My youth story cannot be a knight war

[That is the number of horns, and the true meaning of this totem.]

Yukinoshita realized that she had made another huge mistake in this regard. She had always regarded this Kuuga symbol as a totem created by Rindo, but ignored another possibility - what if the creator of this totem was not Rindo, but Gurongi?

If we continue to think along these lines, then the meaning of this totem might not simply correspond to the word "warrior" in the ancient Lindo language; it might also have other hidden meanings.

After translating and understanding these inscriptions, Yukinoshita also understood one thing: these totems resembling animals and plants actually represent a symbol similar to a personal signature in Gurongi culture.

Each symbol represents a Gurongi. This is clear from the totem tattoos found on the bodies of the Gurongi bodies captured by the police through surveillance videos. Yukinoshita had previously discovered many similar totems while translating inscriptions. Based on the context of the translations, she discovered that the totems actually represented specific entities. This may be because the ancient world had no concept of spelling names, so they chose this method to refer to others.

[And if her line of thought is indeed correct, then who does this totem truly represent?]

[——The answer is obvious, isn't it?]

Who killed these Gurongi here and wrote this totem with their blood?

“This symbol, perhaps, is more than just Kuuga’s symbol, it may also be…”

[At the thought of this possibility, Yukinoshita trembled all over, and a sense of extreme unease swept over her body.]

For the first time, she felt that the world was so absurd, so absurd that for the first time, she, who had always been rational, emotionally hoped that this conjecture was wrong.

[“Number Zero…his own signature.”]

[——Zero and Kuga’s totem are the same???]

……

【Fukushima Prefecture, Soma City, beach. 】

【05:49 PM】

【It was autumn, the beginning of winter, so the evenings in this country always came later than in summer.】

Even so, at around six in the afternoon, the sky had already completely turned dusk. The sun was sinking towards the west, and the clouds, illuminated by the remaining light of the sun, looked like they were burning with flames. The beauty was so breathtaking that it was hard to leave.

A white-haired young man in a brown windbreaker stood on the beach, waves constantly washing over his boots. He stared silently at the fading blood-red sunset at the far end of his field of vision. The sea breeze ruffled his short white hair, which, under the setting sun, reflected a faint orange-yellow glow.

He gripped a motorcycle handlebar with his right hand, letting go of his left. A broken railing was repeatedly swept away by the waves, only to be swept back to his feet. Faint flames still lingered on the sand around him. The unseasonably scorching heat distorted the young man's surroundings.

【Woooooo——】

[The clamor of alarm bells gradually began to ring from a distance, but he didn't even turn his head until they were not far behind him.]

【“…”】

Wearing a windbreaker over his hospital gown, Kousaka Kyosuke opened the car door. He walked to the edge of the shore and silently looked at Zaimokuza Yoshiki, who was standing on the beach with only his back left.

【“…”】

[As if sensing his gaze, Zaimokuza's hair twitched a few times, and then he slowly turned around and looked back. Their gazes crossed mid-air.]

【Kousaka Kyosuke saw Zaimokuza's expression at that moment.】

He looked at himself expressionlessly, his clear grey eyes like a mirror, devoid of any emotion.

【Apart from that, there is nothing.】

[No smile, no thumbs-up, no iconic phrase "Da Man~" anymore. Everything that was once familiar no longer exists.]

[On his face, the smile that Kousaka Kyosuke once knew was no longer visible.]

[The two looked at each other without saying a word.]

Interlude: Crossroads of Destiny

"Pfft!"

"pat..."

The sound of countless seats colliding echoed in Sobu High School. The continuous sounds were full of a strange rhythm in the chaos, like the grand narrative song before the last chapter of the story, and as neat as the bells ringing in unison in a church.

"That is……"

Sitting on the ground, Tobe Sho stared blankly at the image of "Zaimokuza Yoshiki" standing facing the sea in front of him. His mind was still blank and his expression was so dull that it was almost funny.

But no one would laugh at him, because no one in the infirmary was in any better condition at the moment.

"That is……"

The cigarette slipped from the corner of her trembling mouth to the ground. Shizuka Hiratsuka was almost half-kneeling on the ground, her arms around her shoulders. Her face was as pale as a faded white cloth. She had always been as carefree as a man, but now her eyes were filled with panic, like a little girl frightened by thunder.

Not only Shizuka Hiratsuka, but also Yumiko Miura had a blank look in her eyes. She slumped on the floor in a rare duck-sitting position. Next to her, Hayato Hayama was half-kneeling, gasping for breath with one hand on the ground and the other covering his left chest. Cold sweat was pouring down his forehead like water.

"What is that! It's so scary!"

Yuigahama Yui hugged Yukinoshita Yukino tightly and spoke while trembling all over. Every word she spoke was trembling. She buried her face in her friend's barren chest and didn't dare to lift it up at all.

Yukinoshita's already fair face now looked even paler and bloodless, but her expression was still able to remain calm. She reached out and stroked Yuigahama's soft pink hair, as if wanting to comfort her, but she didn't even notice that her hands were actually shaking slightly.

While stroking Yuigahama's head, she tilted her head to look forward, and a subtle worry flashed in her cold navy blue eyes.

In front of everyone, Zaimokuza, who was sitting on a chair in front of the window, was still quietly looking at the light screen that appeared in front of his eyes. He did not react to the strange behavior of the people behind him and continued to sit there motionless.

The inexplicably dim light from the sky shone through the window onto the lenses of his glasses, and the reflected light carried an inorganic quality like stone sculpture.

The smile that always graced Ebina's face had vanished. His face was pale, and he pursed his thin lips slightly. He placed his hands on Zaimokuza's shoulders, his slender fingers tightly gripping the fabric of his windbreaker.

"Zaimokuza, what exactly is that..."

Hikigaya turned his head to look at Zaimokuza, his brows tightly furrowed, his expression as solemn and turbid as a quagmire on a rainy day, and all kinds of emotions flashed through his eyes.

Ye Shan shook his head, panting and wiping the cold sweat from his forehead with his hand, but he could not wipe away the fear that remained in his eyes.

"That's also... Kuuga? But it's different from the previous forms. Why does it feel so..."

So... scary.

Ye Shan did not say the last two words. He raised his right hand in front of his eyes, looked at his palm that still could not stop trembling, and clenched his teeth.

Just now, when the black figure emerged from the raging flames on the light curtain, he who witnessed this figure outside the light curtain suddenly felt his brain go blank.

An indescribable sense of oppression spread from the figure resembling Kuga in the flames. This sense of oppression even penetrated the light curtain and directly turned into an almost tangible sense of oppression that impacted the spirits of all the audience.

The moment he felt this sense of oppression, Ye Shan suddenly felt as if his thoughts had frozen in an instant, his beating heart seemed to be suppressed by a huge rock, and his heartbeat frequency almost stopped.

All kinds of horrifying illusions emerged in his mind. Ye Shan seemed to see red blood flowing and spreading on the ground, and heard the wailing and screaming of countless people in his ears, the voices filled with boundless despair and fear.

The skin of my body felt like the temperature of a raging fire was rapidly rising. Boundless darkness was spreading before my eyes, as if the world was gradually being swallowed up. I tried my best to roar, but my throat was constantly moving but I couldn't make a single syllable, and my vocal cords had lost their function.

Ye Shan could only stand there stiffly, feeling in vain that his heartbeat was gradually becoming weaker. Just when his consciousness seemed to be about to fade away, as the scene on the light screen switched, the horrible feeling of oppression quickly left, and his sense of the world also quickly returned.

After regaining control of his body, his heart suddenly started beating rapidly again, causing him to kneel on the floor, covering his chest and gasping for breath, completely unable to stop.

Fine beads of sweat fell on the smooth floor of the health room, but the fear in my heart did not subside even a little bit. The feeling of being on the verge of death was completely remembered by my body.

Ye Shan knew very well that what he had just felt was not just an illusion. If that pressure lasted any longer, he might even suffer a heart attack due to his heart stopping!

And all this... was it just because he saw that figure? Even through the light curtain?

The pressure felt simply through the sight of a figure could almost overwhelm the mind, even stifling the body's own life cycle and nearly plunging it into a state of near-death? This was simply unbelievable!

After catching his breath, Hayama reached out to support the trembling Miura Yumiko, then looked around and found that almost everyone present had different tendencies to lose strength. Obviously, they also felt similar experiences as himself. Except for Zaimokuza Yoshiki and Hikigaya Hachiman, all of them... ?

Wait? Ye Shan was suddenly stunned.

He looked at Hikigaya beside Zaimokuza in surprise and suspicion, and found that although the other person's expression was solemn, his reaction was not as strong as that of others and himself. It could even be said that there was not much change at all.

Why... does Hikigaya-san seem fine? Didn't that pressure have any effect on him?

“…That’s, Kuuga.”

Before Ye Shan could continue thinking, a sudden sound brought his scattered attention back, making him subconsciously look in the direction where the sound came from.

Zaimokuza still sat motionless in the chair, and the sounds coming out of his mouth were dull and dry, like sand rubbing against stone.

"But... that's not Kuuga anymore, it's... KUUGA."

"What does this mean, Zaimokuza? Have you discovered anything?"

"Hey?"

Hikigaya, who was sitting next to Zaimokuza, looked at his distraught profile and felt uneasy. He put his hand on his shoulder and shook it gently, trying to bring Zaimokuza back to his senses.

Zaimokuza slowly turned his head to look at Hikigaya. Hikigaya saw his eyes behind his glasses and the words he wanted to say got stuck in his throat.

"...Literally, Hachiman."

"That's not Kuuga anymore, or rather..."

Zaimokuza's eyes behind his glasses were empty and lifeless, like two dark tunnels, without a trace of life.

He enunciated each word clearly, but spoke it with great difficulty, like a drowning person struggling to stick his head out of the water and breathe the oxygen that sustains his life.

The face of his best friend in his eyes twisted and changed at this moment, turning into a pair of black eyes.

Those eyes were pitch black, like the very embodiment of the word "darkness."

Those were the eyes that Zaimokuza had caught a glimpse of several times before while in a trance, but this time, in addition to those eyes, he also clearly saw the face that owned those eyes.

…That was the alien face of the future “Yoshiki Zaimokuza” after his transformation, the one that the world regarded as a hero.

But it was not until this moment that Zaimokuza finally understood what those eyes represented.

That is the ending that belongs to him, to the future "Yoshiki Zaimokuza", or to all those who wear that Yamada belt.

It turns out that when he first chose to wear that belt, fate had already arranged the final outcome for the man who wanted to protect everyone's smile?

Is this the price I have to pay to protect everyone's smiles?

It turns out that everything in reality is not as beautiful as the special effects of the team he watched when he was a child. The heroes who protect the world will not necessarily be greeted with flowers and applause in the end, but despair and darkness that will never be praised by anyone?

So...is the world really so cruel?

For the first time, Zaimokuza, who understood this fact before entering society, felt as if a peeled bitter melon was stuffed in his mouth. The taste was so bitter that he could hardly accept it and made him want to cry.

But he couldn't cry, and neither could "Zaimokuza Yoshiteru", because he had chosen this path himself. If he had not chosen to wear that belt, everyone including him and "Yukinoshita Yukino" would have been slaughtered by Number One in that police station in Nagano Prefecture.

No... Even if no one close to him was there, even if he knew everything from the beginning, that man would still choose to wear that belt, right? After all, that's the kind of person he is.

A person's character determines his destiny.

Therefore, "Zaimokuza Yoshiteru" decided his own fate with his own hands.

"That's actually the real—"

“—Kuuga.”

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka spoke word by word, his eyes fixed on the dark figure emerging from the boundless flames on the screen, his expression not changing even when the images switched.

"Sure enough, my inference was correct!"

He covered his left chest with his palm, feeling the chill and palpitations as if his heart was being pinched by sharp claws. The oppression that felt like death was still there and seemed to have not dissipated yet, and was still so clear.

He suddenly realized something, raised his palm in front of his eyes with a dazed expression, and his eyes widened slightly involuntarily.

My hands are still shaking uncontrollably, and there is this strange emotion surging from my heart... Is this the so-called "fear"?

This emotion that he felt for the first time in his life was incomprehensible to Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, but it gave him a clear sense of being "alive", just like the last time he discovered the curiosity hidden in his heart.

Because only living creatures have a desire for knowledge, only living creatures fear death, and only those who possess these are "human beings."

Even Ayanokouji himself didn't notice that the corners of his mouth, which had been expressionless until now, now drew a wanton arc, and a pure curiosity emerged from the depths of his emotionless eyes.

That curiosity was too pure, like a child who had just opened his eyes to see the world, but precisely because it was too pure, it made people feel particularly terrified.

Children's curiosity is, in a way, the most terrifying thing in the world, because they can tear a dragonfly's wings apart just out of curiosity, just because they want to know how the dragonfly will react without its wings.

"The previous series of enhancements was just a process. Now Zaimokuza Yoshiki has finally reached the final stage of the evolutionary path granted by the belt... and he's already standing at the finish line! It's even within reach!"

"That is the true Kuga, that is the true power of that belt, far beyond any of the five elements he possesses. In other words, it is a realm that can only be reached after possessing those five powers. It belongs to the realm of 'emptiness'."

"Kuga's Ultimate Form!"

"Pitch black...Kuga?"

Kyosuke Kousaka stared blankly at the black figure in his light screen, his eyes seemed to be completely frightened.

He was so focused that he didn't notice that everyone else in the health room, except himself, was suffering from a huge mental trauma at this moment. He was the only one who was not affected by the pressure at all.

This was undoubtedly very strange, but Kyosuke Kousaka no longer had the time to pay attention. His gaze was completely focused on the dark eyes of the figure on the light curtain. The scenery reflected in his irises was completely occupied by those eyes, and he could no longer see anything else.

Suddenly, he felt that the pair of eyes on the light curtain... seemed to be looking at him!

"—"

My vision suddenly went blank, and my consciousness quickly faded away without me being able to react.