Chapter 1 Part V

"How was it, your first fortune-telling experience?".

"How about you?".

"Mostly satisfied. That fortune-teller is quite famous around the world. It's said that the accuracy is quite high as well" Ibuki told me.

"I suppose so...it looks like a simple profession but it's surprisingly difficult".

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ibuki asks.

More than half of it was just based off a template, the images and words one normally hears in fortune-telling. But within that, there is no denying that there were also accurate facts. And that is something she could not have divined using only the keywords I had provided her with. I can no longer simply write it off as something one gains from living a long life or having fortune-telling experience. 

"From now on, I won't write it off as mere fortune-telling anymore. That's how I feel" I told Ibuki.

"Ahh. I see".

That was a rather disinterested answer despite her having been the one to ask me. And together, we arrived at a nearby elevator. 

"Geh...it's crowded again".

If I continue on it's hell and if I turn back it's still hell. Students flooded the space in front of the elevator. 

"Sorry but I'll be taking a detour to head back" I told Ibuki.

"Me too" she promptly replies.

It seems Ibuki too, is thinking along a similar train of thought as me. And as the two of us head towards a distant elevator, the words of the fortune-teller came back into my head.

"Speaking of which, earlier...".

"The fortune-teller told us, don't take a detour".

For a brief moment, I met eyes with Ibuki. Whether it is simply a coincidence or inevitability, we were about to take a detour at this very moment. 

"I suppose it might be interesting. Let's find out how accurate that prediction is". 

If it's not, I would be able to go back without anything happening. And I would be able to think it's just mere fortune-telling in the end.

But in the end, without anything happening, we reached the distant elevator. And at the time, there was no one around us. We were able to call up the elevator at our leisure. 

"Are you fine with the 1st floor?".

"I'm going back like that" Ibuki replied.

It seems we won't have the same path back and so I pressed the button for the 1st floor and closed the elevator doors. 

The elevator begins to move slowly. Since we no longer have anything in particular to talk to each other about, we spent the elevator ride in silence. But when I said move, it was only briefly. Since when the 3rd floor light lit up, the elevator grinded to a halt with a heavy sound. It doesn't seem like it's someone trying to get into the elevator on the 3rd floor too but the elevator, in its attempt to descend further from the 3rd floor, came to a stop halfway. But as I mulled over it, for an instant, the lights went out and it became pitch black. 

However, at that moment, the emergency lights came back on and we were able to avoid a complete blackout situation. 

"Could it be a blackout?" Ibuki asks.

"Most likely".

There are not many people who have personally experienced elevator breakdowns like this. If this is the unexpected setback the fortune-teller predicted, in a sense it hit the mark. 

"For now, shouldn't the emergency phone suffice?".

There is no need for panic here. The elevator already has been prepared for breakdown situations like this. There are also surveillance cameras in the elevator, and emergency buttons (an intercom which connects the elevator to a disaster prevention center) and such have already been installed. And having told her that, with no objections, Ibuki leaned back on the elevator wall...I suppose I'll press the button and call for help.

I did that, however---

"There's no response". 

I don't know if the call is ringing on the other end or not but, I don't feel like I'm getting through to the disaster prevention center. 

"Isn't it that blackouts also prevent the calls?" Ibuki asked me. 

"No. Elevators usually have a backup battery that can run for several hours. As evidence of that, the emergency lights are on right now. That means it must be some other internal fault in the elevator" I replied to her.

I tried pressing the button for the hearing-impaired to use, but that too did not respond. In other words, the operation panel the buttons are installed on itself is broken. 

Batteries are running and the air conditioning is working as well. That alone is a blessing, but what to do now?

"Can you contact the school with your phone? It should be in range" I asked Ibuki.

"Sorry. But please do it yourself" she replied to me. 

"I can understand your feeling of not wanting to talk with people, but isn't this much fine?".

"...seriously" Ibuki muttered as she brought out her phone with a displeased expression. But when she looked at her screen, her expression changed to a bad one. She then turns the screen to show me. On the screen was a notification that signalled battery shortage, and soon the power ran out in her phone. 

"Because I don't have any contacts in my phone, I didn't even notice until the battery ran out. So, you call instead" Ibuki tells me.

"No choice".

Taking out my own phone, I looked once at the screen and immediately froze up.

"Call now, quickly" Ibuki rushed me. 

"It seems the situation is a lot more serious than I expected" I told her.

Just like what Ibuki did earlier, this time, I show Ibuki the screen of my phone.

The battery percentage showing on the phone was a measly remaining 4%. It was like the flame at the top of a lighthouse that could disappear at any moment from the wind. 

"You really messed with me" Ibuki told me.

"It's a lot like you. Since I don't have a lot of people I can talk to, I didn't care whether I had battery left or not" I replied.

"No, no. We really are in trouble now. You're a useless man".

"You're really harsh even though we're both the same...the problem is where to call now, huh?" I asked Ibuki.

I could call the police or emergency services, but something about that seemed off to me. If it's still within the school grounds, there should be someplace else I could call. And thinking that, I began looking to see if I could find the contact for the elevator's emergency services. As I did, near the elevator's operation board, there was a 10-digit number. 

But---it must have been someone's idea of causing mischief, but the last 4 digits were painted over. 

"This kind of prank is too much..." 

"Why don't you call one of your friends and ask for help?" Ibuki then asks me.

"Friend, huh?" 

It seems there's no other choice, but the problem is who to call. 

"If everything goes well, then it's Horikita" I said.

"Rejected" Ibuki immediately replied.

"...I thought you'd say that".

"If you call her, it would mean she would come and save me. Don't joke around" Ibuki told me.

I don't think it's important who is doing the saving in this scenario though. And it's not like it was Ibuki's fault too, it's just an elevator breakdown so there's no need to worry on that front too.

I suppose she simply doesn't like showing her weakness in front of her rival. 

"You don't want it to become an uproar, if we do that". Ibuki nods slightly in response. So in other words, someone who would help us without causing an uproar while doing their utmost. That means the 3 idiots are out of the question already. In an event like this, it wouldn't be surprising if they start trumpeting this around here and there. 

But even if I rely on someone who won't go around spreading this like Sakura, resolving this situation would be difficult for her. It would be inconvenient for her to contact an adult and I would just end up causing her trouble.

In that same sense, Kushida and Karuizawa would also be unsuited to this sort of thing. Someone who can come and help us without raising a fuss. And in this case, the one I can rely on is---

"In this case". In my contacts list, the one person I can rely on right now will have to be none other than that man. 

"I'll respect your wishes. But you have to leave the rest to me now" I told Ibuki.

"As long as it's not Horikita I'm fine with it" Ibuki promptly replies to me.

I then began to call a certain man. And a few seconds after the call had begun to ring, that reserved man quietly answers the call. I told him of my situation and asked him to help us. But not long after I started the conversation, my phone quietly blacked out.

"Battery's gone" I told Ibuki.

"Did you tell him properly?"

"Maybe"

Now all I can do is sit and wait. There is no need to rush. Sooner or later, surely someone will realize this situation too. Even if we try to escape from the elevator like in the movies, it will only lead to more danger. 

But the situation seems to be progressing in an unexpected way. And as I thought I heard the deep sound made by the machine reverberating inside the elevator, the cooler that was sending a comfortable breeze into the room stopped. 

"This can't be real..."

Ibuki, who had been calm up until now, started to panic. We were in a sealed space in the middle of summer, it wasn't a stretch to imagine that the temperature will start to rise in here. 

Right now the air inside the elevator had become slightly lukewarm but given time, whether we like it or not we would inevitably begin sweating.

"Is there any way to get out ourselves?" Ibuki asked me.

"The rescue hatch seems to be there but..."

Nowadays this seems to be decreasing, but there is an exit built into the elevator's ceiling. It's a familiar thing usually seen in movies, but escaping through it in reality is---

"How are we supposed to open that?". Ibuki, who was looking up, inevitably asked that question. Normally, the rescue hatch cannot be opened from the inside. It is there so that in the scenario where rescuers are unable to open the sealed elevator, they can use it as a last resort to rescue the people trapped inside. 

"I think it's better not to do anything and just wait. It's a rule to do that in the case of an elevator emergency" I told her in response.

That is the safest and surest way. 

"If you can handle this steam bath sure" Ibuki fired back.

And while we were trading an unproductive exchange back and forth, the temperature had risen. I can understand the impulse to get out of here, but I'd like to avoid making poor decisions. I took off my coat as I sat down on the floor.

In situations like this, the thing to do is to not raise your own body temperature.

"How about you sit down too? If it's too hot, you can strip too" I told her.

"....huh? Are you perhaps thinking something lewd in this situation?" Ibuki asks me.

It seems Ibuki interpreted my words that way and her guard went up.

"I heard you were able to fight equally with Horikita. There's no way I could possibly beat someone like you" I told Ibuki. 

"That's true, but..."

"Of course, if you are going to strip, I'm going to turn my back to you so relax" I continued.

"I'm not going to strip".

Having said she would not do it, Ibuki then sat down on the spot.

After that, we waited for about 30 minutes patiently but there was no contact from the outside. 

"This is bad...". I muttered that after hearing Ibuki's breath turn coarse beside me. We began to perspire on our foreheads. And the sweat that came out of our heads, soaked our hair and started to drip. 

The shirt I'm wearing already looks like it's been under a waterfall, it seems the situation is a lot more dangerous than I had imagined. Thinking back on it, this elevator is installed into the wall of Keyaki Mall. Thanks to the air-conditioning that's always on normally, I didn't notice it but this location would be very sensitive to heat under these conditions.

There have been incidents of children dying in the middle of summer after being locked in a car, but the same is also true for adults. And as it were, the heat stroke had started to attack us. 

"Ahh, I'm at my limit already. Move!". Feeling frustrated, Ibuki stood up and with all her might she kicked away at the interior of the elevator, leaving a dent in the place she kicked. She kicks the same place again. The elevator swayed slightly but showed no signs of movement. 

"You're just wasting your energy...but then again, I really can't say just sitting still is the safe option anymore" I told Ibuki.

Even if a person notices the elevator breakdown in 5 minutes, it would still take the rescue crew roughly 30 minutes to make it to our location. If it's coming, it should be time for the rescue to arrive.

If we remain in here after that time has passed, we cannot avoid suffering a heat stroke. And in some cases, it could become a life-threatening risk too. Since it's come to this, I can no longer say contuining to sit still is the correct decision anymore. 

"There's no other choice..."

I refuse to die in this sauna of an elevator. 

"Should we kick from the front? Hey, should we kick?" Ibuki asked me, having already lost her coolness from the heat and seems to be desperately suppressing her impulse to go berserk. 

"Leaving aside getting out or not for now, let's try opening the hatch at the top" I told her.

Right now, the most important thing is escaping this sealed scenario. Even if we cannot get out, as long as the hatch opens up that would be enough. 

"The height should be---slightly more than 2 meters, about 2.2 or 2.3 meters" 

Even if I reach up with my hands, naturally I would not be able to reach it. 

"Move".

Ibuki threateningly glared at me as I measured the height of the hatch. Then she jumped up from right underneath the hatch. It was a magnificent vertical jump. She then extended her right hand towards the ceiling, and pushed up with all her strength. But the hatch didn't seem to show any signs of opening, and from the impact of Ibuki landing back on the floor, the elevator swayed wildly. 

"...it looks like it's stuck".

"I suppose so"

If it was just closed like a lid, with that just now, it should have opened up. 

"You predicted it's locked. But if so, what's the locking mechanism for it?" Ibuki asks me.

"I wonder. I think it's locked using a padlock but...is something the matter?"

In regards to that subject, I wasn't sure too.

"I'm kicking it" Ibuki said.

"No, wait. Surely that's impossible".

I'm not sure whether or not she's just that confident in her kicking techniques but it's not something one can easily kick.

"That hatch is the emergency hatch, right? That means it's connected to the outside. That's why rescuers can open it up from the outside, that means it's a door that opens outwards from here as far as I can tell. The force needed for that should also be minimal" Ibuki told me.

It's not like I couldn't understand what she was going on about, but the situation is the situation. In the first place, since the hatch is located on the ceiling, forget kicking it would be difficult for her legs to even hit it. 

"I won't know for sure unless I try it" Ibuki then said.

It seems Ibuki wants to escape from this heat as quickly as possible as she starts looking at the walls left and right. Don't tell me she wants to do a triangular jump by kicking off the walls. If it's her, I'm sure she would think of something like that, but I can't let her to do that.

"...I could say it's exactly as foretold, but it seems the fortune-teller's prediction came true, huh?".

"Huh? What was that again?".

"That old lady said it, right? Even if we suffer a setback, do not panic. And cooperate with each other".

I glanced at the location where the buttons of the elevator are located. 

"The emergency button didn't respond. I wonder about the other buttons". 

Since the light for the 1st floor was still lit, thinking about it, at least part of the battery is still working. I tried pressing the 2nd floor button as a test. And when I did, the light for the 2nd floor also lit up. 

It may be that only the lights are still active but it's worth a try. I then start pressing buttons at random.

"It's useless, apparently". 

After having pushed all the buttons, Ibuki said again as if reminding me.

"There's no other choice but to kick" she said.

"No. There's still another way. Elevators have something like a cancel command in them, right?". It's not like I'm an expert on elevators, but that alone was trivia I knew from something. 

It was a way to cancel the command when I mistakenly pressed a lower floor button by mistake. I think the command defers depending on the manufacturer, but I continue to repeatedly press the cancel button, or it was supposed to be. 

But having left the 2nd floor button as it is, the yellow light was lit up in suddenly blinked out.

"There must be some commands that are available in limited express mode...".

"Limited express...?".

"For instance, let's say this is the 3rd floor. If there's someone who wishes to get off on the 2nd floor they press that button, it will stop on the 2nd floor. But if you use the limited express command, it will ignore those previous commands and go straight to the 1st floor" I told Ibuki.

But I don't know whether whether this limited express command is installed on this elevator or not.

"The problem is finding a way...".

"Is it worth a try?" Ibuki asks.

"It's better than doing the difficult task of kicking the ceiling" I replied to her.

But, I don't think the elevator will start moving just by that. I just said that to buy time and change the subject by giving hope to Ibuki who was on the verge of losing her rationality.

"Lend me your wits, too. This kind of command also might be revealed by different individual's thoughts too. If you give me your ideas too, it might unexpectedly succeed" I told Ibuki.

I then pressed the button for the 1st floor repeatedly and then after that I tried pressing all the buttons for all the floors.

But none of them caused the elevator to react. 

"Let's switch".

"...understood".

Ibuki then joins in and starts working in front of the buttons. It seems it's necessary to consider the possibility that help really won't be coming. It's not like I wanted to use Ibuki's idea but I need to consider that kicking down the front door may be necessary. Even if breaking it open is impossible, I might be able to open up a small opening for a human to crawl through. 

I'm not an expert on elevators, but as long as escape to the outside is possible, anything goes. 

It's just, if possible, I would like to get out without having to reveal that sort of strength.

"I couldn't cancel, but I don't think you can get the limited express command just through a combination of buttons that gets used daily" Ibuki said. 

Of course, using common sense that is obvious. Children sometimes like to play around by mashing the buttons after all. And if the elevator enters limited express mode each and every time, it would inconvenience the other passengers. In other words, the possibility that we won't find that mode with the usual combinations alone is quite high, or that's Ibuki's reasoning at least.

"That might be a good idea...then it might be better to include complex combinations too" I told her.

For example, after pressing a sequence like 1, 6, 5, 5, 4, 2, 4 I could then press the floor I'd like to go to. But that would be hard for people to memorize and it would impose a strict height requirement of at least 6 floors. It would be strange unless one can use it with an elevator that only goes up to 3 floors. 

"We should also try using the emergency buttons".

If it reacts only by being pressed, it would be difficult to use it as a command.

"So in other words...1 or 2 or 3. Close and open on 5?".

"We should assume it's made up of that kind of combination".

But, if there are more combinations than that it would be very difficult to test them all. So Ibuki continues to test the set patterns. And as I watched her do it, I excluded the combinations that failed to work.

"Ahh---it's getting hot".

Gan! Ibuki punches the wall with her fists as if to dissipate her frustration that the heat has caused. Normally, I would give her another warning against this, but since she's satisfied with that alone I decided to leave it be.

"...it's not opening. Haven't you tried everything yet?".

"More or less everything. If there's anything left..."

Since there's still a possibility, I decided to try out the command I haven't tested yet.

"Why don't you try pressing the destination floor and the close button at the same time?".

"Close button?...I got it".

While thinking there's no way it could be, Ibuki tried a combination that had not been tested yet. And when she pressed it, although I thought it wouldn't work, at that very moment the elevator started to slowly move again. We both immediately looked at each other.

And in a few seconds the elevator reached the 1st floor and the doors slowly opened. A cool breeze flowed into the elevator, two adults who changed their expressions turned to look at us.

"Are you two ok? Are you injured?".

"Ahh. No we aren't injured. It was just hot in there".

Just by looking at how sweaty we were it's easy to guess how hot it was. Perhaps the adults realized it too but immediately we were presented with sports drinks. 

And then, just in case too, we were instructed to head over to the medical center for treatment. 

"Umm. Can we ask something? Could it be the elevator moved---"

"Yeah. We operated it from here".

Apparently there is a special remote control that can be operated from the 1st floor, it seems it was thanks to using the limited express mode from here. And we just happened to use that combination with the same timing.

"...you must have had a difficult time".

"Really it was disastrous. I've had enough of fortune-telling for a while". It's not like I didn't understand Ibuki's feelings for saying that. I then expressed my gratitude to the adults, and the man who was watching from a distance then approached us

"Are you alright, Ayanokouji?" he asked me.

The big man that approached had a familiar aura about him and asked me that with a worried voice.

"You saved us. You managed to bring us down".

The elevator stopping caused some trouble. But it seems it did not cause a noticeable uproar. This man, Katsuragi, probably managed to do that for us.

"The information you told me through the phone was enough. This is good enough right?" he asked me.

"I have to go to the medical center now. Please let me repay you some other time" I told Katsuragi.

"You don't need to. I myself was helped a great deal by you, and also Sudou. Since we are from different classes, there is a line that absolutely cannot be crossed for us. But if we can get along despite that, it's a most welcome thing" Katsuragi replied to me.

"It looks like that went well then".

"Yeah. Sudou answered my expectations brilliantly. Please tell him again that I appreciate it a lot" Katsuragi said.

"I got it".

"And also, Ayanokouji. I must also thank you. Even though prior evidence was prepared, there should have been some resistance at least before agreeing with the request I had made" he continued.

He bowed his head as if in apology towards me. But I'm feeling just as grateful right now though. If I were stuck for any longer in that elevator, I would have surely lost my cool.

"If there's anything you need again, please contact me. If I can be of any help, I will cooperate. Other than exams" Katsuragi laughs briefly and leaves while leaving behind a joke like that for me.

And before I knew it, I was becoming close to Katsuragi. Almost as close as the 3 idiots, perhaps even more than that. Why did I know the contact address of Class A's Katsuragi, and why was I so close to him?

---That is a story from a while ago.