Chapter 17: Headache

“Shiori-chan? Can we talk?” Tsubame said as Shiori stood up, looked around, then sat down to write Motohara another message. Her heart was racing so hard she could barely think.

She was panicking. She could feel Otonashi getting nearer if she focused on his name. Reading his name in his own handwriting had given her a connection to him. Did that mean he could feel her too?

It wasn’t much information, but she had a sense of his location, power, and surroundings. Given more time and less panic, she might sense more.

But she didn’t have time. “He’s coming.” She wrote to Motohara.

His eyes widened. He pointed again to the message: “Symphon of Felthal dangerous. Stay away. Don’t talk. Run.“

She knew a river separated her from him. She could feel a sense of cool air and rushing water from his direction as he neared the river. He would have to walk to a nearby bridge, slowing him down.

“Shiooooo-chan!” Tsubame said, apparently not for the first time. “Are you listening?”

“Otonashi-senpai is coming. I think he knows I learned his true name. He knows where my house is. We need to hide.”

Tsubame winced, putting a hand to her head. “Shio-chan, listen. Something’s wrong. Really wrong. Maybe we should talk to Otonashi-senpai.”

“Are you kidding?” Shiori said grabbing a shopping bag to gather supplies for an uncertain time from home. “He’s coming here.”

Shiori felt Otonashi reach for his power. She felt him suddenly move. He jumped the river. Nearly 100 meters flew under him as he manipulated so much power that she clenched her teeth and temporarily broke the connection that let her feel him. Did moving that much power not hurt him?

Tsubame blocked Shiori’s path, and when Shiori tried to walk around her, the smaller girl moved, hands spread wide to her sides. “Shio-chan!”

Otonashi landed across the river and ran. He was faster than most cars could travel inside the city. He’d be here in moments.

“Let’s run first, take time to think,” Shiori said, trying to keep from yelling. “Otonashi is headed here. I betrayed him by stealing his Grimoire. He fought the shadows last time but he knew right where they were.”

Tsubame’s hands blocking Shiori slowly dropped. “Do you think he was behind the attack?”

“Maybe. Motohara said that Otonashi is dangerous. We only think there’s another Speaker here because of Otonashi-senpai. He was the one that told us another Speaker put spells on the school. He told us someone else was casting spells in the playground. He said someone cast a spell around me before he opened a portal. What if he’s been lying?”

Tsubame shook her head. “It’s not just Otonashi-senpai. There’s something wrong with Motohara-senpai.” She pointed to the mirror, which had gone completely black. “Remember what happened last time it suddenly went black?”

“Shadows,” Shiori whispered.

“There’s more. Something’s wrong with Motohara-senpai.” Tsubame said.

Shiori was getting a headache. “I want to be with him.”

Tsubame stepped closer, into Shiori’s downward line of sight. “You told him you were learning magic.”

“Yeah, so?”

“You told him three times, and he didn’t listen.” Tsubame said, putting weight into the words that Shiori didn’t understand. “He didn’t listen to you.”

“So he’s busy. Me learning magic wasn’t part of the plan.” Shiori’s headache grew worse. She tried cutting her connection to Otonashi, but that didn’t help.

“Shiori, I set you up to meet him. I would never do that if he wasn’t a listener. I know you.”

“It’s a good match. I want to be where he is. I…” Shiori’s headache spiked and she almost dropped the bag containing The Last Word and the Anchor. Through the handles on the back she could feel the mirror vibrating in complete silence.

“I would never introduce you to a man that didn’t listen. You’re the most important friend I’ve ever had. You’re the only person I haven’t had to manipulate into liking me. You liked me for who I am.”

Tsubame stepped forward so forcefully that Shiori had to step back. Her headache cleared for moment.

“Shio-chan, listen. I remember Motohara-senpai approaching me. He made me think you two would be good together.”

Tsubame closed her eyes against frustrated tears. “But when I saw him ignore you through the mirror, I knew something was wrong. I wouldn’t risk my friend to a man I barely knew. Think Shiori-chan, can you remember Motohara-senpai from the first day of school.”

“Of course,” Shiori said, headache growing stronger, “all of the girls talk about him. He’s the interesting foreign exchange student. He’s…”

Tsubame finished Shiori’s sentence, “…the most popular boy in school. I know, but did you see him on the first day of school? The second.”

Shiori’s headache spiked and she winced.

“We can hide at my house while we think this over, but I can’t remember actually seeing Motohara-senpai in school until about a week ago.” Tsubame said.

Then Shiori felt something she couldn’t have recognized days ago. The shadows felt more real. The world felt less real. The book described the first shadow attack as the “shadows congealed”. That’s what it felt like.

“They’re coming. Shadows.” Shiori stuffed various things, including the book with the bookmark and small note from Motohara, into the bag and ran.

Shiori felt the world shifting. It felt like falling, even when she was standing still. Going down the stairs was disorienting. Her mother was at the base of the stairs, Shiori could see through the woman. She was rapidly becoming transparent.

Shiori and Tsubame were being pulled into a shadowy space pocket, like last time the shadows attacked. Heroes from another world into Kryptopeda often described something similar in the books.

Shiori must have looked strange, because her mother’s mouth opened in surprise when she looked up toward Shiori and Tsubame. She had been going through a box of Shiori’s old childhood things.

“Shiori?” she said. Her voice sounded distant. She was barely visible.

Shiori felt the shadows condense in every corner of the room.

The two, mother and daughter, looked at each other stunned.

“Stop!” Shiori tried yelling, hoping to speak the word correctly. It didn’t work.

Shiori’s words snapped her mother into action. She pulled a book from Shiori’s childhood box and began to read aloud.

Shiori recognized what book her mother read: “Shiori tried to reach Motohara, but he refused. She would probably get pulled into the portal with him. Helpless, she watched him vanish.”

As her mother read, she became more solid until she looked real again.

Shiori was certain she had put The Last Word into her handbag. The book in her mother’s hand was an exact copy.

Her mother looked up from the book with tears. “We meant to tell you, Shiori,” she said, standing up from the box of childhood things, “we thought you were too young. We didn’t think this would happen so soon.”

Shiori stood, mouth agape, trying to process everything. Thanks to her mother’s quick thinking and reading, they were no longer being pulled into a pocket of space between reality and Kryptopeda. But the shadows were still growing. They were coming into this world now, straight into reality.

The first reached a claw from a shadow and began climbing out.

“No time to talk,” Tsubame said. “Isn’t Otonashi-senpai close?”

They needed to run. Shiori ignored her headache. She ignored her mother’s protests and dragged her mother and Tsubame from the house, getting them to put on their outside shoes as quickly as possible. Behind them, the shadows grew claws and struggled to climb into the real world.