The halls of Tracen Academy were quiet after sundown. Not silent just hushed, like the whole building knew it was supposed to be resting.
But not Lab 3E, tucked away in the east tower.
Inside, the air buzzed with the hum of old processors, the flicker of LED lights, and the low, rhythmic ticking of a wall clock that hadn't been reset since the last season change.
Agnes Tachyon sat alone at the control desk, her chin resting in one palm, eyes locked on a screen in front of her. She hadn't blinked in over a minute. Her stylus spun slowly in her fingers, forgotten.
On the screen, paused at a specific frame, was Kagura Seiran mid-stride on the 1600-meter training track, one foot hovering inches above the ground.
Agnes squinted at the screen. Then sighed.
And hit rewind.
Earlier that day, it had been just another scheduled pacing lap. A formality. Not a race. Coaches didn't even stand close to the track for this one.
Four runners.
No pressure.
Maintain pace. Stay even. Don't surge.
17.5 meters per second was the goal. Fast enough to stretch, not fast enough to break anything.
Agnes had watched from the shade of the bleachers.
But something had stuck with her. A strange feeling in her gut. Like a phantom imbalance. As if a gear had clicked wrong inside a machine that still ran perfectly.
So she came back. She loaded the footage. And she watched.
Over and over.
At normal speed, the run looked clean.
Jungle Pocket was his usual twitchy self at the start. Dantsu Flame looked like she could have done it in her sleep. Erimo Excel bounced like a deer, effortless and elegant.
And Kagura right in the middle.
She didn't push. Didn't drift behind. No wasted movement.
Her stride was sharp, long, and quiet.
Too quiet.
Agnes slowed the footage to half speed.
Then again to quarter speed.
Now she saw it.
At the 620-meter mark, Kagura's foot dropped.
And the air rippled.
Not visibly. Not like a special effect. But the grass behind her moved the wrong way.
A tiny, vertical lift. Not out from the footfall. But up, like a soft bubble of pressure had risen from the ground.
Agnes paused.
Zoomed in.
Frame 11,239.
Frame 11,240.
Frame 11,241.
It lasted three frames.
Less than a tenth of a second.
But it was real.
And then
The surrounding runners started making mistakes.
Jungle Pocket stumbled half a step, and his knee lifted awkwardly.
Dantsu Flame's stride pattern normally machine-like wavered.
Excel tilted slightly off-balance, her shoulder dipping as she righted herself.
None of them fell. But their forms broke.
Kagura's didn't.
She stayed exactly the same.
Stride length: 7.2 meters
Stride rate: 2.4 per second
Speed: 17.28 m/s just under target
She should have been overtaken.
But instead, everyone fell behind.
Agnes blinked for the first time in minutes.
She switched tabs to the telemetry logs.
[Airflow shift: reversal of 0.3 m/s behind Kagura]
[Environmental wind: zero]
[Track conditions: standard]
All readings isolated to a 3-meter radius behind Kagura.
Oxygen readings from the other runners spiked nothing dangerous, but elevated enough to suggest stress. Their rhythm had broken.
But Kagura's heart rate remained flat.
Her oxygen consumption was stable.
And her pace never wavered.
Agnes opened a private file on her tablet.
[ZONE_HYPOTHESIS_LOG]
Not an official school record. Just her own research. Years of notes. Years of quiet watching. It wasn't theory anymore.
She scrolled through the previous entries:
[Zone Type: Pressure (Symboli Rudolf)]
Effects: Runners behind her slow involuntarily.
Emotional Profile: Fear, awe.
[Zone Type: Rhythm Collapse (Rice Shower)]
Effects: Induces pacing lag, draws out bursts.
Emotional Profile: Confusion, fatigue.
[Zone Type: Pure Velocity (Silence Suzuka)]
Effects: She surges beyond draft or wind.
Emotional Profile: Helplessness, amazement.
Agnes added a new section.
[Subject: Kagura Seiran]
[Zone Type: Unknown – possible Field-type]
[Observed Effects:]
Ripple distortion in air behind subject
Minor errors in pace and balance in nearby runners
No increase in subject's visible effort
Stable vitals and stride mechanics
[Possible Explanations:]
Passive interference field
Airflow disruption
Neuromechanical destabilizer
[Risk Level: High (if controlled)]
[Awareness Level: Unclear. Subject may be unaware.]
Agnes tapped the stylus against her chin.
"Not a Zone," she whispered, "not like theirs."
This wasn't a surge forward. This wasn't a mental state.
It felt like… physics acting wrong.
Like Kagura carried a different rulebook.
Agnes rewound again. Zoomed in on her face.
No strain.
Eyes calm. Focused, but not intense.
No twitch of competitive hunger. No sign of trying to dominate.
Just… rhythm.
And then it hit Agnes.
She's not forcing anything.
She's making the track move with her.
The door opened behind her.
Trainer Misaki stepped in, her hair loose, holding a chipped mug of tea and a scarf still draped around her neck.
"You're still here," she said.
Agnes nodded without looking away from the screen.
Misaki moved closer. "Don't tell me you're watching pacing drills again."
"I'm not watching," Agnes muttered. "I'm studying."
"Oh no. Even worse."
Misaki leaned on the desk and watched the screen for a moment. Kagura's image flickered as the playback looped.
"Seiran, right?"
Agnes nodded again.
Misaki watched the ripple moment. Saw the stumble from Jungle Pocket. The tilt from Excel.
She squinted. "That was weird."
"Three-frame distortion," Agnes said. "The ripple appears just as Kagura's foot lands. The air shifts. The others fall out of rhythm."
"She's not even fast."
"She is. Just not aggressively. She's… frictionless."
Misaki took a slow sip of tea.
"Okay. So what are we calling this?" she asked. "Field? Zone? Curse?"
Agnes didn't answer right away. She stared at the pause frame.
"She's a constant," she said. "And everything else bends."
Misaki exhaled. "You ever think maybe you're the only one who sees this stuff?"
"All the time," Agnes replied. "Doesn't make it less real."
Meanwhile, far across campus, Kagura Seiran sat by the open window of her dorm.
The lights were off.
She held a warm cup of black coffee between both hands. Not drinking it. Just keeping it close.
Her roommate was out.
The curtains shifted slightly, though there was no wind.
Outside, the courtyard lamps flickered.
From her spot in the shadows, Kagura watched one leaf fall from the tree across the path.
It spun slowly in the air, caught in a gentle spiral.
It didn't drop straight down.
It drifted sideways.
As if something had disturbed the air just before it passed her window.
Kagura didn't blink.
She didn't look surprised.
She only whispered, so quietly even she barely heard it:
"They felt it too."