The incident that morning quickly spread throughout the school.
Arou did not tell anyone anything, but whispers could already be heard from the moment he entered the school gate. Some students glanced at him and then whispered among themselves. Some pretended not to care, while others openly stared at him.
Arou walked as usual and entered the classroom.
Mei's seat was still empty.
Arou glanced at it for a moment, then sat down without saying anything.
The lesson began, but the atmosphere in the classroom felt strange. Several students looked uneasy, and the teacher had to stop several times because the class was too noisy.
During the break, a friend approached Arou.
"Arou… was what happened this morning real?"
Arou looked at him briefly.
"I don't know either."
That answer left his friend silent.
No one asked anything else.
After school, Arou walked alone. Near the school gate, he saw Mei standing not far away.
Mei caught up with him and walked beside him.
"You became the talk of the school today," Mei said casually.
"Yeah, I heard," Arou replied.
Mei looked ahead.
"What happened this morning was strange."
Arou did not deny it.
"If it were just a coincidence, people wouldn't have reacted like that," Mei continued.
Arou let out a quiet sigh.
"I don't understand why it happened either."
Mei turned toward him.
"But you know this isn't normal, right?"
Arou remained silent for a moment before saying,
"Just assume I'm having bad luck."
Mei did not press him.
They walked until they reached the intersection, then stopped.
"Arou," Mei said, "I don't think you're strange. But it seems like you're keeping a serious problem to yourself."
Arou gave a faint smile.
"Maybe."
After that, they went their separate ways.
That night, Arou lay in his room.
The house was as silent as usual.
Zata's voice echoed in his mind.
Zata: "The world is beginning to react to your existence."
Arou stared at the ceiling.
"Is this because of you?"
Zata: "This is the consequence of what has happened."
Arou fell silent.
"Then what am I supposed to do?"
Zata: "Just live. Sooner or later, the world will adjust."
Arou closed his eyes.
"I just want to live a normal life."
Zata did not answer immediately.
The next morning, Arou walked to school with Mei. The morning atmosphere felt ordinary. The streets were crowded, and the sounds of vehicles echoed throughout the city.
In the middle of their journey, Arou suddenly stopped.
He looked up at the sky.
The blue sky, which should have been empty, was now filled with thousands of enormous eyes. Those eyes were wide open, silent, and unblinking, as if they were watching the world below.
Arou stood frozen.
Mei walked a few steps ahead before turning around.
"Why did you stop?"
Arou did not answer immediately. His gaze remained fixed on the sky.
"The sky…"
His voice trailed off.
Mei looked up as well.
"What about the sky?"
Arou lowered his gaze.
"Nothing."
Mei stared at Arou's face for a few seconds.
"You look pale."
"I'm fine," Arou replied briefly.
They continued walking. Mei did not ask again.
The thousands of eyes remained.
They did not move.
They did not disappear.
They simply watched.
Arou clenched his fist.
"So this is your doing, Zata," he thought.
The sky remained silent.
The eyes did not leave.
Arou realized that as long as Zata's gift had not yet been given,
the sky would not return to normal.
School continued as usual.
Arou sat at his desk, staring at the blackboard while listening to the teacher explain the lesson. Everything seemed normal.
Too normal, if not for the sky outside the window.
The thousands of eyes were still there.
Not a single other person reacted. There were no screams, no panic. The world continued as though the sky had always looked like that.
Arou turned toward Mei.
Mei was taking notes, her expression calm and focused.
"So… it's only me," Arou murmured.
He tried to focus on the lesson again, but every few seconds, his eyes were drawn back toward the window.
Those eyes felt heavy, like a pressure that did not touch his body, but his mind.
During the break, Arou stood in the hallway.
Mei followed him.
"You've looked tired since this morning."
"I didn't sleep much," Arou replied briefly.
Mei did not completely believe him, but she did not force him to explain.
"If something is bothering you, sometimes talking about it helps."
Arou fell silent. He looked toward the school grounds, then toward the sky above them.
"If I told you something was watching me," he said quietly,
"would you laugh?"
Mei shook her head.
"I'd think you're stressed. That's still reasonable."
That answer made Arou smile faintly.
"Don't worry," Mei continued. "I won't jump to any strange conclusions."
Arou nodded.
"Thank you."
The sky remained filled with eyes.
School continued.
And Arou began to realize—
Zata was not attacking.
He was waiting.
The following days passed without any major changes.
Arou went to school.
Sat in class.
Went home in the afternoon.
And the sky was always there.
Thousands of eyes remained suspended above the city. They did not move or change. Not a single person stared at the sky for too long.
As if the sky had always been like that.
At first, Arou felt disturbed.
Then pressured.
And now…
he was beginning to get used to it.
That was the most frightening part.
In class, Arou took notes while occasionally looking out the window. The eyes no longer startled him.
They simply… existed.
Mei sat beside him and glanced at him briefly.
"You daydream a lot."
"That's just how I am," Arou replied.
"You didn't do it this often before."
Arou fell silent.
During the break, they sat on a bench behind the school. A gentle afternoon breeze blew past.
"Arou," Mei suddenly said, "I want to ask you something."
"What?"
"You often react as if you're seeing something other people can't see."
Arou turned toward her.
Mei did not look at him suspiciously. Her tone was calm, like someone trying to understand.
"I'm not saying you're hallucinating," Mei quickly continued.
"Stress can also make someone focus on certain things."
"What if I told you it's not stress?" Arou asked quietly.
Mei thought for a moment.
"Then I'd say… maybe there's something you've been keeping inside for too long."
The answer was simple.
Reasonable.
And that was exactly why Arou could not argue with it.
"I'm not crazy, right?" Arou asked.
Mei smiled faintly.
"If you were crazy, you wouldn't be asking that question."
Arou sighed.
Above them, the sky remained filled with eyes.
And Arou realized—
Zata did not want to frighten him.
He wanted to see how far Arou could live with this burden.
And Arou was still enduring it.
Arou and Mei walked home together. Their steps were slow, following the flow of people along the sidewalk.
The sky was still the same.
Thousands of eyes hung silently above the city.
Arou was no longer surprised. All that remained was an uncomfortable feeling that continued to weigh on him, as if something were waiting for him to make a decision.
Mei broke the silence.
"You stop suddenly a lot."
Arou turned toward her.
"A lot?"
"Yeah," Mei replied. "Like just now. You stopped before the pedestrian light changed."
Arou was silent for a moment.
"I was just… calculating."
"Your predictions are often right," Mei said. Her tone remained calm. "That's what's strange."
They continued walking.
A few steps later, the wind blew fairly strongly.
Arou instinctively looked up at the sky.
The eyes remained still.
They did not blink.
They did not change.
As if they were recording something.
Mei did not look up.
Instead, she watched Arou's face.
"You look tired," she said.
Arou sighed.
"Maybe I'm thinking too much."
"Then don't do it alone," Mei replied. "Thinking things through with someone else is still reasonable."
Arou looked at the road ahead.
"What if what I'm thinking about… isn't reasonable?"
Mei thought for a moment.
"As long as you can still tell the difference between what's real and what's not, it's not necessarily a problem."
The answer was simple.
And precisely because of that, it felt reassuring.
Inside Arou's mind, a voice appeared.
Quiet.
Distant.
Zata.
"Just keep living."
"I haven't finished judging you yet."
Arou did not answer.
He simply continued walking.
The sky remained filled with eyes.
Mei continued walking beside him.
And the real world…
was still holding together.