Chapter 34

8. THAT WORLD WAS… A sense of vertigo washed over Rain as his eyesight flickered a few times. Once his head stopped spinning… …he found himself in his room. He was on his bed, as if he’d just awoken from a deep slumber. Still worried, he quickly sat up and examined his chest. …… The wound Deadrim inflicted on him no longer existed. I’ll probably never get used to how Reprogramming feels… Rain pressed his fingers into his chest. The absence of pain struck him as terribly odd. He examined his watch and realized it was about seven in the morning, which meant it was time to prepare for classes. And yet, the morning atmosphere felt serene and silent, without a single sound to disturb the peace. Rain thought about how he’d just narrowly avoided death, as well as the fact that it’d only happened due to Isuna’s disappearance. The skirmish on that snowy mountain over the second-generation Exelia had ceased to exist. Guess we’ve achieved our primary objective, at least. Rain had no way of knowing if Isuna’s erasure had truly prevented Deadrim from becoming a Ghost. The world had shifted, so it was hard to tell much of anything, really. They could only confirm that after they collected information on the new world. Rain rose from his bed and began changing into his uniform. If everything was normal, he had lectures scheduled for that day. He hoped to at least gather some information on the state of the world before those started. After putting on his uniform, he reached for his coat, only to find… “……” …a bundle of blankets curled up on the sofa next to his coatrack. He didn’t even need to check to know the contents, since a tuft of silvery hair poked out of it. “Air.” “I’m not awake.” Her reply was as curt as it was immediate. So you are awake. “I made sure we shifted to a safe place, then decided to rest. All that stuff on the mountain took a lot out of me, so today I’m…tapping out.” “…Shouldn’t we be gathering information about this timeline?” “We can do that later.” “Should we really put it off?” “We just got a whole bunch of information we need to sort through. We should figure that out before searching for any new intel. Otherwise, there’ll be too much to take in.” “Good point…” They’d heard a hint about Ghosts that felt concrete, which they had to focus on. “So with that in mind, I’m taking a nap. And I’ll go over what we know soon after, which will keep me from moving around. I won’t stop you if you insist on doing recon by yourself, though. Knock yourself out.” …You’re just telling me to go gather intel on my own, aren’t you? Seeing her act all bossy and arrogant felt oddly soothing. …She’s back to being the same old Air. He thought back to their conversation on that mountain, how they’d nestled together and how she’d served as his crutch. She’d cried and lashed out, putting her emotions on full display. The way she’d acted back then was, without a doubt, a part of her true self. Sure, he didn’t understand everything about her, but he still knew a great deal of what made Air, Air. Their relationship had developed since they’d first met, so they no longer wanted to just use each other. It is different…right? Before leaving his room, Rain peeled back the blankets a little, exposing Air’s small head. Then he brushed his fingers through her hair. “…What are you doing?” she asked. “Combing your hair. In a way.” “No, I mean, why?” “I dunno. You just looked kinda worried to me.” Air fell silent for a short while. “…I mean, even I get anxious from time to time,” she eventually said as she pulled the blanket up over her head to keep him from seeing her expression. “That Kaisei guy controlled Deadrim…and I’m a Ghost, just like her. Who’s to say I’m not being manipulated?” Her concern was understandable. The western officer, Kaisei, had controlled all of Deadrim’s actions through a pact bullet. The man who may have been behind the Ghosts as a whole had turned her into a bloodthirsty maniac without her even knowing it. And so, Air had no way to know she wasn’t being influenced in a similar manner. “Honestly, I’m scared. Am I the real Air? Am I truly acting on my free will? Is wanting to end the war even my own desire? I can’t tell… I have no way to know!” No one knew the “real” Air, since she’d lived one hundred years ago, so Rain had no way to assuage her concerns. He had no way to truly understand her deep-seated fears and doubts. “…Hey,” she said. “Yeah?” “When you pat my head like this, I feel like I’m your cat or something.” The only thing Rain could do was reach out to her and let her know he would always remain by her side. “What, you don’t like it?” “I mean, it’s…uh…” Air trailed off but didn’t make any attempts to move away. She simply stayed put and let Rain brush his fingers through her hair. After a while, her breathing took on the slow rhythm of sleep. Her opinion on the matter was probably favorable. Rain kept stroking her hair for a bit longer. And after lifting her hair up a bit… You suck at pretending to sleep, you know that? …he found that her ears had flushed red. Still, the sight amused him, so he didn’t stop. As he walked toward the lecture hall, Rain mulled over everything that had happened. He needed to make sense of the information he had before gathering more, after all.