Previously:

"…" Yarai stared at her, eyes slightly widened. "… Are you saying you think that we were displaced in time?"

"Like I said, it's crazy—" Torako said, waving her hand as if to shoo the idea away, but suddenly—

CRASH!

"!?" Yarai and Torako said as their heads snapped over to look in the direction of the sound. Was it their imagination, or did the building tremble a little bit? They looked at each other, then hurried over to see if the others were okay. They found everyone staring at a huge pile of rubble with shocked expressions. Rei was lying on the floor near it.

"Tooru…?" Rei asked. Torako looked around and noticed that Tooru wasn't with them.

'Don't… Don't tell me he's… under there!?' Torako thought, alarmed.


Chapter 23: Tragedy


"The… ceiling..." Akira said, as shocked and horrified as everyone else who had seen Tooru dive to push Rei out of the way of the falling debris.

"What happened!?" Torako asked.

"R-Rei-san managed to get a door open, but the ceiling cracked and fell down, and Tooru-san…!"

"D-Did the moving of the door break the balance…? It was that fragile…?" Mariya said.

"… Tooru… Tooru—!" Rei screamed as it sank in that he had been crushed saving her.

Outside, everyone had gathered by the gate, and they were peering in at the building without walking through it.

"Wh-What was that sound!?" someone asked.

"It came from that building over there!?" someone else said. "It sounded like something big broke!"

"..." Yamato looked at Kirino and Kairi, who were standing next to him. "Did something happen… to the guys inside…?"

Inside, Rei was screaming and crying, desperate to get to Tooru.

"Nooooo!! L-Let me go, Tooru is…!" she yelled, fighting against Yashiro, who was holding her back.

"Stop it, idiot," Yashiro said. "It's dangerous to carelessly get close there."

"Tooru!! Tooru—!!" Rei screamed with tears streaming down her face.

"Yarai!! Help me move the debris!!" Akira said.

"Okay, "Yarai said, immediately coming forward to help. They shifted the debris slightly, and new cracks formed in the wall.

"!!" they gasped.

"No good, Sengoku," Yarai said. "If you move it a little, the surrounding wall breaks. If we're careless it'll burry us all. Krr..." He gritted his teeth in frustration.

"H-How about we go around from the outside? Through a window..." Rion suggested quickly.

"B-But the windows were at a two meter height," the vice president said anxiously. "Besides, even if you get in through them, you don't get on the floor because the doors don't open."

"Damn..." Akira cursed, gritting his teeth. 'What a disaster! Why did this...'

"Hold it, guys… Don't go killing me off..." a voice said from the rubble.

"Eh?" Akira said, and they all stopped panicking for a moment to stare.

"H-Hey, that's..." the president said.

"Y-Yeah..." Miyauchi said.

"I'm here. You forgot my voice already?" the voice said.

"!!" they all exclaimed. "T-Tooru-san!!"

"Are you okay, Tooru-san!!" Akira yelled.

"Well, somewhat… I pushed Rei aside and the momentum threw me to the other side," Tooru said. "Sorry for making you worry..."

"…" Everyone's expressions relaxed, and they all cheered. "Yay…!! He's all right…!!"

"Aren't you glad, Rei-san!" Rion said, smiling.

"Ah… Y-Yeah..." Rei said, she was still in shock from when the ceiling seemed to collapse on him, but it gradually sank in. "…! Tehehe…" she laughed, wiping away her tears.

"..." While everyone else was celebrating, Akira and Torako were thinking.

"Hey, are you guys all right!!" someone yelled.

"!" They all turned to see who was calling out to them. A small group of their classmates was heading toward them.

"Y-Yamato! Kirino and Kairi!" Akira said.

"What happened!? We heard a loud crash..." Yamato said.

"Don't get closer!" Mariya said, holding out a hand to stop them.

"Eh?" Kirino said.

"The ceiling is quite fragile. Just now the ceiling caved in and Rinzai-shi is trapped on the other side," Mariya said.

"Tooru-san is!?" Kirino said.

"Th-That's horrible!! We'll help," Yamato said.

"I'll go get the others!!" Kairi said.

"No! It'll be no joke if the ceiling caves in again when we're all here together," Mairya said. "Leave this to us!"

"..." Yamato, Kirino, and Kairi exchanged looks with each other.

"O-Okay! Just call us if you need help! We'll go back for now," Yamato said.

"Yeah, we'll do that!" Mariya said.

"Okay… What do we do?" Yarai asked. "We can't do anything about this debris immediately..."

"But we have to help Tooru-san..." Rion said.

"Nah… Go on without me!!" Tooru said.

"Eh?" Everyone said.

"Hey, hey. Have you forgotten what we're here for?" Tooru said. "I don't think you have time to stand around here. We only just started looking for clues. I'm fine here… if I stay put, I doubt the ceiling will cave in anymore. I'll just wait here. You guys go on."

"..." Everyone nodded with determined expressions.

"Okay, Tooru…! Just wait. We'll be back real quick…!" Rei said.

"… Yeah, be careful, Rei. Don't cause the others any trouble..." Tooru said.

"Okay, let's go!" Rei said.

"..." The others turned to walk away, but Akira and Torako hung back.

"Are you sure you want us to go?" Torako asked, frowning.

"Yeah, I'm sure. You go ahead," Tooru said.

"..." Torako looked at Akira.

"Yeah, you go ahead..." Akira told her. Torako turned and hurried to catch up with Yarai, who had paused to wait for her. Yarai saw that she looked like she was about to cry.

"What's wrong?" Yarai asked.

"… I know what an injured animal sounds like," Torako said quietly with a thick voice. There was no way Tooru was okay.

"..." Yarai glanced back at the pile of rubble that Akira was talking to and frowned with concern, then he put his arm around Torako and guided her forward.

"Hey, what's the matter, slowpokes?" Rion asked them. Torako quickly put on a more neutral expression, knowing Tooru wouldn't want them to upset Rei before they had to. "Ah! Akira-kun is dragging behind, too. Akira-kun, what you doing!"

"Hurry up already!" Rei said, waving for him to catch up.

'He's saying goodbye… and probably hearing his last request…' Torako thought, clenching her fists.

With tears welled up in his eyes, Akira turned away from the rubble and hurried to catch up to them.

Outside, Miina was looking concerned.

"Mhm… Hey, I think we should go back," he said.

"Eh?" Isurugi Miina said.

"I mean, that noise sounded horrible," Miina said.

"Indeed, something might have happened..." Heero said.

"Kokonoe-sensei, what shall we do..." Miki asked, but he seemed to be looking at something. "Mh? What's the matter, Kokonoe, Sensei?" Miki asked.

"… There's something over there," Kokonoe said, pointing away from the wall.

"Eh? I don't really see anything..." Miki said, shielding her eyes from the sun.

"Look closely, something's showing up there," Kokonoe said.

"Ah… I wonder what it is…?" Miki said when she spotted the dark thing that was on the ground.

"Let's take a look Kokonoe said, heading closer.

"Y-Yes!" Miki said, following him. The others followed, too.

"..." A bead of sweat slid down Kokonoe's face when he got close enough to touch it. "What's this..." He touched a thin, long piece of something sticking out from the large dark thing on the ground. "It's quite degraded, but it looks like fibre-reinforced plastic…!" He looked down at the rest of it. "And this plate thing is metal… about eight meters.

"! This looks like a door," Miki said, looking at another part of it.

"Ah… I… I see… I know what it is!!" Heero said.

"Katoru!?" Quatre said, using his friend's real name.

"Look! These long plates are connected in the middle. It's a propeller," Heero said, kneeling down to show them.

"P-Propeller…?" Duo and Quatre said.

"A propeller means..." Duo said.

"Yeah…!" Heero said. "This is a helicopter…!!"

"!!" Everyone else gasped.

"A helicopter!?" Miki said, shocked.

"Th-This island had helicopters…?" Suzuki said.

"By why is it laying here?" Murayama asked.

"Who knows," a girl said.

"..." Miina stared at it. "Hey, hey. More importantly..."

"Eh?" Miki said.

"Why is it all smashed…?" Miina asked. "It's completely flattened..."

"Was it run over by animals..." Mami said.

"Eh? B-But is there an animal that can do that?" Takahashi asked.

"Even an elephant couldn't do it..." Miki said.

"Ah… Isn't it that one!? The furry one that attacked the plane before..." Murayama said.

"!" That big one!!" Suzuki said.

"I think it was a huge sloth called megatherium," Murayama said.

"D-Damn! Is it still around here!?" Suzuki asked nervously.

"..." Takahashi had a troubled expression. "Hey, couldn't it have been some other animal…?"

"Eh… Asuka? Don't say weird stuff..." Miki said. "There's no way that there's another monster of that calibre…."

Inside, the remaining members of the group were heading upstairs.

"Be careful. It's decayed everywhere," Yarai said.

"Yeah," Mariya said, right behind him and Torako.

"… Strange.." Tokiwa thought, looking around with narrowed eyes. 'I get the feeling that we're being watched from somewhere after all...'

"This tower has four flours, hasn't it…" the vice president said.

"That's how it looked from the outside," Oomori said.

"Look here. This looks like a picture frame," Yuki said.

"Maybe they hung a picture? A pretty big one…" the president said, looking where she was pointing.

"Hey! C'mon guys, don't dawdle. We have to search!" Rei said.

"Y-Yes," they said. Rion smiled at she watched Rei.

"Rei-san is so energetic again. Seems like crying earlier didn't happen," Rion said. "Right, Akira-kun?"

"..." Akira didn't answer.

"..." Rion thought it was strange. "Hey, you have been acting strange for a while… is something wrong?"

"Eh?" Akira said. "Ah, no, it's nothing..."

"Liar!" Rion said. "That reminds me, it's since we parted with Tooru-san. It looked like you two talked about something… Did he say something…?"

"..." Akira looked grim. He decided on a half-truth. "It's nothing! He just told me something that's bothering me… so I have been thinking about it. Guess that's what appears strange to you."

"Tooru-san said something… that's bothering you…?" Rion said.

"He said that something's wrong with the Isurugi mark," Akira said.

"… Eh?" Rion said.

"The Isurugi mark? What..." Miyauchi said.

"I see. Tooru-san noticed it, too..." Torako said.

"Too? You know something?" Mariya asked. "Explain, you two."

"… How old do you think is this building and its equipment?" Akira asked.

"Mhm, about thirty to forty years?" Rei said.

"No, the ceiling is already breaking because of its own weight, so it's older," the vice president said.

"I would say even older than fifty years," the president said.

"Don't you find that strange?" Torako asked. "If this is related to the Isurugi group… that doesn't match up."

"Doesn't… match up?" Yuki and Oomori said.

"Ah! I see! You're right!!" Igarashi said.

"Eh? Igarashi-san…?" Oomori said.

"I told you before that the Isurugi group was built up by Isurugi Yoshimi in just one generation… If this is older than fifty years… Isurugi Yoshimi was a student around twenty years at that time!" Igarashi said.

"Ah!" Oomori and Yuki gasped.

"S-So the Isurugi group didn't exist yet!?" Miyauchi said.

"Then that mark is…?" Morita asked.

"What's the meaning of that..." the vice president said.

"B-But the mark was on the model of the island. It might have been brought in later?" the president suggested.

"B-But the 'antenna' had the mark, too," Miyauchi said.

"Yeah. And it looked just as old as this building," the vice president said.

"Th-That's..." the president said, faltering.

"..." They all looked at each other, wondering what it could mean.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Tokiwa said.

"Eh?" Akira said. "Tokiwa…? What's up…?"

"… I don't see anyone… but… I certainly feel like we're being watched," Tokiwa said.

"Eh, still…?" Oomori said.

"It wasn't your imagination!?" the vice president said.

"I-Is there really someone!?" Rei asked a little nervously. "Just… who..." They all looked around nervously.

"A-Akira-kun..." Rion said, grabbing his arm.

"D-Don't worry, Rion," Akira said. He remembered Tooru's last words.

Akira-kun, save everyone!

"Whatever might happen, we all will make it back…!" Akira said, determined to keep that promise.

"Y-Yeah…!" everyone said.

"..." Yarai glanced back at them. He told Torako to stay closer to him than that, but he supposed she was all right as long as she was with everyone else. "...Mh?" he said when he looked ahead again. He stopped, finding himself facing a wall. "Weird… the stairs stop at the second floor…"

"Eh? That can't be..." Akira said. Yarai looked and saw that the path continued on if they turned.

"! Looks like there's a way over there..." Yarai said, pointing to the path in front of them. He could see the foot of a staircase peeking out of the shadows.

"Let's try it," Mariya said, and they continued on.

"!?" they all said when they saw that the rest of the staircase was blocked up by debris.

"No good. It's completely buried," Yarai said.

"Damn, so the top floors crumbled, too!" Akira said.

"The floor is blocked, too..." the vice president said. "Isn't this right above the place where the doors didn't open?"

"There's quite some pressure on it. Just by opening a door the whole ceiling would crumble..." the president said.

"We can't go on now," Oomori said.

"Now what?" Yuki asked.

"..." Mariya was staring across the way, through the open space between the part of the second floor that they were standing on and the part of the second floor that was opposite them.

"What's the matter, Mariya-kun?" Oomori asked.

"… CA… Doesn't it bother you? That space over there..." Mariya said, pointing at the one door in the opposite wall.

"Eh?" Oomori said.

"It's quite spacious there, but there's only one door—" Mariya said.

"N-Now that you mention it," Oomori said.

"Must be some really big room..." Akira said, looking, too.

"And look at that door. Unlike the others, it has a special design. Maybe it's some really important room…?" Mariya said.

"—!!" Oomori and Akira gasped.

"O-Okay, let's check it out," Akira said.

"Yeah," Oomori agreed. They hurried around to the other side.

"I wonder what's behind that door," Miyauchi said.

"I hope we find something..." Yuki said.

"A-Are you okay, Igarashi-san? With all the running..." the vice president asked.

"Don't worry! I won't lose to you youngsters!" Igarashi said, doing his best to keep up. They reached the door, which they could see up close was actually two towering doors with a fancy design.

"It's quite big..." Akira said.

"It looks really tough," Mariya said.

"It's a swing door..." Yarai said, examining it.

"Doesn't seem to be locked… You think it'll be safe to open it?" Akira asked, looking, too.

"Should be. There's gap below the door, so there isn't any pressure from above," Mariya said, kneeling down to check. "We're also a good way apart from the collapse, so it should be fine."

"Okay, let's open it," Yarai said, taking one door while the rest of the guys took the other.

"Yeah, on three..." Akira said. They counted and opened the door together. "Oh, it's opening…!" They managed to pull the doors completely open.

"Ah… It's open…" Rion said.

"Okay… Let's go inside!" Akira said. It was pitch-black with only small squares of light that must have been windows on the far wall. Other than that, their only source of light came in through the open door. They stepped inside to explore. "There are benches lined up..."

"So many..." Rion said.

"It's quite big..." Yarai said.

"Just what is this room…?" Mariya asked.

"Some kind of assembly hall…?" Torako guessed. "But these benches… Ah! If you look under them, there's something that could be pulled out to kneel on..."

"Something for kneeling…?" Yarai said.

"That could mean..." Torako said as she started looking higher up. She spotted it the same time as Rion.

"Ah!?" Rion gasped, pointing up. "Akira-kun, look!"

"Bingo..." Torako said.

"Eh?" Akira said. As the others squinted, they saw it. Their eyes widened. There was a very large, aged carving of a man on a cross who was wearing a crown of thorns and had a wound in his side as if he had been pierced by something.

"..." Rion stared up at it, shocked.

"A statue of Christ…? Th-Then this is… a church…!?" Akira said. "Wh-Why… is there a church here…?"

"… This island was a place to experiment with DNA and create artificial life, wasn't it… That's actually God's territory," the vice president said. "The researchers here were opposing God, so maybe they needed a mental support…"

"Makes sense..." Yarai said. "The 'lighthouse' also had a bell attached to it… So it was a chapel…?"

"That reminds me, the 'antenna' resembled a cross… and there were some angel statues," Mariya said. "It might not have been just a monument, but some religious stuff."

"..." Akira stared up at the statue of Christ. 'Opposing God, but likewise seeking his forgiveness… Why did the people here go do far to create new life…'

"… Mh?" Yashiro said when something caught his eye. "!? Hey, boy! Look below," he told Akira.

"Eh?" Akira said. "Below…?" He looked at the floor below the statue. It was covered in graffiti. There was so much of it that it was overlapping, layer upon layer. "!?" Akira was startled. "Wh-What's this… L-Letters…?"

"Yeah, it's hard to read because of the scribbling," Yashiro said, kneeling down for a better look. "But it seems to be English… 'Go to hell!' 'Mother fucker!' 'You dumbass!' They're all insults… It's all swearing…!!"

'They were supposed to see forgiveness, but below are insults… What was going on here…?' Akira wondered.

"… Something terrible must have happened here..." Torako said.

"!!" Oomori gasped. "S-Sengoku-kun! Something strange is written here!!"

"Eh!?" Akira said.

"Island of disaster… Raika Island…?" Oomori read.

"… Raika Island…?" Akira said. He looked at Mariya. "H-Hey, this is..."

"Yeah, it might be..." Mariya said. "The name of this island…?"

"..." They all stared at the name written on the floor in English.

"Have you heard of Raika Isalnd before…?" Akira asked.

"No, it's my first time..." Mariya said..

"And you, Yarai? You've been all over the world, Fukui..." Akira said.

"No..." Yarai said.

"Me neither..." Torako said.

"I haven't heard of it before either," Yashiro said.

"I-I see…" Akira said.

"… Huh. This name is..." Rion said.

"Eh!?" Akira said. "You know it, Rion!?" Akira asked.