Chapter 437: Prelude to the Final Chapter – Prohibition
Chapter 437: Prelude to the Final Chapter – Prohibition
Where am I right now?
Dazedly, I turned my gaze.
I saw a stone monument—a headstone.
Three lines of text were carved into it.
I tried to read them, but the words wouldn't sink into my mind.
The first letter was M.
The next was….
I could recognize each individual letter, but whenever I tried to read the words in their entirety, their meaning eluded me.
Overlapping with this phenomenon, tears began to flow for reasons I couldn't fathom. I wiped away the moisture blurring my vision.
Slowly, I stared at the inscriptions on the stone.
At the end of the three lines, four-digit numbers were paired together.
Two numbers, separated by a dash.
Among those incomprehensible numbers written in three rows, the leading numbers were all different, but the trailing numbers were all identical.
…What does it mean?
Trying to thread my disjointed thoughts together, I pushed myself up from my kneeling position.
My field of vision expanded.
More headstones came into view.
Each differed in shape and color, yet they were all lined up in a disciplined, orderly landscape.
This is a Public Cemetery….
A grave where the dead gathered.
Then, whose headstone is this standing before me?
For whom was this monument built, with its three lines of unreadable text?
What is the date today?
Ignoring my consciousness as it tried to provide an answer, I pulled out my phone.
I saw the date.
Right.
It’s that day.
With that, I understood.
I knew exactly for whom this headstone had been erected.
My family.
My husband.
My son.
My daughter.
Today was the day they were torn apart and devoured before my very eyes while I could do nothing.
I laughed.
“Ahahaha!”
Yes, I laughed joyfully.
Because the dead should be sent off with a smile.
I had to laugh happily.
So that they, watching from the heavens, wouldn't feel sad seeing me depressed.
Clutching the headstone, I laughed incessantly.
Truly, with a delight welling up from deep within my heart, I simply laughed.
In sync with my shifting emotions, my material manipulation began to run wild, carving a name into the stone.
An unreadable name, followed by the year I was presumably born.
And then, a date of death identical to the other three.
As it was etched into the stone, I felt the grooves with my fingers, confirming it was carved well, and laughed.
I was happy.
Happy that I could die with them.
Even if it hadn't actually happened yet, anyone who saw this headstone would think so.
That thought brought me unbearable joy.
“Hehehe… Ehehehe….”
There was no end to that delight, but then—
In an instant.
“This isn't right.”
Crunch.
The headstone I had been caressing crumbled under my grip.
Fragments of stone piled up beneath me, and I stared at them blankly.
I felt depressed.
At myself, finding joy in delusions.
At a world where my family no longer existed.
At myself, unable to even remember if I had ever avenged them.
Using that depression as fuel, I began to reassemble the broken shards.
Though cracked and shattered, the pieces fit together like a large puzzle.
Using the tears falling from my eyes and the blood dripping from my hands as adhesive, the headstone was built anew.
“….”
Once everything was pieced back together, it returned to its original state.
A grave marker with three unreadable names.
There were no traces of it being broken, and my name was no longer there.
At that.
“Haha.”
I laughed.
Because I was repeating such meaningless actions.
I swung the firearm in my hand, laughing, and pressed the muzzle against my temple.
Bang.
The gunshot that supposedly rings out from the graves once a day echoed through the cemetery again today.
That was nonsense, of course.
There was no way gunshots rang out that frequently.
But at the very least, one would ring out from this grave once a year.
And this year, too, I did not die.
The bullet pressed hard against my temple, but in the end, it failed to kill me and dropped to the ground.
Ah, that won't do.
Perceiving the bullet as it fell from the air to the dirt, I rewound it.
I returned the bullet to the gun.
I couldn't let my blood defile the grave.
Though, if I died and became a corpse, I’d be exactly where I belonged in a Public Cemetery, so it shouldn't matter….
“Heh.”
That was a pretty funny joke, for me.
It wasn't strange for there to be a corpse in a cemetery.
Murders, body disposals, and gunfights—they really ought to happen in cemeteries.
At least it saves the trouble of moving the bodies.
“I’m sorry. I’ve caused you some trouble.”
In that sense, I apologized in advance to whoever would have to clean up after me.
Seeing as I failed again this year, it seemed I was destined to die on a battlefield.
I left the cemetery. Slowly. Very slowly.
And then.
“Ah. An enemy.”
Click. Bang.
I spun the firearm—now transformed into a musket—in the air once, aimed it at the empty sky, and fired.
Pow.
The loud report and the characteristic white smoke of black powder filled the air.
A round bullet streaked from the muzzle.
A slow, agonizingly slow bullet traveling at two yards per second.
After confirming it had been fired correctly, I resumed my slow pace.
A few minutes passed, and by the time I had crossed dozens of graves—
Thud.
I heard something crash behind me.
An aerial monster that had manifested in the air as a spontaneous phenomenon, only to be struck in a vital spot and die instantly the moment it appeared.
The bullet I had fired in advance using short-term Future Foresight had brought The Enemy down.
I continued walking without looking back.
Since the corpse was already in a cemetery, I figured there wouldn't be any problems.
I slowly pulled a watch from my pocket to check the time.
It was a children’s character wristwatch with a red 'S' set against a yellow background in the center of the round face.
The cheap character watch was so old the colors had faded, and the strap had long since vanished.
Yet, it still ticked away, telling the time.
Evening had passed; night was beginning to fall.
I shoved the piece of junk back into my pocket roughly.
A thought flickered in my mind: why do I have to do this?
A piece of trash wristwatch decades old.
It had no antique value and was a useless thing that broke down constantly.
And yet, I ignored the doubt and kept it close to my heart.
Because my comrades had told me.
That this watch was a memento of the family I had forgotten.
That it was something I, who had even forgotten the memory of them, had to cherish and carry.
They said so, and I made the effort.
But I couldn't remember.
I couldn't even conjure the feeling that this was a keepsake.
Even if I stared at it all day, searching for traces of the people who remained in it, it felt like nothing more than a piece of trash.
Therefore, to me, this watch was not a memento.
It was merely proof that my comrades had looked after someone as broken as me.
With that thought held to my chest, I stepped out of the cemetery.
Night began to swallow the day.
Today, more than half over, was coming to an end.
I wondered if today would finally be the day I died.
“Waiting for the day of one's death is quite pleasant, isn't it?”
Bang.
Strengthening my body along with a laugh, I sprinted down the dark road.
Toward the Management Bureau, to do my job.
To find the task I must complete before I die.
A mission given to me, who lives only because I cannot die.
It was because I knew that one day, I would do something important.
This was a power of a different direction, distinct from Macbeth’s Prophecy or the Future Foresight held by certain espers.
I couldn't know what would happen, when, or how.
But I could sense the atmosphere.
Like when I saw my old comrade, the Thunder God, for the first time in a long while.
I knew she was smiling through her grief.
I knew The Hammer Kid was involved in that incident.
I knew it was a farewell.
That was why I gave her advice.
Even as I forgot things myself.
Because I didn't want anyone else to feel the pain of loss.
I live on with those thoughts.
Because I know what my end looks like.
The day everything collapses and the world heads toward its conclusion.
I will stand forward, laughing alone amidst the despair.
And in the midst of sorrow, I will perform a completely meaningless act that will make everyone lament.
I don't know what happens after that.
Whether things will get better because of that act, or if they will spiral into an even worse situation.
But I do know one thing.
The day the world crumbles will eventually come.
Due to the nature of my ability, I cannot know how it comes or in what manner.
But it will surely come one day.
And within that moment, a place has been prepared for me.
A seat for an existence that dies without being able to do anything.
I will not yield that meaningless seat to anyone else.
That is my place.
A meaningless seat for a meaningless person like me to sit in.
Sitting there, waiting for the day I can meet my family again.
Bang.
Two minutes from now, a monster intent on devouring humans will emerge from the forest.
Normally, a Young Girl would fall victim to it, but before she even spots it, the monster will collapse in the woods with a bullet lodged in its eye.
This was simple Future Foresight.
Not an atmosphere, but a prediction.
Therefore, it would happen with a very high probability.
And so, meaningless and depressed, I save someone and run toward the Management Bureau to find my next task.
In a world where countless meaningful people live, someone is always experiencing the pain of loss.
Healing that pain is difficult, but preventing them from experiencing it is possible.
So, I walk the world.
Swinging my gun, forgetting even that fact as I go.
Thump.
With a kick of my feet, I cleared the forest.
The lights of the city spread out beneath me as I soared.
Bright lights.
In that city where countless families lived, I raced through the air alone.
From rooftop to rooftop.
I pressed down on the fedora atop my head to block the light pouring into my eyes.
Wrapping my body in the suit jacket fluttering behind me.
As I traversed the city.
I felt something and looked up at the sky.
A distant place.
Beyond the horizon, far beyond what the eye could see.
A light soared toward the heavens.
Others probably couldn't see it.
Even now, I couldn't see anything with my physical eyes.
But I felt it instinctively.
Somewhere far away, a Pillar of Light had risen.
And from it, death would begin.
the end of the world.
The beginning of the apocalypse.
“Hmm.”
I laughed.
I just laughed.
Bathed in the moonlight, buffeted by the winds atop the skyscrapers, I simply laughed.
The day had come.
The day I had waited, and waited, and waited for.
The place where I was meant to be.
The day I could finally return to my family.
Clang.
A minigun dropped to the floor.
The heavy metal caused slight cracks on the rooftop where it suddenly landed, but—
This much should be fine.
“Let’s go out with a bang.”
To think all of this happened today—perhaps it was a prank of fate.
The day I lost my family was the beginning of my pain.
The work has begun.
Then I must do what I have to do.
With a smile, I hoisted the minigun from the ground.
Feeling its heavy weight in my hands, I sprinted through the air, gripping it with both arms.
My destination was toward the light.
The front lines where everything would unfold.
I ran toward it.
Snap.
My molars clicked, and a cold liquid flowed from a capsule hidden inside.
My throat felt hot.
Heat surged through my body.
Something was being taken away.
A chill began to circulate through my frame.
My vision expanded. Power surged.
Bang.
I crossed through space.
I looked into the future.
Walking out from beyond.
I stared at the end.
“….”
It stared back at me.
“Hmm.”
I gave it a smile.
At that, it looked at me as if intrigued.
It reached out a hand toward me.
As if distance and time were irrelevant.
“I’ve never really liked men who reach out their hands first.”
I replied, swinging the minigun in a wide arc.
Boom.
The hand and the minigun collided, and in the process of the swing, a guided grenade was fired, flying toward The Enemy.
It didn't seem to have any effect on the foe.
But it influenced the phenomenon enough to sever its Future Foresight.
I immediately cut off my own Future Foresight and stepped through space.
To face The End that had appeared in the world.
To embrace the void that had been granted to me.