Tale of Discovery

Chapter 310: Grouping ; Far From the City

"Good morning," Natsumi says as she walks into the kitchen.

"Good morning," I respond, "You're up early."

There isn't much to do anyway, so wouldn't it be better to sleep more?

"Right," she merely responds as she takes a seat at the dining table.

Seeing this, I shake my head a little before shifting my focus over to Kotori and saying, "Hey, have you woken the twins up? They've got to go to school too, you know?"

Hearing this, Kotori hastily gets up from her seat and begins to make her way toward the staircase.

"Well then," I utter as I telekinetically move everything I have prepared over to the dining table, "If you're feeling hungry, you may start."

As if having heard the most wonderful words in the world, a bright smile forms on Tohka's lips as she examines the food in front of her.

Unlike her, Natsumi exhibits no interest in the food as she simply stares in my direction.

"Don't tell me you're planning to come to school too," I say while approaching the dining table.

"No," she replies, "But I need to go out somewhere."

"Oh?" I utter, my curiosity piqued, "Where exactly are you planning to go?"

"Remember that girl that I had disguised myself as?" she asks in a dubious tone.

"Yeah, what of it?" I respond.

"I forgot to release her," she continues in a wry tone.

---

"Excuse me, is Shido Itsuka present?" a male student's voice reaches my ears a few minutes after the bell signifying the start of the first break rings.

Looking over at the source of the voice, I find a black-haired guy wearing round glasses, who is looking around carefully.

"Yes," a female student close to him responds, "He is the delinquent-looking guy sitting at the back."

Hey, what part of me looks like a delinquent? Well, whatever.

The guy thanks her before making his way over to my desk and saying, "Ms. Reine is asking for your presence in the infirmary."

"Got it, thanks," I say as I get up from my seat and cast a glance at Origami before walking in the direction of the door.

On my way to the infirmary, I use Clairvoyance to check my destination, only to find it empty.

Huh? She's not there?

Perplexed, I move my sight out of the room and look around, only to find Reine standing in front of the door, talking to a woman that seems to be in her mid-thirties.

Shortly, I reach the two and standby while listening to their conversation.

"I will leave it you," Reine says, to which the woman responds by nodding her head with a gentle smile on her lips.

Seeing the woman walk away and Reine looking over at me, I approach the tired-looking beauty and ask her, "What was that about?"

"Nothing important," she responds, "I just asked her to take over for me while I am away."

"The 'date'," I say while rasing a brow.

"Correct."

"Kotori should be in the Fraxinus, right?"

"Not anymore," she responds, "Follow me."

Having said that, Reine turns around and begins to walk at a moderate pace, after which I soon follow behind.

--

"Took you long enough," Kotori's firm voice reaches my ears as Reine and I exit the school building.

Neither of us responds to her remark as Reine continues walking while I come to a halt and face Kotori, who currently has her black ribbons on.

"Today's 'date' is no simple matter," I state.

"I am aware," she responds while squinting her eyes, "If I am not wrong, you plan to reveal a few secrets you've been keeping from us, isn't that right?"

"Yes," I respond, "But that's not all."

With that said, I begin walking again, only to stand still once more as I set my sight upon a splendid white car moving toward Reine and stopping in front of her.

Without any change in her expression, Reine walks around the front of the car and opens the driver's door before getting inside.

"Come on, let's go," Kotori says as she pats my right shoulder once and walks toward the car.

---

"It sure is taking us a long time to get wherever she is planning to take us," I say exasperatedly.

"Yeah" Kotori utters with an uncertain look on her face.

"What's wrong?" I question as I extend my left arm and gently rub her cheek with my fingers.

"The direction in which we are heading," she mutters, "But, why?"

Hm Kotori seems to have a gist of where Reine is taking us.

Currently, the two of us are in the backseat of the car while Reine is driving toward the destination she had in mind.

The said destination is quite the distance away from where we set off, as I reckon that we have been on the way for well over an hour now.

"Say, wouldn't have been better if we took a faster method of transportation if we were going this far."

"No," Reine bluntly responds to my inquiry.

Despite being unsatisfied with her lackluster response, I don't press for more details, as something peculiar in the distance draws my attention.

"Is that Remnants of a facility?" I question while gazing at a small worn-out building, beside which is a tall fence with multiple 'no-entry' signs attached to it.

"Not quite," Kotori responds, "This is just the entryway. What's ahead of it will interest you more."

But still, why? Why would Reine bring us here, and what was with Kotori's reaction earlier upon realizing where this was?

From what I can tell, this place used to be a facility of sorts, and something happened that led to its abandonment.

---

"We're here," Reine says as the car slowly begins to decelerate.

"Are you sure?" I say in a dubious tone while looking outside at the many buildings which seem to have been ruined by various factors.

Instead of responding to me, Reine simply brings the car to a stop before unfastening her seat-belt and getting out of the car.

Kotori and I both look at each other for a brief moment before we follow along and get off as well.

As soon as I am out of the car, the scent of nature overwhelms my nostrils, perhaps due to the moss and vines all around us.

The once perfectly-functioning facilities have now been reduced to such a worn state that makes it seem like a gust of strong wind could easily break what has remained.

"I'm sure that you've already guessed it," Reine says as she walks in the direction of the largest building, "This place is a part of where everything began."

Where everything began? Is she referring to the matter with spirits and the organizations? But then, how?

Don't tell me the spirits were all the results of various experiments or something

Shortly, the three of us enter the building through a giant hole in the wall and make our way to a somewhat large rusty metallic door.

"Beyond this door, lays the answer to most of your questions," Reine says, "However, you would first need to find a way to open it."

"That's not a problem," I say as I approach the door while channeling Destruction Essence into my right arm.

Once I'm right in front of the door, I press my palm against it before releasing the energy accumulated within my arm in one short burst, resulting in the metallic door simply breaking down into imperceptible particles and revealing what lays on the other side.

"Research reports?" I mutter as I step forth into the room and look around at the numerous papers all over the place.

The room we're in seems to be one that held the records of many experiments and data obtained from various machinery.

Nevertheless, with the way things are right now, I doubt there would be anything useful left 'undamaged'.

From what I can see, quite a few of the papers lying around have become worn off, perhaps due to humidity changes in the room over the years and the fact that this place seems to have been left alone for the past thirty years.

This begs the question

"Say, if this place is of such importance and holds so much data," I state while turning around to face Reine who has also entered the room, "Why hasn't anyone visited this place before?"

As a response to my question, Reine looks around for a few seconds before locking eyes with me and saying, "Because it has been proven extremely challenging for non-spirits to come here."

"After the 'accident' that occurred, no ordinary human was able to set foot near this place again."

"What do you mean by that?" I question while mentally noting that her statement is akin to her admitting that she is a spirit.

"Haven't you sensed it?" Reine asks while gently waving her right arm in front of her, "The air here is much denser than elsewhere."

A slight frown forms on my face as I focus my senses on the surroundings, only to be surprised by the presence of thins specks of foreign yet slightly familiar energy all around me.

"I found something," Kotori's voice suddenly reverberates within the room as she grabs a small stack of worn-out papers on a desk to the far left.

She then makes a futile attempt in separating the papers from one another, leading to a disgruntled expression to cover her face.

"Hold on," I say as I move toward her while reaching for the weapon in the holster attached to my waist and drawing it out.

Noticing my actions, Kotori stares at the 'gun' in my hand for a brief while before asking, "What is that?"

"A product of careful exercise," I respond while slowly channeling energy into the weapon, resulting in blue streaks forming all over it.

Before Kotori can make any remarks regarding my response, I adopt a serious look as I firmly state, "Set the stack of sheets back on the desk and step away."

Hearing my words, Kotori looks at me a little suspiciously before ultimately nodding her head and backing away from the desk.

Alright, hopefully, this works. I haven't done much testing with this thing due to its high consumption of energy, so I am not sure if I can pull this off.

In fact, I am extremely doubtful of it being able to reverse time to decades ago.

Nevertheless, it's worth a shot. At most, the time-reversal won't be enough

And so, I point the muzzle of my weapon at the stack of papers as the amount of energy being channeled through increases.

{WARNING: Energy level below 25%}

Along with AI's warning, a disgusting amount of pain overwhelms my body from head to toe as I feel my head being squeezed by pressure.

'Reverse time as much as possible,' I repeat within my head while trying my best to ignore the pain before pulling the trigger.

The next moment, a high amount of energy condensed into a small blue orb gets released in the direction of the stack of sheets.

Once the blue orb contacts the target, it expands just enough to cover the whole stack as well as a part of the desk underneath it.

Exhausted, I let my right arm drop to my side as I watch the stack of papers with intrigue.