LIGHT 05: The Definition of Normal

LIGHT 05: The Definition of Normal

Lumira and the others continued moving away from the collapsed passage.

The distortion that had remained deep inside the corridor was now falling back into a place they could no longer see. Even so, the weight in the air had not disappeared. Pale light leaked from cracks in the stone walls, and each time the dust scattered across the floor brushed against their feet, it rose in small white clouds.

Elia still could not walk on her own.

Lumira supported her by the shoulder as they moved carefully between the broken stones. Elia tried several times to step forward on her own, but each time, the axis of her body lagged slightly behind.

She was walking.

But her body was arriving late.

She had not returned yet.

The three guardian bodies had spread out around Lumira and Elia.

One ahead.

One behind.

The last one watched the side of the passage, following the reactions left by the lingering distortion.

Their forms were not made of thin light. They stood there as solid humanoid figures wrapped in dark garments, and only the luminous patterns running across their chests and arms surfaced quietly in the dim corridor.

Eventually, they reached the outer edge of the collapsed passage.

It did not look completely safe.

The outlines of the walls were slightly displaced.

The angle of the lamplight falling across the floor would not stay constant. A pillar that should have been far away looked close, and a piece of stone near her feet seemed, for one instant, to have been replaced by something in another position.

A small positional shift.

But it kept happening again and again.

Something was wrong.

One of the guardian bodies turned its face toward a distortion reaction ahead.

Space rippled faintly.

The outline of a passerby blurred sideways for a single moment. Only the line of their shoulder returned late, and the shadow at their feet followed one beat after.

Lumira almost stopped.

But the passersby did not.

No one looked surprised.

No one raised their voice.

As if it had been no more than a passing wind, they simply kept walking.

At the edge of the corridor, someone carrying a bundle passed over a shifted stone step without trying to avoid it. Even though the ground beneath their feet had appeared, for one instant, to be somewhere else, they did not even look down.

Could they not see it?

Or could they see it, and still not stop?

On the wall ahead, a pale display was floating.

Minor recognition discrepancy advisory.

The letters blinked slowly.

Nearby stood someone who appeared to be managing the collapsed zone. He looked up at the wall display and narrowed his eyes as if checking the distortion reaction.

But the display did not change.

Within normal range.

Only those words remained, glowing faintly.

Lumira stared at the display.

Within normal range.

This situation.

This wavering.

This displacement of recognition.

Too slow.

The judgment was far too slow.

One of the passersby nearby suddenly stopped.

Holding a small parcel against their chest, they looked around. Their gaze drifted left and right, checking the road they had come from and the path ahead in turn.

For one brief moment, it seemed as though they had forgotten where they were going.

Lumira looked at them.

One of the guardian bodies turned its gaze in the same direction.

But after a few seconds, the passerby only tilted their head slightly and began walking again.

As if nothing had happened.

As if they had no intention of confirming that something inside them had broken off.

They did not treat it as an abnormality.

The luminous pattern running across the guardian body’s chest brightened slightly.

Its gaze was no longer fixed on a single passerby, but on the entire area. Around the bodies of the people moving through the passage, there were faint tremors of light.

Not strong.

But scattered.

Not one person.

Several.

More than several.

It was spreading.

Still supporting Elia, Lumira slowly looked around.

The distortions remained.

The light responses remained.

The lapses in memory and the shifts in position were happening here, right now.

And yet no one was trying to stop them.

No one was trying to run.

Elia leaned against Lumira’s shoulder and drew a small, uneven breath.

“Here...”

Her voice was thin, nearly breaking.

“It’s common... to lose track a little.”

Lumira looked at her.

Elia’s eyes were fixed somewhere far away.

She did not seem to be thinking deeply about what her own words meant. The haziness of her memory, the delay in her response—she had accepted them as minor recognition slips.

It was not an excuse.

She truly believed it.

That it was normal.

No.

Lumira’s fingers tightened slightly.

They did not recognize what was missing as something missing.

And it was not only Elia.

Everyone here was the same.

The guardian bodies widened their range of vigilance.

Their awareness reached not only forward, but across the entire passage. The light patterns running over their dark garments blinked quietly, gathering the faint abnormalities that remained around them.

Then, in the distance, space trembled briefly.

Ahead, near a half-broken gate.

The air caved in for one instant, and then white particles rose softly into view.

A new small distortion.

A few passersby turned their eyes toward it.

But immediately looked away.

No one stopped walking.

One person gave a small sigh.

Another changed direction as if it were only inconvenient.

That was all.

They were used to it.

Lumira understood in silence.

The abnormalities had not disappeared.

Nor had they been hidden.

The abnormal side was beginning to become the standard.

A place where something was broken, but no one called it broken.

A world where what had been worn away was folded back into the average.

Lumira adjusted her hold on Elia’s shoulder.

At that moment.

Deep within Elia’s eyes, white light trembled for one brief instant.

The reaction was far too short.

But the guardian bodies caught it at the same time.

No one raised their voice.

The passage continued moving as before.

People kept walking.

Only Lumira still could not accept that the light might be included within normal range.

Immediately after, the display on the wall changed quietly.

Minor recognition discrepancy advisory.

Beneath it, a new line appeared.

Applicable individuals do not need to self-report.

— Lumi 🪄💕

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