[558] The Steel Gate Once More (3)
* * *
That evening.
After the briefing, Iruki and Nade went straight to the research club.
When they opened the door, Shirone was sitting on the sofa, his face pale as a sheet.
"What's with that expression?"
Iruki asked, and Nade rolled up his sleeves and stepped closer.
"What do you mean, 'what's with it'? He's probably picturing the slaughter that's about to happen and drying up inside. Come here. We'll beat you up—everywhere except your mouth."
"Guys…."
Shirone turned his head with a terrified look.
"Something's off here."
"Of course it is. It's where your corpse will be buried."
"Listen to me! I'm telling the truth!"
"Shut up! You traitor with nothing but a mouth!"
Under Nade's brutish, earnest wrestling, Shirone felt the world spin.
"Waaah! Save me!"
This time Iruki didn't intervene either.
"You'll be fine. You won't die. You'll just be left unable to act like a man."
"Aha! That's a great idea!"
Shirone's eyes went wide.
"Wait! Hahaha! Ticklish!"
"Not yet!"
Under Nade's relentless torment, Shirone squirmed.
"Hahaha! Ah! Pa! It really hurts!"
Only after a high-pitched scream escaped did Nade let Shirone go and dust his hands off.
"Hmph. If you betray us again, you know what'll happen."
"Okay, okay, I know."
Iruki rapped the sofa with his hand.
"Sit for now. Let us hear it. If you wrote a will and everything, it must be serious, right?"
It wasn't that this would fully ease their anger, but more than anything they wanted to hear Shirone's reason.
Having dried his tears, Shirone set aside thoughts of funerals for a moment and sat down.
"So, here's what happened…."
The story ran on for two whole hours, and even that was a condensed version.
After blinking for a long while, Nade suddenly asked, "Have you been writing novels lately?"
"I swear it's true!"
They knew Shirone wasn't the type to lie, but it was a lot to take in at once.
"Anyway, I get it. Hm—so you refused the evaluation. Definitely the right call. If you can't stand out by scores, it's important to make an impact in the graduation exam."
At Iruki's words, Nade thumped his chest.
"Good! Don't worry, Shirone. I'll tell you everything about the graduating class."
Iruki sneered.
"What would you tell him? You came in last in the graduating class."
Shirone's eyes went wide.
"What? Last? Nade, you're really last?"
"Ahaha, somehow it turned out that way."
Nade had never lacked enthusiasm for magic but had always been middle-of-the-pack, so being last was unexpected.
"It's my fault, huh."
When the trio's leader had left, Nade had been the one most crushed—but he wasn't so weak as to dump his burdens on his friends.
"No. It's absolutely not your fault. Honestly, I just took the graduating class too lightly. You can't coast like the advanced class."
Iruki admitted that much.
'Anyway, now that Shirone's back, that idiot Nade might snap out of it.'
Being the only one left after friends graduate would be the worst possible outcome.
"Anyway, if Nade's last, that means Maya, Aider, and I are out, so we're twenty-seventh. Iruki, what rank are you?"
Iruki answered briefly.
"Eighth."
"Whoa, class one? Amazing."
"Well… one guy spaced out, so I had to balance things."
Nade pouted in annoyance.
"And I'm not that great. Amy's fifth."
"Fifth!"
Shirone's fists clenched without his permission.
Since he'd placed fifth in last year's final evaluation as well, that mid-stage pace wasn't bad.
Nade said, "Since you left, three people were newly promoted to class one: Amy, Iruki, and Dante."
"How high is Dante?"
"Fourth."
"...."
Shirone had decided to rely more on politics than skill from now on, but hearing his friends' advances made him anxious.
"So three of the former class one dropped to class two. Besides that, there were a lot of upheavals."
"Sounds fierce."
Nade's fists trembled with indignation.
"Tch. Now I get it after hearing Shirone. That Fermi bastard—how did he keep first? He bought other people's magic."
"That's a skill in itself. And Shirone, you don't need to worry so much. You said Miro gave you intense training, right?"
Only then did Shirone remember the death-omen.
"Right, listen to my story."
When Shirone explained the Sibulsangpokmae ability, Nade gaped.
"What are you talking about? How can you perceive time differently?"
"I'll show you."
Standing up, Shirone entered a state of unity with himself, and the avatar of the Radiant Archangel bloomed.
"This is… an avatar?"
"Yeah. It's a Law that destroys time. Like this…."
Trailing a golden afterimage, Shirone took a step, froze, and his body shifted to the position he'd occupied a second earlier.
"...."
After a long silence Iruki said, "I see. So it's not that you jumped across time, but that you perceive time itself differently?"
"That's it. And you can even—"
At that moment, a thud came again from the ceiling. Shirone shot his eyes wide and shouted.
"This! Can you hear it? You're hearing it, right?"
Their friends looked around.
"Hearing what? All I can hear is you making a racket."
Shirone turned toward the scream that had come from outside the door.
"Look! Don't you hear the fight in the hallway?"
Iruki checked the corridor and shook his head.
"There's nobody there."
Shirone dispelled Sibulsangpokmae with a hollow look.
"Sigh. Why is this happening?"
"What on earth is going on?"
As Shirone explained calmly, Iruki finally took on a puzzled expression.
"Isn't it a side effect of the ability? Perceiving time differently…"
"It's not that. There were no problems anywhere else. It only happens in Istas."
"Hmm, Istas, huh…."
Shirone looked at Nade with a serious expression.
"Do you have any idea? You uncovered the secret of my death-omen before."
"No, nothing concrete. I just remembered something an upperclassman told me. As you know, the Paranormal Psychoscience Club had some remarkable seniors. Because of that, for a long time many underground research groups eyed this place to claim it."
Iruki cut in.
"You mean rumors from the higher-ups? But from what Shirone told us, that was just Miro's space-time, right?"
"I thought so too. But how do you explain the death-omen Shirone felt? More importantly, the story my direct senior told me keeps nagging at me."
"What did you hear?"
Nade answered as if it didn't need remembering, "In the upper echelons of Istas, everything that cannot exist in this world exists. That's why countless research clubs tried to take it over."
Shirone chewed on Nade's words.
"What does 'cannot exist in this world' mean?"
"I don't know either. My senior didn't know. It's a tale passed down from senior to senior. It might just be a rumor. Honestly, after hearing your story I thought Istas's secrets were solved. But now…."
"There's something more."
Iruki propped his chin, intrigued.
"It's worth investigating. Maybe it's something hidden at a specific coordinate in the building, like Miro's space-time."
Nade's eyes lit up. "Yeah! Let's try changing the building's layout! If it's a spatiotemporal puzzle, Iruki can calculate it."
As for intellect, Iruki didn't seem inferior to anyone, but Shirone worried for other reasons about his friends' eagerness to dive down such a strange path.
"Don't go too deep. We're the graduating class. We don't have enough time even if we train like hell every day."
Iruki waved a finger.
"No. Exactly because we're the graduating class we have to do it. When else will we come back here after graduation? We can't let someone else steal this fun."
"Exactly! Let's make new history. Let's uncover Istas's secret!"
As Nade celebrated, Iruki teased him, "You just don't want to attend class."
"No, I'll work hard now. Shirone's back, after all."
Watching his friends' drive toward odd obsessions made Shirone sigh, but as the person involved he had no right to complain.
"All right. While we're at it, shall we start now?"
Shirone raised his hand to stop them.
"No, we can't do that. I have somewhere to go tonight."
"Huh? At this hour?"
"I should tell Amy. She'd be hurt if she heard about it later than you guys."
Shirone also didn't want his friends to get too wrapped up in this.
"True. If we're going to get hit anyway, better hit early. The more days pass, the worse it gets."
"Haha! Right. And let's deal with the Istas problem on the weekend. Fifteen weeks until the graduation exam, so we've got time."
Iruki nodded.
"All right, let's break then. Even if the evaluation hall is off-limits, we'll see each other in the cafeteria."
The three wrapped it up and left Istas's storage area, and by the time they reached the dormitory it was late at night.
'Is it too late?'
Back in his room Shirone hesitated, but he had a strong feeling she wouldn't be asleep.
"All right, I should go."
Deciding, Shirone put on his coat and turned the doorknob.
The next instant he froze in place.
Amy stood there, her face as surprised as Shirone's.
"...."
It was a strange coincidence to meet with just one door between them, but Amy's gaze had already calmed.
"You were in your room. Where were you headed?"
"Huh? Well, actually… I was coming to see you."
"Okay."
When Shirone faltered at the unexpected response, Amy pointed to the room.
"Mind if I come in for a bit?"
"Of course."
Amy offered the chair and Shirone sat on the bed, waiting for the right moment to speak in the awkward silence.
"Um…."
They both opened their mouths at once, and Amy went first.
"You go first."
"Right. I want to explain. Why I had no choice but to leave. So I…"
"Wait. Let me speak first."
Caught off guard, Shirone swallowed.
"Let me do that. I want to clear it up before my resolve weakens."
Before my resolve weakens.
Amy hadn't told him anything yet, but those words alone made his heart pound.
"Shirone, no matter what explanation you give, I'm not going to forgive you."
"Amy…."
"Don't get me wrong—I know you won't misunderstand—but let me be clear. I'm not saying I'll never see you again or that we should sever ties. It's just that I…."
Amy hesitated, then lifted her head.
"You disappeared like that and I had no choice. I didn't know whether to keep waiting for you or just forget you."
"I understand. I'm sorry."
There were no words—nothing he could say even if he had ten mouths.
You can't put life and death into probabilities, but he had left assuming the possibility he wouldn't return.
Amy forced a smile. "So, that's it. If you expect something from me, or think you can turn back time to before you left, there's no need to explain. You're still a good friend. You know what I mean…."
Suddenly she stopped speaking and went blank.
Before coming in she'd run countless scenarios in her head, but this was one she hadn't expected.