Harada appeared on the other side of the intersection and had to brace one hand against the wall before straightening up again.
Kaito noticed him from about thirty meters away.
"Did you find anything?"
Harada raised one hand, asking for a second.
Kagami didn't move from his position. He remained in the middle of the corridor, looking alternately toward the two side entrances while several hunters passed behind them in the opposite direction.
The alarms were still active.
A red light flashed above the emergency doors, washing the walls in color at regular intervals. Some of the ceiling lights had stopped working, so much of the route toward Central Sector Four alternated between fully lit areas and others almost completely dark.
Harada finally pushed himself away from the wall.
"The main route is blocked."
Kaito frowned.
"By remnants?"
"By half a wall."
That was worse.
Kagami pointed toward the side corridor.
"The service access?"
"Still open. But I heard fighting farther ahead."
Harada took a deep breath before continuing.
"And I found blood."
Kaito stopped rolling his right shoulder.
He had been trying to ease the stiffness left over from the tournament, though so far it hadn't helped much.
"A lot?"
Harada looked at him.
"Enough."
Kagami started walking.
"Then we use the service corridor."
There was no argument.
They had received the distress call several minutes earlier. A group of hunters had become isolated near the technical facilities of Central Sector Four after multiple routes collapsed almost simultaneously.
The last communication had mentioned wounded.
Then silence.
Kaito walked behind Kagami.
Harada brought up the rear.
Under normal circumstances, he would have gone ahead first, appearing and disappearing through different parts of the corridor to check every corner.
Tonight wasn't normal.
He had already used his technique several times since leaving the coordination point. Teleporting alone was relatively manageable. Carrying another person with him demanded much more.
And he was still carrying the fatigue from the tournament.
Kaito wasn't in much better shape.
His match with Hina had ended before he could fully recover from the earlier blows, and the fifth match hadn't even reached its conclusion.
His body still remembered all of it.
He didn't feel incapable of fighting.
He simply couldn't afford to forget that he had already been pushing himself for hours.
Kagami was the only one of the three who had been fresh when the invasion began.
And it showed.
His steps were still steady.
His breathing calm.
Kaito watched him for a few seconds.
"Do you always walk like that?"
Kagami didn't turn around.
"Like what?"
"Like you know exactly what's ahead."
"I don't."
"That's worse."
Harada let out a short laugh from behind them.
Kagami raised one hand.
Both of them stopped talking.
They had reached the entrance to the service corridor.
The first door was open.
The second no longer existed.
Pieces of metal were scattered across the floor, and deep marks had been carved into the wall on the right.
Kagami crouched beside one of the fragments.
He didn't need to touch it.
"Impact from inside."
Kaito looked beyond the entrance.
"Then they came out through here."
"Or tried to."
Harada disappeared.
There was no flash.
He was simply there one moment and gone the next.
Kaito never quite got used to it.
About fifteen seconds passed.
Harada reappeared beside them.
This time, he was breathing a little faster.
"Two bodies."
Nobody asked if they were alive.
Harada would have said wounded.
"There's a fork farther ahead," he continued. "I heard movement on the left. On the right there's a closed door, and someone's banging from the other side."
Kagami stood.
"Remnants?"
"I don't know who's hitting the door."
"Then the door first."
Kaito nodded.
They went in.
The two bodies were exactly where Harada had said they would be.
One hunter lay against the wall, his weapon still held between his fingers. The other was several meters farther ahead.
Kaito recognized one of the uniforms.
Not the man.
Only the insignia of the unit he belonged to.
He had seen members of that unit training near the courtyard over the past few weeks.
He kept walking.
There was nothing he could do for them.
The closed door was at the end of a narrow passage.
Three knocks came from the other side.
A pause.
Then two more.
Harada approached.
"We're hunters!"
Silence.
Then—
"Don't open it!"
The warning came too late for Kaito, who already had one hand on the mechanism.
He pulled it away immediately.
Kagami stepped closer.
"How many of you?"
"Six!"
The voice on the other side sounded exhausted.
"Two wounded!"
A different impact echoed behind the door.
Much stronger than the others.
Kaito looked at Kagami.
That hadn't been human.
"What's in there with you?"
"Two remnants in the north corridor! There were more, but they kept going!"
Kagami and Harada exchanged a look.
Again.
The enemies were still moving deeper inside.
"Will the door hold?"
"Not much longer!"
Kagami looked at the wall.
According to the emergency layout, the room had another entrance farther back, but it was on the opposite side of the blockage.
Harada understood before anyone asked.
"I'm going."
He disappeared.
This time, he took longer.
Kaito started counting without realizing it.
One.
Two.
Three.
He reached twelve before Harada returned.
He appeared with one knee against the floor.
Kaito moved toward him immediately.
"You okay?"
Harada raised one hand.
"Yeah."
He stood with some difficulty.
"There's a technical room behind it. I can get in."
"Can you get them out?" Kagami asked.
Harada looked at the door again.
"One at a time."
"There are six."
"I can count."
Kagami didn't react to the remark.
"How many trips?"
Harada grimaced.
"Too many."
Another impact.
The door bent slightly toward them.
Kaito stepped forward.
Kagami extended one arm and stopped him.
Not forcefully.
Just enough.
"Wait."
Kaito looked at his hand.
Then at the door.
"If it opens—"
"We receive them here."
Kaito didn't answer.
Part of him wanted to place himself directly in front of it immediately.
It was almost automatic.
There were people behind that door.
There were enemies on the other side.
Therefore, his place should be between them.
He had done it too many times.
During the tournament, he had started to understand the problem.
Standing in front didn't always mean protecting everyone else.
Sometimes it only meant forcing his teammates to adapt to him.
He stepped back half a pace.
Kagami lowered his arm.
"Harada."
"Yeah."
"Get the wounded out first."
Harada vanished.
The first hunter appeared beside them less than half a minute later.
Harada was holding him around the waist.
The man had a deep wound in his leg and could barely put any weight on it.
Kaito moved over to receive him.
"Sit here."
He helped him down against the wall.
Harada had already disappeared again.
Kagami remained in front of the door.
His right hand was raised at chest height.
Kaito could feel a faint pressure in the air.
It wasn't exactly weight.
It felt more like the sensation of descending rapidly in an elevator.
The gravity around the entrance was changing.
Another impact struck the door.
But this time the metal barely moved.
Kaito noticed.
"You're making it heavier?"
"The area in front of it."
"Does that help?"
"For now."
Another impact.
The structure vibrated.
Kagami lowered his hand slightly.
"Don't ask twice."
Kaito smiled.
Harada reappeared with the second injured hunter.
This one was conscious, but one arm had been immobilized against his chest.
"Four left."
Harada lowered the man carefully.
He breathed.
And didn't disappear.
Kagami looked at him.
"Five seconds."
"Thanks."
Harada closed his eyes.
Kaito helped the second hunter sit beside the first.
One of them tried to ask what was happening outside.
He didn't finish.
The door took another hit.
One of the locks broke loose.
Harada opened his eyes.
He disappeared.
Kaito stood.
"This time it's opening."
Kagami examined the frame.
"Yes."
"Then—"
"Now."
Kaito moved forward.
He didn't rush all the way up to the entrance.
He stopped several meters away, leaving enough space for Kagami to intervene.
The next impact finished destroying the locking mechanism.
The door flew toward them.
Or at least it tried to.
Halfway through, it slammed straight down into the floor.
The metal hit with enough force that one of its corners shattered the tiles.
The first remnant appeared behind it.
It had four thin arms and a hunched body.
It tried to cross the entrance.
Its legs gave out.
The creature crashed to the floor.
Kaito understood.
The entire area had become heavier.
The remnant tried to get up.
Kaito moved in.
He concentrated mana reinforcement through his legs and arms and drove a kick into the creature's side.
The impact shifted it despite the gravity pinning it down.
A second strike left it unable to move.
Kaito didn't keep attacking.
He stepped away.
Another figure appeared behind it.
This one was larger.
The remnant braced both hands against the frame and managed to advance despite the pressure.
Kagami closed his fingers.
The creature dropped several centimeters.
Its knees struck the floor.
Kaito moved in again.
He punched it in the face.
Then backed away.
The remnant tried to follow.
The pressure increased.
Its entire body fell forward.
Kaito finished it before it could rise.
For several seconds, nothing else appeared.
Kaito stared into the corridor beyond.
There was blood.
Signs of fighting.
But no more enemies in sight.
Harada appeared behind him with a third hunter.
"Did I miss anything?"
Kaito pointed at the bodies.
"Not much."
Harada lowered the man beside the wounded.
"How considerate."
Kagami slowly relaxed his hand.
The sense of pressure disappeared.
"How many left?"
"Three."
"Keep going."
Harada inhaled.
Then vanished again.
They got all six out.
The last to emerge was the man who had been speaking from behind the door.
He had a shallow cut on his forehead, but he was walking under his own power.
Harada appeared with him and immediately leaned against the wall.
This time, nobody asked if he was okay.
It was obvious he needed to catch his breath.
Kagami approached the newly rescued hunter.
"What happened?"
The man looked back toward the corridor they had just left.
"We were securing the northern route when they started coming in."
"How many?"
"Five at first."
He wiped the blood from his forehead with his sleeve.
"Then more showed up."
"How many more?"
"I don't know. They didn't all stay."
Kaito, who was checking one of the rescued hunters, looked up.
The man continued.
"Two attacked us. The rest just kept going."
Kagami's expression didn't change.
"Toward where?"
The hunter pointed deeper into the sector.
"Technical area. Maybe beyond that."
Kaito remembered what had been said during the last meeting.
The remnants had entered through multiple points.
Until now, he had assumed they were simply spreading out.
But this was already the third similar report they had heard.
"They didn't even try to pursue you?" he asked.
"One of them looked at us."
The hunter took a deep breath.
"And kept walking."
Kagami remained silent.
Harada opened one eye from where he leaned against the wall.
"That doesn't sound very reassuring."
"It isn't."
Kagami looked at the emergency map beside the door.
The fastest route out of the sector was blocked by the collapse Harada had seen earlier.
There was another option.
A technical corridor connected to an emergency stairwell.
Longer.
But usable.
"We're getting these six out," Kagami said.
One of the rescued hunters shook his head.
"There are more."
Kagami looked at him.
"Where?"
"Farther inside."
The man pointed toward the north corridor.
"Our group got split when part of the ceiling came down. There were eleven of us."
Kaito counted.
Six there.
Two dead in the corridor.
Three left.
"Do you know if they're alive?"
The hunter hesitated.
"No."
Silence.
Harada finally straightened up.
Kagami looked toward the corridor.
Then at the wounded.
"How far?"
"Two corridors. Maybe three. If they were still able to move, they would've tried to reach the generator room."
Harada shook his head slightly.
"The generator room is deeper inside."
"I know."
"The route isn't clear."
"I know that too."
Kaito looked at Kagami.
He expected an immediate answer.
It didn't come.
The adult studied the map again.
"We can evacuate this group now," Harada said. "Come back later with more people."
Kagami pointed to one of the routes.
"If we come back later, this might not exist anymore."
Harada looked toward the corridor.
He didn't argue.
Kagami turned to the four hunters who could still walk.
"You four can take the two wounded to the emergency stairwell."
One shook his head.
"We can help search—"
"No."
Kagami's tone wasn't harsh.
It simply left no room for negotiation.
"You've done enough. Get out."
The hunter clenched his jaw.
Eventually, he nodded.
Kaito helped the man with the injured leg stand.
"The stairwell is along the blue markings."
"Yeah."
"Don't wander off."
"We're hunters, kid."
Kaito smiled faintly.
"Then it should be easy."
The man exhaled through his nose.
"You be careful too."
The six began withdrawing.
Kagami waited until they turned the first corner.
Then he looked at the other two.
"We go in."
The interior of Central Sector Four was worse than the reports had indicated.
Parts of the ceiling had collapsed.
The emergency lights only worked intermittently.
A broken pipe spilled water onto the floor, creating a thin layer that reflected the red lights.
Kaito walked on Kagami's left.
Not in front.
Harada was on the right.
A few meters later, they found the first sign.
A broken weapon.
Then blood.
No body.
Harada crouched and touched the floor near the stain.
"It's not dry."
Kagami looked ahead.
"Keep moving."
They reached the next intersection.
Something moved at the far end.
Kaito tensed.
It was human.
A hunter stumbled out through a side door.
Kaito started forward, but stopped when he saw Kagami had already moved.
Not physically.
The gravity around the man decreased.
The hunter, who had barely been able to lift his feet, suddenly felt less weight pressing down on him.
Kaito reached him.
"Can you walk?"
"I think so."
His voice was weak.
He had a wound in his side.
Harada appeared beside them.
"I'll get him out."
Kaito looked at his face.
"You've already made six trips."
"Seven."
"That makes me feel much better."
Harada placed one of the wounded man's arms over his shoulders.
"Walking back would take too long."
Kagami watched the teleporter.
"Only to the safe route."
Harada nodded.
He disappeared with the man.
Kaito looked at the empty space.
"How much longer can he keep doing that?"
Kagami started walking.
"Less if we keep asking him."
Kaito followed.
"That wasn't an answer."
"I know."
They found the second hunter inside a maintenance room.
He was sitting behind an overturned console, holding a wound in his abdomen.
Beside him lay a dead remnant.
The hunter's weapon was embedded in its neck.
Kaito crouched down.
"Hey."
The man opened his eyes.
"You're late."
"We're here."
"That too."
Kaito quickly checked the wound.
He didn't know enough medicine to judge its severity precisely.
He only knew it wasn't good.
Kagami approached.
"Where's the third one?"
The man frowned.
"He went toward the generator room."
"Alone?"
"We tried to stop him."
Kaito thought he meant the hunter.
"Him?"
"No."
The man looked toward the corridor.
"The remnant."
Kaito felt something tighten in the air.
Again.
"What remnant?"
"I don't know."
"Just one?"
"One big one."
He breathed with difficulty.
"It didn't want to fight us."
Kaito felt something unpleasant settle in his chest.
Again.
"What did it do?"
"Moved us aside."
The hunter closed his eyes for several seconds.
"Like we were in the way."
Kagami looked at Kaito.
Neither said anything.
Harada reappeared in the doorway.
His breathing was noticeably heavier now.
He saw the injured man.
"Don't tell me."
Kaito pointed.
"Another one."
Harada put both hands on his knees.
"Perfect."
The wounded hunter gave a weak laugh that immediately turned into a grimace.
Harada approached.
"Don't get used to it."
"Wasn't planning to."
Harada placed one hand on his shoulder.
Kagami stopped him before he disappeared.
"After this one, you're not transporting anyone else until I say so."
Harada looked up.
"There's still one left."
"After this one."
For a moment, he looked ready to argue.
He didn't.
He disappeared with the hunter.
Kaito stood.
"What now?"
Kagami looked toward the generator room.
"We find the last one."
It didn't take them long.
The problem was what they found first.
The corridor widened near the technical facilities.
There had been a defensive line there.
Five hunters.
Maybe more.
Pieces of several weapons were scattered across the floor.
A metal barrier had been torn from its supports.
The walls were covered in impact marks.
Kaito stopped walking.
Three bodies were visible.
None belonged to the group they were searching for.
Kagami moved slowly between them.
One.
Two.
Three.
A fourth appeared farther ahead.
Kaito looked toward the opposite corridor.
"Doesn't look like they stayed very long."
Kagami turned.
"Why?"
Kaito pointed toward the bodies.
"If it had been a long fight, there'd be more damage."
He wasn't completely sure.
But something felt wrong.
Kagami studied the marks.
"You're right."
The wounds were violent.
The defense had been overwhelmed.
But it didn't look like a place where several remnants had stayed fighting for minutes.
They had broken the line.
Then moved on.
Harada appeared behind them again.
This time, he said nothing when he saw the bodies.
He simply breathed.
Kagami watched him.
"The wounded?"
"With the others."
"Good."
Harada looked down the corridor.
"Did you find the last one?"
A noise answered for them.
Something struck metal a few meters ahead.
Kaito moved forward.
Kagami didn't have to stop him this time.
The student stayed beside him.
They reached the generator room.
One of the doors had been barred from inside with a metal rod.
Kaito knocked.
"Hunters!"
Movement came from within.
The bar fell.
The door opened slightly.
A young man appeared behind it.
His face was covered in dried blood, but he was still standing.
"Where are the others?"
Kaito pointed back.
"Alive."
The hunter closed his eyes.
Only for a second.
Then he opened the door completely.
"I thought…"
He didn't finish.
He didn't need to.
Kagami looked inside.
There were no enemies.
"The remnant you were following?"
The young man looked at him.
"It left."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
He pointed toward a service door on the other side of the room.
"It broke through that and kept going."
Harada approached to inspect the opening.
"That connects to the inner headquarters."
Kagami stared through it.
Kaito remembered the bodies in the corridor.
The hunters who had been ignored.
The remnants passing through sectors without stopping.
"They're all going somewhere," he murmured.
Kagami heard him.
"Yes."
It was the first time he had confirmed the idea aloud.
Harada leaned against the wall.
"Do we want to know where?"
Kagami looked at the opening.
"Yes."
He paused.
"But not today."
He turned toward the last survivor.
"We're leaving."
The return should have been easier.
They had found the group.
They knew which route to use.
They had no reason to keep moving deeper inside.
Harada even managed to smile when they started pulling back.
"Was that it?"
Kaito looked at him.
"Don't say that."
Harada raised an eyebrow.
"You too?"
"I've spent too much time around Kana."
Kagami kept walking ahead of them.
"He's right."
Harada shook his head.
"Great. Both of you now."
The last rescued hunter walked between Kaito and Harada.
He wasn't seriously injured, but exhaustion showed in every step.
They reached the first intersection.
Nothing.
The second.
Empty.
Kaito started thinking that maybe, for once, they really would be able to withdraw without another problem.
Then he heard something.
Footsteps.
Many of them.
Not human.
Kagami stopped.
Harada raised his head.
The sound was coming from the route they needed to take to reach the emergency stairwell.
Kaito looked back.
He could hear movement there too.
Less.
But enough.
"That wasn't there before," Harada said.
Kagami moved to the corner.
He didn't expose his whole body.
Just enough to look.
He pulled back almost immediately.
Kaito recognized the expression.
"How many?"
"Eight that I can see."
Harada exhaled.
"Great."
"And probably more behind them."
Kaito looked toward the corridor they had come from.
Another figure appeared in the distance.
Then another.
The survivor with them tightened his grip on his weapon.
Kaito positioned himself beside him.
Not in front.
Harada opened and closed one hand.
His technique was still available.
But after so many jumps, even standing still seemed to cost him effort.
Kagami looked at both corridors.
Ahead, the exit.
Behind them, enemies approaching from deeper inside.
At his side, a student exhausted from the tournament, a teleporter who had transported seven people, and a hunter they had just rescued.
Kaito looked at Harada.
"Tell me you've got another route."
Harada quickly checked the map mounted on the wall.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Finally, he looked up.
"I had one."
Kaito turned toward Kagami.
The adult had already raised one hand.
The pressure in the air began to change.
In front of them, the first remnants came around the corner.
Kaito concentrated mana into his arms and legs.
Then he took one step.
Not in front of the others.
Beside them.
Kagami noticed.
He said nothing.
He didn't need to.
Their retreat had just become another battle.