Book 2 (3): Deep Autumn — Chapter 1:

From the New World

Chapter 1

We spent a sleepless night on the rocky banks of the river. As tired as we were, there was a lingering unease in our minds that prevented us from falling asleep. Still, we managed to doze off enough to recover a bit of energy.

The next day, we set off as soon as the sun rose. As we traveled downstream, I realized that our camp had been right next to Kamisu 66. It was so close that we didn’t really need to stop last night. But given our condition yesterday, maybe it was a good idea we hadn’t continued.

In the morning sun, the Tone River glittered a dazzling gold, as if celebrating our return. What happened to the black river of Hades we had been struggling with just a few hours earlier?

We stopped paddling and let the current carry us along.

The scenery gradually became more familiar. Although I was eager to go home, the closer we got to town, the more apprehensive I felt.

I was sure that we would be met with an entourage of boats to take us in, but didn’t see anyone even as we passed Ikisu Shrine.

With such an anticlimactic response, we relaxed considerably.

Though maybe we should have been more alarmed. It was actually very unusual to not see a single boat this early in the morning.

As we arrived in Hayring at the dock we had set out from four days ago, someone finally came out to greet us.

“You’re back early.”

It was the Sun Prince, also known as Mr. Endou. His bushy beard concealed his face in such a way that I couldn’t tell if he was smiling that we were back safe or scowling at us for breaking the rules. Quitting partway through the weeklong camp wasn’t that unusual; it was the reason for quitting that was the issue.

“Sorry. Some unbelievable things happened…” Shun said in a choked voice.

The rest of us nearly started crying.

“Well, well, let’s talk about this later, okay? Dock the canoes for now.”

We held back our tears and went ashore. The ropes tying our equipment undid themselves and our supplies flew through the air to line up neatly on the dock.

“Oh, we’ll do it,” Satoru said.

The Sun Prince shook his head, “It’s alright. You’re all tired, aren’t you? Anyway, you should get to the children’s center. Breakfast is being served soon.”

I vaguely wondered why we had to go to the children’s center. It was right next to the docks and had a resting area as well as rooms for overnight stays, but none of us had set foot in it after graduating from Harmony School.

“Sir, we’d really like to go home…” Shun spoke for all of us.

“Ah, yes, I understand. But before that there are some things we need to ask you about.”

“Can’t we go home and rest for a bit?” Maria pleaded.

I was dying to take a bath, but the Sun Prince was adamant.

“Listen to me, okay? Don’t forget that you guys have broken some serious rules. I know you’re tired, but we have to take care of important things first.”

He was smiling as kindly as ever but the tip of his nose glistened with sweat.

“I understand.”

We shuffled toward the children’s center.

“Saki, what do you think about this?” Satoru muttered in my ear.

“‘Bout what?”

“The Sun Prince’s face is all stiff. And isn’t it weird how he’s forcing us to go to the children’s center?”

“Yeah, but the entire situation is weird…”

I was so numb from fatigue that I felt disconnected from my body. Satoru was annoying me asking such obvious questions. Yes, it was weird. What the hell did he want me to do about it?

Shun opened the glass door with his cantus. I was extremely grateful to him for this. No doubt he was just as tired as the rest of us and would have preferred opening the door manually instead of using even more energy to concentrate his cantus, but he wanted to show the Sun Prince, and anyone else who was watching, that we had not all lost our powers.

As the Sun Prince said, breakfast was being prepared. There were pots of warm rice, salted salmon, tiger crab miso soup, raw eggs, seaweed, salad, and preserved kelp. Even dessert, brown sugar jelly, was in the works.

I was suddenly starving. We filled our bowls and started eating voraciously.

For a while, we were silent.

“We actually made it back okay…” Mamoru said earnestly.

“Okay? We don’t know what’ll happen later on,” Satoru said darkly.

“But we’re back, in any case,” Maria put her hand on Mamoru’s shoulder.

I agreed with the two of them. “Yeah, we might have over-thought the whole thing.”

“What do you mean?” Maria asked.

“Well, even after learning all those horrible things from the false minoshiro, nothing’s happened…”

“Sh!” Shun cut me off. “Someone might be listening.”

“Oh, sorry.” I clamped my mouth shut. For some reason I was feeling happy and talkative.

“Wait. Maybe…in this,” Shun eyed his half-finished breakfast with extreme distrust.

As if by telepathy, we all understood what he was thinking.

Could they have put something in the food? Something that would relax us and make us spill everything we were hiding.

Satoru pointed decisively at the bowl of jelly. While everyone else had been eating the main portion of their breakfast, I had been unable to wait and already started on dessert. It did have a slight alcoholic smell, but there could be other drugs mixed in as well.

“Hah?”

As our attention was on the bowl of jelly, Mamoru looked out the window and made a strange sound.

“What happened?”

Ignoring Maria’s questions, he started toward the window. At that instant, I saw a large shadow flicker across the window.

Mamoru pressed his face to the glass and peered outside. He turned back. There was a bone-chilling look of fear on his face I had never seen before.

The clock chimed eight times. I realized something strange. Even though it was already eight in the morning, I didn’t hear any children around. And I couldn’t, no matter how hard I tried. We were still the only ones at the center.

The heavy silence continued. Mamoru still refused to say what he had seen.

“Thanks for waiting, you guys,” the Sun Prince came in through the door, along with a middle-aged couple I recognized but had never spoken to.

I was sure they were also from the Board of Education.

“I see you’ve finished breakfast? If you’re tired, we can rest a while,” the woman said, smiling. The forced smile magnified the horse-like features of her mouth.

“Starting now, you will be interviewed one at a time. So, who will go first?”

No one spoke.

“Come now, what’s wrong? Team one is supposed to be the most assertive team. Aren’t you always the first to answer questions in class?” the Sun Prince said, sounding cheerful as always. But his eyes weren’t smiling.

In the end, we went by seat number. Shun Aonuma, Maria Akizuki, Satoru Asahina, Mamoru Itou, and me, Saki Watanabe.

Until then I had never noticed the row of small, two-tatami rooms at the back of the children’s center. We went in one at a time, accompanied by the two interviewers.

…I’ve been thinking about what had happened then, but strangely enough, I can’t remember a single thing. In the ancient psychology books, this is called lacunar amnesia. Satoru doesn’t remember much either. The only thing I can recall is being offered a really bitter tea. So that, plus whatever was in the jelly, made it more of a drugged interrogation than an interview.

In any case, we all finished the “interview” and were allowed to go home. According to Shun’s plan, Mamoru, Maria, and I were supposed to pretend to be sick as an excuse to go straight to our rooms. But that turned out to be unnecessary, since all three of us developed a high fever that day and were confined to bed.

My fever abated after a day or two, but my parents forced to me rest more, so I spent about a week lazing around in my pajamas. Since I couldn’t meet up with the other two, I dug up the charm hidden under the floorboards to find my mantra.

I felt the rush of victory as I chanted my mantra and unsealed my cantus. After all, I had succeeded in fooling all the adults and recovered my god-like power.

I never could have imagined how mistaken I was.

To a forty-year-old adult, two years might not be a big deal. At most, their hair might become a little grayer, their bodies a little stiffer, a little heavier, or their breath a little shorter. That’s what happens to most in two year’s time.

But for twelve-year-old children of any era, drastic changes can happen within two years.

For me, being fourteen was more than just growing five centimeters and gaining six kilograms. Or for boys, an even more radical thirteen centimeters and ten kilograms. That’s just on the outside. There were changes within us as well.

I gradually became accustomed to looking up to Satoru and Shun. It wasn’t a bad thing, but was a surprise to me. Ever since I could remember, they were my good friends as well as competitors, but at some point, they became something else. And it was a completely natural change.

When I came to realize it, I was far behind them, chasing after their retreating figures. It was a strange sight, tinged with an unexplainable feeling.

No, I know exactly what it was. Jealousy.

Since the beginning Shun has always been special to me. I couldn’t tear my eyes from him that day as the sun set over the field and the wind ruffled his hair. His clear voice and sparkling eyes never failed to enchant me. I always believed without a shadow of doubt that Shun and I would be together.

On the other hand, Satoru was as plain as you could get. I admit that he’s smart, but compared to Shun who overflowed with so much talent that you could sense it in the air around him, Satoru was nothing special. Still, ever since we had survived the Ground Spider attack together, my view toward him has changed as well. He was always friendly and the most comfortable person for me to be around.

That’s why my jealousy was so complicated. Seeing them together made me feel left out.

But what had changed the most in the last two years was probably the relationship between Shun and Satoru. Although they were never on bad terms, Satoru always viewed Shun as something of a rival, and sometimes acted awkwardly around him.

However, his feelings toward Shun had changed completely these past two years. Before, he would always turn away from Shun’s bright smile, but now, more often than not, Satoru would smile back, gazing deep into Shun’s eyes.

I was always aware that I was in love with Shun. And I could clearly see the romantic feelings Satoru had when he hugged Shun.

On the other hand, I couldn’t tell what Shun thought of Satoru. Growing up with his good looks and intelligence, he was already used to people admiring him. So he had a calm, or to put it bluntly, a certain tolerant attitude toward his admirers. But watching the two of them, it wasn’t just Satoru blindly longing for Shun. I would say that even though Satoru was the proactive one, Shun did seem to accept his feelings.

The final conclusion came from what I saw one day in the field. I suddenly spotted the two of them walking along like lovers, hand in hand, unaware of the world around them.

I turned on my heel and made to leave. But my curiosity betrayed me and I found myself following them at a distance. I knew I would be hurt if I saw them being intimate, but I couldn’t stop myself.

Once out of sight of the village, the two began frolicking like puppies. Or to be specific, Satoru pranced around Shun, hugging him from behind. I was suddenly keenly aware that I would love to have been born a boy. If I had been, Shun would choose me over Satoru in a heartbeat.

The Ethics Committee and Board of Education were extremely strict about relations between adolescent boys and girls. So for kids of our age, we were limited to strictly platonic relationships with the opposite sex.

However, they seemed to look extremely generously upon even the most intimate same-sex acts. So apart from a few people, everyone defaulted to a homosexual relationship.

They crested the hill and lay down on a field of white clovers to talk. I hid in a clump of bushes twenty or thirty meters away and watched, not daring to breathe.

It appeared that Satoru told a joke, as Shun threw his head back and laughed, showing pearly white teeth.

Satoru stared for a second, then suddenly threw himself on top of Shun. For a while, they didn’t move.

I couldn’t see them clearly from my position, but I had no doubt that they were kissing. Satoru held Shun tightly. For a moment, Shun simply lay there. Finally, he returned the embrace and began playing with Satoru’s body, trying to flip him over so that he would be on top. Satoru resisted. They struggled, but Satoru had the advantage. Shun finally gave up and slumped back onto the ground with the expression of a girl who was resigned to her fate.

Seeing this, Satoru went completely mad. He pinned Shun to the ground and kissed him passionately on his lips, cheeks, throat, and neck.

I flushed just seeing this and started running my hands over myself unconsciously. I didn’t know whether it was because of how affectionate Satoru was being with Shun or because I wanted to be in Satoru’s position. Whichever it was, or maybe because I was the odd one out, my heart burned unbearably in my chest.

Satoru traced his fingers lovingly over Shun’s lips. Meeting no resistance, or perhaps getting carried away, he stuck a finger into Shun’s mouth and made him suck on it. Shun allowed such a rude imposition with a generous smile, but still nipped Satoru’s fingers with his teeth from time to time.

Caught up in the heat of the moment, I leaned forward a bit too far. As Shun raised his head to pretend to bite Satoru’s hand, I felt him notice me for a split second.

With a start, I withdrew into the shadow of the bushes. But he had probably seen me. I thought I would die of shame. I stayed hidden for a while, but decided that I would look one more time to check on the situation.

Satoru was lying on top, trying his best to pull Shun’s pants off. An enraptured look came over his face as he uncovered Shun’s thighs, as perfect as if carved from pure white marble. Then, as though handling a small animal, he gently began rubbing Shun’s penis.

Shun laughed and squirmed as if he were being tickled, but didn’t really resist.

I guess I only imagined him noticing my presence.

Without standing up, I turned and crept away. If I kept watching, I’d go crazy.

I had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen anyway. Earlier I had accidentally seen two boys from team three making love with each other.

At that time, I had observed out of simple curiosity. It was obvious that the two were too sex-crazed to notice anything else. They lay on top of each other in opposite directions, each with the other’s penis in his mouth. Occasionally, it went so deep into their throat that even I felt like throwing up. But it didn’t seem to be enough for them. Obviously, as boys, they couldn’t have sex the proper way, but it didn’t stop them from trying. The sight of their penises thrusting violently reminded me of minoshiro mating.

I had zero interest in seeing Shun and Satoru engage in such a stupid act.

Feeling miserable, I left the area. I wanted more than anything for someone to comfort me. One person came to mind.

I went looking for Maria after I got back to town and found her at home on the back porch. Thankfully, all her family members seemed to be out, but there was still an annoying third wheel. Mamoru.

“Saki, what’s wrong?” she asked in a bright, clear voice.

In the past two years, Maria had grown into a young woman with beautiful arched eyebrows, sparkling eyes, a straight, perfect nose, and expressive mouth who carried herself with confidence and determination. The only thing that hadn’t changed was her flame-red hair.

“I just suddenly wanted to talk to you,” I said, smiling at her while throwing Mamoru a cold look.

Mamoru avoided my gaze and slid out of sight.

Maria sat on the veranda, swinging her feet off the side. Mamoru sat a little distance away, concentrating on drawing Maria. He wasn’t drawing with pencil and paper like we did in Harmony School. Instead, he had a wooden board spread with a thin layer of white clay and was using his cantus to draw with powdered stones such as garnet, fluorite, beryl, cordierite, and columbite.

The portrait didn’t just look like Maria, but also managed to capture her spirit. Even I had to admit that he had an amazing talent.

Mamoru had lost his mother to typhoid fever when he was young, and seemed to view Maria as a surrogate since both had red hair, a rare trait in our town. According to Satoru, red hair was never an Asian trait, so Mamoru’s mother and Maria’s possibly mutual ancestors must have come from a distant country many generations ago.

From what I remember, Mamoru became attached to Maria right after we entered Sage Academy. But even now, during puberty, he showed no interest toward his own sex, no matter how many cute boys approached him. He lived in the westmost village of Oakgrove while Maria lived on the eastern coast in Whitesand. Even so, Mamoru took a boat to meet Maria at her house every morning. Although his devotion was touching, at our age, relationships with the opposite sex was a huge taboo, so Mamoru had to use drawing as an excuse to visit her.

He was always with Maria and paid no attention to anyone else. As for Maria, she seemed moved by his affection and the two of them gradually grew closer. Actually their relationship looked more like one between a master and her loyal dog.

But since I was universally recognized as Maria’s lover, Mamoru’s life was sometimes rather depressing.

“Hey, let’s go for a walk,” I said, hinting that I wanted to be alone with her.

“Okay, sure,” she smiled understandingly.

“Alright, we’re gonna go for a bit…Mamoru you should take a break.”

Mamoru looked miserable at the prospect of Maria and I going off alone.

“Thank you, it’s beautiful. I love it,” Maria said, taking a quick look at the painting.

Mamoru’s face lit up with joy for a second. He was always dead silent in front of me. Maybe he was embarrassed to let other girls see how devoted he was to Maria. Since he was always so quiet, I had gotten into the bad habit of completely forgetting his existence around Maria.

We walked to a small boat anchored on the river. It was one of the town’s communal boats, painted with a blue dolphin on the side, which anyone could use as long as they returned it to one of the designated docks when they were done.

I pushed off with my cantus. As we glided over the water, Maria untied her hair and let it fan out in the breeze.

She put her arms around my neck and whispered, “What’s wrong?”

Her gentle voice nearly brought me to tears.

“Nothing, really. I just wanted to see you.”

She knew it was a lie, but didn’t press further. Maria ran her fingers through my hair, untangling all my worries along with it.

We were heading for a little hill overlooking the Hamasaki sand dunes that was surrounded by bushes and provided perfect secrecy. In Harmony School we would often spend the afternoons there when the weather was nice. Back then, I was the first to suggest taking off our clothes, but Maria was the one who bravely stole a kiss from me as we lay naked together.

After docking, we raced up the dunes. I was worried that someone may have discovered our hiding spot since we hadn’t gone there for a while, but thankfully it looked untouched.

Although I knew for sure that we were completely hidden from view, we still made a check of our surroundings before taking off our clothes. At first I felt a little embarrassed, but our laughter as we slowly undressed each other made me feel like I had returned to my innocent childhood days.

It wasn’t quite yet summer, so the air was a little chilly. We rubbed the goosebumps on each other’s arms.

“Saki, your breasts have gotten bigger,” Maria suddenly grabbed me from behind.

“…that tickles,” I squirmed away.

She chased after me, putting her hands all over my body. At some point, she managed to take off my bra.

“Ugh, stop,” I couldn’t stand the feeling and crouched on the ground, arms around my knees.

“What are you talking about? Isn’t this what you want? That’s why you came to me, right?”

I laughed, shook, and writhed under her relentless attacks. It was a fine line between happiness and suffering, loving caresses and torture.

“Well. Since I haven’t seen you for a while, I need to inspect your body properly. What’s changed since the last time? Have you fully developed?”

“Enough. You don’t have to…!”

As I was talking, Maria ran her soft fingers up and down my body. Her fingers were so nimble it felt as if there were a thousand hands touching me.

“Hm. Such a beautiful body. Not an extra ounce of fat anywhere, and so soft.”

“U-uh. Are you done? It’s your turn now…”

“Mm, I’ll let you look as much as you like later. But I still need to check your sensitivity.”

She went on like this for thirty minutes. I laughed and begged her to stop until I was completely out of breath.

“Amaaazing. You actually enjoy all this teasing don’t you. Your entire body is responding to the pleasure.”

I couldn’t even come up with words to deny it. I glared accusingly at her through bleary eyes.

“Heh, how cute,” Maria smiled at me, her face only a hair’s breadth from mine.

She slowly pressed her lips against mine. Aah. How do I describe this softness? Until then, I had kissed a number of boys and girls, but never felt anything like this before. For many people, their mouths tense up if they’re nervous or if they’re consciously trying to control it, but Maria’s lips were like marshmallows, slowly enveloping my own. Just this was enough to melt me, but then she parted my lips and slipped her tongue in my mouth. This raw sensation always gave me goosebumps. She explored my mouth, running her tongue over the backs of my teeth, the insides of my cheeks, and finally, my tongue. Our senses melded together, touch with touch, taste with taste.

I gave myself up to her completely; all I wanted was to remember the sensation of her tongue. Maria’s every move was an expression of her own desires, and soon I would be expected to reciprocate.

The two of us lay entwined, knees bumping against knees, hardened nipples pressed against each other.

She slid her hand below my stomach, lightly stroking the soft hair, then moved down farther. I was embarrassed that she would feel how wet I was and tried to pull away. It was a fruitless attempt, of course.

“Oh? Why are you so excited?” Maria asked innocently, as if she didn’t know that it was entirely her fault.

“U….uun,” I tried to protest, but no words came out.

Without waiting for an answer, she reached a finger into me. Into every girl’s most sensitive area, a little bump no bigger than a pearl. She teased it with gentle circular motions, and my mind went blank. I had melted to the very core of my body.

Time passed, flowing thickly like honey. Maria and I forgot about the rest of the world, lost in our intense lovemaking. For the second half, I took charge, rendering Maria speechless, tears flowing down her face as she writhed with pleasure.

Our actions were not considered taboo, but one thing that was strictly prohibited was penetration. At the end of every term, the school nurse would check to make sure that all the girls were still virgins. If the hymen was discovered to be broken, the student would be questioned, and if the reason was that it was caused by impure heterosexual intercourse, she would be expelled.

At that time, there wasn’t anyone around us who had been forced to leave school for this reason. There was only a rumor that it had happened to a girl about seven years ago. It was said that she was never seen again after that incident, but like many of Satoru’s stories, there was no source for the legend, so its legitimacy was questionable.

After we were done, Maria and I lay back on the sand, covered in sweat. I suddenly remembered something the false minoshiro had said. In order to rid the society of violence, we had decided to change the structure of our society to one based on love, like the bonobos…

Since that summer, many of the things central to our lives started to go slightly awry. But these warnings were ignored as we were busy struggling with all the changes in our bodies caused by puberty.

What exactly was the first sign? I can’t remember, but there seemed to be a general feeling of unease and unexplained irritation. Maria was plagued with frequent headaches, and I often felt nauseous when I was tired. Everyone else also had some sort of physical discomfort though we all thought they were nothing more than growing pains.

Meanwhile, one relationship was the first to meet its demise.

I found out when I happened to come across two people in town.

Shun was walking quickly along the path next to the canal with Satoru chasing after him. What caught my attention was Shun’s attitude. It was considerably more distant than the last time I had seen him with Satoru.

“Hey, give me another chance,” Satoru touched Shun’s shoulder but was brushed away coldly. “Shun, what’s wrong?” his voice carried clearly on the wind. He sounded almost embarrassingly flustered.

“Nothing. I just want to be alone for a while,” he said flatly.

“I know it’s my fault. Please…” Satoru grasped Shun’s shoulders.

“Your fault? For what?” Shun smiled coldly.

“I…”

Poor Satoru looked totally lost. This was the first time in my life I actually sympathized with him and felt slightly revolted by Shun.

“Satoru, isn’t it time to end this farce of a romance? I’ve had enough of being your doll.”

Satoru looked dumbstruck. “O-oh. I understand. From now on…”

“You don’t understand anything. Having you follow me around the clock is suffocating. I want to be alone. So we should go our separate ways from now on. Goodbye,” Shun said quickly, pushing Satoru aside and coming in this direction.

The expression on his face shocked me. The cold smile was gone and replaced with a look of agony that twisted his features. The next second, he became aware of my presence. All emotions drained from his face as he hurried past, pretending not to see me.

Satoru was still frozen to the spot. I wanted to call out to him, but decided not to.

Why? Questions whirled around in my head. Why did Shun have to act so cruelly? He was always the kindest and most considerate one in our group. And from what I had accidentally seen, he still was. He was obviously suffering.

But when I saw Shun at school the next day, he didn’t look particularly disturbed. On the other hand, Satoru was visibly hurt. Anyone could tell just by looking that he had been dumped. But once in a while, he still snuck hopeful glances at Shun. It was painful to watch.

A few days later, another bad omen appeared.

At that time, all our practical courses at Sage Academy were based on each student’s aptitude. Although the general technique for using cantus was the same, there were hundreds of levels of difficulty, from simple force exchange to something as advanced as cold fusion. Most of the class was somewhere in the middle, though there were some students who were able to tackle much harder techniques.

Shun’s progress was far ahead of the group. He was working on hatching a chick from its egg in under two hours, an incredibly difficult task since it normally takes an egg twenty-one days to hatch. In other words, he had to use his cantus to speed up the development of something he couldn’t even see by a factor of 250.

To be given permission to use cantus directly on a living being requires not only technical skill, but also recognition of outstanding character. In other words, there were incredibly high expectations for Shun in the future.

Unexpectedly, Satoru was also part of the advanced group. His talent was in reflecting and manipulating light, and his task to create a mirror out of thin air was one of the most difficult skills behind Shun’s. I’ve mentioned this before, but creating a lens out of a vacuum to magnify a distant image was something on the level of Shisei Kaburagi. Satoru’s technique of using water vapor in the air to create a wall to reflect light was considerably easier than that though.

On the other hand, the skill I was working on was reasonably difficult, but much more boring. I had to fuse together a broken glass vase. Maria was working on full-body levitation, making her the center of everyone’s attention. Mamoru was…actually I can’t really remember what he was doing.

“Saki, check it out.”

I looked up and saw an amorphous silver mirror floating a meter in front of me, reflecting my expression of intense concentration.

“Isn’t it kind of distorted?” I said shortly.

Satoru, who had been expecting me to praise him, gave me a sulky look. “No way, it’s perfectly flat.”

“My face isn’t that sunken in.”

“What? Isn’t it your heart that’s distorted here?”

With that snide remark, Satoru retreated. The mirror melted into thin air. After that, every time I wanted to talk to Satoru, I noticed him sneaking closer to Shun, watching him from behind.

I thought Satoru was still blindly in love with Shun, but it seemed that he at least understood that there was no chance of them repairing their relationship. He shook his head sadly and walked toward Rei, a short boy from team five, who smiled flirtatiously at him. Rei had liked Satoru for a while, but never made a move because of Shun. Satoru created another mirror and Rei, the class narcissist, began admiring his own reflection and making cute faces like a girl.

During all this, Shun concentrated on his project, ignoring his chattering classmates. In front of him was a simple egg stand with a single chicken egg on it. Everyone knew about the difficulty of his assignment and gave him a wide berth.

Someone came in from the back entrance of the classroom. When I glanced over casually (let me say first that I’m not actually that easily distracted), I was shocked. It was Shisei Kaburagi. His eyes were covered with goggle-like sunglasses, but his thin nose and chin plus his smooth skin gave the impression of a very young man.

The Sun Prince, who was supervising our practice, approached him confusedly. They talked too quietly for me to hear, but it seemed that Shisei Kaburagi was here to observe the students.

The two of them started walking around the classroom. Suddenly, the entire class became extremely nervous. If everyone had been concentrating this much from the beginning, they probably would have finished their assignments already.

Shisei Kaburagi came closer to us. I thought maybe he would show interest in what I was working on and started trying to fuse my vase in earnest. I fit the broken pieces together and imagined the cracks disappearing like ice refreezing.

I peeked at him to observe his reaction, and saw him walking right past me.

That was disappointing. I knew this assignment was too boring to catch anyone’s interest.

Shisei Kaburagi stopped in front of Maria and gazed up at her for a good amount of time. There wasn’t anything particularly interesting about her technique, so maybe he was just admiring her beauty and youthful body. Although he looked young, he was around our parent’s age. No matter how powerful he is, I couldn’t help feeling a little disgusted by the way he looked at her.

He also spent a long time evaluating Satoru’s mirror and giving him advice. Satoru looked completely blown away by the attention and turned bright red.

Finally, Shisei Kaburagi slowly approached Shun, who was still staring fixedly at the chicken egg.

Everyone was waiting for an historic encounter. Shun was the one expected to inherit Shisei Kaburagi’s mantle in the future. This could be the first time he receives advice from him.

But Shisei Kaburagi’s steps suddenly halted.

What was wrong? He took one, two steps backwards, then turned on his heel and quickly left the classroom as everyone watched in a daze.

Shun looked up at his retreating figure. The expression on his face scared me.

I still don’t know exactly what I saw. Something like a cold smile, but much more dreadful, without hope of salvation. Almost like the insane smile of someone who had been cast into a pit of endless despair.

The Sun Prince, who had chased frantically after Shisei Kaburagi, returned.

“Umm…due to unforeseen circumstances, we’ll end today’s practice here. Please put away your materials and return to your classrooms.”

He was smiling as usual, but his voice was hoarse and there was a sheen of sweat on his nose.

“Saki,” Satoru caught up with me.

“Hey, what in the world happened?”

He didn’t answer, but jerked his head toward Shun, who was still sitting in front of the egg.

“Satoru, let’s go,” Rei hugged Satoru’s arm and tried to lead him away.

“Go on ahead. I’ll catch up,” he said gently, giving Rei a pat on the butt and pushing him toward the exit.

“Hurry and clean up, you guys,” the Sun Prince clapped his hands at us.

I put the broken vase back in its box.

“Shun, aren’t you coming?” Maria asked.

Mamoru stood closely behind her. Everyone else had left, leaving only the Sun Prince and the five members of team one.

“Yeah,” Shun stood. He looked pale, and there was still a trace of that twisted smile on his face.

“That,” Maria pointed at the egg stand.

As he reached out to pick it up, Shun suddenly lost his footing. His hands jerked and the egg fell from its stand.

Everyone expected him to stop the egg before it hit the ground. After so much practice, all of us were able to mentally compress and chant our mantra in a split second. Of course Shun would be able to make it in time.

But the egg fell to the floor, and broke.

What happened? Was he sick? We all stared at him. I was the only one who paid any attention to the broken egg.

No, there might have been another person who noticed.

“Now now, hurry along, you guys. I’ll clean up the rest,” the Sun Prince forced his way between us with alarming speed, pushing Shun and Maria by the shoulders. The next second, we found ourselves herded out of the practice room.

“Shun, are you okay?” Satoru asked worriedly, apparently forgetting that he had been dumped.

“Yeah,” he replied, not meeting Satoru’s gaze. “It’s nothing…I’m just a bit tired.”

“I think we should head home early today,” Maria said uncertainly, brows furrowed.

I was more worried about Shun than anyone else, but I didn’t say anything. No, I couldn’t say anything.

What I had just seen come out of the egg was burned into my retinas.

The thing, covered in a layer of mucus, was not a chick, or anything even remotely similar to a chick. It was a monster.