I have countless wishes I want to fulfill. I want to go back to the past, I want dead companions to live again, I want the Honkai to disappear from this world, I want to change the destined ending, I want to cast aside the sorrow in my heart, I want—
I want to die just like this.
When I saw that world with only one person left, when I saw the graves everywhere, when I saw the culprit in the mirror...
Every time... every time... every time... there are wishes I want to fulfill.
But who can fulfill my wish? Who can correct my mistakes? Who will... save me...
...
After a minute of silence, Yama lowered her raised arm. Her expression was unchanged. Her black eyes drifted slowly from the Monkey's Paw to Lin, who was staring at her. The couple was still lying neatly on the ground, yet to wake from their stupor.
The paw had not fulfilled her wish.
"...Hmph."
What she did next left Lin stunned and bewildered. She angrily slammed the paw onto the floor, then turned around and fled from the wrecked house as if escaping.
Her childish action and the fleeting look of resentment when she turned made Lin feel she wasn't the person who had just beaten him half to death, but just an angry girl.
Still, this was fine. Lin could at least lie on the floor and catch his breath, feeling a pain he hadn't experienced in a very long time.
Click-clack.
He found a spot without shards to lie down. Both his arms were immobile. He closed his eyes, feeling the silence of the room. Because that man and woman had bought an extremely remote house for their research, even the loud commotion earlier hadn't attracted any attention.
The house was frighteningly quiet. Only occasionally would a shard of broken glass slide from a height to the floor with a light chime.
Lin thought he would faint quickly, yet his consciousness was exceptionally clear. He turned his head and saw the Monkey's Paw on the floor—the deformed arm Yama had dropped in anger.
Why hadn't Yama wish been fulfilled? Since those two could reappear because of a wish, they should have been able to be wished away. Even if the wish was distorted, having them killed again should have been entirely possible.
Why...?
Lin mind was filled with many doubts. Then he remembered Yama expression as she left. In that common rage, he seemed to have seen something more.
As expected, he couldn't just rest like this. Lin rose despite the pain, ignoring the paw on the floor, and walked out through the open door.
He didn't know where Yama had run. But hearing her say the entire world of a Bubble Universe is very small—the larger ones the size of Mu, the smaller ones only the size of a city—and this Bubble Universe was of the smallest kind, though as time passed the entire city would change into a different place.
He could always find her...
Lin set off into the night with his scarred and exhausted body. He first searched the school, then looked from the city borders inward. The loneliness of the night was accompanied by the chirping of some half-dead insect, and his consciousness was lethargic under the torment of pain.
Tap, tap, tap...
The phrase "Night is the morning of the whole city" doesn't apply everywhere. At least in this version of Nagazora, Lin only harvested icy darkness in the deep night. Indeed, even if the range is reduced to a city, trying to find someone just by walking is a fool's dream.
Finally, he could walk no further. His strength was completely depleted, and the pain in his body had gone numb. He stumbled and fell to the ground.
THUD.
Even breathing brought a searing, heartbreaking pain. He forced himself to crawl to the base of a nearby wall and leaned against it, gasping weakly with his head down.
His consciousness finally blurred. His eyelids were about to fail, nearly gluing together, when a pair of feet stepped into his crumbling vision.
"..."
He looked up slightly and saw Yama stiff, cold face. The clear face was clean and handsome, a sight to behold in the late night. She narrowed her eyes, staring at this half-dead guy who might die on his own if left alone.
After a long standoff, wordlessly, Yama knelt on one knee and reached for his shoulder. Faint green light seeped from her palm into Lin body. Just like when she saved that deep-sea fish, she was repairing Lin body.
The horizon turned white. Lin had wandered the city for nearly the whole night; even night owls weren't this dedicated.
"I've been following you since you left the house," Yama said coldly to the Lin who had regained a bit of consciousness.
...In other words, Yama hadn't gone far at all? She was nearby?
"Why did you come out to find me instead of giving yourself emergency treatment? This Bubble Universe pushes time forward every twenty-four hours. Even if you were near death, you'd recover normally after waiting a dozen hours."
"Furthermore, weren't you afraid I'd really kill you?"
The implication was that Lin had done something out of character—something stupid.
"...I felt it was necessary. You are the one who knows the Bubble Universe best. If I want to leave, I have to follow you."
"Hmph." She gave a scoff—this was the first time Lin had heard her laugh. "'Necessary,' huh..."
"And if you really wanted to kill me, you could have done it back then."
"Don't talk like you know me well." Yama spat in disdain. "I'm only letting you live because the person who trapped me seems to want the two of us to solve certain problems together."
"..."
Whether these two were telling the truth, they knew, and the other knew. But some things don't need to be exposed.
"The Lin of your world—what kind of person was he?" Lin watched the sunrise, feeling a warm current flowing through his body. The pain had vanished, replaced by a warm, bath-like coziness.
Yama gazed at him calmly. After staring for a while, she turned her gaze elsewhere.
"A foolish hypocrite. He claimed he'd give his life for all humanity and give his everything, but at the final moment, he flinched. He was afraid."
"More ironically, people treated that person as a hero who sacrificed for humanity, unaware that he wasn't nearly as high-minded as he imagined. He wasn't willing to sacrifice the few for the many, or abandon his feelings to save humanity."
"...In short, a loathsome guy."
Yama withdrew her hand. Lin injuries were mostly healed.
"You are the same. Your wish being able to resurrect those two shows that one day in the future, you will definitely break your own principles—whichever principle it is..."
"Before that, maybe it would be better to kill you."