The First Step
"...So, what are you thinking for a name?"
"Is there anything else you remember, even just one syllable? ...There are way too many names ending in 'el'..."
"...Hmm."
"..Sorry, I'm sorry... I've barely ever been called by a name before..."
"..."
"..Well, that's fine! Then... would it be okay if I gave you one?"
"...Doesn't matter to me."
"Then..."
"..Still, we're sisters from now on! I want us to share at least one letter..."
"Ciel... Luel... Ciel's not bad, but it doesn't feel like it matches me. Then Lu..."
"..Lumiel—! How about that?"
"...Lumiel?"
"..Lumiel. I like it."
"...Got it. Then from now on, take care of me! ..Lumiel."
"I was actually hoping you'd look serious this time..."
"You're saying we should go out through the vent? Hey, do you really think that makes sense?"
"Get a grip, No. 26. How are you supposed to get out that way?"
Before I knew it, we'd moved to the beds. We sat on opposite beds, facing each other as we talked. I roughly squeezed the water still dripping from my barely-dried hair with a towel.
...Even though Berry looked angry, she wasn't actually mad. She just wanted me to come to my senses. Still, knowing that didn't make it any less intimidating. You might wonder how a sixteen-year-old could scare me after I'd regressed, but there's nothing more frightening than a normally quiet person raising their voice like that.
"...No, listen to me."
"It really will work. First—"
"No. 26."
My voice was cut off again before I could finish. She wouldn't even hear me out to the end. How unfair.
"I get that you want to get out, but how are you going to do it without being noticed? Fine, let's set that aside for now."
"If we climb through the vent, is there any guarantee we'll actually be able to escape? Who knows what's up there. What if we crawl all the way out and end up on the roof?"
...No, I couldn't exactly say I'd already tried it once. How unfair.
"...I understand wanting to leave. But No. 26, I don't know about you, but I... have nowhere to go back to. If there's no certainty we can get out, I don't want to risk my life trying. If you really have to go, then at least—"
I raised a hand to stop Berry as she poured out her words. I couldn't just try to convince her blindly. But I also couldn't give up on escaping with her. It wasn't just because of our connection from five years ago, or the complicated feelings I'd had when I saw her resignedly say she wanted to go to the academy even though she knew it would never happen. I'd realized I couldn't complete my plan to destroy the Association alone. My ability wasn't specialized for combat to the point where I could take on even a single S-rank.
Thinking back, even on the day I died, as the villain Trinity, I hadn't been able to secure a clear victory against Lumiel, who had been a high-ranking A-rank. Not only because I could never bring myself to attack her, but also because I was simply outmatched in raw power and ability when it came to defense. That was why I needed strength—not just my own, but strength I could rely on from others.
I remembered that Berry's ability, as recorded in the documents from the ruins of this place three years ago, had been quite powerful. At first, I'd even thought: all the kids here are espers, so couldn't we just smash through the walls or ceiling with our abilities and walk out? While subduing the researchers chasing after us? If that had worked, I wouldn't be doing this now.
In this place, the mana of all test subjects was restrained. Naturally. If you were going to lock up espers and experiment on them, you needed safety measures like this. The bracelets on our arms had many convenient functions for managing multiple test subjects, but their main function was to reduce mana emission efficiency to nearly zero. That was also why I couldn't make a plan to escape using just my ability. Well, it naturally deactivated once I got out. For now, using my ability was difficult.
..Difficult, but not impossible.
"...Here, watch."
I held out my hand to Berry, who was looking at me with a bored expression. Then—
Zzt— Zzzt—
Along with a noise like you'd hear flipping through TV channels, small cyan dots began gathering in my hand. The tiny lights clustered together until they shone with the brightness of a lamp.
Beep! Click—
A mechanical sound came from my hand. At the same time, darkness fell over the room. The white grid-patterned walls that had filled the space were gone, replaced by pitch black. With no light source, nothing was visible. Ah, there was a tiny sliver of light leaking from where the door was. It had looked like a solid wall when the lights were on, but apparently there had been a gap after all.
Well, anyway.
"..Huh? Wh-what? No. 26? Where are you—"
"I'm right here."
Beep! Click—
The same sound rang out again, and the light returned. Naturally, it was my doing. I'd turned off the ceiling light in the room, then turned it back on.
Berry stared at me with a dumbfounded expression before speaking first.
"..Th-that... was your ability? But how did you...?"
"..I thought you said you'd never been able to use it since coming here... No, you even said the same thing about yourself, didn't you?"
Berry pointed at my hand with a trembling finger as she spoke. I brushed off the hand where the mana had gathered and began explaining. ..Forcing it really did take a toll.
"...A few times, at least. If I squeeze it out somehow."
The bracelet's effect was to drastically lower mana output efficiency. That alone left most espers in a state no different from ordinary people. But from my tests this morning, my body—still carrying the mana from before my regression—could manage one or two uses of the most basic abilities. I couldn't hack the entire system like I used to, but... manipulating one or two devices like this seemed possible. Of course, it gave me a bit of a headache.
"I can do this to the CCTV too. And the doors. Since we'll only be out for a moment, we can turn off the CCTV, lock all the lab doors near the vent, and leave."
"......"
Berry squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her palm to her forehead, as if deeply considering something. She didn't speak first. Waiting was the right move now. After all, Berry had never even considered escape as a possibility, not even in the moment before her death.
. . .
After some time passed, Berry finally opened her mouth. Her hand was still on her forehead, but now her head had lowered so her elbow rested on her knee.
"...Fine."
"Let's say sneaking out through the vent without getting caught is possible. But,"
"where does that vent even lead?"
"The moment we're spotted, people will come after us. If we were running straight in one direction, maybe, but like you said earlier—what if it leads to the roof...?"
It was a realistic point. Without knowing the building's layout, it was hard to even consider escaping through the vents. They could lead to the outer walls of a high floor, or to the roof...
...Escaping through the vent in the previous timeline had been insane too. But back then, I was going to die the very next day anyway. What was there to lose?
".....The layout,"
I already knew because I'd escaped before. I wanted to say that. But how could I convince her? Would Berry even believe me? Telling her I had teleportation wouldn't help. Berry had no way of knowing how far we'd need to get from this lab before the bracelets deactivated—or if they would deactivate at all once we left this place. I remembered the connection range between the lab and the bracelets wasn't that short. We'd had to run several dozen meters after escaping. So explaining that we could just jump off the roof and teleport even if the vent led there was out of the question.
"...Then."
"Just wait a little longer."
Since I couldn't find an immediate answer, I had no choice but to postpone the escape plan. After all, there was still plenty of time before the first test subject died from a successful experiment. I could find a way to convince Berry before then. Or maybe... I could just wait a bit and lie that I'd found the building blueprints somehow. The vent definitely led to the surface, after all.
"..I'll look into it a bit more. Whether it really leads outside. Or if there's another way to escape."
...Berry's eyes had gone bored again. But it was clearly different from before. Last time, her expression had come from having no interest in me even bringing up the subject. This time, it was closer to her hope for escape cooling off because she couldn't act on it right away.
I nodded and stood up, heading toward the outlet where the hair dryer was plugged in so I could finish drying my hair.
"...Well, I'd like to get out for real too. Even if I have nowhere to go back to. Still..."
"If there's a guarantee we can get out alive, it'd be better than staying here."
A rustling sound came from the blanket along with her voice. When I turned around, Berry had lain down on the bed.
Vrrrr—
Berry's mouth kept moving, but the hair dryer's noise drowned out her words. From her expression and lip movements, she seemed to be saying something like "I'm tired—"
...It hadn't been that long since my regression, yet I was already putting so much thought into saving Berry. Well, the ultimate goal was still saving Lumiel from the Association. This time too, Lumiel would become a hero. And she might end up receiving that damned Serum.
...Or should I just blow up this lab right now? No, it was better to avoid actions too different from the past. This lab wasn't the only one, either. There had been one in nearly every Association branch. Of course, this had been the first to successfully create the Serum. Blowing this one up probably wouldn't change much. The priority was to lie low and gather strength. Last time, I'd acted too alone and too hastily...
...Until Lumiel reached S-rank and had the Serum administered, there would still be time. If the day came when Lumiel reached S-rank, then there would be no time left. No—even the top of A-rank was dangerous. They administered the Serum to the first and second-ranked A-ranks to push their mana up to S-rank levels too.
....Tonight, I needed to think about how to gather strength first.
Vrrrr— Click.
The hair dryer's wind stopped, and only silence remained in the room. Berry's tossing and turning on the bed broke the quiet a little.
"I'll turn off the lights, No. 25. Good night."
"Mm, you too— good night—"
Click.
Darkness fell once more. It was time to fill the notebook in my head all night long.