Fragment 19. Meet the (3rd) Sister (Part 1)

I could only stare in amazement when I found myself back in the dining room. Just a few seconds ago, I had been talking to Fuyuki inside her castle. And yet, before I knew it, I was already here.

My brain still couldn’t process what had just happened. Everything happened so fast.

Only after I regained my ability to think did I realize it.

“She kicked me out.”

Fuyuki’s last words were her farewell. A farewell that, in meaning, was not much different from what I had said to her ten years ago.

The tables have turned, huh?

I gave a bitter smile. I never expected to receive the same treatment of something I didn’t even remember doing myself.

Even so, I couldn’t just give up. To be honest, I was irritated. Turns out Fuyuki was more of a “kid” than I had thought. Well, I could understand the reason behind her actions. But still, she really was an unstable child ruled entirely by her emotions.

I couldn’t face her with logic. I had to think out of the box if I wanted to approach her. On top of that, I had to be prepared for outcomes beyond my expectations.

After calming my emotions, I decided to go see Fuyuki again. I stood up from my chair, walked behind the mirrors, and stopped in front of the ice door.

But unlike before, when the door was merely covered in ice flakes, this time it was completely sealed in transparent bluish ice—like it had just fallen into the Arctic Ocean and trapped inside a massive block of ice.

I was left speechless by the sight. I tried knocking on the ice encasing the door and quickly realized it was solid ice, hard to break.

That damn brat… She locked me out so I can’t enter.

I could feel the veins on my temple tightening. Chinatsu did say Fuyuki was like our little sister, but she wasn’t cute at all!

I tried pounding on the block of ice in front of me, but soon realized it was pointless. So I stopped before I hurt myself more than this.

After kicking me out, now you won’t even let me in? Don’t screw with me!

I didn’t have time to play games with you! Fuyuki was even more childish than I thought. She did whatever she wanted without listening to others even a bit.

I stood still, staring at the frozen door that showed no sign of melting anytime soon. No one knew when it would open again, and waiting would only be a waste of time. So I decided to leave.

Chinatsu was done, Fuyuki couldn’t be met—meaning my next destination was Akira.

Lost in thought, I walked toward my next goal. But my steps came to a halt in the dining room.

Why were there still two mirrors left?

I turned my head and counted.

One, two, three, four. Chinatsu, Fuyuki, Akira… who was the last one?

I tried to recall if there was another personality I had forgotten. But as far as my memory went, I couldn’t remember anyone besides the three of them.

“Is that the door to my room?”

For a moment, I thought that I, too, might be a spirit inhabiting this body just like my three sisters. And if my theory was correct, it wouldn’t be strange for me to have a room myself.

After reaching that conclusion, I tried peeking behind one of the remaining mirrors. I was confused when I found nothing there.

Empty?

It felt strange, because behind every mirror stood a door with nothing supporting it. But behind this mirror, there was absolutely nothing—looks exactly the same as when I was standing outside the dining room.

I checked behind the other mirror and found a door. When I looked back at the previous mirror, the door I expected still hadn’t appeared.

Hm… it’s weird.

I couldn’t stop thinking about this oddity. But there was nothing I could do if there was nothing there. So I headed toward the mirror that had a door behind it, the one I hadn’t entered yet.

Unlike the doors leading to Chinatsu’s and Fuyuki’s realms, the door in front of me was a sliding door. Its shape felt familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I had seen it before.

Without wasting time, I opened it. Just like before, a blinding light swallowed my body before I was transported to another location.

The first thing that greeted me when I opened my eyes was the appearance of a classroom. Yep, this time I had been teleported into a room. Not a field of reeds, not a snowy plain, but a classroom.

This classroom felt familiar, even though I wasn’t sure where it was. I peeked outside and found a hallway with neatly lined doors on the right and large windows stretching along the left side.

I walked closer to the window that directly overlooked the schoolyard. Only then did I realize where I was.

“My old high school,” I muttered.

Before transferring to Tokyo, I had attended the same school as this. But maybe because I had only been here for a few months, memories of this place and its classrooms were not particularly vivid in my mind.

I walked along the corridor, occasionally glancing into each classroom I passed. Even though I had been transported directly into the building, I didn’t immediately find the person I was looking for.

Why was that? It felt like they were hiding from me, waiting for me to find them.

Wait. Isn’t that exactly what’s happening? Because I “drove them away” back then, they were hiding from me. Only after I managed to find them would I either be able—or unable—to reconcile with them.

What happened with Fuyuki was unfortunate. But it gave me a lesson. My meeting with Chinatsu had gone too smoothly, which made me careless. Because I assumed everything would be fine, I let my guard down. That’s why this time, I had to handle everything with extra caution.

On top of that, I had no clues about Akira’s personality or the best way to deal with her. All I knew was that she always reacted whenever I came into contact with electronic devices. Remembering the fact that she could control electricity made me a little uneasy. What if she was dangerous?

As my thoughts started to wander, I opened a door with a sign that read Chemistry Lab. I opened it casually, not expecting anyone to be inside.

But, I was wrong.

There was someone in the room. That person was sitting on a tall chair with their back facing me.

Perhaps sensing someone entering without permission, the person turned their chair around. The first thing that immediately caught my attention when they faced me was the gas mask covering their entire face.

My shoulders slumped the moment I saw it.

Yup. She’s dangerous, I thought.