The bell rings and Mr. Umemoto dismisses us reluctantly. He's the type that would keep boring students all the way through the break so that they can't even go to the toilet just because he's sadistic like that.

Little me is happily throwing pens at Hideaki, the boy who sits next to me, completely unaffected. My elega is taken, but it isn't a traumatizing experience. It doesn't concern my mother, my hair isn't cut by anyone, I'm perfectly fine.

So why is it that I feel so disturbed by Izumi's memories? And why does Shun remember what happened so clearly? Something significant must have happened that day. Something life-changing. And try as I might have no idea what it is. Little me and her little classmates aren't giving me any hints either—they seem to be enjoying the ten-minute break like normal third-graders: very boisterously.

Right before the ten minutes of the break are up, a teacher appears and the class stops what they're doing to stare. Teachers don't usually just drop in classrooms for a chat, especially not with random third-graders.

The teacher, whom I remember as Mr. Eto, taps little me on the shoulder and asks her to come out to the corridor with him. I liked Mr. Eto. He was in his early thirties back then, always wearing a nice suit and a very big grin. He taught us Art or something; I forgot.

Little me obediently follows, as you don't really say no to teachers when in third grade. Mr. Eto looks around to make sure no one is listening (though probably not very carefully, since Shun clearly has been listening or else this wouldn't have been in his memory) and asks: "So, Watanabe, your elega got confiscated, yeah?"

Little me seems to struggle with the meaning of "confiscated" but eventually squeaks out a cute little "yeth".

"Mr. Umemoto has been telling us about that in the office," Mr. Eto explains. "Of course, he's an idiot—we all know that, but don't go around telling other teachers I said so. Anyway, he's not planning on giving the elega back to you, but I bet he's going to forget clean about it by the end of the day anyway, so I'll just take it from his desk and return it to you, eh? He probably won't even notice it missing."

Little me grins, eyes sparkling. "Yay! Thank you!"

"Any time. Not all teachers are as stupid as Mr. Umemoto, you know, but again, don't go around telling other teachers I said that. Well, I don't want the other teachers seeing me swipe stuff from Mr. Umemoto's desk, so you might have to wait till school's over to get your elega back."

"Okay, I'll wait," little me says with a toothy grin.

"Right." Mr. Eto runs a hand through his slicked-up hair. "Great. Meet me at the swimming pool after school, yeah?"

"Yeth!" little me declares enthusiastically. The bell rings and she returns to the classroom with a spring in her step.

Izumi and I look at each other.

"So far, there's still no problem," I summarize. "Teacher was nice, I was cute, I went back to class happy."

"And did you get your elega back at the end of the day?" Izumi asks.

"Yeah. I went to the pool after school, and Mr. Eto gave me back my elega. It was pretty straightforward."

"So you had a similar witch experience, but it didn't end as terribly as mine. Your classmates were nice and a sensible teacher's got your back. So why does Shun—"

Izumi doesn't get to finish the sentence, because all of a sudden we are abruptly jerked out of memory world. We're back in Ikoma-san's box and someone is screaming at us. It is Natsumi.

"What were you two doing?"

"We were... uh, trying to find the truth? Find a way to cure Shun?" I reply sheepishly. We have indeed spent a lot of time sifting through memories, but in our defense we had no idea what would work and what wouldn't so we were just looking in random places. Besides, Ikoma-san did say looking through memories took no time at all.

"I thought you two were supposed to be here to turn the lights on for the entire city?" Natsumi points out.

Oh snap, we indeed were. Forgot all about that.

Natsumi sighs. "At least you two made up. That's good news. But we need help, so..."

I also forgot all about how Izumi and I weren't talking, but this is no longer the point now. "Who is 'we' and what help?"

"Everyone else. I mean, pretty much everyone else is 'we'. Remember when we split up into groups and followed different versions of Ikoma-san to different places? Turns out none of them are actually lying, they're just kind of super muddled because they're like... weird newborn versions that appeared because the darkness planted in Ikoma-san caused him to become wacko and have multiple personalities. Anyway, we all found data boxes exactly where they said, but the boxes didn't have much in them. They've got something in common, though..."

She pauses for dramatic effect, so I helpfully prompt: "What?"

Satisfied by my appropriately interested-sounding reaction, Natsumi continues. "They aren't the data box we're looking for, the one that Yamada and co. left behind. They are data boxes that hold data from Ikoma-san himself, and we learned a lot from them. There's no time to go into details because the others are outside on the roof battling giant cockroaches and long-legged crawlers and anthropod walkers and tons of other weird stuff, so I'll just get to the point—"

I gasp. "What? They're outside battling giant cockroaches and long-legged crawlers and anthropod walkers?" 

"Yeah. Well, those aren't official names, I just christened them off the top of my head. They're all here to attack Ikoma-san, you see. I think it's partly our fault for leading them here. We deduced from the boxes we found that the real Ikoma-san can be found here—it's like, there's a real, original Ikoma-san who isn't like the other fragmented ones out there, and he can be found here. So Riri flew us over and for some reason all the dark creatures started following and so everyone is outside fighting and I came in to look for you guys to see if we can get the lights on because it's hard to fight dark things when it's too dark and we think maybe some light will weaken them a bit? Oh my god I'm talking so much and so fast, I'm turning into Daisuke."

I find it cute that Natsumi is beginning to talk like Daisuke; I've always been kind of rooting for him because he has been pining after Natsumi since the beginning of the universe to no avail. But this is, of course, not the right time to ship your classmates.

"Sorry about that," Izumi explains. "We were indeed going to try getting this power plant to run, but somehow we ran into the real Ikoma-san here and got distracted. Right, Ikoma-san...?"

She trails off, as we realize that Ikoma-san number four, the one we had been talking to, is no longer here. Not that we had actually seen him or anything; we had only heard his frightfully booming voice—but he had an awfully strong presence, strong enough to produce huge winds that nearly blew me away with every sound he made. And now that presence is gone. No winds. The cat is also no longer around, which makes me sad because who doesn't want a giant cat?

"He's no longer here," Izumi and I conclude together.

"We know that." Natsumi points upwards with her thumb. "He's up there fighting along with the others. Man, he's really big!"

Please do not take this out of context; Natsumi means big as in the size of the whole body, not the size of the—

I cut off my own thoughts that tend to run off to inappropriate places and ask the important question. "So, how do we help?"

"We still want to get the power plant running. Izumi, you can do that, right?"

"I think so. If I can't get it to run I'll make more lightning bolts and light up the skies anyway."

"Great, go," Natsumi tells Izumi, and the latter runs off to who knows where—probably some place to do science-y stuff and reactivate a power plant. I sigh in relief because I know Izumi won't die—it would suck to have the best friend die in a story without saying a proper goodbye, so it's not going to happen.

Natsumi turns to me, and I look down, feeling inferior. My best friend is a lightning-wielding badass and I am, despite everything, the failed mindhacker.

"I'm sorry I can't really fight—" I begin to say, but Natsumi just laughs.

"Oh, you have no idea."

"What?"

"You have no idea what we just saw up there. Ikoma-san is just like you. He can't conjure superpowers for shit, and yet he's so good at what he's doing and you'll be a dozen times better because he has only one instrument and you have like fifty in one."

"W-wait, what?"

"He's a musician too, he plays the electric guitar and—man you've got to have a good chat with him after this, if we're able to destroy all the darkness that's attacking him of course. But no time to discuss that right now. We've gotta—"

"I... don't get it?"

"I'm not sure I quite get it either, but listen, Tomomi—we're getting up there to the roof where the others are fighting—"

"Uh, uh, but I still can't fight? Especially not against things with a lot of legs?" I whimper. Yes, Watanabe Tomomi, coward to the end.

"Oh, no worries. You won't be doing any fighting. When we get up there, Riri's gonna pick you up, fly very, very high, and kick you off her ride."

"I... wait... what? Kick me off her ride?"

"Yeah. That's gonna cause super abnormal stats of course, and Katsuki will pull you out."

I stare blankly. I can't help it; I'm very overwhelmed. I've just been told that I'm going to be kicked off a flying carpet / shawl / jacket or whatever and I don't even have a parachute.

"B-but, wait... pull me out? What if he pulls me out too late and I die?"

"He won't," Natsumi promises, "Katsuki is the best spotter we have."

"O-okay," I mutter, feeling tears form in my eyes. "B-but why not let me stay and f-fight?"

I can't fight and I know that. It still absolutely sucks when your friends have apparently decided to just kick you out of a mind because you can't fight and will just get in the way. It hurts my fragile heart. It's thudding angrily, heavily against my ribcage, chiding me for my uselessness. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud—

Natsumi groans. "Oh come on, we're not kicking you out because you'll hold us back or whatever. I bet if Ikoma-san gives you a few pointers you'll be a great asset. But we can't have you fighting here now."

"Why?" Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud—

"Ikoma-san is your kind of person. You guys are the fluke kind of mindhacker that just wouldn't open up your hearts and believe. Ikoma-san is different from us. It took like ten years for the darkness in him to grow this big; it probably will take less than a day for Shun."

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud—

Natsumi concludes, "We can't keep Shun waiting till we slay all of Ikoma-san's dark shit, so we've gotta kick you out so that you can go over and slay his. Got it?"

I get it.

It doesn't make it any easier of course.