Chapter 019: The First Loop (2)

Leon’s arms shook as he fiercely held onto the large pipe that was connected to the wall. With two extra set of weights on him, he truly couldn’t be careless. The ground was rumbling, and it was heavily disrupting his concentration. Even as he used his feet to stabilize himself, Leon knew that he couldn’t really hold on for long.

Two hands suddenly began to hold onto the pipe, and another pair of legs landed on the walls, helping him to stabilize himself.

“Let’s go, I don't think we have much time,” Yuki, who hadn’t spoken in a while, said with a soft voice.

Her lips pursed and her black hair that was fitted with cyan highlights—likely dyed—was disheveled, which made the tension in her green eyes even more substantial.

“Careful,” Mirai could help saying as they all helped each other down, her black hair and grey eyes were slightly dim. Not in any physical way, but because of how she felt, mildly depressed about this hopeless situation, she couldn’t keep up a joyful appearance.

“Okay, slowly, but not to slowly,” Their steps were awkward and out of sync in some areas, nearly causing them to fall many times but with death looming they quickly made short work of the wall.

As they neared a height at which they could jump down, the building rumbled and almost the entirety of the southern campus’s Literary Arts Building Complex—the place where the classroom they were in was—collapsed into rubble.

Along with the building they were on.

During all of this, all they could have done was watch, a potent wave of harmless light that passed through collapsing tens to hundreds of meters in an instant, flattening the area.

When Leon came to, all he saw was blood from his right eye and nothing from his left. It was sealed shut, and hurt a lot but it wasn’t out for the count just yet. Realizing that he was free from rubble, the boy immediately tried looking for the two girls, just to see Mirai crying over what looked to be a trapped Yuki.

Unlike the first time the beast shattered the classroom wall, where there were no debris in sight and only dust and pebbles were found. This time, rocks and pieces of concrete that were nearly a meter in length were strewn everywhere in the area.

And now it seemed like Yuki wasn’t as lucky as the first time to escape getting caught up in the action. Her body under some tall rubble.

Leon’s heart immediately sank, and he hurried over to take a look.

“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Yuki’s eyes were blurred with blood and tears, her face was contorted with pain but she still touched Mirai’s hand to let her know that everything was fine.

It wasn’t.

“…” Mirai seemed dazed and she reflexively looked at Leon who came over. Her eyes were filled with hope and silent pleading. Looking at Yuki, the girl shook her head and turned away from his, the pursing of her lips and the other, desperate emotions lining her face gave hint to her true thoughts.

She obviously wasn’t willing to take such actions, but when left without choice, one must concede to the will of the environment.

Seeing how Mirai’s face was filled with tears and snot, Yuki tried to cheer her up. She laughed slightly, saying, “It’s… like that natural selection thing they taught in Katakana-Sensei's class right? Maybe, I’m like this because I wasn't meant to survive—”

Slap!

Mirai slapped her across the face.

“Not a word, don’t say a fucking word more,” Mirai’s face suddenly contorted in anger and the faint rumbling that came closer and closer nearly made her face physically twist into something bloody.

Her teeth nearly cracking and her lips more than slightly bit into, the girl clenched her fist so hard it trembled—violently.

“It’s all your fault, this stupid sky, that stupid hippo, all these stupid things. Dumb, dumb, dumb, you just landed here and just start chasing us around,” Mirai stood up, and she picked up a rock and threw it at the beast. As she watched it do nothing, she couldn’t help but tremble even more with anger.

Cursing the girl nearly went completely crazy, her legs couldn’t stop shaking and her arms couldn’t stop throwing. Cursing the hippo, crying and laughing like a crazy person.

Leon, who was trying to free Yuki, who didn’t seem to have any more of a substantial will to live at all—was speechless.

Wasn’t they supposed to be running right now?

Leon shook his head, he couldn’t leave any of them here. It wasn’t out of some noble purpose or need to prove such identity. He just found that leaving his injured classmates out to die and running on his own was slightly impossible and he didn’t possess the necessary ruthlessness to go through with it.

Sighing, seeing that the near three layers of large concrete remnants on Yuki’s entire left side couldn't be moved by him, he sat down near her and watched the raging Mirai.

“Y-You, why are you staying…?” Yuki coughed a little blood and seemed to choke on it a little so Leon lifted her up as much as he could to help her spit it out. One she was done, giving him a nod of gratitude, she waited for his answer.

“A bit of a cliche question for a none cliche situation but I’ll answer it truthfully. Uh, honestly, abandoning a dying classmate and her friend is kind of cringe. I don’t think I can do it, so I gave up—”

“Gave up?”

They spoke the last words at once and Leon just nodded with a smile. Yuki nodded in understanding.

“Kinda lame.”

“That’s true.”

“Aren’t you like, a man.”

“I’m 16 this year so…”

“Aren’t guys like pretty tough and fearless.”

“I mean, not all of them, you talk like you’ve never met or spoken to a guy before.”

“I haven't. Not much at least. Pops is absent most of the time and the brat at home is like 4, so…”

“You, have so much to live for…”

“But I’m dying for less, the principal said it at orientation right? That’s how “life” is and so on.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“You’re pretty easygoing about this.”

“Pops will have to pick up the slack when I’m gone, wish I’d see him with his pants on fire sure, but as for anything else? Maybe I'd watch an extra YouTube video and stuff my face a little…”

“That’s… tough.”

“Nothing to say? You’re pretty nice when you don’t know anything tough guy. Can I call you that? I feel like your a tough guy, very strong.”

“Not really.”

Leon hesitated for a while, before reaching into his pocket and saying, “So, like… I have this chocolate bar…”

“Give me some, now!” Yuki looked at him with a ferocious expression, death now the furthest things in her mind, as she opened her bloody mouth so Leon could drop some chocolate into it.

Leon chuckled and then obediently fed it to her. Taking a bite himself, they both faced the front. Their expressions awfully peaceful.

The pair watched as Mirai calmed down, seeing no damage to the beast, her shoulders slumping.

“Oh, it looks like she’s done,” Yuki chewed, her eyes feeling heavy. A hand pulled on her cheek, snapping her back to reality but she didn’t feel like doing anything either.

“Finish the chocolate bar first, also, you can’t die before I do.” Leon stood up and walked forward. He pulled Mirai back, and started tossing something in the air before catching it again, over and over.

It was an orb that was filled with stars.

“Yuki, it seems like both you and Mirai are supposed to be quite special. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but let’s let the ordinary people die first okay…” Leon had a complicated expression, he was… reluctant, but he was also aware that what he had right now wasn’t enough to compete with that monster.

If he was willing to escape, dragging Mirai away and letting Yuki die alone in that experience, he could have formulated plans while meeting up with others. But he wasn’t, so he was going to die.

But he wanted to see something, a final closure.

“What is that…?” Mirai looked at the orb in his hand with a curious expression, and she looked at both Leon and the Hippo. The latter of which seemed to immediately track onto the object in Leon’s hand.

Leon just pointed at his ear and Mirai subconsciously touched her earrings, just to feel something off. She didn’t have such exquisite jewelry… It was both hot and cold, with a unique texture that made it so whoever touched it would be reluctant to put it down.

Yuki looked at the orb in Leon's hands, watching as he waved it left and right in front of the Earth Hippo. The Earth Hippo followed it intensely, a hint of greed flickering in it’s big eyes.

All of a sudden, he took a stance and threw the orb as far as he could before he casually returned to her side. Once he settled, he looked at the orb which was still falling further and further away, his face expectant.

The Earth Hippo looked at Mirai, making her tense, before it looked at the falling orb. Seemingly making a decision, the Earth Hippo began to make a trek toward the one that was farther away.

One could run, and another couldn’t, this was simple economics.

It may not get one, but it could definitely get the other.

The Earth Hippo had only made it’s journey for 13 meters before it turned around in confusion, looking at Yuki.

Yuki and Mirai also looked down at the glowing orb on her chest in confusion. It was clearly thrown into the small part some tens of meters, even hundreds of meters away but now it returned.

“Nearly 130 meters, give or take. Larger than a football field that’s for sure,” Leon mumbled smilingly. “If it were a basketball, I’m not sure I could even throw it for a third of that distance. These gems, they’re really good for throwing. Look, they even return, tsk tsk, this is a dog pranksters dream toy.”

“What are you planing on doing,” Mirai eyed him in suspicion, this guy, he often did crazy things at the drop of a hat. When she looked at him from afar, she really didn’t notice it. Now that she realized this…

She eyed Yuki and could see the worry in her eyes.

“Tsk tsk, women really aren’t good at listening,” Leon rolled his eyes, didn’t he say what he was going to do earlier?

He smiled, and looked at the dumb Earth Hippo, which didn’t even take the opportunity they gave it during their chatter. It’s prey was distracted and it didn’t even try to attack, just staying there in a daze.

Leon shook his head, ‘None of this shit is real.’

Leon realized that he had also gone a little crazy, daring to stay here and not saving his life. He was really stupid to the extreme, now he was even going to give it away to a girl he rejected.

But did it matter?

He breathed in the dusty, bloody air and at this moment, he could confidently say no.

His heart was light and he leisurely went over to them both, he grabbed Yuki’s orb with ease but Mirai suddenly grabbed her ear. Her expression was tight, and she glared at him fiercely, a little craziness in her eyes.

“You’re not looking to die are you, Yuki is dying you know…” Mirai said sadly and looked at the still alive Yuki.

Yuki, who was chewing on the chocolate bar that Leon gave her, suddenly found all eyes on her. She blushed, and couldn’t help stammering, “Hey, you guys why don’t you run. The Hippo is right there you know…”

“You’re dying,” Mirai said sadly, but to the pessimistic Leon and Yuki, who had already come to terms with death, it sounded a bit funny.

“Oh…” Yuki chewed, and pointed at the still idle Earth Hippo, “That guy hasn’t been moving for a while.”

A sound suddenly emerged, it came from the Earth Hippo who glowed with brown light and a fierce rumbling that shook the entire southern campus and the skies above it was released on the still chattering trio.

The ground split in multiple areas and the rumbling was enough to rattle their bones.

Leon sat down, a few loose tears in his eyes, “Hey you guys wouldn’t mind if I cried right?”

“I heard guys don’t cry a lot…” Yuki looked at him sadly and used her one useful arm to pat him, “Well you’re going to die, it’s now or never. At least you can be proud you stayed with me till the end, if we have a next life, I’ll let you hit.”

“No thanks.”

“Ahhh! No, is it really going to end like this!?” Mirai suddenly freaked out, as if that would do anything.

“I mean yeah,” Leon and Yuki shrugged. Looking at the near hundreds of meters of collapsing rock, and the ones that rose into the air, they looked up with eyes filled with despair.

When the rocks fell, they braced themselves for death.

“Ahhhh. I want a restart, referee replay, replay!” Mirai waved her hands wildly.

Stuffing the rest of the chocolate bar in her mouth and forcibly swallowing, Yuki looked at her with wide eyes, “I told you. You should have ran.”

“I’m just wondering how you’re still alive to see this, your entire left side is crushed.” Leon was slightly amazed.

“Replay, replay, replay, replay, replay!” Mirai repeated with a crazy light in her eyes, it was also a bit absent, like she wasn’t herself and merely just there to say some words.

With no other fanfare, the rocks fell from the sky and laid all the students to waste.

Then… Then nothing.

Perception, stopped. Nothing moved, and then everything moved—backward.

In a bright flash of light, filled with the radiance of stars, the trio suddenly found themselves back outside the building. The building was still a mess and they were all still bloody, but the Earth Hippo still wasn’t in sight yet.

They all looked at each other for a moment, spotting the glowing jewel on Mirai’s ear and then fell silent again. Each with their own thoughts.

After a few scant moments, Yuki said, “Um… So like, was that real or were we in a simulation.”

“I mean, it could have been a dream. Like, all of us together…” Mirai mumbled, patting the orb on her ear silently.

“Like in the novels…?”

“I distinctively remember getting crushed to death for 2 seconds, before being revived, so no it was real,” Leon looked at her weirdly, “My shoulder and face are aching, why are you acting like it doesn’t hurt.”

“It really doesn’t…”

“But you’re still under the rubble…”

“That is true… Hey. Do you still have that chocolate bar?”