Searching for the Runaway Ash

The moment the news that Ash had run away from home reached me—both as an event message and in spoken words—I was left so flustered I had no idea what to say.

No, seriously. Why would a nanomachine just pack up and leave home on her own?

At least there was a communication log from right before Ash vanished, a brief exchange with Riel…

"I don't really get why she took off either, y'know."

If even the person who spoke with her last couldn't make sense of it, how was I supposed to?

Hoping there might be some clue buried in the transmission, I even sent the recording to a specialist agency in the capital for analysis.

"Nothing particularly stood out, Minister."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Is that so…"

Even the experts found nothing wrong with the contents of the call itself. The whole thing only grew more baffling.

But bafflement alone wasn't going to let me sit around forever.

I hit pause and spent a long while wrestling with the problem in my head.

First things first—find Ash. I can ask her why later.

Having reached that conclusion, I released ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the pause and spoke to Riel at once.

"Riel, any idea where Ash disappeared to?"

"Nope. She just vanished like a random jump—no hyperspace lane or anything."

"Tch."

All sorts of technical jargon followed, but the bottom line was simple: even if we wanted to know where she went, there was no way to track her.

"So right now I'm busy collecting rumors to figure out where Ash went."

"Rumors…?"

"Yep. Sometimes the primitive methods still come in handy, y'know."

So in this age of spacefaring science fiction, we were reduced to hunting a battleship by word of mouth alone. The sheer absurdity of the situation left a sour taste in my mouth. I couldn't help wondering whether it would even work.

"Well… do your best, I guess."

Not long after she declared she would catch Ash through rumor-mongering, Riel came bouncing over to me, waving a terminal with a triumphant look.

"Minister! We just got word that Ash has been spotted!"

The bright smile and little hops as she entered left me feeling more than a little incredulous.

"You've said that before and it turned out to be a prank more often than not, haven't you?"

That was exactly the problem with this method. You couldn't tell jokes from genuine tips, so you had no choice but to go check—and roughly ninety percent of the time it was a lie.

"Ugh, but I rounded up every last one of those pranksters, so there won't be any more jokes, okay?"

True enough. Daring to waste the time and resources of the Foreign Executive Ministry—the secret police—with a prank? Anyone who lost all sense of fear for the sake of a cheap thrill and idle curiosity paid a price they would never forget.

"Seems like that cost us quite a few resources."

"Don't worry so much! This one's solid, I swear!"

After being burned by so many pranks and false leads, and after hauling the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠culprits in for thorough "questioning" so many times, I felt nothing when I saw Riel looking so pleased with herself. For all I knew, someone had just written something that sounded plausible and there was no real information at all.

There had even been cases where the investigation specialists themselves said, "This one actually looks promising," ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only for us to arrive and hear:

"Oh, that? I'm writing a novel, so I figured I'd use it as free publicity."

The universe was vast, and so were the number of lunatics in it.

So, as I said, I took the terminal from Riel with zero expectations.

But… life, as always, refused to go the way I expected.

"Well?!"

"…Hmm."

"This time they even sent evidence!"

Just as Riel claimed, the report contained a detailed eyewitness account, complete with a photo—blurry, but unmistakably showing Ash's form.

"Impressive."

"Right?"

When I nodded in acknowledgment, Riel let out a little snort of pride and thrust out a chest that wasn't really there.

"I told you I'm pretty good at this stuff, didn't I?"

"Mmm… I don't think I ever said you weren't."

I brushed past her little display and kept reading the report.

A moment later—

"Last sighted at… the Kardian Black Hole?"

The fact that Ash had been found at the Kardian Black Hole, the southernmost region of the Empire, left me unable to hide my suspicion.

As if matching my thoughts, Riel nodded and spoke up.

"Yep, that's right. But the tipster's story was a little weird."

"How so?"

"First off, the guy said he was a planetary waste-disposal worker dumping trash into the black hole at the time."

"Hmm."

"Then he happened to spot Ash on the opposite side of the system, thought it was a weird-looking ship, and took a photo."

That much was already in the report, so I nodded and gave her a look that said to get to the point.

"And according to him, he was right in the middle of work, so he just snapped the picture and went back to it."

"And?"

"He only looked away for a few minutes, but when he glanced back, Ash had already vanished from that spot and was disappearing through the gate on the exact opposite side."

Hearing that, I wondered whether Ash could really move that fast. Even if she had been built with the transcendent technology of some ultra-ancient civilization, her performance should still have been based on what I knew from the game.

What the hell…

Riel seemed to share the same doubt; she tilted her head with a puzzled look.

"But here's the thing—there's been zero information about Ash showing up at any other gate after that."

"Ah."

"What?"

"No, nothing… keep going."

Feeling a little embarrassed that I had misread her reaction, I quietly settled in to listen.

"Okay. Anyway, we dispatched our own people to the management offices of every gate to dig up detailed information."

From the perspective of any other nation, that would have sounded like we didn't trust their own offices and were barging in uninvited. In fact, when you looked at the mixed-species members of the Purge Squad, you sometimes heard that exact complaint.

But this was the Holy Sevelian Empire.

For reasons I still didn't understand, the Sevelian species itself had a strangely YOLO-like tendency compared to other aliens—slacking off, cutting corners, trying to coast through their work. Even when higher-ups made demands, they often just tossed over whatever half-assed job they'd done.

Especially for something this important, we either handled it ourselves from the start, or—exactly as Riel had just described—we marched into the relevant offices and collected the data ourselves.

…Just what is wrong with these people that they never listen properly?

With that thought, I started on the next stack of work the moment Riel finished her report. No matter how important Ash was, we had already done everything we could for the moment. Worrying further would only waste time and resources.

So I flipped open the next work report and prepared to wait for the gate-related findings that would soon arrive.

But at that exact moment—

Ding♪

The moment the event message floated before my eyes, a long-forgotten memory stirred in the back of my mind.

Black hole… gate… sealed… nanomachines…

As the words rose one after another like a cyborg with a red star on its arm, I finally understood what every clue was pointing toward.

…The Grey Nightmare?