold chain and bracelets glinting, grinned from the driver’s seat. A thinner man covered in tattoos leaned out from the passenger side and looked her up and down.
“Um… the road’s closed tonight. How’d you get in?”
“Oh, the barricade? Fuck that. We wanted to drive here, so who decided to block it? There’s a side road anyway.”
“This hyung’s a hell of a driver. Wanna try?”
Arin ignored their obvious ill intent, mentally noting to report the men managing the barricade later. She deliberately leaned on the hood to keep them from moving forward.
“They’re doing construction up ahead.”
“That’s the fun part. You just drift hard when you’re coming out…”
His pointless bragging about drifting and Formula 1 irritated her. She wondered why Support Team was taking so long and grumbled about her youthful appearance making persuasion harder than it should be.
“Ha… damn it, can’t just send them to die either.”
“…What?”
“Do you have navigation?”
“Of course. It’s standard.”
“Ah, these days it is, huh?”
Arin slung her bag around, unzipped it, and reached inside. When she pulled her hand out, her newest friend was there.
The iron pipe, now wrapped in bandages, felt noticeably better in her grip. She flexed her fingers, then thrust her arm through the open window and smashed the navigation screen before either man could react.
Both stared blankly at the shattered display. Arin asked,
“Got a navigation app on your phone?”
“……Y-you crazy bitch?!”
“Oh, right, I didn’t explain. If you turn navigation on up ahead, you die.”
She tried to explain the anomaly, but the two men only shouted over her, too agitated to listen.
“H-Hyung, wait a second!”
“What!”
“Something’s off. Let’s just ignore her and go.”
“Fuck that, my car’s wrecked! How am I supposed to just leave?!”
The passenger leaned toward the driver, whispering. The driver glanced between Arin and his companion, then slammed the accelerator.
“No! You can’t go! Hey!”
Arin waved frantically after the car, but it didn’t stop.
“Ah, shit.”
Support Team arrived moments later. Grumbling about how to write this in the report, she collected the requested items and paired the phone with the wireless earbuds.
“I’ll have to find those guys’ car and report it once I’m inside.”
As Arin began trudging forward, the two men who had ignored her warning were speeding down the road, wind rushing through the open windows.
“Hyung, did you see that bitch’s eyes? I swear she escaped from a mental hospital.”
“Right? Why else would someone walk around with an axe?”
“Still, that was badass, hyung! You didn’t even flinch when she pointed it at you. Damn~”
“This’ll make a killer story for the stream, right?”
High on speed and adrenaline, they failed to notice the fog gathering on the open road. Their conversation drifted to the navigation Arin had obsessed over.
Remembering her repeated warnings, the driver called her a crazy navigation-obsessed bitch and shouted curses out the window, promising to make her pay later. He took one hand off the wheel, pulled out his phone, and waved it mockingly.
The screen clearly displayed: 100 meters to destination.
“Ha… should’ve asked for a new bike.”
Once on the road, Arin reset the destination on her sluggish phone, placed it inside the small soundproof box, and confirmed no sound leaked except through the earbuds. She thanked Support Team for the mannequin and the rope they had thoughtfully provided, then complained that they could have included a bicycle while she walked onward without rest.
Two hundred meters to destination.
“I can see it.”
After walking for a while she spotted the dense fog halted as though a line had been drawn. She set the mannequin down, stepped back, and waited.
Five minutes passed. The fog only rippled in place. Arin crouched, chin on her hand, then clapped once.
The sharp sound drew the fog. It rushed toward the source. She watched the shadows inside and carefully moved away.
The moment the mannequin vanished into the fog, something snapped and crunched. The mannequin’s shape collapsed. The splashing handprints that had continued while it broke suddenly accelerated, then the fog thinned and the road reappeared.
“Idiots, getting fooled by something shaped like a person…”
Arin stopped mid-sentence.
She felt someone grab her from behind. The fog she thought had disappeared was surging forward again.
“Right. It came from both sides.”
And then there was no one.
And then Arin was there again.
Standing at the road entrance, she recorded everything she had learned and called J.
This time she asked for something larger, sturdier, and heavier, plus a means of transport. Afterward she gazed down the still-clear road.
A little later, in the middle of the road, Arin stepped off the folding electric scooter and set the new item on the ground.
A transparent reinforced-plastic box.
Just large enough for one person, lockable from the inside—exactly like a coffin.
She opened the lid, climbed in, took the phone from the soundproof box, started recording video, placed the phone outside, and closed the lid. The fog, apparently drawn by the sound, quickly surrounded her position.
An hour later, Arin wrote down the confirmed information.
“The fog only recognizes you if you make sound or touch it directly… It’s not as stupid as I thought, but it gives up quickly. And…”
The things inside the fog reveal their physical forms at certain moments.