"And now… how the hell do I get out? I lost my knives when I came in… Maybe I should've told Boss about that little detail. I'm sure they wouldn't have left me alone if they'd known."
Nene knew—or rather, she needed to believe—that Martha and Johan weren't cruel enough to just let her die. Surely this was their way of testing her, to see if she could survive… Yeah, that had to be it.
"Seriously, she's way too strict… I know I messed up a little, but this punishment is way too much!"
Nene's breath came in ragged gasps as the crimson roots squeezed her with the coldness of an executioner. Each vine, hardened like crystal, screeched as it scraped against her suit. The sound was so grating she felt like it would soon shatter not just her bones, but her nerves too.
"B-Better get out fast…" she muttered, lips dry. "These things could snap me in half. And if I don't escape before the Rift closes…"
A shiver ran down her spine. Just thinking of being trapped here, alone, with only the echo of her screams swallowed by the void, made her swallow so hard her throat hurt.
She also felt a sharp pressure around her legs, drawing a grimace of pain. For a moment, her mind whispered gratitude toward Bender. She remembered the day he gave her the money for that basic Hunter Assault suit.
It wasn't elegant, much less pretty: a tight, white outfit clinging so close it outlined every muscle on her body—but it was durable. Miss Linx had ordered her to buy it. After all, even if it was uncomfortably snug, it was strong. They'd told her it could withstand the impact of a speeding truck.
She'd never tested that, of course. She'd just trusted blindly. And now, with the roots squeezing her with inhuman force, she finally understood how valuable that advice had been.
But loans… always loans. A different pain, invisible, stabbed at her chest.
If I get out alive, I'll figure out how to pay that debt… someday.
She shook her head violently. She couldn't get lost in those invisible chains now.
"Let's see… smash it? No way. My hands would break before this does. Unless…" Her eyes fixed on the vine itself. "Maybe… if I use the same material…"
She drew a deep breath and activated her Resonance, trying to match the vine's aura.
"Residual Synchrony – Target: [Mineralized Vine]: Mineralization."
Her honey-colored eyes bled into a pale pink glow, as if light itself seeped from them. Her knuckles hardened into rose-hued mineral, sprouting tiny spines that trembled faintly.
"Come on!"
Crack.
A dry snap. Her skin tore beneath the hardness of the mineral. Spines broke. Pain lanced her flesh. And on the vine… only a tiny crack.
The wall of roots reacted violently, tightening like an angered beast.
"Arghhh! Bad idea, bad idea! I hurt it a little, but… ah… if I were stronger this would've worked—" Nene's voice broke into a shriek. "Ahhh! Damn it! Shit! Shit! Why the hell did I get stuck with such a useless thing, huh!?"
She slapped at the red wall like a child throwing a tantrum. Desperation twisted her chest more cruelly than the roots themselves.
Her Resonance Ability was: Residual Synchrony. It let her mimic the abilities of anything within her line of sight.
Sounds good, right? Yeah, she thought so too… until she read carefully what residual meant.
In short, her rotten luck gave her an ability that mimicked others for… 5 seconds. At 5% of the original power.
Yay. Nene hated her life. What a joke. How could anyone end up with something this useless!? She was the first Hunter in the world whose ability was so utterly ridiculous.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" she screamed at herself, slapping her own cheek so hard her tanned skin turned red. "Don't think about that, focus! You have to get out!"
She tried to steady her heartbeat, calm the tremble in her legs. But the silence of the Rift shattered with a new sound.
"Maybe if I turn my legs into crystal I can break the vine? Hmm. No. Thinking about it… I don't think I'm capable to turn my legs into crystal."
The young Hunter began massaging her shoulders, trying to ease the tension.
At least she was safe. No more Ethereals had shown up. That was good. Otherwise, she'd already be dead…
Crrr… crrr…
A wet dragging sound, like claws scraping stone.
Nene's eyes went wide. The echo bounced in every direction across the ruined city. Insects. The type she hated most. Ethereals. Drawn in by her screams.
"Ha… in times like this, all you can do is laugh… right?"
She smiled bitterly.
"Oh, fuck. Fuck. What do I do? Okay, calm down. Think. Think like your life depends on it! How do I break this crystal thing? Wait… crystal?"
Then a memory struck.
It had been an ordinary day. Bender was teaching her math, but they decided to take a break. To entertain Nene, Bender decided to show her a trick.
He cleared his throat and began to sing. So powerfully that he shattered the glass he was holding.
She'd been amazed. He explained it was all due to vibration frequency.
A spark of madness lit Nene's eyes.
"T-That should work on this thing too, right? But… I can't sing… still, if it's about vibration… let's see. This is my last bet. Otherwise those things are gonna eat me."
Once again, Nene activated her ability.
"Residual Synchrony – Target [Mineralized Vine (Frequency)]."
As she did, she pressed her hand to the same spot she'd damaged before.
She didn't let the copy fade. Instead, she tried something strange. If breaking crystal was all about vibration, all she had to do was raise the color of her Synchrony just a little higher.
By pushing her color higher, she was making her ether vibrate—forcing the vine's ether to resonate as well.
She didn't know if it would work. But it was the best gamble she had.
": Oscillating Mineralization."
She pressed both palms against the living wall before the copy vanished. She forced her ether, raising it to a range she'd never attempted.
Her whole body trembled. Her bones rang like bells. The crystals in her hands shrieked at a pitch so high her jaw ached from grinding her teeth.
BOOM!
The vine exploded into a rain of red shards that disintegrated like glass.
Air. The Rift's light. Solid ground beneath her feet.
"Ha… HA… IT WORKED!" Nene's laughter was so sharp it tangled with a sob. "I CAN'T FREAKING BELIEVE IT! Am I a genius!?"
She started babbling nonsense. Rare were the moments she won or managed to pull something off on her own.
But her glory lasted a second. Burning pain bit into her calf. Then another, sharper sting.
"Ow! What the he—" She looked down. A pair of insectoid Ethereals, a cross between beetles and roots, clamped onto her leg, chewing with stone jaws. "AHHH! I forgot about these things!"
She kicked desperately, tearing them off—along with chunks of her own flesh. Blood splattered the ground.
The swarm surrounded her. Dozens of legs drumming in unison. Eyes glinting in the gloom.
Instinct took over.
Nene bolted—but not before stuffing into her waist pouch the payment Boss had given her. Then she ran as if her whole body were on fire. The cold air ripped her lungs, the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth.
"The exit! Run to the exit! I think it was south!"
Her torn voice vanished into the vastness of the Rift as she ran toward where Martha's group had long since departed.
***
On the other side, in the outskirts of the Metropolis known as Megar, two figures emerged from a Fissure in the middle of the forest. It was only Rank F, so it would soon collapse under its own weight. Because of that, it wasn't considered dangerous, allowing independent Hunter groups to exploit it until it vanished into nothingness.
"So…" the man was the first to speak "Are you really going to leave that brat behind? I'm pretty sure she lost her knives…"
"How do you know?" said the woman wearing an ostentatious white jacket with fur on the collar, underneath a gray suit with blue lines.
"…I found them on the way back," Johan said as he revealed two small crimson knives. His expression made it clear he truly believed they should return.
"Oh. Well, too bad for her. She needs to learn how to take care of her things."
"But, Martha, I don't think—"
"If you want, go. I'm not going back. I have no interest in ending up like that so-called Beast man who supposedly spent over ten years trapped inside a Fissure. Whether that legend is true or not, I don't want to find out. Besides, that girl has to face her own strength. If she ended up trapped, it was because of her weakness and her stupidity."
The red-haired woman sentenced her words while her steps mercilessly crushed the flowers beneath her boots.
"Our job isn't some childish game. We gamble our lives every time we enter a Fissure. I won't spoil a kid so she grows up thinking someone will always come to save her ass. If she can't stand on her own, then I don't see why she insists on being a Hunter at all. I can't stand the weak. If she wants to survive, then she'll do it on her own—or she'll stay behind."
"Damn, Boss. You're cold, huh?"
"Realistic. That's what I prefer to be called. Besides, I have this feeling this won't be the last time we see her. But my instincts betray me sometimes. Only time will tell."