Chapter 6 Part 1
<47 days of hell>(9)
✧A world not meant for us—me✧
[6:40 Pm]
The winds howled louder than any storm, a primal force that seemed bent on tearing the sky apart. Snow, rain, and sleet spun through the air in a mesmerizing dance, their paths scattered and broken by gusts that ripped through the dark, chaotic night. The earth itself was changing, twisting under the pressure of some strange and sinister force. Snowflakes crystallized and fell in blinding white sheets, only to melt as they touched the ground, pooling into water that froze almost instantly, creating a deadly sheet of ice across the orphanage grounds. It was beautiful, in a surreal and terrifying way—an unnatural beauty that seemed more like a warning than a gift.None of this was supposed to happen. Not like this. The moon's disappearance had been the first sign, the one everyone had tried to dismiss as impossible, a cosmic glitch that could not possibly be real. But its absence had set off a cascade of devastation. Earth's orbit had begun to drift, and the entire planetary system seemed to tremble under the pressure of some invisible hand. The sun, in turn, had started to lose its mass, sending erratic bursts of solar energy across the sky, further destabilizing the magnetic field that once shielded the earth. Now, as the winds screamed and the snow battered down, it felt as though the very world were unraveling.
And then, cutting through the chaos, a voice—a harsh, strained shout that sounded out of place against the roaring storm.
"Shoot, kid!"
Hoshino stood frozen, the scene around him coming in and out of focus. Astrid was there, her face drawn and intense, her eyes fixed on him, urging him to act. Her voice was sharp, desperate, even angry as she shouted at him, struggling to keep her grip on Alexei, who seemed to move with a reckless, crazed energy. Alexei's face twisted into an expression Hoshino couldn't quite understand; it was something beyond anger, beyond madness, an almost ecstatic rage that gleamed in his dark eyes.
"Why?" Hoshino whispered, his voice barely audible over the howling wind. His mind spun, a thousand questions and memories flashing through his head, trying to piece together what had led them here.
"Shoot, Hoshino!" Alexei's voice cut through, louder this time, dripping with a mocking edge that seemed to twist Hoshino's name into something bitter and ugly. Alexei's smile widened, manic, his gaze fixed on Hoshino with a dangerous gleam that was almost playful.
"Hoshinooooo!" Alexei called, the sound stretching out in a deranged tone, his voice echoing across the frozen, wind-battered rooftop.
Hoshino's eyes darted between the gun in his trembling hand, Alexei's wild expression, Astrid's straining figure as she tried to restrain him, and then to the still, lifeless form of Ji-hyeon lying in a pool of frozen water nearby. The image was seared into his mind—a flash of pale skin against the dark rooftop, her expression frozen in surprise and fear, her body crumpled and unmoving.
And then, his mind drifted back to the rooftop, to the moments just before the world had truly shattered.
It had started as a quiet evening on the rooftop. Hoshino had gone there seeking solitude, hoping to escape, if only for a few minutes, from the mounting terror of their situation. He remembered looking out over the city, the lights flickering as though even they knew something was wrong, as though the entire city was on the verge of collapsing. Snow and rain had already begun to fall in an unnatural mix, a chilling omen that made the air feel thick and heavy.
He had barely registered Ji-hyeon's footsteps approaching, her presence quiet and hesitant as she joined him. She didn't say anything, just stood beside him, looking out over the icy, shattered world.
"What do you think is going to happen to us?" she had finally whispered, her voice barely audible.
Hoshino had opened his mouth to respond, but before he could say anything, they both turned at the sound of footsteps—heavy, deliberate. Alexei stepped onto the rooftop, his face shrouded in shadow, his expression unreadable. In his hand, he held a photon gun, the metal gleaming in the dim light with a strange, deadly promise.
"Alexei?" Hoshino's voice was tinged with confusion, an edge of unease creeping into his tone.
But Alexei's eyes were locked on Ji-hyeon, a cold determination in his gaze that sent a chill down Hoshino's spine.
"Why are you…?" Ji-hyeon began, her voice breaking, but Alexei raised the photon gun in response, his grip steady, his expression unchanging.
"Alexei, don't do this," Hoshino said, taking a step forward. The words felt empty, useless even as he spoke them, a plea he knew Alexei would ignore.
"This is what it takes," Alexei muttered, almost to himself. His voice was low, quiet, filled with something dark and certain. "This is what survival looks like."
Without a moment's hesitation, he pulled the trigger. The photon gun flared to life, casting an eerie glow across the rooftop, illuminating the horror in Ji-hyeon's eyes as the energy burst from the gun, a lethal arc that struck her chest. She had barely a second to gasp, to react, before the force of the blast threw her backward, her body crumpling like a ragdoll against the cold, unyielding rooftop.
Time seemed to slow as Hoshino watched her fall, his mind blank with shock, disbelief, and a nauseating wave of horror. Ji-hyeon's expression lingered in his vision, her eyes wide with a look that would haunt him forever—a mixture of surprise, pain, and betrayal that seared itself into his memory.
But before he could fully process what had happened, Astrid appeared, her face pale and determined, fury blazing in her eyes as she rushed forward. She tackled Alexei, grabbing his arm and wrenching it downward, trying to twist the gun from his grip.
"Have you lost your mind, Alexei?" she screamed, her voice raw with anger and desperation as she struggled against him.
Alexei's face twisted into a grin, unhinged, his expression both mocking and pitiless. "Stay out of this, Astrid. You wouldn't understand."
She gritted her teeth, her fingers clawing into his wrist, refusing to let go. "I understand that you just killed one of our own! Ji-hyeon was… she was fighting with us!"
Alexei's face didn't flicker with even a hint of remorse. Instead, he laughed—a hollow, broken sound that seemed to vibrate with something dark and terrible. "She was weak. Weakness has no place in this world anymore."
With a furious cry, Astrid managed to wrest the gun from his hand, throwing it across the rooftop where it skidded, sparking as it went. She turned to Hoshino, her gaze filled with something beyond words, a desperate plea that cut straight through him.
"Hoshino…" she said, her voice barely more than a whisper now, hoarse from shouting, "we can't let him do this. He'll kill us all, one by one."
But as Alexei straightened, the smile on his face only grew wider, his eyes glinting with the dark satisfaction of someone who had finally embraced madness. He stood there, fearless and unrepentant, a man who had shed the last shred of his humanity.
"This is the end," Alexei said, his voice almost gentle, as if he were imparting some inevitable truth. "All of it. Can't you see? There's no going back. This world—everything you once believed in—is already dead."
Around them, the storm raged on, the wind whipping snow and rain into a relentless torrent that obscured everything beyond the rooftop. The earth trembled, as if in agreement, the ground cracking beneath their feet. Hoshino's hands shook as he watched Alexei, his heart pounding with fear, rage, and the sickening realization that there was no easy way out of this nightmare.
The storm, the shattered world, and the madness in Alexei's eyes all melded into a single truth: there was no going back. Not now. Not ever.
[6:50 Pm]
Hoshino's mind was a storm as chaotic as the one raging around him, every thought blurred by confusion, horror, and grief. Ji-hyeon's lifeless body lay sprawled across the rooftop, her expression frozen in a final, haunting mix of shock and sorrow that pierced Hoshino to his core. Her face—so alive only minutes before—was now nothing more than a pale echo, her bright spirit extinguished by Alexei's cold, merciless hand.
Around him, the world seemed to crumble as if mirroring the collapse inside his chest. The snow and rain continued to fall, creating rivulets of water and ice, a strange, fractured beauty in the midst of death. Hoshino could feel the weight of it—the twisted irony of such a mesmerizing scene draped over something so deeply wrong. He could hardly breathe, each breath shallow and sharp, as if the air itself resisted him.
Astrid was beside him, her hands trembling, her face pale and drawn, stained with traces of the rain and snow that clung to her like tears. She turned to Hoshino, her eyes hollow, as though what had just happened was too terrible to comprehend.
"Hoshino…" she whispered, her voice barely audible over the relentless howl of the wind. There was a pleading in her gaze, a need to make sense of the impossible. But no sense would come. She searched his face, hoping for some flicker of reassurance, but Hoshino had none to give. He felt as if his soul had been stripped bare, all his hopes, all his convictions, laid waste by the senseless violence of it all.
[6:53 Pm]
He turned his gaze back to Alexei, who stood across the rooftop, his face contorted in a twisted smile that looked far more like a mask than any expression of true feeling. His eyes glinted with a strange, feverish light, as if the chaos around them fed him, filled him with some dark, consuming satisfaction.
"Do you feel it yet?" Alexei murmured, his voice low and dark, the sound carried by the wind like a taunt. "The end. It's here, Hoshino. The world is breaking… and with it, everything that once mattered."
Astrid's grip on Hoshino's arm tightened as she looked at Alexei, disbelief and fury in her gaze. "You don't get it, do you? You think this is survival?" Her voice was hoarse, torn from screaming, yet edged with an anger so raw it felt like it might tear her apart. "You killed Ji-hyeon—someone who trusted you. Someone who… who thought you were one of us!"
[6:55 Pm]
Alexei laughed—a hollow, unsettling sound that echoed across the rooftop, merging with the storm in a way that made Hoshino's skin crawl. He took a step closer, his face twisted with a deranged certainty. "Trust? In a world that's falling apart? No… all we have now is the strength to do what must be done."
Hoshino's gaze fell back to Ji-hyeon's still form, and a crushing sadness filled his chest, as heavy and relentless as the storm. Ji-hyeon, with her quiet resilience and soft laughter. Ji-hyeon, who had stood by them through every hardship, always the first to offer comfort or strength when others faltered. And now, she was gone, taken by the very hands of the person she had called a friend.
Hoshino closed his eyes, memories flashing behind his eyelids like shards of broken glass. He remembered the last time they had spoken, a fleeting moment of calm in the midst of all the darkness. She had shared with him her hopes and fears, the quiet dreams she had for a life beyond the orphanage walls. Her words drifted through his mind, fragile echoes that filled him with a profound, aching sorrow.
"In the end," she had once said, her voice soft, "this world… it was never meant for me to live in."
As he stood there, his heart breaking, those words felt like a prophecy. She had known, in some quiet way, that her place in this world was fleeting, a brightness that could never last. A single tear slipped down Hoshino's cheek, a tiny, defiant drop against the storm.
Hoshino took a shuddering breath, his hands trembling as he raised his photon star gun. He didn't feel anger—no, this was something colder, something deeply rooted in grief, in the inescapable realization that there was no redemption left, not for Alexei, and perhaps not for any of them.
Astrid looked at him, her face stricken, but she said nothing. She seemed to understand, on some unspoken level, that there was no path forward, only this inevitable act.
Alexei's smile widened, his eyes blazing with an intensity that bordered on madness. "Go on, Hoshino. Do it. Join me in this darkness."
[6:56 Pm]
Hoshino squeezed the trigger, and the photon gun hummed with a deadly pulse. He fired once—twice—the bolts of light slicing through the storm, but his hands were shaking, and the shots went wide, streaking past Alexei and disappearing into the night. Alexei laughed, a crazed, triumphant sound that made Hoshino's skin crawl.
But Hoshino didn't stop. His hands steadied, his breaths coming slow and deliberate. He fired again, and this time, his aim was true. The first shot struck Alexei in the chest, piercing his heart, and the twisted smile on his face faltered, replaced by a look of shock. Hoshino fired again, hitting Alexei in the stomach, the impact driving him back a step as blood began to pool on the ground.
Before Hoshino could fully comprehend what he was doing, he fired a final shot. But in his grief-stricken haze, his aim faltered again, and the photon bolt struck Astrid. She gasped, a look of shock and betrayal crossing her face as the bolt hit her in the side, tearing through her abdomen.
Hoshino felt his breath hitch, horror twisting his insides as he realized what he had done. He stumbled back, his hand shaking, the gun slipping from his fingers and clattering to the icy ground. Astrid crumpled, her hand pressed to the wound, her blood staining the ground beneath her. She looked at him, her eyes filled with a mixture of pain and sorrow, a sadness so profound it made Hoshino's heart feel like it was tearing apart.
"I… I didn't mean…" he stammered, his voice choked, barely able to form words as he looked down at her.
Astrid managed a faint, bitter smile, her lips pale, her breath coming in shallow gasps. "Hoshino… it's… it's okay." Her voice was barely more than a whisper, but it carried a weight of forgiveness that felt like a knife twisting in his heart.
Alexei's body lay still, his face contorted in a final, twisted smile, even in death. The storm raged on, indifferent, relentless, as if the very heavens mocked the tragedy that had unfolded on that rooftop.
[6:59 Pm]
Hoshino could feel his own breathing growing ragged, his heart pounding with a hollow, aching pain. He looked up at the sky, the dark clouds swirling as if mirroring the turmoil within him. He felt as though he were falling, spiraling into an endless, empty void.
[7:00 PM]
It was then that he noticed the time. 7:00 PM. And somewhere above them, high in the darkened skies, a weapon had been set in motion, a final answer to a world that could no longer be saved.
The Tsar bomb—a weapon of unimaginable destruction, its very presence a testament to humanity's capacity for devastation. Hoshino barely had time to process it, the enormity of what was about to happen.
For a brief moment, there was silence. And then, in an instant, a blinding flash lit up the night, brighter than a thousand suns, turning the world to fire. The ground beneath them seemed to dissolve, consumed in an inferno that erased all thought, all memory, all hope. The blast swept through the city, through the rooftop where Hoshino, Astrid, and Alexei lay, and in its wake, there was nothing—no pain, no sorrow, just an empty, quiet void.
As the world vanished, Hoshino's last thoughts were of Ji-hyeon's quiet, gentle smile, her words lingering in his mind as everything faded to black.
In the end, this world was never meant for us.
✧
While this was all happening, K ̸̨̩̝͙̳̱̻̞̥̞̱̗̹̭͇́̾̈̌͒̋̈́͑̈̈́̉̀̑̈́͑̉̐͊̀͗͊́̏̓̂͂̇̔̀͘͝͝ͅet ̸̨̩̝͙̳̱̻̞̥̞̱̗̹̭͇́̾̈̌͒̋̈́͑̈̈́̉̀̑̈́͑̉̐͊̀͗͊́̏̓̂͂̇̔̀͘͝͝ͅer or it was more correct to say Jin Chen was watching with hollow eyes.
✧
Natsumi Hoshino was observing too, but this time it was different from the other time since he learned this while he experienced the 「Last void」.
✧
̸̨̩̝͙̳̱̻̞̥̞̱̗̹̭͇́̾̈̌͒̋̈́͑̈̈́̉̀̑̈́͑̉̐͊̀͗͊́̏̓̂͂̇̔̀͘͝͝ͅ ̸̨̩̝͙̳̱̻̞̥̞̱̗̹̭͇́̾̈̌͒̋̈́͑̈̈́̉̀̑̈́͑̉̐͊̀͗͊́̏̓̂͂̇̔̀͘͝͝ͅ
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