Escape Preparations (2)
It was dark.
The hallway that had been bright only three weeks ago was now shrouded in shadow.
The lights had begun to go out one by one, starting from the lamp in front of Room 1 at the far end of the corridor, then Room 2, Room 3… until the passage leading to the research wing had transformed into something resembling a tunnel.
Ziiiing—
In the dormitory unit positioned right beside the section where darkness had begun to settle, I placed my hand on the teal screen that read ‘25-26.’ The now-familiar mechanical voice responded.
“…25.”
“24 died yesterday. As expected.”
Inside were two beds. One was empty. On the other lay a brown-haired girl.
Scattered across the floor were the board game board, pieces, and cards we had played with yesterday. Clothes lay discarded wherever they had been thrown.
“…Yeah.”
“It’s not ‘yeah’…!”
“It’s today. Today’s the day you die, 25.”
25. The child who had been kidnapped to this place one day and had shared the same room with me ever since.
She always seemed quiet and emotionless. Yet beneath that surface, she was warmer than most.
Her favorite foods were baguette and cream soup.
She loved board games, and…
…
“So?”
“…So? No, we have to get out of here…! Are you just going to keep lying there like that?”
A suffocating frustration rose from deep within my chest. Why? Why was it always like this?
Why wouldn’t she ever listen to me?
I had told her we needed to escape the moment 1 died. Somehow. Any way we could. But she always acted as if she had no interest in leaving.
Did she not want to live?
“…Are you really going to die here without even trying…!”
“Ah, ah…! It hurts, 26—”
When I came back to my senses, I realized I was pressing down hard on 25’s shoulders.
Startled, I yanked my hands away, my body trembling.
But I had to do this. Maybe then she would listen. Was that why my body had reacted on its own?
“…26.”
25’s lips parted slowly. The voice that usually dragged out tired complaints like play with me now carried a different weight.
“…We can’t leave. Not from here.”
“2, 6, 13. They all tried to escape. They did everything they could to get out. Just like you.”
“Do you know what happened to them?”
“I still remember clearly the horrible screams that echoed from outside that night. You were asleep, so you wouldn’t have known…”
As if recalling memories she wished to forget, grief flooded Berry’s eyes and her head shook slowly from side to side.
“…”
“I don’t want to die. But…”
“Dying like that is even worse.”
“I heard the sound of bones crunching…”
…
Berry slowly rose from the bed and placed her hand on my cheek.
It felt cold. No, it was warm. The touch against my skin was definitely cold, yet somehow my body registered it as warm.
“26. I just… I…”
“I have nowhere to go back to anyway. Leaving would just mean the same kind of life.”
“…That, I can somehow—!”
“Sure, we might get out like you say. We escape this place somehow, and then what? Two girls—one sold by her parents, the other who lost hers—wandering the slums until we starve to death.”
“Or we might just get caught and thrown back into a place like this.”
“You think we could somehow return to society? Yeah, maybe. Escaping this hell is already a long shot, but if we somehow beat those odds again…”
“…26, I don’t want it that badly.”
“I’m scared of failing and dying like 2, like 6, like 13.”
“…”
I couldn’t say anything. 25’s eyes showed no room for persuasion.
…It was clear she had thought it through and made her decision.
I understood. But I couldn’t accept it.
Just as I was about to say something more, 25 spoke first.
“…26, you have somewhere to return to, don’t you?”
“That’s why you can shoulder all this risk… right?”
I did.
A little sister who had lost her parents, been adopted, and then lost those adoptive parents too.
She would be in the academy’s middle school dormitory right now. Alone.
“…Go. Spend every minute you can looking for a way out.”
“…But—”
“…No matter how much you try to convince me, I won’t listen.”
“…”
In Berry’s eyes, resignation and regret swirled gently, along with some emotion I couldn’t quite name.
Why did it have to be so cruel?
25 had always looked out for me. Yet she always kept about ten percent of herself reserved.
This was the result. She couldn’t leave with me, but she also couldn’t ask me to stay.
“…Fine.”
“…Take care. Wait, that sounds stupid. Haha…”
“…Goodbye, 25.”
With those words, I turned toward the door. I didn’t have the courage to look at her face any longer.
That was when her voice called out from behind me once more.
“…Wait, 26…!”
“…At least tell me your name before you go.”
“I’m Berry. When my parents were alive, I was Berry Prima.”
“…”
“…Lucia. Lucia Arcarne.”
“…Lucia. Okay, got it.”
“I was going to say this earlier, but… if possible, escape after I’m dead. I don’t think I could bear hearing you die—”
“…Sorry.”
“…What’s that supposed to mean.”
“…Understood.”
“…Berry. I’ll remember your name.”
“If I make it out of here. For good—”
“And I’ll make sure to get revenge for you.”
“…Haha.”
“…You have to survive and get out.”
“Goodbye, Lucia.”
“…Goodbye, Berry.”
Ziiiing—
Thud.
“…Ah.”
It was a familiar ceiling. Sleek white with black grid patterns.
A throbbing headache surged in, forcing me to press a hand to my forehead and let out a labored breath.
…I must have dreamed. A dream of the past, at that.
Of all days. On the very day Berry and I had decided to escape together.
…
“…Haa. Yeah. That’s how it went.”
That day, after leaving Berry behind, I couldn’t find a proper escape route no matter how hard I searched. So.
On the day death loomed right before me, at dawn, I simply threw myself into the ventilation shaft. Somehow, I got lucky and succeeded.
Thinking back, it really was insane. Still, I survived in the end, and as for Berry’s revenge…
…I didn’t fully succeed, but I got about halfway there. At least everyone who had been here back then…
“…Huuuam, 26…”
“Good morning…”
Beside me, Berry was stretching as she woke up.
When I waved at her, her face softened into a bright smile.
It felt strangely surreal to be facing her like this right after saying goodbye in that dream.
“…We’re leaving at dawn today, right?”
“Then what should we do until then…?”
Berry got up from bed, folding the blanket as she spoke.
Today. What to do today. There wasn’t really anything major to prepare just because we were escaping today…
“…Nothing in particular. Maybe play another round of what we did yesterday.”
“…Oh, before that. Want to go check the exit route in advance?”
“…Yes!”
With that, Berry headed to the bathroom, saying she would wash up first, her steps light and quick.
There was definitely a sense of disconnect. Even though we were escaping today, it felt like we should be preparing something, yet there was nothing to prepare.
“…Hmm, so it’s over there?”
After a simple breakfast, Berry and I stepped out into the hallway.
Since pointing directly or staring too long might get us caught on the CCTV, I had told her we would turn around immediately after reaching the vent. She followed, and when I stopped right beneath the ventilation shaft and turned, Berry nodded in understanding.
…As we began walking back toward the dormitory.
“…It’s higher than I thought. How are you going to get up there?”
“There’s a clothes hanger in the room, right? I’m going to pull it out and bring it. We can step on it to climb up—”
“…Will that actually work…?”
Yeah. It did when I tried it.
Strangely enough, even though it was just a hanger, it didn’t collapse easily even with a person standing on it.
“…It’s sturdier than it looks. I stepped on it once while you were washing up.”
Of course, I couldn’t say that exactly, so I brushed it off vaguely.
Before long we arrived in front of the dormitory door. As always, Berry placed her palm against the screen.
…Looking closely, her hand seemed to be trembling slightly.
“…Are you scared?”
“…Of course I’m scared. Idiot.”
Beep—
Ziiiing—
With the usual sound, the door opened, sliding apart like a wall.
Berry walked briskly into the room with her fist tucked under her chin—
“…Aren’t you scared?”
“…No, you don’t look scared at all. It’s obvious.”
“…That’s why I decided to follow you.”
Ziiiing—
Almost in sync with the door closing, Berry sat down on the edge of the bed.
Her brown hair spread across the white blanket like a stain.
“Honestly, every time you said we should leave before—”
“You never looked completely sure you could actually do it. It felt like you were just saying we might be able to. That’s why I was too scared to follow.”
“But this time… you spoke like there was no doubt we would make it. So…”
“I think I can follow you.”
…
Even considering how hard I had tried to persuade her, Berry had remained firm until the day before her death. I had been a little curious why she suddenly decided to come along…
So that was the difference. Well, of course. Time had regressed. I now had the confidence that the method I had used to escape once would work again.
“…We still have about five hours left. In that case…”
“Want to play this?”
Berry rummaged through the drawer and pulled out the board game set we had played yesterday.
Yeah. Sure. It had actually been pretty fun when we played it again yesterday—
I nodded, took the square-folded game board, and spread it out on the floor while Berry dealt the cards.
…Since this would be the last time we played it here.
Shouldn’t I at least win on the final round…?
I needed to focus. Definitely.
“…Haa.”
Dragging my exhausted body back to the dormitory, I collapsed helplessly onto the bed. I simply didn’t have the strength to stay standing.
…
“…This weekend was a failure.”
My sister was nowhere to be found.
I had split my time between the slums in C-district and Z-district, spending a day in each.
There was no need to search so broadly. Before the regression, at this point in time, the range of my ability to sense magical power was less than ten meters. So I had to physically run from place to place to find her…
But now, with my previous magical power and abilities intact, simply circling the outskirts of the slums was enough to scan the entire interior.
I hadn’t detected any magical power in the C-district slums. Well, that made sense. People with abilities rarely stayed in the slums. They usually came out to the city, committed villainy, got subdued by heroes, starved to death, or were sent off to Z-district.
I followed a few traces of power I did sense, but my sister wasn’t there.
In Z-district, I couldn’t go too deep, so I only circled the outer areas briefly—and still couldn’t find her.
…Where could she be?
Since my sister was currently registered as a missing person, if she had come into the city, her biometric data would have been picked up immediately. There was no way she was dead. I had seen her alive.
She had to be in one of the slums. The only ones connected to her were in C-district and Z-district, so I would have to check the slums in other districts as well. Or venture deeper into Z-district.
…Next weekend, I’ll have to search D-district and E-district.
“…Sister,”
Lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling, I whispered softly to myself.
“…Where in the world are you?”
“…I miss you…”
Just once more. I wanted to see my sister as she was—before she became a villain.
…
Like that, I fell asleep, succumbing to the wave of exhaustion that washed over me.