Chapter 112

“You are good at lying.”

At the unexpected voice, I turned my head in surprise.

And my eyes met his.

High schooler Seo Do-un was glaring fiercely at me with wet eyes.

“……!”

Without realizing it, I stepped back.

What happened?

The past, which should only have been observed by me one-sidedly, was looking straight at me.

“You weak little hypocritical bastard.”

Boy Seo Do-un looked at me and murmured coldly.

Even more flustered, I asked Cha Si-eon,

“Team Leader, what phenomenon is this?”

“I do not know. Mr. Seo Do-un, are you truly sure this memory does not affect you?”

Cha Si-eon asked again, and I hurriedly nodded.

It was true.

There was no way I would bluff in a situation where my life was on the line.

That was my wealthy and suffocating adolescence.

Nothing more, nothing less.

“As you can see, it is just that sort of memory. If I occasionally remember it, it is a little embarrassing, that is all. It is not some grand incident…….”

“Do not look away!”

At that moment, another me shouted.

“Look at me properly.”

What the hell, do not say something that disgusting with my face…….

At boy Seo Do-un’s rough voice, chills ran down my spine in a different sense.

Of course, I disliked it when other people did that too, but hearing obsessive lines from oneself was an extremely disgusting thing.

Out of instinctive rejection, and with the strange feeling that I needed to make an excuse, I quickly shook my head toward Cha Si-eon.

No.

That is not me.

I do not speak like that.

Hzzzt— hzzzzzt—!

At that moment, the noise around boy Seo Do-un grew even worse.

The noise had already swallowed about half of him.

So his form was heavily distorted, but even amid that, another me stared straight at me.

On top of that, the space itself began shaking again.

Just when I felt the atmosphere was becoming ominous.

“Look at me!”

I have been looking all this time. What more do you want me to see, you adolescent brat?!

Hzzzt—! Hzzzzzzzt—!

Along with boy Seo Do-un’s shout, the noise spread like a magnetic field.

“……!?”

Noise with distinct form surrounded me.

Those things surged like a vortex and created a strong wind.

Hzzzt— hzzzt—!

The storm of noise grew fiercer and fiercer.

The space broke down piece by piece.

“You cannot kill me!”

Before long, the entire space was dismantled.

“You cannot erase me!”

And another me shouted violently.

“Because I am always beneath your feet!”

With that scream as the end, the other me also became noise and scattered.

WHOOOOOSH—!

And they became a violent storm, raging around us.

“Ugh……!”

Even the floor we had stood on vanished.

Thanks to that, we were left helplessly in empty space.

With a torrent crashing through as well, I was swept away like a sailboat caught in stormy waves.

“Mr. Seo Do-un!”

When I flew off like a plastic bag, Cha Si-eon grabbed the wire.

Clank—!

I too dangled from the end of the wire, somehow came to my senses, and pulled in my fluttering limbs.

Then I held the wire and moved toward Cha Si-eon.

But Cha Si-eon was in the same situation as me, wandering through empty air.

ROOOOAR—!

The storm that kept raging tore wildly through the hem of my clothes and my hair.

Damn it, what is suddenly happening?

Could this be 「Memory Flood」?

They said it happened when one faced trauma, but what is with this random timing…….

I did not understand the sudden acceleration the past me had shown at all.

To the point that I wondered whether that thing earlier had truly been me.

Hzzzt—!

Amid that, something swept past beside me.

It was an unidentified noise mixed into 「Memory Flood」.

Right now, things that looked like fragments of data were flying wildly around me.

Leaving that raging current behind me, I kept pulling on the wire.

It was then.

A piece of noise that had flown in with the wind grazed my shoulder.

No, it pierced through it.

At that moment, voices were driven into my head.

“Why me, of all people?”

“Because I made you.”

“……!”

Was that just now my voice?

And the one who answered my question was…….

The answer itself was exactly what Ryu Dan-a had conveyed.

But it was not Ryu Dan-a’s voice.

Could it be the memory I had forgotten?

That memory fragment was already passing me and flying far away.

To grab it, I let go of the wire and hurriedly flailed.

Then Cha Si-eon shouted,

“What are you doing?!”

“Team Leader! I have to see that. It is my memory!”

“What are you talking about right now……!”

“I mean it is the memory I lost at the 「Sports Complex」!”

At my shout, Cha Si-eon’s eyes widened.

But only for a moment.

Cha Si-eon pulled the wire back again and shouted,

“You will not remember it anyway!”

“I still have to confirm it! I have to leave a clue, even by working around it!”

As I felt my body gradually being pulled toward Cha Si-eon, I struggled.

But Cha Si-eon was firm.

“You cannot! There is no guarantee that memory is safe either!”

“Team Leader!”

“This chaos is already happening now, is it not?!”

“……!”

This was, Team Leader Cha was right.

Even in a memory I had confidently asserted was safe, 「Memory Flood」 had occurred.

Then would that memory truly be intact?

On top of that, right now it was more urgent to endure this impact.

That was right, but that voice I had heard just now.

I had to confirm that voice…….

With an anxious feeling, I looked back and forth between Cha Si-eon and the flying fragment of memory.

Damn it, it was already too late.

The memory piece that had flown off like a sheet of paper had already gone as far as it could and was mixed into the other noise.

I finally let the arm I had stretched out fall.

At that moment, my left arm briefly came into view.

There, the nail marks I had once made were still faintly left.

ROOOOAR—!

Amid that, 「Memory Flood」 only grew fiercer.

How long is this torrent going to continue?

No, rather, it seems to be getting stronger.

I pulled the wire again to join Cha Si-eon.

Closing the distance like that, at the moment I was about to clasp Cha Si-eon’s hand.

Hzzzt— hzzzt—!

……Damn it.

It was not my imagination.

This vortex really was becoming fiercer.

Even the width of the raging storm gradually narrowed, tightening around us.

The noise gradually came closer along that torrent.

What will happen to me if I am swept into that?

If each one of those is my memory.

Will I recall all kinds of memories in a jumble?

Information pouring down like a waterfall will not burn my brain, will it?

Snap—!

At that moment, Cha Si-eon snatched my arm.

At the same time, noise passed by, almost clawing through the back of my head.

It was when I felt a chill at that.

The scene before my eyes suddenly brightened.

“……!”

A wall-like mass of enormous noise was pushing in beside us.

We could neither avoid it nor block it.

A massive memory swallowed me, and a voice was driven into my mind once more.

“Later.”

“Pay it back to anyone.”

A voice I had wrung out in the past.

“Mister!”

And a girl’s desperate cry.

This is…….

A memory from 「Railway Station」.

The moment I realized that, black death covered me.

---

They were corpses.

Corpses burned to death.

Charred corpses!

Heaps of ash giving off the smell of burning.

Burning-explosion-death-oxidation-evaporation.

Without even time to scream.

Soot!

Th, ththththth,

The reason it had to be a crow.

Pitch-black, black and black.

Pitchblackblackandblackblack,

A crow!

Glittering black,

C, caw! Caw-caw!

A crow!

And I died.

Crushed beneath you.

I died.

To me already dead.

To me gently buried.

Death asked.

“Why did you do that?”

……While I was still running, I kept thinking.

What I would do once I reached the train.

What was clear was that whatever I chose was my freedom.

“And this is what you chose? Is that not too much of a loss?”

Maybe.

If I had family, I would not have made this choice either.

“Then why did you go out of your way to do it?”

Just because.

Because I wanted to.

“How pitiful.”

If you pity me, please stop watching and send me off now.

I do not think this current state fits expressions like repose or eternal rest very well.

“That will not do. Because you are pitiful.”

…….

“Because you are too pitiful and too cute, I will save you just this once.”

Ah.

Ah,

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Light is shadow.

Shadow is root.

Root is the source of trunk and branches.

To touch heaven, you must descend into hell.

You must piece together all the shards of the broken mirror.

You must lick every corner of the abyss in the belly.

You must strip away what is not me.

You must reclaim the real me.

A cluster of light and a rotating circle.

A red carpet where gold thread dances.

I do not want to ruin the world where that child lives.

I hope you come to know love too.

Ah, such.

Such a kind and cozy death.

---

I opened my eyes.

At that time, I was alone, sitting on the floor.

The moment I moved, a sticky red liquid dropped from the tip of my nose.

Blood.

It was a nosebleed.

“Ah…….”

With my head lowered, I took out a handkerchief.

The back of my neck was stiff.

My forehead throbbed as if it would burst.

It felt as if everything inside my head had burned away and only ash remained.

It was the price for suddenly knowing too much.

In that exhaustion, I sighed.

“……So this was what it was.”

Special Management Zones.

What we called Special Zones.

With the handkerchief pressed to my nose, I squeezed my eyes shut.

This too will all be forgotten once I leave 「Library」.

First, let us find Cha Si-eon.

I checked the wire first.

The wire was properly hooked to my body.

But the opposite end of the wire, where Cha Si-eon should have been hanging.

That end was embedded in empty air.

Was it cut?

If so, it would be normal for it to be stretched out on the floor.

Why is that floating in empty space?

I pulled the wire.

Only the wire on my side shook, while the wire embedded in empty air did not budge.

It was the same even when I pulled with a little more force.

I stood and approached the place where the wire was embedded.

Crackle—!

When I touched it, strong sparks burst out.

My hand tingled as if I had been shocked by electricity.

This was not a case of the wire being cut.

It seemed the other end of the wire was caught across another space.

In other words, Cha Si-eon and I had each been flung into different memory spaces.

And the wire was awkwardly connecting us.

What do I do with this?

More importantly, where is this?

I looked around.

This was a Bureau corridor.

What a relief.

If it was the Bureau, this was a memory very close to my present.

I should be able to escape soon.

If I escape, can Cha Si-eon be dragged out with me?

No, before that.

The atmosphere of this memory felt a little different from before.

My previous memories had all had broken graphics, so I could not recognize them until I named what they were.

On the other hand, here, a normal interior was visible from the start.

Is this because my mental state is more stable than when I was young?

Then where is the “me” in this memory?

I looked along the corridor.

But there was no one within my line of sight.

After wandering briefly through that empty corridor, I turned the corner.

Immediately after, I swallowed a startled breath at what I saw beyond the corridor.

「Alpha」……!

……No?

Then what is it?

That short-haired Cha Si-eon standing in the corridor?

In terms of outward appearance, it was 「Alpha」 for now, but if that were 「Alpha」, it would have charged at me the moment it saw me.

But the thing that looked like 「Alpha」 was standing facing the wall, stopped as it was.

Is it just Cha Si-eon?

But why short hair?

“Huh……?”

First of all, that was not the real Cha Si-eon.

But neither was it Cha Si-eon from my memory.

Because I had never once directly seen Cha Si-eon in that form.

So amid deep bewilderment, I came to realize it.

That I was now inside Cha Si-eon’s 「Life Chronicle」.