[105] Vajrayana (5)
"Are you splitting us up like children? I'm serious too. I don't want those bastards taking Shirone."
Amira stared in disbelief. Her desire to protect her friend was admirable, but she was still in the advanced class. There was no way they could beat this side—most of them were graduating seniors.
"Think you're special because people pampered you? You really believe you can beat us?"
Starting with Amira, the entire protest group stepped into their Spirit Zones. The powerful, graduate-level Zones washed over Neid and Iruki through their synesthesia.
'Kukuku. Kukukuku.'
Fermi, watching the standoff, secretly shook with amusement. The whole situation was laughable.
'Yes. Fight. Tear each other apart as much as you want.'
Fermi knew all profit came from chaos and conflict. In that sense, war was the ultimate blue ocean. Wealth couldn't be accumulated without a few winners exploiting many losers.
Fermi knew how to win a war: strip away emotions. Human weakness boiled down to feelings. Whoever used other people's emotions would rule the world.
'Be sad. Be angry. Shout that only you're right. Inflate the pot. Of course, I'll take every last bet on the table.'
Shiina, watching from the infirmary, met Fermi's eye.
'This is all your doing, isn't it? You filthy bastard.'
She was angry, but she couldn't bring herself to condemn him outright. Fermi's philosophy wasn't crude nonsense; he might even be exploiting the situation Shirone was in.
Alpheas approached Shiina.
"There's nothing we can do now."
"Headmaster."
"It seems this is as far as it goes. Accept the student council's demands."
"Amy!" someone shouted.
"Headmaster! No—what about Shirone?"
"Amy, I'm sorry."
"How can you? You know— you know Shirone isn't dead!"
"No. Honestly, we don't know."
Amy froze in shock. Alpheas rested a hand on her shoulder and said gently,
"Amy, no one can truly know Shirone's condition. They only believe what they want to. I, too, believe he will return."
"Then why—"
"But look. Even kids who have nothing to do with this are fighting now, aren't they? Why it happened doesn't matter. I cannot allow students to be left fighting each other any longer."
Alpheas cared about the other students as much as he did about Shirone. Right now, those students were opening Spirit Zones and preparing to kill one another. To care for Shirone alone in this situation would be selfish.
"I'll go down myself. I'll inform Shirone's parents and begin the funeral procedures. Disciplinary matters can be addressed afterwards."
Amy slumped into her chair, exhausted. Seriel approached, tearful.
"Amy, what will you do? Shirone— Shirone—"
Amy felt the same hollow ache. In the end, Shirone hadn't returned. The moment Alpheas conceded, it felt as if Shirone had vanished from her heart too.
"Shirone…"
The atmosphere outside the building was a tinderbox. Everyone had Spirit Zones deployed, and any decision could unleash lethal magic.
Despair returned to Amira. Was this the right path? Could the logic of the school justify students pointing Spirit Zones at one another and casting murderous spells?
She bit her lip and glanced from Neid to Iruki. Neid was already in a full combat stance, but Iruki still seemed open to talk.
"You're Iruki, right? A Servant user."
Iruki didn't answer.
"Do you really think this is the way? Your friend's being far too emotional. But you're supposed to be different."
"Sorry, but I'm emotional right now too."
"Liar. No matter. Still—you know. Do you actually believe your friend is alive? Is that your conclusion?"
"Hm. A conclusion. Then there's only one answer."
Iruki lowered his gaze, thought for a moment, and fixed Amira with a glare.
"Shirone is not dead."
Neid turned to Iruki, stunned. He couldn't understand why the man who had insisted Shirone was dead in the infirmary had suddenly changed his tune.
"Iruki, you—"
Iruki kept staring forward. Amira's disappointment deepened. He had been regarded as the most rational person in the school; she had pinned her hopes on him, but in the end he seemed just another advanced-class brat.
"If you really believe that, you must have logic to convince us, right?"
"Of course."
Amira blinked. She needed to hear it before she could believe it.
"Then give your reasons. Why do you think Shirone's alive?"
"It's four o'clock now… that's how I'll put it."
Dong. Dong. Dong. Dong.
The clock tower chimed.
Iruki had been counting seconds without looking at the clock because he was a Servant. The method was simple: pick a reference moment and count seconds one by one.
Neid realized why Iruki had been unusually quiet lately.
'He's been counting seconds. But since when?'
Amira stared at the tower and then turned, as if she'd just realized something.
"Now I get it. You're just crazy. What does time have to do with Shirone's death?"
Iruki remained silent. A small margin of error might be expected, but his count was much later than she'd thought.
'4:07, 08, 09. What the hell is he doing?'
Amira finished her thought. She was right—trying to reason with an emotional Neid and a previously-crazy Iruki was pointless.
"We're taking Shirone. Let's see how long you can hold out against graduating seniors."
As the auras of the academy's top mages swelled, killing intent filled Neid's eyes. Then a voice, unfamiliar but noticeable, cut through.
"You're having fun. Mind if I join? This is my specialty."
Everyone looked around, but the speaker wasn't visible. Then two figures rose from the shadow cast across the building: Canis and Arin.
Sparks flashed in Amira's eyes.
"You two! Do you know where this is? I'll have you arrested!"
"Try if you want. We don't plan to run."
Canis snorted and approached Iruki.
Iruki frowned.
"You're too late."
"You said you'd be here by four?"
"It's twenty-seven seconds past."
Canis choked, but forced himself calm. Settling that debt came first.
"Here. The thing you asked for."
Iruki took the documents Canis handed him and flipped through the pages. Only then did a puzzled Neid pick up the papers and ask,
"Iruki, what's that?"
"A Yongroe report. I took Shirone's tissue samples and sent them."
"What? When? And how did you get here from the capital in five days?"
Even by carriage it was a four-day journey. Considering the time Yongroe needed to analyze the samples, the actual roundtrip had to be under forty-eight hours.
"I asked Canis. She knows Bashka's geography like the back of her hand."
Canis clenched her teeth remembering the ordeal. They'd met the deadline, but it had been a trip made assuming death. By day they rode carriages; by night they used Dark Ports. Night travel was faster, but Iruki had fainted more than once from pushing his magic to the limit.
"Anyway, I don't owe Shirone anything now."
Canis didn't feel especially guilty about Shirone's death. Still, as Iruki's disciple she felt a sliver of responsibility for a life lost to the Arcane's crimes.
"Well, that's not my problem. I'll tell Shirone that for you."
The strange turn of events made Amira uneasy. Yongroe was the kingdom's top institution, and Iruki's father was its head.
"What are you up to? Think we'll back down just because you're a Merkodain?"
Merkodains carried weight, but the families gathered here weren't weak either. If it came down to numbers, they had enough force to try.
"Don't worry about that. We used a pseudonym. If my real name were on it, who knows what old men might do. More importantly, isn't the content of these papers what matters?"
"Hah! You've written something like 'raising the dead' in there, have you?"
Iruki closed the report and began to read aloud.
"Title: Yongroe—Report on the Immortal Function and the Cessation of Biological Activity."
At the title, the protesters stiffened and fell silent. Those in the infirmary on the third floor pricked up their ears.
"Analysis of the subject's tissue-cell samples: non-dynamical asystole. Samples taken more than twenty-four hours postmortem show no organism-specific degradation. Data attached."
Iruki turned the page.
"Based on the above data, the subject can be considered to have ceased biological activity; however, extending that to mean total cessation of function—i.e., the absence of life—would be inappropriate."
Iruki emphasized the passage as if it were crucial.
"Yongroe classifies cardiac arrest into three cases. First: the heart's function has ceased. Second: the heart's function has temporarily stopped. Third: the heart has not stopped but appears to have stopped phenomenologically."
"That's nonsense," Amira barked. "I might buy the first case, but the others don't make sense!"
Iruki seemed to expect that and flipped the page.
"Examples. From a state where the heart's function has stopped, while an organism can be considered dead, the Immortal Function gives rise to two possible new cases."
His voice rose in the hush.
"Case 1: If a consciousness expansion is delayed by a special incident, the body may temporarily cease function until the mind reaches its conclusion. See attached report."
Iruki nodded and read the next page.
"Case 2: Even if consciousness expansion has completed, the observer's perception of time may differ. That is, life activity is normal, but due to barriers in space-time, external confirmation of that activity is impossible. See attached report."
Iruki no longer felt the need to read every line and flipped to the final section.
"Based on the above magical findings, the subject—namely the one currently lying in the infirmary…"
He thrust Yongroe's report into the protesters' faces.
"Arian Shirone cannot be considered dead."
The protestors who had been making noise fell utterly silent. They were mages; they knew no one could reasonably refute Yongroe's analysis.
"Iruki. Since when did you—"
Iruki looked at Neid, who wore a dazed expression, and gave a small, amused laugh.
"Well? What do you think? A method to bring the dead back."
Neid bit his lip awkwardly. So it existed—a way to bring the dead back. While everyone had drowned in grief and clung to hollow hope, Iruki had been fighting alone.
"Go see for yourself."
Iruki handed the report to Amira. She took it without a word and scanned the first page. Yongroe's seal was plainly stamped.
Further resistance felt meaningless. The kingdom's premier academic institute backed the teachers' judgment. Even if they filed charges, the courts would likely side with the school.
"You've worked hard, Amira."
Alpheas appeared at the building entrance.
"Headmaster."