That wasn't much of a response, but then again, Niikura had made it clear that regardless of what Harvey said, he wasn't budging on this idea. He couldn't even assure the kid that if he got through the basement, there would be a good prize waiting for him. The caverns hadn't been anything beyond annoying at this point, after all. Nothing life-threatening, but Harvey was just holding his breath for that part.

It was no surprise that Shiina got brought up, and Harvey was surprised that Niikura had held out this long before asking. "Yeah," he replied, "I talked to her on the bus ride into town yesterday."

He could have left it at that, but he might as well give the kid a wake-up call if that was in order. Which it very well might be -- teenagers were notoriously oblivious about stuff like this. "She seemed... out of sorts, I guess you'd say. I think she's starting to realize how much she's in over her head in this place."

And weren't they all?