Kami-sama no Inai Nichiyoubi:Volume3

Novel Illustrations

These are the illustrations used in volume 3:

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  Cover

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  Page 039

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  Page 061

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  Page 075

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  Page 089

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  Page 099

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  Page 121

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  Page 149

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  Page 193

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  Page 291

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  Page 311

Prologue

It was night.

Ai crossed the moon.

The dry air caused the hem of her coat to flap, and her feet, paddling through the air, found nothing more than ten meters away. The moon was thin and cold as melting ice, and the darkness was dark and hollow as an open grave. The only light in the distance was a small torch held by the sentry beneath her feet.

Ai jumped over the small light.

A gust of wind blew across. The wind ruffled Ai's body, and she nearly lost her balance. Her coat fluttered, her back muscles chilled, her straw hat flapped as she jumped across—

She managed to get her right hand up in time.

And instead, she hit her nose.

A thud.

"Ow-ow-ow—"

Ai rubbed her nose dexterously with her free hand while clinging onto the walls of Ortus Castle. There was no nosebleed fortunately, but there remained a rusty tinge in the back of her nostrils. She snivelled and tapped her hat to buck up. Mmm! She growled, and scaled the walls with both hands with all her might.

Once she arrived at the top of the wall that was adorned with ogre tiles, Ai tied rope upon one of them. This particular one had a chipped fang, and looked rather adorably.

She tied the rope behind her—and escaped the tower she had just intruded.

She then tugged as a signal.

And the other party tugged at the rope in response.

After that, she waited patiently for a while. The rope was taut and tied on both ends, fading into the darkness.

And appearing from that darkness was a single woman.

It was Scar.

Scar was dressed in a soft nightgown and a jacket, the silk was so thin that the moonlight could shine through it. The mischievous night wind of Ortus seemed to mock the outfit that seemed only appropriate for bed, and even the laughed at the outfit, which was only appropriate in the warmth of the bedding, and as she reached for her hem, the rope tightened and tried to trip her.

However, Scar remained unfazed. She carried the baby—Celica, to her chest. Her calves were faintly white calves when exposed to the moonlight as she walked over.

She resembled a celestial being..

And then, thud, she stepped on the ogre tiles, and stood on the wall, basked in the sharp moonlight.

"…Is something the matter?"

The celestial being called out to Ai, who recovered, and continued to climb the wall.

"I-it’s nothing. I just feel that you have become completely different, Miss Scar…"

"… Is that so?"

Scar tilted her head a little sadly. Ai had more or less taken this gesture as proof that she had changed, and sized up the reason for the change.

Celica was sleeping soundly in her mother's arms.

"She’s a bold one. She never wakes up."

Scar smiled at that remark like a mother whose child was praised.

"Yes, that is right. She never cries except when she is hungry—she basically declares that she will not waste energy for any reason other than to eat. Quite a glutton she is."

"I can relate to that."

Ai tickled the baby who was wrapped in a warm cloth, but was rejected.

"… Is this fine?"

Ai asked.

"Yes."

Scar answered.

"I understand…Let’s go."

The moment they said so, the Gravekeepers moved. Ai went first, and Scar followed. The two Gravekeepers fluidly moved through the rugged walls, came to the ground, and leapt over the air moat without stopping for a single moment. They crawled along the flat white sand slope and up the anthill-like mound. It was terrifying as to how little sound they made, and the only traces left behind were the little distortions the two Gravekeepers made.

It was as though there was a puppet show on the main street.

They looked across the street from the edge of the air moat. The street, crowded with cars and the Dead in the daytime, was dead silent at night, akin to a backstage nobody paid heed to. The crescent moon was like a lamp indicating that it was lights out, and the cobblestones were like virgin snow, refusing to be stepped on by anyone. The electric lights resembled more like the lights of a security guard, forbidding intrusion, and there was four unobstructed lines.

Phew, Ai timed her movements. There was no sentry to be seen, and there should be a change of shifts.

Supposedly.

Let’s go!

She prayed that no guard would appear, that she would not see anyone, and ran down the street.

The two seconds that resembled twenty passed by.

The duo leapt onto the street of Ortus. A few steps were enough for her to pant hard, and for her heart to pound. At this moment, she had a feeling that someone would pop out and say, who’s there?

They waited for five minutes.

Nothing happened.

The two of them slowly paced around. They advanced through the darkness, looking back and forth, and looked around every corner tentatively. It was really nerve-wrecking

Thus, Ai was overjoyed to the verge of tears when she saw the blue car at the rendezvous.

"Over here. Get in!"

She ran as fast as she could down the last straight, jumped into the car, and barrelled over Kiriko, who had his hand outstretched, into the other door

"Argh! Ow! Mr. Julie! Go!"

And Kiriko, who was under her feet, shouted.

Julie stepped on the gas pedal without saying a word. The car slowly turns its lights to the east and went downhill in Ortus while going perfectly within the legal speed limit.

Silence beckoned in the car.

The street lights passed by rhythmically and Ai could see the ripples of light on the window as though she was looking up from the bottom of a lake. She remained slumped in the same position as when she rushed to the car, watching the view and letting the time fly by. She had a feeling that something bad would happen if she spoke or made a move, and so did the others, it seemed, for Kiriko, who was kicked off the seat, did not grumble either.

At that moment, someone held up a pure white notebook and ruined the cautious atmosphere.

"Is my sister okay?"

A young girl wearing a blindfold and a mouthpiece—Ulla, peeked out from the back seat. Ai saw her writing and relaxed, slowly adjusting herself, and sat down.

Scar gently handed over Ulla’s older sister Celica, and Ulla embraced her firmly and brought her cheek towards it. Celica continued to smile innocently while in her sister's deadly embrace.

The others stared at her.

The car was dark, messy and unorganized, and they were within distance to distinguish each other’s scent. The space was filled with warmth, as though it was a den filled with animals of different species that had gathered by chance.

"Are you really going…?"

Kiriko asked Scar the same question that Ai had just asked on the wall.

"Yes," Scar replied, nodding.

"I see…"

Kiriko replied. It was no wonder, given the events that had transpired over the past week.

—A week ago, after the birth of Celica beneath the earth, the old men of Ortus who were the first to act. With their black, rotten bellies, they pondered over the significance of a child that should have never been born was born in the City of the Dead.

They assumed there had to be a meaning.

They assumed there had to be some circumstance for a baby to be born in the city of the Dead (Ortus), when the Living that had casted rocks upon them were so desperate to have one.

Destiny…

Fate…

Surely there had to be various reasons, and there should be a continuation of the miracle—so they thought.

However, they did not know what it was. Their old, parched brains could not garner any new thoughts, and their bellies that had been polished with blackness and intrigue before their deaths, had shrivelled their brains further.

It was inconceivable to them that this miracle was not theirs.

Kiriko, Ulla, and naturally, Ai and the others knew, but these old men did not. They did not know that Celica was born because she wanted to. She wanted to ‘live on’ as all Life would have wanted.

Celica was neither born for Ortus, nor for these old people.

They could not see such an obvious fact.

The old men then tried to put Scar and Celica under house arrest, away from Ai and the others, and even Ulla. They did not allow the mother and daughter to see anyone, and had them imprisoned in the East Tower of Ortus.

The East Tower of Ortus formed a pair with the West Tower—the minaret where Ulla lived in. It seemed these old men simply had them locked in there for no purpose other than ‘this is a convenient place’.

But the East Tower was a similar cage as to how these old men built the minaret that was meant to deceive the little sister. At this point, they had the mother and daughter imprisoned in that minaret, and that angered Ulla Eulesse Hecmatika. While she could forgive someone for deceiving her, she could never forgive someone for deceiving someone else, let alone her older sister.

Ulla started a lonely struggle in the castle, and mobilized the golden scepter she had refrained from using the entire time, intending for Scar to move about freely within Ortus for the time being.

The result was disastrous.

Instead, the old men saw the opportunity to deprive the Princess of the Dead of her rights that had been a ceremonial role, and the Idol of Murder was split from the government, leaving her as a mere idol.

The jail was created. The city of Ortus became a place where people looked at the West—the sunset, where the god of death lived, and the East—the sunrise, where the god of live remained. Ulla Eulesse Hecmatika was no longer a mere girl or a princess, just one of the many Gods who could not be involved with the mortal world.

The old men felt their bellies with great satisfaction.

Ulla, downcast, apologized to Ai—and it was a hassle to request a meeting—"I can't save Scar."

"Then let's steal them."

That was Ai's only reply.

"We'll escape at night."

So Ai charged headfirst into Castle Ortus, scaled the walls, jumped over the sentry's head, snuck into Scar's room, gave Celica a "Peek-a-boo" and a little "grow tall grow tall", and led them out here.

Kiriko exhaled a sigh as he looked at the girl who did this and merely commented "that was nerve-wrecking."

 (What the hell have we been doing? …)

If it came down to it, she could have freed Scar so easily.

He glanced over at Ulla, who was holding her sister, and Ulla looked a little devastated.

Ai and the others would be leaving Ortus after this.

—I really want you to stay with me. He could practically hear Ulla's thoughts.

"Miss Scar, is that fine? It’s true that Ortus' intentions are underhanded, but they’ll definitely try to protect you…I can’t guarantee your safety in the wilderness."

"I—"

Scar looked at the embracing sisters and frowned. Her face, which used to have a steady, unmoving smile akin a stone statue, was now painted with a variety of emotional colors, including the purple of hesitance, the gray of weariness, the pale pink of reassurance, and the green of distress.

That was the color of human skin.

"I am a Gravekeeper, the mother of this child.

Scar said, stating these words that should not be put together.

"…I shall protect her from all harm. I will not let any blade touch her skin…but in that black tower, I could not tell what is harm and what is evil."

The mother looked at her child with compassionate and confused eyes. The moment Celica woke up, she saw her beloved sister, and immediately became happy, her mouth causing her sister's shiny black hair to be all sticky.

"I can protect her from the blades of evil men…but I do not know how to protect her from the shapeless malice of the people in that tower…that is why I cannot stay there."

"We’re sorry…."

Kiriko and Ulla both bowed their heads together and apologized, blushing in shame. The older sister seemed tired of the taste of hair, and became interested in her sister's blindfold as she tried to pull it off. In various ways, this 15-year-old baby was not to be underestimated.

Scar stared at them and said,

"You have nothing to apologize for, Mr Kiriko, and—"

And then she called out in a very unaccustomed tone,

"…Miss… Ulla?"

"Please call me Ulla, Mom."

Ulla turned the page she had prepared.

"Since you are my sister's mother, you are also my mother."

"Ah."

Scar said with an expression that clearly showed she did not anticipate this.

"Humans are really complicated…"

"It's hard to be a mother, I suppose."

Ulla and Scar stared at each other and smiled faintly with troubled expressions. Kiriko watched them carefully and filed the scene in her mind. Ai politely ensured that she would not distract their conversation by remaining silent on the sideline and listening to their conversation happily. Julie in turn continued to drive while smiling.

The car slowly drove down Ortus, and the moment of departure was near.

The sky was white by the time the car arrived at the West gate.

"It-it might be too loud for an escape night."

Do do do. Ai stood next to the car with its engine still spinning, and looked up at the city gate.

The West Gate before them was being activated at full speed, and the engines propelling the gates were on fire, devouring gasoline at an alarming rate as they lowered the three-story gate with all their might. Of course, the noise echoed everywhere, and the busybodies that were the people of Ortus immediately gathered around to see what was happening.

There were many employees and soldiers at the gates, faithfully working under the guidance of the vanguard.

"Are they okay? Won’t they be scolded by their superiors if they help us…?"

"P-probably, I guess."

"Yes."

Ulla and Kiriko replied with no concern as they snuggled together in the sun.

"You’re amazing Ulla! You're really a princess after all. You say you’ve no authority, but that’s not true♪!"

Ai turned around while feeling the adrenaline caused by her staying up all night, and she flailed in a dancing manner, saying,

"I really don't have any authority."

Ulla wrote with the same gesture.

"Again with that? Look, can’t you see that everyone is coming to work for you, princess?"

"No, I really don't have any power. And just because I'm a princess doesn't mean I have permission to open the door, does it?

Ai suddenly stopped turning around, and her mind started running.

"Well, now that you mention it, that’s…"

"Right?"

"So why did everyone …?"

"Because I asked them to."

"Asked?"

"Yes, I wrote "please" to ask people. They might get scolded or arrested, but I went ahead and asked for their help."

Ai stared at the small, insect-like shadows as the workers on the gates banged on the bolts that held them in place.

"And everyone is chipping in?"

"Yes."

"This…"

Gong gong gong! The heavy tremors shook the morning air as the chains were rolled up. Ai stood beneath the wall and looked up at the princess of Ortus, saying,

"I think that’s real authority…"

Kiriko nodded repeatedly at these words.

"Is that so?"

Ulla, the person in question, tilted her head slightly with a puzzled expression.

"It's not authority. I can't even grant freedom to my sister and mother. That’s not power…"

Ulla started apologizing again, and Kiriko followed suit. Ai immediately consoled them.

"I'll try my best."

Ulla wrote these words on the few remaining pages.

"I will try to make it possible for everyone to enter and leave Ortus freely, and for Ortus to stand firm."

It was a silvery morning with snow and frost falling.

The morning breeze contained lots of moisture that remained from the previous day, and the sunlight slowly grew stronger as it shone through everything, leaving shadows on the ground that were as vivid as paper cuts. Present in the lights and shadows were Ulla, Kiriko, and Ai.

Each of them has a different dream.

Ai would head to the cold wilderness where the Living was…

Ulla would remain in a warm city where the Dead lived…

They had different dreams.

"Farewell."

Ulla finally wrote this word.

"Goodbye."

Ai too replied.

"…I’ll leave sister to you, Mother Scar."

Scar nodded in the back seat, while Celica slept soundly in her arms.

"So, Ai, take care of yourself… We'll meet again, preferably here."

"Okay."

Ai replied immediately.

"We’ll definitely meet each other again."

Ulla nodded.

The last ring of the chain was lowered, leaving a humming echo.

The west gate was open.

"Goodbye."

"Yes,farewell."

Just as they were saying their goodbyes.

"They’re here!"

Dozens of soldiers emerged from beyond the gates, each wearing a rich green coat. It's the Necrosoldiers.

"Ah, it seems they were alerted of your escape."

"…Well, we caused quite a ruckus after all—what do we do?"

Ai looked up at the fully opened West Gate and asked with a dumbfounded expression. The soldiers got into formation while she talked, and the Dead who appeared to be the commanding officer had a large pile of clattering badges on his chest as he waved his arms in a rage.

"Your Highness! Your recklessness is causing us trouble! Please hand over Her Highness Celica and Master Scar immediately! Otherwise, you’ll be punished, even though you’re the Princess!"

"Punished …? They still don't understand how serious this is…"

Kiriko muttered with a surprised expression.

"Certainly. The old men think it’s just a child being rebellious…and I risked my life on this …"

Ulla raised her right hand and then lowered it.

Badadadadadadadadada! There was a loud banging volley causing this noise that could never be caused by a handheld firearm.

Ai instinctively covered her ears and looked back to see that two machine guns and four heavy machine guns had been set up at the east gate without her knowledge, firing away.

"Huh?"

Countless tracer bullets flew like meteors and fell to the ground, leading a hundred times as many steel bullets to assault the soldiers.

A battlefield unfolded before her in an instant, and the Necromongers were torn apart like thin paper.

"U-Ulla? You, what are you doing!?"

"They have steel-like skulls and steely concepts of life. These are the Necromongers Ortus is proud of, and they pay no heed to such attacks."

She said the truth. The soldiers’ arms and legs were shredded apart by the preemptive attack, but they immediately regrouped and started to fight back. The bodies picked up the separated heads and popped them back into place so that they could see. The sergeant who had three vocal cords started yelling behind the messenger. Another three soldiers started their own dispute, "That's my right hand! " "No, it's mine!" "More importantly, did anyone see my right foot?"

"Okay, Ai, continue with your night escape…"

"It’s not a night escape anymore. It’s clearly war!!"

Da-da-da-da-da-da! Da-da-da-da-da-da!! Whoosh! Bang! Whoosh! Bang! Pew! Pew! Pew!

"We would have used bigger weapons if this is war. So, erm, I suppose this is a mere scuffle? "

Swoosh. The shoulder rockets flew towards the wall, but was shot down, and exploded.

"Fire~work~"

"This is too relaxed for a war!"

"Ai, get in the car!"

Julie shouted with the explosion echoing in the background. For some reason, the man looked stupidly great with the explosion.

"Go on, Ai…"

"…Is this really okay?"

"It's okay."

Kiriko stepped forward.

"I will definitely protect Ulla."

Ai looked at him carefully.

"Okay!"

She nodded, and jumped into the passenger seat.

"Alright  kids! Hang in there!"

Julie yelled this out, gahahahaha, and stepped on the gas.

The blue car guzzled down lots of gas as it revved up its engine. The The brand new tires spun on the ground, shifted smoothly into second gear, and drove through the gates of hell.

And so the car returned to the wilderness."They're gone. …"

Kiriko said as he saw the car move anxiously slow, fading away. Ulla nodded and took the hand of the man beside her. Kiriko's heart pounded, but then he remembered recovered and stopped being nervous.

"Can you still see them…?"

He could feel her index finger sliding on the back of his left hand.

"Do you want to see them?"

"Yes, so Kiriko, you have to watch it for me."

Kiriko nodded vigorously and looked at the scene in her stead, for she could not look at the Living, and conveyed in words,

"It's a beautiful day, the perfect day to go on a trip. The wilderness looks to be swaying in the heat, and the blue car is shining brightly. Ah, Mr. Julie was waving, and I can see Miss Scar in the back window, holding up Celica for us to see. Hahahaha, I think that's a little too forced."

"…What about Ai?"

And so he proudly answered the question that was cautiously written on his right hand.

"Your friend kept waving her hand very hard. Ahhhh~, her head and hands are sticking out from the passenger seat. Mr. Julie will surely give her a talking to later."

"Yes!"

Ulla also waved her hand hard in response.

And so did Kiriko. Ulla was still holding his left hand for some reason, so he waved his right hand as hard as he could.

Not long after,

The dark gates of the city closed heavily, separating the young friends.

"They're gone."

"Yes, they are."

It felt as though they could still see the car as their eyes remained fixated on the black gates blocking their sights. Ai did not cry, and neither did Ulla and Kiriko.

Because they should not be sad about this farewell.

"Now then."

"Now then."

They turned around in unison.

"We have a lot of work to do here, too."

"Yes."

The war had yet to end.

"Kiriko."

Ulla pointed to her eyes and mouth.

"Take these off for me."

It was the first time Ulla had said such a thing. For the first time in her life, the Idol of Murder requested to remove the blindfold and the mouthpiece from her mouth.

"Understood."

But Kiriko did not waver, and naturally stood behind her.

He reached into the sea of Ulla's long, silky black hair, touched the straps that were pressing against her soft skin, unfastened the buckles one by one, and let them fall to her feet.

"Pwoah…."

Ulla took a deep breath.

Then she looked at Ortus with the eyes of death.

She saw the glittering street scene, the gun battle, and the citizens of Ortus yelling from the sidelines.

"Yes, everyone's in good spirits."

Ulla smiled at the sight.

"Everybody listen to me at ～～～～～!"

And so,

She threw out the words of death.

By no means was she loud, but all the Dead hearing her froze in place. They really appeared like the Dead as they remained still.

Ulla put her hand to her chest and breathed deeply, trying to bring her flushed face back to normal after she had shouted too loudly.

At the same time, she reached out with her other hand and grabbed Kiriko. Her hand kept trembling.

"Kiriko."

Ulla turned back slightly, and her blue eyes looked at Kiriko.

"You have to stay with me."

Kiriko replied as she grabbed her shaking hand,

"Of course."

"Mmm!"

Ahhh—

That smile is mine.

Serves that Ai right to be unable to see this smile. Such a pity.

"Let's go."

Kiriko said,

"Everyone is waiting for you to say something."

The two of them held hands as they saw the same scene.

The actual Ortus was right before their eyes.

—Although I don’t have a lofty dream of saving the world.

But I can at least try to keep this little grand world a little cleaner…

So that my friend, my sister and my mother are willing to come back.

In order to make this small wish come true, first—

"Now then, it's time for a rebellion."

The two of them decided to destroy Ortus.

The boy and the girl dreamed of saving the world.

Chapter 1 - The Egg is First

On Monday, God created the world.

On Tuesday, God distinguished the order and chaos.

On Wednesday, God honed the numerical values.

On Thursday, God allowed the Time to flow.

On Friday, God overlooked every corner of the world.

On Saturday, God rested.

And so, on Sunday, God abandoned the world

15 years ago, God suddenly appeared before humanity, and told them.

“That world is overflowing with people. This world will come to an end. Ahh, I have failed.”

Leaving only these words behind, God vanished, and back then, while humans were lavishing hymns on this world of Spring, they were left quaking. Their species existed for less than a hundred million years before they finally met God. However, those first words from Him, were words of farewell.

From that day on, Man could no longer die.

Their hearts ceased to beat, their flesh rotting. The Dead could continue to act.

From that day on, Man could no longer be born.

The flames of the factories had extinguished, and new humans were no longer built.

After God no longer inhabited this world, humans screamed in agony. Millions shrieked to the point of vomiting blood. The Living quickly whittled down in numbers, and then the entire world was filled with the Dead.

And so, the gravekeepers appeared.

These gravekeepers were the final miracles that God had granted for the sake of Man.

Gravekeepers would never age, and never know fatigue. God gave them the most ideal of bodies humans could ever think of, had them build graves, and bury the wandering Dead, their work being ensuring the peace of the Living. At this point, Man could finally rest.

The children could no longer be born, the Dead wandered, and the Gravekeepers roamed everywhere.

Such was the depiction of the end times.

In this Godless age, people continued to live and die.

They lost their lives, their inheritors, their faith, their souls, but they did not want things to end..

They responded to the salvation of the Gravekeepers with bullets, and teetered towards the sudden gift of eternity from heaven.

It was like the suffering of the people of hell. It was also like a pioneer's journey to the west.

Ai was a Gravekeeper, twelve years old.

She too started to walk.

She too trembled and suffered for the sake of saving the new world.

 

Part I

The large Ortus shrank instantaneously, and finally could no longer be seen.

Ai thought to herself this was the reason why she hated cars. She felt it was not a good thing to be able to see each other while they were drifting away from each other.

It would be nice if she had walked instead. Those who walked knew very well what they should do at such moments, and could not look behind. No matter how anguished or lonely they felt, they would trip over if they did not look at their feet.

They could only look ahead while walking.

But at this moment, she was reluctantly occupying the back seat while looking back, and started to hate cars a little bit.

… No, she should not blame the car.

It took five or six attempts of resolve before Ai finally got up, grabbed the seat in the shaky car, and returned to the passenger seat. Julie immediately showed a worried look through the rear-view mirror, and Ai turned her face outwards, for she did not want him to see the red corners of her eyes.

"You’ll meet again."

That's true. Ai replied as nonchalantly as her attitude. Julie understood her intent, nodded, and started being wary of their surroundings.

" Scar, is there any presence of the Dead nearby?"

She did not answer.

"Scar?"

Julie glanced in the rear-view mirror, Ai too thought it was strange, so she looked at the back of the chair at the middle row of seats. Scar was sleeping soundly on the seat, not acting like a Gravekeeper at all, but a girl who had forgotten her tension due to fatigue

"Miss Scar has fallen asleep? Mr. Julie, stop the car … Mr. Julie."

"Yes, yes."

Julie then regained his senses and released his foot off the gas pedal. The car slowed down and stopped in the wilderness, and the only sound left in the car was the engine cooling down, before the silence returned.

Ai dug through the gap between the driver's seat and the passenger's seat and wriggled her way to the middle row of seats.

"How's she?"

Julie hated to move through the narrow road, so he got out of the car and went around. Ai said to him, putting her index finger to her mouth,

"Shh... she's sound asleep."

And then she picked up Celica, who was about to fall under the chair. It was the first time Ai carried her

"Wow."

The baby was so soft.

"Wo-woah, she’s so cute!"

"Oy , her neck is still soft. Hold her head up."

"H-how do I do that?"

Goodness me, so Julie mumbled and slowly squeezed in. The entire space was made narrow in an instant.

"Hold her head properly in one hand and her body in the other. Like this—"

"Oh..."

Ai tried to do what he said.

"Woah…she’s so cute..."

"Let's set up the bed while we’re at it—shall we put it in the middle row?"

"She’s super cute!"

Julie started to install the bedhe had bought in Ortus. The bed was custom-made and had a very strong structure that not only protected the baby, but also kept the baby out of sight.

And while he was doing so, Ai was mesmerized by the tiny creature in her hands. The soft touch on her hands was indescribable, and she was so engrossed in it that she did nothing to help.

"Amazing~ she already has ears and a nose."

"Of course, right? You’re really lacking in common sense."

"Really? It's my first time seeing a baby, so I don't know."

"Ah, no."

Haa, it was then that Julie realized something was amiss.

 

"…Of course, your generation has never seen a baby…"

He stopped his hand from bolting the screws as he looked into the distance.

"Sorry for going overboard, Ai. It's not your fault…"

"Huh? She doesn't have any teeth though? Hmmm~ Mr. Julie, did her teeth fall out from under the seat?"

"…I take that back. Yep, it's your fault."

Ai looked at the strong man with a puzzled look..

"She doesn't have her teeth yet because they'll get in the way of suckling. They'll grow out soon."

"Ohh? That's convenient."

At that moment, the baby suddenly opened its eyes.

Ai met her in the eyes and whispered,

"—Good morning …"

Daw? Celica responded vaguely,

"Don't make too much noise, your mom is sleeping."

She did not know if Celica understood her, but the latter merely moved her arms slowly, ugu ugu, moved her mouth, and swayed her body from side to side.

"You definitely don’t understand me, right?"

"Daw."

"But you're so cute, I forgive you! There must have been a lot of babies like that in the past."

"You’re making it sound like she’s an endangered animal."

But she was not wrong.

"… Okay, the bed is set up, let me do it."

Ai handed Celica over to Julie. The baby appeared calm and comfortable, and allowing Julie to carry her to the bed and lie down.

"How is it? Sleep well?"

Ai asked, and the baby answered with a serious expression,

"Daw."

So then.

"She said, "I am fine. Do be at ease"."

"What's that tone about? Is she the King?"

"It's Her Highness."

"I'd have forgotten if you hadn't told me."

Ai poked Celica with her finger, and Julie continued to fool around with her as he cleared his tools, while Celica resisted and slapped Ai's face.

Then Scar woke up.

"…! Celica!"

The mother opened her eyes in a moment of confusion and jumped up from her seat when she realized that the baby was not in her arms.

"Where is Celica!? Where is the baby?"

"Ca-calm down, Miss Scar. She's right here."

Ai said and pointed towards the bed. Scar calmed down, sat down in her seat and picked up the baby lying on the bed. Ai and Julie exchanged looks.

"We have a bed ready, Mr. Julie set it up."

"No need."

She said categorically.

"I shall always hold this baby."

Scar hugged Celica and shivered, but it was Scar who looked more like a child, a child who had just returned to her parents and refused to be separated. Ai folded her arms and pondered for a while.

"But you can't hold her all the time, can you? If you hold her all day long, your hand will break."

"They may be the case if I were human."

Scar showed a faint smile.

"But I am a Gravekeeper."

"You're kidding. And Gravekeeper aside, the more important thing is that you're her mother, right?"

Scar gasped at that and tried to argue.

Celica was throwing a tantrum in her tight clutches, and she immediately bared her chest to feed the baby. Ai looked a little embarrassed.

"I …"

Scar was clearly not in a stable state of mind.

"What am…I doing…? …What have I become? Am I…malfunctioning?"

Her head was foggy, her throat was parched, her breasts were spurting milk, her mindset and body changed, and she began to cherish the weight in her arms. These signs of change were too much for Scar to handle.

"M-Miss Scar, please calm down."

"Ai…how did you resolve this issue?"

"Yes?"

Scar asked the question as if she were asking for help.

"You are a hybrid of a Gravekeeper and a human, so how did you resolve this? How did you find a balance between your Gravekeeper self and your human self, when both are completely different?"

Ai's eyes widened.

"I didn't find any balance though?"

"Huh?"

"I'm as confused as I can be now."

"I-is that so?"

Ai replied with a deep nod,

"Yes. And actually, I hit a snag on the purpose of this trip—'I dream of saving the world' …hehehe, I really don’t know what to do next."

"…Is that so?"

"Well, hold your horses."

Julie saw that the two of them were increasingly depressed, and spoke up to stop them.

"You two are still young and immature."

"Immature…"

These words pierced Ai's heart.

"What are you pouting about? You should be happy. What happened to that usual inexplicable positive attitude of yours? Immaturity means there's room for growth. Do I need to repeat myself?"

"Oh, I see."

"Now you got something to worry about, and that's the happiest thing…especially Scar."

"Yes."

Scar straightened her back and waited for Julie to continue, looking very serious.

"Didn't you say so on the top of that hill?"

On that hill, Ai vowed to save the world.

And Julie vowed to help her,

Scar said that she wanted to try and surpass as a Gravekeeper.

"The moment has come."

Scar heard these words…

After a long silence, Scar gazed at her hands and the object she was holding.

"…Is this what I want to surpass?"

"More or less."

"Is that so…?"

Scar looked at Celica, who was gulping, and showed a feeble smile.

"Isn't that what you were hoping for?"

Julie smiled boldly. It was a triumphant smile.

"Now you know it's not easy being human, don’t you?"

"Yes, you are correct…"

Scar's smile remained feeble.

"I never imagined so."

She smiled while showing a soft expression and an ethereal voice.

At that moment, Celica started to cry, her face wrinkled like a monkey, muttering with an expression as though she was protesting something.

"Wh-What's going on here? She was in such a good mood just now."

"I-I do not know."

"What's wrong? …She was just breastfed."

"Erm, I do remember the maids in the castle…"

"I think they changed her diapers, right?"

The panicking duo then realized so, "I see" and started to act. However, the two Gravekeepers were simply yapping about where the cloth was, and no progress was made. Julie had already prepared the diapers for the change beforehand.

"Scar, do you know how to change a diaper?"

"E-erm, actually, I…the maids in the castle took care of everything …"

"What? You don’t know. Then Ai…goes without saying, huh?"

"Ugh, what’s with your attitude? It's rude not to ask."

"My bad. Can you do it?"

"No, I can’t."

"Don’t talk."

Julie's rough hands continued to move deftly while they talked, and he swapped out Celica’s diapers. The other two watched his movements with seriousness, desperately trying to learn.

"You two have a lot of growing up to do, so please follow this kid’s lead."

What’s that about? The two Gravekeepers showed doubtful looks, for they did not understand what he meant.

"You should be like her and bawl away, "I want to grow up, I want to grow up," as loudly as you can."

Ai looked away awkwardly, but Julie did not let her off.

"So I have a suggestion. Ai…"

A beat later—

"Do you want to go to school?"

†

 　　　　

Five days passed since they left Ortus.

The car sometimes chased the sunset, and was sometimes chased by the sun as it drove westward through the wilderness. Each time the elements deviated slightly, the wilderness would take on a different appearance. If there was less water, it became a desert, and if there was more water, it would become grassland, and any place that lasted more than a thousand years was a forest.

The group in the blue car drew water from the oasis lake, woke up to the frosty smell of the mountains, and watched the red sunset continue to move forward. The road was filled with nature and various man-made things, but they were all remnants. Some were the foundations of buildings, an empty town, an entire burned truck, a refrigerator seasoned with gasoline, and a bone-dry cabinet.

They passed several trucks that were still moving. These trucks had six tires each that were almost as tall as Ai, owned by three brothers. Initially, they looked down on the small, saggy-eyed blue car, and yapped away like a bunch of bullies.

But when Julie got out of the car and spoke to the owner of the truck, they immediately changed their attitude and even gave Julie and his group some gasoline.

What did you do? Ai asked him what he did, and he said he showed them an autograph album. Ai took the album he spoke of, and found that there were only the signatures of the Hampnie Hambert and the Idol of Murder. Ai too had Ulla’s signature, and she asked what they were for, but Julie replied, "Connections are important." Is that so?

So the car drove for five days.

During these five days, Ai and Julie spent almost all of their time arguing.

The argument was about whether Ai should go to school or not.

†

Julie said he wanted Ai to go to school, Ai naturally objected. She had to emphasize that she had no time to go to such a place, that the world was waiting for her, and that she had to grow up fast.

"But if you don't go now, you won't be able to go later."

Julie simply played his trump card.

These words alone touched Ai.

"Elementary schools have been abolished, and middle schools will only remain until this year. There won’t be any high school in another three years. You'll never have a chance to try school again."

It was to be expected, since no one was under the age of 15 anymore.

The fact that she might not be able to go to school for the rest of her life shook her resolve more than she could have imagined. Her father—Kizuna Astin dragged himself to school, yet she could not, and this fact shook her greatly.

—But she had to grow up fast to save the world.

"You can grow up in school."

Julie's statement was a brag. No, perhaps it was not entirely so. After all, school was ‘a place she did not know’ ". From this perspective, school was just like traveling, and it would be inappropriate to conclude that school is meaningless. That was the lesson she learned at Ortus.

"I see! You'll go?"

Hold on a minute. Even if it's not meaningless to go to school, I didn't say I wanted to go, so don't expand on what I said.

"I miss school. I used to do bad things with your father Kizuna, at school."

…Dad?

"He’s never wall, so he had to stay home for school, but he used to come to our dormitory to play. I don't know how many things we did together that were futile."

…Sch…ool.

"We got a bunch of friends too. I'm not going to lie, I met my wife at school too…"

And before she knew it--

Ai had agreed to go to school so enthusiastically that she had no idea of what was going on.

She felt she was fooled.

Part II

This town, called Gora, was a town of the Living, with the Lagoon Mountains in the backdrop. It was a big town compared to the village where Ai was born, but it was a mere peppercorn compared to Ortus.

The climate was very different when we arrived here, the humid wind was sweet, and the land was lush.

The car drove slowly to the town, as if to insist, "There is nothing suspicious about any of us."

†

Let us discuss a race between water droplets.

The rules were simple. Before the rain arrived at a glass window, they would have to find a droplet that was higher up. Assuming that one of them was A, they had to cheer on for A and pray that A would reaches the window frame below (the final point) first. End of explanation. The water drop race did not require any other elements, just cheering souls.

A started. It started to move slowly, swallowing the other drops one by one, but its position was not ideal, for the surface tension caused the forward track to be skewed, and it was about to veer off course. However, A turned at the ideal spot, and would at this point fall using its own weight. But the other droplets had grown bigger. Which would reach first!? C and E were moving quickly! Do your best A! If A wins, one would feel it was possible to really save the world.

B won.

"I was actually for B from the beginning," and finally, the all ended by substituting history.

Pitter patter.

The rain kept falling, and showed no signs of stopping. Ai sat sitting on a plain chair inside the house, leaning on the table and looking at the window. Let us hope nobody assumed she did not abide by the rules. This water droplet race should be participated in a sloppy manner after all.

She yawned.

She turned her face around as if it weighed a thousand pounds, and looked around the room. It was dark and cramped, and the floor was covered with peeling paint, devoid of repair. Inside, there was heaps of goods, bags of wheat and farm equipment lying around.

Julie was still talking to an old man.

Ai did not know how long it would take to talk about moving into town, let alone why it was necessary for him to drink. He did not know why they were chatting so happily, but the old man was drunk and flushed red, patting Julie's back repeatedly.

"Young lady…"

Suddenly, someone spoke to her, and she looked back to find an old woman before her. The old woman had wrinkles on her face that appeared to be fixed in the form of a smith, and her back was permanently hunched. She beamed as she put down two cups of tea, and slowly crawled onto a seat.

"Would you like a snack?"

"…I’ll be tucking in."

"Yes, good girl."

Even though she was not happy to be treated like a child, Ai accepted the sentiment obediently.

The old woman appeared to be living in a different river of time from the rest of the world, unaware of the great changes that were taking place in the world.

"So, young lady, are you enrolling in our school?"

School?

Once she heard what the old woman said, Ai realized there was a so-called school in this place. She glared at Julie's back. He never mentioned this when they entered the town.

"…Looks that way."

"Why, that is a big deal."

The old lady relaxed the corners of her mouth that were missing teeth.

"When will you start?"

"I’m not sure yet…"

"Oh, how can that be?"

The old lady patted the table.

"The earlier, the better."

With that, she got up and walked to the next room in a hurried but slow motion.

Ai had been able to chat with her to pass the time, but all she could do at this point was to sigh and look up at the night that was creeping towards the window.

It seemed that those drunks planned to continue to get drunk.

†

　　　　

Although she had no idea what was going on, they decided to stay at the old couple's house this day.

It seemed this decision was most probably out of consideration for the perils of taking Celica to town, and Scar's mental instability, and Ai's own—ignorance, and such. To be honest however, Ai was not interested in such matters, and left them all for Julie to handle.

The three of them decided to pretend to be a family. Scar hid her face under the cloak and boldly pretended to be a Dead, and the Celica she was holding in her arms was also Dead, giving the impression that Scar was traumatized. The old man frowned momentarily, but misunderstood their reasons for not wanting to come to town in a direction that was favorable to them, and simply said, "If the Gravekeeper comes, please leave" and let them stay in the warehouse.

The warehouse, naturally, was not intended for any residents, and it was far dirtier than the main house. There was straw scattered all over the floor, and as there was livestock inside beforehand, there was a beastly stench. Ai spent the afternoon cleaning, opening the windows, sweeping the floors, taking out the trash, and finally clearing out the most basic space.

It appeared those drunkards would not be returning for the time being.

"I have something to ask Mr. Julie. …"

Ai mumbled as she spread out a rag to dry next to her freshly laundered clothes. She rolled up her sleeves and replaced her straw hat with a hand towel instead, and tied her hair.

She had barely spoken to Julie in the last few days. No, technically she has, but it's been Julie talking unilaterally about school and Ai pretending not to be interested. It was to be expected; for she had to express that she had no intentions of going to school, and did not want to hear about it at all.

Julie had been appealing to her, trying to talk about how ‘fun’ school was, how good the experience of having frosty desserts after school with her classmates was, and how much fun it is to sneak out of school as if to please her.

Ai however wanted to ask "What kind of place is school? " or "When do I start school?", yet she could not ask such questions. The middle-aged man, however, did not understand the subtlety of the question, and only talked about how to effectively get past roll call or how to slip out of the teacher's sight. Ai had no interest in such matters, but for some reason, it seemed that when Julie talked about his experiences, 90% of it was about slipping out of class. Did he think that Ai would think, "Wow! I must experience it" just because he said so? Certainly, the mind of a middle-aged mind was really intriguing to the extreme.

Ai exhaled a long breath, decided to turn a deaf ear, and finally carried the bucket of dirty water outside to empty it.

The sun was burning red in the west.

The time had for the domain of night, the first stars and the moon rose side by side in the sky.

Ai got up after pouring water, and the town immediately came into view. The homes of this unfamiliar town exhaled smoke in the orange sunset, and beyond that was a high wall. The wall was made of limestone quarried from the Lagoon Mountains and wrapped in a semicircle around a high mountain cliff.

The old woman mentioned that the school was there.

Ai sighed again. She did not expect to go to school so soon. Julie, of course, did not mention it either.

Beyond the wall were some very tall buildings, one of which was a clock tower, ringing the bell at 6pm.. Ai naturally stood still and counted every bell chime that echoed in the evening.

Six chimes.

She felt as if the moment the last bell ended, night would beckon.

This feeling of time felt so intriguing to her. She knew she had a big day of school ahead of her, but she just could not feel nervous, and sometimes, she even felt that she was cleaning the warehouse because she was so free.

"…Alrighty."

She got up with the bucket and suddenly found something in the corner of her field of vision. She looked up towards the main house and saw someone approach.

"Look at what I have here."

It was the old woman, walking smoothly in a manner unbefitting of someone with a hunched back. She walked up to Ai, and held a flattened cardboard box on her chest.

"Pardon my intrusion."

"Ah!"

Before Ai could stop her, the old woman entered the house. Fortunately, Scar was already hidden further inside, and the old woman did not seem to be interested in her.

"Look."

The old woman said, putting the cardboard on the wooden box and opening it for Ai to see.

Softly, the smell of the change of seasons spread.

Inside the box was a set of girl’s uniform.

"Wow."

The smell of camphor, used as an insect repellant, lingered in her nose. Ai however paid no heed at all and looked into the box.

The green and white uniform jacket was folded neatly in the box, as though a model student folded it.

Ai did not touch the clothes, let alone take them out. She just marvelled as she kept looking at them.

The old lady looked at her with a smile on her face.

"Try it."

"Eh? Can I?"

"Of course, I brought it for you to wear after all."

Ai said, "…Now then on." She unrolled her uniform and put it on. She put on the jacket and skirt without removing her blouse, shoes and socks.

There was a distinct tautness befitting these new clothes.

"Why, it fits…try lifting your arms now. Yes yes, now there’s no need to tailor it."

The old lady guffawed with her missing teeth, "fufufu" while Ai turned around on the spot. She just kept spinning around and around.

"Do cherish it."

"Yes……wait, eh? C-can I keep this!?"

"Certainly."

The old woman said, squinting her blue eyes that most probably had deteriorated somewhat,

"Clothes should be worn by those who can use them."

"I guess…so…"

"That's right."

So said the old lady.

"All right, young lady, get your things and come with me."

The old woman walked out of the hut and went to the main house. Ai stood wide-eyed for a moment with Gravekeeper's clothes in her hand, and then regained her senses, ‘I’ll take my belongings’, and followed her. She crumpled the Gravekeeper's clothes into a ball and stuffed them into her bag.

The sun was still barely above the horizon, so the light was still bright. Ai followed the old woman beneath this atmosphere.

There was a black car parked next to the main house, and the old woman walked towards it.

It seemed the people in the car noticed them, and a woman got out of the back seat.

She closed the car door and said,

"Are you Ai Astin?"

The woman appeared to be somewhere between middle age and old. She was slim, and her back was straight like a wire. Her eyes were piercing, and her blue and silver pupils behind her triangular glasses gave a frosty impression. She was dressed very neatly, with her steel-plated boots clenching the earth, her cotton skirt without a single crease, and her shirt ironed all the way down to the collar, like a well-sharpened knife.

She also has two pistols hanging around her waist.

And Ai, who was very popular with the elderly, found her ‘a tough opponent to handle’.

"Umu."

The woman's eyes sized up Ai's face.

"I-is there something?"

"How old are you?"

Her question was straight to the point.

"… I'm fifteen."

She lied that she was at least two years older. In a world where no one was younger than fifteen, it would not be a good idea to give her actual age.

"Umu, do you have any chronic illnesses? Any tooth decay?"

"Huh, no."

"Ever been involved in a political party or ideological group?"

"Huh? N-not really…"

The woman then looked closely at Ai's eyes, observed her mouth, asked what vaccinations she had received in the past, checked for signs of smallpox, and asked if there were any birthmarks on the back of her neck. Finally, she said,

"Your hair."

"Huh?"

"Your bangs are messy."

Ai listened to this and quickly straightened her hair. The woman did not give her catch her breath, and continued to point out "Buttons, shoelaces." Ai blushed with embarrassment and rushed to fix her grooming. Following that, "The school logo is crooked." or "The blouse is loose."

And finally, she said,

"So, what exactly are you doing with this shovel …?"

"This is my beloved shovel."

"…Be…loved?"

"Yes, it's my shovel."

The woman nudged her glasses and rubbed her brow. This was the one point she did not comment about.

The woman’s nitpicking was finally over, or so Ai felt. However, she felt that the woman might nitpick again at any given moment, so she automatically went into a ‘conscientious mode’.

"I see."

The woman murmured.

"I understand completely."

Ai did not understand what she meant by those words, but she dared not to ask.

"Ai Astin, I hear you want to attend this school?"

Our school?

"I'm Mageta Hausend, the lecturer and disciplinarian of the Gora School—I heard all about it, so I came to see you."

So it seemed.

In other words, she was the kind of person Julie would describe as a ‘teacher’, no?

Ai replied in a low voice while suppressing back her rebelliousness,

"…Well, most or less."

"Well, you have a lot of ambition. I'm sure you'll be a charming lady once you finish your education at this school…no matter how much you're not now."

Eh? I'm not? Ai was hurt by this irrelevant part.

"Let's go then."

Mageta walked to the car. The driver was waiting by the car with the back door open respectfully.

Go? Where to?

"Haven’t you heard?"

The woman sighed with an expression of disbelief.

"To school, of course."

Chapter 2 - All Night Classroom

Part I

Ai was most surprised by the incredible attitude of Mageta, no, I should say the teacher, after meeting her.

How could she be so pompous?

No, Ai would not have been so bothered if she had simply been acting pompous. She knew and met people who were great and people who acted great, and she knew very well how to deal with them..

But Mageta's approach was different. She did not give orders, and instead, made others assume it was natural to take such actions.

For example, if she ordered, "Go unpack your luggage." Ai would dare to reply, "Please wait." However, if she were to ask, "Of course you shall bring whatever you have. Do you need a helper?" Ai naturally could not help but answer, "No need." In a sense, she had unwittingly agreed to unpack. Given how honest Ai was by nature, it was after the events that transpired that she would realize she was led on.

Ai tried to ask her questions several times, but Mageta pointed out her poor manners every time, such as "Don't listen to people with your mouth open" and "don't raise the dust with your footsteps". Ai could not say anything whenever she had these irrefutable issues pointed out. Courtesy was the antithesis of Ai. She was reprimanded twice in the exact same intonation, and In the end, she felt as if everything Mageta said was correct.

After a few moments of confusion, Ai unpacked her bags and got into a black car to leave the warehouse.

The car made its way through the walls of Gora Academy without any obstruction.

The large academy had the Lagoon mountain range behind it, and the grounds were large, certainly larger than the town before it.

Once the car went past the walls, they alighted at the rotary. Mageta gave quick instructions, telling Ai to take her luggage and the driver to leave for the day.

At this point, the sun had set and it was dark all around.

Ai watched the black car slowly drive away, and then looked around.

To her right was a schoolhouse swallowed up in darkness, and to her left was a well-kept forest.

"That is the school building. You can’t see it now, but if you go a little further down, the auditorium is beyond here. Down the road, the building near the cliff is the boys' dormitory, and next to it is the girls' dormitory where you will live—"

"E-erm!"

At this point, Ai finally spoke up, but Mageta kept her pace.

"Ai Astin, you can't interrupt a conversation, especially when it's a teacher. If you want to talk, you have to wait for the other person to finish."

"Uuu~~"

She really could not handle such people!

"You aren’t being lady-like at all. Why are you growling like a dog…?"

"A-a dog?"

"Well, a Pomeranian at that."

"Why the breed too…no!"

Ai forcibly interrupted the conversation and asked the question she had all this while, the premonition that it was going to become reality.

"Excuse me! Am I going to be attending this school?

"… I thought I'd said enough about it by now …"

Mageta's arrogant face showed a confused look for the first time.

"You’re not?"

"Ah, no, I’m attending… But, is school starting today?"

"There's nothing to do today, school doesn't start until tomorrow."

"Erm, can I go home?"

"Home?"

Ai murmured again, ‘like a Pomeranian dog’. Mageta gave her a look that clearly said, "What the hell is this kid talking about?" and Ai felt that her words were really lacking in common sense/

"We have a full dormitory system, and your room is already prepared."

"E-erm, that means …"

"What exactly do you think is the problem?"

Mageta looked so impatient that Ai did not know what was wrong and what was not.

"E-erm, may I ask, will I never see Mr. Julie and Ms. Scar again?

Basically, that was the one question she had in mind. She assumed that she had agreed to something so major that she would never see them again.

Mageta retorted simply,

"What are you worried about? Of course you can."

"I-I guess so. I'm sorry, I'm not used to this kind of thing…"

"But they need to ask for a meeting.."

Mageta added, and then her expression softened to a ‘relaxed’ posture.

"Ai Astin, listen to me."

"Y- yes!"

"Calm down. Is this your first time in school?"

"…Yes."

The adults in the village taught her, but it was not school per se..

"Is that? Then I guess there are a lot of things that you are very confused about, and the rules for living in a group must feel confining to you."

"Yes…"

"There are all kinds of school activities, all kinds of school rules, and it can be said that school is established on these rules that bind people. You will most likely reject and hate these rules, but you will certainly learn a lot from them. Do you understand?"

"… I think I do."

Ai assumed she understood.

And thus, she agreed to go to school, and came all the way here.

"That's enough."

Mageta said and reverted to her arrogant expression.

"Let's go."

Ai perked up and followed behind Mageta.

†

It was a spectacular scene.

Blonde hair, silver hair, red hair, black hair, self skin, yellow skin, black skin, blue eyes, green eyes, brown eyes, black eyes, gray eyes.

There were fifty combinations of such characteristics before her. Inside the cafeteria were young girls from the mountains, young men from the seaside, youths from the grasslands, maidens from the desert, all dressed in the same clothes and sitting around the table.

Half of them were boys, the other half were girls, and none of them were adults.

Ai stood with Mageta in front of them, looking at this scene while being astounded.

She had seen the village of the Dead.

She had a city with millions of Dead.

She had encountered an immortal human.

She had also witnessed the Idol of Murder.

However…

It was the first time in her life that she met as many as 50 living children.

Fifty pairs of eyes of different colors looked at each other. Their eyes have a transparency that could not be found in the Dead, as if life itself is glowing.

There was only the scent of life.

Ai suddenly began to feel uneasy, and felt so uncertain about standing before them. Everyone before her was used to this place, and the uniform she found amiss strange felt so relaxed and fitting on them. Some were whispering as they looked at her.

Ai knew it was pointless, but she could not help but use her excellent hearing and eyesight to read their lips.

—What’s with that shovel?

This student probably did not mean any harm, but the moment Ai heard so, she was so embarrassed that she wanted to die right then and there. She was unsure as to why, but even when they were all dressed the same, she felt that they were the real deal, and she was an imposter, just an imposter dragged before the real deal for comparison sake..

She hurriedly put the shovel on the ground, but she was so anxious, and she attracted the attention of the onlookers. She panicked, noticed how frantic she was, and was increasingly flustered. Why did she feel so awkward? Why could she not lift her head up high?

Teehee.

Ai heard someone laugh.

She wanted to cry right then and there.

"Attention!"

At that moment, Mageta shouted,

"You bastards! How many times have I told you that you are not allowed to even put a ● when someone speaks! Now which one of you ● just did that! I’ll personally ●● you! Get ●● to the table now ●● and wait for me to kill you!"

Eh?

"Which one? Which ●● just laughed at the transfer student? Hey! Answer me! Didn't you hear? What a shock! One of my beloved stinky students is ●●●●? Or did you not use your ●● yesterday and used your ears to ●●●●?"

"I was the one who laughed!"

At that moment, a boy sitting in the middle of the cafeteria stood up.

Mageta flashed her right hand and pulled out the revolver on her hip, firing with one hand without taking good aim.

The bullet that flew out of the muzzle of the gun made a soft ‘swoosh’ sound and hit the forehead of the student. The bullet kept spinning, cut an arc, and bounced back to the ground before the boy fell. Upon closer inspection, the bullet was made of chalk.

"You've got a lot of guts, you ●●. Next time I go fishing for ●●, I'll find you a ●● for you to ●."

Mageta had somehow put away her gun and declared to everyone:

"My cute little students! Listen up! I won't allow any discrimination! That's my privilege! If you guys have the time to watch the ●hole next to you! You better grow your own ●●! Grow up! Grow up! Grow up!"

"Grow up! Grow up! Grow up!"

That was all.

After saying this, Mageta stepped back.

"Ai Astin."

"Yes, yes! What can I do for you, please?"

Ai reflexively stood at attention and saluted as she imitated what she saw.

"Hm? What are you doing? Are you kidding?"

Mageta covered her smiling lips with her hand,

"Ai Astin, be a lady and behave properly."

…I was going to ask if you were joking.

"Get along well, you bastards! —Dismissed!"

As soon as she finished speaking, the cafeteria erupted into a ruckus again. The students quickly put away their dishes and lined up to leave.

"E-erm, Miss Mageta…"

"Ai Astin, from now on, you will call me dorm supervisor."

"Oh, erm, dorm supervisor. My dinner …"

Mageta put her hands on her hips and declared,

"No dinner for you!"

"Ehhhh!"

"No matter what the reason is, those who are late for dinner don't get to eat!"

Ai's world collapsed.

"Pl-please wait! I have a special body type, I'll die if I don't eat dinner…"

"That’s not important! Come with me!"

Mageta marched through the cafeteria and approached a line of people.

"Class president."

"Yes."

This female student, simply put, was a pretty girl. Her red hair was tied in a twist in front of her body, and her eyelids were so droopy that one almost wondered if she could see.

"A new person is coming in. She’s joining class Q."

"Understood."

Mageta said these few words and left.

And Ai just stood there.

"Ai Astin. Can I call you Ai?"

"Eh? Ah, yes."

"Ai, let's go."

The girl with her eyes closed said something to the person at the front of the line, and then followed behind the group. The group was divided into two lines according to gender. Standing before Ai was the girl with her eyes closed, and before that girl was a girl with goggly glasses, and then a blue-haired girl with a rather mild personality, and leading the pack was a pair of blonde twins.

Ai was alone as she held the luggage and followed them, and spoke to the girl with closed eyes,

"Erm—"

What's your name?

"Shh!"

The girl did not look at Ai when she spoke.

"Quiet, or the dorm supervisor will yell at you."

"…Yes."

There was no chance to speak.

The group went straight out of the cafeteria and outside. There was a roofed walkway outside, and one could hear the spring insects chirping in the grass on both sides. One by one, the group walked into the girls' dormitory, and everyone except Ai entered their rooms.

"This is your room."

She was pointed to a room with a gold door sign that said Room 125.

"Go and put your luggage away, and take out the dirty laundry ."

Ai rushed into the room. It was so dark that she could not see anything, so she groped her way inside, and put her shovel and straw hat down. This ‘dirty laundry’ probably referred to her clothes, but she decided not to bring Gravekeeper's clothes with her.

As soon as she stepped out of the room, she saw that the others had changed out of their uniforms into plain casual clothes, and were queuing up. Ai had no idea what to do, and looked for the closed-eyed girl in a panic. The girl neither told Ai of her name nor looked at her when they spoke, but even so, Ai needed her badly at this moment. .

"Go to the back."

After stumbling around for a moment, the closed-eyed girl found Ai. Ai really hoped that the girl would hold her hand, but she ultimately resisted the urge, and walked to the end of the line.

After the roll call, the group moved forward in silence, then walked outside and entered another building.

This building was made of brick, and there was a chimney in the back that exhaled smoke.

"Do as everyone does."

The closed-eyed girl said. So Ai nodded.

First, they took off her shoes at the building entrance, and put them in the shoe closet. They removed their socks, walked barefoot inside, and emptied the bags they carried into a huge cage. When Ai's turn came, she took a closer look inside and smelled a strong odor of living people. As expected, the girls had put their loungewear in the basket.

"What are you doing? Over here."

Ai was dragged away by her collar.

She was led to a magical room. The floor was not made of wood, nor was it carpeted; it was made of the same stone as the outer walls of the building's exterior. There were thick towels everywhere, and the walls were packed with countless square cabinets about the size of a hug, with two rows of the same cabinets lined up back to back in the center.

The floor was steamy, and the floor was soaked with water. There was a wooden door on the opposite side that was emitting steam.

What is this place?

"The bathroom is over there—but you'd better clear out before then."

Oh really?

"These cabinets are for clothes."

"Yes."

"You have to wash your own underwear."

"Yes."

"Then, take off your clothes."

"Eh?"

Ai wanted to ask why, but was frozen on the spot.

The closed-eyed girl had reached for the hem of her own dress. No, she was not the only one, for everyone else who entered the room took off their clothes and put them in the cupboard in a matter of seconds.

In front of her eyes were different colors of skin.

"Whoa, whoa!"

"What's the matter?"

Woah.

The closed-eyed girl stood before her, naked and pale skinned.

Ai stared blankly at the surreal sight before her.

The naked body of a living person was right in front of her.

She felt very embarrassed.

In fact, over the past few years, Ai had never seen a naked living person.

That was doubly so for a fellow young naked female. The only one she saw was her mother—the malfunctioning Gravekeeper alfa, and Scar's exposed breasts while feeding Celica. The ‘human body’ Ai knew of referred to the parched, distorted skin of the Dead. She was completely oblivious to the skin of the Living.

Shame.

That emotion attacked Ai. She saw how the closed-eyed girl and other people were naked, and it was no wonder that she was so embarrassed by them. she just felt so shy. She could not stand to look at the feel of their plump, soft skin, the roundness of their fluffy, swollen bodies, the sweaty, moist, dense smell of their flesh. The girls were alive. Faced with such evidence, Ai was left flabbergasted. No one but Ai could understand this emotion called shame.

Her blood rushed to her face, and she took her eyes off the ample breasts of the closed-eyed girl, only to see a small patch of pubic hair between her legs, which made her head drop even lower. Ai was really embarrassed by such sights.

She had the urge to cry again. She did not know why she was doing this.

And then…

"Hurry up and strip."

Ai grabbed the collar hard.

She was ashamed to take off her clothes.

She hated the idea of stripping before them, who were naturally alive.

She really hated it.

"E-erm, I …"

"Come on."

Her eyes were getting moist, and she was in disbelief. Naturally, she knew she was quite a crybaby, but this was too—

She was really too much of a crybaby…

"Hurry up, you can’t bathe if time’s up."

Ai did not move.

The girl with closed eyes had no choice but to put her hand on Ai's collar.

†

It was nothing but steam.

The air was warm and humid, but the white stones underneath were cold in comparison. There were only a few electric lights in the room, the light was very dim, and the visibility in the air and water was very low.

Kabam, tThe sound of a bucket hitting the stone echoed through the room.

It was a large bathhouse.

Ai stood alone in the corner of the bath with a pathetic look. She had wrapped herself in a towel like a wrapping paper from a high-end boutique and built a wall of defense around her body.

The various skin tones in the crowded bathroom looked lucid due to the steam and hot water, and the water, and the moisture that enveloped them depicted a rainbow. Every one of them was three years older than Ai, tall, full-breasted, and very beautiful.

Ai tries her best not to stand out as she inched towards the corner as quietly as possible. But no matter how low-profile she was, everyone would occasionally glance at the mysterious freshman. The person involved did not notice however, for these classmates did not initiate contact with her, so she came to the conclusion that they were not interested in her.

—In fact, she did not know that the people who did not say anything were curious to the point that their eyes were glowing.

While everyone was watching her discreetly, Ai inched towards the wall, took a shower tap, and heaved a sigh of relief. Then, like a nervous herbivore, she kept glancing around. Ai thought to herself that no one was interested in her and let go of the towel she had wrapped around her body.

The water vapor ran on the skin that was covered by the towel before, and the small back was very dazzling.

"Hoaahh…"

"?"

Ai turned to look behind her, and the students immediately looked away.

Was she being overly concerned?

Ai shrank uncomfortably, using her knees to shield her body, and reached her hands to the back of her head to remove the rubber bands and hairpins.

The blonde hair that had been tied was freed and draped over her back.

"Ohhh…!"

"?"

Still no one was looking at her.

While Ai was confused, she continued on. She picked up a bucket of hot water, pinched her nose and doused it over her head.

Splash.

The blonde hair absorbed the water, intensifying the glow.

"Wow, amazing…" "So pretty…" "How does she take care of it …?"

This time, the admiration echoed audibly in the damp air of the bathroom. It so happened that the hot water blocked Ai's ears, and she could not hear anything.

She closed her eyes and shook her head after rinsing, reached up and rubbed the corners of her eyes to wipe away the moisture, blinked, and took a long breath.

There were countless soaps and jars of unknown liquids in front of her eyes.

Every pair of eyes in the room watched Ai's hands to see which bottle she would take and how she would bathe.

Ai did not notice anything, and merely looked at these things, and finally moved her fingers.

She picked up the towel.

And then she got up to leave.

"!?"

"… wait a minute."

"Er-erm? What’s the matter…?"

Ai's shoulder was suddenly grabbed, and found it was the closed-eyed girl who was representiating the crowd.

"Where are you going?"

"Eh, erm, I’m done bathing, so I’ll be going out to wait…"

"…Without soaking in the bath, washing your hair, or scrubbing your body? Is it because you don't like the soap in here, or is it…?"

"Ah, no, I don't use soap…"

For a moment, every pair of eyes immediately showed hostility.

"…Sit down."

"Eh? What did you say?"

"Sit down."

"Huh? B-but, erm, that …"

"Sit down,"

"Yes."

Ai sat down grimly on a wet wooden chair that was before the closed-eyed girl. She had a feeling she was about to be tortured, so she turned her head and begged for mercy with a smile.

"I'll make you nice and shiny."

The closed-eyed girl decided to splash a bucket of water onto that smile,

"Bgayyrrh!"

†

"Uuuuu…I don't want to be all shiny…no more shiny, please."

Ai opened the door of room 125 and fumbled her way through the dark room without even turning on the lights. Fortunately, the moon showed itself, and the little light was enough for her to see where the furniture was. There was a bunk bed and two desks in the room, making it a double room.

Ai dragged the hem of her brand-new pajamas as she trudged towards the bed with heavy steps, her whole body as shiny as she said it was, like a very clean corpse.

She plopped onto the bed without laying out the blanket on the bed, and her left foot made a circle on the other side of the bed, and turned over, looking up towards the base of the upper bed that was very close. In fact, she still had to hang up her uniform and stuff her luggage into the locker, but she was devoid of strength.

The entire room was shrouded in darkness. The addition of a new student did nothing to shake up the school, and it was lights out in Gora Academy, as usual.

Ai however could not sleep, and laid on the bed as she looked at the bed above her..

Earlier in the bathroom, she was cleaned so thoroughly, even her fingernails were scrubbed..

And she did not get to eat on this day.

"This is bullying…they bullied a transfer student …"

She slumped into the bed, her stomach growling, and a sense of loneliness welled inside her heart, bringing her tears to her eyes.

She remembered the unsightliness of her own self-presentation and the bathroom.

She wiped her eyes. This was already the situation on the first day. What would her future be like? Ai did feel she was a bit of a crybaby, but this was too ridiculous. She actually cried on the first day of enrolment. She did not expect herself to be this much of a weakling.

And so Ai fell asleep while wrapped in the blanket, her stomach rumbling.

She cupped her belly, and thus her hands were unavailable to wipe her tears, resulting in them piling up in large droplets. Ai gently buried her face into the blanket, and let the cotton absorb the dew-like tears.

—Dad, school isn’t fun at all.

She visualized an image of her father and complained to him. A mere imagination it might be, but Hampnie mischievously teased her irresponsibility “What does that have to do with me?”Ai felt that it was too much of him.He was the reason why she finally agreed to go to school.

Ai recalled one of the few conversations she had with her father.

One of them was about school.

Hampnie was an albino child with weak skin and kidneys, which made it difficult for him to attend school. Nevertheless, he was able to push through and attend school with the help of his parents and friends.

—Why did you do that? Ai asked. She felt apologetic to be seemingly badmouthing him, but she just could not imagine the devil before her actually being fond of attending school.

And in response, "Well, that’s because everyone’s attending school too, you know?" Hampnie laughed and continued on, "That’s why I had to attend school too. That’s all."

His beaming face looked so proud and overjoyed. In hindsight, he had always been a person who hated loneliness.

And that was how Hampnie met Julie and made a lot of friends.

But...

…Could she be like him too?.

Ai sniffled. She thought of the roommates and classmates whose names she did not know of, the fifty pair of eyes that were clear and sparkling, the dorm supervisor who wouldn’t allow any disagreement, the soft skin of the Living that made her awkward, and their overwhelming scents.

Yes, that was the problem.

"Apparently, I’m…"

Ai said as she exhaled.

"…I’m bad at dealing with living people…"

It was a really shocking fact to her.

She felt she was off her pace ever since she entered this town, and the incident in the bath got her to understand the cause. It seemed she did not know how to deal with groups of Living.

She had assumed it would be fine if she dealt with one or two…but on second thought, she realized immediately that she was very nervous whenever she met a Living person for the first time.

"The Living are pretty, but weird." That was what a girl in Ortus said to her, but she could not laugh at all, for she too was uneased to them. It might be too laughable for her to say that she wanted to save the world—

Her stomach rumbled again, the exhaled breath was exceptionally hot, and a tear rolled down.

…Dad, school is boring…

Ai wiped her face hard with the pillow.

She thought she should just cry. She was already crying, but her heart would allow her to continue to do so..

And the moment she thought so, the tears welled up.

The tears came from deeper within the eyes—somewhere that was definitely connected to her heart. The eyelids were soon at full tide, and the tears were waiting to overflow.

In fact, she was a little fond of crying..

If she actually said so, others would easily assume that she was ‘an annoying child’, or ‘a crybaby who liked to cry over anything’. Thus, she never told anyone about this, but she liked to cry.

After all, ‘crying’ and ‘finished crying’ were definitely two parts of the same set.

So Ai thought.

She felt that people would cry to finish crying. No matter how tragic it was, or no matter how the tears just would not end, it would be a matter of time until they did.

Her mother died, her father died, her dreams were crushed, and she cried. But one day, the tears would stop for no reason.

Surely it was because crying itself was meant to stop the tears, to turn sadness into salt water, to purge them from her body.

That was why she liked to cry.

…That was a way to deal with sadness that Ai figured out in her short life. It was a reason crafted to accept the tears she shed in the past.

However…

However, nobody knew whether it was a good thing. Nobody knew if Ai crying alone at such a place, alone, was a ‘good thing’, let alone ‘good’. Take Julie for example; even if he could understand Ai’s feelings completely, he might say it was a bad thing. If it was Ulla, she might feel sad realizing such was the life that resulted in such thoughts. Hampnie might even praise her, and Scar might feel hesitant. If it was Celica, she would most probably be bawling to a point where Ai had no time to cry.

However, none of them were around. The only one present was the lonely twelve year old Gravekeeper.

The illusion of Hampnie wouldn’t say anything.

The tears were about to be shed in loneliness.

At that moment…

“Are you alright?”

That instance,

It was hard to describe the significance of those words that were said in that instance, at that place.

Such words were not supposed to be here. Ai was supposed to cry alone in this place, finish crying in the theory of solitude, and get stronger as a result. She had to proceed alone by herself , and also to finish so alone..

But that was not the case.

"Hey, stop crying."

Ai jolted in shock and looked over to the owner of the voice. Her voice immediately receded with surprise and turned into mere salt water.

The owner of the voice was a head dropping upside down. No, it only seemed so. In fact, it was actually a female student peeking her face out from the top bunk of the bunk bed.

The student's eyes were like obsidian, glowing darkly in the darkness. Her shoulder-length black hair was reeling and swaying between the top and bottom floors of the double decker bed.

"Have you calmed down?"

Ai nodded.

“That’s good.”

The female student smiled. It was the first time a Living person smiled so gently at Ai ever since the latter entered this school.

And yet, having locked her heart away, Ai remained wary.

"E-erm!"

"Hmm?"

"…Are you going to make me sparkly too?"

What are you talking about? The schoolgirl turned her head upside down, not knowing what Ai was talking about.

"I don't know, but aren’t you all sparkly and such?"

Ai felt embarrassed again to be praised again, but she did not really hate it.

"Dee."

"Eh?"

"Dee Engy. That's my name."

"Ah…I’m Ai! Ai Astin!"

"I know."

Dee smiled. It was the first time a school student here actually smiled at Ai.

"I’ve been wanting to meet you, Ai. Alice and I have been waiting for you."

At this moment, Ai’s brain finally inhaled some oxygen, and rather than be in the mood to sweat the details, she wanted to get up and talk.

"Ah, just lie there."

Dee stopped her.

"There’s a lot of things I want to tell you, but that’s it for today. Just sleep."

"Haa…."

"Well, I’ve been waiting for you, but I’m tired too."

Dee smiled and smacked herself on the forehead.

Ai dug her pillow out from beneath her blanket, and carefully placed her head onto it. She glanced aside, and found Dee smiling at her, which left her strangely relaxed.

"…Miss Dee, are you my roommate?"

"Hmm, well, sorta."

I see, Ai nodded and accepted this.

"I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. But for now, let's go to bed. Okay?"

"Haa…."

"Can you sleep? Are you okay?"

Ai asked herself, staring up into the eyes that were staring at her with concern.

The tears had receded to a faraway place, and a tidal wave of fatigue slowly filled her body instead.

"I'm fine."

Ai said.

"I see."

Dee laughed.

"Well, good night, see you tomorrow."

Dee waved her hand and pulled her head back, Good night, Ai replied so, closed her eyes, and stared at the darkness behind her eyelids.

Drowsiness came from beyond the darkness and gently devoured her consciousness.

Part II

Morning came early at Gora. People were out of bed before dawn, feeling happiness while washing their faces with the much warmer water. The baker picked up fermented dough from the chamber, and the farmer nodded hard at the first ears of wheat that were about to be harvested. The shepherd ran through the field with a dog, and those who had toiled throughout the night finally got to bed while yawning. The entire town had woken up, engulfed in the first wave of ruckus.

Gora Academy, located at the center of the town, was also awake.

"Wake up16:36, 22 November 2021 (CET)~!!!"

The bell rang loudly in the main auditorium, and Mageta fired a salute to the East in gratitude for the rising sun. She then fired a volley to the West to mourn the setting moon, before she stormed down the dormitory, bellowing.

"Alrighty rise and shine, ladies! Don’t ●●! Pull your panties up! Time to comb and apply lipstick! Wash your faces! You look like freshly picked vegetables! Theme of the day is ‘neat and tidy! The theme is "neat and tidy"! Scrub yourself well until those ●●●● on the ●● path will fall for you!"

The students rubbed their sleepy eyes, got up and began to use the short morning time for personal grooming. They absentmindedly take off their pajamas and put on their underwear, which, like their uniforms, were the cute, nondescript underwear. They then put on the crisply ironed shirts and checkered skirts, slipped their feet into the boots, and went to wash their faces. Every single one of them did so in their own order. Some cautious combed their hair, others struggled to look as cute as possible in their tailored outfits.

In the midst of all this, Ai,

"Hey, Ai, wake up!"

"……………Nnuuu…balsa…nova…"

She was asleep.

"Well, this is troublesome. She just wouldn’t wake up! Ai, wake up! You'll anger the dorm supervisor!"

Dee called out with a troubled look. Fortunately, there was an immediate response.

"…I’m already awake…."

"Ah, that’s good. Get changed quickly."

"…Goodness, I’m already awake so don’t wake me up…mnya …"

"Eh? Are you sleeptalking? What’s with this girl? She’s good."

Dee put her hands to her mouth, yelling at Ai by the latter’s bedside, but Ai was in an amazing stupor, and just would not wake up.

"Ai!!!!! Wake up wake up  wake up wake up——!!"

Dee yelled to a point where her face was flushed red.

And finally, Ai got up, and whimpered.

"Oh, you’re awake this time."

Ai bent her stomach as she sat up. She looked around the room in a daze, to her right, then to her left, then to Dee.

"…Toilet…."

"Eh? Ah, yeah. Here…there’s one in the room, over there…"

Bam.

Ai walked out, clearly not hearing anything.

　　　　

In the morning, the washroom was the most crowded place in the dormitory. The basins of the cubicles hardly spat out water at this time of the day, so most of the students who cared about their appearances would head to the bathhouse on the first floor, where they could use the well water. They washed their faces there, rinsed their hair, dabbed powder and applied oil. ‘Makeup is an etiquette ladies should have’, such was the adage of the dorm supervisor they used as their talisman, applying colors to ensure that they were passable and did not need to be scolded. Everyone was already dressed in their uniforms, aiming for a new level.

A sleepy-eyed Ai passed by. Her figure was sluggish, her collar sagging and unbuttoned, and her jacket rolled up such that her navel was exposed.

And for some reason, she was dragging a pillow along with her.

Ai trudged her way weakly past the big sisters and entered the bathroom. "What the?" The students who had been staring into the mirror turned to look at her. They felt that they had seen something incredible there.

"You saw it, right?" "I did." The students engaged in a wordless conversation, and stared at the toilet where the mysterious creature seemed to be headed.

A beat later.

There was a splashing sound of the toilet being flushed, and a half-asleep Ai exited.

"!"

Everyone present had an exclamation mark pop up above their heads. Even without knowledge of the school rules, one would easily understand that Ai’s appearance was a huge exception. Nobody would remain alive if the dorm supervisor spotted her. It was not a joke.

Their next move was swift.

One of the students who had been equipped before boldy checked the hallway beforehand, "coast is clear!" and made such a gesture. A student who was nibbling on her toothbrush reported to the senior, and the other members checked for weapons and abandoned their fuel.

The students looked at each other.

"Shall we?"

"Let's do it."

The decision was quick and uncompromising.

　　　　

"Hah!"

Ai felt that there was something delicious in her mouth, and suddenly woke up.

She usually would not wake up under such extraordinary circumstances, but her consciousness was still calm. She did not choke on her food, nor did she panic, and instead, she munched away calmly.

—Is this a trout? Yes, and then there was this crunchy feeling, so it was deep fried. For every gulp she made, the basil aroma escaped her nostrils. So it seemed the smell and taste of basil was mixed into the flour, adding to the fragrance of the bread…

No, that was not the issue.

"Huh?"

She looked around and found herself in the same cafeteria as she saw the previous day. The seats were the same, the people were the same. Everyone was eating their rainbow trout and steamed sweet potatoes with proper manners.

As for herself, she was holding a knife in her right hand and a fork in her left, and was just about to say "I’m digging in". She had no idea as to how she ended up in this state.

In addition, her clothes were changed.

The pajamas she wore the previous night had been replaced by a uniform. Her hair was also braided in a way she never did, dangling behind her.

Who, and when…?

She analyzed the situation. Why did this happen? Who changed my clothes? She had a feeling something like this happened to her recently. She had been stripped a little way too way, and was dressed up too often. What was going on here? Who was the mastermind?

And then,

Ai, who turned her head around, casually stabbed her fork at a piece of trout, and slowly brought it to her mouth to chew.

Nom.

The first meal she had after an entire night was really delicious.

That was why she decided not to sweat the details.

 

After mealtime was over, the students in the cafeteria gradually dwindled in numbers. They all seemed to know what they had to do, just like the day before, and no one paid attention to Ai.

No, to be precise, the girl without closed eyes was still eating next to Ai, but Ai did not know if she should wait, and could only sit on the seat. She did not know if she should move or not, and had a feeling that any choice she made would anger anyone.

So she was very happy when Dee spotted her.

"There you are, Ai. Come here, come here."

Dee waved over from outside the cafeteria entrance. From the corner of her eyes, Ai noticed that the girl with closed eyes did not react, so she took the tray, stood up, placed it at the return slot, and went straight to Dee without returning to her seat.

"Wow."

Dee put her hand on her chin and sized up Ai.

"W-What's wrong?"

"Your uniform's cute!"

"I-Is it?"

"Yeah, it's well made."

How is that praise? So Ai wondered as she twirled her upper body about to check herself again. The checkered skirt was green and white and elegant. The similarly green blazer also fitted her well, and she could move her arms freely.

"Miss Dee, did you change my clothes?"

"No, a group of grim looking seniors suddenly barged into the room, stripped you clean, and rummaged your clothes through your clothes…"

"T-That's terrible…it’s bullying after all, isn’t it…?"

"… Bullying, huh?"

"It is bullying."

Dee appeared to have something to say, but chose not to say so.

"These clothes are from…"

"Hmm?"

She twirled her upper body, and the skirt arched and fell softly to her thighs. She kept shaking her hips to enjoy the feeling of the skirt 'clinging' to her.

"I've always worn culottes, so this is a refreshing feeling."

"Is that so?"

Yes. She answered, and then—

Ai felt a sudden sense of confusion. Back when she was in the village, she had the opportunity to wear skirts. Every time there was an event, Anna, Yoki, and the old folks would create some cute clothes and give them to Ai.

However, Ai completely ignored them and only wore the Gravekeeper's clothes, because she insisted at every moment back then that she was a Gravekeeper.

In hindsight, such days were devoid of freedom. She used to restrain herself with clothes and words, only carrying a shovel around to dig holes all the time. As she thought about it, she found herself a little pitiful.

She was stupid.

"!"

Ai pinched the edge of her skirt. If she had known the villagers would be happy seeing her in this, she would have worn it as many times as they would have liked. At this point, this was what she would think.

"What's wrong?"

"…, nothing."

Ai quickly dusted off her skirt and held it by the hem in a ladylike bow.

"I'm very flattered."

"No, no, no, it’s the truth."

"I'm sure you look good in uniform too, Miss Dee…huh? But."

Ai pointed to Dee's upper and lower body.

"Why do you have a different uniform?"

"Hmm?"

Dee’s body was hidden by the bed the previous day, and at this moment, one could see that the uniform she was wearing did not belong to this school.

She was wearing a blazer with a dark blue base.

"Oh, this? Erm, well…I'm a transfer student."

Ah, is that so? Ai decided to leave it be for now. She had a feeling being a transfer student was not a proper reason, but since Dee said so, it was probably the case.

"Well, well, don't worry about that. Just follow me."

"Where are we going?"

"The school building."

Dee quickly walked away. Ai hurriedly followed her.

They left the cafeteria and joined the crowd of students heading outside.

Dee walked briskly, bathed in the morning light with a pleasant 'mmm'.

"Today's morning is elective. That's why everyone has a different morning class."

"Elective?"

"Elective classes. You can take two free classes per week. I don't think you’ll understand though, Ai. Maybe you should watch and learn first."

I see.

So Dee would be acting as guide?

Ai started to feel a little bolder upon knowing so. She felt that it would be great if Mageta and the closed eyed girl could explain to her."

"That's the boys' dormitory. This is the sports field. There’s a cliff, and it’s off limits."

Dee explained every single thing they saw, and it was basically carpet bombing, not the best explanation, but very helpful to Ai.

They arrived at the school building.

"… It's big…"

There was a gray building in front of her, the same color as the cliffs of Lagoon. The school resembled a swan with its wings spread out, and there was a large clock tower in the middle and a number of smaller towers on either side. Arches connected each of them, and contained within them were small classrooms to a large auditorium.

"The school is rather small for a college. It’s said that the students at Queens’ Academy have five thousand students at any one time, I don't know how it’s like now though. There used to be about 500 students here, but now it's less than a tenth of that."

Ai was not listening. "haeee~?" and made such a weird sound as she entered the school building with her head lifted. In contrast to the massive stone exterior, the interior of the building was made of a hundred year old oak wood that shone brightly, and there were stone statues here and there that would give anyone the urge to bow and give respect while entering.

"This way."

Dee walked slowly to allow Ai to look around. The U-shaped school building had a stage and a flower garden in the center that was blooming radiantly, to a point where someone had tended to it. It was really a tempting place to bask in the sun.

Then, the bell chimed.

It came from the clock tower at the highest point of the school building in front of the cliff. One had to wonder if it was the start of class, for students in the corridors were rushing into the classrooms. Ai was worried, and wondered if she should join them. Dee remained unperturbed however, and was confident enough to walk up the now-empty stairs to the top floor.

It seemed none of the classrooms on the third floor were in use. Every classroom was empty, and the corridor resembled a storeroom, filled with paintings or sculptures made by students. Dee ignored them as she strode forth.

"We’re here—Ai, please open the door ."

Dee took her to a room at the far end of the school building,  right beneath the clock tower. There was a rugged wooden door there.

What kind of class is in here? So Ai wondered as she grabbed the worn brass knob and twisted it.

It was a place where gears and wires roamed.

The room was filled with the rough and rugged atmosphere of an attic. Stone and wood were bare, the walls and ceiling still bore the rough markings of the craftsmen who had built it. Every single inch was dusty, the floors, beams, drawers, dust cloths, clay statues made by some students, cobwebs, gecko shells, and mummified carcesses. Everything was covered in dust, showing the years they had been here.

The heart of the clock was the only thing that refused to be dusted. The jagged gears moved as if they were biting the stagnant air, and the wires transmitted their power crisply, keeping the dust at bay.

Tick, tick, tick, tick.

That room was the organ of a clock.

"Hmmm~, where did he go~~?"

Bouncing up and down, Dee stepped over the junk and headed for the back.

"Ah, he’s here. Ai, come here."

Ai sniveled hard and went over as she was called.

There was a male student.

Surrounded by all this junk, this boy was dozing off while looking up. He was not simply napping away as students would do in class while the teacher was not paying attention, but actually took a book as a pillar, and a bag of emergency supplies as bedding.

"Wh-What's wrong with him?"

"That’s Alice, he's just an idiot. That's all."

Perhaps Dee really assumed that explanation would suffice. Her eyes were serious.

"A—li—ce! Wake up!"

Dee shouted at the boy’s ear, but this boy seemed to brush her off completely as he continued with his happy sleeptalk.

"……Butter fried hare sounds delicious, but speaking of which, it does seem very pitiful to call it Mr butter fried hare…"

"Don’t get into the details. Hurry up and wake up."

"? I think they're both delicious."

"That irregularity over there can shut up too. Come on Alice, wake up."

"…………...Hmmahh?"

The boy slowly opened his eyes, as if he had given up on something. He however did not seem to be completely awake, and looked at Dee while in his sleeping bag like a cloak.

"…Good morning."

"Good morning. No it’s not! The sun’s already up a long time ago!"

"Shut up…I couldn’t help it. I didn’t sleep at all last night…"

Dee put her hands on her hips while she lashed out at him in a familial manner, and the boy seemed to be used to this as he butted back. Ai watched them with a little bit of admiration, sensing that they were ‘friends’.

"What the hell do you want?"

When the boy opened his mouth like a trash can and yawned away, and Ai had an urge to throw something into it.

"I thought I'd introduce you to Ai."

"Oh?"

Dee gave up her place.

The boy met Ai in the eyes, and they froze for quite a while.

"N-nice to meet you. I'm Ai Astin."

"…I see."

The boy looked at Ai, wriggled like a caterpillar shedding its skin, and crawled out of his sleeping bag. His hair bounced on his scalp as though it was his usual hairstyle to begin with, and the sleeping bag had covered his pitch black school uniform completely. Like Dee's, his uniform was from another school, and was well worn and used. To put it, he looked like a delinquent.

"Alice Color."

"Huh?"

"That’s my name."

Alice mumbled, "time to clear up~♪" and quickly cleaned up the area he was sleeping in.

"So, what do you want? Do you have a request to make?"

A request?

"I'm working on that kind of project right now, so I can include you in this. There’s no limit to the number of people after all on—”

"What are you talking about?"

"Ah?"

Alice, who had been stretching, stopped abruptly. He looked back at Ai and said,

"…Something weird…"

He bounced up and down, and sat down on the belongings next to him.

"You're here to ask me to help you, aren't you?"

Huh?

"You say you're here to help me? I'm the one who helps people."

"???…Say Dee, what's up with her?"

Alice looked annoyed and confused as he asked the person behind him.

"Well, it is what it is. Surprisingly, Ai seems to have entered this school without knowing much about it."

"Huh?"

Alice’s jaw dropped.

"Are you…an idiot?"

"What do you mean idiot?"

"Shut up, you idiot. Why did you do something so stupid? Like, even if you didn't know what you were getting into, you'd know after an hour in this place that something’s wrong with this school, right?"

"?"

Alice looked puzzled and mumbled, "What should I do?"

"Look, you know, this school—"

At that moment.

Creak, the door to the hallway opened.

"I've been looking for you."

There stood Mageta, the demoness of the dorm supervisor. The triangular glasses shone brightly, and the lace-up boots creaked  as she loomed over. All the people in the room tensed up.

"Why are you all here, Alice Color?"

"Just here to observe this class."

Alice held out a handout.

"’'General Mechanical Maintenance by Master Triel'? … This course is no longer offered."

"So it seems. I should have checked before I came."

"What about her? …Mind explaining?"

Mageta glanced at Ai, and Alice answered,

"Alright, I brought her here since we're both transfer students—did I overdo it?"

"No, the spirit of mutual assistance is important. But do report it beforehand. Next time, you'll be punished. "

"I'm sorry." Ai was surprised at Alice’s attitude as the latter bowed, thinking he could be polite if he wanted to.

"Ah, you’re a new student too?"

"Ai Astin, do not start with ‘ah’'."

It was weird that she was the one who was warned.

"Alice Color moved in a week ago. You two new students should get along. Now, this is an elective class, and today you will both observe, but by the end of next week you will decide which class you want to take."

Follow me. Then Mageta walked out the door.

"…I've got a lot to say to you."

So Alice said. That's my line.

"Oh well, we'll have 'regular class' first thing in the afternoon. You'll know everything when you get there."

Alice smirks sadistically.

"Don't cry if you can't keep up with the ‘class’."

Ai stuck her tongue out at him.

"Hurry up, both of you!—ugh!! What is your attitude, Ai Astin?"

That’s unreasonable!

　　　　

In the morning, Mageta gave her a tour of each class. They ranged from general etiquette, sewing, music, beauty, art, advanced mathematics, advanced science, sword fighting, accounting, general men's studies, general women's studies, and since it was impossible to visit them all, Ai chose art, advanced mathematics, and general etiquette. Every time she visited a class the students and even the teachers sat upright. The art teacher suddenly stopped teaching abstract painting and switched to practical painting, but Ai could not determine which was the more superficial.

After lunch, the ‘class’ finally awaited her.

They were at a square facing the cliffs of the Lagoon Mountains.

Ai was lined up there with the other students. She was dressed in a cotton shirt and long pants, apparently called a ‘sports uniform’.

One, two, three, four—

Everyone did their warmups. She looked around, and found students that appeared to be from class Q. It took her a while to understand that she seemed to belong to this class. There were not many of them, fewer than ten boys and girls in total. Class P too was at the plaza, and it seemed these twenty people were to have an ‘ordinary class’ here.

Ai cautiously movedher joints, but she had no idea as to what would happen next.

She did not understand what the teacher meant by saying ‘stretch up and down, jump to move about’, so she observed the students around her. Apparently, ‘stretch up and down, jump to move about’ was just to jump a little. Ai thought that the teacher could have said so, so she jumped up and down. She was good at jumping up and down.

—Is this ‘attending class’? Is it really alright?

While it was time to do the ‘wrist exercise’, her heart was still full of anxiety. During the first classes she had ever attended in her life in the morning, she had seen the teachers ask questions to the students several times. If I were in such a situation, would I really be able to answer? Probably not.

—What will happen if I can't answer?

She had a tendency to pay attention to such little details. In the class just now, everyone answered clearly, whether it was correct or incorrect. But what would happen to the students who could not answer the questions? Would there be some kind of punishment?

"I'll make a stew of them and cook them overnight."

In her mind, the imaginary Mageta said so with a smile on her face Ai had never shown before, one so surreal that Ai assumed it might happen. She looked behind with a pale face, and found the demoness dorm supervisor supervising the students, her triangular glasses shining.

Their eyes met.

Ai pretended to do a ‘neck exercise’ and dragged her head forward. The moment she did so, she noticed Alice smiling at her. He did not say anything, but he was an eyesore.

With a big deep breath, Ai inhaled and exhaled hard. She could not imagine any other exercise that was more appropriate for her at this moment.

"Phew————……huh?"

Ai exhaled, and the person in front of her started to walk away. She had hoped that others would tell her beforehand at such moments…

They moved in three separate files.

The class was about to begin. Ai’s heart was pounding, her head felt faint, and the anxiety and nervousness coagulated together, rendering her unsure as to what she was feeling exactly.

It was coming.

It seemed the front row had arrived at their destination. Everyone received something from there. Received? Tools? If it was some kind of competition, she would have to learn the rules first, lest she had no idea what was going on. No, but at the very least, they should tell her what she should do…

After an agonizing wait, it was finally Ai’s turn, and she received it.

It was an oak handle with a steel blade.

In other words, it was a shovel.

"Eh?"

She was then given a helmet and a water bottle. Everyone wore them, looking as though it was expected.

"Huh?"

They walked to the side cave in the cliff of the Lagoon, entered inside, and were taken to their "stations".

The male instructor said, "Begin."

Everyone began to dig.

Ai was alone, holding a shovel, watching. In the dark depths of the earth, everyone dug deeper and deeper into the wall, using headlights to guide their hands. There were no rules or regulations, just shovels.

Ai had no idea what was going on, but…

Digging was her specialty.

Part III

　　　　

Dee was alone in her room, waiting for Ai. The sun had set, and the room was dark. She was sitting on the bunk bed, her legs dangling in the air.

" I wonder if Ai is okay…"

If she had been that worried, she could have gone out to look for Ai, but she did not really want to. She did not want to see such a little girl like her get hurt by hard labor and be emotionally traumatized. Open-pit mining used to be the work of slaves, and it was tiring. Surely Ai must be battered all over by now.

"If only Alice is helping her in class…"

She could not hope for that, for Alice too was digging, and was unavailable. And given his personality, he wouldn’t help out with something as unimportant as this.

Phew…Dee let out a gloomy sigh. The sense of guilt gripped her chest. She thought she should not return to this room after all, so that she would not be able to see Ai anyway.

But then, Ai would be crying alone in this room again.

"I got no choice then," Dee despondently resolved herself to continue waiting. She felt she was not one who could console others, but she had no choice. She gave up. She would stay with her.

So she made up her mind and started to think of words to comfort Ai, when—

"I'm back!"

Boom! Ai came back with a voice so loud, one assumed that she opened the door with just her voice. She then walked in..

"We-welcome back Ai. Are you okay? Are you tired?"

"Very tired!"

"R-Really?"

Dee replied, her eyes widened at the very vigorous response. On a closer look, Ai had some black rings on her face, and her voice was hoarse, but her face showed no despair that Dee fearedThere was just a healthy attitude of exhaustion.

Dee cautiously approached the matter by asking,

"H-How was it? Ai, your first class…?"

"We were digging!"

"Yes, of course. You’ve been digging—I’m not talking about this. Erm, like, isn’t it tough…"

"Very tough!"

That's right. It had to be.

"Yeah, yeah. It was tough, wasn't it? I guess you cried after all…s-so Ai, do you want to leave this school?"

"Nope."

"Yep, I know. It's been tough. But don't worry, Alice is actually..."

Hm?

"—Eh? Ai, what did you say?"

"Nope. I don’t think it’s tough at all."

"What? Did you just?" Dee tilted her head with her mouth agape.

"Well, you’ve been scaring me about how class is scary at all, but it’s nothing much. Mr Alice really underestimated me. I'm a little tired, but I'm still fine with this little bit~"

I'm very good at digging holes!" Ai said, exhausted as she beamed like a lightbulb.

"E-erm, but…"

"…Are you worried about me, Miss Dee?"

"No, I mean, I'm worried, but…"

"But don't worry."

Ai thumped her chest and took on an air of early maturity that those her age would sometimes show.

"I'm not going to lose."

Woah.

"I've promised myself three things. I promised myself that ‘I would save the world’ and that ‘I won’t be fooled again’, and also…"

A natural smile appeared on her tired, relaxed cheeks.

"’I'm not going to give up until I do’. These are what I promised myself."

Dee really hoped that she would give up at this moment.

"Erm, but, but…"

"Fuuuaa—fuuu~~"

Ai let out a big yawn and sat on the bed.

"… Sorry, that’s it for now. I have to work hard tomorrow, so we'll talk in the morning."

"But Ai, you’ll oversleep again, it’s impossible…"

Ai hopped onto the bed and snuggled beneath her blanket.

"…Good night."

"…Ahh I give up—Good night. Good work."

Ah whatever, so Dee thought, and left the room.

She would leave the rest to Alice.

　　　　

Dig, dig.

It was at night, somewhere underground.

"Hey."

Dee called out.

"Yeah?"

Alice answered.

"What are you going to do about Ai?"

Alice silently dug into the wall. Dee got impatient and called out again,

"Hey."

"Wait."

Alice put the dirt in a basket and shouted towards the end of the corridor.

Oiii Gigi, pull the string~.

Got it!

Hardy, how’s your stomach? Able to fill some more?

Still good~

I'm counting on you.

Dee got even more impatient.

"Hey!"

"It’s nothing to worry about."

Dig, dig, dig.

"That pipsqueak’s going to understand tomorrow that it’s not normal here, and she'll beg me to save her or something. I’m not lending a hand until then."

"Uh, well, about that..."

Dee slipped into the small cave and put her index fingers together.

"She hadn’t found out yet."

"Huh?"

"Well, somehow, it seems she thinks this is a normal school."

"eh?"

Alice stabbed the shovel down and leaned against it.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"…Eh? How? What caused her to have such a misunderstanding? The digging? When the school said that it’s supposed to be a ‘lesson’? She should have found it weird when the dorm supervisor was shooting her gun for no good reason!"

"Don't be mad at me!"

Dee covered her ears and ran away.

"I mean, wasn't she pretty sharp in Ortus?"

"Well, Ai’s very unbalanced in her development. She’s not bad in terms of ability, but I guess it’s because of her upbringing that she lost all the common sense that we take for granted."

Seriously? Alice asked again.

"Seriously," Dee answered in a different intonation.

"…Are you going to tell Ai about this place tomorrow??"

The shovel chewed the soil again.

"…Yes."

Dee let out a melancholic sigh.

"…I just find this uncomfortable."

"How so?

"We’re showing such a little kid ‘reality’, and driving her to despair."

"Huh? Coming from you?"

Dee fell silent as she cupped her knees. Alice glanced over at her.

"Don't worry about it."

He patted the tip of his nose with his muddy hand.

"Despair is like bait to people like her. They’ll cry and yell and get hurt and fall over and be full of despair after that…but for them, that’s not the end of it all. When people feel that they won’t be able to continue any more, this is when it starts for them."

"…That's very detailed."

"Nope. It’s just that if she doesn’t have this level of sturdiness, she won’t be able to have the same kind of dream as us."

"…You may be like that, Alice, but that doesn't mean Ai is."

"Who knows? I'm not in the least bit worried about it."

The shovel chewed the soil again.

"Well, we'll see about that tomorrow."

Dig.

　　　　

The next morning was spent finishing up the previous day's work. The ores that were dug out of the deposit were dropped into the crusher, and the roughly crushed gravel was spread out on sheets. Some of the gravel was transparent, and some was not. They had to pick out the transparent rocks, and the rest was dumped into the gravel pile. The girls sorted the gravel while the boys carried it.

The transparent ones were gems.

Most would have assumed these gemstones were just broken glass if nobody had said so. Once they handed these stones over to the teacher, the morning ‘class’ was over. There were not more than a handful of gems from ten wheelbarrows of earth and sand.

At noon, it was time for lunch. A sandwich with bacon, sliced onions and lettuce. Ai ordered three sandwiches, which she got at the cafeteria in the morning.

"Ai, come here, come here."

Just when Ai wondered where she should eat, she heard Dee call for her. What? She wondered why Dee would appear here. After all, Ai did not see her the entire day, so she assumed Dee was in a different class…

"What is it?"

"Alice wants to talk to you."

Ai realized.

She nodded firmly and followed behind Dee. She felt her hands would feel lonely if she went empty-handed, so she carried the shovel that was lent to her, and entered the quarry filled with gravel. The soil in this area was barren with sand for a long time, was devoid of grass and had the appearance of a dry stream.

Alice was sitting on one of the gravel piles, about to have his lunch.

"Yo."

He opened his mouth right when he was about to munch onto the sandwich as he greeted Ai. Ai assumed he would continue talking, but he did not. Instead, Alice prioritized his meal and munched at it.

This incensed Ai, who found a slope that was suitable to sit on, unwrapped her package, grabbed the sandwich that was about to spill out, and munched at it. The taste of smoked meat, fresh vegetables, and spices burst into her mouth.

She continued to devour it, being in no mood to savor.

She easily finished the first serving, exhaled and gulped down the water from her bottle, glancing sideways at Alice.

"What? Are we doing it?"

Seeing this, Alice accepted the challenge. He opened his mouth and flashed his canine teeth, biting the second one like a shredder. Om nom nom nom! Ai too would not lose as she started munching as well.

There was a stark contrast in their styles. Alice moved quickly to pick out the parts he wanted to eat first, while Ai chowed down, as though emphasizing "It’s the stomach’s job to chew." There was no difference in speed between them, and they both finished the second piece in the blink of an eye and took the third piece at the same time.

Om nom nom!

They ate at the same time, chewed at the same time, swallowed at the same time.

They gulped down the last bite.

At that moment, ha! They looked back at Dee.

""Who won!?""

"Ehh? When did I become the judge? Ehhh, erm, I didn't really pay attention…can't we just call it a draw?"

Both of them accepted the result and bumped their fists in praise of each other's good fight.

"Woah, we have idiots, two of them!"

Dee insulted them with a hearty smile. Ai was indeed a little embarrassed, coughed and deliberately went back to the issue at hand.

"So, Mr. Alice, what do you want?"

"Oh, that's…."

Alice’s face turned gloomy as he said,

"Actually, I owe you an apology…"

Here it comes.

Ai smiled.

"That's right. I know."

"Yeah, I'm so sorry. I underestimated you."

"Hmph . That's right. What do you mean, "I'm going to cry"? I was able to follow the ‘class’ just fine!"

She boasted as she carried the shovel over my shoulder. While it was a pity that she was not carrying her favorite tool, she felt she looked cool."

"I'm confident in my shovel skills. I was even praised by the supervisor yesterday! Hmph! It’s nothing! You underestimate me too much, Mr Alice!"

"Yeah, I really did…I didn't think you'd be so oblivious after that…"

"Eh?"

"E-erm, what are you talking about? "

"I'm talking about you."

Alice and Dee made bitter faces and crossed their arms, groaning.

"Well, whatever. Go ahead."

"What's with this out of a sudden…?"

"Well~, I'm sorry, Miss Ai. I really can’t bring myself to do this when you’re enjoying your school life so much, but,"

"What's going on?"

Alice looked really apologetic as he said so, which left Ai terrified as she put down the shovel.

"Well, to put it bluntly, this is not a proper school."

"Huh?"

"This place is, well, it's like a prison camp for freaks like us. Once you're in here, you can't get out again, you can't meet anyone again. It’s the Goran Youth Correctional Institute."

"Eh?"

There were a lot of questions appearing on Ai’s mind.

"What are you talking about?"

"It is what it is~ It’s like, everyone in the country knows about this other than you…"

"No, wait, but there's no way Mr Julie would let me in such a place, right?"

"Hey, Dee, can you explain that to her?"

"Yes yes."

Alice calls out his partner's name, who understood the situation, and nudged her nonexisting glasses while acting like a ‘capable secretary’.

"Eh, this Mr Julie you speak of has already visited here twice, obviously to ask whether Ai Astin is here. The academy insisted it didn't, and when he visited the second time, it seemed the town police took action. After that, he and his companion went into hiding. He is quite a cautious person."

Ai was curious as to how Dee knew that, but she ignored that for now.

"Eh?"

"Did that old man Julie put you in here?"

Ai wanted to say yes, but she stopped herself.

"…Now that you mention it, Mr Julie wasn't here at the time, and I thought I wouldn’t be enrolled until much later, and it’s too fast…"

"See?"

"B-but I can't believe I can't see anyone. The dorm supervisor promised that I’ll see Mr Julie next week..."

"I'd bet that when the time comes, she’ll just tell you ‘he couldn’t be contacted’."

"…Sh-she even said I could go out as long as I submit an application beforehand."

"You can ask around if anyone actually managed to apply for one."

"Y-you said this is a Corrective Institute, but I never really did anything…"

"You did corrective labor yesterday and today! How much energy do you have!?"

"Eh? Eh? Eh?"

"Argh, this is infuriating…why do you have that 'shocked' look on your face…?"

"In other words—"

She gulped.

"In other words, I’ve been had?"

Alice affirmed as a matter of fact.

"That’s right."

Ai chewed on those words slowly, swallowed them, and screamed.

"I’ve been had!"

Part IV

Ai did not remember much of what happened after that.

She was deceived.

The fact was the only thing that shook her hard.

—No, no, no, no, like you were deceived, but I don’t think the dorm supervisor has such intentions. It seems that old lady has her own ideals, so—

Alice's words of consolation were more like a blade that pierced her heart deeply. From her perspective, the ‘misinterpretation’ of a mere fact was much more problematic than being deceived by a deliberate deception.

No, please wait a minute. It was a little difficult for her to realize that she was fooled under such circumstances. She was alone in a strange place, surrounded by strange people, surrounded by strange things, and she was trying hard to get used to them. She could only tough it out and try to familiarize herself. If she questioned every new thing that came her way, she would not be able to take a single step forward. Since everyone said "it is what it is", she had no choice but to believe "it is what it is."

What else could she do?

"…Is there another…way…"

Ai sighed and dropped her head, failing to justify herself for the eighty-seventh time.

—I won’t be fooled again!

Upon recalling the words she said to Dee the previous day, she wanted to die. She said she did not want to be fooled again, and never thought that she was being fooled.

She thought she was a bit smarter than that, that her instincts were sharper, like when she realized the truth in Ortus that nobody else realized. However, it was not the case. It was a mere coincidence, and ultimately, things did not turn out so well...

"Raise your right arm."

"…Yes."

The closed eyed girl washed Ai's right arm with a sponge.

Thud, someone caused a bucket to echo.

It was the bathhouse.

The afternoon's work began immediately after that conversation, and Ai wandered aimlessly through it. Midway through, Alice, Dee, and even the girl were worried if Ai was alright, but Ai remained listless the entire time. She remained in this state even until the work ended, and she listlessly did as she was told.

By the way, the girls in Q class had gotten used to this little creature who would wander around unconsciously in the morning and at night, and there was a duty roster centered around the closed eyed girl who would take care of her. This was the treatment Ai had when she was first taken here, so she had misunderstood that it was supposed to be the case, acting like an industrial product on a conveyor belt. Also, she started to think that it was a little bit 'nice and easy'.

"Raise your left hand."

"…Yes."

"Close your eyes."

"…Yes."

Ai closed her eyes and let the hot water drip from the top of her head.

Their conversation had become completely formulaic, and Ai's only response was almost always "yes". She was so overwhelmed with self-loathing, she simply replied, "… yes", and "… yes". "I'll wash your hair", "yes". "Close your eyes", "yes." "Here's some hot water", "yes".

Once again, she felt the hot water flow down on my back. She would usually feel a sense of emptiness in this dull exchange, but this was what she really wished for at this moment.

"Where did you come from, Ai?"

And then, for the first time, the girl with closed eyes asked a question that Ai could neither answer as yes or no to. But Ai's mind was so relaxed that she did not notice.

—Yes. She nearly answered instinctively, but stopped herself.

Erm,

"Ortus…I guess. Probably?"

The response was dramatic.

"Ortus?"

Those washing their skins immediately stopped washing, those soaking in the tub stopped soaking, and those talking stopped talking as everyone surrounded Ai.

"Ortus, as in that Ortus!? Are you a Dead!?" "No, silly sister, that's not possible. What do you mean by that?" "What’s with this stupid question!? Ai, how do you take care of your hair!? Tell us" "…Ai, so small, so cute…"

She thought the world was about to explode. Just moments ago, the girls had been acting like robots, but suddenly came alive as they were shouting and screaming. The colors of their skin became deeper, as if they had been painted on a monochrome picture, and the four colors of black, white, gray, and yellow danced in her field of vision.

"Hey!"

The closed eyed girl shouted at those colors.

"I'll take care of her! That's what we decided in the first place!"

All of them reacted by shivering, and the two timid ones pulled back. But just as quickly, two strong-willed girls stepped forward.

The two blond-haired, blue-eyed girls resembled twins, and they complained.

"We know, we know. That's why we’ve been giving you leeway, prez. But can't we at least talk about her?" "Yeah, Tanya, it’s not fair when you have her to yourself."

A girl with a scholarly air and a pretty forehead who never took of off her glasses even in the bath seemed to be encouraged, and said,

"Of course. In addition, the last few days, we have been silent because we’ve been giving you face as the prez, but Miss Tanya, don’t you think you failed to communicate? I think Miss Ai looks a little disappointed."

The closed eyed girl flinched when this was pointed out

"Th-this isn’t the case, nope!!"

"’Don't say 'nope', Tanya Swedgewood’."

The twins imitated the dorm supervisor’s voice like a stereo, and got the girls giggling. The closed eyed girl was flushed with anger, and splashed water at them. "Now you did it!" and with that voice came the water cannons of retaliation, yells and laughter.

Ai watched on with a blank stare.

It was as if the world had truly changed.

The girls were laughing, angry, chatting , and having fun.

It was here that Ai realized that she had been wrong again.

She realized that she had unwittingly deemed the girls as a background or a backdrop.

She found it was because they were a little aloof to her.

Tanya started to falter increasingly, and the poise she used to have was long gone. The The twins took advantage of the opportunity to ask Ai,

"Hey, hey, little Ai, come here. Let's talk. Leave the heartless prez alone."

"Yes, yes. We have so many questions we want to ask you."

"N-no!"

The twins grabbed Ai's hands and tried to drag her to the bathtub, but Tanya stopped them.

"Why not prez!" "Yeah! Power abuse! Let little Ai go!"

"No! I'm going to take care of her!"

In the center of the chaos in the bathroom, Tanya shook her head repeatedly and clung onto Ai like a stuffed animal.

"E-erm, Miss Tanya."

In her arms, Ai raised her voice.

"………What?"

"I’-I’m suffering a little…"

Tanya came to her senses. Ai's face was completely blocked by two soft objects, just inches away from the peachy flesh.

"Phwoah!"

Ai finally regained her breath.

"E-erm, I'm sorry."

"Ah, no! It’s fine—just, please move away from me… "

Tanya's face turned pale as she quickly misinterpreted Ai’s words.

"Eh, that’s not it! —Well, I’m just, not, used to dealing with naked women…"

The girl with the glasses asked as she was wiping the lenses that were fogged up by the steam.

"? I can understand if it's a man, but why the naked bodies of fellow girls?"

"Ah, yes, men are just muscles, so they feel similar to the Dead."

"???"

Nobody understood Ai's reasoning.

"In comparison, women are round, smooth, and frog-like…"

"F-frog…I don't know how the comparison works, but you shouldn't compare women to frogs…"

"…I like frogs.…"

"Shut up Rune."

Thus the crowd got increasingly rowdy, and there were signs of another big commotion.

"Er-erm..."

But before then, Ai said.

The five girls stopped talking.

"Um, are you all, erm, well, captured and put in this school?h

"…Yes. That’s right."

Tanya nodded her head and turned to her friends.

"It really shocked me in the beginning." "Yeah, and they said corrective work, like, what." "You have it easy, they shot me with a tranquilizer gun." "…They threw a net on me…"

Each of them earnestly recounted their memories.

"…This is cruel."

Ai muttered.

"Why does this school do…such things?"

"Why else…"

Tanya answered the question flatly, as if the question itself was weird.

"It's because we're different…"

Different?

Ai had no idea what the answer meant.

"…I suggest…."

The girl who had been observing in the bathtub, the one they called Rune, raised her hand and blurted out.

"…Let’s introduce ourselves…"

"Oh, this is good." "Agreed~." "I’m fine with this, but…prez?" " Yes, I'm fine.

The five girls surrounded Ai.

…I’ll start…The girl with the blue hair who suggested so sank weakly into the bathtub with a plop.

A girl with glasses then took a step forward.

"I’m next then—nice to meet you, Miss Ai."

"Eh? E-erm, that classmate, who just went underwater…"

"It's okay, don’t worry about her. "

The glasses girl had a thin unhealthy-looking body, and only her eyes and forehead glittered behind her glasses, giving her a mysterious liveliness.

"My name is Volrath Fahren, and I'm an apprentice Plastinator."

"Apprentice Plastinator?"

"That’s someone who makes post-mortem adjustments to the Dead. A doctor of the dead, so to speak."

Ai thought of Diva, whom she had met in Ortus. Diva was a doctor with two different body halves.

"I used to live with the Corpse King and his family, but I got captured by the Dead Hunters. And then they were like ‘You’re a Living and you hang out with the Dead!?’ So I was thrown into the Academy."

"That’s tough…"

"Well, it’s fine though. I got to meet my beloved Hardy."

Volrath's cheeks reddened.

"And my superpower is my grip."

Superpower?

The word was unfamiliar to Ai. She did not know if it was a metaphor or anything.

Volrath ignored Ai’s confusion as she did a live exhibition.

Thack.

There was

There was an abnormal sound, and the girl's thin fingers snapped the mane of a lion spitting hot water as if it were a flower.

"I developed this when I was trapped in a tunnel accident back then. Unfortunately, my arm isn’t very strong, so it can’t help didn't get any stronger, so it didn't help me escape at all..."

Tahaha, Volrath laughed as she crushed the rubble in her hand like a biscuit. It eventually turned into sand and flowed down the drain.

"Us next~" "Next~"

Then the twins stepped forward. They had a dazzling appearance, with golden hair and blue eyes, and they had sophisticated manners in spite of their boisterous personalities. They were the daughters of noblemen.

"I'm the eldest daughter Mimieta Gedenburg, and you can call me Mimi." "I'm Memepo Gedenburg, the second daughter, and you can call me Meme." "Actually, we're not twins," "Yes yes, we're actually triplets."

The twins hugged each other firmly like lovers as they introduced themselves.

"And then I’m Momorency Gedenberg, the third daughter." "and you can call me Momo."

Huh? Ai let out a confused sigh.

The twins introduced themselves as the third person as a matter of fact.

"Well, you know. Momo was the only one of us who died a long time ago and was buried by the Gravekeeper." "So we asked God to let the three of us stay together forever," "And then this happened, right?" "Right?" "Right~".

"One and a half personalities," Volrath added, her glasses shining.

The twins were a dichotomy, with three people sharing two bodies. It was very difficult to distinguish them because they all had similar personalities. Perhaps they could become so because of their similar personalities however.

"By the way, I just said Momo died, but is that right? You sure it’s not me?" "It’s not Mimi, erm…me? Maybe?" "Well, it doesn’t matter, right? We're all doing fine."

"Right~" Ai cupped her head as she saw the two of them lovingly touch their cheeks together. What was going on!? What happened?

"…My real debut…"

At that moment, the water surface split, and a blue haired girl appeared. Wait, Ai had been paying attention to the other three (four?) people. Did she remain underwater the entire time?

"…Rune Sagittarius…"

In spite of her flashy appearance, the blue-haired, blue-eyed  girl introduced herself with a whisper..

"…Ability is to breathe underwater…fine with fresh water and salt water…just not cold water …"

…And people call me mermaid…Ai wondered why she had to talk if she was so embarrassed. Rune exhaled and floated on the bathtub again, probably worn out from having to talk.

"…And, I'm Tanya Swedgewood."

Finally, the girl with closed eyes said her name.

"My ability is clairvoyance—actually, I'm blind."

Tanya opened her closed eyes just a little. The eyes were small and distorted, and it was obvious that they could not accept light. The eyes that appeared to be shut were really shut.

"As a substitute, I have developed this power…I can hear the scenery."

"??? What do you mean?"

"Well, this may be hard for others to understand, but…you see, I can hear colors and shapes as sounds. For example, I can hear the sound of green, squares, smoke. Do you understand?"

She did not.

It was an everyday tune that no one but Tanya could understand.

"…I have been hearing your sound…"

Tanya stared at Ai and said,

"…You have a nice sound, very honest, but it’s very twisted. It feels like a ‘rainbow reaching to the moonlight’…do you understand what I mean?"

She did not understand.

At the very least though, she knew Tanya cared about her. No, it was not just her. Everyone in class was the same, but she never noticed such a thing.

Ai let out a big sigh, as if she were letting out her soul. She arched her back and looked at the wet floor.

"E-erm..."

Tanya, who had been watching her, seemed to muster her courage as she slowly spoke,

"Did you feel it, disgusting…?"

Ai lifted her head in shock once she heard the feeble voice and words.

She saw that the five pairs of eyes were lacking in the mischief they had before, and instead, they were replaced with the color of fear, fear of rejection.

As soon as Ai saw this, a switch was flipped inside her.

She naturally straightened her back, her timid heart vanished without a trace. At this moment, she became someone who could say what she had to..

It was not easy for the girls to expose their differences, and beneath their ruckus were bare, innocent hearts.

"It's not creepy at all."

Ai made eye contact with the girl who could not see, and said so loudly, hoping for them to hear.

"Everyone’s beautiful."

The tension in the group eased. The glasses girl (Volrath) and mermaid (Rune) looked happy, the twins teased each other to hide their embarrassment, and Tanya just let out a breath.

"Um?"

Ai asked.

"Do all the people in the school have such powers?"

The five of them exchanged looks, but did not answer Ai until the ‘chairperson’ Tanya did.

"…Hm, there were normal people attending this school years ago, but now the only ones left here have some ability…"

"…Why did they do this? Why did they capture us?"

"Hmm.~ Well, I heard it started out as a quarantine and protection facility, a place where strange children were collected from their home countries and educated, but it has changed completely recently…"

—After this year, there would not be anyone below the age of fifteen, and after next year, there would not be anyone below the age of sixteen. The change had caused a bottleneck in the school, and the originally violent management had become more so.

"This really is a horrendous place. They wanted to let the school exist as much as possible, even if it meant blackmail or anything underhanded…rumors had it that this place can continue to exist even when no children can be born…that’s why they had been abducting people to prevent the school from."

"Ueeh, that’s weird…Hmm?"

Then Ai suddenly realized,

"But how did they find out about me?

Ai tilted her head, and so did everyone. "I didn’t do anything to expose myself, right…?" it was hard for everyone else to speak up except for one however, "Isn’t it obvious?"

"…Ai, you're young…speaking of which, why are you young …?

Rune asked, and the others basically begged her "Read the mood!" It seemed that since she could live underwater, this watergirl had a tendency to disregard the atmosphere.

" I'm half Gravekeeper, half human, and I'm twelve years old. …"

"Twelve years old?"

"Oh, that's not important. It's the half that's…"

"I thought you were about nine…"

Ai puffed up. The five of them hurried to continue the conversation.

"But half is amazing! It's one of the best abilities in our school!"

Volrath probably assumed it was a compliment, "Wow!", for she repeated away.

"It's not that great. I've seen an immortal, and someone who can kill with just her sense."

"Hampnie Hambert!"

"Idol of Murder!

A shudder spread throughout.

"What’s going on!? You've met all those people before, Ai!?" "Amazing!" "Yes! I have a question! If you meet an Idol of Murder, will you really die die?" "…Ai, are you dead…?"

Ai was getting used to the explosion of questions for the umpteenth time. It was pointless to try and hear every word.

"What about everyone?"

Ai took the initiative.

"Have you been here for long?"

Tanya answered as a representative,

"Well, me and the twins have been here for four years, Volrath and Rune for two—as for the boys who aren’t here, Hardy and Gigi have been here a year—Alice just got here last week."

"It's been that long…"

"…Yes."

The eyes that could not see looked into the distance.

"Of course, we’ve been here for so long…I used to want to get out of here so many times, to go home…over and over again…"

They all nodded in agreement once she seemingly muttered to herself..

"I see. …"

When Ai heard this, she felt a surge of excitement within her.

It was a warm, sure, confident fever.

"… I can't stay like this!"

She stood up immediately and slapped her cheeks.

"I'm motivated!"

Her eyes were glittering, her nose snorting, her hands on her hips.The dejected mood she had beforehand was long gone, and she lifted her head up high.

And Ai declared—

"I'm here to help you!"

And Alice smashed through the floor.

Part V

There was no one who knew what had happened at that moment.

It was so sudden.

An explosion echoed in the bathhouse, smoke and dust rose, obscuring their vision. The children that were trained in the crazy curriculum of the crazy school, immediately jumped into the bathtub to protect themselves from blast damage.

Time slowly passed in the silence.

The fumes became entangled in the humidity, and their visions gradually cleared.

The smoke dissipated—and in the middle of it all, there was a hole where a single person could pass through.

Everyone was dumbfounded.

Then, a human head wearing dust proof goggles and a mask popped out like a mole. He was holding a torchlight in his right hand and a knife in his life, cautiously looking around. He was acting very cautious, and was reminiscent of a wild beast.

The head blinked repeatedly in the brightness of the room, looked left and right, and spotted Ai and the others.

Their eyes meet.

"What in the world…."

A mysterious figure muttered.

"What's going on, Delta 1? Were you able to dig your way out!?"

"Are you okay~?"

The muffled voices of the boys echoed from the depths of the hole.

"Delta 1 to Delta 2. It seems we've been had by intel…"

"What's going on? Where are you? What do you see? "

"Boobs."

"Huh?"

The mysterious person—Alice discarded his knife and torchlight far away to indicate he had no intention to resist, and faked an air cigarette puff like a condemned man taking his last drag, and inhaled deeply.

Twelve fists were clenched tightly.

"No, wait wait. I'm sure enjoying—no wait, I'm surrendering. Prisoners of war should be protected by the Treaty of the Queen. Fufufu, are you sure about this? If you leave a scar on me, you won’t be able to get a ransom…ah, no, sorry, I got too carried away. Stop, it’s an unfortunate accident. Seriously, Dee is the one at fault. Wait, no, hey, don't, nope, stop, you can’t stuff that..."

The first thing the girls did was to stuff a cloth into Alice's mouth to stop him from screaming.

After trying a series of simple tortures that could be done with hot water and towels, the girls finally got over their exasperation.

"I’m really...really sorry…"

Alice was in such a pitiful state that he could have been a benefactor of a welfare state. His hands were tied behind him by a towel, and he looked like a caterpillar.

Behind him were a group of girls, with towels wrapped firmly around their chests, discussing how they should deal with this pest.

"Let's bury him."

Tanya said.

"Let's bury him and sow flower seeds everywhere. We’ll get a beautiful flower garden in spring, and he won’t feel lonely…"

"Why, Miss Tanya…."

Ai clutched her chest, "Ha!"

"Hey wait! What are you making it sound so nice, prez!? It's just murder!"

"Let’s just finish him off"

"Wooaahh! Don’t admit it flat out like that! At least make it sound nice!"

"How noisy…"

Tanya covered her ears.

"Since ancient times, the price of seeing a maiden's soft skin is the same as the toll of sailing down the river of Hell."

"I said I’m sorry…"

"Did you really want to take a peek?"

Ai had a towel wrapped tightly around her chest, as she looked down at him.

"…Have you been seduced by my scent…?"

No wonder, She shook his head.

"Hey, brat, enough with the foul rumors. Who’s getting all horny from a loli body like yours? No, I can’t even use the word ‘body here’. Maybe ‘shape’ is more appropriate. Yep, shape. Hahaha, it’s more appropriate. ‘The shape helps to reduce drag resistance’, hahaha, now that sounds like a car advertisement. Ah right, I just shouted the word ‘boobs’, but of course that doesn’t apply to you, so don’t worry…woargh!! "

Ai shoved a wooden tub into Alice's mouth.

"What are you doing?"

"Listen to your own chest!"

"I don't have boobs on my chest!"

"I-I don't understand! Are you saying that flat is justice?"

"Yeah! You're no help!  Prez! Let’s talk! Try and catch on to whatever I say! Catch!"

"Catch…?"

The moment Tanya heard this, she dragged Alice to sit by the wall.

"All right, Alice. Let's play catch. Volrath."

"Yes."

The girl with fancy glasses stepped in front of Alice and clasped her hands together.

"Transfer student. I have a few questions for you. Just answer them honestly …but if you don't answer."

"W-What?"

"Mog."

Kya, Volrath's cheeks flushed as she crushed the stone in her hand.

"!"

Alice was speechless.

"By the way, if I do this twice, you can  enter a girls’ bathroom openly, Alice."

"Wow. And then we’ll call you little Alice." "I'll do little Alice's hair. "

"…I'll help with your clothes…"

"Good luck with that! "

Ai cheered, not knowing what was going on.

"So, first question..."

Alice broke down within two seconds.

 

 

 

"Escape?"

Everyone said in unison.

"That’s right."

Alice replied.

"We're planning to escape—Hey, Gigi, Hardy, come on out!"

Alice shouted "Ehh!?" and there was an echo.

"B-But it’s the girls’ bathroom, right!? We can't go in there!!" "I don’t dare too~!!"

"Gigi, Hardy."

Tanya called out to the owners of these voices.

"Just come here."

With that, Gigi the ‘Winter Frog’ and Hardy the ‘Mud Eater’  emerged.

Gigi was a pretty boy who was of a similar body type as Ai, while Hardy was a fat boy with a soft smile.

The moment Volrath saw Hardy, she was filled with tears, and leaped over.

"Uuuu~~Hardy, you can't go about peeking when you have me…"

"Ahh~no~Volrath, this is~…"

"No need for an explanation!"

Kiiii~!! The long fingertips tugged at Hardy's cheek, and they looked like a young couple flirting with each other. Given her ability though, this probably was not a joking matter. Hardy, who was in this predicament, could only give a troubled smile.

The ‘Mud Eater’ Hardy.

Due to his excessive hunger, this boy obtained the ability to convert inorganic materials into nutrients. Alice would dig, and Hardy would eat. That was how the three of them managed to dig their way out of the ground.

"Uuu~. Hardy, were you going to leave us here?"

"I wasn’t~ Volrath, I was only going to help. It's Gigi who wanted to run away."

The twins showed a cat-like reaction to these words.

"Hey, Gi. Why do you want to peep?" "Yes, I did. You're not ready to be horny, Gi. Shouldn’t you wait until you're out of elementary school at least?"

"I wasn’t here to peep!"

The boy's face turned red and he became angry at the twins who were teasing him.

"And I'm not in elementary school, after all! I'm already twenty-two!"

He looked and sounded like a toddler throwing a tantrum, twelve years old at most.

The "Winter Frog," Gigi Totoki was a recently discovered boy. He was the son of a trader who had strayed over the snowy mountains ten years ago, and had been ‘hibernating’ alone in a cave.

"I am a child of Elha! The snow and wind are my home! I’ll return to my parents!"

"But Gi, you don't know where your mother and father are, do you? "Yeah. I mean, they might be dead, right?"

The twins nonchalantly stated the tough question plainly.

"I heard the news!"

Gigi smiled in an age-appropriate (?) way.

"They changed routes! They should have headed counterclockwise towards Elha! I can still catch up with them. I have to, no matter what!"

"So that’s why you want to escape…"

Tanya muttered with a gloomy expression, "Now this is troublesome…"

"Alice, are you the same? It's only been a week since you entered…"

"No, because that's what I'm here for."

"Huh?"

Everyone echoed in unison.

"What are you talking about? Are you trying to tell me that you entered this school to escape?"

"No no no , I'm not that crazy."

"Alice is here to help me!"

Gigi said.

Tanya tilted her head and said,

"So you're saying you got caught to get Gigi to escape?"

"Something like that."

Alice replied.

"…Did you two know each other, or?"

"No, I didn't know until that idiot Dee whispered to me."

"We'd never met before!"

"???"

Everyone tilted their heads in unison again, but only Ai took it in stride and said, "Helping people, huh? I understand."

Tanya rubbed her brows and put the matter on hold for now.

"…Even if that’s the plan…Isn't it inefficient to escape by digging a hole?"

"Not really, with Hardy around, prez."

"But you don't know the direction, do you? You can't just show up here and…"

"That’s because our periscope played a prank on us…ahh dammit—oy Dee, come out here! You’re definitely around, right!? Enough with the jokes!"

Alice shouted at the empty space, and then,

Absolutely without warning.

"Ahahahahahahahahah! That’s funny! Your stupid face is so funny Alice!. And you went all "Wait, no, hey, don't, nope, stop". Why is it that you could only say two words! Ahahahahah, my stomach hurts from laughing! Ahahahahahahaha!"

Dee Ensy Stratmitos appeared.

She slipped through the floor."Damn you! What's with the ‘I'll check out the path’? That's what you've been trying to do all along!"

"Nfufufu! It’ll be bad if you ran off without Ai, Alice!"

"You could have said so! What do you think we’ve been doing for the past few days?"

"Ahh, I heard that’s called 'toil'. And also, 'wasted labor', 'free labor', 'idle labor', or 'broken bones'…"

"Enough! Don't say such words anymore! You make me sad!"

Dee was floating in the air, basically sitting upside down as she bantered away happily with Alice.

Everyone else was taken aback, as though reality had turned into a fairy tale. The girl could pass through objects, and floated in the air, but there was nothing amiss about her. Inexplicably, she even had a shadow.

The first one to recover was Ai.

"Well, yes, Miss Dee, if you're a student here, it's not surprising that you have some sort of..."

"Who are you?"

They all asked,

"Who, Miss Dee? She’s my roommate, …."

"You don't have a roommate."

Tanya said with a pale face.

"Who are you…you’re not a student here…you can penetrate through matter? Float in the air? Cognitive manipulation? There's not a single person in the school with such extraordinary abilities.…"

"Oh, pardon me."

Dee realized something was amiss, and descended to the floor.

"Hi everyone in Gora Academy."

She smiled good-naturedly, and picked up the hem of her skirt to bow with courtesy. There was something fishy about how she was wearing clothes in the bathroom, and a different uniform from everyone else.

"I'm Dee Ensy Stratmitos. You can call me whatever you want."

"The 'Witch'!"

Tanya shouted. Dee immediately showed a bitter face..

"'…I did say you can call me whatever you want, but I hoped it wasn’t that. At least add the words ‘of the West’. It’s bad to be called the same thing as her too."

"Oh, s-sorry!"

The Witch of the West, Dee Ensy Stratmitos, was a mysterious figure known to everyone. She could appear at any time, any location, in ethereal form to offer advice to those she meets. Her advice ranges from the small to the grandiose, and she would tell children where their missing items were or lead a small country to victory by telling her how to set up an enemy formation.

Her actions were soon likened to the original "Great Witch"—Vlado El Saikavaati, who would kill the Dead, tease the Living and play games with the Gravekeepers, ‘fulfilling the wishes of humans’. Thus, Dee was dubbed the ‘Witch of the West’.

"I don't like that name because it's so exaggerated. I think I prefer the nickname I was given at first—'The Ghost'."

With that, Dee softly rose up to hug Alice.

"The ghost is haunting Alice right now, whispering to him to get him to help others."

"And now I’m the one in the noose…"

What is wrong with these people?

Tanya and the rest of Q class stared at these new people in amazement—Ai Astin was a child of a Gravekeeper and a human, with the ‘sound of the rainbow under the moon’. Dee Ensy Stratmitos—a ghost, Witch of the West, had the ‘sound of a Dead’.

They had such stark differences, and yet were strangely powerful.

And at the center of it all, smiling, was the most ordinary-looking boy of them all: Alice Color.

Alice Color, the boy with the ‘the sound of a silver gunshot’.

"H-hey, Gigi."

"What is it?"

Tanya bent down, holding her towel around her breasts, and asked Gigi,

"What is…he?"

"He's on the side of justice."

"Huh?"

"Alice is my hero."

"???"

Gigi ‘sounded’ vaguely proud as he said so, but Tanya could not understand the subtleties of a schoolboy’s thoughts.

Before her, Ai, Alice and Dee were talking about something.

But Tanya was already tired. It was supposed to be a normal day, a normal bath, but before she knew it, she found herself in this abnormal situation. Talking about escaping from school? She just wished for them to take this discussion elsewhere.

"—rez, Prez!"

She regained her senses, and found Alice shouting loudly at her.

"W-What, Alice?"

"What else? Time’s almost up. That demonic supervisor will be patrolling around. We need to deal with this large hole."

The clock on the wall showed that a long time had passed. Usually, they would be draining the water and cleaning up.

"Y-yes."

Tanya suddenly felt as if she had woken up from a dream, and remembered Mageta's cold, angry face with a strange nostalgia. At the same time, she felt a sense of discomfort towards the boys in the women's bath and the big hole in front of her.

"Are you okay, prez? I'm sorry, but please take care of the rest. Please move the rocks. We’ll help out below too.."

With that, Alice shooed away Dee from the air and pushed Hardy and Gigi back.

Gigi protested as he was pushed into the hole.

"But Mr. Alice, are you sure you're okay?"

"What?"

Alice asked as he massaged his arms that were freed after a long time.

"You told everyone about it! If someone tells on us… "

"You idiot."

A chop landed on Gigi's forehead.

"O-ouch!"

Chop, chop, chop.

"Don’t doubt our buddies, you idiot."

Alice chopped Gigi until the latter squirmed and muttered "I’m not going to grow any taller!". The tone of his voice was not the inscrutable one Tanya had heard before, but a firm one that was convinced.

Tanya did not know what Alice was like as a person. She had heard of various sounds made by many different people with her extraordinary hearing, but she had never heard anyone with a sound like his before.

"Alright, see you tomorrow! I know you have something to ask me. I'll ask you then!"

He pushed them away, hopped into the hole, and waved back at them.

"Hold on, Mr. Alice."

Ai called out to him.

 

"We'll be joining your escape plan."

 

We?

Chapter 3 - Fifteen Monsters

Part I

The next day.

Ai ended up following Tanya's recommendation and took an elective in etiquette. The teacher in charge was Mageta, who was surprisingly very popular. The class was quite easy to understand, although she did interject a few ridiculous words like ●● and ●●.

It was the first period, just after breakfast. The morning light shone into the classroom on the second floor, slowly warming the air that had been cooled during the night. In the midst of this, Mageta solemnly proceeded with her class, grimly describing in detail about battlefield etiquette, the rules of engagement.

"—In the special environment of the battlefield, courtesy is also extremely unique. Courtesy to superiors, to subordinates, to the enemy, and to the environment, they’re all interlinked, and create a unique ‘atmosphere’ on the battlefield. A superior who doesn’t know how to thank his subordinates will be shot in the back, and one who doesn’t know how to deal with the enemy will be ravaged. I’ll tell you, young pretentious lords, that there are only two things soldiers are permitted to do on the battlefield, and that is ‘to kill’ and ‘to preserve one’s life’. Looting and destruction are just secondary. Now, please turn to page 120 of the text. From now on, I will look at the rules of engagement of each country, army by army. The rules of engagement of the Land of the Dead are particularly interesting. First—"

Even though it was an elective class, it seemed a common instance for the entire class to take the same class. All the students in Q class took such classes, and they were seated at the last row of the classroom. Tanya was the only one concentrating, while the rest of the students were trying their best to slack off under the difficult circumstances. The twins stood up straight, but the triplets were actually chatting in their heads. Rune was slumped like a fish that was washed ashore, completely weak as usual. Hardy was trying not to get a stomach bug, while Volrath pretended to take notes as she doodled designs.

Given her serious personality, Ai sighed at her classmates, but she suddenly remembered that she did not have the right to tell them off, so she continued with her little chatter.

(Miss Dee, you already knew about me from the very beginning?)

(Miss Dee knew me all along, didn't she?)

She pretended to take notes from the board and scribble in the corner of her notebook.

"That's right!"

Dee floated about next to Ai’s shoulder and answered with a normal voice.

But no one was paying attention to that.

It was Dee's ability, the ‘ghost’. Her power was to blend into other people's perceptions, and she could show or hide herself as she wished to. She said this was how she could observe places where she thinks ‘something interesting would happen’.

The school, and Ortus as well.

Dee had known everything about Ai since she came to Ortus.

(So you knew about Miss Ulla?)

"I only found out after I heard your deduction, Ai."

(Why are you just watching? Aren't you supposed to be ‘helping’ people?)

"I'm not helping people."

Dee turned upside down and looked at Ai,

"All I do is whisper. I don't care about what they do after they hear it."

And that was the reason why Dee Ensy Stratmitos was called the ‘Witch’. She would only whisper in other people’s eyes, sometimes guiding the lost by telling them the right path, telling the hungry where to find bread, telling the villages that bandits were targeting them, sometimes telling a small country of justice the weakness of a large country.

In many instances, tragedies were prevented, and their lives were saved…but at the same time, new tragedies were caused.

The hungry would steal the bread, the villages targeted by the bandits would round them up and leave no survivors, the small country would devour the largeThose who are hungry take the bread. When a village was targeted by bandits, they turned on them and plunged into chaos. s.

The Witch was one who transcended life, ethics, morality, and everything else, all to ‘grant the wishes of others’.

Dee Ensy Stratmitos definitely had a piece of that soul.

"I don't help people…"

Dee mumbled again, flatly and decisively, no questions asked..

Ai rolled her pencil around the table and groaned. She did not understand what Dee's modus operandi was. On the previous day, the class worked together to cover up the hole—Ai and Volrath lifted the stone and painted the seams with mortar that Hardy had refined in his stomach, Dee was gone by then, and did not return to her room. Ai had assumed Dee did not want to talk to her, but the latter suddenly popped up and said she had nothing to do.

"Well, it bis what it bis."

(Please don't talk with things in your mouth.)

To Ai's left, Alice was eating a sandwich stolen from the "Excavation" group as his lunch, way before lunch to be precise. He had been staying up late digging recently, so he had been either eating or sleeping in class.

Gulp.

"You can't expect anything from her."

Alice nimbly took a bite of bread while hiding behind his textbook.

"She's a liar."

"I’m not a liar. It just so happens that things end up looking like I’m one."

"That coming from you?"

The two of them bickered cordially without even looking at each other. To Ai’s right, Tanya looked annoyed, and Ai let out one sigh and opened her mouth, wanting to stop them..

And then.

"Hey, there! Close your ●● mouth right now! No talking in class!"

Shots fired.

The revolver hanging from Mageta's right hip shot out flames.

Ai calmly watched the scene. She could see everything clearly, from The moment the right hand reached for the waist, the muzzle flash at the waist. The bullet was not going the speed of sound, and it seemed Mageta had greatly reduced the amount of gunpowder.

After a moment of hesitation as to whether to dodge or take the shot, Ai ultimately decided to take it with her forehead without doing anything.

‘Thuk’ The sound of a strange, small sound echoed, and Ai’s vision was lifted slightly.

Mageta went back to class as if nothing had happened.

Slowly returning her gaze, Ai glared at the person in the air and the person taking a quick meal.

I wasn’t talking…

Her classmates, including Alice and Dee, were oblivious to this. Ai rubbed her forehead. She did not really care that it hurt, but the whiteness of the ink and the stench of chalk on her forehead is kind of embarrassing.

"Sorry about that."

Alice spoke up.

"'But, well, you're lucky it was the right gun."

Ai ignored him. She decided that she would never speak to him ever again.

"The old lady has guns hanging on her hips, you know. As you can see, the gun on the right is a mock-up, but the gun on the left has live rounds. It's a six-shot 'Serpent' long barrel. One of a kind."

He said as he made a shooting hand sign towards the iron-colored gun shining dully on the old woman's waist.

"For those students who really wouldn't listen to her, she’d shoot them with that gun."

Ai let out a sigh, thinking it really was a ridiculous place.

Part II

"So, let’s start the first Great Escape Conference!"

Ai gently clapped as she announced so. They were at a corner of the cafeteria, and the members of Q class created some strange atmosphere.

Tanya and Gigi were the only ones who were listening to the conversation seriously, and as for the others, Alice was sleeping, Rune plunged her face into a basin of water, and the twins who were playing synchronized rock-paper-scissors, a game only the three sisters could play. And there was more.

Hardy and Volrath in particular were off into their own world and never came back.

"H-Hardy, actually, well, erm…"

"What's wrong, Volrath?"

Volrath said while blushing brightly, her hands behind her back. Hardy’s fluffy cheeks slackened as he gave a reassuring smile.

"Well, actually, I made our lunches today, but…"

Saying so, she extended out her hands, and held a cutely wrapped lunch box.

"Woah, that's amazing!"

"So, erm…will you eat it?"

"Of course."

Thank goodness. Volrath relaxed her cheeks and began to unwrap the lunch. It was very well designed, and every single piece of cloth was carefully thought out.

Her hand stopped just as she was about to open the basket.

"What's wrong?"

"W-well? I made this, but I’m not confident that I made it well…"

"It's okay."

Hardy gave a soft smile that put everyone at ease.

"You made this lunch for me, didn't you, Volrath? I'm sure it's delicious."

"Hardy…"

Volrath blushed, and her eyes looked up through the gaps between her glasses.

"I'll open it then."

Saying so, Hardy opened the box.

"Oh!"

There was an assortment of mud buns.

"…………………Eh?"

Ai, who was peeking over with an outstretched neck, let out a strange voice.

"Here, ahh."

A silver fork stabbed at one of the mud buns, flew in the air for a little while, and reached out to Hardy. The mud buns were made of clay sprayed with white sand, and sprinkled over with sesame-like glass pieces as accents.

Nom, and then,

"H-how does it taste?"

"Yep. It's good."

Volrath's cheeks quickly turned red. It certainly resembled a romance scene fresh out of a young girl’s novel, but the actual incident was horrified. The girlfriend was feeding mud to her boyfriend, who was eating it happily.

It was the little love affair that only "Super Grip" Volrath and "Mud Eater" Hardy could have.

Even Ai could not bring herself to say ‘I want to try it too’. After staring dumbfoundedly, she realized something was amiss.

"No! Please listen to me, everyone! I'm talking about the escape plan!"

Bam bam! She slammed the table several times. On a side note, while she did yell the dangerous word ‘escape’, everyone else was fearful of being a third wheel in Volrath and Hardy's love affair, and had kept their distance, so there were no issues.

"We’re escaping! No, it's treason then! We just can’t stay here and have our freedom taken away!"

"Haa…"

And everyone else reacted so.

"I hope that nobody else gets lured in here after me…"

"You’re the first and last person to be fooled like this."

Alice, who was listening to the speech while lying on the table, suddenly retorted. Ai ignored him,

"We must fight this war until the bitter end! This school is a sham! We'll uproot it upside down until it can’t grow roots again!"

"The words are all wrong, but somehow…the enthusiasm comes across very well."

Tanya put her hand on her cheek and muttered in admiration.

"For starters, we need to imprison the teaching staff! I see that their standard equipment is only a handgun, so we can take them one on one, no problems! It’s easy! The problem is the emergency security shifts, the contents of the gun lockers in key locations, and the extent to which the outside residents are cooperating with them! The first people we need to capture first are security chief Mageta, and…"

Only then did Ai notice the subtlety of the atmosphere.

"What's with the awkward reaction, everyone?"

"Because …"

"Well…."

The Q class members exchanged looks.

"What is it? If you have something to say, please do. It's important to exchange opinions."

Then Tanya raised her hand.

"Actually, Ai, we're not really into fighting or…anything like that."

"Hm, I understand. But don't worry. We're not going to hurt anyone."

"Ah, no, we can’t do that…"

"We won’t."

But …Tanya seemed apprehensive, and shot glances at her classmates.

"Everyone! Please hear me out seriously!"

Bam! Ai slammed onto the table hard.

"Don't you guys hate it here? Don't you want to go outside? Miss Tanya, you said it yourself, that you wanted to get out of here and go home."

"Yes, I did. "

"Then…"

"But I can't go home."

Tanya said, her eyes still closed--forever.

"I can't go home like this. … If I go home, I’ll cause trouble for my parents. We’re just ordinary farmers…if I stay, our family will most likely be ostracized again."

The place turned lively.

"It's the same at home." "Yeah yeah."

The twins said.

"Nobles are nobles, they care about appearances." "Dad was really furious when he found out he couldn’t use his three daughters for political marriages." "Anyone marrying us has to love us three though." "Right?" "Right."

"…My hometown is in a desert, and I will dry up there…”

Splash. Rune said as she looked up from the basin.

The rest of the day was spent bragging about their misfortunes. The boys were silent, sipping their tea in silence.

Ai listened to their conversation—which was interesting in itself—and then cut it off.

"Erm, can everyone listen to me?"

She raised her hand quickly.

"Well, so what if that’s the case?"

So what?  Such words caused Tanya and the others to tilt their heads.

"? Sorry, Ai, I didn't quite understand your question. …"

"Erm, actually, I might be mistaken."

Ai said with a worried look on her face.

"You all have a desire to get out of here, right?"

Well, sort of…everyone agreed.

"Then shouldn't I try to do that?"

Once again, nobody understood her.

"Erm, Ai, did you hear what we said? We can't do that, there’ll only be trouble if we go back..."

"So what is the problem?"

"No, well..."

"What’s the problem about causing other people problems?"

Finally, at this point.

They all realized that Ai was talking about something strange.

"Miss Tanya, you want to be with your parents, don't you? Isn't that your dream?"

"Y-yes."

"Then you should do what you can do to accomplish it. You should be looking to leave and return to your family, to go to a place where you can be happy with everyone."

"D-Do you know of any place that would be that convenient, Ai?"

"No, not at all."

"Hey!"

But," Ai said, grinning like the sun.

"I believe there is! There’ll be a place where everyone can live together!"

"Such a place—"

"And even if there isn't..."

Ai smiled.

Her smile was radiant like the sun, evaporating the little puddles left, and parching a few weeds.

"We can create such a place, a heaven."

"H-How can we do that!?"

Ai was puzzled, why, and asked,

"Isn't that what you dreamed about, Miss Tanya?"

"I-It is, but,"

"Then shouldn’t you do that?"

Ai beamed. She was dazzling like the desert, like the deep sea, like the moon, like the sun.

There was an overwhelming incorrigibly in her smile.

"If you have a dream, and you want it to be true, shouldn't you go about doing it?"

She smiled.

"Isn't that what dreams are for?"

They were all speechless.

No one answered.

Tanya was the most shocked of them all. Tanya listened. Her special hearing allowed her to hear Ai’s words and smile. It was not telepathy, but it allowed her to understand the true intention.

This was what Ai meant.

You have to give your utmost to pursue your dreams. No, it was not a statement. It was a belief, for Ai felt so, and assumed that the others were the same.

In other words.

At her age, she already had a dream worth giving her all for.

That was so frightening to Tanya.

"Ai, just tell me one thing…"

"What is it?"

"…What is your dream?"

Ai was a little embarrassed, but she said it proudly.

"I want to save the world."

Tanya was really speechless. The sound became so distant to her, as if she was anemic from the shock. Tanya would not be this shocked if Ai was just young and innocent when she boasted so. She was however shocked that Ai had recognized the difficulty of her dream as a matter of course, and yet would give her utmost to go for it.

What kind of twelve years did she spend to give her utmost for such a grandiose dream? Tanya was afraid of this little creature in front of her. The creature had not gone insane yet, even after all this time. She was worried for Tanya while looking sane.

To Tanya, Ai was horrible, pathetic.

"I can't!"

Tanya shouted. Her face was pale and her voice was trembling with fear.

"I can't! I had enough!"

"It's okay. We just need a plan…"

"That's not what I meant!"

Tanya stood up, knocking her chair over with a thud.

"I had enough of you!"

With that, Tanya put her hand over her mouth to stifle her apparent nausea, and hurried out of the cafeteria.

"Ah, wait Prez!" "Wait!"

"…Tanya, wait …."

The twins and Rune chased after her.

Those who were left behind looked at each other and stood up.

"Ah, everyone!"

"Sorry, Ai, we're not sure we can follow through with it either—that escape plan."

Volrath said. Her hand was grabbing Hardy, and she seemed to be afraid of something.

"I'm sorry, little Ai. We need to talk—you too Gigi."

"Woah, what are you doing, Hardy?…I’m part of the escape team…"

With that, Volrath and Hardy (and Gigi, who had been dragged along) left too.

Ai sat alone in the middle of the suddenly spacious table.

Everyone’s tea was left on the table.

She felt that she had been left behind, badly.

"I'm the only one in the world."

"Eh?"

"You've got that look on your face,"

Alice said. He was no longer asleep, and sat on the edge of the table with his legs crossed.

"…They said they can’t"

"So they did."

"Did I…do something wrong?"

"Nothing."

Alice then rocked a chair.

"It's just, well, it was kind of hard for them, right?? For Prez, . I mean, for everyone."

"Yep yep."

Dee nodded away with a knowing look, drifting along like a dandelion fluff.

"But well, you’re making it tough on them, Ai~."

"Tough…?"

"Well, basically."

Alice said.

"Prez noticed that even though she wants to return home, she’s unable to risk her life to try."

"But we wouldn’t know that until we try."

"That's right. It’s as you say. But there are people in the world who can't do that. In fact, there are more people like that. The people here are all like that. We have adults maintaining a place that will be destroyed in a few years, children who are oppressed and would rather remain so, the Living waiting to die, and the Dead waiting for a Gravekeeper. That's what this place is."

"I don't want that. That ●● is ●●."

"…Don’t imitate the dorm supervisor when you don’t understand what that means."

It’s dangerous to say such words… Alice was horrified.

"But speaking of which, it's really not that bad. It's safe, and clean."

"But you're not free."

"It’s just a lack of freedom."

It was a word Ai felt was very important, but Alice merely dismissed it as ‘just’.

"…I don't really understand."

Ai lowered her head dejectedly, feeling a little lonely.

"…I've been thinking about something ever since I came down from the mountain"

"Heh? —How about you say it then?"

"Why isn't everyone saving the world?"

They were speechless.

"Well, that’s…"

"… Wow."

Isn't that weird? Ai glared at them in turn.

"Is what I'm saying weird? Because the world is going to be destroyed, right? Why isn’t everyone anxious, and thinking ‘we have to save it?"

"But you don't know how to save it, do you?"

"That's true…but that's not a reason not to aim for it, is it?"

"I guess."

"And yet it doesn’t feel like people are interested in the world at all…"

"No, they really aren’t interested. I mean, that's normal. Let me say this first, you’re the weird one. Normal people don't think about saving the world. They don't put their lives on the line for a dream. In fact, they don't even dream."

"I-Is that so?"

"It is."

"But then, won’t we perish?"

"Most probably"

Ai was the speechless one.

"I-Is it really fine!?"

"I don’t think people will say it’s fine. For example, if you’re a prisoner, and you’re told that you’ll be executed tomorrow, what will you do?"

"I’ll try to escape with all my might."

"By the way, most prisoners actually die obediently.—Other examples include: "If you put a frog in hot water, it escapes, but if you gradually increase the temperature, it doesn't escape and will boils to death."…or "People won’t get their cavities treated until their teeth hurt."…or, well, humanity is pretty much like that."

"…No way."

Ai lowered her head in disappointment.

"…Are there actually very few people who are thinking about saving the world?"

"Well, it's true that there aren't many, but don't worry, there are some."

"Really…?"

"Like us, for example."

Suddenly, the air froze.

Ai looked up seriously.

There was a boy rocking a chair lazily, and a ghost drifting in the air.

Ai said.

"Eh?"

"Oh, there’s the bell. I don't really care, but those guys left without doing the dishes. Hey, Ai, why don't you help them? At least separate the teacups and plates..."

"W-Wait a minute, Mr. Alice, what did you just say?"

"Separate the teacups and plates and put them on a tray—"

"Not that! What you said earlier!"

"Hmm? Most probably?"

"That’s way too long ago! I mean…."

Ai slammed the table.

"Just now, you know, you guys, are thinking about saving the world—"

"Ah, yes."

"Sorta."

Alice tickled his cheek. Dee fluttered about.

"Well, that’s fine, let’s save ourselves from being late—Ai, give me the teacup there. Tch, It’s not finished. Who’s so crude?"

"Not me."

"No, I know you're a ghost. You can't touch things. Why are you making excuses when nobody’s asking you?"

"E-erm…"

"I just want to be part of the conversation…"

"You're a bother, you know?"

"Erm!"

Ai leaned forward and called out to them. She yelled, and scampered over to hold Alice's and Dee's hands—but since she could not touch Dee, it was only a matter of expression.

"I’ve! Never met anyone who thinks the same way!"

"Huh?"

"Why, congrats."

Unlike the high-spirited Ai, Alice was pessimistic, and Dee was being a ghost. Both shook Ai’s hands in a dismissive manner.

"Well, the young people nowadays really can’t be underestimated! Really nice! There’s now triple the number of people who want to save the world!"

"Oh, sorry, I don’t think I count."

"Me too."

"Huh?"

The lifeline was taken away, and Ai almost fell down.

"Dee, what did you say? I remembered you mentioned—"

"I want to end the world."

Floating on the ground.

Dee Ensy Stratmitos said.

"And Alice, you—"

"I said ‘I want to destroy the world’."

Alice Color said as he cleaned up his classmates' dishes.

Ai was dumbfounded and wondered if she had misheard something.

"…Erm, both of you, I think you’re talking about something strange…you don’t want to save the world? It’s ridiculous. Is this hell? "I want to end the world."

"You don't actually know what it means to save the world, do you? Dee told me that what you did in Ortus was a disaster."

"P-Please don’t ask me about that."

"If you want to complain, talk to the ghost. She’s quite the evil one, always whispering to me stuff that I don’t want to hear about. Same thing about Gigi. I wouldn’t have bothered if I didn’t know about him…"

Ai's gaze darted around, but the ghost in question had vanished, just like a ghost.

"…You’re saying you know how to save the world?"

Ai unwillingly looked back and asked angrily, as though taking it out on him.

"Of course!"

"Ehhh?"

"What are you so surprised about?"

"I mean, it's an impossible question to answer!"

"That's not true. There are basically only two ways to save the world."

Is that so!? Ai immediately latched on, and nearly toppled over the utensils Alice barely cleared.

"What's that? Please tell me!"

"Sure."

"That’s casual of you!"

"What’s the point of getting you hooked? The first is..."

"Wait, wait, wait! I'll write it down!"

"You don’t need to. First of all..."

"Wait, wait, wait!"

Ai hurriedly took out her class notebook and opened a blank page.

"Please start!"

"First of all, do you understand that there are two worlds?"

"? Two?"

"You look like you don't know what I'm talking about. Shall I go about it in order? The first world is basically ‘the world as it is’, or in other words, a world that exists without observers."

"The world as it is? Observers?"

"Even if the human race were to die out, the universe would continue, right? There will be other animals and creatures."

"Well, yeah, I guess…"

"That's the first world, one that really exists without anyone else. The second world, on the other hand, is the world of the ‘observers’."

"Observers?"

"Well, you can assume I’m talking about humans, like you and me. We can't see the world as it is for some reason."

Alice said, and pointed at his eyes and head.

"The world we humans see is only the world we see with our eyes, and translate into our brains, isn’t it?"

"Translate…?"

"For example, isn’t the scenery we see very colorful?"

Ai nodded her head in agreement.

"But the truth is, there are very few animals that can see like this. Insects can only see ultraviolet light, and dogs can't see red. The world as we see it is fundamentally different from the world as insects and dogs see it. In other words, different observers see the world differently…even as humans, everyone sees the world differently."

For example, Tanya. Alice said.

"Can you understand Tanya's vision?"

"… No."

Ai could not imagine the world of someone who could listen to the light like that.

"Yeah. This is what I mean by ‘seeing the world differently’. Well, even if it's not that extreme, each of us really lives in a different world. It depends on your upbringing, your environment, your way of thinking."

"…I get that, but…"

"For example, you just said that ‘the world is about to end’. Some people don't think so."

"I don't agree with that. The world is dying."

"It's humanity that's dying, not the world—And that's the position Dee stands at."

"Hello~."

Dee brazenly returned and took over the conversation.

"The world I want to save is the world as Alice mentioned, ‘the world as it is’—say Ai, what do you think is the weirdest thing in this universe right now?"

"The weirdest thing is…?"

"Yes. Answer that in less than three seconds."

"Eh, wait!"

"Three, two, one, zero. Sorry! The correct answer is "Gravekeeper and humanity."

Dee drifted in the air and discussed the ‘end of the world’.

"What do you think would happen to the world if we all died, were buried by Gravekeepers, and then Gravekeepers disappeared?"

"What…?"

"Do you think we can go back to the normal world fifteen years ago?"

Ai was puzzled by the idea.

"Do you think that all the miracles polluting the world will disappear, and the world will go back to normal? Is that what you think?"

"That! B-But the people!"

"People aren’t important here. Other living beings will still be around, and naturally, there’ll be new lifeforms taking over from humanity, hundreds of millions years from now. When that happens, I think it's the role of humanity not to get in the way—That's why my idea of ‘saving the world’ is to ‘get rid of humanity’."

For that reason, Dee Ensy Stratmitos whispered to others. She wanted more winds in the storm, to open a hole in a cul-de-sac, to rip out the festering pus.

"Wait, but you've saved people, right?"

"I’m not helping anyone!"

Dee spat back.

"I'm whispering to accelerate human activity, to bring us closer to the end. I want humanity to oxidize faster, to bring them to their demise quicker. This is my way of saving the world. "

So, Dee Ensy Stratmitos sneered.

"I'm grateful to you for ending Hampnie Hambert, Ai."

"I can't accept that…!"

"That's because you're standing up for humanity."

Alice said.

"It's all about perspective. The world really changes its shape depending on the perspective of the person who sees it. Those with the perspective of someone overlooking from a high place—like Dee, will think the world isn’t dying. For someone on the human perspective—like you, you’d think the world is dying. From an even lower perspective—for someone who thinks the town and family is the entire world, the assumption will be ‘My family is happy. It's okay, right?’. A little lower, and the ‘world itself’ becomes a more distant concept. For those standing from ‘humanity’s standpoint’, a ‘world crisis’ becomes a ‘human crisis’, but to those who say ‘my village is my world’, the ‘crisis’ would be more of a drought or a plague. Those with such a lower perspective might find it difficult to say if the world is really facing a crisis. Of course, a crisis is still one, but it’s hard for them to imagine."

"I've seen all kinds of people, but—"

Dee said.

"Everyone lives surprisingly normal lives. They grow crops, raise pigs, brew alcohol and fish, and when they die, they are buried by Gravekeepers. I guess this is probably the current normal?"

"I think so too."

"…Hm."

Ai held her chest, for she felt that she was hurt by these words.

—She never had a low perspective to begin with. She had no family, and was raised as a Gravekeeper. Those around her wanted her to assume a higher perspective."

But ordinary people were different. For them, the world is their family, or whatever was within their sight.

Ai finally understood what Tanya was talking about; to the latter, the smallest world was her family, and she could not be in there if she wanted to ‘save the world’.

"My point of view is also, well, over here—‘a small community’."

Alice pointed up into the air.

"The world I want to destroy is here."

"Destroy…"

"You said you’re going to save the world, but here's the problem."

The index finger he pointed aside suddenly pointed towards Ai.

"I don’t think the world ever asked you to save it, right?"

"Ahh…yes, yes."

This was the part where Ai felt the pain last time.

"I can't be as materialistic as Dee, but still, the world is just the world, and there’s nothing to save. Someone's salvation is another’s destruction, and someone's destruction is another’s salvation. In extreme cases, from Dee's point of view, by saving us, we may be destroying the intelligent life that is supposed to be born later on."

"Th-That’s quite a large scale of salvation and destruction…"

"That's why, gun to head, I’ll still never say anything about saving the world."

"…Ahh."

Ai sensed the mood.

"…Mr Alice, are you angry?"

"A little."

Alice admitted honestly. The boy had always been blunt and straightforward ever since they first met.

"I'm not going to save the world. I'm just gonna destroy it."

"I won’t save people either. I just whisper."

They said and looked at Ai.

They wanted to see how she would answer.

"I..."

Ai said.

"I'm…."

Her words were cut off, and nothing more came out.

"…Well, your position aside—everything till this point is just a way to save the world. We need to define the world each observer sees, like ‘universe, humanity, village, family;, and then proceed to save it."

And then, the second. Alice held up a second finger.

"The second one is very easy. You don't have to save the world itself, you just have to save the observers."

"? I'm not sure…"

"In other words, just save ‘those’ who say ‘I want to save the world’."

"???"

"In another perspective, people who say they're going to ‘save the world’ are the ones who haven't been saved."

Alice’s dark eyes looked into Ai.

"In contrast, those who don't want to save the world are ‘those who are saved’ to begin with. They will think that since children won’t be born, the Dead won’t die, but they have family. It’s not the ideal situation, but it’s not the worst either. That's how it is."

"Well…I get that."

"Then the rest is easy. All you have to do is to lower your perspective."

"Lower?"

"Give up trying to save the world, and live happily ever after with your friends, family, and loved ones."

Bam! Ai slammed the table. The pile of dishes clinked together.

"What's wrong?"

"What you said!"

Ai's blue eyes blazed as she glared at Alice.

"'I can't accept that!"

"'Why not?'

"Why, you ask!?"

Ai could not believe this question was asked. It was a question so obvious to her that she did not need to think about, let alone answer.

"No, that’s not the case. People have a reason to be obsessed with their perspective.. I have one, Dee has one."

"I just…!"

"That's not true. How can there not be a reason for something grand like saving the world? Why do you want to save people? Why do you want to destroy this school?"

"It's to save Miss Tanya and..."

"No, there’s something more."

"!!"

That was...

It was because this place was so different from the wonderful school that her father spoke about—

"That's your starting point, isn't it?"

Alice said, as though reading could read her mind.

"You need to get this clear. You don't have to save the world, but if the starting point changes, the perspective will change dramatically and maybe you'll be happy."

"That's not going to happen…"

"Maybe you're right."

"My happiness is not important to me."

"You're absolutely right. I can relate to that."

But, Alice looked at Ai with a near expressionless face,

"What would you do if you became someone else's world?"

"Eh?"

"If a world from other perspectives includes you, and those people want to save you, what will you do? If to them, saving you means saving themselves, what will you do? If there’s such a person—like say, a lover who falls for you, and wants you to be happy, what will you do?"

"T-there's no way such a person will..."

"Ai."

Alice’s voice turned serious.

Ai had a bad feeling about this.

"What is it?"

"I love you. Let's get married."

"Please die."

She blurted out without saying, even though it would be say so as a person, as a Gravekeeper, as someone saving the world. She had been keeping it sealed till this day, but she finally badmouthed someone..

"Ah…"

She was overcome with self-loathing.

Alice chuckled next to her.

"I was just kidding, but lover aside, don’t you already have people willing to be your family?"

"…"

"You have traveling companions, don't you?"

"…"

Ai clammed up.

She was reminded of Julie and Scar.

"I wonder what's more important to them, you or the world?"

"……"

"Whether it’s that old man called Julie, the Prez and the others, the Living the Dead, there are so many people who want to make you happy, and yet you’re abandoning them to go to your so-called world, right?"

Ai could not say anything.

"We're both unfortunate."

Alice said, lifting the dishes with a clatter.

"And here’s the bell."

The afternoon bell rang, and lunchtime was over.

"Well, before the world, let's get to class."

He nimbly piled up the trays.

"Let's go."

He said, and strode off.

Ai did not follow.

The members of Q class spent that afternoon in an oppressive atmosphere of low-temperature lava; Ai and Tanya remained silent, and did not speak after class or in the bath.

Then, late at night, Ai slipped out of her room.

"Hey Ai, let's go back, it's not good to stay up late."

Dee said as she floated in the night sky.

Ai did not reply. She looked forward silently as she walked through the forest at night. She was dressed in her Gravekeeper outfit for the first time in a long time.

"Hey, go back, Ai~."

Ai ignored Dee. She did not look back at all. She continued to search the surroundings for enemies. There was no one in the forest.

"Hey…you're not really breaking out tonight, are you?"

Dee asked, sounding anxious….

Ai did not answer after all, but the silence clearly showed ‘affirmation’.

"Say, it’s impossible. The security here is very strict. If they find you, you’ll be locked in the detention room, and you won’t get to eat."

She got ignored.

"Hey, you can't escape by yourself. It's impossible!"

Again Ai ignored her. Ai's pupils narrowed like a cat's as she walked down the dark night road.

Dee muttered to her back, "This is no good," and turned back the way she had come.

Ai was left alone, but she walked on without breaking stride. After five minutes, the forest ended, and she reached the outer wall of the school.

She quickly bolted out of the forest, ran for about three seconds, and without losing her momentum, hopped onto the wall. She put her fingers into the gaps of the bricks, moving her limbs right and left to climb up.

"What’s so difficult?"

She took a little breath while sticking to the wall. This wall was a hedge compared to the one in Ortus, which even a Gravekeeper could not intrude from outside.

Ai climbed the wall at a good pace.

And midway through,

"? What is this?"

There was an iron wire stretched out a little way off the wall. On a closer look, one could see such wires all over.

"?"

She knew what a barbed wire was. These steel lines however would not prevent anyone from escaping. Ai reached out her hand, still skeptical.

She touched the wire.

"Bzzzt!"

Part III

　　　　

There was no light in the world where Tanya Swedgewood was born. Apparently, the reason for this was that her eyes were a little smaller than most people's, a congenital defect.

Tanya's parents regretted it.

—What’s there to regret?

Tanya was often misunderstood. In fact, she had never felt unhappy about her blindness.

She thought that she would feel unfortunate if something she had was taken away from her. Given her imagination however, it was hard to begrudge that she did not have these things when she never had it. She felt that she could not see what she could not.

Thus, the ‘Spirit Vision’ Tanya obtained was not out of her own wish.

It was her family who wished for the sight.

They were really grieving, suffering, and distraught about Tanya's vision.

This made Tanya sad.

It happened on the night when she was nine years old.

Young Tanya heard her parents' voices lamenting in bed. Her father and mother were hard-working, cheerful people by day, but at night they would quietly moan vindictively.

(Such a poor girl.) (Such a poor girl.) (Such a poor girl.)

Stop it.

And Tanya, nine years old, covers her ears. In Tanya's world that was devoid of light, sound was an important source of information for everything in the world. At this moment, she did not want to hear anything.

And yet, the outstanding organs dutifully picked up the sounds of those close to her, and delivered them deep into her heart.

(Such a poor girl.)

Stop it.

(Such a poor girl.)

I'm not a poor girl!

Tanya let the soft comforter and the sun-scented blanket crush her, and uttered so with a voice only the pillow could hear. The blanket, which should have been embroidered with rabbit embroidery, caught the dripping salt water without a single complaint.

(Such a poor girl.)

Tanya cried without moving a muscle. Her shriveled eyeballs, useless as they were, worked well only at times like this, trickling out tears.

Tanya had never been unhappy with her eyes.

Yet, her family thought she was unhappy with them.

This frustrated Tanya so much that she—

(?)

Wait.

Tanya jerked upright. Wait, wait, wait.

Then Tanya realized.

How much difference was there between those two.

It did not matter how ‘unhappy’ they felt they were, but since they, especially papa and mama said so, since her family said so, and if it was so painful…

Perhaps she was truly unfortunate after all?

What came to Tanya's mind when she realized so was ‘relief’.

She was always bothered by the dissonance of opinions between herself and her parents. Her parents could not understand why Tanya never thought of herself as unfortunate, and Tanya could not understand why her parents thought she was unhappy. This was a painful experience for both of us.

But not anymore.

Tanya and her parents were both unfortunate. They had the same feelings.

At this point, Tanya felt that she was twisted in the mind, but back then, she just felt elated.

And thus she wished.

Finally, she could make such a wish.

She wanted a vision.

She wanted to be what mama and papa wanted her to be.

It was a heartfelt wish, only an infant would hope for.

Perhaps if Tanya's visual impairment happened later, her wish would have been granted normally.

However, she had not known light since birth. There was no ‘glare’, no ‘darkness’, no ‘transparency’, no ‘color’, nor ‘reflection’. She knew nothing.

Her imagination alone could not conjure anything she had never seen before.

And thus the ‘Spirit Vision’ was born.

The ability to hear the landscape.

At this moment, Tanya was walking through the forest leading to the outer wall of the Gora Academy. The moon was faint, the darkness rich. An ordinary person would not be able to walk one step further in the darkness.

Tanya’s footsteps remained steady however, for she could hear the entire landscape.

She could hear her own footsteps, the sound of her heart, her breath, the trees that covered them, the earth, and the sleeping insects resting behind the leaves and grass.

The sounds of the night, the moon, the darkness.

The orchestra performed by the Spirit Vision allowed the blind girl to see through the dark night.

(After all, it was this power that drove me into the wilderness.)

Tanya exhaled a sigh.

—The simple village farmer and his wife had the power to provide for ‘their blind daughter’, but for monetary and social reasons, they were unable to provide for ‘a daughter with special powers’. Tanya was kicked out of the village after a year, put in a monastery, moved from place to place—and was finally locked in this box garden called Gora.

(No, I can’t say so. I'm in this place by choice.)

Tanya reminisced as she walked through the school forest.

She would admit everything. The old her yearned to return home, and she actually did, but at sixteen, such thoughts were long gone without a trace.

Hope, or wish.

How long had it been since she stopped having such things? She remembered her  soul was burning on the day she made that wish when she was nine, but how distant were those days?

Another sigh blended into the night fog.

Tanya thought,

Ai—the girl who had ‘the sound of the rainbow that reaches the moon’ probably was still living in those days, probably dreaming of saving the world, like a curse. She was probably burning her soul for this.

Tanya did not envy her. Nevertheless…

The moon went dark.

"Tch!"

She clicked her tongue.

"Woah."

In response, Dee bowed her head in exaggerated surprise.

"Eh, I'm sorry, did I say something that upset you?"

"N-Not at all! I’m sorry, I’m not clicking my tongue because I’m unhappy… "

She hurried to explain.

Reverberation localization.

It was a technique Tanya had been using before she obtained the ‘Spirit Vision’. It was a technique where she would emit a sound and listen to the reflected sound waves, picking out whatever the objects surrounding her. Bats were able to hunt in the dark because of this technique.

Tanya had always been able to tell the shape and location of objects to a certain extent by listening to the sounds made by the surroundings and herself.

"Hmm. That’s amazing. You’re like a submarine. Do you know what a submarine is? It's a boat that goes under water."

The ‘Witch of the West’ was trying her best to explain, and Tanya hurriedly nodded.

"Huh? But with your ability, you don't need such a skill, Tanya."

"Not really. The sounds of ‘darkness’ and ‘night’ are very small, so it's easier for me to use my voice to override them."

"I-I see—By the way, what do you know about me, Tanya?"

"You…"

Tanya paused slightly.

"Have the sound of the dead. …"

"Ahaha, I can’t hide from your power. Feels like my mind is being read. What can I do now?"

Tanya was thrown off a loop. Naturally, she could not read a person’s thoughts, but her ability allowed her to have something close. She hesitantly watched the ghost.

Dee seemed unconcerned and continued to float forward. Her invasion really was ghostly as she slipped through obstacles without issues and moving forward.

"But I was a little surprised that you’d help Ai, Tanya—well, I went to Alice first, but he’s not there. Thank goodness I found you."

"… Surprising?"

"Yep."

"Is that so…"

The truth was that she really did not know what she was doing. She never had been one to sneak out late at night before, and would usually be the one admonishing. On this occasion however, she was walking through the school at night.

"…It's not that I don't like her anymore after that."

Hmmm. Dee was silent and did not ask any more.

"Oh, here we are."

"Mm."

They passed through the forest and noticed in unison.

Beyond the 30-meter buffer zone was a wall surrounding the school, covered with steel wires, some of which were said to have electricity of ridiculous voltage.

And at this moment, Ai was about to touch it.

"Don’t!"

But her voice was not heard, and Ai touched the steel wire.

Bzzt, there was a small snap of electricity.

When a human body makes contact with strong electricity, two things could happen.

They were other ‘popped’ or ‘stuck’.

The current flowing through the human body would cause the muscles to stiffen, and If the stiffened muscles caused the person to move away from the contact point, it would result in a ‘pop’. If the stiffened muscles caused the person to hold onto the current firmly, it would result in ‘stuck’. Such outcomes were basically the same, but the results were greatly different. The former would rarely cause deaths, while the latter would greatly increase the chances of it.

Ai was fortunate to be ‘popped’. But that did not change the fact that she was in danger. Her small body was thrown up in the air, and her hands left the wall without being able to grab anything.

She fell.

"Tch!"

Tanya clicked her tongue to affirm the situation. She was too late. Such was the moment when the weakness of reverberant localization would show itself. Compared to sight, which could be perceived at the speed of light, the speed of sound was not even a millionth of that.

The little body was dragged down by gravity five steps ahead in the air. The body continued to fall, about to land head first onto the solid ground.

I can't make it in time!

At that moment, a black shadow ran past Tanya's side. It jumped out of the forest at top speed and arrived at the landing like an arrow.

"Oya—!!"

In the nick of time, the shadow slipped between Ai and the ground, catching her body by her stomach.

Bam! The two of them collapsed in the darkness.

"… It hurts. Seriously, you're like, falling out of the sky or something. Is it a fad?"

"I boss..."

"Ahaha, 'I boss', you can't even talk properly."

Alice quickly got up, dusted himself off and tried to help Ai up. Ai however was on the ground with her buttocks down, unable to get up.

"H-huh? Wait? Why…"

"You’re numb."

"May feet bah sore…sore."

"Ah, I know I know. You get this taste when you lick a battery. It tastes like  electricity—So, how’s the taste?"

"Not bad."

"Wait, you’re saying it’s great!? You can eat electricity too!"

Scary, Alice shuddered all over.

"Here."

"? What is it?"

"I’ll carry you."

"I’m fine."

Ai looked aside in a moment.

"I bate Misha Julie."

"So now ‘I bate Misha Julie’? Fukukukuku."

"!"

Smack! Smack! Ai kept hitting Alice while blushing furiously.

"You holibble! Albays laughing at pose in trabble~!"

"Ahaha, I don’t get what you’re saying at all."

Alice quickly grabbed Ai and gave her a piggyback ride. Ai tried to resist, but her body was too numb to move.

"Eh? Dee and Prez?"

The two of them finally noticed the other two.

Instantly, Dee snapped at him.

"Seriously~!! If you're going to come, come early! It's not trendy to show up at the last minute, you crazy idiot!"

"Shut up, I don't need a flying girl to tell me about common sense. If you're going to leave a message, you should have told Hardy, right? Why Gigi? It’s hard to understand him. And he’s begging to come along…"

Alice bickered with Dee as though they were greeting 'good evening' to each other, and their attitudes immediately changed thereafter, for he turned around and said,

"Prez…are you here to help this one too?"

"Y-yes."

Hmph, Alice nodded and smiled.

"Thanks."

"Wh- why are you thanking me, Alice?"

"I like it when you do that. It's kind of nice, isn’t it?

The smile was truly that of a ‘boy’, and Tanya's cheeks were flushed for some reason.

"Alright, you should thank her, too."

"…Thanks u."

"You're welcome …."

The two of them bowed to each other awkwardly.

"Shall we go back?"

"…"

Ai did not reply. This time, she did not complain.

The four of them returned through the forest. Dee floated around, keeping watch, and the trio cautiously advanced as per her instruction.

"I'm sorry…."

Ai said abruptly. Her voice had finally returned to normal.

"I caused everyone trouble…"

"Then you should be obedient for now."

Alice pouted.

"Five days."

"What's that?"

"We’re escaping."

Alice looked over his shoulder, and into Ai's eyes.

"I've already spoken with the dorm supervisor."

For a moment, the forest regained its midnight silence.

"…What do you mean?"

"What else? Our plan to dig a tunnel out is a no go. This is Plan F. Negotiation."

"Negotiation…"

"With that dorm supervisor?"

It was unbelievable to Ai and Tanya.

"That old woman lady has already realized that times have changed. She's willing to close an eye if we just die obediently. What do you intend to do?"

"What do you mean by that…?"

"Are you coming with me?"

Ai was silent.

"What about you, Prez?"

Alice did not wait for Ai to answer, and proceeded so.

"Y-you're asking me too?"

"I thought I could bring along a few alone, so I wanted to ask the entire Q class."

"I..."

Tanya imagined herself leaving, wandering the wilderness, and returning home.

"Well, I'm not asking you to decide now."

Alice was the only one who remained aloof and steady.

"You have until the end of that day to answer me."

+

The next day was a rest day which all the students were happy about. However, the students of Q class were the only ones unable to enjoy it.

Alice's suggestion had reached everyone by noon, and the class atmosphere into a tense one.

Tanya would be discreetly called by the girls to be asked in the bathroom or in any secretive place. She did not know why everyone was looking to her for advice. In fact, she herself was unsure.

It seemed, the twins seem to be planning to stay.

Rune is unsure. She said she wanted to go to the underwater city of ‘Estia’. Tanya was a little shocked, for she had never heard of this before.

Volrath’s answer was easy to guess. "Anywhere with Hardy".

It seemed that while everyone had a consultation, they did not need an answer from anyone else. They already had one. Tanya merely nodded and gave a few words, but everyone thanked her, and smiled as they left.

Finally, Tanya asked the same question to every smiling face.

"What is the ‘world’ to you?"

The answer from the twins was ‘we wish to be together, always’.

Rune's world was ‘self’, and she wanted to ‘enhance’ herself.

Volrath's world was ‘Hardy’ and she wanted to ‘love’ him.

Each answer and career path seemed to be intertwined.

She even asked the boys herself.

Gigi's world was ‘The Mountains of Elha’, and he wished to "protect" it.

Hardy's world was ‘one where everyone had their full’, and he wanted ‘to reach that place’.

Tanya walked through her own, dark world and asked her classmates.

On the way, she came across Mageta, who was in the eaves leading to the dormitory and staff offices. As usual, the dorm supervisor walked confidently, as though assuming she was the most righteous person in the world.

Tanya might have been a little crazy at that moment, for normally, she would not dare to do so, yet she naturally posed this question,

Dorm supervisor. What is the world to you? What do you want to do with it?

Even though Mageta was asked such an abrupt question, she was still full of confidence.

"For me, the world is this school. I want to protect this place."

Even though it's guaranteed to collapse?

Mageta's eyes lifted up in surprise. Once she saw that no one was around, she suddenly relaxed her eyes and answered honestly.

"But still—for us, this is the only way we can live."

The moment Tanya heard this, she felt something drop into her stomach.

No matter how wrong they were, no matter how there was no future.

Some people had determined the place where they belonged to.

Mageta was one of them. So was she.

"Tanya Swedgewood, you’re not thinking about leaving here, are you?"

…….

"Don't do that."

It was the first time she heard the dorm supervisor sound so kind.

"There’s no way you can live out there. You don’t have the guts to live in the outside world, with your special powers. That's who you are."

…Thank you. Tanya said, bowing deeply, and left the room.

She wanted to hear what those three had to say.

+

Alice, Ai and Dee were hard to find. While she did all three of them during mealtime, they disappeared like ghosts the rest of the time however. (Dee was a ghost, though.)

Tanya had no choice but to go out unannounced at night, and entered Ai's room.

"Ai?"

Fortunately, Ai was there. So too were Dee and Alice.

"Why Alice too?"

"I have no choice. This idiot’s always doing something stupid…"

He said as he smacked Ai's forehead. Ai did not react at all, and merely groaned as she lay prone on the bed. After questioning, she learned that Ai spent the entire day trying to escape, wanting to contact her companions outside

"Just from what Dee saw today, she climbed cliffs, went under water, waddled through sewers, climbed over walls, through forests, broke barriers… and many other things we don't know about…"

"………Did you really do all that today…?"

"Yeah, and she failed them all."

It’s hard to keep up with her. Alice grumbled as he twirled his neck, creaking it. Dee also said, "Even I'm a little tired. This time…" and drifted away like a rain cloud.

Ai lay slumped on the bed. She was black all over, her hem was burned at the edges, and she smelled a bit grimy.

But her eyes were still alive and well, as though going all "You got a problem with that?"

Tanya sat down gently by the bedside. First, she asked the ghost floating in the air.

"Miss Dee."

"Hmm?"

"What does the world mean to you?"

"The world? Hmm~, I guess, myself."

"I see. So you want to end yourself?"

The moment Dee heard so, she felt as if she had been struck by lightning, for she realized that she had inadvertently spoken words that came out of her soul unwittingly.

Tanya, however, took this little drop of soul from the ‘Witch of the West’ and weighed it equally with her classmates’. I see, and so she answered.

"Mr Alice."

"…Wh-what now, ‘Tanya’?"

"What is the world to you?"

"…! You..."

Alice's eyes widened in astonishment, and was even sweating profusely.

"How can you ask such a question, Prez? It might be a fatal wound to us here! It’s like hitting a monster with a ‘silver bullet’."

"Erm, if you don't want to answer…I won’t really force you here…".

"Now it’s a fatal wound if I don’t answer or try to bluff my way through…"

Alice cleared his throat and replied squarely.

"For me, the world is my ‘friends’. My world is ‘the eighteen members of Class 3-4’, that's my everything."

"I see. You want to destroy that, don't you?"

"Yeah."

Tanya’s response remained the same.

"I see," she merely uttered.

"Ai."

"Za warudo?"

"Hm?—Ah, that’s right. Another electrocution again?"

"Unbortunatly…."

Ai laid on the bed, squirming, practicing her words.

"For me, the world to me...well, let’s see..."

She mumbled again, and finally, her answer was still,

"… I don't know."

"Yeah, I guess so."

Tanya nodded her head. This answer was most similar to her own.

"You know, Ai, I asked everyone that question today…"

Tanya talked about their classmates, the students in the other classes, the teachers, the ‘worlds’ they lived in, and how they interacted with it.

"Some of them started with ‘I don’t know’, or ‘I never thought about it’, but when I listened to them closely, I realized that everyone has their own world…so I think we have a world too."

"…Is that so?"

"A somewhat vague answer is fine."

"Somewhat vague…"

Somewhat vague, Ai repeated so many times.

"I have a feeling…it’s 'I want to save everyone'."

"Everyone."

"Yes, everyone…"

Oh, I see, so Tanya thought. She felt that the words were somehow appropriate for Ai.

"I see, so you want to save everyone, Ai."

"’'I want, to save, everyone'?"

Ai slowly uttered the words, as though chewing and swallowing hard at it.

"Everyone…? I want, to save, everyone…? But everyone is …."

"Ai?"

Tanya called out, but Ai was in her own world, and did not answer.

"Looks like you did something really bad here, Prez."

Alice smirked.

"I-Is guess so."

"You did. Look at her. It’s super scary."

"Everyone…What is everyone…? The living, the dead, the Gravekeeper… me… its resolve, its attitude… involvement... ...Plants and Animals…Space…Pineapple…"

"A-Ai?"

Tanya called out tentatively, but Ai continued to murmur, and had no response..

"Goodness me…"

Seeing this, Alice chuckled.

"Well, let me ask you this instead. What does the world mean to you, Tanya?"

"…"

Silence. Tanya had no idea, and that was why she was asking everyone.

"…I don’t know."

"Oh, come on! You asked us."

"Uu, I'm sorry…"

"Goodness—a sorta answer will be fine, you know?"

Vague.

"What do you think?"

"…No, I'm not good at this ‘sorta’ thing."

"Seems like Ai is."

Tanya pointed to the bedside.

"The Sun and the Moon…Stones and Life…Fish Sausage at Dawn…"

"I see…no it’s not…this isn’t ‘sorta’."

"It's not?"

"Yeah, it's not ‘sorta’."

"… I still don't get it."

"Sorta?"

"Sorta."

"You’re doing so though, sorta."

"Oh, that's ‘sorta’?"

"Sorta? I kind of get it—sorta."

"I think I get it. Sorta."

"I'm sorry. I don't know what's going on here."

Dee was all dizzy as she muttered, sorta here sorta there sort everywhere.

"W-well, think about it. Sorta."

At that moment, the last bell of the day rang.

"All right. It's time for a roll call."

Alice stood up and said.

"Once you come to a decision, let me know—and tell me whether or not you're leaving."

He did not wait for the response as he gently flipped out of the window. Sorta, Dee wobbled after him as she muttered.

"Okay, good night."

"Good night."

And so.

This was Ai's fifth night at the school.

+

The next day.

Many classmates seemed to have regained their composure. Everyone seemed to have no doubt left as they swung their shovels, dug into the earth, and rolled the carts to transport the earth and sand away.Tanya had unwittingly separated herself from her old friends and started to spend time with Ai.

It was a commonplace phenomenon. Gigi, who had been attached to Alice for a long time, had been chatting with the twins, and Volrath had left Hardy to be with Alice. It seemed everyone wanted to finish whatever they had yet to do in lieu of the coming changes. Such was the atmosphere.

Tanya wondered if she and Ai were the same. They spent time together to prepare for X-Day, which was coming in four days.

The two of them chatted in moments, as though they were talking over scraps of notes in class.

At meal times.

At recess.

In class.

Tanya talked about her eyes.

Ai talked about her hometown.

They talked about themselves. They talked about their favorite foods. They talked about their parents. They talked about last night's dream.

At some point, the class members began to join in. Rune and the twins stood next to each other, and Volrath and Hardy sat down. Gigi would look uncomfortable when caught, but he never left. Alice laughed, and Dee floated away.

Class Q broke up, gathered, and then broke apart again—like tide, coming and going, and becoming tranquil before they knew it, when everyone stopped.

But everything was still destined to separate.

Tanya and her friends spent their days there.

Four days passed like an arrow.

+

"Are you going?"

Tanya asked.

"Yes."

Ai replied.

It was dusk on the fourth day.

Classes were over, all the after-school work was done, and they were on their way back to the dorm.

Q class was walking down the path in various groups, sometimes together, sometimes separate. Ai had been playing with the twins, while Tanya was talking about cooking with Hardy and the others.

Suddenly, they reshuffled, and the two of them were at the back of the group, watching the sunset with their classmates ahead of them.

"What about you, Miss Tanya?"

Ai asked. It was the last moment for her to hear this reply.

They would be leaving on this night.

"Hmm, I'll stay…"

Tanya replied.

"…Is that so?"

There was a moment of silence.

"…Did you get the answer to that question?"

"The question about the world?"

"Yes."

Tanya sighed.

"I guess it comes back to that after all…I can’t think of anything."

"Can't you just have an answer, sorta?"

"Sorta, yes."

"What?"

Ai stopped dead in her tracks.

"Isn’t that amazing! What is it?"

Tanya also stopped, yes, and nodded,

"For me, the world is still my family…that's what's most important to me…"

Then! Ai was about to say, but she could not muster herself to continue, and kept quiet.

She's a really smart girl, Tanya thought. Days ago, Ai did not know that others would have such thoughts, and at this moment, she knew very well where the difficulties were, and was troubled so.

Ai was right. If family was important to her, she should be with them, and face difficulties together. They should fight against discrimination, alongside each other, argue about important things, and win their place in the world. It had been seven years since then, and things had changed a lot. Perhaps the village was much kinder than before. They might even accept her. Even this school, which used to be like an iron wall, had changed, greatly in fact, for it was on the verge of collapsing.

But...

She still could not go with them.

"Sometimes."

Tanya felt a hint of tears.

"I despair of myself. Why can't I live ? Why can't I do the right thing? Why can't I be as pure as the sun rises and the moon falls?"

The useless eyes moistened the edges of the eyelids, fulfilling the only functioning ability they had.

"I wish I’m as strong as you, Ai. I wish I had a dream and go for it. I wish I was that kind of person."

"That's because I'm an idiot."

With a sigh, Ai turned her head away.

"I just didn't have that thing in me all this while, the thing that prevented me from taking the step out like you are all buried, Miss Tanya. That’s why I won’t be lost, that’s all…I just don't know. I’m just ignorant…"

In two mere seconds, Ai cried along and grumbled..

They took out their handkerchiefs in unison, blew on them in unison, and then heaved sighs of relief.

"…I've only recently come to understand what kind of person I am—Tanya Swedgewood."

Ai scrunched her nose with her handkerchief again.

"…What kind of person?"

"Yes. A good-for-nothing."

"A-A good-for-nothing? I don't think so. …"

No, I am one.. Tanya replied. She really was a good-for-nothing, always unable to conclude, always being vague about what she wanted, just living in the moment, had no dreams, nor anything she wanted to do. The one thing she was no inferior compared to others was her, and she dared not to expose herself to reality.

She had hoped that this was not the case.

Unfortunately, it seemed she was.

"Goodbye, Ai."

Tanya said.

"I can't go with you."

"…"

Ai was silent again, appearing to be on the verge of tears. She fumbled for words in her mouth, and appeared to wonder whether to say them or not.

"I—"

Another five seconds of hesitation passed,

"I'm …."

In the end, Ai could not say anything.

"Goodbye, Ai."

+

Tanya did not remember much of the time that followed.

She just remembered that the life that had been turbulent over the past few days was stable. She returned to her dormitory, had her meal, bathed, and no longer hesitated to do so. She could live on without any doubts, just as she did before she met Ai.

This made her even sadder. All the things she had been frustrated about were forgotten, and she was simply worrying about tomorrow's class. She really was a good-for-nothing.

She went to bed at night, and the moment she closed her eyes, she thought about Ai and the others.

Surely they had left by now.

Even though she thought so, Tanya's mind was calm, and merely shed tears in the eyes that had forgotten to.

And so they left.

Part IV

It was morning.

She had to get up.

Tanya slowly rose from her pillow, waited for the blood to rise to her head, and listened to the morning sounds. There was the curtain of the early summer sun scorching the curtain, the sound of a midget hazel hunting for berries in the backyard, and a deep snore coming from the next room. Yes, Ai is definitely still asleep, so I should go wake her up....

No.

Perhaps that was not necessary anymore?

Tanya lets out a sigh. In this room, she could not hear her roommate. The latter was a heavy sleeper, so there was one explanation as to why she was not here.

…Tanya was unsure as to who left…and who remained.

Tanya thought of this question that came too late, "Unnnn" and stretched. It was probably going to be a busy day, since at least 'three people were dead. The thought of the other classes questioning her and Mageta’s demand to silence her left her with a headache..

But that was still child’s play.

It was truly easy compared to the life-shattering worries she had yesterday.

Tanya quickly got up from the blanket, and opened the curtains and windows to let the morning light in. Her skin felt warm and fuzzy, and she was bathed in the most powerful ‘sound of light’ in the world.

She felt as though she had ‘returned home’.

She had returned to her own little world.

She should be able to survive with those alone. She could live as long as she had the warmth of the sun, food to eat.

Like Ai, Alice, and Dee.

Just living alone would not allow her to survive.

She was different from them.

She felt a little sad, and yet was a little relieved.

"…Time to go."

The dormitory was flooded with the sounds of the sun.

The sounds of night were shunned to the West, and disappeared—

"Miss Tanya."

At that moment,

She heard a rainbow voice reaching the moon.

"Ai…?"

Just beyond the window, on the bare grass, stood the Gravekeeper.

"W-why are you here?"

"Because I stayed."

"What do you mean stayed…why…?"

The feet beneath her trembled, for she could predict the answer to this question.

"Of course, to save you, Miss Tanya!"

Ahhh,

Why was she such a good-for-nothing.

"…Ai"

"Yes?"

"You're making a mistake…"

Why could she only drag other people down, and prevent them from pursuing their dreams?

Tanya dragged her feet, leaned against the window sill, squirming.

"You can’t. You can’t do that. Ai…It’s impossible to save everyone. You need to give up on some people…I’m a perfect example of someone to be abandoned. I don’t have any happiness or unhappiness to say. I have no dreams, and I’m so indecisive. You should be able to give up on someone like me."

"That's not true."

Ai stared up at Tanya.

"I might not be able to save everyone after all, but it’s not my style to accept it from the beginning."

"Goodness…spare me already…"

Tanya did not want Ai to highlight how ugly she was.

"And also, you're mistaken."

Eh?

"Miss Tanya, you’re mistaken about yourself."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're not a good-for-nothing, Miss Tanya."

I'll prove it to you—

With that, Ai spun the shovel around and placed it on her shoulder. With a clatter, she scampered away.

Tanya stood by the window and blankly watched her leave.

Five minutes passed.

She assumed Ai was going to fetch something, the latter did not appear to be returning back at all. but there was no sign of her coming back at all. It was getting late in the morning, about time for wake-up time was approaching. She had to change into her uniform.

"—bbrrrrr."

Just then, the speaker lit up and the wake-up siren sounded. There would be a brief announcement by the staff after this.

Only today, however, the rest of the message was not played.

"?"

Instead, there was a lot of commotion behind the microphone. There was the sound of things falling, and one of the teachers was shouting something. There was a metallic sound resembling a sword fight, and maybe, just maybe, a gunshot.

And after all that, silence returned.

No, it was not silence. The microphone picked up a distant sound. "Alright, time to tie up everyone first." "Eh, where’s the microphone?" "Ah! I found candy! Students can’t eat them, and they hide them for themselves! So despicable. I’m confiscating!" "Ah, found the mic. Test test. Ahh~ Mic test."

She was all too familiar with this voice.

"Ehh—ahem, eh, good morning, everyone. I'm Ai Astin from Q class. I apologize for the suddenness. The staff room has been occupied."

Then the voice declared,

"I'm here to talk to everyone today."

+

"That idiotTeh Ping (talk) 16:40, 22 November 2021 (CET)!!"

"Kya!"

Suddenly, the earth cracked open, and a figure popped out.

"Alice? Why are you coming from there…?"

"It’s leftover from the tunnel project—wait, that’s not important now! That terrorist! I've always thought she’s an idiot, but I expect her to be a really big idiot!"

On a closer look, popping out were Alice, and the other members of Q class. There were Rune, Volrath, Hardy, and Gigi. Basically they were the escape team. Tanya and the twins were the only ones who stayed in the end.

"Wh-what's wrong, everyone? I thought you escaped last night. …"

"Master Alice was opposed to something, so we delayed it by a day. He said he was worried about Ai…"

Gigi said.

"Oh." "Worried~."Finally, ‘worried’~~."

The twins, who had stayed out of the escape plan from start to finish, shouted teasingly.

"Shut up, your triplets. You’re noisy! Ahh dammit! What do we do now!? Isn’t our escape plan ruined now!? That idiot! Dumb eggplant! Country bumpkin!"

"Everyone shut up!"

Tanya shouted, and everyone was dumbfounded, clamming up. They had never heard the chairperson of Q class raise her voice like this before.

Tanya however paid no heed to their reactions as she listened attentively to her little friend's voice coming through the speakers.

"Uh, everyone."

She cleared her through.

"Uh, everyone.

She repeated herself again, seemingly uneasy.

"Is this switched on? Can everyone hear me? Well, even if everyone can, they can’t tell me. I guess this question is meaningless. Ahaha…huh? It's not funny?"

"That’s some lame broadcast from the start…"

"It's like a pirate hijack radio done by an amateur"

Alice and Gigi uttered.

"Quiet!"

"Yes." "Sorry."

"Ah, yes. Well, I’ll ask the people involved now—system is on when this light is. Okay, I understand. You can go back to sleep now. Thank you very much."

One could hear the sound of something being tightened.

"…What is this dark broadcast?"

"This is scary."

Volrath and Hardy noted.

"Quiet!"

"Yes." "I'll shut up."

"Let's see. There's no other reason why you're all here today.

Rune thought to herself, "…We aren’t gathered though…"

"Quiet!"

"…Th-this is unreasonable …."

"I've come to talk to you today. "

Ai began.

"I’m going to leave this school today. My time here is short, but I’ll like to start off by thanking all of you for your kindness and support. Thank you very much."

One could then hear something hit the microphone with a thud.

"…She definitely bumped her head while bowing." "I'll float over and check it out—yep, as expected, she’s holding her forehead."

"…Eh, continuing on…"

"She’s acting like nothing happened"

"I'd like to tell you about my dream."

A beat there. if she was nervous, for her breathing sound could be heard. Tanya Swedgewood could ;see Ai behind the microphone.

"I want to save the world."

After saying so, she was suddenly distraught

"But, to be honest, I don’t know how to do that. The world changes with the times, and everyone sees the world differently. I can’t do anything about something I can’t grasp."

There was a slight audio feedback.

"…So, I'm going to decide what world I want to save. I’m going to define my world, and save it!"

"Now then." "It’s coming, isn’t it?"

Dee and Alice folded their arms.

"What will be born? An enemy of the world?"

"Or an ally?"

"I want to save everyone."

Ai decided.

She had decided on her attitude.

"My world is made up of everyone. Everyone's world is crowded together. They resonate with each other, and go on forever. That's the kind of world I like. I want to help ensure that happens. But to do that, I really need your help…because your world belongs to you. It is not possible for me to save it in the first place."

Ai seemed sad. Even though she had found an answer, she looked sad.

'So, everyone, please don't give up your world. I’ll protect the world from any other harm as long as you won’t give up…but if someone wants to destroy their own world, I won’t be able to stop. If that someone has given up and doesn't want to struggle, I won’t be able to save."

"After all, every person has a world to save."

"It's decided."

Alice slammed his fists together.

"She's on my side."

"I’ve settled too."

Dee muttered disinterested.

"She's my (world) enemy."

"I told you to be quiet!"

"Yes." "I'm really sorry."

"Miss Tanya!"

She was suddenly called out.

"Please! Don't give up on your world! It's okay! I know! You're not really... "

"………?Ai?"

The broadcast was cut off abruptly.

"Ai!"

+

--"The Johnson Bears are here to intercept. Looks like we can only laugh—alright, looks like it's about time, so thank you for listening. I'm Ai Astin, and I'm honored to be the DJ for today's show. The song to be aired at the end of this 3Q☆ program will be ‘Fifteen's Monsters’ by The Off Raps. I wish you all the best for the whole day, bye bye~~"

Ai carefully placed the needle on the record, fiddled with the mixer, slowly increased the volume, and removed the headphones like a pro, heaving a sigh of relief. She knew she should not brag, but she felt that she ended off pretty well. She even said three of her best jokes, so surely the others were laughing away. She might be able to make a living doing this.

Now then.

She put down her headphones and looked around the staff room again.

The room was in shambles. Several staff members who had been on duty early in the morning were tied up and knocked out, the tabletops messily covered with papers papers, cigarette butts spilled over from the ashtrays. Half of it was not Ai's fault, for it had always been like this.

"Yoo-hoo!"

Dee floated above the wreckage.

"Hello, Miss Dee, did you hear the broadcast?"

"Yes, I did. Thank you for your effort."

"Why, it's a little embarrassing, isn't it? How does it sound?"

"It was good, I think, but the line to the dormitory got cut off halfway because of the teacher. The part we heard was more than enough though."

"Eh? Wait a minute. Did I get cut off in the middle of the broadcast? T-then, the joke about the ‘unexpected common point between a two humps camel and a potter's wheel’ and the ‘surface-to-air Hampnie Hambert’…"

"It doesn’t matter here.."

And...

Dee looked at Ai with a clear smile..

Seeing this, Ai’s expression deepened.

"Ai, you’re going to save the world, right?"

"Yes."

"Is that so? Then, I’m going to end the world, and you're going to be my enemy."

I guess so. Ai answered immediately.

Dee giggled, and Ai simply puffed out her chest.

"I like people who prepare themselves so. Let’s have a contest to see whose dream will come true first…or whose dream won’t, and get beaten to the ground. "

"Yes, I guess so…ah, but there’s one thing I want to correct."

"Hmm? What is it?"

"We're not enemies."

Dee was puzzled.

"Miss Dee, you may think of me as an enemy, but I do not think of you as one. You’re a part of Ai Astin's world after all."

"…"

Dee, the ghost, the Witch of the West, was,

Momentarily distracted.

"… Ah well, have it your way."

She quickly regained herself and disappeared into the floor.

"…I'll lend you a hand until we get out of here…don't get me wrong, it's not for you, Ai, it's for Alice and everyone else."

"Yes, that's fine."

"…"

She disappeared.

After seeing off her moody friend, Ai looked out through the curtains. She could see people watching in, but they did not intend to shoot. Ai assumed they were about to intervene, but there was no action…

At that moment, she was literally knocked off her feet. The bricks on the ground crumbled away.

"Hyah!"

Ai fell on her butt. It's the raiding party! Wait, that’s where they are attacking from!? But if I can counterattack here!

"Alrighty16:40, 22 November 2021 (CET)~!"

She grabbed the dominant arm, pinned the assailant with her right foot, and pinned him with her left hand.

"OW ow ow ow ow! Hey stop it, stop! I'm here to help you out! What the hell are you doing!"

"Heh? Ah, Mr. Alice?"

He was not the only one present, for the rest of Q class burrowed their way out of the hole.

"You’re heavy, and it hurts. Get out of the way!"

"S-Sorry, but it’s amazing how many tunnels you dug."

"No comment about that. I don’t know how many holes that idiot ghost got me to dig over the past week…"

Wew~♪ Dee whistled without appearing.

"'But, well, I guess I can thank you for once. Thanks to you, we got everyone but the twins to join us."

The others were trying to shuffle their way out of the hole. Hardy was the second one out, and everyone was slow to get out as a result.

"…Except for the twins?"

"Yeah, they want me to pass the message to you, ‘We chose to stay, so don’t mind’…they're the oldest of the bunch after all. They did think hard about it."

"Hmm, I understand."

"Oh, you're okay with that?"

Yes, Ai nodded.

"I’m okay with it somewhat as long as the three of them can stay together—more importantly, I'm worried about Miss Tanya..."

Hardy finally slipped out of the hole, followed by Volrath, Gigi, and finally…

"Ai!"

Tanya jumped out and hugged Ai.

"Ai! You idiot idiot idiot! That’s a dangerous thing you did!"

"Mgh! Miss Tanya. Mfh!"

Ai was hugged so tightly that her whole face was buried in Tanya’s chest.

"Oy Prez. I think the way you’re hugging her is more ‘dangerous’ than anything."

"Eh? —Ai, Ai, are you okay?"

Fuaahh, Ai was released right when she was about to be suffocated, and gulped in the air around her..

And then she sized up Tanya closely...

"Pfftt."

"Ai?"

"Pfft fufufufu."

Ai laughed like a squirrel in early spring, clearly ‘overjoyed beyond words’.

"A-Ai, what's wrong?"

"You’re here after all, Miss Tanya."

"Yes, but…what's so funny about that?"

Tanya was a little miffed, but Ai did not apologize and stopped giggling.

"Miss Tanya, why did you come?"

"Huh?"

"Why did you come here?"

Ai giggled happily, and her tone left Tanya a little annoyed.

"Isn’t this weird? You say you’re a good-for-nothing, that you’re always scared, fearful of the unknown, and dare not act? So why are you at such a dangerous place, Miss Tanya?"

Tanya was very annoyed.

"You don’t…understand?"

"I don't understand~."

"Of course it's because he's worried about you!"

"Yes, thank you."

Once Ai heard those words, she gently hugged Tanya.

"A-Ai?"

"See, I knew it, You’re not a bad person, Miss Tanya. You’re not scared as long as it’s for the sake of others. You didn't even notice it until I told you. You are not a hollow husk. You are—"

—The green eyes and the closed eyelids stared at each other.

"You're the kind of person who risks herself for others’ sake. You’re someone who saves the world."

"I'm not that kind of person! I'm just useless…"

"You're so persistent. Well, let’s take it as that then."

"What?"

"It's just words, that’s all."

Ai clung to Tanya, as though wanting to be spoiled, or latching onto her.

"Because in reality, you’re here with me."

Ai beamed as she hugged tightly..

It seemed Tanya had no choice but to give in.

"By the way, Miss Tanya, I found out where your family is."

Ai pulled out a sheet of paper and showed it to Tanya.

"Eh!?"

"I've asked Miss Dee to investigate. Both your parents have left the village and moved to the city, and are going around looking for you—but it seems your father’s lung is ailing--"

"Where are they!?"

Tanya approached Ai, reaching out, trying to snatch the paper,

Ai deftly ducked aside.

"The outside world, you know?"

"So what?"

"Eh? Ah, no, it's nothing.…"

Ai dejectedly handed over the note once she saw the sudden change in temperament. Tanya shook the note, and listened intently to the sound of the words.

Ai was a bit taken aback by her attitude, and then smiled as she told everyone.

"Okay, let's go!"

"You idiot, who’s going with you?"

Alice delivered a chop at the head way shorter than his. Chop chop chop.

"It hurts! What are you doing?"

"How do you intend to get so many people out of here? You ruined my perfect plan. I’m sure you have another plan, right?"

"Nope."

"You've got to be kidding me…"

"No, because. I never thought there would be that many people."

I mean, why are Mr. Alice and the others still here? Ai tilted her head.

"Hm…well…it’s true that this isn’t your responsibility."

"If that's what you think, then please, stop, chopping, and apologize, to me."

"Strangely, I just don’t want to stop."

Alice continued to chop, and Ai continued to be chopped.

"Well, there’s only one way out of this, right?"

"Well, there's only one thing to do, right?

The whole of Q class stared at them, wondering what they were talking about.

"A frontal assault."

"A head-on breakthrough."

+

Mageta knew this day would be a troublesome one, but even she did not expect it to be this bad.

Ai had taken over the staff room, Alice and the others had escaped from the detention room. She had sent a few people to the staff room, but none of them returned, and that ridiculous broadcast never stopped until the end.

Yes, until the end.

"A frontal assault." "A head-on breakthrough."

"'Are those kids stupid?'

Mageta laughed at her colleagues. They laughed wholeheartedly.

They were laughing partly because of the foolishness of the frontal assault, but the real reason was that the broadcast was still going on. The line to the dormitory and the school building had been cut, but the line to here was still connected.

"Disband the raid team."

"Are you sure?"

"They'll come out here. There's no need for us to look for them."

Mageta and the other teachers were guarding the main gate, the only entrance to the school. The gate was sealed with two locks and a huge bolt, and further beyond was a low concrete wall meant to defend against bullets.

"A few guns are in their hands. Be careful, everyone."

"Yes—dorm supervisor, where are the keys to the gates?

"I've got one. One of you has the other."

"Yes, ma’am. Do we kill them?"

"No."

Mageta pulled out the gun on her right hip and released the cylinder, dropping the white ink bullets at her feet.

"It's vexing, but we’re in the middle of important negotiations with Ortus and Bayak . There’ll be bad publicity if we kill seven students. We need to avoid that from happening."

Everyone’s enthusiasm was doused.

"…I guess it’s rough, huh? What about the remittances from our home?"

"We're still getting by, but the bribes to the officials are making a dent. Well, the school isn’t getting shut though…we just need to be quiet for a while…"

She took out my cigarette case, but contained inside were not cigarettes, but bullets. She took out six rubber bullets from it and put them in the cylinder.

"But, well, a successful escape would be even worse of a scandal."

With a wave of his right hand, he retracted the cylinder, made sure the palm and grip were snug, and holstered it. Normally, she would have put the hammer into the strap as a safety device, but she eschewed it at this point."

"Just do what you think is appropriate."

Copy that, the teachers picked up their weapons. Many had rubber slug shell shotguns, and the history teacher in particular cleverly loaded a grenade launcher with a wooden warhead. Some had submachine guns with low explosive rounds.

All of them were equipped with weapons designed to be non-fatal as long as the critical areas were not hit. If they still died, it was just bad luck.

"Well, if they’re dead, we’ll just send them back to Ortus."

Mageta laughed, and released the gun from the leather strap on her left hip.

It was loaded with .45-caliber enhanced ammunition to begin with.

"Dorm supervisor, I have a question."

The math teacher asked . He was a nervous-looking man with thin glasses.

"What is it?"

"Their abilities include enhanced hearing, strengthened grip, breathing underwater, hibernation, and the physical abilities of a half human, half Gravekeeper. So far, so good. But this Alice Color's Buzzer Beater’ is…"

"Ahh, that?"

Mageta tried to explain, only to hear—

"Oh yeah, do you have any strange powers, Mr Alice? You’re in Q class after all."

"Well, I do."

"Oh! Then what is it? Please tell me. Maybe that might help us escape..."

"Well, for example, here's an eraser."

"Yes."

"And over there is a mug."

"Yes. Why are you speaking respectfully?"

"I'll throw the eraser."

"It’s in. And you just ignored me."

"I'll throw the eraser again."

"Ahh, amazing, they all went in."

"In other words, this is my ability."

"Aw man!"

"And that's about it."

Mageta pointed to the speakers on the gate.

The teachers chuckled.

"Looks like it's a piece of cake."

"Save it until we win. Even without Ai, we’ll be in trouble if they get any firearms—"

"—Clank clank clank."

"Okay, gun locker's open. There’s my gun! Hey, you guys, take one!"

" I have a shovel, I don’t want it." "Guns are too noisy, I don’t want it." "Guns are too soft, I don’t want it" "Guns aren’t tasty, I don’t want it." "The people of Elha fight with bows!"

"You guys…"

A huge wave of laughter erupted amongst the teachers. Mageta, as expected, could not pay attention because she cupped her head.

"Well, then, we'd better get going…"

Just then, Alice's voice came over the speakers, strangely clear.

"Just wait."

The broadcast was cut off with a buzz.

A suspicious bewilderment began to spread amongst the teachers.

"Hey, dorm supervisor?"

"That was…"

"Don't worry about it, you lads."

Mageta tightened the reins on all of them, looking unconcerned.

"There is no other way out of here. They will come here. We don't move. We just have to fortify the gate. In position!"

Everyone panicked, and hid behind the defensive wall. However, Mageta was the only one who stood exposed, standing proud with her hands on her hips as her eyes stared straight at the school building.

Eventually,

"They’re here!"

A dusty wind howled. The wind scattered the wild sand on the road, creating a thick cloud of dust that blurred vision.

They walked on, cutting through the smoke as they kicked it aside.

Tanya and Rune, Volrath and Hardy, and Gigi.

They all appeared in uniforms, completely empty handedly.

They stood in front of Mageta, and as though premeditated they had a plan, they took off their ties and threw them in the air.

"Pick it up."

Mageta frowned and bellowed at them, but the five of them only looked a little frightened and did not obey the order.

Only two of them did not throw away their ties, for they were not wearing school regulated uniforms to begin with.

Ai carried a shovel on her back, wore a straw hat and her Gravekeeper garb. She was full of confidence completely unlike her first day.

And Alice was wearing leather boots and a tattered uniform from some unknown school. He was the only one armed, wielding two pistols just as Mageta did. The one on his right hip was a six-shooter revolver, while the one on his left was a twenty-one round automatic.

These were the two.

These two were the cause of everything.

The two of them stopped in their tracks, and both sides faced each other. The distance between them was twenty-five meters, and so was the distance to the gate.

"Usu!"

Alice raised his right hand and casually called out,

"Yo, dorm supervisor. Sorry to keep you waiting, but the seven of us will like to go outside as promised…"

"It doesn’t count."

"… Well, of course not."

Alice sighed.

"You lot!"

Mageta taunted.

"I'm not going to take your lives since you're being courageous. Surrender now, and we won’t let you suffer."

"So she says."

Alice turned around to ask the other members.

All the faces were speaking. No.

"They say no."

"Is that so?"

Mageta pulled the gun from her right hip.

She did not care about their reply either way.

"Then crawl and lick the dirt."

With a click, the safety on the guns behind her was removed.

"Sleep."

A gunshot rang out.

Fire, fire, fire.

Revolvers, shotguns, riot guns, submachine guns.

Every weapon spewed fire. With so much kinetic energy concentrated in the air, there was little difference between live ammunition and rubber bullets.

The Q class members, clustered together, immediately fell to the ground. Even so, Mageta showed no mercy. The moment her bullets were depleted, she reloaded another six rounds and fired again, and once done, reloaded another six rounds. She continued to shoot until all the rubber bullets in the cigarette case were depleted.

Dust rose in the air as a result.

"…Did we overdo it?"

One of the teachers called out accusingly. He was the first one to stop shooting.

Mageta grabbed the shotgun out of his hand and fired into the dust.

Thunk. It sounded as if a bell had been struck with a log.

Looking through the smoke with a murderous look in her eyes, Mageta waited for the smoke to clear while holding the shotgun at her waist.

The wind blew slowly, carrying the smoke far away.

"Ack ack—…a-achoo!"

Ai sneezed loudly as she inhaled the last of the smoke.

"Hmm~ this attack was nasty. I can't stop sneezing."

"Impossible…"

The teachers, hiding in the shadows, were horrified.

"Is everyone okay? Achoo!"

"I-I guess so…"

Ai's classmates, who were lying on the ground behind her, were horrified.

Mageta was the only one who remained calm.

Bam! Another rubber bullet was shot out.

Ai swung the shovel in her right hand without even looking at it.

Thunk! There was a dull thud, and the bullet was parried away by the thick shovel.

Eight hundred times.

That was how Ai protected her classmates.

"You guys!"

The teachers, who had been in a daze, hah! came back to life with that one word, They discarded their useless guns and took out self-defense pistols loaded with live ammunition from their pockets.

This time, there was real murderous intent directed at Ai Ai and the others.

But,

This time, the shooting was not one-sided.

Alice flicked off the hem of his jacket and grabbed his pistols, he had a revolver in her right hand and a machine pistol in his left.

He fired.

The speed was mind-blowing. The teachers had yet to take aim.

However.

"?"

"…Heh, of course. There’s no way you’d hit?"

There was not a scratch on the teachers' bodies. They were hidden behind a concrete barrier, their bodies barely visible.

"Wait a minute, Mr Alice! You just said ‘Leave the guns to me!’ but you didn’t hit them at all! Of course I know you shouldn’t shoot them though!"

"What choice do I have? I've never hit a human being with a bullet in my entire life."

"You’re useless!"

"You've got to be kidding me!"

One of the teachers, hearing Alice's words, stood up. No longer thinking about his own safety, he readied the revolver and pulled the trigger.

But no bullet came out of the muzzle.

"It’s not firing?"

"Same here! What the hell is going on?"

"Firing pin."

Alice tersely pointed out. The man looked at his gun. The firing pin was an iron pin that would strike the detonator of the bullet and ignite it.

The pin was broken.

"…Metal fatigue?"

"Dammit!"

Behind the concrete, someone pulled out a gun again, Alice glanced at him and then fired. The bullet did not miss its target, grazing the firing pin and snapped it. There was only a small impact on the man's hand.

"'You knew about my ability, didn't you?"

Bam bam bam! The guns in Alice's hands started to blare away, and every single time it happened, the teachers' weapons were rendered useless. He continued to shoot away the enemei’s hammers and barrel bushings through a gap the size of a dictionary.

"This is the ability to send an object to a targeted location, ‘Buzzer Beater’."

Bam bam bam bam!

"I’ll never hit a human. Don't worry."

"Tch!"

Even so, there were too many of them. The others aside from Mageta noticed the fact that Alice only had two arms, and four of them attacked simultaneously.

"Oops."

"Damn you!"

Shots fired. At the same time, Ai stepped forward.

Clank!

And then there was a sound that no one had ever heard before.

All the bullets were blocked by Gravekeeper's shovel. Each time the silver blade swung, circular sparks scattered in the air, and all that was left were lead bullets flattened like cracked crowns and crushed fruit.

"M-monster…"

"Mm, that's rude."

Ai lowered her shovel.

"I’m not a monster. I’m me."

Clap clap clap. At that moment, an out-of-place applause sounded.

It was Mageta.

"…What is that about?"

"I’m praising you. Ai Astin, Alice Color, I've underestimated you. I apologize for laughing at the idea of a head-on assault. You have the power. I’ll show respect to you and leave you to your own devices."

"Eh?"

Ai showed a dumbfounded face, and Alice immediately doubted her words.

"…What are you talking about, old lady?"

"I'm talking about our philosophies. This school is a school for the weak. We exist to protect them. And you're the strong ones."

"Oh…"

"Thanks for that…"

"It's our mistake to allow you to enroll here. Alright, since you know, hurry on…leave the others…"

Mageta glanced behind the other two.

"I refuse."

"'Why not? They’re weak. They’re not like you. They're just dragging you down, and they're not doing you any good, no?"

"…"

"Only the strong can improve the strong, Ai Astin, you shouldn’t associate yourself with those of a lower level than you. Yes, let me introduce you to our main school. The world's greatest minds gather there... "

"You ●●."

Everyone was speechless.

Alice was the only one with his head in his hands, groaning, "You should really stop using that kind of language, seriously…"

"Ai Astin!"

"Shut up. What is useless? What are weak people? You’ll lose right now, not to me or Mr Alice, but to Miss Tanya and the others! —Let's go, Miss Dee!"

"Righto!"

At Ai's shout, Gigi and Rune raised their hands in the same motion. The next moment, the two collapsed and fused together to form a single schoolgirl wearing a uniform from another school.

"Yahoo, everyone~. I'm Dee Ensy Stratmitos."

"What! Who the hell are you!?"

"Where did you come from?"

"Shut up, you guys! Call the other departments! Those two were never here to begin with!"

Mageta calmly commanded

"That's too late!"

Alice laughed.

"Do it, Dee!"

"Uuu, I don't really want to do this because it'll stretch out my ego boundaries too much."

"Just do it!"

Okay, okay.Dee Ensy Stratmitos melted. The melted body spread out like a thick, milky white mist, densely enveloping the area.

"Wh-What the hell is this?"

"That's disgusting! Ehh, get away from me!"

"Quiet! Don't shoot! They’re in the same situation! As long as we don’t leave our stations, they won’t be able to escape anyway!"

The teachers shivered and waited in this biological, nauseating fog, which sometimes gave an illusion of strange landscapes, as though they were in a different place. There was a snowscape, ice, fire, and hordes of corpses...

The nightmarish fog seemed to go on forever. The teachers were shaking and trembling, and they were one step away from killing each other. Right at the last moment, there was a wind that seemingly dispersed everything.

The fog dissipated.

Mageta quickly glanced around, searching for the five students.

There was no one in front of her.

"Where did they go?"

Mageta swung her gaze from side to side. There was no one to the right, nor to the left. When did they retreat? She could not imagine them retreating at this moment.

There was a cool and refreshing gust behind her, blowing against my sweaty skin. It blew away the strange fog from earlier.

But wait, where was this wind coming from?

A gust of wind blew from behind.

The wind was strong and dry.

It smelled of sun and wilderness.

Mageta turned around.

A powerful light pierced her eyes.

—Why do I see the sunrise?

The wind ruffled her clothes.

─ Why is the wind blowing?

Mageta held up her hand to the light and squinted her eyes, finally looking in that direction.

Standing there were the children.

The five of them were standing against the powerful backlight of morning sun. The wind was blowing hard to bless them, and their uniforms were as dirty and flapping as any delinquent's.

They were already outside the school.

"Impossible…the key is with me…"

"You mean this?"

Volrath opened her hands and showed two spherical locks that had been smoothened.

"And the bolt…"

"It was quite tasty. The guy who made it was good."

Hardy tapped his ample stomach in satisfaction.

"…How did you make your way through the fog?"

"Ahh, that was me—"

Tanya raised her right hand in the same manner as she would have if someone had pointed it out to her in class.

At that moment,.

When Dee created the ectoplasm to obstruct everyone visually, Tanya was the one who listened to the scenery and led everyone to the gate. There, Volrath ripped the locks off, and Hardy ate the bolt.

"Uuu, I'm so tired. You guys are really horrible to work this world famous ghost so hard. Do you know how much energy it takes to assume another form? Brrrrr, the Living are scary.

Out of nowhere, the ghost came flying out of nowhere and bemoaned.

"Shut up. How’s your situation there?"

"Of course we made it, Rune and Gigi are headed to the rendezvous point."

They split into two teams. Rune would head through the sewers with her underwater breathing, while Gigi would let her pull him along with his hibernation ability.

"Okay, everyone."

Ai said to a stunned Mageta.

"Until we meet again, goodbye."

"Wait!"

Mageta shouted.

"Wait, Tanya Swedgewood!"

Tanya reacted, spooked when her name was called.

"Don't follow them! Have you forgotten about your ability? There’s no way a deviant like you can survive in the outside world! Stay here!"

"Please don't associate me with you."

Tanya hugged her chest, trembling with fear, as she shouted back.

"It’s just you people. You are the only ones who can only live by staying here."

It was a structure that had somehow been reversed. It was initially a place that was supposed to isolate children with abilities that had been scorned by society, but before they knew it, the children started to dwindle in number, and it became a world for the adults attached to it.

"I will return to the wilderness."

"!"

Mageta's left hand rebounded. The force of gravity, not muscle, caused her wrist to drop, and she pulled her grip from her holster as if it were hooked. The recoil causes the gun to cock.

Ai jumped in front of the muzzle of the gun.

"It's no use!"

She readied her shovel. Alice shouts from behind her.

"Idiot! Duck! It's not a .32 or a .38, it's a .45!!"

"I'll be fine! I got this shovel from mom! It can block a bullet from any baddie!"

Boom.

"There’s a holdTeh Ping (talk) 16:40, 22 November 2021 (CET)!"

"Oh, come on you idiot, don't cry. Look, it’s not a big hole. You can put a key ring in there. Isn’t it in vogue nowadays?"

"Shut your mouth right now, you little brats!"

Alice stepped forward to protect Ai, who was on her buttocks. Five lead bullets that would tear any personalities into flesh were waiting to be fired.

"What if I say no?"

But Alice did not shut up.

It was Mageta who closed her mouth. Then she shot.

Alice too pulled his gun out with godlike speed. He even used the muscles in his little toe and pulled out the six-shooter from his right hip, setting it at his hip while Mageta struggled with lifting the weight of the double action gun.

But even so, they fired almost simultaneously.

The trigger was pulled, and the pin penetrated the detonator. The quick combustion shocked the shell casing, and the gunpowder that was slow to ignite flared up. The pea-sized lead ball had an initial velocity that exceeded the speed of sound, and the bullet, now a high-speed object, was caught in the rifling and acquired rotational motion.

Coincidentally, both of them chose the same gun, the same bullet weight, and the same amount of gunpowder. It was the same amount of gunpowder.

The only difference was where they were headed.

The lead bullets were fired a little later after the muzzles flared. Alice's bullets were directed towards Mageta's side, while Mageta's bullets were flying towards Alice's right ventricle.

But the two bullets did not complete their route.

The two bullets faced each other, and slowly approached, approached, and approached.

They collided.

The lead balls of equal weight collided head-on, devouring each other's kinetic energy and stopping each other in midair.

Mageta was a really good gunslinger.

She maintained her composure in the face of this impossible situation, and with a slight movement of the muzzle, she aimed at the kidney and fired.

Alice too shot.

Two lead balls floated in the air.

Mageta shot. She shot. She shot.

Alice shot too. He shot. He shot.

Five rounds in total.

Mageta continued to pull the trigger. However, she could only hear a click.

The remaining lead balls in the air, in turn, fell to the ground as though they had woken up from a dream.

"I told you about my ability, didn’t I? I can hit whatever I aim at."

Alice said as he pointed his gun at Mageta. There was one last shot left in the chamber.

Click click click. Mageta pulled the trigger..

"We’re leaving."

Alice said, lowering his muzzle.

The demonic dorm supervisor merely nodded. She looked as though she had suddenly aged and become a real old woman.

"You…"

Ai tried to say something to Alice, who was walking towards the sunrise. But she could not come up with the right words, and so,

"You’re weird."

"I don't want to hear that from you."

"Well, that’s fine. I'll save you too. "

Saying this, Ai took a deep breath.

"Students of Gora Academy! You've been watching me!"

She could not see the dormitory as her line of sight was blocked by the wall. However, she believed everyone was watching and listening.

"I’m free! And you’re free too! If you want to go out, you can go out!"

Ai shouted with a heartfelt cry.

"If you want to, please step forth! Miss Dee will go over to you, and you can get out!"

The ghost who had been listening to the noise by the side looked startled, "Hey."

"I'll! Save you!"

A silence returned as though it was after a lightning strike.

"…Are you happy now?"

"Very!"

"You’re weird."

"That’s rich coming from you."

"No, no, no, you're both weird."

Ai, Alice and Dee were arguing with each other.

As she watched them, her ‘friend’ Tanya let out a sigh and thought that the three of them were clearly weird. Them being weird in the heads could not simply be dismissed as them being different. Normal people—if she was normal, would never approach such people.

But...

"Let's go!"

Tanya shouted, taking Ai's hand and walking away.

"Whoa."

"Rune and Gigi are waiting for us."

—This is fine. So she thought.

She felt it would be wrong to distance herself from Ai because the latter was weirder.

Even if they could not understand each other,

They could still be friends.

"Let's go!"

Before the five of them, the sun began to rise, and the future had just begun to open.

"Ai~~!"

And then, after everything was over.

The man appeared.

While Ai and the others fled, a blue car appeared behind them from a side street along the school wall. The car pulled up to the main gate, and colorful hand grenades rolled out of the driver's seat.

The teachers rushed out, pulling back the flabbergasted.

Klunk!

And the second dawn of the day appeared from a flash grenade that came in the opposite direction of the sun, followed by a sound bomb bursting with high frequency, low frequency and audible sound.

"Uuuu~."

And Tanya collapsed on the spot.

"Ai, where are you? I'm here to save you!"

A rocket launcher was thrust out of the driver's seat. The man pulled aside the safety, not forgetting to open the window on the other side of the car, and fired it into the gate.

The precious flower ornament Ai received from Ortus, on display in the passenger seat, was blown away by the backfire.

"Aiii~! Where are youTeh Ping (talk) 16:40, 22 November 2021 (CET)!!"

"………….Say, Ai, he’s calling for you."

Tanya, who had taken the most damage from the sound bomb, crouched down and said,

"I don't know him."

Ai, also crouched down, squirmed defiantly.

"There is no such person as Ai here, and there is no such person as Julie."

"Shut up, you idiot! Time to clean up the mess!"

Alice kicked Ai in the buttocks. Ai scampered off without complaining, teary eyed and gritting her teeth.

"AiTeh Ping (talk) 16:40, 22 November 2021 (CET)!"

Finally, Julie was about to get out of the driver's seat. He had an assault rifle in his right hand, a submachine gun in his left, a bulletproof vest covering Celica strapped to his chest, and for some reason, his upper body was naked.

"Ai, where are you?"

"Over here!"

Ai delivered a dropkick with enough acceleration on the big man.

Julie tilted a bit, recovered and caught Ai still in the air.

"Ai, I found you!"

"Nooo~! I got caughtTeh Ping (talk)! Let~me~ go~~!"

"Seriously! I was so worried! Thank goodness I listened to that stinking ghost. If anything happens to you, I don't know what I'd say to that guy in the bottom of hell!"

Julie hugged Ai with utter relief, and was completely deflated. Ai however did not want her guardian to continuously embarrass her in front of her friends, and wanted him to stop. Also, she wanted to enact revenge on Dee, who led the big man here.

"M-Mr. Julie, more importantly, Miss Scar…."

Celica happily yapped away in the big man's chest, but Scar was nowhere in sight.

"…Ah, ahh, yeah. About that…"

Julie stammered, and people began to gather behind the main gate. They were not wielding weapons meant for suppression, but heavy weapons.

"Uh oh! Anyway, let’s get out of here first. Get in!"

Julie said as hopped into the driver's seat. And then,

"That's great. Thanks, old man."

Alice got in.

"Sorry to bother you."

Tanya boarded in."

"It's squeezy," Hardy said. "Well, we can get in," Volrath said.

"More brats!?"

Julie was astonished.

"Two more to go,"

Ai said happily.

"♪."

Dee sat on the roof with her legs dangling. Celica’s eyes twinkled, thinking, ‘I'll do that next time’.

Julie stepped on the gas pedal as though it was a sworn enemy.

"So, what's up with Miss Scar?"

Ai continued to ask, even though it was a stupidly busy moment.

Julie answered in desperation.

"She abandoned the kid!"

A few days.

A car was driving through the yellow wilderness, a blue wagon with three rows of seats, carrying seven children, a baby, an adult, and a ghost, chugging on.

The three girls in the back seat screamed.

Rune, soaking wet from the exodus, was sniveling as she spoke..

"…Something smelly, Celica pooed…"

Alright! Ai raised her hand confidently.

"Yes! I've already learned to change diapers! Let me do it! Let me do it! "

Tanya calmly went through the luggage.

"Ai, we don't have any more diaper cloth…"

"Ehh? W-What should I do? Julie, Julie, Julie!"

"Shut up."

Julie replied nonchalantly.

In the middle seat, there were two people watching over an itchy, crying Celica.

"She’s so cute, Volrath."

"Yeah, Hardy, we want one too, don't we?"

"Vo-Volrath, not in front of everyone…Mr. Julie's watching too."

"Shut up."

Julie, in the driver's seat, tried his best to ignore the noise behind him and focused on being a steering wheel and pedal machine.

"Well, well, Un, cle. No pressure~."

"Shut up."

"Ugh, you’re denying the existence of a ghost…uu idiot idiot! You idiot!"

"Just shut up."

"Well, give it up, old man. She gets clingy with those she’s fond of.".

Alice said, spreading out a map on the passenger seat. Beyond the map, Gigi poked his head out. Everyone asked why he was on the roof, and he answered ‘I’m a child of Elha after all’. At this point, Julie no longer cared.

The car was filled with various noises, creating a ding-dong-like buzz in the tranquil wilderness. The wild skin lizards would always look twice at it and squeal curiously, ‘Kyui?’.

"Old man, three hundred meters ahead, turn left."

"Shut up."

"Ueh? I’m just being the navigator, right? Why do you always always say 'shut up', old man?"

"Just shu…uu…uughh."

Julie finally recovered and drove as per Alice’s instructions..

"…You guys are really going to alight in that city?"

They were headed towards the city where Tanya's parents lived."

"Well, who knows?"

Julie's gut was telling him however that the kid next to him and the ghost had no intention of doing that.

He let out a heavy sigh, thinking that he got into so much trouble just when he needed to go find Scar…

"Ah! Uncle! The left just now!! Back up!"

"M-Mr. Julie, we're out of diapers~!"

"Hey, Uncle, turn on the radio! I'm sure they'll have my favorite show, "The Pearl of the Sea Turtle," around this area... "

"…For God's sake, everyone shut up."

And so,

The car returned to the wilderness.

Epilogue

"Master Ulla. Miss Ai Astin has sent a letter to you."

"Eh!?"

Ulla's face lit up when she saw the letter that the maid had brought her. She looked up at Kiriko with a pleading look, and every single time that happened, Kiriko felt it was unfair.

"Hey, Kiriko, I want to look now…"

"No, you can't. It won’t be long until Lord Orsola arrives..."

At that moment, a message from his homeland arrived in his mind. Coincidentally, it was a message that Lord Orsola would be late.

Kirko wanted to pretend that nothing happened for the sake of discipline, but Ulla had already sniffed out trouble from the color of his face.

"…You have fifteen minutes."

"Yahoo—!"

"Please do not go all yahoo and such."

There was a house in the old streets of Lower Ortus, owned by the wealthy merchant Brittly Tenmaus, and Ulla and the others were hidden in here. The day Ai and the others left, their blitz ended in failure, and they were forced into hiding. Ulla had been lobbying around, hoping for a turnaround.

It was on this day that they had a meeting with the eldest son of the Lee family that was renown throughout Ortus. Thus, Ulla had been decorated lavishly by her maids.

Her hair was tied up, her shoulders were exposed, she was powdered, her nails were scraped, and she had perfume sprayed on her.

Ulla herself was feeling a little weary when Ai’s letter arrived. It was just as well, because Kiriko wanted her to read it from the beginning.

Kiriko had the maids step back, and read the letter from behind Ulla.

"What does it say?"

"Adventure!"

Kiriko and Ulla were engrossed with the letter, which started off from the day they left Ortus. It spoke of Ai's unintended enrollment in school, the backstory of the Gora Academy, new acquaintances. Tanya, Gigi, Volrath, Hardy, Rune, and the three sisters, Mimi, Meme, and Momo.

The letter was really interesting, the writing was lively, and they had a feeling that the people mentioned in the letter were new friends to them.

"So what happened to everyone?"

"Well then—"

Ai's letter was really enjoyable, but it was a little difficult to read because of the jumpy timelines and abrupt explanations.

Ulla summarized the situation and informed Kiriko.

Tanya eventually returned to her family, and it was mentioned in the letter that a few members of the group also stayed with the Swedgewood.

"Hardy and Volrath are on their way to look for the Dead King's caravan. Gigi is still with them, and they're gearing up to go over the winter mountains—woah, she said gearing up to hike up the winter mountains means getting fat. What’s with that? Rune says that she’s going to an underwater city after all. She’s saving up money with Gigi."

"I see. So, what about Ai? "

"Nothing yet. "

But from that point on, it became a daily report, and nothing about themselves. Finally, they arrived at the last page, and they felt a little uneasy. Knowing Ai, it was possible that she would just close the page without mentioning herself.

Their fears proved unfounded.

"…Who are these "world-saving friends" Alice and Dee…?"

"Miss Scar has abandoned her child…"

The important information was written at the end as if it were an excuse. Basically, this part was written with three lines, "We are now on our way to the ‘World Tower’ to pursue after Miss Scar who abandoned her baby! It's okay! We're with Alice and Dee, our friends (though they insist they're not) who are going to save the world! Don’t worry!"

Even Ulla seemed bewildered. "

"Are you okay?"

"…I guess this is bad after all."

Hmm, Ulla groaned, and then,

"But still, sister does seem happy."

Ulla closed her eyes and mumbled. These two sisters, Living and Dead, had an inexplicable connection, however slight it was.

"I guess it should be fine after all."

"Yes, it's pointless to worry about them after all."

They nodded at each other and stood up. At this moment, there was a strong attack from Kiriko’s mind.

"Now then, the young lord is arriving. Let's do our best too."

Un, so she tried to buck herself up a little, and stood up

She held the golden scepter.

She put on the silver crown.

"Kiriko."

"Yeah?"

"I'll become king."

Kiriko nodded firmly, and answered,

"I'm going to make you king."

Ulla smiled at him.

"Shall we go, Kiriko?"

"Yes, Ulla. I’ll accompany you as far as you like.

It would be some time before Ulla Eulesse Hecmatika would bear the name Ortus, the Eternal Goddess of the Underworld, and be involved again in the story of Ai Astin.

But that story would be quite a while later.

Afterword

A writer is a chair denizen who pretty much spends the entire life on a chair not just when writing, but also when composing, deriving themes, and even drinking tea. It is said that some do eat on the chair. That is amazing.

Now, about myself; as a writer, I am very particular about my chair. It is not about whether the chair is multifunctional, or whether it is an ergonomic chair, or if it is too expensive. On the contrary, I prefer chairs that are not as flexible. I like solid chairs.

No wheels, no chair piston, no backrest movement, no cushions.

Basically, I prefer chairs that look like a collection of plywood and steel pipes that are used in school. A thicker version of that would be ideal.

The reason is that I do a lot of things other than sitting on a chair.

When I sit upright, cross my legs, or when I get a writer’s block, I start balancing on two chair legs, or doing various balancing exercises or it, or even doze off on it while posturing like melted ice, and sometimes fall over. I act like a restless child. It is understandable why I have athletic demands for my chair.

Thus, the multifunctional chair was instead rather inconvenient for me.

--But

…

My back…and my shoulders…

I made the same old mistake again…yes, actually, it was not as bad as a frozen back or a frozen shoulder. I merely had stiff shoulders, but I had never experienced such stiffness before, so it shocked me.

I pulled out the high quality chair my grandfather had and sat on it. It fitted me really well, and distributed my weight very well. I felt like I was sitting on a marshmallow. Thanks to this, my stiff shoulders were cured in one shot. I knew I should not be in weird positions. That causes my buttocks to stiffen.

And so the athletic chair was sealed up, and the peace in my shoulders and back was preserved forever.

Blessed.

…………However, (newcomer) Kimihito Irie did not know this would be the first step to another kind of stiff shoulders…

—To be continued.

Yes, and (indicating the end of the off-topic talk) so this is the third volume of 'Sunday Without God' .

Amazing. It felt like a lie. This is not a dream, right?

But to be honest, I did not feel there was much change whenever I wrote such a thing, so I think I shall stop here. After all, I think it will get boring to the readers too, so I shall aim to write cool looking afterwords. I am going to stop myself from writing stuff like "You’re kidding, right", "how’s it possible…", or "this isn’t a dream, right…" I am certain that such afterwords will not be cool, and furthermore…

Editor: "Irie-san".

Oops, it's the editor-in-charge. What is it?

Editor: It’s decided that "Sunday without God" will be made into a drama CD.

…. …. ….

You’re kidding, right?

Editor: "It’s true".

How’s it possible…

Editor: "Also, a manga adaptation has been decided."

This isn’t a dream, right…

Editor: "It is reality".

Is it reality?

Carrier: "Also, this story will be on the cover of the ‘Dragon Magazine November’ issue."

………Hahaa, I see that is what they call fake reality, right? It is really commonplace nowadays.

"Hello? Irie-san?"

It was actually reality.

And so it is. "Sunday without God" is developing in many ways.

The drama CD is scheduled to be released by Marine Entertainment on December 29th. I could not actually help much with this. I am honored to write a short story as a bonus for the first edition, and it talks of the incident that happened between Ai and Hampnie on that full moon night.

The manga version will be published in the November issue of ‘Dragon Age’ magazine, on sale October 9.

Actually, it has already started. I have not read it at this time, but I did see the author’s name "Oh, ohhh…!" Now this is amazing! Please check it out in the magazine! And a thank you to those readers who checked it out!

As for the cover…I cannot…say enough about the cover.

Well, it is tough for me to act cool here. It is great, it feels like a raging storm.

What can I do as a person in the eye of the typhoon? Well, that is how it goes.

I suppose I cannot do anything at all. The eye of the typhoon has nothing to do with the strength of the storm, just as the hole in the donut has nothing to do with the taste of the donut.

All I can do is write the rest of the story and say "thank you" to those who made the donuts and to those who ate them.

So to all of you, "Thank you very much".

I shall see you all again in volume four.

Bye bye.

Kimihito Irie

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