「Ahahaha! So stupid… If you hate someone that much, you should just kill them!」
「Ugh…!! Ughhh!!」
He struggled, but the hands pinning him down didn’t budge.
It felt like the weight of the earth itself was crushing him.
The edges of his vision began to darken.
The breath leaking from under Kokujou’s grip grew shallow and feverish. His gaze flicked wildly around the vague silhouette of her mouth, dimly lit by the backlight.
His racing heartbeat scrambled his thoughts, making it impossible to focus.
Aoi’s mind was in turmoil.
The truths he thought he knew were crumbling, and even as his brain cried out for clarity, the lack of air was stealing his ability to think.
A suffocating dread and rising panic surged through him.
—Could what Kokujou is saying… actually be true? No… She’d do anything to face off with someone strong. She’s probably lying…
Just as his mind reached that thought, something surfaced.
Back on the bus, during the accident, he never actually saw Akane’s face when she talked about her family. He’d interpreted things however was convenient for him.
But what if she had been hiding her expression on purpose?
What if the cold drop he’d touched when the bus jolted… had been a tear?
—If what Kokujou says is true, then while I was living my life like normal…
「She was all alone the whole time, bravely enduring it, wasn’t she? And you? You were just living without knowing anything, weren’t you?」
Kokujou’s words overlapped with the tail end of Aoi’s inner monologue.
They hit his heart like a stake, sending a crack through his soul. His eyes flew wide open and wouldn’t close.
A life where he did nothing, was it far more serious than he’d ever realized?
If only he had spoken to her then.
Maybe he could have pulled her out of that suffering.
If he’d had just a bit more courage.
If he hadn’t run away.
His back felt ice-cold.
That thought seemed to conjure a thick, black fog from the depths of the earth pressing against him.
Dark emotions left behind in his previous life swelled up, catching up to him as he ran forward in this one, wrapping around him, trying to consume him.
Terrifying.
(Is it my fault? Was it because I just lived on, oblivious, because I didn’t take that step…?)
Kokujou licked her lips and looked down on him again. Even that motion appeared warped and distorted in his vision.
「Hey. This girl’s consciousness is about to vanish.」
Regret, followed by a powerful, burning self-loathing.
These emotions were leaking out of Nakahara Kasane’s body like a mist.
(Here, in this world… maybe I can save her…? I have to save her—!! I have to stop Kokujou. I have to save her. There’s no time. Save her. Save her, save her, I have to save her fast….Save her, save her— )
A power surged within him, unnatural, as if borrowing from his future lifespan, and Kokujou’s bindings began to loosen, ever so slightly.
A violent storm of emotion tore through his body, threatening to rip it apart from the inside. His brain felt like it was boiling.
He dug his nails into Kokujou’s soft flesh. Then, mouth wide open, he bit hard into the space between her thumb and index finger. He clenched his jaw tight, but her skin didn’t break.
「I’m so kind, aren’t I? I could kill you right now if I wanted to.」
Kokujou raised her free hand in front of Aoi’s face.
A single drop of poison dripped from her pinky, landing just beside his neck.
「I’m giving you a chance to atone for your past-life mistakes. A chance to kill me. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!」
Her high-pitched laughter scraped against his mind like claws. Even as he gasped for oxygen, the noise forced his mind into a corner, accelerating his thoughts past the point of control.
An A-rank Toukatsu. Most likely a decoy, but still a formidable enemy.
Most of the FND and major characters would be focused there. In fact, many of the main cast might already be hiding in the underground shelters.
Would Kiyosato’s consciousness even hold out until reinforcements arrived…?
No, would it hold out long enough for Kokujou to be defeated?
The only one with a blade sharp and fast enough to reach this woman’s throat, was Aoi.
「This girl… Can I take her? You’ll just leave her like before, right?」
Her crazed aquamarine eyes locked with his.
Aoi bit down even harder, to the point his teeth might crack. A low hiss, like a beast ready to pounce, escaped his lips.
(This one… this one alone—!! I have to defeat her, save her—)
His right hand slipped free from Kokujou’s arm.
If he could just destroy the device clamped to his wrist, Aoi’s blade could reach her neck.
He shifted his gaze slightly.
There, lying broken on the ground, was his phone. The screen was shattered. It looked like a corpse.
(The message… never sent…)
Maybe that was for the best.
Had he sent it, they both might’ve been left with feelings they couldn’t let go.
(If I disappear… all she’ll have left is Hayato. And maybe that’s okay…)
This woman had to be stopped, even if it meant dying with her.
The rage burning within him fused with a destructive impulse, shoving Aoi forward.
His thoughts spun at blistering speed, tangled with the ever-shrinking time he had left.
He reached into the chaos of his mind, too fast to see clearly, and blindly grabbed the first idea he could.
He yanked it out. Forced it to become his conclusion.
—I’m going to take Kiyosato back.
With a guttural cry from his clamped mouth, Aoi raised his arm high—
Pakkin.
A metallic crack echoed between them.
Aoi had slammed his right arm down into the ground.
The control device shattered into pieces.
Kokujou’s lips curled into a sinister, delighted grin.
「……u」
A surge of cerulean violence tore through his body.
Kokujou’s arm creaked under Aoi’s tightening grip.
Electricity exploded.
His body burned with power, his emotions honed into razors.
‘I’ll finish her. Again, this woman.’
His muscles groaned and cracked.
A pale blue lightning-fire sparked like static from his skin.
The overflowing power carved wounds into his hands, unable to be contained.
From beneath the torn skin, a brilliant light seeped out.
「!!」
Kokujou’s grip shattered all at once.
The girl’s body flew backward in a blur, propelled by Aoi’s knee-strike, launched like a spear.
With power spilling out of him, Aoi rose to his feet as if drawn by it.
Without hesitation, he turned toward Akari.
She was still unconscious. That was convenient.
Swaying under the weight of his own rage, Aoi staggered forward and reached for the activation device on her wrist.
Akari’s brow twitched. She let out a low moan and opened her eyes.
「………Eh…? A-Aoi… What are you… doing…?」
She grasped the situation instantly.
Her hand shot up to stop his.
「Wait!! What are you trying to do!? Stop it!! NO, AOI!!!」
Her resistance, while desperate, was feeble, like a baby against a storm.
Aoi tore the device away from her by force and clamped it onto his own wrist without hesitation.
Akari clung to him, screaming in anguish.
But when another surge of lightning tore through Aoi’s body, she let out a short cry and recoiled.
「Akari… When you see Rui, tell her something for me.」
His gaze remained locked on Kokujou as he spoke to the girl behind him.
「Tell her this: Rui’s future is open now. That’s why… in that open future, she has to make Hayato’s feelings hers. No matter what.」
「AOI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!」
Aoi conjured flame into his hand and flung it backward.
The fire burst between them, separating him from Akari.
「Give Kiyosato… back.」
「Ahahaha! TRY ME!!!」
Electricity surged through the device, then, with a mechanical clunk, the key was ejected.
He caught it in his hand.
From his coat, he pulled out another, the blue key.
As if summoned by sheer will, a powerful voice spilled out with his breath.
His entire being ached.
Every fiber of his existence screamed: kill her.
His vocal cords trembled with a feral growl.
Aoi roared.
「BUG OUT!!! FALLEN… MADNESSSS!!!!」
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