Infestation II / They’ll Always Fade Away

Professor Seris set the book he was holding down onto his desk and bowed to us. “I apologize, but I must depart now; my first class of the morning is beginning soon. Feel free to rest in my office for as long as you need. If you have further questions, please seek me out in the afternoon, although ensure we are alone before broaching this subject.”

I wasn’t sure how many minutes passed after he left before the first person moved. It was Mara, who jumped to her feet and walked toward the door.

“H-hold on! Where are you going?” Shina blurted out, sounding panicked for some reason.

“Um, back? I have class in an hour, and I need to pee.”

“W-wait a second!” Shina must’ve had something she wanted to say to everyone, and she had been using this time to muster up the courage.

As she took a deep breath, a flash of determination washed over her face. Then, she confidently declared, “This is our chance to stick it to all those people who want to keep us in the dark. Let’s solve this mystery ourselves and prove what we’re made of.”

For a moment, the rest of us were silent. And then…

“Nah.”

“That sounds like a bad idea.”

The other two girls shot her idea down at the same time.

“H-hear me out. Please.”

It wasn’t like Shina to be this assertive. Honestly, I was a little proud of her.

Mara sighed, then shrugged. “Fine. Go on.”

Shina took one more hesitant glance around the room, and then she began to make her case in a nervous voice. “Don’t you find it suspicious that they wanted to keep information about the attack from us? I’d understand not wanting to go public with it until the culprits were caught, but keeping the victims ignorant seems irresponsible. What does that really accomplish?”

“This is probably what they wanted to avoid: us getting involved and throwing ourselves into danger by trying to play detective.” I would have expected Kerne to be the first to fight back against Shina’s proposed rule-breaking, but it was again Mara who served as the bulwark against the cause.

“I don’t buy that.” The more pushback Shina received, the more confident she appeared to be in her hypothesis. “Sure, there’s a risk telling us would spur us into action, but not telling us is way more dangerous. If the perpetrators are hiding among our peers, the people we’re the most likely to lower our guard around, not warning us is downright stupid.”

“Are you suggesting they want us to be attacked again?”

“I am. It’s the only reason I can think of that seems believable.” Shina paused for a moment, as if considering her next words, then continued, “This is just my own conjecture, but I think they want another incident to happen, so they can use it as pretense to separate us from the academy and maybe even each other.”

“H-hold on,” I said, shaken by her final statement. “What do you mean by that? I still don’t really get who ‘they’ are in the first place.”

Then, for the first time since the professor departed, Kerne spoke up. “Aristocrats, kings, warlords, oligarchs; everyone with a modicum of power in this world wants a hand in our fate. The academy, as an influential force itself, serves as a buffer between us and their schemes, but a mere buffer cannot suppress them entirely.”

“Why are they so interested in us?” Akio asked, as confused as I was. “’cause we’ll save the world? Won’t everyone benefit from that equally, though?”

“There’s something important you’re missing,” Shina replied. “Inheritors are Inheritors for life. Even once our duty is completed and all eight Anomaly Beasts are dead, we’ll still retain our blessings. Because of that, these people see us as the most valuable pawns in the world, and they’d do anything to wrest us from the academy and into their control as soon as possible.”

While this kind of political power grabbing was all too familiar in my world, I had been too preoccupied with acclimating to my new life to consider how those same sorts of people would try to take advantage of the Inheritors.

“Let me get this straight,” I said. “You think they want to use us as bait so we’ll get attacked again. Then, they’ll blame the academy and exploit the opportunity to force us under their wing instead. Is that right?”

Shina nodded, and Mara sighed. Then, in a tone mixed with both resignation and resistance, the latter voiced her reformed opinion. “As much as I wish I could dismiss that theory out of hand, it’s probably not far off. I’m still not convinced of your plan, though. Being cautious is one thing, but going out of our way to investigate is just asking for trouble. Remember, the people we’d be looking into want us dead, and nothing’ll put them more on edge than us sniffing around. I don’t have any faith in those bastards who want to make us their puppets, but I trust enough of the academy’s staff to have our backs. I think we should leave this to them. It’s the safest option.”

Shina’s eyes drifted over my way, begging me to back her up. The idea of arguing against Mara made me apprehensive, but I had already made up my mind long before Shina’s gaze called for my aid.

After taking a (hopefully silent) gulp to ready myself, I turned toward Mara and expressed my stance. “I think Shina’s right. Like she said at the start, this isn’t just about protecting ourselves from the attackers; we also need to make it clear to everyone we won’t just sit back and be controlled by the whims of others. So we should be proactive about this, for our physical safety and the safety of our futures.”

“They can use it as pretense to separate us from the academy and maybe even each other.”

Throughout my entire life, I couldn’t think of a single phrase that scared me more than those words. If there was anything we could do to avoid that possibility, I was going to do it.

“So, what, you just want to prove yourself to them? Grow up. Looking all big and strong isn’t gonna make anyone with that much power flinch. What’s there gonna be to prove when you run straight into a trap and get yourself killed?” Mara’s earlier rebuttals weren’t particularly congenial, but now, her sarcasm was dripping with venom.

I wanted to shrink back and surrender, but I couldn’t bring myself to abandon Shina like that. “I’ve made it through three attacks so far, and the rest of you have even more experience than that. If we work together, I’m sure we can—”

Mara lurched forward and seized my collar, pulling my head a couple of inches down to be level with hers.

“‘Made it through’ them, huh? Is that what you call it? Are you shitting me? All you ever do is blindly rush into danger like an idiot. Again, and again, and again, and again. Have you ever tried anything else? I swear, it’s like you want to die! ‘Working together’ didn’t save you from getting sliced open earlier, and it sure as hell didn’t save you from dying the first time. If you’re so eager to get yourself killed, then by all means, go ahead! I don’t give a shit anymore!”

Silence.

I don’t want to die.

But a part of me wishes I would disappear right now. I want to vanish and escape this moment forever.

I don’t want to be hated.

But I probably deserve to be hated. All I do is make trouble for everyone.

But why? Why do they—

Something forced its way between and shoved us apart, shattering my mind’s familiar recursion.

“Don’t you dare speak to him like that!” I had never heard Shina scream with such vitriol in her voice before. “Don’t you dare twist his courage into something to be ashamed of!”

Mara was stumbling backward with a look of disbelief on her face, but I didn’t think Shina’s words were the cause.

“Calm down!” Kerne shouted as he dashed to the front of the room where the rest of us stood. “I know everyone is emotional right now, but remember that we are all in this together. We must resolve our differences without conflict.”

In any other situation, I was confident Mara would’ve snapped at him about how unhelpful his suggestion was, but right now, she wasn’t capable of parsing his words beyond the surface level.

“I’m… sorry.” Tears were welling up in her eyes, and her voice was weak. “I’m sorry. I didn’t… I didn’t mean… I don’t…”

She tripped backward and slammed into the wooden tiling below. Akio and Kerne rushed over to her, but she pushed them away the moment they got close.

“I… I…”

My eyes were locked onto hers; her eyes were locked onto mine.

I’m sorry.

“I’m sorry.”

The words conveyed by our gazes were identical, but they were not the same. I couldn’t grasp the true meaning of hers, as she could not fathom the intent of mine.

Mara scrambled off the ground toward the door and slipped out before anyone could react. Or, rather, before anyone could determine how to react.

“I’ll go after her.” After many seconds of silence, Fleur, a pure observer until now, announced.

As she approached the door, she turned her head to face the rest of us one last time. “And by the way, I have no interest in your little idea. I’d rather be as far away from that as possible. Try to be careful, though.”

And as the door closed shut a second time, quiet returned to the room, this time remaining unbroken.