THE STORY · EPISODE 20
Every notice arrived with the same sound.
The same yellow. The same triangle. The same URGENT.
Watching the doctor’s terminal, Mana lost track of what she had read first. The number waiting for review grew, and each new notice pushed the previous one down.
“Are all of these first?”
Securidon asked.
“That’s what they say.”
After answering, Mana realized the phrase was taking her back to the same place as the board’s ten seconds.
At the counter, yellow labels covered the desk. A suspected transfer still going outside. An outage affecting people’s use. A one-character display error. Confirmation of tomorrow’s work.
A black shadow moved behind the labels. Whenever someone tried to decide the order, it thrust another label at them. Unseen hands pushed everything into the same line.
A staff member tried to open another screen while holding the phone. Unable to decide which reply should come first, their finger stopped.
Mana felt that choosing one meant throwing the others away.
So she first tried to move faster.
Bug stood in front of the desk.
“Decide where to run first. Going faster here will only make us collide.”
Only then did Mana notice she had been holding her breath.
The doctor checked the assessment criteria the staff used.
What was happening? How likely was it to happen? If it happened, what would be affected, who would be affected, and how severely? The protections already working and the time available differed, too.
Mana read the notices with the yellow triangles hidden.
The suspected outgoing transfer had not yet been confirmed blocked. More important information might be going out right now.
For the display fault, the staff had switched to other guidance, so it was not currently sending people in a dangerous direction. It still needed a later repair.
Even if they could compare it to a similar event yesterday, today’s conditions were different. While Bugglin checked one character, Mana asked the staff about the current effects.
Defense lit up in the encyclopedia.
OPTIONAL QUESTION · 20-D1Likelihood and impact togetherWhat should risk assessment consider together?Open illustration & choices
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“A. Consider both how likely it is and its impact if it happens. Don’t decide only by the number or color of warnings.”
The blue shield stood before the yellow labels.
The labels did not vanish. Removing meaningful warnings was not the aim. Mana wanted to make visible what each warning was asking them to notice.
Sapo copied the staff’s verified criteria into a table. Yuki asked the waiting people what they actually could not use. Even before certification, the two could bring information that supported the decision.
The person making the decision did not have to see everything alone. Mana learned that from the separate sheets gathering on the desk.
Among them, one message caught Mana’s eye.
It was the usual notice to review the progress of her journey. She was to bring her WS Encyclopedia and speak with the doctor later. That was all, yet it seemed closer to her than the other labels.
It might have something to do with her way home.
The feeling that she alone had waited too long returned.
An Attack question lit up.
OPTIONAL QUESTION · 20-A1Three cases, different consequencesImportant information is being transferred, a display fault has a workaround, and your journey notice can wait. What now?Open illustration & choices
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“C. Check my own journey first…”
Before she finished, the shield’s light faded.
The shadow enlarged the label Mana was watching. Beside it, the row for the ongoing transfer was squeezed thin.
Securidon said nothing.
Mana was afraid to look at him. It was not because she had shown him again that she wanted to go home. She had mixed the strength of her feelings with the size of the harm happening now.
“I want to go home.”
When she said it aloud, Securidon’s shoulders shifted slightly.
“But I can read this notice with the person responsible later. We’ll stop what’s spreading now first.”
He adjusted his hold on the shield.
“You don’t have to erase wanting to go home, don.”
“No.”
Mana put her notice in a separate place. Not to discard it, but to return to it later.
The doctor showed her the next notices.
A color error on a board seen by many people, and an ongoing leak of important information managed by one person. The number of people alone did not decide which needed urgency.
OPTIONAL QUESTION · 20-D2Many inconvenienced, one serious leakMany people see a sign's color error; one person's important information is actively leaking. How should priority be decided?Open illustration & choices
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“D. Compare them using the same criteria: not only the number affected, but the importance of the information, the continuing harm, and the time needed to stop it.”
Mana restated her first Attack answer, too.
“B. Work with the staff on the ongoing, high-impact harm first. Give the other requests an owner and a next review time, too.”
“Assess likelihood and impact.”
Mana repeated the doctor’s words.
“Evaluate how likely it is and what the effects would be.”
Using the same criteria, the staff set the order. The transfer team confirmed the target and moved to block it. Another procedure provided guidance for the service that had stopped. The display repair kept its owner and review plan.
Putting something later did not mean forgetting it.
Episode 20, Illustration 1 | Choosing what to protect first among matching warnings
Sapo’s sheet showed when each item would be checked next. Yuki told the people waiting what was being done first and where their own requests had been handed over.
There were no words that could reassure everyone at once. Still, unlike simply being returned to the yellow line, they could now tell who had received their concern.
Mana saw the difference on the faces listening to the replies.
The shadow lifted all the remaining labels at once.
Everything had to be solved now.
Mana did not say that any of them were unimportant. If they all mattered, they needed an order.
“Miscure, show the scope we’ve decided. Logrin and Shadowlog, keep the planned follow-ups. Securidon, protect the boundary of what’s spreading now!”
At Mana’s instructions, the companions moved to different tasks.
Patchron supported the footing. Linklar placed chains along the route the staff had chosen. Spoofon verified contact through another channel, and Spamool signaled so repeated demands would not bury the replies they needed.
They did not all leap at one label.
Every name in the encyclopedia meant another pair of hands that could help. But calling the names alone was not enough. Mana had to think where to ask them to go, and why.
The affected transfer was confirmed blocked. Alternative guidance began working, and the waiting people moved to the appropriate counter. Plans for the remaining repairs stayed on the table.
The shadow’s power to push everything back into one line weakened.
“Securidon, don’t let it break the order we’ve checked!”
Blue light from the shield moved between the black labels.
The last shadow stopped beneath the desk. When Mana held out the Securies, its black surface loosened into light.
A yellow triangular companion appeared. His body had a black border, with small hands and feet. He held a red flag in one hand.
He began to wave it, then stopped at the table on the desk.
“This one first?”
“Under the current conditions. If they change, we’ll check again.”
At Mana’s answer, he looked through the other rows in order.
“Riskon. I won’t make everything the same.”
COL-016 — Riskon.
The twentieth companion’s name was registered in the WS Encyclopedia.
That evening, Mana returned for the notice about her journey.
The remaining requests had been passed to their owners. Even the unfinished ones showed who would look next.
The doctor opened the encyclopedia and read the names in order.
“Twenty companions.”
Mana spoke the same number aloud.
The page where she had first written a name in blue pen still held only Securidon. Now, even the order in which everyone came to the dining table would not fit on one line.
“The road to the tournament still goes on, doesn’t it?”
“Yes. The records you’ve made will support the decisions ahead.”
The doctor did not turn that into a promise that the conditions for her return were ready. Mana did not try to take such a promise from this evening alone.
At home, Yuki had placed two chairs together. Sapo held a notebook for his studies. They wanted to ask the doctor how to study again from what they had seen.
They had not passed the exam. There were still things they needed to check for themselves.
Mana cleared a place for their conversation.
Securidon sat on the step by the entrance, polishing the padlock on his shield. When Mana came beside him, he shifted over a little.
“Today you came back later, don.”
“Where to?”
“To what matters to you.”
Mana rested the encyclopedia in both hands.
Helping someone first did not mean abandoning her own wish. The time to return to it could have a place in the order, too.
“Wanting to go home, and wanting to keep walking together.”
“There are two, don.”
“Yes. For now, two.”
Securidon nodded. He did not hurry her toward a single answer.
Riskon came out of the house with his small flag.
He was asking the doctor whether he could decide the order for dinner first.
“Let’s start by seeing who hasn’t eaten yet.”
At those words, the companions all began looking for their seats. Mana laughed and took off her shoes.
Episode 20, Illustration 2 | Twenty names, and the first hand she reached for
That evening’s message arrived just before the meal began.
The same troubling rumor was spreading across the city. More voices were repeating it than people were checking it.
Riskon’s flag began to rise. With the doctor, Mana checked the information received and what the staff were already doing.
The next incident waited in another form.
But they did not decide by the loudness of the voices whether they needed to run across the city on their own tonight.
Mana opened her notebook. On an empty page, she began with what they knew.
Beside her, Securidon set down his shield.
Even with twenty names, the first hand she had reached for was still beside her.
END OF EPISODE 20