Chapter 69: Chapter 68: The Race Against Time.
Takeshi spent the next class thinking about one thing.
’I need to stay close to her. Not in an obvious way or in a way that puts her on alert, but if I don’t have access to her routine, I can’t know when she’s going to make a move or how to stop her when the time comes.’
The problem was that Sable Kuroe had demonstrated in four seconds of interaction that she wasn’t someone looking for company. The slight nod to confirm Wednesday’s rehearsal, the words reduced to the bare minimum, the way she had walked away without looking back. Everything pointed to someone who handled social interactions on an entirely different level.
’Approaching her without a visible reason is going to create immediate suspicion, so I need something that justifies the contact.’
The bell rang, and Takeshi stepped into the hallway.
He found Sable twenty minutes later.
She was in the north wing corridor with an open book in her hand, walking toward some destination with the stride of someone who preferred not to stop. Takeshi adjusted his route and matched her pace in a way that seemed casual.
"Kuroe."
Sable looked at him and, recognizing him, waited.
"About running into you earlier."
Takeshi began.
"Are your books okay?"
"Yes."
"Good."
After that, there was an awkward silence. Sable waited one more second and then kept walking.
Takeshi walked alongside her.
[starting with the collision thing, not bad]
[did he seriously ask if the books were okay?]
[I don’t think this is going well]
Sable looked ahead without changing her pace.
"Were you headed somewhere?"
Takeshi asked.
"Yes."
"Where?"
A brief pause.
"To the library."
"I’m headed that way too."
That wasn’t true. The library was in the south wing, but the comment had already been made.
Sable didn’t respond and kept walking.
They reached the intersection between the north wing and the central corridor. Sable turned south, and Takeshi turned with her. They walked in silence for two minutes. Sable entered the library, found a table in the back, and sat down without saying anything else.
Takeshi sat at the table next to hers.
[HE WENT INTO THE LIBRARY WITH HER]
[subtle as a slammed door]
[she’s processing whether this is a coincidence or not]
Sable opened the book she was carrying and started reading—or pretended to start reading. Every thirty seconds, she briefly looked up at Takeshi before returning to the page.
Takeshi pulled out a notebook and wrote something that had absolutely no useful content, just to give his hands something to do.
They stayed like that for ten minutes.
Then Sable closed her book, gathered her things, and stood up.
"I’m going to the restroom."
She said it in a way that wasn’t a statement, but an exit.
When she returned five minutes later, she sat at a different table on the opposite side of the library.
[classic table-switch technique]
Takeshi closed his notebook and left.
The next opportunity came during break.
Sable was in the courtyard with the same book, sitting on a bench that had no adjacent tables available. Takeshi approached and remained standing next to the bench.
"Can I sit down?"
Sable looked at the bench. There was more than enough room for two people.
"The bench belongs to everyone."
Takeshi sat down at the opposite end.
[technically correct answer that neither invites him nor rejects him]
[legally neutral]
[Sable playing chess while Takeshi is trying to learn the rules]
They sat in silence for several minutes. Sable read while Takeshi watched the courtyard.
"How long have you been at this school?"
Takeshi asked.
Sable took a second to answer.
"A while."
"Where are you from?"
"Here."
"And before Lyra’s band, were you involved in any other activities?"
Sable closed her book and looked directly at him.
"Why are you asking?"
"Curiosity. Just curiosity."
Sable’s gaze lingered for three seconds before she opened her book again.
"No."
The break ended, and Sable left before the bell even rang.
[defeat number two]
[she’s escaping in advance now]
[adaptive learning]
The third time was after classes ended.
Takeshi found her in the exit hallway and walked beside her toward the main entrance. Sable noticed him, slowed down slightly, and then resumed her normal pace.
"Where are you going?"
Takeshi asked.
"Home."
"Do you live far away?"
"No."
They stepped outside. Sable stopped on the entrance stairs and looked at him.
"Fujimoto."
"What?"
"Why do you keep talking to me?"
She said it without anger or visible irritation. With the straightforward tone of someone who needed information in order to make a decision.
[AH. THERE IT IS]
[the confrontation]
[Takeshi has approximately four seconds to answer something that doesn’t sound like "I know you’re an assassin"]
Takeshi processed the situation in that time.
’If I say I find her interesting, she’ll keep being suspicious. If I say it’s because of the student council, it makes no sense because she isn’t in the council. If I get too close to the truth, I’ll put her on alert. I need a reason that justifies the behavior without being easy to question.’
There was a fraction of a second when Takeshi couldn’t find a useful answer, and in that fraction of a second, he said the first thing panic produced.
"Because I like you."
Silence. Nothing but silence.
Sable looked at him for a full second without changing her expression, but then her expression did change. It was a small change, but completely visible. First her ears, then her neck, then her cheeks.
"Don’t joke around!"
Her tone was still direct, but there was something different in the speed of her response.
[HE SAID IT]
[HE ACTUALLY SAID IT]
[THE CHAT WAS NOT READY]
[SABLE WASN’T EITHER]
Takeshi quickly calculated that backing down now would be worse than continuing.
"I’m not joking."
Sable stared at him. The color in her face hadn’t gone down. If anything, it had increased.
"I think we just met."
She was using short sentences again, but the tone was different from the library and the courtyard. She had less control than before.
"Yeah..."
Takeshi replied.
"That’s why I was talking to you. To get to know you better."
Sable processed that. She looked away for a moment, toward the street, and then looked back at him.
"That’s not how it normally works."
She said.
"How does it normally work?"
She didn’t answer that.
[she’s outside her usual protocol]
[the girl who dodged every conversation all day doesn’t know how to handle this]
[because nobody had ever said that to her before, probably]
Takeshi decided not to leave any room for her to regain control of the situation.
"Are you free tomorrow?"
Sable looked at him with an expression that mixed confusion with something that didn’t quite reach rejection.
"What for?"
"To go out."
The color in her face didn’t fade.
"That’s very direct."
"Yeah, I know."
Sable looked toward the street, then at Takeshi, then back toward the street.
"Fine..."
She finally agreed. She said it with the specific tone of someone accepting in order to end an awkward situation, not because she had any real interest.
"But just so we’re clear, I’m only agreeing to be polite."
"Noted."
Sable picked up the book she had dropped during the conversation and walked down the stairs without saying anything else.
Halfway down, she stopped for a second as if she were about to turn around, then continued.
[SHE STOPPED]
[she almost turned around]
["only to be polite"]
[the chat records everything, Sable]
Takeshi arrived at the apartment forty minutes later.
Akari was in the kitchen. They exchanged a brief greeting, and Takeshi went to his room.
He sat on the edge of the bed and checked his phone.
He had three unread messages.
The first was from Ophélia.
[Ophélia] Will you be busy tomorrow?
Takeshi replied without thinking too much.
[Takeshi] Yeah, I’ve got something planned.
[something planned. uh-huh]
["something planned" has a name and blue hair]
The second message was from Nyx.
[Nyx] Are you free tomorrow after classes? I wanted to talk about something council-related
Takeshi replied.
[Takeshi] I can’t tomorrow. How about the day after?
There was no immediate response.
The third message was from Aoi.
[Aoi] There’s a place near the school I want to check out tomorrow. Want to come?
Takeshi read the message twice. The invitation was direct and without additional context, which with Aoi could mean several things.
He replied.
[Takeshi] I can’t tomorrow, sorry. I already made plans
The typing indicator appeared and disappeared twice before the reply finally arrived.
[Aoi] Understood.
That was all.
[an Aoi "Understood." with a period is a dangerous temperature reading]
[it’s the equivalent of "we’ll talk about this later"]
[Takeshi just turned down three people in five minutes; somebody’s going to ask who he went out with]
Takeshi set the phone on the bed and lay back, staring at the ceiling.
’Good. Tomorrow I’ll have access to Sable outside the school environment. In a more relaxed setting, she’s more likely to let her guard down, and I might be able to get information about her situation. If I understand why she’s doing this, maybe there’s a way to change the outcome before things go too far.’
He closed his eyes.
’The problem is that I don’t have much time. I don’t know when she’s going to act. It could be next week, or it could be tomorrow. All I know is that at some point she’s going to try, and the only way to stop it without resetting everything again is to find the reason behind the job.’
He turned onto his side.
’Sable’s job isn’t something that can be stopped just by talking. There’s someone behind her making the decisions.’
The ceiling had no answers.
’But if Sable doesn’t act, the job doesn’t get completed. So the most accessible pressure point is still her.’
Takeshi closed his eyes.
He didn’t reach any solution before falling asleep.
The phone remained on the bed with the three conversations open and the floating chat reduced to increasingly infrequent comments as the room grew darker.
[get some rest, you’re going to need it]
