During a regular practice session for her beloved music circle, "Wonderlands×Showtime," AIchin HIBIYA feels a strange pang of sadness. She thinks, "Maybe... they'd be better off without me?" It's a tiny, prickly feeling of being left behind while her friends shine brightly.
Noticing her gloom, a quirky upperclassman from her school, Arata JOZAKI, calls out to her. Arata is a brilliant hacker with an obsession for the "Sekai" system. He has a secret—he can access "Minor Sekai," unstable worlds b
In a Corner of Sekai, You Wait for the Stars - System Lock and a Cold Declaration
Kami-Hara Central Park after school was quieter than usual.
The clock tower's long shadow fell thickly across the lawn. The evening air was a little chilly, and Hibiya Aichin found herself thinking absently that autumn would be deepening soon.
"Sorry I'm late."
When she hurried over, Jozaki Arata was sitting at the base of the clock tower as always, fiddling with his modified tablet. His unruly silver hair swayed slightly in the breeze.
"It's fine. I just got here too."
Arata spoke without looking up. From beneath his long bangs, his deep blue right eye peered out. The cord wrapped around his wrist made a dry, rustling sound.
Aichin crouched down next to Arata, twirling the ends of her own bangs around her finger.
(*That call from Yukito-senpai yesterday... I wonder what happened after that.*)
A cold tightness gripped her chest. The incoming call that had rung out on Arata's tablet on the way back from drinking coffee at Lampshade. That cold voice that had come through the speaker. *"Your 48-hour grace period is over."*
But today, Arata was the same as always. Sleepy, brusque. So Aichin deliberately didn't bring it up.
"There was a huge Sekai reaction today. The location is... right here."
Arata turned the tablet screen toward Aichin. On a map of Kami-Hara City, a single point of light was blinking intensely. The location was directly beneath this very clock tower—a Gate Spot.
"Wow..."
"Let's go check it out."
Arata began operating the tablet. Reading the code, visualizing the gate—the usual procedure.
But.
"...Huh?"
Arata's fingers stopped.
The screen remained pitch black, displaying nothing. He tapped, swiped, pressed the side buttons over and over. But the tablet stayed silent.
"What the hell... is it broken?"
For the first time, a hint of panic crept into Arata's voice. He shook the tablet roughly. The cord wrapped around his wrist clattered with a grating noise.
Growing anxious, Aichin gently grabbed Arata's sleeve.
"A-Are you okay...?"
"This is weird... I can't do any code reading at all. This has never happened before."
That was when it happened.
"—Took you long enough to notice. Jozaki."
The voice came from the shadow of the clock tower.
Slowly, a male student stepped forward.
Neatly trimmed short black hair. Behind silver-rimmed glasses, his narrow eyes were intelligent—and terribly cold. In his hand, he held a dedicated touch-panel terminal designed to be operated while wearing gloves. He wasn't wearing the Kami-Hara Municipal Tonogi High School uniform, but the navy blazer of Miharu Academy.
Soga Yukito.
Arata's expression changed in an instant.
"Yukito... you bastard, don't tell me!"
Yukito spoke without the slightest change in expression.
"I've externally applied a system lock to the core code of that modified tablet. Your code reading ability is now completely sealed."
"Wha—! You did this!!"
Arata shouted. Startled by his fury, Aichin flinched and instinctively gripped his sleeve tighter. Yukito's cold aura was terrifying. Like ice that absorbed all the warmth around it.
Yukito glanced briefly at Aichin. No emotion could be read in the dark brown eyes behind his glasses.
"You're Hibiya Aichin."
Aichin couldn't find her voice. She just gave a small, silent nod.
"I can't allow you to be dragged into any more danger. This Sekai game is over."
"Don't screw with me!! You've got some nerve saying that after sealing my ability without permission!"
Arata stepped forward. But Yukito didn't flinch in the slightest.
Yukito operated the terminal in his hand, bringing up multiple data windows in the air. Graphs undulating like waves and strings of numbers she had never seen before flowed across them.
"This is the energy value of your Sekai Key, as observed by Vigilnet."
Yukito held the screen out toward Aichin.
"As you can see, it's several hundred times that of a normal Minor Sekai. This value has already surpassed the critical point of Carnival Hall, which caused a chain collapse eight years ago."
Aichin didn't really understand what the numbers meant. But she could tell that the graph was fluctuating so violently it looked ready to burst at any moment.
"Your self-negating emotion—the feeling that 'everyone would be better off without you'—that has become your Sekai Key, and it's generating a Sekai of unprecedented scale."
Yukito's words were as cold and sharp as a knife.
"I-It's... my fault...?"
"Yes."
"Shut up, Yukito!! What the hell do you know! Aichin's Sekai isn't dangerous!"
Arata yelled. His voice was completely different from his usual sleepy, low tone, and it surprised Aichin.
But Yukito spoke coldly.
"What do I know, you ask? Three years ago, my senpai was caught in the collapse of an unstable Minor Sekai and fell into a coma for over two weeks. There were lasting aftereffects, and they're still undergoing rehabilitation. Do you intend to repeat the same thing?"
Arata was at a loss for words.
Yukito continued.
"If her Sekai continues to grow like this, it will drag in even the Major Sekai of Wonderlands×Showtime and cause a chain collapse. In the worst case, every Sekai in Kami-Hara City will crumble like an avalanche, and everyone involved will suffer severe Sekai sickness."
Aichin's vision went dark.
The strength drained from her legs, and she collapsed on the spot. Her knees trembled violently.
"No... everyone... because of me...?"
The smiling faces of her circle friends floated into her mind. Misaki's gentle voice. The leader's concern. The time they all spent practicing together, laughing together.
All of that—would be destroyed because of her?
"Don't screw with me!!"
Suddenly, Arata lunged at Yukito, fist clenched and swinging with all his might. But—
"The height of folly."
As if he had predicted the movement, Yukito effortlessly caught Arata's arm. Then he twisted it up.
"Guh—!!"
"You're always like this. Acting on emotion, with absolutely no risk management."
Yukito spoke coldly and pinned Arata's body to the ground.
With a dull thud, Arata was thrown onto the grass. His silver hair was stained with dirt.
"You don't understand anything! Her Sekai has a value that no one has the right to deny!! Have you ever even once seen that beauty!?"
Still sprawled on the ground, Arata shouted. His voice was more intense, more desperate, and more pained than any voice Aichin had ever heard from him.
"People die because of that 'value' of yours."
Yukito replied in a voice devoid of emotion.
"Please stop!!"
Aichin screamed through her tears.
Arata was on the ground, pinned down. That senpai—the one who always seemed so sleepy but got so passionate when it came to Sekai—was pathetically covered in dirt. The sight of him like that tore at her heart.
Yukito shoved Arata away and stood up. He lightly brushed the dust from his uniform.
"Within 48 hours, agree to the safe deletion of that Sekai. If you refuse, Vigilnet will forcibly intervene."
"You've got to be—"
"And, Hibiya Aichin."
Yukito's cold gaze pierced into Aichin.
"Your emotions destroy people. Be aware of that."
Aichin's breath stopped.
The center of her chest went ice-cold. Her fingertips trembled.
Having said that, Yukito turned his back and walked away. The sound of his regular footsteps slowly faded into the distance.
All that remained was Arata, still collapsed on the ground, and Aichin, slumped where she sat.
The setting sun stretched their shadows long. The hands of the clock tower ticked, ticked—sounding unnervingly loud.
"...It's all my fault."
Aichin covered her face and broke down crying. Tears spilled through the gaps between her fingers.
"Because I enjoyed exploring Sekai with you, senpai... because I got carried away... that's why this happened."
"That's not true!!"
Arata pushed himself up. There was dirt on his mouth.
"It's not your fault. I'm the one who pushed you into it. It's all my responsibility."
But Aichin shook her head.
"I shouldn't see you anymore, senpai. If I'm not around, everything won't have to fall apart..."
She forced the words out with a trembling voice.
Then she shook off Arata's hand and ran.
"Wait, Hibiya!!"
Arata tried to chase after her. But his legs tangled, and he fell forward onto his hands again.
The modified tablet lay on the grass. The screen was still pitch black.
Arata grabbed it and slammed it against the ground.
THUD!!
A dull sound. The screen cracked.
"Dammit... dammit...!!"
He slammed his fist against the ground once more. The grass tore up, dirt digging into the spaces between his fingers.
With his ability sealed, he could no longer take her to Sekai. He couldn't protect her.
That powerlessness tightened around his chest like a vice.
The sun sank lower.
The sky was dyed blood-red.
---
Back at his apartment, Arata sat down in the middle of his six-tatami-mat room.
On the walls, sheets of craft paper covered with handwritten observation records of Minor Sekai were plastered everywhere. Empty instant ramen containers were piled up in the corner of his desk.
"Deleting it is the only option... that's absolutely wrong..."
He muttered the words aloud.
He picked up the cracked tablet. He tried entering commands over and over, attempting to analyze the mechanism of the system lock. But the screen remained silent. It was nothing more than a slab of plastic.
"I'll... I'll definitely find a way to protect it."
At that moment, a memory suddenly flashed back.
Three years ago. The first Minor Sekai he had dived into alone, after teaching himself code reading.
The ruins of Carnival Hall.
The immense loneliness he had felt in that place. And the sight that was so cruel, yet so beautiful it defied words.
That sensation was now welling up inside Arata once more.
(*I feel the same thing in Aichin's Sekai. That is something that must not be destroyed.*)
Arata stared at the monitor, his eyes filled with resolve.
Meanwhile, Aichin was collapsed on the floor of her own room.
Still in her uniform, her bag tossed aside. The sheets were soaked through with tears.
"...I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."
She didn't even know what she was apologizing for.
But she couldn't help but apologize.
To everyone in the circle. To Arata. And to herself.
With trembling hands, she picked up her smartphone.
She opened the Wonderlands×Showtime group LINE. Everyone's cheerful icons were lined up.
*'I'm quitting Wonderlands×Showtime.'*
She typed it out on the screen.
But she couldn't press send.
Her thumb trembled and wouldn't move.
"...I can't... I can't do it..."
Clutching her smartphone, she collapsed onto the floor again.
That was when it happened.
Right before her chest, the air warped.
More clearly than she had ever seen it before. A rift of light ran through the air like a crack. A Sekai Gate.
It flickered unstably, pulsing slowly—almost like a heartbeat.
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