My youth story cannot be a knight war

After quietly looking at Kousaka who was pointing a gun at him for a few seconds, Sugita Morimichi was not angry about his behavior, nor was he terrified because the gun was pointed at him. Instead, the corners of his mouth gently pulled up with a smile, and his slightly old square face revealed a smile full of relief and comfort.

"As expected of you, Kosaka-senpai's son~ Daisuke-chan."

"...!"

When he heard the nickname that only two people in the world knew, the last trace of distrust and suspicion in Kousaka's heart was finally shattered, and the muzzle of the revolver dropped as his arm trembled violently.

He stared blankly at the familiar face and the familiar person. After confirming that he was not dreaming, Kousaka opened and closed his mouth twice, but found that he could not say anything.

What should I say to someone I've lost and now reunited with? Before that tombstone, all the words have been said, even the tears have dried long ago. What is left now?

"Kyosuke, that's enough."

Kousaka was unable to speak, and Sugita Morimichi made the choice for him. The relieved smile on his face disappeared at this moment, and only the unconcealable guilt and bitterness remained.

"Actually, I originally thought that something was wrong with you after using that G1 device, but I never expected the truth to be this... You've done enough. Stop at the end."

"!"

Having the biggest secret in his heart exposed, Kousaka's gaze at Sugita Morimichi trembled violently, but the emotion in his eyes finally returned to calm.

"You, why...?"

"Officer Sugita, is it really you!???"

After recovering from her initial panic, Gokura Ruri couldn't help but walk forward. Looking at the senior colleague who had once taken good care of her, tears flickered in her eyes and even her voice began to choke.

"You, how could this happen? This—"

"Listen to me, Kyousuke."

Sugita Morimichi interrupted his junior's confession. He looked into Kousaka's complicated eyes and said bitterly:

"You can't fight anymore. I hope you can at least finally... Since then, I have been watching you, including your father-"

The echo of the words still lingered in the air, but the figure had already disappeared from the world, leaving behind a dreamlike feeling that was hard to let go.

"Officer Sugita!"

Gokou Ruri walked forward in disbelief, but Sugita Morimichi, who had been standing there, had disappeared without a trace, including the pool of blood on the floor.

"W-What is going on? Are we dreaming, Mr. Kousaka???"

She turned her head helplessly, looked at Kousaka who lowered his head and remained silent, and said pleadingly.

"Could it be that Officer Sugida just now is..."

Gokou Ruri did not finish the last sentence, because although that sentence was very consistent with the scene just now, the meaning it contained was very bad.

Because this scene fits a word, commonly known as "haunted".

beep beep-

"Huh? Tsubaki?"

Before Kousaka could reply, the sudden ringing of the phone interrupted Gokou Ruri's questioning. She took out her cell phone from her police skirt, and after seeing the caller's name displayed on the screen, she couldn't help but widen her eyes slightly.

Because it was her sister calling. In addition to her eldest daughter, the Gogen family had two younger daughters, and the youngest of them was the Gogen Tamaru who was calling her now.

But this younger sister has always been very sensible and never calls Gokou Ruri during her working hours... unless something major happens at home.

Thinking of this, she quickly answered the phone, put it to her ear and spoke with a hint of anxiety:

"Hello, is this Tsumugi? Is there something wrong at home—"

Gokou Ruri's words suddenly stopped. She put the phone to her ear, but her eyes suddenly became as blank as before.

"what happened?"

When Kousaka saw her expression, he suddenly felt a bad premonition in his heart.

"Zhuxi said that just now...she saw grandpa at home."

The policewoman said blankly, her once bright eyes becoming confused as she answered Kousaka's question in a daze.

"Grandpa? Did your grandpa come to visit you at this time?"

Glancing at the scene outside the window, Kousaka thought that their grandfather might be worried about his granddaughters' safety because of the current situation, so he went to visit them.

"No! Mr. Kosaka..."

But facing his inquiring gaze, Gokou Ruri now looked like she was about to cry, and her next words made Kousaka's eyes twitch violently.

"Our grandfather...died when Zhuxi was very young!"

The ominous premonition in his heart reached its peak after Gokou Ruri said this. At this moment, Kousaka couldn't help but hold his breath, and he could only feel his heart beating like a drumstick in his chest.

As if to confirm his idea, at this moment, the sound of a cell phone vibrating came from Kousaka's pocket. The vibration of the phone in silent mode echoed in the silent room, giving people the feeling of a demon in a horror movie just before it was released from its cage.

Silently taking out his cell phone, Kousaka took a deep breath as he looked at the caller's name "Kousaka Yoshino" on the screen.

"...Hello, is this Mom?"

"Kyosuke! Just now, I saw your father at home-"

Kosaka could no longer remember what was said next. He only felt that at that moment his brain was like an ancient bell being hit by a wooden hammer, shaking the white matter in his brain.

Those past memories emerged vividly at this moment, and he lowered his eyelids to cover his eyes that were filled with unspeakable emotions.

Dad...

There is no doubt that this is a genuine haunting incident.

And this range is probably... While answering the phone, Kousaka couldn't help but put his hand over his forehead, and fine cold sweat flowed down his face from his forehead at this moment.

Although the specific cause is still unclear, something big has indeed happened, a very big thing.

——So big that “no one” can escape from it.

……

This is a pitch-black world, but within the desperate black tones, there are countless lights flashing.

If someone stays here, they will find that these lights are mirrors. Although there is no external light source in this space, the mirrors still reflect countless lights.

If you stand in front of these mirrors, you will be surprised to find that what is reflected in the mirror is not yourself, but the reflections of many world-famous cities.

Tokyo, Kyoto, Washington, New Delhi, Paris, London, Moscow... Basically all the capitals of countries around the world and world-famous cities are included in one net, and although the cities that appear in the mirror belong to different countries, they all have one thing in common.

That was the sky shrouded in black, the illusion of a city in the black fog, and those identical golden books.

From this point of view alone, this space is very similar to the mental space where Xu Guoliang is. But if Xu Guoliang's space is pure white without any evil or darkness, then this space is the absolute darkness that even the deepest night cannot match.

Not only is there no light at all, there isn't even a trace of life. Just being here makes people feel absolute loneliness and terror from the bottom of their hearts. Even the most terrifying sealed room cannot be compared with this space.

There was once a man named Adam Bloom, nicknamed "Comedian", who participated in an experiment. He stayed in a space that was almost completely cut off from outside information for a full forty hours. After coming out, he was completely exhausted and said frankly that he thought he would never be able to laugh again in his life.

But if he came to this space, he probably wouldn't be able to last even ten minutes. Extreme oppression and darkness filled every inch of the space. Just being here was enough to make people completely despair.

"...Surprisingly, even this place has been affected."

In the depths of the darkness, a cold voice sounded, a tone that completely matched the dark atmosphere.

Dark, cold, ruthless, and indifferent.

In front of a mirror, a figure appeared silently. This figure seemed to merge into the darkness, and the light in the mirror could not even illuminate his appearance.

The only thing that could be reflected was a pair of pitch-black eyes, which were silently looking at the image in the mirror.

It was an empty old classroom, with several students in school uniforms sitting together arguing fiercely. Through the classroom window, one could see the sky outside shrouded in darkness and the book shining with golden light.

And these eyes automatically swept across the background and most of the people in it, focusing on one person.

He was a boy wearing a black school uniform with white stripes. He did not join in the argument with others. He sat on a chair with his head lowered, his hands clasped against his forehead, blocking his complex and dim eyes.

"...It's really disgusting, isn't it? This feeling of being unable to protect anything, of being unable to do anything."

The dark pupils reflected the boy's slightly haggard expression, and the owner of these eyes spoke softly:

"So what are you going to do next?"

"The past, 'I'."

2. Past, Present, Future (5k)

The world is in chaos.

This one word can perfectly describe the current state of the world.

Even though the darkness that permeated the sky had stopped spreading, and the ring of fire that was brewing endless darkness had also become still, this did not mean that people's hearts had calmed down along with the turmoil.

On the contrary, unprecedented riots are now breaking out throughout the world. The scale of this riot far exceeds any previous riots since the appearance of videos and light screens. The clamor has spread to every inch of the world. Now there is no place or country where people can choose to stay out of it.

Faced with this anomaly that actually appeared in the real world and even posed a major threat to everyone's life, no one could take it lightly anymore, because it could really cost lives.

In fact, there have already been instances where, for example, when the sky was shrouded in black fog, all flights in flight crashed simultaneously. Energy flows, now undetectable by human instruments, instantly overloaded and destroyed the radar systems and engines of all aircraft in flight, even military aircraft. The number of crashes in a single day surpassed the record for all air disasters in the nearly 100 years since the invention of the airplane.

The economic and personnel losses caused by this directly caused the heads of all airlines in the world to go into shock on the spot after hearing the news. They have now been sent to the hospital for emergency treatment.

But this series of horrific air crashes can only make a small splash now, because even more terrifying things happened right after.

That's "haunted".

Around the world, many people have seen people they thought were dead reappear before their eyes: acquaintances, relatives, friends, and even victims.

The latter refers specifically to the scenes witnessed by prisoners who have committed murder. Inside every prison around the world, a drama of "revenge of the devil" unfolds, and the police are powerless to intervene, nor dare they. Because many of these "devil spirits" have also come to haunt the police, and the perpetrators of past sordid histories, once buried in darkness, are now coming to settle accounts with them.

This situation is not limited to the police system, because it applies to everyone regardless of nationality or status. Anyone who has ever taken a life has now witnessed with their own eyes that the people they killed or caused to be killed have turned into evil spirits and appeared in front of them to seek revenge.

There was even a news anchor couple who were urgently reporting on the incident when their ex-girlfriend, who had been abandoned by him for his career and then committed suicide in despair, showed up at the scene. Then, in front of the broadcasting room and all the viewers in front of the TV, they performed an alternative version of "Ghost" and "The Original Wife Tears Away the Mistress", which scared the anchor couple to death.

Although these "evil spirits" seem unable to cause any substantial physical impact on real people, the mental impact of just witnessing their appearance is unimaginable. While shattering everyone's worldview, the global suicide rate also skyrocketed for a time.

The previous social order has completely collapsed under the accumulation of this series of abnormal events. People have fallen into riots. At the same time, some knowledgeable people have begun to look for ways to solve this phenomenon.

The clues to the solution are clearly in front of everyone, and almost everyone knows who to contact in this situation who may get something out of it.

Question: Before these anomalies appeared today, who was the most common person in the world? Who was the representative who revealed that there are supernatural forces in this world that are beyond people's imagination?

“…That’s why we’re running away.”

In the dark and gloomy tunnel, Hikigaya walked in front with his cell phone in flashlight mode, blocking his nose and lips with a towel soaked in perfume, while explaining to the four people following behind him.

"Let's put Zaimokuza aside for now. The others are easy to deal with, but Ebina and Yukinoshita, who were previously regular characters in the light curtain, and even Hiratsuka-sensei and Yuigahama, are likely to be approached. Everyone's mental state has been greatly impacted by this series of events, so it's hard to guarantee that someone won't resort to drastic measures to extract information from you."

"Ugh... I get it, but why do we have to go here? Can't we go somewhere better?!"

Following behind him were Yukinoshita Yukino, Yuigahama Yui, Hiratsuka Shizuka, and Ebina Hime. All four women had similarly covered their lower faces with various fabrics. Hiratsuka Shizuka, a body length behind Hikigaya, suppressed the urge to vomit and asked with a twitching face.

The four women following Hikigaya now had extremely pale faces, each with their own unique appearance. This might be related to where they were now.

Because Hikigaya and his group are now walking in an underground pipe, and not far away is a pool of water filled with excrement and filth. All kinds of turbid and foul smells are mixed together in the narrow and cramped sewer space, which is as cruel as nuclear radiation to the human olfactory system.

They even saw a corpse soaked in the running water pool before, and finally had to bite the bullet and walk past it. It can only be said that all this was an extremely difficult test both mentally and physically.

For example, Yuigahama, who has the weakest endurance, is now half unconscious and is being supported by Ebina and Yukinoshita as she walks at the back. They are not in much better condition either and look like they will vomit at any time.

"There's no other way. The road above is probably blocked by all kinds of vehicles trying to find us, so we have no choice but to go this way."

With the help of the reflection of the mobile phone screen, he glanced at the people behind him with ugly expressions, and Hikigaya could only sigh helplessly and said quietly.

"It's all thanks to me that when I was out of comics, I took the book at home that contained the blueprints of the sewer system in this area and read it over and over again as a meal replacement. Otherwise, all of us would be trapped in this school."

"That doesn't matter! How much longer do we have to go? If this continues, someone will probably end up in the hospital first!"

"...Don't worry. I remember there's a manhole leading to the outside world three more passages away. And after going out and walking a few blocks, you'll find Zaimokuza's house. As we said before, Hiratsuka-sensei, you and his family need to find a place to hide quickly."

"After all, they are the parents of the 'protagonist'. Since we don't know where they are, I'm worried someone might try to get their hands on Zaimokuza's parents, so we better act quickly."

"...What about you, Hikigaya-san?"

Ebina, who had been walking at the back in silence, suddenly spoke up after Hikigaya finished speaking, his eyes fixed on his back.

"You asked us to protect Yihui's father and mother, so where are you going?"

“…Is there any need to say that?”

Hikigaya's steps paused for a moment, barely perceptible, and then he continued to move forward, while the words he spoke became incredibly firm.

"My sister... Komachi, she's still waiting for me."

……