ch61-ch80 · 065-ch64

Chapter 64 (Chapter 2 Epilogue)

Sadoyama Koji had parked his car in the airport parking lot, reclined the seat as far as it would go, and was gazing at the night sky through the window.

The same field of vision took in both the cigarette smoke being drawn out through the slightly open window gap and the faint twinkling of unreliable stars. It all felt terribly absurd.

"Yaaare yare. Nobody's called me..."

He crushed the cigarette, ash reaching right to the filter, between his thumb and forefinger, and figured he should head home soon, returning the seat to its upright position. The plain face in the rearview mirror wasn't much different from yesterday or today.

Probably not much different from four weeks ago, either.

Real big changes took ten years.

They said Icarus, who flew on wax wings, flew too close to the sun and his wings melted off — their own situation had been similar. They thought they could fly forever. They only thought so. Once you passed your limits, all that was left was to fall.

They managed a crash landing — or maybe they were still falling even now.

"Nana-chan's sky looked pretty high..."

He felt a little gloomy thinking about his junior, who was probably still in free fall, but then he remembered that she hadn't contacted him at all, and his noble sentiment dissolved.

He pulled his mobile from his suit's inner pocket. It was already past eight in the evening.

Plenty of overtime. He was about to touch the engine start button when the phone in his hand buzzed. An incoming call.

"Hello, hello. Sadoyama speaking."

〈Soma. Give me Hayasaka Toru's contact info.〉

A low, hard voice resonated from the device.

The extremely curt phrasing made Sadoyama inadvertently give a wry laugh.

"I don't mind giving it to you... but actually, do I? You've met Hayasaka-kun, haven't you? Didn't you ask him directly?"

〈Things got busy. I confirmed with him that I could ask you later. Ah, right — you were at the airport waiting for Habaki the shithead and the S-rank explorer clan, weren't you? Are you at the airport?〉

Calling a Labyrinth Agency bigwig a shithead. Considering Soma Kengo's record of service, he probably had the right to use that kind of language. Though the sympathy, of course, was for Soma.

"Yeah, I'm in the airport parking lot. Been taking a nice afternoon nap. Nobody's come, and nobody's called."

〈Habaki the shithead arrived on an earlier flight and has already linked up with Anthem. The S-rank explorer clan will be about three days late, apparently.〉

"Ah... I see. Nana-chan could've at least called."

〈Hamamatsu Nanami nearly died twice and seems pretty mentally wrecked. She won't be useful for a while.〉

"Hah?"

Nearly died — a former B-rank explorer?

Countless possibilities churned through his head, loud as a bustling izakaya, but Sadoyama decided to ignore all of them.

He was out of the loop.

Because he'd stepped out of it himself.

〈Ask her yourself for details. Her mobile miraculously survived intact apparently. Picking up the pieces for that girl isn't part of my job.〉

"No, it's not my job either..."

〈Not a job, but it would be personal. If you're going to abandon her, you're ten years too late.〉

The dismissive words were delivered in the same tone as when the call began. Not hot, but not so cold that you'd hesitate to touch it. It was reasonably cold — like the floor of a hospital or school hallway.

And — he had no room to argue with the content.

He was completely speechless.

"...You did meet Hayasaka-kun, right? The fact that you're calling me safely means it didn't turn into a fight to the death."

〈Didn't it occur to you that I might have killed Hayasaka?〉

"Why would you want contact info for a dead man? Besides, if you could add a crater to the moon, maybe I'd consider it — but even the 'Hunter' Soma Kengo wouldn't stand a chance with a holy sword user at his side."

It wasn't based on any solid evidence. Just instinct.

As a former explorer, Sadoyama didn't dismiss that.

〈You're right. The kid's got a reasonably functional head on his shoulders. He's insane in some ways, but that's true of most explorers.〉

"But he's not the type to cause harm to society. Right?"

〈Yeah, that's right. Sorry, but I need to get in touch with Hayasaka soon. I'll end the call — send his info by message to this number. Later.〉

Having said his piece, the call ended.

It felt like he'd been left hanging mid-air, but that didn't mean he felt like calling Soma back to complain. He sighed and operated his mobile, sending Hayasaka Toru's contact info to Soma Kengo's phone.

"'The Hunter' Soma Kengo, huh..."

An S-rank explorer that Sadoyama had never quite reached, now working as the 'Hunter' who handled criminal explorers on commission from the Labyrinth Agency.

He'd once been famous as a highly skilled explorer. Then at some point he stopped exploring labyrinths and started working as an explorer-killing 'Hunter.' He didn't seem the type to enjoy killing, so Soma probably had his own reasons.

He stared at the mobile in his hand for a while, hesitated briefly over whether to toss it back into his suit's inner pocket. Unable to decide quickly, he lit a new cigarette.

The exhaled smoke drifted through the car and escaped through the slightly open window gap.

"Ah... god... this is getting me down."

Had Kawai Sakiho managed to talk things through with Hayasaka Toru?

If the trigger was the 'Great Serpent' in front of Sugai Dungeon, then that was probably accurate.

He didn't think she'd been an outstanding subordinate, but she wasn't especially incompetent either. She'd never been in an environment where she could demonstrate her abilities, and Sadoyama wasn't enough of a decent person to tell her not to rot in a place like that.

Everyone has their own regrets.

Certain kinds of regrets might... determine a person's future. If that were the case, then only those without any regrets would be truly free — but personally, Sadoyama wasn't sure he could respect someone who regretted nothing.

He'd probably think they were amazing.

But whether he could pay them the utmost respect? No.

"Nana-chan... I get it was rough back then. Probably better than you do. I was watching from up close, so I know damn well. Yeah. For a sixteen-year-old girl, that was a bit too harsh a turn of events — I think so too. Leaving you to fend for yourself back then — that was my honest feeling, you know?"

Staring at his mobile that wasn't connected to anything, Sadoyama let out a wry laugh and muttered to himself. If he weren't in this place, he probably wouldn't have let out this kind of muttering.

The night airport parking lot.

Alone, waiting, no one coming.

What a fitting place.

"...I lost a friend too, you know? It hurt. You wouldn't know that, though."

He exhaled a sigh along with the smoke.

Then, Sadoyama operated his mobile and touched the call initiate button.