Uro’s face, sunk into deep sleep, looked peaceful.
As Junpei sobbed while gently combing through Uro’s endlessly sleeping hair, he etched her final 모습 into his eyes.
Even as he dug the grave, laid her down, and covered her with earth, Junpei made a vow.
"I’ll remember you."
Even if the people of the world called her a murderer, a filthy woman, he would not forget that final sight of her.
He would treasure the heart-rending feeling he had when he killed her with his own hands.
He would remember the woman who had only wanted to be someone.
Come to think of it, this was the first time he had felt such a violent upheaval of emotion after killing someone.
He hadn’t known that a bond severed by his own hand, not by anyone else’s, could feel this heartbreaking.
It must have been because Uro had entered his heart so deeply, even if only for a short time.
"I’m going to turn myself in when the Culling Game is over."
That was the first thing Remi said after burying Uro.
Up until now, even when Junpei scolded her, she had only laughed it off playfully or rushed to justify herself, but this was the first time she had spoken in a serious voice.
"...Why?"
"I just... learned a lot from this whole thing."
"You don’t need to feel guilty too. I’m the one who killed Uro. It’s the sin I have to carry, so why you?"
"It’s not guilt."
When she heard that Uro had died, Remi cried a great deal.
He had thought, What, how close could they really have gotten? But apparently Uro had ended up mattering to her more than he’d realized.
Sniffling and wiping her nose, Remi laid a single flower in front of Uro’s grave.
"Then what is it?"
"All this time, I’ve been living by relying on men’s goodwill. Dumping everything I hated and feared onto someone else... But that wasn’t a right I was entitled to take for granted."
"....."
"I thought someone as strong and amazing as Uro wouldn’t have any connection to someone like me. But I was wrong. Do you know what Uro said to me after hearing my story when you weren’t around?"
"What did she say?"
"She scolded me, asking how long I was going to keep running away while depending on other people. It shocked me."
"Fair enough."
Remi’s voice trembled.
Junpei said nothing, waiting calmly for her to continue.
"I’d been snatching things that weren’t mine without a second thought... and pretending that made me who I was. Even I think I’m a rotten woman, haha."
"....."
"How disgusted must Uro have been, looking at someone like me? What must she have thought, seeing a fool who only knew how to cling to others, living because she couldn’t die, with no purpose at all?"
"If she really hated you, she wouldn’t have said those things."
"I know. That’s why it hurts even more. That’s when it hit me. The faces of all the men I’d bled dry all this time... the players I deceived and killed."
"........."
"Uro, and those people too, must have wanted to live.... Just as much as I want to live....."
Before long, Remi sank to the ground and began to sob in silence.
It was nothing like the fake tears she had shed when they first met; this was a sound wrung out from deep in the chest.
It was easy to tell. When his mother died, he had been the same way.
"They must have wanted to live...."
For the first time, he found this woman pitiable.
She was truly crushed by guilt, and because he could see how much she was suffering, he couldn’t help but feel sympathy.
It was painful now, but she was in the process of becoming someone a little better.
"It’s cold. Let’s go inside."
Junpei carried the exhausted, cried-out Remi inside and laid her down, then returned to his own room and clutched his head.
530 points.
105 points Uro had given him in exchange for her life.
The weight of that guilt pressed down on his shoulders.
Still, Uro probably wouldn’t have wanted him to stop here.
At the end, she had asked him not to take her life, but to become a radiant person.
As another curse was added to the ones binding Junpei, he buried it deep in his chest.
"When I get back... I’ll write."
He would write about a woman who had lived a life steeped in tragedy, yet shone brighter than anyone at the very end.
Even if he never showed it to anyone else, he wanted to leave behind a record that would endure like the stars in the sky, living for a time close to eternity.
So that she could live forever in the form he remembered.
The next day, after chewing over everything alone and falling asleep, Junpei returned to the place where Uro had been buried and was startled.
"...Haha."
A sprout had grown there.
A fresh, green shoot that looked like her, timidly lifting its head.
With a faint smile, Junpei greeted the young leaves.
"Hello, Uro."
As if answering him, the cotyledons trembled in a sudden gust of wind.
It was an autumn day.
At that same time, in the neutral zone.
"...So you killed her in the end."
"I thought it was what had to be done, but I can’t help feeling dirty about it."
"......."
The ranking status was shared with every Culling Game player.
Even the trio of first-years, who were far away, learned through that information that Junpei had killed Uro.
"I wonder if Junpei’s okay..."
Yuji worried about his friend sincerely.
He had tried to save Uro, even dropping to his knees in dogeza and begging for people to understand. He didn’t know what wind had suddenly changed Junpei’s mind, but it couldn’t have been a simple whim.
He could only guess that there must have been some unknown circumstance.
When the time comes that you have to kill someone.
Even if it’s something the victim asked for, no one knows how awful that feeling can be.
Yuji knew that better than anyone.
"I don’t know what he was thinking, but it was his own choice. Junpei isn’t so immature that he wouldn’t understand that. All we need to do is not forget that we owe him a debt of the heart."
The comparatively cool-headed Megumi was looking at the situation most objectively.
A few hours earlier, when Junpei had come to the neutral zone, he had asked for information on players ranked below fourth place.
When Megumi asked why, Junpei said it was because he didn’t want to kill Uro.
He would save Uro, who had 105 points, and take several lives to make up for it.
Even Megumi, who was prepared to kill as many people as necessary for a goal, couldn’t readily agree to such a request.
It wasn’t rational, and it was an impossible favor to grant in a situation where every second mattered. He respected Junpei’s will and let him have it, but he wasn’t exactly pleased.
No matter how tragic Uro’s circumstances might have been, from Megumi’s perspective, who didn’t know any of that, she was nothing more and nothing less than an obstacle that had to be overcome.
"Kugisaki, what about you?"
"Haa...."
If you asked who had objected the most out of all of them, it would probably be Nobara.
Only she knew exactly what had happened between the two of them.
Because Junpei, who had done something he could easily be blamed for, had dragged her aside and spilled everything with unnecessary honesty.
"So that’s why, I want Uro to live."
"Are you kidding me? Even if the situation’s special, this is... do you think I’m not allowed to get hurt?"
"I’m sorry. Really."
It felt like the blood had rushed all the way to the top of her head.
It was probably the first time she had ever shouted at Junpei.
She pressed him, asking if that was really all there was to it, if he could swear there were no other feelings involved. Junpei only kept apologizing with a sad smile.
"It’s not love. I can swear I didn’t have even the slightest other feelings."
"Then why the hell would you—!"
"Because she said she wanted to live. Because she looked so desperate. If I had rejected that hand too.... I don’t think I would’ve been able to sleep in peace."
After he left, she thought it over carefully.
Whether he had really committed some shameful wrongdoing, whether he had betrayed her.
Once her head had cooled a little, the conclusion she reached was: no.
Junpei still looked only at her.
That idiot’s overcomplicated brain had clearly caused another disaster.
Her boyfriend was stronger than anyone, but also needlessly kind and far too meddlesome.
Especially since he had probably overlapped her with his old self and couldn’t just let it go.
"...Fine."
"Really? You were yelling your head off just now...."
"Ahhh, I can’t hear you."
It was a little annoying that he had done something that practically counted as a date, but not enough to be unforgivable.
If she had been in that woman’s place, she probably would have done the same.
There was also a side of her that could empathize because they were both women.
The sorrow of a woman who had spent her whole life yearning for light struck a chord with her.
Since the woman was already dead, there was no need to hate her any more, and she couldn’t if she tried.
"How am I supposed to hate someone after hearing a story like that?"
If she had been a shameless fox of a woman, it would have been easier to hate her in peace.
But she wasn’t, and when the news of her death finally came, Nobara felt a little sorry for her.
For now, all she wanted was to pray for the dead and comfort her boyfriend, who would be coming back soon.
"When he gets back, I’m going to hug him. That guy must be having such a hard time."
"Is this... the dignity of the main wife?"
"What main wife? I’m the only one from the start!"
"Kugisaki, one warning."
"What is it?"
"Be careful around Tsumiki... no, never mind."
Megumi, who had been about to say something, shut his mouth and shuddered.
He remembered what he had witnessed when he had visited her room before entering the Culling Game.
"What is Tsumiki doing right now...?"
"Ahh, Yoshino-san. You can’t do this. You have Kugisaki-san.... Damn it, I don’t need some sharp-tongued bitch like that. Only you can complete me. Your ebony hair, your motherly embrace that can hold everything... you can complete me. No more words came out. Because Yoshino’s hand had climbed up along her plump breasts..."
"....."
"Kyahhh!!! Get out right now!!!"
"Sorry."
Megumi had, quite against his will, witnessed her "creative work."
He still couldn’t forget the contents of that 18+ novel, with a suspiciously Junpei-like male lead and a suspiciously Tsumiki-like heroine.
Before she fell into a coma, she didn’t seem interested in that kind of content at all... but he had sensed a murky darkness that could never be found in her usual gentle, calm self.
If he could, he wanted to dig out the brain that had witnessed the abyss.
"Did Yorozu really influence her or something?"
Come to think of it, her hands never actually went to the keyboard, and maybe what he saw writhing there was some strange black jelly-like thing.
Megumi’s train of thought was interrupted when someone kicked open the door and came in.
"Yo. I’m back."
It was Kashimo, revived in perfect condition.
Cheered up by the long-awaited fight, he was grinning fiercely.
"482 points. I’ve filled my target quota."
"...I see."
Kashimo’s score, which had been 420, had already swelled.
That had been Megumi’s instruction, though.
Even if they killed Uro, they would still fall short of the total 1,000 points, so they had used Kashimo’s "warm-up" to make up the difference.
They would hunt down a few high-scoring players with more than 20 points who were showing suspicious movement and hit the cutoff.
He thought it couldn’t be helped. It would be too cruel to make Junpei fill in that portion too.
That didn’t erase the fact that they had borrowed Kashimo’s hand to commit murder, so he still didn’t feel good about it.
That was why he answered with something suitably vague instead of saying "good job."
"I’d forgotten because you’ve been so pathetic lately... but this guy was strong, wasn’t he?"
When he ordered the "hunt," Kashimo had ripped off three heads in just one hour.
They had only seen his pathetic side while living together, but this guy was originally the strongest killer, running overwhelmingly in first place.
Megumi was once again made keenly aware of that strength and danger.
"With this, Yoshino has 530 points and I have 482. Whoever wins, we’ll go over 1,000."
"Then this will be the final fight."
"At last...! I can fight that guy!"
"Yeah. It’s late tonight, so we’ll leave it for now. Tomorrow, the moment Yoshino comes back, I’ll set you against him."
At last, the permission had been given.
The board was fully set.
All that remained was to curse each other with no way to retreat.
"I’ll throw everything I have at you, Yoshino Junpei."
The best opponent was waiting.
Please, don’t disappoint me.
Lost in ecstatic imagination, Kashimo licked his lips with his tongue.
"He’s going to die tomorrow, so why is he so happy?"
"Looks like the delusions he picked up in his first life are still...."
"Who are you calling a senile old man?! And why do you keep assuming I’m going to lose?!"
Just as Nobara and Yuji were teasing him as usual and Kashimo was about to explode—
Zing
"...!"
Someone was approaching the neutral zone.
"What is it? What’s wrong?"
"Someone is coming this way."
Unknown figures caught by the sensing ability of Goya, who had been sent on patrol.
One person, two... three.
Whoever it was, there was no reason to come here at this hour....
Ah.
Familiar cursed energy.
The only group he knew of with two people who had this much cursed energy was, at least as far as he knew—
"Come on!"
Following Megumi’s urgent shout, everyone rushed outside.
Heading toward the place where the presence had been detected, they saw three silhouettes walking from afar.
The man in front was staggering with a sword for support, and the two helping each other along as they came here were—
"Fushiguro...."
"Ugh..."
"Yuji, sorry... I’m showing you a pathetic sight."
Okkotsu, who had been sent to exterminate Kenjaku.
And Maki/Mai and Choso.
"Okkotsu-senpai, what happened?!"
"Sorry, I lost...."
"You lost with that much firepower?"
No matter how strong Kenjaku was, he shouldn’t have been able to handle a special-grade sorcerer, someone close to special grade, and a top-grade first-class sorcerer all at once.
A surprise attack? Or maybe some hidden trump card?
How on earth had people this strong been defeated and forced to flee?
"Damn it, we were right on the verge of winning."
"Mai..."
"It was fish in the bag...."
As if untangling the knots in Megumi’s head, Mai gnawed at her lip and answered in a growling voice, chewing each word into pieces.
"If it hadn’t been for that ridiculous bastard....!"
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