Halloween Society 2

Siren was a talker.

"Wow. I never dreamed I'd get to meet you like this. My heart's still racing, honestly. Just a while ago—no, just a moment ago, even—I was thinking how much I wanted to meet you, Ash."

At the same time, she had no conversational skill whatsoever.

"So, um, the reason I wanted to meet you is, where do I even start? Okay, so a few days ago I was streaming, right? And suddenly my teammate shows me this video and goes, 'Look at this! They use a sword like you, and they're definitely not ordinary!'"

And yet, her personality was painfully shy.

"Ah, so—since you're actually here, the person ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I've been so desperate to meet, I don't know what to do, and now that you're right in front of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me I don't know what to say either, and I mostly just wanted to strike up a conversation somehow, so I guess I came over without thinking. I'm sorry!"

Siren.

On the ranking board, she was a black-haired beauty radiating icy, untouchable elegance. But watching her now... well.

Less ice queen, more walking disaster.

All stammering and fidgeting, in a state that could induce anxiety in anyone merely observing. Not a shred of the dignity befitting the number one ranked idol.

In the end, Ash, unable to bear it any longer, cut in.

"What is it you are trying to say, exactly?"

"You're so amazing, Ash!"

"So you are what one would call a 'fan'?"

"Um... something like that!"

"A fan, or not a fan. What manner of thing is 'something like that'?"

"I'm sorry!"

"Why are you apologizing?"

"Um... that is... I'm sorry."

"Again, why the apolog—"

Feeling as though he were being dragged under, Ash bit back his words. Somehow, he was starting to feel just as confused as she was.

"Mister."

Akina, silent until now, finally spoke up.

"Could it be because of the swordplay?"

"...Hm?"

Ash turned his head at the non sequitur.

"What has that to do with anything?"

"You saw the ranking board earlier, right? That unnie seemed to use a sword too. I was thinking maybe that's why she came over."

Something clicked into place.

Ash regarded Akina with a look that invited her to continue.

"Honestly, the videos Mister shows up in aren't exactly well-edited or well-produced, are they? The swordwork is what's popular."

She wasn't wrong.

The footage Ifrit had uploaded was nearly raw—nothing added beyond background music and a few sound effects.

And yet it had racked up views by the hundreds of thousands for one reason alone: the swordsmanship Ash displayed within it carried a matchless, crystalline purity.

"Plus, not that many pathfinders actually use a sword as their main weapon. It's kind of... a sense of kinship, I guess you'd say?"

That was apparently the correct answer.

Siren nodded up and down like a broken automaton.

"Th-that's it! Exactly that!"

Producing her PDA from who knows where, she tapped at it a couple of times, then turned the screen toward Ash.

"Here, here! How did you do this? How do you cut through three Grotesques in a single stroke? I get that you're using your center of gravity as the axis to harness centrifugal force, but that wasn't a stance capable of generating that kind of destructive power!"

"I understand—now please calm your—"

"This scene too. Wow! Isn't it incredible? A cut and a thrust in the same motion! Like this? No, wait. The front foot position seems off. Like this?"

She mimicked Ash's stance from the footage, whipped out the PDA to compare, then stamped her feet in frustration, crying that it wasn't right.

"..."

The 'something like a fan' she had spoken of earlier was, as it turned out, a fairly precise description.

Siren was enraptured by Ash's sword.

One might object that there was a difference between the two—but watching her spin the PDA around with the man himself sitting right in front of her made that difference abundantly clear.

"Enough."

At Ash's low electronic tone, Siren—mid-imitation of a spinning slash—froze. She quickly realized her faux pas and flushed red.

"Ah, I... I went and did it again...!"

Short though their time together had been, Ash had already gotten a feel for how to converse with this woman.

And so he cut straight to the point.

"Do you love the sword?"

At his words, Siren's face bloomed into a wide smile.

"Yes!"

Seeing a woman of such austere features smile like that was a rather pleasant sight.

"Then it is swordsmanship you wish to ask about?"

"Exactly! Especially about the footwork—"

That was when it happened.

A murmur began spreading through the lounge. Ash glanced around to find countless people staring in their direction, whispering.

—Huh? Isn't that Siren over there?

—I think it is?

—Get a picture! Quick!

The small commotion swelled in an instant, and a few of them came sprinting toward them, shrieking with enthusiasm.

Naturally so.

The number one ranked idol of Halloween Entertainment—a woman every soul in Sanctum would recognize—had shown her bare face and put on a full display of sword dancing right before their eyes.

"Ah, n-no, I have to go! Excuse me—"

Her face nearly in tears, Siren yanked her hat and mask back on. Then she dropped a business card on the table as though tossing it, and bolted.

"I'll definitely contact you again! I promise! Bye for now!"

With that, the woman fled the lounge at a dead run, the surging crowd chasing after her.

—Siren! I'm your fan!

—A photo! Just one photo together!

—Hey! How are you so fast?!

Caught completely off guard, Ash and Akina could only stare blankly at their retreating backs.

"What on earth was that? My head's still spinning."

"You are telling me."

A short while later.

Akina, turning the business card this way and that, spoke up.

"How is she planning to contact us, exactly? We're the ones who got her contact info."

With the chatty woman gone, a moment ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of peace settled over the lounge.

Of course, that peace didn't last either.

"Heeey! Ash! Squirt!"

A minute or two had passed, perhaps.

Ifrit came strolling over from the security checkpoint, waving.

Had some inner familiarity bloomed between them in the meantime?

Or was it the fifty thousand credits showing?

"Unnie!"

Akina greeted the woman with a bright smile as well.

However, Ifrit wasn't alone.

She was accompanied by a man wearing a bike helmet pulled down low—or rather, a helmet manufactured in exactly that design.

Thus the two made their way into the lounge.

"You have come."

To Ash's short greeting, she answered with a wink, settling naturally into a seat as she produced a single card.

"The fifty thousand credits you ordered, delivered."

"Whoa!"

Snatching the credit card out of the air with all the flourish of Woryong's coin-catching arts, Akina immediately pulled out her PDA to confirm the amount.

Intermittent beeping filled the air.

In the meantime.

Ash addressed Ifrit, seated across from him.

"How have you fared of late, Yeohyeop?"

"Huh? Fared with what?"

"Whether you have been well."

"...Every time I see you, it feels like you're using weird words on purpose just to mess with me."

Her signature heart-shaped eyes cast him a sidelong glance.

"Same as ever. You?"

"Days of great tumult, I must say."

"Huh? Why?"

"Thanks to Yeohyeop's covert filming."

"...Ahaha, ahaha. Don't be like that. I paid you an appearance fee, didn't I?"

"An appearance fee. Since you mention it—about that hand cannon. I hear quite a lot of it was damaged. The repair costs run rather steep as well, I'm told. Might Yeohyeop have anything to say on the matter?"

"Whoops-a-daisy!"

Ifrit spun her head away.

To anyone watching, she was flagrantly dodging the subject.

"Right, I haven't introduced you yet, have I? This is Dullahan. An idol with the boy group ROA. How about you two say hello?"

At her words, the man who had been standing there blankly took a step forward. A moment later, text appeared across his black helmet visor.

Ash stared blankly at it, then shortly deduced that 'hey' was perhaps a greeting.

"Ah, you little—!"

Ifrit shot to her feet and clamped her arm around the man's—Dullahan's—neck. A textbook headlock.

But Dullahan only shrugged.

"Argh! All mouth, that's what you are!"

She hammered her fist down on Dullahan's helmet, once, twice.

Yet without so much as a twitch, he put up his next message.

Ash briefly shut off his optical sensors.

And he thought to himself:

Is there not a single sane soul in the land of Halloween?

Ifrit to start with, then Siren, who had blown through like a storm, and now Dullahan, communicating through outlandish means.

Somehow, he felt a wave of weariness.

Quite an ironic sentiment for a full-body mechanical humanoid to harbor.

In the meantime, Akina had raised her head.

She seemed to have finished confirming the fifty thousand credits.

"All confirmed, unnie."

"Clean deal, right?"

"Yep. But was what that oppa said true?"

"H-huh?"

"Were we actually supposed to get paid more?"

Confronted with the girl's suddenly gleaming eyes, Ifrit ultimately surrendered.

"...Bill me for the hand cannon repairs. We'll call it even there. Please."

"Hehe! Unnie, you're the best!"

"You, shut it!"

Ifrit, reading the text on the visor, was just about to explode once more when—

"I believe this commotion has run its course."

At the low electronic voice, everyone turned to look at Ash. Though it was merely a synthetic tone from a voice module, it carried a strange force that compelled attention.

"Now let us hear the true matter at hand, Yeohyeop."

"...Huh? How'd you know I had something to say?"

Ash turned his head toward Dullahan.

"Merely conjecture. From my own experience, Yeohyeop does not strike me as one to introduce someone for the sake of simple pleasantries."

"Man, you really are an easy person to talk to."

"So speak. Why is it that you have introduced Sohyeop Du to us?"

A moment later.

Text appeared across the visor.

"Quiet, and come sit over here."

Dragging Dullahan by the arm into the seat beside her, Ifrit flashed her heart-shaped eyes with an intensity none of them had seen before.

"Let's do a collab. The four of us here—plus one more."

"A collab?"

Ash countered at the unfamiliar word.

"It means a joint production. But before I explain, take a look at this first."

She drew a PDA from inside her jacket and set it on the table, then pressed play.

It was someone's bodycam footage.

Furious gunfire, screams, and ragged gasping were recorded in raw, unfiltered detail.

The footage also shook violently.

The wearer was rolling across the ground, groaning as they scrambled for cover.

Then, with a burst of static, the screen whirled wildly in every direction. Shattered debris, Sentinels, and what looked like the corpses of comrades flashed past in sequence.

And there, the footage ended.

A gruesome recording, and at the same time one that captured the face of the battlefield with piercing vividness. Which was to say—there was nothing more to it than that.

Ash could not tell what the footage was meant to signify.

Akina was another matter.

"Huh?"

She replayed the footage.

Then, a short while later.

She hit pause on a particular frame.

Sentinels closing in on the wearer.

And behind them—a single mechanical device etched with an intricate, elaborate pattern caught her eye. Diamond-shaped and gleaming gold, it was clearly no ordinary object.

"Don't tell me... a Nexus Port?"

"Bingo."

As if to say she'd known Akina would recognize it, Ifrit winked one eye. Meanwhile, Ash was already searching his data on the Nexus Port.

"A day ago, some no-name idol group got into distress during an expedition. This is the bodycam footage from that incident."

Ifrit leaned her upper body forward.

Then, as if fearing someone might overhear, she lowered her voice even further.

"The important part is this: we haven't reported it to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Sanctum Administration Office yet. You get what I'm saying? The other Societies don't even know it exists. Nobody—except Halloween!"

Ordinarily, the discovery of a Nexus Port meant every Society came charging in, and a slaughter war broke out.

Because only superior technology guaranteed one's standing within Sanctum.

But this time was different.

Through sheer chance, Halloween—and Halloween alone—had located a new Nexus Port.

That meant things would be several times easier than the usual 'Nexus Reclamation War.'

"So? What do you say?"

Ifrit wore a challenging smile.

"Care to get your hands on some big money?"