Even After Reincarnation, Patane Can't Stop Loving Sharks
Spring. At the entrance ceremony of Eden Private Academy, transfer student Lain Paterson catches everyone's attention. Silver hair, blue eyes, and a trained physique visible even under her uniform. In her previous world, she was a skilled bodyguard who protected her precious comrades. But now she's just a high school freshman. And strangely, her left chest pouch contains three cigarettes. She doesn't smoke. They're for her comrades who are no longer there.
Lain's daily life begins with strange
Even After Reincarnation, Patane Can't Stop Loving Sharks - The Transfer Student of Mirror Lake — I Found You, She Said
"…Found you."
A low, cold voice dropped into the dark room.
Only the pale blue glow of the monitor illuminated her profile. Long black hair. Purple eyes. Those eyes were fixed on the girl in the screen.
Silver hair. Deep blue eyes.
"Lain Paterson…"
She traced the photograph on the monitor with her fingertip.
"Just by existing, you'll destroy this academy's peace."
That was the night of the entrance ceremony at Private Eden Academy.
In the student council room, the vice president had muttered those words all alone.
April.
Lakeside City, a campus town spread across the southern shore of Mirror Lake. Population roughly one hundred twenty thousand. Of that, about thirty thousand are students. A city built for education and research.
At the city's center, a white chalk building towered.
Private Eden Academy.
Founded eighty years ago. Approximately two thousand four hundred students. Four departments: General Studies, International Studies, Arts, and Sports. The sprawling grounds include the main building, a gymnasium, a fifty-meter pool, a library with one hundred twenty thousand volumes, a cafeteria, and student dormitories.
In that gymnasium, the entrance ceremony was about to begin.
"…Amazing."
Someone whispered.
The murmur spread like a wave.
Standing on the stage was a single girl.
Silver long hair. Under the gymnasium lights, her hair reflected a sparkling sheen. It shouldn't have been styled, yet somehow it was silky smooth.
Deep blue eyes. A quiet color, like the bottom of a lake.
Height: one hundred sixty-eight centimeters. A white blazer with a navy skirt. The Eden Academy uniform. But wearing it, she looked like no one else.
Even through the uniform, you could tell—a toned body. Slender, yet the quality of her muscle was different. Not even the sports department students had a build like that.
And a small pouch on her left chest.
It drew the eye for some reason.
"Transfer student, Lain Paterson."
Her voice was quiet.
But even with two thousand four hundred pairs of eyes on her, she didn't waver in the slightest.
"…Nice to meet you."
Just that.
Lain bowed deeply, then raised her head.
Her eyes moved unconsciously.
The view from the stage—her gaze scanned it on its own. The arrangement of student seats. Entrances and exits. Emergency exit locations. Upper-floor windows. If something happened, how would she move. Where would she evacuate people. Who first.
(…Ah. Again.)
Lain smiled bitterly in her heart.
(I decided I'd never fight again.)
The habits of a Pact Guardian from her past life were ingrained in her body. The gaze that protects people. The eyes that search for danger. Even at a peaceful entrance ceremony, they worked on their own.
Lain quietly clenched her fist.
The back of her left hand bore many old scars. Those white remnants told the story of her past.
(It's fine. This isn't a battlefield.)
She repeated it in her heart.
(This is a school.)
The ceremony ended.
Students filed out of the gymnasium in droves. New students to their classrooms. Returning students to their respective posts.
Lain was being shown around the campus by her homeroom teacher.
"This is the library. One hundred twenty thousand volumes. The largest in the city."
A young female teacher explained in a bright voice.
"That over there is the cafeteria. It's called 'Mirror Lake Terrace.' You can see the lake. It's the best on sunny days."
Lain nodded silently.
The teacher didn't mind. She already knew the transfer student was the quiet type.
"Next is the courtyard. It's one of this academy's prides—"
Lain's feet stopped.
Past the courtyard.
There was a waterway.
A narrow channel flowing from the courtyard pond toward Mirror Lake. At its entrance stood a small sign.
'Shark Observation Point'
"…Shark."
Lain's lips moved.
"Hm? Ah, that. Apparently a shark wandered into this channel once, long ago. So only the sign remains—wait, huh? Hey, where are you going?"
Lain was already walking.
She reached the sign.
The water in the channel was clear enough to see the stones at the bottom. The current was slow, and light rippled on the surface.
Lain crouched down.
She stared into the water.
(Shark…)
Something deep in her chest grew hot and tight.
She had fallen into the sea in her past life. A dark, cold ocean. Her body sinking. She'd thought it was over.
Then it appeared.
A massive shark.
Ten meters at least. Maybe more. That shadow had carried her on its back and brought her to the surface.
She still remembered that sensation.
The rough skin. The powerful tail fin. And those deep black eyes.
(Thank you.)
Lain was murmuring unconsciously.
"…Thank you."
Her voice was small.
But she had certainly said it.
The water's surface glittered.
Lain didn't move from that spot for a while.
She returned to her dorm room in the evening.
Dormitory Eden. A student dormitory on the academy grounds. Lain's room was a corner room on the third floor. A one-room space of about six tatami mats.
"…I'm home."
Lain said quietly to the empty room.
No reply.
But the room was lively.
Shark posters plastered across an entire wall. Shark plushies lined up on shelves. Shark ecology encyclopedias stacked on the floor. Even a shark-shaped soy sauce dispenser on the desk.
By her pillow on the bed, one particularly large shark plushie.
"Sharkie."
A custom-made plushie modeled after the shark that had saved her in her past life. One of the things Lain treasured most in this world.
She picked Sharkie up.
The fluffy texture.
"…I'm home, Sharkie."
Her voice softened, just a little.
Then Lain reached into the pouch on her left chest.
She pulled out three cigarettes.
The brand: 'Sacred Leaf.' The ones her comrades had smoked in her past life.
Kyle. Sophia. Glenn.
Three battle companions.
Gone now.
Lain didn't smoke. Never had.
These were keepsakes.
She stepped out onto the balcony.
Mirror Lake was visible. The lake surface, dyed by the setting sun, shone like a mirror. Area: forty-five square kilometers. Maximum depth: one hundred twenty meters. A clear, quiet lake.
(I promised.)
Lain gripped the cigarettes.
(That I'd come back alive. That I'd protect my comrades.)
The promise with those three.
She hadn't kept it.
(No next time.)
That's what the three had told her.
"No next time"—she'd pondered the meaning of those words over and over.
(I won't lose anyone again.)
She put the cigarettes back in the pouch.
The sun set.
The lake slowly darkened.
Night.
Lain stood by the window.
She couldn't sleep.
There was fatigue from the entrance ceremony. A new environment. A new life. But some part of her mind was wide awake.
(It'll take time to get used to this.)
She opened the curtain slightly and looked outside.
Mirror Lake was illuminated by moonlight.
It was a quiet night.
No wind. The lake surface was like a black mirror.
—Then.
Something ran beneath the water's surface.
Lain's eyes flew open.
A massive shadow.
Over ten meters. No, larger.
In the moonlight, a black shadow cut across the bottom of the lake.
(Shark…?)
Her heart pounded violently.
That shape. That movement.
The shark that had saved her in her past life—
"…No way."
But the shadow was only for an instant.
It vanished immediately, and the lake returned to a quiet mirror.
(My imagination…?)
Lain stared at the lake for a while.
But she couldn't see anything anymore.
She pressed a hand to the pouch on her chest.
The feel of three cigarettes.
The presence of her comrades.
(…It wasn't an illusion.)
She wanted to believe that.
At the same time.
The student council room.
Ayame Ayame sat before the monitor.
Straight black long hair. Perfectly maintained, and when it caught the monitor's light, a purple luster appeared at times.
Purple eyes.
Deep, deep color.
She was staring at the photograph on the screen.
Lain Paterson. Her transfer registration photo.
Silver hair. Blue eyes.
"…Just as I thought."
Ayame murmured quietly.
Her eyes flickered gold for an instant.
Causal Sight.
The ability to see, as visions, how a target's past choices affected the present. Among reincarnators, an extremely rare power.
She had already read Lain's past life.
The youngest Pact Guardian.
She fought to protect her comrades, and then—
Kyle. Sophia. Glenn.
The past where she lost three battle companions.
"You're strong. But…"
Ayame looked at the documents on her desk.
Transfer records. Fragments of her past life's battle history. And one old, worn photograph.
"Just by existing, you'll destroy this academy's peace."
Her voice was cold.
But deep in her eyes, another emotion wavered.
Anguish.
Ayame herself was a reincarnator.
Tormented by memories of her past life.
She stood up.
Outside the window, Mirror Lake was visible.
The lake illuminated by moonlight.
"…It's not over yet."
Ayame said quietly, gazing at the lake.
"This is only the beginning."
The night deepened.
A quiet night in Lakeside City.
But beneath that stillness, something had begun to move.
The transfer student, Lain Paterson.
The student council vice president, Ayame Ayame.
Two fates were about to intersect.
The surface of Mirror Lake swayed quietly in the moonlight.
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