Page 80 of Pandion

The objective is to help him feel better, correct? Pain is bad, right?

“Yes. I’ll release the link.”

“Wait, what? Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Yeah, I think I know what we’ll do.” The familiarity and ease of passing these wordless instructions back and forth made Kagesawa feel infinitely better about it.The only difference was that there was a corresponding conversation taking place while he was doing it.

I have something stored here from a few days ago that seems to fit your description. There’s some interference, but I can probably clean it up and use the parts I think you’re after.

“Sit down,” Kagesawa told Satoru, who was half-kneeling, ready to stand up. Once he was sure Satoru wouldn’t fall over, he sent the projection through the link.

The key was not to try to force and ram it through himself but to instruct and cooperate with the organism. It was much easier when he could tell where one process ended and the other began.

“Ahh…” Satoru relaxed and leaned back. “How?”

“Replicating the sensation for you. Is it helping?”

For a brief moment after pulling Satoru in through the window, Kagesawa had felt the effects of the migraine meds. From just that, the organism was able to recall and analyse what the chemicals had done to ease Satoru’s pain. Relaying that information to Satoru’s organism was easy. Unfortunately, Satoru’s organism hadn’t yet developed the ability to sustainactions beyond what was instructed, so until the two of them learned to do that, Kagesawa had to keep sending the instructions. It wasn’t much harder than dampening, and considering how much it seemed to help, Kagesawa was glad to do it.

“Uh, I’m so tired.” Satoru lay back down on the floor.

“Oh, don’t fall asleep yet. We should get back to the dorm first.”

“Mmm, right…” He seemed exhausted. Kagesawa hadn’t the heart to shake him awake when he unavoidably fell asleep.

I’m going to have to carry him, aren’t I?Is he going to be too heavy?Only one way to find out…

But first, time to take advantage of the situation so kindly presented to him. It was a challenge to manage everything at once, but the organism was very helpful and cooperative. Satoru felt lighter than he remembered. Manageable.

As he exited the lab, he ran into Hase-sensei in the corridor.

“What happened?” The professor leaned over to check that Satoru was breathing.

“He’s asleep. I’m taking him to bed.”

“Oh? That’s probably for the best. How are you? Nothing unusual?”

“I’m fine.” After seeing how Hase-sensei had treated Satoru, Kagesawa did not feel like he owed the man any explanations. “I’ll be seeing you.” If I can’t help it.

Now that he’d had plenty of unsupervised time in the lab with the professor’s BCI so conveniently logged in to the school’s servers, he’d have no problem taking a few peeks again later if he needed to. From Kagesawa’s perspective, not having to worry what secrets they might be keeping would make their future interactions much more enjoyable.

Chapter 30

Yajima happened to be in the corridor when Kagesawa reached the dorm rooms. It was past midnight, so skulking around at this hour was nothing if not suspicious. He clicked his tongue at the sight of Kagesawa.

“What’s with him?” Yajima asked.

“Migraine, exhaustion. What have you been up to?”

“Oh, a little this and that.”

“I’m going to put him to bed, but I’d like to have a word with you.”

“Right. I’ll leave the door open.”

“Good.” Kagesawa fished the keycard from Satoru’s pocket and opened the door to their dorm room. He set Satoru onto one of the two beds, removed his tie and covered him with the fresh, folded duvet from the foot of the bed. Once he was sure Satoru was deep asleep, Kagesawa left the room.

Yajima was tinkering with something when Kagesawa entered his room next door. At a closer look, it was a modified palm reader.

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