"Hasn't anyone come?"
Kotetsu Isane stared blankly at the Third Division member in front of her. "That's impossible. Mr. Duan Mu told me he was going to help at the second defensive line. Think carefully—are you sure you didn't overlook him? Mr. Duan Mu is the young man in our group wearing black work clothes and black knee-high boots, with black hair."
"Captain Kotetsu..."
The repeatedly questioned Third Division member swallowed nervously. "I've been stationed here the entire time. No one has come through."
"How is that possible?"
Kotetsu Isane didn't correct the way the Third Division member addressed her. Most ordinary members of the divisions, when addressing another division's lieutenant captain, omitted the word "lieutenant." After all, a lieutenant captain was also a captain... It was simply one of those unspoken social conventions.
She hadn't been used to it at first, but after hearing it for so long, she couldn't be bothered to argue anymore.
If Mr. Duan Mu hadn't come here, then where had he gone?
Worry surfaced on Kotetsu Isane's face. It was only a hundred meters from the position to here. Even if Duan Mu was terrible with directions, he couldn't possibly have gotten lost over such a short distance. Besides, there had been a giant Hollow nearby to use as a landmark.
Could it be...
Had he gone to the center of the battlefield to get a closer look at the Hollow?
At that thought, Kotetsu Isane looked toward the center of the battlefield, where the fighting had just ended. She saw that the Third Division members who had killed the last giant Hollow on the front line had already withdrawn with the wounded, but Duan Mu was nowhere among them. The worry on her face deepened.
She rose and was about to approach them