“Yo. Been a while, huh?“
Within the never-ending darkness, I was greeted by a familiar figure.
I thought I’d never seen him again. That small frame, barely the same size as any kid his age. Those lean, bony limbs as a result of malnutrition. That messy, unkempt hair, full of neglect from the owner. Those baggy eyes devoid of all life.
The boy known as Utsuto Yasushi stood before me.
“I’ve never left you behind.” I answered.
“Have you really not?” The small boy gave a smirk. “Look at you now. You have a new name, a new partner, a new world to live in. Hell, you even have new people that will actually care about you and listen to you. All things that I could never have dreamed of.”
My hands curled into fists as the venomous words flowed. “I haven’t forgotten my rage and regret that day. I’ve worked my entire time here to make sure it’s not forgotten.”
“But you have forgotten. Don’t deny it. Would I be so foolish to believe that anything around me had enough of a heart to act out of kindness?”
“But… that thing is not…”
“Human yet, right? And? The moment it showed intelligence, you should have doubted it. Nothing good will come out of human words.”
“Then why should I trust you?” I raised my voice in return, swinging my hand to dispel the pressure from him. “You and I, we’re both humans, like it or not!”
“The fact that you’re denying me… no, denying your own self is already enough proof.” Replying to me was only a chuckle followed by a sly grin.
“No… You’re wrong! I’m still me! I’m still working towards my goal!”
The kid me shook his head. “What goal? Face it; the moment you got transferred to this goal, you were done. We’re done. But I’m not saying that you should try to hate again. If you want to love, then feel free to do what you wish.”
“I…”
“All I’m here for is to give you a warning, that’s all. You can choose to be a human again if you like, but remember…”
As my child self raised his hand for a goodbye, his body slowly dissipated into the darkness, leaving behind his last words of warning:
“The more human you become, the more vulnerable you are to your own emotions. ‘I’ was created to protect you from that. Discard me or embrace me however you wish, the choice is yours.”
“W-Wait!...”
I woke up in a cold sweat with a splitting headache. Looking around, my heart calmed down when I saw the familiar blue light and wooden stumps around the floor. Thanks to them, my shivers from the shock slowly subsided as well, but the aftertaste of the scene was still too bitter for me to handle.
That damn kid.
“Wait, I’m back?”
My head was still spinning from the dream sequence, but I knew that the last thing I saw was the cave where we had our raid against the Shinjoura. For me to wake up in my room again, the others must have carried me back to safety. The only question was how many days had it been since I was asleep.
Looking down my body, I could see my abdomen had been bandaged up by silky white cloth, probably newly made as well. However, the state of bandages were in stark contrast with the way they were wrapped around me—messy, uneven, with some even loosening by the second while others, especially around my injury, tightened way too much. Whoever did this must be an amateur at first aid.
“Ku… ri…”
Meanwhile, on my side, Akari was peacefully snoring. Lightly petting her back, I let out a quiet sigh. Ever since I was sent to this new world, and especially after meeting Akari, I thought I’d finally gotten over the shadows of my regrets. But it seemed like I was too naive to think so.
“That vision just now…” I mumbled. “Giving up on my old self and being a real ‘human’ again, huh…”
[‘Player’ is in an unstable mental phase. Would you like to activate ‘World View’?]
”No. Now shut up.”
I could feel my control over this system slipping away every time I woke up. The weaker my mind felt, the more it pushed towards me. Even more things to work on, great.
Giving up on the thought of lying down, I took off the upper part of my bandages to wrap them again. At least this is still useful, I thought. Being a son in a family of doctors had its benefits, I had to admit.
“I’ll have some fresh air, I guess.”
Taking the rope ladder down, I roamed the night lands and let my mind wander. It had been a few days at least since I was transferred to this world. I had acclimated without any issues, if I had to say so myself. The rather primitive lifestyle was a breath of fresh air, people lived in harmony with nature (even if there was the entire dispute going on), but most importantly… I had a feeling that I could trust some of them. They still had things that they were hiding from me, but they weren’t my enemies, that much I was sure of. Akabane was serious and straight with his intentions, Yamabuki was overall helpful, and while the two muscles of the group didn’t look like they enjoyed my company too much, within the five of them, there was…
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“... Green?” As soon as the familiar figure caught my attention sitting on a nearby log, I called out. And soon enough, my suspicion was confirmed.
“Kid? You’re up!” Midorikawa’s face lit up behind his mask as the man turned around. “You’ve been out for a week! Is everything okay? Should you be outside this soon, even?”
“Hmm? I’m fine,” I answered, pointing towards my bandaged stomach. “Didn’t you guys already fix me up?”
“I did that, yeah,” Midorikawa let out an awkward chuckle, his hand lightly scratching his cheek in embarrassment. “But I’m not used to treating wounds, so…”
“You treated me? Thanks, man.”
“No, no, it’s nothing.” Waving his hands, Midorikawa answered. It was rare to see him this flustered—so much that he even knocked off his cheery attitude for a second.
“By the way, what are you doing here? On another patrol?”
“Haha… Something like that.”
Only at the sound of his dry laugh did I notice the pile of hard, brown shells around the log beside him, while another equally tall pile of the same oval fruit, but unpeeled and uncracked, sat on the other end.
“What are…” Before I could finish the question, a signature aroma caught my nose. “Are those coffee beans?”
“Kafvee fruits, yeah,” answered Midorikawa. “It has the same mental boosting effect that Shinbachira honey provides, but at a much less dangerous state. One bite and you’ll guarantee to stay awake for nights on end.”
“Hold on. If one bite is already enough, then…”
“I… haven’t gotten much sleep lately.”
“How much?” I squinted my eyes in doubt.
“... Ever since we took you back.”
“You’ve been awake for a week straight?”
“Look, kid… Actually, you’re awake now. It’s easier for you to see them yourself.” Letting out a sigh, Midorikawa gestured towards another nearby treehouse. “Come with me.”
As we climbed to the house, the scene inside was nothing short of horror.
“This…”
On the leaf pile lay Yamabuki. Even though she still wore her armor for some reason, I could tell that she was barely hanging by a thread. Through her black skin-tight suit, veins popped up left and right, pulsing as if ready to burst at any moment. Her abdomen was also bandaged like me, but unlike what I currently wore, hers was already blackened with bloodstains. And to top it all off, from time to time, her body jumped for no reason at all, as if there was an inherent reaction to fight whatever was inside her system.
“She was attacked similar to you, if you still remembered,” Midorikawa said. “That’s why I had to be the one to do first aid—we lost our only healer and medic. But as you can see…”
“But… how did it get so bad?”
“I honestly don’t know. If anything, kid, your body has always been an anomaly. You’ve survived not just one, but two cases of Shinbachira poisoning, and you’ve somehow even developed an immune system strong enough to turn that deadly honey into a potent power drug for yourself. But, well… if anyone else was injected that large of an amount of its poison, this is what you get. Even if that someone was one whose partner was a Shinbachira itself.”
“Is there anything that we can do?” I swallowed my fear and asked.
“All cases like this… result in death, I’m afraid,” sighed the man in green. “The best we can do is prolong the condition as much as possible, but… she’ll be gone eventually. There’s nothing we can do.”
“That’s… There has to be something we can do, right?” I raised my voice, almost to the point of screaming. “A fruit, a special Omushi, something, anything!”
“... I’m sorry.” Midorikawa, after a brief moment of silence, slowly shook his head. “You have the right to know about it, but there’s nothing we can do anymore. We’re trying our best, and even Yellow is forcing herself to drink Shinbachira honey every day in hope of having the poisons neutralizing themselves, but we have maybe another month at most, a week if we’re unlucky.”
“Then… there’s really…”
“There is a way,” called out a voice from below that sent both Midorikawa and me to a shock.
As we came down from the tree, there stood the leader of the village. However, he was no longer the man we once knew of him.
His armor was still there, but the crimson shine on it had long been gone, replaced by a thin layer of unknown smudge—seemingly a hybrid of dirt, mud and moss, judging by the putrid stench coming from it. Meanwhile, Akabane’s shoulders were slumping, and his back was slouching so hard he was a head shorter than the last time I saw him. Even the claws on his gauntlet had turned dull and harmless.
Yet, this man brought his pathetic look here to see us.
“Red? You’re back?” Midorikawa was the first to ask, but his usual calmness only lasted a second. Before I could notice anything, the green armored man had already thrown a punch at his leader straight in the face, sending him flying a few meters away.
“You piece of shit!” It was the first time I saw Midorikawa so angry. “You abandoned your leadership back in the Shinbachira raid, nearly got us killed, then after we went back, you had the gall to shut yourself in your own room and sulked there, leaving me to deal with everything! Blue and Black had to go on expeditions by themselves! And now you decided to show your damn face?”
Strangely enough, even as Midorikawa kept hurling insults and punches at him, Akabane didn’t respond. He was nothing more than a sandbag, a puppet without strings for the former to vent his anger on. Those eyes of his were never of a person with hope—they were something I was all too familiar with.
But then… what rights did I have to criticize him, when I’d gone through the same situation, and it literally took me going to another world to fix it?
And so, I stood still, my hands balled up in frustration. I wanted to step up, but I had nothing that I could say.
Is this how everyone else felt about me when I locked myself up in that room?
However, I was worried for nothing. In the end, Akabane was not like me. Unlike my old, pathetic self, even when all of his spirits had left him, the man still had the instincts to act the way he had to.
Wiping the blood in his mouth, the man in red finally sounded.
“I have an important matter to ask you, Yakushi-kun.”
“What is it?” I asked with a puzzled look.
”Follow me to the main headquarters.”
When we came to the giant tree for our base, the scene was a wreck. Splintered woods everywhere. The stump tables were all filled with all kinds of scrolls—some were leaves stitched together to replace their paper, some were made with the same material as our bandages, namely white silk with black markings to replace ink. Within that battlefield of a room, however, there was one scroll that stood out above all.
Unlike the others, its handle was not wooden or covered in wax or sap, nor were there any stitches on them to keep things in place. Instead, the material of that scroll was undoubtedly gold—pure gold for that matter—for its handle, while there was no replacement for paper; it was actual paper on that scroll.
Picking up the object in question, Akabane pointed it towards me and asked:
“Back then, when you said you came from a place in the far east… It was another world you were talking about, wasn’t it?”