Editing BlazBlue:Bloodedge Experience Part 1 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 4===

At that time, Naoto stood alone, vividly frozen in place.

He thought his feet were leaking. There was a nauseating smell permeating the area. Perhaps because of that, he couldn’t even clearly recall what time it was or whether it was bright or dark. What he distinctly remembered was an overwhelming terror piercing through him. It was terrifying. So very frightening.

Forgetting to cry, tremble, or scream, he barely kept his heart and lungs functioning, and in that state, he just stared at what lay close by... a black mass. It had a human shape. No, it resembled a human form. That was probably the head. It protruded slightly and was a bit round. If so, the opposite side must be the feet. The part that seemed to float slightly above the rest of the mass must be the arms. Just a moment ago, it had been the figure of Naoto’s mother.

The smell was overwhelming. It made him feel dizzy. The scent of iron. The rusted iron smell made him nauseous.

No, this was different.

It was the smell of blood.

Right next to the rolled-up black mass was something wrapped in a dull sheen, still wet. It was soaked through, yet still exposed a sharpness that couldn’t be hidden... glimmering ominously, it was...

"…When will you finally release me? Can you put me down already, you pervert?" With a tone that was more exasperated than cold, Naoto's awareness was brought back to reality.

"Oh, uh, sorry!" As he caught the half-lidded gaze that seemed to accuse him, Naoto hurriedly lowered the girl's body to the ground as gently as possible. That’s when he realized.

"Who are you calling a pervert?!"

"You, of course. Who else could it be?"

"No one else! That’s not the issue! I’m telling you, I’m not a pervert! And I’m definitely not letting you call me one!" He almost added "you naked, caped girl" but decided against it, keeping that thought to himself. No matter how excessive her perversion and her incomprehensible fashion sense, she was still his lifesaver and a girl he had just met. It already felt a bit too late for that, but he wanted to maintain a certain attitude.

Ignoring Naoto's delicate concern, the girl casually placed her hands on her hips, exposing her body without a care. Before he knew it, the sun had completely set. In the deserted apartment complex where tall buildings loomed, the enchanting colors of the lingering twilight were regrettably not very visible.

Far off, the city lights began to flicker on. It was already that time. While it was still dim enough to observe the surroundings, the night would soon fall. Once that happened, the apartment complex without any streetlights would be enveloped in darkness.

Without showing any signs of feeling cold in the chilling air, the girl stepped barefoot onto the cold pavement. She stopped in front of the dark mass that had once been a monster and, just a little while ago, a human being.

"It’s dead."

"…Yeah. Looks like it." He didn’t want to look at it too closely. Naoto replied curtly, shifting his gaze from the girl’s feet to her swaying golden hair. That hair swayed like a silk ribbon as the girl turned to look over her shoulder.

"Oh. You’re surprisingly calm, considering you just killed someone." Her tone remained flat, but there was an unexpected hint of surprise in her voice. It was surprising that she found this unexpected. Naoto grimaced as if he had swallowed something bitter.

"You’ve got to be joking. I’m actually pretty shaken up," he said.

"Hmm. Is that so?"

As he spoke, he thought it was a rather disingenuous remark. Perhaps she thought so too, as her response was a simple acknowledgment that contained neither agreement nor doubt.
Avoiding the girl’s gaze, Naoto let his eyes wander, bringing a hand to his head. He thought to himself that it couldn’t be helped, even though no one had actually said anything.

(Naturally, I would be shaken up. There’s no way I could stay calm after seeing something like this.)

With a sideways glance, Naoto turned his eyes toward the object. A black mass lying carelessly on the ground. No matter how much he had seen the man in his human form, after witnessing this state, it was impossible to think of him as "human." At this point, he had become "an object."

Was it heartless of him to feel this way?

"Well, considering what he looked like earlier, it’s not surprising to think he was human."

"Huh?" Startled by the words that seemed to see through his thoughts, Naoto looked up. For a moment, he didn’t understand the meaning. Could it be that this girl also saw the corpse as a black mass? But he quickly caught on. The man had lost his human face even before he died and lost his form. That was likely what she meant. The girl intertwined her white fingers with the ends of her long blonde hair and let it go gently.

"Anyway, he had already deteriorated too much to be saved. Sooner or later, he would have ended up like this."

(Was that... a consolation?)

It was impossible to tell if it was a soliloquy or something else from the girl’s calm tone. Naoto knew too little about her to gauge her feelings.

"And then?"

She stepped closer, stopping right in front of him, lifting her chin slightly as she looked up at Naoto with a somewhat haughty expression. Her large eyes, with their upward-sloping corners, sparkled. Naoto flinched at the color of her gaze, so close.

They were beautiful eyes. The golden irises had an ethereal quality as if peering in from another reality, and it felt as though his soul could be drawn in if he stared too long.

"Can you tell me? Who are you?"

"Who am I...? I’m just a passing high school student."

The girl’s eyes sparkled with a hint of irritation.

"A mere high school student wouldn’t just happen to wander into such a remote place."

"Well, that’s..." Naoto hesitated, unsure of how to respond. He had seen strange, powerful numbers above her head. He didn’t want to admit that. After all, she was someone who found herself in such an abnormal situation. She would likely accept his explanation without question, but that would only complicate matters further, which he didn’t want.

"More importantly, what was that guy? At one point, his face completely stopped looking human. You must know something, right?" Clearing his throat lightly, Naoto forcibly switched the topic back to himself.

The girl showed no signs of being offended by the change and responded with a simple "Ah," ready to answer. But just as she was about to continue with her response, an unsettling sound interrupted the moment.

"Tss!"

Kiti-kiti. 

A faint, unpleasant sound like an insect crawling and wriggling. The sound struggled busily, making another sound like it was forcibly tearing something apart. Naoto was the first to see and understand what it was. 

"Ugh..." Disgust escaped his lips. 

A blackened corpse, no longer moving. 

A sharp claw was plunged into its head, tearing it apart, and a bug-like creature the size of a human head was wriggling. From inside... from inside the dead man's head, the bug was crawling out like an adult emerging from a cocoon. 

It was a dull blue color, with a flat body with many segmented legs and a creepy appearance. A raised, blood-red eyeball was glaring from its head. It was more of a 'creature' than an insect. It had broken through what was once a human and was crawling out, its large jaws spreading open like bared fangs. 

"Get out of the way!" His body moved instinctively. Naoto pulled the girl's arm hard, almost reflexively. He stepped forward instead. He raised his arm, which had bounced up due to the recoil, to his shoulder as a shield. 

The next moment, as if pulled violently by an invisible force, his right arm, which he had used as a shield, was flung backward. At the same time, he felt a shock as if he had been pushed away at the shoulder. But neither sensation lasted even a second. He was immediately freed from all interference, and... 

Naoto lost weight from his right side. 

"...Huh?" 

What happened? Did he not know, or did he not want to know? 

Losing his balance, Naoto took a step back and moved his neck as if it were being twisted by someone. 

He looked at his right shoulder. It was gone. The thing that should have been there, wasn't. 

"A, ah, agh... uh, ah, ah!" 

Naoto's whole body began to tremble violently. As if something frozen was slowly melting, a slimy liquid slid out from the cut end of his missing arm. Gradually, the liquid grew thicker and spilled out, quickly spreading a red stain at Naoto's feet.

[[File:BE1-5.png|frameless|right]]

"I was careless. It had already hatched inside its body..."

Behind Naoto, the girl whispered, scooping up a splash of red that had flown onto her white cheek with her finger. She licked the red that wet her finger with her protruding tongue and swallowed it. The girl's lips smiled seductively at the taste, but neither that burning expression nor the meaning of her words reached Naoto.

Fear, pain, and such emotions had long since been blown away to the other side of his thoughts. His body just moved on its own, and he grabbed his missing right shoulder with his left hand. His little finger touched the wet flesh. The slight sensation brought him to his senses. The wound was slightly crushed. It had been torn apart. By the tough jaws of that disgusting creature.

Kiti-kiti.

Disgust made Naoto raise his gaze. The creature had returned to the front of Naoto. It landed on its broken black head with its thin legs and clapped its large jaws as if to show them off. Its jaws were covered in blood.

As if to do it again, it opened its jaws wide, and the soft flesh beneath its bluish-gray hard skin trembled and rippled its body. In response to the movement, transparent wings spread out on the creature's back. 

He hadn't looked closely before, but he must have flown in on those wings. And then it had torn off Naoto's arm. At the edge of his vision, a little further away, lay an arm still wearing a familiar uniform. Tossed aside, it looked so unreal that it seemed like a poorly made imitation. 

"Ug, uh... a, ah..." Naoto groaned in agony from deep within his clenched teeth as he looked at the creature. He thought he heard a voice behind him. It was probably the girl who should be behind him. But he couldn't hear it. He couldn't understand. 

It didn't matter. Nothing mattered here.

"Ah... haah, haah... ah, uh... uaaaa" Ignoring his ragged breathing, an impulse surged up within him. As if the blood was flowing back from his torn shoulder, his vision turned completely red.He could see the creature flying in his red-invaded vision. At the same time, the red burst within Naoto. 

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" His throat roared, and his feet ran. As he dashed through the cold wind, the creature in the sea of red vision spread its wings and flew up to meet him. Just before it flapped its wings, Naoto's left hand grabbed them. He grabbed them all together, pulled the creature's body down from the dead man's body where it had landed, and swung it up forcefully, slamming it into the ground. There was a sound like something was being crushed. The creature's wings were torn and remained in Naoto's hand. Naoto threw them away and... his memory faded there.