Chapter 18 - Liu KatoruHollow NightWell, that’s that. I was fucking doomed.

  But you know what irritated me the most about it? This one wouldn’t even be on me!

  I could picture it already.

  I’d be milling about somewhere, minding my own business when suddenly, my chest starts tightening up, the world starts spinning, and everyone here starts to look like pixel art.

  Of all people to be stuck with, dear Lord, why that dickhead?!

  “Listen,” I whispered to Furusawa, whose eyes were trained on our beloved game master. He leaned toward me. “I gotta split.”

  As a result of having divided his attention two ways, it took him a while to register the words that’d left my mouth.

  I looked at him for a few beats before his eyes finally found my own, his voice coming out in panicked whispers, as if we were about to be caught shoplifting.

  “What? No way! Dude, you’ll get killed out there by yourself!”

  “Shit, if Scarecrow over there was so confident about it, I think I’ll be okay. Plus, you saw the way I creamed him yesterday, right?”

  I’m pretty sure that was all me, a voice spoke. I almost gave into the urge to look around for the owner.

  Shush, I replied mentally. We both know I was the genius behind that operation. Perfect calcutions deliver perfect results, baby.

  Yeah, we both know math isn’t your strong suit. Not if that ser pointer fiasco was anything to go off of.

  Who’d have thought your own shadow, or spirit, or whatever this thing was, would be so difficult to talk to? I had to wonder where it had inherited all this wittiness from, though I didn’t enjoy the conclusion I reached.

  Deciding to ignore the ridiculing of my counterpart, I turned my attention back to Furusawa, who’d been eying me like I’d just told him the earth was a right-angled triangle.

  “Did you even hear me?”

  I stammered, “Uh-I yeah, totally.”

  “What did I just say?”

  I paused for a brief moment.

  “That you’re considering a life with Christ. And something about your car’s extended warranty –“

  “Dude, this is serious!” He admonished, dumbfounded.

  “Will you two SHUT IT?!” A harsh whisper sliced the air between us, and we both span our heads in the direction it came from. “We’re trying to listen to the damn mission!”

  Akio must’ve been as shocked as I was to hear Junko talking so roughly – up til’ now she’d been pying her role of pretty princess quite well.

  I take it Hoshino was amused by the whole exchange, smirking as she turned her attention back to the billboard.

  Furusawa and I shared a look as if to say “Let’s table this discussion for ter,” before joining the brief.

  “Five powerful artifacts have been scattered across the Hollow Night. You are simply to locate and retrieve these artifacts for me. Once each artefact has been secured, your task will be deemed complete. That is all.”

  What?

  “Yeah, right.” I spat. “Spill it. What’s the twist here?”

  Juno remained silent for several moments.

  “I do not know what twist you speak of – all I require is that you decipher where these relics are being held, and cim them.”

  “Fine.” Our local werewolf decred. “How are we meant to find where they are being kept?”

  “I’m afraid you will have to look amongst yourselves for the answer.” Juno responded . “I assure you, the power lies with you to do so. You are free to refer to this map I have crafted for you in order to properly orient yourselves.”

  Instantly, their ugy mug was repced with a pn of the Hollow Night, or to be more accurate, Shibuya. I’d judged it unhelpful – until I took a second look at it.

  “Wait,” Junko spoke. “What are the coloured paths about?”

  As her highness implied, the paths between the different locations had each been coloured, either green, yellow, or red.

  The central area, from where we were up until about Shibu-Q Heads northside was wholly green, though yellows and reds began to dominate the further away from the center you veered.

  “These colours delineate the potency of the Noise you may encounter in that area.” Juno informed. “Green means you will encounter retively weak Noise, Yellow denotes Noise of middling power, whilst Red…well, I’m sure you understand the pattern.”

  Red means it’s a death trap, if that wasn’t abundantly clear.

  I got it, damnit!

  I felt Tainted chuckle. Where did he learn how to do that?

  Just wanted to make sure we’re on the same page, genius.

  In any case, this was fucked with a capital F.

  The Noise these guys nearly lost their lives to yesterday – we’d encountered it in Tipsy Tose Hall, which was an area surrounded by green paths on the map.

  In other words, that thing was the chairman of the shitty committee. The best of the worst. And that was being optimistic.

  “The artefacts could be in any one of these locations, so please do prepare yourselves accordingly. Should you meet any resistance on your path, I’m sure you know what to do. As always, I will be watching over you. Godspeed, my brave soldiers.”

  Likely satisfied with their speech, the masked miscreant’s voice cut off with a whirr, leaving only the staticky image of the map, alongside a counter in the top right.

  0/5 Artefacts Found

  In addition, the leaderboard thingy from previous y just below it:

  1. Yuki no Yūrei & Reaper – 27 Points

  2. Resolution & Soce – 17 Points

  3. Kumo & Fenrir – 9 Points

  4. Cordyceps & Red - 6 Points

  5. The Twisted & Scarecrow - 0 Points

  Hoshino was the first to open the floodgates.

  “Well, that was fun.”

  “Tell me about it, “ I shrugged. “I’d much rather find five fucks to give about this entire thing.”

  Rusuban shook his head, “Now now. Let’s be focused. This is a matter of life and death, after all.”

  No shit. I thought.

  No shit. The Tainted spoke.

  I held back the urge to gasp.

  Just when I’d decided to offer a tentative olive branch at our shared disgust of Rusuban, I felt Tainted’s presence leave me as its shadowy form began to materialize before us.

  What, did dude want to stretch his non-existent legs or something?

  “Yo.” It began, its voice a dark and booming variant of my own. I’m pretty sure that’s what I sound like anyway. “I see you’re in quite the sticky wicket, as our friends across the pond would put it.”

  I turned to Furusawa, who facepalmed sheepishly in response to my mischievous grin. I doubted even the Hollow Night could handle two of me.

  “Luckily,” The Tainted continued. “I have a pn.”

  Interesting. I was hoping Tainted would just be my dumb but loveable muscleman, incapable of rational thought, but right now ‘he’ seemed more autonomous than I’d given him credit for.

  “My, how convenient. You’re able to track concentrations of EXS?” Verified Rusuban, though the cautiousness in his voice was clear.

  It seemed everyone else wasn’t quite used to the whole dark spirit emerging from the bleakest depths of my soul schtick yet, judging by the sharp increase in space they had created between us and themselves.

  Either that, or they decided to keep their distance after witnessing the walloping I gave my ‘partner’ the night previous.

  Furusawa, however, hadn’t moved from his spot by my side.

  “That’s right.” Tainted confirmed. “Though it isn’t super precise, and I’m practically blind to small traces of it. Not to mention I won’t be able to tell you exactly what’s at the source of the concentration.”

  I understood the implication as if the words were my own. In essence, he could lead us straight into a pack of Noise and we wouldn’t know a damn thing until it’s too te.

  Still, it was real fortunate to have someone capable of guiding us. Otherwise we’d be here for 3 days too many.

  Sadly, the gratitude that washed over me was made brief by Tainted’s next few words.

  “Here’s the bad news,” He began, and I practically felt the impact of my heart sinking into the abyss. “I’m detecting a bunch of strong signals everywhere – specifically toward the Northeast and Southwest.”

  After a rigid period of stillness, Mizuko got to the heart of the matter.

  “You suggest that we ought to split up.”

  “Precisely – it’d take way too long otherwise. If only there was someone else capable of tracking...”

  As if on cue, a rough growl emanated from our gathering, numerous heads turning in arm.

  “Apologies,” Cunningham spoke, this time in his slightly hairier rendition. “I believe I’m what you’re looking for.”

  Now having earned our attention, Cunningham tapped his protruded snout with a cwed finger.

  “My sense of smell is enhanced greatly while I am in this form, finely tuned to even the subtlest of smells.” He expined, eloquent as you’d expect from an English transfer student. “I surmise that, once I can pick up on the scent of EXS, I should be able to guide you to its source.”

  Impressed, I turned back to the Tainted, who was simirly nodding his head in approval.

  “Nice.”

  I gnced at Furusawa, who clearly wasn’t as stoked as we were. His eyes, as usual, were on someone else.

  He questioned, “Hoshino, what’s the matter?”

  I followed his gaze to the Golden Tiger herself, whose brows were furrowed, eyes lost in thought.

  “It’s just…”

  She took a moment to find the right words, before addressing us gravely.

  “Don’t you think this is all too convenient?” She eventually brought forward. “That we just happen to have exactly two people capable of guiding us through this? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Juno wants us to make it through this.”

  The Tiger had a point. If Juno wanted us dead, they could easily unleash a legion of shirtless bears emerging from the fog, complete with machine guns, sers, and standard issue fmethrowers built-in.

  After deciding I’d definitely be seeing Dr. Takeuchi again soon, I tuned back in to the discussion at hand.

  “It’s just like we discussed st night,” Mizuko offered. “Giving us these abilities, setting us achievable objectives…I’m starting to become convinced that our captor does not actually wish to see us dead. At least, not right away. First, they want to see us struggle. They want to see us fight.”

  “Disgusting.” Junko judged. Ha, Judge Junko. If we both made it out of here, I thought, we’d have to approach the NHK about that one.

  “At any rate, let us begin making headway.” Rusuban proposed. Something about his tone felt strange, though I couldn’t decipher exactly what. “Shall we begin deciding teams?”

  It was when our second tracker boomed a commanding “Not so fast,” that I remembered what was supposed to be going down right now.

  I was suddenly fighting real hard to contain the grin that was forming on my lips.

  “Russy-chaaan ~ “ I sang. “I believe you have something to show us.”