bgm:MO1 (Kajiura Yuki)

I saw the shadows

Black, dynamic, shadow.

There are shadows of all kinds, there are shadows that thrive, there are shadows that wither and wither, shadows that laugh, and shadows that cry that are drowned out by laughter.

He.

She.

And it.

The girl.

The old man.

Next to the beast.

The noise that follows all around you is not real.

The rushing tide turned into a pedestrian and then lay down, and the cat's shadow turned into a gust of wind blowing up the sky, stretching out its claws to pull the clouds down.

Cities, streets.

Wilderness, starry sky.

We, them. Me, and everything else besides me.

Everything is connected, everyone is connected, nothing can be an exception, nothing can come out, strong and complete like they can't, defective dying like me can't.

In the highest place in the world, on the top of the cliff, there was me trapped in a prison cell.

I propped up my invisible vanity body, shook my blurred eyes, like a vain ghost, like the nothingness of a vain ghost, climbed with difficulty, and then staggered to the edge of the window, leaping down.

The scenery around me quickly receded, and I couldn't see anything clearly, and the sound of the wind poured into my ears, and I couldn't hear anything.

Sunlight and rain, lightning and storms, they caressed my neck, kissed my ankles, and I felt as if I had returned to the embrace of it all from outside the world, breathing in the air that had been lost for a long time, and seeing the world again.

I fell to the ground as if I wanted to feel the solid and firm touch with my own flesh, and then I was bounced away and thrown into the distance.

I fell from the highest place, my body tumbling and dancing, breaking branches in my path, and making long marks in the snow for many years.

Thorn-pierced skin, sharp stones pierced my muscles, but it was all inconsequential, and at this moment I felt an incomparable sense of floating, emptying everything, facing the truth, picking up what was supposed to die.

All the shadows, humans, beasts, streets, and starry skies were left behind me, and I galloped desperately, rushing forward in a constant way. It was as if there was something there that I was really looking for, an end worth really reaching, or the answer I had been wanting to get. It's there! It's there!

"Bang ——"

With a huge splash, I fell into the ocean, and the halo of sunlight shining on the surface of the water made me feel a slightly drunken sense of happiness. But then the invisible suction continued to pull me up the bottomless abyss, because the bottom of the sea is always dark, and the dark bottom of the sea swallows me up, and I can't feel anything around me.

As if nothing existed, no, more than that.

This is a very, very excessive thing, and this is the end of what I have been seeking, like a lost lamb running wild in the afterglow of the curtain, stray from the path home that has always been taken, running into the thorns and wilderness where there will never be an answer, and sinking into it, not even knowing why I am running.

Is it to get the answer? Do you get answers for the sake of answers?

Is there anyone else in this kind of place, is there anyone other than me in this kind of place? Is this what I've always been looking forward to? Is this what I've been looking for?

No, no one can see this kind of place, no one can see it, I can't see anything!

It was as if I had fallen into a dead madness, flipping through the countless books in my mind that I could remember, the knowledge, the past, in the frozen deep sea coffin. Write down everything I want to write, but it's all getting thin, nothing...

Is this what I want?

This kind of thing. Don't.

I was just.. I just want to stand on a high platform, stand on a high platform where nothing can touch, and look down on it all... Why? Why is it like this?

Could it be that the tolerance and size of the world have been so narrow that even a small bystander is not allowed? Not even a single "reader" can be accepted? What has I done so far for? Could it be that I have been fighting against the whole world? Hey, what are you kidding?

Although he has been saying that all this is the arrangement of fate and the will of fate, it seems that everyone is a marionette under fate, and only he stands next to fate, looking at the mortal world with arrogance and indifference above all else.

Is it.. Is that so?

It is precisely because of this attitude that everything experienced around us is just a flash in the pan and fleeting.

It is precisely because of this mentality that all the beauty that should be stopped and watched is fleeting.

I can't stay, so the door of truth is not open for me, and the true meaning of knowledge will never bloom for me.

Objective truth will not show me its content, subjective meaning, will not make me listen to its whispers.

Because I.. Abandoned them from the beginning.

And then at the same time the world abandoned me.

I..

I...

"I" ...

Endless coldness took over my skull, and the influx of my mind seemed to swallow my entire ethereal body, including and then merging into it, becoming a part of it, and never distinguishing between me and the other.

But nothing can stop this kind of thinking, because this is the beginning and the end of everything.

Who is "I"?

I'm Magpie.

Magpie...

Me!

No matter how ignorant you are, no matter how cheeky you are, you should shout it out at this time, right? Because this is your own existence, this is your own, if you can't even recognize this, if you can't even be sure of this, then what else is left, what else is worth cherishing?

- "Boom!"

A loud bang erupted as if it tore through the nine heavens and ten earths, and then everything here became illusory and unreal, and in the most stubborn deep sea, a pair of flat eyes slowly opened.

I am.. Magpie.

Magpie can now feel very clearly what kind of state he is, and to say that he is dying is too much to look up to his tattered body, and it is more appropriate to say that he is dying or has died.

That's why I'm here now. As for what kind of place this is? Even Magpie himself doesn't know, probably because he is stepping on some kind of boundary between life and death, a place where all world boundaries are blurred.

But thankfully, the only thing to be thankful for is that in short, I haven't really died completely yet.

Even if a lot of things that have been done so far are very ridiculous and unwise, even if there are still many things that cannot be perfected, as long as your life can last even a second, everything has a chance to be redeemed, isn't it?

A consistent smile appeared at the corner of the magpie's mouth.

Arrogant? Regardless of whether this statement is right or not ... Even if it is, so what?

Please, hey, I don't have that much time to care about the thoughts of those inconsequential and annoying bugs.

I'm sorry, I think the two of them are enough, and who cares if the others die?

Since I had "life", it has passed. How long has it been? Forget it, it doesn't matter.

Could it be that during this time, in all the places where I have consciousness, where I can feel, everything I have gained, is it the will of fate? Is everything I have lost arranged by fate? What a joke!

Destiny.. Is that kind of thing okay?

There are many, many more important things than that, right?

Suppose resignation to the arrangement of fate will only lead to ultimate destruction.

If, those who defy fate will only bring the end to crushing.

So what's the only thing left to do?

It's an accident, it's a possibility I have!

Or to put it bluntly, it's enough to break the current deadlock, something that pleases the unfavorable situation, yes. Something that keeps me alive!

With the joy and emotion of welcoming the rising sun, it is as if something is breaking out of the cocoon, and you can feel the surging blood and heat flowing from the heart to the limbs, and you can feel that everything is recovering.

From the moment the whole thing was set, he didn't really care about his own life, and of course, he didn't care about other people's lives.

If arrogance and spectatorship above all else is the goal he intends to exist from the beginning. Well, the indifference under the gentle exterior is his attitude towards everything.

That hasn't changed much until now.

But.. Now the magpie has something to do, or something he wants to do, if this is the premise, if he is not struggling because of greed for life, then he has a reason to act, and he has a reason to continue running wildly.

So.. This will be my first step into this world, and it will be the first time I will step into this world and knock on the door.

"Hehehe... Hahahaha

He laughed wildly, leaving behind the dark cloud that had always hidden his true heart, like an innocent child.

In the deepest part of the sea, where light cannot reach—laugh like crazy!

"What a big joke. ”

"But... Not bad, is it?"

Outside.

In reality.

The frog and the girl, who were still fighting each other, suddenly felt that something was wrong, and then very tacitly stopped the deadly attack and kill action, and at the same time turned their heads to look at the "mud" lying on the ground.

In the fluctuations of Cangwu County, the magpie who was already so badly injured that it seemed that he would die at any time was shrouded in a strange ripple, although his back was still clinging to the cold ground, but the transparent ripples that could not be seen by the naked eye were rippling silently, as if something was coming from the sea from afar.

Under the bewildered gaze of the frog, in the disbelief gaze of the girl with the hammer in her hand.

The entire cramped room became much more spacious at this moment, so that... Boundless!