Ten minutes later, Rentaro disregarded everything else and rushed out of the hospital in a panic.
Kisara said that rumors about Aihara Enju being a Cursed Child had surfaced today, specifically within her school. It seemed that the group of men had recognized the girl and spread the news to the other students.
Currently, Enju had run away, and her location could not be determined.
When the "group of men who spread the rumors" was mentioned, Rentaro suspected they were the same ones he had chased away earlier.
But that wasn't important now.
He had to find Enju first.
When Rentaro raced to the school without rest, not only did he fail to find any trace of the girl, but he was also confronted with the teacher's accusation.
"You never told us Aihara was a Cursed Child, yet you enrolled her here, didn't you?"
Rentaro walked away bitterly.
"That's right."
"If I had told you Enju was a Cursed Child, would you have accepted her?"
He ran back home. The house was empty and deserted.
A portion of Enju's clothes had been taken from her drawer.
"Enju..."
"Your home... is right here..."
Rentaro felt as if his heart was being crushed by a mountain. A choking, unbearable sensation.
He shook his head and continued running outside to search.
The rain still poured relentlessly.
With his shoulders soaked through, the young Civil Security agent held an umbrella and ran through the streets.
He went to all the places he and Enju had been, all the places where they shared memories, all the places that existed in his recollection.
But she wasn't there; nowhere at all.
Rentaro returned home, didn't change his clothes, and sat listlessly by the window.
The empty house now felt truly gloomy and cold, devoid of any human presence.
Had he always lived like this before?
Dark, aimless, like a soulless corpse.
Sadly, there was no longer a small figure, constantly calling him Rentaro.
"Rentaro, look, look..."
"Rentaro, do I look cute in this..."
"Rentaro..."
No.
He couldn't give up like this!
He couldn't just sit here in despair, abandoning the girl to the cruel world outside!
Because... Satomi Rentaro was Aihara Enju's family.
...
This time, he went far, outside the inner city area. Straight toward Sector 39.
This place was where Enju lived before the IISO arranged for her to be partnered with him. If the girl wasn't in the inner city, she could only have run back here.
Walking past crumbling walls and rotting missing person notices, Rentaro stopped before a manhole cover.
In truth, this wasn't an ordinary manhole cover, but the path leading down to a gathering point for Cursed Children in this area.
Rentaro bent down and tapped lightly three times on the manhole cover.
No movement.
Rentaro's eyebrows knitted tightly. He impatiently tapped once more.
Still no response from the other side.
Normally, there would be a child guarding this manhole cover. But judging by the situation... it seemed no one was down there?
"Sorry for intruding."
Rentaro lifted the manhole cover off and climbed down.
It was exactly as he predicted: the place was empty; it seemed everyone had moved elsewhere.
However, Rentaro noticed traces of rainwater leading down to this place. The traces were still fresh; it seemed someone had been here a while before him.
"Was it Enju?"
Rentaro guessed, the probability was high!
But he didn't find Enju inside, so she must have gone somewhere else, or someone had led her away.
Thinking about how all the Cursed Children gathered here had left, a hypothesis suddenly formed in Rentaro's mind.
The Silver King's Dominion.
Although the Silver King hadn't deliberately concealed his whereabouts, the dominion remained low-profile until now. Citizens basically didn't know of the existence of such an area. At most, there were a few circulating rumors in a small scope, most of which were untrue.
The government certainly didn't dare to make this public. First, they feared provoking the Silver King; second, it wasn't a matter of pride, as the Silver King was nothing less than an invader who occupied land and declared himself king, even if that land had been "abandoned."
Thus, the Silver King's Dominion seemed to be a place that both existed and didn't exist.
Thanks to their previous encounter, Rentaro guessed that the Silver King was in the process of recruiting new members to the dominion. And compared to Promoters and Initiators from IISO, wasn't there a more suitable place to recruit people?
That's right, the outer districts. A place where countless Cursed Children, rejected by society, were struggling to survive.
So, the group of Cursed Children that used to live in this area must have moved to the Silver King's Dominion. Enju, upon returning here, might have been led there by someone, or something similar.
Acting on his thoughts, Rentaro continued running toward Sector 42. Although he knew this conjecture contained a lot of guesswork and required more time for investigation, Rentaro couldn't afford to care about such details right now.
He just wanted to see Enju again.
...
Outer fringe of Tokyo, Sector 42.
Rentaro had never been here before, but it wasn't an obstacle to finding the Silver King's Dominion.
Because Rentaro could see a road that had been deliberately cleared, unlike the other outer sectors. It must have been constructed this way for the convenience of regular vehicle transport.
Of course, the city's defense forces also often drove or transported goods in the outer areas—after all, this area was intentionally kept as a "buffer zone" battlefield in case the Gastrea successfully invaded. But Rentaro was certain this wasn't done by the military. They mostly used specialized vehicles and tanks; traversing rough terrain was not an issue, and they wouldn't need to deliberately construct a flat avenue.
Furthermore, the military had specialized routes for deployment; they didn't necessarily need to use the open road.
So, Rentaro began walking along the avenue.
He was surprised that his mind was so sharp today, not as sluggish as usual. Could restlessness enhance one's thinking?
After walking for a long time, Rentaro saw a gray wall at the end of the road.
Under the dark sky, with the heavy rain continuing without pause, the wall looked even more frightening, appearing almost like a haunted castle inviting Rentaro's thoughts.
A feeling of apprehension gradually arose in Rentaro's mind: "What if I guessed wrong?" "What if the girl is still wandering around Sector 39?"... But he dismissed it quickly.
He didn't want to let go of any possibility, even if this one turned out to be wrong.