The Results of the Previous Night

That night, both Hatomi and myself had gone to the convenience store just like I had promised and got her whatever she wanted for helping me.

From there, we had ate the food at her place and then I headed on back to my place to rest up for the rest of the night.

Now, I was making my way down the ever so familiar place I grew up in and as I reached the main street, I couldn't help but notice Chitose up ahead of me.

Just when I was about to call out to her, I noticed that she was talking to some of her girl friends that she would come to school with.

Seeing this, I decided to restrain myself from calling out to her. It wasn't because I was regretting rejecting her. It was because I wanted to know if she was alright.

"Good morning, Natsuo"

I looked over my shoulder and noticed Hatomi waving at me "Good morning"

"Did you sleep well?"

"More or less... I was still a bit hung over about what happened not only with Chitose but what happened with Sumiko"

"You really shouldn't let that type of thing get to you"

"Huh?"

"You knew about both their feelings and to top it off, you knew of their thoughts, didn't you?"

"Y-Yeah, I did"

"Then there's no reason for you to be worrying about it, now is it?"

"I know..."

I let out a sigh and glanced back over at where Chitose was and just when I had done so, our eyes met for a split second and she looked away almost instantly.

"I knew that he didn't love me... But why is he now getting along with Fujimura-san?"

Our relationship wasn't anything special. We were just people who met because of the condition that appeared out of nowhere and from there, we started getting along with one another "It's nothing special..."

"Natsuo?"

"Yeah?"

"Chitose might start acting a bit distant from you. Remember that"

"I know that. I was prepared for it when I decided to reject her"

"I'm glad to hear that"

The both of us continued making our way to school all the while making small talk with one another and before I knew it, we had arrived at school without any problems at all on my end.

Just as we were making our way inside of the school gates, I couldn't help but notice that all of our teachers were outside with clipboards in hand.

"What's going on here?"

"Who knows?"

We made our way towards them and as we did so, they started telling us to head on over towards the parking lot to await for further instructions.

When the bell rang, the principal made his way over towards the front of all of the students and started speaking "Today, we were given permission to enter one of the most prominent research facilities of Japan. We will be learning how the AMO device was created, the process they followed to create it and what they hope to create in the future"

"Is this a field trip?"

One of the students at the very front asked the question that was on my own mind in that moment.

"Yes, by experiencing what there is to see in the world of researching, those of you who wish to become researchers yourselves will be able to get on hands experiences in it"

"Amazing~"

"I can't wait!"

"It's always been my dream to see it up close!"

Hearing the students yelling out their joy of being in such a place, I couldn't help but wonder if both Hatomi and myself were going to be alright.

"Natsuo"

"Yeah?"

"You need to be extra careful today"

"Me specifically?"

"Yes, since you can hear the subconscious and unconscious of others, you'll be more prone to reacting. Make sure to stay calm at all times, besides, I'll be there to help you out if need be"

"Thanks... I really appreciate that"

With the speech of the principal out of the way, we were being led towards the busses and slowly but surely, we were allowed to get on and choose whichever seat we wanted.

Seeing as how they're were quite a few spaces available, I headed on over towards one of the window seats and sat down.

The place I was sitting on was a two seater and as I looked out the window, I glanced over at the entrance and noticed Chitose looking for an empty seat.

When her eyes met mine, she stared at me for a bit and I noticed that she was going to take the seat, but before I knew it, a voice spoke up "I can't... I don't know if I'll be able to be calm myself" 

She made her way past me and proceeded to take a seat with her girl friends at the very back, I let out a sigh and simply continued looking out the window.

"Can I take this seat?"

I glanced over at the voice and noticed that it was none other then Hatomi "Yeah, go ahead"

"Thank you"

She slowly sat down right next to me and inched herself closer to me "It really looks like that rejection affected her quite a bit"

"Yeah... But I didn't want to be in a fake relationship"

"I understand. There's no need to explain it to me"

Once we were all ready, the bus started driving off the parking late and towards the research facility. Since it was a very big and prominent facility, it was located far away from the city.

With that, it took us a whole hour and a half just to arrive. As we were being led off the bus, I glanced around and couldn't help but notice just how big the entire building was.

"Welcome to the AMO Research Facility. Please, follow us this way"

With those breve words, we were then led towards the entrance of the building and then the proceeded to give us the run down of the AMO device, it's functions, purpose of creation and what not.

"Right now, we're going to show you a test of a new AMO device that we're currently in the development of creating. One of our employees is going to start testing it for us all"

With those words, he gave a nod to one of the researchers and thus, a single figure was seated in a chair and from the looks of the AMO device he had on, it was much more compact and smaller then the ones that currently existed, but at the same time, it was just a prototype. The design could change at any moment.

"Start"

"Yes sir"

As the experiment started going off, I couldn't help but notice that a aqua colored light had turned on from within the person's AMO device.

"Please look at the screen above you"

As we did so, I couldn't help but notice that they were waves. Thought Waves to be more precise.

"With this AMO device, we're hoping to block out all form of thought's from other and at the same time, make it easier to choose a designated person to let them hear you're thoughts"

"It'll have more functions as we build it, but for now, our main purpose is making it more compact, easier to function and make it a wireless device"

As the thought waves started changing, the sound of static washed over me "It burns! My neck is burning!"

"H-Huh?"

"Are you alright, Natsuo?"

"Yeah... I'm fine"

"Get me out of this thing! I don't want to do this anymore!"  I could identify the voice. It was the person who was being used as a test subject for the function of the AMO device, but before I knew it, more voices started to plague my mind.

"Get me out of here!" "I don't want to suffer!" "It hurts! It hurts!"

"I want to go home... I want to go home..." "Mommy... I'm scared"

There were too many voices and from the sound of them, they weren't coming from around us, they were coming from underground.

Before I knew it, the screen turned off and the person from the chair was let go and sure enough, the other researchers noticed the burns on his neck and took note of it.

But the man continued wearing a smile on his face as he suffered through the burns of the device.

"That's teh end of our experiment. From here, we'll show you the process of creating of the AMO device and if you have any question's, please do ask"

"Thank you very much"

With those words, we started making our way towards the creation process and as we did so, I called out to Hatomi since she was still connected to me "Hatomi"

"Yes?"

"I heard voices in pain from beneath us"

"Voices... In pain?"

"Yes... It seems like this research facility is hiding something..."

"Just make sure that they don't suspect anything from you and try to cancel out your ability if you start hearing those things. I don't want you getting hurt"

"Hatomi..."

"Promise me that. We need to stick by each other at all costs"

Hearing her sounding so worried about me, I couldn't help but sigh "I promise to not do anything stupid"

"Thank you"

With that out of the way, we continued making our way through the facility all the while we were being taught how the AMO device was being made and what not.

But... In the back of my mind, I couldn't help but play back the words of pain from the people underground "What a horrible world..."