It was at a time where the students were free, without a teacher to pay attention to, when a sudden burst of light caught them by surprise.
“Rukaru?!”
“Reshidou…?” He was clueless why Reshidou suddenly yelled out his name despite the short distance, until about a second later when he looked down upon noticing something was glowing below him.
A circle with a complex assortment of shapes within.
“Is that a magic circle?!”
Rukaru looked over, “Shohi?”
While having recognized who shouted, he wanted to ask him regarding what it got called, but was stopped when the whole classroom shook, rumbling from the energy emitted by the circle of magic.
A lot of them who were seated reflexively stood up.
The air was restless. Rattling sounds could be heard.
Sparks like that of electricity started appearing from it. Things here and there were zapped, although those that were struck didn’t feel even so much as a pinch of pain, nor even a push.
And, quite abruptly, everyone simultaneously lost their strength, or rather, they had not the energy left to attend to their own muscles. They started dropping as they subconsciously tried to fight against whatever was bearing down on them.
Rukaru wanted to open his mouth but couldn’t, the same for the other students.
The thunderous roars by the vigorous energy allowed nothing else to compete for their ears. It was defeaningly loud, or at least, it felt that way.
The classroom was as if a storm, as whatever illumination came from the circle of magical instructions then straightened into beams while the circle expanded.
The floor, the walls, and pretty much everything else within the circle was gradually consumed by the growing brightness, the students’ vision succumbing to the blinding light.
Their consciousness was soon lost, their souls overwhelmed.
(Rukaru POV)
My eyes open. The feeling of the hard floor, and my cold skin immediately brought to question what happened, making me remember my last memories while still awake.
A magic circle was there, that was what Shohi called it, and everyone collapsed when it appeared, I think.
Yeah, everyone dropped. I don’t even have to lift my body to see that everyone else, except for some few seated, is on the floor. I get up, and it seems I’m the only one awake, huh.
I look at the outside, through the windows-only side of the classroom, and it seems we’re no longer at school, outside is just the dark and starry sky, and some grass as far as I could see.
Ugh, cold. It’s really cold. But my insides are warm, oddly warm, what’s up with this contrast?
On my skin is far from what I feel on the inside. It’s uncomfortable, but I have just about the strength to ignore that for now, so I do.
I take a look at everyone else, each breath of theirs was visible. Of course, mine too. If it was this chilly with the clothes I have on—the school uniform for boys—the girls would probably be shivering if they were awake since theirs covered less skin, actually, I saw some faces twitch, so I shouldn’t be the only one awake soon.
But aside from the outside view being different, there was something else with us. A dirt… mannequin?
It was at the center of the classroom.
I don’t know if I should touch it, but I got closer to it and did it anyway. My eyes were telling me it was definitely made of dirt, but my hand felt it was like a rock.
I try poking a finger into it, but I’m unable to make a dent, well, not that I’m really putting in power, I don’t know what it is, and don’t know if I should even bother.
I look over to the classmate closest to me when it happened. Reshidou.
To be honest, I’m doubtful if it’s a good idea to wake someone up when it’s this cold, but I also don’t know if I should let them sleep when it’s this cold. My mind is leaning on doing the former though.
“Reshidou.”
I called his name quietly while shaking him. My compromise was to at least have someone I can talk with, while letting everyone skip past this night by letting them continue sleeping.
Speaking of having someone to talk with, maybe it’d be good for me if I wake Shohi too. Actually, maybe I should’ve checked what time it was by looking at the moon before I do this waking up idea, but it was too late for Reshidou, he groaned a noise of complaint, and his eyelids lifted.
“Rukaru? Uh… What time is it?”
I can sympathize if he’s not liking what he’s feeling, but, “it’s important, I don’t know where we are”, I just go straight to the point.
He lifted his head, and looked at his surroundings, “I slept in the classroom, and moreover, on the floor?” He showed a dubious expression when he saw everyone also sleeping in the classroom.
It was dark, but the moon, most definitely, made it bright enough to see clearly enough.
“Yeah, I was doing the same. Look outside.”
Standing up, he did as I told. “The school’s gone?”
“Yeah. ‘Don’t know where we are”, I pretty much repeated what I said, but it was fair enough, this is quite mysterious.
I wonder how Shohi would react? Oh, yeah. First, I have to check the time.
“I need to check outside.” So, Reshidou is notified.
“Okay…” Reshidou follows me as I open the doors to outside. I suppose he wouldn’t really have much to do anyways.
A breeze flew in, and, “hooh”, Reshidou shivered from that. I think I would’ve also done the same, but I was able to resist feeling much of a difference.
And, well, I wasn’t expecting to see what was there. The doors get closed, because I no longer wanted to step outside.
“What the…” Reshidou maybe would’ve shouted that if there wasn’t this feeling of fatigue. “Do you think that’d even do anything though?” He showed worry.
Right, the windows are made of glass. He also pulls me down, to hide us both from being seen.
“But I didn’t see anything move, I think we’re still fine.” I try to be optimistic. As for the truth of those words, I’ll admit they were a bit questionable considering we only spent like a second looking outside.
It seemed to be quite a massacre, there was basically a line of them a small distance away from the classroom and extending beyond. Tons of dead creatures in the grass.
There were some that clearly popped out of the grass, while I could only see probably blood from most of the other bodies.
However, it doesn’t look like we’re surrounded. So, that’s good, but not very much an improvement.
Considering their shape and the fur on their body, I think those things are like wolves, especially from what I can see with the more whole ones. They look bigger than what I would expect from a wolf.
And, there’s some other kind scattered around. They’re just as big as the wolves. Different from the white fur, it looked like they had brown feathers. Birds?
“What do you think we should do when morning comes?” I’m feeling a bit of fear, I suppose.
Yeah, I think that goes the same for Reshidou. It’s probably best to not wake the others up, or is it best to wake others up? I’m just torn.
“We’re going to have to go outside sometime. Right.” Reshidou shows a pained expression.
“Let’s at least peek through the windows.” My fear brought memories of when I went along with some people and watched horror movies, “hopefully nothing pops out”, I said, wishing that’ll turn out as just a joke.
Was it unfortunate that the doors, our only exit, faced this dead horde of big wolves and big birds that seemed like they were rushing to here, or was it fortunate we knew immediately what was very close to us?
It probably wasn’t a fight between themselves either, I could easily imagine there being something else that did the killing.
I see Reshidou pinching his cheek, I guess he’s trying to do that, huh. I should try it too.
I feel my cheek hurt. It’s real.
There’s also the sensation of being afraid, an increased heartrate, so that’s one more to this being real.
I slump my back on the wall, hiding myself beneath the glass window, and Reshidou also stopped peeking out. Sigh. This is quite sudden.
In a panic to shift our focus away, “there’s also that dirt thing too”, I mentioned.
And, Reshidou turned to where I was looking.
“Hahah… If that thing moves…” He was exasperated.
“Ha… hah.” I copied his disturbed laugh.
“That’s”, I gave a pause before, “ominous”, I concluded.
We both stared at it for a good few seconds. Thankfully, it didn’t move. I’m hoping it doesn’t move out of nowhere.
I’m sure it wasn’t there before, I can’t remember it being there before, so I had suspicions. I might regret it if it suddenly disappeared while no one was looking.
I try thinking of something to talk about, “I’m thinking of waking Shohi up”, that’s all I can say that could be of help.
“Shohi? Why?” Reshidou asked.
“I have a hunch, that he knows something.”
Reshidou stares emptily, thinking, before saying: “right, he reads stories, maybe about this kind of thing. I think the video game players, movie watchers, and the others in Shohi’s group would be nice to wake up…”
His voice was without much enthusiasm, but what he said is sound. It’s best to talk with someone who has shown that they know something.
Although I did hang out with a variety of people, I never engaged much in any hobbies, except for the more physical ones, so I don’t know much about whatever has happened.
“For now, let’s wake up Shohi.” I told Reshidou. We maintained our vigilance to the mysterious mannequin, as we go over to wake him up.
The guy was quick to open his eyes. “Rukaru?” He muttered my name as he saw me, though his attention switched over immediately to his surroundings.
He seems to have gotten taken in by the unusual scene of waking up in a classroom which was illuminated by mostly just the moon.
“Yeah”, I have to ask, “we need your help to know what happened.”
“Okay.” Shohi focuses on us. “But, wow, cold.” He expressed a short complaint. “Anyways, let’s see… [Status Open].”
Surprising us both, the atmosphere around Shohi changed when he said something. The concerns I could see on his face was eliminated by a sudden grin.
“[Status Open]?” When I copied, or repeated in a questioning tone, what Shohi said, I get startled by what popped up in-front of me.
What appeared was like something I’d see on a computer. Inside a window was my name; two numbers prefixed as chronological and biological age; biological gender; health, mana, and stamina points; some enumerations; and two sections labeled as [Constructs] and [Partial Constructs].
The latter of the two sections was empty while the former had three things: [Division], [Health Regulation], and [Spiritual Security].
I tell Shohi about what I’m seeing, but he just gives me “huh, that’s to be expected” as a response, “you are the most social guy”, and he finished with that.
“It’s expected because I’m the most social guy?” That was too simple a reason, so I asked.
“Well, it just fits you, right? You’re also physically active, healthy, and you exercise a fair bit, so you have something like [Health Regulation]. But, your [Division] interests me the most, what’s its description?” (Shohi)
“Description?” I asked, but with not receiving a reply from Shohi for a fair second, I end up seeing the box with the construct’s name expand, displaying the description.
“It says imbues stamina into an equipped blade, and when no blade is equipped, mana is shaped instead, upon an intent to slice, it shall be done.” I read it out.
“Heh~ that makes you a perfect fit as a knight. How about you try slicing the desk?”
Try slicing the desk? In this window, it says…
“No. I’m not going to do that.” I denied Shohi’s suggestion.
Even if there aren’t any teachers or anyone to reprimand us, there’s no reason for me to just try it.
Shohi was silent for a moment, probably looking at his status, it seems we can’t just peep into another’s status, huh. His was invisible to me.
“It seems you’re pretty unfazed by how cold it really is. Even though I have [Thermal Aptitude]…” Shohi appeared discontent.
I checked the descriptions of the two skills aside from [Division]. Both were pretty much summarized by their names, the one regulating my health used stamina to keep my body up to par, and the one about spirit used mana to keep my soul strong.
As for the reason of me being relatively unfazed: [Health Regulation], particularly [Heat Regulation] in a section wherein it even had options to toggle certain features on or off like in a phone’s settings. My stamina bar is still full, so it’s probably fine to not turn anything off.
“Thermal… Something about temperature, so you can control heat?” Reshidou asked that to Shohi.
I guess I’ll take over just looking somewhere, what Reshidou was doing.
“Yeah, it’s a foundational construct for things related to heat, it says. Also, yeah, controlling heat.” I heard Shohi’s response.
Outside of their conversation, then, in the corner of my eye, I spot some movement.
The mannequin was far from that corner of my eye though, so it ain’t that, but a classmate was waking up at the other door a way from us.
“Toukai?” I mutter the name of the girl who started rubbing her eyes.
“So cold…” It was quiet but I hear her say it, and, “huh? Eh?” She gets surprised with where she was.
“Toukai, psst.” I call her over intently now. Seeing her look at us, I successfully grabbed her attention, but then, she stood up with her head turning, looking around, and then her eyes pierced through the window.
“What’s that?” She noticed something outside, since her seat is closest to one of the two doors of the classroom, she’ll probably see it.
“Toukai!” I said it loud, but not too loud. “It’s not a good look out there, so just come here.”
She then froze for a moment, before turning back her head, and it didn’t take her long to also take notice of the mannequin thing in the middle of the classroom, though she stays silent as she goes over to where we are.
“Do you guys have a clue where this is?” She asked with a slightly trembling voice, but not from fear, but more so from the cold: arms crossed, hands gripped tightly, and legs close together.
So far, I’m still the only one who wasn’t showing much of a reaction to the cold, although I do feel it.
“We are probably in another world. Try saying [Status Open].” Shohi was the one to answer, and instruct Toukai. Compared to the three of us, he was strangely happy, a subtle smile plastered on his face.
“Okay. [Status Open]. What is this stuff?” (Toukai)
“It’s like something in a video game, for now, could you say what’s in your constructs? Of course, read out their descriptions for me.” (Shohi)
“Uh-huh…” Toukai shows some skepticism, but she shortly chooses to just go with what he said. “[Evaluation], see an analytical report of a target’s characteristics or design. [Tracker], apply magic that regularly sends out a perceivable energy from the target; and [Eidetic], preserves acquired information in one’s soul.”
“Hah… hahah…”
Shohi was laughing a little, slowly. I’m not exactly sure what for…
I remember what Shohi said to me when I mentioned my constructs, “is this to be expected from the class president?” I asked him.
“Yeah… I guess so. She is pretty diligent with schoolwork, after all. Memorization, huh…”
“Oh yeah, you haven’t mentioned yours, Reshidou.” I might as well know what he has.
“[Kinetic Aptitude]. And, that’s it.”
“Eh? Kinetic aptitude, huh.”
Shohi’s head rotated in thought, he’s being quite animated. “I’m remembering…” He murmured. “Right.” He faced forward. “You also did archery alongside running events, and… Oh, wow.” He started laughing inwardly.
“What?” Reshidou couldn’t help but ask.
A breath in and out, Shohi tried relaxing himself to answer, “it’s just that things are going along with how it would. Rukaru, you were interested in Kendo, right?”
“Yeah…” I replied weakly. I feel a little lacking in the energy department compared to him.
“If it’s an interest, Kendo was the most that Rukaru mentioned.” Reshidou added.
“Right, right. You both are quite the athletic duo, both of you are friendly with each other. I’m guessing you two will become heroes for a country.” And, Shohi tacked on another chuckle.
“What about you?” Toukai asked that to Shohi whose happiness became a little concerning.
“Of course. I don’t plan on being evil. I’m planning on just being a character on the sidelines…”
My train of thought is not matching up…
Though I sense some sort of hidden agenda in Shohi’s response, those words seemed to be spoken with truth.
Toukai just goes a slow “uh-huh”, as she then turns her head to the doors of the classroom. “We should talk about how we’re gonna go from here.”
…
…
…
Footnotes / Extra Information / Naming Derivation
Reshidou derived from 烈 (strong) and 動 (motion)
Shohi derived from 暑 (heat) and 冷 (cold)
Toukai derived from 灯 (light) and 絵 (picture)
