36. Riding the Salmon
And so, I ended up having to use my ingenuity from a complete blank slate to head to the "Reverse Flow Shrine," a place I was supposedly forbidden to visit directly.
A completely blank slate with absolutely no leads.
But even without confidence or ideas, the situation wouldn't move unless I took action.
Where should I begin?
I spun my CPU at full speed.
The only clue was language. I focused on the name itself: "Reverse Flow Shrine."
Gathering information was meaningless.
Ability Emi and Clock Ryu likely only knew the broad strokes, and asking other humanoids would yield similar results.
While I took my time asking around, Oto might freeze to death inside that freezer.
What about asking Rin, the root cause, directly?
That question crossed my CPU for an instant, but I rejected it immediately. If this were a world kind enough for that sister to answer honestly, I wouldn't be struggling. The likely outcome would be stepping on a landmine, angering her, and worsening the situation.
So, I had to manage on my own.
"Reverse Flow Shrine."
As the name suggested, I tried rewiring my thought circuits to the concept of "Reverse Flow."
"Reverse flow..."
As I rolled the word around in my mouth while gazing at the sulfuric acid river, it was nothing more than an unconscious signal from my CPU. But here, a fateful coincidence came into play.
My visual sensors suddenly caught the shadow of a fish.
A salmon.
Instantly, my logic circuits derived a connection.
"Salmon swim upstream during the spawning season."
In other words, they ride the reverse flow.
If so, riding a salmon might reveal the route to the Reverse Flow Shrine.
Having reached a conclusion, I immediately moved to action.
I planned to capture a salmon swimming before me and utilize it as a navigator.
I plunged both hands into the sulfuric acid river, attempting to snatch the salmon whenever they approached.
But no matter how many times I tried, they slipped through my fingers.
They were far more agile than I was.
They were likely underwater drones designed to adapt to this harsh sulfuric acid river.
I, merely mimicking human movements, was not an opponent who could catch them easily.
Still, I didn't give up.
I accumulated failures as error logs, applying corrections while trying again and again.
By the time a considerable amount of time had passed, the Pixel Siblings were standing beside me. Apparently bored of playing in the water, they seemed ready to assist in my "bare-handed fishing."
"If the three of us do it," Pixel Hikari said.
"We might catch one more efficiently," Pixel Hikaru continued.
I nodded. "Thank you."
We took on the salmon hunt as a trio.
The two of them used their bodies to dam the river's flow, acting as obstacles to disrupt the smooth fluid dynamics. Most salmon avoided the disturbance and escaped, but there was one individual whose fin got caught in the turbulence, losing its attitude control.
I didn't miss that opening and brilliantly captured the floundering salmon.
The salmon's skin was terribly slippery with scales and mucus, and it almost slipped from my hands once.
But thanks to the Pixel Siblings helping to pin it down, I was able to secure the fish's body stably.
However, this salmon possessed considerable horsepower. I judged that if I just held on, it was only a matter of time before I was thrown off.
I decided to drive anchors to fix my body in place.
I thrust my index and middle fingers out, piercing both of the salmon's eyes.
Squelch. My fingers ruptured the eyeballs and embedded themselves deep into the sockets.
"To begin with, I..."
A monologue naturally leaked out.
Words directed at the salmon that had become my foundation.
"I absolutely hate the dead eyes of fish. What are you people? Why do you have eyes like that? Pull yourself together."
Perhaps due to the agonizing pain of losing both eyes, the salmon opened and closed its mouth frantically, as if screaming soundlessly.
I felt a gaze glaring at me from the two lost eyes—the holes where my fingers were screwed in.
Hatred toward me.
Yes, right now, this salmon must be feeling an intense "absurdity" regarding me, this calamity.
In that case, that absurdity becomes fuel and is converted into energy.
My hypothesis was brilliantly proven.
The salmon converted its hatred into propulsion and began to swing its tail fin powerfully.
This salmon boasted a dolphin-like massive frame, as if mocking stereotypes. Thanks to that, there was enough space to ride on its back.
I screwed not just my fingers but my entire fists into the eye sockets, using them like safety bars or handlebars to secure my body.
The salmon began to swim furiously up the river.
Going against the current, heading upstream.
The companions who had been enjoying their grotesque ball play stopped their hands and watched me recede into the distance.
A few of them waved.
The others, perhaps finding my challenge beautiful, or ungainly, or perhaps both, narrowed their eyes as if protecting their sensors from the intense sunlight, looking at me with a dazzled expression.
What about Rin?
She was deliberately pretending not to look at me.
She seemed to be sulking, or perhaps feeling a bottomless loneliness.
But, unable to endure it any longer, Rin turned around vigorously toward me.
"Hey! ...Hey, I said!"
Rin's voice flew over as a bullet-like soap bubble.
I dodged it vividly like a scene from a movie and, mimicking her, threw back a soap bubble of words.
"What is it!"
"Where are you going?"
The returned soap bubble burst.
Inside, it contained a tragic resonance, trembling as if about to cry.
"Why are you going somewhere again? Why do you leave my side every single time?"
To reassure this pitiful sister, I told her only the facts.
"It's all right. We will surely meet after this. Because right now, I am heading to your house."
However, there was no reply to that.
So, I threw just one more message.
"We will surely meet."