"Let's head farther in and take a look."
Cheadle called Dio to his feet and started down the deep passage. At the very least, they could get farther away from the sources of that post-mortem Nen.
As they walked, Cheadle began discussing the unanswered questions with Dio.
The reason she wanted to discuss them with him was that she suspected the boy was hiding something very important.
Dio raised the first question:
"The first thing I don't understand is the charge against that officer. Why wasn't he charged with the more serious crime of leaking state secrets?"
Everyone except Dio, including Cheadle, had remained calm at the time, so she must have known why:
"Leaking state secrets is a very special charge. Files involving anyone convicted of it are marked as 'highlighted files' for the next ten years and subjected to particular scrutiny."
"But since the document stated that the prisoner had leaked confidential information, and even recorded the type of information leaked, that means the investigators didn't consider the secrets he stole important enough to warrant that level of attention."
"In fact, quite a few people are arrested every year for selling national intelligence. Only a tiny fraction of them are convicted of leaking state secrets because the information they disclosed was too important."
Cheadle's rapid-fire explanation cleared things up for Dio at once.
After answering his question, Cheadle began her analysis:
"The turning point was undoubtedly when the prisoner suddenly spoke. Normally, before a trial, a professional executioner cuts out the prisoner's tongue to prevent him from saying anything he shouldn't."
"But that slug in his mouth, the one replacing his tongue, clearly couldn't have grown there on its own."
Dio frowned as well:
"He mentioned 'Kakin' then. Could it have been..."
"Most likely. The rising power across the sea-the Kakin Empire."
Cheadle's voice grew grave. With a possible conflict between two major nations involved, even she had to tread carefully:
"Kakin was probably behind his final explosion too. But have you considered this? The prisoner should no longer have been able to speak, and he would have been shot immediately after the trial. Why would Kakin go to such lengths to make him kill himself?"
Dio suddenly stopped as a possibility occurred to him. He said:
"The trial! Their target was the trial itself!"
"Yes. Before the trial began, no one but the judge knew what charge he would be convicted of. If it turned out to be leaking state secrets, this incident would be reviewed repeatedly for a long time to come."
That was right. Their earlier reasoning actually suggested that Kakin did not want the trial proceedings placed on record.
But the only thing about the trial that could not be determined beforehand was the charge the judge would convict the prisoner of. That, then, was the true objective of whoever had planned the explosion.
The presence of the post-mortem Nen could also be explained. With it there, ordinary construction crews could not excavate the site, and thus could not retrieve the trial records.
Unless someone went to great lengths to hire a Nen exorcist to remove all the Nen from the earth and rubble, they could only wait for it to fade naturally over time.
Cheadle picked up the thread, her expression growing serious:
"If this theory holds, then the secrets that officer leaked were probably far more important than he himself-or even the senior officials of the Minbo Republic-imagined."
Important as that might be, the matter itself had nothing to do with either of them. Cheadle had no intention of digging deeper and instead brought up another point that concerned her:
"The explosion didn't seriously injure me because I protected myself with [Ken], and [Dr. Yorkshire] blocked the impact of the Nen Aura. But the most important reason was that, at the instant of the explosion..."
As she spoke, Cheadle glanced at Dio beside her:
"...at that instant, an unknown force pulled me backward through empty space. Thinking back on it now, my posture changed too, as though I had naturally been sent flying backward that distance."
Dio acted as though he had not noticed her look, and his expression turned grave as well:
"Yes, I felt it too. A mysterious force pulled me out of the blast's central radius at a speed I couldn't comprehend. If I hadn't been far enough away, and if you hadn't blocked the shock wave in front of me, Ms. Cheadle, I probably would have suffered unimaginable injuries."
His reaction did not seem feigned. Besides, Cheadle did not really believe Dio could have done it, and she began to wonder:
Could it really have nothing to do with him...? But how do I explain the distance he flew?
Before that displacement occurred, Dio had been only about twenty centimeters behind Cheadle. Afterward, however, he had appeared more than a meter directly behind her.
That meant that, although they had both flown backward, Dio had started moving before she did. Had he activated some kind of Nen ability?
Cheadle glanced naturally at Dio beside her again.
He had definitely never learned a Nen ability. With her powers of observation, there was no chance she could be mistaken at such close range.
That left them with yet another mystery without a single lead.
Cheadle found the whole incident so bizarre and troublesome that she unconsciously raised a finger and began biting her nail out of habit, sinking into thought.
The third matter was Dio's strange ability.
It could heal, relieve pain, and, most importantly, ward off the intrusion of post-mortem Nen. Developing [Dr. Yorkshire] had taken Cheadle a very, very long time.
Even Cheadle, who had been regarded as a top-class genius throughout her life, had struggled that much to develop her ability. Yet Dio had acquired his simply by falling into the water.
"When I was unconscious just now, you used that ability to help me recover, didn't you? Can you channel it into anyone's body?"
Cheadle recalled that warm current. Although it had lasted only a short while, it had already been comparable to an exceedingly rare healing-type Nen ability.
If it could be channeled into a patient's body, then [that commission] might finally have a chance...
"Yes, I can. And I've tested it. It can not only heal the body, but also strengthen it to a certain extent."
Dio explained, then asked Cheadle a question in return:
"How did you make those things appear just now, Teacher? Could I do that too?"
Cheadle was about to answer when a sound reached them:
"Ring, ring~"
Both froze. A phone ringing?
They followed the sound-it was coming from Cheadle's skirt.
Cheadle immediately realized that her phone was ringing. Dio was puzzled. Could they actually get
a signal here?
"Oh, it really connected! Hello, hello, can you hear me, Cheadle San~?"
The moment Cheadle answered, a sweet, high-pitched female voice came through.
"Piyon? Has the Hunter Association already heard what happened?"
Cheadle recognized the caller from her voice alone. It was Piyon, the [Zodiac Rabbit], one of the Hunter Association's Zodiacs, a Paleograph Hunter and an internet-addicted girl!
"Yes, we got word not long after things went wrong over there. Mizaistom tried calling you, but there was no signal, so I asked Ikushonpe to make this call."
On the other end of the line, a cute girl spoke, dressed in a bunny-girl outfit with a long-eared rabbit headband and even a white rabbit-head design on her chest.
The Ikushonpe she mentioned was one of the Hunter Association's rare [Hacker Hunters].
"This call won't last long, so let me explain the situation outside first. Cheadle San, you're currently trapped in the Ancient Dynasty Ruins, two hundred meters beneath the Central Island of Hundred-Ring Island."
Piyon held a black phone while looking at her own pink phone with rabbit ears:
"Your entrance has been completely buried. That place is full of post-mortem Nen from who knows where, so the construction crews can't get through."
"Oh, right, Cheadle San, there's someone else with you now, isn't there? I can see another red dot on the map."
Cheadle knew something of Piyon's ability, so she was not surprised that Piyon had noticed:
"Yes, that's right. My student is beside me. We took shelter in a passage when the explosion happened. Piyon, can you see where this passage leads?"
Cheadle and Dio had already followed the passage for at least five hundred meters, but there was still no end in sight to the deep darkness ahead.
Since there was no longer any hope of clearing the passage entrance, their only hope of escape lay at the other end.
"I've already sent you the map Satotz gave me. I've marked it for you, so just remember that you're in Passage Three right now. Oh, right, there's also..."
Before Piyon could finish, the sound of the call disconnecting cut her off.
Cheadle lowered her phone helplessly and checked her inbox. A map was already there.
Dio took a look as well and discovered that the underground ruins were a sprawling network of passages. From Passage Three, where they were now, it was still a long way around to the nearest exit.
"Let's go. There's no time to waste."
Cheadle put her phone away. She had memorized the map with a single glance, and without wasting another moment, she called Dio along and decisively set off toward the exit.
Before you continue