Takumi stepped out of the classroom with his bag settled back over his shoulders and let out a quiet breath.
"Right," he muttered to himself. "Need to meet Itsuki."
Remembering the plan they had made, he waited just outside the room while Lyss and Timotheo finished up inside.
Lyss was the first to come out. She stepped up beside him and gave him a quick look, studying his face for a second before speaking.
"Your classmates seemed to like you," she said. "Honestly, that surprised me a little." She glanced back toward the room, then added with a faint smirk, "Can't say Timotheo gets the same reception."
A moment later, Timotheo emerged too, looking like the last lesson had drained the soul out of him.
"I hate math," he said immediately, like he'd been holding it in for the entire walk to the door. "I swear, if I could erase a subject from existence, that'd be the one. It's so boring it feels personal."
He dragged himself closer, still looking half-offended by the concept of numbers.
"So," he said, glancing at Takumi, "what now? We meeting your friend?"
Takumi nodded and started walking, with Lyss and Timotheo falling in behind him before quickly drawing up alongside.
"I was thinking we could take a bus or something," he said. "Unless there's a better way."
He looked over at Lyss, already expecting she'd know more than either of them.
"There is," she replied. "The underground lines would be faster. If you don't mind crowds, that's probably the better option."
Takumi looked at her more closely. "You mean the metro? That reaches from here all the way into Aoshima?"
Lyss nodded. "Yeah. It connects the Institute district to the city. Makes things a lot easier than they probably should be."
Timotheo groaned the second Lyss mentioned the metro, throwing his head back like the idea alone had offended him.
"Do we really have to?" he complained. "The underground is misery. Too many people, too much heat, and somebody's always standing way too close for no reason."
He slumped forward dramatically, already defeated by a trip they hadn't even started.
Takumi glanced at him and let a small smirk show. "Starting to think you're just scared of crowds. Same way you were scared of today's exams."
Timotheo looked at him like he'd been attacked. "Of course I was scared of the exams," he said, not even trying to deny it. "My studying habits are a disaster. I look at one problem for five seconds and somehow end up thinking about my bed, a burger, or my console."
Takumi gave a quiet breath that was almost a laugh. "That doesn't surprise me."
He kept walking, hands in his pockets, voice still calm. "You remind me of Itsuki, honestly. Games, food, sleep. That's basically his whole personality too. He hates studying just as much as you do."
Timotheo's face dropped into a tired, wounded look. He coughed once, then adjusted his glasses like he needed a second to recover.
"Please don't tell me you actually enjoy studying," he said.
Takumi shook his head. "I don't."
Timotheo visibly relaxed.
"But I know I still have to do it," Takumi added.
That earned him a long, pained stare from Timotheo, like reality had personally betrayed him again.
Lyss finally stepped in before the two of them could keep going in circles.
"Alright, enough," she said, cutting through the back-and-forth with a tired look. "Let's just get moving. Your friend's probably already waiting for you, Takumi."
He gave a small nod, and the three of them picked up their pace.
They headed toward the underground station entrance a few streets over, tucked into the busier part of the district where the day was still in full motion. People moved past them in steady streams—some carrying bags on their way home, others in uniforms or work clothes just starting their shifts. The station entrance itself opened into a long staircase descending beneath the city, swallowing people in waves as the noise of the street thinned the farther down they went.
"Shinsei District never really slows down," Lyss said, glancing around at the steady flow of people.
Takumi took in the movement with her, following the rhythm of the crowd as it shifted around them. Beside them, Timotheo looked increasingly overwhelmed, shoulders tense from the sheer number of people pressing through the station.
While they were still there, Lyss's phone buzzed in her hand. She glanced down at the screen, and the shift in her expression was immediate.
Something was wrong.
Her face tightened—not dramatically, but enough for Takumi to notice. The easy rhythm she had been moving with a second ago was gone. When she looked back up at them, the smile she gave was quick and a little too controlled.
"Hey… would you two go on without me?" she asked. "Something came up, and it's important."
Timotheo blinked at her. "What? Right now? We were literally about to go into the station."
"I know," Lyss said quickly, nodding as if she was trying to convince herself as much as them. "I know. I'll be quick, alright? I promise. I'll meet you at Aoshima Center once I'm done. I promise."
There wasn't much either of them could say to that. A second later, she was already moving, turning away and breaking into a run in the opposite direction.
"See you later! And thanks!"
Takumi watched her go, but before he could think too hard about it, something shifted inside him.
It wasn't pain. It wasn't pressure like before.
It was quieter than that.
For a brief moment, a strange sensation passed through him, subtle and deep, as if something in his resonance had stirred on its own. He frowned slightly, caught off guard by it, and then he heard it—
a voice.
Slow. Steady. Familiar.
"A thread has formed," it said. "Do not forget it."
The sound didn't come from the street, or from the passing crowd, or from Timotheo beside him. It was inside him, low and certain, as if it had risen straight through his soul.
The noise of the district dulled at once. Voices, footsteps, the hum of the station, all of it faded into a distant blur. For one suspended instant, the color around him seemed to drain away, the street turning pale, grey, and strangely still.
Takumi stopped where he was, frozen by the feeling.
Then it passed.
The sound returned. The crowd moved again. The color rushed back into the world.
And Lyss was already farther away, disappearing into the distance.
"Why is she always like this?" Timotheo muttered with a tired sigh as he started down toward the underground entrance. "Guess it's on me again."
Even after Lyss had promised she would catch up with them, something about the way she left didn't sit right with Takumi. She had moved too quickly, smiled too carefully, and whatever message she'd seen had changed her too fast for it to be nothing.
He followed after Timotheo, but the unease stayed with him. Something was wrong. Lyss knew it. And now, so did he.
To be continued...