Guilt and New people

*crackle…..boom

The sky roared with a distant sound of thunder.

Sakura, who was sitting beside the window of her classroom looked outside. It wasn't raining but the sky was gloomy. It was evident that it would rain soon.

Sakura liked the rain. It had a wonderful and distinct scent to it.

Though at this moment she was anything but happy. It was her math class and she wasn't really good at it.

She hated the prospect of math. Not because math was useless but because the math that was taught to her by the school mostly relied on memorization. She also hated the fact that schools didn't teach her what the math was even used for. Because of this Sakura had some contempt for math.

*dang…ding…dong.

To Sakura's relief, the bell rang, signifying her end of the torture.

Suddenly a notice rang in the speakers.

[Attention students, the PE class will be canceled due to the cloudy weather. With due respect, the students are asked to use this time for their productive work. Thank you.]

To the students' delight, the PE class was canceled.

Sakura was also delighted by this.

"Saku-Chan, let's go to the rooftop. I'm sure it's breezy up there." Misaka interjected from the side.

Sakura nodded as they made their way to the rooftop. Misaka was cheerful as always.

Sakura chatted with Misaka as they strolled through the hallway. Sakura felt joyful as she spent her time with Misaka.

But somewhere deep down she felt a little uncomfortable. This world wasn't real but for some reason Sakura wanted this world to stay like this forever.

<Maybe, it's time for you to accept the truth, master.>

Astra suddenly intruded on Sakura's thoughts.

'Huh.'

<You have been treating this world as if it were a real world, not only that, but even before was created, the thought of going back home has constantly weighing down on your mind. You should realize fact that old is already in past.>

Sakura felt like Astra was being too dramatic.

'What are you talking about? I totally know this world isn't real.'

<Then why don't you end this world and return, master?>

Sakura was about to make a joke out of Astra's seriousness when she realized Astra was somewhat right. She had been so caught up in her thought process of returning home that she forgot to enjoy the real world.

Maybe it was the loneliness of living alone in the shrine or maybe she was just home sick. But even so, she realized that she'd been too narrowminded and might have gone too far with this illusion world.

As Sakura was contemplating about what to do a cold breeze hit her face.

Without realizing it they were already at the rooftop.

"See, I told you the wind here is great."

Misaka who brimming with joy in the cold wind went to the caged railing of the roof and stood there as the violent wind made her hair flutter with great intensity.

When Sakura saw this, she felt a little guilty. None of this is real but the girl in front of her wasn't aware of that fact and casually enjoying her life. What would happen when she learns there is no tomorrow for her?

A sense of guilt constantly grows in Sakura's heart.

"Hey look cosplayers." Suddenly Misaka pointed out something out of the norm in the distance.

Sakura also looked where Misaka was pointing and found some people wearing what looked to be fantasy-themed clothes near their school walls.

"Come let's go take pictures with them." Misaka, with an excited voice, took Sakura's hand and ran towards the stairway.

'Was she always this ecstatic about cosplays.' Sakura thought as they ran down the stairway.

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Venion and his party were venturing into the unknown world. They had been constantly approached by people with strange brick-like magical devices. But those people didn't seem to harness any ill intentions so Venion and his party co-operated. The one that was being approached the most were Melissa and Lilia.

These people used their strange brick-like devices to take their paintings with some weird sorcery.

Venion's party also decided not to use any magic since the air in this place has no mana. As a result, their mana recovery was practically non-existent.

But the most problematic thing wasn't the absence of mana but the language barrier. With that in place, they couldn't communicate with the people around them.

Suddenly, a person wearing a peculiar uniform approached Lilia. He said something that Venion or his party didn't understand.

_

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When Sakura and Misaka reached Venions party they were being interrogated by a police officer.

However, the police officer was having a little trouble understanding their language.

"Miss, don't you know English?" he asked but Lilia could not even understand what the man in front of her was saying.

But when Sakura heard the language, she became a little confused. To her, they were speaking Japanese.

Even when the police officer was supposedly talking in English, she was hearing it in Japanese.

She was utterly confused until Astra interjected.

<The System automatically translates what you hear and say according to the person are talking with, master.>

"Uh."

Sakura just realized that the system has such a function.

'No wonder I could communicate with that dragon.'

She looked at the men who were trying to communicate with the police officer.

These guys were being interrogated for supposedly bringing an underaged girl to cosplay. The officer was suspecting suspicious activities.

"They do look a little different than normal cosplayers." Sakura pondered.

< Master, they are real people. > Suddenly Astra said something unexpected which caught Sakura off-guard.

'Eh! What do you mean?'

<They somehow got into the illusionary world. They do not belong here.>

"Uh!"

Sakura was once more surprised by this revelation. This was her first real human encounter in the other world. Although the situation was a little peculiar it was her first-time seeing humans in another world.