My youth story cannot be a knight war

"That's why Number 33 initially hypnotizes his victims to forget about themselves, and then makes them remember everything shortly before they die..."

“Do you mean—?!”

Yukinoshita is not stupid, but the Gurongi's behavior of only focusing on killing efficiency and quantity has paralyzed her logic, making her unable to think in this direction for a while. Now, after Hikigaya's enlightenment, she suddenly woke up, and goose bumps appeared on the skin on her back because of this idea.

Then, a strong urge to vomit suddenly arose in her throat. With a pale face, Yukinoshita had to quickly cover her mouth with her hand to avoid such an impolite act as vomiting in public. However, her expression was still so ugly that it looked as if she had eaten a dead mouse.

"That's right...it was never a wasted effort, it was done on purpose."

Hikigaya nodded to confirm Yukinoshita's idea, and stated the conclusion with deep and cold eyes.

"Number 33, it deliberately erased the victims' memories of its attacks, then made them recall them before their death. This caused the girls to lose their minds and go mad, plunging them into the most terrifying and dark abyss of despair. This behavior, which did not contribute to the game's progress, was something the previous Gurongi would neither have nor bothered to do. There is only one possible explanation for its actions."

Hikigaya looked up at Zaimokuza, whose body gradually quieted down as he spoke, narrowed his eyes slightly, and expressed his opinion.

"It was enjoying all of this... enjoying the pain, despair, and cries of the girls who died tragically at its hands before they died, and taking pleasure in these negative emotions."

"The pain of others is its joy."

"..."

As soon as these words were spoken, the entire health room fell into a dead silence without any sign of life.

Then, everyone turned their eyes to the person sitting closest to the window in the health room, with a variety of emotions in their eyes.

Zaimokuza Yoshiteru, his originally shaking body stopped moving, and he sat on the chair without moving at all, like a wooden sculpture. Even when he heard Hikigaya's abhorrent analysis, he did not say a word, as if his ears had become deaf.

But an extremely strange and intimidating aura had quietly spread from him at some point, permeating the entire health room and enveloping everything inside.

"Uh, Zaimokuza..."

"Hey, you—Wuwaaa!?"

Click——

Everyone couldn't help but feel a palpitation when enveloped by this momentum, and their chest felt as heavy as if a huge rock was pressing down on it. The worst-pressed one, Tobe Sho, even subconsciously took several steps back, bumping into the edge of the bed and almost falling down.

Only Ebina and Hikigaya remained unmoved. One of them sat on the hospital bed and silently looked at his back, while the other still stood behind him, holding his shoulder with his hand, accompanying him in this silent way.

"..."

Zaimokuza raised his head in silence and looked towards the window in front of him, staring straight at his own reflection in the window glass and the expressionless face that made him feel unfamiliar, and stared intently at his own eyes.

At a certain moment, those eyes suddenly changed and became another pair of eyes.

Dark, deep, and cold.

"..."

On the phone screen, those strange yet familiar eyes vanished in an instant, as fast as the afterimage of a dream.

Kyosuke Kousaka slowly lowered his raised hand and silently raised his head to look at the light curtain where the scene changed again.

However, the palm of his hand hanging at his side had already squeezed the phone so hard that it made a strange sound, and his knuckles turned white from excessive force.

Click!

With a crisp cracking sound, the edge of the phone actually cracked into several cracks across the screen due to his force, cutting the screen surface into two triangular cracks on the top and one on the bottom.

On the upper right side of the phone screen, the profile of "Kousuke Kousaka" was reflected, while on the left side, the profile of "Yoshiki Zaimokuza" was reflected.

And below is——

A pair of pure black compound eyes, without a trace of color.

[“…This is why No. 33 did this.”]

In a living room spacious enough for a teaching hall, Kousaka Kyousuke sat on the sofa, stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray on the table, and spoke in a low voice.

"That guy, he was just enjoying the students' agony before death, so he did something that had no effect on his own game progress... He just enjoyed it."

【“…”】

Zaimokuza, leaning against the French window, remained silent. He gazed at the seagulls flying across the horizon. His expressionless face, now stern and stern, seemed at odds with his usual liveliness. He offered no comment on this conclusion.

【But Kousaka Kyosuke knew he was listening, so he put his hands on his knees and continued talking.】

"It's now confirmed that No. 33's hunting range is the entire Sakuragaoka Girls' High School, and the order of killing is based on grade level, from the highest to the lowest. According to the Metropolitan Police Department's investigation report, only after all the third-year graduates were killed did the second-year students begin to die one after another. The reason why no first-year students have died yet is probably because their game process hasn't been completed successfully. Simply put, they're stuck."

[“…Because Xiao Wei and the others are still alive, right?”]

【“Yes.”】

[Kousaka Kyosuke nodded, took out another cigarette from the cigarette box on the table and put it between his lips, but did not light it.]

"Because the second-year survivors, the Light Music Club and two other girls, are still alive, the first-year students are now safe. This must be the rule of the game. Before killing all the targets of a specific stage, you are not allowed to hunt the targets of the next stage."

"According to the final testimonies of the victimized students and the recovered surveillance reports, the time of the crime committed by No. 33 is—"

[At this point, Kousaka Kyosuke paused, closed his eyes, and pursed his lips tightly.]

After a while, he opened his eyes and spoke out the painful moment word by word.

[“…It was the day we were invited by the Light Music Club to attend their school festival.”]

When Kousaka Kyousuke learned about this from Gokou Ruri, he found it difficult to accept and was even unwilling to admit the reality. However, the screenshots of the campus surveillance footage that recorded the other person forced him to face this reality.

[This means that while he and Zaimokuza were enjoying the relaxing school festival, the unidentified lifeforms had already been brazenly attacking the victims right under their noses, but he was completely unaware, and his negligence led to the tragedy that occurred today.]

This wasn't a mistake that could be dismissed as dereliction of duty, and Kousaka Kyousuke wasn't willing to argue. This was truly a tragic consequence caused by his own negligence.

[That's why he kept repeating "I'm sorry" when facing the girl in his arms. These few words fully expressed the endless regret in Kousaka Kyosuke's heart, making it impossible for him to forgive himself.]

[“…Why Xiao Wei and the others?”]

After hearing Kousaka Kyosuke mention this time, Zaimokuza slowly turned his head and asked with a complicated look in his eyes.

Zaimokuza's words didn't quite capture the point, but Kousaka Kyosuke still understood what he meant: Why were the Light Music Club the only ones left alive?

"The other two girls are sisters. They both caught a cold that day, so they didn't go to the school festival. As for the light music club..."

[Kousaka Kyosuke raised his head and looked at Zaimokuza, and both of them saw the same emotion in each other's eyes.]

"...Aren't you also very clear about the reason?"

[“Because… they were with us the entire day.”]

Zaimokuza spoke calmly, his hand slowly clenching into a fist.

"That's right... The Light Music Club was with us the entire day. At least one of us was always by their side, so Number 33 didn't attack them. It couldn't have done it without us knowing."

[Crack. 】

[A red flame shoots out from the lighter, igniting the tip of the cigarette.]

[Kousaka Kyosuke took a deep drag on his cigarette, and the white smoke and flames came out, but it couldn't hide his cold eyes.]

"Aside from you leaving to get your guitar from Hirasawa's house, I didn't transform at all. Yet, it still didn't take advantage of this 'once-in-a-lifetime' opportunity to attack... This suggests that No. 33 must have recognized me in human form, but even when I was alone, it felt wary, so it chose to spare the light music club. This also indirectly proves that its direct combat capabilities may not be very high."

[“——It’s even possible that it was observing us from a distance visible to the naked eye!”]

[Kousaka Kyousuke angrily slammed his palm on the table in front of him. The solid wood table made of high-quality Nanmu wood shook violently under his palm, demonstrating the great power of his palm.]

"If I hadn't dismissed that feeling as an illusion, perhaps today... Tsk!"

[“…I’ll go up first to see how Xiao Wei and the others are doing.”]

Zaimokuza didn't comment on Kousaka Kyousuke's whisper, but he suddenly stopped at the exit of the living room and said with his head tilted.

"Mr. Kosaka, don't be too hard on yourself... This isn't your fault."

【And Kousaka Kyosuke did not respond. The rising smoke obscured his profile, preventing Zaimokuza from seeing his current expression.】

After Zaimokuza left, Kousaka Kyosuke silently put out the cigarette he had smoked in one breath into the ashtray, his eyes dazed as he looked at the cigarette butts that had filled the ashtray without him noticing.

He actually smokes, but not often, because every time he smokes, Kousaka Kyosuke thinks of his father who passed away many years ago.

[Because my father was like this at the time, every time he came home and finished his meal, he would sit in the living room and smoke. His old-fashioned face looked like a Buddha sitting in a temple in the thick smoke, which made Kousaka Kyosuke feel depressed and unapproachable.]

[Kousaka Kyosuke had a fight with his father about this incident. He couldn't understand why his father kept smoking every day and complained that his father was making the air in the house smelly.]

[——But now, he finally understood why Kousaka Daisuke did what he did at that time.]

Because he himself is in the same situation now. The regret and depression in his heart can only be slightly relieved by the anesthetic effect of nicotine, so that his heart is not so heavy that he can't breathe.

"...I'm so embarrassed, Dad."

[Kousaka Kyosuke couldn't help but laugh at himself, the curve of his lips curling up in an extremely bitter way.]

“I used to speak so righteously about you at home…but now I’ve become just like you.”

[His gaze shifted from the ashtray to the other side of the table, and his vision became complicated again.]

The black belt lay quietly horizontally on the table, and the five crystal cards were lined up in a straight line, gleaming brightly in the sunlight.

【“…”】

[Kousaka Kyosuke gently closed his eyes, no longer wanting to look at the belt that gave him such great strength, and fell back on the sofa.]

[Kousaka Kyosuke is powerful, cold, rational, and invincible - this is the image of him in the eyes of outsiders.]

[But no one knows that only when he is alone, Kousaka Kyosuke will become a different person. ]

[Becoming an ordinary, common, tired person who only belongs to the past, the one Kousaka Kyosuke who was thought to have disappeared by his sister.]

【——And only that Kousaka Kyosuke could choose to temporarily escape from reality.】

7. Vow

【 09:23 AM 】

Zaimokuza walked down the wide staircase, greeted a patrol officer standing at the foot of the stairs, and then headed towards the living room on the first floor.

[Currently, Zaimokuza, Kousaka Kyosuke, and the others are not in Tokyo, but in a luxurious seaside villa owned by the Kotobuki family on the beach in Fukushima Prefecture.]

After learning from the police that his daughter had been targeted by an unidentified life form, the head of the Kotobuki family was furious. He had no hesitation in wanting to take his daughter away on his private jet, far away from this disaster-cursed country, and never return.

The head of the Kotobuki family, enraged, refused to listen to any advice and insisted on leaving with his daughter. It was ultimately Kousaka Kyosuke who finally managed to persuade this agitated head of the family, a slave to his daughter, to calm down.

Because, aside from knowing the human form, they knew nothing else about Unidentified Lifeform No. 33. There was no guarantee that its strange form could fly. If the Kotobuki family still wanted to take their daughter away by air, they might be shot down by a sniper from the sky right after takeoff, resulting in the destruction of the plane and the death of everyone on board.

Leaving by sea was also unfeasible for the same reason as above. To increase his persuasiveness, Kousaka Kyousuke presented the Kotobuki family's previous investigation reports on these two types of unidentified life forms. He used this information and practical experience to persuade the Kotobuki family head that instead of risking these two extremely dangerous methods, he should trust him and the Unidentified Life Form Investigation Headquarters. He was willing to guarantee, in Kousaka Kyousuke's name, that his daughter would be kept safe.

Ultimately, the head of the Kotobuki family was persuaded to abandon his plan to flee with his daughter. It wasn't that he trusted the police; for a local tycoon like him, trusting the Japanese police's ability to handle matters was like trusting the Prime Minister's willingness to bathe in Fukushima nuclear wastewater.

[At least in the latter case, he truly could and had the ability to force the other party to do it, but what cannot be done is impossible. The Japanese police's ability to handle affairs is like an elementary school student answering a university math multiple-choice question. They can only choose to believe in metaphysics and Schrödinger.]

The Kotobuki family's true trust lies with the Unidentified Lifeform Investigation Headquarters, led by Kousaka Kyousuke. While his status as a G1 Transformer is top-secret within the Metropolitan Police Department, the highest leadership of the capitalist nation of Japan has never been a human being, but rather a half-faced portrait of Fukuzawa Yukichi printed on paper.

This information wasn't difficult for the Kotobuki family, the top-ranking members of the Metropolitan Police Department. Furthermore, the head of the Kotobuki family was also aware of Kousaka Kyousuke's ambiguous relationship with the unidentified lifeform Number Four, who had been secretly protecting humanity. Therefore, this wasn't so much a guarantee from the police as it was a guarantee from humanity's two most powerful fighters.

If even two truly superhuman beings couldn't protect their daughter and her friends, then the efforts of ordinary people would be useless. The devastating explosion in Banqiao District completely changed the worldview of humanity's definition of "power."

"Kyosuke-kun! My daughter's safety is in your hands! If you can save her life from those monsters, I promise the Metropolitan Police Department won't have to worry about funding for the next ten years! And I won't force you to marry into the family and adopt her as my son-in-law. Even if my daughter wants to take your last name, that's fine!"

[The head of the Kotobuki family was sobbing and holding Kousaka Kyosuke's hand, repeatedly instructing him, not even calling his surname but his name, and the level of intimacy between them was skyrocketing.]

"No problem, thank you for your trust."

Although the latter part of his words sounded a bit off, Kousaka Kyosuke, who was in a depressed mood at the time, didn't think much of it. Seeing that the other party agreed, he casually agreed with a few words and hurried away.

[After obtaining the consent of this most troublesome parent, Kousaka Kyousuke immediately arranged for his subordinates to send the light music club and the other two surviving girls to the villa provided by the Kotobuki family as a base. Not only did it have a wide view but it was also far away from the city, allowing them to perform without any worries about harming innocent people.]

To avoid a repeat of the oversight at the previous school festival, Kousaka Kyousuke and Zaimokuza, who had infiltrated as a police trainee, closely escorted the girls throughout the entire journey. They remained tense throughout the journey, only relaxing once they reached their destination.

The police subsequently completely renovated the villa and its surroundings. Unlike the secluded, year-round retreat it once was, it was now a dragnet. All patrol officers abandoned their standard-issue pistols and instead carried a wide variety of heavy-duty weapons sponsored by the Kotobuki family. The house was also covered in surveillance equipment.

[And this was only inside the villa. The security outside was even more exaggerated. More than a dozen blockades stretched from the main road leading to the top of the mountain directly to the villa. The rarely traveled mountain paths were littered with various buried mines. Various concealed surveillance equipment was installed on every possible path up the mountain. Camouflaged snipers were hidden in the tops of many trees. More than a dozen drones patrolled the surrounding area, and attack helicopters flew overhead from time to time.]

To ensure his daughter's safety, Patriarch Kotobuki has risked everything. With this kind of situation, no one would suspect this is a military base. With this level of security, not even a mosquito can get in. If Number 33 still wants to harm these students, he'll have to turn into a naked rat and dig a tunnel directly to the villa from kilometers away. Otherwise, he won't be able to get close to this place.

Even more outrageous is that Patriarch Kotobuki is worried about the possibility of a naval attack from the sea, so he's using his connections within the Self-Defense Forces to manipulate the situation. From the second-floor window, he can see three warships patrolling the coastline.

The full deployment of the army, navy, and air force is usually only seen to protect a national leader's travels, but now, it's just to protect a few girls. The Kotobuki family's wealth displayed in this operation is truly astonishing to even Zaimokuza, an ordinary citizen.

Even with his security forces already so strong, Zaimokuza still felt a surge of unease. It was hard to describe this feeling, but he intuitively felt that if he only relied on these forces, he might not be able to stop the arrival of No. 33.

Driven by this intuition, Zaimokuza, feeling worried, wanted to go and see how the light music club members were doing. He was especially worried about Hirasawa Yui, who had just lost his best friend.

[Because he had been through the same thing, he could understand Hirasawa Yui's feelings better than anyone else present. It was definitely a pain that could not be completely healed by the passage of time alone.]

"Hmm? Mio-chan."

After nodding to the two armed guards guarding the living room door, Zaimokuza stopped short as he entered the living room, blinked, and spoke in surprise.