Chapter 15
The directive didn't even take the form of a meeting.
Clan Genbu's Operations Headquarters, in a small conference room one floor below the top floor. Sitting across from the training director was Iizumi Seiji, a man who had been seconded to the Association's Examination Division for three years. His return to Genbu had already been decided for next month's personnel reshuffle, and a department-head position was waiting for him when he got back. —In other words, he was that kind of man.
"Amaha Hina's B-rank promotion exam. You've been appointed special examination supervisor."
"The student from that course, you mean."
"It's an exam the public will be watching. If it's half-hearted, it'll only damage the Association's authority. I'm counting on you. —Make it practical."
Practical. Nothing more was said. The silence itself was the language of the room.
The practical portion of the B-rank promotion exam would take place in an Association-managed dungeon. The venue was the Fourth Administrative Dungeon, Cavern Type. The test covered up to the third level. The monsters inside the section would be adjusted through pre-exam "culling" and standardized to specimens no higher than upper C-rank—according to the regulations.
The regulations also stated the following: 'The scope and intervals of culling are left to the discretion of the special examination supervisor.'
Iizumi wrote a single line in his notebook. 【Third-Level East Section—Culling Interval: Regulatory Minimum】. All the numbers were within the regulations. Even if someone investigated later, there would be only one answer: "I made sure to give them a practical exam."
In the hallway on his way out, he stopped only once. He had watched several sessions of that course. His conclusion had come after watching them. It was a good course that taught the fundamentals carefully. But—fundamentals were tools for surviving within expectations. They couldn't stop something that came from outside them.
"A shame, miss."
That was the kind of "practical" experience adults created.
◇
In the end, it took me three days to write back to Mio-chan. Ninety percent of it was simply thanks for the materials; the only part that took time was the final line.
'Thank you for telling me. From here on, this is the adults' job.'
I hadn't told Hina-chan about the rumors. Putting distracting noise in a student's head before an exam wasn't a coach's job. I didn't change our preparations, either. Fundamentals only. There was nothing more to add to her training.
Instead, I went to the Association twice.
The first time, I went of my own accord. I submitted three documents: complete-preservation requests for the test section's environmental logs, sensor records, and culling records. In the space for the reason, I wrote, 'For verification as educational material after the exam.' It wasn't a lie. The clerk at the counter told me, "I've never seen a recommender submit this much before."
"There's only so much a recommender can do."
The second time, I was the one who had been summoned. According to the Association's public-relations office, "The official channel has decided to broadcast the exam live. Accordingly, we'd like to invite you to the commentary booth." Apparently, the middle-aged man the industry had considered unnecessary until last month was now someone they wanted to put on the air. People were awfully quick to change their tune.
I thought about it for a little while, then accepted. I added only one condition: "Leave the broadcast and the records intact, without editing, and make all of it public."
And although it wasn't my job—the Dungeon Agency's Safety Statistics Division had apparently been invited to observe. They wanted to watch one of the course's students take the promotion exam firsthand as an example of 'prevention through education.' Apparently, there were people at that agency who never missed a turning point in the numbers.
The notebook still held the two lines I'd written two weeks earlier, unchanged.
【Amaha Hina—B-rank Exam. Preparations unchanged. Fundamentals only】
【But—the "outside" of the exam is my job】
I had filled the outer moat as much as I could. The rest—well, it was business as usual. I would cook some rice and go to bed.
◇
On the day of the exam, the viewing building at the Association's Fourth Administrative Dungeon was packed before the doors even opened.
Unlike a mock battle, a practical exam in a cavern-type dungeon couldn't be seen with the naked eye. The spectators watched a large monitor displaying footage stitched together from 120 sensors inside the section. Even so, people had gathered. And before the official broadcast began, its simultaneous viewer count had surpassed 【600,000】.
'Now, let us introduce today's commentator. He is also the recommender of the examinee, Hiiragi Shinichi-san.'
"I'm Hiiragi, your commentator. ...Um, if there are any first-time viewers, let me say the usual thing. Today's exam will probably be dull. Shockingly dull, I expect. But that's a good thing."
【We know】
【He said the usual thing even at an official event】
【That "dullness" sank upper C-rank monsters, huh】
【The reassurance of having Teacher at the commentary desk】
A small figure stood at the entrance gate. Amaha Hina, seventeen years old. It had been less than a month since she advanced to C-rank.
'She looks tense,' the announcer said. Her face was certainly tense. But I zoomed in on the screen in front of me. Her toes pointed outward, her shoulders were relaxed, and inside her shoes—she was probably gripping the floor with her toes.
"She looks all right. She is nervous, but nervousness and fear are two different things."
The exam began.
On the first and second levels, Hina-chan's exploration was textbook-perfect. She stopped at every fork and recorded the time, direction, and landmark. Once every forty minutes, she sat down and checked her light, pulse, and remaining medicine. There were three encounters. Each time, she began by observing, ended with the shortest possible move, and didn't pursue too far.
【She's drawing a map! She's really drawing a map!】
【Is this a compilation of the course?】
【Apparently one examiner let slip that they've never seen an examinee this careful】
As for me, I honestly didn't have much to say from the commentary desk. "Good footwork just now." "Yes, sit here. Good girl." The comment section laughed at me, asking whether this was a pet owner's recital. I couldn't deny it.
――An anomaly occurred in the eastern section of the third level.
The first to notice it was the analysis crowd.
【Hey, right now, behind that rock in the back】
【Isn't that thing huge?】
【Pull the camera back. ...Hey, that thing is huge】
In the corner of the monitor, a shadow slowly pushed its way out from beyond a rocky passage. It was a large specimen of the cavern species. But its outline was different. Its carapace was thicker. Most of all, its horns—third-level specimens didn't have horns like those.
【I checked the posted list. The expected specimens for this exam only go up to upper C-rank】
【There's no way that's upper C-rank!? That's a fifth-floor boss-class monster!】
【Why is a monster that even B-rank explorers are advised to fight in a party inside the exam area!?】
'W-we've received information here in the commentary booth. The control room's ruling is... "Within the range of natural upward migration; continue the exam." ...The exam will continue!'
The viewing building erupted in murmurs. In the control room, Sakuma, the supervising chief examiner, could be seen at the edge of the broadcast confronting the special examination supervisor. There was no audio. But it was easy enough to tell that the papers slammed onto the desk were the culling records.
The comment section poured down like a waterfall.
【Stop the exam!】
【What are you planning to make a seventeen-year-old do!?】
【Teacher! Teacher, this is wrong, right!?】
'C-commentator Hiiragi-san. This is, um...'
The announcer looked at me pleadingly. The camera turned my way, too. Six hundred thousand people were probably waiting for the same thing: to see me shout, go pale, or stand up as the examinee's recommender and demand that the exam be stopped.
Without taking my eyes off the monitor, I spoke.
"It's all right."
My voice came out so quietly that even I was surprised.
"It's all right. I've taught her how to deal with the unexpected, and spent more time on that than anything else. Not after the fundamentals. ...As the finishing touch to the fundamentals."
【Teacher...】
【We can trust those words, right?】
"And everyone, arrangements have been made so that not a single second of this exam's record will be erased. Every discretionary decision, whoever made it, all of it. —So for now, instead of making a fuss, watch what she does. What she does next will probably end up in the textbooks."
◇
The temperature in the passage seemed to drop by two degrees.
Beyond the rocky passage, a shadow denser than darkness slowly lowered its stance. Amaha Hina's heart gave one heavy beat.
(...Big.)
Her knowledge supplied the answer first. That wasn't an upper C-rank monster. As for whether she could win—the answer was no. Head-on, she would lose ten times out of ten.
Her hands trembled. It was the same trembling she'd felt after her fourth failure. The difference was that now she knew where to put that trembling.
Hina took one deep breath.
――The riverbank at dusk rose in her mind. On the last day of special training before the exam, Teacher had bought two canned coffees and handed her one while speaking as casually as if making small talk.
'Hina-chan. At the end of your exam preparations, I'll tell you the most important thing. —When you encounter the unexpected, first, step back.'
'Step back ... You mean run away?'
'It's different from running away. Observe while stepping back. And now, this is the important part. —Don't mix up winning and surviving. The people who mix them up are the ones who die. Decide "don't die" first. As for "winning," think about it with whatever you have left after you've finished observing.'
'Whatever I have left ...'
'Yes. It's all right; you should know this already. As long as you can observe—your exam is still going.'
She exhaled.
The trembling didn't go away. It didn't have to. Inside her shoes, her toes gripped the floor. Toes turned outward. Heels not lifted. Eyes not lowered.
The high-tier specimen charged with a roar.
Amaha Hina did not run.
She took half a step back, then another, observing all the while: before it raised its horns, weight shifted onto its right foreleg; at the end of its charge, its neck always lowered; the passage was three centimeters too narrow for its carapace—and so on.
As she backed away, the girl's eyes had already begun counting the "leftovers."
It was the beginning of a fighting style that no one in the control room—not even Iizumi, the special examination supervisor—had ever seen.