The lingering afterglow from that night's free talk in Round 1 still clung softly to Tanaka Shouta's chest. Lowest rating. 40th out of 40. Average 1.2 points. No matter how he looked at it, the numbers weren't funny. But when he remembered that single line etched in the corner of the scoreboard——Mizuki Ayane (Staff): 5 points——something small and quiet pulsed inside his chest. He still didn't understand why she'd given him a perfect score. But it was definitely there. （……Well, next is next.） Tanaka pushed his glasses up with one finger. An unconscious habit whenever he switched gears mentally. Light returned to Crescent Hall. The crescent-shaped chandelier began illuminating the entire room. Manager Gotou stood on the stage with a microphone in hand. His warm, composed voice announced the start of Round 2. "[excited]Everyone, we're moving to Round 2! This time, it's a cooperative mission——Pairing Scavenger Hunt!" The venue stirred. "Scavenger hunt?" "We're working in pairs?" "Who am I paired with?" voices overlapped from all directions. The returnees all stopped moving at once, their attention fixed on the manager onstage. Gotou continued. "[serious]We'll use a lottery to determine the pairs. Fair and random. Participants, please come forward." A lottery box was brought out. A small wooden box containing numbered tickets. Participants began lining up. Tanaka joined the flow. One by one, the participants ahead of him drew their numbers. "Number 7!" "Who's 7?" "Number 12!" As voices continued, it was Tanaka's turn. He reached into the box. The feel of paper. He pinched one and pulled it out. He unfolded it. Number 13. "……13, huh." He murmured while checking the pairing chart posted beside the scoreboard. It wasn't a simple format where 1 paired with 2, 3 with 4——each number corresponded to a different name. He scanned the chart, searching for the entry for 13. He found it. The moment he did, Tanaka did a double take. 13: Mizuki Ayane. "[surprised]……Huh?" The other participants started making noise almost simultaneously. "[whispers]Wait, Mizuki's actually participating?" "[whispers]She's been on the staff side every time since the first event. I never heard she'd be in a pair." "[whispers]And she's paired with the lowest-ranked person……" That last comment stung quietly, but Tanaka was more confused by his own luck. （Why does my hand keep drawing these? Right after scoring 1.2 average, I get paired with the person who gave me a perfect score——this can't be explained by logic.） Beside him, Kotone went completely still. The woman with precognition——the one who'd read ahead every statement in Round 1——her golden-tinged eyes narrowed slightly. "[cold]……Hmm. That's an interesting pair." She murmured as if to herself, then turned her gaze to her own partner, a man named Kurokawa with telekinesis. The air carried the sense that Kotone had foreseen something. What she'd seen, Tanaka couldn't tell. But he caught the slight upward curve of her mouth. "……Sorry to keep you waiting." A quiet voice came from his right. Mizuki Ayane approached. Silver hair flowed in loose waves down past her shoulders. Eyes like pale ice-blue water looked straight at him. Her expression was blank. But if you looked closely, she was turning the ring on her fingertip with her thumb——that ring, the activation signal for her time-stop skill, she was touching it unconsciously, perhaps. "[cold]I've confirmed the lottery results. According to the regulations, since staff members are included as pairing candidates, there's no grounds for protest." Her tone was matter-of-fact. Unreadable emotion. But there was more. "[cold]……Is it okay to be paired with me? I'm not very good at moving around with other people." Tanaka thought for a second, then answered. "[serious]I'm often told I can't read the air either. So we're even, aren't we?" Ayane's expression froze for exactly 0.3 seconds. The kind of pause where she'd searched for a rebuttal but found none. Something inside Tanaka finished its unconscious observation and moved on to the next process——he still didn't have a name for that sensation. "[cold]……Understood." With just that, Ayane turned forward. And so the ultimate chaos pair was formed: the lowest-rated man and the ice-cold receptionist. --- Manager Gotou explained the rules. "[serious]Throughout all 14 floors of Grandeur Tokyo, we've hidden 15 Pairing Stones——crystal balls five centimeters in diameter. Time limit: 40 minutes. The pair that collects the most wins. Skill usage is permitted within regulation guidelines. Now, start!" The moment the starting buzzer sounded, Kotone moved. "[excited]In 3 minutes, there's a stone in the fire extinguisher box behind the emergency stairs!" Her golden eyes glowed. Kurokawa followed silently, and with his telekinesis, a door down the hallway opened remotely. The two of them ran. Other pairs scattered all at once. Tanaka didn't move. （Precognition accuracy: 87%——） Information assembled itself in his mind. A number Kotone had mentioned in Round 1. 87%. If he played it straight, she'd get the first move 8.7 times out of 10 on average. Without a countermeasure, he couldn't win a speed race. （But the flip side of 87% is that 13% fails.） Something clicked. Precognition accuracy is inversely proportional to the complexity of the target event, and the more human free will is involved, the lower the accuracy——he'd heard that somewhere. When the target is someone with predictable behavior, Kotone's accuracy increases. Then conversely, if he deliberately acted unpredictably, he could intentionally trigger that 13% failure rate. Tanaka turned to Ayane. "[serious]From now on, I'm going to move completely randomly. It's to eliminate patterns, so please don't ask why." Ayane's eyes narrowed for 0.5 seconds. "[cold]……I don't understand, but go ahead." That seemed to be approval. Tanaka started moving. He made it look like he was heading to the 12th floor, then took the elevator to the 7th. He made it look like he was turning right down the hallway, then went left. The moment the elevator doors opened, he didn't board——he broke toward the stairs instead. A continuous stream of actions stripped of all routine. Ayane said nothing and simply followed. Not a single complaint. In that sense, she was definitely an easy partner to work with. When they reached the 3rd floor, Kotone's voice echoed from above. "[angry]That pair should be heading to the laundry room on the 8th floor!!" Tanaka made an instant decision. （Opposite of 8th——stay on 3rd.） Behind the fire extinguisher in the hallway, a faintly glowing crystal ball was hidden. A Pairing Stone. "Found one." He collected it. Then found another one beside a bench on the 3rd floor. Two stones ahead. A scream echoed from above. "[angry]Why……why is it wrong!? My precognition is broken!?" "[whispers]Calm down. Precognition can fail sometimes." "[angry]It doesn't fail for me!!" Tanaka could imagine Kurokawa's troubled expression as he tried to soothe her. As he and Ayane moved down the hallway, the elevator doors opened and Kotone burst out. "[angry]You! What are you doing!? My precognition keeps failing! Is my skill broken!?" Tanaka stopped and answered. "[serious]It's not broken. When you say 87% accuracy, that means 13% fails. I just deliberately targeted that 13%." A moment of silence. "[angry]That calmness is infuriating!!" Kurokawa interjected nervously. "[gentle]He's……well, just moving logically. He's not doing anything wrong, really……" "[angry]I know!! I know but it's infuriating!!" Tanaka watched Kotone's back as she returned to the elevator, then turned to Ayane. Ayane was looking straight ahead down the hallway with a normal expression. --- Still two stones ahead, Tanaka and Ayane slipped through the service corridor on the 11th floor. Kotone's footsteps pursued them. They slid into the shadow of a corner door, both holding their breath. Tight. The corner of the hallway, beside a cleaning supply shelf. The distance between Tanaka and Ayane naturally grew closer. Silence. The mechanical sound of an elevator moving in the distance. Ayane whispered. "[whispers]……How did you know the weakness of precognition?" "[whispers]It's just probability theory. The moment I heard 87%, I thought about how to use the 13%. That's all." A short silence. "[cold]……You're strange." Tanaka confirmed while pushing his glasses up. "[serious]Should I take that as a compliment?" "[cold]……That's what I meant." As she answered, Ayane's mouth moved 0.2 millimeters. It was so subtle it was hard to say it even moved. But Tanaka's eyes caught it. The air in the space felt a little softer. Taking a chance, Tanaka asked. "[whispers]Mizuki, you said earlier you weren't good at moving around with people. Was it the same……in the other world? When you were in Elda Vestia?" Ayane's movements froze for a moment. The silence stretched. Tanaka was starting to think he'd asked something he shouldn't have when Ayane finally spoke. "[whispers]……My skill was too strong." A flat, emotionless voice. But something seeped through the words. "[whispers]From the moment I was reborn in Elda Vestia, whenever my emotions surged, time would stop unconsciously. The people around me would suddenly freeze. The moment I realized I was the cause……no one came near me anymore." Tanaka answered quietly. "[whispers]……That must have been hard." "[cold]I don't need words of comfort." An immediate response. But right after, Ayane continued. "[whispers]……Why did you end up isolated? You don't even have a skill." Tanaka thought for a moment, then answered with a bitter smile. "[serious]I'm the opposite. I tried to explain everything with logic. When a teammate was about to die in the other world, I started calculating survival odds before I could feel sad——and when I said it out loud, everyone recoiled." Ayane paused for a beat, then said. "[cold]……Yeah, I'd recoil from that." And then——she laughed. Softly. Really softly. Her mouth curved upward slightly, and pale ice-blue light flickered in her eyes for just an instant. A smile that lasted less than a second. But it was definitely a smile. Something in Tanaka's mind stopped. The calculations vanished. Logic vanished. Numbers vanished. The center of his chest grew warm——no, more than that. Something deep inside began pulsing intensely, and Tanaka froze, unable to say "ah" or "eh." （She just……laughed……? This person……when she smiles……it's so……） His thoughts didn't complete before Kotone's footsteps echoed down the hallway. The smile disappeared. Ayane returned to her blank expression and stood up smoothly. "[cold]……Let's go get the stones." She moved first. Tanaka thought as he ran. （I just……completely fell in love. The timing is the worst.） --- The final stone battle happened in front of the linen room on the 9th floor. Kotone's voice came from down the hallway, half-desperate. "[angry]This time it's definitely the 9th floor!! I won't be wrong!!" Kurokawa was trying to manipulate a door from around the corner with his telekinesis. Tanaka organized Kotone's state in his mind. （Kotone when she's panicked has even lower precognition accuracy. The stronger the emotion, the more human free will interferes. If she's panicked and certain it's "definitely the 9th floor," then following standard procedure is actually the right move——） Tanaka simply pulled open the linen room door. Top shelf. A faintly blue-white glowing crystal ball. The Pairing Stone, the last one. "Found it." He reached up. It didn't reach. The shelf was about 190 centimeters high. Tanaka was 172 centimeters. His fingertips grasped at air 18 centimeters short. "[serious]……I needed just 5 more centimeters, or rather 18……" Just as despair was setting in, a white hand extended from beside him. Ayane silently retrieved the stone. She was supposedly 162 centimeters, but