Snow White and Aldebaran's Observation Deck

"Ha-ha, you nearly convinced me there."

Motoharu Akahoshi, my grandfather, has been considerate enough to help me think of what I've been pondering the whole time. He shot through the Higanbana House's roof to bring me in a quiet environment, and listened to the problem at hand. Before it, he caught onto a whimsical plot, allowing a needless duel, firsthand making it seem like he was provoked.

For his grandfatherly deeds, I truly respect him.

However.

"I saw it with my own eyes, how Aya was sucked into a black hole before an intricately massive magic circle."

It was still an unfruitful venture.

"Oh, you didn't specifically say it," he whined, in complete dismissal of his failure to address correctness in the middle of it all.

"Your fault, not mine!" He raised his voice and hands, celebrating his mind out of my misery while he dropped down his invisible carpet.

For someone as old as seventy, he acts like a teen.

To be fair, he looks like he's still in his thirties so his actions don't look weird. Not quite sure how, but he ages slower than normal: Although I can surmise they're the repercussions of his Isekai life.

"Yes, it's my fault. I didn't blame you," I deadpanned. "Although it could have been possible! Argh, it's utterly miserable how I'm being pushed to the boundaries of my wits…"

"It's only your perception telling you how good you are." He drilled into my mind, bitterness in tow. "If not for the perfect memory, you won't qualify for Nichiyoubi University."

If not for the perfect memory, I wouldn't get a recommendation.

"My father's genes are superior, after all."

Incidentally, if not for being an Otogibanashi, I wouldn't get a recommendation.

"Your mother's genes are superior, too! Do not badmouth the Akahoshi Family, you little shrimp!"

…If not for my grandfather's reputation, I wouldn't get a recommendation.

Okay, I hate where my mind's flying off.

"You should know, your proposal could have worked. I know people who should know about Psychics."

I changed the subject.

"Uh-huh, what, like people from outside the barrier?"

I nodded. "If I didn't realize it earlier, I would have blindly blazed my trail there. It works as an excuse, too. I want to talk to them again after a long time. As much as I want to cross to the Human Side though, I don't like the randomization."

Last time, for my very first time sneaking out, I awkwardly found myself in a girls' high school locker room.

Grandpa… suddenly… stood up? I didn't flinch, though.

"My dear grandson, don't get us started with the Human Side. I've always loved Kyoto!"

He looked like a child who won his favorite character in a family restaurant meal box.

"Yeah, you normally will love it… but what does it have to do with what I have in mind?"

"I don't know about you, but Kyoto was the first Human place I've been to," he confessed. "I've been to a different world and all, but we also have an accessible different world existing in the same world and it's as beautiful as the other."

"Yeah… I've been out there once, for a week straight."

I lived at an inn managed by Humans, all of them being purely normal beings without any extraordinary abilities. I enjoyed interacting with them whatsoever, none the discrimination despite a blatant introduction as a Mage from another side. Maybe because they had someone weird in their home, too.

I don't know so I can only conjecture.

Speaking of connection: Nayami first introduced herself to have been from Miomeikan High School. It wasn't necessarily mentioned by the kind innkeeper's daughter, but the distraught entity I wouldn't want to interact with attended Miomeikan University. If both entities happen to be connected, then it's an entirely different mayhem out of the bounds of Human vaccination.

I'd surely hate the problem in itself.

No, for once, I ought to listen to Aldebaran's story.

"It was back in the 90's! I was tired out everyday working for my family until I ran through the barrier trying to escape my life," he reminisced, "Then I wound up in Sannenzaka, I panicked how to get home, aimlessly wandered around, and crossed a random street only to be run over by a car."

"So you mean to say you died back in Kyoto?"

"You didn't know? We don't use sports cars here, you moron," he dissed in a shine of shame over my mind. "In a city of motorcycles and trains, I should curse you for not thinking about it."

"As if you would," I deadpanned on him, yet again.

He continued rambling on, "Incidentally, the car was an expensive-looking convertible like you'd see in magazines back in the day as "Viper" or "Anacon─!"

What a waste of mana.

"Meh, keep your references and personal life separate… anyway, doesn't that make you more bitter of the place rather than loving it?"

"I could, but have you ever seen a Maiko before?"

"Some married man you are looking at an underage lady who only wants to perform."

Answering his note, I've seen plenty before.

"It's a long story!" He furiously lashed out, although enthusiastic to weirdly come off as some jokish threat. "I won't stand by that demeaning thought… but I don't want to hold you for the sake of looking back."

Now, why did he have to go back where it started?

Well, no, it's fine actually, I thought.

"What a mess, I've even gone to extreme traitorous assumptions," I said, in remembrance of recent events. "I seriously drove myself into thinking Kafka and Tsukuyomi had anything to do with the problem."

"Well, it's easier to think it could be anyone close to you."

"Movies, anime, manga and light novels always make their villains somehow connected to everyone within their circle. Although what if the villains don't connect with my life, at all?"

"Who died and made you the heart of the world?"

"No, I don't think I am."

"Yes, you think you are."

I know people who are hearts of the world. I don't suppose I can argue with him, though. For one, I could ignite his paranoia as a food for thought.

"More importantly, I would hate it if Aya was teaming with them and I don't know who they are… those would be the forgettable villains. Steppenwolf, Malekith, and the ever inconsistent Palpatine."

"I've been careful not to watch the last three episodes of Star Wars, nor want to hear about them…"

Fair enough, I know the feeling very well.

"Why don't you think about it like this: how intense is the problem?"

"Dire."

I know it sounds like I'm making light of it.

I have no excuse for the tension dissipating away with our decisions gone awry.

I'm sorry, I don't deserve your forgiveness.

Even if it's not decided that the presumed collaborator is indeed a strong Space Mage, the intensity has to be dire. When they are capable of throwing thirty people in the skies, it doesn't mean it's only one person─which doesn't say it's not a dire situation. Also, if there's truly a clairvoyant-type Time Mage like Kafka Ikari─the intensity must be dire or I'd have been tricked.

I hate being tricked.

Aya's exhibited confrontation churned the hearts of the other students, following immediately in a vile plan to take Nayami Ayanami out. I built an assumption that something like the confrontation might happen, and it happened─not later in the month but the next day afterwards at the mysterious transfer student's welcome at Nichiyoubi North High School. Aya troubled Nayami and Kuzuhara searching for an absent teacher, I happened to chime in. Happened to chime in: as in the teleportation whim, Aya didn't show surprise when the entire school did, she knew I'd be doing it, thus a secondary collaborator being a clairvoyant, presumably a Time Mage.

Excelsior, maybe? Why in hell am I reviewing something so repeatedly now? Confidence has been lost.

I don't know if it was a clue.

Only I know I better do something about it.

I stood up, realizing I had an objective.

I can't stay stuck forever, can I? I've committed myself to the problem. I wanted to run off so many times now, but I've been holding onto it like it's a challenge I have to conquer.

"I'm going home," I excused as I stretched my arms and legs, head and neck, and my back for last.

I thought I'd skydive, being the only one from the original class who didn't share the same experience.

"Take care, I guess?" Cozy in his vibe, Motoharu Akahoshi waved his hands, saying farewell.

I passed my regards, waving back at him, then exactly by the time I was supposed to jump─something eerie strayed right through my front door.

"Even if you fall from this height, you would only regenerate afterwards huh, Shiro?"

"...What do you mean?"

"Didn't you say it yourself, four years ago?" He tilted his head in a failure of comprehension, throwing last his inconspicuous words, "You're immortal, Shiro."