Kokoro Connect Volume 10: Asu Random Part 2 E-Book

Sadanatsu Anda

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: Kokoro Connect
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 416

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Kokoro Connect Volume 10: Asu Random Part 2

Leseprobe

This is not the real world.

This is an isolated space.

And yet, it’s functionally no different.

This is not the real world—but it’s still a world in its own right.

Chapter 1: The Other Side

The first thing he felt was intense disgust. Everything felt off in a deeply unpleasant way—as though his whole body was melted into a viscous liquid and then flushed down the drain.

His mind was fuzzy, and he couldn’t think straight. It was dark, and cold, and his eyes wouldn’t focus.

Where am I?

He could feel something hard and immovable, uneven and gritty, pressed against his hands, his arms, his legs, his cheek. It was the ground.

I’m lying on the ground?

Suddenly, the fog cleared from his mind. Using both hands, he pushed himself up onto his knees, then sprang to his feet.

Next he squeezed his eyes shut tightly... and slowly opened them once more.

Yaegashi Taichi was standing in front of Yamaboshi High School in the middle of the night, looking up at the main building from the athletic field. Through the windows, he could see lights on in several of the classrooms.

Then he turned and looked over his shoulder. Outside the school gates, everything appeared to be perfectly normal... though it still felt a bit surreal to be on campus at night.

A sudden realization occurred to him, and he started to brush himself off. After lying facedown on the ground, surely his clothes were filthy—

“What the...?”

And yet his overcoat remained perfectly spotless. Next he checked his back, then his legs, but couldn’t find any dirt. How was such a thing possible, when he was apparently sprawled out on the athletic field for some indeterminate amount of time? And for another thing, why was he sprawled out on the athletic field? What was he doing here...?

Then a sharp, burning pain rose up the back of his skull, almost like an electric shock. He clutched his head, fighting the heat and pain. Now he remembered:

“That’s right!”

«Heartseed» had transported him here, to the place it referred to as the “Isolation Zone.”

Wait, but what makes me so sure this is ACTUALLY the Isolation Zone? It doesn’t LOOK like an alternate reality... so how did I know?

Sickening as it was, some part of him had believed it with certainty. Why? Was it more of «The Third»’s hypnotherapy, brainwashing all who entered in order to streamline the experiment?

Either way, he wasn’t going to find the answer by just standing around. Instead, he needed to investigate his surroundings.

“Where is everyone...?”

A chill settled over his heart. Just moments ago he was surrounded by his fellow clubmates, and yet he couldn’t see a single other person out here on the athletic field with him. No Nagase Iori, no Inaba Himeko, no Kiriyama Yui, no Aoki Yoshifumi, no Enjouji Shino, no Uwa Chihiro.

Wasn’t «Heartseed» supposed to send them all to the Isolation Zone together?

“Did it only send me...?”

Or was he the only person left behind in the real world? Neither option appealed to him.

He took off running towards the school building. The first few steps didn’t cover much ground, but soon he hit his stride. If the lights were on, then surely someone had to be in there.

He couldn’t hear anything except the rustle of his coat, the crunch of his footsteps, and the sound of his own breathing. The field was dark and vast, and in his mind, it felt endless—like he might never reach his destination. Nevertheless, he ran.

Maybe he was cut off from the rest of the world. Maybe he was all alone in the darkness. He came here to fight, and yet his body was filled with fear.

What happened? What’s going on? Where am I? He didn’t know. His panic was building... and with it, his terror was building, too...

Just then, he saw a shadow out of the corner of his eye—

“Gah!”

Hastily, he hit the brakes. Likewise, the figure stopped short. He hadn’t noticed them approaching until they were nearly on top of him; evidently he’d been too focused on the school building directly ahead.

Taichi squinted through the darkness at the shadowy presence standing more than ten meters away. Her long hair fluttered in the gentle breeze. Her skin sparkled like the moon, and even from a distance, he could tell she had a great figure.

Wait...

“N-Nagase?!”

“Taichi?!”

It was Nagase Iori, president of the Cultural Research Club and resident jokester.

Christ, am I glad to see you.

“I’m so glad I found you! Holy crap! I thought I was alone out here!”

Evidently her experience here was similar to his. She dashed over to him at full speed.

“Whoa, hey, slow down! Am... Am I supposed to catch you or what?!”

“Taaaake... THIS!”

She stopped short right in front of him and karate-chopped him in the side.

“Gah! ...Where the heck did that come from...?”

“Oh, sorry! Everyone was gone, and I was convinced I was all alone out here on the athletic field, and I was starting to get really scared, so I was planning to go into the school building, but then I spotted you, and I was like ‘YAY!’ so I ran right over, and I was gonna leap into your arms, but then I remembered you have a girlfriend, so I decided to compromise with a karate chop!”

“You make no sense. Anyway, I’m glad we found each other. I was starting to get spooked out here, myself.”

“You too, huh? Did you wake up here on campus, or...? Let’s make sure we’re on the same page real quick!”

Taichi had no objections to this, so he readily agreed.

“First off, let’s go over the information we left with. So, we were told «The Third»’s group hatched a plan to cram half the school inside an ‘Isolation Zone’ for some kind of experiment.”

«The Third» and its posse («The Second» and «The Fourth») were all of the same species as «Heartseed». They had arrived in the real world in order to conduct some sort of large-scale experiment—so large, it required both prep work and a test run.

“Yeah. Supposedly they knew they were going to have to prep for a massive Record Wipe either way, so they wanted to go all-out with something really ‘entertaining’ first.”

Due to the sheer quantity of «Heartseed»-related memories the CRC had stored up, it would take a great deal of time and effort to erase those “records” from each individual member. Hence, they were essentially trying to get the most bang for their buck.

“Then Yukina-chan and some other track team girls got hit with the body-swap while some first-year boys were cursed with the Liberation... and then Misaki-chan lost her memories, possibly due to an emergency shutdown,” Nagase recounted carefully.

Indeed, victims of an active phenomenon could potentially be subject to what was known as an “emergency shutdown.” If word of the phenomenon began to spread, and/or if a significant societal scandal resulted, and/or if any of the participants suffered a mental breakdown—in other words, circumstances deemed too risky to proceed, lest repairing them prove complicated later on—the «Heartseed» in charge would initiate the emergency shutdown process. This process would potentially erase all memories pertaining to the subject’s fellow phenomenon victims.

“But our objective here is to prevent any more of those emergency shutdowns,” Taichi stated firmly.

“Come to think of it, how are our memories doing?”

“I can still remember a bunch of stuff, so I think I’m fine... probably. I can’t think of anything I’m forgetting.”

That said, once those memories were erased, he wouldn’t even know they were gone in the first place. However, as far as he knew, they would be safe from the Record Wipe for the full duration of the Isolation Zone experiment.

“Now, about the Isolation Zone itself. According to all the rumors...”

—Taken away somewhere.

—Unable to escape.

—Phenomena.

—Lasting several days.

It was terrifying to imagine, let alone experience, all of these things combined.

“We have no idea how complicated this is gonna get, which is why we asked «Heartseed» to send us in here in the first place—so we could protect everyone. The last thing I remember is... all seven of us, together at Yamaboshi at night. That’s when we made the decision to come here,” Nagase recalled.

“Yeah, and then «Heartseed» was like ‘Let’s get going’ or something... and the next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground outside the school building,” Taichi nodded.

“You were on the ground? I was just standing.”

“But you were alone, right?”

“Yeah. I couldn’t see any of the others nearby. So then I started walking around, and that’s when I spotted you.”

“In that case, maybe the others are somewhere nearby. We should look for them.”

And so Taichi and Nagase moved away from the school building. Starting at the east end of the athletic field, they decided they would work their way all the way around to the opposite side.

The air felt... somewhat cold, but not especially. Above them, a dark sheet of clouds covered the sky, except for one small hole through which they could see the full moon shining brightly. The field was awfully dark, but the light from the school building and neighboring offices helped them feel their way forward.

“This is the Isolation Zone, right?” Nagase asked, after a few minutes of walking.

“I think so... assuming «Heartseed» didn’t screw up, at least.”

It was just a feeling he had; there was nothing concrete he could point to as proof.

“I mean, it really feels like we’ve gone to a different world, but... Wait a minute!” Hastily, Nagase started digging in her pockets. “Our cell phones! Duh!”

“Oh, right,” Taichi muttered. How could he have forgotten this essential piece of modern technology?

“This way we can get in touch with Inaban and... Wait, what the? No service?”

“Same here.”

All around them, the trees rustled in the wind.

“Now that I think about it, I’ve never not had service at school bef—Hey!”

Suddenly, Nagase took off running in the direction of the front gates. Perplexed, Taichi followed after her. Then, as he came within just five meters from the gate, he caught up to her, and together they ran side by side.

“What’s the matter?”

“Our school’s situated on a pretty busy street. Day or night, there’s always the occasional car passing by. So why does it feel like the road’s deserted?”

“Good point.” That definitely wasn’t normal. “Maybe we should step out real quick and see if we can get any service.”

He checked his phone again, but it still didn’t have any bars.

“Yeah, maybe... There’s at least a chance Inaban and the others are out there, right?”

“Right. Let’s find them so we can formulate a plan.”

“Yeah! We came here to help everyone, and by golly, we’re gonna!”

Pause.

“...So, uh...”

“...Um...”

They both took a deep breath and asked in unison:

“Why haven’t we reached the gates yet?”

They could only get so close to the edge of campus before they found themselves unable to make progress. Their feet were still moving, and it physically felt like they were getting closer... and yet they didn’t.

This space was isolated from the outside world, and there was no hope of leaving.

“Haah... haah... I guess... no amount of running... will do us any good...”

At last, Nagase threw in the towel and dropped to the ground. As for Taichi, he had given up much sooner than she had.

They were now face to face with the fact that this world was not normal. Perhaps it was safe to say that this was indeed the Isolation Zone.

Taichi had chosen to come here and fight of his own volition, and as such, he had no regrets... but he couldn’t pretend he wasn’t a little frightened. This was «The Third»’s little dollhouse, and anything could happen. It was possible they were being watched right that very moment.

Regardless, he had no intention of giving up the fight.

“We need to find them, fast.”

“Yeah,” Nagase agreed.

They started walking, keeping their eyes peeled as they moved across campus, cutting across the athletic field from east to west.

And yet... there was still no sign of anyone else.

“They’re nowhere...”

“Maybe we should try calling their names? Or... on second thought, maybe not,” Nagase murmured nervously.

“Let’s keep a low profile for a little longer,” Taichi suggested.

Together, they forged a path through the dark, vast wasteland. This would be unthinkable alone, but as long as they had each other, they had the strength to carry on. Unfortunately, with five pieces of their heptagon still missing, their light was yet dim...

“Psst! Hey, Nagase! I see people!” Taichi hissed, pointing in the distance at the shifting shadows.

“What? Oh wow, you’re right! How many are there? One, two, three, four...”

“Maybe it’s the rest of the club! Let’s go see.”

And so, with high hopes, they took off running in the direction of the group. However, they soon realized these other people were not in fact the rest of the CRC, but rather—

“Whoa, it’s Iori! Oh, and Yaegashi-kun!”

“N-Nakayama-chan?!”

Nagase’s good friend from Class 2-B, Nakayama Mariko, came bouncing over. With her high pigtails, she looked like a bunny rabbit.

“Oh my godddd, Ioriiii!”

“Nakayama-chan!”

The two shared a tight hug.

“Boy, am I glad to see you! But at the same time, I’m kinda not glad! You really shouldn’t be here right now. Everybody’s going crazy!”

“Yeah, I know. What about you? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, but the school sure as heck isn’t! One minute it gets all dark, and then the next thing I know, everything’s all weird! And our phones aren’t getting any service!”

As it turned out, Taichi and Nagase weren’t the only two people trapped in this world. For a moment, this came as a relief... but at the same time, it was devastating. These people were victims, trapped inside against their will.

“And you can’t leave, either. I just tried. No luck!” another voice called from behind Nakayama. “Guess we really are stuck in here... You know, it kinda feels like we’ve been teleported to a different world and can’t get home...”

It was Setouchi Kaoru, president of Class 2-B, her expression dubious. As she tilted her head, her short hair swayed, and the light glinted off her cartilage piercings.

“Kaoru-chan, too? Is everyone here someone we’re close to...?” Nagase whispered fretfully.

“Huh? What was that?” Setouchi asked.

Nagase pursed her lips together and shook her head. “It’s nothing.”

But she wasn’t the only one starting to feel guilty about the CRC’s role in this. Taichi felt it, too.

“Are you guys with them?” Taichi asked, pointing to the two guys a short distance away.

“Gahhh! It won’t work! Damn it!” shouted Watase Shingo, another classmate in 2-B. He looked like he was trying to run to the fence, but he stopped short and turned back. “Oh hey, it’s Yaegashi and Nagase. Didn’t know you two were together.” The spiky-haired prettyboy(?) of the soccer team heaved a big sigh. “Well, don’t get your hopes up. Not even I’ve managed to get out.”

“It doesn’t look like Yaegashi’s worried about that.”

Next to Watase was Ishikawa Daiki, yet another classmate in 2-B. With his calm, composed demeanor, large build, and close-cropped hair, he was the very picture of a stoic Japanese warrior. And yet, believe it or not, he was currently in a relationship with bright and bubbly Nakayama Mariko.

The four of them were all wearing winter coats over their school uniforms.

“Huh? What’s wrong, you two? You don’t seem too thrilled,” Watase commented.

“Oh... Sorry...”

“Of course they’re not going to be thrilled, Watase-kun! Think about where we are!” Setouchi retorted, possibly because she could tell Taichi was off his game.

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, Madam President.”

“Don’t worry about us. Anyway, what’s been going on?” Taichi asked.

“What do you mean?” asked Setouchi.

“What’s been going on with the school? And where are the others? Tell us everything you know!” Nagase chimed in, pleading with her hands clasped together.

“Uhhh... I mean... where have you been, Iori? What have you been doing for the past three hours since we all got here?” asked Nakayama.

At this, Taichi pulled out his cell phone to check the time: 7:30 PM. But back in the real world, when they departed for the Isolation Zone, it was already way later than that. Clearly «Heartseed» wasn’t joking when it told them time passed differently in here. No point in trying to do the math.

“Well... uh... we showed up late, I guess you could say,” Nagase stammered.

“We can’t expect everyone to have had the exact same experience we did,” Ishikawa told the others. All in all, he was a rather thoughtful and understanding guy.

“Okay then, I’ll give you the rundown,” said Watase. “One minute I was at home, and the next, I was back at school again, in the middle of the night, in my uniform. And apparently I didn’t walk here... Real talk, this whole world feels different somehow. It’s a total mystery. Anyway, there are a lot of other people around, and their stories are all pretty similar... Wait, do you care about that part?”

“Go ahead and tell us the whole story. Please.”

“You’re really serious about this, huh? Well, anyway. None of our phones can get any service, and something... supernatural... is keeping us from being able to leave campus, so... nobody really knows what to do.”

“There are a lot of people here, too. Dozens of them. Maybe even a hundred,” Setouchi mused.

Taichi swallowed hard.

Even Nakayama frowned. “Yeah, this is a total tire fire... But y’know, it’s weird how accurate those rumors were!”

Indeed, back in the real world, Yamaboshi High School was rife with rumors about the Isolation Zone.

“Looking back, you’re right,” Ishikawa nodded casually. Likewise, Nakayama only seemed mildly perplexed. Both of them were completely under-reacting—proof that they were hypnotized. Otherwise they would surely be panicking right about now.

Watase let out an aggrieved sigh and continued, “Anyway, everyone wants to get home ASAP, so we’ve all been trying to figure something out.”

“Hence, we’ve been doing everything we can think of,” Ishikawa chimed in.

“Gotcha. So what’s everyone else up to? We haven’t seen anyone except you guys. Are they panicking?”

Watase’s group seemed relatively calm and collected, but Taichi was concerned about the rest.

“It’s a mixed bag. Some people are just sitting around. Others are attempting to leave campus. But no one’s all that panicked about it. Why would they be?”

“Because... they’re trapped in a strange place...?”

“It’s not that strange, is it? It’s just Yamaboshi. People are forced to take shelter in public places for all sorts of reasons—heavy storms, for example. I think you’re taking this a bit too seriously, Yaegashi.”

Apparently, to Ishikawa and the others, this situation was on par with a typhoon warning.

“But obviously some groups are more panicky than others,” Nakayama cut in.

“What do you mean?” Nagase asked.

Nakayama furrowed her brow dubiously. “I mean, like... depending on the phenomenon you got stuck with, you might be freaking out a lot, right? That’s why we’ve all split off into groups with other people who have the same phenomenon.”

With this statement, plus all the rumors and everything else that had happened thus far, it was suddenly very clear what was going on in the Isolation Zone. This was what «The Third»’s group had been prepping for all this time.

“So what phenomenon do you guys have?” Taichi asked.

Their answer: “We’re not... entirely sure yet.”

Question: dodged.

After exchanging a bit more information, the two groups went their separate ways; Taichi and Nagase left to search for the rest of the CRC, while Nakayama’s group went back to testing potential ways to escape Yamaboshi.

“Now then, I think it’s time—” Taichi began.

“—to find our friends!” Nagase finished enthusiastically, although it felt a bit forced.

Nakayama’s group had told them there were more people inside the school building, so that was where they headed.

“Well, the lights are on in there, so it makes sense that that’s where they went. Plus, running water and plumbing, y’know.”

Although they had no way of contacting the outside world, they had everything they needed to survive, according to Nakayama and the others. On one hand, this was good news... but on the other hand, it kind of felt like «The Third» was planning to keep them as pets.

After a brief stint of walking, they came across another group—five female students hanging out near the pool on the west side of campus. They were all fellow second-years that Taichi had met previously; he seemed to remember them being classmates with Inaba and Aoki.

“Ugh... Still no freakin’ cell service!”

“I was at home! Why am I back here? Are we seriously stuck here for the night?”

“Kinda seems that way, yeah.”

“Oh my godddd... But I didn’t set my TV to record my shows... I hope my mom remembers to do it for me...”

“Uggghhh... Why us...? This sucks!”

From the way they talked, one would think they’d simply missed their train home. They would have been justified in having a total mental breakdown, and yet they had accepted their circumstances with a shrug.

“Hey guys, uh... how’s it going?” Nagase called out.

“Hi there, Nagase-san. And Yaegashi-kun.”

“Oh, heyyyy! Didn’t know you guys were here!”

The girls greeted them warmly, which came as a relief.

“We’re looking for Inaba and Kiriyama and Aoki. Have you seen them around?” Taichi asked them.

“Hmmm... I don’t think so...”

“The Cultural Research Club all ended up in the same group, huh?”

“Yeah, y’know, more or less,” Nagase replied vaguely.

“Seems like everybody’s been grouped with their closest friends, so it makes sense. Seriously, get a load of this! You wanna hear about our phenomenon? We—”

Suddenly, all five girls froze perfectly still. There was an unnatural pause. And then they came to life once more.

“Wait, what the...? Where’s Mao?”

“She’s gone! Where did she go?”

“When did she wander off?”

“She was just here a minute ago...”

Four of the girls started to look around.

But Taichi and Nagase could only stare in disbelief.

Because the fifth girl, a tall girl by the name of Mao, was standing right there. But the other four were acting like they couldn’t see her.

“W-Wait a minute... Guys, I’m right here! Hello? Look at me! I’m right here!” she pleaded, trembling.

“I told her we need to stay together as a group.”

“I’M RIGHT HERE!” Mao shouted, grabbing at the other girl’s clothes.

Taichi couldn’t take it anymore. “Look right in front of you.”

But the girl simply stared blankly. “What am I supposed to be looking at?”

She seemingly had no idea that her friend was grabbing her and screaming.

Mao stumbled backwards a few steps, then turned to Taichi and Nagase.

“Hey... Can you see me? I’m right here, aren’t I?”

She looked like she was on the verge of tears, so Nagase ran over to her. “Don’t worry. It’s gonna be okay.”

“Yeah, I know. I know the rules. I don’t know how I know them, but I do... One person ‘disappears’ from the rest of the group, and while you’re invisible, everyone else suddenly forgets how the phenomenon works...”

“Oh, I get it now.”

As far as Taichi could tell, this was some kind of spontaneous “ghost” phenomenon, where one member would be essentially blocked off from the rest of the group. And if the other members couldn’t remember the rules, that would explain why they thought the victim had simply “wandered off.” Meanwhile, the victim could only watch helplessly as they were erased from perception.

“Why are you both muttering to yourselves?” one of the girls asked suspiciously.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” said Taichi.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Nagase.

“You know, it really feels like Mao has trouble following instructions sometimes,” one of the others commented.

“Totally. She’s so free-spirited... but at the same time, she can’t really read the room.”

“Sometimes I really wish she’d stop making things more difficult for the rest of us.”

“Especially during a time like this! God, she can be so annoying.”

The conversation was starting to take a nasty turn, so Taichi decided to try to set things back on track.

“Well, this is a really stressful time for everyone. Maybe something came up, you know?”

“Something conveniently just ‘came up’? That’s ridi—”

Once again, without warning, all five girls froze perfectly still.

“...Oh, Mao, there you are! Where the heck did you go?! We were worried sick about you!”

Evidently the phenomenon had ended... for now.

“Yeah! You really need to tell us before you wander off. We were about to go looking for you!”

But Mao had heard everything, and her smile wasn’t quite genuine.

After saying goodbye to the group of girls, Taichi and Nagase headed off toward the school building.

“Well, that sure was awkward,” Nagase remarked, glancing furtively over her shoulder like she was reluctant to leave them.

“Their phenomenon’s definitely screwing with them,” Taichi replied.

So far, they had met two different groups of phenomenon victims.

“I wonder how many other groups are out there... For now, we need to investigate,” Nagase declared, though panic was audible in her voice.

She was right, however. Their first order of business would be to establish an understanding of the scale at which they would need to operate... but that was a massive undertaking for just two people. They were critically lacking in manpower.

Where are the others? We need to hurry and find them before—

“I told you, STAY AWAY!” a boy’s voice called out sharply. Fear instinctively spiked in Taichi’s chest.

“Was that...?”

“Over by the gym.”

“We should probably go check it out, right?”

“Right.”

With a nod, Taichi and Nagase took off in the direction of the voice. His stomach was doing somersaults.

Then they caught sight of a few people standing in the hallway that ran around the gym.

“Stay away! STAY AWAY!” the boy screamed over and over. He was surrounded by three girls and one other guy.

“Just calm down, okay?”

“Relax! Seriously!”

“It’s just the phenomenon!”

“We’re not going to do anything to you!”

“Sh-Shut up... Just stay away from me!”

Ignoring the rest of his group, the boy dashed off in the direction of Taichi and Nagase—

“AAAAAAHHH!”

—but the second he spotted them, he screamed, hit the brakes, and made a sharp right turn toward the athletic field. It all happened so fast, they could only watch him go.

No one attempted to chase after him. Instead, the rest of the boy’s group approached Taichi and Nagase. Evidently they felt obligated to explain the situation.

“Our phenomenon makes us see the people around us as hostile threats,” the other boy explained.

“So whenever it strikes, we get scared of everyone else around us,” one of the girls added. “It’s not Kubozuka’s fault he acted like that.”

“Please don’t hold it against us if it happens again, okay?” said another.

Now that they had explained the situation, the group went back to talking amongst themselves.

“Should we go after him?”

“Maybe I should go alone, just in case.”

“I don’t know... Maybe we should give him some space, you know? Some time to calm down.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” said one of the girls as she turned back in Taichi’s direction. “Which phenomenon are you guys, anyway?”

He didn’t want to lie to her, so instead he borrowed the response he’d gotten from Nakayama’s group: “We haven’t quite figured it out yet.”

And with that, the two groups parted ways.

As the two of them walked in silence, Taichi’s mind raced. If there were more than a hundred students here... and they were all split into groups of four or five...

“Okay, Nagase, I think we need to come to terms with one thing in particular.”

In this world, every single person was affected by a phenomenon.

□■□■□

They entered the west wing, where the library and computer room were located. This area was more populated than the athletic field, and there were lights on in several of the rooms. That said, the groups were spread out sparsely. Some stayed in five-person clusters, while others traveled in smaller groups of two or three. At first it looked like there were only second-years in this area, but then they spotted some first-years, too.

Everyone was grouped with their friends, classmates, and/or clubmates. Maybe this was a conscious choice, or maybe it was simply natural to gravitate toward the people who shared the same phenomenon you did.

From the looks of it, there was no mass panic, either. The students they passed all greeted them warmly; possibly they felt a sense of camaraderie toward their fellow prisoners here in the Isolation Zone. But there was a palpable tension in the air. No one was willing to get too close to a group that wasn’t theirs.

Taichi and Nagase walked through the school, asking around about the rest of the CRC. None of the people they spoke to seemed to be having a major crisis; they were either attempting to leave campus, attempting to contact the outside world, or simply sitting around.

In the end, their search of the West Wing proved fruitless.

“Worst-case scenario, we may need to start planning to handle this ourselves,” Taichi muttered.

“Yeah. We gotta do what we gotta do,” Nagase nodded.

Concealing their anxiety, they walked out of the building. There, they immediately heard the sounds of another argument; they stopped short to listen.

The screams reverberated off the walls, making it difficult to parse exactly what was being said... but they could tell that whatever it was, it was serious.

“Ugh... Not another fight,” Nagase groaned quietly.

“Let’s go,” Taichi replied.

And so they took off running in the direction of the shouting. It sounded like it was coming from somewhere outside... Maybe behind the main building?

Sure enough, when they rounded the corner, they found a group of four boys standing in the secluded space behind the school, bickering.

“This is your fault!”

“No it isn’t!”

The situation was volatile. It looked like they were both ready to pounce at a moment’s notice. Then Taichi recognized them: they were the first-years who had been inflicted with the Liberation back in the real world.

“We should’ve just ignored that creep!”

“Ignore him?! Yeah, right!”

The argument showed no signs of stopping... but upon further inspection, Taichi realized that only two of the four were actively fighting. The other two were shouting things like “Come on, guys,” and “Enough is enough.” In other words, they were making a token attempt at mediating.

“This was your decision, and you were wrong! Now look where it’s gotten us! After everything we went through, now we’re stuck here! You need to get us out of this!”

“Don’t blame me just because you couldn’t make up your mind!”

“Say that again!”

Incensed, one of the boys struck the other on the shoulder.

“Ow! You piece of shit!”

Now that the line had been crossed, the other boy didn’t hold back. Nagase and Taichi ran in to intervene.

“Stop it!”

“Everyone just relax!”

But they were nowhere near close enough to stop them. Meanwhile, the other two boys were starting to panic.

“Guys, come on!”

“This is going too far and you know it!”

They each ran around behind one of the arguing boys and attempted to physically peel them off of each other.

“The hell, man?!”

“I told you, it’s time to stop!”

“Let go of me!”

“Only if you promise not to hit each other!”

Fortunately, the arguing boys were unable to overpower the boys that stopped them, and so a distance was established between them. That was when Taichi and Nagase arrived on the scene.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

“...Oh, uh, hey...”

One of the less combative first-years bowed his head in greeting. The squabblers both looked away awkwardly, probably out of embarrassment that they had an audience.

“I know it’s none of our business, but we really shouldn’t be fighting each other,” Nagase explained.

Fortunately, these first-years had already received advice from the CRC in the past, so they were willing to listen. But then the two mediator boys started asking questions:

“You guys in the CRC know a lot about this stuff, right? So what exactly is going on? First it happened to us in real life, and now we’ve... moved on to Level 2, it feels like...”

“Does it ever stop? For what it’s worth, the guy gave us an explanation back in the real world... but he never said he was gonna drag us in here!”

“Even we don’t know exactly what’s happening,” Taichi replied.

“But it’ll definitely come to an end eventually,” Nagase added.

Admittedly they felt somewhat pressured to play it safe with their answers.

“I know you said we shouldn’t be fighting, but... with this phenomenon, we don’t really have a choice.”

“Wait, but... all that stuff that happened back in the real world... That still happened, right? Because this stupid phenomenon made us get in a ton of fights! It totally ruined our reputations!”

They vented all their complaints one after another, like they’d finally found someone they could turn to.

“I can’t really explain it, but just trust me—it’s all the phenomenon’s fault, so it’ll work out eventually!” Nagase reassured them. Granted, she had no way of proving this, but fortunately the first-years believed her regardless.

“...Well, now that everybody else is dealing with their own phenomena, at least now they might believe us when we tell them we didn’t mean to...”

“Exactly. See? So you guys should try to come to an understanding and forgive each other. That fight wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the phenomenon,” Taichi declared. After all, their goal in coming here was to keep the peace.

But the two squabblers were still glaring reproachfully at each other.

“That wasn’t caused by the phenomenon,” they stated in perfect unison.

So... it wasn’t the Liberation that had made them start fighting? Perhaps this fracture ran a lot deeper than they thought. But Taichi knew he had to say something.

“But... if it wasn’t for the phenomenon, you wouldn’t have ended up—huh?”

He couldn’t believe his eyes, and subsequently, his mouth stopped working.

“Hmm? Wh-... What the heck?!” Nagase shouted.

The two more amicable first-years rubbed their eyes in confusion... because the more hostile pair had vanished from sight.

They were standing right there a second ago. Could they have run off in that timeframe? No, surely not; Taichi had only taken his eyes off them for a few seconds at most. It was physically impossible. So what happened?

“Your phenomenon doesn’t involve people disappearing, does it...?” Taichi muttered to himself without expecting anyone to answer.

“How should we know? All we know is, you guys called it the Liberation,” one of the guys replied in a shaky, unsteady voice.

Was this a new phenomenon they weren’t aware of, or...?

“...They disappeared...?” a female voice whispered. But it wasn’t Nagase.

A girl was watching them from around the corner of the school building, possibly drawn over by the sound of the commotion. A girl with wavy, bleached hair.

It was Kurihara Yukina.

Why was she here? And why was she alone? She was the first person they’d witnessed walking around on her own thus far.

Then Taichi realized: come to think of it, Kurihara was another student who had experienced a phenomenon prior to the Isolation Zone. She and four other members of the track team had been cursed with the body-swap. And one of them, Oosawa Misaki, had broken down completely, at which point «The Third» had erased her memories of her friends.

“Did they just disappear...?”

“Wh-What are you doing by yourself, Yukina-chan? Wait... did you see them disappear?” Nagase asked her. Evidently she wasn’t sure what to ask first; honestly, neither was Taichi.

“I was... looking for Misaki. Nobody else wanted to leave the clubroom, so I left without them.”

Without her memories, it was possible Oosawa Misaki was out wandering around by herself.

“Gotcha. Well... I can’t say for sure, but... maybe she’s not here at all?”

“No, she definitely is. I saw her with my own two eyes—”

But before she could finish, there was a crackle of static.

“Testing, testing. Can you hear me out there?” a voice called through the loudspeakers. “This is your student council president, Katori Jouji, speaking to you from the broadcasting room. I understand you’re all going through a stressful time right now, but I’d like everyone to meet up in the gymnasium. And I mean everyone.”

□■□■□

One by one, students filed into the gym, fear and confusion plain to see on their faces. Once they saw the other people gathered there, however, their expressions all softened slightly in relief.

“This sure is a lot of people,” said Nagase.

“Sure is,” said Taichi.

They were among the first to arrive, at which point they started watching the gym entrance, observing everyone who came in after them.

Following the loudspeaker announcement, the incident with Kurihara and the first-years was put on the back burner. The two first-years headed straight into the gym, while Kurihara left to go fetch the other track team members. Ultimately, it was decided that the two missing boys would “probably turn up sooner or later.” Sure, maybe it was problematic to shrug it off for the time being, but it was still more pragmatic than believing that two students had physically vanished into thin air.

But Taichi had his eye on a third possibility. One that hinted at a much more horrifying reality...

“Taichi? You look like you’re zoning out. Are you okay?”

“Oh, sorry... Just got lost in thought for a second.”

Meanwhile, four more people walked into the gym. There were now fifty or sixty people gathered here, all of them split into rough groups based on grade level. These groups were then further divided between the sexes.

And yet...

“Where’s Yui, and Aoki, and Inaban?”

“Not to mention Chihiro and Enjouji...”

More and more students kept walking in, but the five missing members of the CRC had yet to show up. It was terrifying to think «The Third»’s group was powerful enough to experiment on all these people at the same time... and they’d have to manage all these people on their own... and they had no idea what to expect...

All of this was resting on Taichi’s shoulders. He wanted to protect everyone in the Isolation Zone, but at the same time, he felt like he might be crushed under the weight of that desire. He wasn’t sure he and Nagase could really pull it off on their own.

“Whoa, the place is packed...”

“This is why I kept saying we should hurry, Watase-kun!”

In walked Watase and Nakayama, joined by the rest of their group.

“Hey there. Long time no see,” Setouchi joked in Nagase’s direction.

“Gosh, it’s been ages. Like thirty whole minutes,” Nagase joked back.

“I found some more familiar faces,” Ishikawa told Taichi.

“Who was it?”

“Oh, Yaegashi! And Nagase-san!”

It was Miyagami. Taichi could recognize his wavy hair and rectangular glasses anywhere.

“Oh, hey. Y’know, I had a feeling you’d be here, Yaegashi,” said Sone, the chubby guy who walked in after him.

Miyagami was in the Photography Club and Sone was in the Manga Club, but they were still close friends despite that, probably because they were both in Class 2-B with Taichi. Likewise, two more guys walked in behind them, also from Class 2-B. Perhaps they all shared the same phenomenon.

“Everyone gather ’round!” one of the student council members called.

“Let’s head over, Yaegashi,” said Watase as they started walking.

“Did you find Yui-chan or any of the others?” Nakayama asked Nagase.

“Not yet,” Nagase replied.

“Huh? You still haven’t found them?” Setouchi asked, surprised. “In that case, they’re probably not here. And that’s a good thing! It means they don’t have to suffer through this nightmare.”

“...Right...”

“I don’t know who all is in your group or what phenomenon you have, but if Inaba-san and the others aren’t here, then you have to just accept that.”

She had a point, of course. But she was so matter-of-fact about it that it made Taichi’s blood run cold. She was perfectly rational and level-headed—so how did she fail to see these circumstances as supernatural? Was this the hypnotherapy at work? Did it leave their common sense untouched while only fiddling with the bare minimum needed to keep their minds functioning?

However, in a way, this brought him to his senses. They really did need to start moving past it.

“Nagase... It’s possible the rest of the club won’t get here for a long while.”

“Right. In the meantime, let’s try to figure something out.”

Their only option was to look ahead.

In this world, «they» were in charge. These students were cut off from the real world and plagued with phenomena. Plus, the Record Wipe was waiting in the wings to snatch their memories away from them.

Taichi could feel his gait growing heavy. His heart tightened in his chest, apprehensive of the Herculean task ahead of them.

But then, just a moment later, he suddenly found his feet. It was a strange and startling feeling—like someone had flipped a switch and he could move again. Where did that come from? Confused, he turned around.

It was Inaba Himeko, and Kiriyama Yui, and Aoki Yoshifumi, and Uwa Chihiro, and Enjouji Shino. All five of them were standing shoulder to shoulder at the entrance to the gym.

Inaba, with her slender body and sharp, angular features. Kiriyama, with her long, tawny locks and feisty attitude. Aoki, with his lanky build and laid-back vibes. Chihiro, with his messy asymmetrical hair and stoic expression. And Enjouji, with her soft, poofy aesthetic. The mere sight of them was enough to warm Taichi’s heart.

These five people were always there for him, no matter what. They were his pillars of support. And now, with the addition of himself and Nagase, the Cultural Research Club was complete.

Odd, really, how much stronger he felt now that they were all together.

“Inaban... Yui... Aoki... Shino-chan... Chee-hee...!”

He could hear the emotion in Nagase’s voice as she called their names... and he didn’t have to look at her to know that she was grinning from ear to ear.

“The hell? You guys beat us here? Why didn’t you tell us?” Inaba scoffed.

“Our phones are all out of service, remember?” he retorted.

But Taichi could sense a warmth in her words that dulled their bite.

“Uh, Inabacchan? Weren’t you literally just crying over the possibility that Taichi wasn’t he—GUH!”

In exchange for his unnecessary comment, Aoki received a kick from Inaba.

“I... I wasn’t wishing I could be in your arms or anything, got it?!”

And for the first time since he arrived in the Isolation Zone, Taichi laughed.

As it turned out, Inaba and the others had arrived at the same time Taichi and Nagase had; they simply woke up in a different part of campus.

First things first, they took turns relaying the information they had acquired. Sure enough, they were all on the same page: everyone at Yamaboshi had been divided into groups of four or five and cursed with a phenomenon. No one had found a way out. And according to Inaba’s group, the electricity and plumbing was all fully functional.

“Man, I don’t know what to say... I’m just so glad you guys made it in safely!” Nagase exclaimed, her tone bright enough to cancel out the gloom and misery all around them.

“‘Made it in’ doesn’t seem to really describe it, but yeah, I guess that’s true. I’m not sure I can say we’re ‘safe,’ though,” Inaba muttered with a scowl. Then her expression softened, as if to shrug it off.

“We were, like, SUPER worried about you two!” Kiriyama exhaled, clutching at her chest.

“Yeah, I was starting to think we’d never find you,” Taichi replied. “I even told Nagase we might have to handle it all ourselves... I’m glad I was wrong.”

“T-Taichi-senpai and Iori-senpai, bravely fighting the phenomena all on their own... I can picture you like a superhero duo!” Enjouji gushed, her eyes shining. Truth be told, it was a rather flattering compliment.

“Hey, Shino-chan! Don’t forget, I was just sayin’ the five of us might have to take care of business on our own! Remember?”

“Yes, Aoki-senpai, but it carries weight coming from Taichi-senpai.”

“Nngh... I guess a team of two is a lot cooler than a team of five...”

“I’m talking about his voice.”

“So nothing I say will ever be good enough?!”

“I’m amazed you people can goof off at a time like this,” Chihiro muttered under his breath.

“This Isolation Zone is actually quite elaborate. It’s the perfect cage to keep their guinea pigs in,” Inaba remarked. “From here on, we’re fighting on enemy turf... and there’s no guarantee we’ll make it out unscathed.”

“Oh my god, Inaba! I mean, you’re totally right and all, but chill out a little!” Kiriyama cut in nervously.

“Let me finish. Now then... what is it that we came here to do?”

If they had minded their own business, they could have avoided this whole mess. They could have stayed out of it. They could have drawn a line between themselves and the rest of the world; while perhaps it was irresponsible, at least that way they could have avoided any danger.

But Taichi and the rest of the CRC had vowed to stop putting their heads in the sand. After all, the “rest of the world” was still their world. They were all connected. And if a bunch of outsiders were trying to erase it against their will, then they weren’t about to sit around and just let it happen.

“We came here to protect our world,” Taichi declared.

“Heh heh! Spoken like a true leader! That’s our Taichi, alright,” Aoki grinned.

The others were grinning, too, as unthinkable as it was in a situation like this. Even Inaba was smiling warmly. But then her expression turned serious.

“Alright then. Let’s go.”

That was Taichi’s cue to take a step forward.

He couldn’t pretend he wasn’t scared or nervous. But with courage, vision, and a little help from his friends, he could overcome that fear and move past it.

While the CRC was having its happy little reunion, more and more people had shuffled into the gym. From the looks of it, there were now nearly a hundred people in there.

“Wonder when you-know-who will show up...”

“No clue, but we can’t count on it, Taichi. We need to plot our strategy under the assumption that we’re on our own... Oh, looks like it’s starting.”

“Is this just about everyone? Alright, uh, everyone move in close to the front,” said the voice over the loudspeaker.

The CRC had gathered near the gym entrance, so they decided to move closer to the rest of the crowd. Onstage, one person was speaking into a microphone: Katori Jouji, the second-year student who currently held the office of student council president.

“Prez!”

“What’s going on here?!”

“Can you fix this?!”

The crowd shouted up at him desperately, but Katori remained calm, as if this were any other school assembly.

“I’m broadcasting this over the school intercom system, so you should all be able to hear me, regardless of where you are. But if you haven’t made it to the gym yet, please do so! Anyway, this is student council president Katori speaking.”

With delicate, pointed features, an athlete’s build, and the unshakeable confidence of a public speaker, it was no wonder people rallied around him. He was the very model of a leader.

“What’s he doing up there?” Inaba grumbled.

Back when «The Third»’s group was wreaking havoc on the real world, Katori had grilled the CRC over it. Then, once the CRC was finally ready to work together with him, he dropped them like yesterday’s news. Hence, it was no surprise that Inaba had a less-than-positive opinion of him. (That said, Katori was right in thinking they had some connection to the rumors, so it wasn’t really his fault.)

“I know things are complicated for all of us right now. Here we are, stuck at Yamaboshi in the middle of the night, and none of us can remember how we got here. Even worse, we’re all dealing with these... strange phenomena.”

As he discussed the present circumstances, it became clear that his understanding of the situation was about the same as theirs. The only additional information was that they couldn’t get the TVs or internet to work.

“So yeah, obviously this is less than ideal. I’m sure we’ll all be able to go home soon, but I don’t know exactly when that will be, so we’ll all need to wait patiently for the time being. In the meantime, the student council will manage everything, so I ask for your cooperation in these trying times.”

Ordinarily, no one would “wait patiently” in a terrifying situation like this. Clearly the hypnotherapy was in full effect.

“First, I’d like to take roll in order to get an idea of how many people are here, so I’ll be having the student council collect signatures from everyone. Once that’s finished, I want you all to go to your respective first-year or second-year classrooms and wait there. Anyone associated with either the student council or the outreach committee will be wearing one of these armbands, so follow their instructions.”

He indicated the “Student Council” armband on his arm. Then, once he finished his speech, everyone got to work. The members of the student council and outreach committee were all holding clipboards; students lined up in front of them to write their names.

“In... In the spirit of cooperation, we should probably line up too, right?” Enjouji asked, and Taichi nodded.

There were separate lines for first- and second-years, so this was where the group (briefly) parted ways with Enjouji and Chihiro.

“Also, if you have any feedback, feel free to let us know,” Katori called.