What does it feel like to meet something you had only ever imagined?
At the very least, the me from just moments ago could not have answered that question.
But now, I could confidently say that I could.
"A-a psychic...?!"
Anyone would react that way upon seeing Niseato so brazenly use psychic powers... or, more precisely, telekinesis.
Shu and Tsurudo must have felt the same way, judging by how utterly frozen they were.
"...If you have nothing else to say."
Looking at us as though we were pathetic, Niseato finally narrowed her one visible right eye.
"Goodbye."
Before any of us could say a word, she turned her back on us and began walking away.
"...Dormitories."
But after stopping for a brief moment and sweeping her gaze across the building's exterior—
"This place... might be our dormitory."
She said it in a tone that made it clear she did not care whether we listened or not, then disappeared completely.
"Dorm... itory?"
"No, more importantly... was that real just now...?"
"...Look at that bolt. It can't be a dream."
Sure enough, the bolt I pointed at was still lying on the cold gray floor.
It could only mean one thing: that impossible sight we had just witnessed was, in the end, real.
"Th-this is insane... First a vampire, and now a psychic? What the hell kind of academy is this?!"
"Even if we're Ultimates, isn't this just too absurd...? Don't you think, Shoko?"
"I agree... But we can't know anything about that right now. So we should start by finding out what we can."
It was almost like hypnotizing myself, but perhaps my eyes had already begun to change into those of a detective.
"...Yeah, I agree with that. Still, she said dormitories? Don't tell me we're expected to spend even one day in this stifling academy...?"
"Who knows? But we'll have to investigate to find out. ...That's what Shoko would say, right!"
As they looked at me, the two of them gradually relaxed and said just that.
"...Of course. Then shall we get going again?"
I made my steps seem light, but I could not erase the weight that still lingered in my smile.
*
*
For the time being, we decided to investigate the first floor, where we were standing.
The most unusual feature of this building, visible at a glance, was...
"The center is hollowed out in a square...? I mean, you can see the other floors and even the sky from here."
As Tsurudo said, the center of this four-story building was open, making the middle of the first floor feel almost like the building's central void.
There was also a window the size of that opening in the fourth-floor ceiling, and I was certain it would serve as the lighting during the day.
"Sh-Shoko! Tsurudo! Look over here!"
While we were staring upward, Shu, who had already been investigating the area, called out to us.
"What is it? Wait, this is...!"
What we saw when we approached was a large door set into the wall at the western end of the floor.
"It won't open... but could this be one of the dorm rooms Niseato mentioned?"
"No, we haven't established that these are dorms yet, have we...? All we know is that there are doors like this on the opposite side too, and beside the entrance we came through."
When I looked around at Tsurudo's words, there really were identically designed doors positioned to the east, west, south, and north.
Though I could see them, they were all quite far away, so I did not feel particularly motivated to inspect them one by one.
"Then let's put that on hold and go up to the second floor. Oh! There's an elevator over there! And it's huge!"
"Ha, I was just getting sick of stairs. Pretty considerate, isn't it?"
The fact that the building seemed to have only elevators somehow made me uneasy, but we got in without complaint and went up to the second floor.
*
*
Ding!
Despite the building's broad layout, each floor was rather short, and we reached the second floor in the blink of an eye.
"Ah, there she is...!"
We spotted a huge woman looking at a blue door up ahead and immediately ran over to her.
"...Hmm?"
Perhaps she had been deeply absorbed in thought, because she only slowly turned around once we were right in front of her.
The first things that caught my eye were her deeply tanned skin and the tight tank top clinging to her body.
'B-big...'
And she looked to be around six feet tall... with, in every sense, the kind of size to match.
"Sh-Shoko! Where are you looking?! Has getting such a big head turned you into a lecher too?!"
"N-no! That was what Tsurudo was thinking!"
"Huh?! What the hell are you suddenly talking abou—Aagh!"
In the end, Tsurudo became another victim of her palm, but that was not really important, was it?
"Ahahahaha! Who are you guys? You all look awfully lively at a glance!"
What mattered was introducing ourselves to this boisterous-looking woman. So, anyway.
Carried along by the momentum, we gave brief introductions.
"...Hmm, Shoko, Shuko, and Chosuke, huh? Those are all such cool names, they'll be hard to remember! Ahahahaha!"
"W-what's with you?! Don't just call us by our given names like that! That's rude!"
"Hm? Oh, is that it? You can't call me by mine because you don't know my name yet! Yeah, that would be unfair!"
Cutting Tsurudo off before he could say that was not what he meant, she cheerfully laughed and continued.
"I'm Sakabaku Mayumi! If anything happens, call on me, the Ultimate Rescuer!"
[Sakabaku Mayumi / Ultimate Rescuer]
"A rescuer, huh... Well, that physique does look specialized for saving people or subduing them. Heh."
"Hey, Tsurudo! That's rude!"
"It's fine! I'm proud of it, actually! I've been big since I was little, so even if a bunch of kids fell into the sea at once, I could save them again and again!"
"Oh, that's impressive. The beach you watched over must have gotten a lot of kids, huh?"
At my words, Sakabaku gave an embarrassed, wry smile.
"Well... it wasn't so much that a lot came. Most of them were my younger siblings. I've got six below me."
"Then there are seven siblings including you?! That's incredible in its own way! Your parents must have..."
"Ah, families from old-fashioned fishing villages usually have lots of siblings. It's better for the workforce. I originally planned on becoming a fisher myself, but after rescuing and looking after my troublemaking siblings countless times, I somehow ended up becoming a fairly well-known rescuer! Ahahahaha!"
It was common enough for one's environment to shape one's career and talents, so I nodded to myself.
"By the way, Sakabaku, why were you looking at that door until now? Did you find anything strange?"
"Hm? Oh, this blue door? It's locked, so I couldn't really do anything with it... but I could smell something like the scent of the sea from the other side. It felt nostalgic, so I was just spacing out while looking at it!"
"What's with that heartwarming reason? Like a kindergartener who was late because the flowers on the way to school were pretty..."
"Well, in my case it was seaweed! More importantly, stop calling me Sakabaku and call me Mayumi, Chosuke!"
"I-I'm telling you, I never call other people by their given names! It's a matter of, um, principle!"
"What... do you have eighth-grader syndrome? You don't look especially unique, so you don't have to force it...?"
Unable to bear it anymore, Shu jabbed at him with a weary expression.
"Sh-shut up!! Anyway... you don't seem like you'll listen, just like Tana, so do whatever you want! But don't expect me to do the same!"
"Haha, I actually like how grumbly you are! Let's get along from now on, Chosuke!"
"...Tch."
Setting aside the fact that I had somehow become little more than a bystander, it had been a long time since I had seen such a cheerful atmosphere, and it made me quietly happy.
After chatting a little longer, we unanimously decided to head to the third floor.
*
*
Ding!
As the elevator made another smooth sound, what greeted us when we stepped out was—
"Huh...?"
Surprisingly, not one person, but two.
"Two this time... Well, by now it makes sense that people would start sticking together, right?"
There was nothing wrong with what Shu said, but the way she called them two people bothered me.
Because one of them was wearing a white, monster-shaped hoodie that covered their entire body.
"Hey, could your talent be something like a vampire too?"
"..."
When I casually asked in a friendly tone, the thing began scribbling in the sketchbook it held.
"[Do your eyes see this as a vampire costume, dumbass?]"
It showed us a sudden verbal assault... no, a written assault.
"W-why isn't there a single normal person here...? Look, I'll apologize for being rude, so could you at least tell us your name and talent?"
"[Who's the one apologizing for rudeness to whom...?]"
Even so, after thinking for a moment, he finally wrote down his profile.
"[...Here.]"
Tsurudo read the words written beneath that message.
"Hm? Ultimate Hood Performer, Kaiju Toshiro...?"
[Kaiju Toshiro / Ultimate Hood Performer]
"Um... could you tell me what a hood performer is? I've seriously never heard that term in my life..."
"Ah, I'll explain that... I heard about it while we were talking earlier..."
The one who answered my question was a pretty boy with colorful hair that did not suit his characteristically calm demeanor.
"S-simply put... hood performers wear character hoods like that and put on theatrical performances for audiences, mostly children. And Kaiju is an especially gifted genius performer among them..."
"I see...! Then, you know, is the whole not speaking and communicating through a sketchbook thing because of that too?"
"Y-yeah... He said he avoided talking to stay immersed in the role, and at some point, using his voice began to feel awkward, so he replaced it with the sketchbook..."
"[...Info appreciated.]"
Apparently satisfied with the explanation, Kaiju gave the boy a thumbs-up along with that strange phrase.
"Hmm... so that's how it is. But who the hell are you, anyway?!"
"Ah, right... I was late introducing myself..."
The boy then tried to make his somewhat sickly tone sound stronger.
"I-I'm Karafuru Ikiro... My Ultimate talent is... I just can't remember it at all..."
[Karafuru Ikiro / Ultimate ???]
"...What? You can't remember your talent? It must have been the same for all of us, but didn't it just come to you when you woke up?"
"Y-yeah... I remembered my name that way, but... none of my memories of my talent or my past came back at all..."
Perhaps embarrassed, he answered while subtly avoiding our eyes.
"You can't remember your talent or even your past... Then that means your name is the only thing you can remember!? A-are you really okay?"
"[FR, even after I tried to calm him down with a performance, nothing came back. Fuck, all I did was wear myself out for nothing. It was fun, though.]"
"S-sorry... But Kaiju's performance was really fun... Fun enough to make me jealous of children..."
"[...Thx.]"
"By the way, is there really nothing you can do about all those abbreviations...?"
"[Up yours.]"
After that, we tried some basic profiling and friendly small talk, but we ultimately could not help Karafuru recover his memories.
Instead, it felt as though we had forced encouragement on him, and we parted from them feeling slightly awkward.
*
*
With an uneasy feeling, we boarded the elevator once again to head to the fourth floor.
"Karafuru, was it...? He's so thin, and I'm worried about him in a lot of ways..."
"Yeah... But Kaiju said he'd look after him for now, so it'll be okay... His words are harsh, but he seems kind enough."
"...More importantly, does that make thirteen people now? The people in this academy, I mean."
As Shu and I spoke with sympathetic expressions, Tsurudo quietly opened his mouth.
"Hm? That's right. But why bring that up all of a sudden?"
"Didn't you notice? By the time we'd looked around the third floor, there had been twelve doors in the gray building too."
"Huh...? Then don't tell me... this building really does have rooms assigned to each of us?"
"Of course, we can't be certain, but there are definitely four rooms on the fourth floor too. That would mean there are rooms for a total of sixteen people..."
Ding!
The moment Tsurudo mentioned the number four, the signal announcing our arrival at the fourth floor sounded.
"It's a sudden idea, but it makes sense. So that means there are three people left?"
"Hmm... Shoko, Tsurudo, Kitsui... Yeah, that's probably right. ...Huh?"
Walking down the corridor, Shu counted on her fingers.
"Well... it was just a thought that occurred to me, so don't think too much about it... Ngh?!"
So did Tsurudo, who answered with his eyes closed and a shrug.
"Well, let's finish investigating first... What the—"
"Shoko, over there!"
Even I, who had been agreeing with them, finally noticed it.
"..."
At the end of the fourth-floor corridor stood a man, silently leaning against the railing.
All we could see was his back beneath a coat, so perhaps there was no reason to be afraid just yet.
"...Gulp."
But there was only one reason the three of us were so consumed by tension.
His frame was even larger than Mayumi's, and the air around him was heavier than anyone we had encountered so far.
But that was only what the three of us noticed in common.
"...!"
What I sensed, as the Ultimate Detective, was different.
The smell of blood.
Of course, his sharp white hair was pure white, but the bloody stench left upon his very humanity could not be erased.
'N-no doubt...!'
That man... no, that thing—
had killed someone before.
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