Chapter 3: Unravel Dimension
The professor had just entered the classroom.
The room fell silent almost immediately. Conversations stopped, chairs stopped scraping against the floor, and everyone turned toward the man standing at the front. Even before he spoke, his presence seemed enough to command our attention.
His sparkling eyeglasses reflected the classroom lights as he slowly scanned the room.
Then he reached into his pocket.
Everyone watched as he pulled out a small object and raised it for us to see. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary ballpoint pen.
I frowned.
A pen? Was that really what he wanted to show us?
"Hey, what do you think that is?" I whispered to Hidata, who was sitting between Akemetsu and me in the third row, second column.
Hidata barely glanced at the object.
"Gaika's Pen," he answered.
Gaika's Pen?
I looked at it more carefully.
It certainly didn't look special. There was nothing unusual about its shape, and from where I was sitting, I couldn't see anything that distinguished it from an ordinary pen.
But if it had a name like that, I doubted it was something I could simply buy from a bookstore.
Perhaps it contained a particular energy force. Maybe it could release a spell capable of seriously injuring an opponent.
Or perhaps its appearance was meant to deceive us.
"Gesmet, take a good look at this object," the professor announced.
His voice carried clearly across the classroom.
"This is Gaika's Pen, one of the most powerful weapons capable of launching an immediate attack against an opponent. If you ever gain the ability to use this device, make sure your own ability is strong enough to handle it."
A wave of murmurs spread through the room.
Some students leaned forward to get a better look. Others exchanged surprised glances, seemingly fascinated by the idea of a weapon disguised as an ordinary writing instrument.
Akemetsu and Hidata, however, remained relatively calm, their arms crossed.
Akemetsu's expression was difficult to read, although I noticed a slight change in his eyes. He appeared impressed despite his attempt to hide it.
Hidata, on the other hand, looked as though the discussion had nothing to do with him.
"Gesmet," the professor continued, his tone becoming more serious, "I trust that none of you will disobey my orders. Do not touch this device under any circumstances, even if a dangerous enemy appears within this school."
His gaze moved from one student to another.
"I expect every one of you to remember that."
The classroom grew quiet again.
Why would he emphasize that particular warning?
If the pen was that dangerous, I could understand why he wanted us to avoid it. However, telling us not to touch it even if an enemy attacked the school seemed unusual.
Was the pen more dangerous than the enemies we might encounter?
Before I could think further, the professor placed the object away.
"Now, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Hetmi Dugimara, and I am the assistant head professor of Kenzetu High School. I have been assigned to teach your class."
He paused briefly before continuing.
"Today, we will conduct a test to examine your abilities. However, I must warn you that this will not be an ordinary assessment. It will be destructive, especially for those of you who have never experienced a test of this level."
Several students exchanged uneasy glances.
"I understand that most of you experienced a critical test last year. However, that test measured the highest level of destructive force you had encountered during your first battle. It does not represent the maximum destructive potential of the tests conducted here at Kenzetu."
I stared at him.
What exactly was he talking about?
I had heard of ability tests before, but his explanation made it sound as though the test we were about to take could be far more dangerous than anything we had experienced.
I turned toward Hidata, hoping he might offer some clarification.
Unfortunately, he showed no intention of explaining anything.
Instead, he looked directly at me.
"Why are you looking at me?"
His blue eyes seemed to sparkle beneath the classroom lights.
"At...suko?"
There he went again, acting as though every glance I gave him had some hidden meaning.
"Nothing," I answered, turning back toward the professor.
Hidata chuckled.
"Tsk. Damn it. Never look at me like that again. It's irritating."
He ran a hand through his hair.
"I know my handsomeness makes you jealous, but you don't have to stare."
Akemetsu let out a quiet chuckle from the seat beside him.
Hidata immediately turned toward him.
"What are you laughing at?"
"You should realize that you're not the only one who was blessed with good looks," Akemetsu replied.
"Then shut up."
Akemetsu continued smiling.
"So you agree that I'm handsome?"
"I didn't say that!"
"Then why are you getting so defensive?"
I watched their exchange for a moment before deciding to join in.
"Why are the two of you arguing? Isn't it obvious that I'm the most handsome person here?"
Both of them turned toward me.
Akemetsu looked at me for a moment.
"Nice joke."
I frowned.
What was wrong with these two?
Before I could defend my appearance any further, the professor interrupted us.
"Everyone, pay attention."
His voice immediately silenced the classroom.
"The test will now begin. Follow me to the testing laboratory."
Everyone began standing up.
Everyone except me.
I remained in my seat, trying to understand what was happening.
Akemetsu and Hidata were already walking toward the door when they suddenly turned around.
"Are you coming?" Hidata asked.
I looked at them.
"Where?"
Akemetsu stared at me as though I had just asked the most ridiculous question in the world.
"Do you want to die?"
I immediately stood up.
"Fine, fine. I'm coming."
I followed them out of the classroom, still unsure about what awaited us.
As we walked down the hallway, I leaned toward Hidata.
"What's going on?"
"We're being given time to test our abilities," he explained.
"So what happens when I test mine?"
"Nothing unusual. You'll find out whether your ability is classified as AX or AL."
I frowned.
"AX? AL?"
Akemetsu, who had apparently been listening to our conversation, decided to explain.
"AX is the classification given to abilities that score above the average threshold of eighty on Kenzetu's measuring devices. Those abilities are considered the strongest under the classification system."
He paused to make sure I was following.
"AL refers to abilities that score below eighty. They're considered the lower-ranked abilities."
I nodded slowly.
So Kenzetu had a way to measure supernatural abilities and categorize them according to their strength.
That sounded simple enough.
But something about it bothered me.
What if a person's ability couldn't be measured accurately?
And what would happen if someone possessed an ability that didn't follow the rules?
I pushed the questions aside as we continued down the hallway.
The place felt unfamiliar, yet there was something strangely recognizable about it. The walls, the lighting, and even the silence reminded me of somewhere I had been before.
I couldn't figure out why.
Eventually, we reached a large room.
It was spacious and almost completely empty. The white floor reflected the lights above us, while the high ceiling made the room appear even larger than it already was.
There were no desks, chairs, or visible testing machines.
Only an open space.
"Here we are," Professor Dugimara announced as the students gathered inside. "We'll begin testing your abilities using special enemies."
Special enemies?
I looked around, expecting something to emerge from the walls or perhaps appear in the middle of the room.
Nothing happened.
Then the room changed.
The white walls darkened, as though someone had poured black paint across every surface. The transformation spread rapidly, covering the floor, the ceiling, and the walls until the bright room became a dark, unfamiliar space.
A girl with long orange hair stared at the surroundings in disbelief.
"What is happening?"
Her voice echoed through the room.
Other students began murmuring, some stepping backward as they tried to understand what they were seeing.
This wasn't an ordinary change in lighting. The entire environment seemed different.
"Where's the enemy, Professor?" one of the boys asked.
I turned toward Hidata.
"What happened?"
"Curtain Spells," he answered.
His voice remained calm, but even he seemed uncertain about what was happening.
Akemetsu stood beside him, studying the room.
"I think something's wrong."
I followed his gaze.
The professor was gone.
I looked toward the entrance, but there was no sign of him. The doorway we had entered through had disappeared, leaving only the darkened walls.
"Where did the professor go?" another student asked.
No one answered.
For a few seconds, silence filled the room.
Then the space in front of us began to distort.
One portal appeared.
Then another.
And another.
Within moments, dozens of portals had materialized across the room. They appeared as openings in the air, each surrounded by strange waves of energy. Some flickered faintly, while others seemed to distort the space around them.
I stared at them.
"What are those?"
"Portals, apparently," I muttered.
Akemetsu glanced at me.
"Apparently?"
"What else am I supposed to call them?"
Before he could respond, the professor's voice echoed throughout the room.
"Yes. These are portals, but they are not ordinary ones."
I turned toward the sound.
Professor Dugimara was nowhere to be seen.
His voice seemed to come from everywhere at once.
"Only one portal leads to success in this test. The remaining portals will take you to critical tests."
A nervous murmur spread among the students.
One portal meant success.
Every other portal meant a critical test.
And we had no idea which one was which.
A boy with violet eyes stepped closer to Hidata.
"Are we going to choose one of them?"
I looked at him. He was slightly taller than I was, although Hidata stood a little taller than him. His violet eyes were bright, almost resembling Hidata's, but Hidata's seemed clearer and more intense.
"Not yet, Kaikase," Hidata answered.
Kaikase looked back at the portals.
"But they might absorb us if we don't choose one."
Hidata didn't respond immediately.
Akemetsu was already studying the portals, his eyes moving from one opening to another as though he were searching for a pattern.
I followed his gaze, but the portals looked nearly identical.
How were we supposed to distinguish the correct one?
"Hidata," he asked, "how many portals are there?"
Hidata turned toward Kaikase.
Kaikase studied the room for a moment.
"One thousand three hundred forty-eight."
I blinked.
He had counted them all?
There were so many portals that I couldn't even imagine keeping track of every single one. Yet Kaikase had apparently counted them in only a few seconds.
Hidata nodded.
"Good. That's an even number. Now count the odd numbers."
Kaikase stared at him.
"W-what?"
"Count the odd numbers."
"Why?"
"Just do it."
Kaikase looked as though he wanted to argue, but he eventually turned his attention back to the portals.
After a few moments, he answered uncertainly.
"Six hundred seventy-four?"
Hidata remained calm.
Akemetsu, meanwhile, continued examining the portals.
Around us, several students had moved toward the corners of the room. With the entrance gone, there was nowhere to escape. Some tried to maintain their defenses, while others watched the portals nervously.
"Six hundred seventy-four?" Hidata repeated. "Then how are we supposed to choose between six hundred seventy-four possibilities?"
Kaikase had no answer.
Neither did anyone else.
Except, perhaps, me.
I stared at the number of portals and began thinking.
One thousand three hundred forty-eight.
Six hundred seventy-four.
Odd numbers.
Even numbers.
The terms reminded me of my old mathematics classes in Tokyo, back when I was known as the best mathematics student in my school.
I wasn't going to pretend I understood the entire situation, but numbers were something I could work with.
"Hidata," I said, "I think we should choose the eleventh portal."
He turned toward me, his forehead creasing.
"The eleventh? Why?"
I took a breath.
"Because you told Kaikase to count the odd numbers, but you didn't specify whether he should count the odd-numbered positions or calculate something else."
Kaikase looked at me.
I continued.
"There are 1,348 portals. Half of the integers from one to 1,348 are odd, which gives us 674 odd-numbered positions. That's the number Kaikase found."
I pointed toward the portals.
"But the number of portals alone doesn't tell us which one is correct. We need to find another clue."
Akemetsu glanced at me, seemingly interested.
I looked back at the numbers in my head.
"One and three are odd, while four and eight are even. If we add one and three, we get four, an even number. Then, if we add four and seven, we get eleven, an odd number."
I paused.
"That's why I think the eleventh portal might be the answer. It's not proof, but it's the first number that seems to fit the pattern I'm considering."
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Hidata, Akemetsu, and Kaikase stared at me with unreadable expressions.
Then Akemetsu broke the silence.
"There's one problem."
I looked at him.
"What?"
"There is no eleventh portal."
I frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"While you were explaining your theory, I noticed that one portal was missing from the sequence."
He pointed toward a section of the room.
"Look. There's a gap between the tenth and twelfth portals."
I followed his finger.
He was right.
The portals appeared in an orderly arrangement, but there was an empty space where the eleventh portal should have been.
It was as though something had deliberately removed it.
My stomach tightened.
"So the eleventh portal is invisible?"
"That's what I'm thinking," Akemetsu answered.
Before we could investigate further, a powerful wave of energy swept across the room.
The floor trembled beneath our feet.
Several students stumbled as the portals began releasing bursts of supernatural energy. The air grew heavier, and the openings flickered violently.
"Damn it!" Kaikase shouted. "The timing of Kenzetu's energy force is wrong!"
Hidata's expression hardened.
"No. This was planned."
"What do you mean, planned?" I demanded.
But before he could answer, the energy intensified.
The portals began pulling at us.
Not all of them moved in the same direction. Some seemed to draw the air toward them, while others released violent currents that pushed against the students.
Panic spread throughout the room.
"Why are we being pulled toward them?"
"Use your defenses!"
"Get away from the portals!"
Several students activated their abilities, creating barriers and releasing waves of energy to resist the force.
Akemetsu focused on the openings.
"I can sense the energy coming from the twelfth portal," he said. "It might lead to a critical test."
The energy surrounding the twelfth portal grew stronger.
I felt my feet sliding across the floor.
"Hidata!"
"Use your defensive energy, Atsuko!"
I tried to concentrate.
I needed to stop myself from moving.
Stop.
My body suddenly halted.
For a moment, I felt as though the world had frozen around me. The pull remained, but my body no longer moved forward.
Then I realized something.
I was already several meters ahead of the others.
How had I moved so far ahead without noticing?
Before I could think about it, Hidata flashed toward me and grabbed my arm.
"Next time, lock your arm with mine if you haven't learned how to control gravity!"
"Gravity?"
I looked toward the portals.
The force pulling us forward felt almost like an invisible gravitational field. It was as though the space around the openings had changed, drawing everything nearby toward them.
Could a portal really generate that much force?
Or was it something else entirely?
I didn't have time to find out.
The pull intensified.
Suddenly, the portal's energy swallowed us.
I struggled against the force, trying to activate my defenses, but nothing seemed to work.
"Hidata, why didn't you use your defense?"
"We're being absorbed by the eleventh portal, not the twelfth!"
I looked toward him in disbelief.
"The eleventh?"
"The hidden one! Stop fighting it and let it take you!"
Not everyone followed his instructions.
Some students continued resisting the force, desperately trying to escape what they believed was the wrong portal. Others seemed to recognize Hidata's reasoning and allowed themselves to be pulled toward the invisible opening.
One by one, the students disappeared.
Kaikase was among those who entered the eleventh portal.
Akemetsu was pulled away shortly afterward.
Before Kaikase vanished, he managed to shout, "You two should follow me, damn it!"
Then he disappeared into the distorted space.
Hidata turned toward me.
"Atsuko, you should go first."
I barely had time to respond.
Something changed.
The force pulling at my body shifted direction, dragging me toward another portal.
Not the eleventh.
Another one.
"What the hell?" Hidata exclaimed.
I tried to stop myself, but the pull was too strong.
"I don't know what's happening!"
My body continued moving toward the wrong opening.
Hidata reached for me, but the energy caught him as well. He was dragged along with me, unable to regain control of his movements.
"Damn it! We're being absorbed by the wrong portal!"
His voice sounded closer as the distance between us disappeared.
"What should we do?" I shouted.
He opened his mouth to answer.
But before he could say anything, the portal swallowed us completely.
A violent gust of wind struck my face.
The sensation was overwhelming.
The space around us seemed to twist and stretch, while a powerful magnetic force pulled us deeper into the portal. Blinding light flashed in every direction, forcing me to shut my eyes.
Even through my closed eyelids, the brightness was painful.
Beside me, Hidata covered his eyes with one arm.
"That light is too strong!"
I couldn't tell whether we were falling, flying, or being dragged through some invisible tunnel.
There was no ground beneath my feet.
No clear direction.
Only wind, light, and the strange sensation of passing through a space that shouldn't have existed.
Then, as suddenly as it had begun, everything stopped.
My feet touched the floor.
I stumbled forward but managed to regain my balance.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself standing inside another room.
It was white.
Completely white.
The walls, ceiling, and floor looked similar to those of the room we had entered earlier, but this space was considerably wider. There were no visible portals, no other students, and no sign of Professor Dugimara.
Only silence.
Hidata stood a short distance away, shielding his eyes as he adjusted to the light.
He slowly looked around.
"Have we returned to the original room?"
I examined our surroundings.
The room was similar, but something about it felt wrong.
It was too quiet.
Too empty.
And the space seemed far larger than it should have been.
"Maybe not," I answered.
Hidata continued scanning the room.
Then his gaze shifted toward me.
He stared directly into my eyes.
"What?" I asked.
He didn't respond.
Instead, he began walking toward me.
His footsteps echoed across the white floor until he stood directly in front of me. Then he placed one hand on my shoulder.
His expression was unreadable.
For some reason, I suddenly felt uneasy.
"Hidata?"
He didn't answer.
A sharp cracking sound interrupted us.
I looked down.
The floor beneath our feet had begun to split apart.
Cracks spread rapidly across the surface, branching in every direction. Within seconds, entire sections of the floor collapsed into darkness.
I stepped backward instinctively.
But the ground beneath us remained intact.
The collapse continued around our position, leaving only the small section where Hidata and I stood untouched.
My eyes widened.
"What is happening?"
"The floor is a trap," Hidata answered calmly.
He glanced at the broken ground surrounding us.
"And the only way we can escape it is if you allow me to release my own dimension."
I stared at him.
"Your own dimension?"
He nodded slightly.
"We've been separated from the others. Each of us was placed in a different room to test our abilities."
I looked around again.
So this wasn't the same room.
We had entered another dimension through the portal, and now the floor itself was trying to eliminate us.
But why had we ended up together?
And why had Hidata brought up his own dimension?
Before I could ask, he tightened his grip on my shoulder.
"Atsuko, there's something I need to ask you."
His voice had changed.
It was no longer teasing or casually confident. Every word sounded deliberate, as though he had been thinking about this question for a long time.
I tried to move.
I couldn't.
My arms wouldn't respond, and even turning my head felt impossible. I could only stare at him as the cracks continued spreading around us.
For the first time since meeting him, I couldn't tell what Hidata was thinking.
He looked at me with an expression so serious that I wondered whether he was about to attack me.
Then he spoke.
"Atsuko, I want you to answer me honestly."
His blue eyes remained fixed on mine.
"Are you..."
He paused.
The silence between us seemed to grow heavier.
"...a mind trickster?"