"This isn't right!", Yoshida sensei said with a concerned look on her face. "Starry Notif only reaches 44° celcius and expires in 10 seconds!"

"Something has clearly gone wrong!" Marth rebutted.

The white coated doctor lightly grasped each end of the stethoscope slung over her shoulders. Closing her eyes, she brought her lips together and meditated for a moment of silence. The bright ceiling lights above Yoshida flickered, momentarily darkening the beds and privacy curtains spread throughout the room.

Marth looked to Yoshida-sensei who's eyes remained closed. It wasn't normal for a teacher to close their eyes when projecting. Usually, it was beginners who needed to close their eyes to aid in the differentiation between shared reality and their own.

"Sensei?" Marth wondered if everything was alright.

The doctor didn't respond. She held her eyes and mouth closed as the lights in the room continued to flicker. Her hands remained in place, grasping her stethoscope.

Marth continued to stare, wondering. His view of the room behind Yoshida began to warp as if it were being viewed through a slowly rotating mirror. Connected sections of wall panels ceased to form straight lines, but began to angle themselves, becoming three dimentional facets like that of a crystal. The surfaces glistened in the flickering light, giving off a smooth, shiny finish. The effect expanded to the left and right of Yoshida, the whole room beginning to feel like a gleaming, glassy tunnel.

"Yoshida-sensei! You're pulling me into your projection!" Marth cried out, concerned for his safety.

During a projection, the projector must clear their mind of all thoughts save for the task at hand. This warping of space around Yoshida looked like an amateur mistake, the creativity of her Astral realm interfering with her and Marth's shared reality. It was strange to see a sensei slipping up like this. Was this a flaw of hers? Had she mis-projected Starry Notif before placing it in a card?

The elongated infirmary room, newly shiny and faceted from Yoshida's projection, began to slither like a giant crystalline worm. With Marth and Yoshida in it, the floor abruptly moved. Marth struggled to keep his footing as the floor on which he stood tilted backwards. Marth caught himself, leaning forward just in time to not fall behind. The hospital beds began to slide as the writhing room's surfaces expanded and contracted in a melodic rhythm.

"Yoshida!" Marth called out again as he was forced to his hands and knees by the muscular movement of a section of the hard blue crystal floor. The room was becoming more worm-like, the four discreet sections of walls, floor, and ceiling merging into a hollow crystal cyllinder. The pail with burning place card, Yoshida's desk, the hospital beds, and curtains became absorbed into the crystal, their features remaining only as two dimentional images in the faceted surfaces.

As the source of the phenomenon, the doctor stood unmoved, anchored to the room. On her face, she held her meditative expression and her hands continued to gently grasp her stethoscope.

Marth crawled forward as the altered room continued to move like a creature. Pulses of light travelled through the room along with the rhythmic movements. From far to near, the rings of light came in waves, seeming to travel through the uneven panels. With it, a collection of tribal drums syncronized their beat.

"Goa music?" Marth wondered as he was pulled futher into Yoshida-sensei's projection.

Marth stood to a crouch, keeping his center of gravity low so as not to fall under the moving floor. Marth looked to Yoshida, determined to pull her out of her leaking mind.

Step after step, Marth held his arms out to his side to aid himself as the floor facets continued to move up and down, left and right. As he approached the doctor, the beats of the tribal percussion intensified to a thumping roar. Within reach of Yoshida, Marth put his hands atop her shoulders and shook her back and forth. The pulses of light continued to traverse through the cylindrical structure along to the beat of the music. Yoshida's hands remained on her stethoscope, with her eyes closed.

The music reached it's peak volume as it's percussive beats became a white noise of reverberating echoes. From Yoshida's forehead, a spherical mound festered as if something beneath was coming alive. A horizontal slit in her skin formed as if a wrinkle of concern was giving birth. The gap widened, revealing a large green eye on Yoshida's forehead.

Marth's view tunneled on the large green eye. It had long black eyelashes actively waving back and forth like a writhing worm being held in the mouth of a mother bird. The eye's iris lacked small muscle detail, instead it was a solid green, shiny on the outer edges. Further, the iris was was oversized, taking more space than usual and leaving only a small part of the sclera visible on either side.

Marth wanted to scream, but somehow his voice was unable to escape his mouth. Frozen in place, the large eye seemed to look into his soul, rapidly shifting it's gaze as it looked over Marth, top to bottom.

Marth closed his eyes, wanting this experience to stop. As he did so, the Goa music ceased.

"Did Yoshida stop projecting?" Marth opened one eye cautiously.

The infirmary room was back to normal. The walls, floor, ceiling, beds and curtains were back in place. Marth was standing where he had been before hastily approaching Yoshida.

Yoshida was back in her chair, with legs crossed and pen and clipboard in her hands. With no sign of her third eye, she looked up from her glasses at Marth every few seconds, jotting down notes.

Marth looked down, placing his hands on his body to make sure everything was still there.

"Why are you projecting if you're an amateur? You could have killed me!" Marth directed his confusion towards Yoshida.

Yoshida finished scribbling a note and lowered her clipboard. "Everything is A-OK, Marth-chan!" she said, looking up at Marth with a smile.

"What do you mean everything is A-OK? Do you not realize what just happened here?" Marth contested, gesturing his hands towards the walls. "And please do something about the card, it's probably melted through the bucket by now!"

Marth looked down at the charred pail expecting to see a hot new hole in the floor. Instead, the plain place card sat inside, white hot fusion extinguished. Marth stared at the card, puzzled.

"You put it out?"

"Uh huh!" Yoshida smiled again, setting her clipboard on her desk. She stood up and walked towards Marth.

"What you just experienced was Astral Inspection, a quirk I developed over many decades of research."

"You mean you aren't incompetent?"

"Marth-chan, don't be so mean!", Yoshida-sensei leaned in and frowned before standing up straight again. "Astral Inspection induces a heavy halleucination while it's performed. What you saw and heard was your own imagination based on your impressions of your surroundings."

"But you closed your eyes! Teachers shouldn't need to do that."

Yoshida looked at the ceiling, putting one finger to her chin. "Hmm, I've never been good at that. Everyone says it's because my imagination is so lively."

"So she is incompetent!" Marth thought to himself, trying to hide his blunt thought. Although her methods were sloppy, the concept was starting to make sense. "So is Astral Inspection an injection? Why didn't my defense barrier kick in?"

"Mhm! Tsubasa sensei's defense barrier is well made. I avoided it only because I looked at you. No touchy touchy!" Yoshida squinted her eyes as she held out one finger like a shaming parent.

"Is the barrier that obvious?" Marth asked.

"No, no, it's a strong barrier, but it's hidden as well. My Astral Inspection is very sensitive. The average Esper wouldn't notice the barrier until it was too late."

"I see... So.. What did you find out?" Marth was a little embarrased that the doctor had taken such a close look at his consciousness.

"I saw that you're a healthy young man!" Yoshida smiled again. Marth blushed.

"So what about the card?" Marth asked, changing the subject. "Luckily I had this bucket in my room. If you give Starry Notif to someone else, you might really kill them!"

"Oh that. You must be very popular on campus, Marth-chan!" she began.

"What do you mean?" Marth's puzzled look returned.

Yoshida-sensei's bubbly personality made a change to serious.

"Marth-chan, from my inspection, I was able to query the muscles in your body. Someone was in your bed with you as you napped this afternoon."

"Eh?" Marth's puzzled look persisted. "WHAAAAAAAAATT???!!?!?!!!!"

Marth's knees buckled and he held out his hands in shock.

"Yes, Marth, someone was with you and they pulled the card from your pants."

Marth collapsed to the floor at the mental burden.

"You mean I had my first time in bed with a hot girl, and I wasn't awake for it?!" Marth began to pant heavily as his mind began to race. "A girl was digging in my pants, but I was asleep? What if word gets out, that I can't stay awake during romantic encounters?! Was the person even a girl? What if it was a boy? Oh no, what if I can't get a date because of this? Will I be celibate for my entire life? I might as well kill myself now!" A bead of sweat formed on Marth's forehead as his mind wandered.

"Marth-chan, Marth-chan!" Yoshida-sensei jostled Marth back to their shared reality. "I don't think you need to worry." she reafirrmed, patting Marth on the head.

Marth snapped back, picking up the card from the scortched bucket.

"So someone did something to this place card?" Marth held the card in his hand, looking over it's artistic face.