“Make your choice as soon as possible.”
“I will not remain in this world forever.”
“So you only have one chance.”
“As for what your final decision will be, that is for you to choose.”
After saying this, Heimer returned the Hannya mask to Onigawara Rin and brushed past her.
“…”
At that point, Onigawara could only kneel there blankly, staring at his gradually receding back.
Other worlds?
For someone like her, who had always lived within the tiny world of this academy and spent each day tangled up in mundane matters like correcting boys and maintaining order, those words were far too distant.
One could even say they sounded absurd.
However…
“Heh.”
Before Onigawara could recover from the massive shock, a cold, contemptuous laugh interrupted her thoughts.
Amou Kirukiru silently followed behind Heimer.
When she passed by Onigawara, her steps paused slightly.
Those obsidian-like eyes carried undisguised mockery as they openly swept across Onigawara’s young face, now completely stripped of all cover.
“What a crybaby face.”
The corners of Amou’s lips rose as she spat out venomous words.
“Compared to that mask, this crybaby face suits the current you much better.”
After saying that, Amou seemed to lose all interest.
She did not spare Onigawara even one more glance.
She simply stepped forward with her long legs and quickly caught up to Heimer in front, leaving behind only her proud back.
This was the final mercy a lion showed to a defeated dog.
“…”
After hearing this, Onigawara bit down hard on her lower lip.
A crybaby?
No!
Onigawara suddenly turned her head, her gaze locking firmly onto the two figures that were about to disappear around the corner.
Even though her cheeks were still burning from shame, and even though her shoulders were still trembling uncontrollably from the fear she had just felt…
Her body had already made its choice before her mind could.
Was she afraid?
Of course she was afraid.
How could she not be afraid when facing a monster who could crush her psychological defenses with aura alone, and who even possessed a miraculous power capable of repairing shattered objects?
That was the instinct carved into human genes when facing an unknown threat.
It was as natural as an antelope trembling before a lion.
However…
The reason humanity had risen above countless savage species and stood at the top of this planet was not merely because humans had learned to sharpen stones or use fire.
It was because of an instinct older, deeper, and stronger than fear.
Curiosity.
When the first ape trembled as it climbed down from the safety of the canopy and set foot on the grassland filled with saber-toothed tigers, dire wolves, and danger…
What drove it to take that step was not merely the unbearable hunger in its belly.
It was pure curiosity toward what lay beyond the horizon.
It was this curiosity that made humans, on countless dark and cold nights, choose not to curl up deep inside caves.
Instead, they raised their heads and gazed at the vast starry sky.
It was this curiosity that made humans cross stormy oceans, conquer towering mountains that pierced the clouds, and even attempt to touch the domain of gods.
Fear could certainly make a person live longer.
But only curiosity could let a person live beneath a wider sky.
At this moment, Onigawara Rin was the same.
If it was true…
What kind of scenery would that be?
That question was like a wildfire suddenly igniting in her heart, instantly burning away everything else.
Thinking of this, Onigawara gritted her teeth, a flash of determination crossing her eyes.
She immediately grabbed the katana that had fallen to the ground and stumbled after them.
“Eh… Rin-senpai?!”
“W-wait for me, Rin-senpai!”
Seeing this, Mozunono Nono, who had been hiding off to the side like background scenery, quickly hugged her baton tightly with a tearful expression and chased after her.
…
Aichi Symbiosis Academy, old school building gymnasium.
This building, which was rarely visited on normal days, was now shrouded in an unusual silence.
Afternoon sunlight fell through the high ventilation windows, casting beams of light onto the wooden floor.
Countless tiny motes of dust slowly drifted within those pillars of light.
A girl had already been waiting here for a long time.
She wore a traditional red-and-white kimono, and her long white hair was tied into two low ponytails that fell to either side.
Her figure was so petite that it could even be called frail.
She looked like an exquisite Japanese doll.
Inaba Tsukuyo.
The youngest of the Five Supreme Swords, as well as the only middle-school student among them.
At this moment, she was kneeling properly on a cushion in the center of the gymnasium.
Her eyes were closed, and her hands rested flat on her knees.
A replica katana quietly lay beside her.
The world in her perception was black.
But that did not mean emptiness.
On the contrary, for someone who had lost the domineering sense known as sight, the world instead revealed a more delicate and more essential side.
For humans, more than eighty percent of the information processed by the brain came from vision.
Overreliance on the eyes often made the brain lazy.
It made people ignore the whisper of the wind, the tremors of the floor, and the changes in temperature flowing through the air.
When the door of vision was closed, the windows of hearing, touch, and smell were fully opened.
Just like creatures living in the deep sea or inside caves, adapting to darkness had caused them to evolve extraordinary sensory organs.
Bats hunted moths with precision in the pitch-black night sky.
Blind fish never struck the rocks while swimming through rushing underground currents.
Therefore, for Inaba Tsukuyo, every movement around her instead constructed a world in her mind that was far more three-dimensional than what ordinary sight could perceive.
She could hear every sound throughout the entire academy with perfect clarity.
And this was not magic.
It was a sublimation of biological instinct brought about by training her hearing to the absolute limit.
Right now, all those sounds were conveying one message to her.
An unbelievable existence had arrived.
“They are here.”
The strongest of the Five Supreme Swords—Inaba Tsukuyo.
Tsukuyo slightly tilted her head, and the ears hidden beneath her silver-white hair trembled faintly.
Her pale cherry-colored lips parted, and she softly uttered two words.
“Creak—”
Almost at the exact same instant her words fell, the heavy door of the gymnasium slowly opened inward.
A flood of light poured into the dim interior as the door opened.
Against the backlight, Heimer’s figure was stretched tall and slender.
Behind him followed the cold-faced Amou Kirukiru, as well as the breathless Onigawara Rin and Mozunono Nono, whose cheeks still carried a lingering blush.