Chapter 99: Despair or Hope? ...
Kamikura Izuru was slightly surprised.
Unlike "Hyuga Hajime" or "Kamukura Izuru" who actually exist in certain timelines of the past or future, the Kamukura who appears in Hyuga Hajime's mind now is not a person who actually existed in the past or future.
He was merely a projection of the "Kamukura Izuru" personality that temporarily appeared in Hinata Hajime's mind due to those future memories.
Even if it wasn't a real life form, the Kamukura Izuru in Hyuga's mind wasn't that different from the future Kamukura Izuru in a certain sense. —As his projection, the Kamukura in his mind possessed the qualities of "Kamukura Izuru," so calling him Kamukura wasn't a problem.
It's just a title anyway, and Kamukura Izuru doesn't care about it.
Shinjuu knew that the appearance of his projection was most likely not an accident, but rather the result of Aurora's deliberate efforts.
No matter how exquisite and beautiful she may appear on the outside, it cannot change the fact that Aurora, who is essentially a weirdo who hates humans, hopes that Hyuga Sou will become Kamukura Izuru.
Playing horror games with ordinary humans is no longer enough for it; it wants to play with the future god Izuru... Of course, it would be best if it could witness even the artificial hope with all the ultimate talents being defeated by its game.
In this bizarre game, there's only one ending to losing... which is to die in an extremely tragic way.
Meanwhile, the projection of Kamukura Izuru that appeared in Hinata's mind was one of the tools that accelerated the disappearance of Hinata Hajime's personality and its replacement by Kamukura Izuru's personality.
After all, although he is a projection, he is indeed the same as the future Izuru Kamikura, possessing all the talents of the Ultimate High School level.
For someone like this who has emerged from obscurity, seizing control of consciousness is not a difficult task at all.
However, Kamukura Izuru remained uninterested in such matters.
Even... if he had to choose one thing that he, as a projection of memories, was somewhat interested in right now, it would only be Hyuga Hajime, the predecessor of Kamukura Izuru.
In other words, he had no reason to help accelerate the disappearance of Hyuga Hajime's personality.
Perhaps Aurora's original thinking wasn't wrong; it's possible for a non-dominant personality to want to seize control of the body. Unfortunately, this doesn't apply to Kamikura Izuru; he has neither the desire nor the intention.
Strange... an existence I've never known before, because it's a realm that even Hope's Peak has never ventured into.
This existence marked the beginning of a timeline that quickly took a different turn.
Having seen Hinata Hajime's memories, Kamukura Izuru quickly learned about the supernatural events through Tsukino and Chiya's explanations and the scene of Hinata Hajime researching information about the supernatural after the Cloth Man incident.
The supernatural is not a human being; it is born from the intense resentment left behind by the dead, and it will disappear as the resentment and obsession dissipate.
Among the strange phenomena, there are also powerful beings like special doll-like strange phenomena, but they can also be sealed or have their resentment and obsessions dissolved... After learning about them, Kamukura Izuru lost interest in the strange phenomena that he had never heard of before.
He recalled the end of his memories of the future—the end of the infighting among the student council members in the old school building.
In the end, something he hadn't anticipated happened.
Although Kamukura Izuru doesn't have any memories of what comes after that, we can still deduce the general direction... After witnessing Enoshima's "desperate unpredictability," he and Enoshima Junko will begin to exploit each other.
However, it seems that there will be more than just that one unexpected development in the future.
Besides despair... there is still hope.
At least he knew what Hope's Peak's "Project God Throne" was pursuing, and Hyuga Hajime knew that Kamukura Izuru in his mind did indeed have the kind of super-high school level analytical ability that he himself claimed to have.
So, after recovering from the fragments of memories about Nanami's death, Hyuga Hajime told Kamukura in his mind every detail of the scenes he had seen about Nanami.
If it were him... he should be able to discover things that he couldn't?
After hearing the fragments of memory about Chiaki Nanami's death, Izuru Kamukura did indeed realize something.
If it were the future God Throne Izuru, he might take the initiative to test whether hope or despair is more unpredictable. Whether it's hope or despair, he doesn't care much about either; neither can directly arouse his interest. What he wants... is to develop beyond a certain sense of "omniscience and omnipotence."
The future Izuru Kamukura will take certain actions to verify this, but what kind of results this action will ultimately verify is something that Izuru Kamukura, who is currently a projection and whose memories only end at the point of infighting in the old school building, cannot know.
That's how it should have been.
"……I see."
Without Hinata Hajime asking any questions, Kamukura Izuru, who was in his mind, spoke up on his own initiative, which was quite rare.
However, having just successfully evaded several patrolling guards in the central square, his mind became even more confused after arriving in the North District due to the impact, and he did not notice the brief voice of Kamikura Izuru for a moment.
Kamukura Izuru, who originally only had the idea of taking over the body and could not see what kind of memories Hyuga Hajime was receiving, suddenly began to sense it.
He was also able to "see" the memories that Hyuga Hajime had acquired.
Upon arriving at the North Campus, Hinata Hajime was now very close to the old school building.
He was thus more affected, and everything seemed to be a foregone conclusion. Kamukura Izuru had simply been calmly watching Hinata Hajime walk toward the ending that was originally destined to be his.
Faced with absolute power, even the strongest will seems worthless.
However, things took a turn for the better.
Perhaps due to its proximity to the old school building, it was strongly affected by the spiritual barrier. Without Aurora's personal intervention, it appeared as if the original projection of the Divine Throne had been guided to manifest...
Another projection of memories from the future has emerged.
Calling it a "projection" might not be accurate. The "thing" that appeared in Hyuga Hajime's mind did not form a complete consciousness like Kamukura Izuru's is now, so if we have to say it... it was just a special power.
That force is helping Hyuga Hajime sort through the memories in his mind, and even thoughtfully gave a copy of the memories to Kamukura Izuru.
Such developments... indeed, anything is possible under the influence of spiritual barriers.
Kamikura Izuru is curious.
Given this glimmer of hope, what exactly can Hyuga Hajime, a high school student with no outstanding talents, achieve?
In the end, will it be the despair of "Hyuga Hajime's personality disappearing, Kamukura Izuru taking over the body, and everything going as Aurora wished," or the hope of "Hyuga Hajime's personality successfully remaining and taking this opportunity to gain new opportunities"?
So he made his move.
*******
After the events involving Sarayashiki and the multifaceted man, what followed was... the weekend.
Perhaps because leisure time after a busy period seems more precious, Tsukino and Chiya rarely planned to sleep a little longer in bed, but they still woke up early because of the biological clock they had developed during their school years.
Tsukino and Chiya looked up at the ceiling. Although they were awake, they were still lying in bed. Even though they were no longer sleepy, they didn't really want to get up right away.
He wasn't the kind of superhuman who could stay up all night without needing rest. After several consecutive nights of staying up late and maintaining a high level of concentration, he was somewhat exhausted.
However, once you get involved in strange events, it's not easy to back down halfway, otherwise, you might face some unpleasant consequences. But now, although exhausted, at least the matter has come to a temporary end once again.
While remaining in this state of wanting to sleep but unable to, Tsukino and Chiya thought of a salaryman their parents had met during a trip... Chiya didn't know who that person was, but she had heard that he was a ruthless person who could work for several days in a row without sleeping.
That's impressive; he certainly couldn't do that.
...Ahem, my thoughts seem to have drifted away without me even realizing it.
Still lying in bed staring at the ceiling, Tsukino and Chiya tried to pull their thoughts back from wandering off into the distance.
It could be a coincidence, or it could be because Komaeda Nagito hadn't been involved in the Sarayashiki incident before, so he was in good condition and not tired after spending two nights at the old school building, or it could be that the two of them had a deeper friendship in the future... In any case, shortly after resolving the strange occurrences at the old school building last night, Hinata Hajime left with Komaeda Nagito.
They resolved the incident quickly last night—shortly after gathering at the entrance of the old school building, they were teleported directly to the first floor inside, followed by Hinata's arrival and the strange Buddha's transformation.
Everything was progressing so fast that by the time Hyuga Hajime finished explaining the reasons for his current appearance, the group who had left the old school building realized it wasn't too late.
With so much time to spare, Tsukino and Chiya thought, "So Hyuga Hajime must have had that private conversation with Komaeda Nagito last night, the one he mentioned before."
I'm really curious about what they talked about.
After doing nothing but staring blankly at the dormitory ceiling for a while, lost in thought, Tsukino and Chiya groped for their phones on the bedside table. After checking the time, they finally sat up in bed.
Now, the timing is perfect.
Tsukino and Chiya got up and changed out of their pajamas. Since it was the weekend, they didn't need to wear their school uniforms as usual.
He changed his clothes, then quickly washed up, and opened the door when there was no sound coming from it.
Tsukino and Chiya opened the door.
What came into his view was Hyuga Hajime, who had just arrived at the door.
The brown-haired boy was also not wearing a uniform today, but instead wore a white shirt with the school badge and a dark green tie, making him look much more refreshed.
See? The timing was perfect.
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Author's Note: Throne of Gods: A process of picking and piecing together memories in one's mind. (gif)
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