No6_VOLUME7.pdf

NO. 6 | Atsuko Asano

Volume 7

Finally, you are here.

I have been waiting for you.

CHAPTER 1

Your Last Embrace

O here

Will I set up my everlasting rest

And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars

From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last.

Arms, take your last embrace ! 1

-Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet , Act V Scene III

A white light stabbed at his eyes.

It was blinding.

The light was overpowering.

The place overflowed with light, and glittered.

It was unmistakable―it was the world of No. 6.

Yes, No. 6 had always been like this. Brimming with light; releasing it. I've returned.

Shion clenched his hand into a tight fist. He was thumped on the back.

"Take a deep breath," Nezumi said. "Breathe out and get rid of all your emotions. A split

second of hesitation or excitement can cost you your life. Keep your head."

"Got it. You too. Follow me, and don't fall behind." Suddenly, he felt the urge to laugh. It

tickled in his chest.

"What?" Nezumi drew his chin back. "What're you grinning about?"

"No... just thinking about how great it feels to say 'follow me' to you. Before, I was

always the one to be told that."

"―You know, Shion, you're―" Nezumi closed his mouth mid-sentence, and shook his

head.

The door opened fully. The light hit them head-on.

"Let's go, Nezumi." Shion unclenched his fist, and glided out into the white light.

He smiled? Nezumi shook his head, and chewed his lip. He felt suffocated, though only a

little. How can he smile at a time like this? And from the bottom of his heart, like he was really happy. It

wasn't bravado. It wasn't fake. In a moment they would be stepping into the Correctional

Facility, and yet, Shion had smiled. He had been able to smile.

Just thinking about how great it feels to say 'follow me' to you.

What the hell? What are we, a couple of students making idle chatter and laughing on the way

home from school? Why? Why is it that you seem not to feel nervous at all? Don't you understand what

1 Shakespeare, Wiliam. Romeo and Juliet. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.

NO. 6 | Atsuko Asano

Volume 7

kind of situation you're in right now?

He could hurl as many insults as he liked. But, Nezumi muttered under his breath, but

it's still amazing. He couldn't help it; his feeling of awe was stronger than his desire to insult the

boy.

I can't smile like that. Give an innocent and carefree laugh―it's just not gonna happen with me.

Right now we're about to step into a danger zone that might as well be a minefield. I can't spare the

energy to laugh.

He wasn't afraid. He wasn't going to flinch. But he was tense. This stance prepared him

for battle. He needed this shift in mind and body so that he could manoeuvre himself out of the

way of an attacking enemy; so that he could turn around and sink his fangs into the enemy's

throat. Shion had none of that. He didn't even have the fighting mentality.

Numerous times, Nezumi had felt frustrated at him. Where did you leave your fangs and

claws behind? he would think. He had even slapped Shion's cheek out of sheer frustration.

He had thought that Shion was frail. He was far weaker, far more fragile than Nezumi.

Like a newly-hatched chick, he was defenseless and powerless... he had not a single skill to

survive in this harsh reality. But that didn't mean that Nezumi scorned or looked down upon

Shion.

On the contrary, he had felt that he needed to protect him. If he didn't protect him with

all the strength he had, Shion would not be able to survive. He would be crushed. Nezumi had

earnestly believed so once.

And he had utterly misunderstood. I made unfounded assumptions, and that was my foolish

mistake. He had realized it long before.

Shion was not weak at all. That was why he had been able to come this far. He had not

been crushed; in fact, he was far from it: he had survived stoutly. He had come crawling up with

his own strength. He had emerged from this brutal reality, stood on this ground, and even

smiled.

Smiled, huh. That's right. You'll do things your way and I'll do it my way, and we'll overcome

this.

He regulated his breathing.

It starts here, Shion.

He couldn't predict in the faintest what was going to happen, what was waiting for

them.

An abyss?

Or a miracle?

A return alive, or no return at all?

He couldn't predict what lay a pace away.

What's going to happen...?

When we've run past the finish line, will you still be laughing? Will you be smiling as you are,

unchanged from now?

"Let's go, Nezumi." Shion glided into the white light. He had to follow, so as not to fall

behind. Nezumi nodded, and stepped out into the light after him.

Point X. It was marked as such on the floorplan. It was the door at location po1-z22. It

NO. 6 | Atsuko Asano

Volume 7

was the only point where the underground blank was connected to ground-level.

When the door opened, it made a passage-way between the underground realm and the

Correctional Facility. There was a difference in air pressure, perhaps, for there was a slight air

flow.

Shion ran to the right. The floorplan that Fura had filled in for him rose in his mind as if

he were actually seeing it in front of him.

"Fifteen paces to the right. We're safe until there. There are no sensors. Beyond that,

we've got stairs."

"And there?"

"Laser beams: one on the second step, running 45 degrees; one on the stairwell, 15

centimetres above the floor, running parallel; one on the eleventh step running 60 degrees. As

long as we don't touch those, the surveillance won't go off."

"Hm. Pretty lax."

"Only up to here." This was the basement floor of the Correctional Facility. Excluding

Point X, there was no contact to outside areas, so naturally, there were no windows or doors.

Facility workers, personnel, and visitors who had the appropriate identification chip and didn't

need to worry about the sensors came down by the stairs or elevator―the legitimate route. But

other than that, the only way to get here was through the underground realm.

Adding to that fact, none of the departments here handled confidential material, and the

risks of infiltration were infinitely close to zero. It was understandable for security to become

lax.

No one had probably predicted that Point X, or location po1-z22 would ever open.

"Nezumi."

"Hm?"

"How much time do you think we can buy?"

"One―no, at least two minutes."

Two minutes? Can we buy that much? The change in Point X had probably already been

registered by the security system. Could they even buy two minutes until the monitoring staff

realized and took appropriate action?

"Inukashi's working his magic," Nezumi said. "It's probably a bit of a hullabaloo up

there."

"Hullabaloo?"

"You'll see in time. The joyous festivities are only beginning. Anyway, we've got two full

minutes. It's ours to use."

"Two minutes, huh."

"Feels like an eternity, doesn't it."

"Sure does," Shion said drily.

Second step, 45 degrees; stairwell, 15 centimetres parallel; eleventh step, 60 degrees.

They emerged at the top of the stairs. It took a bit of time, since they couldn't just dash up.

Approximately 1 minute, 06 seconds left.

From this floor began the ground-level part of the Correctional Facility. There was an

entrance hall, where the largest number of people came and went. Personnel came through a

different gate than that of prisoners, and gathered on this floor. From here, they dispersed to

NO. 6 | Atsuko Asano

Volume 7

their respective workplaces. Everyone was cross-checked minutely at the entrance, but once

they were through, it seemed like inspection on the rest of the floor wasn't as thorough. The

higher the floors, the more strict it became.

The top floor was where they were headed.

It was the deepest and furthest part of the Correctional Facility, encircled by many layers

of security networks. They were not headed for the imprisonment facility, which protruded like

a bump from the main tower.

It was the furthest part of the Correctional Facility. That was where Safu was.

Shion knew in his guts.

Safu was a certified elite. Such chosen ones were furnished with the best educational

environment from a young age. Investing ample time, money, and labour into developing elites

was a fundamental political policy of No. 6.

Shion couldn't imagine No. 6 taking an elite that they had raised so carefully to throw

her into prison with the rest of the inmates. If she had been arrested in connection with him,

then his mother Karan wouldn't have been safe, either.

But it had been Safu who had been taken, and not Karan.

Then it must mean that she was arrested not in connection with him, but on the

conditions that she herself fulfilled. The fact that she was elite, perhaps, and without parents, or

perhaps because she was female―

"Sample Collection Status―I remember there being a section like that in the Health and Hygiene

Bureau's data," Fura had said. Sample. Mock-up. Specimen.

No. 6 was taking samples from within the city, and apparently in secret. Citizens were

being extracted, unbeknownst, to become specimens. There was no way this wasn't related to

the rumour of agitation and abnormalities trickling out from inside the city.

Shion knew this too, in his guts.

If Safu was a sample who fulfilled their various requirements, then she was valuable.

They would probably need a suitable facility in which to handle such a valuable sample.

That was why Safu had to be on the topmost floor, the Special section of the furthest part

of the Facility. He wasn't one-hundred percent sure, but it was very likely.

Shion felt a violent chill.

Not at No. 6, but at himself.

How would I treat a valuable sample? He felt a chill at how he was turning this over in his

mind coolly. He felt goosebumps form at his own thoughts, which placed Safu in that position.

I need to be calm and rational. I need to be in this state of mind; it's what I need most, especially

in danger.

Don't get distracted, don't get fooled, don't lose sight.

Nezumi had taught him.

Being calm meant repressing the furor of his feelings. The restless tides of his human

emotions lurked constantly in his heart; and yet, he had to suppress them inches from the

surface. That was how it was. If he let himself lose feeling and emotion completely, all that

would remain would be a heartless being.

But can I say that I'm not heartless? Maybe there's a part of me that's gone completely cold, and

I'm just mistaking it for calmness.

NO. 6 | Atsuko Asano

Volume 7

He gritted his teeth.

Don't get distracted, don't get fooled, don't lose sight. And don't wander.

This isn't the time to be getting lost.

There were hurried footsteps. Two sets. One was plodding and heavy, and the other was

light.

"Why does it smell so horrible? I can't stand it." Two men clad in white coats came

running down the stairs. Both of them had handkerchiefs held to their noses. One man was

heavyset and in his forties; the other man was still young and scrawny.

Shion crouched in the shadow of the handrails. The men stopped right before his eyes,

and took deep breaths.

"I feel faint. What in heavens is this smell?" the middle-aged man grumbled.

"Apparently the cleaning robots broke down. Instead of cleaning, they're strewing trash

everywhere, so I hear," answered the younger man, wiping his brow. The middle-aged man was

clearly not feeling well, for the colour had receded from his face.

"It's impossible to get any work done in this. I feel like my nose is going to fall off,"

complained the older man.

"Unbearable, isn't it? Do you suppose it's because of―you know, that?"

"That?"

"Today's the Holy Celebration. We're probably suffering some kind of heavenly

punishment because we're working on a holiday."

"It can't be helped. When you work for a research organization, you can't always get

your vacations by the calendar. But being rather unscientific, aren't you, saying things like

'heavenly punishment'?"

"I guess." The man paused. "But these days, I find it suddenly occurs to me that..."

"Occurs to you? What does?"

"...That maybe someday, the heavens are going to punish us. That if we keep going like

this, we'll eventually pay the penalty."

"What? And who do you suppose would be able to exact punishment on us? Are you

sure the smell hasn't short-circuited your brain?" the older man said sardonically. "―You listen

to me: even if you happen to have unscientific thoughts, don't say them out loud. You'll earn the

brand of an ineligible citizen. And you can forget about your reputation as a researcher."

The young man shrugged, and lapsed into silence.

Shion turned and signalled to Nezumi with his eyes. Nezumi acted at almost the same

time. Nezumi twisted the arm of the man in front of him, and pressed a knife to his throat.

Shion also burst out, and twisted the young man's arm behind him.

"Wh-What―"

"Don't move. Don't make a sound. Make a noise, and I'll kill you." Nezumi's voice was

low, heavy, and cold. It was the voice of a murderer. It agitated fear inside the person, and

sealed any attempt at a struggle.

Shion was yet again faced with the truth that Nezumi was an incredibly talented actor.

"You too," he whispered in the young man's ear. It didn't go as well as Nezumi. But

Nezumi's voice and his silver knife played its part well. The two of them showed no signs of

struggling. They stood stock-still, like wooden poles. Only their bodies trembled slightly.

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