Why Did the Angel Class Rep Fall? No — The Universe Chose to Dwell in Me

And so, after receiving a stern lecture from Lucia, I found myself being dragged off to the cafeteria.

"Honestly! You're the first human I've ever seen who so casually blows past everything angels know to be common sense!"

"……"

"Here, I'm buying your lunch today, so all you have to do is sit down and eat. Understood?"

"……"

"…Answer me…"

"Yes…"

And so, on my very first day after transferring in, the class representative Lucia didn't exactly threaten my survival — but I certainly felt the oppressive presence of an angel.

"First off, this is a katsu sandwich from the chef who won the latest season of Culinary Class Wars, that cooking competition show. And this yogurt will help replenish your gut flora. Your mana runs more smoothly and doesn't go wild as long as you're getting proper nutrition."

And with that, I found myself eating a lunch that Lucia had more or less forced on me.

"…I was expecting you to ask 'is this food efficiency-optimized?'… but you're eating quietly instead? That's a surprise."

Seeing me eat in silence, she reacted with visible astonishment, then turned to look at me with a warm smile.

Angels really do seem to be a race genuinely kind to humans.

"May I ask you something? Earlier, when the classmates surrounded you and you closed your eyes — what were you thinking about?"

"That's… do you really want to know?"

"I've been watching you, and something about it bothers me. If your intention was to ignore the class, lying down and sleeping would've been far more efficient. But all you did was close your eyes. I'm curious about the reason."

"…Do you really want to know…?"

"I may be an angel, but I'm also the class representative. If a classmate needs help, I want to help them."

It felt as if she were digging into the days I'd spent at the orphanage. But I had deliberately put up a wall, and I couldn't understand why she insisted on making the inefficient choice to climb over it anyway.

"…You were going to say 'knowing more will only hurt you,' weren't you, Shiota? You're easier to read than you look. Despite the prejudice that you're frightening, you were nothing more than a wounded 'person.'"

She answered while holding me tight against her chest.

"I know we haven't known each other long… but I want you to know that besides your homeroom teacher, I'm here beside you now too."

As she held me, the emotion called longing stirred back to life inside me.

Lucia — she reminded me so much of Mizuki. Could angels truly be angels to humanity…?

But at the same time, the emotion called fear awakened as well. Once she heard the full story of the tragedy at the orphanage and how I'd lived in the name of efficiency afterward… would she come to see me as a monster?

"Shiota… I am an angel. Our presence has grown faint thanks to your outrageous antics, the kind that defy all common sense, but we are among the highest-ranked races in existence. Even a lower angel like me could handle confession of sins with ease — as humans would say, it's a piece of cake."

Releasing me from her embrace, she pulled a pudding from her pocket as she spoke.

"It doesn't have to be everything. Just share a little of it with me. I'll lighten your burden, even if only a little."

"…Do I really look that bad, even to the eyes of an angel?"

"Even the Archangels, even the Heavenly King himself, would say exactly what I'm saying if they saw you. That you don't look well…"

"The Heavenly King…? Angels have a king…?"

"That's what you're curious about right now? The more I learn about this endlessly curious side of you, the more I wonder why someone so curious lives for efficiency."

…Angels are genuinely terrifying people. I was painfully reminded of exactly why they count among the highest of races.

But still…

"I'm sorry… I can't… talk about it yet…"

"…I expected as much, to some degree. Peering into a wounded person's wounds crosses the line of courtesy. But the truth is, I want to be on your side. Not as an angel, not as class representative — as the person named Lucia, who wants to help Shiota Otonashi."

Really… she was such a good person that she genuinely brought Mizuki to mind.

"For now, let's be friends. There's an order to these things — strictly speaking, today is the first day we've met. I'm Flügel Lucia."

"Flügel…?"

"It's the surname of the angel race — and the honored name of the Heavenly King. An angel telling you her full name means 'I acknowledge your existence.'"

King of the angels… the Heavenly King… so her name is Flügel… And while I was lost in that thought, Lucia popped a spoonful of pudding into my mouth and said:

"First, let's finish lunch and get through afternoon classes!"

"…Yeah…"

Somehow, my heart felt lighter.

After lunch and changing back into our uniforms, we prepared for the afternoon session.

The class looked like simple self-study, but in truth it was a vital period for exploring one's own abilities and tempering one's inner self.

Inside the classroom, certain students stood out. The first, naturally, were the angels.

Radiating a warm, gentle light, they seemed to belong to an entirely different biological tier altogether.

The second were the elf spirit mages. Their rare talent for communing with spirits was something I had already observed.

I sank into meditation, recalling the sensation of shattering that wooden puppet with a single strike.

In that instant, the surrounding noise faded into the distance, and a hollow stillness washed over me. What spread out before my eyes was no ordinary lake.

It was a universe — an endless, massive galaxy spiraling into itself. My sister's words surfaced in my mind.

'The deeper you gaze into the abyss, the more the abyss gazes back at you.'

The pitch-black lake I had seen when my ability first bloomed at the orphanage had transformed into a beautiful vista where a galaxy shimmered.

I'd expected nothing more than that dark lake again — so why had a universe formed within me…?

Because my existence converged upon zero, I became instead a sea of possibility, capable of becoming anything. This was the very source of my mana.

When I opened my eyes, the gazes around me were anything but casual.

"Um… Shiota? If you go floating around like that, no one's going to think you're ordinary."

At Lucia's remark, I looked down. My body was hovering a desk's height off the floor.

The weightlessness — as if gravity itself had vanished — felt surprisingly pleasant. It was as if the air itself were cradling my body like a soft, stuffed doll.

In Yuzuru's eyes — eyes that had been watching this bizarre spectacle — a spark of curiosity flared to life.

Like a teacher who had just discovered a rare treasure worth teaching.

"Otonashi! Floating around like a spirit is a realm even demons and angels can't easily reach!

Even I can barely manage it. Your talent alone really is something else!"

"Hold on, wait — what did you just say? You can float like this too, Sis? Is that how you became the youngest teacher ever?"

Lucia, standing beside me, chimed in with an awkward look.

"Shiota… Yuzuru-sensei is the youngest teacher in the Academy's history. In the field ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of mana manipulation, she has no equal."

And then it happened. Countless spirits came swarming in from beyond the windows, settling onto my shoulders and fingertips and beginning to glow.

It was an absolute affinity, on an entirely different dimension from the spirit mages who struggled desperately just to borrow scraps of mana.

"? Hold on, why are the spirits coming to me? Um, spirit mages? Could someone explain the situation here…"

The spirit mages were staring at me ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with slack-jawed expressions.

"Th-that… Shiota, spirits coming to you means they've acknowledged you as nature itself.

Your mana has been judged to be the same as the spirits' — nature itself. But theoretically, the only beings capable of that… are high-ranking spirits.

For a human to possess the same mana as a high-ranking spirit, they would have to have been born a spirit…"

"But high-ranking spirits only exist in mythology… that's impossible…"

The spirits inside the classroom perched on my shoulders and fingertips, glowing.

Their treatment of me was on a completely different level from the way spirit mages were treated. It felt almost as if the spirits regarded me as their master.

"…Look, it's a problem if you all keep staring at me like that…"

I genuinely was troubled. With this much attention focused on me, I got nervous out of sheer embarrassment.

I hurried down from the air and planted my feet on the floor. The instant I did, the faint afterimage of a galaxy rippled briefly across the classroom floor before fading away.

Silence fell over the room. The spirit mages stared at me, transfixed, and even Lucia found herself speechless.

"Wait a second, Otonashi. That just now… you're telling me that really happened just from 'self-study'?"

My sister Yuzuru approached, unable to fully mask her bewilderment. Even she — the Academy's most brilliant teacher — seemed to have never witnessed anything like it.

"Yeah. I was just meditating, and… my mana lake looked like a galaxy, so I simply focused on it."

"You simply focused? Turning a lake into a universe isn't something that happens by 'simply' doing anything…"

Lucia hastily stepped in to block the stares of the surrounding students.

"Everyone, quiet down! Shiota is a transfer student who just awakened his ability. Whatever you saw today, you're keeping it secret. That's a request from your class representative!"

At ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Lucia's firm voice, the students finally nodded and turned their gazes away.

I could still feel occasional glances darting my way, but at least the spirits no longer approached so blatantly as before.

"Thanks, Lucia."

"Don't mention it. But Shiota, you really are… a troublesome person, you know."

Letting out a sigh, Lucia gently shooed away a small spirit that had settled on my shoulder.

Something about the sight overlapped with how she'd fed me pudding at lunch, and a corner of my heart felt strangely at ease.

On my first day at the Academy, the galaxy I had created was burrowing far deeper into my daily life than I had anticipated.