"I got lost in an isekai."
Yet he distinctly remembered feeling someone push him while he was on the stairs. Who could it have been?
They probably weren't an ordinary person-or perhaps it was simply a coincidence that Kala had somehow gotten lost in this mysterious forest.
Kala moved his hands, which were restrained behind him by tree roots.
"Tch, why?"
Kala was curious about what had happened, but it would be better to focus on getting back to the real world.
Rustle.
He had only closed his eyes for a second when the sound disturbed him, forcing him to turn around.
"Sorry for startling you." The fox-like young man walked closer before crouching down so they were at the same eye level, with Kala sitting cross-legged.
"You're the one who pulled me here, aren't you?" Kala asked bluntly.
"For an Esper, your abilities are pretty strong. Looks like I need to put some limits on you."
"Damn it," Kala muttered.
"I'm just kidding."
The young man smiled sweetly, but Kala only stared at him blankly.
"By the way, I'm Setta," he said, extending his hand for a handshake.
"Are you stupid or something?" Kala mocked.
Setta immediately became awkward and lowered his hand.
"Yeah, sorry. I forgot to release those roots."
A few seconds later, Kala felt his hands gradually being released from the roots. Without wasting any time, he immediately swung a punch at the young man in front of him.
Setta managed to dodge, but the lavender-haired boy suddenly disappeared from his sight. Setta could only shake his head.
"Honestly, Hesa is something else."
Unfortunately, Kala didn't hear those words because he had already managed to return to the real world.
Slowly, his eyelids fluttered before finally opening.
"The school clinic..."
Kala moved his body, trying to sit up, but he struggled because his head was still throbbing badly.
"Need some help?"
Kala turned and found another student lying on the bed beside him.
"No, thanks," Kala politely refused.
"Good to hear you're feeling better. But your expression still looks like you're in pain."
Kala simply stared at the boy in silence without answering.
"S-Sorry if what I said earlier offended you."
"No, it's fine. I just forgot you were a student here," Kala replied.
"Maybe you've never seen me because I only joined this school a few days ago."
Kala simply nodded in understanding.
"I'm Lyo."
"Sakala," Kala replied briefly.
He tried to get off the clinic bed, but his head was still extremely dizzy. Apparently, he had been asleep for quite a while.
"Is it already break time?" he asked Lyo.
"Yeah. Want me to walk you to class?" Lyo offered.
"No."
Kala decided to lie back down for a while. It felt like it was already too late to help Agantha.
He picked up his phone from the bedside table. A wave of worry immediately crossed his mind when he saw a voice recording that had apparently been sent automatically.
"The recording device is already off. Who found it and turned it off? I-it couldn't have been Lia or even the police, could it?"
He turned toward the student beside him.
"Lyo, did you bring earphones?"
"Yeah. I figured I'd be here for a while, so I brought them to listen to music."
"What are you sick with?" Kala asked.
"I faint easily because I was born with a heart condition."
"S-Sorry. I didn't know."
"It's okay." Lyo smiled before taking the earphones out of his blazer pocket.
"Want to borrow these?"
"Yeah, thanks."
Kala immediately put them on and listened to the recording.
It was clear what had happened on the rooftop.
Everything sounded normal until, at the very end, there was a sound of the pen being crushed.
"Lia already left, so that means this was Ghe's doing?"
The thing Kala needed to do now was spread the recording through Kaze's anonymous account. The problem was that the account was currently only accessible from Hasta's tablet.
Should Kala reveal his secret as an Esper just to help his friend?
Kala still felt that the timing wasn't right.
Besides that, he remembered there was other evidence he needed to find first-the letter and the metal pipe.
"Lyo, thanks for lending these." Kala returned the earphones to their owner.
"No problem."
Kala sighed for a moment before finally getting off the bed. Fortunately, his dizziness was gone this time.
He immediately walked out of the clinic toward the garden. Apparently, his friends were there too, seemingly looking for something.
"What are you guys looking for?" Kala asked.
"Oh, Kal. You're feeling better?" Hasta asked.
"Looks like it."
His answer made his friends exchange glances.
"I'm really fine," Kala assured them.
"Oh, that's a relief," Darel said.
"So, what are you looking for?" Kala asked again.
"I heard something metal fall when I passed by here earlier," Yoga said.
"Yeah, we're looking for it. It might be evidence too," Melvin added.
"Guys, isn't Kala the one who just woke up?" Yoan pointed out.
"Oh, right. I forgot," Yoga replied.
"Here's what happened. Agantha has been accused of murder. This morning, a student fell from the rooftop. His body had bruises that looked like they were from being struck, and Agantha was also found unconscious on the rooftop in a similar condition. So the police suspect they got into a fight and Agantha pushed the other student," Darel explained.
Kala simply nodded, pretending to be surprised even though he had already known since yesterday.
But apparently, he didn't need to do everything himself this time. His friends were already searching for the metal pipe. That meant Kala only needed to find the discarded letter in the trash.
Kala slowly approached the trash area, trying not to attract anyone's attention.
He rummaged through the garbage until he finally found the black plastic bag he was looking for.
"Kala, what are you doing?" Yoan approached the lavender-haired boy suspiciously.
"I-I was looking for the metal pipe too. I accidentally bumped into the trash can and some of the garbage fell out. When I was cleaning it up, I found this plastic bag that seemed kind of suspicious."
Kala opened the black package, revealing a collection of torn pieces of paper.
"Yon, don't you think it's weird that someone went through all this trouble just to throw away pieces of paper? Usually, if you want to throw something away, you just throw it out. But this was wrapped up first, like they didn't want anyone to know what was written on it."
Kala deliberately tried to pique Yoan's curiosity.
And it worked. Yoan immediately snatched the pieces from Kala.
"This is kind of like putting together a puzzle, isn't it?" Kala continued.
Their conversation was suddenly interrupted when the other members of Kaze approached them.
"Guys, we found this metal pipe." Yoga showed them the pipe they had found.
"Whoa, there's blood on it," Kala said.
"Exactly. That's why we're even more suspicious," Darel replied.
"But forensics isn't our job," Yoan said.
"Relax. We can put it somewhere more visible so the police will find it," Hasta suggested.
"What are you two doing here?" Melvin asked.
"W-We were looking for that too, but I think we accidentally found another piece of evidence," Kala replied.
"Seriously?" Yoga asked.
"Yeah. After looking at them again, these torn pieces of paper look like they came from a letter," Yoan said.
Suddenly, an announcement came over the school's speakers, informing all students that they would be dismissed early.
"I'll try putting these together when I get home," Yoan continued.
"Need any help?" Melvin asked.
"No. I'll try doing it myself first."
"Good thing we've still got one genius here," Yoga said.
"Top of the class, right?" Darel added.
"You're so noisy," Yoan muttered.
"Alright, guys. Let's meet at the basecamp tomorrow morning and discuss all this," Kala said.
"Okay," Yoga replied briefly.
They walked back toward their classrooms together.
Kala deliberately walked beside Hasta.
"As, did you find the recording of me falling down the stairs earlier?" Kala asked.
Hasta nodded and showed him the CCTV footage he had transferred to his phone.
"I-I slipped?" Kala asked in surprise.
"Why? Did you feel like someone pushed you?" Yoga asked.
"N-No. This is right. My shoes were kind of slippery earlier, so I must've slipped," Kala lied.
Even so, Kala knew that whoever had pushed him wasn't human.
"Looks like Setta was the one who pushed me."