Interlude: Reverberations – Part 2
“H-Hah! I—I fell in love at first sight! Please go out with me!”
“No.”
“Damn, you’re gorgeous. Be mine.”
“Die.”
“U-Um, Utsurugi-san, you’re really beautiful, so—”
“Goodbye.”
Ever since awakening my Talent Lux, the number of confessions I’ve received—regardless of gender—has skyrocketed.
Back then, it was maybe once or twice a semester. Now, I’m forced to endure this farce two or three times a month.
“This makes no sense.”
The words slipped out as I left the classroom.
Every last one of them only sees people for their looks.
What even is “love at first sight,” anyway?
Falling for someone just because of their face is beyond thoughtless.
If reason is what makes us human, then those who let instinct dictate their emotions are no better than beasts.
“How stupid.”
“What’s wrong?”
I lifted my downcast eyes to see Hina, her pink backpack strapped tight, watching me.
A faint smile rose to my lips.
“Nothing.”
“No? ”
“Yes. Let’s go home.”
Adjusting my gray backpack, I fell into step beside my friend.
Nearly three years had passed since I made my first friend.
And at the same time, the first step toward my goal was just around the corner—
the entrance exam for the Excia, Winged Guardian training school.
◇◇◇◇◇
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——Three years later.
White Scales of Cyclic Protection : Prim Libra – Affiliated Excia Training Academy.
“Utsurugi-san… Finally… finally…”
Under the nurse’s gaze, I awkwardly averted my eyes.
“—Finally, I can declare you [fully healed].”
My arms and legs were still wrapped in layers of bandages, not an inch of skin visible.
My dislocated right shoulder was immobilized in a sling.
For over two years since enrollment, I had been in a perpetual state of injury, becoming a regular in the infirmary.
No surprise—I had spent every second of those two years training to move my own body with telekinesis.
It was like manipulating a puppet with invisible strings.
And every time the strain became too much, my body broke.
The relentless training earned me the title of “prodigy.”
Though, considering how effortlessly Hina mastered “Acceleration” beside me, maybe I was just the “genius” to her “monster.”
But today, at last, my life as a walking injury was over.
After two years of near-constant care, I could painfully understand the nurse’s relief.
“Thank you.”
I bolted from the infirmary.
Mid-sprint, I tossed the bandages and sling into a trash bin and raced for the entrance.
“Sorry to keep you waiting—!”
At my voice, Hina and one other turned.
“We barely waited.”
Youtome Rinne.
An Excia who had claimed the title of Ace the moment she joined Prim-Libra—now hailed as the strongest in the branch.
And for the next week, she would be our instructor during field training.
——Rain.
“Haah…! Hah…!”
A woman lay collapsed a short distance from me, my outstretched hand still trembling.
A woman impaled through the chest by a longsword.
Beside her, Hina sat frozen on the wet ground, staring blankly at the blood spreading beneath her.
Then, snapping back to reality, she whipped her head toward me with desperate eyes.
“Rui! Emergency treatment—!!”
Lowering my arm, I shook my head slowly.
“No point. I pierced her heart.”
Thanks to my training,
my body had moved on instinct—straight for the fatal blow.
“……!”
Hina bit her lip, refusing to look away from the fading life before her.
Even if it was a member of a violent robbery gang.
Even if it was someone who had tried to kill us moments ago.
She still respected life.
In this era, where death had long since lost its weight, her values were an anachronism.
The academy had reprimanded her for it countless times.
But… I didn’t hate that part of her.
Because I could never be like that.
——And yet.
I stared down at the hand that had just taken a life in a single stroke.
It looked no different than usual.
——It shouldn’t have.
“…………”
The rain felt unnaturally thick against my skin.
Cold, yet strangely burning.
…Disgusting.
I glared at the raindrops, unable to comprehend why. Hina just stared at the ground.
Then, from the corner of my vision, I saw Instructor Rinne rushing toward us, her face pale.
◇◇◇◇◇
It happened in the afternoon, a week into our field training.
After locating the hideout of a serial robbery gang, we were to storm it in coordination with several other teams.
Well, storm was an exaggeration—only the team leaders (full-fledged Excia) would go inside.
Trainees like us were stationed at the exits to intercept any fleeing suspects.
Not that we expected any action. Not with Rinne, the branch’s strongest, leading the raid.
——Until a gang member returned to the hideout from outside.
She tried to run but was effortlessly caught by Hina’s “Acceleration.”
Then, in that instant—whether by some Talent Lux or sheer luck—Hina’s body locked up.
The suspect raised her knife—
And before it could fall, my blade ran her through.
Looking back, it was no one’s fault.
Just bad timing.
But not everyone saw it that way.
“WHY!? I asked you to stop her, not KILL her!”
The mother of the woman I’d killed.
She was the one who had tipped us off about the hideout.
Our team had taken her statement last week.
Now, as Rinne explained what happened inside that room, I stood outside, my head pounding.
In this era of Talent Lux, death had become trivial.
But that didn’t mean life had.
No matter what society said, someone would always mourn the lost.
A robber, a criminal—it didn’t matter. Their life wasn’t light.
And hers? Hers had been loved—by her mother.
Before I knew it, the words spilled out.
“Not like… mine…”
I didn’t regret it.
I never liked my mother.
I wasn’t jealous in the slightest.
I shouldn’t have felt anything.
——So why?
My vision swayed, my thoughts a tangled mess.
“Rui…!”
Hina hugged me.
She must have understood from the start.
The weight of a single life.
And then, it hit me.
The reason my telekinesis could only move inanimate objects—or myself.
Because to me, no life was lighter than mine.
“——Ah.”
Buried in the chest of my much smaller partner, I realized—
I was crying.
Thump. Thump. Her heartbeat echoed against me.
The sound of a life that I had protected by taking another.
The sound of a love I could never have.
Even now, the reverberations of that day refuse to leave me.
◇◇◇◇◇
——Is this what they call obsession?
This selfish want—to never let go of the precious Hina in my hands?
I stopped the baton, clenching my free fist.
The music halted in perfect unison.
Then—
A roaring applause erupted, violent as a downpour.
——Like pounding rain.
I looked up. Light streamed through the stained glass, bathing the stage.
Such an extravagant setting.
Nothing like those days in a dingy corner, swinging my arms and swaying alone.
Everything was different now.
Irrevocably.
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