shiny_balls
in
xpuri
[Log] Not-disaster
Who: Inui Sadaharu, Dan Taiichi
What: The disaster that doesn't happen.
When: Early June, I think
Where: School grounds
Warnings: Dan
“Get back here!” shouted Inui’s muffled voice from behind a door as a little black furball bolted down the hallway like a streak of lightning. Numerous crashes, bumps and muttered curses could be heard as Inui struggled to exit the room amidst a warzone of overturned beakers and bottles. “Pi!” The cat, having earned his hard-won freedom, careened down the corridors and staircases without a care for anyone, or anything in its path to the nearest exit...
There was some yelling going on. It didn't sound very angry though Dan could have been mistaken. It was hard to tell through the walls and everything else going on. Curious, he debated if he should go check it out. Dan knew he wasn't the most popular student in the dorm but would it really be that bad to see what the commotion was about? Knowing his luck, the dorm would end up exploding or something. That was a thought Dan didn't want to dwell on.
Curious, Dan left the dorm lounge to see what was going on. More focused on trying to figure out where the yelling was coming from, he almost didn't notice the black blur racing around. Jumping away just in time, he stumbled back...and hit whoever it was that was coming from the direction Dan had been heading towards. Dan's eyes opened wide in a mix of shock and fear as he waited for the sounds of the inevitable disaster.
Inui had been going after the runaway feline when suddenly there was a person in his way. The collision sent an unpleasantly familiar frisson of fear down his spine as he felt his power activate. Though it was probably too late, he flung himself away from the other person--Dan!!!-- and crouched down in anticipation of the impending apocalypse...or something. And waited...and waited. Inui’s muscles were starting to cramp from folding his height down so much. Eventually he slowly straightened up, making sure that Dan was not too near him.
“Um,” he said, and scratched his head.
Dan was afraid to look but he knew he had to see who it was to see what sort of disaster would happen. He hoped it would be someone like Niou or Echizen or someone similar. Someone where a disaster was less likely. When he saw Inui, he tensed up. Dan remembered all too well what had happened last time something had happened.
"I don't hear anything..." Dan admitted. Maybe they were lucky this time and nothing would happen or it'd be something random and non-destructive. More likely, it was something that was about to happen or happened and it'd be disastrous and they just couldn't hear it. "What was that black thing?"
“What if, what if...” Inui was frantically going over all the possibilities in his head, and it was giving him a headache because there were too many. “I hope it isn’t anything big...like another building collapsing.” Judging by the general lack of screaming and crumbling noises, that probably wasn’t the case... It still didn’t rule out some other more insidious disaster, though.
Dan’s comment about the black creature further added to Inui’s stress by reminding him that yes, he still had a cat to catch. “... that was my cat,” he told Dan. “He likes the outside a bit too much.” He sighed and pushed up his glasses. “I suppose he tripped you up?” he surmised. He was a bit annoyed at Dan for losing his footing and causing this...situation, but he knew better than most how tricky it was to stay balanced when a cat was weaving between your legs.
A cat? Well, that actually made a little bit of sense. Dan could see the blur being one though it was kind of annoying that Inui hadn't been able to keep his cat under control. Karupin hadn't acted like Inui's cat...to be fair, Dan wasn't sure he'd want to stick with the older student so he couldn't really blame a cat for wanting to get away. Dan wondered just how much Juice the poor cat had been forced to try.
"It sounds peaceful," Dan answered, hopeful that nothing was collapsing. "I wonder what happened...any ideas?" He didn't have a clue what this time's disaster was and he was afraid to go looking.
“He’ll be back when he’s tired and hungry,” Inui said, almost 93% sure. “Perhaps we’ll see him.” He looked around, but of course there was no sign of the mischievous feline. He sighed. “I can’t tell what has happened, so I think it would be a good idea to ... investigate...stealthily.” Part of Inui just wanted to pretend nothing happened so he could honestly shirk all responsibility by claiming he did not know... but Inui was born insatiably curious, it seemed. He had to know what his ability had triggered.
Well, if the cat got lost, at least there were plenty who spoke feline to hopefully tell Inui's cat how to get back. As for the other part, Dan gave a little nod. He needed to know what was going on as well. The curiosity and potential guilt were getting to him already. Dan wasn't so sure he could investigate stealthily. He had this whole thing where he was clumsy and it often led to bumping into people and things that he shouldn't. "Won't it look a little odd, for people to see us together?" It wasn't like they were friends.
“They won’t even see us if we’re stealthy,” Inui replied, glasses glinting in the light. Inui, after all, was a master of crawling around in shrubbery. And trash receptacles. He couldn’t quite fit into air vents, though. Logically, it would be easier and more efficient for both of them to go their separate ways and pool their information afterward, but Inui somehow wanted someone there with him to share the blame and guilt when they did find something. And who knew, if the situation were bad enough, perhaps only another bump with Dan could fix it.
Inui did hope it wouldn’t come to that, though.
Dan gave a little nod. It wasn't that part he had an issue with. It was the whole 'being stealthy' part. Dan really didn't know how well that would work out. Clumsy and stealthy didn't exactly go together. No doubt a disaster. "I wonder what happened. It's so quiet this time." Dan wondered if anything happened at all. He didn't have the same jolt that let him know if a power had been activated or not. "Hopefully nothing bad happened, like, all the windows breaking or something like that." And even more so, that they'd get in trouble for it.
“We would have heard the glass breaking if it was the windows breaking,” reasoned Inui as he looked out the (intact) windows of the dorm on his way to the exit. He opened the door and peered out, carefully. No sudden death of plant life or mutant frogs or inexplicable rock formations. Inui felt slightly disappointed. He slunk into a nearby bush and beckoned Dan over. “Here.”
"Err, do you have to be in the bushes, sempai?" Dan asked. Being in the bushes seemed like it would be more attention-getting than not. People walking around? Not strange. People ducking in and out of bushes? That felt like it would make people suspicious and want to check it out. The fact that Dan was involved only made the feeling stronger. "So far it looks like everything's okay..." To actually believe that however was a very, very stupid idea.
“We’re being stealthy,” Inui reminded Dan, a bit petulantly. “You were the one who said it would be suspicious if we were seen interacting. And shh!! Don’t draw attention to me!” He looked around. “Perhaps something...more specific... happened,” he said finally, though he had no clue where to even start investigating. “Or something not noticeable...such as people suddenly losing all their things.” ...It had happened before, to Inui’s family.
It was more suspicious having someone in the bushes moving around. Dan thought that went without saying but apparently not. "It's possible. Things are quieter this time." Quiet was good. Quiet meant that maybe there wasn't a disaster this time. "It's whatever is most improbable, right? We're expecting something big like last time, meaning that would be the more probable outcome based on past results which means we should look at the exact opposite."
Inui frowned. Dan’s logic was quite incomprehensible. But perhaps he shouldn’t be blamed, since Dan did not fully understand how Inui’s power worked. Inui didn’t understand how Inui’s power worked. “That’s not quite true,” he said, sticking his head out a little from the bushes. “It really can go either way. It’s probability manipulation, not reversal.” He paused, and suddenly had an awful thought. “...isn’t it quieter than usual today? I mean...quieter than normal?” Inui, in his panicked state, thought so, but had never really taken data on ambient noise levels.
"Maybe?" Dan guessed. He'd never paid much attention to the ambient noise around the school. It varied from place to place around campus anyway. "It might be quieter but I've never really paid attention," he admitted. It seemed kind of awkward for Inui to be mostly in the bushes but his head poking out. The scene just looked very suspicious if anyone came by.
“What if...some students were ...incapacitated?” Inui’s thoughts were just going round in circles and confusing him further. “I mean...it’s usually more lively, with more student traffic, at this time of day.” Unfortunately Inui could not, at present, recall the exact data, if he had ever taken any on this subject.
That was a possibility. Dan really didn't know what the exact everything for every moment of the day like it appeared Inui did. "Unless it was everyone, I think we'd hear something if that happened." People tended to make noise when others around them were just suddenly incapacitated. "Maybe we should check out some of the buildings?"
“I cannot draw a conclusion for certain until I have made further observations.” Inui sighed. “Yes, it might be best to go look inside other buildings. The main school building should have a lot of people. We might learn something there.” With that, Inui started moving through the bushes towards the school building, his head looking like a spiky black durian bobbing up and down on a sea of vegetation.
Dan would have pointed out just how out of place Inui looked but by this point, he realized that would probably do nothing. They'd just end up standing around, debating the subject. The scene would grow more suspicious to anyone watching and then who knew what would happen. "Unless they all became little kids again. If that happens..." Dan didn't know what he'd do.
Inui shuddered. He didn’t really remember what happened to him during that time but he was sure it was quite embarrassing, at the least, and had left him quite disorientated for a few days afterwards. “Maybe... but I think there would be more noise. Crying, maybe.” They were well on their way towards the main school building, and still nary a soul in sight. What were the chances?
"It was quiet that day too," Dan replied. Well quiet up until he reached the school. It had been a disaster after that. "I'm still not seeing anything. That's a good sign, right?" The more Dan was seeing, the more he thought that maybe they were just blowing the situation out of proportion. Perhaps it would all work out for the best in the end and nothing had happened.
“Hmmm...” Inui thought for a bit. He really hoped that everything was just fine. Now that he had walked for a bit and calmed down, Inui was able to think more clearly. “Whenever I feel my power trigger, there is a 93% probability of a negative consequence occurring, 5% probability of a positive outcome, and 2%..unknown. Let’s assume that unknown means that nothing happens. Dan, when you bump into someone, what is the probability of you augmenting or diminishing that person’s power? Does it always happen?”
Dan thought about it for a moment. He didn't know exact percentages but he was at least able to answer the question. "When I first came to the school, it happened at random, what it did and when it happened. However, over the last six-ish months, it's been an almost constant anytime I bump into someone. I had some gloves that were helping somewhat but not anymore. I've been working with some of the teachers but..." Nothing was helping anymore. He fumbled around in his pocket for a moment before pulling out a small notebook and pen. Flipping through the pages, he marked down the date and Inui's name, leaving a space at the end to note the consequences. "I've been keeping track lately in this," he admitted.
Pleasantly surprised that Dan cared enough to make a logical record of his powers, Inui straightened up and leaned over the vegetation to take a closer look at the notes, his imagined need for stealth temporarily forgotten. Dan would make a good data collector if trained the right way. “That would correspond to a maturing of your powers I think...though control is a whole other thing altogether,” Inui said, pushing up his glasses. “Based on my calculations and your current estimated activation rate... the probability that nothing happened from our earlier accident is very low indeed. Around 1-3%, at most.” He looked around again, letting out a frustrated sigh. If only there were a way to instantly find out what was going on. Inui took out his smartphone, planning to check if anyone had posted about unusual events on the journals.
One to three percent was disheartening to hear. Dan tried his best to keep from looking disappointed but that was just so hard to hear. "I'm trying to figure out how to control it but nothing's helped, especially lately." He just wanted all the craziness around him to go away. Seeing the phone out, Dan guessed the older student was either checking some sort of probability thing or was checking the school news. "Anything?" Hopefully nothing had happened and they'd gotten lucky with that 1-3%. Or Inui had done the math wrong and the chances of something happening were 1-3%.
“Nothing.” Inui shook his head with a sigh and looked back up at Dan’s disappointed face. Inui had suggested a hazmat suit at some point, he thought, but obviously that piece of advice had been ignored. Inui didn’t know why--in his opinion it was a rather obvious thing to do! “Either nothing notable has happened...yet... or people are too incapacitated to post on social media. I think we should continue looking around.” At the very least, Inui wanted to see if there were still other human beings around.
An idea hit Dan. It was a terrible idea and he paled at the thought. "You...Inui-sempai, you don't think all the people have disappeared, do you?" He hadn't seen or heard anyone since before he had bumped into the older student. The possibility was there but it was a scary one. Where did the people go? How would they get them back? Were they okay? Dan's mind was already jumping to the worst conclusions without any proof.
“All I can say is that the possibility is not 0,” Inui said. “And I had planned to investigate it. That’s partially why I suggested heading for the main school building, where people should be.” If they were not.... it didn’t quite bear thinking about. What if he and Dan were the only two people left on Earth????! That sounded rather dismal.
The fact that the possibility wasn't zero was quite possibly even worse. Dan hurried up, hoping they'd be proven wrong. Just the thought of him accidentally sending everyone away to somewhere was making him feel horribly guilty. If it were actually true? Dan didn't know what he'd do if the only one's left were himself and Inui. "I...if everyone is gone, we'll do our best to find and bring them back, won't we?" A world without people just sounded sad and depressing.
“Of course,” Inui affirmed as they walked. No people meant no data and a boring life. “You’d better stick around then, in case we need you to boost my powers again...’ Inui really really hoped it wouldn’t come to that, though. They came up to the door of the main school building. Inui opened it-- only to almost run straight into someone coming out the door. Then another person, and another, and another. Inui scratched the back of his head.
“I guess there are people around after all.” Back to square one.
Dan was more than a little relieved to see people. So that wasn't the day's disaster. Good. "If that's not it, then what?" He wondered, asking himself more than Inui. Maybe his odd little hopeful theory that nothing happened at all was true. Odds were just educated guesses so things might have actually worked in their favor. "Everything looks normal," he continued. "So far, I don't see anything out of place."
“Let’s go look around the staff offices,” Inui suggested. “It could be anything. It could be something they are keeping from the students.” Or perhaps Ryuuzaki-sensei became minaturized. That would be amusing. Then he remembered that most of the teachers were not very fond of him. “Well...we’ll have to try not to be very obvious, though.”
"Maybe we've gotten lucky and nothing at all happened," Dan suggested. "Besides, why would the school keep something from students? That seems counter-productive." Keeping information from the students would only cause them to wonder and worry. They'd only come up with crazy theories and panic. Dan didn't see the point. Besides, there were psychics at the school. That made keeping things secret kind of pointless. "Or it's something we haven't noticed because it's harmless, like, all the pink flowers on campus turning blue or something similar."
“Because it might cause unnecessary panic and mayhem? Such as a problem which seems minor on the surface, so no one pays attention, but has a deeper, darker secret...” Alright, perhaps Inui had been watching too many Korean mystery dramas. He pushed up his glasses. “I’m sure if something of a horticultural nature has occurred, Yukimura or another gardening enthusiast will report on it.” He paused. “So we’re not going to spy on the staffroom?” Inui was a bit disappointed.
That actually made quite a bit of sense. "Maybe...but even if the staff wanted to keep something secret, do you really think they could? There are some students who always seem to know everything that's going on." Dan usually wasn't one of those students unless the incident had something to do with him but there were others. The school telepaths and ones who were jsut good at finding out information like Inui. "Wait..." he looked at the older student with a shocked expression on his face. "You spy on the teachers?"
“I’m sure there are ways,” said Inui vaguely. The probability was not 0, at any rate. “Even the best of telepaths can be blocked.” At Dan’s second comment, Inui coughed and pretended to check the journals again on his phone. “Well...doesn’t everyone?” He cleared his throat and tried to change the subject. “We shouldn’t loiter here! Let’s go.” Inui held the door open and gestured for Dan to follow.
“N...no.” Dan couldn’t believe he’d heard that. “Why would we do that?” He asked as he followed Inui. He lowered his voice to help keep their conversation private. All he could think about was what if it Inui had learned something from the teachers that students weren’t supposed to know. Test answers, for instance. The older boy was smart and probably didn’t need but there were other students...what if other people did that? Dan couldn’t get over that thought. “Sometimes not all powers can be blocked,” Dan added, almost as an afterthought. “Mine’s not able to be.”
“Don’t you want to know what they are up to?” Inui pointed out. Data on students was readily available, compared to data on their instructors. Not that Inui had had much luck with the latter. “It’s not fair that they know so much about us but we know so little about that.” With regard to Dan’s last comment, Inui remarked, “Your power cannot be blocked-- by the power of anyone you have interacted with so far.” No one knew what Ryuuzaki’s power was, after all.
He had to admit Inui had a point. "Do you really think one of the teachers might know something? About my power, I mean," Dan clarified. Maybe he wasn't doomed for all of eternity. "I asked Sakaki-sensei for help about the issue back after..." he had to think. "I think the Halloween maze with Fuji-sempai. Or the time with Niou-sempai." Those two events had happened close in time. That sounded right, time-wise. "He suggested gloves and those worked for a little bit but not really." If another teacher knew and was keeping quiet...maybe spying on the teachers wasn't a completely bad idea.
“You know, perhaps if your power cannot be contained within physical barriers anymore, it might be evolving,” Inui mused, then shuddered at the thought of Dan who could affect others’ powers from a distance. If there was any way Dan could be more of a walking disaster than he already was, that would be it. Inui quickly turned his thoughts from that scary topic back to the matter at hand. “Yes, let’s go take a look!” Inui looked around him, then scuttled surreptitiously up the stairs towards the staff offices with impressive speed, expecting Dan to follow.
Power evolving? Dan shuddered, just thinking about that. His power was bad enough but if it was changing...he hoped it wasn't. Lost in his thoughts, Dan didn't realize that Inui had taken off. When Dan noticed, he scurried off after the older student. He bumped into the wall, almost hitting Inui. "But it's only for learning if we did something, right?" He wanted to make sure about that. Eavesdropping for any other reason would be wrong. Or if it had to do with Dan's power. That was the only other acceptable reason to be breaking the rules like this.
“Yes, yes of course,” Inui replied vaguely with a dismissive wave of his hand. Was eavesdropping against the rules? Inui didn’t think so. Anyway, Inui preferred to call it data gathering. He peered down the corridor, then peeked into an office. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Inui was almost disappointed. Did really nothing happen?
Dan crouched down low, looking around the older student. Sometimes being short had its advantages. Nothing in the office seemed out of place. That was a relief. Dan still wasn't so sure about this whole eavesdropping thing. "Maybe nothing really did happen," Dan suggested, hope very much alive in his voice. "This means we can turn back, right?"
Inui let out a long sigh. “I suppose the most expedient thing would be to go our separate ways for now,” he conceded grudgingly. He should really go look for Pi before he got into too much trouble and clean up the mess in his room. Perhaps he’d be able to discover more as he searched the school for the missing cat. “It’s not 100% certain that it’s not a delayed effect, or something else. We’ll continue to share information?” he asked Dan, almost threateningly.
Dan didn't perceive the threat. He just nodded. "It might be the best plan," he admitted, referring both to them splitting up and sharing information. He pulled his little notebook out and scribbled his information on it, carefully holding the slip of paper out for Inui to take. "My information," he explained, "in case you find out what happened and it's something I need to know." The older student might already know the stuff but it didn't hurt to be friendly.
“I already have your contact data,” Inui said, but took the piece of paper anyway. He could always use it for handwriting data. “Right, let’s stay in touch.” He nodded to Dan, muttering probabilities of finding Pi in various locations under his breath as he wandered off. Hopefully they would get to the truth of the matter, soon.
What: The disaster that doesn't happen.
When: Early June, I think
Where: School grounds
Warnings: Dan
“Get back here!” shouted Inui’s muffled voice from behind a door as a little black furball bolted down the hallway like a streak of lightning. Numerous crashes, bumps and muttered curses could be heard as Inui struggled to exit the room amidst a warzone of overturned beakers and bottles. “Pi!” The cat, having earned his hard-won freedom, careened down the corridors and staircases without a care for anyone, or anything in its path to the nearest exit...
There was some yelling going on. It didn't sound very angry though Dan could have been mistaken. It was hard to tell through the walls and everything else going on. Curious, he debated if he should go check it out. Dan knew he wasn't the most popular student in the dorm but would it really be that bad to see what the commotion was about? Knowing his luck, the dorm would end up exploding or something. That was a thought Dan didn't want to dwell on.
Curious, Dan left the dorm lounge to see what was going on. More focused on trying to figure out where the yelling was coming from, he almost didn't notice the black blur racing around. Jumping away just in time, he stumbled back...and hit whoever it was that was coming from the direction Dan had been heading towards. Dan's eyes opened wide in a mix of shock and fear as he waited for the sounds of the inevitable disaster.
Inui had been going after the runaway feline when suddenly there was a person in his way. The collision sent an unpleasantly familiar frisson of fear down his spine as he felt his power activate. Though it was probably too late, he flung himself away from the other person--Dan!!!-- and crouched down in anticipation of the impending apocalypse...or something. And waited...and waited. Inui’s muscles were starting to cramp from folding his height down so much. Eventually he slowly straightened up, making sure that Dan was not too near him.
“Um,” he said, and scratched his head.
Dan was afraid to look but he knew he had to see who it was to see what sort of disaster would happen. He hoped it would be someone like Niou or Echizen or someone similar. Someone where a disaster was less likely. When he saw Inui, he tensed up. Dan remembered all too well what had happened last time something had happened.
"I don't hear anything..." Dan admitted. Maybe they were lucky this time and nothing would happen or it'd be something random and non-destructive. More likely, it was something that was about to happen or happened and it'd be disastrous and they just couldn't hear it. "What was that black thing?"
“What if, what if...” Inui was frantically going over all the possibilities in his head, and it was giving him a headache because there were too many. “I hope it isn’t anything big...like another building collapsing.” Judging by the general lack of screaming and crumbling noises, that probably wasn’t the case... It still didn’t rule out some other more insidious disaster, though.
Dan’s comment about the black creature further added to Inui’s stress by reminding him that yes, he still had a cat to catch. “... that was my cat,” he told Dan. “He likes the outside a bit too much.” He sighed and pushed up his glasses. “I suppose he tripped you up?” he surmised. He was a bit annoyed at Dan for losing his footing and causing this...situation, but he knew better than most how tricky it was to stay balanced when a cat was weaving between your legs.
A cat? Well, that actually made a little bit of sense. Dan could see the blur being one though it was kind of annoying that Inui hadn't been able to keep his cat under control. Karupin hadn't acted like Inui's cat...to be fair, Dan wasn't sure he'd want to stick with the older student so he couldn't really blame a cat for wanting to get away. Dan wondered just how much Juice the poor cat had been forced to try.
"It sounds peaceful," Dan answered, hopeful that nothing was collapsing. "I wonder what happened...any ideas?" He didn't have a clue what this time's disaster was and he was afraid to go looking.
“He’ll be back when he’s tired and hungry,” Inui said, almost 93% sure. “Perhaps we’ll see him.” He looked around, but of course there was no sign of the mischievous feline. He sighed. “I can’t tell what has happened, so I think it would be a good idea to ... investigate...stealthily.” Part of Inui just wanted to pretend nothing happened so he could honestly shirk all responsibility by claiming he did not know... but Inui was born insatiably curious, it seemed. He had to know what his ability had triggered.
Well, if the cat got lost, at least there were plenty who spoke feline to hopefully tell Inui's cat how to get back. As for the other part, Dan gave a little nod. He needed to know what was going on as well. The curiosity and potential guilt were getting to him already. Dan wasn't so sure he could investigate stealthily. He had this whole thing where he was clumsy and it often led to bumping into people and things that he shouldn't. "Won't it look a little odd, for people to see us together?" It wasn't like they were friends.
“They won’t even see us if we’re stealthy,” Inui replied, glasses glinting in the light. Inui, after all, was a master of crawling around in shrubbery. And trash receptacles. He couldn’t quite fit into air vents, though. Logically, it would be easier and more efficient for both of them to go their separate ways and pool their information afterward, but Inui somehow wanted someone there with him to share the blame and guilt when they did find something. And who knew, if the situation were bad enough, perhaps only another bump with Dan could fix it.
Inui did hope it wouldn’t come to that, though.
Dan gave a little nod. It wasn't that part he had an issue with. It was the whole 'being stealthy' part. Dan really didn't know how well that would work out. Clumsy and stealthy didn't exactly go together. No doubt a disaster. "I wonder what happened. It's so quiet this time." Dan wondered if anything happened at all. He didn't have the same jolt that let him know if a power had been activated or not. "Hopefully nothing bad happened, like, all the windows breaking or something like that." And even more so, that they'd get in trouble for it.
“We would have heard the glass breaking if it was the windows breaking,” reasoned Inui as he looked out the (intact) windows of the dorm on his way to the exit. He opened the door and peered out, carefully. No sudden death of plant life or mutant frogs or inexplicable rock formations. Inui felt slightly disappointed. He slunk into a nearby bush and beckoned Dan over. “Here.”
"Err, do you have to be in the bushes, sempai?" Dan asked. Being in the bushes seemed like it would be more attention-getting than not. People walking around? Not strange. People ducking in and out of bushes? That felt like it would make people suspicious and want to check it out. The fact that Dan was involved only made the feeling stronger. "So far it looks like everything's okay..." To actually believe that however was a very, very stupid idea.
“We’re being stealthy,” Inui reminded Dan, a bit petulantly. “You were the one who said it would be suspicious if we were seen interacting. And shh!! Don’t draw attention to me!” He looked around. “Perhaps something...more specific... happened,” he said finally, though he had no clue where to even start investigating. “Or something not noticeable...such as people suddenly losing all their things.” ...It had happened before, to Inui’s family.
It was more suspicious having someone in the bushes moving around. Dan thought that went without saying but apparently not. "It's possible. Things are quieter this time." Quiet was good. Quiet meant that maybe there wasn't a disaster this time. "It's whatever is most improbable, right? We're expecting something big like last time, meaning that would be the more probable outcome based on past results which means we should look at the exact opposite."
Inui frowned. Dan’s logic was quite incomprehensible. But perhaps he shouldn’t be blamed, since Dan did not fully understand how Inui’s power worked. Inui didn’t understand how Inui’s power worked. “That’s not quite true,” he said, sticking his head out a little from the bushes. “It really can go either way. It’s probability manipulation, not reversal.” He paused, and suddenly had an awful thought. “...isn’t it quieter than usual today? I mean...quieter than normal?” Inui, in his panicked state, thought so, but had never really taken data on ambient noise levels.
"Maybe?" Dan guessed. He'd never paid much attention to the ambient noise around the school. It varied from place to place around campus anyway. "It might be quieter but I've never really paid attention," he admitted. It seemed kind of awkward for Inui to be mostly in the bushes but his head poking out. The scene just looked very suspicious if anyone came by.
“What if...some students were ...incapacitated?” Inui’s thoughts were just going round in circles and confusing him further. “I mean...it’s usually more lively, with more student traffic, at this time of day.” Unfortunately Inui could not, at present, recall the exact data, if he had ever taken any on this subject.
That was a possibility. Dan really didn't know what the exact everything for every moment of the day like it appeared Inui did. "Unless it was everyone, I think we'd hear something if that happened." People tended to make noise when others around them were just suddenly incapacitated. "Maybe we should check out some of the buildings?"
“I cannot draw a conclusion for certain until I have made further observations.” Inui sighed. “Yes, it might be best to go look inside other buildings. The main school building should have a lot of people. We might learn something there.” With that, Inui started moving through the bushes towards the school building, his head looking like a spiky black durian bobbing up and down on a sea of vegetation.
Dan would have pointed out just how out of place Inui looked but by this point, he realized that would probably do nothing. They'd just end up standing around, debating the subject. The scene would grow more suspicious to anyone watching and then who knew what would happen. "Unless they all became little kids again. If that happens..." Dan didn't know what he'd do.
Inui shuddered. He didn’t really remember what happened to him during that time but he was sure it was quite embarrassing, at the least, and had left him quite disorientated for a few days afterwards. “Maybe... but I think there would be more noise. Crying, maybe.” They were well on their way towards the main school building, and still nary a soul in sight. What were the chances?
"It was quiet that day too," Dan replied. Well quiet up until he reached the school. It had been a disaster after that. "I'm still not seeing anything. That's a good sign, right?" The more Dan was seeing, the more he thought that maybe they were just blowing the situation out of proportion. Perhaps it would all work out for the best in the end and nothing had happened.
“Hmmm...” Inui thought for a bit. He really hoped that everything was just fine. Now that he had walked for a bit and calmed down, Inui was able to think more clearly. “Whenever I feel my power trigger, there is a 93% probability of a negative consequence occurring, 5% probability of a positive outcome, and 2%..unknown. Let’s assume that unknown means that nothing happens. Dan, when you bump into someone, what is the probability of you augmenting or diminishing that person’s power? Does it always happen?”
Dan thought about it for a moment. He didn't know exact percentages but he was at least able to answer the question. "When I first came to the school, it happened at random, what it did and when it happened. However, over the last six-ish months, it's been an almost constant anytime I bump into someone. I had some gloves that were helping somewhat but not anymore. I've been working with some of the teachers but..." Nothing was helping anymore. He fumbled around in his pocket for a moment before pulling out a small notebook and pen. Flipping through the pages, he marked down the date and Inui's name, leaving a space at the end to note the consequences. "I've been keeping track lately in this," he admitted.
Pleasantly surprised that Dan cared enough to make a logical record of his powers, Inui straightened up and leaned over the vegetation to take a closer look at the notes, his imagined need for stealth temporarily forgotten. Dan would make a good data collector if trained the right way. “That would correspond to a maturing of your powers I think...though control is a whole other thing altogether,” Inui said, pushing up his glasses. “Based on my calculations and your current estimated activation rate... the probability that nothing happened from our earlier accident is very low indeed. Around 1-3%, at most.” He looked around again, letting out a frustrated sigh. If only there were a way to instantly find out what was going on. Inui took out his smartphone, planning to check if anyone had posted about unusual events on the journals.
One to three percent was disheartening to hear. Dan tried his best to keep from looking disappointed but that was just so hard to hear. "I'm trying to figure out how to control it but nothing's helped, especially lately." He just wanted all the craziness around him to go away. Seeing the phone out, Dan guessed the older student was either checking some sort of probability thing or was checking the school news. "Anything?" Hopefully nothing had happened and they'd gotten lucky with that 1-3%. Or Inui had done the math wrong and the chances of something happening were 1-3%.
“Nothing.” Inui shook his head with a sigh and looked back up at Dan’s disappointed face. Inui had suggested a hazmat suit at some point, he thought, but obviously that piece of advice had been ignored. Inui didn’t know why--in his opinion it was a rather obvious thing to do! “Either nothing notable has happened...yet... or people are too incapacitated to post on social media. I think we should continue looking around.” At the very least, Inui wanted to see if there were still other human beings around.
An idea hit Dan. It was a terrible idea and he paled at the thought. "You...Inui-sempai, you don't think all the people have disappeared, do you?" He hadn't seen or heard anyone since before he had bumped into the older student. The possibility was there but it was a scary one. Where did the people go? How would they get them back? Were they okay? Dan's mind was already jumping to the worst conclusions without any proof.
“All I can say is that the possibility is not 0,” Inui said. “And I had planned to investigate it. That’s partially why I suggested heading for the main school building, where people should be.” If they were not.... it didn’t quite bear thinking about. What if he and Dan were the only two people left on Earth????! That sounded rather dismal.
The fact that the possibility wasn't zero was quite possibly even worse. Dan hurried up, hoping they'd be proven wrong. Just the thought of him accidentally sending everyone away to somewhere was making him feel horribly guilty. If it were actually true? Dan didn't know what he'd do if the only one's left were himself and Inui. "I...if everyone is gone, we'll do our best to find and bring them back, won't we?" A world without people just sounded sad and depressing.
“Of course,” Inui affirmed as they walked. No people meant no data and a boring life. “You’d better stick around then, in case we need you to boost my powers again...’ Inui really really hoped it wouldn’t come to that, though. They came up to the door of the main school building. Inui opened it-- only to almost run straight into someone coming out the door. Then another person, and another, and another. Inui scratched the back of his head.
“I guess there are people around after all.” Back to square one.
Dan was more than a little relieved to see people. So that wasn't the day's disaster. Good. "If that's not it, then what?" He wondered, asking himself more than Inui. Maybe his odd little hopeful theory that nothing happened at all was true. Odds were just educated guesses so things might have actually worked in their favor. "Everything looks normal," he continued. "So far, I don't see anything out of place."
“Let’s go look around the staff offices,” Inui suggested. “It could be anything. It could be something they are keeping from the students.” Or perhaps Ryuuzaki-sensei became minaturized. That would be amusing. Then he remembered that most of the teachers were not very fond of him. “Well...we’ll have to try not to be very obvious, though.”
"Maybe we've gotten lucky and nothing at all happened," Dan suggested. "Besides, why would the school keep something from students? That seems counter-productive." Keeping information from the students would only cause them to wonder and worry. They'd only come up with crazy theories and panic. Dan didn't see the point. Besides, there were psychics at the school. That made keeping things secret kind of pointless. "Or it's something we haven't noticed because it's harmless, like, all the pink flowers on campus turning blue or something similar."
“Because it might cause unnecessary panic and mayhem? Such as a problem which seems minor on the surface, so no one pays attention, but has a deeper, darker secret...” Alright, perhaps Inui had been watching too many Korean mystery dramas. He pushed up his glasses. “I’m sure if something of a horticultural nature has occurred, Yukimura or another gardening enthusiast will report on it.” He paused. “So we’re not going to spy on the staffroom?” Inui was a bit disappointed.
That actually made quite a bit of sense. "Maybe...but even if the staff wanted to keep something secret, do you really think they could? There are some students who always seem to know everything that's going on." Dan usually wasn't one of those students unless the incident had something to do with him but there were others. The school telepaths and ones who were jsut good at finding out information like Inui. "Wait..." he looked at the older student with a shocked expression on his face. "You spy on the teachers?"
“I’m sure there are ways,” said Inui vaguely. The probability was not 0, at any rate. “Even the best of telepaths can be blocked.” At Dan’s second comment, Inui coughed and pretended to check the journals again on his phone. “Well...doesn’t everyone?” He cleared his throat and tried to change the subject. “We shouldn’t loiter here! Let’s go.” Inui held the door open and gestured for Dan to follow.
“N...no.” Dan couldn’t believe he’d heard that. “Why would we do that?” He asked as he followed Inui. He lowered his voice to help keep their conversation private. All he could think about was what if it Inui had learned something from the teachers that students weren’t supposed to know. Test answers, for instance. The older boy was smart and probably didn’t need but there were other students...what if other people did that? Dan couldn’t get over that thought. “Sometimes not all powers can be blocked,” Dan added, almost as an afterthought. “Mine’s not able to be.”
“Don’t you want to know what they are up to?” Inui pointed out. Data on students was readily available, compared to data on their instructors. Not that Inui had had much luck with the latter. “It’s not fair that they know so much about us but we know so little about that.” With regard to Dan’s last comment, Inui remarked, “Your power cannot be blocked-- by the power of anyone you have interacted with so far.” No one knew what Ryuuzaki’s power was, after all.
He had to admit Inui had a point. "Do you really think one of the teachers might know something? About my power, I mean," Dan clarified. Maybe he wasn't doomed for all of eternity. "I asked Sakaki-sensei for help about the issue back after..." he had to think. "I think the Halloween maze with Fuji-sempai. Or the time with Niou-sempai." Those two events had happened close in time. That sounded right, time-wise. "He suggested gloves and those worked for a little bit but not really." If another teacher knew and was keeping quiet...maybe spying on the teachers wasn't a completely bad idea.
“You know, perhaps if your power cannot be contained within physical barriers anymore, it might be evolving,” Inui mused, then shuddered at the thought of Dan who could affect others’ powers from a distance. If there was any way Dan could be more of a walking disaster than he already was, that would be it. Inui quickly turned his thoughts from that scary topic back to the matter at hand. “Yes, let’s go take a look!” Inui looked around him, then scuttled surreptitiously up the stairs towards the staff offices with impressive speed, expecting Dan to follow.
Power evolving? Dan shuddered, just thinking about that. His power was bad enough but if it was changing...he hoped it wasn't. Lost in his thoughts, Dan didn't realize that Inui had taken off. When Dan noticed, he scurried off after the older student. He bumped into the wall, almost hitting Inui. "But it's only for learning if we did something, right?" He wanted to make sure about that. Eavesdropping for any other reason would be wrong. Or if it had to do with Dan's power. That was the only other acceptable reason to be breaking the rules like this.
“Yes, yes of course,” Inui replied vaguely with a dismissive wave of his hand. Was eavesdropping against the rules? Inui didn’t think so. Anyway, Inui preferred to call it data gathering. He peered down the corridor, then peeked into an office. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Inui was almost disappointed. Did really nothing happen?
Dan crouched down low, looking around the older student. Sometimes being short had its advantages. Nothing in the office seemed out of place. That was a relief. Dan still wasn't so sure about this whole eavesdropping thing. "Maybe nothing really did happen," Dan suggested, hope very much alive in his voice. "This means we can turn back, right?"
Inui let out a long sigh. “I suppose the most expedient thing would be to go our separate ways for now,” he conceded grudgingly. He should really go look for Pi before he got into too much trouble and clean up the mess in his room. Perhaps he’d be able to discover more as he searched the school for the missing cat. “It’s not 100% certain that it’s not a delayed effect, or something else. We’ll continue to share information?” he asked Dan, almost threateningly.
Dan didn't perceive the threat. He just nodded. "It might be the best plan," he admitted, referring both to them splitting up and sharing information. He pulled his little notebook out and scribbled his information on it, carefully holding the slip of paper out for Inui to take. "My information," he explained, "in case you find out what happened and it's something I need to know." The older student might already know the stuff but it didn't hurt to be friendly.
“I already have your contact data,” Inui said, but took the piece of paper anyway. He could always use it for handwriting data. “Right, let’s stay in touch.” He nodded to Dan, muttering probabilities of finding Pi in various locations under his breath as he wandered off. Hopefully they would get to the truth of the matter, soon.