Only I know that this world will end – 095 | Sousaku – 創作

The two of them after that

After the battle with the werewolf.
The oppressive atmosphere of death disappeared from the area, and Akira and Nao, dragging their wounded bodies, headed for the nearby apartment building to escape the gradually returning presence of the monsters.
Passing through the glass door of the entrance, which had been broken by someone, he grabbed the handle of the first door he saw.

The door was unlocked.

When he pushed it open, he immediately saw a terrible sight.
Someone must have seen this room with the door unlocked and decided to go in and rob the place. Once they saw the room, which had been left in a state of severe abandonment while still retaining a sense of former life, and the dirty footprints that spread across the floor, their bodies almost stopped, but Akira and company ended up entering the apartment.
After checking that there were no monsters or people in the apartment, he closed the door and locked it.

"Let's take care of our wounds for now……"

Akira said in a quiet voice.
The wound in his side, torn open by the werewolf, still showed no sign of stopping bleeding. The same was true for Nao, and the blood was continuing to flow from her forehead, which must have been cut more deeply than she thought.

Akira placed the battleaxe and iron sword in his hands on the floor, looked around the rough interior, and picked up the curtain hanging in the window. He then used the sword to cut the cloth into strips, and then folded and pressed the excess curtain fabric against the wound on his side, wrapping it around like a bandage.
This was a simple first-aid treatment. As long as he could stop the bleeding until the wound healed with Auto Regen, that was good enough.

(For now, this will do……)

Akira let out a sigh, muttering to himself.

Then, when he got a new curtain, he tore it up and, after making a makeshift bandage in the same way, beckoned Nao over.

"Please sit down over there."

Akira instructed Nao to do so as she approached with a puzzled look on her face.
While watching Nao obediently following his instructions, Akira put the piece of cloth he had in his hand, which was acting as a substitute for gauze, to her cut forehead and wrapped a bandage around it.

"H-Hey! I can do that much on my own! "
"What are you talking about, you have a broken arm. Now, please be quiet. I'm clumsy enough as it is. If you're moving around, I won't be able to wind it properly."

Nao bit her lip in frustration at Akira's words and turned away. Her face was making a sour expression as if to say that it was humiliating, but her ears were faintly tinged red.
Akira smiled at the sight and quickly finished bandaging the wound.

"Okay, it's done."
"…………Thank you."

With a flushed face, Nao said a small thank you.
Akira smiled again at her words, looked around the apartment as if searching for a place to sit, and then sat down in the corner of the room.

The conversation was silent for a while.

Then, as if assessing the distance between them, they began to talk, and the conversation gradually turned to the werewolf battle, and eventually, the scenario became the main topic.

"――――Immortal Torch? "

Nao's eyes widened in surprise at the skill Akira had just revealed to her. Apparently, the reward screen for clearing the scenario was only displayed for Akira.

"Really, a unique skill for me? And 100 points? That's just…… I can't believe it."

Even as she said this, it was clear that Nao had already opened her status screen.
Her eyes, which had been staring at the empty space, must have caught the skill that appeared there and the points she was given. Nao opened her mouth in astonishment and slowly reached out her hand towards something.
Then, Nao's eyes moved side to side as if she were reading a text.
It was a few moments later that Nao spoke again.

"……I see."

Quietly, Nao said.

"You're right, there's no mistake. The unique skill 『Immortal Torch』 has appeared. And I also have 100 points."
"Have you read about the effects of skill? "
"……Yeah. 'As long as the person with the skill is willing to continue fighting, they will not instantly die even if they receive a lethal attack.'―― Is what's written."

Upon hearing those words, Akira's breath caught in his throat. The unique skill given to Nao was much more powerful than he had imagined.
Akira finally opened his mouth after repeatedly thinking about the effect of the skill in his head and exhaling deeply.

"……That's incredible. It's like an immortal skill, isn't it?"
"But only for lethal injuries that will lead to instant death. If this is what you would call immortality, then it's an extremely incomplete form of immortality."

Nao let out a long sigh and smiled, her mouth turning up at the corners.

"How ironic. I can't believe that I, who had once broken down emotionally, could be given such a skill."

Akira stared at Nao in silence.

Nanase Nao was tortured to death by the monster train they encountered in the scenario, and she suffered deep psychological trauma as a result. After returning from the dead, she was so overcome by the fear that had been instilled in her that she couldn't even stand up. Although she seemed to have overcome her fear through the werewolf battle, there must still be an unhealed wound deep inside her.

That kind of sentiment must have been written all over Akira's face.

When Nao noticed Akira's expression, she smiled at his troubled face and waved her hand slightly as if to deny his thoughts.

"Oh, don't get the wrong idea. I'm over the trauma now. ……Well, if you ask me if I'm not scared anymore, I'd have to lie, but I can fight properly. ……I've decided to fight alongside you. I'm fine now."

Akira opened his mouth to speak but then swallowed the words that had almost come out and smiled.
He was worried. He thought that if he fought alongside her, her heart might break again one day. But at the same time, it was also clear that her presence was helping Akira.
Nanase Nao was a source of emotional support for Ichijou Akira. She was someone important who taught him that there was a reason to struggle and survive in this world.
Even though her heart has been broken once, she said she would still fight on.
Perhaps it would be impolite to say something else in response to that.
So, Akira decided to accept her words with gratitude.

"……Thank you very much. I look forward to working with you in the future."
"Yeah, same here. I'll be in your care."

Nao said this and smiled.
It was the exact same smile she used to have.
Akira finally let out a sigh of relief from the bottom of his heart when he saw her smile.