When that one possible solution occurred to him, Lin Ye couldn't help shaking his head.
This whole time he had assumed he needed to use all sorts of rescue methods to get the entire family of four out, to avoid accidents and mishaps, to keep all four of them safe and sound.
The result, in that respect, would be fine.
Once someone died,
everything would reset, and start over again,
but that method itself had a definite problem.
His original approach across the three attempts—if his strength were sufficient, brute-forcing a path through could work, but those three attempts, met by the targeting of the instance world, were enough to show that clearing it through normal methods was very nearly impossible.
And a Strange instance, no matter how high its difficulty, would never fail to leave a way to clear it.
A method necessarily existed; what he needed to find were the clues that would reveal it.
Across the three resets, he had done his utmost to find ways to avoid the car accident, but the accidents came one after another—Father Kasugano died twice, and Mother died from a sudden illness.
All three times ended in failure.
If he wanted to use a similar method again to get the family to flee,
Lin Ye didn't feel he had any confidence in it.
The 'Final Destination'-style targeted accidents were very hard to avoid, and these kinds of crisis-attacks weren't just once or twice but three, four, five, six, seven times, until death came.
The intelligence gathered through reset after reset didn't help with later responses nearly as much as he'd imagined.
The method was wrong.
Lin Ye had realized this point: the way to clear this instance was absolutely not simply to save people.
This idea had surfaced at some unnoticed moment, but he had never found the method—until now, when he had finally thought of it.
"Big Brother..."
"Big Brother..."
In grief-stricken words, the silver-haired girl tugged at Lin Ye's clothes, tears in her eyes, her whole face pleading as she spoke. To her, her mother's passing was once again an enormous blow.
Father Kasugano cradled his own wife in his arms, weeping silently. He was full of disbelief, unable to accept this brutal fact, yet forced to accept it all the same.
Mother Kasugano had already closed her eyes, her body no longer giving any response.
Had she received timely treatment, the chance of survival would still have been high, but in the present situation… unless a hospital were right at hand, it was basically already too late.
What was more,
Lin Ye was quite certain that under this targeted death within the instance, Mother could not possibly survive.
If Mother lived, then the father would likely meet a death-attack again—and of course, so might he himself.
This reset, too, should be nearing its end.
"Save..."
"Mama."
"Big Brother, save Mama."
...
Sora's sorrowful, sobbing tone kept ringing out.
She was witnessing the departure of her closest kin,
she could not bear her mother's death.
To her, she wished her parents and brother all alive, all alive forever.
"Sora,"
Lin Ye crouched down, looking level into the eyes of this well-behaved, obedient, adorable girl. He reached out and smoothed away the tears at the corners of her eyes, his gaze full of heartache.
A little girl who, because of one accident, had lost three of her closest family, leaving only herself alone—the blow to her could be called absolute.
She only wished her family still alive—what was wrong with that!?
This Strange instance was constructed precisely upon the foundation of that longing.
"It'll be all right,"
"It'll be all right."
He softly repeated this one sentence.
For the span of a few seconds,
everything in the instance fell into silence.
The crying, the shouting, the wailing—all of it went still.
Lin Ye only gazed at the girl before him in his field of vision, his body no longer able to move.
Before long,
his consciousness sank into darkness.
Time passed second by second,
and his consciousness soon slowly recovered from the drowning darkness. Lin Ye opened his eyes and once again beheld the very same scenery.
The same car cabin, the same parents in the front row, and at his side, still that adorable silver-haired girl who looked a touch weary yet couldn't help gazing out at the scenery beyond the window.
"Big Brother..."
Sora noticed Lin Ye's gaze turned toward her, and so, with a curious, puzzled expression, she spoke up to ask.
"Mm, Sora."
"What is it, Sora? Is there something on Sora's face?"
"There is."
Lin Ye reached out; the girl reflexively shut her eyes, but seeing that Lin Ye wasn't actually touching her, she opened them again.
"Big Brother..."
She found it strange—she just felt that today's Big Brother was very strange.
"Papa, Mama, and I—none of us will be in any danger,"
"At least this time, no one will come to harm."
Lin Ye's words reached the girl's ears, but all they drew out was more confusion from her, her curious look growing thick.
"Big Brother, what are you talking about?"
"I'm saying, Sora, you can take a nap now,"
The Hypnosis superpower activated.
Lin Ye looked straight at the girl,
the two of them met each other's eyes, and the power of Hypnosis began to take effect.
"Forget all your troubles, forget all your pain, and have a good sleep. I, Father, and Mother will all be fine; everything will pass smoothly,"
"When… Sora wakes up, everything will be normal,"
"Everything will be just as it was."
...
...
Sora's eyes went unfocused; her body seemed to want to struggle and stirred a little, but she quickly closed her eyes.
She quietly leaned her back against the seat and fell into a deep sleep,
her faint breathing steady, her expression calm.
Lin Ye looked at the girl nestled against his side, then turned his gaze forward.
The car drove on steadily.
"Haruka and Sora really do get along well,"
"Twin brother and sister—of course they get along well."
"From now on you'll have to take good care of your sister, you mustn't bully her,"
...
The father in the driver's seat and the mother in the passenger seat both spoke with smiles about the closeness of the siblings.
Lin Ye responded with the utmost sincerity.
The little car drove on with a soft 'shaa, shaa, shaa...',
and Lin Ye made no further unnecessary actions.
No truck appeared,
no sedan appeared,
and after they reached the tunnel, no road-blocking accident scene appeared either—
it was as if nothing at all had ever happened.
As if the accidents of the previous few cycles had been a mistake.
Soon,
a beam of bright light appeared ahead,
a blazing white light like a ray of hope, piercing through all the darkness of the tunnel.
In a moment,
the little car passed through and entered into that blazing radiance,
and Lin Ye closed his eyes as well.
He didn't know how much time had passed,
when Lin Ye felt his two feet treading on solid ground,
the air filled with a faint sense of dust and mildew.
This was...
Lin Ye opened his eyes.
A room in a private house—
this was a second-floor room of the Kasugano home, the very room he had been in just before he last left and entered the instance.
Lin Ye realized he had come back.
He had successfully cleared the instance mission.
[The reality regular mission 'Trial of the Rabbit Doll' has been completed.]
[Reward 1: 4,000 game points. (Blessing 'Point Splitting' in effect)]
[Reward 2: 300 experience points]
[Reward 3: Random Blue Quality Item ×1]
The Strange Game's settlement notification had arrived too.
The mission had been successfully cleared.
At this point,
Lin Ye also confirmed his own judgment.
This instance mission's requirement of 'staying alive' did not, in the true sense, mean keeping Father Kasugano, Mother Kasugano, and the role he played—Haruka Kasugano—alive.
Rather, it meant making Sora Kasugano believe that her three family members were alive.
As long as Sora Kasugano was kept from perceiving that her family had met with an accident, her cognition could successfully be changed.
In other words, even if he didn't use the Hypnosis superpower, as long as he found a way to get Sora Kasugano to fall asleep in time, reducing her perception of the outside world, the accident's appearance could be avoided, and the family could smoothly reach a safe destination.
Although the Sora Kasugano within the instance was set up to have no understanding of the accident whatsoever, in fact, deep in her heart, she still knew, a little.
Precisely because she knew this, the accidents would appear, would occur. His three attempts had each met with all sorts of mishaps and accidents, resulting in someone's death.
Because in Sora Kasugano's subconscious, this outing was certain to produce an accident, certain to produce the death of family—so no matter how he struggled, it was very hard to avoid and successfully overcome.
But as long as she was made to fall asleep, to lose consciousness, to sink into deep slumber, that consciousness would temporarily fall quiet.
And so the related accidents would not appear.
To clear this instance, finding the right method was very easy—but if one couldn't find the precise method, then passing it was very hard.
Players, amid failure after failure and encountering Strange erosion with their infection level steadily rising, would gradually lose their reason and judgment, finally arriving at an ending of failure and death.
Call it hard, and it wasn't; call it easy, and it really wasn't.
"If I run into a similar Strange instance in the future, I'll have some experience now."
Lin Ye swept his gaze around the room, and his eyes finally settled on that black rabbit doll on the room's floor.
It sat there quietly on the floorboards, no longer moving at all, as if it were nothing more than an ordinary doll.
Had Lin Ye not earlier seen it lunge at him with his own eyes, he really would have believed it.
Lin Ye stood where he was, not walking over right away. "Hey, quit playing dead."
But the black rabbit doll didn't stir in the slightest, giving no response at all.
After a good while, Lin Ye finally walked over, bent down, and picked up this black rabbit doll.
By the feel of touching it, this black rabbit doll truly had become the simplest, most ordinary doll, no longer carrying any trace of having been infected by a Strange aura.
"Most likely, after the mission was cleared, this rabbit doll's Strange aura vanished completely as well."
This was a good thing—but it was good for ordinary people.
After all, an ordinary person would absolutely not want to be together with a doll infected by a Strange aura that could actively harm people.
But the subject this time was no ordinary person; she was a lonely girl who had lost her parents and brother.
This black rabbit doll, infected by a Strange aura, possessed a certain self-awareness, and to the girl that could be considered a comfort.
But now, the black rabbit doll had lost its Strange aura and no longer had self-awareness. Could Sora really accept it with equanimity?
Lin Ye's mood grew heavy, the pressure somewhat great,
and he was somewhat at a loss for how to face Sora.
Once that girl learned that the black rabbit doll—her spiritual anchor—could never again keep her company, chatting with her and easing her loneliness and stress, how anguished and grief-stricken would she be!?
Lin Ye picked up the rabbit doll and slowly let out a breath.
"What must be faced still has to be faced,"
"The black rabbit doll no longer has consciousness, so I'll have to find other ways to soothe Sora's heart."
To look after that lonely girl—this was his thought.
Not to mention that, in this Strange instance, Lin Ye had even taken on the challenge several times, witnessing the girl's grief and tears again and again; he genuinely, sincerely wanted to protect that girl.
Carrying the black rabbit doll, Lin Ye walked out of the room and came to the room next door, but the next-door room was empty—the girl was nowhere to be seen.
"Hmm?"
Lin Ye searched room by room, but he didn't see the girl's figure anywhere on the second floor.
His puzzlement deepened. "Sora,"
But there was no response at all.
'Ta-ta-ta...'
Lin Ye hurried downstairs at a quick pace, but he didn't see the girl's figure on the first floor either.
Skill: perspective, activate.
Lin Ye swept his eyes across in one glance; every concealing wall and cabinet was seen through, and the entire private house was laid bare within his field of vision.
After looking twice, Lin Ye still hadn't seen any sign of Sora.
An ominous warning kept climbing.
"That girl..."
"She wouldn't be about to do something foolish, would she!?"
The moment he thought of this possibility, Lin Ye immediately grew anxious.
This possibility really wasn't small!
Sora really might do such a thing.
Lin Ye dashed out of the house at a quick pace and came outside.
Outside, the streetlamps gave off an orange-yellow glow, the streets dim, not particularly bright.
Lin Ye looked left and right but found no clue as to which direction the girl might have gone.
"Which way?"
Better to ask someone first.
With that,
Lin Ye picked the left side and ran along it. Seeing a small snack shop with its lights on, he immediately went to ask, "Hello, excuse me, have you seen a girl with long silver hair? About this tall, looking a bit shy around strangers."
The shopkeeper thought for a moment and shook his head. "No."
"Thank you,"
With that, Lin Ye continued running at a quick pace,
asking at four or five nearby shops along the way whether they'd seen Sora, but the results were all no.
This made Lin Ye immediately reach a decision: he turned around and headed off in another direction to ask.
A few minutes later,
he got a piece of news from a clerk at a dessert shop.
A little girl had come into the shop more than ten minutes earlier to buy cake.
Her mood hadn't been very good; the clerk had even asked whether she needed help, but the little girl had simply paid and left after settling the bill.
"Thank you,"
Finally, there was a clue.
The likelihood of it being Sora was very high.
Going out to buy cake—
you had to realize that Sora had just eaten cake that evening, yet now she wanted to eat cake again. Wasn't this exactly like wanting to eat some of her favorite sweets before doing something foolish?
At the very least,
Lin Ye was quite certain that if he himself were going to end his life by taking the short way out, he would surely run through all the things he normally hadn't done, the things he wanted to do but didn't dare, to reduce the regrets in his life.
Human nature was common to all; Sora, too, very probably held a similar thought.
Therefore,
Lin Ye knew there wasn't much time. If he didn't find the girl soon, he'd likely only be able to find Sora's corpse.
"Where, where on earth is she?"
"Jumping from a building?"
Walking out onto the street, Lin Ye looked all around but saw no tall building suitable for ending one's life by jumping.
Besides, late at night, most of the tall buildings were closed; even if Sora wanted to get to a rooftop, it would be quite difficult.
So...
"Water,"
Lin Ye thought of the most likely possibility for suicide.
Jumping into a lake to drown herself.
Lin Ye immediately took out his phone, opened the map app, and searched for a nearby river or lake.
Where was close,
where Sora would normally go, where she might encounter a place with water.
By Lin Ye's guess, the girl's unconscious actions would surely take her to the place with water she was most familiar with, to end her own life.
"Got it,"
Lin Ye suddenly spotted a park three hundred meters from here, where there was a lake of not very large area,
but it was more than enough for suicide.
Lin Ye hesitated no longer; he set off and sprinted at full speed, not stopping for an instant.
In this moment he used all his strength.
'Ta-ta-ta...'
The sound of footsteps echoed through the street.
Quite a few passersby still wandering about outside turned to look at this strange sight that was Lin Ye.
Lin Ye had no time to deal with them.
In under a minute,
Lin Ye arrived at the park. In two or three steps he vaulted over the railing, went inside, made a circuit, and saw the shimmering surface of the small lake.
"She's not here?"
Lin Ye was puzzled—had he judged wrong?
But the next second, Lin Ye saw a cake box left on the steps by the lakeside.
This absolutely could not be a coincidence; the only possibility was that Sora had come here to the lakeside, finished her cake, and chosen to enter the lake.
Perspective,
activated once more.
Lin Ye cast his eyes upon the lake water, and in a moment he saw the situation beneath the surface.
A figure was right there within it.
"Sora,"
Lin Ye didn't hesitate at all; he immediately leapt into the water, both hands paddling, swimming toward the girl's position.
A moment later,
with one arm holding the girl and the other swimming, he dragged the girl to the shore.
"Sora, Sora..."
At this moment the girl's face was pale all over, her eyes tightly shut, as if she had lost all vitality.
Too late?
No.
"Don't die,"
Lin Ye immediately found the right spot, placed both hands on the girl's chest, adjusted his posture, and began CPR.
Press,
press again,
and then he immediately leaned down and gave the girl mouth-to-mouth resuscitation against her lips.
At this moment Lin Ye had absolutely no thought of savoring the softness of the girl's lips.
Once, twice,
repeating it like this.
After the third time,
at last, with a 'putch' the girl's body responded; she spat out a mouthful of water, and then the sounds of choking grew more, as she coughed without stop.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
To Lin Ye, this sound was like the music of heaven.
He'd made it in time.
He had brought Sora back.
Had he been a few minutes later, it likely would have been beyond saving.
"Whew..."
Lin Ye slowly let out a breath, and with his right hand patted the girl's back, helping her ease the extreme discomfort of having drowned.
Finally, after a few minutes, Sora gradually came to her senses—from the brain's extreme oxygen deprivation and fainting to now, her consciousness slowly returning,
her eyes gradually making out the present situation.
"Big Brother..."
Her voice was very faint, yet suffused with a sense of astonishment.
"Is this place...heaven?"
Her brain was still groggy, her consciousness not yet clear enough.
As Sora saw it, Lin Ye was already dead, and she had died too.
When the dead meet, it ought to be in heaven—surely not in hell!?
Lin Ye couldn't help finding it funny—how had this place become heaven.
"This is the mortal world."
"Eh!"
Sora let out a puzzled sound.
"You didn't die; I saved you, Sora."
Her brain slowly turning, her thinking restored, Sora finally understood the present situation.
"Brother, Big Brother..."
She lifted her eyes to look at the man before her,
and the memories that had been forgotten in some corner surged forth in an instant,
"Wuu, wuu, wuu, wuu..."
Heedless of her own sopping-wet appearance, the silver-haired girl plunged straight into Lin Ye's embrace and hugged him tightly.
Grief-stricken sounds rang out, sobs ceaseless.
In reality, this was the first time Lin Ye had heard the girl cry, but Lin Ye was already quite familiar with it.
In the instance, he had heard the girl's weeping more than once.
This sound, while it made his heart ache and ache, also stirred deep feelings in him,
Lin Ye stroked the girl's soaking-wet hair, and finally gently patted her back, easing the unease and agitation in her heart.
"I'm here,"
"I'm fine,"
"I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it was my fault, it was Bun-Bun, I, I didn't stop Bun-Bun..."
Sora was overwhelmed with guilt; if she had managed to stop Bun-Bun, Lin Ye would never have fallen into the danger of death.
Lin Ye's words were gentle. "It's all right, it's already over, don't dwell on it."
"But..."
"Be good, the matter is already over, you're not allowed to dwell on it."
Under Lin Ye's half-firm demand, Sora slowly nodded.
"Ah-choo..."
Suddenly, Sora sneezed twice.
The girl who had stayed in the water for quite a while was now soaked all over, her body still continually losing heat.
"Up you get, I'll take you home."
Lin Ye too was drenched all over at this moment, but compared to the girl, his situation was much better.
He didn't feel any chill at all.
"Eh, I...mm."
Sora finally nodded and agreed to Lin Ye's request.
A few seconds later,
Lin Ye walked along the road back, with an adorable silver-haired girl lying against his back.
Sora Kasugano from time to time looked at Lin Ye's profile, and from time to time observed the passersby around them. Each time a passerby's gaze fell upon her, she would always lower her head in embarrassment, dreading to see that curious sort of look that assumed she and Lin Ye were dating.
Bashfulness—the girl's shyness was spreading.
Along the way, the two of them, drenched as they were, did draw the attention of many passersby walking the streets, but no one said anything more about it.
A dozen-odd minutes later,
Lin Ye carried the girl on his back to the Kasugano home's private house.
Entering the house, Lin Ye carried the girl straight to the shower room first thing.
"Sora, you take a bath first, warm up your body,"
"Mm, I, I'll go get clothes first,"
"All right,"
The girl's feet touched the ground, but after two steps she lost her balance and was about to fall. Lin Ye reacted in time, his hand shooting out like lightning to catch the falling girl.
"I'll fetch your pajamas for you."
After that, he supported the girl and brought her to the shower room.
'Whoooosh...'
Lin Ye turned on the showerhead, and at the same time, the bathtub began to fill with water.
Sora needed to soak in a bath and warm her body.
The little girl stood off to one side, not making a sound, only glancing at Lin Ye now and then. She had also noticed Lin Ye's drenched appearance at this moment, and guessed that Lin Ye ought to be feeling quite wretched and uncomfortable right now too.
"All right, you bathe first,"
"Big Brother,"
This time,
Sora's tone was very normal,
"What is it?"
"Bathe—you bathe too,"
"Okay, after you've finished."
Lin Ye said with a smile, and then made to leave, but what greeted him was Sora tugging at the hem of his clothes.
"Together,"
The words were bashful, yet unusually firm—these were the girl's true feelings. She had mustered up her courage. "I, I can't bathe...by myself, I have no, no strength,"
She didn't dare look at Lin Ye anymore.
Lin Ye stroked the girl's little head. "Don't say such things so casually to a man, it'll be misunderstood,"
Sora showed surprise. She turned her gaze aside, cheeks faintly red. "Misunderstood...that's fine too."
In this instant, Lin Ye only felt that the suggestiveness was maxed out.
It seemed that if he truly wanted to do something, Sora wouldn't refuse either.
But what Lin Ye felt for this little Sister was only heartache and pity—he had no such designs.
"If you can't bathe by yourself, I'll contact my friend to come help,"
With that, Lin Ye was about to take out his phone.
"I, I'll...do my best on my own..."
Seeing Lin Ye about to call someone over, Sora of course wouldn't agree; she refused, and prepared to bathe on her own.
"Call me if you need anything, I'll be outside,"
With that, Lin Ye closed the bathroom door.
Through the door, Lin Ye heard a single line: 'Big Brother, idiot.'
It had been close—it had very nearly turned into Yosuga no Sora.
Lin Ye shook his head and came to the kitchen,
setting ginger water to boil.
Twenty minutes later,
Sora finished her shower and bath and came out wrapped in a single bath towel, without the slightest hint of reserve, as if she didn't care at all about Lin Ye being a member of the opposite sex.
Lin Ye reminded her, but Sora looked utterly indifferent.
"If it's Big Brother, there's no problem,"
It should be 'if it's Big Sister, no problem,' surely!?
Lin Ye retorted inwardly.
"Drink it."
"It tastes awful,"
"Awful or not, you have to drink it."
Under Lin Ye's forceful demand, Sora obediently drank down this bowl of ginger water.
And Lin Ye took a quick shower, put on Father Kasugano's clothes, and came to the dining room, where the girl was still sitting, waiting.
Lin Ye scooped the girl up in a princess carry and headed to the girl's room.
After gently laying the girl on the bed, he told Sora about the black rabbit doll.
"Big Brother...as long as you're all right."
"Bun-Bun..."
She too was a bit anguished, but by comparison, she would rather Lin Ye return safe.
The black rabbit doll was right there in the room, but Sora had also discovered that it had reverted to the state of a doll; that Bun-Bun she could converse with would never come back.
Loneliness once again began to seep into her heart.
"I'll come more often from now on; Sora can contact me anytime, whether something's the matter or not."
In an instant, a glimmer of luster surfaced in Sora's eyes—it was hope and happiness.
"Anytime?"
"Yes, anytime—but sometimes I have classes and might not be able to pick up,"
"Mm,"
But for Sora, this was already enough.
Her life had gained one more person.
"Can I, can I call you...Big Brother in the future?"
At this moment the silver-haired girl was nervous, her body even trembling slightly.
"You can—I'd be glad, more than glad!"
The timid girl bloomed with the radiance of joy.
Lin Ye did not stay the night, but left and returned to his own apartment.
Over the next few days, he moved between Sora and Ryou Fujibayashi, spending most of his time on these two girls.
This led to him being complained about, for a time, by his girlfriend Mai Sakurajima.
Lin Ye could only express his apologies, and said he would find time to go to Tokyo afterward, which finally got Mai to forgive him for these days of coldness, for the time being.
The hands of time at last arrived at a new week.
May 20th,
another Monday of another week had come.
...
...
Volume: Week 7 — Body Swap
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