A Lesson About the Future

Moning sat in the surveillance room.

On the monitor's nine-screen grid, three men in black combat uniforms were undergoing a purification deep within their souls in the utility room behind Auditorium One.

Scarface knelt on the floor tiles, scrubbing the grout with a toothbrush as tears streamed down his face.

Moning turned on the sound.

"My Dao heart, my sacred mission, my performance review..."

She turned it off again.

On her tactical tablet, Zhou Yu's Logistics Department file sat beside the only incident report filed that day.

[Filed by: Zhou Yu.]

[Incident: Three outsiders were found gathering illegally in the Block A utility room behind Auditorium One and conducting unlicensed cleaning activities. They were given a verbal warning and ordered to rectify their conduct.]

[Resolution: The three were handed over to the academy security office for labor and ideological reeducation.]

She used String Dissolution Theory to construct a model. Her computing core hummed once, then its screen went black.

Moning: (ㅍ_ㅍ)

She picked up the landline.

"Security office? There's no need to send those three for ideological education."

There was a pause on the other end.

"Then what should we do with them, Professor Moning?"

"Send them to the Logistics Department to report for duty."

"...The Logistics Department?"

"Just say they're new cleaning interns who are enthusiastic about their work."

"But Professor Moning, we found three short knives and a high-frequency resonance detonation module on them..."

"I know."

Moning rubbed her temples, her voice dry enough to scrape paint off a wall.

"But go in and look now. Those three are tying wires into bows and wiping chandeliers with their sleeves. Scarface is still scrubbing the floor tiles, crying even harder than his mom."

The other end of the line fell silent for five seconds.

"...Understood, Professor Moning."

After hanging up, she got up and headed for the preparatory class's classroom.

Some things should never have been approached with physics in the first place.

During the afternoon general studies class, sunlight spilled through the old windows onto a desk.

Dania lay slumped over her desk by the window, her lips still sweet with the orange soda she'd had at noon.

Moning walked to the lectern and wrote two words on the blackboard in chalk.

Life planning.

"You're all Flamebearers' Academy trainees, future Sunspeakers, scientists, and engineers."

She swept her gaze over the faces before her.

"No theory today. I want to hear what kind of life you think is meaningful."

Nobody spoke.

Linnai slipped her a note under the desk.

Dania glanced down at it: My life plan is to attend every one of Lady Snow Velvet's concerts.

She bit down on her pen cap and didn't write back.

"Dania."

She stood up with the pen cap still in her mouth and hurriedly spat it out.

The whole class turned to look at her.

Moning stared at her, turning the chalk halfway between her fingers.

"You were once the New Federation's most exceptional weapon, closer than anyone else in this classroom to that grand destiny."

She paused for a beat.

"Do you think making a great sacrifice is more meaningful, or..."

She didn't finish.

Dania's gaze drifted out the window.

On the lawn below the teaching building, a person in a yellow vest was watering a flower bed with a hose. They looked up, waved this way, and flashed a grin full of white teeth.

Dania looked away and turned to Moning.

"I think the future is being able to have breakfast with the people important to me again tomorrow."

The classroom fell utterly silent.

Sigelica buried her face in her arms, her shoulders shaking.

Chisaki's fingers hovered over her tablet, all the data streams frozen.

Moning stood holding the chalk for a long time before giving a slight nod.

"Sit down."

There wasn't a trace of reproach in her voice. It even carried a hint of ease that she herself didn't recognize.

"I won't deduct any credits for that answer."

The bell rang.

Linnai was the first to come over, bumping Dania with her shoulder.

Linnai: (¬‿¬)

"Oh, people important to you~"

She drew the last word out.

"Do you mean everyone in our Slacking Squad, or that dorm manager watering flowers outside the window in particular?"

Dania's face suddenly burned.

"I-I didn't mean it like that..."

Her textbook knocked against her water bottle, and she grabbed her schoolbag and dashed out of the classroom without looking back.

Dania: Σ(っ°Д°;)っ

"Why are you running? It's not like I'll eat you!"

Linnai collapsed onto her desk, laughing and slapping it.

Aimis leaned against the doorframe and whistled.

"The cutie's embarrassed. She's so easy to read."

Sigelica flipped through her sixty-thousand-word self-criticism without looking up.

"This class probably can't be saved."

The setting sun dyed the tree-lined path orange-red.

Dania hugged her schoolbag and followed beside Zhou Yu in small steps. Their shadows stretched long, occasionally overlapping before quickly separating again.

"What did Moning ask in class today?"

Zhou Yu walked at an unhurried pace, his hands in his pockets.

"N-nothing."

"Really?"

He chuckled.

"Linnai said someone made a public confession in class and even stunned Moning."

"I didn't!"

Dania jumped in her agitation, and her schoolbag strap nearly slipped off her shoulder.

"Linnai made that up! I just... I just answered a question!"

"What question?"

"Well... Professor Moning asked about life plans..."

"What did you say?"

Dania's voice grew quieter and quieter, until it was almost lost in the wind.

"I said... being able to have breakfast with the people important to me again tomorrow..."

Zhou Yu didn't answer. After another two steps, he stopped and turned to look at her.

The setting sun shone from behind him, gilding his entire outline.

He raised a hand and brushed his fingertip past the corner of her mouth.

"Here, you've still got some crab roe on you."

The warm touch vanished in an instant.

Dania froze on the path. Her heart skipped a beat, and her face burned all the way to the tips of her ears.

Zhou Yu flicked the golden crumbs off his fingertip and tilted his chin at her.

"Come on. If we dawdle any longer, the cafeteria really will run out of crab roe buns."

He turned and continued walking.

Dania stood there for several seconds, then covered her face and ran after him.

In the principal's office at Flamebearers' Academy, a desk lamp cast a circle of light across the desktop.

The report Moning had just sent lay open in front of Lupa.

Its title wasn't a physics analysis, nor was it a higher-dimensional energy observation.

[Preliminary Observation Report on Mass Memetic Infection and the Reshaping of Behavioral Logic Caused by the Special Individual Zhou Yu]

At the end of the report, Moning had written a line in bold.

[Recommendation: Shift the research focus from physical interference to cognitive psychology. If necessary, an application may be made for clinical hypnosis intervention.]

Lupa tapped her fingers on the desk three times and picked up the intercom.

"Moning."

"Principal."

"This clinical hypnosis intervention—who are you planning to use it on?"

The other end of the line was quiet for two seconds.

"Zhou Yu."

"Your reason."

"His behavioral logic can't be explained by any known physical model. My computing cores have already burned out twice."

Moning's voice was taut.

"If physics can't explain him, then his underlying driving force isn't on the physical level. It's on the cognitive level."

"Can hypnosis break through to his cognitive level?"

"At the very least, it can show us what's actually in his head."

Lupa picked up her teacup and took a small sip.

The aroma of black tea spread beneath the lamplight.

"Interesting."

She set down the cup and lightly ran her fingertips over the cover of the report.

"Approved. Go make preparations. I'll set the time."

Outside the window, the last sliver of daylight sank away.