My youth story cannot be a knight war

hum-

"Very good……!"

The roar of the motorcycle's engine made him breathe a sigh of relief. Without caring about anything else, Hikigaya quickly picked up the motorcycle with blood stains still on the front.

After he sat on it, he looked back at the lifeless body behind him, suppressed his nausea and said in silence:

"Thank you for your generous help... I will pay tribute to you on this day next year."

The next moment, the tail pipe of the motorcycle spewed out thick exhaust gas, covering the face of its former owner who was still grieved with death, and the figure of Hikigaya driving the motorcycle had already disappeared into the distance behind the smoke.

He drove the motorcycle towards the road leading to his sister's school in his memory. As he drove, Hikigaya couldn't help but glance at the black fog and the looming city phantom above his head.

Timber seat...

Thinking of his friend who had disappeared at the end of the horizon to save himself, he couldn't help but tighten his grip on the motorcycle's handle with his left hand.

You must still be alive, right?

"..."

Hikigaya, riding his motorcycle, drove away from the street corner, and the reflectors at the intersections along the way reflected his gradually shrinking back.

Nourishes—

But in the next moment, the scene in the mirror began to show ripples like the surface of a lake. A pair of large orange-yellow eyes and an endless dark background replaced the reflection of the street scene amid a strange noise, staring intently at the figure that had already gone away.

And those big orange eyes were filled with strong hostility.

Ow—

Under the dark sky, in the silent and chaotic street scene, a ferocious roar was heard faintly among the buildings. The ripples in the rearview mirror were surging like boiling water, and the yellow light in those eyes became more and more intense.

"Wow!!!"

But all these strange visions were ended with another louder bird cry, and the ripples in the rearview mirror instantly dissipated, returning to the original street scene.

……

Day three.

"here……"

Looking at the ruins in front of him, Zaimokuza, who was standing in the ruins, had a dazed expression on his face. Only his wide-open eyes proved his inner shock and disbelief.

"Is this really Tokyo? Are we in the future???"

"Ah... I woke up not long before you too. I wandered around in this ruin for a long time and happened to see you unconscious. I thought you might know something..."

Kyosuke Kousaka walked out from his side, looked at the dilapidated scene in front of him, and exhaled a strong breath of foul air from his mouth.

"Although it's hard to believe, we have indeed arrived in the future world, and all this... is probably the result of the battle between you and Zero in the future."

After a pause, he squatted down and picked up a stone with an uneven surface from his feet. He weighed it and frowned.

"This thing... looks a lot like the meteorite I saw on display at the Astronaut Museum? What happened at the end of that battle?"

"How could it be, we actually...wait!"

Zaimokuza muttered to himself in disbelief, then suddenly remembered something and quickly turned to look at Kousaka beside him.

"Um... Mr. Kosaka? You're Mr. Kosaka from my era, right? I remember being sucked in by a strange force! Were you also—"

"Wait, wait! Please don't call me that, okay? I'm still just a high school student! Not my future self!"

A huge sense of awkwardness welled up in his heart because of the way Zaimokuza addressed him, and Kousaka quickly interrupted his question, feeling uncomfortable all over.

"You... just call me Kousaka. No need to add the honorific sir."

"Huh? Okay, that Kousaka-san... uh."

"Tsk... As expected, this isn't a dream. You really are Zaimokuza."

Zaimokuza finally subconsciously said the name he had already memorized, and after hearing it, Kousaka couldn't help but slap his hand on his face, and said after a long silence.

In fact, until now, he has been wondering whether he is dreaming. After all, this short experience of less than ten minutes is too beyond common sense. It can no longer be described as magical, but mysterious.

A sky stained with darkness, a giant ring of fire visible to the naked eye even from Earth, and a body being pulled into the air by a mysterious force...Thinking of this, Kousaka looked up and glanced at the scenery above him.

In the sky filled with black fog, the shadow of a huge city was looming, and the motionless ring of fire was suspended in the even more distant universe. The flickering evil light dyed the highest sky with a dark rainbow phenomenon.

Only when he saw this thing could Kousaka be sure that he was not dreaming, and everything happening before his eyes was real...including the person in front of him.

Looking at Zaimokuza who was a little embarrassed and timid in front of him, Kousaka's eyes were inevitably mixed with a bit of weirdness. Although he had imagined the scene of the two meeting in real life in his mind before, he had never expected the current situation.

And when they actually met, he couldn't help but have an idea in his mind: It turns out that time is not only a butcher's knife, it can also be a plastic surgery scalpel?

Forget about his future self; his foundation is essentially the same as his present self, save for a hint of the maturity and experience that comes only with the polish of society. Anyone who sees Kousaka in the present and future will quickly recognize they are the same person.

But Zaimokuza...if anyone didn't know in advance, everyone would think they were two different people!

What about that future model-worthy 6'8" figure? What about those long legs that would make even women jealous? What about that handsome face that could rival Leonardo DiCaprio for the role of "Jack" in "Titanic"? And finally, what about that ever-present, iconic smile that could charm anyone from eight to eighty?

Looking at the man in front of him, whose eyes were almost invisible when he smiled, whose body and weight were at least twice his own, and who, apart from the white hair and the windbreaker, had nothing in common with the "Smiling Superman" in his impression, Kousaka couldn't help but doubt the reality of this world again.

I heard that there is a very popular movie about weight loss in the neighboring country recently, and it is said that the actor who starred in and directed the movie has become the new generation of weight loss spokesperson. Could this guy go there and star in the second part?

After all, with this guy and my current fame, I guess countless directors around the world will ask us to play the leading role in their movies... and so on.

Kousaka's mind, which had deviated from its strange track, suddenly woke up. Now is not the time to think about these things!

Forget about starring in a movie or anything like that. If they don't find a way to survive this crisis and return home, they will probably disappear from this world forever.

Kousaka coughed a few times and spoke under Zaimokuza's puzzled gaze, wanting to exchange information between the two sides first.

"Ahem! That's right, just like you said before, I was also affected by that strange force-"

——Buzz!!!!!!!!!!!!

A violent roar resounded throughout the world, interrupting what Kousaka was about to say.

Amidst the clamor of the crowd, he and Zaimokuza simultaneously turned their gazes in the direction of the sound, their pupils suddenly contracting, and a brilliant purple-red light illuminated their faces.

"This is--"

Above the sky, there is a ring of still fire.

At this moment, it slowly started to turn again.

5. Final Words Before the Final Battle (5K)

If you had one last chance to make a phone call at the end of the world, who would you call?

"..."

Standing on the rooftop of the Metropolitan Police Department, facing the dark rainbow spreading in the sky and the surging darkness, Kousaka Kyosuke stood quietly, looking down at the mobile phone in his hand in silence.

On the address book interface that was already open on the phone screen, his finger was hovering over a name, and he didn't press the dial button for a long time.

"Takasaka Kirino".

Looking at this name, Kousaka's eyes dimmed slightly, and distant memories flowed in the depths of his dark eyes.

After an unknown amount of time, his fingers pressed down lightly.

Hey.

……

A huge rainbow light exploded in the sky, and the motionless ring of fire once again circled in the horrified eyes of everyone in the world, and the dark-colored rainbow light tore through the darkness of the sky.

The main color of the fire ring is dark purple-red, and the edge is as dazzling white as a solar flare, but this light cannot bring any warmth to people's hearts, but only extreme horror and destruction.

Then the world began to shake again.

Pillars of waves rushed towards the sky, and every inch of the earth bulged and sank like the waves on a lake, driving the buildings and people on it up and down as well. The entire planet shook and trembled under the huge external force, startling everyone to cry out.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Panicked screams echoed in the country walkway. Chitanda Airi, who was unstable in the earthquake, waved her hands in panic, and her unbalanced body was about to fall backwards.

"Chitanda!"

A hand grabbed her right wrist in time, and Oreki Houtarou immediately hugged Chitanda tightly in his arms. He then gritted his teeth and curled up under the street billboard nearby, trying hard to keep his body stable.

"Xiao Qian! Are you okay!?"

Mayaka Ihara, who was holding onto another pillar of the bulletin board, saw everything that had just happened and spoke worriedly.

"No, it's okay, Ihara-san, I—"

Chitanda, who was held in Oreki's arms, clutched his collar tightly with both hands. Her slightly red eyes looked at Ihara, and her pale lips moved in response.

Suddenly, an increasingly bright light lit up above them, and the ring of fire emitted an evil light far exceeding the previous one, illuminating the land below.

The crimson light descended in overlapping rings towards everything visible to the naked eye, like countless blades simultaneously slashing at the earth from top to bottom.

"What the—!"

Sensing the approaching light from the corner of her eye, Ihara just wanted to raise her head in surprise when a figure quickly rushed from the front and pushed her to the ground.

The crimson light was blocked by the shadow in front of her, and looking at the face in front of her with its eyes blocked by bangs, after a brief moment of confusion, her face quickly became red and swollen due to congestion.

"Stupid, idiot! What the hell are you doing in a place like this, Satoshi? At least, you have to go... I..."

Fukube Richi slowly raised his head, and Ihara's speech rhythm became slow and dull. She stared blankly at the face that appeared in front of her, and her trembling lips lost their original color at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"S-Satoshi???"

"Ah... Is this a date invitation, Mayaka?"

Ihara spoke tremblingly, and Fukube, who was on top of her, watched the tears gradually filling the eyes of the girl under him. The right corner of his mouth twitched, and half of his face showed his usual smile.

The reason why only half of his face was visible was because the left half of his face was already covered in a dark, mold-like color, his entire right eye was completely bloodshot and turned red, with the pupil and the white of the eye filled with the same color.

The black color was still slowly crawling towards the other normal skin on Fukube's face, eroding his appearance. The bloody canine teeth viciously pierced his protruding lips, and the severe pain soon deprived him of his normal expression and movement.

This was no longer a human appearance. No matter how distorted the physical deformity was, it couldn't possibly be this severe. If I had to describe it, Fukube Satoshi's appearance was comparable to the first firefighters who arrived at the scene after the Chernobyl disaster.

Their common feature is that they initially had human form, but in the end they all turned into unrecognizable monsters.

This light's lethality to human genes was no less than that of nuclear radiation, and even more so. It was precisely because he intuitively sensed the horror of this light that Fukube immediately threw Ihara to the ground, using his own body as a shield to block the light's impact.

Fukube was not the only one who made this choice. There was another person present who made the same response at the same time.

"Oreki-kun!!!"

Chitanda's terrified cry echoed throughout the path. She covered her lips tightly with both hands, looking at the boy in front of her who was also covering himself, and tears finally rolled down from the corners of her eyes.

"Don't, don't make any noise, I can hear you... and don't move around, I'm already tired..."

Oreki spoke tremblingly, sweating profusely. The girl crying in his vision was gradually being swallowed by a chaotic dark grey. The normal irises of his eyes were gradually replaced by a layer of insect-like compound eye membranes, and even a pair of small silver horns began to extend from his bangs.

"Ah~ I never thought... Even a lazy guy like you, Houtarou, could have such a manly side. Where's the energy conservation we talked about?"

Fukube, who was breathing heavily, looked up at the two people on the other side, smiled with difficulty and asked, which immediately brought him complaints from his friends.

"Shut up, I don't want to be told... by a cowardly bastard like you... gu..."

“Wu!???”

Oreki gritted his teeth and muffled a few words. Immediately afterwards, the skin on his right hand began to twist and wriggle violently. Finally, amidst Chitanda's short screams, a horrifying change occurred. His entire right arm was covered in pitch-black, crustacean-like tissue. The knuckles of his five fingers stretched backwards and pierced the skin, transforming into the inverted structure unique to insects.

The excruciating pain in his body made it impossible for him to utter a single word. Oreki hunched over and trembled violently, but he refused to move his body away from Chitanda.

At this moment, there was only one thought in his mind:

Such pain... How did Mr. Kousaka manage to keep his sanity?

My whole body aches and I want to cry...

But Oreki could no longer cry, because his eyes had completely transformed into the same structure as an insect's. While most insects possessed superior vision, surpassing over 90% of the world's creatures, their eyeballs were not designed to produce tears.

Therefore, the human heart that can shed tears can only make silent howls of pain in the body of a monster that cannot shed tears.

He actually knew it a long time ago. When the strange phenomenon first appeared in the sky, Oreki knew what it meant and what that light meant to humans.

But when the light came on, Oreki still chose to rush forward, threw the girl closest to him to the ground, and used his body to block the catastrophic light for her.

Why is it... because I actually like her? Or...

Was it just a subconscious act? Was it because I had been watching the journey of the man who was the "protagonist" and unconsciously longed to be like him?