Halloween Society
The two of them haggled for a full two days.
Akina, determined to squeeze out every last credit, versus Santa, determined to pay out as few of them as possible. To Ash's eyes, it looked like nothing so much as a duel between spear and shield.
In the end, the victor was Akina.
"Fine, fine! 220,000! Now let me get some sleep!"
"Yes!"
And so Ash and Akina walked away from their first expedition clutching the handsome sum of 220,000 credits. Add in the 50,000-credit fee for the mapping job, and the total came to 270,000.
Even after paying off the debt they owed Santa and covering Akina's cost of living, a full 100,000 credits would remain.
For greenhorn pathfinders, that was a spectacular profit.
It was more than enough to marvel at — and yet they still had one more source of money left to tap.
And not just any source. The biggest payday of all.
"Mister, hold on a sec!"
In the middle of preparing to head out, Akina suddenly seemed to remember something and bolted upstairs.
A brief silence.
Santa pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and looked over at Ash.
"Ash."
The smoke curling from his lips dispersed into the air.
"You ever been into corporate territory?"
Ash shook his head.
"This will be my first."
"I see."
Santa flicked the ash from his cigarette.
"Sanctum, see — it's a patchwork doll. A bunch of different-colored cloths sewn together into the shape of a city."
Ash bowed his head for a moment, puzzling over the cryptic remark. Then, at some point, his optical sensors flickered with a faint light.
"Do you mean the Societies, perhaps?"
Society — the word for the autonomous districts governed by the megacorporations.
Santa gave a small nod.
"From the outside, it might look like one city. In truth, it's nothing of the sort. Call it a collection of territories, each tangled up with its own desires."
Ash waited silently for him to continue.
At the same time, he recorded the conversation. Santa's words were always useful for surviving in Sanctum — and these would surely be no different.
Santa went on.
"'Society' isn't just a word for corporate-administered zones. To put it more precisely... hmm. Think of each one as a society bound together by a single 'value.'"
"A value?"
"Let me give you an example. Apex Arms. You know it?"
"Of course."
Ash could hardly not know the name.
His own left arm had been built with Apex Arms technology.
"Apex's core value is 'evolution.' Maybe that's why the Apex Society despises the human body. Treats it like garbage. A pack of madmen, the lot of them — convinced that only cybernetic modification is the path to perfection."
"Hm. Isn't that rather extreme?"
"That's Societies for you."
Santa ground out his cigarette and kept talking.
"Vortex Energy is the same. Their core value is 'efficiency.' They judge emotion and desire as inefficient elements and strip them out without mercy. The funny thing is, live that restrained, efficient a life, and somewhere along the way you start giving off the vibe of a religious order."
When the conversation had reached this point—
Ash, who had been listening quietly, asked his question.
"...Then what, might I ask, is Halloween's core value?"
The corner of Santa's mouth curled up, as if he found the question amusing.
"What do you think it is?"
That smile might as well have said, go see for yourself.
A short while later, a clatter of footsteps came from above.
It was Akina, coming down from the second floor.
"Shall we head out? To the Halloween Society!"
What divided the Halloween Society from the rest of Sanctum was neither a massive steel gate nor a heavily fortified security system.
The boundary was color and sound.
Unlike the Gateway District, where Santa's Rest Stop stood, the Halloween Society blazed from its very threshold with a riot of every color under the sun.
And that wasn't all.
Music of every genre, loud enough to split eardrums, poured ceaselessly in from all directions.
This was less a city than a vast open-air club, a studio set that never stopped rolling.
Buildings of bizarre, unchecked shapes competed to outdo one another, decking themselves in dazzling neon signs and media facades as if vying for attention.
Holographic billboards plastered across every outer wall played glamorous combat footage of popular idols, interspersed with the occasional aegyo-laced message of thanks to their fans.
The people on the streets were every bit as flamboyant.
Hair dyed in fluorescent shades. Bodies reinforced with cyberware. Bold, outlandish fashion.
No one here was ordinary, and no one was afraid to stand out.
It was, quite literally, a different world entirely — dreamlike, almost hallucinatory, more illusion than reality.
Which was exactly why Ash and Akina stood out so much. Draped in practical, colorless clothing, they looked for all the world like a misplaced black-and-white photograph on a color screen.
And so the two of them blended in not one bit.
"Hehe. Good thing I came prepared!"
Akina, muttering to herself, fished something out of her coat. A vivid red tint.
Without so much as a mirror, she dabbed it on and smeared it across her own lips.
"Mister, how do I look?"
A blood-red mouth on a paper-white face.
Smudged in every direction, no less.
Ash reached out one hand and carefully wiped the tint away for her.
"The attempt was admirable."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means the attempt was admirable."
The moment she opened her mouth to retort—
As if that voice were a signal, every noise in the city faded away as though by magic. The crowds stopped what they were doing mid-motion and turned their eyes upward to the tallest building of all — Halloween Entertainment headquarters.
With Chatterbox's cry, one entire face of the building transformed into a colossal ranking board. Over its relatively plain exterior, a lavish holographic display bloomed to life.
The rankings, beginning at #100, climbed rapidly toward the top.
Each time a name appeared, the face of that idol and a clip of her performance flashed briefly in hologram, and cheers erupted from every corner of the street in response.
Ash and Akina tilted their heads back to watch the spectacle too.
"Where do you think Ifrit-unni ranks?"
"Hm. I should think a heroine such as she sits quite high? She is a veteran pathfinder, active since long ago."
"Hehe. Yeah, probably."
From that point on, the two of them watched the rankings a little more intently.
90.
70.
50.
The ranks kept climbing, but Ifrit's name was nowhere to be seen.
In the end — just one.
Even down to the final spot at #1.
The instant Chatterbox finished shouting, a roar burst from the crowds packing the city, all at once.
Their chant swallowed the whole city.
And then, at last, at the very peak of the ranking board, the name and face of #1 rose into view.
"Waaaaaaah!!"
The woman in the hologram gazed down at the crowd with black, unreadable eyes.
Hair long and dark as a starless night, skin white as fresh snow — and in one hand, a blade held loosely at her side.
This was Siren, leader of the chart-topping idol group Witchcraft.
"...You're kidding."
Akina's voice slipped out, small and hollow.
She seemed flustered by the fact that Ifrit's name hadn't cracked the top 100 at all.
And even at that very moment, the plaza was still overflowing with people chanting Siren's name.
In the midst of that cauldron of madness, Ash thought.
He looked at Siren on the ranking board, at the crowds crying her name, and finally at Ifrit — the one whose name hadn't even made the list.
"What do you think it is?"
Santa's words surfaced in his mind.
Now Ash thought he understood.
Halloween's core value is popularity.
Ifrit had been a seasoned pathfinder, beyond a doubt.
Her marksmanship never missed. She'd used smoke to scatter the Sentinels' attention. Even wielding an unfamiliar sword, she'd more than pulled her weight. Any one of those things made it plain.
But so what?
Here, skill and experience were secondary concerns.
A person's worth rested on one thing and one thing alone — how many people wanted you.
Ash looked away from the ranking board.
"Sojeo. Let's head in."
At his low voice, Akina nodded — with a somewhat discontented look on her face.
The building's interior was every bit as flamboyant as the street outside.
Just a touch colder. More polished.
From the screens covering every surface, footage of Siren — freshly crowned #1 — played without pause.
"How may I help you?"
The female android stationed at the reception desk smiled sweetly.
"We're here to see Ifrit-unni."
The android paused briefly to search its data, then answered with the same gentle smile.
"Do you have a meeting scheduled with her?"
"Um... not exactly, but she said to call her if we came by!"
"Understood. I will contact Lady Ifrit now. Might I ask you to wait in the lounge for a moment?"
The android gestured toward an upscale waiting area in one corner.
"Thank you!"
The two of them followed the guidance and settled onto the lounge sofa.
Perhaps leaning back into the plush cushions felt somehow foreign to them — their postures were a touch awkward either way.
"Wow. How much does all this stuff cost?"
Akina, as if to shake off the awkwardness, started chattering away. Now and then, Ash would simply nod along.
How much time had passed?
Suddenly, Ash rose from his seat.
"Huh? Mister, what is it?"
Despite Akina's puzzled call, Ash strode without hesitation toward a woman seated alone at a nearby table.
She wore her hat pulled low and a mask over her face — the only thing visible of her was her eyes.
As Ash approached, the woman hastily stuffed the PDA she'd been holding out of sight.
Oblivious or indifferent, Ash stood before her and activated his voice module.
"Good day to you."
At the quiet greeting, the woman gave a small start.
"Oh— yes?"
Her answer came out stammering.
But Ash paid it no mind.
"Forgive the intrusion, but may I ask you a question?"
At his courteous words, the woman gave a small nod.
"Ah — yes. What can I do for y—"
"Why is it that you keep drawing near to us?"
At Ash's words, the woman's breath seemed to catch in her throat, and she couldn't manage another syllable.
The truth was, Ash had noticed this woman's gaze from the moment they'd entered the building.
The only reason he'd waited until now to approach was simple.
Quietly — but unmistakably —
the distance between them had been shrinking.
At first, she'd been seated at the far edge of the lounge, in the most secluded spot.
Then, after ordering a drink, she'd casually relocated to a sofa closer to the two of them.
Not long after that, she'd risen as if to clear away her empty glass — and when she returned, the seat she chose was directly beside the sofa where Ash and Akina sat.
It was a distance that could no longer be chalked up to coincidence.
"I, um... this seat was just more comfortable..."
It was an explanation that would convince no one.
But Ash nodded.
"I see. My apologies for the intrusion."
Then he turned to Akina.
"Sojeo. Shall we move elsewhere?"
Sensing that something was off, Akina shot to her feet at once — and cast a single sidelong glance at the deeply suspicious woman.
"Yeah, that sounds good."
And just as the two of them turned to leave—
"Wait!"
A desperate voice rang out.
They turned to find that same woman fumbling her PDA back out and thrusting the screen toward them.
On it played the footage of Ash in combat that Ifrit had uploaded days ago.
"Is this video... you? Are you the person in it?"
Ash gave a short nod.
At that, the woman let out a long breath. Then she rose from her seat and bowed her head to the two of them.
"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I'm really sorry."
It was a perfectly courteous apology — but Ash dismissed it at once.
"No need."
His words were polite, and cold.
"What good is the word of one who hides her face?"
"Ah — it's not hidden for any bad reason, I just—"
"It is fine."
The woman wavered for a moment, then lowered her head. Then, as if resolving herself, she pulled off the mask and the hat.
Black hair cascaded down like a waterfall.
And at the same instant, Akina's eyes went wide with disbelief.
"...Whaaa?"
The woman's identity was the #1 ranker of Halloween.
Siren.