I hear a ringing sound; I don't know where it is

The stranger disappeared as quickly as he’d appeared, dissolving into the foreign cityscape.

The space trembled and suddenly all the circles of hell began to suck in after the mysterious guy. Keshita ran away to the lower floors, feeling how his very essence was also sucked in.

Tamiya pushed past the visitors as he tried to escape the hellish cycle. Suddenly, he encountered a small group of people. One of them grabbed Keshita's arm.

"Hey, what's wrong with you!?” the visitor became indignant.

Keshita turned around, trying to free himself, and froze.

"Morimoto??"

"Keshita? I didn't recognize you with glasses. What a surprise. Where are you rushing to?” Goro asked and let go of his hand.

“I… I need to go outside…”

"Is he stoned or something?" Tamiya read his classmate's thoughts.

Goro looked into the eyes of his friends.

"Yes, he’s drunk anyway."
“And I thought he never used drugs. He was such a diligent student.”
"How did he get to this point?"

The thoughts of other former classmates weighed on Keshita, making him even more confused. Tamiya could think of nothing better to do than simply run away.

"Hey, where are you going?”

"How pathetic he’s."

"Damn it! How did it all come to this?”

After running out of the mall, Keshita also got rid of his glasses, believing that they might contain a tracking device.

"Not this!"

Tamiya was immediately trapped by a crowd of thousands at the crossroads. Unable to drown out their voices without headphones, he almost immediately became exhausted and fell to his knees.

"I'm… sucked in… damn…"

Keshita could no longer distinguish or hear his own voice. His consciousness seemed to merge with the consciousness of a thousand people. Tamiya seemed to be drowning in a sea of thoughts, they were pulling him to the bottom. Keshita looked at the sky, which was covered with clouds, creating complete darkness. But suddenly, a giant bony helping hand appeared from it.

"Do not resist, my child… Go as others go! We’re united in the fulfillment of our common will!"

The hand reached out to Keshita. He could neither move nor think because of the convulsions in his body and the deafening pressure of the local collective consciousness. Like a victim who realized his hopeless situation, waiting for death.

"Miku's signature slap!” Suddenly came from nowhere.

At the same time as the blow, Tamiya heard the ringing of bells. As soon as he came to his senses, he ran again as fast as he could, following the ringing. Finding in it a fleeting salvation and restoring consciousness bit by bit.

Keshita didn't even realize that Miku had saved him. When she touched Tamiya, the girl instantly felt all the pressure of the local collective consciousness and switched off.

The sound of bells brought Keshita to Yoyogi Park, which was nearby. Tamiya, exhausted, fell onto a bench, where he decided to take a rest.

***

"Hey… hey, Tamiya!"

"M-miku? Where am I? How did you find me?"

"Eh? So, you were running away from me?"

"Um… no. I lost you in the museum. And when I started looking… I ended up in Buddhist hell, and then Christian hell… and then, apparently, Shinto hell. I was saved by…"

"Did you finally get it? Your visions are getting more and more serious."

Keshita sat down, holding his head, remembering. Miku put her backpack on the bench and sat down next to him.

"It wasn't a hallucination… I saw the sum of the consciousnesses of a thousand people. My ego seemed to dissolve in it."

"It sounds both interesting and terrifying. However, how does this bring us closer to the goal?"

Keshita thought about the answer and his previous plan.

"As far as I can see…" Keshita looked at Miku, trying to read her thoughts. ”She isn’t a threat to me.. Not yet. Right now, I can't easily penetrate deeper into her memories or thoughts… but without her help, I won't escape Mukibutsu."

"You don't know either? In any case, this is already a good result, although it has little to do with genetics."

Tamiya looked around for Mukibutsu agents. But they were hard to tell apart from civilians, and he couldn't read minds at a distance. Keshita looked at Miku.

"Aren't you hot?"

"In fact, yes, indeed!"

Miku took off her jacket and placed it on the back of the bench. She took water out of her backpack.

"The cameras were only supposed to be in her glasses, her phone, and her jacket. I don't see them anywhere else. Okay."

Miku took a sip, and Keshita picked up a branch lying nearby and began to write something on the ground.

"You…"

Keshita gently gestured for Miku to remain silent.

"…will you drink?"

"Yes, thank you."

With one hand Keshita drank little by little, and with the other he continued to write on the ground.

*Let's have a normal conversation. Okay?*

"Aren't you tired of running after me with such a heavy load? How do you feel?"

"O-okay. So what do you think is the best thing to do next?"

*Mukibutsu are enemies. We need to escape from them. Before that, we need to get rid of all the tracking devices. Will you help me?*

"I don't know. Were there any instructions from the lab?"

"Not yet." Miku nodded affirmatively, but her face expressed confusion.

Miku quickly looked around suspiciously and also picked up a stick.

"I don't have very good handwriting, but… when I was deciphering that data from the US, why not use other archaea at that point?"

Keshita was initially afraid that Miku would ruin everything, but quickly realized that it would be even less suspicious from the outside.

*What are you even talking about? What does this mean?*

"It's simple. Without these specific ones, replacing sections of DNA in the chain will be much more difficult. There is also a risk of random mutations. You don't want me to spread across the floor if, for example, the cell membrane loses stability, do you?"

*I can read minds. Can you trust me?*

"I don't know what Aoki's parents did to me… but it's not her fault. At least, she doesn't know or remember it." Keshita was still hesitant, though he decided to trust Miku.

Children were happily playing in the playground while their parents were enjoying the peace and beauty of the park. The Mukibutsu agents were probably further away, but Keshita couldn’t help but feel the gaze of someone watching her. Miku was wondering what to do in such a difficult situation.

"Exactly, how did I not think of this before? I don't even know."

There was a struggle going on inside Miku. On one hand, there were her own interests and goals that Aoki wanted to achieve with the resources of the laboratory, Mukibutsu. The authority of the university, a famous corporation, and Professor Avaron. On the other hand, there was a virtual stranger, an outsider, with whom, by coincidence, she’d to conduct an experiment, which led to unexpected results.

Tamiya tried not to read Miku's thoughts, but some of them were getting into Keshita's mind. He didn't want to pressure her, but the situation demanded action.

Tamiya placed his hand on Miku's palm. She flinched as she looked at Keshita.

“Although this is a bit unscientific, in such situations, I believe you need to listen to your heart.”

When the couple's consciousness touched, they met, but didn’t intersect. They could sense each other on a completely different level. Miku didn’t feel a threat coming from Keshita. On the contrary, it was as if he needed help.

And although she was rational in mind, deep down she wanted to help.

"Too risky… everything needs to be approached wisely."

And yet Miku wrote on the ground.

*And how do we do this?*

"What about the developed intuition?"

*We need to somehow get rid of tracking devices without anyone noticing… are there a lot of them?*

"I'm still more in favor of logic."

*I only know about a few, how will we know about the rest?*

"Well, my heart is broken. Time to get back to business. Since there are no instructions, and logic is at a dead end, I’ll trust my intuition."

Keshita looked around once more, trying to find a way out of the situation. As soon as his gaze fell on the temple, Tamiya heard the familiar sound of bells again.

*I think I’ve an idea*

"I didn't expect you to be such a sensualist, Tamiya Keshita."

"Since we're in Yoyogi, it would be a sin not to go to the Meiji Shrine."

"Hmm… not a bad idea. The Buddhist temple had some initial progress in the experiment. The largest Shinto shrine should spur further development.

"Then it's decided. Maybe I'll see Emperor Mutsuhito in a vision now?"

The couple covered their tracks and headed straight for the temple.

The ringing of a bell.