Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea

The startled Tumanako quickly covered her mouth and nose with both hands, but they must have heard the cough outside. She froze like a stone, unable to move. After several seconds, she lifted his head to look at us. I met her terrified eyes. I could feel Nikita’s ribcage expand as she held her breath in tension.

Just then, Baek Ae-young’s foot shifted slightly on my left shoulder, like someone testing ground stability before crossing. I tensed my entire body to keep my left shoulder level. If my posture collapsed, Nikita and Tumanako would be crushed under my and Ae-young’s weight.

The center of gravity shifted dramatically as Ae-young descended from the ceiling. Putting her weight on her left leg, she reached for her right ankle, and a palm-sized knife came down. Tumanako’s eyes grew huge behind her hands.

The footsteps grew louder. Someone was approaching the robot charging station. With a snickering laugh, a man told someone else “I’ll get them out.” Whoever was coming seemed to expect someone hiding here, deliberately making exaggerated footsteps. Tumanako, right beside my calf, trembled violently at the approaching sound.

“That definitely sounded like a woman’s cough. Where could they be hiding?”

Japanese. A male voice mixed with laughter. Supporting Baek Ae-young meant I couldn’t see through the gap below my line of sight. Ae-young’s ankle and leg descended further until she was practically sitting on my shoulders like a piggyback ride. While this position was more stable, and distributing her weight across both shoulders was easier for me, Ae-young seemed deeply unsatisfied with this height for attacking.

Perched on my shoulders, she gripped the knife reversed and tested a downward stabbing motion before shaking her head. At this height, she’d be striking well above an adult male’s height – unless she was aiming straight down at the skull, it was an awkward attack position.

“Where could they be?”

The voice came from right by the charging station. Tumanako was practically hyperventilating now. Baek Ae-young repositioned the knife normally and tested an upward slashing motion toward the throat. Both methods were hampered by the cramped space – she could barely swing her arm except in a downward motion.

I held my breath, spread my legs as wide as possible, and slowly lowered myself. Should’ve exercised more. Maintaining a squat position with someone on my shoulders, I went down until I barely avoided touching Tumanako. Attacking while piggybacking someone clearly wasn’t easy.

I wasn’t the only one watching Ae-young’s knife tip moving through the air. Nikita, who had been leaning back to avoid getting caught in the attack, suddenly grabbed Ae-young’s right hand. Then she tried to take her knife.

“!”

As the startled Ae-young’s body swayed, her heel kicked my chest two or three times. “Ugh!” The sudden hits to my chest knocked the wind out of me. When I staggered, Ae-young nearly crashed into the charging robots or slammed into the door. I used every ounce of strength to keep her from falling off my shoulders.

Ae-young’s right hand holding the knife trembled. The strength seemed almost equal between Nikita trying to take the knife with both hands and Ae-young resisting with one. A silent struggle ensued over the knife handle. Ae-young gritted her teeth and glared at Nikita. In the cleaning robots’ light, Nikita’s eyes looked almost red.

If Ae-young had attacked Nikita directly with the knife she was holding, she wouldn’t have lost it. But she opened her trembling right hand that had been tightly gripping it. Nikita snatched the knife from her palm like it was her own. Now the footsteps were practically right in front of us.

“Could they be hiding here?”

An excited voice. Someone grabbed the charging station door. Whoever was outside, the fact that they weren’t just shooting at the station from a distance suggested they wanted to frighten out whoever was inside.

From my experience carrying and using a gun, I’d learned that at very close range, the longer and heavier the gun, the harder it is to react. If they thought someone was inside, shooting from a distance would be safest for the attacker. I couldn’t understand why they were trying to scare us out.

Unless two people were at the cleaning robot charging station door – one opening it while the other aimed inside – they’d definitely expose themselves to danger. A single person would have to use one hand to open the door.

Plus, I’m the biggest and tallest person in this cramped charging station. Even if they open the door and shoot, there’s probably over a 50% chance I’d get hit. The moment the door opens, if I can force their gun barrel upward or pull it toward me since I’m getting hit anyway, wouldn’t that make it less dangerous for the others?

“Found ya!”

With those words, outside light flooded the dark interior. My heart felt like it was pounding in my head from tension. Goosebumps spread across my neck and back. I guessed where they’d aim and pushed up on the gun barrel the moment the door opened.

I’d planned to block the barrel with my body if I failed, but was surprised how easily it moved up. The man apparently hadn’t expected anyone inside to fight back.

Baek Ae-young grabbed the hair of the man who’d opened the door and pulled him toward her, while Nikita timed her strike to stab the man’s neck. The man, surprised by Nikita’s initial shallow neck wound, tried to back away, but Ae-young wouldn’t let him. Bang bang bang bang! The startled man frantically pulled his trigger.

The gunshots at close range felt like they’d burst my eardrums. A light ringing sound – keeeeeng – filled my ears. Nikita moved in close and repeatedly stabbed and withdrew the knife from the man’s neck. Rather than panic or fear, she seemed focused on making holes to increase bleeding. Blood sprayed everywhere, and we had to take it, unable to move.

Baek Ae-young, who’d been holding the man’s hair to prevent retreat, kicked him in the chest like a flimsy scarecrow, then leaped and drove her knee into his face. With a crash, the man fell backward. I also fell flat on my back, having been Ae-young’s foothold. After rolling around on the floor, I frantically checked myself and fortunately hadn’t been shot anywhere.

Beside me, Tumanako sat frozen, clutching her head with both hands, looking dumbfounded. Since she couldn’t move at all, I practically dragged her out of the charging station. Her feet barely working, she stumbled out like a toddler learning to walk. Outside was even more chaotic. The gunshot seemed to have signaled everyone in hiding to jump out and attack others.

Shin Haeryang was strangling some man with a parachute cord, and when another man from the same side tried to shoot Shin, he used the choking man as a human shield. The bullets left marks as they passed through the strangling man’s body. From behind the now-limp, shot man, Shin used his victim’s gun to shoot his attacker.

Sato was somehow in Vladimir’s grip, and a woman with a gun opposite them aimed at Vladimir trying to help Sato. However, Seo Jihyuk approached from behind and lifted her gun upward.

“Huh?”

The woman let out a surprised sound as her gun was forced up, turning to stare at Seo Jihyuk behind her in shock. By the time he’d raised the gun above his head, ownership had already transferred from the woman to him.

As I came to my senses, I started recognizing faces and names. The opponent whose face I could barely see in the backlight was Suzuki Senru, blood endlessly flowing from his neck. Yamashita Hikaru and Ichita Yuuki lay shot on the floor, while Takahashi Yurie and Sato Ryusuke had their hands up.

Among N-Team engineers, Tamaki Yuzuru and Uehara Sumire were missing.

Shin Haeryang, who’d retrieved the gun from Ichita Yuuki’s strangled body, coldly asked Sato.

“Where are your other two members?”

“What are you gonna do if I don’t tell you?”

Without answering, Shin shot at Sato’s feet, making Takahashi beside him scream. It was a careless shot suggesting he wouldn’t care if he accidentally took off Sato’s foot. Seo Jihyuk, slinging the gun he’d taken from Takahashi over his shoulder, spoke up.

“Hey, this guy’s about to lose it, so answer quick.”

“…They’re hiding around here, aiming at you. Surrender now if you don’t want to die.”

Vladimir, who’d been disarming Sato, laughed mockingly in disbelief. Then he used his huge hand to punch Sato’s face twice in quick succession, dropping him to the floor.

“Didn’t Uehara Sumire and Tamaki Yuzuru just run away?”

When I asked this, Sato, nose bleeding, looked at me and grimaced. Takahashi beside him quickly answered.

“Uehara complained the gun was too heavy and ran away from the back of the group. Tamaki… we never gave him loaded ammunition in the first place. His gun should be empty, so we just need to find Uehara.”

“They didn’t suddenly disappear or anything?”

“…Wish they had.”

Sato spat out blood running down his throat as he answered Shin Haeryang’s question. Baek Ae-young, who’d pulled Nikita off Suzuki Senru’s body where she was still stabbing, quickly took and slung the gun over herself. Still covered in blood, she shook her head at the equally bloody Nikita offering her knife back.

“Keep it. I’m giving it to you.”

This might be the first time I’ve seen Ae-young give away any of her possessions. Gun in hand, she started scanning the surroundings vigilantly. She seemed to believe someone might jump out suddenly. Seo Jihyuk had a similar attitude. But Shin Haeryang just took his loaded gun and opened fire on the beverage vending machine.