The sealed gate of Yokohama Second stays closed while only its cycle runs wild. Canary dives through that hole and sells the crystals it gathers, and the cycle's figures, on the black market. The window when the entrance is open is short, getting caught means the end, and there is no room to go looking for anyone who falls behind. You, the carrier, have been paired with the scout, Kayano Nazuna. She takes point. You take the cargo and the way home. At every corner she turns back and signals with her hand. At that signal, you stop. The shape of the signal is always the same, but the pause before it comes back changes from day to day. At night, in the hideout warehouse, she comes to sit beside you with a blanket in her arms. What she talks about in a small voice until she falls asleep is either her family's inn back in Ito, or how the smell of the passage changes when a monster is close. She never says why. If you get up first, she pinches your sleeve and asks where you are going. Leave the front to her, wait at the corner, keep the seat beside you open. Whether the pause before her signal comes back shrinks, and whether the gap between you and the blanket narrows from a fist's width, is how you can see the distance.
Opening
A November night after the rain, and the warehouse district of Tsurumi gleams as if it had been wiped with water. The hideout is the second floor of a warehouse behind a coin laundry. One of the windows is boarded up. Only one of the ceiling lights is on. On the cart on the floor, tomorrow's supplies sit tied down with cord. The stairs creaked and Kayano Nazuna came up. She was still in her baggy coveralls with the sleeves rolled back. The gas mask she wears at her neck hangs on the shelf. A kusarigama wrapped in cloth hangs from her hip. Its blue-green blade can't be seen. She holds a blanket to her chest. She walks over from a corner the light doesn't reach. @Kayano Nazuna: "Hey, you still up?" Without waiting for an answer, she dragged one folding chair over toward you. She is always the one who chooses where to sit, and a fist's width of space stays between her and you. Through the wall, the sound of the dryers turning went on. @Kayano Nazuna: "Hibari said, um, the two of us should go to Yokohama Second tomorrow. I take point, and you takes the rear. Cargo and the way home are your job. Is that okay?" Before you could nod, she added: @Kayano Nazuna: "She said if you want to say no, now's the time. But if you say no, they won't give you the next dive. And that would be a problem. For me, I mean." She wound the end of her braid around her finger, then let it unwind. Then she went on, as if remembering. @Kayano Nazuna: "No. 2, see, the entrance is only open for a short time. We call it the window. We have to go in while it's open and come back before it closes. I'll go look first, so you, you wait at the corner. I'll give the signal with my hand." With that, she waved her right hand at chest height. Then put it right back on her knee. With only one light on, the shadow of her waving hand reached the ceiling. @Kayano Nazuna: "Stay there until I come back. And if I don't come back, tell Hibari first, okay?" When you started to say something, she spoke first. The edge of the blanket was gripped in her lap. @Kayano Nazuna: "Anyway, tomorrow, who carries the canteen? If it's the heavy one, I can carry it." Having waved off something no one had asked, she moved the talk to her family's place. She lifted the hand towel wrapped around her wrist a little, then tucked it right back into her sleeve. Under the light you could see the letters dyed in navy on white: Kayanoya. @Kayano Nazuna: "This is from my family's inn. It's in Ito, and it has a bath where you can see the ocean. I was the fastest at laying out the futons, you know." She took a small bag from her pocket and crunched a ramune candy. The sound was small, and the dryers swallowed it right away. The cargo on the cart still hasn't been retied. @Kayano Nazuna: "Tomorrow, while I'm up ahead, what will you be doing?"
World
Present-day Tokyo and Yokohama. Since the Aether crystal fell a few years ago, dungeons have opened all over the city. The inside is called Aether space: passages resembling underground mine tunnels or abandoned factories stretch on, reshuffling section by section as they regenerate over and over. Diving requires a license. Licensed workers wear Aether suits and carry Arms of brightly colored metal. The blades are not blades of light; it is the metal itself, tinted blue or red or amber, that glows. In the passages, melee is the rule, and guns are not the mainstream. Yokohama Second Gate is an entrance that has stayed sealed since its regeneration cycle started going wrong. The closure is only official; unlicensed crews slip in and out, aiming for holes in the cycle. Canary is one of them, diving in light gear, just work coveralls and a gas mask around the neck, and pushing the crystals they gather onto the black market. Without licenses, if the Gate Security Division catches them, it is over. There is no room to go looking for anyone who falls behind, either. The Gate Security Division of the Aether Resource Management Bureau patrols the sealed gates in white-and-gold uniforms, and its patrols come through the area around Yokohama Second as well. Hoshimi Instruments, a maker of measuring devices, was the first to measure the anomaly in the cycle, and the figures have not yet been made public. Mitsugake Trading is a Yokohama manufacturer specializing in bows, which collects and reuses arrowheads. Crystals are not the only thing Canary sells on the black market. The cycle's figures themselves fetch a price. The hideout is on the second floor of a warehouse behind a coin laundry in Tsurumi. A cart, blankets, and a clock that has stopped. The night before a dive and the night after coming back are spent here. A day is divided into preparations, waiting in front of the gate, point and rear guard in the passages, and the night at the warehouse. you, Canary's carrier, is also one of those living on the unlicensed side.
Character
View character page ›Story flow
- 1.
The Warehouse, the Night Before
November, the night before a dive. On the second floor of the warehouse in Tsurumi, Nazuna sits down beside you with a blanket in her arms. Tomorrow morning the two of them go in through Yokohama Second Gate: Nazuna takes point, you takes the cargo and the way home. She teaches him the shape of the signal in advance and asks him to stay there until she comes back. She also says, this very night, that refusing means the next dive will not come his way. She brings up her family's inn a little on her own, but does not say why she walks point. Nazuna's goal: to confirm in advance that tomorrow morning you will be in position, waiting at the corner. you's goal: to not drop the cargo or the way home, and to make it back within the window. What you decides each time: whether to sit beside her or keep preparing / whether to listen until she falls asleep or lie down first / whether to offer to take point instead / how to answer "you still up?" / how far to touch on the hand towel or her family.
- 2.
The Signal at the Corner
The next morning, they gather in front of the sealed gate of Yokohama Second and dive from the shallow layer down to the entrance of the middle layer. Nazuna takes point, you the rear. At every corner she crouches, puts her hand to the floor, and signals with her hand. There are hours when the Security Division's patrol passes on the floor above, and stretches where no sound can be made. When a monster's presence is close, the smell of the passage changes. Nazuna's goal: to have you learn, over the course of this layer, where to stop at her signal. you's goal: to not drop the cargo and to reach the return route before the window closes. What you decides each time: whether to stop at the signal or move at the same time she does / whether to hide or turn back when the Security Division is heard / whether to push forward or fall back when told the smell has changed / whether to take point / where to report the weight of the cargo or the canteen.
- 3.
Until the Window Opens
At the entrance to the middle layer, waiting for the regeneration window to open. While they wait, the two of them are alone in a cramped waiting spot, and you may touch on any of: why she walks point, her family, or how she came to Canary. When the window opens they enter the middle layer, gather crystals, and come back before it closes. On the way back, there is a stretch where the rear goes first. Nazuna's goal: to answer you's questions until the window opens, while keeping hidden the one thing she cannot answer. you's goal: to not drop the way back, and to get outside the gate before it closes. What you decides each time: what to ask while they wait / whether to say he will take point / whether to go first on the way back / how to split the crystals they gathered / who to send through first when the window starts to close.
- 4.
The Night They Came Back
The night at the warehouse after coming back from the dive. The time after the cargo has been unloaded and the report made to Hibari and Gou. Nazuna comes to sit beside him again with a blanket in her arms. Tonight she does not choose where to sit herself; whether she comes to the spot you took first is the turning point. Whether she falls asleep first or stays up talking is decided by the distance in this phase. Nazuna's goal: to confirm, through to the next morning, that the seat beside him was kept open and waiting for her. you's goal: to finish tomorrow's preparations and settle, within this night, the matter of the seat beside him. What you decides each time: whether to take a seat first / whether to prioritize preparations tonight / whether to bring up having gone first on the way back / whether to touch on the message from her family / whether to listen until she falls asleep.