[65] The Unseen (5)
Shiina tossed the evaluation sheet aside and apologized to Alpheas.
"I'm sorry, Principal. You came to observe in person."
"Heh heh. It was a difficult assignment. That's the nature of parapsychic studies, isn't it? Don't worry about it."
"I'll make sure to give them a stern warning."
Alpheas waved his hand as if to say it was fine and walked toward the exit. But just before stepping through the door, he turned and looked back at the empty stage. The corners of his mouth lifted beneath his beard.
'If it was going to end like this, I wouldn't have even started. Isn't that right, Shirone?'
* * *
"Done. Phase one went off without a hitch!"
Regardless of the audience's reaction, Shirone and the others hurried back to the research room in a flurry. Now the real battle began.
"Think it took?"
"Yeah. You could tell from their eyes."
Because the students' expectations had been so high, everyone had already assumed the presentation would fizzle. Shirone, however, had wanted exactly that. The less they treated it as serious, the easier it would be to reach them psychologically. That was the whole point of the trap he'd set.
Mass hypnosis.
The trigger was the bell that marked midnight. Once the concept had been planted, it didn't matter how childish it sounded — the keyword stamped in their minds would lead them into fear.
"Shirone, it's down to you now. You just have to pull this off."
"Got it. I'll sit and meditate here for a while."
"You must succeed! We're counting on you!"
They'd done their best for a month. Now the baton rested with the last runner, Shirone.
"Keep your distance. I need to focus."
Shirone stopped Nade from rubbing his shoulder, set a chair in a quiet corner, and sat down. Six hours remained. He had to bring his mental condition to peak within that time.
"One. Two. Three."
Head bowed, Shirone slowly ran through his counting sequence. Nade and Iruki moved away as quietly as possible so as not to disturb him.
Whether Shirone had the mental stamina to sustain photon output for ten minutes would decide the success of the presentation. But the others weren't done yet either.
Iruki had to install the remote-control unit for the holograms, and Nade had to tune the core into which Shirone would pour his photon output. As everyone busied themselves, evening fell and midnight drew near.
In the pitch-black tunnel, Shirone opened his eyes. After running the sequence for five hours, his mind was as finely honed as a sharpened blade. A moment later the door opened and Nade's quiet voice drifted in.
"Shirone, it's time."
Shirone rose as if nothing could hold him back. Like a gladiator leaving the locker room, he followed Nade out.
* * *
The hologram cores had been installed in the sewer beneath Central Park. Ten or so fiber-optic lines ran up from the huge machine to the surface, where multi-adapters split them into hundreds of strands.
Three hundred hologram units had been deployed. Shirone admired Nade's ability to produce in quantity, but that only made the pressure heavier.
They'd managed to sustain photon output for ten minutes in tests, but this was the first real attempt. No one could predict what variables might show up.
With ten minutes until midnight, Shirone approached a machine ten times larger than the prototype.
Nade handed him the input–output terminal with a solemn expression. Shirone gripped the crystal sphere with both hands. Iruki checked his stopwatch. Not too fast, not too slow — the holograms had to activate the instant the bell rang.
"Ready? We start now."
Shirone took a deep breath and nodded. Iruki raised his right hand and watched the watch. When the moment came, his hand fell decisively. At the same instant Shirone's counting sequence surged upward. Light poured from his hands with a force incomparable to before; his friends marveled at how much he'd raised his photon output in a month.
"Stronger! Stronger!"
The light threatened to swallow Shirone. Nade dashed to the core to check transmission efficiency. Seeing his stunned, frozen face, Iruki asked, impatient,
"How is it? What percent?"
After a long pause, Nade answered in a trembling voice.
"Seventeen percent."
"What?"
Far lower than expected. Where had it gone wrong? There was no time to analyze — if they failed now, everything would be lost.
'The radius is too wide. At this rate it's impossible.'
Shirone had sensed it from the start. The second he began projecting photons, a hollow feeling washed over his mind, like pouring water into a bottomless jar.
The optical fibers' data transmission efficiency was eighteen percent. Because they'd been connected in parallel, the transmission power had become extremely weak.
Shirone kept pushing photons for minutes. No matter how hard he strained, output efficiency refused to climb above seventeen percent.
Iruki realized further attempts were futile. Running the system like this would splinter most of the holograms into shreds.
After five minutes Nade smiled. Though it had failed, he was proud of Shirone — he'd reached an impossible goal through sheer effort. It was on Nade; the design had been flawed.
"Shirone, that's enough. We did our best. Let's stop."
Shirone didn't answer. Truthfully, he was furious. Nade, Iruki, the whole research club — everyone had poured themselves into this project.
And now it was over. They'd achieved nothing, and he was expected to swallow that and concede defeat.
'How did we get this far?'
Shirone shut his eyes with hard resolve. He hadn't given everything yet. The light gathering in his hands swelled and began to spread over his body.
"Co-could it be?"
Nade realized what Shirone was thinking.
Immortal Function.
He was stepping again into the forbidden realm where he might lose everything.
"Shirone! Stop! Don't do it!"
Nade and Iruki shook him. But Shirone's mind, racing toward nirvana, wasn't so easily disturbed.
The light that was Shirone already enveloped him and streamed outward. Seeing the potential horror if it continued, Nade cried, voice choked,
"Shirone! Please stop! I can't lose you! We can give up the research club! Please, stop!"
Nade's plea snapped Shirone's eyes open. Light leaked faintly from his glaring eyes, nose, and mouth.
"Nade…"
"Yeah, Shirone! Let's stop! End this here!"
A small smile tugged at Shirone's mouth.
"I'm not… afraid anymore."
As Shirone closed his eyes again, a massive light filled the tunnel. His mental power began to spread outward without limit.
It was too late to stop him.
Nade and Iruki backed away, stunned. All they could do was silently pray that Shirone would return.
In the realm of Infinity, Shirone felt a familiar sensation.
Everything that composed him seemed to lose meaning. But this time he did not forget who he was.
'I won't look away. I'll face it head-on.'
An unknown monster lashed out with a tongue and tried to swallow him. He remembered Armin's advice: never turn away. Not everyone who held the key to Infinity vanished — Armin had proved that.
'I'll win. I'll subdue it.'
The creature's maw opened into a black throat and lunged. Even then Shirone did not look away; he fixed his gaze on that darkness.
"Krrrraaah!"
The spirit that had been spreading into the world slammed into the barrier of the Spirit Zone, and an intense headache struck. He'd been caught. Shirone clenched his teeth and endured. The overflowing energy beyond his limits was poured out as photon output.
"Shirone! Are you okay? Say something!"
"Check the output first!"
At Shirone's shout Nade glanced at the core. Output efficiency: twenty-two percent. The figure that hadn't budged even a tenth of a percent now jumped by four full points.
"It's rising, it's rising! Shirone!"
"Aaaaah!"
Shirone focused harder. The infinite mental power seeping through the Spirit Zone flowed down his arms into the crystal sphere.
Nade yelled. Output efficiency: thirty-six percent!
'More! I need stronger power! More!'
The Spirit Zone trembled. Even its hardy durability couldn't hold back the incoming mental force. It felt as if everything had been compressed hundreds of times and was about to explode — his mind on the brink of shattering.
"Aaaaaaaah!"
Output efficiency: fifty-nine percent.
"Shirone! Just a little more! Hang on!"
Even the icy Iruki shouted. The gauge needle began to flutter like a ship in a storm.
Shirone turned the Spirit Zone into a defensive form. Frames interlocked with a grinding sound as they tightened. The moment the force to withstand pressure and the resulting ejection power streamed through his hands, he felt a void, as if the world had been switched off.
Output efficiency: eighty-seven percent.
"Uuuuuugh!"
His body trembled and his brain reeled. Shirone suddenly understood just how remarkable Armin had been. Applying Infinity's power to the real world was a mad act. One misstep, and the force could crush him to death far worse than entering nirvana.
Shirone pushed every last thought into the only open outlet in his palm. Even as the outlet expanded fully, the photon force did not abate.
Output efficiency: one hundred percent.
"Aaaaaaaaah!"
When Shirone squeezed out his final strength, the lamp on the core turned red.
Nade shivered at the absurd result. The beast that had shown only seventeen percent even with ten minutes of sustained output now screamed as if its belly would burst.
"We did it, we did it! Iruki, start it!"
Iruki, trance-like, snatched up the remote. With trembling hands he pressed the button and light climbed the line toward the surface. From there it rode hundreds of fiber strands and spread like a web across the whole school.
Dong. Dong. Dong.
The bell that marked midnight rang out.
* * *
"Phew. Midnight already. Time really flies."
Maria, studying in the dorm, closed her book and stretched.
A faint bell sounded outside her window.
She caught herself thinking of the presentation and quickly shook her head to banish the thought.
But the more she tried to forget, the more it nagged at her.
Nade's words about agwi appearing and eating people wouldn't leave her mind.
"Ugh, come on. Why do I have to think about that?"
Shirone had already known that once the keyword was set, people's imaginations would run wild without explicit suggestion.
'If you tune the soul's frequency, you'll see ghosts?'
One thought led to another. Maria rubbed the chill from her spine and turned toward her bed. At the same time her heart dropped. Her pupils trembled and a jolt of electric shock crawled up her back and slammed into her brain.
"U... u..."
A rotting corpse was shuffling around the room.
Maria's hands shook uncontrollably.
A skeletal soldier with ribs jutting out turned toward her, raised an arm, and began to come closer.
"Kyaaaaaaa!"
Her scream rattled the window. But there was no one to hear her. The same scream echoed down the corridor and through every room.