Morning. The storage bank was empty, and the battery hadn't budged from 7%.

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "Volt and I will stay here. We're very good at playing dead."

"We'll be right back."

Behind the two of them leaving the junkyard, the headlights blinked once, like a send-off.

The electric market lived under the city's shadow. No signs — an alley only found by those who already know.

Used batteries were stacked like medals on every stall, and bare bulbs hung from the ceiling like stars. Ever since the city went dark — people came to the market to see the stars.

A bottle of water: 0.3 kilowatt-hours. A pack of ramen: 0.5. Here, electricity was money.

"Whoa… this place existed?"

"Quiet. Act like a tourist here and you'll get fleeced."

Too late. The stall merchant was already smiling.

"Hey kid — one kilowatt-hour of charge, two bottles of water!"

"The board says three."

"…Didn't recognize you as a regular."

On the notice board beside the price board, a new flyer had been posted.

WANTED — old-model white EV. 1,000 kWh for a reported sighting.

A thousand kilowatt-hours. In this market, that was half a year of living.

Someone whistled in front of the flyer. A boy about Bit's age, one foot resting on a modded kick scooter.

"A thousand kilowatt-hours, huh. Biggest jackpot of the month."

The boy tore off a flyer and folded it — and his eyes met Bit's.

"You a hunter too?"

"N-no—"

"Rumor says that car was seen in Sector 7. I'm headed there right now."

Dot pulled Bit away by the sleeve. The boy shouted after them.

"The name's Joule! — Finders keepers."

Bit knew this kind of entrance from games. Anyone who gives you their name at the first meeting is one of two things: an ally in the making — or someone you meet again at the very end.

At the very back of the market — the shop with the most light bulbs.

Behind the counter, a woman with a silver perm and glasses looked up at the two of them. Her lenses flashed white in the bulb light.

"…Well now. You're Sol's daughter."

"You know my dad?"

"Know him? Half this market runs on things your father fixed."

When Dot brought up the memory fragment, the woman closed the shop door without a word. Click — the sign light went out.

"You actually… woke that car?"

The three of them talked a long time. She didn't know much — but all of it was new.

"Your father called it 'the Heart'. What it is, even I never saw. He wouldn't show anyone."

"The taken ones go beneath the tower. …And child — taking them alive means they're needed."

Dad might be alive. Dot's fists trembled.

"We… need electricity."

"Nothing's free. Market rules."

She looked between the two of them, then lifted a worn storage pack from under the counter.

"An advance. In exchange — go to Sol's workshop and bring back something of mine. I haven't been able to get in for ten years."

"The workshop is locked. Only dad knew how to open it."

"The key — your father would have left it with his daughter."

"I don't have any key."

The woman's glasses flashed.

"You have it. You just don't know it."

She watched the end of the alley long after the children disappeared with the storage pack.

Then, from under the counter — she took out an old radio.

"…It's me. Sol's car is awake."

Who was on the other end of that radio — nobody knows yet.

The same moment — on the road to Sector 7, a modded kick scooter was picking up speed.