“Your impression is very good. At a glance, you seem to have a lot of your ancestors’ blessings.”
From deep inside a tightly written scroll, a calm voice can be heard.
However, upon hearing that deep, low voice, the girl couldn’t help but scrunch her face a little.
Because the words coming from the monk’s mouth were nothing but a mishmash of greetings used by various cults when they start their one-sided preaching.
“It’s fate that we’ve met like this, so how about a quick survey? —”
“I’m not buying anything.”
The girl’s firm reply interrupts the monk’s speech. And not wanting to be associated with him any longer, she quickly passes him by.
With her cold demeanor, the monk is left momentarily speechless, just watching the girl walk away, but after a moment, he shakes his head as if to clear his mind.
He starts to approach the departing girl with quick steps, trying to speak to her.
“Wait, wait! Don’t be like that, let’s chat for just a moment! It’ll only take a sec! Really, just a sec!”
“I told you, I’m not buying anything.”
“No, no, I’m not trying to sell you anything… Look! This is a promotional poster for our group. I’m just trying to find people who share the same ideals!”
The monk blocks her path and pulls out a rolled-up paper from his robe.
What’s drawn on the paper are illustrations and slogans that are dismally lacking in artistic sense.
At that awful sense of design, the girl turns her head aside for a moment, as if she couldn’t bear to see it, only to find a similar poster stuck on the wall.
Realizing she had nowhere else to look, the girl sighs and rubs her forehead.
“Of course, it must be shocking to hear something like this out of the blue. I know very well how people generally view those who suddenly approach them on the street.”
Despite the girl’s unenthusiastic reaction, the monk continues smoothly.
His words flow naturally, like water.
“But sometimes, unexpected fateful encounters can happen in places like this! Since we’ve come this far, why don’t we share some snacks and have a little chat?”
His words sneak into the gaps of her heart, loosening her guard. Having repeated this sort of thing a hundred times, the monk thinks that this should be enough.
He slowly opens his eyes and tries to look at the girl in front of him, but—
“…Oh?”
Before him stands the girl who has already vanished.
He sees her walking far away, having passed right by him.
“Hey, wait! Just a moment?! Please wait! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! I’m serious?!”
The monk barely manages to catch up to the girl.
However, she walks quickly, completely ignoring him as if to prevent him from blocking her path any further.
With no way to hold her in place, the monk walks alongside her and stubbornly keeps talking.
“Please don’t ignore me! Just listen to me for a bit! I’m sure it won’t be bad for you!”
“I told you to stop. You’re just going to try to squeeze money out of me later.”
“But we aren’t like those cults?!”
“Cults usually say that.”
“I swear, it’s really not true! We might even give you money! Would that make you believe me?!”
“From the moment you started talking about money after just meeting me, I lost any trust in you…”
The girl cuts through the monk’s words with a sharp edge. Yet despite this, the monk continues to dog her closely.
The girl thinks it’s about time he took the hint, but then concludes that anyone who would put up illegal posters in this kind of place is likely irredeemably fanatic.
She, determined to distance herself from this wannabe cultist, starts to walk even faster.
“It’s not just about money. I can give you anything you want—no, wait, your walking speed…!”
The girl’s pace picks up dramatically.
Her speed is utterly unbelievable for mere walking.
The monk, flustered, begins to run after her, but soon finds himself out of breath and unable to keep up.
Gasping for air, he reaches out his hand towards her back, but the girl is already far ahead, walking away without looking back.
“Ugh, ugh… You really going to walk away like that? Really?!”
“Yep.”
“Don’t do that, just talk to me for a minute! You might discover something in your heart you didn’t know you were yearning for!”
“I told you, I don’t need that…”
“Really? Even if I offered you a billion?! What if I gave you half the world?!”
His words now border on absurdity, making one wonder about his sanity.
The girl seems completely uninterested in such nonsense, not even giving a slight reaction.
Finally, when she reaches the edge of Exit 7, she faces a set of long stairs going up.
“…”
Just before stepping out, the girl glances back.
There, the monk stands awkwardly scratching his head, having run out of words to say.
Seeing him like that, she’s assured that he won’t chase her anymore.
After turning back, she prepares to step onto the stairs to exit when—
“Is it about your family and friends across the sea… no matter what happens?”
Hearing the voice from behind, she halts in her tracks, standing there rigid.
“―――――”
In an instant, the atmosphere around shifts.
A strange silence envelops the space, as if time itself has frozen.
The air grows heavy with an unexplainable pressure, and along with a silent stillness, a suffocating weight begins to rise in that area.
“You.”
Finally, the moment the girl turns around—
“Do you want to die?”
Crunch—!
In an instant, deep fissures form in the walls and floor.
The heavy air suffocates the surroundings.
What emanates from the girl, who looks at the monk with a face that’s hard to describe, is something that does not exist in this world.
Any ordinary person from modern times would undoubtedly fall down foaming at the mouth from that strange aura.
Yet, even being directly hit by that energy, the monk merely stands there calmly, addressing the girl in the same composed tone as when they first met.
“Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to cause a misunderstanding. You see, I just had to get your attention, given my circumstances.”
“…”
“Oh, and don’t worry about your family. Before standing before you, I just needed a way to ensure my own life. As long as you let me go, I promise nothing will happen.”
As the monk opens his garment, a machine is revealed on his chest.
On the square screen is displayed a heartbeat and a graph.
It beats a little faster than usual, presumably a heart rate monitor, but next to it are several coordinates unrelated to the heartbeat.
Those coordinates, linked with the graph, imply that should his heartbeat stop—
Something ominous would happen to those coordinates.
“――――”
A crack echoes.
As if unable to contain his anger any longer, he grinds his teeth.
But since he was threatening the girl based on her family—
She finds herself in a desperate situation, unable to move forward or backward.
“…Ugh.”
In an unavoidable situation, the girl looks at the monk with a deadly glare.
Reluctantly easing her venomous atmosphere, she slowly draws in her breath to calm her anger—
“Are you calm now? Then let’s—”
—THWACK!
“Huh?”
Finally, unable to hold back her anger, she suddenly tears the wall next to her completely off and hurls it at the monk.
“No, wait! Are you really throwing that?!”
“Yes.”
“Wait a sec! Didn’t you hear what I said?! If I die, your family too—!”
BOOM!!
The monk, caught off guard, tries to stop her actions, but the ripped-off wall is already airborne, having left her hand.
All that followed was a tremendous noise and vibration…
Filling the underground passage with the sound of destruction.
