My youth story cannot be a knight war

【Om—】

The bright white light interrupted what Miou was about to say. She and Zaimokuza both looked down, their eyes fixed on the source of the light in astonishment.

[That was the bracelet she wore on her right wrist. At this moment, this ordinary piece of jewelry was flickering with a faint fluorescence, and the lustrous jade reflected the expressions of the two people.]

[And it wasn't just the ornament on her hand that was reflecting the light, it was also reflected on another person.]

The originally faint and unreachable white light became stronger at this moment. The man felt the warmth coming from the palm of his right hand. Even though he was in a state of dementia with bloodshot eyes, he still subconsciously raised his palm.

"This is……"

Looking at the sparkling bracelet, he was stunned, his lips trembling and unable to speak.

[“This bracelet, yes… This is the bracelet left behind by the priestess after that day. It is also her only relic in this world.”]

[With her left hand, she stroked the jewelry on her right wrist, a piece that had been with her for who knows how long. Her eyes moved back and forth between the man's right hand and her own wrist. Miou muttered in a daze.]

[“The priestess wore this bracelet for years, and it’s all she has left after undergoing that ritual. If it still contains fragments of the priestess’s power…”]

【Thinking of a possibility, her body trembled slightly.】

"Could it be that you've actually never left... Zaimokuza-san!?"

A white figure flashed before his eyes. Miou subconsciously cried out in surprise as he quickly walked towards the man.

“I remember why he can hear my voice!”

Zaimokuza raised his right hand as he walked, his eyes drooping. He recalled what had happened earlier, realizing that his right hand had indeed briefly touched the man's during his final lunge, or rather, their positions had overlapped.

[The man's right hand was also tightly grasping the bracelet at that moment, so it can be seen that Zaimokuza's right hand also touched the jewelry at that moment.]

[And now, the bracelet Miou and the man are holding is essentially the same, it's just that the time scales are different. And the scene happening before their eyes proves that all this is definitely related to this bracelet!]

If I touch this bracelet again, maybe I can... Thinking of this, Zaimokuza's heart suddenly beat faster and faster.

Truth and falsehood merged into one at this moment. If I could truly intervene in what had happened, perhaps everything that had happened until now could be corrected!

[Perhaps these cruel, bloody, and dark pasts will vanish into thin air! ]

【“——”】

Miou also realized what Zaimokuza was about to do, and their gazes froze. She felt her heart racing to the same rhythm as his, and her right hand tightly grasped the fabric of her dress across her chest.

Endless anxiety and fear filled Miou's heart, while a huge hope fluctuated beneath these emotions. She was completely unable to calm down.

Reason seemed so insignificant in the face of this overwhelming emotion. Even though he knew that what he and his companions were doing at this moment might lead to earth-shaking changes in the world in the future, Miou was no longer able to think.

[…Can it really be changed? Can everything that happened be erased from its source?]

Countless images and memories, like flowers in the mirror and moon in the water, surged in my heart. Those familiar people and events, at this moment, traveled through time and reappeared before my eyes. The last thing that appeared was a thin figure.

[If it were you, you would probably wish the same, right? ]

[…Rick.]

She stared intently at Zaimokuza's back as he walked towards the man, hope stirring deep within her heart, which had been silent for tens of thousands of years.

“Hey, hey, hey, no way…!”

Tobe Sho's eyes widened wider and wider, until they were about to pop out of their sockets.

"Could it be possible, could it be possible that Zaimokuza and the others could really——"

"——History can be changed!"

Hayato Hayama felt that this might be the moment when his heart was beating the most violently in his life. Even though he managed to calm the surging waves in his heart, every word he spoke was trembling.

"—"

Zaimokuza, the "person involved", was speechless at this moment. He stared at the image playing on the screen, his eyes had never been so serious and focused in his life.

"If they actually changed what happened in the past at this moment, then perhaps everything that's happening now could be completely corrected."

"The Gurongi... this race may completely disappear from the history of the world."

Hikigaya suddenly clenched his right hand, and a desire so strong that it even surprised him surged from his heart. He didn't understand why he had such a big reaction to what was about to happen.

Although no one in the world should be indifferent to such a shocking event as "changing history", Hikigaya felt that his heart rate was beating so fast that he even had the illusion of suffocation, as if his body was out of the control of his mind at this moment and became spontaneously excited.

"If Zaimokuza and the others succeed, then the bloody massacres in future Tokyo and the tragedies caused by the Gurongi will likely become like this race, losing their source and becoming nothingness that never happened."

"The fate of those innocent people who died tragically can be changed!"

“——Heh~”

Suddenly, a calm laugh sounded in my ears, coming from behind me.

This laughter was pure and innocent, though it clearly contained no trace of coldness or disdain. Yet, it could still make one feel an intense discomfort coursing through every cell of the body. A vague vision emerged before the listener, like the knowing smile of a theater audience watching a clown's antics on stage—a simple compliment to the clown's dedication, devoid of any malice.

But this laughter, which did not contain any malice, sounded so harsh.

This voice... Hayato Hayama suddenly looked back, and what caught his eye was the old blackboard and podium of the Service Club, nothing else.

He was not the only one who turned around. Hikigaya also suddenly turned around to look over. The face that suddenly appeared in front of him scared Yuigahama Yui who was sitting behind him.

"Xiao, Xiaoqi! Why did you turn around so suddenly? You scared me to death!"

Facing Hikigaya's direct gaze, a blush spread from her fair neck to her nape, and Yuigahama said in a reproachful tone, while shyly looking away.

"...No, it's nothing."

Frowning slightly, Hikigaya looked at the girl in front of him with a puzzled look in his eyes and replied.

Was that sound just now... an illusion?

"Look!"

Shizuka Hiratsuka suddenly screamed, immediately drawing everyone's attention back.

Above the light curtain, "Zaimokuza Yoshiteru" had already walked in front of the man and stretched out his right hand towards the bracelet he was holding tightly in his right hand.

Taking a deep breath, Zaimokuza no longer hesitated and reached out his palm to grasp the man's raised right hand. Whether his guess was correct or not depended on what happened next.

[With hope in his heart, he also grasped the man's right hand, their palms overlapping to hold the bracelet.]

An extremely strong white light shone at this moment. The bracelet Miou wore on her right wrist and the bracelet the man held in his right hand, both of which were essentially the same piece of jewelry, also shone with dazzling brilliance at this moment.

[Success—Before he could even feel happy about the confirmation of his guess, Zaimokuza's mind suddenly went blank.]

Something surged toward his mind through direct contact, as the bracelet was grasped by his two overlapping palms. It was like a sharp blade slicing directly into Zaimokuza's mind.

Before he could even feel the pain, countless fragmented images emerged in Zaimokuza's mind.

[Fragmented images flooded in one after another, and Zaimokuza felt like a reef in a river, washed away by the tide of these images, unable to move at all.]

[And these scenes washed away to the end, leaving only two voices echoing in the darkness, a man and a woman, the man full of joy, the woman as gentle as water.]

[——"Have you decided? What do you want to name the child?"]

[——"Yeah, I've already thought about it."]

"If it's a boy, he'll be called Daguba. That's my father's name, and it's the name of a brave hunter."

[——"If it's a girl, can I choose the name?"]

[——"Of course, as long as you're happy."]

“Then… let’s call it Baruba, right? It’s the name of a flower I’ve seen before. It’s red and very beautiful.”

[——"Baruba? Flower?"]

[——"Hmm... I hope that this child's smile will be as beautiful as that flower, and that he can live a carefree life in this world."]

[——"I hope she can be free from the constraints of fate like me and find the same happiness."]

【boom--】

A powerful light burst forth from the bracelet, knocking Zaimokuza to the ground. Landing on his back, he gazed at the vast, azure sky above him, his eyes glazed over.

【"Mr. Zaimokuza!?"】

Miou was immediately horrified and hurried over to Zaimokuza, offering her hand to support his upper body. She nervously looked at him, who was still in shock.

"What's wrong with you? Are you okay?!"

【"I……"】

Zaimokuza turned to look at Miou in bewilderment, his mouth opening and closing but unable to utter a single word. The images still lingered in his mind, their echoes lingering.

What exactly are those scenes...?

“…I see.”

【“???”】

The sudden sound caused Zaimokuza and Miou to turn their heads. The man was standing there, his head bowed, mumbling to himself.

"Is this... the future of our clan?"

“…Puff! Hahahahaha——”

He slowly raised his head and looked at the towering rock in front of him. The man who had previously looked as ferocious as a devil suddenly laughed, laughing madly.

He laughed so heartily that tears streamed from the corners of his eyes, but his eyes did not contain the joy that laughter should have, only a gray and dead silence and deep despair.

After seeing the scene that flooded into his mind, the man's heart died completely at this moment, and his soul was swallowed up by the boundless darkness.

"Is this... the result of violating our rules? How ridiculous... How stupid..."

Unconsciously, the tears began to mix with a faint blood color, and finally turned completely red, and the bright red tears fell to the ground drop by drop.

At this moment, the reality of the world was completely distorted by the memories in his mind. The man understood everything in an instant, but he also became desperate and crazy.

It turns out... the world is so absurd and cruel.

“Could it be that he also…”

[Looking at the man laughing wildly, Zaimokuza, who was supported by Miou and stood up, slowly opened his eyes. Could it be that he also... saw something? ]

"Zai-Zai Mokuza-san, what on earth is this?"

The man's frenzied behavior was truly chilling. A clear look of fear emerged on Miou's face, and she clutched Zaimokuza's arm and huddled behind him.

[“…KUUGA.”]

【"well?"】

This definitely familiar name was spoken by the man at a time when no one should have mentioned it. His calm tone was like thunder that shook the hearts of Miou and Zaimokuza, robbing them of their ability to think.

"The warrior who protects Lindo..."

The man slowly turned his head to look behind him and spoke softly to the empty ground.

At this moment, the pair of empty eyes soaked in blood and tears saw a scene that ordinary people could not see. In the blood-red eyes, the black-haired girl with a dull expression supported the white-haired young man and stood in front, looking at him in disbelief.

"All struggles are meaningless. We are just puppets, and we can't change anything... All this has already been determined."

"W-What do you mean!?"

A great fear welled up in his heart, and Zaimokuza broke free from Miou's support, staring intently into the man's dead eyes and speaking.

"Why do you know my other name? Did you - see my memory?!"

Zaimokuza, eager to ask, didn't realize that the language he was speaking subconsciously wasn't Japanese anymore, but a different language he had heard countless times but never understood before.

[That was Gurongi's own language system. At the same time, he completely understood the man's words, no longer relying solely on gestures and expressions to understand his general meaning as before.]

At this moment, he just wanted to understand why the man suddenly said such a strange thing. His intuition told Zaimokuza that the other party's words contained an unimaginable important message.

“…Nothing makes any sense.”

Ignoring the question ringing in his ears, the man slowly raised his head. The blue sky could not illuminate the darkness in his eyes at all, and every word he said sounded like the words of a dead soul in hell.

"The world has already been changed. Not in the past, nor in the future, but in the present... Everyone is imprisoned."

"We are all connected, everything is connected, the 'Ultimate Darkness' has connected everything..."

"'Destiny' has already been determined in the future... No one can change it."

38. Before the Apocalypse: The Future Descends (5k)

Half a year ago, at the same time as the 24th Unconfirmed Life Entity Incident broke out.