Chapter 19.3: Hyuga Aoi III

Chapter 19.3: Hyuga Aoi III

Yeah, looks alright, everything seems to be safe.

The analogy of surfacing from the dark, cold depths of the ocean was fitting for this situation. Feeling a faint light on my eyelids and a solid weight around my lower body, I awoke.

For real, this time.

Lifting my eyelashes, I remained stationary for a brief period of time, doubting repeatedly, but the swaying curtains, the breeze, the sound of the cicadas, and most all, the suns rays, which I hadnt experienced in a long time, convinced me 80% that this was real, yet I was still on edge.

Because

A man in a suspicious suit, who was probably there before I opened my eyes, was sitting brazenly around my lower body, talking on his cell phone and gesturing with one hand.

Was I still in the midst of a crazy dream or was this

More importantly, was I alive?

Like I said, you dont have to come over here anymore, AkaneIts resolved. Youve been making phone calls again under the doctors watchful eye, havent you? Whatever happens, I dont care! Haha yeah ah, no, you cant, Ill get angry if you keep acting recklessly like that again.

A man. Or rather, a youth. Chestnut-colored curly hair, un-Japanese-looking features, and blue eyes. Despite it being summer, he was attired in a black suit with a red necktie around his neck. He talked in a laid-back tone and was chattering happily with a smartphone in his hand. This guy was

He was with Yakumo before Yakumos friend

You are

Ah, youre awake Then, it is time for me to go to Akanes hospital room and hang up the phone.

After ending the call with a quick tap, the man turned to me, seated while giving me a gentle smile, much like Hyugas.

Good morning well, I am not supposed to say that huh.

Where am I and why are you did you not go back to Osaka with Yakumo?

Well, here is Nantouka General Hospital. And Im on a business trip right now.

What?

When I was stupefied, he brought his small cell phone up to my face and snapped a shot.

Excuse me. Unless I do something like this, Akane is going to leave the hospital again with an IV in his arm. He said something like, Im worried about sonny! Thats why I have to confirm your survival.

With a giggle, he tucked it into his breast pocket.

Mister, your life is saved, isnt it? Thanks to you, my schedule has changed dramatically and I have one less job to do Well, I owe you a debt of gratitude, and my boss will be pissed off but as far as it goes, the outcome is favorable, right?

While blabbing something incomprehensible, the man sat up from the bed, stretched, rolled up the curtains, and headed out.

So long, take care! Goodbye! Have a nice day!

At this point, the sound of the hospital room door opening preceded the departure of his footsteps, and I wasnt thinking rationally.

The young man in the black suit disappeared.

!? Ugh!

My body, which had not fully aroused, was awakened there.

A hellacious pain assailed me like an electric shock, and I cried out briefly from sheer anguish.

Ouch oh, crap ouch!?

Even if I tried to twist my body, it hurt so much that I couldnt do that. The rest of my body, including my bones, flesh, and skin, was in excruciating pain simply from breathing. Physiological tears welled up in my eyes.

It hurt but the pain was

This was reality. Then, I was now ali

More importantly.

It hurtttttttttt!!!

You lost your right eye but youre lucky to be alive. You came back well.

I nodded with tears in my eyes as she said this gently.

Thank you

Perhaps Ayame knew what I was going through. With a mild smile, she opened the canned coffee tab.

If you want to offer your thanks Tell it to that one and him.

Taking a sip of coffee, Ayame pulled back the curtain behind her.

There it was

Against the white wall of the hospital room, sitting in a chair, Takenaka was asleep with his arms folded.

An entirely fresh white gauze and a huge adhesive bandage were placed on Takenakas well-groomed face while he was sleeping. Compared to Takenaka, my wounds were probably more critical, but it did not mean his injuries were not something to be overlooked. I couldnt help but widen my eyes.

Let him sleep, he must not have slept much in the last few days. You dont know anything about this, but he was the one who went through the greatest trouble to try to save you this time.

Takenaka did that

You saw that one, didnt you?

I moved my head when I realize she was talking about Hyuga.

She was able to reach you, all because of his efforts He helped her extend the time she could be with you just a little bit and now you must know the real reason why that girl died. Otherwise, it would be too undeserved. Even if she said she would still be okay with it. Were both women after all

Setting the coffee on the side table, Ayame said she would share with me the battle that had been going on without my knowledge and the truth of it all.

That pitiful figure of Hyuga that haunted me was nothing more than an illusion created by my guilty conscience. In a nutshell, I had been plagued by an apparition who was the physical manifestation of my own guilty conscience over the previous few weeks.

How did I come to see such things? It was deeply connected to the sea of trees and my faltering spirit.

Youve been entranced by the neclues of that sea of trees.

Thats

You asked me the other day whether there is something deeper and more sinister out there. Oh, of course I knew; there was no way someone as powerful as me could have failed to detect it inside. At the time, I sensed that your mental state was fluctuating, so I played dumb and feigned ignorance, lest I cause you undue anxiety. Well, that backfired this time, though Geez, I should have given you some guidance if it was going to come to this.

A plethora of grudges, envy, grief, and resentment was prevalent across the vast spiritual magnetic field. The nucleus of the sea of trees was, so to speak, a monster of thoughts created from the concoction of such negative power.

That was the nucleus of the sea of trees.

Always sucking up the filthy emotions of the people who congregated in the sea of trees, it grew up, and in rare cases, it possessed a mentally weak or unstable person and sought to draw them in.

There are sites known for suicides and automobile accidents, and the reason there is an unceasing stream of suicides is that those who are strongly embedded in such locations are responsible for them. Furthermore, unlike people, it could not rest in peace, and it is born from the strongest emotions of human beings, which makes it all the worse.

Subsequently, neither the possessed person nor the people around them were conscious of what was taking place until something transpired since it progressively corroded peoples minds from the inside out. It could be described as a fungus that corroded peoples minds, contaminating their spirits, causing them to hallucinate, driving them mad, and even leading them to death. Although insubstantial, in combination with negative emotions, it was said to be able to transform itself into what humans dreaded the most and visualize it. Feelings of guilt and the belief in my heart that Hyuga would come to kill me someday resulted in me seeing such an apparition.

It wasnt Hyuga who materialized in front of me that night; rather, it was my regret, remorse, and fear that had manifested as a figure. Takenaka sensed that I was possessed by that thing and was about to be dragged into it. The devils curve, which would be quite perilous if I kept going in the same direction, would be approaching me. He told me over and over again over the phone.

Nonetheless, I was still in a panic when the phone eventually went dead in the middle of the call. At that instant, Takenaka, picturing the devastation in his mind, ran out of his parents house and called Hirai. Soon after, he heard from the manager that I had been involved in a falling accident, and with his heart pounding, he headed for the hospital.

By the time Takenaka, who had driven his car, arrived at the hospital, I was in the operating room repeatedly undergoing cardiopulmonary arrest. The situation was so tense that even the doctor feared I might not be able to survive any longer. People waiting in the corridor had slumped their shoulders, and an air of resignation pervaded.

Among them, only one person, Takenaka, did not relent. In front of the operation room, where those who could only wait for the worst to come were hunched on a couch corner, he asked my sister to lend him my mobile phone, which would soon be turned into a memento belonging to the deceased.

After making sure with my sister, Takenaka contacted Kinoshita, my closest friend from high school, and informed him that I had been in an accident, that my life was in jeopardy and that he required his assistance to save me and asked him for the location of our old school.

Takenaka knew that you had been beckoned by the other side and that you were already being dragged very deep and that if you stayed there, you would surely die, so he came up with a plan, the only way to save you.

No way

Right, Takenaka took a gamble. He bet that she would bring you back from the brink of death.

But Hyuga is

Thats right. She didnt rest in peace, she was still here in this world. On the roof of the old school building. She became a specter bound to that place, though.