【Many people are concerned about you.】

Under the suppressor’s effect, Kusuo could listen to the thoughts within a 200-meter radius.

He heard the three-colored cat’s deep concern: 【Which esper found Hyakki?】

He also picked up on the guards behind the wall, responsible for monitoring and protecting the clinic, expressing their confusion: 【Why is the person our leader and Dazai ordered us to protect just standing at the door lost in thought?】

Furthermore, he sensed the icy intent of Hyakki’s contractee, Six Paths Skeletal Spirit, imprisoned far away in the Avengers’ Prison under their mental link.

All surveillance cameras in the clinic were now trained on him.

A silent warning.

One after another, people were using their own methods to remove obstacles in the darkness, making the journey of the black-haired youth a little smoother in his loneliness, as if proving that there is still humanity’s light in this world.

Kusuo: 【Don’t overthink it, I don’t care about your past.】

He raised his hand, removing half of Hyakki’s face mask and replacing it with the most suitable human face mask. Finally, under his X-ray vision, Hyakki now had a refined, aloof teenage face.

【Pursuing happiness is human instinct, as simple as pursuing coffee pudding for me.】

【I don’t know what you’re worried about…】

【Anyway, take a look at the world.】

Kusuo transmitted the scenery of Yokohama to Hyakki through their mental link, presenting it all as vividly real.

The spiritual world unfolded like a canvas named “Reality.”

In this bustling city, among millions of gathered people, Hyakki lost all inner thoughts and anxiously “saw” the blue sky, white clouds, towering buildings, and even the vast, unseen ocean. The distant sound of Yokohama’s harbor whistles echoed in his mental world, seagulls flew overhead, and August’s summer shone brightly, showcasing vibrant colors and dense cargo ships crowding the coastline.

This wasn’t ancient times.

This wasn’t an era of fleeting lives and warfare.

This… was the most familiar yet unfamiliar modern city to him.

Losing his sense of direction and balance, he sat down against the door, his doll-like delicate face frozen in a blank and aloof expression. The unimaginable impact shattered his resolve, human clamor echoing from all directions, resounding throughout the world, unveiling the true face of this era unlike the fictional Warring States period.

“こんにちは。(Hello.)”

“いらっしゃいませ！(Welcome!)”

“Hi, how are you?”

“……仕事をしたくない……(I don’t want to work anymore…)”

“This is Yokohama’s Chinatown, also known as ‘Nankinmachi,’ with a 140-year history of Chinese residence. It’s one of Yokohama’s tourist attractions, where you can see the silk and tea…”

Languages he couldn’t understand before, or ones he could, were now completely clear to Hyakki. Unable to control it, he covered his ears as if blades were scraping inside, his soul exposed defenselessly under the blazing sun!

【System——!】

【External auxiliary system——come out!!!】

【Where is this place? Where is my mission??? What on earth have I been doing???】

The gray window of the spiritual world remained icy cold, showing no signs of unlocking for the intern’s inquiries. Organizations like the Cross-Multiverse Transit Authority had no requirement for such humane considerations.

Everything was real, everything was false—how was he to complete his life’s mission of avenging the demons?!

“Ah… Ah…”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

Hyakki’s throat emitted low cries, followed by shattered sounds, eventually erupting into loud screams.

The cityscape of the spiritual world shattered completely under his erupting spiritual power!

The lament of the “Child of Heaven.”

Kusuo, caught off guard, widened his eyes slightly. He was affected by the shockwave of the spiritual materialization. In the next moment after the invisibility was lifted, he urgently teleported away, escaping from the monitored entrance of the clinic!

“Well, well, I’ve made a mess of things.”

Near the clinic, the glass shattered with a resounding echo, and the ground cracked into spider-web-like patterns.

His innate spiritual power, driven by such an accident.

Extreme sorrow.

…

Hyakki had never considered a life beyond the storyline, only using pure will to achieve a single goal.

Like sensing a distant fragrance of flowers leading to a beautiful ending, he squeezed out the potential of his soul. Crawling and growing in the darkness, he moved forward towards the goal of defeating the demons. To survive, he discarded unnecessary things recklessly, transforming himself from a normal human into a battered beast.

He no longer remembered what kind of person he used to be, or what his name was. None of that mattered anymore.

He had become Hyakki.

Why did fate cruelly reveal to him in the end that the script was wrong, and the mission had deviated from reality… The hated Daigo Kagemitsu still lived well, his territory prospering, and the demons enjoying the sacrifices they obtained. His mother, who birthed him, remained oblivious to the fact that he hadn’t died.

All his enemies and the people still lived in that world!

Because of that strange soul-crosser, he was separated from his foster father, Jukai. The goal he had steadfastly pursued for fourteen years seemed like a joke, shattered as easily as foam with a gentle sea breeze.

So it turned out—

He wasn’t in the world of “Dororo” anymore.

Who are you, the one I’ve been waiting for… Will you still be the Dororo who loved me…

I… don’t… know… anything…

Hyakki’s inner world shattered and fragmented. He curled up at the doorway, shielding himself from all glaring lights.

A world of darkness.

Wouldn’t a world without light be a little better?