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Two Choices – Part 05

Hikaru speculated that this energy occasionally affected the earth, resulting in localized quakes. It was energy so potent that such consequences wouldn’t be surprising.

Exposure to mana of this magnitude would no doubt wreak havoc on the body.

Earth-dwellers lived in an environment devoid of mana. If exposed to such powerful energy, changes were inevitable—awakening to magical power. The nature of these changes was unknown. They might start seeing evil spirits, referred to as undead monsters in the other world. Alternatively, they could undergo unfamiliar sensations, or their bodies might transform to the point of death.

It wouldn’t be entirely baseless for people to assume that the person went crazy because they stayed in the divine realm.

The leader of those assailants also sensed the presence of this magical energy.

In contrast to Doyama, the Mafia leader seemed convinced from the start that Mt. Midori held something extraordinary. It was a different kind of sensation compared to Hikaru’s Mana Detection. While Hikaru’s skill was handy, it required personal control, and expanding its range too much caused headaches. Mt. Midori shrine was located over a kilometer away, making it impossible for him to confirm the presence of magical power beforehand. The Mafia leader, on the other hand, seemed to possess a more nebulous ability to sense something peculiar.

A mysterious ability. The world is vast, I guess.

Even with the wealth of knowledge nowadays, there were still plenty of unknowns out there.

“Are you absolutely sure it’s not uranium?”

“It’s highly likely, though not entirely impossible.”

Doyama joined Hikaru’s side. They stood just a few meters away from the green vein.

“By the way, I heard there used to be a festival at the shrine below,” Hikaru said.

“Ah, yes. But I discontinued it during my generation. The number of visitors dwindled, and above all, there were fewer children who enjoyed it.”

“Did you ever transport stones from here to that shrine?”

The old man gave Hikaru a wide-eyed look. “W-We did. To appease the mountain, you need the power of the gods. So, during the old festival, we placed one at the shrine.”

“I see.”

The taxi driver had spoken of a friend who claimed to have seen a ghost during a test of courage. They might have just happened to catch a glimpse of the light emitted by the stone.

“N-No, that’s not important. What in the world is this ore deposit we’ve been safeguarding?! I know you know.”

This marked the first time Doyama had become so agitated. This place evidently held importance not just for the old man but for his entire lineage. His voice carried a hint of desperation, as if seeking assistance.

“You might not understand, but I believe it’s—”

“A magic gem. An exceedingly rare substance containing mana at a much higher concentration than elemental magic stones.”

Whoever cut him off did not speak in Japanese.

For the past ten days, Hikaru and Lavia had scarcely used the language of the other world. It would’ve made sense if it was Lavia, but the voice did not belong to her.

“What?”

Hikaru turned around and saw a woman dressed in casual attire—a down jacket, a cap, jeans, and sneakers.

“What did you just say?” Doyama asked. “Aren’t you Sasakura, the newspaper reporter? Wait, what are you doing here?”

She had pulled her cap low, concealing her expression. But Ayano, standing frozen behind the startled Lavia, emitted an unsettling aura.

Her mouth twisted into a grin. “I never expected to see a magic gem… or rather, a mana crystal of this magnitude.”

“Lavia, run!”

A shiver ran down Hikaru’s spine, a completely natural reaction that did not require Instinct. Ayano’s voice was so cold and laden with resentment that Hikaru questioned if this was the same clumsy Ayano as before.

Ayano walked by as if Lavia wasn’t even there. She was unarmed and inexperienced in combat. Hikaru hadn’t anticipated being followed, so his detection skills were inactive. What was she doing here? Ayano was just an ordinary person with no special powers.

But a warning bell sounded in Hikaru’s brain. Something felt off. How could she use the language from the other side? Ayano was born and raised in this world, graduated from university, and worked at Nitto Shimbun.

Why did she come here? If she came as a journalist, it would make sense, but she didn’t have a recording camera or a smartphone.

Hikaru’s heart pounded in his chest.

“Miss journalist, I don’t recall giving you permission to enter—”

Hikaru stopped Doyama as he was about to block Ayano’s path.

“Who are you?”

Ayano didn’t answer. She came within one step’s distance of Hikaru.

Was she going to attack? Or was she an enemy at all? What should he do?

In that fleeting moment, Ayano simply walked past Hikaru.

“Huh?”

Under the cap’s brim, her radiant eyes sparkled as they focused on the mana crystal deposit.

Memories flashed in Hikaru’s mind. A tidy, minimalist apartment. So inept with technology for someone from the modern age.

When Hikaru pointed out her odd use of an idiom, she retorted, “Why does someone from another world know more about this world’s language than I do?”

Ayano should have said Japanese instead of this world’s language. When she learned that the acquisition plan was limited to land downtown, she looked somewhat disappointed. Did she assume that Mt. Midori was part of the plan? At that time, Ayano might have thought there was something magical about the mountain.

Did Ayano desire magical energy? Did she believe in the existence of mana? Was it because she knew about the other world?

No, no, no, that can’t be right! If that were the case, her background, her life in Japan, wouldn’t make any sense. Her Japanese is odd, sure, but she’s fluent. Yes, she has the knowledge, but it feels like she’s using it incorrectly.

At that moment, Hikaru recalled experiencing something similar before. Foreign knowledge entering his mind, creating a strange sense of coexistence.

In Hikaru’s case, it was the opposite. A boy named Roland N. Zaracia brought Hikaru’s soul to the other world, and Hikaru inherited his body and memories, living on.

That’s right. Ayano Sasakura was…

Her colleague at Nitto Shimbun said, “I remember she got hospitalized, and she was in a coma or something due to an accident.”

A coma due to an accident. She woke up two months ago. The mountains also started becoming restless two months ago. The seal on the great pit underneath the holy city of Agiapole was destroyed two months ago.

Was it all a coincidence? No, it wasn’t.

“Stop! You’re from the other world, aren’t you?! No, you lived there, and your soul found its way here!”

Ayano stood upon the shimmering deposit. She looked over her shoulder and said, “I’m glad I met you.”

Back when they leaked information to foreign media, Ayano had uttered the same words, except this time she used a different language. She wore a subtle smile then, but now, unbridled joy radiated from her face.

As her lips parted again, unfamiliar words—or rather, something like sounds—came from her mouth.

“────────”

It was the sound of insects chirping, metal scraping, the wind howling.

Hikaru considered it a stretch to call it a language, yet he sensed meaning in them. Even if it didn’t conform to conventional language, if there was significance within the sounds, it could be regarded as a form of communication.

Otherwise, there was no way the mana in the glowing ore would get sucked into Ayano.

“Ayano Sasakura! Stop!”

His body trembled. His hair bristled. And it wasn’t just because of his Instinct.

Hikaru felt an urgent need to stop Ayano. Though he couldn’t grasp what was happening at all, he was certain she was on the brink of doing something tremendous. The distance between them was a mere three meters.

Suddenly, a luminous geometric pattern materialized between them. Hikaru recognized it as a magic diagram not only because he was knowledgeable in sorcery, but because he knew the formula himself.

He had seen it numerous times before. A formula he had studied and refined alongside Queen Kujastria. In short, it was the magic formula for the spell for crossing worlds.

“Hikaru!” Lavia’s piercing scream came from behind.

In the next moment, the space before him cracked, and a rift appeared. The spell wasn’t supposed to activate this rapidly, but it did, right before his eyes.

“Ah…”

It appeared so abruptly that Hikaru found himself unable to stop in his tracks, and he was pulled into the rift. Ayano vanished, and he had a distinct feeling of entering an entirely different space—a realm with distinct humidity, temperature, scent. Hikaru knew he was traveling between worlds.

He abruptly stopped and turned back after a few steps. His body moved instinctively.

He had to go back. He had to go through the rift again.

But then, the crack sealed in an instant, just after Ayano arrived, alone.