1. Adaptation.
After returning home like that, I changed into something comfortable.
Then, from dinner until the moment I fell asleep, I spent the whole day digging through the Academy's website to prepare. I had to start school the very next day, so there was no room to be caught unready.
Thankfully, there wasn't all that much to pack. At most, I just needed to gather some stationery and my gym uniform. All the other textbooks were available on the Academy's website, so as long as I downloaded them, classes should go off without a hitch. Above all, since the Academy would be providing all sorts of electronic devices within just a few days, it seemed even less likely to be a problem.
The thing I liked most was that there were hardly any rules about appearance. As long as you weren't so extreme that anyone would obviously object, more or less anything was allowed. I'd been wearing my accessories for so long now that I'd grown genuinely attached to them, so knowing I could keep wearing them even at school put me in a great mood.
And so I spent that entire day getting ready for the Academy and went to bed early. If I didn't, I might end up late.
Fortunately, I woke early the next morning with plenty of time to spare. I figured I could miss the intercity bus three or four times and still make it to school without trouble. Not that I had any intention of missing it, of course.
"You're up? Anything happen, like yesterday?"
"No, I just woke up early."
"Really? Your aunt's got everything mostly ready, so just eat and get going."
"Thanks."
I gave a short yawn and stretched right there in place. Then, sitting down nearby in a bit of a daze, I extended my right arm forward. Aunt brought over a health screening kit, wrapped the strap around my arm, and began preparing to draw blood.
"No problems manifesting the snake's physical traits?"
"Nope."
"The excessive aggression is a thing of the past too?"
"Obviously. You could probably drop the first question at this point."
"Just in case, I'll keep asking."
"Okay."
Once she finished drawing blood, Aunt wiped the wound clean with cotton and pressed on an adhesive bandage. I smiled when I saw it. It was one of my favorites — a small, cute, plump little brown snake character that reminded me a bit of myself, so I really loved it.
Looking at Aunt's expression, though, it didn't seem like she'd chosen it on purpose. Which meant today was going to be a lucky day.
And so my morning got off to a pleasant start. I went in with a change of clothes and took a hot shower. I came out while drying my wet hair, ate the delicious breakfast Aunt had made, went back to the bathroom to brush my teeth, and put on my uniform. Then, after putting on every accessory I usually wore when going out, I fixed my face up like a delinquent. If I glared fiercely enough, I could avoid getting tangled up in annoying situations right away.
With all my preparations complete, I picked up the bag I'd packed the day before. I slung it over my shoulder and headed out, calling that I was off. Naturally, there was no answer coming back.
I didn't feel hurt by it, though. Aunt had a mountain of things to do in the mornings, so she was busy. If anything, she was the type to insist on seeing me off if she heard me say goodbye, so I could let it slide.
"...Huh."
On the way to the intercity bus stop, I didn't spot a single familiar face. That was rather strange. It wasn't as if I expected to run into Si-woo or Si-a, but I'd assumed I might see at least a few people whose faces I'd seen once or twice.
To be fair, there were Academy students around — just none that I knew. As I puzzled over it, I realized I'd simply left the house far too early. The arrival deadline was 8:30, and it was only 7:00 now. Of course I wouldn't see anyone I knew. They were probably all still at home, getting ready to head out.
Well, it didn't much matter. All I had to do was quietly board the bus and go to school. So I waited obediently for the bus, then took a seat in a tucked-away corner at the front and pulled out my phone, fixing my gaze on it.
No one here knew me anyway. Even if I just stared at my phone the whole ride, no one would say a word. And naturally, no one would strike up a conversation either.
...Wait. Come to think of it, making noise on a public bus was supposed to be strange. Si-woo and Si-a had chattered away, but let's just let that one slide. Those two would chatter anywhere, I figured. Truly a close pair of siblings, in every possible sense of the word.
Sm faintly at the thought of the two of them bickering, I slipped my phone into my skirt pocket. There was nothing particularly worth looking at anymore, so I decided to watch the scenery instead. I drew the curtain back a little and fixed my eyes on the window.
And so I kept watching the passing landscape. There was something not entirely unpleasant about watching people already up and moving in the early morning. And at every stop, Academy students boarded as well, which offered its own small amusement. Still no familiar faces, though.
The bus passed several more stops after that, and eventually pulled in at the last stop it made before departing for the Academy. I was gazing absently out the window when I spotted a familiar face.
"...Huh?"
It felt like being smacked on the head with a rubber mallet. I could not fathom why my homeroom teacher was standing at this stop. And while I stared blankly, she boarded the bus and tapped her transit card — then, perhaps noticing my stare, began walking slowly toward me.
My mind started spinning. No — I couldn't understand it. Why on earth was an Academy teacher riding an intercity bus? If she worked at the Academy — held a position as a homeroom teacher, no less — shouldn't she be driving her own car at the very least?
"Um, student?"
"...Y-yes!?"
"May I sit next to you?"
My homeroom teacher said that with a smile. Naturally, I didn't have it in me to refuse. A flat-out refusal was far beyond my abilities.
The reason I'd run away yesterday was exactly that, too. If I'd kept talking to her any longer... I'd have ended up cornered, drawn into this conversation and that.
Yeah — dressing like a delinquent every day was just bluster. Since refusing is so hard, I dress this way so people won't talk to me in the first place. That's the story.
...Because I know all too well how precious it is to be able to talk to another person. So there were very few requests I could refuse. If refusing a request meant I might never get to speak with someone again — that seemed truly, unbearably terrible.
Of course, I only ever went along with requests I could actually accept. Even so, for the most part, I didn't want to say no.
"...Yes."
"Thank you."
With those words, my homeroom teacher slowly took the seat beside me. And perhaps out of concern for my comfort, she maintained a perfectly upright posture. Which, of course, was rather uncomfortable in its own way. Even though there was still some room to spare, she sat pressed toward the opposite side, leaving a careful gap between us.
...And with her sitting there so formally beside me, I could hardly cross my legs or slouch, could I? So I sat stiffly upright as well, desperately pinning my gaze to my phone. And because it happened to be such a familiar situation, it was all the more uncomfortable. This was something I'd experienced often, once before.
"...Ah."
I murmured that, my mouth falling open in a daze. A glass wall was beginning to form. And my field of vision was slowly starting to sink.
I tried to shake myself out of the hallucination, but it seemed impossible here, in this place, at this moment. In the end, I had no choice but to switch off my phone's screen. I tucked the phone into my skirt pocket and leaned my head against a suitable spot, pretending to sleep as I endured the vision.
...Strangely, my field of view wasn't that low. Which meant this version of me looked a little older. Not my seven-year-old self, more like nine or ten.
And then a familiar voice reached me from nearby. I slowly looked around — and took in the familiar faces. Uncles and aunts from a somewhat younger time were smiling at me.
Only then did I realize something was off.
"...This is—"
On the desk where I sat was a single food tray. What was supposed to go on this tray could not, in any honest sense, be called food. Tasteless solid matter engineered with nothing but nutrition in mind — that was the accurate description. But what sat on the tray now was... an actual meal.
I remember this day. It was my ninth birthday.
...And it was also around the time my rights were expanded a little. Though I hardly needed them. What good were rights when there was never a situation in which I could use them? For years, I had been steadily managed as a test subject. Injected with unknown substances, fed my medications, dutifully complying with every experiment and every training session I was told to perform. Playing tricks like a pet dog, occasionally granted what passed for interaction.
By the time I was permitted to speak again, I had given up on freedom. Humans are social animals. Humans cannot live without other humans. Faced with that cold, unassailable truth, my little freedom didn't matter at all.
I clenched my teeth. The hallucination of the researcher sitting right beside me had begun to take shape. Before my mind could even register him as some unknown older boy, the researcher's eyes were already covered by two red lines crossing each other. A single straight line meant... dying in the line of duty. An X meant disposal. Which meant the researcher before me was a person who had been disposed of.
And I had a feeling I knew why he'd been disposed of. Because I didn't want to think about it, I slowly fixed my gaze on the food tray instead.
Happy birthday to you.
Looking at the words written on the cake, I smiled.