Osian said nothing. It was just a guess, but the probability was high. One might as well call it almost certain. Even so, as long as the person in question kept their mouth shut, it wasn't right for him to bring up the topic on his own.
Eventually, when the time comes, he will open his mouth on his own. So Osian just quietly gazed at the burning campfire and listened attentively to Neo's words.
"Tomorrow morning. Just before sunrise, we'll head outside."
All eyes turned to him as he threw firewood onto the campfire while explaining the plan.
"We'll get out of here quickly."
The plan itself was simple. To escape from the junkyard and flee District 49 as quickly as possible, before others could react.
He had considered moving in secret, but knew it would be useless. If he were moving alone, it might be different, but now that they were moving as a group, they couldn't avoid people's eyes.
Especially now, with eyes all around them.
Though it was too small to call a group, from Muscle Car to Rocinante, there were plenty of elements that would attract attention.
"Wouldn't it be better to move right now?"David shook his head at Don Quixote's words.
"Not a good approach. It's dark, so finding a path through the junkyard won't be easy. Above all, doesn't this level of silence seem strange?"
David was right. Normally, there would have been gunfire around due to attacks from the mutants in this area. But today it was strangely quiet.
If there had been gunshots or explosions, they would have taken the opportunity to escape. In this extreme standoff, whoever moves first gets the blame.
"Moving just before sunrise is because that's when everyone gets up and prepares for activity."
Osian added an explanation. If they moved now, other enemies around would perceive that they were up to something and try to stop them.
But moving just before sunrise would be different. Since the others would be moving at that time as well, they would only judge that another organization was moving before them.
The attacks from mutants would also disappear with the light.
The time when dawn breaks was the optimal timing to escape this junkyard most safely.
"So get some sleep early tonight. From tomorrow, we won't be able to rest even if we want to."
"Excuse me."
Neo raised his hand high. Like a student asking a question to a teacher.
"You don't need to raise your hand to ask a question."
"Yes."
Neo immediately lowered his hand.
"So what did you want to say?"
"I don't sleep though?"
"..."
Neo is an automaton. Not being human, he didn't experience the physiological phenomenon of sleep.
"Can you close your eyes?"
"That I can do."
Neo blinked his eyelids over his bright yellow lenses. Though called eyelids, it was more like the covers of the lenses going up and down repeatedly.
"Then just lie down with your eyes closed. It'll be practically the same as sleeping."
"Oh. I guess that would work."
No sooner had Neo finished speaking than he closed his lenses and flopped down backward. Just as he seemed to be lying still, Neo carefully opened his mouth.
"Can I snore too?"
"Don't. Really."
"Okay."
He was truly a high-maintenance character.
And so Neo fell asleep, though it was closer to pretending to sleep than actual sleep. Just as Osian was about to close his eyes, he saw Don Quixote tinkering with Rocinante.
Osian approached Don Quixote.
"Hmm. What's the matter? I'm just making some adjustments to Rocinante."
"It might be meddling for me to say this, but are you going to be okay?"
"Okay? I don't know what you're talking about."
"I'm asking if you don't need to tell Neo."
"..."
Don Quixote's hands, which had been checking Rocinante's condition, stopped abruptly. Though he said nothing, it was obvious that his mind was racing with complex thoughts.
Finally, Don Quixote gave up on making excuses or deflections. With a sigh, he opened his mouth.
"Was it that obvious?"
"From your reaction when you saw Neo, it was far from normal."
Osian stared at Neo lying near the campfire.
From Don Quixote's suddenly reduced talkativeness to the passionate reaction he showed when Neo almost fell victim to the gray fungus.
He had thought something was up since then, but after hearing Neo's story, he was certain.
"So that's why you intentionally didn't show your face to Neo during dinner earlier."
"I won't deny it."
"Why? Considering Neo's personality, he would surely be happy."
If you just said, I'm that child from back then. Look how successfully I've grown up. Just saying that would make Neo jump with joy.
"I found it hard to speak up. Yes, it's all just an excuse. It's simply because I'm afraid."
"..."
Osian read the bewilderment residing in Don Quixote's mind. This wasn't something that could be overcome with someone else's advice. He had to overcome it with his own strength.
'His thoughts must be complicated.'
Surely his initial intention was to appear impressively and enjoy a proud reunion. But when faced with the reality he had been expecting, the words didn't come out as easily as he'd hoped.
He didn't know why. Osian was not Don Quixote so he didn't know how he had lived after leaving Neo.
However, one thing he could be certain of was that the process had not been smooth at all.
"If that's your judgment, I won't meddle. However, I just want to tell you that there isn't much time left for sincere conversation. For both of you."
Osian returned to the campfire, leaving behind Don Quixote who had chosen silence.
He decided to get some sleep. Tomorrow would likely be a tiring day, right from the morning.
Osian opened his eyes in the early hours before dawn. He didn't know why. His eyes just suddenly opened.
'What is it?'
Osian looked around. The campfire was still there, and he couldn't sense any approaching mutants. Then what was the problem?
'He's gone.'
Neo, who should have been lying quietly on one side, was nowhere to be seen. Could he have run away? Just as Osian was about to leap up from his spot to look for Neo there was a rustling sound from one of the ridges.
Turning his gaze, he saw Neo there.
"What are you doing?"
Setting aside how he climbed up there without making a sound. Why was he sitting up there hugging his knees and looking up at the sky?
"Today's the last day, isn't it? So I wanted to see it one more time."
"See what?"
"The stars in the sky."
The stars were still twinkling on the deep navy blue sky. But even those would disappear once dawn broke.
"Aren't you sick of seeing it for decades?"
"I suppose so. But I never get tired of it. It's beautiful no matter how many times I see it. Maybe I've also been captivated by the ideal that the knight in the story pursues."
However, Neo continued.
"Just being like this reminds me of old memories. The time I spent with that child. I read books enthusiastically and looked up at the starry sky together. It was really enjoyable back then."
"Do you want to go back to that time?"
"I'd like to. But that child left. One day, all of a sudden, vanished."
It was a day like any other for Neo. While thinking about what joy to give the child today, Neo searched the surroundings diligently.
It would have been good to find a book the child would like, or any other item would have been fine. Thus, when Neo returned with various odds and ends cradled in his arms but what Neo saw was an empty space.
At first, he thought the child had gone out briefly to look around the neighborhood. When time passed and the child didn't return, Neo had to go out to search.
Neo searched for the child for three days and nights without rest. But he couldn't find the child anywhere.
The only thing he found was footprints in the sand, presumed to be the child's. Those footprints were heading outside the junkyard.
"Maybe that's natural. After all, I'm just a machine, and that child is human. Being human, they should live with humans."
Neo realized that the child had finally left him. It was sad, but at the same time, he understood. Every time he read books to the child, the child wanted to see the wider world.
"I read a story like that. A young bird eventually breaks out of its egg and must flap its wings toward the sky. Maybe that child was like that too. They couldn't stay in the nest forever."
"You could have left to find the child too."
"Haha. But I'm not human, you know."
Osian spoke to Neo.
"You've been waiting for that child to return to you someday. That's why you've been staying here all this time."
It wasn't just the child who harbored dreams while reading books. Neo also wanted to see a new world he didn't know. That yearning in his heart was surely no less than the child's.
Having the gray fungus as a friend, saying there are many dangerous people outside, these were all just excuses. He could have left anytime if he wanted.
Yet Neo stayed. He had been waiting for decades in this remote place for the day when that departed child would return to the nest.
"It's strange. When I talk with a friend, my heart feels surprisingly at ease."
"I wouldn't know."
"Maybe that's why. I saw that light you drew from the sword. When I saw it, suddenly I thought, instead of waiting forever, I'll go find them myself."
The light Neo was referring to wasn't from when Osian faced the gray fungus. Neo had already been watching from afar when Osian entered the junkyard and fought against the gangs.
"So I looked at the sky. To revive the last memories. This is the last time I'll see the sky from here."
"You can see the sky from anywhere."
"Is that so? I heard that in cities, pollution is so severe that stars can't be seen."
"Even so, the stars exist there. As long as you don't lower your head, those stars will never leave your eyes."
At Osian's words, Neo opened his tin spatula jaw wide. Then, giving a thumbs up, he said:
"Wow, that's really cool. It sounded like a line from a character in a storybook I read."
"A character's line?"
"Don Quixote. Ah, not that friend over there. The Don Quixote in the story said something similar. That you can't see because you've turned away from the dream. That the dream was always there. You've read it too, right?"
"Hmph. Think what you want. So are you going to keep looking at the sky miserably from there?"
"No. I should go now. The sun will rise soon."
"Right. Come down quickly."
Neo stood up from his spot, staggering slightly. It was a moment when Osian hoped he wouldn't fall like during their first meeting.
-Whirr!
From somewhere, a wire flew through the chilly dawn air. It wrapped tightly around Neo's body as he was about to descend from the ridge.
"Huh?"
No sooner had Neo expressed his confusion than the wire tightened and pulled his body. Neo, helplessly dragged along, disappeared beyond the ridge.
"Neo!"
Osian took a running start and jumped from his spot. Stepping on piles of scrap metal, he reached the ridge where Neo had been standing. Looking down the opposite side with his elevated view, there was a large special truck.
Special forces-like individuals were in the process of binding Neo and putting him in the truck's cargo hold.
"Excuse me? Who are you people?"
Neo was asking such carefree questions even while being captured. Soon, the truck quickly departed.
"Damn it."
Osian looked at the campfire. Perhaps having heard Osian shouting Neo's name loudly just now, Don Quixote and David were just getting up.
"Neo has been kidnapped!"
That one sentence was enough. Don Quixote and David instantly felt their sleepiness vanish.
"Rocinante!"
There was no time to pack their belongings. Don Quixote quickly deactivated Rocinante's guard mode and mounted it. David also took the wheel of the Muscle Car.
-Hihihihing! Vrooooom!
The horse's cry and the resonant sound of the 8-cylinder engine rang out simultaneously. After confirming their readiness, Osian immediately ran down the ridge to chase the truck.
It wasn't just the truck. Special SUVs were also escorting the transport truck. These weren't vehicles that had undergone District 49's customizations. They looked smooth and sturdy, clearly military-grade.
This meant external intervention.
"I don't know who dares, but."
A pure white light swirled beneath Osian's feet. From within those rippling white star clusters, a warhorse bearing the constellations emerged.
Osian immediately grasped the reins of the Starlight warhorse. Reading its master's will, the Starlight warhorse chased after the retreating truck.
As the sun slowly rose and even the starlight in the sky faded, a shooting star streaked across the ruins.