Chapter 05: **“An Imperfect Melody or a Cruel Prognosis”**
After finishing the desperate battle against the “Poison Heart‚” we returned to the academy with our bodies in tatters. What greeted us was neither a triumphant hymn of victory nor applause praising heroes.
Only a freezing silence—as if the world itself had been stripped of sound.
“Kotone’s Analysis Room‚” attached to the medical wing.
Normally‚ it was a place where the operating sounds of the latest magical devices stimulated intellectual curiosity. But to me right now‚ the sterile whirring of the fans sounded like nothing more than the ticking of a clock shaving seconds off Iris’s life.
In front of the analysis platform‚ Kotone kept striking the keyboard without a word. Her back was tense like that of a doctor battling an unknown pathogen.
The analysis still wasn’t finished—that fact weighed down on the air in the room like lead.
“…Aria-kun‚ drink this first.”
A plume of steam suddenly intruded into my field of vision‚ physically interrupting the taut tension.
“My special ‘Cheer-Up Special — Ultra Rich Edition.’ Today… I put in five times the miso!”
“…Rinne.”
I stared at the contents of the cup being offered to me.
It was no longer a liquid called soup. The substance known as miso had collapsed under its own gravity and turned into something like a ‘high-viscosity black hole.’ Even when I tried to put a spoon in it‚ the physical law called surface tension pushed it back and refused to let it sink.
“I appreciate the thought‚ but isn’t the spoon losing here? Rather than drinking it‚ this feels like something you ‘install’ into your stomach.”
“Rude! Your face looked one step away from a corpse‚ so I simmered it with all my effort! …Oh‚ and your clothes are totally torn up. Take them off. I’ll fix them right now.”
“Eh‚ here? No‚ later—”
“Nope. If you leave them with residue still attached‚ micro-contamination will spread. Come on‚ stay still.”
Without giving me any say in the matter‚ she stripped off my jacket. Rinne skillfully took out her sewing kit and pulled a chair right beside me.
The sound of the needle stitching the tear at the shoulder echoed in steady rhythm.
…She’s close.
Every time the needle moved‚ Rinne’s soft hair brushed against my cheek.
The clean scent of soap mixed with the violent aroma of five-times-miso‚ filling my nose with an intense “smell of everyday life.” It was different from the cold smells of grimoires and chemicals—this was the overwhelming scent of body warmth.
(You’re too close‚ geez…!)
When I lowered my gaze‚ her lowered eyelashes and her dexterous fingers were right there.
We were supposed to have the casual closeness of childhood friends‚ but feeling the warmth of her as a “girl” like this made my breathing rhythm falter somehow.
“…Rinne‚ hold on.”
“Sorry. But if I don’t do it like this I can’t see the frayed parts of the fine magic circuits… Just bear with it. …This is about all I can do.”
Hearing the tremble in her voice‚ I swallowed the joke that had almost slipped out of my throat.
Rinne couldn’t use magic.
That was why she made soup‚ mended clothes‚ and with those small hands tried desperately to stitch me back into the safe zone called “everyday life.”
This was her own life-risking resonance.
“…Thanks‚ Rinne. This helps.”
“Hmph… If you’re thanking me‚ then finish the five-times-miso soup too.”
“I think those are two separate issues…”
With a wry smile‚ I turned my gaze toward the back of the room.
Connected to countless cables‚ Iris slept quietly on the bed.
Her skin was translucent white. Her chest rose and fell faintly.
The golden melody that had once echoed between us was gone now.
Tap‚ tap‚ tap‚ tap.
Before I realized it‚ my fingertips were beating a rhythm on my knee.
Impatience. Fear. Regret.
Like a lost child‚ disordered dissonance spilled from my fingers.
“…Aria-kun. Stop your hand.”
Kotone’s voice cut through the silence of the analysis room like a sharpened knife.
At the exact moment Rinne bit off the thread‚ the monitor of the massive computation device let out a low growl‚ and a red warning light began flashing at the edge of the screen.
The analysis—was finished.
Kotone took a deep breath and pressed the Enter key as if praying—or pulling a trigger.
“—Analysis complete. Calculating life activity limit—”
The emotionless system voice dropped the room’s temperature to below freezing in an instant.
In the center of the monitor‚ a cruel number appeared.
“90:00:00:00”
“…Ninety?”
My own voice sounded hoarse‚ like someone else’s.
I heard Rinne gasp‚ and the sound of Cross clenching his fist by the wall.
“Yes… this is Iris’s ‘life activity limit.’ The remaining time she can stay in this world.”
Kotone lifted my burnt-out pocket watch–type control device with trembling fingers.
“The output circuits are completely dead. But the memory core was still alive… so while analyzing it‚ I overwrote it with a ‘simple display spell.’”
With a dry *click*‚ the lid opened.
Inside the darkened lens‚ blood-colored digital numbers appeared.
“89 days 23 hours 59 minutes 12 seconds.”
Tick‚ tick‚ tick…
The sound of the seconds struck my eardrums with the violence of knocking directly on my heart.
“…A life expectancy counter‚ huh.”
“I know it’s cruel. But you should see it. So you won’t miss the sound of her life—not even for a second.”
Kotone’s voice was calm. But the eyes behind her glasses were trembling.
“My… my resonance… was shaving away her life?”
My fingertips trembled convulsively.
Tap‚ tap‚ tap‚ tap.
The rhythm of impatience synchronized with the life counter’s ticking and accelerated.
“The prodigy of theoretical magic… what a joke. I… just wanted to save her… and all I did was make her burn up her life…!”
“Aria-kun—”
Kotone had just begun to raise her voice.
“ARIAAAAA!!”
With a roar that shook our eardrums‚ the air in the room physically vibrated.
The giant boulder that had remained silent in the corner of the analysis room had finally moved.
“Your sunken heart has set off the highest-level alarm in my soul (defense)!! Look‚ Aria! My pectorals are twitching to push back your despair!!”
“…Cross‚ be quiet for a bit. The precision equipment is shaking.”
Kotone’s near-absolute-zero retort didn’t work on Cross right now.
But—his overheated bass voice seemed to break the icy chains squeezing my chest just a little.
“Aria! Here‚ open your mouth!”
Seizing the moment‚ Rinne shoved a spoon toward my mouth.
“If you don’t drink now‚ the ‘five-times energy’ will turn into ‘five-times despair’!”
“What kind of alchemy is that… mmph!?”
“I blew on it‚ so it’s not hot!”
What spread inside my mouth was violent saltiness and the umami of soybeans.
Strong. So strong it nearly numbed my taste center.
“…! It’s strong…! The miso is asserting itself so much my brain is shaking from the salt concentration…!”
“Right?! It tastes like you’re ‘alive‚’ doesn’t it!”
The taste of being alive.
With those words‚ the heat sliding down my throat lit a fire in my chilled organs.
Rinne gave my back a light thump.
“Aria. I don’t understand magic. The theories‚ resonance‚ or how scary the number ninety days really is.”
The warmth of her hand on my back came through even my thick clothes.
“But you know what? I can hold Iris’s hand and feel that it’s warm. I can fix her clothes and wish to walk with her again.”
Tears welled in Rinne’s eyes. Even so‚ she desperately lifted the corners of her mouth to make a smile.
“...Aria. You tried to save her with ‘theory.’ Then believe in that theory to the end. If it failed‚ rewrite it. The Aria Iris believed in isn’t someone who stops there‚ right?”
“...Rinne.”
A small light returned deep in my chest.
Tap‚ tap.
The rhythm in my fingertips began to steady slightly—when suddenly…
The “sound” vanished from the world again.
The sound of the ventilation fan‚ the hum of magical devices‚ even Cross’s rough breathing—everything disappeared abruptly‚ as if God had pressed a mute button on a remote.
“…!?”
The moment I noticed the change and turned my gaze to the window—
there sat a girl‚ as if she had always been part of the painting there from the beginning.
Her translucent white hair swayed in the night wind‚ and her jade-colored eyes pierced me with a cold light like the bottom of an ice cave.
The window hadn’t made a sound opening. There had been no sign of wind entering. Until she spoke‚ our senses had completely processed her existence as background noise and canceled it out.
It felt like a grim reaper that had blended into the scenery had finally revealed its scythe.
Then—like the plucking of a high harp note that split the rustling wind—the air of the analysis room trembled.
“…Who are you? Since when have you been there?”
When I asked in a strained voice‚ the girl silently descended to the floor.
With every step the girl calling herself Nagi took closer‚ violent noise ran across the monitors and Kotone let out a short scream. Her very presence rewrote the air of the room.
“From the start. Your solo was so absurdly comical‚ after all.”
Nagi’s voice was cold like the wind blowing through a winter forest.
“Aria. Your magic score is precise. But it is missing something decisive.”
“Missing…?”
“Yes. As a conductor‚ you’re disqualified. To not realize that the baton you wield has become a blade that cuts away the performer’s life.”
“A blade…? Are you saying my resonance is killing Iris…?!”
The perfect theory my mother drilled into me. I had traced it and synchronized my voice with Iris.
But Nagi’s eyes mercilessly dug up the word “failure” from my mother that slept in the depths of my memory.
“The previous resonance was certainly a splendid piece. But to match your bloated theory‚ Iris burned her very existence away. An incomplete melody forcibly completed with the price of her life.”
Nagi’s jade eyes pierced the pocket watch on my chest.
“Ninety days remaining. That is the depth of the knife you stabbed into her.”
“...That… can’t be…!”
My words froze in my throat. The rhythm of my fingers collapsed and dissonance raged in my chest.
Nagi stopped before me‚ carrying the scent of a winter forest‚ and peered into me from extremely close range.
“Your heartbeat is irregular. But there’s no need to despair.”
Her slender finger touched my chest. A cold breath brushed my skin‚ and a single high harp note burst in my ear.
“Your ‘imperfect melody.’ Depending on how it is polished‚ it could serve another purpose. If your ‘key’ grows correctly—the door of that tower reaching the heavens might open.”
“The tower…? The legendary—”
“Yes. They say it holds the power to reconstruct vanished souls. …If you truly want to save Iris‚ I’ll ‘tune’ you. That rough sound of yours.”
Just then—
“ARIAAAAA!! YOU BASTARD‚ WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO OUR ARIA?!”
Like a launched projectile‚ Cross leapt forward and forced himself between Nagi and me with his steel-like body.
“My soul (defense) is sounding danger alarms!! This one smells dangerous!”
Without even glancing at him‚ Nagi lightly flicked her fingers. The resulting gust easily pushed back Cross’s massive body.
“You’re noisy. The acoustic world isn’t simple enough to solve with ‘soul.’”
“Nagi… what’s your objective? Why tell me this?”
At my question‚ Nagi lightly jumped back onto the window frame.
Against the backlight‚ her white hair swayed like silver flames.
“…Because you are the ‘key.’ No further reason is necessary for now.”
The final note of the harp dissolved into the wind.
For just a moment‚ Nagi looked at the sleeping Iris with sad eyes before melting into the night’s darkness.
What remained were the rustling curtains‚ the unsolved mystery carved into my chest‚ and—the faint lingering scent of hope.
In the silence after the storm‚ Kotone struck the keyboard with trembling fingers.
“…The tower‚ huh. I never thought it truly existed.”
Displayed on the monitor were ancient documents and the academy’s underground structural map.
“Aria-kun. The ‘ancient catalyst’ Nagi mentioned… it’s stored in the deepest part of the academy. The only ones allowed to enter are—”
“The winner of the Academy Tournament‚ right?”
When I answered‚ Kotone nodded quietly.
“Yes. And this year’s top favorite to win is… Soran-kun.”
The moment I heard that name‚ something burned in my chest.
Soran—the student council president and the “machine mage” who inherited my mother’s theory in its purest form. The one who once declared me a “failure.” Because he was my mother’s ideal completion.
Challenging Soran meant challenging my mother’s theory itself once again.
“…Aria‚ are you serious?”
Rinne grabbed my sleeve. Her hand was trembling.
I walked to Iris’s side and gently took her pale‚ cold hand.
What reached my fingertips was a faint trembling‚ barely there. The warmth of the girl who once laughed beside me had almost completely faded.
(The faint tremor passing through my fingertips drowned out the weak voice in my heart. It was a desperate wish powerful enough to paint over the fear of losing her.)
“Iris… you said I sounded like ‘the future‚’ remember?”
I overlapped my fingers with hers.
Tap‚ tap.
Not the impatient rhythm from before.
This was a prelude meant to keep her tied to this world.
“I don’t know if I can beat Soran’s ‘perfect theory.’ But I’ll prove that the ‘fluctuation’ between Iris and me isn’t just dissonance. That the light we saw wasn’t a mistake.”
I squeezed the hand I held just a little.
“…Wait for me‚ Iris. Ninety days is far too short to end our ensemble.”
I stood and turned toward my companions.
“Kotone. Take care of Iris. Without your analysis—your score—I can’t fight.”
“Leave it to me. I’ll protect the data.”
“Rinne. Sorry‚ but… I’ll be relying on your soup from now on too. You’re the only one who can keep me tied to ‘everyday life.’”
“…Of course! I’ll make four times or five times as much if I have to!”
“…Please keep the salt low. Cross‚ I’ll need your muscles too.”
“You got it! My lats exist to support your baton!”
My companions’ voices repainted the cold air of the analysis room.
I looked at the pocket watch once more.
“89 days 23 hours 44 minutes 58 seconds.”
A cruel countdown. Yet to me now‚ every single second looked like a musical score to fight with.
My fingertips struck the rhythm strongly—tap‚ tap.
It was the beginning of a new story—to rescue Iris from an imperfect melody.
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