On an awfully dark day, Matsuo's son just sat on the ground and his mind went blank. He just sat there. After confronting Ayanokouji, he felt devastated.
He was weak.
He was useless.
If he were just a bit better, he would have been able to reply to Ayanokouji, but he was not.
He felt a movement in his clothes, something going up and back, so he took it out. It was his Memory. He looked at the page as words very slowly began to be written on it, without him ever touching anything.
The words fully formed, yet his eyes remained dead. The words read:
[Not everything will go as you expect in your life. This is why you need to drop expectations and go with the flow of life.]
Matsuo's son, whose name was Eichiro, didn't write anything back and just looked at it motionless, but the page didn't stop and kept on writing.
[I guess you have lost the reason to struggle forward.]
Finally, some words were written on the paper that made even Eichiro react and write back, using the blood he had just puked.
The words that made him react that way were:
[I have actually met your father. He had deep wisdom, but I couldn't really agree to his way of life. He was selfless, but he always talked about his son, Eichiro, in such a way that even I was curious about you.]
Finally, Eichiro wrote back with shaky hands and words that could barely be comprehended.
[What did he say?]
Eichiro knew that Shirou might as well be lying about it. He perhaps never met his father, but Eichiro didn't have the luxury to think about it. He was shown a golden light, and he must take it.
[He told me that despite him barely being home, you always looked after him. Even during your exams, you were never frustrated by his questions.]
Over the next few minutes, Shirou just kept on telling Eichiro what his father had said.
Eichiro was holding back tears in his eyes.
[You told me you ended your life, didn't you, yet somehow still appeared here. That means you are already dead, right? Even if you survive through this Nightmare, there's no point in you going back.]
The little hope that appeared in his eyes began to fade into utter nothingness.
[Let me tell you the secret behind Ayanokouji's isolation that's being done by Spell.]
...
Eichiro now knew what Ayanokouji was going through in this Nightmare, but instead of being relieved, he just sat there for longer.
How could he forget? The one he was talking to wasn't his friend. He was someone who was closest to the level Ayanokouji was. He would never look at him as a friend. He just kept Eichiro alive because of his communication Memory.
[You are actually far closer to me than I am to Kiyotaka... But with your help I can make even a titan crumble.]
...
[So, Eichiro, become my trump card.]
***
Shirou was sitting on a tree surrounded by a bunch of Vowalkers, but he just jumped down and went back inside the village. While walking, he began to crumble the paper and ate it.
He had a sorrowful expression.
***
I was exhausted, yet I couldn't stop. Running, I finally made it back to the village to find Matsuo's son. I went past multiple houses to get to the well where he usually sat to communicate with others.
I ran past everything. I ran past all the times the four of us just sat on the ground and talked about how we wanted to live once we escaped this Nightmare.
What our goals were.
I ran past how we had planned to survive this Nightmare.
I ran past everything until I reached the center of this village.
There, I saw a single page by the well and Matsuo's son footsteps leading left.
His ability was simple. There would be two clients and one server. Whatever the clients wrote would first go to the server, and then it was up to the server if he wanted to pass it to the other client.
I approached the page and began to read what they had talked about.
[It's been two hours. Has Kiyotaka returned?]
[No.]
[Today's the day. Leave the note and run away.]
There were more messages written, this time left explicitly for me.
If I had to be logical, the correct path would have been to leave this note right this very moment and begin following the trail. Yeah, that would have been the best choice.
...
I began to read the message that was left for me.
[If the human side of you is reading this message, I wanted to ask you, did you have fun killing Perla? Did you feel some kind of pleasure from giving them a glimmer of hope that they might escape before taking it away? Or is this your White Room self reading it? The one that has locked away their life behind the door of "Logic" and started to think there's no point in trying to get to know them if they are gonna die anyways.]
No matter how much I had tried, once I deciphered the way for me to understand what lay behind that censored message, I had already killed these guys in my mind. There were no connections to be formed.
[You know, even now I want to believe that it won't come to the point where we have to fight each other. Even after you killed Perla, I just hope that you change your mind. Hope... I really hate this word.]
I apologize, but there's no reason for me to stop.
[I just want this Nightmare to turn into a dream. "They" are really cruel, aren't they? If "They" wanted, they could have made us equal where we both meet each other again without the need for killing. But no, "they" wanted blood for us to go beyond this Nightmare.]
He was using "They" to refer to whatever was hidden behind my censorship.
There was a side of me that wanted the same when I first found them. I wanted to catch up on everything that we couldn't talk about. He was the one who gave me the idea of freedom, so I wanted to ask how he came to such an idea himself, and what his life was like.
[Kiyotaka, you were deliberately chosen to do this. For them, you are the final boss, and we are nothing but some characters who are thrown here and there for you to monologue about like a human, and then kill like a monster.]
...
I am doing the exact same thing he is saying.
[But what if I were to defeat you? You know what, I am gonna defeat you. When was the last time you tasted defeat? I don't have an idea, but I am gonna promise you, you won't leave this Nightmare like a winner.]
[I know anything I say won't stop you. It's just a human trying to tell a monster not to kill. So come. You have already thrown your humanity beyond recovery, so don't expect me to treat you like one.]
[How long are you gonna read? Do something.]
...
I left the page and began to follow Matuso's son trail.
Step. Step. Step. Step.
The trail wasn't long. It was practically crawling with heavy dragging signs. Yeah, he couldn't walk far ahead. In fact, he could barely move his body.
Step. Step. Step.
I found him just a few meters away from the village, trying to catch his breath by the trees and crawling away.
He looked back, saw me walking toward him, and began to crawl faster.
Step. Step.
I ran toward him. He tried to stand up to run away, but his body failed him, and he fell down again.
Step.
I was behind him now. He stopped trying to run away altogether and just sat by the tree, looking up at me with a painful smile.
"I really thought I had just a few more minutes to live, hah. But I guess you wouldn't be dead if it came the way you expected."
I was tired. I had run just now, and I had run for hours against Perla. My body was practically begging me to rest just a little. After killing him, I will rest for a moment before going after... him.
"I was wondering how it would feel knowing I am gonna die again, and once again because of you."
I began to walk toward him.
"Before I die, I just wanted to tell you, _ is gonna fuck you up."
I slowly reached for both sides of his neck and pressed them hard, targeting the carotid arteries, stopping oxygenated blood from reaching his brain in just under a few seconds.
His smile grew wider, and his eyes rolled back as he fell unconscious. I didn't stop. I kept pressing there, and after a few minutes, he passed away.
Huff.
I sat down on the ground, just staring at Eichiro's face. I apologize, Matsuo. You saved a monster. I just killed your son to save myself.
Huff.
I am nearing my limit. I will just rest for a whil-
RUSTLE. RUSTLE. RUSTLE.
A shriek tore through the silence, vibrating straight into my bones.
GRAHHHHHHH!
I bolted up, my eyes widening. From the shadows of the tree line, a massive wave of Vowalkers erupted. Dozens of hollow, twisted faces locked onto. But how? Wasn't he supposed to have the Memo-
...
Eichiro, I didn't know you could transfer Memories. But then again, I didn't know anything.
I won't be able to rest. I am gonna be half dead by the time I reach him.
There was no other way. I gritted my teeth and fled into the dark forest, the Vowalkers hot on my heels.
A massive plume of dust and debris suddenly rolled past me. Behind us, the entire village began to violently collapse upon itself, The roar of the destruction made the Vowalkers even angrier, their frantic shrieks rising in pitch as they threw themselves forward with terrifying momentum.
Running blindly, I felt a freezing rush of air as a jagged claw snapped just millimeters past my face. I spun on my heel, redirecting my forward force into a brutal kick straight into the creature's chest. The impact shattered its ribs, sending it crashing backward into a cluster of other Vowalkers, bringing them down in a tangled heap of limbs.
Huff.
Through the peripheral of my fading vision, I spotted another village up ahead and sprinted toward it. Suddenly, a Vowalker dropped directly from the tree above, its jaws snapping shut right where my head had been. I gripped the rough bark of a nearby tree, using the law of Inertia to violently swing my entire body sideways, completely redirecting my path out of the death trap.
Paying attention to every minute detail and snapping twig around me, I used the momentum of that swing to leap upward, scaling the ridges of the trees. Below me, a swarm of hands and scratching claws tore at the lower trunks, trying to drag me down. Midpoint through the climb, I threw myself downward into a blind dive, hitting the forest floor.
I hit the dirt hard, rolling instantly to dodge a lunging shadow, and finally broke through the perimeter of the second village.
I should be looking back toward the horde right now, but the sheer exhaustion was heavy. I felt the ground rushing upward to meet my face.
Thud.
I collapsed onto the dirt, my drained body unable to move another inch.
The frantic cries of the Vowalkers echoed from the tree line-
Suddenly, a surge of adrenaline forced me back onto my feet. I didn't look back; I just ran past the village houses with everything I had left, bursting out of the opposite exit. Seconds later, the ground beneath the village gave way, and the entire thing crumbled into a chaotic heap of dust. It had already been activated; its time had run out the exact moment I stepped inside.
Barely surviving the falling debris, I sprinted straight into a third village. As soon as I crossed the threshold, the earth groaned, and it crumbled too.
A fourth village? Crumbled.
He wasn't giving me the opportunity to rest even for a single second. He had used Perla and Eichiro to completely drain my stamina, passing his memory to Eichiro to attract the Vowalkers, forcing the Vowalkers to herd me toward him like a dying animal.
A fifth village crumbled behind me in a deafening roar of dust, and my vision finally began to blur.
Huff.
***
In a village isolated from all the others, Shirou sat on top of a tall tree, looking towards the explosion of dust that kept rising up a few kilometers away from him with each passing second.
Ayanokouji was coming towards this village.
It had started even before they found each other. The moment he learned that Ayanokouji might be here, he began his work, destroying all the villages and keeping just a few intact that were close to each other.
Then, he began to show his ability to win the trust of everyone, making them depend on him and believe that, if not for him, they would die. By doing this, he had Perla and Eichiro following his commands without asking a lot of questions.
In actuality, the only reason Ayanokouji hadn't attacked them all this time wasn't just his ability, but Perla. If he attacked them first, Perla would just run away. That was the sole reason Shirou told Perla to stay near him, so she would drain his energy.
Even if Perla wanted to run away alone, after seeing everything Shirou pulled off against the Vowalkers, she would think he had a bigger plan to save everyone.
Once Perla died and Ayanokouji grew tired, he would make his way to Eichiro and find a trail that would lead him just a little far away. Once he killed Eichiro, Vowalkers would come from behind, leaving only one way to run. Then, he would find the villages which were close to each other, but they would get destroyed the moment Ayanokouji got in.
Ayanokouji would have no choice but to follow the villages leading him to Shirou.
The reason these Vowalkers even listened to Shirou was because Shirou had killed thousands of them in front of them to make them submit to him like animals.
Shirou jumped down from the tree, walked towards the well, and sat on it.
Not even a moment later, he heard them.
RUSTLE RUSTLE RUSTLE RUSTLE RUSTLE.
They were really close.
'I really did all this against a version of Kiyotaka that's mentally compromised and not even in his own body.'
The rustling grew stronger, and in front of him came Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, with torn clothes and bruises all over his body, breathing heavily.
The Vowalkers began to surround the village, but they were shaking at the sight of Shirou.
Shirou stood up, walked a few steps away from the well, and clapped once.
The very village they stood in crumbled as well.
The Vowalkers screamed.
Ayanokouji was already half dead.
Shirou brought his hand back up to his head and just chuckled a little.
"I told you, didn't I? Don't expect me to treat you like a human."
Shirou began to take his stance.
'I... wanted to know, if I bleed like him, get tired like him, and feel emotions... why am I only an illusion?'
***
Rewritten