He waited for a moment, letting the old man process what he had said. It was a lot to take in, and Hayate wasn’t even sure if Taro would believe it or not.
“but..i don’t know how it happened..how i came here..how i became this..this body....i just..don’t know...”
The old man let out a grunt, and Hayate could see the gears turning in his head. The old man spoke again, his voice filled with surprise and wonder...
“so..you are from the past...how did you...teleport here...and become...this?”
Hayate was relieved that the old man seemed to understand, or at least try to understand, what he was saying. He nodded, glad that he didn’t have to explain twice.
“yes..yes..that’s exactly what happened. I played the game..and then..i woke up in my game character’s body..in the future..also..i can use all the powers..my character had..in the game..”
Hayate was hesitant to mention the powers. He wasn’t sure what kind of reaction taro would have to it. But he decided to just blurt it out anyways.
“I...I don’t believe it..” he said, shaking his head a little. It was understandable, after all, it was a pretty crazy story.
Hayate expected this reaction. In anyone else’s shoes, he wouldn’t believe it too.
Hayate knew that he would probably have to prove what he had just said, so he thought of a way to demonstrate. He looked around the room, searching for something he could use to demonstrate his abilities. His eyes landed on a glass sitting on a nearby table. It was a small, plain glass, nothing special, but it would do, he reached out and grabbed the glass. He had a magic ring on his finger that could cast any spell below tier 3 without using any mana, he casted a tier 1 spell called [waterball]. He cast the spell and a small ball of pure water appeared in the air above his hand.
The water-ball was perfectly round and clear, and it hovered there for a moment before dropping into the glass with a soft splash. A little bit of water splashed out of the glass, but the rest of it stayed inside. The water was clear and free of impurities, it was the cleanest water on earth.
Hayate could see taro’s eyes widen a bit as he looked at the glass of water. He knew that the old man was surprised, but he couldn’t tell if it was surprise from the water itself or from the display of magic.
Taro reached for the glass, his hand trembling slightly. He had been bedridden for a long time, so the action seemed difficult for him. But he managed to take the glass and bring it to his lips. He took a small sip first and then drank the rest of it in a few big gulps and then set the glass back on the bedside table. He looked at Hayate and spoke again.
“This is....real water..? how..did you make...such refreshing water..is it..a spell?..”
Hayate nodded, confirming taro’s question.
“yes..that’s real water..and yes it’s a spell...a spell I can cast now thanks to being in this body..It’s called [Waterball]..a tier 1 water magic spell.”
Taros mind seemed to click, as if he had finally understood and remembered something. He sat up in the bed, his eyes filled with something resembling excitement.
“wait..so does that mean you can use ALL the spells your character knew from hollow?”
Hayate was surprised by the question but quickly answered.
“yes..i can use all the spells my character knew..including the 8th tier spells too..I can literally use all the powers my character had in the game..as I’m now in his body..”
Taro’s eyes widened even more. He couldn’t believe it..to have the powers from a game..to be able to do things that most people could only dream of..it was amazing.
He couldn’t help but feel a bit envious. To have such abilities..it must be like being a god. Taro didn’t remember much about hollow as the last time he played it was 74 years ago since it shut down its server’s in 2035 but he still remembered a few spells from it. Like those instant death ones, there was wish..and a few other’s.
Hayate smiled, seeing the old man’s expression. He could understand the old man’s disbelief and envy. These were powers beyond anything a normal person could achieve.
Taro spoke again, “man..im jealous of you..what do you think..if at that time you were alone before getting transported and I was with you..i could have been transported too alongside you and have had the powers my in-game avatar..had?”
Hayate couldn’t help but chuckle, imagining if it would be like that. He and Taro, being transported together into their game characters’ bodies. They would have been unstoppable! Can you imagine, two level 100 player’s in the real world?
But, If only it were that easy.
For hayate, being transported to the future has been hell and nothing else.
He could see the joy in taro’s eyes but he couldn’t bring himself to feel the same. To him, waking up in the future and having these powers is not something he likes. He just wants to be a normal human again.
But he didn’t want to ruin taro’s mood, so he just smiled and answered his question.
“Yeah..that would be awesome..”
Hayate couldn’t help but think about what would have happened if taro was with him when he was transported here. Would things have been different? He shook his head, not wanting to dwell on it. It was just a thought, nothing more.
Hayate then turned his attention to the old man’s health. He could see that the old man was not in good shape, with various tubes and machines surrounding him.
“Hey taro...how’s your health? Do you feel unwell anywhere?”
He didn’t want to bring up a touchy subject, but he wanted to know what taro’s condition was. He looked at the monitors and at the way taro was hooked up to them, it didn’t look good.
Taro’s face fell a bit as Hayate asked about his health. He took a moment to gather his thoughts before speaking.
“my health..hmmm..is bad..im not gonna lie.. I have..a few diseases....and my body..is pretty weak. That’s why..i have..to be..monitored..by the machines all the time...plus I’m pushing...past 100...old age..you know..”
Hayate suddenly stood up, after hearing that. He remembered his abilities now, the ones he had gained from hollow. Healing magic, resurrection magic. He was confident that he could help the old man.
“Taro, I can heal you. I can use my magic to get rid of your illnesses and diseases. And if..you ever died, I could also use my [True revive] spell to resurrect you.”
It was a bold claim, but Hayate had never been more sure of anything. He had the powers that many could only dream of, and he was going to use them to help his friend. That’s it.
Taros eyes widened, he didn’t quite believe what Hayate was saying. Healing magic..and resurrection magic? It seemed like something out of a fantasy novel. But those did exist in hollow.
“You..can really do that? You can...heal my body..and even...if i die...you can..bring me back...?” he asked, trying to wrap his head around the idea.
Hayate nodded, his expression serious. “Umu!”
Hayate placed his hand on the top of the old man’s head and a soft glow emitted from it.
“[Maximum regeneration]” he chanted softly. In hollow, the [maximum regeneration] spell was considered a high level or 6th tier healing spell. It would first restore all the health points of the target, completely fixing any health problems they may have had. Second, the spell would then work on curing any diseases, viruses, or any debuff that the target may have had. Third, the spell would also restore any severed limbs, though it would take about one minute to completely heal them. Suddenly, a ray of golden light emitted from Hayate’s hand and enveloped taro’s body.
Taro’s eyes widened as the spell took effect. He felt a strange sensation washing over him, as if his body was being rejuvenated from within. The aches and pains that he had become so accustomed to faded away, and he felt a renewed sense of energy and vigour.
The machines next to the bed started beeping like crazy, showing graphs and charts of the changes in his body.
After a moment, the spell was complete. The energy faded, and Hayate took his hand away. He looked at taro.
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Taro’s face looked different. His complexion was no longer pale and sickly looking, but instead, it looked brighter and healthier. His breathing was easier and more regular, no longer labored like before, and the monitors around the bed showed normal readings.
He looked at Hayate with awe and surprise, his eyes wide. “I feel..so much better..I don’t feel sick..and I can breathe..like I used to..!”
Taro sat up on his bed properly, not needing any support to do so. He stretched out his arms and back, popping his joints and cracking his bones as he did so. The sound was like hundreds of tiny explosions, the cracking and popping of bones that had been stiff for far too long.
He let out a groan of relief as he continued to stretch, enjoying the feeling of his body coming back to life after being dormant for so long. It was like he had been reborn, given a second chance at life.
He looked at Hayate with a big dumb smile on his face. “Hayate...i thank you...from the bottom of my heart..”
Taro reached out and grabbed Hayate’s hand, pulling him gently down onto the bed next to him.
He was no longer way of him. He saw Hayate as his friend, no matter what body he was in.
Hayate then looked at taro. His voice was suddenly dead serious, it was a change to how it had been previously.
“Taro, can you tell me what happened after I disappeared?”
Taro spoke softly, his eyes gazing off as if reliving those distant memories. “I don’t remember much..it was a long time ago..and my memory..is old..”
He paused for a moment before continuing.
“but I do remember..your parents..noticed you were missing the next day...and then..reported it...the police..were called..and then after a week had passed...the members of aoh found out...when they went to your house...and found out you had gone missing.”
Taro’s brow furrowed as he remembered those days. It had been an awful time for everyone, not knowing if hayate was safe or not. “It was a terrible time..everyone was searching for you...hoping you were alright.....after two years of searching the police closed your case and assumed you as dead. A funeral happened too, you parents were devastated.”
He looked at Hayate with a saddened expression. “None of us..ever gave up though..we all kept hoping...that we would find you..one day....and then your mom..i think...killed herself because of depression...3, no. 4 years later.”
Hayate interrupted Taro, his voice heavy. “I already found out,” he said. “I went to the ruins of Tokyo..and to the site of my house...I found my mother’s death certificate. It’s true..she really did kill herself...”
Hayate looked at taro with a heavy heart, he knew about what happened to his mother but what about his father?
“Taro,” he asked softly, “do you know what happened to my dad..?”
Taro sighed heavily, “Your dad..i may be wrong but as far as i know..well he took your disappearance pretty hard..even harder than your mom..After she died..your dad just shut himself off from the world. He stopped going to work and just locked himself in his room...barely ate...or slept...that’s what Mitsui told me when she visited your home once and saw his state..and then...when tokyo was nuked in 2044...he was in the epicenter of the explosion..so there wasn’t even a corpse left.”
There was a moment of silence as Hayate processed everything taro had just said.
His face was downcast, his fists clenched tightly as he bit his lip.
Taro looked at Hayate, seeing the sadness in his eyes. He reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to offer some small measure of comfort. Hayate gripped Taro’s hand tightly for a moment before pushing it away. He spoke softly but firmly, “I’m fine.” It was a lie, and he knew it.
He wasn’t fine, he was anything but fine.
There was no way he could be fine after hearing about his parents’ deaths.
His parents were both dead because of him. His mother killed herself out of grief, and his father might as well have done the same with his self-destructive behaviour If what taro said was true and then he later died in a Nuclear explosion. He was the reason they were dead, and it was all his fault.
Hayate wanted to drop dead himself right this moment.
But Hayate didn’t show any of this to taro. Perhaps it would feel better to open up but maybe. Maybe later, not right now.
He composed himself and looked at taro, forcing a smile on his face. “Thank you...for telling me...about my parents.” He said, his voice sounding fake and insincere to his own ears.
Hayate wanted to change the topic desperately. He had heard all he needed to and wanted to move on, get his mind of this. But he knew taro might have more to tell him, more about his parents or the others so instead he moved the topic from his parents to the members of aoh.
“So, what happened to everyone else? From angels of hell. Dear it sounds cringe just saying it out loud.”
Hayate tried to inject a little bit of humor into the conversation with the comment about angels of hell. He knew it was a bad joke, and it just made him look more childish, but it was better than the awkward silence that had befallen them momentarily.
“What happened...to the others? After I was gone?” Hayate repeated himself.
He wanted to know about his friends. He wanted to know if their lives had turned out alright, or if their lives had gone downhill like his parents
Taro seemed to understand what he was doing. Hayate was trying to lighten the mood with a failed joke, and taro smiled slightly at that.
He leaned back against his pillow and thought for a moment before answering. “Well, after you...disappeared...things changed for all of us...the first few years it was fine. Then around 7 years later, ww3 started and that’s when it all began to go downhill.”
Taro’s tone changed to a more sombre one as he spoke of the war. “A lot of us were drafted into the war,” he continued, “i wasn’t as i wasn’t in Japan at that time. It wasn’t easy but most of them died in battle. Ryu hikari, sato Suzuki, kizuki hiyama, tomaka Abe, ayano aoki. All of them died in battle.”
Hayate listened silently, his eyes fixated on taro’s face as he spoke. He was shocked at how many of them died in the war. Those were all people he had known, his dearest friends.
They were all now dead.
“I see.” He said softly, his voice cracking slightly.
“And then after the war..” taro continued, his voice growing even more somber. “There was a second great depression. A lot of people ended up losing their jobs and homes...some even went to suicide....” taro paused before continuing “one of them...was yuki Nakamura.”
Hayate’s eyes widened in surprise at the mention of Yuki. He hadn’t expected her name to come up. “Yuki...” he muttered softly, his fists clenching tightly.
Hayate used to have a small crush on her back in the days but that was long gone now.
Taro nodded sadly, his lips pressed together in a thin line. “Yeah, she jumped off a building after her parents were killed in ww3. She couldn’t handle the depression that came after and...just gave up. After that, only me, Mitsui, toshio, Naoko, masami and haru were still alive.”
“What happened to the rest of you?” Hayate asked curiously.
“Well, the rest of us...we all managed to tough it out for a while, but it was rough. Everyone was living on scraps, barely making ends meet. Naoko got sick during that time, her weak body couldn’t keep up with all the stress and passed away from overwork in 2056. Toshio, Masami and Haru all worked themselves to death trying to support their families. Mitsui and I stayed strong, everyone else died before 2080 i think..only she and I were still alive, and she too died not too long ago from old age.”
Hayate felt sick.
Every single one of his friends were dead. All twelve of them except for taro were gone, either from war, suicide, illness, or old age. It was as if taro was reading out the list of attendance at a funeral, ticking off the names of everyone he had known and loved.
He let out a deep sigh. “You and Mitsui, huh?” He said softly, his eyes looking distantly at nothing in particular.
Taro nodded, tears welling up in his eyes. “Yeah...me and mitsui..she was one of the strongest people i ever met..but even her body succumbed to the years in the end.” He let out a shaky breath.
“I’m the last one left,” taro said softly, his eyes downcast. He looked so lonely and sad. “I’ve been waiting for death all this time to meet everyone again. To see them all again in heaven.”
“You must’ve been lonely,” Hayate said. Hayate felt a mix of emotions. On one hand, he was sad and lonely for the old man. On the other, he felt a twinge of anger. This was not how it was supposed to go. They were supposed to live long and happy lives, grow old together, have families, and die peacefully in their sleep. But here they were. Hayate, stuck in an immortal body since demons didn’t age in hollow and taro, all alone at the end of his days.
But he couldn’t blame taro for wanting to die. He wanted to die too, wanted to give up on this life and meet the rest of the history friends and parents in heaven.
But he couldn’t, he was too much of a coward to die.
“Hayate,” taro suddenly spoke up, jarring Hayate out of his thoughts. His voice sounded weaker now, as if he was using all his energy to simply speak.
“When I die, don’t revive me. I thank you from all my heart for healing me but when I die, please don’t bring me back to life. I’ve had enough.”
Hayate’s brow furrowed at taro’s words. He looked at him for a long moment. He was about to argue, Hayate could revive taro and keep him alive for centuries if he so wanted, perhaps even indefinitely. But taro preferred to die, to finally pass on. Hayate would respect his friends wishes.
“I understand,” he said softly, his voice barely above a whisper.
Taro’s lips quirked up slightly in a small but weary smile. He appreciated Hayate’s understanding and respect for his wishes. He reached out and took hold of Hayate’s hand one more time, “Thank you..for respecting my wishes..you are a good friend…Hayate.”
Hayate suddenly lightly tapped taro’s head, chiding the old man for talking about dying.
“You’re not going to die right now, old man,” he said firmly. “I spent my mana healing you, it would be an embarrassment to my skills if you died right after.”
Taro looked up at Hayate, a small smile on his lips. “You’re right..I guess it would be too cruel to let all your magic go to waste.” He chuckled softly, his eyes twinkling in the dim light.
“Now I have lots of questions regarding your powers,” taro said.
Hayate let out a low sigh and leaned back on the bed, preparing himself for a long chat. He knew taro had lots of questions about his abilities.
“Well, go ahead and ask,” he said, resigning himself to the barrage of questions.
“Alright, let’s see..” he began, thoughtfully.
“I suppose the first question I want to ask is, aside from you, do you think other people got transported to the future i.e. this current year too in their in-game bodies? I mean it wouldn’t make sense..if you were the only one..with them.”
Hayate thought taro made a good point. It was highly unlikely that he would be the only person who was transported to the future. There had to be others as well, maybe even a whole guild possibly.
“It’s possible,” he responded. “Maybe there are others too, if they are..it’s dangerous. And if a whole guild base was transported, i can only imagine what will happen.”
Taro nodded, taking in Hayate’s words. “I see..” he said softly. “That makes sense. A whole guild base huh? That would.. definitely be bad.”
“A shit-storm,” Hayate said.
Taro chuckled softly at Hayate’s response. “Yeah, that’s one way to put it,” he said with a smile.
“Well..next question...how does your magic work? You can’t just simply snap your fingers, can you..and boom, someone is healed..my memories of hollow are hazy at best so I can’t remember it.”
“It’s pretty straightforward,” he said. “I just need to think about the spell I want to cast, say its name, and then it activates. It’s like second nature to me now.”
“I was a demon-mage,” he said finally. “My class was [the vile omen mage]..if i had known i would get those powers in reality i would have liked have a min-max build but it is what it is.”
“A demon-mage..OH YES I REMEMBER IT NOW..”
As soon as taro yelled out, his face contorted in pain and he coughed violently. He clutched his chest, his breathing laboured as he tried to catch his breath.
Hayate watched as taro clutched his chest, coughing uncontrollably. He moved closer, his hand reaching out to touch taro’s back.
“Hey, take it easy,” he said gently. “Don’t force yourself to talk.”
Taro wheezed for a few more seconds before he managed to catch his breath. He leaned back against the bed, looking even more exhausted than before.
“Sorry...I got too excited..” he panted.