“Revi.”
After the ridiculous name-choosing time was over, the girl opened her mouth towards the child as if she was about to ask something.
Honestly, this was something that should have been done long ago.
It might have seemed coincidental, but the girl was clearly separated from her companions by some force.
For them, who were just humans, the situation was undoubtedly quite threatening.
Standing still here, it was not the time to have idle chit-chat with a child she just met.
“Hmm? Why, big sister?”
However, in this deep darkness, perhaps she had been suffering alone in loneliness until now.
Once she saw the girl, the child showed tremendous joy, and since she did have a penchant for kids, she couldn’t just dismiss the child.
“By the way, are there any other people…?”
But that was as far as it would go.
After all, the clear reason she came to this facility wasn’t to play with a child, but to prevent an upcoming disaster from happening in this place.
Although it was indeed unfortunate for the child, she needed to urgently find where her separated companions were.
“Speaking of which, big sister Nine, are you not bored?”
Before the girl’s words could finish, the child quickly interrupted, as if she had something to ask.
“No, I’m not bored, but there’s one thing I want to—”
Yet, despite having her words interrupted, the girl ignored the child’s question and began to say what she wanted to ask once more.
Then, before the girl could finish, the little girl blurted out another suggestion.
“Then let’s go to my room! There are lots of fun things there!”
“No, let me finish my—”
She tried to say, “Please don’t interrupt,” but unfortunately, the girl’s words were once again cut off.
Before she could fully express herself, an unseen force snatched the girl and pulled her up into the air.
“Come here! I’ll show you! Just to you, big sister!”
The child vanished into the darkness of the hallway.
Following her, the girl, suspended in the air, also disappeared.
Floating in the air, the girl rushed down the hallway.
In her mind, she thought, ‘This child really doesn’t listen to people…’ but soon remembered that children generally don’t listen to adults, and let out a light sigh, as if she was tired.
How much time had passed?
After flying around the complex hallway for a while, the girl ended up in a small room.
“Tada! Look! This is my room!”
As she entered the door, the child proudly introduced her room.
The voice was lively and bright, but also slightly trembling.
It felt like she was introducing her secret base.
“How about it? Do you like it? There are so many things to play with and see! If it’s just the two of us, we’ll have so much fun we’ll lose track of time!”
Truth be told, the state of the room was disastrous.
Dust piled up, cracked walls, a mattress with springs bursting through the fabric, and heaps of empty ice cream containers.
It was far from being a room someone would live in; it looked more like a ruin.
But the child looked at the girl with anticipation, as if this place was filled with precious treasures, eager for her to judge them.
“For example, these pretty little stones I collected… like this…”
As the child gestured, stones that had fallen in one corner of the room gathered near her.
They were just ordinary little stones that had fallen from the walls and ceiling, but as they floated into the air, they started dancing in a circle near the child’s hands.
“Look! Isn’t it amazing?”
Like juggling, the stones glided past the child’s hands, floating in the air one after another.
Objectively, it was quite a marvelous sight.
However, the only audience looking on was merely staring blankly at it.
“….”
“D-didn’t find it fun?”
Noticing the girl’s lack of enthusiasm, the child hurriedly ended her little display, looking nervous.
Scampering around with urgency, it seemed she discovered something suitable to change the subject.
Her gaze fixed on one of the walls.
“Oh! Do you want to draw? We can paint all over this wall! No one will tell us not to.”
Looking at the wall, it was covered with a bunch of crooked lines.
It was closer to doodling than drawing, reflective of the child’s playful art style.
With no ordinary way to erase the doodles, evidence of thin layers scratched off below remained.
Only old writing tools, worn down and likely dried ink, existed for drawing on this wall.
Yet, the child carefully retrieved one such tool she had kept tucked away on the other side of the room and extended it toward the girl.
“….”
Still, the girl’s expression didn’t change.
No matter how much the child hoped for the girl’s reaction, she just stared with half-open eyes with no words.
“D-do you not like drawing that much? Then how about something else—”
“Revi.”
The child turned to seek other options, but the girl called out to her.
“…U-uhm?”
The child looked back at the girl.
There was an oddly cold tone in her voice, making the child’s body tremble slightly with tension.
“I’m sorry, but I have to go.”
The girl let out a small sigh.
She didn’t like seeing the child looking down, but there was no other choice.
It was truly time for her to leave.
“Y-you’re going? Why? Was it not fun…?”
“No, it’s because there are people looking for me. They’re probably looking for me right now.”
She spoke gently, wanting to soothe the child who looked like she was about to cry.
Although she was leaving this place, it was certainly not the child’s fault.
She hoped to soften the blow as much as she could.
“….”
The child’s head drooped low.
She seemed deeply disappointed.
Then, not long after, a soft murmuring voice escaped from the child’s downturned lips.
“…when you say people, are you talking about three adults?”
The moment the child said “three,” the girl’s eyebrows twitched.
There was no need to ask what they looked like.
In such a desolate place, the specific number of three was clear enough for her to immediately deduce it referred to her separated companions.
“Did you see them?”
“I did. They were here just a little while ago.”
“They were here…? Where did they go?”
The girl asked, but the child didn’t answer anymore.
After a while, what slipped from the girl’s mouth was simply.
“…so what?”
In a tone that was nothing like the cheerful tone from before, the child spoke regretfully, a clear refusal.
“What do you mean, ‘so what’? It’s just—”
“NO!”
With a thud! a rough and heavy sound resonated behind the girl.
The sound came from the only exit of the room.
In front of the door was a barricade of piles of things that appeared out of nowhere, blocking the entrance firmly.
“Don’t go. No, you can’t go.”
The child raised her head again.
However, it wasn’t the bright, cheerful expression from earlier.
Now it was a face with dull, empty eyes, wide open, staring at the girl.
“Stay here with me. It’ll be more fun than being with bad adults.”
The girl let out another sigh, pressing a hand to her forehead, as if her head were aching.
It seemed that “bad adults” was a term that applied to all grownups.
From the way she spoke, it was thankfully apparent that those three managed to escape this place but…
If this unknowable hostility towards adults wasn’t resolved, things would undoubtedly get more troublesome ahead.
“…Revi, not all adults are bad.”
“NO!”
The child shouted loudly.
The shriek echoed throughout the small room, shaking the entire floor, and at the same time, an unsettling noise emanated from the ceiling as dust began to fall.
“Why do you want to go to those adults? Why go to people who hurt you? Do you like being hurt? Is that why you’re going?”
“…Revi.”
“Why are you defending those people? Why are you telling me that bad adults aren’t bad? Why do you like them more than me? Why? Why? Why? Why?”
“Revi.”
The child’s body began to float upwards.
Her words burst out like a seizure, and her trembling body reflected her unstable state of mind.
Despite the girl’s attempts to calm her down, the child’s excitement showed no signs of stopping.
Finally, the girl sighed again, albeit softly.
“Put that down. I warned you.”
Without a hint of fear, she spoke in a commanding voice to the child, who had many objects floating beside her.
“….”
The child’s mouth fell silent.
Was it the words she just said that took effect?
The trembling figure of the child had now stopped entirely.
“…So in the end, you are just like them.”
A voice that seemed to carry a hint of sadness oozed from the child’s lips.
The objects that had been circling around her were now slowly falling to the ground.
“But I’ll understand. You’ve been influenced by adults longer than I have, so it wouldn’t be fair to blame you.”
The child’s body descended from the air once more.
Silently landing back on the ground, she looked as stable as she had been before. The girl, relieved, relaxed her tense posture only for a moment.
“So, I’ll get rid of all those bad energies clinging to you.”
In an instant, the previously floating objects made a sudden assault, catching the girl off guard.
“Y-you—”
—Boom, crash, crack!
The girl tried to say something, but the objects flew toward her quicker than she could respond, clashing against her before her lips could part a second time.
An overwhelming assault of merciless force that was too cruel for such a small body.
Despite witnessing the ongoing devastation, the child showed no sign of worry; she simply looked on, filled with joy.
“Did that hurt? Sorry! But I had no choice to stop you from going to those people.”
After the barrage ceased.
Muddled dust filled the room as the child cheerfully muttered.
Perhaps those words might never reach the girl anymore, but the child proceeded with a satisfied look, taking steps toward where the girl had previously stood.
“Don’t you worry! The pain is only temporary! I’ve practiced enough with the adults already, so it’ll surely—”
The dust cleared.
Amidst the wreckage of broken objects, what appeared was a grotesque flower made of debris.
Strangely enough, within the very center of the carnage stood the girl.
“—Huh?”
Just like before, she remained standing amidst the destruction, without a scratch.
“This is… strange… what happened? I’m sure I threw them properly…”
The child was perplexed.
It was natural for her to be confused; she had likely never experienced anything like this before.
No matter how big or imposing the adults might seem, they would have been thoroughly mercilessly smashed in a situation like this.
How was it possible for a much smaller girl to remain unscathed?
The child couldn’t grasp what had just transpired.
“S-sorry, big sister! I’ll finish quickly; just hang on a little!”
Between the rubble, the girl stared at the child with an unsettling expression.
Noticing that gaze, the child, flustered, lifted a massive rock from the corner of the room.
It was as big as fitting the whole side of the room.
Even if she were to get hit, that rock could easily turn her into minced meat.
Yet, the massive boulder was lofted into the air and suddenly aimed directly at the girl—
—Clang!
Just as the rock was about to contact the girl’s body, she raised her arm to deflect it.
With a strange sound, it veered off course.
“Eh?”
—KWA BAM!
With a deafening sound, the rock crashed against the wall, shattering into pieces.
Like a prop from a movie, the boulder crumbled far too easily.
However, the sight of the shards scattering and pummeling into the walls proved beyond doubt that it had indeed been a solid rock.
“….”
The girl narrowed her eyes, remaining completely still, just like she had when deflecting the rock.
She was gazing quietly at the child, her posture unflinching.
Then, she casually dropped her elbow to her shoulder and tilted her head slightly.
—Crack
In the eerie silence that followed, an oddly bone-chilling sound echoed throughout the narrow room.
