Bonus: Amiya Sunagi Hesitates

Amiya Sunagi was the first-year student who accidentally rolled back her research data due to a sharing oversight in the “Bonus: Reicia’s Struggle to Present Her Research.”
She’s the only first-year member in GMDW.

For Amiya Sunagi, Reicia Blackguard had always been the “pinnacle” within her small world.

When she had first enrolled—utterly clueless and knowing neither left from right—she was introduced to the faction General Molecular Dynamics Workshop (GMDW) through a senior acquaintance.

Reicia, the head of that faction—at the time, just as her relationship with the faction was beginning to smooth out—had, to Amiya, already been a figure sitting at the very “top” of her world.

Later, Reicia clashed with Misaka Mikoto and lost, but that was merely a matter of the “pinnacle’s world.” Within GMDW, Reicia Blackguard remained the most formidable presence. In fact, because she approached them shortly afterward from a completely different angle, the prevailing view inside GMDW was that even Reicia Blackguard’s “defeat” might have been part of some grand scheme.

Indeed, not long after, Reicia made her “comeback” and reclaimed her place at the “top” of Amiya’s small world.

Because of this history, for Amiya Sunagi, Reicia Blackguard had always been—despite everything—a symbol of unshakable stability.

And then, a month after GMDW once again welcomed Reicia Blackguard as its leader—autumn. By the time Amiya had been at Tokiwadai for five months, the GMDW atmosphere was filled entirely with practice for the Daihaseisai.

Chapter One — No Chain Reaction for the Barrel Maker　Psicopics.
Bonus: Amiya Sunagi Hesitates

“Looking good, everyone! In the three-legged race, synergy between abilities is everything. Factor in a little interference, and strengthen your coordination until you can handle fluctuations in condition without failure!”

September 7th.

With just one week to go before the start-of-second-term physical exam system scans, GMDW was spending the afternoon in a rented training space, hard at work practicing their events.

At Daihaseisai, each competitor’s events were generally assigned by the school. However, in Tokiwadai’s case—due to various circumstances (mainly the balance of power among student factions)—it was customary for the students to handle adjustments more flexibly.

For example, Shirai Kuroko, despite being in a different grade, was pairing with Misaka Mikoto in most of her events, and even the largest faction under Shokuhou Misaki was freely pairing members across grade levels.

In GMDW’s case, Reicia—wanting to use this year’s tournament to strengthen the faction’s organizational power—was not only grouping most competitors within the faction, but also holding internal selection tests to choose the top-performing pairs for entry.

“Hey, Shiren-san, maybe it’s about time we took a break? I bet Monokawa’s about ready to keel over.”

“H-hold on… Shika-sama!? I am not that weak!”

“Indeed. Well then, everyone, take a break!”

“Shiren-sama~~!?”

At Shika’s half-joking suggestion, Reicia—known here as Shiren—clapped her hands twice and announced a break.

The faction members, who had been running laps around the ground in three-legged pairs while using their abilities, began unfastening their ankle bands and collapsed one after another at the sound of her words.

“Hey, no flopping down all of a sudden! That’s bad for you! The break time includes cooldown, so keep walking for the allotted period!”

“Hhiii… hhhiii… haaa…”

Gone was her earlier gentle tone; Reicia was now barking at the collapsed members.

Among the floppers was Amiya herself, who hastily stood and began walking around the training ground to cool down.

For the record, Reicia and Shika were also registered as a three-legged race pair. With their combination—Level 5 White-Black Jagged Edge and Level 4 Thermal Fusion Ion Spray—there was supposedly no problem, and they were acting as supervising coaches.

Of course, this was mostly for show in front of the faction members; in truth, the two of them were undergoing intense training in secret. They were still sore from it today.

“Good work, Sunagi-san.”

“Ah, Chitabi-san! Much obliged, forsooth.”

After cooldown, Amiya had just sat down when Kiryu Chitabi handed her a homemade sports drink.

Kiryu Chitabi—the very girl who had recruited Amiya into GMDW—had originally been a member of the predecessor faction Reicia had founded.

For that reason, she was especially trusted by both Reicia and Shiren, and was expected to grow into one of GMDW’s core leaders in the future.

For this three-legged race, she was Amiya’s partner.

“We-we-we’re doing quite well! At this rate, we might just be the ones chosen for the event!”

“That would be an honor indeed, forsooth!”

“Y-y-yes, that’s the spirit. It seems Shiren-san’s aiming to recruit even more members during this Daihaseisai—especially first-years. After all… you’re the only one, Sunagi-san.”

While this might seem slightly at odds with Reicia’s “strengthening unity” policy, it was also part of her strategy.

In Tokiwadai, “factions” weren’t officially institutionalized—they were based purely on relationships between students. There was no rule that you had to give up your position upon graduating.

Reicia had no current intention of stepping down as GMDW’s leader after graduation.

But naturally, since grade differences meant some members would “remain behind,” she saw it as essential to bring in new recruits so that Amiya wouldn’t feel isolated in school life.

Most likely, she planned to form a “middle school division” within GMDW—a branch composed entirely of junior high students—for activities outside school.

Since Kiryu was expected to eventually manage faction activities within the school, she was keenly aware of Reicia’s intentions. That was part of why she was putting so much effort into practice.

“...W-w-we’re absolutely taking it. The selection slot.”

For these reasons, and Reicia’s guidance, GMDW’s Daihaseisai practice was more intense than last year. But even aside from that, they were approaching the tournament with complete seriousness.

The reason: a rumor that had begun circulating quietly among them.

Reicia Blackguard had once attempted suicide—this past July.

The first to hear it was Kiryu. She had picked it up from chatter among research institute staff, and immediately reported it to Shika and Ennai along with Amiya.

“…This is absolutely never to be repeated. Understood?”

Shika—who normally grew heated and forceful when emotional—had, at that moment, spoken in a disturbingly quiet voice.

『Whether it’s true or not, that doesn’t matter one damn bit. If it’s wrong, then that means we’ve hurt both Reicia-san and Shiren-san for nothing… and if it’s true…』

That was, most likely, a fear shared by every single member of GMDW.

『…Because that would mean—that we pushed Reicia-san all the way to the point where she decided to die.』

GMDW, at their core, were all victims of Reicia.
Every one of them, to varying degrees, had been dragged around by her arrogance, suffering both mentally and socially. The damage was, objectively speaking, enormous.
So when Reicia was “punished” by Mikoto and suffered a shock so great it fractured her personality, they’d felt a twinge of guilt, sure, but they hadn’t taken it as something all that grave.

Of course, part of that was because Reicia and Shiren had built an extremely good relationship…

In any case, that was the backdrop—a tenuous “balance” barely being maintained—when the suspicion of her attempted suicide surfaced.

GMDW might be Reicia’s victims, but at the same time, they were fundamentally decent people.
And so, having treated Reicia—who’d been shocked enough to split her very self—like nothing more than a villain, they felt guilt. In a sense, the scales had been balanced: what they had done versus what they had endured.

But if, afterward, someone told them, “Actually, if no one had saved her, Reicia would be dead right now,” those scales would shatter.

To be told that the person they’d innocently assumed to be “at the top” was in truth just an ordinary girl who could be hurt—it was human nature to be unable to touch that.
And if they did touch it, they could never return to the same relationship again. Still, if most of GMDW learned about it, there’s no way they could keep it from reaching Reicia’s ears sooner or later.

That’s why Shika had placed a gag order on Kiryu and Amiya as early as possible—but contrary to her intent, the news of Reicia’s attempted suicide had already begun spreading among GMDW from somewhere.

By now, it was likely that every member except Reicia herself had heard the rumor in some form.
Yet, for the moment, no one had tried to question her about it. They figured neither Reicia nor Shiren wanted that.

Still, guilt doesn’t just vanish.
Having taken on the stigma of “driving her to the point of deciding to die,” the girls naturally began compensating for it—meaning they tried to devote themselves to Reicia to make up for the “going too far.”

Their dedication to practicing for the Daihasei Festival was, in large part, for this very reason.
And almost none of them questioned it. They simply believed it was the least they could do to atone for having gone too far.

But for Amiya, who’d only recently joined the faction, things were different.
She had experienced little of Reicia’s unreasonable treatment, and had received equally little benefit from her.

To her, Reicia—the Blackguard—wasn’t some foolish girl barely holding her flaws together with sheer competence; she was more like a being from a distant world.

That’s why, even when she heard the rumor, Amiya could remain calmer than the other members.
Yes, the matter of an attempted suicide was serious, and yes, she was angry at her own indifference for not noticing. But at the root of it all was one question:

—Where exactly did this rumor come from?

Kiryu had said she heard it from the Development Bureau.
But if people there were talking about it openly enough for students to hear, then by now it should have been a well-known open secret across Tokiwadai Middle School—not just in GMDW. That’s the nature of rumors.

And yet, there was no sign it had spread outside the faction.
Which could only mean—someone inside GMDW was deliberately trying to circulate it.

Most of the other members, including Shika and Ennai, were so caught up in the impact of the “attempted suicide” part that they hadn’t thought it through that far.

But this rumor was clearly being spread with intent.
Whether it was a lie or an “inconvenient truth,” it carried the malice of someone trying to drag Reicia down.

Surely, in the present situation—driven by guilt and throwing themselves into practice for the Daihasei Festival—this state of affairs was exactly what the mastermind behind the rumor wanted. She didn’t know their objective, but if the result of the rumor was that the entire faction was moving in this direction, then it stood to reason that they had spread it precisely in the hope of steering things this way.

But Amiya couldn’t do anything about it.

Part of it was because, as a first-year, her voice carried little weight. More than that, even if she told those pierced to the core by the idea that “there might have been a suicide attempt” that “it might be a lie made up by someone,” it wouldn’t fundamentally solve anything. And above all, the policy of “throwing themselves into Daihasei Festival practice” happened to align perfectly with Reicia’s own vision.

If she carelessly declared that “there’s a mastermind behind this rumor,” the discussion would just get tangled up with talk of festival practice and feelings of guilt toward Reicia, and no meaningful conversation would ever happen.

A gnawing sense of helplessness—of having no choice but to keep walking along a set track.

Was this really okay? Wasn’t there something else, some other action she could take?

She tried to think, but she wasn’t a hero. By now, things had already progressed beyond what she could possibly control.

“Next, we’ll begin the beanbag toss practice. We start in ten minutes, so everyone, please get yourselves ready—”

On the rented grounds, Reicia was giving instructions to the third-year faction members.