Chapter 4：Understanding Adaptability (1/2)
”Go with Yuko-chan to her Otherworld. She will train you and she will be your first hero to support,”
The Principal declared what I have to do. Go with her? Training? What's there to train?
”I understand. But when is that and what should I prepare?”
Does this mean, I can go for now? Should I use this chance to escape?
”Don't worry about it Kuramoto-kun. You just need to go here after school.”
Eh? So there's no training regimen here? With only my Adaptability, how could I cope in the Otherworlds? And after school? So we still attend normal classes?
Haa. Prestigious Academy my ass. Turns out they were just part-time heroes. It was cool and all to be one but it being a secret negates the title, right?
Plus I was also a bit curious about that Pocket Dimension.
What was it? It activated my ability. And that ability locked me up in this situation.
”You can go back now, Yuko-chan. Leave Kuramoto-kun with me. I will prepare him inside the Pocket Dimension.”
”Yes, Fa-- Principal.”
Sugawara-san bowed to the Principal and nodded at me before leaving the room. Her previous blushing expression was now gone and she's back to the state when I first met her.
”So, Kuramoto-kun, I forgot to introduce myself. As you can guess, I am also a Sugawara, Sugawara Hajime.”
Hajime. Beginning. I see so he really was the start of all this. By discovering that Pocket Dimension, he gathered the heroes and awakened them early on.
So that meant even without his intervention, the thirty heroes were doomed to be summoned to act as heroes for their respective Otherworlds.
Err. Now I kind of pity their fates. I guess I was better off as a support? To be bound by duty to save the world that's not theirs to begin with. It's sounds like a hassle.
Following behind the Principal, he opened a secret passage on one corner of the room. It was a flight of stairs leading below.
”I kind of wanted to back off now. What was hidden below the stairs?”
I acted scared but considering he just told me about the Pocket Dimension, I guess that's what's waiting for us below.
”The Pocket Dimension.”
See? Is it possibly Hell? Well, since it's below the ground, there's that slim chance to be like that.
”I keep hearing that dimension since earlier, what exactly was it?”
To activate someone's ability just by being brought there. Is it some kind of paradise or hell? Was some tentacle monster inject us with something?
”You don't have to ask, Kuramoto-kun. It's better to bring you to it. You've already been there once but you were unconscious.”
That time they determined my ability eh? Was I the only one they tested? So the other exam-takers wasted their time attending it? Such a way to bamboozle the hopeful students.
”Am I the only one with this ability? Could there be other Support that you can choose from”
He's a Clairvoyant, he probably used that ability to pinpoint me. Then it's also possible to find others, right?
”True. There are others but your Adaptability is unique and that's what we all needed.”
Unique eh. Let's go along with it for now.
”Now I wonder what would threaten them that I could prevent.”
If they're already strong as the Heroes, what can a newbie and only have Adaptability do to prevent whatever danger they will face?
”Only time can tell. My Clairvoyance has its own limits too.”
I see. Every ability would always have its flaws, right? Like mine. I could Adapt but that was all there was to it or is there something more to it?
A few minutes later, we finally reached the bottom of the stairs. I thought it would be too dark here but in the middle of the room was a shining sphere suspended in the air. It only had one color, white.
”This is the Pocket Dimension.”
He pointed at the obvious, of course.
”I'm sorry but all I can see is a floating white sphere.”
The Principal smiled at me and gestured his arm as if telling me to go ahead and approach it.
I was a bit wary but curiosity had taken over my reason. Besides, after all that talk about me being the chosen support and the engagement with his daughter, there was no reason for me to be killed here.
”You should see for yourself. Put your hand on it.”
”Will I be sucked inside this? Is this what I read from novels? A separate dimension?”
The Principal didn't answer but just smiled; waiting for me to go and touch the sphere. I guess there's no use hesitating now. I approached the floating sphere and stretched my hand out to it.
The moment my fingers touched its surface, my sight immediately turned white. It was like being submerged in a white fog.
After a few seconds in that state, the fog cleared and I could now see a desolate land stretching as far as my eye could see.
Not far from me was the same sphere but unlike the one I touched, it looks like the illustration of the Earth.
”Welcome Kuramoto-kun.”
The Principal's voice sounded behind me. He was still the same man I followed behind earlier.
”So I was really sucked inside. And that thing is the door to go back, right?”
”I don't need to answer you, you know it right? Can you feel it? The increased clarity.”
Ah, he was right. My mind was even clearer now. I believe I could solve a hard mathematics problem that was impossible for me before.
”How did you find out about this?”
This is a separate dimension. And I could clearly feel the change in me. For something like this to be possible...
”Honestly, I don't know. I only explained it as destiny.”
Destiny eh? So was it also my destiny to become their support? I call bull--