Approach

“When you look evil in the eye, it looks back at you.” Teresa complained on the way home.v"Even if you ignore it, I swear, pure evil…”

“Tere…” Coral thought about how to tell her. “I love you very much, but… don't talk about the math teacher like that.”

Adassa was following them steps behind, she was engrossed in her tablet, she had managed to be admitted mid-term to the same school as the girls, but her priority was still technology.

Coral, clever for some things, took advantage of the brunette's hobby and asked her to investigate any strange object, or one with an undefined origin, that had been recently added to the network, on any buying-selling platform or as an exhibition, on the island, perhaps also on nearby ones. But there was no luck, no luck at all, and that was despite the fact that she had promised the technologist, only if she succeeded, to give her her Nintendo DS, the first one she had, both of them had bought it at the same time, each one in a different colour, and both had kept them for years, but according to Adassa they are a relic, and Coral, without understanding why she had asked for it now, accepted; it would have been harder for her brother, it was always hard for him to part with things, even if he didn't use them.

“I swear, it was like he knew I hadn't touched any of the homework. That's why he called me to the board.”

"I swear," Coral imitated her with a little smile, "it's very easy to know when you haven't done your homework. You shrink, look down, and pretend not to be there. It's also easy when you lie."

“And if he knew, why did he kick me out?”

“I don't know…” She looked away from her friend to think deeply, “Maybe it's a teacher thing, does he like humiliating students? Maybe he thinks it's a way to make us try harder? Maybe he sees potential in you and doesn't want you to waste it.”

“Well…” Teresa felt a little more encouraged. “this time she is free…”

What was she going to get away with? What could her friend have done to her so terribly? Coral wondered. Most likely Teresa had spent the afternoon conjuring up some misfortune to ruin Mrs. Help of Christians' day a little, something like throwing a loud fart in the middle of the teachers' lounge or criticizing her mother-in-law when she was nearby.

When we arrived at the house on the ground floor, the queue of customers was shorter than usual, just as it has been in recent months. One of the many strange things that had happened in recent months, such as the wide variety of flowers, the fog in the hot months, or the fact that three beaked whales had been shipwrecked on the coast.

“But Teresita!” A client attacked them as they entered. She had just had a perm done. “Do you remember me? I used to change your diapers when you were little, didn't I? Of course, you were a baby. What a surprise to see you.”

“Teresa Maria.” another shrill female voice caught their attention. The forty-seven-year-old woman was blonde and bony. “What are you still doing with the patch? Take it off, it will make your eyesight worse, you no longer have conjunctivitis.”

She agreed, obedient to her grandmother, as always, and left her albino eye in the light. Her friend had not seen it in almost three weeks, but according to Teresa, it was proof of her immortality. They said goodbye to the woman and continued into the house, until Teresa heard something that left her motionless.

“She is so big and beautiful.” said the client. “She looks more and more like her mother, where is she? I want to say hello to her.”

Her grandmother, María Soledad, did not respond, she deigned to make a face and led her to the little room to remove the evil eye, although at that moment she rather wanted to prolong it or make it worse, because she was so big-mouthed.

“Come on, let's go.” Coral had heard it too. She took her friend by the hand and pulled her along. “I feel like doing your hair today, do you prefer braids or should we get some inspiration from Pinterest?”

Teresa's room was hers, I mean, it was the same style she always wore, anyone would say she had bought the decoration in the same store as the clothes. Although now a small corner was under Adassa's control, there were the few things she had brought in her luggage, almost all of them were battery operated or recharged by plugging them into the socket.

“Do you know something I can't understand?” Coral said.

“The Krebs cycle?” Adassa replied.

“Nooo, well yes, but that's not what I meant.”

“Well, look, with a graph it's easier to understand, everything happens when acetyl-coA binds…” Teresa tried to help.

“No, no, I mean. How come he's Japanese, a manga was published in his country but he ended up here? I mean… with all the fates, it's strange, he should have ended up in the same place. Is there another one like him? Like, the one in this universe.”

“If it was her brother, perhaps he was the one who decided the fate, he wanted to disorient her even more.” Teresa felt totally relaxed when they touched her hair.

“And if he wanted things to go badly for him, why didn't he just release him into the sea?” Coral replied.

“That would be killing him straight up.” Adassa added, his eyes fixed on the screen. “A guilty conscience.”

“But really, something doesn't bother you? Why does your story exist here? Distorted, but it's a story nonetheless. You should have opened that portal once more, at least.”

“What would be the point of his brother, the one who envies him, coming to make him famous here?” said Adassa.

“Maybe it was accidental.” Teresa suggested.

"That's what I mean!" he exclaimed quietly. "But what did he mean?"

“From what it says here.” Adassa was the queen of quick searches. “The mangaka already had some popularity when she made the School Life one-shot. Fubuki Kaede has never been seen in public, and never interviewed in person. She's a weirdo.”

“No, of course not, it's someone who doesn't want to be seen.” Coral deduced.

“Or a weirdo”, Adassa repeated. “However, by mistake it was discovered that he currently resided in Belgium.”

“And a pseudonym?” Undoubtedly speaking in a group made Coral think better. “I have read about many authors who change their name to masculine or neuter so as not to reveal their identity.”

“So maybe that's not his name? Then we're worse off than before," said Teresa.

“No, you have to be ambitious, it's another starting point.”

“No! We better get organized for the next mission.” Adassa interrupted. “They've been pretty insistent.”

He pointed to the screen, apparently someone was interested in finding the ghost of the valley, it had appeared to him days ago when he was going down from hiking, in the fog.

“It seems easy… it's just a matter of recording it.” Coral assumed.

“We shouldn't play with that.” Teresa said fearfully.

“The saucepan spoke to… the frying pan to… well, you understood me.” Coral said.

“Sunday, then.”

And so it was, on the morning of the seventh day of the week, four of the five members were in the living room of the Cuesta Ruiz family. Adassa was wearing her football boots, according to her they were good for everything; Imobach was using the most technical hiking equipment, he was delighted, he loved walking in the mountains; Teresa, on the other hand, was wearing a wide hat, her skin tended to burn, so she was also covered in sunscreen with 50+ protection. She asked someone if he wanted it, and the brown-haired boy, without saying anything, bent down so she could apply it on his face.

They waited for several minutes, more than a quarter of an hour, but Coral still did not make any noise.

“Did he forget to set the alarm?” Teresa asked.

“That's probably the case, she was exhausted from the competition yesterday.” Imobach replied. “It didn't help that the exams were approaching or that the coach always invited them to lunch after winning.”

“What do we do?” he asked again.

“They just wake her up and that's it. It doesn't make any more sense.” said Yûsuke, sitting, looking through some book.

“Perfect, you go.” Adassa ordered.

“No.”

“Yes, with everything he has done for you, another person would have abandoned you in the middle of the path.”

Normally, Yûsuke didn't let himself be manipulated, but in a way the girl was right, and he felt indebted.

"Waking up with your crush's face on is better than any of the crazy ways your eccentric friends might do it," she supposed.

He became suspicious when he heard some giggles behind him and figurative smiles as he turned around, he was on alert, but in a way he had let his guard down with those three. With the four, he no longer used that "telepathy" that the manga referred to as much, it made him feel uncomfortable, but it was an inconvenience that he had no trouble adapting to.

He knocked on the door three times, then three more.

“Excuse me.”

He left the door open behind him, otherwise the room would be completely dark. He walked over to the bed, luckily there was nothing on the floor to trip over, and knocked three times on the headboard. Nothing.

“Wake up. Open your eyes now, wake up.”

Nothing.

“Excuse me,” he said before gently shaking her arm. “Wake up. Get up.”

It worked. He moved away a little when he saw how, even with his eyes closed, he pressed his forehead and eyelids together.

“Good morning.”

She finally opened her eyes, staring at him, her gaze cold and cursing. Yuusuke was taken by surprise, he would never have expected that the kind girl who had picked him up that day, partly for impure intentions, which of course would never come true, would give him that look. He shuddered. Coral would have wished that he would get a splinter stuck between his finger and his nail, but then she managed to adjust her eyes and knew it was Yuusuke, so the wish escalated to him eating a bad mayonnaise…

At nine thirty-seven in the morning, almost forty minutes later, the girl was ready, she finally uttered the first word.

“Let's go, he ordered with the kindness of a hedgehog.”

“The pain will pass, don't worry.” Teresa whispered to the dark-skinned man. Although honestly he wasn't worried.

"So what's the plan?" Imobach said after a deep breath. He liked the smell of earth and green leaves.

Everyone looked at each other, having wrongly assumed that the girls had a perfect, flawless plan, and they, that it would be just a matter of time before they could arrive.

Imobach shook his head, Yûsuke on the contrary sighed and began to speak.

“You can't just go anywhere and wait for everything to be resolved, you need an idea.”

“But… that's what happened the other day. And we had less information.” Teresa countered.

“It was fortuitous and we will never really know if that was what we were looking for.”

“I said about this time because that's when they saw it," Coral said. Trying to excuse herself for the mismanagement, it made sense in her head.

“Yes, but no.” Adassa stretched out the o in a serious tone. It was about three hours earlier. He omitted the "It's the same time zone, in the morning, it works for us, there's no need to go at the exact time."

“The fact is,” Yûsuke resumed his voice. “...that you can't rely on pure chance. Explain the data to me.”

After rereading it, the Asian understood quickly, but he kept his usual poker face , because his companions still didn't know what was happening and he wasn't going to let go of my garment.

“Easy. We have to walk for a long time.”

“Good!” Imobach said happily.

“Well…” Adassa and Teresa said ironically in unison.

In the valley, years ago, the town council had taken charge of smoothing and marking paths for everyone, especially for foreigners who came on an adventure and thus be able to attract more tourism, the economic livelihood in the Canary Islands. Other paths had been made unintentionally by people walking, which over the course of several years, became marked. But what there was in all of them was dirt, stones like stairs, pine needles, some dog poop and many trees. The Teide could be seen from time to time among the trees, distant but reachable.

“You look fun.” Coral assaulted Yûsuke. “I'm glad.”

“Why?”

“You always look bored, uninterested, and like you don't care about anything.”

“Maybe. I've never been the enthusiastic type.” He glanced quickly at Teresa, who stops every time to take photos with his mobile phone of whatever he thought was beautiful, of everything.

“But you must like something, I mean, since I met you, in reality.” She clarified. “I have only seen you study, read informational books.”

“That's what I did in the other earth.”

“… Nothing else? I don’t know, some hobbies, apart from eating sweets, of course.” She snorted and then laughed.

Yûsuke's face relaxed for a few seconds and his lips curved.

“Tell me who would help you solve these cases if they didn't study so much.” The dark-haired boy with blue highlights played along.

Coral's expression was sincere, she took a deep breath in a loud voice as she expressed surprise.

“I didn't expect that, though.” She said, his cheeks marked by a smile.

“I didn't expect the lovely look this morning either.”

“Yeah... sorry, I don't usually get enough sleep.”

“I see. I haven't seen you stop since I arrived.” Like Adassa, but different, he thought. “Any progress?”

“In what?”

“In the collection of clues to be able to return to my universe.”

“Yes, the truth is that training is harder because the championship is in a few months, oh! and look, the scar from yesterday catching a wave.”

Not wanting to be arrogant, although he was, Yûsuke narrowed his gaze. He spoke.

“Don't underestimate me.”

Coral sighed, feeling frustrated for not getting anything, not surprising him, not a clear clue.

“Sorry.”

“Don't apologize, it's difficult. Even more so if even the most studious scientists here haven't managed to achieve anything similar.”

“I mean it, you must be so eager to come back and I haven't been able to help you.”

“Coral, you have,” He corrected. “...you two have given me a house and food, which is a lot.”

He didn't say anything else, he remained silent. The fact that a portal had opened back and nothing had changed there was what plagued him most at night, one of the many things that tired him out. Fortunately, he didn't have to continue talking, someone did it for him.

“Look.” Imobach said. He was at the head of everyone.