"...!!!!"
Something was happening. I couldn’t hear any sound, but I could feel it. No, I couldn’t feel anything in my body anymore. Not even the sensation in the joints of my fingertips.
The sound of my heart beating was fading farther and farther away. Was I still breathing, or was I already dead?
"....Hi....na"
The world in front of me was being painted over in black again, little by little.
I couldn’t remember anything. Something pressed hard against my back, and I felt myself slowly being sucked downward, as if a hole had opened beneath me and was pulling me into the ground.
"..."
"Haruta!!!!!!"
Crack!
"Haruta!!!!"
"Damn it! Is he here?!"
Something was being said. I knew it instinctively. I was already beyond the point where medicine could bring me back, and even if they were saving me now, there was no guarantee I’d survive.
One arm had already completely collapsed and was no longer usable. As for my leg, my right leg had been exposed the longest to Hieronymus’s self-detonation.
"...F...u...c...k"
A short curse. But I had to hold on now. Even if I died, even if it was all for nothing, I had to hold on. That was... what Sensei kept saying. No matter how hard it got, keep enduring. Keep enduring and keep enduring.
"...Aaaah!!!!!!!"
I didn’t know if my voice was coming out, but right now, even if it was my last desperate struggle, I wanted to see everyone’s faces. Just once. Just one more time.
"......Keh...krrr..."
No sound came out anymore. This was it. It was really over.
"...Ha...ru...t"
At the very end, I heard a voice calling me. Then my vision went dark again, before being completely painted white.
It felt familiar. I’d already experienced this once before. Was this just what happened when you were about to die? At the very least, I wanted to see everyone’s faces, even if only in a flash of memories.
But God didn’t allow it. Or was it only natural, since I was a sinner?
"....Where is this..."
"Haah... I told you over and over not to die, didn’t I?"
"...So... I’m dead?"
"..Mm...."
"..Haah..."
"Ah! You’re not dead yet. More precisely, that’s not it... and if I listed every injury you’ve got right now, we’d be here all night."
"...How... no, just tell me what condition my body is in."
"Fine. I’ll tell you the big ones... First, your heart is almost completely shattered, and your ribs are... basically all broken and fused with your organs. Also, there’s air in your lungs, so you probably shouldn’t even be able to talk... and yet you managed to scream?"
"I’d seen it somewhere."
"Haha! What, were you trying to leave a last will or something?"
"Yeah. I was thinking of confessing one last time before dying. Why?"
"No... pff... haah... In all my life, you’re the hundredth person I’ve seen die this entertainingly. Not bad!"
"...So what else?"
"Besides that, your arm... you probably felt it too..."
"Yeah. The arm was already completely crushed. It looked impossible to bring back."
"...Well... your leg too..."
"Yeah... haah... the leg was already cut off, wasn’t it? And then..."
"Haha! You know how much blood you were losing, right?"
"Yeah... even if it wasn’t enough to kill me outright from blood loss, no... if I’d lost just a little more, I’d have dried up completely."
"And... when the stalactite cave collapsed... a stalactite got lodged near your kidney... one of your eyes is completely blind, and your hearing... probably your left ear is gone."
I kept listening, amazed that I was still alive after all that.
"Ah! And your internal organs were crushed, so you’re basically on the verge of death. If you’re asking whether surgery alone can save you... the answer is no."
"...Then how do I survive and get back to everyone?"
"Hey, let me warn you once. If you die now, you’re the kind of guy who’d be buying a one-way ticket to hell. That’s how many sins you’ve piled up. That’s what I’m saying."
"...So?"
"I’ll keep you from dying and save you once. Of course, what I’m doing now... will hurt so much you’d probably rather have died, and some of your memories will be gone too. Like... precious memories and the like."
Thud!
"Say that again."
"...Hey, you should still be grateful you’re alive."
Rustle
"Haah... so... that’s it?"
"Your organs need time to recover properly. Also... no, if it were that girl Lilith before... yeah, she’d probably just do anything."
"...No... haah... for now..."
"Yeah. You want to go back."
"Yeah, just send me back quickly."
"But... you’ll probably sleep for a while. You won’t remember anything, and if you wake up and move around, you’ll die, okay?"
"...Yeah. Got it."
"Then!"
"Ah... and the reason you’re alive right now is..."
"..."
"Let’s just say fear has completely fused with mystery."
"...Found him!... What... is that...?"
"...Move fast!!!"
"Haruta!!!"
"...Haruta... what is that..."
In Sensei’s vision, no, in everyone’s eyes, Haruta was there. But it was hard to think of him as Haruta, because his whole body was buried under rubble, torn apart by the explosion, one leg severed.
His arm... had become something that could no longer even be called an arm.
"...Ugh!!!...Cough!...Kheh..."
Hina couldn’t accept what was happening. No, she didn’t want to accept it.
"...Haruta..."
Drip... drip... drip
"S-Sensei... w-what... what do I... do..."
"Hina... first, we need to get him to a hospital!"
"...A...ah... ah..."
Rustle
Hina stroked Haruta as she looked over the wounds covering his body. The injuries had scarred over and festered with pus, and just by looking at them, they showed what kind of life he had lived, what he had endured, and how hard it had all been.
It was like looking at a painting.
And then...
"..."
When she looked at his arm,
"Ugh..."
the nausea she’d been holding back surged up. Guilt, responsibility, resentment, grief, bitterness—an entire whirlpool of negative emotions crashed over Hina.
"...B-Because of me..."
"...Hina-chan...? Right?"
"...Takanashi... Hoshino..."
"...Want to talk for a moment...?"
----------------------------------
Siiirrrr
"...This... isn’t something the Remedial Knights can operate on..."
"For now! We’re going to the hospital!"
Sena raced toward the hospital at top speed. Was she thinking the damage was beyond even her ability to treat?
"Sensei! We’re almost there!"
"Thanks, Sena!"
When they arrived at the hospital, a lot of robots were all staring at Haruta.
No, the idea that a wanted criminal—no, not just any wanted criminal, but the chaos itself, the prisoner regarded as the strongest and worst criminal in Kivotos history—was dying like that was almost impossible to even imagine.
"...Who is that?"
"What the... he’s a criminal?"
"Everyone, move aside! This is an emergency!"
"...A-and you are?"
"I’m Sensei from Schale! Please... save this child."
"...Understood... We don’t have time to talk! Start surgery immediately!"
- 5 hours later
That was how Hoshino of Abydos and Hina of Gehenna met.
"...Hey, Hina-chan?"
"..."
"You don’t have to answer..."
"..."
"Mm... where should I start... Right. Hina-chan... when you first met Haruta... what was he like...?"
"..."
"You know...? That’s what I thought... I could never fully trust him, but... I still thought he had something kind in him somewhere..."
"...Playful... and... sob... kinder than anyone... haa... gentle... a... warm... person..."
"Hina-chan... I’m the same. I can’t comfort you right now, but... Hina-chan?"
"...Takanashi Hoshino... how can you stay so calm... and keep holding on...?"
"...I’m sad... sadder than anyone... I want to cry more than ever... but, you know...? Hina-chan... crying won’t help right now... There’s nothing we can do but wait..."
"..."
"I know Hina-chan is sad too... no, everyone is sad... but... for now, we have to wait."
"..."
"Because, as always... he’ll come back to us again."
"..."
"He’ll find us again..."
"..."
"That’s what I think, Hina-chan..."
"...Yeah. Thank you... Takanashi Hoshino."
"Hehe~ It’s been a while since someone called me by both my first and last name~"
"..."
Bzzzt
"Haah... kids... what about Haruta?"
"S-Sensei..."
"Sensei..."
"Sensei... Haruta hasn’t come out yet..."
"...How many hours has it been now?"
"...Five hours... no, six."
"...I see. Let’s wait a little longer."
-----------------------------------
- 20 hours later
"Haah..."
It was already dawn. No, the sky was already beginning to brighten.
Was there no hope? Or was the wound just so severe that it was taking this long?
"Haah..."
Sensei was on the hospital rooftop, watching the sunrise. He wanted Haruta to wake up again. He wanted Haruta to move again, just once more.
"...Haruta... was that recording file... really true...?"
Sensei let out a short sigh and stared at the sun.
"It’ll be dawn soon..."
- 30 hours later
"...Haruta... still...?"
"Hehe~... let’s wait a little longer..."
Ding
"Huh...? W-what?!"
The surgery room’s "in surgery" light went out.
"...!"
Bang!
"Tell me... what happened!!!"
As soon as the doctor came out, Hina grabbed him by the collar. She clenched so hard that blood came to her hand, and the veins stood out in her slender arm.
"P-please calm down."
"How am I supposed to calm down right now!? Tell me! What happened!"
Right now, whether Haruta lived or died was all that mattered to Hina.
"...H-he’s alive."
At those words, the strength left Hina’s hand.
"...Th-that... is that true...?"
"Yes. Doctors don’t joke about this kind of thing."
Hina collapsed to the floor.
"Haah... but..."
"J-just a moment... b-but?"
"For some reason, his brain hasn’t woken up. And even if it does, there’s a high chance he’ll have amnesia."
"..."
Thud
"H-hey! Someone collapsed here!!"
Hina refused to accept reality. No, she wanted to. But this was reality.
The only reality there was. Not a dream, but pain, and the horrifying fact of feeling everything completely.
Reality.
"Ahh... how beautiful this is..."
"...I don’t know whether that was the art you truly wanted, Maestro."
"Black Suit? That is true art, and [Sublime]! A sacrifice for everyone! It’s a stale cliché, but to place that into this story! A choice made by a hero who doesn’t even care about his own life!!!"
"...I do think that man is impressive. Isn’t sacrifice supposed to be a value like that in the first place?"
"...That transcends all value! A value unique to him, something even my Mimesis cannot reproduce! Ahh... was he, perhaps, the perfect vessel to contain a god...?"
"Hmm... indeed. He is a vessel that has held a god. Well, the essence of a halo never really speaks to its owner."
"...I think that man is the inhuman existence all artists dream of, the perfect being and art itself."
"...I agree with both you and Black Suit, Maestro. Still, my purpose has been fulfilled, so I’ll be taking my leave."
"Indeed!!!"
"...Haah... in the end, even you couldn’t eliminate him, could you..."
"Madam? That is a work of art! And you want to ruin it?!"
"Haah... your art means nothing to me, and that man is already an unexpected existence!"
"Madam, our purpose here is simple. We gathered to realize our own [Sublime]. But I’d appreciate it if you refrained from insulting Maestro."
"...Ahem... in any case, I’ll be going now."
Bzzzt
"Then I’ll be leaving as well... I have something I’m making right now..."
"Indeed!!!"
Bzzzt
Bzzzt
"Maestro? Haven’t you already used a great deal of your strength to make that?"
"...I know. I’d like to rest a little too right now... To take one step closer to art, rest is necessary."
"Then... I’ll be taking my leave as well."
Bzzzt
"Haah... indeed... my body... can’t keep up..."
"....Indeed... the existence called a vessel of god... the justice and power that follow it... yes, that is certainly a value worth having..."
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