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Owari no Chronicle:Volume10 Chapter 10

2015-12-30T01:51:17Z

128.177.161.146: /* Chapter 10: Sounds of a Visitor */

==Chapter 10: Sounds of a Visitor==
[[Image:OnC_v10_0249.png|thumb]]
''Come

''For I have called for you

''For my very being is calling for you

The color of the night sky began to change.

The bottom of the sky to the east was growing bright.

The entire eastern sky was already lit by something rising from below the horizon, so some purple was spreading like a wave.

The sky’s color change was the preparation or foreshadowing of the breaking dawn.

The air remained still and did not produce any mist.

The final night dew sank down, but that was all.

The faint light from the east revealed the silhouette of the land.

The shadows were formed by a forest.

A mountain was filled with darkness, a valley was steeped in the color black, and a narrow yet swift river could be heard flowing between them, but trees covered it all and hid them.

The thick and massive mountains and forests were nothing but trees and slopes.

Nothing moved in this predawn hour. The nocturnal animals had sensed the morning and gone to sleep, but the diurnal animals had yet to wake.

Nevertheless, something did move through those mountains and forest.

It was a boy in a suit with a rucksack on his back.

It was Sayama.

He walked up on a mountain ridge while moving through the forest at running speed.

There was a path there. The wind and rain had naturally worn down the dirt on the ridge, so stone footing had been exposed. A mountain path along the ridge used that footing.

The Okutama mountain range was vast, but a path ran along that ridge of the primary mountains. It was currently just before November, so Okutama was approaching winter. To maintain the power lines, water pipes, and other utilities running along the ridge, people had travelled on the side paths straying from the ridge and the unnecessary underbrush had been cut away.

Sayama had travelled through most of these places back when he had been training, but his current goal was even higher.

…''A little to the north.

Mount Kumotori, Tokyo’s tallest mountain at approximately two thousand meters, was to the west. He was about seven kilometers east of it after climbing to Nippara from the south.

His destination was near Nikengoya Ridge northeast of Mount Kumotori.

If he used the hiking trail to Kumotori, it would take about half a day.

He had entered from the Ootaki mountain trail to the far west, but he had considered taking a more direct route from a more remote trail.

Most notably, he could have reached the base of Kumotori by road if he had circled around to the Saitama side.

However, he had decided against that.

He was familiar with tall mountains.

He had only climbed the Tokyo mountains of Akigwawa or Okutama, but even then, he could still come down with mild altitude sickness if he climbed a two thousand meter mountain deep in the Okutama mountain range with no preparation.

If he rested with proper posture, he could recover from altitude sickness, but that would prevent him from moving much for an entire day.

Climbing the mountain would be simple, but when thinking about the descent and what came after that, he decided not to rush things.

Travelling along the Nippara mountainside added several kilometers to his journey, but it also allowed him fuller breaths and the amount of oxygen in his blood gradually changed as he walked and took brief breaks.

''This is perfect,'' he told himself in the dark forest.

“Long ago…”

…''I climbed a mountain without this planning or consideration for altitude sickness.

That had been during his training days.

As part of that training, Hiba Ryuutetsu had chased him around with a large machete for three days. He had rushed up the mountain then, but that had kept him from moving the following day.

Afraid of an attack during that time, he had set a trap.

It had been a popular variety of trap.

When someone approached, a rope would wrap around their neck and lift them into the air.

For bait, he had used a porn magazine found in a Mount Kumotori cabin. He had doubted it would work, but only three hours later, it had caught Ryuutetsu and the old man had swayed back and forth while struggling.

Sayama distinctly remembered the heart-to-heart conversation between teacher and student then.

“M-Mikoto, you’ll pay for this one! I wouldn’t walk anywhere near a cliff if I were you!!”

“Ha ha ha. I filled this area with the scent of raw meat, so try to rest in peace once a bear eats you. Is that what you call a bear-ial? But do not worry. I will tell Toshi-kun that you were bravely eaten by a bear.”

It had been a conversation of mutual consideration. His preparations for luring in a bear had been flawless, but Ryuutetsu had beaten him back to the dojo and dinner had been a pot of some strange tough meat.

Thinking back, he decided he should have finished the man off himself instead of leaving it to something else. ''That naivety led to the loss of a piece of nature,'' he realized. ''I need to treat nature more carefully.

“This is that same tree.”

He stopped below a familiar tree. The thick tree that towered above him in the darkness was the one he had once hung Ryuutetsu from. The rope was probably still there up above.

''It is all so nostalgic,'' he thought just before a sound came from his pocket.

It was an electronic tone, but it did not come from his cellphone. He had left his phone and wristwatch in his dorm room after having Team Leviathan disband. The sound in his pocket came from the timer on a pocket watch.

He checked it and found the glow-in-the-dark paint on the hands pointing to five o’clock in the morning. The LCD screen at the bottom indicated half an hour had passed.

…''Time for a break.

“And given the time, I should eat an early breakfast.”

He nodded and came to a stop.

He sat below the old hanging tree and lowered his rucksack.

The most noticeable item in the bag was his change of clothes. A mountain-climbing suit and underwear were folded and placed inside. Next was two liters’ worth of water bottles, but he also had a straw-shaped filtration device because that was not enough water for this trip.

He thought while pulling out and eating some portable food and drinking some water from a bottle.

…''I would normally still be asleep at this time.

The watch said it was 5:10. In another hour, Shinjou would wake him or he would wake her.

…''Have I really been living such a happy life for more than half a year now?

He had not had that before. He had always gone to sleep alone and woken alone.

That solitary lifestyle had returned to him here.

“It feels so lonely, Shinjou-kun.”

He suddenly stood up.

The eastern sky had grown a little brighter and he could see the next mountain range from the ridge.

He placed his hands around his mouth.

“Shinjou-kuuuuun!!”

After a few seconds, his shout returned to him.

“Shinjou-kuuuuun.”

He focused his ears on the echo and nodded several times. Okutama’s nature also desired Shinjou.

For that reason, he pulled a portable digital recorder from his pocket and pointed it toward the dimly-lit Okutama mountains.

“Ah! N-no, stop! Don’t touch my butt! Don’t pull down my underwear! My butt!”

He placed a hand next to his ear and waited the few seconds for the reply.

“Ah. N-no, stop. Don’t touch my butt. Don’t pull down my underwear. My butt.”

The echo returned in a milder form.

…''Such deep meaning.

''Can you hear this, mountain trees, the earth, and all of nature? This is what I once did not have.

Nodding at that, he sat back down.

“But what I have with me now is not the real deal. And that includes myself. That is why I am taking this solitary journey and why I have given myself an assignment. …I will make myself the real deal.”

He shallowly closed his eyes and thought of an important person.

He then brought his right hand to his chest and muttered to himself.

“Around ten years ago, I lost my father and was almost killed by my mother.”

He frowned and strength gathered in the hand on his chest.

The usual pain filled the depths of his chest there.

The pain seemed to disturb all of the blood circulating his body. He had not felt this definite pain for a while, but…

“…”

He took a deep breath and forced it down.

He gently raised his left hand and spread his fingers in front of his face.

“I trained my body in order to sweep away that past, but this broken left fist…while it can hold a weapon, I unfortunately still cannot clench it into a fist, Shinjou-kun.”

He smiled bitterly.

He swung his left fist toward the tree behind him.

“…”

But without him telling it to, the fist slowed down and stopped before reaching the tree trunk.

On a subconscious level, he feared that phantom pain.

He sent a bitter laugh into the sky.

“How pathetic. Shinjou-kun, you understand the issue in your body and are attempting to mature, but I am simply dragging around my chest pains and left fist without changing a thing.”

He then muttered a rejection of that.

“No, this is my only chance. After all, you are sure to find something in Sakai. And whether you find success or failure, you will continue forward. If I am to be the one to accept you back, I must reach that same level. …And this is my only chance. I am alone now, so I can settle my past without worrying anyone else.”

He carved those words into his heart.

…''I will pursue my parents’ footsteps.

He told himself he would no longer look away from the truth. He could not afford to do so anymore.

It was necessary for the Leviathan Road.

It was necessary to no longer fear his own pain.

It was necessary to reach the same level as the one he cared for.

…''It is necessary for everything about me. And…

“And this is how I will gain my past. …But what about Kazami and the others? Will they be able to use the past to rethink their current selves?”

He opened his eyes and faced forward.

At some point, the sky had grown very bright. With the darkness gone…

“Questioning myself like this feels rather embarrassing.”

He smiled bitterly and the smile only grew.

''Why was I speaking to myself for so long?'' he wondered.

…''I used to be much better at restraining myself when I was alone.

“I have grown weak,” he muttered happily. “I have grown weak, Shinjou-kun. After meeting you and living with you, I have grown weak. I have simply been hiding it from you…no, you have simply not tried to notice it.”

He put away his things and placed the bag on his back, but brought a hand to his chest.

He thought of the past as he faced eastward. He could no longer see anything but mountains in the distance.

…''It was in an unseen place beyond those mountains that my mother almost killed me.

He thought along with the pain in his chest.

…''Why do I feel this pain?

“That is a simple matter.”

He recalled something. It was the same thing he had recalled to escape Atsuta’s Art of Walking when battling 2nd-Gear.

Long ago, his family had been whole and had smiled.

His father had been very reliable and his mother had been kind and gentle.

He had not shared this memory with anyone since losing them.

…''Why?

''Why did you die?

''Why am I still alive?

He did not need to worry about it. He was happy now and there was no need to question that happiness.

But the reason for his chest pains and the phantom pain in his fist was there.

…''Why?

He had asked himself that a long time ago. Since Shinjou had arrived and since he had grown serious, he had hidden that question, but he stood with it in his heart once more. He held his chest and frowned.

“I will go find the answer. Father, mother, I will follow after you, surpass your unseen forms, and continue on with only a quick glance toward you. And wait for me, Shinjou-kun. I want to be with you again, but only after I can survive without you. If I can do that…”

He held his chest as he began to walk once more.

“The world’s greatest happiness will be mine.”

The world was broken.

The night sky blazed red and a city crumbled and burned.

Something walked along a wide road in the collapsing city that sent sprays of fire into the air.

It was someone with no form. It was nothing but a gaze.

The gaze weakly climbed the tilted asphalt and reached the peak.

“…Eh?”

Only then did the gaze realize it was in a burning city.

“Eh? W-wait. Um, when did I end up here? All I did was secretly strip naked in the futon and go to sleep. Don’t tell me that made me turn invisible.”

Heo, the owner of the gaze, quickly looked in every direction.

However, her wandering gaze stopped when it spotted something in the scenery: a collapsed traffic light.

The traffic light’s base had crumbled when the asphalt had tilted and its lights had gone dark, but the sign below it gave the place name.

“Osaka Castle?”

She faced forward.

A building was gently tilted toward the broken road Heo stood on.

Beyond it were the remnants of an elevated roadway and a river.

Beyond those was a small mountain.

The mountain was formed from the accumulated rubble of a collapsed structure.

It was dark and cracked and the light of a fire leaked out from within.

That was when Heo first felt the wind.

It felt more like a scorching rush of air than a hot wind.

As the racing wave of heat washed over the trees lining the street, their leaves instantly turned to ash.

Even the metal street signs, store signs, and traffic lights instantly lost their paint and bent like melting hard candy.

…''What is this?

It was the hot gusts of wind produced in a disaster-stricken city.

Heo then realized what exactly she was seeing.

…''The Great Kansai Earthquake.

This was thanks to Baku. The small creature had taken a liking to her at the hospital before arriving at Hiba’s dojo and he was showing her an image of the past.

The night after the Black Sun battle, Heo had seen her great-grandfather’s past in a dream.

''This is the second time,'' she realized while looking around.

She saw a mountain and sea of destruction and it all matched what Sayama had described.

Her father had died here and so had Harakawa, Hiba, and Sayama’s fathers.

They were likely the reason she was having this dream. The night before, they had looked at the photograph of her great-grandfather and the others that Brunhild had brought. Mikage’s mother had also been in the photo and they had discussed it.

The photograph had contained a few dozen people in front of a mountain range. In addition to the main force of old UCAT, it seemed to include their families and the people with normal posts as well. They had not known who anyone was outside of Chao and their own relatives, so they had been forced to discuss it and use the process of elimination.

The man with pale hair in the very front had been Hiba’s grandfather. Next to him was Hiba’s grandmother Toshi and next to her was Thunderson. The man in a military uniform on the left of the back row had been Sayama’s grandfather. To the right from there had been Chao, a man who was probably Izumo’s grandfather, and then Ooshiro’s father. There were a few Arabs in the photo, but they had concluded Abram was the biggest one and not the man who looked more like a doctor or a cook.

Behind them all, a man had been sitting alone on a raised tree branch and facing the mountain range in the background. The hair on the back of his head suggested he was an old man and his left arm had been missing.

…''That was Professor Kinugasa Tenkyou.

She wondered what kind of person he had been and Sayama was currently working toward that answer.

They were simply seeing an image of him cut out of the past.

It was likely their thoughts then that had led Baku to show her the past now.

But she belatedly began to worry about Harakawa.

None of his relatives had been in the photo and he had remained silent the night before.

Sayama had said to search for their pasts…

…''But what about Harakawa?

He said nothing about his relatives. He never said what had happened with his father or grandfather.

However, his father’s grave was near her father’s and his father had also died in the secondary damages of the Great Kansai Earthquake.

…''He’s the same.

Heo nodded in her heart.

“Sayama said he saw his parents and some others entering the city.”

In that case…

“Were my father and Harakawa’s father there too?”

As soon as she asked that, someone suddenly appeared next to her.

A man landed on the top of the tilted asphalt with such force that she was afraid they would collide.

He had a medium build, he wore a combat vest, and his long black hair blew in the wind. He wore a Japanese sword scabbard on his back and held a drawn Japanese-style Cowling Sword in his hand.

He had laughter on his lips and he let out a shout while looking around.

“Ha ha ha! If you’re a man, then come at me! If you can take me on, I’ll admit you’re powerful!!”

Speed fell upon the surrounding area in response.

Five figures appeared after apparently jumping down from the surrounding collapsed buildings. They maintained a distance of ten meters while forming a circle around the man.

All of their black leather combat coats swelled out to an odd extent and they held blades that resembled machetes and were over a meter long.

They had artificial bodies and wielded cowling blades.

The man looked across the five men who looked up from below the raised asphalt.

“So the challengers look up at the ruler from below, hm? Then let me tell you something: a true man does not look up at or down on anyone.”

The man had been standing next to Heo, but the next thing she knew, he had leaped toward one of the artificial body soldiers in front of him.

She heard him speak as he did so.

“I’ll do this head-on. The position of the Five Great Peaks may have been quickly created just for this battle, but I’ll fulfill my role. I’m the temporary manager of Japanese UCAT’s Independent Action Division. The name’s Hiba Ryuuichi.”

That name surprised Heo.

…''Eh?

Once her confusion caught up with the facts before her eyes, Ryuuichi was already rushing toward another soldier to the right.

Her vision could not keep up. All she managed was seeing the first man Ryuuichi leaped toward suddenly fall to his knees.

That first man collapsed almost without warning.

Ryuuichi then tried to hit the man to the right with a backhand sword strike, but the four remaining men, including the one being attacked, took action.

The targeted one intercepted while the other three chose to attack.

Ryuuichi’s target ran right to put some distance between them and swung up the machete in his right hand. The mechanically-enhanced arm lifted the flat blade to slice Ryuuichi’s body in two from below.

The remaining three used the rising asphalt in the center as cover and prepared their left arms.

Thick metal tubes protruded from below their hands. The caliber looked the same as a machinegun.

…''Are they going to defeat their enemy without worrying about the one being targeted!?

That meant their enemy was worth enough to sacrifice one of their own.

However, Ryuuichi still took a step toward the artificial body soldier swinging the large machete.

He moved to cut down the man. Even if he dodged the blade, the bullets were coming, so Heo gasped.

But with a carefree voice, Ryuuichi placed a foot up on the machete blade.

“Eh?”

Heo watched the movements of his feet.

…''It’s like he’s climbing a staircase.

He placed his feet on the quickly rising blade, his hips floated up, and he lifted his body.

The blade was moving too quickly for Heo to see, but Ryuuichi’s movements looked awfully slow.

He stood on top of the rising blade.

He caught its strength, shrunk down his body as the blade rose, and…

“!”

The other three men began to fire once they realized what Ryuuichi was doing.

The bullets flew, but the mechanical arm raising the machete was faster.

A moment later, Hiba Ryuuichi used the momentum of the machete to leap back toward the other three.

He flipped through the air above the flying bullets, gunshots, Heo’s consciousness, the three men trying to raise their guns, and everything else.

The artificial body soldier with the machete was struck by his comrades’ bullets and was blown away.

However, Heo tried to view all of Ryuuichi’s actions this time. She looked up, turned around, looked down, and saw the man’s long hair flowing behind him as if in the wind.

He landed behind the other three. They were in a line and he was behind the farthest left one from Heo’s perspective.

That leftmost artificial body soldier turned to the right and threw a backhand blow with the machete in his right hand.

The central soldier responded by leaping backwards while making a similar backhand blow with the blade in his right hand.

The rotating backhands approached Ryuuichi from either side.

Then, the rightmost soldier made an attack to make absolutely sure. He spun around and fired his machinegun between the other two attacks.

The sound of slicing wind mixed with gunfire.

…''There’s no way he can avoid this!

But Ryuuichi reacted to it all.

He had his back to Heo and thick blades were arriving from his front left and back right.

As he stood up after his leap, he suddenly threw his body to the left.

“…!?”

Heo just about cried out that he was going to be hit, but his movement changed once he arrived right next to the arriving blade.

He slipped to the right in order to jump over the blade on that side.

…''Oh.

She understood the idea behind his evasive action.

In the intersection between the two blades, there was nowhere to evade.

But if he moved toward one or the other, a gap would open up.

By using that gap as space to move and by buying some time before the blades met, he could jump over and evade the right blade.

However, the created space was less than ten centimeters.

And that was not the only problem. The blade would try to move into the opened space.

…''So he has to move even faster than the blade.

Beyond Heo’s unease, Ryuuichi’s body spun around.

He flipped quickly to the right without ever placing his hands on the ground.

He used the height difference between the two blades to twist his flipping body through.

A few tufts of hair were cut away and the bottom of his combat vest was split.

…''His flip isn’t strong enough.

His body was slipping through, but he wasn’t rotating quickly enough.

Knowing he would be cut in two, Heo tried to close her vision even though she had no eyelids.

But in that instant, Ryuuichi placed a hand on the left blade even as he flipped.

He caught its strength and gently wrapped his palm around the blade.

“!!”

He quickly rotated over the right blade and shot away from the left blade.

He made it through.

“Wow,” said the voice of Heo’s consciousness.

…''But the machinegun.

The bullets were still coming.

''He has no way to avoid them,'' she thought.

Immediately afterwards, she heard his voice.

“Don’t make me go to so much trouble!!”

He swung his sword horizontally as he landed from his side flip and he rotated his body as he did so.

However, he lacked the necessary reach. The sword’s blade was long but not long enough to reach his three enemies.

Nevertheless, the attack reached them.

“!?”

Light raced along the path of the sword. The pale light shot through the air like a swift wave.

…''It even reached the roadway and surrounding buildings!?

The elevated roadway’s supporting columns were nearly five meters thick and the buildings over twenty stories tall, but the horizontal cut ran straight through them.

The sound of an explosion rang out.

The men with artificial bodies had their torsos cut through at the waist and the buildings were sliced through as easily as tofu.

The elevated roadway slid down from above the cut and the buildings collapsed as if sinking inwards.

The reverberating sound resembled a waterfall.

Everywhere the cut had reached crumbled in the same way.

And by that time, Ryuuichi had already sheathed the sword on his back.

He had won.

He raised his head while surrounded by the sounds of buildings crumbling to the ground, of scattering metal fragments, and of motors racing fruitlessly.

“You did a good job, Tsukuyomi Arihito.”

But even after the man had overwhelmed his enemies, Heo saw him frown and looked up into the sky.

…''What is he looking at?

She looked up as well, but she saw something else first.

“Ah.”

It was a blue mechanical dragon.

It resembled American UCAT’s mechanical dragons, but it was a little different. The shapes of the components were not quite as streamlined and she could sense its age.

The dragon wrapped wind around itself and passed by at extreme low altitude in a split-second.

It was moving quickly, but Heo saw a certain image as strongly as if it had been burned into her retinas. She saw the person sitting in the cockpit.

It was a man wearing a blue armored uniform.

“Dad!?”

After it passed by, she turned to see it shaking its tail.

The sky reflected the burning color of the city and the blue dragon grew more distant. And as if pursuing that dragon, a group of gray mechanical dragons flew up from the shadows of the burning city.

Heo saw the blue dragon tear through the sky in a rising arc. The gray dragons descended in an opposite arc and they crossed paths in an instant.

“———————”

The gray dragons became blooming flowers of red light in the sky.

Repeated explosions rumbled like distant thunder, but new gray dragons ascended to pursue the blue one.

That was when Heo saw the stars in the sky.

…''Eh?

She realized she had not seen those stars until now.

The fire may have been creating thick clouds in the sky because there was a clear division between where the stars were visible and where they were not. Heo’s attention was entirely stolen by those stars that seemed horribly out of place.

…''And yet I didn’t even see them before.

She tried to look up into the sky, but that was all she managed.

She realized the surrounding scenery was twisting and growing dark.

The past was ending.

Realizing that, she tried to gather her thoughts on what she had seen.

“So was my dad fighting in a mechanical dragon?”

…''Why? What was he fighting for?

She only knew that a battle had occurred in Osaka on the night of the earthquake and that her father had died there.

Sayama had said that battle was likely fought with the group that preceded the Army.

…''Then why was this hidden?

There was no one there to answer that question, so her mind fell into the darkness without knowing.

She was waking from the past.

Heo sprang up from her futon.

“…!?”

The scene entering her eyes was too incongruous with what she had seen a moment before.

She was in a dimly-lit room.

…''This is a room in Hiba’s grandfather’s house.

She saw Mikage curled up in a futon, Brunhild sleeping in a yukata with her futon pushed off of her, and a basket sitting by her own pillow.

When she saw the small creature sleeping on its back in the basket, Heo came to her senses.

She felt her pulse race through her entire body and she trembled.

She remembered a certain fact concerning Baku: other people would see the past he showed you.

…''Harakawa!

He was sleeping in the neighboring boys room. If she opened the sliding screen dividing the rooms, she would find him.

She wanted to hear his opinion and she wanted to compare her thoughts with his, so she jumped from her futon, opened the screen, and entered the next room.

The identically shaped room contained two futons. Her impatient mind realized it was so dark because the storm shutter was closed, but that was all she noticed.

“Harakawa!”

Someone sat up within one of the futons.

It was Harakawa. He pulled a hand from his yukata pocket, placed it on his chin, and turned a puzzled look her way.

“Heo Thunderson, what are you-…”

She relaxed a little when their eyes met.

She almost leaped toward him as she ran the short distance and climbed on top of his pushed back blanket.

The shock and unease from her dream produced a series of words from her mouth.

“U-um, it happened again while I was asleep. It was the second time and I thought I was used to it, but I tried to cry out but couldn’t and, um, everything was so hot and falling apart, so…um…”

“Stop confessing whatever nonsensical dream you had and calm down, Heo Thunderson.”

She felt his hand in the hair on the back of her head. He almost seemed to grab her scalp as he pressed her face into his chest.

…''Ah.

It surprised her, but she also managed to calm down.

She smiled a little as the blanket tickled her skin and she took a deep breath to calm down further. The past she had seen played back in her head.

…''That was…

Her father and the others had been fighting.

Despite her close connection to the man she had seen, she did not know why, she did not know who else had been there, and she did not know what had led to all that. All she knew was what Sayama had said.

…''UCAT fought a battle during the Great Kansai Earthquake.

“What does it all mean?”

“I don’t know either, Heo Thunderson. After all, I’m a newcomer. And so are you. Also, don’t make so much noise. You’ll wake Hiba.”

“Eh?”

She looked to the other futon and saw Hiba wiggling back and forth inside it.

“Nnn, ahhh! The car! The car! It’s so round!!”

“Harakawa, he’s repeating a joke and he’s become completely unintelligible.”

“Don’t nitpick how other people’s brains work, Heo Thunderson. Also…”

She felt his hand loosen on her head, so she looked up and found his eyes right in front of her.

She tilted her head at close range.

“What is it?”

“Look behind you for a second.”

She twisted her shoulders and turned her head backwards as instructed.

[[Image:OnC_v10_0277.jpg|thumb]]

Confused, she saw Harakawa’s futon blanket and something skin-colored and round on top of it.

She tried to figure out what that was.

“A butt?”

“That’s exactly right, but why are you naked, Heo Thunderson?”

Once he pointed it out, she realized she was indeed naked.

The phrase “how could you?” reached her mind before the phrase “what have I done?”.

“————!”

She gave a wordless scream and grabbed a nearby object to hide herself. That object happened to be the blanket covering Harakawa.

But that meant…

“Hey, wait. Don’t climb into my futon!”

“B-but you’ll see me naked! I’m unprotected!”

She hid between Harakawa and the blanket as if clinging to his body and she looked up at him.

He frowned as he lay below her with their bodies almost overlapping.

“What’s the point of hiding?”

“S-sorry, but can I borrow this blanket to go to the next room?”

“And leave me in the cold?”

“U-um, then I’ll, uh, warm you up myself.”

“Think about what the words mean before you use them, Heo Thunderson.”

Heo hung her head and nodded.

He sighed.

“Well, just get going. It sounds like Hiba’s still in his disturbing dream world, so I don’t think he’s noticed.”

“S-sorry. I’ll find a way to thank you later.”

“Then you take dinner duty today.”

He sat up a little and patted her head a few times with a look of exasperation.

“But make it something exciting. Things have been gloomy around here lately, so make some fried chicken or something and we can all eat it together.”

“Oh, okay. I know a good spice recipe, so that’s fine.”

She began to stand up, but then she felt a gaze on her from the side.

She looked over and saw Hiba. His head was poking out of his futon and he was rubbing his eyes sleepily.

“Oh, good morning, Harakawa-san and-…”

He trailed off and his expression froze.

''Eh?'' thought Heo as the boy looked directly at her and Harakawa.

She was lying naked on top of Harakawa and they even had the blanket placed across them.

…''Um…

Just as she prepared to explain the situation, Hiba jumped to his feet.

“H-has the Eros Road to the Eros World finally opened in the real world!?”

“Calm down, Hiba Ryuuji.”

“Wh-where’s the entrance!? I want to… I want to dive into that other world! L-like this!!”

“I said to calm down, Hiba Ryuuji. There is no entrance to anywhere like that.”

However, Hiba twisted around and pointed both his index fingers toward them.

“Th-then what do you think you’re doing there!? Damn, I’m so jealous!”

“You’re supposed to keep one of those opinions a secret, Hiba Ryuuji. Just to be clear, this is a misunderstanding.”

“B-but Harakawa-san! I’ve caught you red-handed, you immoral person!”

“H-he is not immoral!!” shouted Heo. “H-he is a very straightforward person! I’m sure he needs more than a kid like me! He would probably only be satisfied with an adult who can only be described with the word ‘boing’. That’s right! Boing! Boiiing!!”

“I get the feeling you’re rejecting a part of my personality here, Heo Thunderson. And don’t use so many sound effects.”

“But!”

Heo rose up to protest, but that caused the blanket to fall off of her.

“————!”

Just as she swallowed a scream and frantically pulled the blanket toward her, she heard a sudden sound.

Something was banging on the storm shutter from the outside.

She could only think of one reason to cause so much noise at a time like this.

“A pervert?”

“I-it isn’t me, probably! I-it really probably isn’t me, right!?”

After Hiba’s desperate denial, Heo heard another sound.

This one was of destruction.

But it was different from the sounds in her dream. It was the sound of wood splitting and breaking.

…''Eh?

Her question was followed by a wind that chilled her even through the blanket.

“What is going on?”

She poked her head from the blanket and looked.

The wind was coming from where the storm shutter had been, but it was now entirely open and the early morning light and wind came in.

The twilight outlined the faint silhouette of a man.

He was a skinny old man with long black hair.

“My name is Yonkichi,” he said in inappropriately old-fashioned speech. “I take it you are awake.”

Heo heard those words and felt Harakawa’s arm wrap around her waist.

…''This is…

She knew what was happening. There was only one reason he would pull her close and try to protect her.

And Yonkichi gave that reason with a bitter smile of resignation.

“It is time to fight, ladies and gentlemen.”

The word “fight” reminded her of the dream and she gasped.

However…

“Why do we have to fight?”

“Because it is fun. For us, anyway.”

“B-but what about for us!?” she replied from below the blanket.

“Well,” said Yonkichi with a nod. “Your first reward is the Concept Core, but it would seem Sayama-sama has yet to inform you of the second reward. As one of the four brothers, I will explain it once more. When you defeat us, we will tell you a little of what we know of the past.”

Heo heard what she most wanted at the moment.

“We fought in that battle in Osaka, so if you defeat us, we will leave you with a small piece of that memory. Yes, the memory of the past that created the current UCAT and your current situation!”

Heo sucked in a breath.

…''What do we do!?

She knew they had an enemy and she knew they would gain something by defeating that enemy.

…''But…

However, Yonkichi took action with no concern for her thoughts.

He raised his right arm without losing the bitter smile.

“Now, get up!”

Before his short sentence had even ended, a corner of the house exploded.

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Owari no Chronicle:Volume8 Chapter 6

2015-12-20T04:55:21Z

128.177.161.146: /* Chapter 6: Door of Misapprehension */

==Chapter 6: Door of Misapprehension==
[[Image:OnC_v08_0179.png|thumb]]
''Something is coming

''It is based in misunderstanding

''But it brings the truth closer

Harakawa faced the futon in the living room.

It was curled up like a turtle on the tatami mat floor and a blonde girl’s head was sticking out.

“How long are you going to do this, Heo Thunderson?”

“Until my clothes dry.”

He noticed a small bit of strength in her voice.

After he had returned, she had jumped into the futon and had been crying for about ten minutes now.

It had been plenty of time for him to realize what it meant for the washing machine to have entered the spin cycle.

…''I can’t tell if she’s considerate, unrestrained, or just stupid.

As he thought, he saw her raise her head. Her eyebrows were slightly lowered, but there were no more tears in her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she said weakly. “I’m just being a bother, so I’ll leave once my clothes dry.”

“As long as you understand. I really do have to get to school.”

He stood up, removed the apartment key from his motorcycle keychain, and placed it on the living room table. As he did, the stones making up his bracelet clacked together.

“Ah,” said Heo. “Um, Harakawa?”

“What is it?”

“Um… Did you happen to see a necklace made of stones like that?”

He thought about what she meant. He had seen nothing of the sort when he had taken her in last night, he had not seen it when removing her clothes and dressing her, and he had not found it when searching her pockets for some kind of identification.

“No, I didn’t see anything like that. Do you want this?”

“N-no, that isn’t what I meant,” she said. “But I got it from my mother.”

“Is that so? That’s the same as me.”

“Eh?”

She tilted her head and he showed her his bracelet.

“My mother makes these as a hobby. She always loved these kinds of crafts and she seems to think of them like protective charms. If yours is the same…”

He was going to say “I hope you find it”, but he swallowed the words.

…''Why am I getting even more involved?

“…”

He stood up without saying a word more, turned his back to Heo, and began to leave the living room.

He suddenly found himself curious about the look on her face behind him.

…''What a lovely story.

He only now realized this was much like taking in a cat. He did not know what she was thinking, but she would cause problems when he was careless and escape to some comfortable place if he was more cautious.

He gathered his thoughts, and asked a question with his back turned.

“What were you running from last night?”

“Eh? Oh, that was…well…a demon.”

''I see,'' he thought while finally making up his mind. ''She really is a dangerous girl.

If she were a cat, this was like taking in one with distemper. He had carelessly given her food that morning, he had given her the bath for grooming, and she had now taken the sleeping space for herself, but he would do nothing else for her. If she had given a different answer to his question, he might have brought her to the police for help, but he could only sigh and leave the living room.

He then heard the futon move behind him.

He turned and saw Heo with the futon gathered around her like a gown.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, uh, I thought I would see you off.”

“Just stay there,” he replied with a frown.

But then a sudden knock came to the front door and a boy’s sharp voice entered the room.

“Dan Harakawa! We have your apartment surrounded from a single direction! Come out this very instant!”

“S-Sayama-kun, that doesn’t count as being surrounded.”

“We are simply using different definitions, Shinjou-kun. …Okay, Harakawa. Hurry on out. If you do not, I will greet you! Good morning, commoners!!! Oh, no. I have such a superhuman love of people that I greeted the entire public rather than just you. What am I doing!?”

…''An idiot has arrived.

Once he came to that single realization, Harakawa emptied his mind of thought.

Several problems had just occurred at the same moment and he would panic if he tried to think about them all at once.

He had two primary things to think about: the idiot outside the door and Heo.

Heo was currently giving him a confused look.

“Um, Harakawa? My Japanese isn’t good enough to understand what that person is saying.”

“That proves that your Japanese is excellent, Heo Thunderson.”

Harakawa recalled a dangerous fact about his return to the apartment.

…''I was only going to return the key, so I didn’t lock the door.

Just as he cursed his carelessness, he heard another voice from outside.

“Huh? Harakawa-kun, the door isn’t locked.”

“Hey, wait, Chisato. It looks like the door’s open. Stop preparing to break it down with a flying kick.”

“Eh? I-I wasn’t preparing for anything. I just wanted to practice my running start.”

“Ha ha ha. At any rate, we have quite a careless boy on our hands. We need to do the considerate thing and drag him out.”

…''You’re coming in? And why are the student council president and treasurer here too?

Harakawa gave a shout to hold them off and buy some time.

“I’m just about to leave! Don’t come in!”

“Ha ha ha. Did you hear that, Shinjou-kun? Harakawa just lied.”

“Don’t just assume that without question!!”

He had two options: lock the door now, or…

“H-Harakawa, if they come in, they’ll see me naked.”

…''Or hide this girl.

He had no idea what would happen if it came out that he was late for school because he had a naked blonde girl in his apartment. The Weekly Rose Taka had been doing quite well recently and had increased its copies sold within the school with an extra edition dedicated to scandals.

The safest option was to lock the door and hide Heo somewhere before they broke through the lock.

However, his options were instantly cut in half.

The doorknob had been turned.

“…!”

Rather than making an actual decision, his reflexes kicked in and he picked Heo up.

“Eh? Ah…hyan!”

With a weak cry, she pulled back her shoulders and the futon fell away.

“Moron! Don’t drop it!”

“B-but you grabbed me in a place that’s sensitive thanks to that strange shampoo.”

He tried not to think about what that meant as he ran across the room with her in his arms. He reached the closet on the west side of the living room, opened the sliding door with his foot, and set his sights on the bottom shelf. It contained a spare futon and…

“There are snacks in the back, so eat something.”

He tossed Heo inside and she gave another shriek.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

Before he could answer, the front door opened.

At the same time, he closed the sliding closet door.

The sound of the sliding door hitting the column and the sound of the student council members stepping inside occurred simultaneously.

Silence then fell.

He turned and did indeed see those four famous students standing in his front door.

“Why are you here?”

Shinjou nodded while holding a travel bag in one hand.

“Ooki-sensei says you need to attend class.”

“I was just about to leave. Can’t you see I’m wearing my uniform?”

“Harakawa, can you prove that is not a school uniform style of pajamas?”

“Sayama, can you prove you are not completely insane for asking that?”

Hearing that, Shinjou hung her head.

“No, he can’t.”

“Ha ha ha. You are exactly right, Shinjou-kun. Harakawa cannot prove those clothes are not pajamas.”

“I wasn’t replying to you!!”

Harakawa relaxed his shoulders.

…''So it’s only a pointless visit.

As soon as he realized that, Kazami spoke.

“Was there someone in here? I thought I heard people speaking.”

Izumo then asked a question of Harakawa who stood motionless in front of the closet’s sliding door.

“And when we came in…Harakawa, was it? Anyway, did you throw something in there that looked a lot like a person?”

Sweat slowly appeared on Harakawa’s back.

…''This is dangerous.

He then heard a whispering voice from beyond the sliding door.

“U-um, Harakawa. It’s dark in here. Hot and stuffy, too.”

He ignored her. She was whispering, so she seemed to understand why he had thrown her in there. She would also be hesitant to leave because she was naked.

The current problem was how to escape the fact that they had seen her.

“That was…”

He thought, but there was not much that was human-sized and human-colored.

…''Not much other than an actual human.

Just as he thought it was hopeless, he heard Sayama’s voice.

“I seriously doubt it, but was it a life-sized figure?”

He just barely kept himself from calling Sayama an idiot and instead nodded.

“What if it was?”

“There is nothing wrong with it. Everyone has their own preferences, after all. I have been thinking about making one myself.”

“What kind of one?”

“One of Shinjou-kun, of course.”

He looked over and saw Shinjou blushing and saying, “Eh? Really?” After seeing those two eccentric boys, he relaxed a little.

…''I see.

The group here was apparently even more unusual than he had thought. Even if he had made a life-sized figure, it was still on too small a scale to match them.

But Kazami destroyed that relaxation.

“Then why did I hear talking?”

Harakawa groaned.

This was a second crisis and he could not talk his way out of it this time. A conversation was more than enough to prove that he was hiding a person.

''What do I do?'' he asked himself. ''Should I bring Heo out and tell the truth? And should I tell them I’m not sure what to do about it either?

…''What do I do!?

He clenched his teeth and saw Izumo crouch down, tilt his head, and whisper to Kazami.

“Hey, Chisato. You should probably stop that. I bet he’s a sad kind of person who talks to his dolls like Old Man Ooshiro.”

For the second time, Harakawa had to stop himself from calling someone an idiot, but he also felt it would be for the best if they settled on that.

“And look carefully, Chisato,” continued Izumo. “There’s a futon in the middle of the living room, right? He must’ve been using the doll to…y’know.”

“Y-you’re right, Kaku.”

Kazami whispered back, glanced toward the kitchen, and quickly looked away.

She pulled Izumo’s collar closer and whispered some more.

“Hey, Kaku. Look in the kitchen but make sure he doesn’t notice. A girl’s clothes and underwear are drying in there. They must be for dressing it up. …I really shouldn’t have expected a normal person to be Sayama’s friend.”

“Y’know…” Shinjou joined in the whispering and looked troubled. “I’m really surprised that Harakawa-kun is into that kind of thing. B-but I guess everyone is entitled to their personal preferences.”

…''I never thought ''I’d'' be hearing that from ''you.

However, that used up everything they could use to question him further.

Feeling mentally exhausted, he left the closet door. He now had to drive them out as quickly as possible. To pretend nothing was out of the ordinary, he picked up the fallen futon and slowly folded it.

As he did, he glanced over at the others.

“Get out already. I’ll be right to school.”

“Oh, we do not mind waiting here, Harakawa. Also, your laundry has yet to dry and the washing machine is still spinning. If we let you use that as an excuse to skip school, we would be unable to look Ooki-sensei in the eye.”

Harakawa glared at Sayama’s expressionless face.

“Do not worry about us,” continued the boy. “If you can give us some tea, that will suffice.”

Heo crouched down in the darkness.

''This isn’t good. This isn’t good,'' she thought twice while holding her knees.

She did not like or dislike the darkness, but she did not much like being thrown into it against her will.

She had never been punished like that even when she had done something wrong. She would instead be thrown outside and she would have no choice but to run through the fields for fun.

In her memories, contrails always filled the sky.

Her mother had only ever told her that her father was a pilot. That had been long ago when she had still been in Japan, but she had very few memories of that time.

…''What am I supposed to do?

Outside the closet, Harakawa was speaking with the friends who had arrived. The conversation had a dangerous edge to it that had been absent when he had spoken with her.

She found it nice to be able to sense his emotions. She could tell he was trying to get rid of her, but she also wished there was some kind of feeling behind it.

…''That’s asking for too much.

Not even she could believe what had happened the night before, but he had heard her out and accepted that ''something'' had happened. She told herself that was enough.

However, it was hot. It may have been due to the sun coming out, her own body temperature, the enclosed space, or a combination of them all, but it was horribly hot and stuffy in the closet.

She curiously touched the futon below her butt and found it was damp with sweat.

''I wonder if he’ll scold me,'' she thought while shrinking back.

When she pressed her back against the back of the closet, she could tell her sweat was soaking into the thin wooden wall.

It was a little hard to breath.

''This isn’t good,'' she thought again while noticing her throat felt a bit dry.

…''But if I left, it would cause trouble for Harakawa.

She had already caused him enough trouble and he had been fairly considerate, so she had to endure for the moment.

Still, it was hot, so she closed her eyes and let out a breath.

She held her own body, gathered the sweat between her fingers, and moved it down her skin. She felt as if something were rolling down her side and waist. It tickled.

“Nn…”

She let out a voice and she heard speaking outside the closet.

“Huh? Did you just hear a strange voice, Sayama-kun?”

“I assumed you made it, Shinjou-kun.”

…''O-oh, no.

She shrank back further, her pulse quickened bit, and she had even more difficulty breathing.

She had not done anything, and yet sweat poured down her forehead.

''This isn’t good,'' she thought a third time.

She had worked up a sweat running last night and now this. She felt her body was starting to sweat more easily. In school, she had learned that Japan had a warm and damp climate. She had also learned Japan’s famous giant Buddha statues were mostly half naked because the country was as hot and humid as a sauna.

And in health class, she had learned that people died when they lost an extreme amount of water.

…''Will I die if this keeps up?

She wanted hydration, so she wished she could have absorbed the shower water like a plant. Or perhaps she should have drunk the water.

“…”

She suddenly groped around in the hopes of finding something.

She found a shelf along the closet wall. A large shelf covered the entire wall and it contained lots of paperback books, but she did not need them now. However, she did wonder why they were there.

As she wondered and continued searching, she felt a slightly hard bag below the shelf. She realized it contained junk food and a possible flavor came to mind.

…''My throat.

Thinking of the famous super-spicy flavor named “My Saltiness” had been a mistake. She had once had a horrible experience when her great-grandfather had bought it as a joke.

She wondered if there was anything to drink. Harakawa had said she could eat something, so if there were drinks to go with it…

“…”

She found it. She stopped breathing for a moment when she felt the metal can between the bags of junk food.

It was a 350 mL can of something. The shape told her it was a drink and not boiled mackerels, sardines in oil, or spam.

…''Thank goodness.

She held the can in both hands and curled up against the wall. She lowered her head in silent thanks and slowly tugged on the pull-tab. To muffle the noise as much as possible, she folded up an edge of the futon and pressed the can against it as she opened it.

The quiet sound of carbonation was enough for her to feel the refreshment, so she smiled in the darkness.

She then realized her smile was tilting.

…''Ah.

She was losing her balance. Her dehydration was catching up to her, so her body was not working properly.

''Oh, no,'' she thought.

She wanted to leave today, hopefully find the necklace her mother had given her, and head to the station, but she could not do any of it if she collapsed again.

…''And I’ll cause more trouble for Harakawa.

She hung her head and forcibly shook it.

She decided to drink. The flavor of the drink would likely focus her and hydrating herself would steady her and allow her to leave.

She brought the can to her mouth and drank.

“…”

Her throat told her it was very bitter and she almost choked.

“…”

She held her throat and gulped.

After letting out a slow breath, she looked at the can in her hands.

She could not see it well in the darkness, but she knew what the contents tasted like.

…''What is this incredibly bitter carbonated drink?

At a school she had transferred to before, she had drunk some soda water to help loosen her throat before a choir recital. It had been flavorless but had stung her throat. The ginger ale she had drunk at a gas station while moving to a new home with her great-grandfather had had a rocky flavor that was almost spicy.

However, this strange bitterness was different from both of those.

''What is it? What is it?'' she thought twice.

Harakawa was only a little older than her, so she doubted his sense of taste was all that different from hers. She also doubted a canned drink could go bad, so she tried another sip.

…''It really is bitter.

It tasted the same as before. She wondered if there were any other drinks, but Harakawa probably would not like it if she opened another without finishing this one.

She felt it was her responsibility, so she took another drink.

It was bitter and it smelled like medicine when she brought it under her nose.

…''B-but it isn’t so bad I can’t drink it.

It was better than collapsing, so she slowly drank it.

The closet was still hot and she had been sweating quite a lot since she had started on the drink. She guessed the liquid had allowed her body to relax and let out the sweat.

Her pulse sounded loud too, but she guessed that was due to the heat.

She knew she had to get more liquid inside her, so she endured the bitterness and drank more from the can.

After leaving only a third of the contents, she lost to the carbonation and removed the can from her mouth.

…''It’s so hot.

However, she was not referring to the general temperature. When she felt her forehead, she found sweat and heat.

…''Oh, no.

She did not know what was happening, but she had been sweating an awful lot and she was finding it even harder to breath.

She wondered if she was sick.

No matter how many times she thought “this isn’t good”, it was not going to help. Harakawa was still speaking with his friends outside the closet. When she realized his voice was not directed at her, tears suddenly spilled from her eyes.

…''I can’t.

To suppress her voice, she brought the can back to her mouth.

She drank more, but the heat did not leave her. Her entire body felt warm and sweaty.

“Nn…”

No longer able to resist, she collapsed. She rotated her body slowly and silently and she took a crawling position on top of the futon.

The movement spilled the gathered sweat from her back, her hips, and between her thighs.

She realized this was not normal and wondered if her repeated dehydrations had messed something up.

…''Am I done for?

She propped herself up on her elbows and drank the rest of the can to get the last bit of liquid from it.

She had done everything she could, so she let out a fairly rough breath and let air in between her body and the futon by spreading her knees and lifting her butt. She pressed her face against the futon to muffle her heavy breathing and she clenched the futon cover with both hands to put up with the oppressive heat.

“Nn…”

She gently twisted her body and felt her consciousness slipping away.

…''No.

Her knowledge of wintertime mountain-climbing told her going to sleep meant death, but she still closed her eyes.

She then heard a voice outside the closet.

It was Harakawa’s voice and it seemed they had been discussing their work schedules.

“Sayama, you work part-time in Okutama, right? Your job’s related to IAI, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Shinjou-kun and the two behind me work at the same place.”

“That doesn’t matter. I’m interested in a department or something called UCAT. Ever heard of it?”

Even as she sank into her pounding pulse and sweat, Heo’s mind snapped into focus when she heard that question.

…''Harakawa.

She was relieved that he was trying to help her and the answer came after a short pause.

“Yes, I have. Let us just say it is one of the workplaces within IAI there. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, I just have something to deliver there. It’s for my job.”

“Is that so?” replied the other voice.

Heo breathed a mental sigh of relief.

…''Everything will be okay.

She had a feeling she had heard someone say something similar recently, but she slowly fell asleep before she could remember where.

The ocean looked black from up in the vast blue sky.

A single giant object was located in that sky.

''It'' had a long body made of black steel, it bent its body, and it used its giant wings to fly.

Rather than simply drifting, it actively slipped into the wind and would occasionally have fun by accelerating and breaking through the air.

It was a giant black mechanical dragon.

It had a certain thought while gazing upon the blue sky.

…''The sky is so vast.

It did not know how long it had been doing this. Its memories began when it had suddenly found itself doing this.

It did not even know its name.

''Perhaps it would be better to say I do not remember my name,'' it thought while flying.

It willfully flapped its metal wings to strike the heavy air and ascend.

As its giant body rose above the clouds, it thought some more.

…''Such a lovely sky.

It remembered almost nothing about itself, but it had a few sensations that were not quite vague memories. One of those was the sensation of the sky.

The sky that faintly remained in its mind had not had the expanses of water and land below it like this one did. Or maybe it had. It could not remember.

However, it had a feeling it had flown through a sky that continued without end.

“…”

Either way, flying was a good thing.

This sky was blue and it would turn scarlet and darken at set intervals.

During the dark times, many specks of light were visible overhead. It had once continued to ascend in order to determine what those specks were, but it had been unable to reach them. Its propulsion device functioned by perceiving forward as down and then falling. Its wings were used for control and acceleration, but its functions seemed to be limited such that it could not fly in a space without air.

After ascending to a certain point during that attempt, the force it normally felt on its wings had vanished and it had suddenly felt like it was not flying. That had been boring, so it had quit.

It wondered if it would eventually be able to make that journey and enjoy the flight.

It knew that it evolved.

It evolved by strengthening while remaining itself and remaining metal.

It used the surrounding compounds to refine the same material it was made of and use that material to increase its own size.

It made high-speed calculations to design efficient parts for itself and then remade itself accordingly.

It could add weapons or anything else.

The process could also be described as making active improvements.

When it had first woken up, it had found the bottom of the ocean before its eyes. The extreme pressure of the water had left it unable to move and it had certainly never thought about flying.

It had been injured. Or perhaps “damaged” was the better word.

Most of the damage had healed while it slept, but a few areas had not been fixed. To see what kind of parts those would be once they were fixed, it had sent extra power to them. The parts had moved.

It had then realized it was a moving being.

The first part it had realized was a part of its body and moved was its front right leg. While it had gone on to move other parts, it had learned how to swim through the water by observing the small animals around it.

Once it had left the water’s ceiling, it had found itself floating in the air.

It had wondered what was going on and the previously useless parts on its back had opened up.

They had revealed themselves to be wings.

It had realized the opened wings were steadying its position in the air and the rest had gone smoothly.

It had flown freely through the sky to test itself and it had evolved under the extreme pressure of the deep sea.

It had continued that powerful evolution as if it were its duty and that evolution had been focused on two things: the ability to fly freely and the ability to fight.

Its enemy was clear.

Among the moving creatures on this world’s land was a false humanity.

It had a definition for “human” in its mind, so it had to have had some kind of relationship with them in the past. However, it thought of the ones in this world as fakes.

It had one major reason for this.

It believed humanity had been destroyed. That fact was burned strongly into its faint memories. There was clearly something wrong if the people had not been destroyed.

It did not know why it could be so sure of something from a fragment of a memory, but it knew how it had once felt about humanity.

They had been important and it had wanted to protect them.

And it had another thought: it felt so strongly about humans and it was still alive, so surely the real humans were still alive somewhere.

It thought there had to be something that would make them appear before it again.

But what would that be?

“…”

It wanted to protect the humans, but those humans were gone and fake humans filled the world.

That led it to a certain conclusion. If it were to remove those fake humans and create a place for the real humans, would the real humans come to where it was so it could protect them again?

Would they praise it for having prepared a world for them and waiting for them?

“…”

It flew through the sky.

It wanted the time for the black sky to arrive. Black was its own color. It was a color of nothingness, the color of its powerful armor, and the color of the deep sea where it had awoken. It would use that color to remove the fake humans and it would evolve and prepare to fight.

It desired the evolution of its black wings so it could search for the real humans.

It had started to detect a nostalgic scent recently. That scent had also appeared once before it had fully awoken, but it was much stronger now.

The previous night had been especially amazing. While flying over the water while the sky was black, that scent had filled the air.

It had been so very nostalgic.

It had flown toward the scent and found the eastern side of a nearby archipelago. A small concept space had been set up there, it had altered the space to its own liking in order to hide itself, and it had found a man inside.

The old man of the fake humans had desired to fight and it had responded in kind.

After exchanging a single blow each, the man had ceased to function.

The old man had smiled.

It did not know the meaning of that smile, but it had understood what he had said as they fought.

“Black Sun.”

It knew the name the man had spoken. That name had been in its faint memories, but it had not known to whom it referred and the name had been left undefined.

The nostalgic scent had then vanished.

It did not know if the scent had vanished because the old man had stopped moving or if the scent had left to go elsewhere. More importantly, an even greater nostalgic scent had pressed in and drowned out the previous one.

An intense sense of nostalgia had washed over it.

The scent had come from the west of the island that it had landed on that night and that was located next to the ocean it always slept in.

Once its evolution had settled in, it knew it had to visit that place.

It more or less knew what the scent was. It was the scent of the world it had been born in and it was the scent of whatever had once destroyed it and put it to sleep.

“…!”

It roared.

It raised its wings, lifted the body surrounded by its armor, and roared into the sky.

It felt nothing could stand up to it now.

It evolved without hesitation and desired to fight.

And it was all for the faint memories inside itself.

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