Alice, watching from the side, probably understood better than I did what I had done.
But that was obviously not a question I was going to ask her.
I only felt that, from that moment on, when Alice looked at me, there were even more little stars in her eyes.
Mm.
Good.
This way I was no longer someone just eating for free.
If we kept traveling together, I would still be of use.
Mm.
When I returned to the engineering vehicle again, MKR4-003 informed me that I could go back to the passenger car.
Even if I said I wanted to stay in the maintenance cabin with her, she would drive me out.
That, I supposed, was the obstinacy of a service robot.
After all that fuss, I was more or less tired myself.
I glanced at the time floating in the upper right of my field of view.
It was already close to 5:00.
Outside, dawn would probably break soon.
That was right.
The sky was almost light.
So many, many things had happened on this one day.
The hum of the engine wrapped around my ears through the car, but it was not loud.
Through a gentle push against my back that came through the seat, the lights on the platform began to recede.
We climbed a slope, and the canopy overhead, lit by the lights in the car, vanished in a whoosh.
Not long after that, the train overtook another passenger train parked beside a platform, slipped out of the station along a band of blue light, and plunged into the dark once more.
[Uncorrected Eden Calendar Year 8994, June 16th 05:01]
……
……
A faint, hazy blue glow floated before my eyes through my eyelids.
From the direction of my arm came a soft touch, as if something had bumped me.
In the blur, pale blue glowing text appeared in the upper right of my vision.
[Uncorrected Eden Calendar Year 8994, June 16th 06:20]
Ah. I fell asleep again.
Same as always.
The moment I sat down in a vehicle, I tended to drift off.
The soft backrest gave a jolt.
Accompanied by the sense of slowing, I slowly opened my eyes.
The lights in the car had gone out at some point.
In their place was a deep, quiet blue glow.
All around, the hum of the train’s engine still lingered, but it sounded as if it carried a heavy echo.
My vision, from where I had been sleeping with my head tipped back, gradually cleared.
Beyond the glass window overhead was another, larger glass tunnel.
A glittering silver-white light passed through a stretch of deep blue, leaving swaying curtains of light in the dark water.
A shadow crossed the silver-white brightness above my head.
Farther still overhead it was like a warped, swimming mirror, reflecting another expanse of pale blue.
Eh?
“Yulin-chan, you’re awake. Look — there are fish outside.”
Eh?
Alice’s voice drew my gaze.
Following her finger, I saw a school of long, silver-white fish drifting slowly past the window through a deep, dark turquoise, close enough that they seemed within reach.
“Underwater?”
Ever since we had come to Eden, Alice and I had felt as if we were constantly being surprised.
Naturally, this time I could not help crying out either.
Looking more carefully, we seemed to be inside a glass tunnel, and that glass tunnel appeared to be sunk in water.
I lifted my head toward the silver light above.
Passing through that light, one after another, were the shapes of fish, swaying, swaying beneath the glittering surface, so at peace.
We really were underwater.
[“This is Line 5, Section 83, Line 5’s famous Star-Sea Tunnel.
[“Originally, this was a stretch where one could almost view the real starry sky from every angle, and enjoy the feeling of roaming through the stars.
[“But after the fall, roaming underwater like this seems a fine experience as well.”]
The voice circling through the car belonged to the familiar MKR4-003.
But I looked all around the carriage and did not see her.
While I was still wondering, MKR4-003’s voice sounded in the car again.
[“Miss Yulin, we will soon arrive at [63 Station]. Please prepare to activate the engineering vehicle’s Construction Tower.”]
[“Understood.”]
Before I could answer, Lapis in my mind replied just like that.
We were arriving already?
I suddenly felt a little sorry.
I had not even been able to enjoy this rare underwater scenery a while longer.
Under Alice’s smiling gaze, I slung the metal case from the aisle onto my back and walked toward the front of the car.
The instant I opened the door, darkness lunged at me all at once.
Then the headlights at the front of the train lit the pitch-black tunnel.
The car ahead was a freight car with no roof.
In the glow of the forward lights, the world beyond the transparent tunnel looked like earth, but soon we entered a vast space and left the tunnel behind.
The train rocked a little.
It felt as if we were turning.
The screech of the rails underfoot ran away into the distance.
Holding onto the car, I walked toward the next door one step at a time.
I passed through a car that was only a narrow passage, its sides sealed completely by metal walls, and reached the locomotive.
Still in front of that cabinet, MKR4-003 was standing there waiting for me.
“Miss Yulin, the train is about to enter the maintenance line at [63] Station. You may make your preparations here.”
“All right.”
As for preparations, it was really only a matter of setting the metal case on the floor as Lapis instructed.
Then, as I stepped away from it, the entire case suddenly unfolded across the ground.
Its outer shell became metal plates that formed the shape of an antenna array aimed at the cabinet.
Enclosed by the “antenna” was a complete metal block.
Set into a recess on the outside of that block was the familiar [ether initiation factor] cartridge I knew.
With a clack, the metal block split down the middle, and two slender metal needles emerged from within.
Then, as a deep blue indicator light lit on the outside of the block, currents burst around the needles and struck sparks across the floor.
The two cubes taken from the cabinet — the ones that had been placed in the metal case earlier — floated in the center between the “antenna” and the cabinet.
The current rising from the needles was slowly drawn toward those two cubes and gathered on each of them.
Then it all sank into waiting.
I did not know what this was doing, and I could not really follow it.
I was only startled that the metal case could transform at all.
After one last look at that strange antenna-like device, I turned to face MKR4-003.
At that moment, those eyes of hers whose pupils seemed to move were looking at me as well.
Then she blinked and said, “Miss Yulin, the train is about to decelerate. Please mind your safety.”
“Oh… oh…”
It was a little rude to put it this way, but when I looked straight at MKR4-003, I could still feel that quality about her that was not quite like a human’s.
A bit… creepy.
Then I reached out and took hold of the handle by the door.
Not long after, amid the screech of friction against the rails, the car began to rock again.