The ship did not send me directly to Yokohama. I just landed at a port with a lot of soldiers. After landing, the ship continued to sail out to sea without looking back. At this point, it was as if my connection with Tokomi Island had been completely severed.

Many people, men, women, and children, gathered in the port. When they saw the soldiers landing, they hugged them with tears of joy. The small port has become a microcosm of the human world at this moment, deducing all the joys and sorrows.

I saw soldiers hugging and crying with their wives and children, and soldiers hugging their elderly parents. I also saw that some family members got the relics from the front-line soldiers, and even saw that some soldiers stood in place blankly, alone, and no one was looking for him.

I have no relatives, no family, and I am one of those lone soldiers. I watched quietly as people exchanged their thoughts, glad that they had escaped the clutches of war and death.

But after all, it was still different - even if the lone soldiers had no relatives to pick them up, they still had a goal, and they finally staggered back to their hometown, where they had lived for more than ten or even twenty years.

I don't have a home.

I'm just on my own.

I don't have money to buy anything, and I'm not familiar with everything in the world. Those so-called work and life of human beings - they need to learn various skills in order to find a stable or unstable job, so that they can ensure their lowest level of survival needs, and then they are called life.

I have no skills, except for all the skills I've accumulated on the island of Constant Darkness to fight and kill. This is a relatively stable human society, and this is not the kind of battlefield that only has the never-ending artillery fire as the background sound. I am alien to the whole of human society.

So I started wandering.

That's how people come and go describe me.

Wandering is probably the easiest way to survive in this human society, right? They are not bound by established social rules, nor do they have specific directions and goals. As long as you don't pursue a high quality of life, then living becomes a very simple goal. I don't have to care about the eyes of people passing by, I don't have to worry about getting along with strangers, or even about resting in the environment.

I occasionally ask passers-by about the direction of Yokohama. Actually, most people don't want to pay attention to me, but there are still a small number of people who are willing to show me a direction. I'd just walk in that direction, wandering as I went.

I just had to go all the way to Yokohama and find Dr. Mori.

I believe that one day I will be able to reach Yokohama.

I learned from other displaced people, like all the homeless people I saw, sleeping next to garbage cans on street corners, on park benches, and by mosquito-infested bridges. It's just that I'm still stricken with hunger, and the pain that comes from the most instinctive, primitive desires in man can't be eliminated in any way.

I don't know where I heard the saying that hungry people eat their stomachs. I don't know if my stomach will be eaten by my body, I just know that I can't tell if I'm starving or starving, but I'll wake up. This kind of torture is even longer and more torturous than on Kokumi Island.

Why does the pain continue?

Human society is another cruel environment that is different from the battlefield.

*

I don't know how long it took to be in the muddy-

When I was ready to wake up and experience hunger again, I found that the place where I was lying was no longer the rotting garbage can on the side of the street.

It was a simple, bright and spacious room, and I slept on a single wooden bed. The bed was covered with thick cushions and clean sheets. The room was filled with the aroma of food and detergents. It was a warm feeling, the temperature of the sun soaking my limbs.

I met soft-hearted people.

It's an elderly couple.

They said that they also went to the port to pick up their biological son on the day the ship landed, but they waited a long time and did not wait. They waited from morning to night, until the last soldier in uniform was left in the port, and they still did not see their son.

And the last soldier in uniform was me.

They said that they already knew the end of their son.

They say I'm as lonely as they are.

When they saw me unconscious again by the trash can on the street, they decided to take me home. Because I was wearing the same uniform as their son, and I was young.

It's a blessing, they say. It was fate that made them meet me, it was fate that brought them home. Because they have lost their son, and I have no family.

It's fate, they say. They and I were destined to be a family. They will try to be my parents while I take on the role of their son. In this way, three lonely souls can finally warm each other and have something to rely on.

I decided to postpone my plan to see Dr. Mori and stayed at the elderly couple's home. I can't tell why, maybe it's because of the warm meals that smell of fireworks every day, or maybe it's because of the caring words that the couple will confide in me from time to time.

Maybe it's just ...... Coveting this simple and pure warmth is a novel feeling that I have never experienced in my relationship with Dr. Sen.

I briefly experienced family affection.

As I got along with them, I felt like I could forget what I had been through on Tokumi Island. I naturally call them uncles and aunts, and I go to work with my uncle during the day, eat my aunt's food at night, and chat easily when I sit around the dining table with them. Although most of them asked, I answered.

Even for their desire to know what their son's life was like on Tokoku Island, I would like to dig out the worst memories from the depths of my brain that I don't want to remember, and then tell them lightly.

I don't want them to know how bitter the war is on Tokoku Island.

For example, [Undead Legion], and then for example, Endless Death.

Fate seems to have finally favored me once.

It wasn't until I learned the name of their son during a very casual conversation—

Ueno Muramasa.

What was my reaction? It was as if a smile had condensed on his face. After being stunned for a long time, I asked them again in a trembling voice, who is it?

So I got their affirmative answer. After they saw my abnormal expression, they excitedly took the photo album, pointed to the young man smiling brightly in a certain photo, and asked me - Akari, do you know my son?

Yes, I know him.

The young man whose goal is to earn military merit.

The young man who finally couldn't bear the pain of the [Undead Legion] and chose to commit suicide after persevering very hard for a long time, and even laughed at himself as a coward before he died. I was bound to his death because I didn't open my mouth to save him.

Seeing me nodding, they seemed to have risen hope, and continued to ask me with hope and excitement - can you tell me about Ah Zheng when he was in the barracks? We just want to know what he's like in the barracks, we just want to know...... He had been through it well.

Maybe that's the case with every parent. Cautiously hope that the child is well. Even if you know the news that your child has died, you would rather have a heartache than piece together a relatively vivid past from other people's mouths.

But what can I say? I need to tell them that Ueno was in the 4th Squadron that was treated as an abandon? Or do you want to tell them that Ueno was once involved in the [Undead Legion] plan and became one of the many soldiers who could not die?

Or am I going to tell them that Ueno voluntarily chose to commit suicide because he couldn't hold on and died again and again? And I'm still the one who won't save him from death? In a sense, I killed him.

If I hadn't saved him in accordance with his wishes, Ueno himself would have been the one who could lie on a soft bed, eat warm food, and be accompanied by his parents.

So I thought it would be better not to let them know that Ueno chose to commit suicide because he couldn't bear the torture. So I told them that the army was having a hard time, and that Ueno had died after holding off a cannonball for me in a war.

They were stunned.

The anticipation and excitement on their faces vanished, and the atmosphere of the room, including the food, cooled down. I felt at a loss, but I didn't know why, maybe I said the wrong thing.

Since then, they've been running away from me a little. It's a very delicate emotion. Although they treated me the same way they did at first. But every time I get along, I feel that their enthusiasm for me is fading little by little. I ignore the pain in their eyes, and I ignore the pain in their eyes that has degenerated into grief.

Until one day while I was sleeping, I felt a familiar pain, the pain of my body being torn apart. I was used to this kind of pain for a while. But after leaving Tokoku Island, in a peaceful city without war, I felt this pain again.

I opened my eyes in fear.

It was they who pointed their knives at me.

They said to me, "Why is it not you who was killed, but Ah Zheng?" If you were killed by the bombing at that time, is it Ah Zheng who can eat and sleep well now? ”

I was scared. Their eyes are no longer filled with kindness and tenderness, replaced by sorrow and resentment. They were sincere when they wanted me to join the family, and now they resented me as well. Their hands were trembling with their swords, but they were steady when they stabbed me.

I fled, clutching my stabbed abdomen, and fled the house that had briefly brought me warmth.

I went back to the original trash can, which had been taken over by other homeless people. I ignored his provocation to grab the territory, and after subduing him casually, I quietly shrank into the corner next to me.

He cursing and clutching his sprained arm and cursing at me in disgusting language. Simply because I hit him, and the most ridiculous source is his provocation.

He is just an ordinary person, and even because he has been wandering for a long time, his body is even weaker than ordinary people. I could have killed him easily if I wanted to, and with the experience I've gained on the Isle of Everdarkness, he's all flawed.

But I ignored him.

I just hugged myself.

Why is human society like this?

Cold and unfamiliar, it can change at any time. There are also complex and unpredictable human emotions.

The favor of fate that I thought was actually just a bait given to me by the cage of fate, just waiting for me to get into the cage and give me another fatal blow. It would look at me mockingly, sarcastically at me for not being worthy, at my extravagance.

In fact, fate has never favored me at all.

The wound on my abdomen was still bleeding out, and the temperature of my body seemed to be dropping. It was the first time I had waited for death without feeling undue pain, and it was a ridiculous experience.

One last glance at this cold and unfamiliar human society, I closed my eyes and waited for another death to come. It's good to be dead, and you don't have to experience all this suffocating stuff again.

Memories of the Everdark Island period flashed back to my mind.

A sudden thought popped into my brain.

I want to ...... Go back to Tokoku Island.

The place that carried my countless painful memories, the place I wanted to escape from, I had the ridiculous idea of wanting to go back. I don't know how to survive in this desperate human society, I'd rather go back to the Isle of Darkness and guard the scorched earth that has swallowed so many lives.

At least there, there are still memories of Dr. Kazumori.