Aurora Over a Dead World

A few days have passed since that mess with Tanya, and the atmosphere in the room is still shit. Tanya’s barely said a word. I think my words struck some kind of weak spot in her.

She still showed up for class, but she was totally overshadowed and outshined by the others, to the point where her participation in all the assignments dropped. Even Ashlyn surpassed her, which is pretty disappointing considering Ashlyn doesn’t exactly have a power suited for a lot of things.

"I think we can end today’s lesson here," I say to all of them, though I don’t get much of a response. They’ve all stopped talking as much in class. Their attention has improved, but their learning has dropped. It’s clear that none of them are managing to really focus.

"Look—"

"[Zenith, can I talk to you?]" Nexus interrupts me just as I’m about to address the students. I grab my phone and step out of the room, giving them a wave to wait.

"What is it, Nexus? I’m busy with these frustrating students. Their performance has dropped now just because of something so stupid..." I say with a certain anger.

"[The Hooded Woman is back.]"

"...Where? And why are you telling me?"

"[She killed some very important people, and worse, my recordings show that she injected some kind of compressed liquid monster from a vial into a dead Kaira’s body, reviving her corpse as a monster.]"

"...Okay, that’s terrible news. I’ve never heard of someone turning into a monster, but what does that have to do with me right now? Others can deal with it, right?" I don’t get why he warned me.

"[Look out the window.]"

"...?" I walk back into the room and head to the window since it’s the closest. The curious students look at the window as I pull the curtains open. I immediately freeze.

"What the hell?" I see some kind of giant monster attacking an area pretty far away. I can see it even from this distance.

’This... isn’t a coincidence, is it?’ That hooded woman was clearly planning something, and I’d even been keeping an eye out for it, but I didn’t expect her to act so fast.

"[That’s the monster. By the way, it released an extremely dangerous electric pulse. It should reach here in 30 seconds. It’ll disable your prosthetics. That’s why I warned you, since it’s a monster with electric powers.]"

"Wait, what did you say—" My body seizes up completely. My fingers clench so violently that the prosthetics creak, and I just fall face-first onto the windowsill, sliding to the floor.

"P-Professor!!" Eirwen runs over to me, trying to lift me up, but without the support of the prosthetics, she has to lift my full weight without any adjustments.

"...You got the timing wrong, you fucker," I complain to Nexus, but he doesn’t respond, because my phone literally fried. It’s sparking and the screen is completely dead.

Everyone except Eirwen goes to the windows to stare at it. The monster in the distance looks pretty powerful.

’Where the hell is Astrid or some other veteran? And the Top 1?’ I’m so pissed I’m not in the army anymore. Because of that, I’m not informed where the strongest ones are at any given moment, and without Nexus to use Nadir’s clearance, I can’t find out anything.

"This... I’m going there!!" Tanya looks at me, and I see a sparkle in her eyes as if this were a one-of-a-kind chance.

"What? Are you crazy? Wait—" Tanya ignores me, leaping out the window. She fires small continuous heat beams to fly. I didn’t even know she knew how to do that.

"This seems interesting to test how strong I’ve gotten," Rouge also jumps out the window, manipulating the air to float. She creates a kind of atmospheric air cannon, launching herself forward faster than Tanya.

"Hey!! Listen—"

"Sorry, Professor, this is a unique chance. You wouldn’t understand us," Charlotte interrupts me, tearing open a fissure in space and jumping inside it.

"I’ll be right back, hot stuff! Try not to slip again," Edith says as she jumps into the fissure Charlotte opened, following her.

"YOU IDIOTS!"

"...Sorry, Professor, I’m going too..." Eirwen leaps out the window. She creates an ice bridge and starts sliding along it, surfing the ice as if it were a suitable means of transportation.

"FUCK!" I shout while I’m stuck on the floor. My prosthetics have simply stopped working. They still rely on electricity, even if not in the same way as other devices.

"..." I look at Ashlyn, who was the only one who stayed.

"Why did they go?!" I ask her, and she also looks like she wants to go, but doesn’t have a fast enough way to get there.

"...W-We all want m-more of your trust..."

"Why?"

"...B-Because we saw... that you’re trustworthy... n-no one here trusted teachers, th-they always abandon us out of fear... b-but you stayed... a-and then we saw the video and... e-everyone accepted you better."

"...B-But you got mad... s-so we all want to show you that it’s n-not as bad as it seems..."

’Seriously? Even Charlotte?’ I don’t understand. Why do this now? Is having my trust really that valuable to them just because I decided to stay and never run away from them?

"That seems so stupid... it’s almost naive on all your parts." I wanted to go fight too. This isn’t a job for rookies who just stepped out of the simulator into real life. That thing is strong. We’re miles away. If that attack reached all the way here, then at its epicenter, the force would be enough to obliterate any nearby building.

"P-Professor... I-I think I can help you... I-I got a lot stronger!! S-So I think I have the solution to help you move..."

"What do you mean?" I ask her, and she comes over to me. She grabs my hands and turns around, pulling me onto her back. I hear strained grunts as she starts carrying me with difficulty.

"Y-You’re so heavy..."

"What did you say?"

"N-No... nothing..."

"How would you getting stronger help me? What plan do you have?" I ask, frustrated, as she starts taking me somewhere. I look out the window and see the academy students leaving their rooms, confused by all this.

"M-My mental powers got a lot stronger over the last few days!! I-I think now I can communicate with the cube!! M-Maybe I can ask the cube to fuse with your prosthetics, and then you could walk..." I look toward the window where I see that monster.

’That monster is dangerous...’

"You’re an idiot, you know that?"

"H-Huh? W-Why?" She asks, confused by my insult.

’Was that really her idea?...’

"You want to try to fuse something unknown into your professor’s prosthetics... but whatever, it’s better than being paralyzed. I want to get into that fight." Although my main desire is the hooded woman.

She’s my real target, not because of the bizarre experiment she just pulled off, but because she knows me. She knows what I was before, something even I don’t know.

"W-Why do you seem so calm?" She asks, and I now know she’s trying to take me to the lab.

"I was trained to be calm in situations like this. Your plan is really idiotic, but it’s what we’ve got. Electricity has always been one of my greatest enemies, but if your idea goes wrong and the cube kills me, I swear I’ll come back to pull your legs every single night, dragging you slowly to hell with me." Besides, I know the chances of her plan working are practically zero.

I doubt she can even get the cube to react. She hasn’t been able to so far, so why would she suddenly manage it? So I’m just letting this happen so she can accept she failed when it doesn’t work.

And I can’t move. There’s no point in despairing or telling her not to do it. She seems pretty determined, and since apparently all my students are deaf and don’t listen to a word I say, telling her to stop will just result in her doing it even after explicitly receiving a negative reaction.

"...Th-That’s terrifying."

"It’s a threat, so it’s meant to be terrifying."

"Why do you think you can do it now, anyway?" I ask with doubt as we pass several students. Some boys and girls stop what they’re doing to watch Ashlyn carrying me.

"Huh... haa... my... my power got stronger recently. I think I can communicate with the cube better if I try..."

"Really?" I ask with heavy suspicion. Increasing the strength of a mental power is pretty difficult since it’s a complicated power to practice. Before, she didn’t see anything when "talking" to the cube.

"...Did you—"

"L-Look, I just want to help you. I w-want you to trust me, and I want you to forgive me for what I did before!!" She cuts me off before I can ask if there’s someone she got some suspicious help from.

"Trust?"

"Y-Yes!! I-If I help you get into the fight, I-I’ll be proving my usefulness, right? You can be sure this will work!! I swear my powers really have improved!!" Her confidence bothers me.

’...That day...’ I still suspect she spoke to someone suspicious among the veterans, but I have no proof.

"..."

"Yeah... I guess so... if you really manage to get me walking and fighting, I’d accept it, though I highly doubt you can."

"W-Why?"

"Let’s suppose you manage to fuse the cube with my prosthetics and they start moving again. From what I saw, that monster seems to have electric powers. What stops my prosthetics from shutting off again?"

"...W-Well, you can’t know until we test it, right?" So far, whenever the cube fused with something, it left it shortly after. The longest it lasted was something like three minutes, so even if everything works out, it would be temporary.

"...You really seem to want my approval. You really want to sleep, huh? Fine, let’s suppose everything works out. I’ll trust you more and reward you by letting you sleep..." It should take about thirty minutes for her to reach the lab carrying me at this pace.

’I don’t think it’ll take that long to defeat that monster... but I’ll let her do this. If necessary, I’ll stop her from activating the cube using my powers...’ I decide to go along with this for now. I need more information. Maybe Nexus in the lab didn’t shut down.

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