"Make your choice quickly."
"I will not stay in this world forever."
"So, you only have this one chance."
"As for what your final choice will be, that is for you to decide."
Having said this, Haimer returned the Hannya mask to Onigawara Rin, then brushed past her.
"..."
At this, Onigawara Rin remained kneeling blankly on the ground, watching that gradually receding back.
Other worlds?
For her, who had always lived within the square inch of this academy, agonizing daily over trivial matters like correcting boys and maintaining order, this term was simply too distant.
It could even be said to be absurd.
However.
"Heh."
Before Onigawara Rin could recover from the massive shock, a scornful sneer interrupted her thoughts.
Amou Kirukiru followed silently behind Haimer.
When she passed by Onigawara Rin, her footsteps paused slightly.
In those obsidian-like eyes, there was undisguised mockery as she unscrupulously swept her gaze over Onigawara Rin's tender face, which no longer had any covering.
"What a true crybaby's face."
The corners of Amou Kirukiru's mouth curled up as she spat out vicious words.
"Compared to that mask, this crybaby face suits the current you much better."
Finished speaking, Amou Kirukiru seemed to lose all interest, not sparing Onigawara Rin even a single extra glance.
She strode forward with her long legs, quickly catching up to Haimer ahead, leaving only a haughty back view.
This was the lion's final pity for the defeated dog.
"..."
Upon hearing this, Onigawara Rin bit her lower lip hard.
A crybaby?
No!
Onigawara Rin abruptly turned her head, her gaze locking dead onto the two figures about to disappear around the corner.
Even though her cheeks were still burning with shame, even though her shoulders could not stop trembling from the earlier palpitations.
But her body had made a choice one step ahead of her brain.
Was she afraid?
Of course, she was afraid.
Facing a monster who could crush her psychological defenses with mere aura, and who even possessed the miraculous power to repair broken things, how could she not be afraid?
That was the instinctual reaction engraved in genes when humans faced an unknown threat, just as natural as an antelope trembling when meeting a lion.
But.
The reason humans could stand out from thousands of primitive species that drank blood and ate raw meat, standing at the apex of this planet, was definitely not just because they learned to sharpen stones or use fire.
It was because of an instinct more ancient, deeper, and more powerful than fear—
Curiosity.
When the first ape tremblingly climbed down from the safety of the tree canopy, and its feet touched the grassland filled with saber-toothed tigers and dire wolves, fraught with danger.
What drove it to take that step was not merely the unbearable hunger in its belly.
It was pure curiosity about "what exactly lies on the other side of the horizon."
It was precisely this curiosity that made humans choose not to curl up deep in caves during countless dark and cold nights, but to look up at the vast starry sky.
It allowed humans to cross turbulent oceans, conquer peaks towering into the clouds, and even attempt to touch the domain of the gods.
Fear certainly allows one to live longer.
But only curiosity can allow one to live in a broader world.
The Onigawara Rin of this moment was the same.
If it is true...
What kind of scenery would that be?
That answer was like a wildfire suddenly igniting in the depths of her heart, instantly burning everything dry.
Thinking of all this, Onigawara Rin gritted her teeth. A decisive sternness flashed in her eyes as she immediately grabbed the tachi that had fallen on the ground and stumbled as she chased after them.
"Eh... Rin-senpai?!"
"W-Wait for me, Rin-senpai!"
Mozunono, who had been hiding on the side as a background character the whole time, saw this and hurriedly hugged the telescopic baton in her hand tightly, chasing after her with a mournful face.
...
Aichi Symbiosis Academy, Old School Building Gymnasium.
This building, rarely visited on ordinary days, was currently shrouded in a strange silence.
The afternoon sunlight spilled down through the high ventilation windows, casting columns of light onto the wooden floor, with countless tiny dust motes floating slowly within the beams.
A young girl had already been waiting here for a long time.
She wore a traditional red and white kimono, her long white hair tied into two low twin tails hanging at her sides.
Her figure was petite, one could even say somewhat frail, looking just like an exquisite Japanese doll.
Inaba Tsukuyo.
The youngest among the "Supreme Five Swords," and also the only middle schooler.
At this moment, she was kneeling properly on a cushion in the center of the gymnasium, eyes closed tight, hands placed flat on her knees. An imitation sword fashioned like a tachi lay quietly by her side.
In her perception, the world was black.
But this did not mean nothingness.
On the contrary, for someone who had lost the domineering sense of sight, the world revealed a more delicate, more essential side.
For the creature known as humans, over 80% of the information processed by the brain comes from vision.
Relying too much on eyes often makes the brain lazy, ignoring the whisper of the wind, ignoring the vibration of the floor, ignoring the changes in temperature flowing in the air.
When the door of vision is closed, the windows of hearing, touch, and smell are thoroughly thrown open.
Just like those creatures living in the deep sea or caves, evolving extraordinary sensory organs to adapt to the darkness.
—Bats preying accurately on moths in the pitch-black night sky, and blind fish never hitting reefs in turbulent undercurrents.
Therefore.
For Inaba Tsukuyo, every movement around her constructed a world in her mind that was even more three-dimensional than what vision could see.
She heard every sound in the entire academy clearly.
And this was not magic.
It was a sublimation of biological instinct after tempering hearing to the extreme.
And right now, all voices were conveying one message to her:
An incredible existence has arrived.
"He is here."
Inaba Tsukuyo tilted her head slightly, and the ears hidden under her silver-white hair twitched gently.
Her thin, cherry-colored lips parted lightly, spitting out three soft words.
Creeeeak—
Almost at the same instant her voice fell.
The heavy door of the gymnasium slowly opened inward.
A large amount of light poured into the dim interior with the opening of the door.
Amidst the backlight.
Haimer's figure was stretched long.
Behind him followed Amou Kirukiru with a cold expression, as well as Onigawara Rin and Mozunono, who were panting and still had lingering flushes on their faces.
____
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