Warning: This chapter contains disturbing content. Please be cautious.
“Why are these guys here, you idiots!”
“Don’t tell me they’ve taken down everyone!?”
“What happened to the prisoners!? Don’t tell me you left them to die!?”
The chaotic scene unfolds as everyone who remained awake and unaffected struggles to cope with the approaching ice wall. Some get entangled in the ice and have parts or their entire bodies frozen.
Hmm, from the sounds of their words, it seems they allocated some level of forces on their side as well. If that’s the case, I’m glad I decided to dedicate some of our forces to them. Thankfully, with the momentum of Fukuyama-kun, I managed to handle it alone.
“Do you have time to waste on useless talk?”
Hagasaki-kun mercilessly destroys the ice wall, along with the frozen bodies of some people. Their agonizing screams resonate as the enemy’s support quickly rushes to heal them.
“Come on, hurry up and heal them. We’ll move on once they’re good.”
And Hagasaki-kun waits patiently for them to recover.
“Don’t think dying will be easy, okay?”
…That’s what it means. Yeah, it won’t be easy, and they won’t die easily either.
“I think you’ll be fine here without me. I’ll check under the floor.”
“Alright, I’ll come with you. It would be troublesome if there’s any oversight.”
President and Toriumi retreated to the back. They’re probably going to check the situation under the floor through Senpai.
As they turned their backs to the heroes, an arrow chased after them.
Of course, the arrow wouldn’t reach them.
“You’re too slow. That won’t work.”
The flying arrow was burned by a beam. …It seems they replaced the mechanism on his right arm with a beam emitter instead of a net launcher. Well, it suits Katori, I think. After all, he’s Katori.
The beam continued and burned the archer. The smell of burning flesh filled the air, and the screams of the archer echoed.
The wound was burnt, so there was no bleeding, but the pain must have been intense.
“Why can you do such cruel things? ‘Wind’!”
The magic of the girl, presumably a wizard, didn’t activate in the end.
“That line is mine!”
Kadomi-kun, who was unusually enraged, beheaded the girl without hesitation, and with a returning swing, he also cut her staff.
“We need to heal her, or she’ll die.”
Then, conscientiously, he put her head back in place, prompting the healing support to start the recovery process.
“You’ve got to be kidding meee!”
As Kadomi-kun was carefully putting the girl’s head back in place, a swordsman charged at him.
“That line is mine too!”
In an almost teleportation-like manner, Suzumoto flew over and pierced the swordsman’s chest, causing him to collapse. Pathetic.
…Well, that’s understandable. Even if they are doping, the fact that the people from another world can move while floating in a room is impressive in itself. We, on the other hand, haven’t been trained, after all.
This one-sided game was destined to be a one-sided game. I’m not surprised at this point.
“Come on, heal this guy quickly.”
Suzumoto then picked up the fallen swordsman and casually tossed him over to the healer’s side.
“Light Arrow!”
The healer then turned to attack, but her attack was easily blocked.
“I did it… Wait, no way!?”
“If you won’t heal, I’ll cut off your limbs. How about cutting off each finger one millimeter at a time?… Do it quickly.”
Of course, since it’s magic, it won’t work.
Suzumoto maintained his frozen expression even as he threatened her with his sword, forcing her to heal the enemy while keeping the sword at her throat.
…And so, the battle, if it could even be called that, continued in such a state.
The healer finally ran out of MP and became unable to heal, bringing the fight to a temporary end. By that time, the enemy’s will to fight had completely vanished, and disarming them was an easy task.
Well, after having their heads chopped off multiple times, their organs flying out multiple times, their bodies frozen and their tissues destroyed multiple times, and being burned to a crisp by lasers multiple times… It’s no wonder their fighting spirit disappeared.
Meanwhile, under the floor, the rescue, or rather, capture of the people who were entangled by the poison and threads was progressing smoothly.
After that, we took the people who were at Fukuyama-kun’s house, the enemy’s base, back here. They were in really bad shape, but Kariya managed to treat them somewhat, and we placed each of them in a separate room, resembling individual stalls in a school restroom, with an open ceiling. We then floated the two causes in the middle of the room.
This way, their abilities are expected to be reduced, and simply restraining them with ropes would prevent them from escaping.
…Actually, this room doesn’t have an entrance or exit, so even if they try to escape, it’s pointless. It’s camouflaged with a door, but opening that door leads to a dead end. When we need to go in, we just have Senpai connect it for us.
And so, this battle came to a temporary conclusion.
…It can’t exactly be called a victory, though.
“…How is it?”
“It’s healed, but it seems a bit deep-rooted. He falls asleep, but wakes up immediately, like being plagued by nightmares.”
“…More like trauma than anything, I guess.”
I didn’t see it, but it seems that Hariu went through quite a terrible experience. From the sounds I heard through the maid doll, it’s likely he was subjected to torture.
That assumption turned out to be mostly correct, but when I asked for more details, they replied, “I don’t think I want you to know,” so I couldn’t press any further.
“…Are you going to have dinner?”
“Nah… I don’t really have an appetite right now…”
I asked, but it seems that Kadomi and the others have no appetite, so we’ll be skipping dinner tonight.
“Then I’ll take care of cleaning up. Please take care of Hariu. If you need anything, just let me know.”
Senpai left for “cleaning up.” She said she won’t be able to come back tonight, so it’s probably going to be a big task. She needs to deal with the nobles, so it’s understandable.
After Senpai left and a little while passed, Hariu suddenly jumped up.
“…Ah… it was just a dream, right?”
“It was a dream, don’t worry.”
When Katori held his hand, Hariu seemed to calm down, and his erratic breathing gradually settled.
“Ah, sorry, can I have some water?”
“Yes.”
Since water was already prepared by the bedside, Katori poured it into a cup and handed it to him.
“…Ah, water tastes good.”
Seeing that he was sweating profusely, I did some “cleaning” for him.
“Sorry, is it alright if I sleep a bit more?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. Take your time and rest.”
“Okay, sorry… thank you…”
…Seeing Hariu, who is usually cheerful and somewhat of a mood maker, completely worn out like this, it must mean he went through… something quite terrible.
After Hariu fell asleep, we had a somewhat serious conversation in the somber atmosphere.
“What should we do?”
“Maybe it would be easier for him if he could just forget, but it’s not so simple to forget something like that.”
It seems to be a pretty heavy topic.
…To forget, huh.
When I shared too much with Hunter’s mother before, Hunter helped sort things out. However, separating and retrieving memories of two individuals within one (one human and one animal) is a completely different thing from separating and erasing parts of experiences from one person. Perhaps it was possible because of the unique relationship between Hunter and his mother.
…It’s complicated, isn’t it? Erasing even things that shouldn’t be erased is scary.
“For now, maybe we just have to take it easy. Fortunately, it seems like we’ll have some time.”
Time will solve it, huh?
On the other hand, it means there’s no other solution we can find. If only there was something we could do.
As we waited while sipping tea, we heard a scream coming from Hariu’s room where he was sleeping.
“…Seems like he woke up.”
Did he wake up due to nightmares?
“I’m sorry, but Maito-san, could you go check on him? It’s just that, if we go, we might trigger more memories for him. Sorry.”
This situation is beyond our expertise, so they asked me to handle it.
Unlike those who were involved in the rescue mission, it’s true that it might be harder for me to associate with such experiences since I had no direct involvement.
I lightly knocked on the door before entering the room. There, I found Hariu sitting on the bed, holding his head in his hands.
As I closed the door, he noticed my presence and gave a tired smile.
“Sorry, it got a bit noisy, huh?”
“No, it’s okay.”
At times like this, I hate my lack of vocabulary. What should I say?
“Do you want some water?”
“Yes, please.”
I poured water into a glass and handed it to him. With trembling hands, he accepted it and drank slowly.
I watched him quietly.
“The water tastes good.”
“That’s good to hear… Is there anything you want?”
While handing him the glass, I asked. Since I don’t know what else to do, all I can do is ask.
“Anything is fine. Something you want or anything you’d like me to do, anything.”
As I asked, Hariu looked at me, as if trying to gauge something.
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
“Really?”
“Absolutely.”
After pondering for a while, Hariu started to say something, hesitated, closed his mouth, and then after a little while, finally spoke up.
“Um, well… ‘To the ends of the galaxy’… Ah, sorry, never mind, forget it.”
‘To the ends of the galaxy’… Ah, yes, it’s the continuation of the poem ‘Embrace,’ right?
“Here you go.”
Even though he said never mind, I already heard it, so I knew what he meant. I extended my arms and pulled Hariu close.
Snuggle.
“Are you okay, Maito-san? You don’t mind, do you?”
“No, not at all.”
As I gently patted his back with one hand, he squirmed a bit and his arms moved around me, wrapping around my back.
“I… I’m not like President or anything, with my head and heart clearly separated, you know. That’s why… I know it’s okay now, but I just can’t get things sorted out.”
“Yeah.”
His grip on me tightened a bit, but it wasn’t enough to break my ribs.
“I keep remembering it instantly. I know it’s okay now, but somehow, I just can’t handle it.”
“Yeah.”
…His voice was trembling a bit.
“I… I can’t take it anymore.”
I heard a sniffle, so I hugged him tighter against my chest, and his arms around my back also tightened.
We stayed like that for a while without saying anything, waiting for Hariu to calm down.
Warning: This chapter contains disturbing content. Please be cautious.
“Why are these guys here, you idiots!”
“Don’t tell me they’ve taken down everyone!?”
“What happened to the prisoners!? Don’t tell me you left them to die!?”
The chaotic scene unfolds as everyone who remained awake and unaffected struggles to cope with the approaching ice wall. Some get entangled in the ice and have parts or their entire bodies frozen.
Hmm, from the sounds of their words, it seems they allocated some level of forces on their side as well. If that’s the case, I’m glad I decided to dedicate some of our forces to them. Thankfully, with the momentum of Fukuyama-kun, I managed to handle it alone.
“Do you have time to waste on useless talk?”
Hagasaki-kun mercilessly destroys the ice wall, along with the frozen bodies of some people. Their agonizing screams resonate as the enemy’s support quickly rushes to heal them.
“Come on, hurry up and heal them. We’ll move on once they’re good.”
And Hagasaki-kun waits patiently for them to recover.
“Don’t think dying will be easy, okay?”
…That’s what it means. Yeah, it won’t be easy, and they won’t die easily either.
“I think you’ll be fine here without me. I’ll check under the floor.”
“Alright, I’ll come with you. It would be troublesome if there’s any oversight.”
President and Toriumi retreated to the back. They’re probably going to check the situation under the floor through Senpai.
As they turned their backs to the heroes, an arrow chased after them.
Of course, the arrow wouldn’t reach them.
“You’re too slow. That won’t work.”
The flying arrow was burned by a beam. …It seems they replaced the mechanism on his right arm with a beam emitter instead of a net launcher. Well, it suits Katori, I think. After all, he’s Katori.
The beam continued and burned the archer. The smell of burning flesh filled the air, and the screams of the archer echoed.
The wound was burnt, so there was no bleeding, but the pain must have been intense.
“Why can you do such cruel things? ‘Wind’!”
The magic of the girl, presumably a wizard, didn’t activate in the end.
“That line is mine!”
Kadomi-kun, who was unusually enraged, beheaded the girl without hesitation, and with a returning swing, he also cut her staff.
“We need to heal her, or she’ll die.”
Then, conscientiously, he put her head back in place, prompting the healing support to start the recovery process.
“You’ve got to be kidding meee!”
As Kadomi-kun was carefully putting the girl’s head back in place, a swordsman charged at him.
“That line is mine too!”
In an almost teleportation-like manner, Suzumoto flew over and pierced the swordsman’s chest, causing him to collapse. Pathetic.
…Well, that’s understandable. Even if they are doping, the fact that the people from another world can move while floating in a room is impressive in itself. We, on the other hand, haven’t been trained, after all.
This one-sided game was destined to be a one-sided game. I’m not surprised at this point.
“Come on, heal this guy quickly.”
Suzumoto then picked up the fallen swordsman and casually tossed him over to the healer’s side.
“Light Arrow!”
The healer then turned to attack, but her attack was easily blocked.
“I did it… Wait, no way!?”
“If you won’t heal, I’ll cut off your limbs. How about cutting off each finger one millimeter at a time?… Do it quickly.”
Of course, since it’s magic, it won’t work.
Suzumoto maintained his frozen expression even as he threatened her with his sword, forcing her to heal the enemy while keeping the sword at her throat.
…And so, the battle, if it could even be called that, continued in such a state.
The healer finally ran out of MP and became unable to heal, bringing the fight to a temporary end. By that time, the enemy’s will to fight had completely vanished, and disarming them was an easy task.
Well, after having their heads chopped off multiple times, their organs flying out multiple times, their bodies frozen and their tissues destroyed multiple times, and being burned to a crisp by lasers multiple times… It’s no wonder their fighting spirit disappeared.
Meanwhile, under the floor, the rescue, or rather, capture of the people who were entangled by the poison and threads was progressing smoothly.
After that, we took the people who were at Fukuyama-kun’s house, the enemy’s base, back here. They were in really bad shape, but Kariya managed to treat them somewhat, and we placed each of them in a separate room, resembling individual stalls in a school restroom, with an open ceiling. We then floated the two causes in the middle of the room.
This way, their abilities are expected to be reduced, and simply restraining them with ropes would prevent them from escaping.
…Actually, this room doesn’t have an entrance or exit, so even if they try to escape, it’s pointless. It’s camouflaged with a door, but opening that door leads to a dead end. When we need to go in, we just have Senpai connect it for us.
And so, this battle came to a temporary conclusion.
…It can’t exactly be called a victory, though.
“…How is it?”
“It’s healed, but it seems a bit deep-rooted. He falls asleep, but wakes up immediately, like being plagued by nightmares.”
“…More like trauma than anything, I guess.”
I didn’t see it, but it seems that Hariu went through quite a terrible experience. From the sounds I heard through the maid doll, it’s likely he was subjected to torture.
That assumption turned out to be mostly correct, but when I asked for more details, they replied, “I don’t think I want you to know,” so I couldn’t press any further.
“…Are you going to have dinner?”
“Nah… I don’t really have an appetite right now…”
I asked, but it seems that Kadomi and the others have no appetite, so we’ll be skipping dinner tonight.
“Then I’ll take care of cleaning up. Please take care of Hariu. If you need anything, just let me know.”
Senpai left for “cleaning up.” She said she won’t be able to come back tonight, so it’s probably going to be a big task. She needs to deal with the nobles, so it’s understandable.
After Senpai left and a little while passed, Hariu suddenly jumped up.
“…Ah… it was just a dream, right?”
“It was a dream, don’t worry.”
When Katori held his hand, Hariu seemed to calm down, and his erratic breathing gradually settled.
“Ah, sorry, can I have some water?”
“Yes.”
Since water was already prepared by the bedside, Katori poured it into a cup and handed it to him.
“…Ah, water tastes good.”
Seeing that he was sweating profusely, I did some “cleaning” for him.
“Sorry, is it alright if I sleep a bit more?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. Take your time and rest.”
“Okay, sorry… thank you…”
…Seeing Hariu, who is usually cheerful and somewhat of a mood maker, completely worn out like this, it must mean he went through… something quite terrible.
After Hariu fell asleep, we had a somewhat serious conversation in the somber atmosphere.
“What should we do?”
“Maybe it would be easier for him if he could just forget, but it’s not so simple to forget something like that.”
It seems to be a pretty heavy topic.
…To forget, huh.
When I shared too much with Hunter’s mother before, Hunter helped sort things out. However, separating and retrieving memories of two individuals within one (one human and one animal) is a completely different thing from separating and erasing parts of experiences from one person. Perhaps it was possible because of the unique relationship between Hunter and his mother.
…It’s complicated, isn’t it? Erasing even things that shouldn’t be erased is scary.
“For now, maybe we just have to take it easy. Fortunately, it seems like we’ll have some time.”
Time will solve it, huh?
On the other hand, it means there’s no other solution we can find. If only there was something we could do.
As we waited while sipping tea, we heard a scream coming from Hariu’s room where he was sleeping.
“…Seems like he woke up.”
Did he wake up due to nightmares?
“I’m sorry, but Maito-san, could you go check on him? It’s just that, if we go, we might trigger more memories for him. Sorry.”
This situation is beyond our expertise, so they asked me to handle it.
Unlike those who were involved in the rescue mission, it’s true that it might be harder for me to associate with such experiences since I had no direct involvement.
I lightly knocked on the door before entering the room. There, I found Hariu sitting on the bed, holding his head in his hands.
As I closed the door, he noticed my presence and gave a tired smile.
“Sorry, it got a bit noisy, huh?”
“No, it’s okay.”
At times like this, I hate my lack of vocabulary. What should I say?
“Do you want some water?”
“Yes, please.”
I poured water into a glass and handed it to him. With trembling hands, he accepted it and drank slowly.
I watched him quietly.
“The water tastes good.”
“That’s good to hear… Is there anything you want?”
While handing him the glass, I asked. Since I don’t know what else to do, all I can do is ask.
“Anything is fine. Something you want or anything you’d like me to do, anything.”
As I asked, Hariu looked at me, as if trying to gauge something.
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
“Really?”
“Absolutely.”
After pondering for a while, Hariu started to say something, hesitated, closed his mouth, and then after a little while, finally spoke up.
“Um, well… ‘To the ends of the galaxy’… Ah, sorry, never mind, forget it.”
‘To the ends of the galaxy’… Ah, yes, it’s the continuation of the poem ‘Embrace,’ right?
“Here you go.”
Even though he said never mind, I already heard it, so I knew what he meant. I extended my arms and pulled Hariu close.
Snuggle.
“Are you okay, Maito-san? You don’t mind, do you?”
“No, not at all.”
As I gently patted his back with one hand, he squirmed a bit and his arms moved around me, wrapping around my back.
“I… I’m not like President or anything, with my head and heart clearly separated, you know. That’s why… I know it’s okay now, but I just can’t get things sorted out.”
“Yeah.”
His grip on me tightened a bit, but it wasn’t enough to break my ribs.
“I keep remembering it instantly. I know it’s okay now, but somehow, I just can’t handle it.”
“Yeah.”
…His voice was trembling a bit.
“I… I can’t take it anymore.”
I heard a sniffle, so I hugged him tighter against my chest, and his arms around my back also tightened.
We stayed like that for a while without saying anything, waiting for Hariu to calm down.
