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"..."

Staring out of the window beside his bed, a boy in his last year of high school spotted a black sedan park right outside the hospital and sighed.

The sky was bright; the sun was shining and the clouds were swimming.

And yet, he felt a sense of restlessness.

"...Was it really the right thing to do?" He muttered to himself.

At that moment, although his voice was so quiet it shouldn\'t have been able to have been heard, a similarly-aged boy sitting in the opposite-facing bed clicked his tongue.

"Are you ever gonna stop with that? How many times do I need to tell you, that son of a b--"

"No, no, it\'s not that. Sorry, I understand... I understand, it\'s just... I... I don\'t know..."

The boy sighed and averted his gaze. If he hadn\'t interrupted, the other person would\'ve gone on about how \'that bastard got what he deserved\' and \'that son of a bitch kidnapped my sister\' for the nth time.

Just listening to it was enervating, and there was no way to get away from it when he was glued to his bed 24/7, so he had no choice but to stop him before the first round of cursing started.

"...Tsk."

Staring at his sombre expression for a moment, the other guy wordlessly clicked his tongue and went back to his smartphone, causing the other to sigh for a third time.

Creak-!

At that moment, the door to the private room cautiously swung open; a single person with blond hair entered, his footsteps ever-so-slightly lighter than the last time he visited.

"Hey... It\'s been quite a while. How are you guys holding up?"

His name was Azaki Kiryuuin, and he wore a sheepish smile.

At the familiar face\'s arrival, both patients perked up. One of them immediately put down his phone and exaggeratedly exhaled.

"Yo, Azaki. Long time no see. Haa, yeah, well, it\'s been a month and I still feel like shit, so there you go."

The first to respond was Saburou Fushigimi.

"Hahaha... It\'s the same over here, unfortunately. Ugh, it\'s a lot better now, but sometimes it still feels like my body was struck by a freight train..."

The second was Yuu Shimura, who let out a bitter laugh and rubbed his arms and shoulders as he recalled last night\'s sleep-depriving pain.

Listening to their woes, Kiryuuin gave a wry smile. "I\'m sorry. I didn\'t anticipate the aftereffects to be so severe..."

"Oh no, you shouldn\'t apologise!" Yuu waved his hands and exclaimed as Kiryuuin bowed.

"A-are you sure? I feel bad because I\'m fine and you\'re both like this..."

Saburou shook his head. "Don\'t be. Yuu\'s right; there\'s nothing for you to feel sorry for. No one knew what the consequences would be, but it is what it is. Seriously, if you bow your head and apologise like that, you make me feel like I\'m on my deathbed or something, so stop that."

He narrowed his eyes for a second before re-stating. "We knew what we were getting ourselves into, Azaki. Besides, you weren\'t even the person who came up with the technique."

"Even still..."

"Huh? Anyway, you\'re a lucky bastard, you know that?"

"Excuse me...? Oh, because of the pain?"

"Yeah," Saburou nodded. "If it were up to me, you\'d be suffering alongside us, you punk."

Pressing his lips together, Kiryuuin mumbled, thinking his friend was being unfair. "I would share your burden if I could..."

However, unfortunately-- or rather, fortunately, his nonsensical helper which he called \'The System\' had made Kiryuuin stronger than he was originally, so he was able to recover far quicker than the others.

"..."

Seeing the bitter frustration at not being able to help the two\'s condition improve any faster plastered all over Kiryuuin\'s face, Saburou decided to change the subject.

"Anyway, it\'s been a while, so how\'s things? That guy\'s allies haven\'t rebelled or anything, have they? Well, I suppose they\'re not allies anymore."

He was talking about the \'clean-up\' of the aftermath.

"Well," Kiryuuin started, "They\'re all staying at home, recuperating. I think, despite mentally understanding that it was the right thing to do, they still feel emotionally conflicted about the whole thing."

He spoke solemnly, and with a tinge of guilt as he felt responsible as if he committed an irredeemable deed, but he knew that apologising a million times wouldn\'t accomplish anything.

Because, at the end of the day, it wasn\'t something words could solve.

"They helped us recover many stolen assets and other dangerous materials that were hidden away underground, though. They recognise what is good, so I\'m just glad there\'s no more unnecessary fighting. In some ways, they seem to be doing both better and worse than before."

Although they were once regarded as people to be wary of, Kiryuuin was not the only person to sympathise with those people, and in particular, the two little girls who had lost a father figure

Overcoming his reluctance, Yuu looked at Kiryuuin and opened his mouth.

"Pardon me for asking, but..."

"Oh, brother, here we go..." Saburou rolled his eyes and muttered.

Not hearing him, Yuu hesitated for a moment but continued upon Kiryuuin\'s prompting.

"Are we certain that this was the right thing to do? I mean, I know we talked about it a lot beforehand, and I know he even admitted it himself..."

"I listened to you and I agreed to help out after coming to a conclusion on my own, but... I just can\'t get it out of my mind. It feels wrong."

"I still don\'t get the feeling that Itou would do something so unbelievable as ending the world."

Kiryuuin gently closed his eyes at Yuu\'s confession while Saburou returned to tapping away on his phone.

"...It\'s difficult," He began. "I understand how you\'re feeling, and I often find myself contemplating the same thing."

Opening his eyes, Kiryuuin looked at Yuu with a clear, firm gaze.

"There\'s no way to know if what we did was right."

"In the end, it\'s not something we did because we knew it was right, but because we had no other choice... No, we had other choices, but this was simply the least worst one."

His words were brief, but that made it easier for Yuu to understand and accept. Pressing his lips against each other, he nodded.

"..."

"..."

After about ten seconds of awkward silence, Yuu seemed to have resolved himself; he suddenly adopted his usual upbeat expression and asked Kiryuuin.

"By the way, you didn\'t mention it last time, but apparently my family was compensated? All of a sudden, my parents and sister came and said I had been in a car crash."

"Oh... Yes. I\'m sorry for not telling you in advance, but you were unconscious..."

He was about to bow his head when Yuu stopped him.

"No no! I\'m saying I\'m very grateful, don\'t apologise! I heard it was a lot of money. Really, I didn\'t expect it, but I appreciate it a lot. I guessed it had something to do with you guys, so I played along, but it came as a surprise. I wanted to thank you."

"Oh, no. Of course, you should be compensated for all you\'ve done; I never intended to ask for your help without anything in return from the beginning. I\'d feel even more guilty if our actions that caused you to be stuck in the hospital for a month went without recompense. Your family must have been very worried."

"Haha, yeah," Yuu rubbed the back of his neck with a smile. "Although, those cheeky guys, they were definitely quick to bring up the money aspect. My older sister even said to stop looking when I cross the road from now on."

"Oh? Well, who knows; maybe she\'s right. Can\'t really blame a person for wanting their brother to get run over if you make bank from it."

Hearing Saburou\'s remark from the side, Kiryuuin smiled and turned to him.

"That reminds me; Saburou, has your sister visited yet?"

Suddenly pausing, Saburou quietly put his phone down in response to the mention and looked at him.

"Every day. What the hell did you say to her? She feels like an overbearing mother rather than a sister."

He wore an exasperated expression as if he was irritated, but the fact it was only a mask was evident by the almost imperceptible curling-up of his mouth on one side.

"Hahaha, I don\'t know what you\'re talking about. Maybe she just missed her brother after a long time?"

"Ah, don\'t give me that shit. Did you know Atsuko is single? There\'s a reason I\'m the only guy she\'s close to, and it\'s certainly NOT because she\'s a warm person. You definitely said something."

"Really? That\'s not a very nice thing to say about your family."

"Blah blah. You don\'t have siblings, so you don\'t understand. That woman is normally cold as iron. In fact, she\'s so much like iron that you probably could\'ve left her alone in that damn dungeon and she\'d be fine."

A sly smile on his face, Kiryuuin averted his gaze. "I don\'t know. Well, it wasn\'t me, anyway. I wasn\'t the one to say that her brother was throwing fits of rage and threatening to kill people whenever the topic of rescuing her arose..."

"...You bastard." NovelFire-article

"Pft, hahahaha...!"

Yuu couldn\'t hold it in and burst into laughter as Saburou\'s chilling voice resounded.

"Haha-- Ow, owowowow-! Oh, my ribs, ah...!"

Suddenly, he exclaimed and clutched his body in anguish.

"Tsk. Don\'t laugh at other people\'s misfortune."

"Is having your desire to protect your sister exposed "misfortune"?"

Ignoring Kiryuuin who tilted his head and asked, Saburou addressed a matter they had avoided talking about until now.

"...By the way. That thing we discussed before; has anything come of it?"

Faced with his tone that had become grave, Kiryuuin met his sharp gaze and answered with an equally serious voice, nodding.

"Mmm, I\'ve talked a little with Araceli. So far, I\'ve determined that it\'s theoretically possible, but it will take a long time and resources to execute in reality. The only thing is, I\'m not sure if it\'s feasible outside of on paper."

"All of that is whatever. You know we have to do it anyway, right?"

"..."

"Azaki."

"Haa... Yes, I know. I\'m just conflicted."

Saburou\'s brows furrowed. "What are you conflicted about? As I said last time, there\'s no use for a prison without a warden. We can\'t just let the inmates roam free and risk them waltzing right out of there, you know? Even if we can\'t afford guards, just a few cameras will do as a temporary measure."

He glanced at Yuu for a moment and muttered.

"If only this guy\'s power could monitor the situation... No, I apologise. I shouldn\'t be blaming you for the way your power works."

"No, it\'s okay. Honestly, I\'m frustrated about it too."

Smiling bitterly, Yuu shook his head. Then, Kiryuuin spoke up.

"You\'re right... No, you\'re right, Saburou. You are. Sorry. I\'m just tired of dealing with the executives calling me up every day, so my head\'s a bit... I\'ll see what I can do in the meantime, but I don\'t think I\'ll be able to make much progress without you guys."

"Tch. Are those boomers still going on about setting that bastard free? Did you not tell them about the consequences?"

"Of course I did, but you know how they are. Just a bit... stubborn. Anyway, they won\'t be getting what they want, so don\'t worry. It\'s unfortunate about Sir Guff, but because of that incident, we have good evidence to support our side."

Saburou sighed. "Well, there\'s something."

A moment of silence passed as they exhaled to release their stresses. Then, Kiryuuin put on a smile and walked back to the door, placing his hand on it.

"I\'ll try and get started on those cameras. The doctor I spoke to last time mentioned the ETA for a full recovery being something like two months, so you\'re already halfway there. Just hold in for a bit longer."

"Aight. See ya, soldier. Godspeed. Please."

"Have a good one, Zaki! I\'ll get better quickly and help you out."

"Haha. I appreciate it, but you two should focus on yourselves. Celi said she\'ll be swinging by later this week, but I\'ll let her know how things are going. Rest up."

Dropping that final message, the door closed behind him, leaving the two patients in a silence that caused them to become painfully aware of their situation once more.

Gazing out the window, Yuu watched the black sedan take off about five minutes later, and he fell into deep contemplation.

He still couldn\'t believe a whole month had passed since they opened that gateway to another world―the incident that caused their current condition.

"\'Prison\', huh..."

Muttering what they had talked about not long before, he mused as a thought naturally occurred to him.

"I wonder what it\'s like, and... What he\'s getting up to."

As the architect of said prison, he found it impossible to suppress such wonders.