Fourth Chapter ─ Once Upon the Detective Club

"You sacrificed some of your precious memories with Ayase Kyoukaisenjou, and she only reversed the action in the end?"

Someone asked─laughter at its tail end.

Somehow, if I tell what happened between me and the disowned fake little sister inside the frozen time─I would receive the same sentiment.

At the drop of a hat, I'd answer, "I needed to let go of Aya so I could chase down whoever was trying to take control of the situation."

Somehow, it sounds like an excuse.

As not to put blame for myself.

However, it blasted an extraneous amount for brain force deciding right there how I would approach the situation.

For one, before I knew it, the inevitable conclusion was met.

Despite reading their motives, they were already two steps ahead.

I may have severed her emotional issues with the inconspicuous and childish persona─but it didn't mean anything at all. Only our personal squabbles, whence the situation wasn't meant for─and yet turned into such a struggle that it was destroyed. Saved nights and nights of worrying about our relationship but ultimately, it didn't resolve the problem with the true protagonist at hand.

The person they sought to destroy─for obvious, reasonable paranoia.

One scenario has been made clear.

It has been going for a while now.

I've only been hooked for the conclusion.

One way or another, Nayami Ayanami has been causing problems outside of normal consensus.

Whoever is behind her rejection hasn't simply adhered to the school's toxic culture.

They know more of her than what I know.

While she is exploited due to her explosive characterization, I'm left not knowing if my actions of protecting her is the neat thing to do.

Perhaps not providing protection, but satiating curiosity.

It does fall for both options─so there's nothing to worry about…

What only forces me to do so is our inherent connection with the seven fortune deities and the intersecting dream line.

I don't understand what they imply about myself no matter how I think of them.

It's all cumbersome, and I definitely cast hatred for the dilemma.

I looked at her─and indulged myself deep in thought while succumbing to the comforts of my swivel chair.

Miss Ayanami and I left the classroom as soon as possible.

I didn't explain the situation: I embraced her, and had ourselves teleported. Relatively, the very magic spell which managed to transport me during Aya's confrontation. Redundant as I may be pushing my newfound cheating instruments in the form of fortune deities, I asked them to warp us to the detective club room.

Granted─I sacrificed another synaptic fragment.

If we stayed in the classroom, my adversaries would only be rummaging three seconds later.

With this thing about Aya happening, per se, it goes nonstop that I've been constantly talking with someone else. I'd be with someone every now and then, and have a good talk with them. However, this time around, when there's actually another person with me, it has gone awkward and I haven't heard a sound.

Mostly my fault.

I tried striking a conversation which had the initial question.

"What would be the first thing you'd do at the end of the world?"

There weren't any answers for three or so minutes now. She decided it was a problem she needed to answer or she won't be able to keep up. Our problematically mysterious transfer student, Nayami Ayanami, only sat steady on the sofa, her eyes directed towards her toes.

She likes to do it─strange enough that premonitions of a Mayuri Shiina situation were coordinated.

As I thought so, a butterfly came flying straight towards my right eye.

"(Mm-hmm, who would even answer a question existentially impossible today?)" Wringing in a soft-spoken masculine voice, Tsukuyomi suddenly spoke between my train of thoughts. "(Mind if I come in?)"

I looked towards the door.

His aura brimming in Amaterasu energy, prevalent for a stop motion.

One second to pass, he'd try opening the door only to find out I locked it. Moreover, if he knew how to pick locks, he'd be electrocuted by the taser I set as a trap. I won't share the mechanics, and as a trivia, I originally wanted it to be a shotgun.

"(No, I'll pass then.)" He decided quickly. "(I'm not even at the front door. People are snooping in the club room right now so I need you to get out there.)"

I see, rumors about my supposed evolution have circulated in the entire school.

Especially when people have seen firsthand what I can do without magic, and even more in helpless situations.

I'm not proud of achievement given how it's borderline miraculous─but if it incurs fear, then it's fearsome.

"(I'm at the back… kinda risky to be hiding in the bushes so I'll be moving out. I suppose you can disappear at will now so I'll be meeting you at the shack.)"

I groaned, worth in its definition that I'm no longer functioning mentally healthy nor physically. It left me no choice but to adhere to 'disappearing at will' and sacrificed more mind crystals. I patted her head without her knowing firsthand, and it left her wondering about the new place again.

Prevalent in her face, the surprise.

Compared to the first time though, she only gulped out of common shock─and looked at my face.

The thought, "What happened?" Whence she assured herself of an answer, "Oh, he teleported us again."

She didn't ask as to why, and stayed seated on a wooden bench.

It was in consideration she'd have stumbled down if I didn't issue a precision point.

The location: a rendezvous point located near the campus, an abandoned vast farmland─a locked farmhouse at its center, and a shack at its back.

Amaterasu and I made the shack our secret base as children.

As adolescents, we upgraded it as another room for detective activities.

One which functioned the way we intended it, but only for a few weeks… evident of which would be the dustied iteration of a crime wall.

As time passed, more and more people came to know of its existence.

Frankly, I'm baffled by the fact I didn't remember it spot on.

I could have initially teleported there, but I missed the chance.

As little light permeated inside, I ignited fire out of Black Magic.

Fueling your curiosity, the nullification barrier didn't come off on its own.

Once again, I had to trade memory for it to be removed, convenient for the heck of seven mum bystanders.

I rarely use fire, but it's easy enough to manipulate its properties even at the expense of intuition.

I let it grow large enough to light the whole room─and condensed it for a desired spherical shape.

Miss Ayanami stared at it, wondrously.

It brought me back to when Amaterasu said during the Sequence.

For a child in an adolescent's body, I suppose it's fair to be caught by the incredible light shows.

"Hmm, I've been meaning to ask you, Miss Ayanami…"

I've cut into her escapism.

She looked at me, whence reprimanding herself from playing out the Field of Reeds when the people around her are concerned about her.

She understood that much, hence the transition… Sometimes, it's hard dealing with some people.

"Or never mind, I suppose I've always called you Nayami?"

"...How?" I suppose it was inaudible, but I heard her wonder─she covered her mouth.

I'm quite certain she doesn't remember the dreams. It's her curiosity pleading for answers how I arrived at such a conclusion. Inconspicuous turned into creepiness─but it was something I can compete with a shrug of a shoulder.

I remember some, albeit short spectacles, memories returning as prior recollection began.

As the solitary student moving in the discontinued winter, or as the vampire who was exiled from their subterranean settlement.

Nayami Ayanami wasn't as dissociated as she is now.

They are two different people: but I know I've always called the younger person, Nayami.

First name basis, and she calls me Shirayuki.

I pretended I didn't hear her mumble, and sported a soft smile. "I'll force myself into your territory, and you won't be able to ignore me anymore."

It might have come off terrifyingly, though.

"Uh, no…I mean, I don't know what I should do at the end of the world yet!"

Nayami jumped out of her seat, moving an inch or two.

Of what was recently a motionless silence incurred by her shyness, she suddenly exploded in expression. She waved her hands, squirming about as she dismissed an answer. Her countenance ensnared for what can only be inferred as moé.

It certainly doesn't fit the situation right, but it has always been her designation since yesterday morning.

The mysterious transfer student is attached with a strange metaphor.

Simply, a character who doesn't belong to this side of the world.

"You can forget about that, Nayami," I assured her after huffing a sigh. "The question didn't mean anything at all."

She paused, defeated from knowing it packed no meaning, and cringed. "I…I'm sorry!"

"What do you think about the coexistence of vampires and humans?"

Let's just say there's a brink towards the certainty I can muster: I needed to consult her about the dreams. I pushed onto her without regard for the apology. It's been annoying since the first time, hearing her apologize without reprimand.

"...I'm sorry?" Nayami curled her eyebrows, for another apology with a question mark stuck in.

I only smirked, and thought it through. "You were talkative in the dream, as the fourteen-year-old humanist who approached my vampire variant."

She looked down, feeling sorry for herself.

"You do remember you've been subjected to my little experiment, right?" I asked.

"I'm sorry… I dreamed but I don't remember," she replied.

Yes, the problem with dreams is their nature to be easily forgotten.

It's not her fault if she can't extract data.

I've never thought about a cross examination, my perspective of it should be sufficient.

At the very least, I was an exiled vampire and Nayami was a precocious child. Haphazard for those fragments to return during the Ayase Incident, I held onto them and kept assessments for later. Whatever those characterizations could have meant, I still have no inkling about them.

I'm not exactly convinced that Nayami Ayanami was younger than what she looks like now.

"I guess I can't do anything about it… as long as you're by my side, I don't think you'd be in trouble." My words came out of nowhere, but she absorbed it with an eventual nod. I doubted myself, though, saying, "Well, even if you were alone, you could have protected yourself just fine."

"That's…" Nayami looked down, ashamed of how Comet Howitzer didn't save her from the last excursion.

"Yeah, I suppose in the end, Ayase breached through your defenses and nearly slammed you down to the ground."

"How…" Nayami readily shot me a look, one stuck between awe and fear.

I ought to let her know her nature. "For someone who is mysterious, you're easier to read than everyone else."

Knock.