Several sounds clashed and struck against my mind. The whole city was in disarray. People had given up trying to leave the city by car and were leaving them wide open in the middle of the road. I did my best dodging people and the obstacles in it, but carrying a person on my back was exhaustive enough on its own.
"150 metres in front of you, there are six hostile data entities." The girl on my back warned me before a coughing fit stopped her.
I stopped, being almost thrown aside by a bunch of desperate people. Whatever was behind us was even worse than those long-limbed creatures in front of us. We moved around some of the cars, away from the road, and entered a residential street.
"This is not the correct direction." She said with her usual monotone voice.
"You just need a place to activate that emergency mode, right? My home can't be that far away." So even though I was already running low on adrenaline, I started running again.
"Those were Emiri Kimidori's directives. Without a link with the Data Overmind, I am allowed to choose the best course of action." She pushed me forward, landing on her feet. She buckled for a moment before looking straight at me.
"What are you saying? You don't have your powers without the Overmind." I protested, catching my breath.
"I don't need data manipulation programs to protect you." Her face was expressionless, but I could tell that wasn't entirely true.
I heard an explosion far away, followed by what I could only describe as a guttural roar. Specks of red light flew around the blue light giants that trampled across the city, killing some in the process. It was a lost cause, as similar beings of light instantly replaced the destroyed beings.
"Listen, Nagato." I stumbled forward and held her hands almost too tight. "At this point, we're not even buying time. But if there's the slightest chance that you can make it out of this, I want you to take it. My home isn't too far from here, so nobody will stop you from triggering that emergency mode. Maybe Shamisen, but just lock him somewhere."
From the slightest hints of emotions she could adequately show, I could tell that she hated every word I said.
"I'll go to North High, and… well, I'll see if I can knock some sense into her."
I tried to go back to the road, but she didn't let go of my hands. Although no words were exchanged, I already knew what she wanted to say.
"Kyon." She said.
"Kyon." She repeated.
"Kyon!"
My whole back screamed in pain as I was pushed against the bookshelf. A book landed in my head, and my vision was tainted red, then blue, before turning to normal. I was back at the infinite library. Kanekawa was panic-stricken as he held my jacket collar tight with both hands. The windows creaked as the giant eye glowered at us behind it. As soon as Kanekawa noticed I was aware of where I was, he almost dragged me out of the science section of the library. We hid at the side of one of the bookshelves, away from the windows.
"Are you okay, Kyon?!" Kanekawa barely restrained his yell.
"What? Yes, I… What happened?" I had to take a moment to check my surroundings.
"You looked at that floating thing, and you just stopped talking. The next thing I see, you're unconscious and pulled towards it. Are you sure you're alright?"
"As fine as I can be in this situation."
The library was still infinite. The endless rows didn't seem to change in the slightest. I had taken this hostile environment relatively well, but Kanekawa hadn't. His emotions ranged between disbelief and fear. I couldn't blame him. I had no clue of how to get away from here. I took a peek at the windows behind us, but Kanekawa stopped me.
"Don't look. Please." He was concerned for me after that debacle. I was too.
We had to take time and learn how we got into this situation. Otherwise, we would never leave.
"I'm fine, really. We have to learn how to get out of here. That thing has to play a role." I pointed back.
"It's because of that map. It has to be." Kanekawa struggled to say. "I went to the science row before, and I was able to go back, remember? So maybe if we put it back…."
"Hold on. There was something else there." I said. "You were reading that notebook. What did it say?"
My classmate suddenly noticed that he was gripping that diary tightly. He sat beside me, ensuring the eye couldn't see him and opened it. The handwriting was similar to the one on the map. Kimidori must have put both objects in the library, knowing that we would stumble upon them. If that's the case, she must be the culprit behind this otherworldly situation.
"I didn't read much before." He mentioned. "I just skimmed around; it's mostly about numbers, though. But look at this, on the first page."
11 November 200X: The creation of this log will serve two functions. First, due to the corrupted state of my memory, I cannot trust my abilities to store data safely. For that reason, this is the best reliable method of storage available in this civilisation. Second, due to the chaotic data explosion, I must reunite with the remaining data interfaces and re-establish a connection to the Data Overmind. Again, due to the state of my memory, I'll manually check and write all possible frequencies.
"I don't really understand. Is she a robot? Pretending to be one?"
"She's some sort of… android…." I merely answered and checked the diary myself.
Numbers filled whole pages, at least half of the notebook. They looked primarily random. There was no point in trying to decipher them. I checked page by page until I found something readable. The numbers ended abruptly on a page, and most of the following page was written in words.
20 November 200X: I have not made contact with the Data Overmind. I am unable to think straight. Yesterday I couldn't finish my self-imposed quota. I couldn't stop crying. Why hasn't anyone answered? Why hasn't anyone tried to find me?
12 December 200X: I have not made contact with the Data Overmind. The search is exhausting me. My daily maintenance program is starting to fail. Without it, I will become sick and inoperable. No other interface has attempted to contact me. Why? Our memory corruption must be too high for my method to work. I will start physically scouting all possible locations.
13 December 200X: I have not made contact with the Data Overmind. I encountered a classmate. They were worried about me. I haven't been able to keep up appearances, and they noticed me crying. I wasn't able to muster up an answer. My memory alteration program is useless, so I couldn't do anything. Without the Data Overmind, I am lost.
14 December 200X: I have not made contact with the Data Overmind. I have made contact with an interface. Eto Yumi, Moderate Faction. She did not activate her emergency mode. Her memory is fully corrupted. No data manipulation ability. She does not remember her purpose, the Data Overmind or me.
Further investigation into her physical abilities will be delayed until I find a way not to end her life functions. Seeing that I am not the only one has not been as exhilarating as I thought. They have forsaken the Data Overmind yet live like nothing.
20 December 200X: I have not made contact with the Data Overmind. I have made contact with an interface. Osaki Minako, Innovative Faction. She did not activate her emergency mode. Her memory is fully corrupted. No data manipulation ability. She does not remember her purpose, the Data Overmind or me.
Further investigation into her physical abilities will be delayed until I find a way not to end her life functions. It's frustrating. The lack of Data Manipulation is troubling me.
"That floating eyeball is looking around. I don't think it knows where we went." Kanekawa mentioned. "Should we just try to run away? Maybe the library isn't infinite."
"Hold on. I think I'm onto something." Kanekawa raised an eyebrow and read the text I was pointing at.
"Eto Yumi? I think that name was on that map." He mentioned. I got a hold of the map in my jacket and handed it to him. After a while, he continued. "Yeah, it's crossed out in black ink… Osaki is also crossed out in black ink."
24 December 200X: I have not made contact with the Data Overmind. I have made contact with an interface. Kawahara Kazumi, Radical Faction. She activated her emergency mode. Her memory was partially corrupted. No data manipulation ability. She blamed me for our situation. I argued the Overmind did not require so many interfaces for the mission and was overburdened, unable to react to the sudden data explosion. Due to her memory corruption, she resorted to violence. I had to defend myself. Thanks to her termination, I made a discovery. The corruption of the interfaces is interfering with my signal. To contact the Data Overmind, I must find the remaining interfaces and fix their memory corruption. This is the first positive emotion I have felt in a long time.
"Termination? You don't think Kimidori killed her, right?" Kanekawa struggled to say what we were both thinking. We looked at the map to confirm that Kazumi's name was also crossed out, this time in red ink.
"... She's not the only one in red ink," I muttered. It was around 50/50. But overall, at least 20 names were crossed out in red.
"Oh my god." His reaction wasn't about the map but the following few lines of the diary.
25 December 200X: I contacted the Data Overmind, however brief it was. It told me everything was under control. My new directions are to send the remaining interfaces to fix their memory corruption. In the case they are hostile, I am allowed to terminate them. This connection will enable using my data manipulation at around 2%. After that, making a portal to the Overmind's closed space should be possible. I can finally say that I feel happy.
26 December 200X: The portal was a partial success. Eto Yumi successfully traversed dimensions, but she did not correctly materialise. Tomorrow I will use Osaki Minako for the next test. The Overmind was delighted with my offering. Finding purpose in life is rewarding. The connection to the Overmind has made me happier.
27 December 200X: I am happy. The trial was a success. I have written all names the Overmind asked me to find in the constellation map. I will begin my new mission.
31 December 200X: Watanabe Katsumi, Moderate Faction. She did not activate her emergency mode. Her memory is fully corrupted. No data manipulation ability. Assimilated to the Overmind. Joy is brimming.
2 January 200X: New interface. Moderate Faction. She did not activate her emergency mode. Her memory is fully corrupted. No data manipulation ability. Assimilated to the Overmind. Euphoric.
20 January 200X: Pragmatist Faction. Memory fully corrupted. No data manipulation ability. Assimilated. Ecstatic.
29 January: Innovative Faction. Partially corrupted. Terminated. Delighted.
3 February: Compromise. Assimilated. Happiness.
10 F: Satisfied.
24-2: Content.
Happy.
I closed the diary. There was more written, yet I didn't want to know anymore. Whatever it was, it would be awful. Something was emanating from its pages. Something alien, like the rot of the invisible monster that attacked. Pure insanity. Tachibana had said Kimidori either knew she retained her memories or had gone crazy. She was wrong because Kimidori was both.
I had worked up a sweat reading those small entries. My hands were trembling, though I controlled it. In comparison to yesterday, some text I could handle. Kanekawa, on the other hand, wasn't faring as well. He was visibly shaken, blood drained from his face, eyes bulging. He only broke out of his grimace when I shook his shoulder.
However, the diary didn't make any sense. The Data Overmind was dead. That's what Kimidori herself told me in that dream. So why was she even trying to connect? That memory corruption she was talking about must have messed with that information. So if that's the case, that thing she joined to wasn't the Data Overmind. And if we're really in the same dimension mentioned here, then that floating eye has to be the Overmind—something pretending to be it, at least.
"She's killing people… Oh my god. She sends people here so that the monster eats us. Oh my god. We're going to die, Kyon." Kanekawa rushed to his feet as he started hyperventilating. Like a fog of dread had taken over him, the situation had taken a heavy toll on him.
I was unsure if I should just throw away the diary along with the map, but I did my best to save them in my jacket pockets.
"Why are you so calm with this? We really are going to die. That's why that thing was eyeing us. Oh God... what have we done to deserve this?"
"Kanekawa, calm down. We won't gain anything by freaking out. We don't know if these girls are dead. If I've learnt anything these past few days, it is that however awful things look, there is always a way out." I looked to the infinite and beyond. "This whole room might not be endless."
I glanced at the floating abomination flying above the school building. Unfortunately, the windows were not big enough to show me where it was exactly. Nevertheless, it didn't look like it would see us unless it was directly in front of the window, as long as we remained away from them.
"Well, then where are they, Kyon? They all ended up here, no?" There was some bite behind Kanekawa's words.
"I don't know. But Kimidori mentioned a portal. If there's a way in, there's a way out. Maybe they have all escaped."
I highly doubted it, but I pushed that doubt to the far end of my empty brain. Kanekawa did the same, as he just looked to the ground, defeated.
Right when I opened my mouth, something changed in the environment.
"Is that… scratching?" Kanekawa looked back.
I heard it as well. It was similar to the sound that was appearing in my room. Unfortunately, there was no way of confirming it since the sound was very far away. It was deliberate, that was certain. It followed a pattern, and much like the smell of that creature, it left me with more questions than answers.
Kanekawa moved towards it, and I followed him closely behind. The sound of our steps felt loud, unusually so. It was the only sound in this godforsaken place. I ensured that our back was secured every once in a while. However, although we walked towards the noise, it didn't intensify.
"This is weird." Kanekawa muttered.
"The noise?"
"No, this place. I can hear my heart beating, my lungs expanding and shrinking. Don't you feel it as well?" Kanekawa glanced at me before looking forward again. "Nevermind."
I didn't answer and just continued to observe our back and the bookshelves to our left. Then, after a point, I noticed something.
"Hold on, look." I stopped Kanekawa and pointed at something in the bookshelf.
"…The glass container."
We were back at the science aisle. The same discarded glass box. The same books. We were looping.
"We walked, what, ten rows? It has to be the same length as the entire library." I explained my thoughts. "Did we loop, or is it a repeating pattern?"
Both of us looked back, and to nobody's surprise, we didn't see ourselves. So it meant the library was repeating.
"Then what if we break a window?" Kanekawa thought out loud. "If there's an outside, we might be able to escape."
"And risk being pulled by that floating eye? No thanks."
On cue, the scratching suddenly intensified. Whatever it was tapping, it was peeling off the material. It had a distinct echo that didn't quite fit the library. Like it was in a cave or an empty room. Were we missing something?
"Maybe we should shout and get their attention." Kanekawa took a load of air, almost giving away our position, but I stopped him.
"What are you doing?" I said.
Kanekawa glared at me, offended. "It could be Yumi or Osaki, or whoever else ended up in this limbo."
"Yeah, or it could be that thing messing with us. You looked at it as well; what makes you think it hasn't affected you too?"
He slapped my hand away and spewed back. "I barely glanced at it. Otherwise, we'd both be chewed up and eaten by this point. Just listen to reason for once."
"And reason tells me the sound isn't natural. Nobody would scratch away their fingernails making that noise. So calm down and—" I wasn't able to finish my sentence before Kanekawa interrupted me.
"Calm down? Really? The only reason we're stuck in this godforsaken place is because of you. Always acting too calm, never taking things seriously. Like you're on permanent vacations, taking advantage of everyone." Kanekawa clenched his fists, unable to understand how to handle his outburst.
"What are you on about?"
"We wouldn't be in this situation if you just listened to Sasaki for once. We only went to that Café because Yusue wanted to hook both of you up. But no, you had to ignore every signal, every phrase. So what is it, Kyon? Do you just enjoy toying with her? To take advantage of her? A free ride to pass exams? People already look at her like she's a weirdo, and you, you, the only person she loves, continue to play with her."
"What the hell has gotten into you?" I barely managed to keep myself under control. "The only one at fault is Kimidori. Don't bring Sasaki into this mess."
"You were the one who brought her into this. She wasn't even supposed to be in this high school. Why did it have to be you the one she—"
I could hear his shirt fabric rip as I grabbed his collar in a fit. I was mad. Why wouldn't I be? I was in the middle of alien hell, and he suddenly brought this up? Sasaki wasn't an object that could be passed around. I wanted to say that. But being in this situation, my instinct knew there were more concerning matters.
"Listen." I managed to say before I noticed.
Kanekawa didn't protest, as he felt it as well. He heard it too. The wail. Like a moan that came out from a dirty and clogged piano. My heart stopped for a long second before it kicked into overdrive. The hostility we both had felt up to a moment ago melted away like butter in napalm.
The wail appeared again, this time sharper. Closer, not as distant as before. It was coming from my left in the astronomy aisle. And then, like my eyes suddenly remembered how to see, I saw it, right beside the bookshelf with broken glass. It had humanoid features, resembling a tall woman with a slightly plump figure and limp limbs, but in no way human. The school uniform it was wearing was tattered and dirty, like a truck had run it over. Where its head was supposed to be, a viscous worm-like appendage sprouted from its neck, glowing blue in long bursts, reaching around 3 metres in height. Fused to the end of the aberrant head, a faint light bridge connected the being to something beyond our sight, dragging the creature behind it. The creature held up its limbs forward, small black worms surrounding it. And then, it talked.
"Yu… Nag… Where…"
I wasn't sure when or how, but we started running as fast as possible. The wail morphed into a drilling screech on the back of our heads. That wasn't the worst of it. We were crossing all rows to no avail, making no effort to hide. So the eye noticed us as well. It followed us. That amalgamated ball of flesh positioned itself near the old school building, towering over it like it was a simple domino piece. How it could still see us, I didn't know.
Another screech. We were still sprinting, but neither Kanekawa nor I were the best athletes in the world. And we were tiring. That abomination behind us almost looked like it was gliding, dragged by that odd light. If I were a betting man, it connected to the all-seeing eye.
"K-Kyon, by the windows!" Kanekawa yelled in panic, and if he weren't the one doing it, I would be.
Another three of those screamers ran parallel to us, with only the bookshelf aisles acting as barriers. They all looked similar to the one behind us but with different scratched uniforms. I could only guess this was the fate of the interfaces. But I couldn't dwell on that. Because in front of us, two of them appeared. We had to either stop and enter one of the rows, where we would be surrounded, or crash through them, which could be deadly.
"Let's tackle and run past them!" I yelled.
What could I do? There had to be something. Anything. These things couldn't be unbeatable. They were all connected to that thing in the sky. What was that ball of flesh? It wasn't the Overmind. So if it wasn't, what then? Another alien? The Devil? What remained of the stupid Devil? Tachibana never described it. It could be a goddamn floating eye.
The only thing it could be, the only person who could have the power to do something so unnatural, would need the power of a God. And something deep inside my mind knew it. It could only be her. That name who, even across time and space, could not cede after suffering through literal destruction of the universe. That name that I held dearly in my heart.
"Damn it, Haruhi, why?!"
I shut my eyes tight, readying myself for the impact. I hoped that I would finally return to the world of the living. But, when I opened them, the change was noticeable. The darkness outside the windows was less vigorous. That grey, cloudy sky slowly returned to view. And as the world shifted and spun on itself, something seemed to break. Like glass suddenly breaking apart, I felt the clash against one of the beings. I fell over from the impact, but I noticed that whatever monster this was, it wasn't as big as I thought.
"GAH!" I heard Kanekawa fall to the ground, hard, though his fall wasn't as long as I predicted. Perhaps this was the adrenaline talking.
I didn't have time to check who I had crashed into, as I recovered and immediately tried to run away.
"Sorry." The thing I crashed into said. "No violence. This is a library."
It took me a few moments to realise what had happened. I looked around. We were in the middle of the library. I could see that the library once again had its normal proportions. The sky and sounds of the ordinary world returned. Kanekawa had crashed into the tables in the middle of the room. He was currently sprawled over one of them.
"Huh?"
I looked down. I hadn't crashed into one of the monsters. No. She was a bookish girl with the distinct characteristics of a porcelain doll. She barely showed any emotion, pale as snow and long black hair. If not for the bright colours of the North High uniform, she wouldn't even look alive.
"Oh my god, I'm so… so sorry!" It was the only thing I could say as I got up from the ground and offered my hand to her.
"You were trapped in a pocket dimension. A closed space. It was not your fault." She said, getting up in a somewhat unnatural and slow fashion, only using her legs like a marionette. "Your heart rates are quite high. I sense you are injured, as well." She said, placing a hand on my chest. A low warmth travelled through my body. I didn't notice it until later that day, but my left arm and leg were healed thanks to her.
She got close to Kanekawa, who hastily got up to his feet as confused as I was.
"That was a dream, right? I didn't… we didn't…?" Kanekawa barely managed to whisper.
"Not a dream." The black hair of the girl suddenly looked endless as she twirled around. "I've cleansed the artifices. Emiri Kimidori sabotaged them." She looked at my jacket pocket, where the diary and map remained.
"Who… who are you?" I said.
"I am Kuyou Suou. A humanoid interface of the Sky Canopy Dominion. Nice to meet you." As if reading my mind, she spoke up again. "Unlike the Data Overmind's interfaces, with a two-step verification system to allow data manipulation, my data manipulation programs are my own to control. I successfully purged any corruption in my system after the Data Explosion occurred."
Kuyou stared at me with her piercing silver eyes.
"Are you not acquainted with these terms?" She asked, annoyed at my lack of response.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, looked at the alien and rubbed my eyes. I just needed time to take all of this information.
"Yes… but no." That's the only thing I could say.
She shifted her eyes from me to Kanekawa before turning to the wing we had just appeared from.
"This area is unstable. The pocket dimension is not self-contained and will try to expand. Not enough energy in its conception. I recommend evacuation." She turned to leave, passing by the empty reception desk.
I turned around and observed the east wing we had just escaped from. I could see a few books on the ground, with the lights above it flickering now and then. But on the floor, I could see something else, two ragged uniforms similar to the ones those screamers were wearing.
"You were the only living beings who crossed the portal," Kuyou explained, unprompted. "They died without connection to their main body."
"What was that… thing? The floating eye." Kanekawa asked, eerily still.
"I cannot say. It hides its wavelength. It thinks. It seeks." Suou blinked for the first time ever before repeating. "The pocket dimension is not self-contained and will try to expand. Not enough energy in its conception. I recommend evacuation."
"Wait, so you're like Kimidori," I asked before she could escape.
"No. I am Kuyou Suou." She answered with a deadpan expression.
"N-No, I mean, you're an interface. So you must retain memories of the other world."
"Marginally. Not relevant to my mission."
"So, can you tell me?" I asked, keen on knowing what the hell happened. Mostly, I wanted to know if the Devil actually existed or if it was part of Tachibana's rambling.
"My mission is to understand human interaction. I seek to experience emotions." She answered, moving towards the library door.
"I mean, that's cool. But, no, I meant if you could tell me about what happened to the other world?" I was growing frustrated at her lack of comprehension.
"A data explosion occurred." She repeated the same thing as before. I could tell she was getting annoyed at my constant questions.
"I don't know what you two are talking about, but let's get out of here now, okay?" Kanekawa uncomfortably said, staring at the entrance.
Right as he said that, Yusue rushed past the library entrance. Two seconds later, he entered it panting heavily.
"Geez, how in the world do you run so fast?" He spoke between ragged breaths.
"I went to the library as you asked," Suou replied like it was the most normal thing to go.
"I meant together!" Then, Yusue suddenly noticed Kanekawa and me. " Oh, what's with you two? Have you seen a ghost?"
"We, uh… experienced something. I'm not sure how to explain it." I tried to come up with an explanation to no avail.
"They triggered a trap set by Emiri Kimidori. I rescued them." Suou explained with such accuracy that it made me reconsider my communication skills.
"I don't get it, but nice! That's my girl!" Yusue ruffled her hair before looking at us. "Oh yeah, have you met her? This is my girlfriend!"
"I am not girlfriend. I'm Suou Kuyou."
"We've gone over this. It's a descriptor," Yusue whispered to her ear, though I could clearly hear him.
"That is true. I am a girlfriend." It didn't look like she entirely understood what that meant, for better or worse.
"…We need to get out of here. Let's try to get over to Sasaki and Tsuruya." I interjected.
"Huh? Okay, but fill me up on what has happened. What's this about a trap?" Yusue asked as we left the library.
"I'll explain." Kanekawa said before looking at me. "Kyon… I didn't mean what I said. It's just that…"
"Let's talk about that later." I understood that he was evidently stressed, but this wasn't the time or place to talk about it.
While Kanekawa explained the situation to Yusue, I took the opportunity to talk to Suou. The hallway somehow felt much calmer and more relaxing than the library, so perhaps I could take on her odd interpretations.
"Let's start again, Suou. Can you tell me what caused the Data Explosion?"
Suou stared forward, listening but somehow not considering that I was right on her left.
"I cannot, for I do not know. My mission was to establish contact with the Data Overmind. Emiri Kimidori was part of this plan. At an unknown date, an entity provoked the data explosion."
"Okay, I supposed this wouldn't be so easy. Do you know why these monsters are appearing?"
"Ripples tend to stabilise."
"And that means?"
This time, Suou looked at me directly. "Our separate existence from the closed space is not normal. It will engulf this dimension soon enough. The lifeforms that dwell in that closed space are entering because the barrier between realities is weakening. Emiri Kimidori seeks to hasten this process for an unknown motif."
That motif was probably bringing back the Data Overmind. Or, perhaps should I say, bringing that weird eye towards us. And the mere thought of that was horrifying.
"So we need to stop her." I thought out loud.
"Why?" Suou asked, cocking her head.
"Because we'll die, no?" Her silver eyes gleamed at the mention of death.
"And?"
"Dying is not good?" I was baffled that I had to say that.
Suou's lips somehow curved upwards as she explained herself. "Humans experience a certain emotion when people they cherish, die. I wish to experience it to fulfill my mission."
"…Sorry?" I had to do a doubletake to realise what she had just said. Tachibana's words popped up in my mind. These interfaces do not think like us. And Suou looked way more stable than Kimidori.
"You are confused. My mission is to understand human emotion. Death is something all humans experience." Suou explanation was cold. She had a long way to understand emotions fully.
"Why did you save us then?" The sting in my voice was apparent.
She blinked once, like a computer loading a new screen. "Yusue's friends."
"But you would have experienced… never mind." I don't think I could understand her. How Yusue ever managed to do it, I didn't know.
"We interacted in the previous world." Suou suddenly spoke, unprompted. "My actions were in your detriment. That deed is now corrected."
"So what you're saying… is that you wanted to repay me."
She nodded, her eyes cold and almost blank. This meant that she would have left us to die if it weren't for something I don't even know. What did she even do to me? I didn't want to know, not after that endless library.
Yusue suddenly turned to me when we reached the staircase, visibly shaken. "Hey, Kyon, what the hell does he mean that you two almost died?!"
"It means what it means."
"We have to beat the hell out of that girl." Yusue spat. "First me, and then you two? She's going down. How about it, Su? You're coming, right?"
"Kimidori attacked people I find pleasant. I wish to beat her up." I wasn't sure if she meant it, but the slight shift in her expression told me she had some negative feelings against Kimidori. Did Kuyou actually like Yusue, or was she pretending? Because she clearly couldn't care less about the Kanekawa and me.
"That's right, show me your war face!" Yusue pointed at her like he was using a remote.
Suou pouted on prompt, looking cute but also really out of her element.
"Good enough?" Yusue nodded, raising an eyebrow.
"Maybe… maybe we should check Kimidori's classroom." Kanekawa proposed. "Sasaki must be done with Tsuruya by this point."
Yusue agreed and with him Suou. Luckily, we had already wasted enough time on a separate dimension to let her do whatever Sasaki wanted with Tsuruya. So we started climbing to the third floor, where Tsuruya's class was. However, when we reached the second floor, I decided to go back to our classroom and drop Kimidori's diary and map. These were no longer dangerous, according to Suou, but I didn't feel at ease with them on my body.
So after explaining myself, I headed towards class 2-5 when someone took my arm and dragged me into 2-9. It was Sasaki, putting a finger over my mouth.
"Look over there." She pointed out of the classroom towards a nearby class.
It took me a bit to see Tsuruya's long hair. She was talking to someone, some guy that looked awfully familiar. It clicked in my mind almost instantly. It was the guy who accompanied Tachibana, wasn't he? Fujiwara or something like that? Regardless, he looked mad. A bit too mad if I had to give my opinion. I couldn't see Tsuruya's expression, but knowing her, she would be terribly cheerful.
"I've been following Tsuruya." Sasaki started. "And I think she's been looking for him. Asahina, I believe he's called."
"What? Asahina?" When she said that name, the image that popped into my mind wasn't of some tall, blond guy.
"Yes. And that guy has been in our classroom. So I'm not sure what's going on here, but I think we're watching a game of cat and mouse." After that, Sasaki stopped peeking, staring at me from top to bottom. "Are you okay?"
"Uh, it's a long story. Kimidori is dangerous." I didn't have time to explain what happened, as the class students were giving us weird looks. "Why are you spying on Tsuruya?"
"You said something tampered with our memories." Sasaki pulled me into the classroom, avoiding the door. "I believed it because I know that Tsuruya is lying. About meeting us and about her role in this mess."
"In what way?" I asked, right as Tsuruya walked by the classroom, not noticing us inside.
"You must have realised the holes in her story. She claims she doesn't know Kimidori yet worked at that café. She described the classes by letters instead of numbers and said Kimidori was in the student council, which doesn't have any Kimidori. But I think…" Sasaki trailed off, walking back to the door and motioning me forward. "That Asahina will seal the deal."
We left the classroom. Tsuruya had probably returned to the third floor, while Fujiwara, or actually, Asahina, stomped off towards the other side of the building. For some reason, I wanted to hate that guy. And, even worse, calling him Asahina felt wrong. Because, even though it was a blur, the only Asahina that was in my mind was sweet, caring and meek.