[66] The Unseen (6)
Clang!
The vase smashed against the wall and shattered.
Amy, who had grabbed and flung the vase, pressed her hands and feet against the opposite wall and panted.
"What the—what the hell?"
The instant the bell tolled, a real ghost had appeared. Was this the resonance Nade mentioned? At first she thought she was hallucinating. But what stood before her was unmistakably physical.
"Guuuuuh…"
When a choked sound burst from the ghost's throat, Amy activated her schema and bolted for the door. She flung it open as if to break it, and dozens of female students poured into the corridor, screaming.
Amy could only stare in horror. Dozens of ghosts were snapping their jaws as they charged behind the fleeing girls.
"Amy! Help! There's a ghost!"
Seriel screamed, tears and snot streaming down her face. Amy went pale. She had never believed in ghosts, but human nature made you avoid the bathroom at night after hearing a scary story.
"Ugh, uuuuh!"
Swept along by the tide of people, Amy ran for the outside of the building.
"Grrrrrr…"
A strange groan split the silence at the desolate training hall at the mountain's foothill.
Etella woke from meditation. Sitting up and turning, she saw a hideous, translucent figure walking toward her. She recognized it as a ghost, but a practitioner who battled the world's evils felt no particular thrill.
With bleary eyes, Etella studied the ghost that had come right up to her. The ghost cocked its head and regarded her in return. It felt like proof of Iruki's equations' accuracy.
"Grrrrrr…"
"Grrrrr?"
Curious, Etella raised a hand and pressed it against the soldier's nose. Unsurprisingly, her hand passed straight through and slipped out the back of the soldier's skull.
"Hah! Hah!"
Inside the frozen veil where the steam had solidified, Shiina gasped and clutched at her naked body.
On duty nights she used the women's dorm bathhouse. But tonight, at the toll of midnight, she had been startled as if her heart would fall out.
"What is this?"
The first thing that came to mind was soul frequency. Could Nade's words be true? It couldn't be. But she couldn't deny what she saw.
"Guuuuuh…"
A soldier of Agu burst through the ice curtain. Shiina braced herself. It wasn't that she'd deduced a hologram—she was a mage who took pride in the fact that no one could so easily nullify her freezing magic.
"You dare—"
Shiina strode forward confidently. As expected, the soldier passed harmlessly through her.
Then everything clicked.
Shiina discovered two devices mounted on the ceiling and a wall. From each hemispherical unit, about the diameter of a gold coin, thin beams of light emitted.
Shiina exhaled and slowly left the bath.
The moment she stepped into the changing room, the moisture on her skin crackled and froze.
She shook herself lightly and diamond-bright ice flakes scattered everywhere. By the time she stopped, not a drop remained.
"These things are real…!"
Shiina's eyes narrowed with a fierce edge.
* * *
Alpheas School of Magic was thrown into chaos.
Dark windows flared to life and students poured out, screaming.
The same scene played out everywhere.
The holograms—designed to predict people's actions—pivoted as needed, and the students, terrified out of their minds, ran blindly without even realizing they'd been deceived.
"Help! Somebody help!"
"Ghosts! There are ghosts!"
When people are plunged into extreme terror, their predictable behaviors are surprisingly simple. Reason is paralyzed; they act on emotion alone.
Lower-class kids wailed for their mothers; the advanced classes, divided by gender, flowed toward whichever route was most crowded.
From the high ground, graduation-year girls, with the occasional boy among them, streamed down like a tide.
From above it became clear that the ghosts weren't chasing people at random so much as funneling the masses to a single point. Eventually, all four hundred students gathered in the central park to the north.
Trapped between people and buildings, the students realized the ghosts were converging from all directions—there was nowhere to run.
"Kyaaa! They're coming! Do something!"
"Arrgh! Come at us, you bastards!"
As hundreds cried out in terror, hundreds of soldiers drew their swords and charged. The wailing children, the screaming girls, the boys who tried to stand bravely—everyone squeezed their eyes shut.
At that moment light began to shimmer from the soldiers' bodies. Hundreds of bodies flashed like flares and, as if sucked toward a single point, shot up into the sky.
"Wh—what is that?"
All eyes turned to the rooftop of the central building. Shirone stood on the railing. Nade and Iruki arrived a moment later and took positions at his sides.
"Thank you all for attending our presentation."
The students stared at them in a daze. They still had no idea what was happening.
Teachers rushed breathlessly into the park—faculty from lower, advanced, and graduating classes alike had assembled.
Shiina pushed through the crowd, panting.
"You lot! Get down this instant! What are you doing? You've turned the school into a mess!"
Nade greeted her with a wink.
"Ah, Teacher Shiina. Good evening."
"Good evening my foot! Get down now! If I come up there I might kill you, so hurry down!"
"Still, it is, after all, a presentation. We'll finish and then leave."
A presentation? In the dead of night? The students murmured.
"What? So it was all fake?"
"We were tricked! Damn it! My heart nearly fell out!"
Most students were still shaken, but some who had grasped the situation quickly pointed and rained accusations on Shirone and the others.
"You frauds! Class Five? You dare pull this on us? This isn't a presentation—this is deception!"
"Those bastards should flunk their performance tests! You're finished! Who believes in ghosts? What a scam!"
Even under the barrage of insults, Shirone's group smiled calmly. When the curses showed no sign of letting up, Nade raised a hand to quiet them.
"Through this presentation, the Supernatural Psychical Science Research Club has demonstrated the existence of ghosts. Yet you still refuse to believe."
"Of course! You made up ghosts and tricked us—do you think that earns you credence? You'll fail, all of you."
"Right! This is just a tasteless prank! Anyone could fake this if they wanted—if I put my mind to it—"
A boy from Class Four paused and blinked. Others glanced around and began whispering.
"But… how did they do it? Do you know?"
"No—I haven't a clue. They looked alive. And they fooled all four hundred students."
The students realized this wasn't a simple prank.
Creating hundreds of holograms was impressive enough, but how they controlled them remained a mystery.
"What on earth did those kids pull off?"
Unrest grew among the students. Shiina frowned and closed her eyes. To be honest, she still didn't know exactly what had been used.
It wasn't something she could immediately chalk up to Nade's prodigious fabrication and engineering, the photon output drawn from the Realm of Infinity, or the tens of thousands of lines of equations from the Servant Syndrome—that wasn't the kind of thing she could summon up on the spot.
The teachers turned in unison. Headmaster Alpheas threw back his head and laughed.
Shiina shook her head and approached.
"Headmaster Alpheas, this isn't funny. I don't know how those kids did it, but there's evidence of illegal intrusion into a restricted area—some kind of hologram device…"
"Oh? Even you don't know, Teacher Shiina?"
Alpheas found that unsurprising. If he hadn't specialized in light magic, he might not have immediately noticed that the strategy involved information-transmission technology.
But could students really pull this off?
In a sense it had to have been a gamble even for Shirone's group. Alpheas wanted to commend them for that.
Shiina admitted frankly, "I'm embarrassed to say I still don't know. But not understanding the mechanism doesn't mean those kids convinced the teachers."
"Heh heh. That's not what I meant by 'we got played'."
"Eh? Then…?"
Alpheas kept his words brief and looked out at the students.
"Let's watch and see. It doesn't seem the presentation is over yet."
The students were still arguing, trying to find the trick Shirone's group had used.
In an instant, the central park had become a large debate hall.
But the more they argued, the deeper they sank into confusion. The students of Class Four were especially annoyed—their pride stung at being so easily fooled by underclassmen and not even understanding the mechanism.
"Hmph! No need to overthink it! They probably pulled some ridiculous stunt. The point is this presentation is bogus! You showed non-existent ghosts and claimed proof? What a joke!"
Class Four rallied in agreement.
"That's right! This is unacceptable! It's not psychical science, it's a show!"
As criticism grew louder, Nade stepped forward and asked on behalf of the group.
"Do you still refuse to acknowledge the existence of ghosts?"
"Of course! Ghosts? This is just a form of illusion magic! Not real ghosts!"
"Then let me ask you this—if you truly believe that, why are you all here right now?"
"What? Well, obviously—!"
Silence spread, beginning with that student's pause.
Among hundreds of students, no one could refute Nade. If they truly believed ghosts didn't exist, why had they fled like fools?
The answer was simple. Somewhere in their hearts, they couldn't bring themselves to deny the soul's existence completely.
"What you are feeling now is precisely the essence of paranormal psychical science. Humans live their lives with questions and curiosity about the unknown. If something being unverified meant there was no need to know it, then what purpose would reason serve? Isn't that why the Supernatural Psychical Science Research Club must occupy a place at Alpheas School of Magic—the cradle of reason?"
The students were struck mute.
Even if no actual ghosts had appeared, what did it matter?
What mattered was that everyone here now considered the possibility that ghosts might exist. If so, someone must try to uncover the truth.
Nade's words made the students take the presentation seriously for the first time. It wasn't merely a prank to stir up the school—this was a flawless presentation in the Supernatural Psychical Science Research Club's own terms.
"With that, we conclude the presentation of the Supernatural Psychical Science Research Club. Thank you all for staying to observe late into the night."
Shirone and his group bowed politely. The air was still; no one spoke.