The eyes behind the glass still had that strange and surreal mix of colors, representing every hue in this world.
Those eyes seemed to convey something.
Then, it embraced me with its four arms.
At that moment, I felt a surge of electricity in my brain, a sensation as if something had entered me.
It was intent.
Just the anticipation of collapse, an irreversible feeling, and then…
When I woke up, it was chilly, and the room was already dimly lit.
Oh no, I overslept…
However, I hadn’t slept for long, and most of the others were still asleep.
Well, after what happened, it couldn’t be helped.
It would be better if they stayed asleep.
…I should make something.
I wonder how many people are still alive.
I should prepare some easily digestible food for them.
As I simmered porridge for the injured, Katori approached.
“Maito-san, are you okay?”
“I’m mostly fine, I didn’t get injured much.”
I’ve only really done one thing, which is to ‘disassemble’ the school.
“How about you? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I was mostly in the rear support, so it wasn’t as dangerous as being in the vanguard.”
Vanguard, huh.
Suzumoto still hasn’t woken up. Toriumi was disintegrated. Hariu lost his legs. Kadomi-kun is currently in my pocket. Still, Toriumi and Hariu seem to be relatively okay, which is impressive.
Of course, it’s not like being in the rear was necessarily better.
Hagasaki got frozen, President is still in my pocket, and Katori is still in one piece, but Kariya lost his right eye and right arm. I wonder if he’s overdrawing his MP by healing himself repeatedly now.
“Don’t push yourself too hard.”
“Back at you.”
For some reason, everyone tends to push themselves too hard.
Well, I understand why.
If you can do it, you should.
In our position, it’s somewhat similar to what Senpai mentioned before as ‘noblesse oblige.’
“But what should we do with this situation? Bringing back the dead, healing the injured… it might be trickier with the living ones.”
“We might be blamed for this.”
Honestly, we have our doubts as well.
Can we really go back from this?
“Actually, I’ve started to feel like maybe the Goddess don’t want us to return to our original world.”
I mean, people from another world are like condensed magic, and this world seems to collapse without magic.
But then… No, it still feels different.
If not, she wouldn’t have disliked the temple.
“But there’s nothing else we can do, right?”
“We’re in the dark.”
Oh no, I spilled some porridge!
I hurriedly lowered the flame and stirred the other pot of soup.
“First and foremost, we need to bring President back to life.”
“Yeah. It’s not looking good.”
You can really see now how much President has been leading us until now.
…But because we’ve spent quite a long time together, I can say this:
“But you know, if it were President, bringing people back to life and healing them would be a given, so I think he’d be thinking about what comes next.”
In other words, how to defeat those monsters.
I served the soup I had prepared, and there were people who looked at me with resentment and those who were grateful.
Well, being looked at resentfully means they can at least see beyond the soup, so that’s a good sign.
…Oh, no, there’s a possibility they can only see up to the soup.
“Maito-san.”
Then, Minehara, with tearful eyes, came over.
“Why are you doing this? It’s your fault, Maito-san, what happened to Mieda-kun.”
“But he’s still alive.”
“Mieda-kun is alive. I saw him when I went to distribute the porridge earlier.”
He seemed quite lively. He managed to sit up on his own, so he should be fine.
“But that’s not the issue here! Take responsibility for it! Because of you all, so many people died!”
Well, that’s a fact. A lot of people died.
But don’t blame me for it! Please don’t find my responsibility in this.
If Minehara-san is a victim, does that make me the perpetrator? That’s not how it works.
I didn’t kill anyone. I might be indirectly involved, but it was an accident.
I don’t feel any guilt whatsoever.
Ultimately, when it comes to this situation, it’s individual responsibility!
You all had the freedom to join this discussion or not!
…Well, there’s no point in saying that. I have no intention of saying it.
Minehara-san understands that too. She knows.
She just probably wants to take out her frustration.
…So, I should probably let her vent.
Okay, fine! I don’t have that broad of a mind!
“It’s okay. We’re still determined to send everyone back to our original world.”
“It’s not about that…”
“Then what will satisfy you? Do you want us to take responsibility and commit seppuku or something?”
Of course not! Someone who can perform that role is asleep right now, and that’s not the issue.
We’re short on healers, and we might not have enough ‘Abyssal Ash’ either.
It’s a completely futile gesture to commit seppuku when we’re in a situation like this!
So, feel free to hit me as much as you want! There’s no need for that either.
I’m not some saintly figure like Buddha or Christ who can let people vent their anger on me.
If you slap my right cheek, I’ll hit you back with a left straight.
“We’ll bring everyone back to life. We’ll heal everyone. We’ll even help those who’ve developed trauma sort out their memories. And then, everyone will return to their original world. Those who don’t want to fight don’t have to. Those who choose to fight will receive a complete set of new equipment. How’s that?”
Minehara-san looked stunned and frozen with that proposal.
As I was about to leave this as it is and return, someone behind me spoke up.
“Hey, this is all your fault, isn’t it?”
Two or three members of the Home Economics Club.
“Why did you let this happen?”
Then, one of them kicked me. Ouch. That hurt. Don’t aim for my legs, please. Legs are difficult to dodge on the spot.
I was thinking of either tripping them with a leg sweep and escaping since they didn’t seem to have fought. But then…
“Wait a minute! Blaming Maito-san is unfair!”
…Somehow, he’s back again.
“True, various people might have been hurt, but Mieda-san is hurt too!”
Oh, wait, that’s not right. I’m not hurt at all, and even if I were, there’s no need to consider it. But it’s hard to correct, so I’ll just let it slide…
“And besides, isn’t it mean to kick a girl like that!”
Their arguments are all over the place, but whatever. At this point, I don’t really care.
“What? We’re just stating the obvious, aren’t we?”
The Home Economics Club girls shifted their focus from me to Fukuyama-kun, so I quietly slipped away.
…Fukuyama-kun seemed to be gradually pushing back the Home Economics Club members with his illogical reasoning and mismatched argumentation.
Minehara-san was watching this with a puzzled look.
Alright, desperate times call for desperate measures! Farewell!
While I was distributing soup, I noticed that Itoigawa-senpai was surrounded by various people.
…But she wasn’t being blamed or anything, more like, she was being supported or even worshipped.
Later, I found out that at first, she was heavily criticized.
So, Itoigawa-senpai brought a lot of people here. Half of the gym is occupied by them.
And on top of that, she brought the members of the Brass Band Club, so they had no one to blame but her, or rather, they could only blame her.
So, well, it seems like things were about to get pretty bad, but… well, you use your skills when you have to. It’s Itoigawa-senpai we’re talking about.
There’s no time to hesitate about using skills on people, you know. Yeah.
Yeah, in any case, unexpectedly, nearly two-thirds of the students here have become quite cooperative with us…
Itoigawa-senpai approached with a proud look and gave us a thumbs-up, which was quite impressive.
And so, it seemed that the Home Economics Club girls were defeated by Fukuyama-kun’s mysterious logic. At least, they didn’t openly challenge anything after that.
It’s like the saying, “The best way to defeat poison is with poison,” isn’t it? Maybe I should thank Fukuyama-kun later.
…Nah, forget it. Going to thank him would probably just lead to more trouble.
After everyone had either lunch or dinner, or whatever meal it was, the students all went back to sleep. Even those who had been sleeping earlier seemed tired; I guess everyone was fatigued.
Kariya, who had run out of MP, and Suzumoto, who had been seriously injured, were still unconscious.
“When I think about it, I’m pretty amazing, aren’t I?”
Toriumi, despite being in a state where we have to have conversations like, “Is this Toriumi?” “Oh, yeah, I think that’s also Toriumi,” was now awake and moving normally.
Incredible. This is beyond incredible.
“For now, I feel like we can’t make any progress without bringing President back to life.”
That’s why Hagasaki-kun is currently making a potion by himself. Fortunately, there was a considerable amount of “Abyssal Ash” left for us to use if we wanted to return to our original world.
As we eliminate the Origins, the quantity of “Abyssal Ash” increases. With any luck, it might be just enough.
Once the physical body is restored with the potion, all we need is the “Abyssal Stone” that Shureira-san directed. We also discussed that it would be more economical to use my ability to produce life rather than let it go to waste.
Hagasaki-kun strongly objected to this idea, but I think it’s much better than increasing the number of permanently dead people.
…Yes, our current goal is to bring the dead back to life.
To achieve that, we need to find and eliminate the Origins that are still lurking, turn them into “Abyssal Ash,” and then use that to create potions and, if necessary, life.
…There’s a very real possibility that we won’t have enough “Abyssal Ash.”
That’s why we need to be extremely frugal with it.
Now then, it’s time for me to wake up Suzumoto.
My life force won’t increase beyond a certain point. So, if I don’t use it, it’s just going to waste. Therefore, I’ve decided to share some of it with Suzumoto.
…Well, I don’t want to admit it, but I have to face the truth sooner or later. I’m a resource. For now, I’m the only one who can share life with others. I have to use what I can. I don’t like it; it’s getting to the point where I can’t die anymore.
“I’m coming in.”
Suzumoto was sleeping in the lab. It was probably easy to find the lab among all the gems. Maybe he recognized it.
“You seem to be near death quite often.”
This was the third time, so there was no need to hesitate. I reached the glass easily.
The slender glass had just a little crimson liquid left at the bottom. It was so little that the transparent liquid almost looked pale pink.
The condition for “death” wasn’t satisfied. It must have been erased by a healing spell. In other words, he was still alive.
I divided the contents of my own glass and separated. I’m sorry, but I gave him a little less because I’ll definitely have to share two more times later, and he’s not a recovery specialist. I apologize.
…Now, all that’s left is to wake him up with “Share.”
It’s just waking him up, but… Well, he’ll probably wake up by himself tomorrow morning anyway. Yeah.
I suddenly became incredibly sleepy, so for today, I’m going to call it a night like this… Is that okay? Yeah, it’s okay. Goodnight everyone!
