A Restless Awakening

Shirone collapsed onto his bed the moment he returned to his dormitory, and before even a second passed, he was fast asleep.

Since he was suspended for a week, there was no need to attend classes starting tomorrow.

It was an unfortunate situation, but he was far too mentally and physically exhausted to dwell on it.

An entire day passed just like that.

The sound of the morning piano, the sun high in the sky—none of it mattered to Shirone.

"Hey, Shirone. Shirone."

As someone shook his body, Shirone frowned and slowly opened his eyes.

Through his hazy vision, two figures flickered before him. As his focus sharpened, he saw the smiling faces of Neid and Iruki.

"Ugh, what is it?"

"Man, you're incredible. You're still sleeping?"

"I don't know. I'm tired. Go away."

"Come on, get up. We can't attend classes anyway, so let's go out and have some fun."

"...Go out?"

"Iruki knows a casino where they give out free drinks and have tons of beautiful women. Since things turned out this way, let's at least make the most of it."

The moment Shirone heard the word "casino," he lost all interest in the conversation.

"Aren't you guys tired? I feel like I'm dying."

"We slept all day too. You've been asleep for 27 hours straight. Come on, let's go for just three days. With Iruki's Servant ability, making money will be a breeze!"

Shirone knew that even so-called professionals could walk into a casino and leave with nothing but their underwear.

Sure, with Iruki's Servant ability, he could calculate probabilities better than anyone. But gambling was called gambling for a reason.

Probability was just probability. To win in gambling, you needed the instinct of a true gambler who knew when to strike.

He could already picture Iruki winning little by little, only to lose everything in one go.

"Not going. You guys go ahead. I don't gamble."

"You don't have to gamble. I'm telling you, free drinks, beautiful women—are you really not coming?"

The moment he heard that, Shirone was convinced that coming back in one piece would be impossible. He turned over in bed.

"Sorry, but I'm really too tired. I need to keep sleeping. Have fun."

Neid and Iruki knew that once Shirone made up his mind, it was nearly impossible to change it.

Besides, if they thought about it, Shirone was probably the most exhausted one after all the preparation for the recent presentation.

"Alright, alright. Get some rest. Anyway, we're heading out, just so you know."

"Yeah. Win big and buy me something delicious."

Iruki grinned. "Don't worry. Just trust me. By the time you wake up, we'll be rolling in money."

As the sound of the door closing echoed through the room, Shirone buried his face back into his pillow.

'You already have plenty of money, why all the fuss...'

He briefly thought of Mercodine's wealth, but sleep quickly pulled him back into its embrace.

That night.

"Hhngh... Hrrrk..."

Shirone tossed and turned, sweating profusely.

The nightmare that hadn't come when he first passed out had returned, seeping into his consciousness.

"Ughhh!"

He shook his head violently from side to side.

In the vastness of space, humans were nothing. That hollow sense of deprivation struck his mind with an overwhelming force.

Time reversed, and the universe was sucked into a single point.

Vibrating strings of light transformed into bubbles, and everything that made up Shirone was filled with radiance.

"Haaah!"

His upper body shot up as if propelled by a spring. His wide eyes still fixated on the remnants of the dream, he turned to the window at the sound of birds chirping.

It was morning.

"Haa... I thought it was just passing by this time."

As expected, the nightmare had come again. A strange sensation lingered in his body, making him shiver.

'But I'm not scared anymore.'

Armin had helped him understand its cause, and he had successfully stopped himself from crossing into the realm of infinity.

Now that he could somewhat control the Immortal Function, his desire to explore it grew stronger.

'The universe in my dream. That was definitely the beginning of the universe. And the gauge symmetry...'

Shirone rested his chin on his hand.

'At the birth of the universe, all the forces we know came into existence. But Armin said that our current universe seems asymmetric. If some force from the very beginning had moved beyond human perception... then maybe my super-sensory perception is detecting that force.'

The pieces were starting to fall into place.

'Nightmares are a form of unconscious information processing. They keep repeating because I can't understand the force yet. If I do understand it, the nightmares will disappear. But even if I don't—'

Eventually, it will manifest.

'Because it's already within me. My unconscious and consciousness will merge at some point, finding equilibrium.'

He finally understood what Armin meant when he said it was merely an unnamed state.

At that moment, his super-sensory perception vanished.

"Alright."

Feeling confident about his progress, Shirone headed for the bathroom.

As he brushed his teeth, he vaguely recalled that Neid and Iruki had visited earlier.

'Was that a dream? Or did they really come?'

He faintly remembered their excited faces talking about striking it rich at the casino.

'Maybe I should've just gone with them. Now what am I supposed to do alone?'

After finishing his shower, Shirone stood before the mirror, shaking out his damp hair. Then, his gaze shifted to the bed, and his expression hardened.

"...Huh?"

Tiny dust particles were slowly orbiting around an invisible central point.

He scanned the room, but there was no environmental factor that could have caused such convection.

"What's going on?"

He reached out toward the center of the rotation.

At first, he didn't feel anything—but then, an overwhelming surge of super-sensory perception crashed into him.

"Hhngh!"

The shock of an initial encounter.

A strange, unpleasant sensation, like touching an exposed nerve after a tooth was pulled.

Shirone's mind flashed with realization.

'It's this! The thing that cannot be named. But... why is it happening?'