The sound of the gunshot caused Satoru and Shizumi to tumble out of the tent on high alert, even if Yuko remained motionless.
“What, water..?” Satoru mumbled in confusion as he used his arm to protect his face.
Shizumi in the meantime was immediately by Yuko's side, shaking her. “Yuko! Yuko, what happened?! Where is Fukui?!” she asked, panicked.
“D-dead…” Yuko murmured.
Shizumi took a good hold of Yuko's, before dragging her back and into the tent. Satoru was quick to follow them, as he took up position at the entrance with a pistol in one hand, and a flashlight in the other. His gaze scanned the horizon with a laser focus.
Shizumi immediately started checking Yuko for injuries. “Who? What happened?” she pushed.
Yuko started taking a few deep breaths. Being soaking wet, she was starting to feel cold. “Fukui…The Bloat…” she said softly as she pulled herself out of Shizumi's grasp, instead pulling her knees up to her chest.
Those three words were enough to give the other two pause. The tension dropped. Shizumi sighed. Satoru cursed under his breath.
Yuko's eyes fell onto the backpack Fukui had left behind. Suddenly, Yuko lunged out of the tent to grab it and drag it inside with them. It was already soaked, but Yuko didn't care, putting it beside the others in the corner.
She was so cold. Why did the water have to start falling from the sky? Was a smoke detector putting out their fire? If so, why didn't that happen every other night? She hated that she couldn't even focus on Fukui.
Both Satoru and Shizumi looked at her with a frown.
“You should let your clothes dry. I'll set up a rack,” Satoru offered.
“We'll use my sleeping bag as a blanket so you can warm up,” Shizumi added. “You need to avoid getting sick.”
Yuko complied half-heartedly. Stripping down made her colder, rather than warmer. At least, until she noticed Shizumi taking off her jacket and offering it to Yuko.
It didn't fit super well, it turned out that Yuko had broader shoulders, but it was better than nothing. What Yuko expected even less was for Shizumi to pull her into an embrace. And even less so for Satoru to join them. Eventually the three laid on two adjacent sleeping bags, keeping each other close to warmth.
Yuko had no idea what to even do in this situation. She was kind of stuck, yet didn't mind it. It was nice. It was warm. Even if she knew they would've done the same for Fukui or whoever else might've been out there, she didn't care. She felt appreciated. Wanted. Loved.
A single tear rolled down Yuko's cheek before she managed to doze off into a restless slumber.
When morning arrived, the water had still not stopped pouring from the sky.
Yuko couldn't find herself minding it, though. In isolation, the sound was soothing, calming.
Satoru and Shizumi had started taking turns keeping Yuko warm as they figured out their next step. Yuko didn't quite need the help anymore, she felt. Sure, her hair was still wet, but she'd warmed up just fine and the tent wasn't much colder than her home used to be at times. Tucked into a sleeping bag, she'd keep warm just fine.
“We should go investigate the smoke. Fukui said that with the extra pills, there isn't as much of a risk to doing so,” Yuko offered.
“I suppose it's not wrong…” Satoru murmured as he bit into a nutrient bar, “We don't know much about what would await us at Niku, but at least we can guess about some things. That smoke cloud could be a large coal fire that the water can't even put out. If that is true, we might suffocate before even seeing it, depending on the way the wind blows.”
Shizumi hummed. “It could also be steam from boiling water,” she chimed in, “It is nearby in large quantities.”
Satoru frowned. “I suppose they could be trying to extract the salt. It's an incredible preservative and quite valuable.”
Yuko's hand moved to rest on the scar on her arm. The money to buy it was worth stabbing someone for.
“I suppose when all we have to lose is time, and have the resources to account for that, there is no harm in exploring,” he finally conceded, with Shizumi humming in agreement.
Yuko smiled, before turning her attention to the gap in the opening of their tent. Hopefully the water would stop falling from the sky soon.
Fortunately, the downpour only lasted another half hour. Cleaning up camp took an additional hour. At the same time, Shizumi insisted on finding Fukui's body to recover what resources they could. It appeared that he'd left behind everything in his backpack save for the pistol he used. Satoru also walked over to it to offer a prayer.
Yuko didn't want to see it. The conversation of the previous night was still burned into her memory. That was enough for her. When Shizumi returned, Yuko couldn't take her eyes off the pistol she was carrying.
“I want to hold on to it,” she blurted out before even realising it.
The nurse frowned. “Why? Do you have experience using one?”
Yuko shook her head. “I… want to learn. I should. It'd be good to have more than a knife to rely on.”
Shizumi's frown didn't lift. She knew that the weapon in her hand was particularly heavy, at least emotionally. Eventually she pulled the small lever so the magazine fell out, catching it with her other hand before deftly tucking it into her pocket. Then she ejected the round currently in the chamber, before offering the pistol to Yuko.
At first Yuko wanted to be angry at Shizumi's lack of trust in her, before sighing. “Fair,” she said softly as she accepted it.
The rest of the time taking down the campsite was spent in a contemplative silence.
The next two days traveling back south on the other side of the water were spent on high alert. Having lost a set of eyes and their navigator, the group had to make due with what they had left. The smallest silver lining was that Yuko finally felt like she was part of the team, rather than just tagging along. It was unfortunate that it had cost a human life.
The cloud had started becoming bigger again, until they saw a large structure crest the horizon that produced it. Some sort of strange tower with a wide radius. Possibly hollow, based on the size and the sheer amount of smoke coming out of it. Then they slowly saw the landscape change again. Fences separated small fields that crops were clearly grown on. An orchard decorated one side of the road, growing more of the bulbous green fruit. Even if the fruit clearly belonged to someone, Yuko couldn't help but take one to share.
Buildings came next. Not ruins that maybe at one point resembled buildings. No, buildings that couldn't be more than a few decades old.
When they saw something resembling a person in one of the fields pulling weeds, they were on high alert. Shizumi even decided to stay back to cover them with her rifle as Yuko and Satoru approached.
The person in question was dressed in beige robes, the fringes muddied thanks to their work. Their head was bald and skin pale without stripes, and their fingers were scarred along the sides. Yuko couldn't help but be disturbed by how alien the person looked.
“Hello..?” she asked carefully.
When the person looked up, Yuko saw their pupils were round. They looked confused.
“Hello. Can I help you?” she responded, her intonation so strange it took Yuko a moment to even understand what was being said. She seemed on guard, and froze when she spotted Shizumi.
Satoru took a step forward and kneeled in an attempt to look less intimidating. “Where are we?”
Her gaze didn't leave Shizumi. “... Sanroku. Did the masked man send you?”
Sanroku. Three-six.
“We're from Shini,” Yuko responded, before quickly correcting herself: “Yonni.”
Satoru also spoke up. “Yoshinaga didn't send us, but you know about him? Can you tell us more?”
The woman paused again, and Shizumi slowly lowered her rifle. “You should meet our leaders. They'll be able to tell you the details.”
After a few moments spent cleaning herself up, the woman rose to her feet and started guiding them into the settlement. Every person they passed had the same differences as the woman they'd just met. Bald, stripeless, round pupils, scarred hands. They didn't seem to stare as much as Yuko stared at them, though she did know that all of them could see they were outsiders.
“Why can't you tell us?” Yuko decided to ask.
“I could, but I know their information is more accurate. Who better to ask about Eijiro Yoshinaga other than his children?”