The map of headquarters no longer looked like a map.
Too many lines.
Too many colors.
Too many new markings layered over the old ones.
Tatsu leaned over the central command table, one hand braced beside the screen while the other moved between sectors as reports continued to come in.
Green.
Yellow.
Red.
Another route disappeared.
A new alert appeared two levels below.
A point that had been marked clear five minutes earlier began flashing again.
Kana stood across from him, unmoving.
Not because there was nothing to do.
Because every decision was beginning to cost them something else.
"West again."
Tatsu slid two fingers across the screen.
The map changed.
"The main access is still open. Kirino is holding the central stretch. Arimoto and Wada are still with her. Wounded have been evacuated, and there are no reports of new high-level remnants on that front."
Kana looked at the sector.
Green.
Not entirely.
Two branching routes were yellow.
"East?"
Tatsu switched zones.
"Kato reclaimed part of the route. He found survivors. Confirmed Zanshō's presence and organized activity around secondary control systems."
Kana already knew that.
What concerned her was how it fit with everything else.
"Basement?"
Tatsu checked the communicator linked to the system.
"Baku responded recently. The strong remnant was eliminated."
Kana looked up.
"Condition?"
"Injured. Still operational."
That did not mean much when it came to Baku.
He could have a broken rib and still call himself operational.
Tatsu continued.
"He requested a recovery team for the bodies and medics for the lower sector."
Kana nodded.
"Send a team when we have a stable route."
Tatsu did not answer immediately.
Kana looked at him.
"What?"
"That's the problem."
He enlarged the map.
The route connecting command to the lower levels had three markers.
One green.
One yellow.
One red.
Tatsu pointed to the yellow one.
"This was safe eight minutes ago."
He moved his finger.
"Now we have intermittent contact with the checkpoint."
Another.
"This one lost power to the automatic doors."
Another.
"And two lesser remnants appeared here. The team evacuating wounded had to reroute."
Kana studied the lines.
In theory, Baku had won.
In practice, reaching him was now harder than it had been before his fight.
"Kagami."
Tatsu switched again.
"He got nine survivors out of Central Sector Four. Four confirmed dead. Mura and Harada are still with him."
"Route?"
"Closed behind them."
Kana narrowed her eyes.
"By the remnants?"
"By us."
Tatsu opened the report.
"Kagami partially collapsed the access to prevent pursuit."
A victory.
Another route lost.
Kana placed both hands on the table.
"Kasumi."
Tatsu's expression shifted slightly.
He did not need to check.
"The storage area is still partially under our control. The first object was stolen. The second one they tried to take was protected."
Kana looked at the sector display.
The marker for the barrier relic was now gray.
Not because it had been destroyed.
Because it was no longer there.
A small piece.
Two concentric metal rings.
A dark core.
Enough to isolate an entire area once it accumulated the required mana.
"Coincidences?" Tatsu asked.
Kana did not answer.
He was not expecting her to.
There were too many.
The remnants were not advancing toward wherever resistance was weakest.
They were not trying to kill the highest number of people.
They were not trying to occupy territory.
They were touching specific places.
Opening certain routes.
Closing others.
Leaving some groups behind.
Ignoring hunters whenever the fight did not serve their objective.
Kana returned to the full map.
Across different sectors, hunters could report victories.
The problem was what remained after them.
A destroyed corridor.
A disabled door.
A system without connection.
A route that could no longer be used to evacuate wounded.
A team forced to stay behind defending an intersection.
An injured hunter who required two people to move.
Every battle they won cost time.
Every minute cost space.
"They're not trying to take headquarters," Tatsu said.
Kana kept looking at the map.
"No."
"Then why do we keep losing ground?"
Kana took a few seconds to answer.
"Because they don't need to hold it."
In the western corridor, Yuna held one hand raised while a bluish structure of mana finished settling between two walls.
Its translucent surface looked like glass under the emergency lights.
It was not.
The improvised barrier covered what had once been a doorway.
Behind her, Kenta stood with both hands on his knees, breathing heavily.
Chiho kept her mana bow ready.
"Done," Yuna said.
She lowered her hand.
The construct remained.
It would not last forever.
Nothing she made did.
But it could hold.
Kenta straightened.
"Do we keep moving?"
Yuna looked at him.
Sweat.
Quick breathing.
A burned section of sleeve near his forearm.
He was controlling his fire better than he had at the beginning of the attack.
That was exactly why he was still standing.
"No."
Kenta frowned.
"We can push one more section."
"We can."
Yuna pointed behind them.
Two hunters were moving an injured man.
"And we can make sure this route still exists ten minutes from now."
Kenta looked down the corridor.
He did not argue.
Chiho lowered the bow slightly.
A hit sounded farther ahead.
Then another.
All three looked up.
Nothing appeared.
Yuna formed a small piece of mana in front of her fingers.
Simple.
Thin.
She sent it toward the intersection.
The construct spun once and lodged itself in the wall.
No reaction.
"They're not coming," Chiho murmured.
Yuna did not take it as good news either.
The remnants that had attacked that area could have returned.
They had not.
The question was where they had gone.
Yuna's communicator crackled.
"Kirino."
Tatsu's voice.
"I hear you."
"I need confirmation on the west."
Yuna looked at both students.
Then at the construct sealing the opening.
"Still operational."
"Can you move your group?"
Yuna took half a second.
"Yes."
Kenta lifted his head.
Tatsu continued.
"Not yet. Hold position."
Yuna frowned slightly.
"Something changed?"
Static.
"Yes."
"What?"
"Everything."
The communication cut before she could ask anything else.
Yuna looked toward the interior of headquarters.
She said nothing.
Kenta understood anyway.
In Central Sector Four, Kagami stood beside the collapse he had caused himself.
A section of the ceiling blocked the access.
Not completely.
Enough.
Movement could be heard from the other side.
Remnants.
They were not trying to break through.
That was the strange part.
Kaito sat against a wall while a female hunter checked a superficial wound on his side.
"I told you I'm fine."
"And I told you to stay still."
"Harada said that too."
"Then two people are right."
Kaito looked at Harada.
"Traitor."
Harada was too exhausted to answer.
His back rested against the wall, eyes closed.
He had used teleportation too many times during the evacuation.
Not to the point of collapse.
But close.
Kagami looked at the blockage.
He could feel the distribution of weight.
Mass.
Pressure.
If he wanted, he could alter it.
Open it.
Close it further.
Hold it.
What he could not do was be everywhere at once.
The communicator sounded.
"Kagami."
"Here."
"Are all nine still with you?"
"Yes."
"I need you to move them to the temporary medical point in the northern corridor."
Kagami looked at Harada.
Then at the survivors.
"That route was closed."
"Not anymore."
"And ours?"
Tatsu took a moment to answer.
"It's about to become unusable."
Kagami looked at the ceiling.
"How long?"
"I don't know."
Kagami let out a breath.
"Excellent."
"Can you move?"
"Yes."
"Then do it now."
The communication ended.
Kagami stepped away from the barricade.
"We're moving."
Kaito stood.
"What about this?"
He pointed at the collapse.
"It stays."
"Aren't we going to need to come back?"
Kagami looked at him.
"That's exactly the problem."
Kaito did not understand.
Kagami started walking.
"We keep having fewer places to come back to."
Command received three reports almost at the same time.
Tatsu took the first.
"Security Door Fourteen is not responding."
Second.
"Auxiliary Storage Three has lost contact."
Third.
He stopped.
Kana saw it.
"Say it."
"Southern medical route is blocked."
"By remnants?"
"We don't know."
"Wounded inside?"
"Two teams in transit."
Kana picked up the central communicator.
"Reroute them."
Tatsu was already searching.
"Northern medical route is overloaded."
"Then open maintenance."
"The lock isn't responding."
"Manual."
"The team that can open it is in Sector Six."
"Send another."
Tatsu looked at her.
"There isn't another."
Kana stayed silent.
Not because she had no answer.
Because she had to choose.
There were fourteen active teams inside the central radius.
Three were immobilized with wounded.
Two were defending facilities.
One had lost contact.
Another was moving north.
Kasumi was still in storage.
Kato in the east.
Baku below.
Yuna in the west.
Kagami moving survivors.
Kanzaki…
Kana looked toward the right corner of the map.
Nothing.
Tatsu followed her gaze.
He did not say the name.
The marker for Corridor Seven remained dark.
No communication.
No confirmation.
No information.
Kana had said earlier that they had to trust he had gotten there first.
She still did not know if that was true.
Tatsu looked back at the map.
"We can pull two hunters from archives."
"No."
"Then one from the northern checkpoint."
"No."
"The southern medical route—"
"I know."
Kana placed one finger on another sector.
"Send the Central Access reserve team."
Tatsu turned his head.
"They're covering the line toward training."
Kana did not move her finger.
"I know."
"If we move them, there'll be one less checkpoint between the core and that sector."
"We have wounded trapped right now."
Tatsu held her gaze.
Kana did not look away.
"Move them."
Tatsu gave the order.
On the map, a small green marker left its position.
It moved south.
The space it left behind did not change color.
Not yet.
An alarm began sounding on Level Two.
It lasted six seconds.
Then stopped.
Two hunters running through the corridor halted.
One looked toward the ceiling.
"What was that?"
The other raised his communicator.
"Central, report."
Nothing.
He tried again.
"Central."
Static.
The door in front of them closed by itself.
Both stopped.
One struck the control panel.
No response.
"Alternative route."
They turned.
The side corridor was open.
They ran.
Fifty meters later, they found blood.
No bodies.
Only blood.
And an open technical door.
One moved closer.
"That wasn't open."
"You sure?"
"Sure."
Something moved at the end of the corridor.
Both raised their weapons.
A figure disappeared around the corner.
"Remnant."
They moved to follow.
One took two steps.
Stopped.
He remembered the reports.
"No."
The other looked at him.
"What?"
"Central said not to pursue if they abandoned route."
The corridor remained empty.
They looked toward the corner.
The remnant did not return.
One clenched his teeth.
"I hate this."
The other looked at the technical door.
"I think that's the point."
Tatsu received the report three minutes later.
He added it to the others.
An open technical door.
A remnant that had refused combat.
A disabled automatic lock.
An alarm that had cut out.
Another point.
Another line.
Kana watched it appear.
"They're touching the network."
"Yes."
"Not to shut it down."
Tatsu shook his head.
"No."
That would have been simpler.
If they destroyed all power, headquarters would switch to emergency systems.
If they completely killed communications, the hunters would fall back on secondary protocols.
If they locked every door, manual routes would be opened.
But this was different.
Intermittent.
Enough that no one could be certain what was still working.
Enough to turn every decision into a gamble.
"They're making us distrust the building," Tatsu said.
Kana looked at him.
That description was better than any report.
Headquarters was a fortress because the people inside knew its routes.
Its access points.
Its safe zones.
Its procedures.
Now a door might open.
Or it might not.
A route might be clear.
Or it might have stopped being clear thirty seconds earlier.
A communicator could work in one room and die after turning a corner.
The terrain was still theirs.
But it was beginning to feel hostile.
Tatsu changed screens.
"There's something else."
"Tell me."
"Their movements."
He displayed several trajectories.
Small red lines.
"They're not converging."
Kana watched.
"Not yet."
"Exactly."
The remnants were moving toward different internal points.
Some descended.
Others climbed.
Others crossed headquarters laterally.
It did not look like they were all moving toward the same objective.
That meant two possibilities.
Either they were disorganized.
Or there was more than one objective.
Kana had already discarded the first.
She looked at the gray marker for the stolen relic.
"The barrier wasn't the only thing."
Tatsu did not ask how she knew.
"How many things could they want?"
"Too many."
"Relics?"
Kana did not answer directly.
"Everything restricted becomes top priority."
Tatsu looked at the map.
"That's too many sectors."
"Then prioritize the ones they're prioritizing."
"We don't know which ones."
Kana looked up.
"Not yet."
Kasumi was sitting on the floor when the call came.
Not from exhaustion.
She was examining the leg of one of the veteran hunters.
A deep wound ran along the thigh.
It had missed the artery.
Barely.
The main storage door had been closed again.
No one trusted it.
Two hunters held position by the entrance.
"Kasumi."
She lifted the communicator with one hand.
"Here."
"Any new attempt?"
"No."
"Nothing?"
Kasumi looked toward the door.
"Nothing."
"That doesn't reassure me."
"Me neither."
Kana entered the line.
"I need you to check the storage records."
Kasumi raised an eyebrow.
"Now?"
"Now."
"What am I looking for?"
"Any recent query. Access. Inventory. Protocol changes. Information requests."
Kasumi stopped adjusting the bandage.
"You think they knew too much?"
"I know they knew where to find a relic they should have had no reason to care about if they'd come in just to destroy things at random."
Kasumi went silent.
"Understood."
"Don't leave the area."
"I wasn't planning to."
The communication ended.
The wounded veteran looked at Kasumi.
"Problems?"
She finished the knot.
"Many."
She stood.
"This one's new."
Back in command, Tatsu closed another route.
Red.
Then another.
Yellow.
The central screen now had more compromised sectors than stable ones.
Kana walked around the table.
No one was shouting.
That was what made it worse.
Orders were still going out.
Teams were still answering.
Hunters were still fighting.
No one had completely lost control.
Yet.
Tatsu enlarged the northern zone.
"Checkpoint Five is requesting reinforcements."
"Reason?"
"Three remnants."
"Level?"
"Lesser."
Kana looked at the location.
"They hold."
"They're protecting an evacuation route."
"They hold."
Tatsu relayed the order.
Another report.
"Technical Access East Two has been opened from the inside."
Kana turned.
"Our team?"
"No."
"Close it."
"Remote system is down."
"Manual."
"No one nearby."
Kana's jaw tightened.
Another.
"Level One gate control has lost communication."
Another.
"A group of four remnants crossed Sector Nine and avoided engagement with two hunters."
Another.
"The archive team reports activity to the north."
Another.
"Kasumi's route remains stable."
Another.
"Kagami is moving."
Another.
"Yuna is holding west."
Another.
"No new contact from Kato."
Too many.
Tatsu's hands moved faster and faster.
Kana stopped looking at individual reports.
She looked at the whole thing.
There it was.
The pattern Ginjiro had seen first.
They were not overpowering them through strength.
They were forcing them to spend attention.
A remnant appeared in a hallway.
Two hunters went.
A door failed.
Another team rerouted.
Someone was wounded.
Two more people diverted.
A facility required protection.
Five people became tied to a place that might not even matter.
They did not need to kill the hunters.
They only needed to make sure there were never enough of them where they actually mattered.
Kana breathed slowly.
"Tatsu."
"Yes."
"Show me the sectors where our presence is lower than it was twenty minutes ago."
He looked at her.
Then began filtering.
Several zones disappeared.
Others remained highlighted.
Kana watched.
One of them was the training sector.
She stopped.
Tatsu saw it too.
"We pulled two from Central Access."
"Yes."
"South checkpoint lost one to medical evacuation."
"Yes."
"And the security team covering the western corridor was diverted to Level Two."
Kana said nothing.
Tatsu zoomed in.
The training district was still green.
But the color no longer told the whole story.
There were fewer hunters around it.
Fewer confirmed routes.
Less communication.
Fewer options.
"How many layers are left?" Kana asked.
Tatsu checked.
"Three functional accesses."
"Confirmed."
Tatsu paused.
"Two."
Kana looked at him.
"And the third?"
"No report for seven minutes."
Kana felt an unpleasant pressure in her chest.
Not fear.
Not yet.
Calculation.
Moving the students was dangerous.
Leaving them there was starting to become dangerous too.
They had been sent there because it was a protected area, far from the primary objectives and with enough controls to isolate it.
But a shelter was not a room.
It was everything surrounding it.
Guards.
Routes.
Communications.
Exits.
If those layers fell away, the room itself remained the same.
The shelter did not.
"Contact the third access checkpoint."
Tatsu did.
"Checkpoint Seven, respond."
Nothing.
"Checkpoint Seven, this is command."
Static.
Tatsu changed frequency.
"Checkpoint Seven."
Silence.
Kana looked at the map.
"Send someone."
Tatsu searched.
"The nearest team is handling evacuation."
"The next."
"Nine minutes."
Kana shook her head.
"Too long."
Tatsu enlarged another sector.
"There are two hunters in maintenance."
"Send them."
"They're not combat personnel."
"They're not going to fight. I want eyes."
Tatsu transmitted the order.
The training sector marker remained green.
Kana no longer saw it that way.
Inside the training district, time passed strangely.
No one had a clock in front of them.
No one asked how long it had been since Kato left.
Yūta had thought about asking several times.
He never did.
He sat on the floor with his back against a wall.
His legs still felt heavy from the tournament.
Every time he moved a shoulder, he found another bruise he had forgotten about.
Chiho was no longer there.
Neither was Kenta.
Nor Hana.
Nor Yui.
Nor Harada.
Nor Kaito.
The second-years had left with the adults.
The first-years had stayed behind.
Just as they had been ordered.
Hina sat on a folded mat.
Her small axe rested nearby.
Not in her hand.
But not far away either.
Mei paced from one wall to the other.
Not quickly.
She simply did not seem capable of sitting still.
Ishida remained near the door.
Sota sat apart, knees drawn up.
He was the least battered of all of them.
He was also the one who looked up the most whenever something sounded outside.
For a while, they had heard movement.
Footsteps.
Orders.
A stretcher.
An alarm in the distance.
Then less.
Then almost nothing.
Mei stopped.
"I hate this."
Hina looked at her.
"What?"
"Waiting."
"Me too."
"I'd rather they just tell us everything's gone wrong."
Ishida turned slightly.
"No."
Mei looked at him.
"No what?"
"You'd rather they tell us everything's fine."
"Well, yes. You know what I mean."
Ishida looked back at the door.
Yūta lifted his gaze.
There was a small light above the frame.
Green.
It had always been green.
He had not thought about it since they entered.
Sota had.
"Does that mean it's locked?"
Yūta followed his gaze.
"I think it means the area's safe."
"You think?"
Ishida answered.
"Yes."
Sota kept looking at the light.
"Oh."
Mei started pacing again.
"Very reassuring."
No one answered.
A few seconds later, a distant impact sounded.
Everyone looked toward the door.
Nothing.
Hina grabbed the handle of her axe.
She did not lift it.
Yūta straightened slightly.
"Must be outside."
"Obviously," Mei said.
Another sound.
Lower.
Then nothing.
Several seconds passed.
The light above the door flickered.
Once.
Yūta frowned.
It returned to green.
"Did it do that before?" Hina asked.
Ishida shook his head.
"No."
Sota stood.
He was the only one.
"What does that mean?"
No one knew how to answer.
"We lost contact with the southern access."
Tatsu did not raise his voice.
He did not need to.
Kana turned toward him.
"Confirmed?"
"The two maintenance hunters reached the previous intersection."
Tatsu listened to the report through his earpiece.
His expression hardened.
"There's blood. The checkpoint is empty."
"Bodies?"
"No."
"Remnants?"
Tatsu waited.
"None visible."
Kana moved closer.
"The door?"
"Open."
Silence.
Tatsu looked at the map.
The southern access changed.
Green.
Yellow.
Red.
One less line.
"How many confirmed routes to training?" Kana asked.
Tatsu checked.
His answer came quieter.
"One."
Kana did not look away from the map.
"Only one?"
"Only one I can guarantee right now."
The district was still marked green.
An island.
Yellow and red around it.
Tatsu looked up.
"It's becoming isolated."
Kana watched for several seconds.
She could order an evacuation.
Move the students along the only confirmed route.
But that route crossed two intersections whose status had already changed three times in less than half an hour.
She could leave them there.
The sector itself had not been attacked.
It still had its own locks.
There was still an exit.
Still.
That word was beginning to appear too often.
"Don't move them," she said.
Tatsu looked at her.
"You sure?"
"No."
Kana pointed at the single green line.
"But moving them now could put them directly in the middle of the attack."
"Then reinforce them."
Kana looked at the available teams.
None were close.
None were free.
"With what?"
Tatsu did not answer.
Kana placed both hands on the table.
"Contact the sector."
Tatsu changed frequencies.
"Training District, this is command."
Nothing.
He tried again.
"Training District, respond."
Static.
Kana raised her head.
"Again."
Tatsu changed channels.
"Training District."
A noise.
Something almost like a voice.
Then silence.
Tatsu looked at the screen.
"Interference."
Kana said nothing.
Tatsu looked back at the map.
"I can send—"
"Wait."
Kana watched the single green route.
Not because she wanted to wait.
Because before moving anyone, she needed to know whether that route still existed.
A new alert appeared.
Automatic lock.
Training sector.
Tatsu opened the system.
"One of the external doors just lost connection to central control."
Something hardened inside Kana.
"Did it close?"
"Yes."
"Manual?"
"Should still work."
"Should?"
Tatsu did not answer.
The light above the door changed.
Yūta saw it first.
Green.
A flicker.
Yellow.
No one spoke.
Mei stopped pacing.
Hina lifted the axe.
Ishida stepped away from the wall.
Sota looked at the others.
"Is that bad?"
Yūta kept watching the light.
He did not know exactly what it meant.
He did not need to.
Ever since Kato had left, the one constant about that place had been that it was safe.
The door.
The guards outside.
The lights.
The communications.
The feeling that, no matter what was happening somewhere else, they could wait there.
Now something had changed.
Yūta stood.
The exhaustion from the tournament was still there.
The bruises.
The mana he had spent.
All of it.
But no one sat back down.
Nothing could be heard on the other side of the door.
That was the worst part.
The yellow light remained on.