A whole week passed by. Occasionally, one of them would go back to the headquarters to collect food and water for their trip. Due to this, they never ran out of physiological needs.
In the end, searching the church only brought back disappointment. Even after turning the whole place upside down, the only thing they found was old textbooks of the people who had once used it.
Traces of a battle that was barely recognizable after years had passed are slightly consumed by nature, not enough to cover anything.
"Let's follow the plan. Hiyori, lead the way."
"Mn."
After finally concluding the search at the church, it was time to check out the location Hiyori discovered the other day.
From Hiyori's description, Saori speculated that the place could be an actual train station. Although Arius has never once seemed to be using a train to get anywhere, Trinity did have them.
It wouldn't be a stretch to say that whatever Trinity had, Arius would also have; Arius used to be a branch of Trinity after all.
After breaking off the Trinity Alliance during ancient times, the school was forgotten by the world, and the hatred instilled in them against Trinity turned out to be a fake representation, an ideology of the Madame of some sort.
Nobody knows why Madame decided to instill hatred into the Arius school, but everyone knew that the only results this kind of ideology could bring were the destruction of Arius as a whole.
This information was made public to them by the new President, who had taken over the Madame.
Unlike Madame, the new President was quite transparent in the way she governs Arius.
During assemblies, if any student seemed hesitant to voice out a question, the President would pressure them until their thoughts were forcefully getting out of their mouth due to the sheer social pressure.
And as the question was voiced, the President would answer them with full clarity, even addressing obscure things that the student never thought of.
Not once did the students ever question whether she was telling the truth; the President doesn't leave any holes in her arguments that could be used against her.
Even if anyone found a small hole, the President would patch it up immediately.
And the assemblies wouldn't end until every single student had their questions answered, whether they were willing to voice them out their questions or not.
After walking for a while, they finally arrived at the location Hiyori described.
"...Yeah, it does look like an underground train station at first glance." Muttering to herself, Azusa compared the small building, even opening the door to see that multiple stairs were leading towards the basement.
"Be careful in your steps, you never know when a place has been booby-trapped," Saori warned as she led the way.
Everyone kept their expectations low after having found nothing at the church.
What are the chances that Kasuka's gun was stored here? It was practically nonexistent.
Even so, they can never be 100% certain.
"You think the President knows of this place? It looks a bit... too clean." Misaki addressed a question as she looked around, seeing the security shutters closed off a bunch of supposed stores.
"She definitely knows of this place," Saori confirmed.
If there was anything in Arius that the President didn't have full control over, then she would've destroyed it in a heartbeat. That was the kind of person she showed herself to be.
Finally, they reached the stairs. They all went down without hesitation.
Azusa's eyes darted around, never seeing a contraction that had the possibility of being a trap. Of course, even if she saw nothing, she'd never let her guard down in an unfamiliar place.
"...a library?" What met them down there wasn't the expected railroad system, but rows upon rows of bookshelves that stretched as far as the eyes can see.
Grabbing the nearest book from a bookshelf, Saori read the title out loud, "Countering the Ancient Weapon... Volume 17..."
"...No published date. The author's name is also empty."
"Same here, Leader. The author's name and published date looked to be empty for every single title published here."
Hearing Misaki say that, Saori looked behind her to see that the rest of the squad had also taken a book out of the bookshelves, flipping through the pages, but was unable to understand a single letter written in the book.
Yes, it was written in an entirely different language; other than the book title, the rest was incomprehensible.
"...What is this place?" Placing the book back in its original place, Saori looked at the books beside it and saw the same title as the one she had grabbed, except the Volume was of a different number.
Volumes 1 through 20 were all in one row.
"It is my memory vault."
"!"
Suddenly, a voice appeared behind them, causing every single member of the Arius squad to stiffen and quickly turn to see the familiar silhouette of the President, also reading a book while leaning on a bookshelf.
"We apologize for not greeting you, President." Bowing, Saori felt cold sweat trickling down her back.
"I'm not in the mood for this formal stuff. Let me explain some things to you now that you finally arrived at this place." The President, mask still covering her face, said.
"First things first, you will forget everything that happens here. This place will no longer exist, and your memory will have a small time gap in between."
Saori tried to lift her head, but found that her body seemed to be frozen in time, forced to listen to the President speak in this position.
The rest of the Arius squad was going through the same issue.
"It is not yet time; she has yet to set off in the train to Kivotos."
"Once she arrives, the clock will begin to turn once more, accelerating the tragedy of this god-forsaken world."
"But she is not the cause. She's merely a fragment of a possibility in the future, a chance for either salvation or destruction."
"You'll feel a slight dissonance when you see her in the future; you may even call it a sense of deja vu."
"Whether this timeline is the right one or not... only time could tell."
"Your role in this is to help... a person achieve their goals."
"You've done wonderfully in this case."
"I applaud your effort, Arius Squad."
"I can not lead you to this place; it is something that you needed to find at your own discretion."
"They are watching. Only in a space of Singularity could their gaze be obscured."
"Memories are but another safe that they could access at any time."
"I apologize in advance."
"This space is the only location I could access without their interference, and also the only location I could mend with your memories."
"Everything you'll need to know will show up at the most important moment."
"For now... accept this gift given by her."
---
"Guys! I found it!"
Hiyori jumped from a pit, her arms barely visible. But from every place, the rest of the Arius Squad could see the small firearm in her hand. Comparing it to the picture they saw in the file, it was a one-to-one recreation, minus the dirt that was stuck onto the real thing.
"Good job, Hiyori." Rushing to the pit to pull the girl up, Saori dusted the girl off and patted her head.
"Hehe..." Flustered, Hiyori accepted the headpat with a satisfied expression.
Saori traced her fingers over the gun; her heart tightened slightly in response.
Without saying a word, Saori handed the gun over to Atsuko, who tilted her head in confusion.
Atusko hesitantly grabbed the gun, but she looked at Saori for an explanation.
Saori scratched her cheek, embarrassed.
"Well, you see... Uh... I just figured that..." As Saori was struggling with her words, the rest of the squad grouped up.
Everyone but Atsuko seemed to know why she was struggling.
Azusa even chuckled slightly, making Saori turn a glare at the white-haired angel.
"...We think that it'll be best for you to keep her weapon as a keepsake." After finding the correct words, Saori heaved a sigh of relief.
After all, she couldn't just flat out say that 'You were the most depressed out of all of us here, it's only fair you get her gun.'
Atsuko could somewhat see their intention, but she stayed quiet, keeping the gun close to her chest.
Atsuko crouched down, her mask falling off her face as her expression was exposed.
Her eyes were filled with tears, her eyebrows scrunched up.
As everyone frantically tried to calm her down, something unexpected happened.
"...Thank you." Although her voice cracked slightly, everyone heard it loud and clear.
Misaki let out a sigh of relief, patting the lavender-haired girl's head as she comforted her.
The first time they heard Hime's voice since Kasuka's passing.
And it was also because of Kasuka.
How unfortunate that the individual in question wasn't here anymore.
The rest of the day was spent decorating the gun with each giving their own small memento to attach to it.
Nobody noticed the small gap in their memory.
But nobody would care about it; this happiness is something that only occurs once in a blue moon.
It is never a sin to celebrate happiness.
---
Advanced Chapters are out in the Discord Server!
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