Page 73 of Pandion

Hadn’t he already forced Kagesawa to stop dampening, even at the risk of it causing him irreparable harm? For what? Because he was suspicious? He could have waited a while and gathered more evidence before drawing his conclusions! The repercussions weren’t apparent yet, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any. “How do you feel? Anything unusual? We weren’t supposed to use the link at all. What time is it? Is it too late to have it assessed again.” If the organism had passed some threshold due to this… “I’m such an idiot.”

“That goes for the both of us. Honestly.” Kagesawa snorted. “I don’t know how much longer I would have been able to resist. If I hadn’t been reminded of Seimei, I’d probably still be hoping for a little more—”

“You’re hopeless.”

“Well, we were interrupted!”

“I distinctly recall having to lend you my pack of tissues to clean that up, so don’t try to act like you were left hanging.”

“An interruption is an interruption. I was invested in a second round.”

“Yeah, about that. Don’t you have any refractory period at all?”

“What’s that?”

“You can’t be serious.” Harumine shook his head.

“Am I supposed to? Is it a problem? No one’s brought it up before.”

“No, no… this explains a lot.” It wasn’t bad with the link but a little inconvenient without it. “I’m going to send Hase-sensei a message in case he’s still up or wakes up early so we can have you checked up as soon as possible.”

He was glad to have had the foresight to ask for the professor’s private mail address in case of an emergency. He pulled out his port extension and palm reader, popped in the extension and connected to the reader. Even with the hassle of using the extension, this was a quicker way to send a message than typing it.

“If he doesn’t respond in a couple of minutes, we should go back to the dorm and get some sleep.” Harumine slipped the reader back into his pocket.

“The view from up here really is rather beautiful.” Kagesawa turned back to it. “Was there something else you wanted to know?”

“No, not really.” They stood in comfortable silence for a while until Harumine casually broke it, thinking out loud. “I didn’t know you liked asphyxiation.”

“Oh, that. I get bored easily, so I tend to amuse myself with things I might want to try. It seemed like an interesting concept. Sometimes, I get fixated on things like that. Like… how would you feel about ****ing some *** *** onto my ******** or maybe even **** my ****?”

“You’re a masochist.”

“I guess. I hadn’t thought about it like that.”

“You’re only listing things you want me to do to you.”

“Oh, that’s because I didn’t think you’d let me do them to you.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I figured I’d enjoy it either way—what with the link and all—and then after trying it, it was better than expected.”

“Excuse me?” That wasn’t really his preference? But he’d seemed so willing and enthusiastic about it! “Hold up, I’m getting a message.” It was Hase-sensei. He was still up and working late, analysing data at the lab. Great. It’d be easier to get some sleep after a quick check for peace of mind.

Chapter 28

Back at the lab, Kagesawa did the first two exercises of the in-depth analysis but then had to request a break, unable to concentrate.

“I’m sorry. It’s been a long day.” He was not fond of repetitive tasks to begin with, and he’d already done them twice that day.

“That’s all right. If it’s rough, could I get you to do number seven for me when you’re ready? I think I can extrapolate the rest from what we’ve got.”

“All right, I can try.” He pulled up test number seven onto the screen, gathered the last bits of his concentration and began the test.

Wake up, it’s time to get up.It was Satoru’s voice, but Satoru was in the other room, and the link was dampened.

The output surged.Wake up, it’s time to wake up.The wake up routine made the test much easier, but, if it had been triggered by something, it wasn’t just a timed event. It meant the organism had to be aware that Kagesawa was struggling to stay alert. He suddenly felt both energised and chilled to the bone.

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