I've had tons of lessons and training sessions and one-on-one tutoring on how to make my weapon appear while I'm in someone's mind. It's one of the crucial and first things we learn here in this academy.

Back in the beginning, we were all rather clueless. But after a week of practicing focusing techniques, Yukiya lit up a tiny flame in his palm. It made sense that he was the first one to get it; that dude loves fire.

And after that it's all smooth sailing. By the next week everyone except me has managed to get something to appear in some form or another. By the end of the month, Ririka, who had made the teachers very confused because she always conjured random clothing items instead of weapons ("Are you sure you didn't intend to enroll for Kizaki Designer School in the first place?" a puzzled Mr. Yamada had asked her), was soaring around the simulated virtual world on a beige overcoat with stylish double-breasted buttons.

Me, I was never able to conjure up anything. At first the teachers said I simply hadn't found the right weapon. So I tried to imagine up all kinds of weapons: guns, laser guns, machine guns, shotguns, bombs, swords, knives, nunchucks even, but none of them ever appeared like I willed them to.

Then they said I just wasn't trying hard enough. With my scores in the entrance exam, they told me, I had to have talent. But I tried, I really tried, I tried so hard that I sometimes ended up completely knocked out the next day and couldn't even attend class. I tried so hard that one time I pretty much had a meltdown in Mr. Yamada's office crying and shouting that someone must have made a mistake when grading the entrance exam and I wasn't supposed to be here at all.

And then my friends tried to help. Izumi watched me train a lot, gave me advice, lots and lots of advice and tips that she uses to conjure up her powers (she wields lightning bolts, atta girl). They didn't work on me. Ririka and Natsumi joined us sometimes too, Anna is my only roommate who seems to have no interest in the least for my lack of a progress, but then she's always been the selfish one.

However, this is the first time Shun is helping me train. This is also the first time I have ever attempted to conjure up an elega. Who knows, it could be a new start.

"You already know every detail of your elega, that's the only way you can play it so well. So imagining it in your hands shouldn't be hard. Start with that," he instructs, voice calm and deep, mimicking that of Mr. Kojima, our Weapons and Weapon Conjuring teacher. Mr. Kojima believes that speaking in a steady, low-key, Morgan Freeman-esque voice is the best way to ingrain thoughts into students' heads. I don't know about him, but right now it seems to be working. I feel myself relax, Shun's comforting presence and familiar voice surrounding me, floating, swirling, until the words no longer make any more sense to me than a Buddhist mantra.

I concentrate on feeling the elega in my hands, the cold, metallic touch, the flat, smooth surface, the light yet familiar weight. I imagine my fingers gliding over it, the way my fingernails make contact with the hard material-

I open my eyes. My hands are still empty. Nope, no elega.

Shun conjures up his gun, spinning it around nimbly with his fingers, probably trying to remember how he first summoned this baby out of thin air.

"Try imagining you're playing it," he suggests. "When I want my gun, I usually imagine myself firing it so..."

I close my eyes and try to concentrate. I imagine myself playing a song. A song about... hmm... heartbreak. That seems to be a popular song topic. Not that I've ever been heartbroken before, my life's always been pretty smooth and lacking in any relationships to go heartbroken over.

A song about heartbreak should have a saxophone, I decide. Some strings. It would start with simple acogi chords, but after the first verse, the heartbreak will be too much to bear and everything will just shatter and the strings will sound like they're spilling their nonexistent guts out and the sax will be making ridiculous twists and turns until it reaches an incredibly high note and-

Damn, someone just has to interrupt my moment of inspiration by talking. How rude.

I open my eyes and see that it's Shun. Okay, not rude. He can interrupt me any time, heartbreak songs can wait until later.

Shun looks pale, like he has seen a ghost. His mouth hangs slightly open.

"What?" I say. It's only then do I notice that Ririka, Natsumi and Jin are standing beside Shun, and they all look equally pale.

"Um..." Jin begins to speak, but ends up just pointing at my hands instead.

I look down. In my hands is my elega. My fingers are still positioned on the note where I had been rudely stopped.

"That's a really beautiful song by the way," Ririka chirps.

"Also you need to tell me who broke your heart and inspired that song because I need to bash his face in," Natsumi states. Her sleeves are rolled up and she looks very ready.

"Uh no one, it's called an active imagination," I explain hastily. I don't want Natsumi walking around punching people.

"See, so you have a weapon," Shun declares, "now you just have to find the right way to use it."

The smile on his face looks so genuine that for one second my heart leaps and I forget all rhyme and reason and tackle him in a hug. Thankfully before I come back to my senses and realize how embarrassing this is, the others tactfully join in for a group hug and save me from having to explain myself later.

"Does this mean that you won't be expelled?" Jin says hopefully.

"Definitely," Shun replies for me.

"Yay!" Ririka shouts and she and Natsumi promptly begin crying in each other's arms.

I tear up too. I just love my girls. Of course I also love Jin and-

I stare at Jin. Something is wrong.

He is looking down at his chest. Which is now stained with blood.

Fresh, red blood.

Jin's blood.

He tries to say something, but fails to as he slips down slowly to his knees. Shun catches him before he hits the ground. He whips out his gun with his free hand, and is scanning the surrounding area wildly.

"Where did that come from?" Natsumi whispers loudly, frantically, "this is supposed to be safe! The training room machines, they're not programmed to have dangerous elements-"

I watch Jin gasp and gurgle, horror in his eyes. There's no telling how it happened. No bullets flying. No enemies in sight. The meadow is as calm as it had been minutes ago, same flowers, same blue sky.

Ririka has already taken off in flight and returns within a blink of an eye. "No one, no enemies," she reports.

"Then how-" Natsumi gestures at Jin, whose condition is rapidly worsening, but Shun cuts in.

"Outside. Not in this world. The real one."

We all gape. We've all wondered what will happen to our real world bodies if we get attacked to the brink of death in someone's mind, a virtual world. According to our teachers, we probably fall into a coma or die.

What will happen if our real world bodies get attacked while we're in a virtual world, however, has never actually crossed anyone's mind. At least not mine.

"I'm unhooking myself," Shun announces, handing Jin to Natsumi.

"What? You can't-" Natsumi shouts. It's harder and far more dangerous to unhook oneself from a simulating machine than to have someone in the real world unhook it. The teachers have lectured us on that before, they say it's why we always need a spotter or a teacher to decide that the session is over and unhook us. You don't just unhook yourself. It supposedly involves passing through and coexisting in both consciousnesses, which is a violation of one of the most important safety protocols itself. One must be either in the virtual world or the real one, not in both at the same time. Of course, it takes only like one second to unhook, but it still has its risks, which is why no one ever does it.

"Well what else can we do?" Shun demands, "Katsuki can't unhook us. Whoever it is hurt Jin has to deal with Katsuki first, so he's probably also-"

He doesn't want to finish the sentence, but we all know what he means.

Dead.

"I'll be fine," Shun assures us, "will unhook you guys in a sec."

And just like that, he disappears.