Nagazora. Senba Academy.
The light was already starting to dim outside.
Inside the school's indoor gym, on the basketball court, a white-haired young man was practicing his shots. Awkwardly.
His name was Kevin. He had always been athletic. Even as a kid he'd run faster and jumped farther than any of the others his age.
But to him, that had never quite felt like much. It was all muscle and no finesse. It wasn't cool.
What he liked was technique. He liked figuring something out, working at it, finally pulling off a win because he had actually earned it.
Lately, the thing he was working on was basketball. He'd realized pretty quickly that you couldn't bully your way through this sport. Raw strength alone got you nowhere. If he could really get the hang of it, he figured, that would mean something.
So today, he was giving it a real shot.
Then, after a while…
Swish.
The ball dropped clean through the net.
"Nice!"
Kevin's right hand snapped into a fist. The grin was already all over his face, even though it had only been a simple shot, even though he'd been standing practically right under the rim. Didn't matter. A win was a win.
The only shame was that his closest friend and the girl he liked weren't here to see it. He didn't have anyone to share the moment with.
Then…
Thud, thud, thud.
The ball hit the floor under the hoop, bounced a few times, and started rolling. It rolled all the way to the edge of the court.
It came to a stop at someone else's feet.
"Huh?"
Kevin blinked. There had been someone else in here this whole time? And he hadn't noticed?
He looked up at the guy's face.
A black-haired young man. Plain enough features. Maybe a little good-looking, in a quiet way, but nothing remarkable. Not as good-looking as Kevin himself, honestly. (And no, Kevin wasn't being arrogant about that. He was just confident about his own face, and he had reason to be.)
But there was something else about the guy. The presence he gave off, that deep, unreadable air about him, was something Kevin couldn't begin to match. It was the eyes, mostly. They didn't seem to focus on anything. Like he'd already looked past everything.
"Here."
Before Kevin had finished thinking, the man had already picked up the ball and tossed it back to him.
For half a second, Kevin had the strange sense that what was being thrown to him wasn't only a basketball.
It was a chance.
A second chance.
"Ah, oh… thanks."
Kevin caught the ball and managed a quick word of thanks. He was an outgoing kid by nature, and the question was already on his tongue.
"You a transfer student? Haven't seen you around."
What he didn't say out loud was: …and you're not in the Senba uniform, either.
"No. I just happened to be passing through."
The black-haired young man pulled the corner of his mouth up, like he was trying for a casual, easygoing smile. It came out a little stiff. As if he had forgotten how to smile like that.
"Just wrapped up a big project. Took me a while. Got some free time now, so I figured I'd walk around a bit."
"Big project?"
Kevin pointed at him, then at himself, then back. "What, you a businessman or something? You look about my age."
"People's lives just take different roads."
The man gave a small shrug. "School isn't the only road there is. And there are plenty of people who'd like to be in school but, for one reason or another, can't."
He caught himself on the last part. "…All right. That was probably more than I needed to say."
He gestured toward the gym entrance.
"Your friends are here. I won't keep you any longer."
"Do your best, Hero of Deliverance."
"…Huh?"
Kevin blinked again. The gym doors were still closed. The soundproofing in here was thick enough that he couldn't hear footsteps from the hall. There was no way for the guy to know.
He turned his head for half a second to glance toward the door.
When he looked back, the man was gone.
The doors opened right at that moment.
His best friend Su, and the girl he liked, MEI, walked in together.
Unlike Kevin, who was more or less a musclehead, those two were the bookish type, the kind who lived with their noses buried in research. So they always got out of class later than he did.
"Come on, Kevin."
"It's about time we got dinner."
"Aren't we still going to Eden's concert tonight? We're cutting it kind of close."
The two of them came up still talking, only to find Kevin standing there staring off into nothing, mumbling.
"Was that just my imagination? It can't have been… I haven't even been pulling all-nighters lately. Don't tell me I just saw a…"
"Hey!"
"Wah!"
A hand clapped down on his shoulder. Kevin nearly chucked the basketball across the gym out of pure reflex. He caught himself just in time once he saw it was Su.
"Oh, Su, it's you. How do you walk that quietly?"
He thumped his chest. He could still feel his heart hammering against it.
"You were the one who blanked out. MEI and I were calling you from over there for a while now."
Su didn't quite know what to say to that. "Anyway, what's gotten into you? Why are you so jumpy?"
"Uh, it's nothing, really."
Kevin scratched his head. "I just… ran into a kind of strange guy."
"Strange how?"
MEI walked closer.
"Well, he was right here a minute ago."
Kevin started gesturing wildly with his hands. "And then I look away for a second and he's gone."
MEI looked at him like he had just said something no human being could follow.
"I'm serious!"
Kevin protested. "Before you guys even came in, he told me my friends were coming…"
"Hey, Kevin."
Su cut him off, gently. "Has it occurred to you that this gym has only one way in and out?"
"Which is the door MEI and I just walked through," MEI added.
"Uh."
Kevin choked on whatever he'd been about to say. Now that he thought about it… yeah. Just the one door. And the more he thought about it, the worse it got.
"What the hell."
He gawked. "Don't tell me I actually saw a ghost?"
"Wait. Why was it a guy?"
"…Hm?" said MEI.
Meanwhile, just outside Senba Academy.
A black-haired young man was walking side by side with a white-haired young man (?).
"Didn't expect that later-era 'Bodhi' to be at Senba right now," the black-haired young man said. "I figured he'd be living somewhere else around this time."
"Su spent some time at Senba as an exchange student."
The white-haired young man (?) answered evenly. "He left before the Third Honkai Eruption. After that, the two of us didn't see each other again for four years. By the time we did, the Seventh Honkai Eruption had already broken out."
For some reason, he added: "Eden's concerts. Su and I only ever went to two of them. Tonight is the last one."
"Oh?"
The black-haired young man didn't look over. He just asked, casually: "Aren't you going to go see your dearest friend and the woman you love?"
"There's no need."
The white-haired young man (?) said quietly. "Watching from a distance is enough. This new era belongs to them. Not to a ghost like me, who shouldn't even be here."
"But you're not planning to just disappear, either. Are you?"
The black-haired young man smiled a little. "So what are you going to do?"
"I am a Flame-Chaser. I bear the Signet of Deliverance."
The white-haired young man (?) answered him seriously. "That was true before. It is true now. I'll guard this era from the shadows. And I'll keep watch on the ones who might destroy it."
His gaze settled on the black-haired young man as he said the last part.
It was clear enough. Kevin counted him as a threat too. Maybe the biggest threat there was.
That couldn't really be helped.
Yes, the "second chance" had been a gift from this man. But that same man had also handpicked specific people and dragged them across into this era too.
As had been said before, this "second chance" had not come from anyone's wish for something good. It had come from malice. A specific, targeted malice, aimed at certain people.
So.
"You've already chosen your path, Kevin. …No. Kevin Kaslana."
The black-haired young man laughed quietly. "Good luck to you too, then. Just hold to what you believe."
"And you?"
Kevin Kaslana finally voiced the question. "Ling Ke. Now that your revenge has actually succeeded, what's next?"
"Me?"
The black-haired young man, Ling Ke, pulled the corner of his mouth up just a little. "Simple."
"Like I told that other you back there. The previous big project's done. Before the next act starts, I want to walk around for a bit. See this… maybe-different… era with my own eyes."
He stretched. "It's been a long time since I've had this kind of free time. Call it a small vacation."
He really did need the rest.
"Understood."
Kevin gave a small nod. "Then we part here."
He turned. Walked. At the corner he started down a different road.
Then he stopped.
"I hope we don't meet again."
Saying that, the man who had chosen loneliness for himself walked on without looking back.
Nagazora had had a light rain earlier in the day. Where he had stepped, thin ice spread out behind him.
As for Ling Ke…
"Decisive of him."
He gave a faint smile. …Yeah. He was slowly getting the feeling of it back.
He let the thought of Kevin go. He was living for himself now.
Of course, the next act he'd just mentioned. The first batch of actors was already in place. He could watch them for a while when he had time.
It was, after all, his own masterpiece.
That aside.
"Eden's concert tonight, hm?"
The thought caught his attention. Before he transmigrated, the original story had piled praise on her chapter after chapter. He had to admit it. He was actually curious now.
"All right. Let's go see what kind of person actually deserves the title of the world's undisputed greatest star."
"Hopefully, she won't waste my vacation time."
-
Make this 50 power stones, i give a bonus chapter.