My youth story cannot be a knight war

[“He actually lent his windbreaker to someone else, even though we had already agreed on it… That big liar! A bastard who doesn’t keep his word! He’s a dead rabbit that should be sunk into Tokyo Bay by the underworld for breaking his promise!”]

[Tsurumi Rumi complained with an indignant expression, but at the end she couldn't help but let out a long sigh.]

[“Really? That guy…”]

[She turned her head and looked towards the bed. On the bedside table there was a framed photo of the group.]

[The people in the photo are a group of high school and elementary school students in casual clothes. They are huddled together and smiling towards the camera, but the overall atmosphere does not give people the warmth and joy they should have. Instead, it is filled with an indescribable strange feeling.]

[What was strange was that even though they were about to face the camera and take photos, many of the high school students had unnatural and awkward smiles on their faces, as if a smile arc had been forcibly drawn on their faces with a pen, mechanical and stiff.]

[In contrast to them is another group of elementary school students. Not only do they not have the slightest smile on their faces, their expressions are filled with visible fear, and they stand in a position that makes it seem as if they are trying their best to distance themselves from the high school students. If you observe carefully, you can even feel the disgust and hatred in the eyes of the elementary school students as they avoid the high school students.]

This photo is completely different from your average group photo. Normally, group photos like these should be harmonious, with any conflicts hidden. However, the disharmony between everyone in this photo is palpable without even looking. It's hard to imagine what the photographer's feelings and experiences were like.

[And in this photo filled with strangeness and alienation, there are only a few people with genuine smiles on their faces.]

[One of them is the boy in the center of the photo wearing an old brown windbreaker. He has a smile on his chubby face as always. One hand is around the neck of a helpless boy with dead eyes next to him, and the other hand is on a little girl with long straight black hair wearing a white velvet hat who is only as tall as his waist.]

[The little girl couldn't help but roll her eyes upwards because he was holding her head down, her expression was very speechless.]

[But people with good observation skills can find that although the little girl has a helpless expression on her face, the corners of her mouth also quietly draw a soft arc, which is subtle but real, and is in complete contrast with the classmates around her. ]

[In this painting full of themes of "nothingness" and "fakeness", the expressions on the faces of these three people are the only ones that do not seem out of place, expressing emotions from the heart.]

[Looking at the photo, Tsurumi Rumi was silent for a long time, then sighed again, her eyes sparkling with complex and lost feelings.]

[“Does he really still remember? Our…promise.”]

……

【Kanto Medical University Hospital, Tokyo.】

[Saori Makishima, who had received the news in advance, led a group of medical staff to guard the main entrance of the hospital, with a gurney and various first aid items prepared long ago next to them.]

[She paced back and forth in front of the main entrance of the hospital with an anxious look on her face. The uneasiness and anxiety between her brows made everyone afraid to speak. People passing by couldn't help but wonder what had happened to make this famous beautiful doctor in this hospital so uneasy.]

【boom--】

[Until a roar that shook the eardrums came from a distance, Makishima Saori stopped what she was doing and immediately turned to look in the direction where the sound came from. ]

[A blue motorcycle drove straight into the hospital entrance without slowing down, and with a rough drift, it left a trail of white smoke on the ground not far from the medical staff, proving how fast the motorcycle driver was speeding.]

[“Hurry up! He can’t hold on any longer!”]

【Kousaka Kyosuke immediately jumped out of the car carrying Zaimokuza, handed him to the medical staff who rushed over, and looked up at Makishima Saori and spoke hastily.】

[“Leave it to us.”]

[Makishima Saori nodded to Kousaka Kyosuke with a solemn expression, then immediately turned around and jogged after Zaimokuza, who was being put on a trolley by the medical staff and pushed to the operating room. The back of the figure in a white coat gradually disappeared from Kousaka Kyosuke's sight along with the sound of running.]

[“…I have already sent Zaimokuza to the hospital, Ms. Ebina.”]

[After watching Zaimokuza being wheeled into the operating room, Kousaka Kyosuke, who was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, then remembered that he had not yet reported the information to Ebina Himena who was far away in the control room, so he reached out and pressed the communication button on the outside of his helmet and whispered.]

[No sound came from the other end of the line, total silence.]

【“…”】

[Kousaka Kyosuke roughly guessed where the person on the other end of the call was going, and silently hung up the call, turning around and looking behind him.]

[Beep, beep, beep—]

[A series of ambulance sirens followed closely behind, and one ambulance after another drove towards this side, quickly filling up the open space in front of the hospital. Then, the rear doors of the ambulances opened almost simultaneously.]

[Many hospital staff members each carried a stretcher and got off the ambulance. None of them had the energy to pay attention to Kousaka Kyosuke, who was wearing a strange armor. They all walked past him and ran into the hospital with the unconscious or struggling patients on the stretchers.]

[And these people are all victims number 25. ]

[Only a few were unlucky enough to stay where they were and not have time to escape after it transformed into an enhanced form and wreaked violence wantonly. The vast majority of them suffered from poisoning symptoms caused by the poisonous gas emitted after the giant plant's shell collapsed.]

After Kousaka Kyosuke and Zaimokuza escaped, and Ginoga left the scene, the giant mushroom plant disintegrated and dissipated on the spot, but the toxic gas stored inside was also released.

[Although the consequences of the direct collapse were not as serious as originally estimated, the poisonous gas released during its gradual dissipation should not be underestimated. What's even more unfortunate is that the wind is favorable today, and the poisonous gas released was carried by the wind and blew over most of Shinjuku.]

【Therefore, many people in Shinjuku who had not yet had time to escape suffered as a result. 】

[Kousaka Kyousuke didn't know the exact number of victims, but based on the number of ambulances driving in the wrong direction that he saw when he brought Zaimokuza to the hospital, the number of victims must be at least in the three digits.]

[In all the cases involving unidentified life forms that have occurred so far, there has never been such a horrific number of victims in any related incident, which almost matches the total number of victims in all previous cases.]

[Kousaka Kyosuke stood in front of the hospital entrance, facing the outside world alone. Surrounding him were victims and medical staff who kept running into the hospital, some of whom were accompanied by their families.]

[“Dad! Don’t die! Please don’t die!”]

【“Xiao Lu, Mom is here! Don’t be afraid.”】

[“Dear, please open your eyes and look at me!”]

【“…”】

[Listening to the anxious calls and cries in his ears, Kousaka Kyosuke still stood quietly in the same place without moving an inch. Because of the helmet covering his face, no one could see his expression.]

[But at some point, his armored hands had already clenched into fists, and faint electric sparks flickered between the fingers of his gloves.]

……

[“Please, don’t die!”]

【Makishima Saori took a deep breath and pressed the activated pacemaker against Zaimokuza's chest.】

"Power on, 300J!"

【boom--】

[The strong electric current turned into pulses and directly hit the body through the chest muscles. Zaimokuza's entire body was lifted up under the stimulation of the electric current, and then he lay back on the operating table.]

[“Doctor, the patient’s heart rate is starting to increase and increase.”]

"Then continue, 400J!"

【“——”】

[——In Zaimokuza's perception, everything in front of him seemed to be moving away from him, gradually being eroded by the darkness spreading from the edge of his vision. In the center of his blood-red eye whites was a black pupil, and the pupil had almost dissipated into nothingness.]

[Gradually, as time passed, the anxious face of Makishima Saori wearing a mask began to blur, and her form was distorted and dissipated like sand blown by the wind. ]

[Am I going to die? ]

[For some reason, this thought crossed Zaimokuza's mind as he was about to lose consciousness.]

[——It is said that before a person's memory is on the verge of death, the brain separates the person and the event through its own memory events, and projects them in a third-person perspective, recording their life in the form of a story. Through these fragments, people can know everything about their life.]

[In their shallow state of consciousness, they often think that living is more meaningful than dying. ]

[Everything in life will flash through your mind like a movie in super-fast forward, just like the leader of a race is constantly being chased by the runners behind, and the name of those chasers is the past.]

[People call this phenomenon a revolving lantern.]

【And the revolving lanterns of Zaimokuza are...very rare. 】

[Because in his life, there are only a few memories that are truly worthy of being regarded as treasures, just as rare as the people he cares about. ]

[Grandma, Dad, Mom, Teacher, Manager, Yuigahama, Mr. Kousaka, Himena...]

【as well as--】

[“Hmm…”]

[His eyeballs twitched a few times, and his hands unconsciously grasped the operating table beneath him.]

[Beep, beep, beep——]

[The frequency of the lines displayed by the electrocardiograph suddenly fluctuated violently, just like his mood and obsession.]

【“——”】

[In the world that was almost swallowed by darkness, Zaimokuza felt as if someone reached out and held his face, and heard a familiar voice in his ears, but he could neither hear nor see anything. ]

[This made him realize that he really wanted to——]

【"--sorry!"】

[A clear female voice with a strong crying tone resounded throughout the world, accompanied by the tender touch of trembling fingers on the face. ]

[A pair of white arms stretched out from above his head, holding Zaimokuza's blood-stained face, and the stone bracelet on his right hand also flashed a simple and warm color in the darkness.]

[For some reason, Zaimokuza felt as if he could clearly feel the guilt and sadness in the other person's heart through the touch of his fingers on his face.]

[——Who is it? ]

[——Why... do you feel so guilty? ]

[“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry—”]

[Before Zaimokuza could think with his almost stagnant brain, the female voice kept telling him her apology, each sentence was more tearful than the last, and she was sobbing until she couldn't make a sound.]

[“It’s our responsibility that you’ve become like this. I’m really sorry for making you suffer so much.”]

[“I’m sorry, the sins and responsibilities that we were unable to bury can only be borne by you who was born in the future and had nothing to do with them.”]

[“I’m really sorry!”]

11. Falling into a Deep Sleep of Dreams (5-in- K)

Chiba Prefecture, Sobu High School, Service Club.

"This voice, and that bracelet... isn't this person the same person as before--!?"

Zaimokuza looked at the pair of arms supporting "his" face in the light curtain, and the stone magatama bracelet worn on the right wrist, and his eyes gradually widened.

"Yes, it's the owner of the pair of arms that appeared during the battle between Future Zaimokuza and No. 24."

Hikigaya Hachiman nodded slightly and spoke thoughtfully.

"And this wasn't the first time these arms appeared. When the video was still up, these hands appeared in the last scene of Future Zaimokuza's dream, stroking the coffin that sealed the previous Kuuga, and they seemed to be shedding tears. This shows that she should have a very close relationship with that Kuuga."

"I originally thought that the girl who appeared in the battle with No. 24 was just some kind of illusion or the remnant of my thoughts, but now it seems that this is not the case."

"She undoubtedly has a very clear sense of self, and may even be alive!"

This conclusion was so shocking that it stunned everyone present.

"Wait, wait! According to what you said, Hikigaya... the owner of these arms is a genuine human who survived from the ancient civilization?"

Shizuka Hiratsuka rubbed her temples, which felt a little dizzy due to a series of unexpected situations, and asked in disbelief.

"But how is this possible? That super ancient civilization existed before our current human history, just like the Xia Dynasty in the history of the neighboring country. It is a civilization with an uncertain nature. All we know is that it does exist, but we know nothing about this civilization. You can imagine how far away this civilization is from our history!"

"In this time scale where even civilizations disappear without being known to later generations, is it really possible for humans to survive that long?"

"...Let's not talk about humans for now, but creatures belonging to a super ancient civilization that are not humans have always appeared in our sight, haven't they?"

Hikigaya pointed to the new picture that switched on the light screen. Ginoga, who had turned back into human form, was sitting against a wall with a painful look on his face. His whole body was covered with burn marks and wounds. It was obvious that the attack of "Zaimokuza Yoshiki" had actually caused it considerable trauma.

"We need to expand our thinking, teacher."

"Although the life forms of these Gurongi are very different from humans, since they, as life forms belonging to the same super ancient civilization, have been able to survive in the seal until the modern era, it is not impossible for humans who lived in the same era as them to survive to our time. After all, the technological civilization of the super ancient times is too mysterious and wonderful. The belt she called Yamadam is the best example."

"And... right now we can't tell whether she's really alive or not."

Hearing this, Yukinoshita Yukino, who had been listening, raised her eyelashes slightly and asked out of curiosity.

"What do you mean? Hikigaya-san, you said that she might be a survivor from the ancient times, but now you say that she might not be really alive... Isn't this a bit contradictory?"

"That's not contradictory, Yukinoshita."

Hikigaya shook his head and said with a meaningful look in his eyes.

"I don't deny the possibility that she might be a survivor from the ancient times, but as Hiratsuka-sensei said before, it's impossible for humans to survive for so long in a timeframe where even civilization disappears."

"And judging by the way this person appeared and the peculiarities that only Zaimokuza could see, even if she is truly human, she should have survived to this day in a different way than what we know."

"???"

Yuigahama Yui, who was standing by, listened to their conversation and felt like she was listening to a mystery and couldn't understand anything at all.

Although I didn't understand it, it seemed very powerful.

【"Ugh...KUUGA!"】

[His entire body still throbbed with pain from the burns. Ginoga's face twitched in pain, and he spoke with resentment the name of the person who had caused him to become what he was now.]

[Several dark shadows obscured the light ahead. Ginoga looked up in surprise, only to see several familiar faces.]