In Sector 7, on the second floor, Sirius and Neriah began moving, walking slowly through the floor. Neriah followed Sirius anxiously from behind, watching for any suspicious behavior or glances. Meanwhile, Sirius's eyes sparkled like bright stars in the night sky as he used his ability to observe everyone.
"Make sure not to overuse your ability—you might collapse before we even find who we're looking for," Neriah said, concerned for Sirius's health.
"Don't worry about me," Sirius replied coolly.
"Noah and Enel are currently near the girls' side. If we move away from there without raising Noah's suspicions, we'll buy ourselves more time," Sirius added to himself, thinking deeply.
Sirius's ability works directly through his eyes: once activated, he sees texts floating above people's heads. He doesn't need to actually read them—the information directly embeds itself into his mind. However, it's dangerous in a situation like this. Right now, Sirius was using his ability to read the information of every single person on the floor—over a hundred people at once—placing a mental strain that could potentially destroy his mind, or at the very least, leave him mentally disabled.
Another thing Sirius hadn't told anyone: once he read someone's information even once, he could track their location no matter where they were. This was how he knew where Noah and Enel were at the moment. He kept this advantage hidden to keep his trump cards secret.
"Do what you want... anyway, let's split up. It'll widen our search range," Neriah suggested. Sirius agreed without saying a word, simply nodding quietly.
They split up—Sirius stayed on the second floor, while Neriah went down to the first.
On the first floor, Neriah sat on one of the chairs, pulling out his phone and pretending to check it while actually observing his surroundings for any strange behavior.
"If there were even a few suspects, I could narrow it down using my ability without having to conduct such an exhaustive search... Noah's a new student. Even though almost everyone here hates him, I don't think anyone actually has a personal grudge against him—no one knows him well enough yet... or maybe someone does? Should I dig into Noah's background and relationships? No, that would be overkill. Sirius must have already done that when he first used his ability on Noah... unless Noah's consciousness hid such information. Anyway, if we assume the culprit was present on campus on the day of the incident and committed the act after classes ended, around 3:15 p.m., and we returned to the dorms shortly before sunset around 6:20 p.m., then the crime occurred between those times.
There are about five student dormitories in Sector 11, and three of them are close enough to ours that the perpetrator could have made a round trip on foot within three hours. They must have acted quickly before the workers downstairs noticed anything. Oh, right—the workers. The cameras must have recorded everything. If I ask Jarod, the worker downstairs, for the footage, he might give it to me..." Neriah thought quietly, analyzing every piece of information and every possibility.
He sighed from the mental strain and lowered his phone.
"This is really exhausting..." Neriah said, feeling slightly annoyed. He felt as if he had aged from all the thinking, but he was sure of one thing:
"Out of all the buildings in Sector 11, the neighboring building is the closest—less than three hours for a round trip. It's the sophomore dormitory. Meaning, the perpetrator is likely a second-year student. Well, this could all be wrong if the culprit wasn't even on campus that day," he thought, gazing up at the ceiling.
Meanwhile, near the girls' training area, Noah and Enel sat alone on the bleachers. Noah was drinking a soda he got from a nearby vending machine, while Enel sat nervously.
"N-Noah, isn't this place a little too open? Shouldn't we be hiding?" Enel asked awkwardly, trying not to look toward the girls, especially the pool area.
"I told you, don't worry about it. They won't find us before class ends," Noah replied calmly, sipping his soda while watching the orange-haired girl in the pool—the same one he had seen before, amazed by her swimming skills.
"N-Noah, you're such a pervert! You have a girlfriend—how could you stare at another girl?" Enel said shyly, worriedly noticing where Noah was looking.
"If they didn't want to be seen by guys, they should've used a private space. Why are you blaming me and calling me a pervert?" Noah answered, slightly annoyed but also worried that Enel had misunderstood him—and that his answer had only made it worse.
"Shouldn't you at least try to cover up what you're doing?" Enel asked, confused.
"I don't care about such formalities. Lust and love don't suit me," Noah replied, his voice carrying a hint of coldness and unease.
"It's hard to believe that after what you just said," Enel mumbled, even more confused, wondering if Noah really was a secret pervert and not just joking.
The orange-haired girl noticed Noah and Enel from afar, their conversation loud enough for her to catch parts of it, though not clearly.
Noah noticed that the girl was looking at them. Their eyes met briefly, and she felt a jolt through her body. She placed her right hand on her chest as her heartbeat quickened, blushing slightly before turning away, trying to ignore Noah.
"What... was that?" Noah thought silently, confused. He misunderstood, thinking she had overheard their conversation and now thought he was a pervert—worrying him that rumors might spread.
"...Whatever. I'm hated anyway. Even if new rumors spread, I'll deal with it," Noah thought.
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Sirius wandering around, scanning the area.
"...Enel, let's get out of here," Noah suggested, urgency clear in his voice.
"Yeah, you're right. We don't want people hearing that you're a pervert. Let's hide somewhere else," Enel said, unintentionally making Noah even more anxious. Noah finished his drink and tossed the can into a nearby trash bin with a perfect shot, then they both headed toward the changing rooms—the same ones where they had changed earlier.
When they entered, there was only one student inside.
He looked older—older even than Neriah—sitting on one of the benches without a shirt. He seemed to be around Noah and Enel's age, close to his twenties, with blond hair and golden eyes.
He reminded Noah of someone he had hated and gone to high school with. The guy had a tattoo of a twisted-trunk tree with sharp, broken leaves on his left arm, and he was drinking from a wine bottle.
"There's someone here," Noah said quietly. He instinctively sensed that this guy was trouble because he resembled someone he once knew. Noah quickly realized who he was: Derek Miller, the older brother of Blake Miller.
Enel hid behind Noah, nervous and shy as usual.
"Hmph, you..." Derek said, immediately recognizing Noah, his face showing arrogant, mocking expressions.
"I don't think drinking in the classroom is allowed, Mr. Derek Miller," Noah said in a calm, cold voice, though internally he was already seething with resentment and hatred.
"Hmph. Looks like you finally learned how to talk, Noah Grace. I didn't expect that from you. You must think you're free now after running away from my younger brother. Don't worry—although you escaped him, you'll become my slave so soon," Derek said mockingly.
Enel was upset by Derek's behavior but was too nervous and embarrassed to speak.
"If one of the cameras catches you drinking, you'll be punished," Noah said coolly, ignoring Derek's taunts.
"Hmm? How about you take a sip then? Don't tell the teachers—just like you did back in high school. No matter what Blake did, you never told the teachers or even your dad. It's not like anyone would care anyway. But hey, this time, I'm giving you something nice: a rare 20-year-old wine. What do you say? Want some?" Derek said, trying to provoke Noah with a smug look that made him want to punch him to death
"I'll have to refuse your offer. I don't drink," Noah answered quietly.
Then Derek grabbed his shirt from beside him, stood up, finished the rest of the wine, and walked past Noah.
"Too bad. I'll just leave you with that bitch you brought," Derek said, laughing mockingly.
"If you walk through that door, you'll die," Noah said quietly, staring into Derek's eyes.
"Die? What do you mean? Is your daddy outside waiting to beat me up? Oh wait—I forgot. He's off in Antarctica and doesn't care about his kids," Derek said mockingly, challenging him.
"...The teacher will kill you if he sees you holding that bottle," Noah said coolly, but Derek's words had deeply angered him—he barely managed to keep his composure.
"Oh, you're right," Derek said, strolling past Noah again and exiting through the back door. Before leaving, he waved mockingly.
"By the way, I hope you liked my message. I wrote it with love," Derek said before leaving.
Enel, still upset, stood next to Noah, curious and disturbed by everything he had just learned. It seemed Derek Miller, a second-year student, knew Noah from before.
"Sirius is outside checking everyone. If Derek had left through the main door, Sirius would've figured out he was the one who wrote that graffiti. I don't know what Sirius would do to him, or whether he's strong enough to take Derek down, but I don't think Derek would've been able to avoid the danger. It would have sped up my plan a bit... and I'm not ready yet," Noah thought silently as he stared at the path Derek had just taken