Chapter 72: Iris and Noah Alone.
Iris advanced down the maintenance hallway while observing every door and every emergency sign.
She was still transformed, so the crystal pieces of her suit reflected the emergency lights. Several small structures floated behind her back and moved in sync with her steps.
Noah walked a short distance behind and occasionally glanced back to make sure the intruders hadn’t managed to escape.
"How long will the barriers you created hold?"
Iris asked as she kept walking. Noah replied.
"I don’t know exactly."
"That answer doesn’t reassure me."
"The time can vary depending on several factors, so I couldn’t give you the answer right now."
"That answer makes more sense."
Iris raised a hand and a small crystal appeared over her palm.
She observed it for a few seconds and then closed her fingers, making the figure disappear.
"I can feel how it works..."
She said.
"But I don’t feel the limits."
"That’s normal."
"How do you know what’s normal?"
"Like I told you, I’ve already seen other magical girls awaken."
Iris turned her head.
"Yume and Luna?"
"Yes."
"I see, but that still doesn’t explain why you chose me."
"I didn’t choose you."
Iris stopped in front of an intersection to look at the signs painted on the walls and chose the hallway on the right.
"Who did?"
Noah took a moment to respond, since explaining the existence of the goddess was complicated.
"A goddess."
Iris kept walking.
"Sure."
"I’m being serious."
"First magical girls, then a secret organization, and now a goddess."
"I understand it sounds strange."
"It doesn’t sound strange, it sounds absurd."
"But no matter how absurd it sounds, it’s the truth and you can verify it yourself."
Iris looked at her suit.
"I can’t argue with that."
"Then try to accept the rest for now."
"Doing that can become a bad habit."
Noah sighed. He had hoped that after transforming, Iris would accept the explanations more easily, but that wasn’t the case.
"What does that goddess want?"
She asked.
"For us to help stop the Great Mother’s organization."
"Us?"
"Yume, Luna, you, and me."
Iris stopped again.
"No."
Noah almost bumped into her.
"No what?"
"I won’t be part of a group."
"I haven’t finished explaining yet."
"It’s not necessary."
"Believe me, it is."
Iris continued walking.
"I prefer to do things alone."
"This isn’t something you can do alone."
"I didn’t ask to do it either."
Noah didn’t respond immediately, because Iris was right on one point: no one had asked for her permission before giving her powers.
The app had created the brooch for her and Noah had given it to her during a dangerous situation.
"I’m sorry."
Noah said, and Iris slowed down a little.
"Why?"
"For getting you involved like this."
"I took the object."
"Because you were cornered."
"It was also my decision."
"But I put you in that situation."
"You weren’t the one who sent those women."
"No, but they were looking for me."
Iris looked at him for a moment.
"Now that you mention it, you still haven’t explained that to me."
They reached a metal door.
Iris checked the lock and pressed a side button that made the door open.
Behind it was a narrow staircase leading down to another level, so both of them began to descend.
Noah tried to organize the information.
"The organization is led by someone they call the Great Mother."
"Is that her real name?"
"That’s what she’s called in the ani..."
Noah corrected himself right away.
"That’s what the goddess calls her..."
"And what does she want?"
"To control the corruption, create monsters, and eliminate the magical girls."
Iris frowned.
"Aren’t those three different objectives?"
"Actually, they’re related."
"How?"
"I only know that they’re related, nothing more."
Iris looked at him.
"You know very little for someone who’s involved."
"I know."
"And why are they looking for you?"
"Well... I don’t know."
"Stop saying that."
Noah remained silent, since he couldn’t explain everything to her.
It was probably happening because he had reincarnated inside the anime and that would make the Great Mother consider him an anomaly, since his presence was altering the events.
"They consider me important."
He said finally.
"I already saw that."
"Several units received orders to capture me alive."
"Why?"
"I’m not completely sure."
Iris narrowed her eyes.
"Noah."
"I swear it’s the truth."
"It’s an incomplete answer."
"It’s the only thing I can tell you."
Iris stopped on the landing of the staircase.
"Can’t you, or won’t you?"
Noah looked at her.
"I can’t."
She held his gaze for a few seconds and then continued descending.
"I won’t trust someone who hides information."
"I understand."
"I only helped you because they were trying to kidnap you."
Iris reached the end of the staircase and opened another door.
They entered a corridor near the service exit.
The alarms sounded with less intensity.
"What am I supposed to do as a magical girl?"
She asked.
Noah felt some relief, since at least she was still asking questions.
"The first thing is to learn to control your powers."
"That’s obvious."
"You also need to train your stamina, discover your abilities, and learn to fight monsters."
"How often do they appear?"
"More often than I’d like."
"Who creates them?"
"The organization."
"All of them?"
"I’m not sure."
Iris let out a sigh.
"Again."
"I’m trying to be honest."
"That makes it worse."
Noah decided to continue.
"Yume has a lot of power, but sometimes she has trouble controlling it. Luna is better at using barriers and analyzing combat. You seem to have abilities to create crystal structures and modify the terrain."
Iris looked at one of the floating pieces behind her.
"I realized I can also detect distances."
"That’ll be useful."
"For what?"
"To control the battlefield, for example."
Iris remained silent and Noah remembered how she had directed their escape.
"You already did it before getting powers."
"I only used the building."
"You activated alarms, blocked accesses, and tricked three enemies while they were chasing us."
"I knew the place."
"You also analyzed them."
"It wasn’t hard."
"It was for me."
Iris glanced at him sideways.
"That’s not a good standard."
Noah ignored the comment.
"You have a great ability to analyze situations and with training you could help a lot."
"That doesn’t mean I want to do it."
"I know."
They reached the last door and Iris placed a hand on the panel.
Before opening it, her suit began to emit a faint light as the crystal pieces disappeared one by one and her normal clothes returned.
Iris looked at her hands.
"How did I do that?"
"Maybe you thought about deactivating the transformation."
"I didn’t think anything."
"Then maybe it was automatic."
"I don’t like automatic mechanisms I don’t understand."
"You’ll have time to practice."
"Don’t get your hopes up that I’ll accept."
Iris opened the door and the exterior light entered the corridor.
Both of them stepped out into a side area of the campus.
There were students gathered in the distance, although most were being guided toward the exits by security personnel.
Noah breathed with relief, since they had escaped, but that relief lasted less than five seconds.
"Noah!"
A familiar voice sounded from the right.
Noah turned and saw Yume running toward him along with Luna.
Both of them had worried expressions.
Yume arrived first and hugged him tightly.
"Thank goodness you’re okay!"
Noah lost his balance for a moment.
"Yeah."
"We heard the alarms."
Yume pulled back enough to check his face, his arms, and his clothes.
"Did they hurt you?"
"No."
Luna approached, but she didn’t hug him; she simply observed him from head to toe.
"Where were you?"
"In the old building."
"Why?"
Noah looked toward Iris, so Yume followed his gaze, since until that moment she seemed not to have noticed she was there.
Yume’s expression changed.
"Iris...?"
Iris raised a hand.
"Hi."
Yume looked back at Noah, then at the service door, and observed Iris again.
"Were you two alone?"
Noah knew the conversation was going to get complicated.
"Yes, but..."
The imaginary Yumes appeared immediately.
One of them was wearing a military uniform and slammed a board.
’Confirmed! Noah was locked inside an empty building with Iris.’
Another Yume lifted a sheet.
’Unknown duration. Unknown activity. Extreme risk.’
A third one observed Iris’s clothes.
’Her clothes are neat.’
Another checked Noah.
’His are too.’
The main Yume breathed with relief.
’Then maybe nothing happened.’
A small Yume raised her hand.
’They could also have straightened up before coming out.’
All of them started shouting and Yume returned to reality.
"What did you do?"
"We were attacked."
Noah’s answer briefly stopped her thoughts.
"Who?"
"A group from the organization."
Luna hardened her expression.
"How many?"
"Three."
"And you were alone?"
"Iris was with me."
Luna took a step toward him.
"Why didn’t you let us know where you’d be?"
Noah tried to stay calm.
"I was just going to talk to Iris."
"You should have told me."
"I didn’t think they’d find us."
"That’s the problem."
Yume looked at Luna.
"Why did he have to tell only you?"
Luna turned toward her.
"Are we talking about the fact that they tried to kidnap him and you’re worried about that?"
Yume grabbed Noah’s arm.
"He’s my boyfriend, so he doesn’t have to tell you where he is every single time."
Luna didn’t respond, but Yume watched her with distrust.
"Lately you worry about him too much."
"I’ve always worried about his safety."
"And saying you could keep him safe by yourself was about his safety?"
"That was a misunderstanding."
"A misunderstanding that happened after you went to the movies with him."
"Noah already explained it to you."
"You also held his hand."
"Noah was scared!"
"He wasn’t that scared!"
Noah raised a hand.
"Yes, I was."
Yume looked at him.
"You’re not helping."
Iris remained at a certain distance and observed the two girls.
The attention that Yume and Luna directed toward Noah was evident.
Yume kept holding his arm while Luna tried to stay calm, but she didn’t take her eyes off Iris.
Iris felt the pressure.
’Both of them are upset.’
She didn’t know how she should respond, but she also couldn’t leave without explaining what had happened.