What was I going to do about the contaminated shape-shifting weapon?

As cheers poured down, I looked back and forth between the weapon and my senior. The electric bars had disappeared at some point.

They hardly seemed likely to let us leave without a fight, so why had they removed the bars? That question barely registered right now.

I trembled with fear as I watched my senior slowly approach.

"Is it very expensive...?"

I looked at him as he stopped beside me and gazed down at the contaminated blade. Riccardo stood motionless, hands thrust into his pockets, eyes fixed on the sword.

"Hmm?"

"Th-the shape-shifting weapon... Is it very expensive? If we file a loss-and-damage report, the company will issue you a new one, right?"

"This isn't the company's. It's mine..."

I was screwed. A chill settled in my gut. If it had belonged to the company, there might at least have been some room for leniency.

I couldn't remember ever seeing Riccardo take the ring-shaped weapon off his finger. That made sense. Back in my old world, I'd never let my sword leave my side either.

And now his junior had ruined his cherished weapon. What frightened me even more was that I had no idea how much it cost.

I spoke, trying to estimate the balance in my bank account.

"Um... I'll buy you a new one."

"Hmm?"

Riccardo blinked and turned his head. I swallowed, looking into his unreadable green eyes.

"The weapon... Just tell me where you bought it, and I'll get you an undamaged one, sir."

"This?"

Riccardo gave a small chuckle without taking his hands out of his pockets.

The arena still rang with feverish cheers. The emcee seemed to be excitedly announcing the betting results, but I heard none of it. I nodded with grim determination.

"Yes."

"Do you even know how much this costs?"

That was the scariest part. I swallowed as I looked at my faintly smiling senior.

"Thirty million won?"

"Over a hundred million..."

The world swayed.

Cold sweat soaked my back. A hundred million... A hundred million. Money might have lost value since I'd lived on Earth with Colton, but a hundred million was still a lot.

To me, at least, it was an enormous sum. So this was how you ended up in debt overnight.

Still, at least it wasn't an amount I could never repay. I'd earn enough if I worked hard.

I pulled my briefly scattered wits back together.

"Um, I'll buy you a new one, whatever it takes."

"Oh... Got some money, have you?"

"I've saved up a little."

"Really? How much?"

I'd bought a scooter from Heshy and some games, but with my salary coming in steadily, my expenses hadn't amounted to much. Recalling the last time I'd checked my account, I murmured,

"About thirty million won..."

"Hahahaha!"

Riccardo burst out laughing. I'd never seen him laugh so freely. Dazed, I stared as he threw his head back.

The wound on his neck, no longer bleeding but still red and swollen. Colored confetti drifting onto his black hair. The creature corpse giving off its overwhelming bloody stench. I stared at it all in bewilderment.

Why was he laughing like that...?

After laughing heartily for quite some time, he turned to me.

"I'm kidding..."

What?

"It does cost over a hundred million, but you don't need to buy me another... It's not completely unusable."

"Sorry?"

"I'll have to take it to the Science Department, though..."

He took a lighter out of his pocket and held its little flame to the sword embedded in the corpse.

Speechless, I watched the red tendrils covering the sword char black. They didn't come off entirely, but at least their ominous red glow burned away, giving off a strange smell.

Scorch marks covered the weapon. Once he'd finished burning away the contamination, Riccardo put the lighter back in his pocket. The silver sword transformed into a pool of mingled silver and black.

"Fortunately, those two aren't in such bad shape..."

Riccardo spoke with his eyes on the weapon, which was moving in strange, jagged fits.

"Let's get out of here first... Though I don't know whether they'll just let us go."

"Yes, sir."

Thank goodness it wasn't completely ruined.

I'd already guessed from his expression that Bobby and Achille weren't doing too badly, so my greatest relief was that the shape-shifting weapon wasn't a total loss.

Perhaps that showed on my face, because Riccardo chuckled again.

"You really are a strange fucker..."

"Me?"

Wasn't this a perfectly normal reaction? Surely anyone would act like me after ruining a senior's cherished weapon.

I stared at him sullenly, but he didn't take it back. Instead, turning toward the waiting area, he added,

"Like I said, I'll have to work you like a dog when we get back."

"But..."

Don't say that so seriously. Hadn't that just been something he'd thrown in when he handed me the sword? Looking dumbfounded, I followed him as he rolled the silver liquid, laced with black swirls, along the ground.

The liquid rolled toward the waiting area in time with Riccardo's strides. It lurched along in jagged shapes rather than flowing like water, so something clearly had gone wrong with it.

Still, I was relieved to see it moving as Riccardo intended. Until my keen hearing caught a familiar voice.

"Prometheus."

It was a girl's bright, innocent voice.

"Well done."

Mari.

I turned my head and saw her standing in the passage the creatures had emerged from. In that dark corridor, she wore the smile of a Buddha statue.

The dead elder's agent. His final desperate struggle.

The fear coiling around me doubled when I saw the switch in her hand.

"Riccardo!"

I turned my head and called to him.

"Like you, I'm going to fulfill the orders I was given."

["And that concludes today's matches!"]

At the same moment, the blaring announcement drowned out Mari's whisper.

["The exit is at the back! Don't forget to buy tickets for the next match before you leave!"]

"He left me one final order."

["I have no intention of dying alone."]

The dead man's words, which I'd brushed aside, echoed in my head. The voice of the former elder who'd died torn in two.

Almost everything happened at once. I shouted for Riccardo to protect our seniors lying on the floor. He whipped his head around and, without a word, used his shape-shifting weapon to form a barrier over them. The emcee excitedly announced the schedule for the next match.

And Mari pressed the switch.

I sprinted toward Riccardo, who had stopped to assess the situation.

BOOOOM!

I should have seen this coming. I shouldn't have dismissed his last words. Even sitting behind bars with chains on his wrists and ankles, he had been an elder. I should have remembered that.

Amid the barrage of explosions, I snatched up Riccardo and ran for the passage where Mari stood, berating myself.

Idiot. Once again, I'd missed a warning that had been right before my eyes. Something I might have avoided if I'd paid just a little attention.

I'd failed again, and once again all I could do was flounder desperately as reality crashed over me. Dragging the people around me into it.

Again...

BOOM!

Screams erupted amid the sound of the building collapsing. The instant I plunged into the passage where Mari stood, the entrance caved in, and I blacked out.

* * *

There was a scraping sound. Something thick being cleared away. Faint at first, the sound gradually sharpened, rousing me.

Only after I felt cool air over my upper body did I lazily open my eyes.

I felt like I'd been through this before. Though that time, I'd heard a blade cutting through rubble in front of me.

At any rate, it seemed I'd survived again.

I lay on my side, thinking absently. Surviving a collapsing building twice was quite a feat, even for me. It could kill someone with an enhanced body. We'd gained the ability not to age, not the ability to escape death.

That was why everyone handled bombs carefully.

I lay there thinking that until I felt sensation return, then slowly turned my head. And met a pair of green eyes.

"Riccardo."

My senior was looking down at me, his face set.

"Are you all right, sir?"

I remembered shielding him before I lost consciousness. It worried me that I'd blacked out afterward. Knowing his body was now like a civilian's only made it worse. Had I ended up hurting him instead, collapsing onto him when I passed out?

No answer came. I watched my strangely silent senior, then braced an elbow against the ground.

Darkness had settled over us. With almost no light, I could barely see my surroundings. Only the outlines of concrete chunks and my senior close beside me were dimly visible. He knelt silently on one knee at my side.

He sat motionless, swallowed by the darkness, but I knew at once that he wasn't himself.

Why did he look like that?

I pressed down on my elbow and pushed my upper body up.

"Are you hurt?"

"Don't move."

The reply was rigid. I merely blinked.

Turning my upper body widened my view. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I could make out more.

Rubble blocked out the light. We were trapped in a passage that wasn't particularly wide. Dashing into it on instinct seemed to have been a wise choice.

The area around the passage had collapsed, and ceiling tiles had fallen, but the ceiling itself had held. I'd been right to judge that a passage used by creatures would be sturdier than the rest.

We probably didn't have to worry about an immediate collapse. Having assessed the situation, I also checked that Riccardo had no visible injuries.

He still looked awful.

Looking at his rigid face, I asked,

"Are you in pain somewhere, sir?"

"I told you not to move."

"I'm sitting still. Just tell me where it hurts."

Did he have internal injuries?

When I leaned over to examine him, Riccardo clamped a hand around my shoulder. If he hadn't been given Green Dream, that grip would have crushed it.

"Can't you see your lower body?"

Riccardo spoke sharply, his brow furrowed.

"Stay still. Don't move."

"My lower body?"

What was wrong with my lower body...?

Looking down, I discovered my lower leg pinned beneath rubble. A thick slab of concrete the size of a dining table was pressing down on my left foot. It dwarfed the surrounding debris as it bore down on my leg.

The trapped leg was probably swollen. But nothing had pierced it; we just needed to move the slab. Walking would be difficult for a while, but judging by the fact that I could feel it, I wasn't badly hurt.

A civilian could never lift it, but I should be more than capable.

Was he being so sensitive because he'd been given Green Dream? But why now, of all times?

I quietly watched him slowly clear the rubble off my body. Then I noticed his hands were trembling. Both hands, shaking ever so slightly.

I caught Riccardo's left wrist.

"Ric."

Ignoring the way his head snapped around, I looked down at his hand.

"Did the rubble hit you?"

"Let go."

I ignored his strained voice and kept checking him over. His hand wouldn't stop trembling. The wrist in my grasp was cold. Cold sweat dampened my palm.

I realized his whole body was shaking in rapid tremors. His breathing was irregular, too.

Ah. He was hyperventilating.

"Sir."

I leaned toward him as he panted, head bowed.

"Sir, cup your hands and breathe into them."

Riccardo didn't lift his head. He stayed on one knee, gasping raggedly. He covered his mouth with his right hand, but it had no immediate effect. His uneven breathing continued. His body trembled faintly.

In a low voice, I told him to breathe in and out slowly, ignoring the other worry beginning to rear its head.

I knew these symptoms all too well.

Post-traumatic stress disorder.

He was experiencing PTSD.