Part 2
Standing on the school roof, I gaze down at the academy dyed in twilight’s hues.
“Fine by me. The world needs this…so I’ll shoulder all their revulsion. Doing so is my duty.”
As I mutter a variation on the quote Zeta hit me with last night, I can feel my heart stir.
“…Oh yeah, this plays for sure.”
Shadow, the man rebelling against the world itself. He needs to protect everyone, and to do so, he takes on all the sin on his own.
I gotta say, that’s pretty badass.
“Good stuff, Zeta. I can’t believe how far you refined the premise.”
Out of respect for her amazing work, I’m gonna shamelessly plagiarize it.
Wait a minute—hold on. Now that I think about it, didn’t I come up with a similar line that one time?
“From the beginning, we’ve walked the path of neither justice nor evil. We walk our own path.”
I step up to the edge of the roof and strike a cool pose. My uniform flutters in the wind.
“You talk big. Accuse us for the sins of the world. We’ll accept them as our own.”
Yep. Still badass.
Now I’m sure of it: That’s definitely something I said. Quotes like those are a perfect fit for rooftops at twilight.
“So chronologically speaking, I was actually first. That means I can plagiarize her all I want. If anything, she’s the one who plagiarized me.”
Next time I get the chance, I’m definitely gonna bust that one out.
Actually, this is a solid opportunity of its own. I’ve been slacking off on my Cool Quotes training lately, so now might be a great time to go back to basics and get some reps in.
“…That was my afterimage.
“Go forth, shadows—devour them.
“The wind is whistling—whistling with the screams of souls.”
With each quote, I strike a different pose.
Back in my past life, I frequently went up on rooftops to train like this in secret. Good times, good times.
“The school grounds stained by the setting sun… Standing alone on the rooftop… Me, wearing a meaningful smile as I stare down at the students going home… This feeling, like something big is about to happen…”
Everything about the situation is perfect.
I raise my right hand and let out an excited whisper.
“Here it comes.”
Not a moment later, the world shatters into pieces.
White fog begins billowing up.
“…Huh?”
The fog envelops the whole campus, like it’s cutting us off from the outside world. Before long, it’s grown so dense that not even the light from the sunset is able to reach us.
“………” I blink repeatedly and look around. “I’m sorry, what?”
I had a feeling like something big was going to happen, but I didn’t think anything would actually happen.
I can hear panicked voices rise from the school grounds.
“Wh-what’s going on?!”
“S-someone get a teacher!”
“The teachers are all at an off-site staff meeting. There’s no one here but us!”
The remaining students begin gathering.
“Hmm,” I muse. “A mysterious white fog… A sealed-off campus… Me, smiling atop the roof… This is good stuff.”
I dunno what exactly is going on, but we’ve clearly tripped some sort of event flag.
“Before much longer…the white fog will engulf the world in silence.”
After letting out one last profound-sounding murmur, I leave the roof.
When I head down the stairs and go out into the hallway, I discover that it’s dim inside on account of how thick the fog is. Over half the students have already left for the day.
“But actually, though, what is the deal with this fog?”
I had assumed that the librarian was using some sort of artifact or something, but he’s out of the picture now.
I try probing the fog with magic to figure out what’s up, but all I learn is that it sure is some funky-ass fog.
“…Eh, so it goes.”
For me, figuring out the fog’s deal is way less important than figuring out how to spend my time inside it to the fullest. The question is, should I go join up with the other students, or should I just show up out of nowhere as Shadow?
“Decisions, decisions.”
As I skip cheerfully down the hallway, I hear someone screaming off in the distance.
“Ooh, a plot hook?”
I pick up the pace and hurry in the direction of the scream.
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