When is it easiest for a person to feel powerless, weak, and insignificant?
When something is clearly within reach, yet you can't grasp it no matter what; when there are many opportunities to salvage the situation, but you stubbornly walk down the only wrong path.
Just like when she was calling for help, and I tried my best, but couldn't save her.
I couldn't even avenge her.
Ichiko's fist hit the iron door of the rooftop, the 'bang' sound covered by the gunshots outside.
"Yuna Ge, let me out!"
"I want to avenge Haruko too! Let me out!"
"Yuna Ge!!!"
Hitting the iron door again and again, after the first gunshot outside, it gradually quieted down.
Until Ichiko, who was already exhausted, ran out of strength. Her hitting weakened, and her straight body gradually bent.
With a 'thud', she knelt on the ground.
Ichiko raised her hands and weakly grabbed the door lock, using that strength to keep herself from falling, but her head hung low, leaning against the door and crying continuously.
Why!
Why do you do this to me?
Is this my punishment for abandoning Haruko?
Yuna Ge, tell me.
"Why... won't you even give me a chance to avenge Haruko..."
Just then, another 'bang' of a gunshot came, and Ichiko roughly knew that things were about to end.
Sento, already severely wounded and on the ground, was no match for Yuna with a gun.
With a 'creak', the iron door to the rooftop was pulled open by Yuna again.
Ichiko knelt on the ground, lifting her face listlessly.
Her cheeks were covered in dust, her hair was incredibly messy, her eyes were vacant, and unshed tears were still flowing. Her wet hair hung in clumps, having lost its former beauty, and some strands hung by her lips, like a scar pasted on the young girl's face.
Meeting Yuna's complicated gaze, Ichiko's eyes focused slightly, "Yuna Ge, is Sento dead?"
"Dead."
Yuna nodded lightly and bent down to help Ichiko up.
But the kneeling girl didn't take his outstretched hand, instead staring listlessly at the rooftop behind Yuna.
The sky was pitch black, but there was still a little moonlight shining down, seemingly trying to maintain the brightness of this world.
The moonlight penetrated the doorway, a large portion falling on Yuna, and a small part passing through the gap, as if wanting to fall on Ichiko.
However, the range of the moonlight stopped just before Ichiko.
The vertical shadow stopped less than half a meter in front of her.
She knew deep down that this was just a matter of the moon's angle, that she was too far from the doorway, so the moonlight couldn't shine in.
This was actually a law of nature, a piece of physics knowledge.
Even knowing this, she still felt empty and lonely, still felt that this was the moonlight rejecting her.
As if to say: Your White Moonlight is already dead.
You are not worthy of bathing in this moonlight.
Sento was dead, but why didn't she feel happy? Instead, an endless emptiness washed over her?
Does this count as having avenged a great enemy?
And after avenging him, what should she do?
He wasn't killed by my own hands, does this really count as revenge? Will Haruko really forgive me?
Or perhaps...
Ichiko's gaze drifted beyond the rooftop.
Perhaps jumping down from this 30-plus story building to accompany Haruko was also an option?
While she was lost in thought, Yuna reached out and forcibly grabbed one of Ichiko's arms, pulling her up.
Ichiko gradually came back to her senses, not daring to meet Yuna's eyes.
She could only lower her head, standing unsteadily and disheveled, her lips trembling for a long time, still wanting to say those two words, "I'm sorr..."
"I'm sorry."
However, Yuna said those two words one step faster than Ichiko.
Ichiko, with her head hung, suddenly widened her eyes, clenching her hands tightly in that instant.
"Why?" Ichiko bit her lip, forcing out the words.
Yuna didn't hear Ichiko's quiet words and asked, "What did you say?"
"I said, why!" Ichiko raised her eyes, looking at Yuna with confusion and bewilderment, "Why is Yuna Ge apologizing?"
Yuna opened his mouth, but hadn't answered yet.
A self-mocking smile appeared on Ichiko's lips, "It was clearly my fault, why is Yuna Ge apologizing?"
The string in her heart snapped completely once again. She reached out and grabbed Yuna's collar, shouting loudly, "I didn't protect Haruko well, I killed Haruko, it was all my fault, why is Yuna Ge apologizing!"
"You entrusted Haruko to me, Uncle and Auntie also told me to take good care of Haruko, you all confidently placed Haruko by my side."
"You all thought I could take good care of her, protect her!"
"But what was the result!"
"What was the result..."
Ichiko clenched her fists, hitting Yuna's shoulder with her other hand, but she couldn't muster any strength.
Her voice changed from a roar to a hoarse self-reproach, "Because of me, she died!"
"I didn't take good care of her!"
"I didn't protect her!"
"It should have been me who died, but now it's her!"
"Yuna Ge..." Ichiko cried until she ran out of strength, leaning on his shoulder and weeping again, "Please... don't take away my guilt and regret towards Haruko, okay? Otherwise... otherwise I'll have nothing left, please..."
Haruko is gone.
Besides these things, how else could she prove that Haruko actually lived in this world?
Even these things, are you going to take them away!
However, after hearing these words, Yuna was silent for a long time.
He did not, as Ichiko wished, place all the blame on her.
He just said in a deep voice, "It's not your fault, I didn't protect you well. I knew you might be in danger, but I still left Kyushu City."
Before he left, he only left a few subordinates near the residential area.
No one expected a killer to use a sniper rifle in a busy city.
He comforted her, saying, "Tao, don't think too much. Little Sister won't blame you."
"But I wish you would blame me!"
Ichiko suddenly let go of Yuna and cried out in despair, "Why are you so gentle to me? Why don't you scold me? Doesn't this just make it seem like I was just a burden beside Haruko!!!"
The accumulated emotions, with nowhere to vent, gradually turned into self-reproaching curses and crying.
Tears soaked his shoulder, and her voice echoed continuously from the stairwell.
Inari rushed over in a hurry, wanting to go up to the rooftop but was stopped by Hiro.
The man missing an ear lit a cigarette and said softly to Inari, "Don't go up. Give them some space."
Inari was silent, clenching his fist and hitting the wall hard again.
Sento was dead, and Haruko's revenge had been taken.
But why didn't he feel any happiness?
If this predetermined reality were compared to a game, Ichiko is the protagonist, and Sento is the villain.
The heroine Haruko is killed by the villain while saving the protagonist, and the protagonist then gathers teammates to defeat the villain.
But without the heroine, what kind of story ending is it?
If there is a concept of parallel universes, then which timeline's ending would be perfect?
Inari heard Ichiko's heartbreaking cries and couldn't help but sigh.
At least this current timeline is a bad ending.
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