Chapter 75
Page 75
"The fact that you can ask me such a question proves that your devotion to Black Sun is actually almost gone, isn't it?" Kurosawa Shizuki wasn't worried that Nakamura Yukise would betray her. With the fragments of the Black Sun Divine Stone, it was almost impossible for Black Sun's servants to betray her. At most, they could only slack off like Yamauchi Yuki and Takasaki Ryo, or at worst, be used by Kurosawa Shizuki as revival coins. Now that Nakamura Yukise was willing to be frank, it might actually be a good thing, better than harboring resentment during the battle.
“Yes, ever since I beheaded my teacher, I’ve re-examined my past and realized just how incredibly foolish I was. I abandoned all the happiness I once had, following that wicked man step by step into the abyss, ultimately ending up like this. What terrifies me even more is that when I truly began to question and even resent the Black Sun, the dark power within me never diminished; instead, it grew stronger day by day…” Nakamura Yukise lowered her head, and Kurosawa Shizuki noticed her body trembling.
"Could it be that... the Black Sun doesn't actually care whether we believe in Him or not? In His eyes, there is no such thing as faith or hatred. Perhaps only true hatred is the fuel that makes the Black Sun's fire burn even brighter?" Nakamura said uncertainly. "All those who occupy truly high positions within the cult actually have no piety towards the Black Sun whatsoever. It's even possible that you, Asakura Miko, or that great Holy Lord all deeply hate the Black Sun, which never goes out? Only such a blazing fire of hatred could have allowed you to climb to such a high level?"
P.S., I finished Cyberpunk 2077. Sigh, this year's games are getting worse and worse. Cyberpunk 2077 was hyped up to the skies, but it's only an 8 out of 10. I thought it would be a super evolution of The Witcher 3, but it's actually a regression. Genshin Impact is the most consistent performer?!
PS2, I'm really sorry for the long hiatus. I waited eight years for 2077, only to end up with nothing, haha.
Chapter 150, Section 152: Traces Lie Hidden Within You
The car stopped in front of that familiar four-story apartment building. Night had fallen, and the dimly lit street was only dimly lit by the streetlights. The mournful cries of crows could be faintly heard all around. The air was becoming increasingly gloomy and oppressive, and a gentle breeze was beginning to blow.
Without a word, Nakamura Yukise disappeared into the shadows behind Kurosawa Shizuki. Her once vibrant black skin now appeared listless, probably due to the extremely difficult battle she had endured that day. Kurosawa Shizuki felt utterly exhausted from head to toe, her eyelids drooping as she climbed the apartment stairs, each step swaying as if she were drunk.
Walking up the apartment stairs at midnight, the old, yellowish light bulbs behind me flickered and made a dull hissing sound. As Kurosawa Shizuki walked by, the black matter unconsciously crawled, and one by one the light bulbs exploded on their own, plunging the path into complete darkness. However, Kurosawa Shizuki did not feel any discomfort. Her dark blue eyes could see as clearly as in daylight in the darkness.
At the end of the stairs, a small black cat seemed to sense the dark matter behind Kurosawa Shizuki. It stood up, its fur bristling, and turned to run away. However, before Kurosawa Shizuki could react, the dark matter behind her beat her to it and wrapped itself around the cat in the blink of an eye. The cat didn't even have time to meow before it was dragged into the dark matter and disappeared without a trace.
As life was devoured within, Kurosawa Shizuki felt a faint warmth surging from the soles of her feet. However, this was definitely not a good thing for Kurosawa Shizuki. She discovered that she was now finding it difficult to control the dark power behind her. The dark power was like an excessively hungry beast, to the point of being indiscriminate in its hunger. If it had been a living person instead of a kitten at the end of the stairs, something terrible would have definitely happened.
Kurosawa Shizuki was particularly surprised to discover that now, after the black matter devoured life, it could not only extract life force, but the ash ledger buried deep in her consciousness would also turn over on its own, and the glowing threads of time would slowly flow into it. Although the time obtained was only a few days, it was better than nothing.
In the darkness, Kurosawa Shizuki stood stiffly in front of the door of room 403, her slightly trembling hand taking out the key from her pocket.
Kurosawa Shizuki inserted the key into the lock and carefully turned it. The door opened, plunging the house behind it into a thick darkness. Even though it had only been less than a day since she left, it felt like an eternity.
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, the clock ticks on. In the quiet living room, the television is still on. As the night deepens, a midnight program is playing, where a washed-up comedian is trying his best to recount his comical experience of fighting a giant python in the Amazon rainforest. His exaggerated tone, actions, and expressions are hardly enough to make anyone laugh, and he is proving with facts why he is already washed up.
As Kurosawa Shizuki entered the room, the air temperature inside the house actually began to drop. The black matter was still boiling uncontrollably behind her, and the TV screen flickered several times, turning into a static screen with a crackling sound.
Kurosawa Ai lay motionless on the sofa, hugging her knees, fast asleep. She wore a thin coat, and her long eyelashes looked especially endearing in the flickering light of the television. As Kurosawa Shizuki approached, Kurosawa Ai shivered. Shizuki stopped, afraid to go any further, worried that the dark energy she couldn't control might devour Kurosawa Ai like the kitten she had encountered not long ago.
However, Shizuki Kurosawa's worries might have been unfounded. The out-of-control black matter did indeed have the urge to devour Ai Kurosawa as well, but whenever the writhing black matter approached Ai Kurosawa, it seemed to be blocked by a strange invisible wall, unable to advance an inch. After crashing into that "wall" several times, the black matter returned empty-handed and finally shrunk back into Shizuki Kurosawa's shadow in dejection.
Kurosawa Shizuki, however, felt that there was indeed an unusually familiar aura surrounding Kurosawa Ai. If she hadn't grasped the past of the Ashes Ledger, Kurosawa Shizuki would never have been able to perceive this peculiar aura on Kurosawa Ai. The beauty mark at the corner of Kurosawa Ai's eye appeared an ominous dark red in the night, and the air was filled with a mellow aroma like fine wine. Looking at Kurosawa Ai's fair and delicate neck in the darkness, Kurosawa Shizuki inexplicably had a strange urge to bite it.
In the blink of an eye, Kurosawa Shizuki saw another blurry figure appear in front of Kurosawa Ai. It was a blue-haired girl wearing a flower crown. The light from the television actually passed through her body, making her an elusive phantom. She looked at Kurosawa Ai with great interest, her hand on her chin as if she was thinking about something.
With Teresa's appearance, time seemed to stand still, because Kurosawa Shizuki noticed that the swaying branches outside the window were still, the flashing snow on the screen was frozen, and even the howling wind that sounded like a ghost's wail had disappeared without a trace.
"Miss Theresa...? You can actually appear in reality?" Kurosawa Shizuki was stunned. She had thought that she could only encounter Theresa's afterimage in some bizarre dreams, but now Theresa could appear in reality at will? Is this really a good thing?
“Just as you guessed, under normal circumstances, I would not be able to appear in the real world, because I do not exist in the history of this world,” Kurosawa Ai seemed completely unaware of Theresa standing in front of her. Theresa pushed up her gold-rimmed glasses and looked at Kurosawa Ai with the same gaze she would give a pitying junior. “But now, thanks to you, Ai, I can project a part of myself into reality.”
"How could this happen? This...this makes no sense!" Kurosawa Shizuki couldn't understand what Kurosawa Aineng and Theresa had in common.
"Have you heard these legends? Some powerful wizards or magicians possess immortality and cannot be defeated. In the stories, whenever a hero or prince asks a wicked wizard why he is immortal, they will proudly answer, 'Because my soul is not stored in my body. I hide it in a very secret place. If you don't destroy my soul, you can never kill me!'" Theresa said with a light laugh.
“I have indeed heard stories like that, such as Voldemort and his seven Horcruxes. And in these stories, the villains often tell the protagonist their weaknesses, just as the villains expect the protagonists to kill them through their weaknesses.” Kurosawa Shizuki still didn’t understand how this had anything to do with Kurosawa Ai’s situation.
“Voldemort…hmm, doesn’t he seem to be a character from some novel in some historical timeline? I think I’ve read that book before,” Theresa said thoughtfully. “In short, although I don’t know why this is the case, you can consider your dearest Ai as one of my Horcruxes, a part of my imprint, injected into her body by someone in a special way. If one day my original body completely perishes, my imprint will gradually erode Ai’s consciousness within her body, and eventually I will take control of her body and be reborn within her.”
"Although I don't want to possess her body right now, I can still make her briefly active in reality by relying on the imprint within her body."
"Can you separate your imprint from Ai's? If this continues, it will be very bad, won't it?" Hearing Theresa's words, Kurosawa Shizuki felt a strange sense of déjà vu. Could Kurosawa Ai also have her body taken over by Theresa? This situation seemed no different from when she took over the original owner's body.
“Even if I wanted to, I probably couldn’t do it now. Kurosawa Ai once faced a life-threatening danger. The reason I injected my mark into Kurosawa Ai’s body was to keep her alive through my immortality as a bloodline. If I forcibly separated my mark from Kurosawa Ai… she would die,” Theresa turned her head and looked at Kurosawa Shizuki meaningfully. “If I’m not mistaken, something similar seems to have happened to you as well as to Kurosawa Ai. Are you still the real Kurosawa Shizuki now?”
"Within my body, there also exists... an imprint?" Kurosawa Shizuki was stunned. Whose imprint? The imprint of Lu Jingxi from another history? "But... where did these imprints come from? This method of rebirth by borrowing another's body is definitely not something a low-level being can control, right?"
"Ha, why do you think your adversary would relentlessly pursue you to the death? What could be a loss that even He couldn't bear? The rules, history, and authority controlled by two beings who are almost divine—is there anything more precious in the world?"
P.S., I've also finished Valhalla. The endless sieges, alliances, and more sieges in the mid-to-late game are incredibly boring. This year's games are getting worse and worse, but in the end, "Sakihime no Ame" is the only true god.
Chapter 151, Section 153: Kurosawa Ai Made a Deal
“Oh dear, time is running out. Looks like I have to go back again,” Theresa tilted her head at Kurosawa Shizuki and laughed. “If anything happens in the future, we can go back in our dreams, right? You should think carefully about what you want to learn from me. You two sisters are both very interesting little ones. I like you both very much, and I believe we can get along well in the future.”
Before Kurosawa Shizuki could respond, Theresa's phantom vanished in an instant, disappearing like mist in the blink of an eye.
"Hmm..." Kurosawa Ai woke up. Kurosawa Shizuki saw a look of fear and unease on her younger sister's face. It seemed that Teresa's consciousness could not coexist with Kurosawa Ai's consciousness.
"Was anyone there just now? Who were you talking to, sister?" Kurosawa Ai looked dazed and still half asleep.
"No, you must be dreaming. I just got home," Kurosawa Shizuki said softly. Regarding Theresa, Kurosawa Shizuki was unsure whether to tell Kurosawa Ai about it. Would letting Kurosawa Ai know that there was another higher being's imprint within her, potentially gradually overwriting her original consciousness? With no way to solve this problem at present, telling Kurosawa Ai would only add to her troubles.
Moreover, with the power of Kurosawa Ai's all-seeing eyes, could she really be completely unaware of this? Kurosawa Shizuki suspected that Kurosawa Ai might know more about her current situation than she did.
"Sister...you came back too late. You must have been in a tough fight, right? You smell like those moths." Kurosawa Ai's weak voice rang out. Kurosawa Shizuki saw her long eyelashes slowly open, her pupils filled with mist. She still seemed unable to see clearly, but Kurosawa Shizuki could still see a faint golden light flowing in her eyes.
"It's alright, I'm back unharmed now, aren't I?" Kurosawa Shizuki smiled and ruffled Kurosawa Ai's hair, then picked her up without a word and carried her towards the bedroom. "Did you have a nightmare? You look terrible, and you're still not fully recovered, why don't you go to bed?"
The black mass behind Shizuki Kurosawa finally returned to normal, becoming an ordinary shadow again, and the apartment sank back into a calming darkness.
"Because I'm afraid... afraid that when I wake up, my sister will never come back, just like the future shown in my one terrible nightmare after another."
“I haven’t had any good dreams lately. They’re always filled with all sorts of omens, images, and malice, about enemies, evil gods, death, and destruction,” Kurosawa Ai said, her expression dazed and bewildered. “Sister, you know my dreams are never just dreams; they are remnants of the future.”
“But that’s just an afterimage, an uncertain afterimage, isn’t it? Obsessing over an incomplete future will only bring unnecessary pain and confusion,” Kurosawa Shizuki said, trying to sound lighthearted. “So, let’s not worry about these things, okay? At least right now we are all living happily, and that’s enough.”
Kurosawa Shizuki carefully placed Kurosawa Ai on the bed, skillfully removing her clothes, pulling out the prosthetic leg, and then dressing her in pajamas. Kurosawa Ai was quite compliant, and Kurosawa Shizuki felt that all of this was perfectly normal, just like countless times in the past.
As she became more familiar with her new life, Kurosawa Shizuki felt something from the original owner of this body silently seeping into her. She couldn't resist it at all. Perhaps this was what Teresa had mentioned: the mutual erosion between the imprint and the body? When she first saw Kurosawa Ai's body, she was flustered and shy, but now she felt no unease. Everything was so natural and justified. Even the slight doubt that Kurosawa Shizuki had initially sensed in Kurosawa Ai's eyes seemed to have vanished without a trace.
"Is it enough that we're still alive?" Kurosawa Ai said softly. "But, sister, I feel that's far from enough. I want to live, I want to live forever, and ideally, we can both live forever. I'd do anything to live."
"Stop overthinking," Shizuki Kurosawa carefully helped Ai Kurosawa put on her cotton pajamas. "We're all alive and well now. No one can take our lives. To survive, we'll do whatever it takes. Whether it's an enemy or an evil god, we'll defeat them all sooner or later."
While changing Kurosawa Ai's clothes, Kurosawa Shizuki noticed that a few dark red spots had appeared on Kurosawa Ai's jade-like back, like eyes opening in the darkness. They disappeared without a trace as soon as they came into contact with light, as if they had never existed before.
What horrified Kurosawa Shizuki even more was the healed scar on Kurosawa Ai's left wrist. It was clearly a cut from some sharp object; more precisely, it felt as if an unfamiliar wild beast had torn open Kurosawa Ai's delicate skin with its claws. Kurosawa Shizuki clearly remembered not having such a frightening wound during her last bath. And what was even more troubling was how such a severe wound could have healed in such a short time.
"What happened?" Kurosawa Shizuki grabbed Kurosawa Ai's wrist. Hadn't she told Kurosawa Ai to stay at home? Who attacked Kurosawa Ai? A wrist-cutting injury would be fatal to a normal person!
“Sister, you should understand that if you want power, you have to pay a price. You have already paid the price, and now it’s Ai’s turn,” Kurosawa Ai said with a relaxed smile. “Sister, I don’t know if you remember, the reason why Father stole His precious three hundred years from the enemy was so that we could continue to live under the ‘Curse of the Crowned Ones’.”
"Sister, the strands of time that remain in your body once came from a female saint of the Temple of Antioch Mithra. She was the first in the world to come into contact with the reforged black matter power, which is why you were able to control and master the black matter power, gain the recognition of the Black Sun Cult, become their saintess, and now even have the opportunity to become a royal child."
The female saint of the Mithra Temple? So that's how the original owner obtained the power of the dark matter? But why doesn't Kurosawa Shizuki have Teresa's figure around her like Kurosawa Ai does? The only person Kurosawa Shizuki sees most often now is that shadow girl who is suspected to be the original owner.
“And the threads of time within me come from a named person in another history, known as the Red Death Woman,” Kurosawa Ai smiled and looked down at the scar on her wrist. “In that other history, she rebelled against a horned god and was executed by that god countless times. Her existence was split into countless branches of history, but a prophet foretold that she would eventually return, and she would drink that god’s liquor and take his place.”
“I saw her in my dream, made a deal with her, and received new power from her—the power of rebirth, the primal power of red death, the power of a plague that could destroy an era. Sister, I no longer need to look up at your back.” Kurosawa Shizuki saw the crimson color intertwined with the dark gold radiance in the depths of Kurosawa Ai’s eyes, and she heard the sound of some liquid dripping onto the ground behind her.
Kurosawa Shizuki finally understood where the faint smell of blood she had been smelling since returning home came from, and she also finally understood what those things that made her so fearful were.
Kurosawa Shizuki turned around and looked up, only to see that her ceiling was now covered with red, mycelium-like things that had grown there at some point. They were intertwined and slowly pulsating like living things, radiating a unique spirituality. Drip, drip, drip, blackish-red liquid kept falling to the ground, and each drop of blackish-red viscous liquid, like a living thing, spontaneously gathered into another human-shaped mass.
The viscous substance, indistinguishable between blood and some other liquid, bore a resemblance to Kurosawa Shizuki's black matter, but this slime appeared far more filthy, brutal, and malevolent. If the black matter was more like a living organism, this slime felt more like a plant to Kurosawa Shizuki. Just like the patients infected with the Red Death that Kurosawa Shizuki had witnessed in Dust Town not long ago, transformed into bizarre beings that were half-plant and half-biological.
The blood had somehow congealed into another Kurosawa Ai, naked like an infant, with all her limbs intact, and a bright and lively smile, completely different from the pale and thin girl on the bed. However, her eyes were completely bloodshot and deep red.
P.S., last month I managed to write 10,000 words a day, but this month my writing speed has deteriorated drastically...
Chapter 152, Section 154: Fill Her Up
"Sister, can you see it? The brand new me, the perfect me, the complete me, the me with power!" The blood-formed Kurosawa Ai and the Kurosawa Ai on the bed spoke in unison. The deep red Ai looked at her hands with excitement. Kurosawa Ai used her hands to caress her completely liquid new "body" from top to bottom, the movements were slow and pleasant. Finally, her hands stopped on her left leg.
“It’s grown back, and I’m standing on solid ground again. It feels like my left leg has never left me.” Kurosawa Ai’s voice trembled.
When Kurosawa Shizuki saw that left leg, it was like bright red amber, beautiful as a work of art, yet brimming with the spiritual power of life.
Although nothing could surprise Shizuki Kurosawa anymore, what happened to Ai Kurosawa still caused her deep concern. Shizuki was certain that the power Ai Kurosawa had somehow acquired when she left could not be a good thing. In this world, the acquisition of any power inevitably comes at a price. The higher the level of power you possess, the closer you are to your own destruction.
Kurosawa Ai's blood shadow avatar inexplicably emitted fluctuations of at least the third tier. Just a few hours ago, Kurosawa Ai was indeed a middle school student who had almost no supernatural powers. This rocket-like speed at which she acquired power reminded Kurosawa Shizuki of... Fujiwara Kageko.
The fact that she was able to acquire power in such a short time can only mean one thing: the power that Kurosawa Ai has now obtained does not belong to her at all.
There may be a smooth path to heaven in this world, but these seemingly easiest shortcuts are probably also closest to the abyss. However, when people truly crave power, they probably don't care about the distance between them and the abyss.
"All power comes at a price, Ai. Are you sure we can bear that price? You made a deal with that person. Are you really not going to regret it?" Kurosawa Shizuki felt that Theresa didn't seem to have much interest in taking over Kurosawa Ai's body, but if Kurosawa Ai actively catalyzed the power belonging to Theresa within her...
"How could I regret it, sister? As long as I can gain power, as long as I can continue to live, as long as I can defeat our enemies... cough, cough, cough!" Halfway through her sentence, the blood-red shadow and Kurosawa Ai on the bed coughed at the same time. Kurosawa Shizuki saw Kurosawa Ai, who was made entirely of blood, coughing up clumps of blood that dripped to the ground. The writhing blood was like maggots, and then these maggots continued to mutate, turning into bright red rats. Blood continued to drip from the ceiling to the ground, and from the pool of blood, one rat after another scurried out.
"Squeak squeak squeak—" It was chilling. At first, there were only a few, then dozens, then hundreds. Inside Kurosawa Shizuki's small apartment, red rats had somehow crawled all over it. The eyes of the blood-red rats gleamed with a kind of intelligence that resembled that of humans. They made hoarse noises to each other and looked at Kurosawa Shizuki and Kurosawa Ai with meaningful eyes.
"Ai, this situation isn't good, is it? Can you really control this power?" Just being stared at by these blood-red rats with such incredibly human-like eyes sent chills down Kurosawa Shizuki's spine. She could sense that each rat formed from congealed blood carried a deadly plague. If even one of them were to escape, it could trigger an uncontrollable plague—a plague that nearly destroyed an entire human civilization in the forest.
Moreover, if Kurosawa Shizuki is not mistaken, in the history in which Theresa was born, this plague also changed human history. It was in that era of rampant plague that Theresa, as the source and embodiment of the plague, rose to such a high position. Does Kurosawa Ai want to repeat the path that Theresa once walked?
"No, no, no! This wasn't my power. I didn't give any orders. It was them. They escaped on their own!" Kurosawa Ai said, her voice trembling.
"Squeak~ squeak~ squeak~ squeak!" Countless blood-red rats made incredibly joyful squeaking sounds, as if they were celebrating something. Kurosawa Shizuki noticed that the rats' gazes towards them were becoming increasingly sinister and strange, filled with a human-like restlessness and greed, as if... they wanted to devour them on the spot.
Kurosawa Shizuki subconsciously wanted to activate her Black Matter to protect herself, but a deep sense of crisis made her abandon the idea. If she were to forcibly use her Black Matter to devour the rats, it would likely cause irreversible contamination of the Black Matter itself. Even the power originating from the Black Sun would be unable to contain these incarnations of the plague. She was already grateful to be able to protect herself from harm.
Moreover, although the restless rats seemed to be getting out of control, none of them had actually escaped from Ai Kurosawa's body since they were born from her. Although they were clearly full of malice, there was still a peculiar influence within the apartment that suppressed the rats and prevented them from completely scattering and fleeing.
Kurosawa Shizuki saw the dark red figure of a girl reappear behind Kurosawa Ai, her gaze serene and distant. Although she was just standing behind Kurosawa Ai, Kurosawa Shizuki felt as if that person was in another world.
"Long, long ago, there was a history that had vanished, and a country that had perished. There lived a naive and innocent little girl who felt that her life was like living under a semi-transparent glass dome, forever trapped in an endless cycle."
“Until one day, a red plague swept across the world, all civilizations collapsed in devastation, and young girls were visited by strangers, slandered, hated, and judged, dying in the prime of their lives.”
"But fate prepared a new beginning for her. She was resurrected and joined a completely new family. She encountered a horned god. As the god's messenger, she realized that the plague was nothing more than a weapon used by the gods to throw deadly spears at the old mother goddess. In her confusion, she became the god's blade and killed the old mother goddess."
"'My dearest mother, let this collapsing history be buried with you, this is my final sacrifice to you.' The horned god achieved His goal, but after the war of the gods, a world ravaged by plague and on the verge of destruction was left behind. The god abandoned this world and embarked on a journey to a distant place, leaving behind only a useless weapon—that newborn girl."
"The girl realized that she had one last way to save this destroyed world. As the sharpest weapon of the gods, having summoned the daughter of the Red Death, she possessed such a status and had a duty to restore the world that had perished because of her. If this world could not withstand the power of the Red Death, why not embrace all the Red Death's filth within herself... Betray that cruel god, save the whole world, and plunge her alone into eternal suffering, enduring endless torment—wasn't that a worthwhile trade?"
A dark red-clad girl let out a melodious yet sorrowful laugh. She slowly embraced Kurosawa Ai from behind, her body gradually merging with hers. Kurosawa Ai was completely unaware, her small face showing only fear and confusion. Kurosawa Ai knelt helplessly on the ground, her hands clasped in front of her, her body trembling, as a crimson tide surged towards her.
"No—what is this? What is all this?! It hurts so much, it hurts so much, it hurts so much—"
Countless crimson rats, like madmen, swarmed towards Kurosawa Ai's blood-red shadow from all directions, climbing up her ankles and covering her entire body in the blink of an eye. These frenzied rats were tearing at the blood avatar that Kurosawa Ai had just condensed with their teeth. Kurosawa Ai let out a miserable and terrified scream. Kurosawa Shizuki wanted to save her, but didn't know how to do it. Kurosawa Ai and the part of her body that belonged to Theresa were already inseparable. Was it really possible for them to be separated?
"Little girl, if you want to gain my power, you must at least be able to bear the sins I once suffered, right? Although what you can bear is not even one ten-thousandth of what I did back then..."
On the hospital bed, Ai Kurosawa closed her eyes. Countless red spots appeared on her body, growing rapidly into red pustules that emitted a putrid stench. Her once adorable chubby face had, in the blink of an eye, become as grotesque and terrifying as the skeleton beneath a grave.
"Love..." Kurosawa Shizuki's hand, which was reaching out to Kurosawa Ai, froze in mid-air and then fell limply. Kurosawa Shizuki realized that she was powerless to stop this "fusion" from happening. If she forcibly intervened, she might even contract an incurable and terrifying plague herself.
However, Shizuki Kurosawa was certain that a completely different being from the Kurosawa Ai she knew was being born.
Hundreds of bright red rats tore countless fissures in Kurosawa Ai's incarnation. From these hundreds and thousands of fissures, the bright red rats endlessly crawled in, and the scarlet plague continuously filled Kurosawa Ai's dying body, completely disregarding whether Kurosawa Ai could withstand such a terrifying "death." This was Kurosawa Ai's own choice, and once it began, there was no going back.