It was already past two in the morning.
The place was Ikawa General Hospital—
That same long hallway where Mako had once fought the berserk child.A lone boy in a school uniform walked down that corridor, holding up a compact electronic data device as he carefully scanned his surroundings.
Any traces of the previous battle had been skillfully repaired by the hospital staff.The cracks in the walls and floor were patched just enough to avoid suspicion, and both nurses and patients had been told it was all due to "old equipment trouble."
Even so, the boy—Nakagami—could still sense a lingering distortion in the air.
He suddenly felt a presence behind him and turned.
"Sorry to call you in at such an hour, Nakagami-kun. Must've been a bother."
The one addressing him was Dr. Kido, a physician at the hospital.
He slightly loosened the collar of his white coat, his tired face forming a faint, apologetic smile.
"It's fine. This is part of my duty as a Cyber-Bio Counselor. Besides, if we communicated online, there's a risk the cyber-lifeforms could intercept the transmission."
Nakagami folded his device shut and answered calmly while looking up at Kido.
"I see… Still, it's surprising. A kid your age already working as an official counselor."
"Age doesn't matter. What's required for this job is knowledge and aptitude."
"That so…?"
Kido gave a wry smile and fell silent for a moment.
"So? Did you find anything?"
"Yes. I detected electromagnetic traces unique to cyber-lifeforms. There's no doubt a major 'cyberization event' took place here."
He showed the doctor the device's display, which recorded faint but distinct abnormal wave patterns.
"I knew it…"
Kido sighed heavily and grimaced.
"And the child?"
"He's in a special ward. But… something odd has happened."
"Odd?"
"Yeah. The kid's cyberization level was at 3—full 'Rampancy.' But lately… it's dropped to Level 2."
Nakagami's eyes widened slightly.
"Level 3? He'd already entered a complete berserk state. Symptoms shouldn't improve once it advances that far."
"Yet his level has gone down. He's showing signs of recovery."
"…Was there some kind of trigger?"
"I can think of one thing. That night, in this hallway, he encountered… a certain patient. Things got messy."
"A… mess?"
"Well, there were signs of struggle, but the patient wasn't hurt at all. And despite the kid going on a rampage, the damage was surprisingly minimal. Strange, isn't it?"
Nakagami simply stared in silence.
Kido continued after taking a quiet breath.
"Then afterward, we found the two of them unconscious together. The girl's memory is fuzzy, so she couldn't explain much. For now, we're keeping it quiet to avoid confusion."
"…May I have that patient's name?"
Normally, patient information was strictly protected—but investigations into the Virtual Syndrome granted Nakagami special access.
"Of course. I'll tell you on the way."
The two headed toward the special ward.
After passing through a strict security gate and several checkpoints, they arrived at the room.
Inside, the boy from that incident lay quietly on a mechanized hospital bed. His limbs were lightly restrained, but his vitals appeared stable.
"No medication involved. He's just sleeping on his own. The restraints are only precautionary."
"I see…"
Nakagami approached the bedside and studied the child's peaceful face.He hardly looked like someone who had gone berserk.
"By the way—"
Kido lowered his voice.
"What do we actually know so far? What is this 'cyberization' anyway? My staff won't feel safe unless we understand the cause."
"We're still investigating…"
Nakagami chose his words carefully.
"At present, the only thing we can confirm is that cyber-lifeforms are involved. According to Pair Corporation and government reports, cyber-lifeforms are autonomous AIs built with B-Language, fundamentally different from traditional programming-based AIs. B-Language allows self-evolution, and somewhere along the line, those evolutions began interfering with our world. That's the current theory."
"So… they've taken an interest in our side?"
"Yes. But why they interact with humans directly—that part remains unknown."
"…'Cause unknown.' As a doctor, that's the last thing I want to hear."
Kido grimaced deeply.
For a physician, there was nothing more unwelcome than those words.
"I've heard rumors—like the idea it's all the grudge of Chiyoda Kana?"
"That's just an urban legend."
Nakagami stated flatly.
Kido didn't press the issue further.
"Well then… what about that patient?"
"Ah, right."
Kido opened his device and pulled up the file.
"Her name is Fujimiya Mako. A student at Ikawa Municipal Central Middle School."
"…Fujimiya… Mako?"
Nakagami's eyebrow twitched.
He knew that name.
"Something wrong?"
"No, nothing… I understand. I'll check on her personally."
Leaving only that, Nakagami stepped out of the room.
In the quiet ward, only the fading echo of his footsteps remained.