Fate/ I Am Humanity Last Hope!?

The cloudy vision of his room and his current sight made his head spin in confusion, but after a few seconds, he had already recovered from the bewilderment.

This was a dark and simple hallway, further ahead there was a half-open door where the light from a lamp filtered through, faintly illuminating the place.

The young man didn't know why, but as soon as the door came into view, he felt a sensation that could only be described as desperate and oppressive take hold of his chest; the familiar "weight" of anticipation for some traumatic event enveloped his heart. His hands trembled, but he had no idea why. Sweat trickled down his cold face, his feet refused to move. However, as if he were merely a spectator of a memory, he slowly walked towards the door.

He sensed that he shouldn't open that door, but his body refused to obey him.

He reached the door and opened it silently.

Inside, the room was simple, featuring a three-door wardrobe with a mirror, a bedside table next to the double bed with a white lamp that was responsible for the room's light. No extravagant decorations or anything like that...

His eyes widened at the sight of a person he knew very well lying on the bed, a woman with brown hair down to her waist, with a notable braid tied in a small ponytail hanging down her back and light brown eyes, which were currently closed as she emitted sounds of pleasure. Her sculpted body was covered in sweat, her breasts bouncing up and down as she rode fervently on the shaft of a man he had never seen in his life.

The sound of flesh hitting flesh in a sexual act pulled him out of his reverie.

His mind spun, the only thing he managed to say with a dry throat was a name: "Chizuru...?"

Though it wasn't loud, it was enough for the two people involved in the act to stop what they were doing.

The girl named Chizuru's eyes widened upon seeing him standing in the doorway...

"Ryusei?"

The girl's voice carried a primal guilt, gradually fading into echoes in his ears. Her wide eyes indicated that she didn't expect his presence so soon in her home...

"This isn't what you think! Please, my love, let me explain!..."

He didn't understand why. He only felt a painful sting invade his chest, an unbearable pain, uncontrollable rage, and endless agony. Everything mixed together in a cocktail of emotions he would never forget...

His attention was no longer on the girl he once thought was the love of his life. The betrayal from someone he never thought would do this hit him so hard that he felt dizzy.

He wished it all were a nightmare.

After his consciousness was gradually consumed by darkness...

Only emptiness remained.

Everything faded.

...

..

.

The boy opened his eyes, startled.

Gasping, he pressed his hand against his pajama top over his chest as he still saw the ceiling all foggy.

As he regained his senses, he also felt damp strands running down his face.

With the fingers of his other hand, he touched just below his eyelash. Indeed, it was tears...

"Why...?" The question slipped out in a aimless murmur, much like his trembling gaze.

"Why are you crying?"

The whole question was asked by the boy next to him, who was responsible for pulling him out of that state of shock.

Turning his face, he found him.

Silence governed the small room, illuminated by the orange beams filtering through the cracks of the curtain at the window.

Still having trouble understanding the weight in his chest, the young man exhaled a deep sigh as he said:

"I don't know..." He covered his teary eyes with the bottom of his palm: "I just feel like... I had a long dream..."

The boy next to the bed only looked at him with doubt. Then he extended his closed hand and made a grunt.

"Get dressed already. Mom and Dad are waiting."

The other glanced at what he offered: a candy.

However, instead of accepting, he simply turned his face to the other side, towards the opening where the light was coming from.

Even ignored, the child left the wrapped candy on the bed, turned around, and ran for the exit.

Lonely once more, the newly awakened boy wiped his arms covered by long sleeves over his eyes to dry them.

He got up from the bed, took the candy gift from his little brother, and placed it on the desk near the window.

He stared at himself in the mirror, all dirty. He saw how his blue eyes were well reddened at the edges.

"I have to clean this up..."

As he searched for fragments of that dream, he felt destroyed, wanting to die...

Though he wished to forget, he vividly remembered his nightmare—a traumatic memory from three weeks ago when he discovered that his girlfriend had been cheating on him with an older college student.

Trying to forget, remembering his little brother's message, determined to leave that behind and stick to reality, he turned.

"I have to go..."

As that afternoon passed, he forgot.

After all...

"Come on, Ryusei!!" A woman shouted from the stairs, minutes after the young man composed himself: "We're late. The wedding won't wait!!"

Even if he wanted to keep trying, it would be hard for him to stay focused on that, because today was a busy day.

After taking a shower, he started to hear his mother's hurried calls. Concerning them, he adopted silence. While ignoring that pressure, he put on his pants, his favorite sports shoes, and a light jacket over his white t-shirt.

Properly dressed, he descended the stairs without any hurry. His pace was the complete opposite of that of the lower part of the house. The exception was his little brother, who was playing his portable video game on the couch, without any weight on his conscience; his mission had been to wake his brother and order him to hurry up, so there was nothing more he needed to do but wait.

The woman was frantically moving between the living room, kitchen, and bathroom.

"Oh, finally!!" She widened her eyes upon seeing her son ready, turning off the bathroom light: "Did you know we were leaving now, didn't you!? And yet, you decided to sleep!"

"I didn't even want to go..." Ryusei puffed, sitting down in a chair at the dining table.

"Enough already..." While finishing putting on mascara, the woman grumbled: "A deal is a deal, and I won't tolerate complaints in my ear. Jesus, Ryusei... I'm impressed by your lack of will; you weren't like this! It's been a month since you left home, except for college. I'm surprised you don't have any friends who could drag you out of here..."

He clicked his tongue and turned his face away from his mother's irritated laments, speechless.

He limited himself to putting his hands in his pockets and averting his gaze towards his little brother.

"I wish I had a carefree life like him," he thought.

He remembered a bit how everything was less complicated when he was younger.

He even wished to return to such a time, to be as carefree as...

"Stop arguing and let's go already..." The man bellowed, passing through the kitchen with the car keys towards the exit: "We can still make it on time, but for that, I'm going to have to run a little..."

The woman accompanied him:

"Lock the door, Ryusei!"

And then, the little boy jumped off the cushioned seat to go with them.

Ryusei took a little longer to stand up and grab the house keys from the table.

Almost dragging himself, he closed the door. A strong gust suddenly hit his face, making his voluminous brown curls dance in the air.

He lost a bit of focus looking at the sky, even after hearing the sound of the car engine.

"Come on!!"

It was the new shout of the woman that pulled him out of his daze.

Sure! Here's the text translated into English without any alterations:

---

So, he finally got into the back seat, fastened his seatbelt, and the whole family set off.

Given the delay, the man's urgency at the wheel was evident, even leaving some red lights behind in an attempt to make up for lost time. The mother remained furious that her eldest son had delayed them by sleeping too much.

During the ride, ignoring his mother's persistent complaints, he put on his headphones and rested his head against the window.

For some reason, the star-filled sky, already darkening, attracted him more than usual.

Perhaps the reason was the amount of time he had been cooped up at home.

The wedding ceremony would be outdoors.

So much so that Ryusei was surprised at the luck of choosing a date when the weather was perfect for it to happen in the best way.

Arriving minutes before the main courtesy began, none of them managed to speak to the bride and groom. The only option was to wait for the party to start.

While the mother and father were still greeting guests, the boy tried to escape the gazes and keep to himself.

Talking to strangers wasn't his strong suit, so to avoid embarrassment, he preferred to remain silent.

It was completely different from his younger brother, who always received other people's greetings with a kind smile and responded in the same way. Well, it was easier to be sociable when you're a child who hasn't entered adolescence yet.

This continued until the start of the ceremony. The four of them sat on one of the benches arranged on the sides of the aisle where the red carpet stretched out.

Shortly after, the groomsmen and bridesmaids began to enter.

"What a drag," Ryusei let out a loud yawn and took his phone from his pants pocket.

He checked a few unread messages and college emails he needed to respond to, ignoring the ones his ex sent him as always.

Suddenly, he felt a strong poke in the leg, coming from the side where his mother was sitting.

Turning his face, he found a sharp look directed at him. This made him swallow the grumble that was forming in his throat.

"Keep that to yourself for now..." she said through clenched teeth to avoid drawing attention, "Show a little more respect..."

The boy didn't retort. He simply put the phone away.

With the atmosphere still tense between the two, the ceremony continued its natural course until the arrival of the bride and groom.

It was the moment of general acclaim from the audience.

"I don't understand why people love weddings..." he pondered with a closed expression. "Spending your whole life chained to someone else... seems stupid to me. Even more so considering that the woman you choose is always going to trade you for a better guy; your feelings are irrelevant to them. Trusting someone gives you the greatest weapon of mass destruction, the only one that can really hurt you..."

The rings were exchanged between them, and then, following the final declaration of the priest, they both became husband and wife.

Ryusei remained seated. He let out a faint lament, putting that daydream aside.

After the priest's final declaration, the husband and wife sealed the matrimonial kiss, concluding the ceremony amidst applause and cheers from the entire auditorium. The vast majority stood up to congratulate the new couple as they returned down the aisle between the seats, but Ryusei preferred to stay where he was.

He was dying for that dull sequence to end once and for all because he wanted to get some fresh air somewhere far away from there.

When the main event finished, he thanked the heavens for the freedom to head to a more secluded space.

He took a breath of fresh air among some trees, away from the loud music and cheerful guests.

In favor of that, he looked up at the sky again. As he had imagined a little while ago, it was different than usual.

"The Summer Triangle...", he came across the distant asterism of three specific stars that caught his attention the most.

It was beautiful. He could see them on the same celestial plane in a way he could never remember.

He almost managed to break into a faint smile.

"Why are you alone here?" The interrogative arrival of his mother pulled him from that little comfort, "Go eat something, the buffet is already served."

He stared at her for a while, surprised. That expression quickly changed as he turned away from her gaze while hiding his face.

"I don't want to..."

With that refusal, the woman opened her mouth to argue, but immediately gave up.

Instead of creating another problem, she approached and stood by his side.

"Look. You're a smart boy. You shouldn't act so withdrawn like this..." Her words went unanswered, "Talk to me, my son. Is something bothering you...?"

"I'm fine, mom," the boy interrupted her sharply, "Just leave me alone for a bit, okay?"

He didn't want to tell his mother about the breakup with Chizuru; even after a month, he couldn't handle it properly.

A strong blow hit her heart from his terse retort. Again, she parted her lips to insist, but she abandoned it halfway.

She just kept a firm gaze as she said:

"As you wish..."

She moved away without saying anything more. She fulfilled his wish to be alone.

Ryusei felt some remorse for having acted that way, but he just let her go in silence. He didn't even turn around.

With an uncomfortable grunt, he raised his attention to the sky again. That was when the headache he felt upon waking returned.

This time, however, a sharp pang hit him, forcing him to bring his hand to his left eye.

He almost leaned back due to the sudden agony. He remained unsteady until the effect slowly faded, replaced by a wave of relief.

"What the hell...?" He adjusted his posture, feeling nauseous.

Only then did he turn his body, not finding his mother.

Something inside him seemed to push him to look for her and apologize for how he treated her.

But pride won out, choosing to remain aloof in that empty place.

He couldn't imagine it, but that would be his last peaceful memory of that night.

Everything was erased.

...

..

.

In a slow rhythm, the darkness began to be filled again with a warm light.

"Huh…?" As the unknown discomfort grew, his eyes slowly began to open. "Where am I?"

He blinked slowly—painfully so. At the beginning of this strange awakening, he contemplated bright spots filling a dark space.

"It's so cold…" Only one eye opened. The other was drenched in blood, trickling down from a wound on his forehead.

A strong headache quickly brought him back to consciousness. He let out scratchy groans as he recognized the nature of what he had encountered.

The night sky, still surrounded by some trees.

Once his vision cleared, his sense of touch recognized the damp grass beneath him. His taste wanted to reject the earthy flavor mixed with metallic iron coating his tongue.

His sense of smell and hearing came almost simultaneously, catching a heavy scent of burnt metal and the sound of crackling fire.

He tried to turn over, but his arm screamed with a piercing pain. It could be broken; his mind began to better recognize his situation.

Realizing this cost him a pain that made him grit his teeth. With the return of bodily activities, soon the burning sensations spreading in his legs afflicted him.

An intense fatigue dominated him both physically and mentally.

The absence of strength to get up felt like chains binding his entire torso to the cold ground. However, no matter the scale of the agony, he felt the need to free himself from that uncomfortable position.

And so he did.

His bones seemed to crack, the muscles with slight tears in various areas screamed. The boy succeeded in rising, experiencing the discomfort of his left arm swinging as he turned his whole torso. Looking at the internal fracture at his elbow made him feel nauseous.

Facing difficulties in placing his left foot on the ground, he imagined that it was also injured.

Still, driven by the urge to escape those incomprehensible conditions, he began to move forward while dragging his injured limb.

After taking a few steps, he found an orange glow around the turn of a thick shrub. He decided that was his target in search of answers...

He tried to reorganize his memories; amidst the whitened expanse, some blurred gaps stood out.

Not being able to remember something filled him with a yearning in his chest; he felt his heart tighten as the beats grew faster. With effort, his mind recalled a few things, but only gaps existed between that moment and when he was alone at the party.

What existed in that space was blurred, as if black paint had been spilled over several papers.

With his throat choked by having no idea how he had ended up there, the reason for being in such conditions and everything else, he stumbled over a piece of wood.

"Agh!!" He fell sideways, feeling the already injured arm hurt even more.

He swallowed a little more dirt and felt the scent of grass enter his nostrils. He held firm due to the pain throughout his body, managing to avoid fainting.

He didn't even have the strength to utter words of misfortune; thus, he limited himself to muttering with a whispering voice. He strained to stand up, pushing the ground with his right arm. He needed to move on, do whatever he could.

He didn't let himself faint again, thanks to the intense pain on the left side of his forehead that seemed to be the fuel keeping him active.

In pain, he stood up again.

"I have to keep going… I have to keep going," he repeated to himself to avoid slipping into a faint, bending his injured right leg with agony and managed to regain his balance. He took in the necessary breath after the piercing sequence.

He continued forward until the warm light grew larger before him.

Just a few steps from reaching the glow, he came across a body lying next to a tree.

It appeared to be a man, whose white dress shirt had a huge red stain around the abdomen.

All kinds of thoughts passed through his head, but he refused to delve into the recognition.

With his heart racing, almost at two hundred miles per hour, he turned his eyes back to the light source, the tall fire engulfing a destroyed car.

The state of shock didn't even allow him to notice the tears streaming down his face. He could see two other bodies entangled in the vehicle's wreckage.

There was no longer any perspective of life for them.

In an instant, the blurred images crossed his mind causing a new discomfort. He brought his hand to the lacerated area on his forehead as the localized pain seemed to worsen. Feeling a burning sting when touching the wound that left a bloody trail across his face, the memories collapsed.

Voices echoed in his head at an abnormal speed, bringing a decline to his sanity. Just as his body seemed about to fall forward, a loud noise roared to his right.

Taken by the flames that had spread, a branch from one of the trees broke loose. The target was right below; the boy himself.

Unable to move to avoid it, he would surely become another victim of the scene.

But luck was on his side; his body tilted to the other side and he instinctively stepped back two paces, stumbling until he fell backward onto the grass. The charred trunk of the tree fell beside him.

With his heart racing, his lungs pleading for more oxygen than he could take in, he stared at the aftermath of the recent event.

The headache overcame him again, this time causing a powerful shock to run through his whole body.

The blackout could not be faced. Consciousness fell away all at once, making him topple with his torso.

The last information he could receive in that state was the sound of sirens wailing in the distance.

...

..

.

Your new awakening in a comfortable bed.

The ceiling was unrecognizable.

Full of aches in his wounded body, he turned his face toward the light coming from the window and realized the nature of the space.

A hospital bed.

He had several bandages covering the wounds on his arms and legs, as well as on his wounded forehead, along with a small splint on his arm.

When he was seen awake, the nurse rushed to call the doctors responsible for his case.

He was soon visited by a psychologist, who told him about what had happened.

A fatal car accident, which claimed everyone but him. His father, his mother, and his little brother... He already knew.

Downcast, he claimed to remember nothing between the moment he was at the wedding party and waking up at the site of the tragedy.

"This is a case of partial amnesia," the psychologist in question explained. "It is likely that the trauma of the accident, both physical and mental, caused this block in your memories. It is not complete, as you remember some details before and after the event. Just as you remember yourself..."

He was present for most of the daily interrogations aimed at checking the boy's progress.

He avoided talking about the boy's victimized family, but he already understood.

In any case, his responses were short, dry, and, most of the time, silent. He only confirmed with a nod downward.

His eyes, almost devoid of light, remained half-closed, feeling heavy. Nothing but suffering fit inside his chest.

Despite this, it was as if he had resigned himself. He didn't fight against reality or anything like that; he just accepted it.

In the first few days, he didn't even get out of bed. Nurses passed by, doctors came and went. The food was barely touched.

He didn't sleep. No matter how hard he tried, no memories beyond those he already had emerged.

When they crossed over the field of recent events and reached a not-so-distant past, he would shut his eyes tightly and try to stop.

And that's how he spent the first few days under the care of that hospital.

With no desire to fight to stay there.

Absolutely alone.

No one came to visit him, not even closer relatives from his father or mother's families.

Besides the daily visits from doctors and psychologists, a lawyer came to his bedside, saying he had been "hired by one of his mother's sisters."

He was responsible for passing on some details regarding the identification of the deceased bodies, as well as the funeral and subsequent burial.

In the end, the decision was up to the eldest son, the only survivor. And he decided they could be buried before he could be discharged to attend.

All he wanted was to avoid thinking about that.

So, when his leg healed enough for him to walk, Ryusei didn't think twice.

Still aided by a crutch, he wandered the quiet nights of the hospital.

Unbothered by anyone, he cleared his head and tired his body in order to at least have some chance of sleeping without difficulties.

Just him and the silence.

Even though it was impossible to rid himself of all the memories, many of them involuntary, he started to feel a bit better.

Two more days passed in that manner. His insomnia began to subside. The strategy of walking was working.

On the turn from the fifth to the sixth day of his stay, he decided to take a little earlier tour.

He encountered some doctors still on duty and very few patients awake.

He didn't exchange words with any of them. He followed the same route as always until he reached the vast courtyard, filled with well-kept grass areas and some trees.

He walked through the courtyard and sat on a bench while looking up at the dark sky above him, still suffering from the pain caused by the injuries from the accident, and, above all, he was going through the process of mourning for the death of his parents and younger brother. Not to mention the fact that he couldn't even remember how everything happened.

His fatigue was visible in the deep circles under his eyes, his slightly gasping breath, and even the difficulty in focusing on the sky.

Memories were slowly returning; he remembered how wonderful his parents were...

His father was the kind of cold man who didn't like to show much affection, but he loved them. In fact, his father hadn't completed his studies, as he had to work from an early age to support his family; because of that, he saw his father studying at night multiple times to help his younger brother with homework the next day.

His mother was a complainer, but she was always there whenever he or his brother needed her. She liked to be involved in their lives in the best way...

As for his brother, he was so friendly, courteous, and kind... Everyone always seemed to surround him with joy, as if he were the center of the world, the center of their games and happiness.

He was ten years younger, so they were always together since he was just a teenager, as it was his job to take care of him.

And now, none of them was by his side anymore...

Again, the locks imposed on his own memories began to yield. The familiar voice of a woman, still with some strange interferences, echoed in his mind.

Talk to me, my son...

His mother's voice returned, just like the vivid images of that night before the worst happened.

Just leave me alone for a bit, okay?

His response. His mistake...

He gritted his teeth until he nearly bit them off at the root. He could never see his mother again; nor his father or brother.

They had gone...

"And it's your fault," he told himself, forcing his hand against the ground.

It was impossible to return. The past could never be changed. This was the harsh reality responsible for crushing him for five days.

Lost in a sea of disconnected thoughts, he sat there for a few more minutes before standing up and walking toward his room.

Back in his bed, Ryusei lay down and sought sleep.

And his greatest fear was realized; those images remained alive, so alive in his mind, that sleep was slow to come.

Staring at the ceiling, he could hardly shut his heavy eyes. It would be nice to have a button inside himself to simply rid himself of everything, he thought.

The reason belonged to the person he most wanted to forget.

With his memories slowly returning, he remembered some horrible things. Among them, the betrayal of the person he loved most in his life...

Despite his attempts, the image of the woman having sex with another man returned to his mind frequently. He had some books, magazines, and even manga found in certain areas of the hospital, so he used them to distract himself and, consequently, erase all the memories for something more recent, like the fact that One Piece had revealed one of the most enigmatic figures in the story; the Prince of Giants, Loki. This helped him forget a little about the events, about the past, and how his life seemed to be a parody of suffering made by a cosmic entity.

But as he read the pages of some manga, his mind worsened. He was restless. The written words seemed to detach as the pages turned. He reached a point where he became unable to read the printed sentences on the pieces of paper.

His very heavy eyes seemed on the verge of falling onto the bed. Sleep began to creep in, but the will to lie down and close them was nonexistent. It would be yet another long night in that silent room illuminated by moonlight.

This was located in a perfect area of the building that, to the young man's misfortune, allowed for a full view of the sky he wished to ignore.

The more he stared at it, the more the locked memories began to resurface. In an attempt to avoid this, he approached the windows and pulled the blue curtains at the sides.

This action plunged the room into complete darkness. The heavy silence was interrupted by the continuous ticking of the clock on the wall. The patient seemed to be undergoing a mental endurance test, where he had to preserve his sanity against the repetitive sound.

At least he considered it a good pastime until he fell asleep. He could stay there for a long time; soon he would be lying in bed covered up to his head, a declaration of victory against the bothersome post-traumatic disturbance.

Finally, he fell asleep.

The awakening the next morning brought Ryusei an indescribable easing of the pains he had been living with.

He got out of bed, illuminated by the sunlight entering through the open windows, where the fresh morning breeze still flowed.

The first thing he did was grab his phone to check the time.

He got out of bed and saw the sun flooding the room through the open windows, where a light breeze made the curtains dance in gentle waves.

It didn't take long for a doctor to enter and sit on the bench beside his bed; he was carrying some papers and had a serious expression.

"What's wrong, doctor?"

The young man asked, feeling a bad premonition enveloping his chest.

"Shiba Ryusei... I don't know how to say this, but although the accident didn't cause any serious sequelae, some tests we conducted brought us terrible news. In fact, you have a disease that has never been seen before in history; it functions like a malignant tumor, so we were able to detect it, but it's fundamentally different from one, so we don't have a cure yet... In a few weeks, you would start to feel the symptoms..."

"And the way it is spreading through your body, I don't think you have more than a few months to live. We need you to stay here for more tests."

The young man looked at the doctor without reaction; he merely nodded in agreement.

"So we will still discharge you to take care of your family's funeral arrangements... But afterward, I hope you come back here."

After saying this, the doctor asked a few more questions before leaving and leaving the boy alone. As promised, he had discharged him, but only for today. He had to return to the hospital tomorrow.

If, after losing his parents and brother, he had no idea how he would carry on with his life, now it was worse. Or rather, how the last months of his "personal hell" would be.

Confused, tired, and demotivated. After being discharged from the hospital, Ryusei expressed the mix of unsettling sensations through his melancholic expression. Thanks to all the unpredictable events during his stay, he considered it a rather unpleasant experience.

He was very physically tired, but his mental state was worse. He contemplated that it could all be the result of a nightmare culminated by the excessive insomnia of the previous nights. He hoped to get out of that establishment, return home, and forget all the details that plagued his disordered mind.

He hoped his family would be there waiting for him...

But he knew that couldn't happen.

All of this went through his head as he got out of bed, walked through the hospital wards... and reached the gate.

He took a taxi towards the cemetery. The burial had been yesterday, thinking of it, his throat went dry.

It wasn't long before he got out in front of the large cemetery. Although the location had a low flow of people, he experienced an unusual anxiety. Wishing not to encounter any distant relatives there, he gathered his courage and took his first steps forward.

He thought it best not to ask for help from any staff member at the site. He proceeded alone down the central path, his heavy eyes scanning the surroundings in search of their names.

He walked slowly for a good few minutes, still feeling pain in his injured foot freed from the orthopedic boot. The memories trapped within struggled to break the chains, yet the young man remained firm.

The path led him to the final stretch of the cemetery, where empty areas seemed ready for any future burials.

At the final stretch, he took a deep breath upon seeing that no names had crossed his gaze. He considered their absence, but then the wind blew strong.

As his straight hair swayed, Ryusei turned to the left. It felt like a warning from the world itself.

He found the three names he feared to see.

Shiba Minato, Shiba Osawa, and Shiba Tatsuya; his father, mother, and brother.

The rounded stones, one beside the other, indicated the dates of birth and death.

The view turned into a fresh monochromatic gray.

Silence filled his ears. His accelerated heartbeat could be heard like screams.

What could he say? He clutched his shirt at the chest. He didn't want to remember anything, after all...

"I can't reach them...", he lowered his head, his lips experiencing a quake as intense as the rest of his body.

After losing an amount of time he could never calculate, he struggled to go to them.

With dragging steps, he arrived at the graves. A burning sensation dominated his darkened eyes, but tears did not manifest.

After losing an unknown period there, he struggled to lift his face again.

What did he have to say?

He couldn't pull the right words.

He simply accepted his defeat. Without the strength to remain in that place any longer, he turned on his ankles with a heavy conscience.

He retraced his steps without saying goodbye appropriately.

Shiba Ryusei returned to his home - one last time before going to the hospital the following day.

...

..

.

Although tired and still weak, he managed to walk to his residence, which was not very far from the cemetery.

Feeling his feet throb with pain, he faced the facade of the two-story house.

He was already starting to think about how he would handle everything on his own from then on. It would be difficult, but somehow, the silence was comfortable.

He could no longer decide how he felt.

Being betrayed by the person he trusted and loved the most, someone he imagined an amazing future alongside, losing his parents and brother, and finally... having an incurable disease. It was too much to think, contemplate, or absorb; all he could do was suffer in silence because of it.

After all, he had no one else in this world with whom he could share his thoughts.

Finally, he mustered the courage to walk along the paved path between the lawn.

He climbed the small steps. Hesitantly, he placed his fingers in his pants pocket, pulling out the door key.

He inserted it into the lock and turned it the opposite way of the latch, but nothing happened.

He repeated the movement more than once, and the sound of the latch refusing to unlock remained silent.

Incredulous, he furrowed his brows. He thought the tool might be damaged, but upon observing it, he found nothing.

Then, he grasped the doorknob with a trembling palm. He took a good few seconds, in silent hope, then, in an impulsive act, he turned it.

He was taken aback when he opened the entrance, which had been unlocked from the start. He blinked a few times until he remembered.

He had forgotten to lock it. It went unnoticed after so much had happened, but it made sense.

When he lost himself in the starry sky that evening, the boy got into the car without locking the door.

Finally, he got in. He soon experienced the familiar aroma permeated by the silent space, capable of sweeping away his thoughts.

The conflict of feelings began to grow again. It hadn't been long since that place was full of life and voices.

His mother's screams, his father's weary reprimands, the noises produced by the daily chores. None of that would return.

Thinking about it made him want to laugh and cry at the same time. He swallowed it all, after much trembling, to sum up that absurd confusion in a single sentence:

"I'm back..."

He walked through the living room. Everything seemed darker than usual, even though it was a sunny morning.

He passed through the other rooms. The kitchen, the bathroom, the downstairs bedroom. Then, he took the stairs and reached his personal room.

The place of the last words exchanged with his younger brother. The spacious room, where there were two beds, side by side.

Ryusei lay down on his bed and stared at the ceiling, his eyes searching for something in the white paint; although it seemed that way, the lack of shine in his pupils told a different story. He was just staring into nothingness as he drowned in his depression.

The constant feeling that he shouldn't have survived the accident ate away at him inside; his parents and brother were more deserving than he was; they had a life ahead of them while he... well, he no longer found meaning in living or any kind of perspective for a better life.

His life lost its meaning since he was seven or eight years old, a time he didn't want to remember - he only saw a brief light when he met Chizuru... who completely destroyed him. He had forgotten that his existence was purely for "suffering," wanted to seek a sliver of light due to her warmth, coziness, and kindness; he wished so much that when he found that in the woman he loved, he forgot he would be destroyed because he did not deserve such a thing.

Being betrayed and losing those he loved was proof of what he always believed to be true. Many considered it bad luck, others viewed it as a challenge from fate or God himself - or maybe the Devil - playing with him.

But he thought it unfair that the good people who loved him - his strict father, whom he admired so much, his little brother whom he wanted to protect at all costs for being one of the few things that brought him a smile, his mother who had always been by his side giving him all the love and affection he needed. They. Had to pay the price for his useless existence.

Well, at least his miserable existence was numbered. No one else would have to pay the price of having him nearby.

He placed his arm over his eyes as he let the bad emotions drown him.

Slowly, he fell asleep.

The next morning, as soon as he woke up, he took a taxi and headed towards the hospital.

More detailed tests would occur in the following week of his stay at the location, but nothing that could serve as a determining factor for a cure; it seemed that fate was determined to take everything from him...

And that's what happened, slowly, cruelly, and mercilessly.

Three months later, he lost the sensation in his body and became a cripple who had to stay in a hospital bed.

Six months later, he lost his hearing.

Nine months later, he lost his vision.

A year and two months later, he lost his ability to speak and entered a vegetative state.

Three years later, his life was sustained by machines.

Five years later, the hell this disease brought finally ended.

Death came to bring him the long-desired comfort; after a series of tests the doctors were conducting on him, he ended up dying...