The cold water running from the tap did little to calm my raging heart. My entire body felt like a post-volcanic eruption; the slathered lava was rapidly cooling down after it painted everything in wreathing flames. I cupped my hands under the running faucet, not caring about the school's water bill. My hands were still hot and possibly oozing cold, nervous sweat, and all this additional water was like pouring oil to lava. Still, I could feel the fire subsiding.
I grabbed my large and fluffy , Mr. Sandman towel from inside my backpack and wiped my face with it. Phew. I never thought that holding a girl's hand for a couple of moments while going to school would cause such a conflagration inside me. Or was it because of the Phenomenon's after effects?
If I were to say it, Chizuru's hand was soft as a fleece and gentle as dawn. It also had a strength that you wouldn't expect coming from a girl resembling a porcelain doll. I would totally blame the Phenomenon as the firebug for all of this, but Chizuru herself was a chemical reaction with chlorine trifluoride.
Handholding earlier wasn't all that bad until the school gates; hell, you might would have said that I would have liked it from the start. The thing was that many of my schoolmates noticed us. My companion paid the stares no mind but I felt that the entire academic body was watching us enact a play.
All the world's a stage and men and women were merely actors and actresses. The Shakespearean adage came into mind and I couldn't help but think that this was way too fitting. Everything was in place and I was the only one who was not: the stand in for the main actor. I haven't read the script and so the Phenomenon provided with a set of choices in order to ad lib my way with not so subtle signs of which way to go. But who was the director of this wretched plot? Would I be given a chance to confront them? Or maybe it was only a product of my apophenia-addled mind and I was seeing connections amongst the mysterious events?
When we passed underneath the school gates, the compulsion effect stopped and every pore in my body began to explode with sweat. I didn't want to ruin Chizuru's image of me as her newly cemented friend into a sweaty loser so I had to tell her that I was going to the john for a bit. She acquiesed and told me that she would be waiting in our homeroom. I wasn't exactly lying for I finally ended up inside the comfort room afterwards but I had a bit of an impromptu tour of my school.
Its general structure mirrored the universal standard for high schools in my country: being substandard, engineering mediocrities and having unaesthetic architecture. However, with the new strategic placement of sakura trees, benches, lampposts, and cobbled walkways, it was as if a cherry blossom viewing park surgically grafted itself in my school. Without a doubt, this was an amalgamation of several visual novels I've played before, and the effect was jarring, to say the least.
If there was a place unaffected by the Phenomenon in my school, it would be Building A's male comfort rooms. Everywhere else was hodgepodge of places that I was familiar with: both in my memories of this place in the 3D world and in the 2D world. Seriously, school setting in visual novels were lit. I was seeing them rendered in my sight as reality and not merely as animated images in front of my PC screen. Even the sun never looked so much as refreshing as it passed through the foliage and scattered shadows on the cobbled floors. The morning light that bathed the courtyard and the other parts of my school was like a Japanizing beam: turning everything it radiated upon into Nihonggo caricatures. Kinda like Midas and his golden touch. I half expected myself to turn into some kind of protagonist.
Oh wait, I already did.
And no one else around me paid no mind the Japanization of our otherwise quaint and traditional provincial high school. Everyone accepted it as the norm. Or to be more precise, they generally accepted it that it was there from the start and what else could be more natural? Otherwise, our venerated school principal would have thrown a hissy fit and demanded an explanation for the sudden and overnight beautification. Somehow I had a feeling that if a sudden snowstorm would arrive, it would be treated as normal.
This was a strange world I walked through. I was Alice, but I couldn't remember whether I had followed a white rabbit towards its hole. It was easier to think that the Phenomenon led me here in a different world rather than irrevocably changing mine. I could learn to grow like this alternate reality, but seriously, there was only one hitch in my hiking.
The choice system which the Phenomenon one-sidedly offered to me upon a silver platter was one plum in my pudding. I have felt its effects and it was a powerful compulsion that you just have to obey it. An urge amongst urges. Or it simply warped everything around me to enable it. Pinging up on three instances, it appeared on a short span of time and consisted of two choices. So far, Choice A was Chizuru oriented and Choice B was something I wouldn't dare choose. It was nudging me towards Chizuru?
Is she to blame for all of this?
"....And I wanted to share my strength with you in facing it." Her voice echoed inside my skull and I felt guilty for implying her as the culprit for my predicament. It was only a coincidence, perhaps. And I don't have much of an information to go for it. I needed answers, first. Then maybe perhaps I could collaborate with Chizuru. But I have a niggling doubt that my questions would pile up the moment I entered my homeroom.
I checked the time on my smartphone. I still have thirty minutes left. Well and good. I could use this time to assess the situation on the home front. I maneuvered my way outside the male CR and into the hallway. Even the atmosphere here felt different. It was brimming with a certain je ne sais quoi I haven't felt before. I weaved my way against the sparse number of students loitering outside even though they had classes. I hoped that the choice system wouldn't trigger and end up with me having to publicly humiliate myself. With regards to choices, I didn't have a clue on how to deal with it. Perhaps the lesser evil the next time would still be a devastating hit and choosing it means a pyrrhic victory.
Then I remembered Chizuru and my old comrades at arms. I could seek help from them in a way that wouldn't make me sound like a nutcase. Something that didn't went along the lines of 'Yo, I woke up this morning only to find out that I was a visual novel protagonist with a weeb-worthy setting, a childhood friend and let us not forget that I have a choice system that may ruin my life, even though I'm not clear if it's mine, the whole nine yards!'. Nope, I've got to find a different way to ask for assistance. In the first place, however, asking for a favor wasn't that appealing for me. There were exceptions, however, when there was a certain feeling that I couldn't shake off on my own.
Helplessness. I hated that feeling. There was no clear path for now and yet I was brought by my legs here at the front of my homeroom. The next step was to cross the boundary of the hallway and the room; a very small distance to step in yet it was a huge leap for me. For one absurd moment, I felt like Caesar maneuvering his legions across the Rubico, and I looked upwards, favoring a proud stance which was a contrast from my nervous, hunched posture that mostly kept my eyes downcast. Veni, vidi, vici. I will conquer this new reality the way I conquered my routes in every visual novel I played. I wanted to say these words out loud when more than a dozen set of eyes peered at me. My class, 11-A, which was composed of 30 students, I guess?
Then, reality sank in. I was the silent, otaku guy that they barely even registered in their minds. Now they were looking at me. It wasn't even sparing glance; it was just a slight, unified flicker of their eyes, less than an oeillade and more than an eyeblink, yet it was sufficient to make me hunch my shoulders again, yet my eyes were still focused in a coup d'oeil around the room. Only three pairs of them remained at me, the two were acknowledging me in a neutral greeting, and the owner of the third came bounding towards me, smiling as she did so.
Chizuru.
I was heading towards my customary desk when she intercepted me halfways.
"A-chan, ohayouuu!" It was a full blown good-morning greeting that befitted a Japanese person. No, perhaps an anime girl.
I lowered my voice in response to her cheery voice that may have drawn my other classmates' attention like flies converging in to a pot of honey.
"Did you come all the way here to say that?"
"Hai! We haven't greeted each other back then, you know. I was supposed to... but I forgot because of ummm..."
"You don't have to go that far. It may be long overdue, but good morning as well."
Her slanted eyes flickered slightly but she then regained her composure. "Let's give our all again today, A-chan." And she left my desk towards hers, skipping merrily.
What was that all about? Was that what Chizuru and A-chan do usually? An exchange of morning greetings? Was that it? Well, it was a bit melancholic and refreshing at the same time that I could experience it IRL.
I had considered myself as a loner and that's why I could feel when someone's presence was about to enter my personal space. I took a gander and confirmed that it was one of my comrades.
"Yo, !"
He hailed me in a brusque and austere way, complementing with how he looked mostly. Having a clean cut look starting with a neatly cropped hair, followed by a freshly-ironed uniform, and ending with smartly polished shoes, he was the exemplar of school regulations. He looked and exuded all sorts of innocence too, and I wouldn't blame you if you mistook him as an adherent of an ascetic sect of Buddhism. Only the moment he opens his mouth ruined the total image of being a goody-two shoes.
"You lucky horndog! Sometimes, I wish I was you: having a cute, devoted childhood friend to fawn me over!"
"What's the ruckus? You missed your daily dose of morning greetings too, Gene?"
His full name was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Bonifacio. And he hated that so much that he picked a nickname that was completely unrelated to any parts of his moniker. I had no idea why he chose 'Gene' but it sure beats calling him after a classical virtuouso when he himself had no drop of musical talent in his blood. Not to mention that he was probably tone-deaf and therefore listening to him singing was worse than attending a three-year old's tantrum over a piano. Been there, done that. I guess having a clear cut name was a part of his image too, and I was not sure we'd be friends if he introduced himself as 'My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.', even if we had a common interest between us.
"Coming from you, A-chan? HAHAHAHA! I wouldn't dream of it."
"Don't call me 'A-chan'; you're not Chizuru. Shall I call you Wolfy and ask you to play your magic flute? Or better yet, have you lick my ----"
"Whoa, calm down man! You don't have to go that far! I get it, you're upset. You haven't shagged your desired gril at an eroge last night, have you?"
"That's not it..."
Normally, it was an easy banter with Gene regarding our mutual interests and whatnot. However, several things weighed upon my mind. Namely the Phenomenon and it did count for plurality, didn't it? Opening my mouth and telling him my worries was an easy thing and knowing Gene, he'd probably give me a solid advice or two. But I chose not to bring it up and divert things to my liking. This easy banter was like my morning coffee without the bitterness of caffeine.
"So what's up? Found any new games? Or at least new waifus?"
"Nothing of the sort... just kinda wishing I'm like you."
"A creepy otaku freak? Don't worry, you're almost there. You just need to add 'de gozaru' at the end of your sentences."
"No, you blockhead. I mean having a fair flower by my side! Haven't I told you that our class was nicknamed the Garden?"
"I couldn't get a heads or tails of what you're talking about, Gene. What Garden? The one about earthly delights? For the record, there aren't any birds feeding upon men here."
"Gah! Sometimes I really doubt if you really are smart, man and you just purposefully string along bullshit to appear smart. Nevermind that, though. So, Chizuru is really your route girl, huh?"
"No, she's just my... childhood friend. I told you before, right? That I have no interest with 3D girls."
"Yes, you preached it to me until 1 AM the last time we chatted online. But seeing with you interact with Chizuru and the other flowers, it was not hard to see you acting like a hypocrite. Come on, man, admit it. You're seeing the appeals of the third dimension!"
We were both spouting bullshit, as usual, but something about what he said bothered me. An indication of a very wrong concept linked to discord and incongruity.
Other flowers. Did this meant that Chizuru wasn't the only new person in my life?
"The other flowers? You mean like girls other than Chizuru?"
"Well, they aren't traps last time we checked."
"Last time? We?"
"What, no don't deny what we did to confirm that our karmas paid off!" He cried in an outrage, and the very fact that I've forgotten whatever he was referring to was enough to set him off. I didn't forget. It's just that all of what he was rambling never happened in the first place in my perspective and thus our conversations didn't match up. He continued his spiel, though, unaware or uncaring about my disquiet.
"We managed to be placed in a classroom where all the campus crushes are all located too by amazing coincidence! Then you had to tell me to check whether it was real or not, and I thought you were breaking your own creed of not being interested in the 3D, but I guess sometimes, hypocrites are also people in the process of change."
"Okay, hold on. Talk slowly, Gene. You're not making the least bit of sense. Like your namesake playing the Ronda Alla Turca in prestissimo. First and foremost, who are the flowers you're talking about?"
"Uh-huh. You're acting dumb again, man. I'll play along, though. I'm talking about our resident runner: Marie Ann! Although she's not here because she's training hard for the upcoming Intramurals. Next up is our brainiac but with beauty, Catherine the Genius herself! Then there's Eliza, then your childhood friend Chizuru and finally, Asteria-sama, who's probably gallivanting off somewhere, as usual."
I turned Gene out and twisted the knob that controlled my thoughts. To be fair, I could barely recall the names of my classmates for I interact with them when the necessity called for it. But somehow I knew that these five people, Chizuru included, weren't included in the original roster of my classmates. My classroom was supposedly an airtight closed circle but then again, so was my life.
Hearing Gene extrapolate and exaggerate about the larger-than-life exploits of the flowers of our classroom, I felt like I needed an unbiased opinion from a third-party. The unseen hand of the Phenomenon was clear in this, but in what way and purpose was unknown. The waters were murky and Gene was polluting it even more. It can't be helped. I'll ask her.
I tried to sidle out of my desk when Gene tried to stop me. "Yo, where are you going, man? Classes are about to start in like fifteen minutes or so."
"I wanted to ask C4 about something."
"You? Asking C4 herself? This never happened before."
"Yes. Haven't you told me that hypocrites are people in the process of change? Perhaps I am one now."
"Gathering up courage to talk to one of the flowers except Chizuru was gutsy of you, man. But disturbing C4?" He jerked his neck towards our mutual friend as she lazily reads some thick-looking book. "That's suicide. As your comrade in arms, I'm advising you not to."
"While we are at it, why is C4 not even included in the flowers club affiliation?"
"I would if I could, man. But what kind of flower would she be? A Rafflesia? A calla lily? Or its spidery variant?"
"You are aware that I have an obligation to tell her everything about what you said about her last year, aren't you?"
"No need to go that far, man!"
"Don't worry, I won't do that. I just wanted to ask her about the class roster."
"The class roster? Shouldn't you ask Eliza about it?"
But I was already out of his way as I spotted C4 putting away her book. Perfect opportunity to ask her and I wouldn't get another chance if she decided to read another tough book like The Critique of Pure Reason by Kant.
"G-good morning, Cassie. I wanted to ask you about something."
A new record. There was only one stutter. Then again I was talking to C4, and no, it doesn't mean Composition Four but her personality could be sometimes... explosive. It's just that her initials of her praenomen, nomen, cognomen and her middle name were singularly held by the letter C, hence the nickname that she herself despised. I was inclined to call her Cassie instead, lest I triggered her.
But, before Cassandra Claire C. Caballero, I was reduced to a stuttering, otaku freak. There was no smooth talking with her like with Gene, but still she was one of the two pre-Phenomenon people I would consider as my friend. But she was a girl and dangerously exuded a femme fatale aura, liable to make me feel intimated.
"Ah, it's you. You're chummy with Chizuru-chan and Mozart this early morning... and I was the last stop for said shenanigans of yours?"
"W-well, the l-last does not mean the least, I guess?"
"Then next time, it will be me that will invade your room and wake you up."
"Huh? Chi-chizuru and I didn't go to school together."
"So you say that, but I was perching atop your desk earlier and you know what? Your seat by the window gave me an excellent view towards the school gates and what did I see? The two of you holding hands together and then later you broke off like a groom avoiding a forced marriage. But nevermind that. I never mentioned Chizuru-chan's name, right? What led you to that conclusion? Did something happen with you and her?"
I was rendered speechless. Whatever retorts I might had were shortcircuited and therefore casted away into the void. She wasn't this harsh. Normally speaking. Although you wouldn't expect her to be gentle with how she looked like.
She was delinquency personified and not even our principal dared questioned her on that. Perhaps she had ticked off every truant look attributed on a checklist.
Dyed hair? Check. It was composed of lovely shades of ochre and brown like a specific geological strata. Multiple ear piercings? Check. Bad girl look? Check. Her eyes specifically. Well one of them was a different color from its brown partner. It was a scaling shade of yellow, like a hungry wolf's gaze or a bird of prey's stare.
Heterochromia iridium.
Intense was a kind word to describe her. No wonder that her seat had a one meter zone of exclusivity; she had no seatmates, and no one else approaches her except Gene and I. Well this time I was inside her zone and that was already something.
We were worlds apart. Gene, C4 and me would normally not bother with each other if not for our respective hobbies; our mutual ambitions that binded as together like the First Triumvirate.
"Never mind..." She did a volte-face with her scathing tone from earlier and adopted a soft, conspiratorial whisper. "About that thing I requested..."
"You mean the Android port of your favorite otome game?"
"Shhh... not so loud..." Unlike the rest of us, C4 was a bit shy about liking visual novels oriented towards the female market. But I was her go-to for such goods; her dealer for her next pretty little fix of oxytocin disguised as dating games for girls.
"A-ah. Sorry. I'm almost done with it. I-I'll send it to you later."
"Very nice." It was almost a purr, and I half-wanted to pet her head but I held my ground. I still had to ask her something.
"So, c-can I ask a favor? If it's not a b-bother?"
"You're always bothersome. But it's a welcome one, anyways. What is it?"
"May I see the class roster? I wanted to verify something."
"Are you perhaps doubtful that you aren't part of this class? Despite your claims of being an otaku freak, you haven't crossed the raised a single flag towards a hikkikomori route. Your school attendance is tidier than Mozart's and that's saying something. NEETs could go yeet themselves, am I right?"
I wasn't in the mood for C4's inane ramblings. I was feeling a bit tired from listening to her.
"That's not it, Cassie. Just a quick peek and I'm out of your hair."
"Hwa. You're out of vigor compared when you were verbally sparring with our musical genius earlier."
"You were eavesdropping on me?"
"I eavesdrop on everyone. That way, I wouldn't want for information and entertainment."
...
"That was a joke, A-chan. Besides why would you look for the class roster from me out of all people here?"
"Isn't that natural? Aren't you the class mayor?"
Despite her attitude and looks, C4 could make people follow her if she wanted to, and everybody else, including me, agreed that she was the best person for job. Or we just wanted a convenient scapegoat to push all the responsibilities of a class mayor. Democracy was evil.
"I'm flattered that you would think that I am worthy of such honor, even though everyone's perceived me as an opposite of a class mayor. No, I'm not her. If you are looking for the class roster, you should be asking Eliza for it."
Eliza? One of my 'new' classmates? Then does that mean the Phenomenon displaced C4's political clout? Whoever she was must be more capable than C4 and that was a monumental feat to accomplish. I never asked for her exact IQ but it was one of the reasons why the faculty overlooked C4's behavior and appearance.
"But she's conveniently in a school council meeting right now and barging there demanding for the class roster like a filthy weeb degrading their own dignity and asking for the sauce isn't really appealing, don't you think?"
"Y-yeah. Sorry for bothering. I'll get going then."
"Wait!"
I was about to turn around and leave when she grabbed my arm and nearly yanked me with her abnormal strength.
"What is it?" She quickly released me and started to say stuff, as if that was her apology for handling me.
"You can always ask me, anything... right? You looked really bothered about something and I thought.... well. I memorized the entire class roster anyways so you could say that I'm a better reference."
Seriously, I knew she wasn't joking or being arrogant. That was just her way of communicating.
"That's true. Okay. For starters, how many are we? Our class, I mean."
"We're supposed to be thirty-five in total. However currently, we're understaffed a bit. Eliza, the class mayor, is attending her duties as the student council president conducting a meeting, but I suppose she would be back any time soon. Marie is under a heavy training regimen today, and thus she is excused from today's class. Catherine is at the library, no further explanations needed. And finally, our beloved Asteria-sama's location is officially unknown, but I'll be placing my bets that she's currently at her mansion."
That just confirmed what Gene was babbling about and even C4 was complicit to the Phenomenon. This C4 of this world and the C4 of where I came from was more or less the same, and for that I was glad.
So in this world, five new elements were placed and that included Chizuru. If this was a mystery, the closed circle or the premise that no new characters would be introduced in the middle of the story to cloud the reasoning was broken. Normally, a classic closed circle involves a certain number of people trapped in a location without any means of escape or contacting the outside world. A perfect isolation, and the culprit was hiding amongst them. There was no hidden person X that wasn't introduced at the beginning of the story; doing so would spoil the reasoning game.
I was hesitating now. Let us posit that the Phenomenon wasn't caused by me, so that the most natural thing to suspect was the new additions to my life. I wouldn't dare say that they are the direct perpetrators... only that they held precious clues. Or it was just my wishful thinking. I have to start somewhere and even if it means talking to strange 3D girls, I would. I overcame that hurdle with Chizuru so maybe I can with the others?
"It's time. Five minutes and the teacher's coming in."
She didn't even bother to check a clock or something.
"Are you some sort of of wizard or something? How did you magic stuff like that?" In my awe with her I didn't stutter.
"Just a simple deduction trick. Or shall we say magic, for the sake of romance? Magic, after all are just unexplained tricks."
Before I had to go, I must know something so that I can determine whether I should slack off or listen in class today. Normally, it would be literature class, but you couldn't be sure if the schedule here was the same or not.
"One last thing. W-we have l-literature today, right?"
She blinked at me, as if I asked her about the Holocaust and every other taboo topic.
"Yes we do. We are learning about the mystery genre and its Golden Age, right? The lesson yesterday was interesting, I'd give that much credit. Having a closed circle to break down with new and uncertain elements would cause the reasoning of the reader to break down as well. We all wanted order so much that the Decalogue and Van Dine's Twenty were formulated so that the premise of a solution and our guideposts towards it would always appear. But real mysteries aren't so convenient. There are no guarantees that they could be solved and thus trying to reason it out is an exercise in futility."
Her mismatched eyes captured me fully; her words were talons clutching my attention.
"However, it's almost certain that the newer elements meant to confuse would-be sleuths are more suspicious than the already established ones. That's why, , if there are new things that enters your tranquil closed circle, isn't it logical to think of them as the causes for any future disturbances?"
For a moment, the world was reduced to my reflected image inside her eyes. One was brown, and the other was yellow. Heterochromia was too beautiful, too dangerous. What was she seeing through those eyes? It was a closed circle, probably, composing of her and me. A tranquil instant like the pools of our eyes with pure serenity.
Then the class chime rang which signified the end of the previous class and the start of the new one. The closed circle was shattered as she averted her eyes first.
I mumbled my excuse me's as I returned towards my seat, strangely flustered. The literature teacher soon entered the room and I have to take a glance at my smartphone.
Just in time.
Why, C4's prediction was spot on.