Only I know that this world will end – 121 | Sousaku – 創作

Recreating memories

The thirty-first time.

As soon as he woke up, Akira saw Nao smoking a cigarette in the dark room.
Then, glancing toward where Arthur must be, he closed his eyes tightly once to suppress the emotions swirling inside him.

(……Not yet. Stay calm. There's no point in attacking Arthur here and now. Even if I question him about why he is trying to kill Nao-san, he will just play dumb and avoid answering. If Arthur's reason for relentlessly targeting Nao-san is not identified and addressed at its root, the same result is likely to occur.)

The convergence of possibilities. The contraction of destiny. Any expression would be fine in this case.
Apart from the fact that a single action could bring about major changes in the world, no matter what choices we make, if we do not change the fundamentals, the predetermined future will not change.
Akira had heard something like that somewhere before.

(Anyway, I have to figure out why he's after Nao-san. ……In that case, it would be better to catch him red-handed so that he would have no excuse. Hanayagi did not kill Nao-san――I do think so, but in order to prove it, we would first have to recreate the circumstances surrounding Nao-san's murder.)

Akira lifted his closed eyelids, having decided what he must do in this world iteration.
Then, just like when he first met Arthur, he starts searching around the room as if looking for something. Then, Nao, who had been watching, put out her cigarette in the portable ashtray and spoke up.

"What's wrong? What are you looking for? "

Hearing this, Akira said, "No, actually, I have acquired Appraisal," and looked at Nao.
The same words, repeated in the same way. The same expression.
Akira recreated the conversation from his first encounter with Arthur as accurately as possible.
And then, as the conversation progressed, it came as no surprise. That man joined Akira's party's conversation.
Hearing his words, Akira bit his lip hard to suppress his emotions.

And then, just like back then,

"Oh, no problem. Thank you――――"

He said that, turned around, and looked intently at the man's face.

◇ ◇ ◇

Arthur's words remained unchanged: he wanted help in recovering his daughter's belongings.
At the time, he understood the content to a certain extent, but now he wasn't even sure if he really had a daughter. Akira appeared to agree with Arthur's words, but inside he was annoyed and clicked his tongue in irritation.
After talking with him and completing various events, such as fending off the Giant Bats, they headed to Arthur's bar as before.

(……It starts from here.)

Staring at Arthur's back as he walked ahead, Akira muttered to himself.
Around Arthur, Olivia floated around, looking at her surroundings. As he watched them carefully, Akira noticed that Olivia's gaze was occasionally directed toward him.

(I see. At the time, I thought they were just scouting the area, but…… While using his own wife, was he constantly monitoring us?)

He didn't trust him completely to begin with, but now he sees that there was nothing he could trust him for after all.
Everything from his attitude and facial expressions to the slightest movements of his hands and feet. It was all a performance adorned with lies and deception, with words spewed out as if to provoke emotion, disrupting and interfering with his thoughts.
By deliberately revealing his circumstances, he invited sympathy and empathy, and by deliberately exposing his hand, he eased the wariness that had initially been raised.
That way, in a distorted manner. Closing the distance between himself and others little by little.
Just waiting patiently for the target to show a weakness.
That was probably how this man operated.

(……It's so incoherent.)

Akira thought.

If you wanted to gain someone's trust and then kill them, there was no need to act so suspiciously. That was like admitting that you were a suspicious person.
It was the same when he killed Nao the first time. Even though he mentioned that he had the ability to “Return from Hell,” why did he try to kill Nao immediately after that?

(It's almost like he's...... It's like confessing that you're suspicious……)

He thought to himself.
But no matter how much he thought about it, there was no way he could know Arthur's true feelings.
In the end, Akira let out a big sigh and thought.

(……Well, I'll find out later whether this is the guy who killed Nao-san back then or not.)

Yes, muttering to no one in particular, he pushed the question that had popped into his head to the back of his mind.

◇ ◇ ◇

When they arrived at the bar, it was just as expected. Hanayagi Ayaka was sleeping with her face buried in the bar counter. As he observed this, Arthur motioned for him to sit down and brought out some whiskey and dry sausage.
Akira took the items that were handed to him and thought for a moment.

(Nao-san was killed while I was sleeping, wasn't she……? At the time, I thought I was just drunk, but maybe someone mixed sleeping pills or something into this whiskey or dry sausage? )

It was possible.
However, Arthur had eaten these things as well. Even if he wanted to mix sleeping pills into something, he wouldn't go so far as to mix them into something he was going to eat himself.

(……That being the case, what was it that only we touched and Arthur didn't――――?)

When he thought about it that far, he was startled..

(Orange juice. That's right! That's what Arthur didn't ate at that time. If he dissolved the drug in that……! ! )

Arthur didn't ate anything, and Ayaka kept eating her candy.
That was the only thing Akira's party ate.

(――――Speaking of which.)

After thinking deeply about this, Akira remembers his past life.
In the previous time, he used 『Appraisal』 on the water Nao created with 『Create Water』. The effects of Appraisal spread to everything except living creatures. If it worked with water, it should work with whiskey and orange juice too.

(Let's give it a try.)

It was unclear whether this was a way to determine whether sleeping pills had been mixed in.
However, it was worth a try.

(――Appraisal.)

Muttering to himself, Akira activated his Appraisal.

――――――――――――――――――
Distilled liquor
・Condition: 12 years old
――――――――――――――――――
・Magical Element Content：０％
・No additional special effects.
――――――――――――――――――
A common distilled liquor manufactured and mass-produced in the current world.
――――――――――――――――――

――――――――――――――――――
Dried meat
・Condition: Good
――――――――――――――――――
・Magical Element Content：０％
・No additional special effects.
――――――――――――――――――
Dried meat commonly manufactured and mass-produced in the current world.
――――――――――――――――――

(Nothing on screen, huh?)

Akira muttered to himself as he looked at the screen.
The appraisal found no evidence that sleeping pills had been mixed into the whiskey or dry sausage.
Akira stared at the screens, deep in thought, then waved his hand and turned them off.

――Then. Ayaka woke up, and the topic turned to unique skills. Akira told the two about his “Return from Hell,” just as he had before.

Ayaka envied Akira's unique skill, just as she had before. Judging from that reaction, it seemed to be a genuine response, and she did not appear to be thinking too much about his unique skill.
Nao complained about this, and when Ayaka left the store after Nao, Akira said the same thing to Arthur as before.

"Despite appearances, she's a very honest girl."
"Umu. This is exactly what they say about people not being what they seem."
"Is that goofy attitude just for show? "
"I wonder."

Saying that, Arthur smiled and raised his glass as if to hide his expression.
Akira could only stare at Arthur, who was hiding his expression as if trying to escape.