POV: Isozaki Izumi

Date: 25th Nov – Tuesday.

Timeline: *After Yasahiro killed Izumi*

"Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Tick Tock," the clock sang near my ears as I opened my eyes to a red wall, my eyes shifted toward the clock to see that it showed, 12:13 AM.

"An hour and 15 minutes?" I mumbled.

I focused on the red wall again, and a strange thought crossed my mind, 'was this wall always red?' as my memory flashed before my eyes, I remembered, the unusual pink wall that I saw when I woke up before in this room.

I extended my arm toward the wall and the paint came off as soon as I brushed it with my hand showing the pink I remembered, I looked at my tainted hand as I come to realize that this bright red color was not paint.

I quickly raised my body up to take better look at the room, but the room I saw was one that caused my stomach to rush out of my mouth.

Yasahiro body was cut in half; an upper body that lacked a head and an arm, and a lower body that was smashed into floor.

His insides were lying on the floor as the room was dyed red by his organs, and his eyeballs were gouged out rolling on the floor next to his arm that was cut from the rest of his body.

And his sliced head was lying in front of a clock on the desk as if looking at the time.

As I was throwing up, I noticed strange movements in the room.

The now-red wall returned to it's pink color, and the organs started gathering from all around the room toward the upper half of Yasahiro's body.

His sliced head started heading toward his neck, and his eyes rolled back inside the bleeding dark holes on his face.

And like a magic out of a fairytale, the scattered parts started attaching themselves into their rightful positions and the blood stopped from rushing out.

Fascinated by the magic show I just witnessed, my body moved by itself toward the healed corpse of Yasahiro.

"Unbelievable..." I mumbled to myself as I poked his cheek with my finger.

I, then, carried Yasahiro's body to lay him down on the bed, but the puke I left on top of the bed left me no choice but to change the destination to my apartment.

But this is weird... Why... Why isn't he waking up yet, even though he healed?

As I laid him down on my bed, I moved closer to his chest to make sure that his heart is beating properly, and his heartbeat was rapidly beating like how it should be.

"WAKE UP!" I yelled as I slapped his face with all my strength but the respond that I expected didn't come as planned.

Despite his heart that didn't stop, his body didn't move an inch like a corpse of a dead man for the whole three hours I spent observing him closely which omitted the possibility of the problem being solved by itself.

As the hand of the clock ticked time away, the feeling of guilt started swarming inside of me choking me by the throat.

What if he didn't wake up? Did I cause another person's death? Why did he do this despite knowing he'll die in this gruesome way? What kind of life did he lead to accept dying in this way? How did I cause this? Killing someone and not even remembering it... I am just like a monster, aren't I?

As Yasahiro's words rang a bell inside my head as if to comfort me from panicking, "because you wanted to, isn't that enough of a reason?"

Pathetic, how pathetic of me, to try and find comfort in the words a man I killed had said.

My hand started trembling, as I had to face the truth that the reason he had to rush inside the building, the reason he had to risk his life and kill me, and the reason he only had death as an option was me.

If only I had realized how dangerous my ability can be...

If only I listened to him when he warned me...

If only I didn't go inside that building...

If only.... I didn't exist...

Suddenly, a conversation flashed before my eyes echoing through my ears,

An old man who was burning spoke to me as he shook my shoulders, "why is it your fault? He made that choice."

My lips moved by themselves and let out a saddened voice, "if he didn't kill me... he wouldn't have died..."

"Listen, Izumi," the old man patted my shoulder as he scolded, "you are a victim! Don't ever blame yourself!"

As I get shocked by the weird memory that flashed before me, I look at Yasahiro who was still sleeping as I mumbled, "how am I the victim... I am by no means a victim at all."

My head started ringing as if someone just hit it with a hammer, with clear words said by a voice that came from inside of my head, "victim?... victim!? ... VICTIM!?!? Don't give me that bullshit!"

"W-Who was that!?" I questioned as I panicked and started looking around the room.

The voice continued to resound inside my head, "did they convince themselves that they were victims as they robbed us from humanity!?"

I started heading toward the entrance while shouting, "who is it!? who is this!? Who is talking!?" I slam the front door open and see Hina standing there with her hand in the air while showing a shocked face.

"Awesome, how did you know I was here?" She said as she lowered her hand, and I asked her, "did you hear someone talk?" but she shook her head sideways.

"Were you expecting someone?" she asked with curious eyes, "not really," I answered as I invited her in, "come in."

As she came in and sat in the living room, she said, "I was looking for Hoga-san but he doesn't seem to be in his apartment, do you know where he might be?"

"Eh!?" I exclaimed as I got shocked by her sudden mention of Yasahiro.

Shit! What should I say?! What if she goes inside my room and see him dead!?!!!!!!

"He is ... you know... there..." I said trying to not put much importance in my words, and she asked, "ah, in work!?"

"yea! YEAH!" I yelled while smiling, "he is at work! You know he is a crappy- I mean a president at Miscul so he is very busy," I explained while grinning to not sound suspicious.

"That's awesome!" she exclaimed with a huge smile on her face, as she continued while laughing, "for some reason, I was thinking he is a lawyer or a doctor hehe.."

"W-Why are you suddenly mentioning the law and a hospital!?!?!?!!" I asked while panicking.

Is she telling me that the law will punish me and to take him to a hospital before this gets worse!!!?

"I was saying how I thought he had a different job," the girl laughed awkwardly as she corrected me.

So that's what she meant. Scared the hell out of me for a minute there.

"How do you know Yasahiro?" I asked curious about their relation, "Yasahiro?" the girl asked while tilting her head.

"uhh... 'Hoga-san'!?" I asked again, "nothing much, we're just neighbors," she answered with a smile.

"Eh? Then what do you need him for?" I continued to question her, she looked around the room and came closer to me and whispered, "Shota-san lost the game, so I was thinking of organizing a party to cheer him up, so I thought I'll invite everyone."

Eh? He lost? That's why he didn't come yesterday?

"Speaking of him," I whispered as I got closer and continued, "I really couldn't remember much about him."

"WHAT!?" she yelled and tried to help me, "I don't know much, but I think he said he met you in school, and you protected him."

Me? Protected someone at school!? Impossible!

"Are you sure he's not just mistaking me with someone else?" I asked to make sure, "there is no way!" she assured me.

"But this is really hard to believe since during all my years in school, I was a really big delinquent that got into fights randomly, helping others was really out of question! ... but please keep my past a secret, if the landlady figured it out, I don't think she'll keep me here," I said as I avoided her eye contact.

"Were you trying to hide that?" Hina asked, "you do look like an out-law even now!" she said in loud voice.

Hina... sure does not hold back.

"You could say this became my style and it became hard to let go of it," I explained trying to give myself an excuse.

"By the way, the thing I'm most curious about is your relationship with Hoga-san," Hina said as she smirked my way, I stare at her confusedly, and answered, "there isn't really much though?"

"WHAT!? How can that be!" she exclaimed and started explaining, "Hoga-san never allowed anyone to enter his apartment before, not even Konomi-obachan! Yet you were inside his apartment last time!"

You should be thankful you didn't see that tasteless apartment.

"I bet he was embarrassed of showing you guys his ... weird ... talent..." I said as my disappointment in Yasahiro's taste grew bigger.

"Yet, he showed it to you," she argued while grinning, I shifted my eyes toward my bedroom's door and said, "well, he is someone I'm grateful for, and even if I spent a lifetime apologizing to him, it feels like it won't be enough."

Hina slammed her hand on the table and with a surprised look on her face she asked, "lifetime!? You want to stay together for that long!?"

Eh!? What?

"No, it was a figure of speech," I corrected her panickily, I mumbled, "plus, we already spent more than a lifetime together by now..."

Since we died so many times already...

Hina raised her palm into a fist and got it closer to her chest and said with determination, "I support it!"

Support what!?

"Ah, did you eat yet!?" She asked as she left a filled bag on top of the table, "here is some cookies!" she yelled.

"Thanks," I said as I continued being confused by her.

"By the way, this might help you remember Shota-san!" she said excitedly, as she left a magazine on top of the table, "I'm featured in page 24!" she continued.

Does she want me to remember Shota? Or see her.... Is this because I said I don't read magazines before?

"But why do you keep leaving stuff on top of the table? You can just give them to me directly," I suggested as I saw her moving back and forth to the table putting the stuff on it, she looked at me with her cheerful eyes turning focused as they glared at me.

D-Did I say something wrong!?

Hina started screaming pointing at the clock behind me, "I have a shoot!" and started rushing outside, "it was nice talking to you, Izumi-san!" she yelled before closing the door behind her.

SO, SHE WAS LOOKING AT THE CLOCK!? Man, models have it tough having a shoot this early! It's only 6:00 AM

I went to the magazine and started flipping through it while crushing the cookies inside my mouth, as I reached page 24, Hina's head was filling the whole page next to a shampoo picture,

[A Shampoo can have a different meaning now!]

So, it was a shampoo advertisement, even though she looks so childish, she's really mature in this picture. She must be really good at her job.

As I continued to flip through it, I reached a page that had Shota's picture on it, bigger than Hina's picture,

[The Golden Genius!]

I frowned and yelled, "g-genius!?"

I continued reading the article,

[The baseball prodigy has finally accepted an interview!]

Baseball!? So, he was a baseball player? That's cool!

[On the condition of being in this release!]

Why do I feel like the reason for this might be that Hina is in it too...?-

[Interviewer: even though you used to play baseball in a high school club, you never achieved a remarkable goal like you did in the seniors ten years ago, what is the reason for that?

Himura Shota: because it was lame.]

High school club? Our baseball team in high school was powerful, but I don't remember seeing him there even though I went to many of their matches.

Was he not a starter? Is that why he said it was lame?

[Interviewer: what is the thing that drove you the most to be where you are now?

Himura Shota: when I used to get bullied by the seniors in my club, one classmate of mine told me while looking down on me, 'how lame!' and then I felt the blood rushing throughout my body, and I wanted to be really good and show that classmate, so I kept practicing and skipped all my club activity.]

I understand, being motivated by an insult is way more motivating than by a compliment! But what kind of jerk tell someone who was getting bullied... how lame!?

[Interviewer: you must have really hated that classmate for him to drive you this much.

Himura Shota: You jerk of an interviewer, how dare you insult him!!! I will never come to hate Izumi-san! He is always my hero! If not for his words that saved me, I would never be who I am now!!!!]

WHAT!? IT WAS ME!?! I didn't.... Nope I didn't read this!

I threw the magazine on the floor and sat down on the sofa deep in thoughts.

I really caused a person's death... How can I live with myself after this?

Should I bury him somewhere?!

better check on him.

I started heading to the bedroom while sneakily checking my surroundings.

As I opened the door, I saw Yasahiro sitting on the bed.

He...He's awake... Thank god...

He let out a sigh and cursed, "that son of a demon, hurt me way more than I could handle, and for some reason my cheek really hurt!"

He even can feel the cheek I slapped, he must be really alright! Thank god.

I started walking toward him as my body shivered.

I didn't kill him, he is still alive... thank you Yasahiro, for waking up... before I buried you...

I raised my hand and swayed it till it landed on his cheek, he yelled, "what the hell did you do that for!?"

I-It's not a dream! He really is awake!

"You jerk! Did you just hit me to make sure it's not a dream!?" he yelled at me, "thank you" I said, "thank you for coming back to life," I continued.

Yasahiro's eyes widened as if he heard the most insulting phrase, he stared at the clock and smiled and said in his annoying voice, "it didn't even take me a minute to revive!?"

"What are you talking about, it took you twelve whole hours!!" I yelled while glaring at him.

You scared the shit out of me!

"Why?" Yasahiro asked as he stared confusedly at me, "I thought it will only take 15 minutes... it took me 12 hours ... how much did it take you?" he asked.

"An hour and 15 minutes!" I answered bragging, "does the number of times we died affect the time we need to revive? Or is it the way we die that affect it? It might also be the body position..." Yasahiro mumbled.

"When I woke up, your body healed right away, but you didn't wake up," I continued to give him details, Yasahiro got angry and yelled at me, "why didn't you tell me that earlier, you annoying idiot!"

I was worried, but why do I feel like I wouldn't mind it that much if he returned to being dead now.

"Hey, I heard that!" he said as he started getting out of bed, "why am I in your room though?"

"because yours was... a bit messy," I answered as I smiled awkwardly.

I can't ever let him know that I puked on his friggin bed!

"You puked on my bed!!!!?" He yelled flaring his glare toward me.

OUT OF ALL THE THOUGHTS TO READ!!!

He quickly rushed toward the exit and went inside his apartment.

Did he go to check on it?! What an idiot!?

I quickly ran and closed the door with a lock.

It's not my problem anymore.

-End of Chapter 24-