Heisei Cataclysm "The Beginning of the End" (Uzuki & Heiwa)
Since when had she been afraid of sleeping?
Even before she went to bed, she strongly hoped she would wake up.
As soon as a minute or a second, she hoped that the cruel dreams that she kept dreaming about every night would end.
A vast consciousness resembling drunkenness became vivid in her mind.
Shaking her eardrums was the shrill metallic sound of blades colliding violently with each other. The smell of iron penetrating her nasal cavity was so dense that she couldn't help but cover her mouth with her hand.
Tokido Haku gazed at the strange sight unfolding before her eyes. On the roof of the abandoned house overlooking the decaying buildings…
Under the slightly chipped and distorted moon in the night sky, a boy and a girl, who were still innocent, were scrambling for each other's lives with their dripping knives in their hands.
"You're as stubborn as ever, Rei!"
The girl with a smile on her lips rolled up the hem of her scarlet dress. She kicked hard on the ground and fluttered through the air, holding many knives inside her skirt between her fingers and releasing them sharply in a flowing motion. The boy who was attacked by white-edged rain over his head avoided the attack by rolling on the ground many times.
"Don't worry, Sakuhi. I'll stop being so stubborn right now."
The boy, who sat up on one knee, threw his knife at the girl who had just landed, expressionless. The blade, glittering in the moonlight, cut through the soft white skin of the girl's black shirt under her dress. The spout of blood stained not only the dry ground, but also the neat face of the girl, distorted by pain and hatred.
"Sakuhi" and "Rei". It was a long time ago that she found out these were the names of the two people who killed each other. Haku understood very well that this nightmare was a real nightmare. Because she had been dreaming every night of bloodshed that drove her crazy since she was in junior high school.
In last night's dream, Rei stabbed Sakuhi to death. In her previous dream, she remembered that Sakuhi strangled Rei with both hands. Although the means and places were different, the boy and girl who she only knew the names of filled Haku's dreams with the smell of death whenever night came.
"Just stop it already, both of you!"
If things went on like this, one of them would die as usual. Haku's bitter cry disappeared without reaching Rei or Sakuhi.
It was always like that… She could only stand by and watch the two people kill each other in her dream. She was the only spectator who was shown this mad stage where she wasn't allowed to interfere, let alone touch.
"Why do you keep doing such sad things?"
Sakuhi had long, pure white hair reflected in one side of the darkness tied in two at a high head position. On the other hand... Rei's jet-black hair, which seemed to blend into the darkness, bounced slightly above his shoulders. Their hair and gender were different, but their appearance made them look like twins. It looked like they had a pair of red and blue odd eyes, which were different from each other on the left and right. And it was no wonder they looked like that. For they were truly two people.
"I don't understand! Why do you have to fight "yourself"!?"
The reason why they fought. That was the meaning of their "existence".
Originally, Rei and Sakuhi seemed to have been one person. In the past, the surprising fact was revealed in a murderous battle that was shown to the point of disgust. Two personalities that lived in one body. One of them was embodied by someone's power, and the two were at odds over the only place.
—Because there should be no two people in one world…
People shouldn't kill others.
A tear fell from Haku's cheek at the extraordinary act of killing each other. At the same time that the drops had sprung on the ground…
"I can't bear to lose to you!"
The groaning Sakuhi struck Rei with her bare hands, regardless of the opening of the wound on her shoulder. Rei used his arms to ward off the wind and thrusted his fist out. He readily accepted the kick, which had been delivered, with the palm of his hand.
"Too bad for you. This is it...!"
Rei, who was holding Sakuhi's thin ankle, shook her delicate body to the edge of the roof without a fence, and felt no hesitation at all. Sakuhi, stepping on her backside, leapt back into the darkness of the night. Young red and blue eyes oozed with despair. A flexible hand stretched out for salvation cut through the empty sky...
For a while, and after a while, from the distant earth, she heard the sound of a ripe fruit crashing.
A scream crept deep in her throat, making a twitching sound. Haku, who sprang out of bed, grabbed her chest, which was beating violently, as if it were after running at full speed, from above her pajamas.
"...What the hell is this? Every day, every day…"
She took a deep breath to adjust her shallow and fast breathing. The quiet night sweats that she felt all over her body were unpleasant, and wrinkles naturally formed between her eyebrows. She pressed her forehead to smooth out the wrinkles, and Haku muttered.
"What was I dreaming about?"
The worst wake-up of the morning. She was sure she had some kind of dream, but she didn't remember it at all. This phenomenon had continued since she first became a junior high school student. It was creepy, and she gradually became afraid of sleeping. But the body was honest, and at night it naturally seeked sleep. Haku, who was seized with an inescapable drowsiness, always prayed.
If it's a dream that I forget when I wake up, don't show it to me tonight.
"...It's no good, I can't remember today either."
When her breathing and heartbeat were in order, Haku let out a small sigh and went down from her bed. She seemed to have forgotten to draw the curtains last night. She stretched as long as she could with the bright morning sun shining through the window. When she looked at the alarm clock on her bedside, it was earlier than usual.
Since it was Sunday, I wanted to sleep a little more…
There was no point in turning off the alarm function. Haku, who somehow felt like she had lost time, shook her head and changed her mind.
What am I thinking? If I have time to sleep, I should spend as much time as possible searching!
When she headed to the wardrobe where she was storing her clothes, she pulled out a suitable shirt and skirt to change into, and put a thin hood on top of it. Haku stood in front of the mirror standing by the window.
After combing her hair as a whole, she knit the long neckline into two with a familiar hand. To wrap it up, she held the left side of her bangs with her favorite white hairpin and she was done.
"Okay, I'll do my best today too!"
She smacked her cheek to cheer herself up, and picked up the bag hanging beside her study desk. As she did so, her eyes were drawn to the photograph stand on the table. What was displayed was a family photo. Her parents, herself, and her little brother, who disappeared shortly after taking this picture, were all smiles. Haku gently caressed her younger brother's smile with her thin fingertips.
"Wait for me, Rei. No matter how many years it takes, your big sister will find you."
Years had already passed since Haku's younger brother, Rei, disappeared. Having submitted a search request, the police were still looking for Rei. But Haku didn't want to leave her precious brother to others. Even for a short time on her way to school, she always looked for Rei. On weekends, she went not only to neighboring towns but also to other prefectures. Although Haku continued to search for her younger brother, who suddenly disappeared, she wasn't alone. Her kind-hearted friends wouldn't let Haku be so reckless.
"You shouldn't do this alone. If you're looking for him anyway, more people would be more efficient."
"That's right, Haku, we're friends, so you have to rely on us more."
"O-Of course! If you ask us to do anything… I-I'll lend my strength and help you, too!"
Three of her classmates said that and went out to search for Rei.
Her parents began to persuade her to leave it to the police now, and their presence supported Haku's heart.
But I can't just stop for my own convenience.
Haku, who left home earlier than usual, was standing at a bus stop near her house. Taking her smartphone out of her bag, she opened an SNS app that connected her friends. Then, she tapped the screen lightly and typed in a message.
Let's see... "I'll be free today. Let's make sure to enjoy Sunday"… And send.
The app she used as a means of communication allowed her to exchange sentences within a community.
That was the name of the community that all of her companions gave through trial and error. Next to the name of the creator, Haku, was an icon with the words "Leader".
"This is cool, isn't it!? Doesn't it seem like a secret organization?"
One of her friends pointed to the leader's icon and said so.
Since then, Haku had deliberately acted like a leader of a secret organization when writing messages. If she wrote her own messages, she would have written something like "I'm sorry for taking up your time". The leader character was well received among her companions.
Come to think of it, didn't Rei like to play hero too…?
Immediately after posting the message, she suddenly remembered.
With the same bright red eyes as herself, Rei would look forward to watching the squadron's show every week early in the morning on weekends. Of course, it was common that they played hero games together.
I was the villain monster, and Rei always knocked me down, didn't he?
He would punch her with his small fist and she would fall down with an exaggerated groan. Sometimes she pretended to be beaten, and while Rei was off guard, she would tickle him and fight back.
Back then, they were just ordinary siblings you would find everywhere. Now that they were separated, she realized that their "ordinary" at that time was "special".
The Heisei Snipers' activities were to search for Rei, who was missing. So once Rei was found safe, she would hand over the leadership position. He was her younger brother who longed to be a hero. She was sure that he'd like it. Then they would all decide on a new course of action.
Until then, I'll be the leader instead…
At the same time that Haku wished in her heart, the bus arrived.
The destination was a station in the city area. The others were looking in the neighborhood, so she was going to go to the next prefecture for the first time in a while.
If I run into everyone, I'll be in big trouble.
If her companions found out that she was looking for Rei alone, she would be scolded in three ways, and it would be hard for them to forgive her. Nevertheless, she would like for them to grow their wings on weekends.
When the passenger door opened, she went up the bus step lightly. Haku's voice, thinking of her friends, was drowned out by the sound of the door closing without reaching anyone.
Sitting on a park bench illuminated by the west eye, Haku shrugged her shoulders. Before leaving the house, she declared to her brother in the photo, "I'll definitely find you," but today's search had ended in vain. It was time to go home, but her legs hurt from walking too much. She still hadn't found any clues, and not only her body but also her mind was getting heavier.
When she was deeply drooping and depressed, her sleeve was pulled modestly, and she looked up slowly to find a little boy was staring at her right next to her.
The boy and her brother were seen overlapping for a moment. However, such hallucinations soon dissipated. Rei disappeared when she was about the same age as the boy in front of her. It was impossible for the future to come back as it was then. As much as Haku had grown, Rei had gotten older.
Haku suddenly realized why she couldn't find Rei. Haku had remembered Rei as if time had stopped and they were still young. She knew in her head that people grew up, but she didn't seem to follow the essential feeling. Anyway, all Haku had been following with her eyes during the search were little boys.
It's too late to realize that now.
Once again, she sighed at her lack of worth.
"Hey, Onee-chan, what's wrong? Does it hurt anywhere?"
The boy peeped anxiously into Haku's silent, self-loathing face. At last, Haku came to her senses.
"Oh… I-I'm sorry. Onee-chan here was just a little dazed."
"Are you okay? Do you have a fever?"
"Thank you for your concern. But don't worry, because I'm full of energy."
She said, "Look!" and, although it was awkward, she smiled and made a lump on her arm. Then the boy replied "It's true!" with a cheerful smile. As they laughed with each other, she heard a woman's voice from afar.
"Oh, my mom is calling me."
When she looked at the entrance to the park, she found a woman pushing a stroller. The woman was beckoning for the boy's name.
"I've gotta go home. Bye bye, Onee-chan!"
Haku also looked back at the boy who started running with an innocent wave.
Then, a man of unsteady steps appeared from somewhere and stood blocking the boy's way.
The man wore a worn-out top and bottom jersey and had unlimited hair and a beard. He was wearing sandals, but his right one may have come off in the middle. His eyes were out of focus, and he kept muttering something in his mouth.
The boy stopped and stood still in the strange atmosphere created by the man. He was a kind boy who worried about Haku's depressed self and talked to her. She decided to take him to his mother before he got any more scared.
But the moment Haku got up from the bench, something shone in the man's hand.
What he pulled out just now was…
Looking at the man's right hand, Haku suddenly felt her spine freeze. It was a big survival knife that the man was holding tightly with his tough hands. The blade glittered as if it were looking for blood, reflecting the setting sun.
She immediately searched the side pocket of her bag and took out the object she was looking for, and ran forward forgetting the pain in her leg. At the same time, the man muttered to himself, with a thick strange voice, and began to wave his knife around.
The boy stood like stone and was unable to move. For the man who barked like a mad beast and raged, he was a good target.
The little body trembled with fear, sooner than the man's deadly blade was shaken down. Haku, who pushed the boy away, threw the bag in her left hand at him with all her might. Luckily, the bag hit the man in the face, and his hand holding the knife stopped for an instant.
Without missing a moment's opportunity, Haku narrowed her distance from the man at once. And she felt free to thrust a large syringe of blood-red medicine into the man's side, which had just been taken out of her bag. Thick needles, which were different from medical ones, easily penetrated his clothes and reached his skin. When the medicine was injected at once and the needle was pulled out, the man fell to the ground and fell down.
She kicked the knife away from the man's hand and Haku breathed out a sigh of relief.
When she was called back, she saw the boy looking at her, trembling. The boy's mother was about to change her face and run. Haku, whose tension was broken, laughed weakly.
"Onee-chan here beat the scary old man. It's all right now."
She told him as gently as she could, and the boy's face soon became distorted— And then he burst into tears with a loud voice.
Haku, who was washing herself in the bathroom, naturally let out a sigh from her lips.
She was supposed to have gone looking for Rei, but she got caught up in an unexpected incident in the park she stopped by on her way home. The boy's mother reported it, and soon after, several police officers came. She was prepared to be questioned, but the police officer, who checked the man's condition, simply released Haku by nagging, "Don't be so reckless".
"That man was definitely suffering from "heart erosion"."
Heisei was a peaceful time that had nothing to do with conflict. There was no hunger, nor were there houses burned by war. People's lives were getting easier and easier because they were blessed with high-performance civilization. Everyone wanted a peaceful life. It was thought that no happier time would come.
...Until a disease was discovered.
The name of the disease was 〔Heart erosion〕. To put it literally, it was a disease that ate your heart until your mind was worn out.
"I'm glad I didn't forget to bring a sedative for self-defense."
The injection Haku gave to the man who was upset was a sedative exclusively for cardiac patients. If the red medicine was poured into the body, even patients with terminal heart erosion could be instantly incapacitated. It was now becoming common in this country to carry sedative syringes for self-defense.
After Haku washed away all the bubbles in the shower, she soaked in the bathtub.
"I heard on the news that the number of patients with heart erosion was increasing rapidly these days. Is there any reason for it?"
Someone said that a pleasant era would murder people. In most cases, emotional contact occurred when people who were less immune to conflict continued to be exposed to intense mental stress. When inferiority, suspicion, living conditions and working conditions became closely related, a great researcher was enthusiastic about it on a TV program.
People suffered from heart erosion and tried to hurt others even if they lived in a life that had nothing to do with conflict. Even in a world named after peace, there was a danger of being suddenly threatened like the boy she met in the park.
"Maybe because it's peaceful, that's why a fight happens."
When she thought about it, she didn't know what was right and what was wrong—...
Haku, who sank her mouth in the tub, bubbled with helpless thoughts.
After returning to her room and drying her wet hair with a towel after taking a bath, Haku picked up the photograph standing on the table. Her heart creaked dangerously at her brother's smile, who she couldn't find no matter how much she looked for him.
I wonder what Rei looks like now?
With the photo frame in her hand, Haku stood in front of the mirror stand. Photographs and mirrors were the same as herself, who grew from the past to the present, and Rei must have been the same. When she thought about it again, she felt more attached to it than ever before.
"Rei, where are you now?"
Her only precious little brother. She wanted to see Rei grow up and smile. She wanted to take pictures with her whole family and live together under the same roof.
She expressed her thoughts swirling in her heart as if she were spitting blood.
The next moment, as when a pebble was thrown into the lake, a ripple spread on the surface of the mirror reflecting Haku's image.
"If you want to see your brother that much, I'll let you see him."
It was neither her father nor her mother that spoke. Haku's shoulders shook greatly at the third party's voice. The voice was coming from the mirror.
There, where Haku was seen until a while ago, was now a different person who looked very similar to her. The cloak with a red cloth clasp and the short hair on her shoulders were the color of a crow's wet wings. She lifted only one side of her mouth, and laughed sarcastically.
Not only the clothes and hair color, but also the atmosphere was different. Still, the crimson eyes staring at her, the red pin shape that held the right side of her bangs, and above all, the appearance of her face was very similar to that of Haku's.
The person in the mirror slowly turned her muzzle toward Haku. Before she could feel fear, the trigger was pulled, and the dry gunfire sounded in the room…
"So, enjoy your final reunion!"
Haku's consciousness quickly receded with a voice of hateful joy.
Haku kneeled down on the spot in the shock of compulsory awakening.
I was… shot just now, right?
A mysterious figure suddenly appeared in the mirror. The black muzzle she held made her spine tremble. She looked around to see if there were any scratches—
"It's okay. It's just your "consciousness" that flew this way."
She thought she was alone, but…
A voice came from an unexpected close range, and Haku looked up as if she had been played.
"He" stood quietly in a dark space that stretched forever. As soon as she saw it, the memories of the dreams that she had in her mind came back to life.
With a sharpened knife in his hand, the boy and the girl who killed each other, the boy who killed himself countless times, and the boy who continued to be killed by the other, stood in front of her.
Why did she forget it in the real world? Why didn't she notice it in her dreams? The brother, who Haku had been searching for for years, was reunited with her every night in her dreams.
"Long time no see, Nee-san."
When the boy smiled softly, Haku's vision oozed and became blurry. Although he grew taller and his voice became lower, her instinct strongly appealed that he was definitely her younger brother.
When she spoke his name in a trembling voice, she was so moved that tears fell from her eyes. Rei's blue left eye, which gently looked at his crying sister, slowly changed to the same red color as his right eye.
"Nee-san, we don't have time. Listen carefully to what I'm going to say."
There was a slight creaking. Next, every part of the space cracked. The cracks that ran like spider webs spread throughout the space.
"There are two areas in this world, the Surface and the Reverse. I was kidnapped by the people of the Reverse World and used as the 〔Key〕 to invade the Surface World."
"The place where Sakuhi and I were killing each other, and where we are now, is my spiritual world. It's not real, so even if I kill her, she won't die, and she can come back to life as many times as she wants. Instead, every time Sakuhi or I die, negative aspects accumulate and the dark magic of oversized killing that we do is used to be launched."
She couldn't understand what he was saying. Haku tried to appeal for time to organize her head, but Rei shook his head slowly.
"Sakuhi disappeared earlier. I'll soon be wiped out, too."
Rei's body glowed palely when he said so. His eyes had already changed to the same crimson color as Haku's.
Even though Haku reached out at once, Rei didn't even try to hold his sister's hand and just laughed softly.
"I'm glad I got to see you at the end. Thank you."
The words of thanks were words of farewell. From his feet to the tip of his head, Rei's body instantly became a particle of light and faded away, and at the same time, the cracks that spread throughout the space broke away…
Haku woke up with her own bitter cry. As in her dream, she was reaching straight out in tears in real life…
She blinked several times while lying on her back on the floor. The burnt ceiling collapsed, and the red moon in the night sky was visible. Haku, who jumped up in a hurry, was shocked enough to stop her heart from seeing the unbelievable scene.
"What the hell happened here…?"
She wondered if a bomb or something exploded. Most of the walls, as well as the ceiling, were blown away. The desk was filled with rubble, and the mirror cracked on the side of the mirror— the room was abandoned before she knew it. It was transformed into a castle.
This was the same dream where Rei disappeared, so was this also a bad dream?
It was when her mind went blank and Haku forgot to breathe.
"That's weird. Why are there survivors when it was done so flashily?"
From overhead came a low, sullen voice. A young man in a dark green combat suit stood on the beam of the ceiling, the only one who had escaped collapse. He was carrying a rifle with a long barrel lightly in one hand.
"Are you a monster or something? Even if you managed to live through this, you wouldn't be able to escape injury!"
The young man complained selfishly, comparing the misery of the groin with the unharmed Haku, but with a simple self-contained "Oh, I know!", he set up the rifle with Haku in his eye.
"It's my job to destroy the people around here— but you're an interesting fellow!"
The young man proudly spoke to Haku, who was speechless and stunned.
"So why don't you come to 〔Dominant〕? If you refuse, it's goodbye forever!"
He waited for 3 seconds. The young man laughed invincibly, peeping into the scove of the rifle with one eye, like a wild beast who enjoyed hunting.
The day Haku met her beloved brother again and experienced her second separation…
The peaceful Heisei era had come to an end.
