“Phew, that’s a load off.”

  I’m Sakuna Sakumiya, and I just got back to my classroom – 3-1 – from the bathroom. It’s only been a few days since the new school year started, but I’ve already gotten used to the toilets in this slightly older school building.

  Slam…

  I opened the door and stepped inside.

  …Huh? Wait a minute?

  “Huh? Nobody’s here…? Eh?!”

  Seriously? It was dead silent. Where did everyone disappear to in the few minutes I was in the bathroom? It’s 5th period, just a regular history class, right? Why is no one here? Classmates were just being loud and goofing off during the break, weren’t they?

  “What the heck?”

  The desks and chairs are still here. But not a single one of the classmates who were supposed to be sitting in them is present. My own desk, of course, is completely empty.

  I glance out the window. There’s a P.E. class going on out in the schoolyard, and from the classroom next door, 3-2… yeah, I can hear the classical lit teacher’s voice droning on. They’re having a normal class. So, it’s just this classroom, 3-1, that’s totally abandoned?

  “A mass walkout? No way, that can’t be it.”

  Because, look, everyone’s school bags are still hanging on their desks. Textbooks and notebooks are left out too. If they were ditching class as a group, they’d plan it better than this.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Seriously though, where the hell did they go…?”

  Could it be… they ditched just me and are having class somewhere else? …Nah, that’s not it either. Even our homeroom teacher, Yamagishi, was just getting ready to start the lesson…

  I plopped down in my seat. On my desk, the light novel I was reading was still open.

  “Hmm…”

  I tried to think for a bit.

  …Nah, thinking is pointless. It doesn’t concern me anyway.

  “Seriously though, isn’t this lucky? Means I can ditch class, right?”

  Honestly, history class is a pain in the ass anyway. Yamagishi’s lectures just make me sleepy. I couldn’t care less about where the missing classmates went. Seriously. Not my problem.

  “Alright, guess I’ll just head home…”

  I thought about it, but then decided against it. If everyone suddenly came back and I was marked absent, that would be annoying too. Might mess up my attendance record or something.

  “Haaah… Can’t be helped, I guess. I’ll just kill some time here.”

  I reached into my pocket to pull out my smartphone.

  “Alright, time to grind some mobile game event. Before my stamina overflows…”

  The moment my fingertips touched the cold surface of my phone, it happened.

  PAAAAH!

  “Huh?”

  Suddenly, the entire classroom was enveloped in an intensely bright white light, so strong I couldn’t open my eyes.

  Huh, what? A flashbomb? Someone’s prank? No, this wasn’t that kind of light!

  “Whoa, it’s blinding!”

  I instinctively covered my eyes with my arm. But the light seemed to pierce right through my eyelids, painting my brain completely white. At the same time, a weird sensation, like my body was floating.

  “Whoa, seriously…? What kind of ridiculous plot twist is this…!”

  Out of the corner of my eye, the desks and chairs in the classroom seemed to warp and twist. The view outside the window blurred and ran together, like watercolors smudged with water.

  “Damn, this is seriously messed up…!”

  My body was tossed around by some incomprehensible force, pulling and crushing me at the same time. I couldn’t breathe. My consciousness rapidly faded.

  Ah, crap… This is the worst… Just when I thought I could ditch class…

  On the floor, I thought I saw the light novel I’d been reading, and… someone’s lucky charm – I think one of the girls in class had it on her keychain, some weird mascot character – rolling away.

  ...Such a pain...

  That was the last thing I thought.