To reach the meeting spot with Yuu and the others, I started walking toward Shibuya Station.
(We made it to Shibuya Station, but obviously there's no way trains are actually running...)
Thinking that, I glanced at the ticket gates and saw another player—same as me—passing through. I followed suit, heading up to the platform.
(Shibuya to Shinjuku... on the Yamanote Line, that'd be the outer loop.)
I waited on the platform for a while, and then—incredibly—a train actually arrived!
(Seriously, what kind of data capacity does this program even have...?)
I boarded and took an open seat. Since I'd ended up in the lead car, I peeked into the driver's cabin.
No one was there. This train, it seemed, was running fully on autopilot toward its destination.
Looking out the window, I could see a cluster of high-rise buildings on the inner side of the tracks, while on the opposite side, a tall wall loomed in the distance. Beyond that wall was probably nothing at all. That wall was likely the edge of our playable range.
While I mulled that over, staring blankly out the window, I caught snatches of conversation from a group of female players riding the same car, and found myself eavesdropping.
"That rat from earlier was seriously gross, right? (laughs)"
"Right? I wonder if all the monsters are like that."
"Ugh, I want something cuter!"
"Oh, speaking of which, I saw a cat monster!"
"Ooh, was it cute?"
"So get this—the cat just suddenly vanished."
"Huh?"
"It turned a corner and then it was just... gone."
"What?! That's adorable! Kind of like Alice in Wonderland?"
"(laughs) Next time we spot a cat, let's follow it too."
The conversation showed no sign of stopping; the girls kept chattering away, giggling.
(Huh. A cat that guides you somewhere... maybe it points out where the rats are, too.)
((Now arriving at Shinjuku.))
We'd reached Shinjuku Station, so I headed from the platform toward the gates. Unlike the real Shinjuku Station, this one seemed considerably smaller. Thanks to that, instead of the usual struggle to find the right exit, I made it straight to the East Exit without getting lost.
From there, it was just a straight walk to the front of Seibu-Shinjuku Station...
"Hey, quit messing around, you jerk!"
A man's furious shout cut through the air out of nowhere.
I looked toward the sound and saw, in the plaza in front of the station, a big guy yelling at a smaller one.
A small crowd had already started to gather around them.
(Some kind of trouble, huh?)
I thought about it for a second.
(Well, not my problem.)
I turned to ignore it and started walking toward Seibu-Shinjuku Station.
"Looks like there's some kind of argument going on."
A familiar voice spoke to me from behind.
(That voice—!!)
I turned around, and there he was: a guy who fit the phrase "handsome" perfectly.
"Yuu!"
"Long time no see, Rei!"
We slapped a double high-five, celebrating our reunion.
His name was Yuu Hinata. We'd been friends since kindergarten. Maybe it was his grandmother's genes, but Yuu had features so refined they barely looked Japanese. Bright, tall, and a great personality to boot.
What exactly are the gods planning to give this guy? At the very least, I wish they'd spare me a couple inches of height.
...Fine, even one inch would do.
While I was busy petitioning the heavens, someone snuck up behind me and locked me in a light chokehold.
"We're here too, y'know!"
I wriggled free and turned around. Standing there were a tall, tan young man who looked every bit the athlete, and a pale, sleepy-eyed boy beside him.
"Itsuki, Satoshi!"
"Same as ever, huh, Rei!"
"...Long time."
Itsuki Tachibana and Satoshi Sasaki greeted me each in their own way. Itsuki still had that big-dog energy about him. Satoshi, on the other hand, carried an air like he might vanish into a library at any moment. Neither of them had changed a bit since middle school.
"Seriously, it's been like half a year? You never come back around here," Itsuki said.
"Sorry, things have been kind of hectic..." I apologized, genuinely feeling a bit guilty.
"Well, good thing we're all here now!"
Yuu, Itsuki, Satoshi, and I had all been on the same basketball team back in middle school. We used to hang out constantly, both in and out of school—your classic tight-knit group.
"Man, it's crazy how things turned out, huh?" Yuu said.
"Right?! An RPG for an exam—that's pretty groundbreaking, honestly kinda fun," Itsuki replied, his endless curiosity as bright as ever.
"By the way, Rei, you totally tried to pretend you didn't see that fight, didn't you?" Yuu shot me a cool, knowing look.
(Well, guess he caught me...)
"I mean, it didn't seem like it had anything to do with me..."
"You still don't care about people, huh?" Itsuki teased.
"Glad you haven't changed." Satoshi, it seemed, was on my side.
Yuu pointed toward the crowd. "Let's go find out what happened, anyway."
"Nooooo, let's just leave it aloneee!"
I voiced my full-hearted objection, both in tone and expression. But Yuu didn't care one bit and headed straight for the crowd.
(Sigh.)
I exchanged a glance with Satoshi, and reluctantly, we followed after him.
Pushing through the onlookers, Yuu reached the center of the commotion and spoke to the still-shouting big guy.
"Did something happen?"
At the sound of his voice, the guy turned toward us. His face was twisted with rage—genuinely demonic.
He answered Yuu, practically spitting out his fury.
"'Did something happen'?! This guy got in my way!"
The smaller guy shot back immediately. "No, I didn't get in your way! I stopped you from falling into a trap!"
"Huh? What are you even talking about? I heard from other players that following that cat leads to a great spot for grinding experience!"
"Hey, calm down and explain the situation..." Yuu had stepped in to mediate, but the bigger guy was way more worked up than he'd expected, and he was clearly struggling to talk him down.
—Honestly, I couldn't care less, but with Yuu and the others watching, I couldn't just look away either.—
"Itsuki, come with me to talk to the big guy. Satoshi, you go with Yuu to the other one."
"Got it," said Itsuki.
"Understood," said Satoshi.
Their instant, no-hesitation responses gave me a wave of nostalgia, and I couldn't help but smile a little.
So we split into two groups to hear each side of the story.
We kept enough distance between the big guy and the small guy that neither would see the other being questioned.
Itsuki and I settled onto a bench on the first floor of a commercial building near the station. There were two benches; two female students already occupied one of them.
"I'm Kage— I mean, Rei Ichijou. And this is Itsuki Tachibana," I said, introducing us both.
"I'm Takeru Gouda." So the big guy's name was Gouda.
"Nice to meet you, Gouda. So, what was the fight about?"
"That's 'cause that guy got in my way!" Remembering his earlier anger, Gouda started heating up again.
"Calm down and explain it one step at a time..." Itsuki said, sounding a little exasperated with him.
"Y-yeah, sorry. One step at a time... During this exam, I've been moving with four buddies from my school. Then we heard from some other player that there's a great grinding spot, and apparently a cat monster leads you there. So we went looking for it, and about an hour ago, we finally found one. But right when I was about to chase it, this guy got in my way... and because of that, my buddies left without me."
"Was the player who told you about that grinding spot someone you knew?" I asked, curious.
"Nah, never seen the guy before."
"Hmm. By the way, do you know the smaller guy?"
"Yeah, Hosokawa... different high school, but he lives near me, we used to hang out a lot as kids. This time our starting points ended up close together, so I knew he was in this exam too, but I never expected him to get in my way like that..."
I see. So that's what the fight had been about. Which meant I couldn't skip hearing the other side either.
While Itsuki and I sat on the bench sorting through what we'd learned, Satoshi came walking over. Looked like the other interview had wrapped up too.
"Gouda, sorry, but could you wait here a bit longer?"
Gouda didn't say yes or no to that, but he seemed to understand well enough.
Leaving Gouda on the bench, Itsuki and I followed Satoshi toward where Yuu and Hosokawa were waiting. Along the way, Satoshi gave us a quick rundown of what he'd heard. The overall story matched up, but the part about the cat monster was slightly different.
We found Yuu and Hosokawa waiting a short walk away, in a back alley.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," I said to Yuu.
"No worries. How'd it go on your end?"
"His name's Gouda, apparently. He's calmed down quite a bit."
"Good..." Yuu looked relieved.
I turned to Hosokawa. "Nice to meet you, I'm Ichijou. You're Hosokawa, right?"
"Y-yes, I am Mamoru Hosokawa. Pleased to meet you."
"Gouda told us his side, but apparently this whole fight started because you stopped him from chasing a cat monster? Why shouldn't he have followed it? Isn't it supposed to be like some lucky rabbit that leads you to a great hunting ground?"
"No! You mustn't follow the cat! This is a trap—a set trap!"
"A trap? What do you mean by that?" Yuu asked.
"Exactly what I said! The cats on this floor are working together with the rats to hunt down players!"
(No way...)
The sudden turn caught us all off guard, and we exchanged glances.
According to Hosokawa, a classmate of his who'd chased after a cat monster never came back—and hadn't responded to any messages since.
"But that alone doesn't prove it's a trap, does it?" Itsuki raised a fair point.
"You're right, that alone isn't very convincing. But there's more—I heard it from an old NPC!"
Hosokawa explained that near Shinjuku Station, under an overpass, there was an NPC who'd trade information about this floor in exchange for food.
"...Where exactly was this NPC?" I asked.
Hosokawa hesitated slightly before answering.
"It was... near the overpass. I met it there a few times..."
"The same place?" Itsuki frowned.
"Yes. And each time I spoke to it, what it said changed, little by little..."
At those words, the air around us went briefly still.
"Changed how?" Yuu asked quietly.
Hosokawa dropped his gaze for a moment before continuing.
"At first it was just useful information. But... on the tenth time, it suddenly started talking about... that."
* * *
The Old Man NPC had been smiling, same as always.
But there was something subtly different in his tone this time.
As if—
As if he *knew* what we'd been doing.
"Ye still haven't caught on, have ye, lad?"
"In this city, cats and rats alike... they've each got their 'role,' ye see."
"And mark me—the cat is no rabbit."
"On the hunting ground the cat leads ye to..."
"Hunter and hunted trade places."
"That's why they all follow along, laughing."
The Old Man NPC answered with an unsettling smile.
* * *