Clang!Wooooong—Thwack!Swish, swish-swish!
"......"
More fun than I expected... watching a fight is actually pretty entertaining.
More precisely, it's fun to watch while thinking about absolutely nothing.
If I'd stood there saying I'd help with that, I'd have been dead meat—what with having to account for the inherent possibilities, plus the T Corp tax collectors' time manipulation.
If you do nothing, you don't have to think about anything!
And with Ms. Ishmael right beside me, there's no danger either.
Watching the battle from a distant, safe place while observing the situation... do you know what that means?
It means it's the perfect setup for mocking the people working hard. Heh heh...
Of course, if I mocked every Sinner who was working, I'd just get cursed out for it... but what if it was people I already held a grudge against?
"Mr. Gregor, how do you even miss that! Can't you do even that properly?"
"......"
"Wow, you missed just now? If you'd done even a little better there, you would've caught it!"
"...Cut it out, will you? How do you expect me to clean up after this later? But...?! "
What, am I your employee? You do this all the time yourselves. Karma!
"Ms. Rodion, try a little harder to kill it in one hit. Are you going to half-ass it like that? Ah, it recovered!"
"Then don't just watch, help out too!"
"Do you really need the wounded to take down those things? Seriously?"
"Eek, eek..."
Heehee... heeheehee...
Up till now, I'm going to vent every bit of resentment I've built up on the bus.
I've been mocked so much on a regular basis. This still isn't enough.
"......"
"...Is there some kind of problem?"
"No, I was just thinking... you've got a lot bottled up, don't you?"
"If you know that, be careful. I'm more petty than you'd think."
I'm going to keep mocking them until I feel completely refreshed.
It's not like those people are the type to lose because of this anyway, so it's fine!
After we get back on the bus...
Well, they'll handle it themselves, won't they? Like always.
*
Somehow or other, the battle ends well, and the story resumes in the white room.
The viewpoint is Yi Sang, the large mirror, and the Yi Sang there.
[At some point after your return... you brought up words I could not understand.]
"Yi Sang, if Gubo comes back with that blue supplement... don't swallow it this time. Save each pill one by one."
"...?"
Supplement? Why would that matter?
Just like me, the Yi Sang of the past wore an expression of incomprehension, but the Yi Sang in the mirror ignored it and kept talking.
"If about three days pass like that... things that couldn't be seen will begin to appear. When that day comes, you'll have two choices."
Wait... Ah, I get it. That blue pill isn't an ordinary supplement.
...But how did the Yi Sang in the mirror know that?
The Yi Sang of the past also seemed to sense something off in the mirror-Yi Sang's words, but the mirror-Yi Sang paid it no mind and continued.
"The first is to chew up all the remaining pills at once. Then you'll fall into a deep sleep. But when you wake up, everything will be fine. You'll keep living a day devoted only to mirror technology, and sometimes you'll chat with me. Status quo."
The Yi Sang in the mirror offered two proposals.
The first was to give up moving forward and preserve himself like a specimen.
And the second was...
"The second is... to leave this place."
To throw everything away and choose to move on.
At that statement, which flatly denied everything the Yi Sang of the past had said until now, he reacted rather strongly.
"I have no wings. How am I supposed to leave?"
"Just because a chicken cannot fly doesn't mean it stops flapping. It struggles... endlessly."
"This is confusing. And now... where am I supposed to go? I have no hometown, and no one waiting for me."
"Think simply. If you have no hometown, then walk and walk without end until your feet stop somewhere. Make that place your hometown."
Yi Sang still looked unconvinced, but he didn't seem to have any intention of refusing the words.
Whether this way or that, nothing would change... had he simply given up on judging it?
[Following your words, I did not take the blue supplement.]
[Without taking the supplement, what had always been hazy was engraved clearly into my retina for the first time.]
[The room I was in was not closed. It was always open, and I could wander anywhere.]
[As I walked the long, narrow corridor, I saw how my mirror was being used.]
[Then, all at once, exhaustion began to wash over me.]
[If I swallowed the supplement and fell asleep like this, everything would surely be fine.]
[And I wanted to believe there must have been some misunderstanding between Gubo and me.]
[But...]
[I came out beyond the white square and walked.]
- Step, step...
Yi Sang tried to cross the white corridor and head out beyond it.
If nothing had interfered, he might have left just like that... but would N Corp really have let such a talent walk out without incident?
From the opposite end of the corridor, Gubo's voice rang out.
"My foolish friend, have you decided to leave?"
[Words meant not to hold me back, but only to claw at me...]
[They did not hurt, but they seemed to leave a mark.]
"With nowhere to return to, in that staggering body of yours? Wherever you reach, do you truly think that place will become home?"
"......"
Gubo kept needling Yi Sang without pause, but Yi Sang's head never turned back.
He had no intention of returning...
"Please, rest easy. I shall return again when dusk falls."
[And so I sent away even Gubo, who had remained my last friend.]
[I was left utterly alone.]
Alone, huh...
For a story I couldn't simply ignore, Mr. Dongrang chimed in.
"That's right. We all became alone like this. And only then... at last. It was my turn."
...My turn?
The moment those meaningful words left Mr. Dongrang's mouth, the self-awareness depth shifted in an instant.
The white room became streaked with black, and the place where the mirror had been was replaced by a massive cylindrical glass tube.
The same space where the two K Corp executives, excluding Alfonso, had been fighting under the guise of a meeting just a moment ago.
Sinclair, who had immediately skimmed the script, looked at Mr. Dongrang and said,
"...Now it's Mr. Dongrang's turn to hand over mirror technology to K Corp. We know that much, since we were the Guhinhoe for a little while."
The instant Sinclair finished speaking, the pasts they had passed through until now were reflected in the self-awareness depth in sequence.
[...But saying it was like a child's toy is a little hurtful. If you knew that animals feel pain just like people do, you wouldn't say something like that so carelessly.]
Mr. Dongrang's words after hearing Nulin's remark.
[Dongrang, if you're not planning to save every person in the City, then stop with the half-baked attempts. If you really thought you could save everyone with a mere technology like this, I would've thrown everything in long ago. But... would that really change anything? It'd still be rotten and half-baked.]
Dongbaek's words, as she drove Mr. Dongrang—who hesitated to burn his own technology—while wearing a look of contempt.
[So it was okay even if it got hurt. I didn't need to struggle alone to heal something, or feel heartbroken over it. I was really stupid, wasn't I?]
After that, Mr. Dongrang's words after burning all of his technology.
[Then you should've gone back to your hometown and bitten your own tongue off and died there!]
Even the shouting Dongbaek had hurled when Ahnung betrayed them...
When all the thoughts came to an end, the same thought bloomed in the Sinners' hearts.
His despair, his regret, his emptiness...
"......"
Gregor murmured quietly.
"Yeah, Mr. Dongrang is..."
But why was it?
Before his words could even finish, the self-awareness depth sank into darkness.
*
My vision brightened again, and the same place as before came into view.
In a dark room, a huge glass tube, and inside it something large enough to be seen by eye...
Ah, there's one difference.
Mr. Dongrang is acting out the past, just like Alfonso's apparition.
Alfonso looked at Mr. Dongrang, who was staring wide-eyed into the inside of the glass tube, as if she couldn't understand him.
"Why are you so surprised? You must've heard the rumors. About our Wing's Singularity."
"...Seeing it in person makes it feel different. I never thought I'd end up here..."
"That's the usual reaction. So... what was it you said you could do?"
"Ah, first let me explain the technology I invented..."
Mr. Dongrang seemed to intend to introduce himself in front of her, but for some reason, Alfonso didn't seem very interested in him.
In fact, she cut him off naturally and continued with what she had to say.
"I heard you're a talent from Guhinhoe, so my expectations are very high. That... person called Yeongji is still missing, yes?"
Guhinhoe, Yeongji...
At those two words, Mr. Dongrang's expression darkened noticeably.
However... it also seemed as though that, too, never entered Alfonso's field of vision...
No, had Alfonso ever really looked straight at Dongrang in the first place?
"...Yes, that's right."
"Well, it's a shame the group fell apart... but I'm glad we could salvage at least one member."
"Guhinhoe... has always been a generous shade. Then and now..."
Shade, huh... Was that really being used in a positive sense?
...Guhinhoe.
Mr. Dongrang, who had briefly sunk into thoughts of the past, stared blankly at something and muttered quietly.
"Come to think of it, there used to be something that cried while looking at me like this..."
"Dongrang?"
"Ah... right, the reason I came here is..."
And with that, the scene came to an end.
...Something that cried while looking at Mr. Dongrang.
The fragmented memory of Seosan, the person who had briefly connected with me, brought to mind the image of an animal.
The baby calf cherished by the founding members of Guhinhoe. Nureongi...
Perhaps Ishmael was thinking something similar to me, because without any warning she quietly murmured,
"The thing that cried while looking at Mr. Dongrang... Nureongi, you mean..."
"Hah, what are you doing? Guhinhoe has scattered, and the play is over. You're no longer 'Wandering,' are you?"
At Mr. Dongrang's mocking words, Ms. Ishmael's face twisted at once.
This is... whether I stop her or not, she's going to do something.
This woman really needs to cool her temper, honestly.
"I suppose so. I got so immersed that for a moment I felt like I'd become your 'friend' or something. You say you achieved what you wanted, but no matter how I think about it, that doesn't seem right. Was that how you felt when you saved Nureongi too?"
"Could you not speak so carelessly? I didn't save Nureongi because I wanted something."
Nureongi. At those words, Mr. Dongrang's expression, which had remained similar ever since meeting us, filled with visible irritation.
Wow, so he could make a face like that too. He'd always kept that annoying poker face on; I really wanted to hit him.
Setting that aside for now, at Mr. Dongrang's irritated words as he pressed Ishmael, Mr. Heathcliff, who had been playing the role of the bull, retorted with a reluctant expression.
"Who doesn't know that? We saw the thing crying right before it got trampled to death and just saved it on a whim. We took turns feeding it milk and all that."
"...Back then, I believed this was a world where saving something without expecting anything in return would be acceptable."
Saving something without expecting anything in return...
For this damn City, isn't that a dream far too big and difficult to hold?
Just looking at Mr. Dongrang now, he was already so different from back then.
"......"
Mr. Dongrang swallowed a low groan with a dark expression.
...What is he thinking about right now?
After a moment sunk in silence, Dongrang, still wearing that dark expression, slowly voiced what he felt.
"It seems that day, what was burned in the incinerator wasn't just my technology. The garden I'd been growing in my heart burned down with it."
The garden he'd been growing in his heart... Mr. Dongrang's love for animals, his unconditional love for life, and the effort he put into it.
How hard must it have been for him when that wish was shattered?
Thinking back on it, it wasn't a particularly pleasant thing.
Mr. Yi Sang, who had kept watching that scene from the side, probably understood at least some of his pain too.
"Looking back on our path... we all lost a great deal. We failed to see what we should have seen..."
Then Yi Sang's eyes, which had been cast downward, lifted straight ahead.
"I'm sorry. I only looked askance. I didn't know then that everyone was breaking down the same way, and that you were no different..."
"...I wonder if Nureongi is somewhere, peacefully grazing on grass?"
At Dongrang's question, the silent Ms. Otis said,
"Yes. It'll be waiting for you, even if you never return."
"It probably wouldn't recognize me... I've changed too much from back then."
Have I changed too much...?
Wooooong──
Then, I felt the self-awareness depth subtly shift.
The Golden Bough, that immense energy, seemed to resonate with something.
And for some reason, faintly. Very faintly, it felt like I could hear something like a whisper...
'───.'
"...Yes, you're right. All the best-trophy plaques on my shelf are just shells."
No, it doesn't feel like I'm hearing it. I can't actually hear it, but something is definitely... something is speaking.
As Mr. Dongrang answered that someone's words, the self-awareness depth changed all at once.
To a laboratory somewhere in K Corp... into an alien, dark space.
'───?'
"They shine brilliantly... but inside, they're empty shells. Shells I could never have obtained if I hadn't been Guhinhoe. That's why I liked photographs. Photographs... honestly contain me."
'───.'
"From some point on, whenever I look up at the sky... I can't see anything. It's like it's hidden beneath a huge shadow..."
Soon, the space finished changing completely.
This place is... a burned, withered field?
In that out-of-place location, I looked around to figure out where we were.
A withered field, and far off, factories spewing smoke.
The fumes pouring out from there filled the sky... making it feel as if some enormous thing was blocking it out.
...A shadow.
No, maybe that's overinterpreting it.
In the end, faced with that openly bleak sight, Sinclair wore a bad expression.
"Mr. Dongrang... who are you talking to...?"
"This time... I don't think it's me."
···What the hell does that mean now?
Anyway. The space reverberates, and a sense of foreboding closes in.
It was a sight I'd never seen before, but... a few people seemed to know what this phenomenon was.
The ones who showed it were two.
Don Quixote and Faust.
"I... think I understand now. That one is heading toward a Distortion..."
"Yes, and Distortion may not be the final stage... but a process."
A process, huh... So there's a form in which something can progress further from Distortion?
As if I'd ever seen anything like that.
But if it's a process, then is there some way to interfere with it? Some way to change the result into something positive, somehow...
I could feel a few of the Sinners arriving at the same question I had.
Most notably Sinclair, who seemed the most interested in the phenomenon.
But with their own knowledge, reaching the answer right now would be a long shot.
What came out of that was a question directed at the Sinner who knew Distortion best here, Ms. Faust.
"Then... i-is there any way we can help..."
"To prevent him from straying from his path in this space, where the mind manifests physically. Then, naturally, the moment will come when he accepts that it is his path. That is how you help."
After Faust's calm answer, Mr. Dongrang's body began changing rapidly.
The form he eventually reached was... hard to call human.
His lower body took the shape of a bull, and his head was hidden beneath a bright brown sedge hat, making it impossible to see clearly.
His clothing consisted of a dark red funeral shroud-like robe stained as though with blood on the inside, and over it, an outer garment the same color as the sedge hat.
As the finishing touch, it held a massive scythe that looked like it was meant for cutting through the field. No matter how you looked at it, it did not seem friendly to us.
...A fight, then. Right.
This time, I should get ready to fight too.
"...! Wait."
This time, I forcibly pulled my arm free from Ishmael.
...Honestly, there's no reason for me to push myself and step in right now. If I stayed back and let the twelve Sinners fight, we wouldn't be at a major disadvantage.
But, but... for some reason, the things he had gone through, the emotions he had endured... I found myself thinking they were tragic.
By all accounts he's a villain, but... the reason he became one is, in the end, right here in this damn place.
As someone who may have helped maintain this damn place... I couldn't just ignore this sight and move on.
I gripped my weapon.
Maybe it was just stubbornness or lingering attachment... but after that time, I hadn't much wanted to feel regret anymore.
Then it lifted its head and fixed its gaze directly on me.
"You, too... are empty."
"...Empty? That's a pretty painful thing to say to someone."
"......"
It's coming.