The corridor in Training Block Two was colder than the room they had just left.
Yūta noticed it the moment he stepped outside.
It was not a huge difference, but it was enough to make it obvious that this part of headquarters had not been functioning normally for some time.
The main lighting was out. Emergency lights spaced several meters apart were the only ones left, leaving long stretches of darkness between them.
Behind them, the door to the training sector finished closing.
The mechanism gave a dry metallic thud.
Ishida checked the outer panel.
A yellow light blinked twice.
Then went out.
"Can we open it again?" Hina asked.
Ishida touched the controls.
Nothing.
He waited.
The screen took several seconds to turn on.
LOCAL CONTROL: NO RESPONSE
Mei let out a breath through her nose.
"Perfect."
Ishida tried a second time.
The screen did not even react.
He did not insist.
"We don't count on going back this way."
No one argued.
The decision they had made only minutes earlier had just become a little more final.
Yūta looked ahead.
The corridor stretched toward a dim intersection. Beyond it, a red emergency light flickered at irregular intervals.
Nothing moved.
That did not mean much anymore.
Yūta closed his eyes for a moment.
He searched for mana.
Doing it deliberately still felt strange.
For years, he had sensed presences without knowing exactly what he was feeling.
Now he had words for it.
Mana.
Residue.
Concentrations.
Movement.
Even so, distinguishing anything inside a headquarters filled with hunters, traces of techniques, and remnants of battle was difficult.
He felt something.
Far away.
Then it disappeared.
He could not tell whether it had been a hunter.
A remnant.
Or simply mana left clinging to a wall after a fight.
"I don't feel anything nearby," he said.
Ishida nodded.
"We move."
They did not walk quickly.
They could not.
The wounded hunter had one arm over Mei's shoulders and the other over Sota's. Every few steps, his breathing changed.
The bandage was still clean on the outside.
That was the only good sign.
Yūta moved first.
Hina followed a few steps behind, her axe already expanded.
Ishida stayed farther back, close enough to Mei and Sota to step in if they had to let go of the wounded man.
No one spoke.
The sound of their own footsteps was too clear.
The headquarters Yūta knew had never been silent.
There was always someone training.
A hunter crossing a hallway.
A door opening.
A conversation.
An argument.
Baku making far too much noise for something that probably required none.
Now they heard their breathing.
The scrape of their boots against the floor.
And the faint metallic sound Hina's axe made whenever she shifted its position.
They reached the first side door.
Closed.
Yūta raised one hand.
Everyone stopped.
There was something on the floor.
An identification card.
Yūta crouched.
No blood.
He picked it up.
A hunter he did not know.
Internal security.
He looked around.
No one.
Mei adjusted the wounded hunter's weight.
"Dropped it?"
"Maybe," Ishida said.
Yūta turned the card over.
Nothing unusual.
He slipped it into a pocket.
"If we find the owner, we give it back."
No one mentioned the other possibility.
They continued.
Training Block Two was empty.
That did not mean untouched.
One room had a shattered observation window.
Another door stood half open.
Drag marks crossed the floor.
In one corner, a rack of practice weapons had been knocked over.
Nothing suggested a major battle.
No craters.
No destroyed walls.
It looked more like a place that had been abandoned too quickly.
Yūta reached an intersection and looked left first.
Empty.
Then right.
A white light flickered in the distance.
"That way," the wounded hunter said.
His voice was weaker now.
Ishida moved closer.
"You sure?"
The man nodded.
"The shelter is past the next block."
Yūta remembered the local map Ishida had memorized before they left.
At this point, they were still all moving in the same direction.
The separation came later.
The problem was getting there.
Sota made a small sound.
Mei looked at him.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You're walking differently."
"I'm fine."
Mei looked at the hunter's arm over his shoulders.
Sota was carrying more weight than he wanted to admit.
"We switch."
"No need."
"That wasn't a question."
Mei stopped.
So did the group.
Hina moved closer.
"I can help."
The hunter shook his head.
"You stay free."
Hina was about to argue.
The man glanced at her axe.
"If something shows up, I'd rather the one carrying that not be busy carrying me."
Hina looked at the weapon.
"Fair point."
For a few minutes, Ishida took Sota's place.
The change seemed to bother the boy more than the exhaustion itself.
Sota walked in the middle of the group with nothing to do with his hands.
Yūta saw him glance back several times.
The door they had come through was no longer visible.
"It's not going to open by itself," Mei said.
Sota looked at her.
"I wasn't thinking that."
"Right."
"I really wasn't."
Mei did not push.
Sota looked forward again.
"It feels weird."
Yūta slowed a little.
"What does?"
"Leaving."
No one said anything.
Sota continued.
"A little while ago they told us not to leave no matter what."
Yūta understood.
They had crossed one door.
That was all.
And yet it felt like they had done something much bigger.
They had left behind the last clear order they had.
Not because they had chosen to ignore it.
Because the place that order had been given for no longer existed in the same way.
Ishida did not turn around.
"If you see Kato before we do, you can explain it to him."
Sota looked at him.
"Me?"
"You argued the most."
Mei let out a small laugh.
Sota frowned.
"You left too."
"Yes."
"Then you explain it."
"Fine."
The conversation ended there.
But for a few seconds, the corridor felt a little less heavy.
The first obstacle appeared before the junction.
It was not an enemy.
It was part of the ceiling.
A section of panels and metal supports had fallen across the corridor.
It did not block the path completely.
But the remaining space was too narrow to move the wounded hunter through without shifting something.
Hina stepped forward.
"I'll move it."
She raised the axe.
Ishida stopped her with one hand.
"No."
Hina looked at the metal.
"I can break it."
"That's the problem."
Mei pointed toward the ceiling.
"If you hit that, everyone on this floor is going to know where we are."
Hina lowered the weapon.
"Then what do we do?"
Ishida carefully let go of the wounded hunter.
Mei took more of his weight while Ishida moved toward the debris.
He touched one of the bars.
Shifted it slightly.
A screech.
Everyone grimaced.
Ishida stopped pushing.
"No."
He looked up.
There was an opening.
Not enough.
Yūta studied the metal pieces.
"Your chains?"
Ishida was already thinking the same thing.
He extended one hand.
A mana chain slowly appeared.
He did not throw it.
He wrapped it around one of the bars and secured it.
Then created a second.
"Hina."
She stepped closer.
"What?"
"When I lift this, push that section."
He indicated a large panel.
Hina placed one hand against it.
Ishida tightened the chains.
The metal began to rise.
Not much.
His arms started shaking almost immediately.
The tournament was still there.
Two complete matches.
Too many chains.
Too much mana spent.
Yūta saw him grit his teeth.
Hina pushed.
The panel slid a few centimeters.
Noise.
But far less than a direct hit would have made.
Mei watched the ceiling.
"A little more."
Ishida pulled.
The chain vibrated.
Hina pushed again.
Finally, enough space opened.
"Now," Ishida said.
He did not maintain the technique any longer than necessary.
Hina physically held the metal in place.
"Go."
Mei and Sota repositioned the wounded hunter.
They moved him sideways.
The man clenched his jaw when the injury brushed part of the wall.
He made it through.
Sota next.
Then Mei.
Yūta crossed.
Ishida was last after Hina slowly released the panel.
The structure settled again.
A soft impact.
Ishida was breathing harder.
Yūta looked at him.
"You okay?"
"Yeah."
"You spent a lot."
"Not that much."
Mei watched him.
"Liar."
Ishida kept walking.
"Doesn't matter."
It did matter.
They all knew it.
But none of them had a solution.
Hina reduced the axe slightly.
She did not shrink it all the way back down.
Yūta resumed the lead.
The fatigue had not disappeared.
It had only changed places.
Now it walked with them.
The communicator made noise again as they approached the junction.
Yūta pulled it out immediately.
"Hello?"
Static.
Then a voice.
Very faint.
"...Sector... Five..."
Yūta stopped.
Everyone else did too.
"Repeat."
The signal broke.
"...wounded..."
Mei raised her head.
Yūta took a few steps, searching for a better position.
"Do you copy? We're in Training Block Two."
Noise.
"...north..."
Then nothing.
Yūta waited.
It did not return.
Hina looked at him.
"Did you hear 'wounded'?"
"Yes."
Ishida asked:
"And 'north'?"
"I think so."
The wounded hunter breathed with difficulty.
"Could be an emergency frequency."
"From who?" Mei asked.
"Anyone."
Yūta looked toward the corridor leading inside.
The signal had appeared just as they approached the junction.
That did not necessarily mean it had come from that direction.
But for the first time since leaving the training sector, they had heard a human voice that did not belong to one of them.
Yūta tried again.
"Team that just transmitted, respond."
Nothing.
He shifted position.
"We're five students and one wounded hunter. Training Block Two."
Ishida corrected him automatically.
"Four students and one trainee."
Sota looked at him.
Ishida realized.
"Five."
Mei had to hold back a smile.
Yūta continued.
"We're trying to contact command."
Static.
One word.
"...advance..."
Then silence.
Yūta lowered the communicator.
Hina looked toward the inner corridor.
"There are people."
"Or there were," Mei said.
It was an unpleasant correction.
But necessary.
Ishida studied the intersection.
They could see it now.
The path on the right was marked with a sign that was still readable.
B-2 / AUXILIARY SHELTER
The left corridor led toward the inner sectors.
There it was.
The point they had known would come before they even left.
Two paths.
No one moved.
The wounded hunter was the first to break the silence.
"I can guide you from here."
Mei looked at him.
"How considerate."
"The shelter is on the right. Two more intersections. Then a double door."
Ishida nodded.
"And the other path?"
"Connects to a service corridor. From there you can reach the central sectors."
Yūta looked left.
The lighting was worse.
There were dark marks on a wall roughly thirty meters ahead.
From where they stood, he could not tell if it was blood.
Hina moved beside him.
"Feel anything?"
Yūta closed his eyes.
Again.
He searched.
Noise.
Scattered mana.
One very weak presence.
Then another.
Neither nearby.
"There's something ahead."
Ishida looked up.
"Remnants?"
"I don't know."
Yūta opened his eyes.
"But there's mana."
Mei adjusted the hunter's arm.
"Would be useful if that came with labels."
Yūta could not help a small smile.
"I'm working on it."
Ishida looked at both paths.
The moment had arrived.
There was no speech.
There did not need to be.
"Yūta. Hina."
Both looked at him.
"You go that way."
He pointed toward the inner corridor.
"Don't look for a fight."
Hina rested the axe against her shoulder.
"Wasn't planning to."
Mei looked at her.
Hina added:
"On purpose."
That was enough.
Ishida continued.
"Find someone. Any team. If you recover communications, report that the training sector was isolated and that we're taking one wounded hunter to Shelter B-2."
Yūta nodded.
"And if we find Kato?"
Ishida looked at him.
"Tell him it wasn't my fault."
Yūta blinked.
Mei let out a short laugh.
Even Hina smiled.
Ishida waited one second.
"Then explain everything."
"Oh."
"I thought that was obvious."
"With you, you never know."
The smiles faded quickly.
Not because anything had been wrong.
Because all of them understood it might be the last joke for a while.
Ishida took out his communicator.
No signal.
He set it to a local frequency.
"Let's try this."
Yūta did the same.
A small beep.
"I hear you."
"Range will probably be short," Ishida said. "If it works, we use it when necessary."
"How often?"
Ishida thought.
"Not on a schedule. If we find something important."
Mei nodded.
"Better. I don't want a remnant finding us because someone decides to give a report every five minutes."
Ishida put the device away.
"If either route gets blocked, we don't come back to this junction without knowing what's here."
Yūta looked at the crossing.
"Then where do we meet?"
Ishida pointed at the shelter sign.
"B-2."
Sota lifted his head.
That seemed to ease him a little.
There was a concrete place.
They were not simply splitting up and hoping.
"If it's still safe," Mei added.
Sota tensed again.
Mei sighed.
"Sorry."
Ishida continued.
"If the shelter is compromised, we leave a mark."
Yūta understood.
Hunters used simple signs during indoor operations.
They could not always depend on communications.
Ishida created a small mana chain.
Then made it disappear.
"An X beside the door. If you see it, don't enter."
Hina nodded.
"And if it's fine?"
"Nothing."
Simple.
Yūta looked at Sota.
The boy had been quiet.
Since the argument in the training sector, he had accepted the plan, but that did not mean he liked it any more.
Yūta walked closer.
"Sota."
"What?"
"Listen to Ishida."
The boy frowned.
"I know."
"And Mei."
"That's harder."
Mei heard him.
"Hey."
Sota smiled slightly.
It did not last long.
Yūta lowered his voice.
"Don't do anything alone."
Sota looked at him.
"You either."
Yūta did not answer immediately.
"I'm going with Hina."
"That's not what I meant."
Yūta understood.
Do not carry something alone just because someone is beside you.
Do not rush ahead.
Do not decide that you have to solve everything because you are the one who can see more.
It was a surprisingly specific piece of advice from a fourteen-year-old.
"Okay."
Sota nodded.
He said nothing else.
Not yet.
Hina walked over to Mei.
They looked at each other.
"Take care of him," Hina said.
Mei raised an eyebrow.
"Sota or Ishida?"
Hina thought.
"Yes."
Mei smiled.
"You take care of Yūta."
"Also yes."
"Especially when he makes the face like he just had a great idea."
Yūta looked at them.
"I'm right here."
"We know," they said together.
Ishida ignored the exchange and walked over to Yūta.
His expression had turned serious again.
"We have no idea what's ahead."
"I know."
"If something strong shows up, you retreat."
"Yeah."
"Don't try to hold your ground because you think someone needs you to."
Yūta looked at him.
It sounded too much like something Kato would say.
Maybe Ishida noticed too.
"You too," Yūta said. "If the shelter isn't safe, don't stay just because the map says it should be."
Ishida nodded.
"I won't."
For a few seconds, neither knew what else to say.
They were not a veteran squad.
They had not spent years training to split up inside a headquarters under attack.
A few hours earlier, they had been competing against each other.
Now they were deciding who carried the wounded and who walked toward a place where people might be dying.
Ishida held out a hand.
Yūta looked at it.
Then bumped his own against it.
"See you at B-2."
"Yeah."
They did not say "for sure."
They did not say "in five minutes."
They did not say "when this is over."
Just the place.
It was enough.
Mei and Sota lifted the wounded hunter again.
This time Ishida took the lead toward the shelter.
He could not move too far ahead because he needed to keep them in sight.
Mei stayed on the hunter's left.
Sota on the right.
Before they started, the hunter looked at Yūta and Hina.
"The service corridor has two large exits before the central sector."
Yūta nodded.
"Any we should avoid?"
The man let out a short laugh that ended in a grimace.
"Today? All of them."
Hina held the axe with both hands.
"Helpful."
"If you see a door open that should be closed, don't assume one of ours opened it."
Yūta remembered what they had been told.
The routes.
The empty checkpoints.
The remnants moving hunters around.
"Understood."
Ishida gave the signal.
His group began to move.
Five steps.
Ten.
Sota looked back.
Yūta raised one hand.
The boy did the same.
Then turned forward again.
Mei did not look back.
She had enough to do keeping the wounded man steady.
Ishida looked back once.
Only once.
Then the four of them turned the first corner toward B-2.
They disappeared.
Yūta kept looking at the empty space.
The silence returned immediately.
Hina stepped beside him.
Until then, there had been six of them.
Now there were two.
Yūta looked toward the inner corridor.
Dark.
The marks on the wall were still there.
Farther ahead.
The red light flickered.
Once.
Darkness.
Again.
"Well," Hina said.
Yūta looked at her.
"Well?"
"If I think about this too much, I'm going to want to go after them."
Yūta understood.
"Me too."
Hina adjusted her grip on the handle.
"Then let's move before we regret it."
Yūta put away the communicator.
He took one step.
Stopped.
"Hina."
"What?"
"If we find something we can't handle…"
She looked at him.
Yūta remembered Ishida's words.
Don't try to hold because you think someone needs you to.
"We leave."
Hina nodded.
"We leave."
This time Yūta moved forward.
Hina went with him.
On the other side of the junction, Ishida walked slowly.
He could not stop thinking about the sound of Yūta and Hina's footsteps moving away in the opposite direction.
He could no longer hear them.
That was good.
It meant they were moving carefully.
Or at least that was what he chose to think.
The corridor toward B-2 was narrower.
The walls were intact.
The first emergency light worked.
The second did not.
Ishida raised one hand.
Everyone stopped.
Mei looked at him.
"What?"
Ishida listened.
Nothing.
He continued.
Sota's breathing was heavier.
Not only from fear.
The hunter was heavy.
Ishida moved closer.
"Switch."
Sota shook his head.
"I can do it."
"I know."
"Then I keep going."
Ishida was about to insist.
Mei interrupted.
"Let him."
Ishida looked at her.
Mei subtly indicated Sota.
The boy's face was tense, but his posture was still stable.
"When he can't, we switch."
Ishida accepted it.
He did not need to protect him from every effort.
Only from the ones he was not ready for.
They continued.
A few meters ahead, a sign on the wall read:
B-2 — 120 m
Sota saw it.
For the first time since they had left, something was exactly where the map said it should be.
"It's close."
Ishida nodded.
"Yeah."
None of them yet knew how much could change over one hundred and twenty meters.
Yūta and Hina reached the marks on the wall.
It was blood.
Yūta knew before touching it.
Not fresh.
But not old either.
Hina stopped walking.
The trail continued toward the service corridor.
No body.
Yūta looked at the floor.
Footprints.
Several.
Some human.
Others he could not identify.
Farther ahead, there was an open door.
One that should have been closed.
Yūta remembered the hunter's warning.
Don't assume one of ours opened it.
Hina raised the axe.
Yūta searched for mana.
This time he felt it clearly.
One.
No.
Two.
Very weak.
Ahead.
And far behind them, at a much greater distance, the presence of Ishida, Mei, and Sota was slowly moving in the opposite direction.
For the first time since the attack began, Yūta physically understood what splitting up meant.
He could not turn around and see them.
He could not count on Ishida covering an angle.
He could not hear one of Mei's comments.
He could not check whether Sota was still okay.
He had Hina.
Hina had him.
That was all.
"There's something ahead," he said.
Hina stepped beside him.
Not in front.
Beside him.
Yūta looked at her.
She remembered too.
The tournament.
Kaito.
The thing she had needed to learn.
You did not always have to stand in front of someone to protect them.
Hina held the axe.
"Then we look together."
Yūta nodded.
They moved forward.
Behind them, the junction was empty.
To the right, Ishida, Mei, and Sota were carrying a wounded hunter toward a shelter they hoped was still intact.
To the left, Yūta and Hina were walking toward two presences they still could not identify.
Two groups.
Two paths.
And no way to know which one was actually safer.