A Secret Revealed.

Despite my restless night, I wake up early in the hopes that not only will I manage to find a way to get back to the Other World, but I'll get the chance see Hikaru at the school today and hear her decision. Although I'm still a little unsure about how to engage with Vestra today, I should still make an effort to try. My morning trek is uneventful and boring as always, I reach my classroom and take my seat awaiting the beginning of class while keeping an eye out for Hikaru. To my dismay, Hikaru doesn't show, even after the morning bell has rung.

Morning roll call passes by quickly and we all go to the first of our morning classes. 'I'm just wasting time here!' Halfway through class I get up from my desk and march out the classroom, my destination is Kocho Tonomura Sensei's office. I politely knock on the door to his office before brazenly barging in to find no one inside, either he's not here or somewhere else on the school grounds, opting to go looking for him I scour the school in search of its principle.

After a couple hours of searching, I have no success in locating Tonomura and only end up in skipping almost all of my morning classes, only approaching my classes to see if Hikaru has shown up yet, which she hasn't. With Lunch just around the corner I decide to make another trip to Kocho Tonomura's office in the hopes of finding him, This time I barge into his office without knocking and surprise him at his desk.

"Damn it, boy! Don't you know its rude to just barge into a room like that. I thought your parents would have raised you better than this, or is this your natural behavior whenever you travel to the Other World?" Tonomura performs a series of motions and clicks on the mouse of his computer before giving me his full attention. "Now, what brings you here to my office?"

"Hikaru Miyazawa! Have you heard anything about or from her?"

"Miyazawa, hmm. Oddly enough, no. Did she show up for class today?" I give him a firm head shake to answer his question and oddly enough, Tonomura seems to go into deeper thought as a result. "If Miyazawa-san had given the letter I wrote to her guardians, they should have contacted me by now concerning her decision, yet they haven't. Even if they didn't contact me, Miyazawa-san should have at least tried to talk to me by now as well."

'Guardians, not parents. Another reminder that Hikaru doesn't have strong family ties.' I remember when Tonomura talked to Hikaru and that he gave her three days to think on her choice of what she would want to do, but there was also the serious moment where he told her to look into the School's history. Muzukashii High may have a good reputation for teaching promising students and guiding them to some of the best colleges, but the dark side of Muzukashii High's history is that over the last 50 years alone, more than 21 students have mysteriously disappeared from the school grounds, and to make matters worse numerous conspiracy theories have linked the government in covering up these disappearances.

"Do you think Miyazawa has done her research and it has scared her away?" I refer to Hikaru by her last name as to not confuse Tonomura while we discuss her and the situation I knowingly put her in.

"Quite possibly, reading of such things would likely scare her away from the school grounds, which I'm sure you pointed out to her like I asked." I give Tonomura a stern nod to indicate i did as I quickly reflect on the time Hikaru and I spent doing so. "Just how was her experience in the Other World anyway?" Reflecting on our time spent in Alameria followed by our trek through the plains leading to the return gate, one thing stands out more than anything when it came to Hikaru's time spent in the Other World.

"Honestly, I think she enjoyed the experience she had there. While she did have some dangerous encounters with the local beasts, I protected her and even educated her on them, the one thing she seemed truly fascinated by was the existence of the mythical people of the Other World." Thinking about it, Hikaru was a completely different person when she was in Other World, she was energetic, excitable, curious and in some unique way, happy. But the moment she returned she went straight back to being shy, withdrawn and closed off, 'I thought it was because I might have touched her inappropriately but maybe there's always been more to it than that?'

When Hikaru first arrived she was shy but eager to make friends, I didn't really pay any attention to her or anyone, because all of my focus was on what I planned to do in Other World. Even though all I did was show her around the school Hikaru seemed almost comfortable around me, then things changed when I saw the abuse that Nakanishi and her friends were heaping onto Hikaru, 'But why did I take an interest in her after that point, why is she my sole focus now, why did our transition to Other World together have such a drastic effect on me?'

"Hey Sensei, cases of multiple people being pulled into the Other World aren't all that uncommon, right?" Tonomura gives me a basic rundown of how it has likely happened in the past but never been a real cause for concern, "But has it ever resulted in two people being linked in some way? And what if the transition resulted in a kind of age regression?" My questions catch Tonomura's complete attention as it seems he's never heard of something like this.

"What do you mean age regression?" Surprised by Tonomura's tone I detail how I spent 12 years of my time in the Other World honing my body into one suitable for a wielder and how my body had reverted to my current appearance and age again. "That's impossible, I had a fair number of adventures during my youth, but I've never heard of such a thing happening before." Tonomura goes into great detail of his youth and experience with Other World and the shocking events surrounding a man who actively kidnapped people and forcibly dragged them into the Other World, on Earth he was a man in his late 20's and mid 50's in the Other World.

After tireless searching and effort by Tonomura and his fellow wielders at the time, they eventually found this man and put a stop to his heinous actions, but not without great cost. The point Tonomura makes about the man is the number of the people the man had kidnapped and how they were always younger than him on Earth and he never once regressed in age in Other World. 'He took numerous people into the Other World and yet he didn't revert in age, I've inadvertently done the same thing with Hikaru and yet I reverted in age, something must have changed or at least caused it.'

"What about linking? My partner, Kiru, mentioned something about Miyazawa's arrival feeling similar to mine." Judging by the combined appearance of shock and confusion on Tonomura's face he doesn't know much more about the subject either, even with all of his experience, Tonomura is just as stumped by what's happened to me, 'The only other person I can think of to ask about or who could have caused this is...'

"VESTRA!"

'That feeling, the morning it happened.' I charge out of the principles office and head straight for the nurse's office. 'I was asleep and my mind was screaming for me to wake up, she was right in front of my face.' Vestra may have lost her overwhelming power but she still had a connection to the Other World, she may not have the power to cast spells or affect reality like she did in Other World, but she can still perform small feats such as using my connection to Other World to send me there should I need her to. 'If Vestra did do something to me that morning, then that must mean she affected my transition to the Other World and Hikaru ended up as collateral damage.'

I reach the nurse's office and in my rage I fling the door wide open, however I prevent the door from slamming against the frame only to see Vestra examining a female student's midsection, while the student herself is occupied keeping her gym shirt lifted just above her bra. Judging from her short stature and her slim figure, I guess she's probably a first year, and I've been staring for too long. Both of them look at me in the doorway, and while Vestra is surprised by my sudden appearance the student's face goes red at the sight of me staring at her.

Adjusting my stance, I clear my throat and bow politely to the girls, and in a calm and gentle fashion, close the door to the nurse's office. Oddly enough the girl didn't scream, hopefully because Vestra was there to calm her down, having no choice but to wait for them to finish up inside, I lean up against the wall next to the door and wait for them.

After a few minutes the door opens and the short girl gives me the stink eye, she then expresses her gratitude to Vestra, whom she and everyone else knows as Kanzaki Sensei, before heading back to her P.E. class. Vestra pokes her head out and waves goodbye to the girl, she then looks at me, before she can say or do anything, I grab her by the wrist and I drag her out of the room and up the stairs leading back towards the principles office, with Vestra practically flying around behind me like a rag doll.

I reach the Principles office door with Vestra in tow and just as I'm about to open it, the doors open for me revealing a very sinister looking Kocho Tonomura Sensei, still sitting at his desk with is hands linked together waiting for us. This intimidating sight of him causes Vestra to visibly flinch and freeze, even as I continue to drag her inside, stopping in front of Tonomura's desk I barely notice the movements of who, I assume are his assistants as they leave the room closing the office doors behind them.

"Well, Kanzaki-san, or perhaps you'd prefer I call you Vestra during this discussion. I believe that young Takashi and I have some questions for you that are in need of answers. Is there anything you wish to get off your chest before we begin?" Even though its only the three of us in the office, and my main goal here to find out just what Vestra did to me, and to punish her if need be, but even I can't help but feel intimidated by Tonomura right now, 'This side of him is kinda terrifying.'

"I, I'm not... sure what you mean." Vestra struggles to get her words out as she's that intimidated by Tonomura, but now its my turn to question her, or at least specify why she's here. "What is this about?"

"Monday morning. You did something to me while I slept, and I need to know exactly what you did." Vestra looks at me, almost uncertain as to what I mean but the look I give her in return tells her I'm not going to buy into any lies or deflections she may try to come up with.

"How can you be so sure I did anything, surely you can't have... Wait. Did something happen to you?" Vestra's sudden shift from intimidated to concerned affects my feelings as well. Once again I go over the details of that day but upon the moment I speak of Hikaru's transition to the Other World with me Vestra's expression is one of shock and she interrupts me. "WHAT, No. That wasn't meant to happen. How could you let this happen!?" 'ME!'

"Hey, you're the one that caused this. So how do we fix it!?"