Ishida's hand was still resting on the panel.
The green light remained on.
Behind them, something scraped against the floor again.
Once.
Then again.
Sota adjusted his grip on the wounded hunter.
"Don't make a sound," he had whispered.
Ishida kept his eyes on the mechanism.
"Let's hope it doesn't."
He pressed the control.
For one second, nothing happened.
Then a metallic thud came from inside the wall.
Mei opened her fan a little wider.
Sota turned his head toward the corridor.
He could not see anything.
Only darkness.
The mechanism sounded again.
Louder this time.
Too loud.
"Great," Mei muttered.
The green light turned yellow for a moment.
Sota felt his stomach tighten.
Then it returned to green.
The two metal doors began to separate.
Slowly.
A deep mechanical sound spread through the corridor.
The scraping noise behind them stopped.
Ishida heard it.
So did Mei.
"It heard us," she said.
Ishida did not answer.
The opening reached twenty centimeters.
Thirty.
There was light inside.
Not much.
But enough.
"Sota," Ishida said.
The boy understood.
He and Mei began moving the wounded hunter toward the opening.
"Slowly," the man groaned.
"If you want, we can go back and ask the remnant for permission," Mei replied.
"No need."
The doors continued opening.
A step came from the far end of the corridor.
Then another.
Faster.
Ishida turned.
A chain formed around his arm.
"Get inside."
Mei went through first, turning sideways as she helped support the wounded man.
Sota held the other side.
The doorway was still not fully open.
The hunter's shoulder brushed against the frame.
The man swallowed the sound.
"Sorry," Sota said.
"Later."
Another step.
Closer.
Mei made it through.
The hunter too.
Sota was about to enter when he saw movement in the distance.
A figure.
Dark.
He could not make it out clearly.
A minor remnant emerged from the darkness and started running.
"Ishida."
"I see it."
Sota crossed the threshold.
Ishida did not.
He stayed outside.
The chain dropped to the floor in front of him.
Not to attack the remnant.
It stretched from one wall to the other.
The creature reached it.
Tripped.
Its body pitched forward.
Ishida backed toward the entrance.
Mei appeared beside the frame.
Her fan opened.
"Now."
The remnant raised its head.
Mei sent out a slash.
Not to kill it.
The air trembled.
The creature was forced back just far enough.
Ishida crossed the threshold.
"Close it!"
Sota was already at the interior controls.
He pressed the button.
Nothing.
"It's not responding!"
"Again."
Sota hit it a second time.
The green light flickered.
The doors started closing.
The remnant got back up.
Ran.
Mei stayed beside the opening.
Ishida prepared a second chain.
"Wait."
The doors kept closing.
One meter.
Seventy centimeters.
Fifty.
The creature extended an arm.
Ishida launched the chain.
Caught its wrist.
Pulled.
The remnant lost its momentum.
Thirty centimeters.
Mei kept her fan ready.
Twenty.
Ishida released the chain.
The remnant's arm reached into the gap.
The metal doors finished closing.
Impact.
The arm remained on the inside.
Separated from the rest of its body.
It fell to the floor.
For several seconds, no one moved.
Something struck the door from the other side.
Once.
Again.
The metal did not give.
Sota looked at the panel.
FULLY SEALED
INDEPENDENT CONTROL: ACTIVE
Ishida placed one hand against the door.
Waited.
Another impact.
Weaker.
Then nothing.
Mei closed her fan.
"Well."
She breathed out.
"That was close."
Sota was still staring at the door.
Ishida turned toward him.
"You okay?"
Sota took a second to answer.
"Yeah."
This time, it was not entirely a lie.
Shelter B-2 was smaller than Sota had imagined.
One main room.
Two smaller side spaces.
Benches along the walls.
A small supply room.
Water.
First-aid kits.
Blankets.
A dim white light powered by an independent system.
It did not look like a place meant to live in.
Only to endure.
There were three people inside.
A woman in her forties wearing an administrative headquarters uniform.
A hunter with his left arm immobilized.
And an older man with a bandage around his head.
All three had stood when they heard the door.
The woman approached first.
"What happened?"
Then she saw the wounded hunter.
"Help me."
Mei and Sota carried him to one of the benches.
The hunter with the immobilized arm came closer.
"Can he walk?"
"Barely," Ishida answered.
"Put him here."
Together, they laid him down.
Sota finally released the weight.
His shoulder protested immediately.
He had not realized how much it hurt until he stopped carrying him.
The woman opened the first-aid kit.
"How long has he been wounded?"
"We don't know exactly," Mei said. "We found him in the training sector."
"Did he lose much blood?"
The wounded hunter answered for himself.
"Enough."
"That doesn't help."
"I've been told that several times today."
Sota almost smiled.
The woman carefully removed part of the bandage.
Mei stepped closer.
"He helped change it earlier."
She pointed at Sota.
The woman looked at him.
"Do you know first aid?"
Sota hesitated.
"The basics."
"Who taught you?"
"Kana."
The woman raised her eyebrows slightly.
"Then you probably know more than 'the basics.'"
Sota did not answer.
She handed him some gauze.
"Help me."
Sota took it.
For a moment, he looked at the blood.
The same smell.
The same dampness.
Something stirred in his chest again.
But his hands did not stop.
"Here?"
"Yes."
He pressed down.
The woman changed the bandage.
Mei watched for a few seconds.
Then looked around.
"Is this everyone?"
The hunter with the immobilized arm nodded.
"For now."
Ishida approached.
"How did you get here?"
"They brought us in before the southern corridor lost communication."
"How long ago?"
The man checked his watch.
"I've lost track."
The woman answered without looking up.
"Forty minutes. Maybe more."
Mei looked at Ishida.
"That's a while."
"Yeah."
Ishida scanned the shelter.
No one else.
Three people.
Four now, including the wounded hunter they had brought.
Far too few for a shelter inside a headquarters full of people.
"No one else came after you?"
"You're the first," the older man said.
Sota looked up.
"No one?"
"No one."
That made the place feel less safe.
Not because there was anything wrong inside.
But because no one else had managed to reach it.
Ishida looked at the door.
"Any communication with central?"
The hunter shook his head.
"Intermittent."
"Anything recent?"
"One transmission about ten minutes ago. Couldn't make much of it."
"What did it say?"
"Something about the north. Then it cut out."
Ishida and Mei looked at each other.
Sota noticed too.
North.
Yūta and Hina.
They did not know where they were.
But at least it was a direction.
Mei walked over to a fixed communicator on the wall.
"This work?"
"Sometimes."
She turned it on.
Static.
Tried one channel.
Nothing.
Another.
A crackle.
Nothing.
Ishida took out his portable communicator.
"Yūta."
Silence.
"Hina."
Nothing.
He switched frequencies.
"Yūta, respond."
Static.
Sota stopped looking at the bandage.
Waited.
No answer came.
Ishida put the communicator away.
The woman finished securing the gauze.
"He needs to stay lying down."
The wounded hunter closed his eyes.
"I wasn't planning to run a marathon."
"Good."
"Can I sleep?"
The woman looked at him.
"Not yet."
"What a terrible place."
Mei let out a short laugh.
It lasted only a moment.
Then everyone was listening to the silence again.
Sota went to the small sink inside the shelter.
He turned on the tap.
Water.
Thankfully.
He washed his hands.
The red slipped from his fingers and disappeared down the drain.
Sota kept watching.
Water.
Blood.
Water again.
The image changed.
Not in reality.
In his head.
Another place.
Misato.
He did not remember every detail the same way.
Some were too clear.
Others felt broken.
Breathing.
Dust.
A voice.
Toma.
Masa.
The fear of not knowing where to look.
There had been blood.
Too much.
He remembered thinking that if he stayed still, someone would tell him what to do.
An adult.
A hunter.
Someone.
But for a few seconds, no one said anything.
And those seconds had stayed with him.
More than many other things.
The feeling that everyone was doing something except him.
Moving.
Shouting.
Searching.
Helping.
And Sota was just there.
Trying to understand.
He remembered a voice.
He was not sure which one of them it had been.
Toma.
Maybe Masa.
It did not matter.
"Move."
That was all.
Not a heroic command.
Not something anyone would carve into a statue years later.
Move.
Sota had obeyed.
Late.
Or at least that was how it had felt.
Ever since then, he had carried that feeling everywhere.
Into training with Kana.
Into the training sector.
Into every conversation where someone told him he still was not ready.
When Kato had gone out to fight and he had been made to stay behind.
When the others had taken part in the tournament.
When Ishida had told him he could not go with them to look for remnants.
He did not want to be the one who stood still again.
That was the problem.
He had confused moving with going to the front.
Sota turned off the tap.
Looked at his hands.
He had helped bandage a wounded man.
He had carried him.
Caught a metal tool before it hit the floor.
Kept walking after seeing a corpse.
None of that looked like fighting.
But none of it looked like standing still either.
"Sota."
He turned.
Mei was standing at the entrance to the small wash area.
"What?"
"We've been calling you."
"Sorry."
Mei watched him.
She did not ask what he had been thinking about.
"Ishida wants to talk."
Sota dried his hands.
"I'm coming."
Mei turned away.
Then stopped.
"You did good."
Sota looked at her.
"What?"
"With the wounded guy."
"Oh."
"Don't make that face. I'm not saying it twice."
Sota smiled slightly.
"Thanks."
"You just repeated it yourself, so technically it counts as twice."
Then she left.
Ishida stood in front of a map of the shelter.
Not digital.
A fixed plate on the wall.
B-2 was marked with a square.
There were two exits.
The one they had used.
And another on the opposite side.
Mei stood beside him.
The hunter with the immobilized arm was there too.
"This exit," Ishida said. "Where does it lead?"
The man pointed.
"Auxiliary corridor. Then it connects to the technical block."
"And from there?"
"You can get back toward Training Block Two."
Mei understood first.
"Without using the same corridor."
Sota approached.
"You're going out?"
Ishida looked at him.
"Yes."
Sota did not ask why.
He knew.
Yūta.
Hina.
They were still outside.
"Now?"
"As soon as we check the route."
Sota opened his mouth.
The first reaction appeared on its own.
Me too.
The words reached his throat.
He did not say them.
Ishida noticed.
Sota looked around.
The woman was still treating the wounded hunter.
The other man had one arm immobilized.
The third could barely stay seated without getting dizzy.
There was no hunter in the shelter who was in condition to protect it.
Mei could.
Ishida could.
But then Yūta and Hina would remain outside.
Sota breathed.
"I'll stay."
Ishida did not answer immediately.
Mei looked at him.
"You sure?"
Sota grimaced.
"No."
Mei almost smiled.
"Good answer."
Sota looked at Ishida.
"But I'll stay."
Ishida nodded.
He did not say, "Because it's best."
He did not say, "Because you're still not ready."
There was no need.
Sota had already decided.
"You know how to use the lock," Ishida said.
"Yeah."
"Don't open because someone knocks."
"I know."
"Verify first."
"Yes."
"If you lose the signal—"
"Local control."
Ishida stopped.
Sota continued.
"And if that fails, manual release only if there's no other option."
Mei crossed her arms.
"Well, look at that."
Sota looked at her.
"I was listening."
"Didn't look like it."
Ishida ignored them both.
"Good."
Sota studied the map.
The alternate route left through the second door, crossed an auxiliary corridor, then connected back toward the area near the junction where they had split.
Ishida pointed.
"We go this way."
Sota frowned.
Something did not sit right.
He studied the route.
Then remembered the path they had taken.
The showers.
The parallel corridor.
The remnants.
The one they had killed.
The two that had passed near the maintenance room.
The door.
The blood.
The footprints.
"Ishida."
"What?"
"Don't go back the way we came."
Ishida looked at him.
So did Mei.
"We weren't planning to," Mei said.
Sota pointed at the map.
"I don't mean just the main corridor."
Ishida waited.
Sota tried to organize the thought.
"We passed through there not long ago."
He pointed to one section.
"There was a remnant in the corridor. Then another one on the parallel route. We killed one."
Mei corrected him.
"We killed it."
Sota looked at her.
"Yeah."
"Important detail."
Sota continued.
"Then two more showed up behind us."
Ishida traced the route with one finger.
"Yes."
"We don't know where they went."
Ishida looked up.
Sota pointed somewhere else.
"And we left blood."
"We cleaned it," Mei said.
"Some of it."
Mei stopped joking.
Sota continued.
"They don't always attack. The hunters we found said the remnants were moving them around. And we also saw some that were just following routes."
Ishida listened.
"If you go back exactly the same way, maybe there's nothing there."
Sota hesitated.
"Or maybe they already know someone passed through."
Silence.
The hunter with the immobilized arm looked at the map.
"Makes sense."
Ishida studied the route.
There was no certainty.
That was exactly the point.
They did not need to know the remnants were waiting for them.
They only needed to avoid assuming nothing had changed.
"Then we use the auxiliary corridor to the technical block," Ishida said.
Mei pointed at another connection.
"And from here we can approach the junction from the other side."
Ishida nodded.
Sota looked at the map.
"Yeah."
Ishida looked at him again.
"Good catch."
Two words.
Nothing more.
But this time, Sota did not look away.
"Thanks."
Ishida gave a small nod.
Then returned to the map.
They spent the next few minutes preparing what they needed.
Mei checked her fans.
One had a small mark along the edge.
Nothing serious.
Ishida checked how much mana he could move without forcing himself.
He did not like the answer.
Sota noticed.
"Are you really tired?"
Ishida looked at him.
"I'm fine."
From the other side, Mei said:
"He's tired."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."
Sota looked at Ishida's wrist.
He had seen it trembling after the chains.
"Don't use too much."
Ishida raised an eyebrow.
"Now you're giving me orders?"
"Advice."
Mei closed one of her fans.
"Worse. He's learning."
Sota ignored the comment.
So did Ishida.
But he stayed quiet for a second before answering.
"I'll try not to waste any."
That was enough.
The woman from the shelter approached.
"You're really going out?"
Ishida nodded.
"We have two teammates outside."
"There could be many more."
"Yes."
"We don't know if the route is still open."
"I know."
She watched him for several seconds.
Then stopped trying to dissuade him.
"Then come back through the other entrance if you can."
Ishida pointed toward the auxiliary door.
"That's the idea."
The wounded hunter they had brought opened his eyes.
"Kid."
Ishida turned.
"What?"
"Don't go straight back to that junction."
"I won't."
The man seemed satisfied.
"Good."
Mei approached.
"Any other useful advice before we leave?"
The hunter thought about it.
"Yeah."
"Let's hear it."
"Don't die."
Mei looked at him.
"Tatsu already said that."
Ishida breathed out through his nose.
Sota smiled.
For a few seconds, the shelter almost felt normal.
Then Ishida walked toward the auxiliary door.
And the feeling disappeared.
Sota followed them.
Not because he planned to leave.
Only as far as the door.
Ishida activated the panel.
It responded quickly.
AUXILIARY EXIT
LOCAL CONTROL: ACTIVE
The light was green.
Mei opened one fan.
Ishida prepared a chain without fully materializing it.
The door began to open.
Much more quietly than the other one.
The corridor beyond was dark.
Ishida waited.
Listened.
Nothing.
Mei leaned out slightly.
"Empty."
Ishida looked at Sota.
"Close it after us."
Sota nodded.
"Yeah."
"Don't open unless you're sure who's outside."
"I know."
Mei stepped through first.
Then turned back.
"And if Ishida comes back alone, don't open for him either."
Ishida looked at her.
"What?"
Sota let out a short laugh.
"I'll keep that in mind."
"Very funny."
Mei smiled.
"If I come back alone, you can open it."
"That's worse," Ishida said.
"No one asked you."
For one moment, the scene looked too much like themselves.
Students.
Normal people.
Not a divided group inside a headquarters full of corpses.
Mei took one step back.
The moment ended.
Ishida was about to cross.
Sota spoke.
"Wait."
Ishida turned.
Sota looked at both of them.
There were many things he could have said.
Be careful.
Find Yūta.
Don't fight unless you have to.
Let me know.
Don't take too long.
None of them felt like enough.
In the end, only one word came out.
"Come back."
Mei stopped smiling.
Ishida looked at him.
He did not promise something he could not guarantee.
He did not say "for sure."
He did not say "soon."
He simply nodded.
"Yeah."
Mei raised one hand.
"Save us some room."
Sota raised his too.
"Yeah."
Ishida crossed.
The door started closing.
Sota kept watching them until the gap became too narrow.
Ishida disappeared first.
Then Mei.
Finally, only the dark corridor remained.
The door closed.
FULLY SEALED
Sota stood in front of the panel for several seconds.
It did not feel the same as when Kato had left them in the training sector.
Back then, he had stared at a closed door thinking everyone else could do something except him.
Now it was different.
There were four wounded or incapacitated people inside B-2.
A door that needed watching.
A communicator that might start working again at any moment.
And four teammates still outside.
Yūta.
Hina.
Ishida.
Mei.
Sota placed one hand on the panel.
There was no sound from the other side.
That did not mean they were fine.
It did not mean something had gone wrong either.
He did not know.
And for the first time, not knowing everything that was happening did not make him want to run out after them.
He turned around.
The woman was changing another piece of gauze.
The wounded hunter was trying to sit up.
"Stay still," Sota said.
The man opened one eye.
"Are you giving orders now?"
Sota walked closer.
"For now."
The hunter lowered his head back onto the bench.
"We're doomed."
Sota picked up the first-aid kit.
"Probably."
The woman made room beside her.
Sota sat down.
His hands started moving again.
He had not stopped being afraid.
He had not forgotten Misato.
He was not stronger than he had been an hour earlier.
He still was not ready to fight his way through a headquarters full of remnants.
But when he looked at the closed door one more time, he no longer thought they had left him behind.
He thought about the people who still had to come back through it.
And he kept working.