"Do you think I'd believe that?"
Oniwa Rin didn't relax in the slightest at Mary and Warabi's clowning.
If anything—
After that public execution of having her mask forcibly shattered, her nerves were stretched like a string drawn to its breaking point. Any tiny disturbance could trigger an overreaction.
That wasn't mere sensitivity.
It was a stress response born from extreme insecurity.
When someone has lived inside a shell for long enough, the moment that shell is cracked—
Even a breeze feels like a blade of winter.
And Rin, painfully, had become aware of something else in the air.
Besides Kamegakure Mary and Hanasaka Warabi (and that ridiculous bear), there was another gaze—
More concealed.
More unpleasant.
Not like Amou Zanzan's blunt stare.
This felt like being watched by something cold-blooded.
"If you're really here to 'support,'" Rin's voice sharpened, "then why are you still hiding?"
"And!"
"Come out!"
"Or do you want me to drag you out?"
Her clean, uncovered eyes flashed with hostility as she pointed her sword-finger at the pile of old gymnastics mats stacked outside the gym.
At that, Mary blinked, thinking Rin was targeting them.
"H-Hey! Rin, what's wrong with you?"
"We're not suspicious!"
"We're fellow enforcers of order at Coexistence Academy! We detected an unidentified intruder, so of course we—"
Mary's face went red as she tried to bury her embarrassment under official phrasing.
She was "elegant," a lady by self-proclamation.
If people found out she'd been hiding in a corner eavesdropping like some pervert, she'd socially die on the spot.
Social death in school was no joke.
"Yeah, exactly!" Warabi puffed herself up too, rubbing her still-aching ankle while waving her stick.
"We weren't eavesdropping!"
It was tactical ambush! Tactical, do you understand?!
"And besides… Rin, are you scared out of your mind? Hallucinating?"
"There's nobody there!"
Because from where they stood, there were only mats.
Not a single shadow.
But before Mary and Warabi could decide Rin had snapped—
A light, airy voice drifted from behind the mats.
No panic. No hurry.
Rather, it carried the playful tone of someone deliberately revealing themselves in a game of hide-and-seek.
"Aww."
"Little Satori got found out."
Then—
A girl with long emerald-green hair leisurely stepped from the mats' shadow.
Her uniform was immaculate. A harmless smile sat on her face.
But the smile was too perfect.
Too standardized.
So perfect it felt like it was painted on—another kind of mask.
Innocent.
Even a bit absentminded.
Nemuri-me Satori.
The last of the Five Swords—and the most impossible to read.
Anyone who didn't know her would be tricked immediately by that harmless exterior, assuming she was merely a lost, naive girl who wandered in by mistake.
But everyone present tightened instinctively the moment they saw her.
"You…"
"When were you even there?" Mary's eyes widened, her dictionary nearly slipping from her hands.
As a fencer of her caliber, she hadn't sensed anyone at that spot at all.
"I was always here," Satori scratched her head. The smile didn't change.
"Since you two were eavesdropping."
"And since Rin's mask got shattered."
"And even…"
"Since that god descended."
"Little Satori has been here the whole time."
She tilted her head, smile deepening as if she were genuinely delighted.
"I thought I could watch longer, you know. Rin's expression earlier was so interesting~"
Then her gaze slid over Rin without warmth.
"But I didn't expect Rin's senses to get sharper."
"When you wore the mask, you were dull like a rock."
"Looks like the god was right."
"The mask really did bind you."
As she finished, Satori's eyes passed over everyone and landed directly on Haimer.
Her smile curved a fraction more.
"Nice to meet you, my god."
"I'm Satori. Nemuri-me Satori."
"What you said earlier was really fun."
"So…"
"Is that world truly full of adventures like you described?"
"If it is…"
"Little Satori wants to go."
"I really, really want to go."
"I want to see if, in a world like that, I can find something that makes me feel alive."
Her tone was light and cheerful—
Almost sickeningly so.
And just like that—
The Five Swords were effectively assembled.
Oniwa Rin. Kamegakure Mary. Hanasaka Warabi. Nemuri-me Satori.
Plus the already-converted Empress, Amou Zanzan.
If ordinary students saw this scene, they'd probably drop their jaws.
These people didn't normally stand together peacefully—ever.
…
Facing Satori's near-pathological eagerness, Mary finally couldn't hold back.
She hugged her thick dictionary to her chest, uneasy, glancing at Haimer and then at the others.
"H-Hey… are you guys serious?"
"Going to another world…"
"That sounds dangerous no matter how you look at it!"
Her voice was dry.
The earlier heat of "becoming stronger" had ignited her too—but once that adrenaline cooled and reason crawled back up, anxiety returned.
"Yeah…" Warabi asked weakly.
"If we really go…"
"Can we come back?"
That question struck the soft underbelly of everyone except Zanzan and Satori.
Including Rin.
Even if she wanted strength, even if she wanted freedom—
It didn't mean she was willing to cut every tie to this world.
Her life was here.
Her past was here—even if it was ugly, it was still hers.
To abandon everything for a completely unknown world…
The price was too large.
Large enough to make people retreat.
Haimer didn't look disappointed.
If anything, hesitation was normal.
Not everyone was like Zanzan and Satori.
This was humanity's most honest contradiction:
Longing for distant, unknown scenery—wanting to escape sameness—
But the moment the door to a new world actually opens and cold wind blows in, uncertainty becomes fear, and comfort becomes chains.
Like someone shouting they want a "spontaneous trip."
When it's time to quit the job, cancel the lease, pack the suitcase—
Most people silently shove the suitcase back under the bed.
"Burn the boats" was never a trait of the many.
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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