"Too many coincidences," I said, scanning the system log. "Data transmission failures, false signals, and unidentified figures. Someone's playing their own game right under the curators' noses."
"Or with their help," Aoi added. "Considering no one stopped those two in D-4."
We were in the team zone, away from the cameras. Hino was pacing, visibly frustrated.
"If the Retainer is inside our class," he muttered, "then we've already lost."
"No," I shook my head. "This is just the beginning. Now we know it's not just a competition between classes. It's a chessboard, and some pieces are fake."
Mina stayed silent, but her gaze was sharp—an observer, an analyst. When she spoke, her voice was quiet:
"The device in D-4. It was active, but not hidden. As if someone wanted us to see it."
I nodded.
"A lure. To confuse or distract. Or... a signal."
"A signal to whom?" Hino asked.
I looked at the holographic map. Several points blinked—zones with anomalies over the past day.
"Maybe… other players."
That evening, I received a message from Ai Sanada. No greeting. Just a sentence:
> "You've entered their field. Now bring them into ours."
I didn't understand it until an hour later, when the D-4 camera came back online—and I saw a face. A familiar one. From our class.
A student almost no one spoke to. Quiet. Unremarkable. One of those easily written off.
But now, he was connecting equipment to the system.
I gathered the team.
"We have a suspect. But we don't confront him—yet. He might be a pawn. Or bait. We watch. We wait."
Aoi raised an eyebrow.
"And if he is the Retainer?"
"Then he'll slip up. Because he'll think no one's watching."
Mina nodded.
"And we'll see it."
I looked at her. That same calm, steady gaze. Silent support. Warm, grounded.
"Mina," I said. "Want to be my shadow on this?"
She smiled—just a little.
"I always have been."
That night, I didn't sleep. I watched the feed from D-4, waiting. Until someone appeared on screen. And pulled the same device from the wall.
But it was not our student.
> The game continues.