The yellow light did not change again.
Yūta remained standing in front of the door, watching it as if staring long enough might make it turn green again.
It did not.
Around him, none of the others sat back down.
Mei had stopped pacing. Hina held her axe in one hand, though she had not expanded it yet. Ishida stood by the entrance, studying the small control panel built into the wall. Sota remained several steps behind them.
The training room itself was exactly the same.
The mats.
The markings on the floor.
The practice weapons.
The bottles of water they had left on one of the benches.
Nothing was broken.
There was no smoke.
No blood.
No remnant standing in front of them.
And yet the entire feeling of the place had changed.
Ishida touched the panel.
The screen lit up.
He waited.
A line appeared at the top.
CENTRAL CONNECTION: INTERRUPTED
Below it:
LOCAL CONTROL: ACTIVE
Mei stepped closer.
"What does that mean?"
Ishida read it again.
"The door still works."
"I can see that."
"But it's no longer connected to the central system."
Mei looked at the yellow light.
"And that's bad?"
Ishida took a moment to answer.
"It's not good."
"Great explanation."
Hina moved closer too.
"Can we open it?"
Ishida looked at the controls.
There was a manual opening option.
"Yes."
Yūta turned toward him.
"Then?"
Ishida pulled his hand away.
"Then nothing."
Mei frowned.
"Nothing?"
"Kato told us to stay here."
"When the light was green."
"It's still an order."
Mei opened her mouth.
Yūta spoke before they could start arguing.
"We still don't know what happened."
That satisfied no one.
Not even him.
He took out the emergency communicator they had been left with.
It was not the same type of device used by field teams. It was simpler. Connected to headquarters' internal frequencies and, in theory, able to contact command directly.
Yūta pressed the button.
"Training sector to command."
Static.
He waited.
"Training sector. Do you copy?"
Nothing.
He shifted the device in his hand.
It made no sense, but he did it anyway.
"Kana? Tatsu?"
A crackle.
For an instant, he thought he heard something.
A voice.
Then it vanished.
Mei moved closer.
"Give me that."
Yūta handed it over.
"Command, this is the student group in the training sector. The light changed to yellow and we lost central connection."
Static.
"Do you copy?"
Nothing.
Mei slowly lowered the communicator.
"Well."
She handed it back to Yūta.
"I like that even less."
Sota was still staring at the door.
Yūta noticed.
"You okay?"
Sota took a moment.
"Yeah."
He did not sound convinced.
"You can sit down if you want."
"I'm fine."
The answer came too quickly.
Yūta did not press him.
Sota had been the only one who had not participated in the tournament.
Physically, he was in the best condition.
His legs were not heavy like Yūta's.
He had not taken hits like Hina.
He had not spent mana through two full matches like Ishida.
He did not carry Mei's fatigue.
But that did not mean he was better prepared for whatever might be on the other side of the door.
Some things rest did not fix.
Sota moved a little closer.
"Could it just be that something broke?"
Mei looked at him.
"Yes."
"Then maybe it isn't because of the remnants."
No one answered immediately.
Hina was first.
"Maybe."
Sota nodded.
As if he needed to hear someone else say it.
Ishida remained by the panel.
"Local control still works. That matters."
Mei crossed her arms.
"Does that mean we're safe?"
Ishida looked up.
"It means the door works."
"That wasn't what I asked."
Ishida said nothing.
Because all of them knew the answer.
They did not know whether they were safe.
Several minutes passed.
Or at least Yūta thought they did.
Without communication and without knowing what was happening outside, time was difficult to measure.
They tried contacting command three more times.
Nothing.
Once, they heard a voice distorted by static.
They could not make out a single word.
Another time, the device gave a short tone and shut down for several seconds before restarting on its own.
The light remained yellow.
Yūta eventually sat down again.
Not because he was calm.
Because his legs asked him to.
He had fought two complete matches in the tournament.
The first against Hana and Yui.
The second alongside Chiho against Hina and Kaito.
At the time, adrenaline had made the exhaustion feel smaller.
Now every muscle reminded him otherwise.
He opened and closed one hand.
He still had mana.
Not as much as at the beginning of the day.
Not even close.
And he had no idea how much he would need if things got worse.
Hina was in a similar state.
She had fought Yūta and Chiho, then started the match against Mei and Harada before the tournament was interrupted.
Mei carried her own fatigue.
Ishida had fought two complete matches alongside Kenta.
All of them had left the tournament thinking the worst thing they would deal with that day was bruising.
Then Kato had left.
Yuna too.
The second-years.
The adults.
And they had been left there.
Safe.
That was what they had been told.
Yūta looked at the light.
Yellow.
"How much mana do you have left?" Ishida asked.
Mei looked at him.
"We're doing inventory now?"
"Yes."
She almost made a comment.
She did not.
She closed one hand.
A small amount of mana appeared around her fingers.
"I can fight."
"That wasn't what I asked."
Mei let out a breath.
"I'm not full. Obviously."
"Half?"
"More."
"Much more?"
"I don't know, Ishida."
Hina raised one hand.
"I'm probably a little above half."
Yūta tried to estimate.
It was difficult.
His mana had always felt strange, even before discovering he could make it invisible.
"About the same."
Ishida looked at his arms.
"I have less."
Mei raised an eyebrow.
"Because of Kenta?"
"Because of the chains."
He had generated too many during the matches.
Blocks.
Grabs.
Changes in direction.
He and Kenta had won, but not in a way that preserved much energy.
Yūta looked toward Sota.
The boy understood.
"I'm fine."
"How much is fine?" Ishida asked.
Sota hesitated.
"Almost all of it."
Mei let out a small laugh.
"Great. The one with the most mana is the one who knows the least about using it."
Hina looked at her.
"Mei."
"I didn't mean it to bother him."
Sota lowered his gaze.
Mei regretted it immediately.
"Sorry."
"It's okay."
"No. That came out badly."
Sota looked at the door again.
"But it's true."
That ended the conversation.
Ishida stepped away from the panel.
"It doesn't matter how much we have if we don't know what's outside."
"Then we open the door and look," Mei said.
"No."
"I'm not saying we run out."
"I said no."
Mei stepped toward him.
"So we stay here knowing nothing until someone shows up?"
"Yes."
"Even if no one can communicate with us?"
"For now, yes."
"And what if Kato's order doesn't make sense anymore?"
Ishida looked at her.
For the first time, he did not answer immediately.
Mei noticed.
"That's what I thought."
Ishida frowned.
"I didn't say it doesn't make sense."
"You didn't say it still does either."
Hina stepped between them before the argument grew.
"We don't know enough."
Mei looked at her.
"That's exactly the problem."
"Yes. But opening the door doesn't automatically give us the answer either."
Yūta watched Ishida.
There was something different in his silence.
He did not seem to be clinging to the order out of fear.
He was evaluating it.
Kato had been clear.
Stay.
Do not interfere.
Do not try to help the adults.
That place had been chosen because it was safe.
As long as that last part remained true, the order was easy to follow.
Now the question had changed.
Yūta looked at the panel again.
CENTRAL CONNECTION: INTERRUPTED
The answer was not there yet.
The first time they heard footsteps, no one spoke.
They came from far away.
Faint.
Irregular.
Yūta stood.
Hina expanded her axe.
The weapon grew in her hand to its combat size.
Mei opened both fans.
Ishida raised his arms.
Fragments of mana began gathering around his wrists.
Sota took one step back.
The footsteps continued.
One.
Pause.
Another.
Dragging.
It did not sound like someone running.
It did not sound like several enemies either.
Yūta moved closer to the door.
"Do you hear that?"
Mei nodded.
The footsteps stopped.
Silence.
Then something struck the other side.
Once.
Sota took another step back.
Hina shifted the axe.
Second impact.
Weaker.
Ishida looked at the panel.
The outside camera had its own control.
He activated it.
The screen took time to respond.
Interference.
A gray image.
Then the corridor appeared.
Most of it was out of focus.
Mei leaned forward.
"What is that?"
Someone was leaning against the outer wall.
Human.
Hunter uniform.
The feed jumped.
Returned.
The man had one hand pressed over his abdomen.
His clothes were dark with blood.
Yūta moved closer.
"He's hurt."
Ishida did not open the door.
"Wait."
Mei looked at him as if he had lost his mind.
"What do you want to wait for?"
"Confirmation."
Ishida pressed the internal speaker.
"Who are you?"
The camera showed the man lifting his head slightly.
The speaker returned a distorted voice.
"Hun... ter..."
Ishida leaned closer.
"What unit?"
"Internal... security."
The man bent slightly.
One hand pressed against the door.
"Open it."
Mei already had her hand over the control.
Ishida moved it aside.
"Wait."
"He's bleeding."
"I know."
Ishida spoke into the communicator again.
"Tell me what's behind you."
The man took a moment.
"Nothing."
"Were you followed?"
"I don't know."
Yūta felt that answer was worse than yes.
Ishida watched the camera.
The corridor looked empty.
Hina raised the axe.
"We can cover the door."
Ishida looked at her.
Then Mei.
Then Yūta.
"Yūta, behind me."
Yūta nodded.
"Hina, left."
She shifted position.
"Mei, if you see anything that isn't him..."
"I cut it."
Ishida did not correct her.
He looked at Sota.
"You stay back."
Sota nodded.
This time he did not argue.
Ishida pressed the manual release.
The lock answered with a heavy sound.
The door opened just enough.
The hunter fell forward.
Yūta and Ishida caught him before he hit the floor.
"Close it."
Mei pressed the control.
The door began to shut.
Hina watched the corridor through the opening.
Empty.
Five meters.
Ten.
A corner.
Nothing.
The metal door finished closing.
The local lock engaged.
Only then did they lower their weapons.
"Here."
Yūta helped carry the hunter to a mat.
Most of the blood came from his side.
It did not look like a clean wound.
Cuts.
Blunt impacts.
Part of the uniform near his ribs was torn.
"First-aid kit," Ishida said.
Sota moved before anyone else.
He went to one of the walls.
Opened the red compartment.
Grabbed the kit and came back.
He knelt beside the man.
His hands trembled slightly.
But he opened it.
"Gauze."
Hina crouched down.
Sota found it.
Handed it over.
Yūta looked at him.
During the month he had trained with Kana, apparently he had learned more than mana control.
Sota saw the wound.
For an instant, he froze.
Too much blood.
His expression changed.
Yūta noticed.
"Sota."
The boy blinked.
"Yeah."
"You okay?"
He looked at the wound again.
Breathed.
"Yeah."
He pulled out a bandage.
This time his hands shook less.
The hunter opened his eyes.
"No..."
He tried to sit up.
Ishida stopped him.
"Stay still."
"I need to report..."
"You're in training."
The man looked at him.
It took him a moment to recognize the place.
"The students?"
"Yes."
His expression worsened.
Mei saw it.
"I don't like that face."
The hunter closed his eyes for a second.
Hina finished pressing gauze against his side.
"What happened?"
The man breathed with difficulty.
"The southern access fell."
No one spoke.
Yūta felt the words connect immediately with the yellow light.
Ishida crouched beside him.
"What does 'fell' mean?"
"No checkpoint."
"Destroyed?"
The hunter shook his head.
"Empty."
"Empty?"
"Blood. Door open. No one there."
Mei looked at the others.
"And the guards?"
"I don't know."
The hunter swallowed.
"We were sent to check it."
"'We'?" Hina asked.
"There were two of us."
Silence.
Yūta already knew the next question.
He asked it anyway.
"Where's the other one?"
The hunter looked toward the door.
"He stayed behind."
Sota stopped moving his hands.
The man continued.
"We found the checkpoint empty. Then we saw a technical door open. It wasn't supposed to be."
He breathed.
Hina kept pressure on the wound.
"Something moved in the corridor."
"A remnant?" Ishida asked.
"Two."
The hunter closed his eyes.
"Maybe three."
"Strong?" Mei asked.
"No."
That surprised her.
"Then what?"
The man looked at her.
"They didn't need to be."
He did not explain immediately.
He took a breath.
"One appeared in front. Another came from the side. We thought they wanted to fight."
Yūta listened.
"They didn't."
"What did they do?" Hina asked.
"They forced us to move."
The hunter weakly pointed toward the outside.
"They pushed us away from the access."
Ishida understood first.
"They wanted the route."
The man nodded.
"My partner stayed behind to close it."
"Is he alive?"
The hunter did not answer.
He did not need to.
Sota looked toward the door again.
Yūta saw him squeeze the bandage between his fingers.
Not hard enough to tear it.
Almost.
"Are there remnants nearby?" Ishida asked.
"I didn't see them follow me."
"That doesn't answer the question."
"It's all I know."
Ishida fell silent.
Mei crossed her arms.
"And the guards who were protecting us?"
The hunter looked around.
"There's no one outside?"
No one answered.
The surprise on his face was enough.
Yūta felt a cold sensation.
"Should there be?"
"Yes."
The man tried to sit up again.
Hina gently pushed him back down.
"Stay still."
"There was a fixed post near the intersection."
Ishida looked at the panel.
"Not anymore."
The hunter's breathing quickened.
"They must have moved them."
Mei lowered her arms.
"Moved where?"
"I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"Because the entire headquarters is like this."
His voice came out stronger.
The pain stopped him.
Hina readjusted the bandage.
The man waited.
When he spoke again, he did so more slowly.
"There aren't enough people."
No one replied.
"There are wounded everywhere. Routes closing. Checkpoints that stop responding. Every time they open one path, another falls."
Yūta remembered Kato's words before leaving.
Stay here.
Don't go out.
We'll handle it.
The man continued.
"They're pulling hunters from secondary posts to cover evacuations and internal access points."
Mei looked at Ishida.
"They left us without guards."
"He didn't say that."
"He basically did."
Ishida did not argue.
Because, in essence, it was true.
The hunter turned his head toward them.
"Do you have communication with central?"
Yūta lifted the device.
"No."
The man's expression confirmed something else none of them wanted to know.
"How long?"
"We don't know."
The hunter held out a hand.
Yūta gave him the communicator.
The man tried.
"Training sector to command. Internal security. I'm with the students. Respond."
Static.
"Command."
Silence.
He changed frequency.
Again.
"Command."
Nothing.
He handed it back.
"Damn it."
Sota spoke for the first time since the man had come in.
"Are they going to come get us?"
The hunter looked at him.
For a moment, he seemed to have forgotten how young he was.
"I don't know."
Sota lowered his gaze.
Mei stepped closer.
"Does that mean we should leave?"
Ishida turned toward her.
"No."
"I wasn't asking you."
The hunter watched them both.
"Don't leave."
Mei froze.
So did Ishida.
"Is that an order from Kana?" Ishida asked.
"No."
"Then from who?"
"Me."
Mei opened her arms.
"Great."
The hunter ignored the tone.
"I don't know the state of the routes. I don't know where the remnants are. I don't know which accesses are still open. Leaving without information would be stupid."
Ishida nodded.
Mei saw it.
"Don't make that face."
"He's right."
"For now."
Ishida looked back at the panel.
"Yes."
For now.
Yūta noticed those words.
So did Ishida.
The hunter weakened shortly after.
He did not lose consciousness.
But his breathing stabilized and he stopped trying to move.
Hina finished bandaging him.
Sota placed the bloodied gauze into a bag.
His movements were slower than at the beginning.
Yūta crouched beside him.
"You did well."
Sota shook his head.
"I just handed things over."
"That still helped."
The boy closed the first-aid kit.
"Kana made us practice."
Yūta smiled slightly.
"It shows."
Sota did not smile back.
He looked at the wounded man.
"There was blood in Misato too."
Yūta stopped speaking.
There was no need to ask what he meant.
Toma.
Masa.
That mission.
Sota breathed.
"I thought I wouldn't get like that anymore."
"Like what?"
The boy looked at his hands.
"Like I forget how to move."
Yūta sat beside him.
"But you moved."
Sota took a moment.
Then nodded.
Barely.
Across the room, Mei was checking the cabinets.
Ishida saw her.
"What are you doing?"
"Seeing what we have."
"For what?"
She pulled out two bottles of water.
"If we're staying here, I'd rather know what's available."
She set them on a bench.
Kept looking.
"First-aid kit. Water. No food."
Hina looked around.
"I don't think we'll be here that long."
Mei stopped.
"That's what we thought earlier too."
No one answered.
She found a flashlight.
Then another.
Placed them beside the water.
"Two."
She opened a lower compartment.
"Batteries."
Ishida did not stop her.
In fact, he began helping.
He checked the local door system.
The district had three registered accesses.
The main one.
A technical passage.
A secondary exit connecting to another training block.
The main one remained closed.
The technical access showed a connection error.
The secondary one was available.
"We have another exit," he said.
Mei stepped closer.
"Where?"
Ishida opened the local map.
The screen showed only part of headquarters.
The rest would not load.
"Training Block Two."
"And after that?"
Ishida tried to zoom out.
Error.
"I don't know."
"Fantastic."
Hina left the axe resting against a wall.
She did not shrink it back down.
"Can the yellow light stay like that even if connection returns?"
The wounded hunter opened his eyes.
"Yes."
Everyone looked at him.
"What exactly does it mean?" Yūta asked.
The man breathed before answering.
"That the sector is no longer under normal safety confirmation."
Mei raised her eyebrows.
"That sounds a lot worse than 'connection problem.'"
"Because it is."
Ishida looked at the light.
"But it doesn't mean there are enemies inside."
"No."
"Or nearby?"
The man did not answer.
Ishida tightened his jaw.
"Understood."
The hunter closed his eyes again.
"Green means the system can confirm routes, posts, and locks around the sector."
Yūta looked at the panel.
"And yellow?"
"It means it can no longer guarantee them."
The sentence hung in the room.
It did not mean they were in danger.
It meant no one could guarantee the opposite.
An hour earlier, that would not have mattered much.
There had been adults everywhere.
Hunters patrolling.
Teams coming and going.
Kato could have appeared at any moment.
Yuna was nearby.
Kana knew the status of the entire headquarters.
Now they did not know where any of them were.
Yūta approached the door.
He did not touch it.
For the first time, he thought about how thick it was.
Until then it had looked like protection.
Now it also looked like a barrier keeping them from seeing outside.
Mei moved beside him.
"What are you thinking?"
"I don't know."
"Liar."
Yūta looked at her.
"I think Kato told us to stay."
"We already know that."
"And he was probably right."
"Probably?"
Yūta let out a breath.
"When he told us, yes."
Mei looked toward Ishida.
He was close enough to hear them.
He did not interfere.
Yūta continued.
"I don't know if it's still the best option."
Hina moved closer.
"But we also don't know if leaving is worse."
"Exactly."
Mei leaned back against the wall.
"So we're trapped by not knowing anything."
Ishida spoke from the panel.
"No."
All three looked at him.
Ishida kept his eyes on the screen.
"Not yet."
Mei frowned.
"What's the difference?"
"Being trapped means having no options."
Ishida pointed to the secondary access.
"We have options."
"That we don't know where they lead."
"But they exist."
Mei went quiet.
Yūta watched Ishida.
He had changed.
Not much.
But enough.
At the beginning of the chapter, his answer had been simple.
Kato gave an order.
We stay.
Now he was counting exits.
Checking supplies.
Calculating mana.
He was not preparing to disobey.
He was preparing to make a decision.
If the moment came.
The sound returned.
This time it was not footsteps.
Something struck in the distance.
The impact was strong enough to be felt through the floor.
Hina grabbed her axe.
Mei opened the fans.
Ishida stepped away from the panel.
Sota stood.
The wounded hunter opened his eyes.
Second impact.
Farther away.
Then a long noise.
Metal dragging.
Yūta sensed the mana before he realized it.
Very little.
A weak presence.
So weak he could not determine where it was.
He focused.
Nothing.
"Did you feel something?" Hina asked.
Yūta looked at her.
"I'm not sure."
Ishida raised his hands.
A chain began to form.
He did not complete it.
He waited.
The sound stopped.
Everyone held position.
Thirty seconds.
A minute.
Nothing.
Mei was the first to lower her fans.
"This is awful."
No one disagreed.
The wounded hunter looked at the door.
"Don't open it just because of that."
"We weren't going to," Ishida said.
The man watched him.
"Good."
Yūta kept trying to sense mana.
He found nothing.
Maybe he had imagined it.
Maybe it was a remnant too far away.
Maybe a hunter.
The problem remained the same.
They could not confirm anything.
The communicator crackled.
Everyone turned.
Yūta grabbed it.
"Hello?"
Static.
Then a voice.
Heavily distorted.
"...train..."
Yūta brought the device closer.
"Yes! Training sector! Do you copy?"
"...no..."
Noise.
"Repeat!"
A voice.
Maybe Tatsu.
Maybe not.
"...route..."
Interference.
"We can't hear you!"
Everyone gathered around.
The wounded hunter tried to sit up.
"Turn it up."
Yūta did.
"...don't... mo..."
The signal vanished.
Silence.
Yūta looked at the device.
Mei spoke first.
"Did he say 'don't move'?"
Hina shook her head.
"I don't know."
"I heard 'don't mo...'"
"He could have said something else."
"Like what?"
"I don't know."
Mei looked at Ishida.
"You?"
Ishida took a moment.
"I heard 'route.'"
"That too."
Sota lifted his head.
"I heard 'no.'"
Everyone looked at him.
The boy shrank slightly.
"Nothing else."
Yūta pressed the button.
"Command, repeat. We didn't receive the message."
Static.
"Repeat!"
Nothing.
Again.
Silence.
Yūta lowered the communicator.
They could not turn three fragments into an order.
Ishida was the first to say it.
"We don't know what they said."
Mei let out a breath.
"Perfect."
"Then we don't act like we do."
She looked at him.
Did not argue.
Time continued passing.
The light stayed yellow.
The wounded hunter had managed to drink some water.
Hina remained near him.
Mei stayed beside the supplies she had gathered.
Sota sat again, this time closer to the others.
Ishida did not leave the panel.
Yūta looked at the communicator every few seconds.
No one said they were waiting for a call.
They all were.
Sota broke the silence.
"Kato knows where we are, right?"
Yūta looked at him.
"Yes."
"Then he'll come back."
It was not exactly a question.
Yūta thought before answering.
"Yes."
He wanted to believe it.
Sota nodded.
"He told us to stay."
"Yes."
"So when he comes back, we have to be here."
Ishida looked up.
Sota did not see it.
Mei did.
The reasoning was simple.
Almost childish.
And precisely because of that, it carried weight.
Kato had left the five of them there.
Safe.
If he came back looking for them, this was the first place he would go.
Moving could mean missing him.
But staying could also mean waiting in a place no one could protect anymore.
The wounded hunter spoke from the mat.
"Orders aren't magic."
Everyone looked at him.
His eyes were closed.
"What?" Mei asked.
"An order works while the situation it was given for still exists."
Ishida turned fully toward him.
The hunter opened his eyes.
"But don't use that as an excuse to do something stupid either."
Mei almost smiled.
"There's the second part."
"There's always a second part."
The man breathed carefully.
"Kato left you here because this sector was safe."
No one answered.
"If it's still safe, stay."
Ishida asked:
"And if it isn't?"
The hunter looked at him.
"Then the question stops being 'what order were we given?'"
Silence.
"And becomes 'what's the least dangerous option?'"
Ishida remained still.
Yūta understood why those words had affected him especially.
Of all of them, Ishida seemed the least willing to break an instruction without reason.
But that also meant that if he accepted the reason had changed, he would not pretend otherwise.
Mei crossed her arms.
"And how do we know if it isn't safe anymore?"
The hunter looked at the yellow light.
"You don't. Not yet."
No one was satisfied.
But it was the truth.
The system made a sound.
Not an alarm.
A single tone.
Ishida turned toward the panel.
The screen changed on its own.
UPDATING LOCAL STATUS
They waited.
Yūta moved closer.
The words disappeared.
For an instant, the screen went black.
Then the information returned.
CENTRAL CONNECTION: INTERRUPTED
LOCAL CONTROL: ACTIVE
A third line appeared below.
SOUTH ACCESS: UNAVAILABLE
Mei moved closer.
"We already knew that."
Ishida did not answer.
Another line appeared.
TECHNICAL ACCESS: UNCONFIRMED
Hina tightened her grip on the axe.
They waited.
Final line.
SECONDARY ACCESS: AVAILABLE
One.
Yūta looked at the local map.
A single exit the system itself recognized as functional.
He did not know if it was safe on the other side.
Only that it could open.
Sota stood again.
The wounded hunter watched the panel from the mat.
He said nothing.
He did not need to.
The shelter no longer had three routes.
It had one.
Ishida opened the details.
"The main lock still works."
"And the secondary exit?" Mei asked.
"Also."
"So we have a way out."
"Yes."
Mei waited.
Ishida added nothing.
"But."
Ishida looked at her.
"But we don't know what's beyond it."
Yūta placed one hand on the bench.
The tournament fatigue was still in his arms.
It had not disappeared while they waited.
It would not disappear because he needed it to.
He thought of Chiho.
Kenta.
Kaito.
Hana.
Yui.
All of them had been exhausted too.
All of them were outside.
Fighting.
Helping.
Maybe injured.
Maybe worse.
Part of him wanted to open the door right then.
Leave.
Find them.
Do something.
The other part remembered how easily Kato had stopped him with a single sentence.
You're not ready yet.
Yūta looked at his hands.
He did not know which part was right.
The yellow light flickered.
Once.
Then again.
Everyone looked up.
Mei stepped away from the wall.
"No."
The light went out.
For two seconds there was no color at all.
Then it returned.
Red.
Sota stepped back.
Yūta felt the entire room tense.
Ishida immediately turned toward the panel.
The screen had changed.
SECURITY STATUS: UNCONFIRMED
CENTRAL CONTROL: UNAVAILABLE
SECTOR ISOLATED
Hina read in silence.
Mei did not need to ask what it meant.
The wounded hunter sat up as much as he could.
His expression had lost its exhaustion for an instant.
"Red?" he asked.
Ishida nodded.
The man closed his eyes.
"Damn it."
Sota looked at him.
"What's wrong?"
No one answered at first.
Yūta did.
"They can't confirm this place is safe anymore."
Sota swallowed.
"But they couldn't before either."
Ishida kept reading the screen.
"Before, we had lost part of the connection."
He looked up.
"Now the sector is isolated from the central system."
Mei looked at the door.
"Can they open it from outside?"
Ishida checked.
"Not from central."
"And us?"
"Locally, yes."
Hina asked:
"Can we talk to anyone?"
Yūta raised the communicator.
He tried.
"Training sector to command."
Nothing.
"Tatsu?"
Silence.
"Kana?"
Static.
"Kato?"
Nothing.
Yūta lowered the device.
For the first time since they had been left there, there was no one on the other side capable of telling them what to do.
The wounded hunter lay back down.
"Don't panic."
Mei looked at him.
"We're doing an amazing job with that so far."
He ignored the comment.
"The door still works."
Ishida confirmed with a nod.
"Local control too."
"Then this can still function as a shelter."
Sota breathed a little easier.
The hunter continued.
"But don't treat it like a guaranteed safe place anymore."
Sota tensed again.
Hina looked at the red light.
Yūta did too.
An hour earlier, that room had probably been one of the safest places in headquarters.
Maybe it still was.
That was the problem.
Maybe.
Mei slowly closed her fans.
She did not put them away.
"So we're waiting to see if it stops being safe."
Ishida looked at the only available exit on the panel.
Then the main door.
Then the wounded hunter.
Finally the others.
He did not answer.
But Yūta saw something in his expression.
For the first time, Ishida no longer looked like he was thinking about how to obey Kato's order.
He looked like he was thinking about what would have to happen for disobeying it to become the right thing to do.
The red light remained above the door.
Nothing could be heard outside.
No guards.
No orders.
No footsteps.
Yūta had thought the worst thing would be hearing remnants approaching.
He had been wrong.
The worst thing was not knowing whether they were already there.