Coma

After the class was done, my friends and I left together for the cafeteria.

Our group included Andrew, Sylvia, Ley, and I.

"By the way, Andrew. Did you already finished forming your team?" I asked.

Andrew scratched the back of his head.

"Not really. Besides Karime, only Tierra from our class has joined. I don't know who the last two members are going to be. Most of our classmates are already in a team, so I can't ask them."

So Andrew is in the same situation as us, huh?

Nonetheless, his teammates are not that bad. Although Karime's score was not that high, she is still a skill holder at the late stage of Tier 3, just a bit away from reaching Tier 4. Plus, she and Andrew have known each other for a long time, so their teamwork should be decent.

Tierra, on the other hand, got sixth place in the entrance examination, so there is no need to doubt her abilities.

As long as the last two members of his team are normal, his team should not have any problem.

Well, I'm not in a position to worry about him.

"Sigh. We still need two more members too. I don't have any idea who to ask." I groaned.

"I heard the teacher say that if we can't form a complete team before the deadline, he will decide the rest of the teammates for us," Andrew commented.

I sighed. "Yeah, I don't like that idea."

"Perhaps I can help you, brother. I could convince some friends to join our team." Ley suddenly spoke.

I stiffened.

Looking at my sister, I saw her smiling brightly, and for some reason, I felt a shiver in my spine.

"Y-Yeah, I-I don't think that is necessary yet."

I have an idea of Ley's methods of convincing people.

Ley covered her mouth and giggled.

"I'm just joking."

… I can't be sure if you are really joking.

Suppressing the tired sigh that wanted to escape from my lips, I looked at Sylvia.

Mmm… I don't think it will help, but maybe…

"What do you think, Sylvia? Perhaps you know someone who could join our team?" 

"I don't really care." Sylvia chuckled indifferently. "I'm fine as long as you are in the team."

I felt Ley's sharp eyes and Andrew's strange gaze as soon as Sylvia spoke.

"… Please, don't say things that can be easily misunderstood."

"But that is the truth," Sylvia said with a teasing smirk. "I'm only here for you after all."

"Hmph!" Ley snorted and hugged my arm while glaring at Sylvia sharply.

However, Sylvia just looked at her with a playful gaze, as though she was seeing a cute kitten.

'How cute...' I could almost read her thoughts.

Just then, I saw someone familiar walking over us with a serious expression.

"Jane, it's good I found you." 

"Jazmine? Did anything happen?" 

Jazmine nodded, and her black eyes looked at me solemnly.

"I just received a call from the hospital where Gerona is staying. They said that Gerona fell into a coma."

…

After receiving the news from Jazmine, I decided to follow her.

Ley and Sylvia planned to come with us, but I convinced them not to. After all, this matter was related to a fragment of the demon in my mind. I was afraid of implicating them.

I was also afraid of them finding out about the demon in my mind.

'… Although maybe Sylvia already knows? She is related to all these 'Irregulars' after all.'

Still, I should be cautious.

While we were walking, Jazmine gave me a quick rundown of what happened to Gerona.

According to her, Gerona started to show strange symptoms around one hour ago. Suddenly, the sedatives lost effect, and she started to struggle violently.

The doctors tried to put her to sleep, but then, she started to convulse and scream that her head hurts before fainting while bleeding from her nose.

Although the doctors managed to save her, she did not recover consciousness, and a great part of her brain activity ceased completely. Her state was similar to a patient in a coma.

I fell deep into thoughts.

"The doctors don't know why this happened?"

"No. But now, it's clear that her suicide attempt should not be so simple." Jazmine paused at that moment. "It could be even some kind of undiscovered illness, so the institute is taking it seriously. Depending on how the situation develops, they could even contact the association and start a serious investigation."

I nodded.

"Where are we going now then?" 

"We are going to visit some of Gerona's friends. We need to find clues urgently, and I hope we can find some clues here."

Jazmine led me to a classroom in another building. Here, students from the second grade were taking classes.

She then walked toward the teacher and whispered something in his ear.

The teacher nodded and called a girl before telling her to talk to Jazmine outside.

"You are…?" The girl asked in doubt when she saw us.

"Hello, Irene. We are from the student assembly." Jazmine quickly introduced herself. "You should know what happened to Gerona, right? We are here to ask you some questions."

"Huh? But someone already came yesterday."

"I know. But we came because maybe there is something you forgot. Just try to remember if you noticed anything wrong with your friend in the last few days, or if she told you anything suspicious."

The girl hesitated briefly before shaking her head.

"Nothing. Gerona was behaving normally the last time I saw her. At most, she was a bit livelier. I'm sure she was completely fine."

"Is it so?" Jazmine sighed in disappointment before proceeding to ask some more questions to Irene.

Unfortunately, it seemed that it was fruitless.

But just then, the demon spoke up in my mind.

[She is lying.] 

I furrowed my brows.

'How do you know?'

[Because I can feel the same problem of the girl of yesterday on her.]

My pupils shrunk immediately.