My youth story cannot be a knight war

Zaimokuza opened the door, and the wind, snow and coldness from outside hit him in the face, and then stopped as the door closed.

During this process, he never looked back once.

In the restaurant that has become a restaurant for two people, unlike the previous quiet atmosphere, Akiyama Mio looked at the female owner who seemed nonchalant, and all the thousands of words in her heart finally turned into the same sentence when they came to her lips.

"Manager, you already knew..."

"If you have anything to say, please say it quickly~ I taught you, Xiao Mio."

She picked up the uneaten piece of cake with a fork and threw it into her mouth. While chewing, she spoke calmly.

“Some things, once missed, are missed forever, so don’t leave yourself with regrets, okay?”

"...!"

Biting her moist lower lip with her white teeth, Mio Akiyama bowed to Saki Kawasaki. Her long black hair just fell down and then rose up again as she turned around, like a group of dancing butterflies.

As the doorbell rang, Saki Kawasaki swallowed the cake, glanced at the closed door, and sighed slightly.

"What a nice girl... What a pity! If I had met that boy at another time, maybe I could have made red bean rice."

"...and you, you little bastard!"

Having said this, she suddenly started to curse under her breath.

"Wherever I go, I get into a car accident, and then I'm always hospitalized with such a famous person. Don't you think too highly of me?"

"Wait...didn't I settle the medical and food expenses with that kid?"

……

The moment I walked out the door, the fierce wind and snow hit my face, bringing a bone-chilling coldness and making it almost impossible to open my eyes.

In this pure white, the black figure was getting farther and farther away. After clasping her hands, Akiyama Mio quickly followed.

"Wait! Mr. Zaimokuza!"

Zaimokuza had just taken off the helmet covering the rearview mirror and was about to put it on when he heard a call from behind, which made him turn around. A beautiful girl ran towards him quickly and stopped not far in front of him.

"It's very cold outside. You should go back early, Xiao Mio."

Looking at the girl in front of him who was hesitant to speak, he smiled and spoke gently.

"Mr. Zaimokuza..."

Looking at the smiling man in front of her, Akiyama Mio pursed her lips and spoke in a low voice.

"Will you... come back? Back here?"

Facing her question, Zaimokuza still kept smiling, but did not give any answer.

Because he never breaks his promises to others. Once he makes a promise, he will definitely fulfill it because he firmly believes that he can do it.

——So, he won’t promise something that he thinks he can’t do.

He didn't want to break the promise he made to others, even just once.

Smiling silence is also silence, and silence is also an answer, so after getting the answer, Akiyama Mio lowered her head and tightly grasped the hem of her skirt on both sides with her hands.

A surge of emotions surged in her chest, and Kawasaki Saki's words just now echoed in her mind. She took a deep breath and mustered all the courage she had in her life.

Akiyama Mio raised her head, but this time her cheeks were not flushed like last time. Instead, she spoke with a firm look in her eyes.

"Zaimokuza-san—I like you!"

"Yeah, I know."

The next second, Zaimokuza said softly with a smile.

"Perhaps, I am the same."

"……well?"

The answer came too quickly, faster than Akiyama Mio had expected, so fast that it broke through her psychological defenses before she could fully build them up. The strength in her eyes faded, and she stared at Zaimokuza blankly.

Before he could react, he felt a softness on his forehead, and his stunned state turned into a deeper state of shock. Then he felt a warm touch and a familiar breath.

On the snow, Zaimokuza and Akiyama Mio's overlapping shadows separated, and he stretched out his arms to embrace the girl in his arms.

"I knew it a long time ago. Xiaolu is right. Xiaomiao, you are really not good at hiding your feelings."

Akiyama Mio maintained her previous dazed expression on her face, and Zaimokuza stroked her long black hair and spoke gently.

"To be honest, Xiao Mio, you are exactly the kind of girl I like~"

"It would be great if I could meet you at another time."

"...!"

The pupils suddenly contracted for a moment, then trembled slightly, and a hazy light gradually began to ripple in Akiyama Mio's clear eyes.

"Thank you, it's really great to meet you."

Leaning down beside the girl's delicate earlobe, his voice was as distant as the summer wind, dissipating randomly.

"Thank you for liking me... I'm really happy."

"so--"

Getting closer to her ears, Zaimokuza's last words reached Akiyama Mio's ears like the wind, and only she could hear it.

Then Zaimokuza loosened his hands, and Akiyama Mio left his arms with her head lowered, her whole body trembling slightly.

The roar of an engine came to my ears, and then the familiar warmth and smell quickly faded away. Soon there was no trace of that person left in the wind and snow.

Click~

He hugged his arms with both hands, as if trying to retain the breath left on his body, and the magatama bracelet on his right wrist made a light sound filled with memories.

Mio Akiyama slowly knelt down, she sat down in front of the rut left on the snow in front of her, lowered her head and uttered words inconsolably.

"Mr. Zaimuzha..."

"...Akiyama-san."

A soft voice sounded from the side. Asahina Mikuru, who had arrived at some point, squatted down. She looked at Akiyama Mio who was sobbing with her head down in panic, not knowing how to comfort her.

A soft touch came from her chest along with the black hair flying in front of her eyes. Akiyama Mio threw herself into her arms and hugged Asahina tightly with both hands.

"It'll only take a moment, please, Asahina-san, wuu ...

"..."

Akiyama Mio buried her head in his chest as she spoke incoherently. Asahina bit her lip and reached out to hug her.

Feeling this warmth, Zaimokuza's words once echoed in her heart.

"A cherished...memories?"

24. A window to memories and time (4k)

Day 4, approaching day 5.

Tokyo, Mitaka City, Police Station.

The pitch-black rain poured down, and the moment it hit the ground, it began to condense in the polar temperature, and then evaporated into an icy fog that was cold enough to freeze human lungs. This fog almost completely obscured everything in sight.

But even such a cold temperature could not extinguish the ignited flames. The entire police station building was now burning with flames. Dozens or even hundreds of police cars and police corpses were also burning below. The rain and hail hitting these burning objects made the fire ignite even more fiercely, as if a bucket of gasoline was poured on them.

Because this is not an ordinary flame on the physical level, but a fire conceptualized by pure elements. Once it is ignited, it will never go out unless everything it is attached to is burned to ashes, and it will dissipate together. Its lethality is far greater than the white phosphorus gasoline bombs banned by international humanitarian law.

Yet, in this devastated and ruined forbidden zone of death, there was a figure that was totally out of tune with everything, both in appearance and temperament.

The sole of the white shoe stepped on a piece of building debris that was still burning. The flames rose up, but the flames could not touch the surface of the shoe at all.

"~?"

Looking around at the blazing hell, Daguba's face, as childish as that of a middle school student, was covered with a gentle smile. The smile was as soft as a child who looked up at the sun after an outing, without a trace of evil in it.

But He was the culprit who had created all of this with His own hands. However, this smile was not the smile of an evil devil who was satisfied with the atrocities he had committed, but a natural and unique smile. No matter what time it was, Daguba could always wear this smile that came from the heart on his face.

No matter if he was injured, killing, or fighting, he always had this smile on his face. Even in the hundreds of years of history of the Gurongi clan, Daguba was a unique outlier. And it was precisely because of this pure anomaly that he was able to tame the darkness that arose in his heart after reaching the "ultimate" realm.

And what He is waiting for at this moment is another existence just like Himself.

hum-

The roar of the engine drowned out the sound of the burning fire. Daguba smiled even brighter when he heard this sound, and joy and excitement without any impurities appeared in his eyes.

He turned his head, and the dazzling headlights drowned out the pouring rain and snow. The red and gold motorcycle leaped high into the air, then crashed to the ground, its wheels splashing water all over the sky.

"—!"

After stopping the motorcycle, Zaimokuza looked at the corpses strewn all over the ground in front of him. His eyes hidden behind the goggles of his helmet suddenly shrank as small as needles, and the fierce red flames occupied everything in his sight.

At this moment, just like that moment, the scene a few days ago and the scene before his eyes overlapped perfectly, causing conspicuous green meridians to instantly appear on the back of his right hand.

An extremely powerful sense of oppression suddenly descended from the sky. Feeling this sense of oppression, Zaimokuza immediately raised his head and looked. The familiar white figure was reflected in the goggles of his helmet.

"You're finally here. I've been wanting to see you so much~"

Dressed in a white robe without a speck of dust, Daguba stood on top of the burning building, looking down at Zaimokuza who was getting off the Leap Chaser 2000, and said with a smile.

That smiling face shone with an indescribable glow under the dark sky behind it and the purple ring of fire that was slowly beginning to burn again. It was as cruel as an angel and as pure as a devil.

But he is not a human being, or rather, from the moment he was born, Daguba has never been close to the word "human" even for a moment, even though he has the appearance that is closest to that of a human among the Gurongi clan.

Daguba looked at Zaimokuza who raised his head below, and his tone and accent were as soft as his smiling face, which made people feel good at first sight.

But for Zaimokuza, this smile that he should have loved the most, only brought something burning and boiling in his heart like the fire in his eyes, burning away all the beauty.

"Brother~brother~?"

Wow——! ! !

In response to Daguba's kind words, Zaimokuza gave a silent greeting and raised his right hand before waving it violently.

With just this one action, a violent whirlwind was generated over the entire Mitaka City. The strong wind that came out of nowhere tore apart the rain and snow, and also blew out the burning elemental fires attached to all things. These flames that lingered like evil spirits could only fade away unwillingly in the face of another overwhelming violence.

All the burning flames were extinguished, revealing people and objects that had been burned beyond recognition. A charred corpse, whose former face could still be vaguely seen, faced the sky, its eyes, half of which had melted into liquid by the high temperature, were wide open.

"..."

A hand covered in pitch-black armor and streaked with golden stripes brushed across the corpse's miserable eyes. When the hand left, a pair of eyes, indistinguishable from those of an ordinary person, closed tightly. Zaimokuza, who had been crouching, silently stood up and looked back up at the figure standing within the pitch-black building.

His right hand had changed drastically. Every piece of armor covering his arm had a ferocious arc. The pure black arm blade flashed with cold light. A snowflake that fell again after the whirlwind dissipated was shattered by the golden lightning that jumped out before it touched the arm blade.

“That’s great~!”

This scene was enough to make ordinary people avoid it, but it made Daguba extremely happy. Even the smile on his face was filled with joy from the bottom of his soul.

He clapped his hands together in front of his chest and said excitedly:

"Your power has become even stronger than last time. You're even very close to me, who devoured so many ambassadors back then!"

The next second, Daguba's cheerful tone became as calm as a deep lake. In just one sentence, the speed and naturalness of the tone switch was enough to make more than 99% of Japan's voice actors feel ashamed.

"But it's still not strong enough."

There is pure darkness in his deep eyes, a darkness that does not contain any evil or terror, but the nothingness surging in the depths is enough to suppress the heartbeat of the beholder.

Daguba looked down at Zaimokuza with his head tilted, and the two pairs of equally dark eyes stared at each other at this moment. In each other's eyes, there was the figure of the other, Zaimokuza in black clothes and white hair, and Daguba in white clothes and black hair.

Throughout the history of mankind, it is difficult to find existences like the two above that are opposite to each other in every aspect, not only in appearance and color, but also in the shape of each other's souls.

They are natural enemies, created by fate, and follow the law of symmetry to reach the extreme of natural hostility. Life and death is not enough to describe this relationship. It is more appropriate to say that it is either you or me.

hum-

So in the face of Daguba's words that could be considered provocative, Zaimokuza didn't waste any words. He placed one hand on his waist, and the Yamadam belt that had transformed into a golden yellow color emerged. Half of his handsome human face was covered by another ferocious and hideous mask, and four sharp golden horns were faintly visible.

"This place is not suitable for us to fight~"

Facing Zaimokuza's undisguised hostility and even murderous intent, Daguba simply raised his hands and waved them slightly in front of his chest, then spoke with a smile.

"We shouldn't start a war here. The battlefield we should go to is a place full of memories."

"There, you will gain a power even greater than you have now, a power comparable to mine, so let's go there and start fighting again~"

He clasped his hands together and raised them up, covering the smile on his face, leaving only his eyes.

"This time, we must fully enjoy the battle with all our strength~"