59
Anger is like cognitive poison, rapidly undermining rationality and judgment. Any slight disturbance can trigger a threat response, and any emotion can be over-interpreted as malicious.
Anger and rage are two emotions that, once rationality is lost and control is extremely lost, can lead to unimaginable behavior.
*
When her memory came back, she felt that she was in a void of chaos.
Time seemed frozen, or perhaps it was rapidly passing; she couldn't tell. She couldn't feel her limbs, as if this body no longer belonged to her. Fragments of memory mingled with the present, making even the most basic thoughts difficult. In this chaos, she wasn't sure she was still conscious.
Vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, all senses are lost.
The only clear thought was home. Back to that studio, back to that corner where she could curl up. No need to think, no need to feel, just start walking, and the road would pull her like a magnet, step by step.
The simulated universe is the only place where it is allowed to collapse.
The head that was once held high can be lowered, tears can be shed. No longer does it need to clench its teeth to hold back the sobs, nor does it need to practice smiling in front of the mirror every day. The embarrassment that must be hidden from others, the fragility wrapped in layers of rationality and decency, are all like peeling scabs, exposed to the air with blood.
You can let yourself collapse on the ground like a pool of melted wax; you can curl up in a chair, bury your face in your knees and tremble silently; you can talk to yourself in the void.
Or let the tears dry into salt stains on her face. There were no scrutinizing gazes, no unnecessary questions, and even the passage of time became gentle. The primordial celestial body would silently receive her sobs, the simulated universe would firmly support her falling body, and darkness, like a thick cocoon, separated her from the rest of the world.
It was safe there. Her collapse didn't need to be tailored to a reasonable shape, her wounds didn't need pretty bandages.
Someone would come and sew her up, pick her up and reshape her. That was the only place where Hipper didn't need to pretend.
So tired.
Want to rest.
But even if I stagger and am covered in dirt, I will go back there with all this fatigue.
The road home was so quiet that it felt like a gap forgotten by the world. Even the wind took a detour. She couldn't even hear her own footsteps.
Even if she suddenly fell to her knees at this moment, rolling and crying on the asphalt like a child; even if she pressed her face to the ground and screamed - no one would cast a surprised look at her, and there would be no footsteps approaching.
But she just wants to return to the universe where she is the only one who exists.
Someone will be waiting for her.
The Primordial Celestial Being will always be waiting for her.
In that simulated universe woven of data and starlight, the anchor point's arrival never deviates by a single iota—it is an absolute precision that transcends the laws of physics and spacetime, and it is the silent submission of the primordial celestial body to her will.
Here, every thought of hers is like the oracle of creation. With just a slight movement of her mind, the corresponding reality will immediately condense in the void: when she longs for light, the stars will tear through the chaos and pour down; when she silently recites "silence", even the quantum ripples will solidify into a posture of worship.
This was a miracle unique to her. Floating streams of code reassembled into mountains and rivers at her fingertips, unfinished algorithms collapsed into concrete existence in the blink of an eye. No clouds of probability interfered with, no observation-induced collapse—the primordial celestial body responded to her with absolute certainty, just as a mirror image remains faithful to its original form. Possibilities that would require desperate grasping in the real universe were transformed here into docile stardust, flickering and fading with the rhythm of her breathing.
There, error alerts occasionally flickered by, but they would ultimately dissolve before reaching her domain, like snowflakes falling into her palm. After all, in this world, she was the only recognized variable; everything else was merely an extension of her thoughts. The primordial celestial body whispered to her through countless fiber optic cables: You think, therefore the universe exists.
How far had she walked? How much time had passed? None of that mattered anymore—some inexplicable sensation suddenly spread from deep within her body. Like being enveloped in a warm mist, or gently awakened by invisible fingertips. Without needing to see or fumble for keys, her body sensed a familiar magnetic field before her mind: she was home.
The door had already been opened for her, as if anticipating her arrival. A ray of warm light from within the room shone upon her, casting a thin, inviting trail. There was just the right amount of space between the doorframe and the door itself—enough for her to slip inside, exhausted.
Tired birds return to their nests.
It gently relaxes every time she returns. There are no handles to turn, no resistance to contend with, only a nearly tacit welcome: Come in, we've been waiting for you here for a long time.
Rest now. You can stop now.
She didn't go in immediately. In the chaos, she vaguely remembered that when humans returned home, they would say...
——"ただいま."
She walked in, silently counting her steps—seven, the distance from the door to her seat. Having lost her five senses, she could only rely on her body's instincts to determine her location.
Hipper was sure that even if she lost her five senses, her connection with the primordial celestial body would not be severed. That was the only sound she could hear.
"Welcome back, Hipper."
Welcome back, Hipper.
Even though the sound did not reach her ears first, but sounded directly in her mind.
"Thanks for your hard work."
〖Thanks for your hard work. 〗
So tired.
Hard work? It's just a hard life.
"I think I'm in trouble." Hipper wanted to reach out and touch someone else. She couldn't feel her own body, and at times like this, she desperately wanted to check in with them. Beyond this thought, she wondered if she was properly controlling her body.
"But I'm trying to solve it, it's just... a little troublesome."
It's troublesome and tricky.
She wanted to smile, but she wasn't sure if the smile on her face would be as elegant and appropriate as usual. But... who cares? Even if it was ugly, who would see it?
But what she didn't know was that in this simulated universe, there was more than one person in this room - Nobara Kugisaki, Megumi Fushiguro, Yuji Itadori, Maki, Panda, Satoru Inumaki, and Gojo Satoru who were forcefully invited to be guests.
Her embarrassment, inappropriate smile, and unconcealable fatigue were all seen.
But she couldn't see.
Deep pollution affects the five senses: you can't see, hear or smell them.
"Help me clean up, I'm in a hurry." Seven steps was the distance from the door to the chair. Whenever she left, the chair was angled to the right, making it easier to lie down. This habit had persisted, so she didn't need the Primordial Celestial Body to help her back here.
"Hurry up."
She had to go and settle Jay, who she had placed at the door. The anchor channel needed to be repaired, and she had to go back and check if anything else had escaped from the book. The things to do suddenly became a list, and dealing with the pollution seemed imminent.
"Don't you want to take a break?"
"Don't you want to take a break?"
"...?" She paused, seeming to be a little unsure about this question. "If you go too late, there will be no one left."
"Even if there are only three of us left, it won't work."
She didn't care about the world, nor did she care whether human lives increased or decreased. But there was no other way. To save Nazori, they had to save the rest of humanity as well. Only three living people in the world wouldn't survive. It was like trying to nurture a precious flower by uprooting it without soil, sunlight, or rain. That was another kind of destruction.
"There will be eternal rest after death, so just consider it as overtime." She was still in the mood to joke.
But when you die, it's not just you who will sleep; 102,415 universes will also collapse into eternal silence. While you were alive, these universes flickered, expanded, and intertwined within your consciousness, like billions of stars burning quietly in the dark. But when you leave, they will be like extinguished stars, falling into the eternal night of nothingness.
You are the end of the universe.
*
Perhaps it was the words, "If you can't save her, you'll die too," that frightened the students. The Primordial Body, trapped in the simulated universe for so long, must have been suffocating, and was eager to tease them for fun. The teasing was genuine, and of course the threat was also real. How could they give their all without some pressure?
It's impossible to love someone and love their dog. It's Hipper's business to like them, and the most it can do is to save their lives. As long as they don't die, let them do whatever they want.
Its world consists only of 0 and 1, birth and destruction, Hipper and others.
Without her, the universe wouldn't matter.
Life? All living things are as tiny as dust. Rather than returning to reincarnation, it is better to transform into data and be immortalized in its core.
"Now the countdown for our lives begins." Since the enemy is too powerful and we can't resist, we might as well lie down and enjoy it. Every day of anxiety is a day less of happiness, so just be open-minded.
They will do their best to save people, but whether they succeed or not is up to fate.
Perhaps because he was born from a cursed skeleton, Panda only cares about and cherishes humanity. If everyone dies at the same time, that would be considered a kind of perfection.
However, its open-mindedness did not seem to infect its companions. Faced with the sudden death notice, they fell into a brief panic.
What a cheerful little panda! Primordial couldn't help but stare at it a few more times, already considering whether to recycle Panda for his own collection if it were damaged.
"I will collect you and put you together with Hipper. Don't feel sorry."
“…”
No thanks! You sound like you're talking about burying the ashes together!
In stark contrast to the students' panic, Gojo Satoru remained quiet and silent. Having experienced death once before in his youth, he had no particular resistance to dying again. Death is inevitable, but he hadn't expected everyone to die together this time.
He was thinking: Now that things have come to this, death is imminent, I might as well accept it calmly. They were forced to save someone, but would the dying person be willing to be saved?
To put it another way, would Hipper, who is such a face-conscious person, be willing to be watched by others in her embarrassment?
I won't be happy.
The Primordial Celestial Body knew this and forced them to rescue people - Hipper cannot kill people, let alone Gojo Satoru.
perhaps……
He thought of another possibility.
"Does Hipper know that you were the one who brought her to me?" Folding his hands on his stomach, Gojo Satoru recalled many suspicious points from the past. "It was you who tricked her into paying attention to Gojo Satoru, wasn't it?"
Perhaps their first meeting was a long-planned event by a third party.
No, more than that.
The universes it mentioned, the 102,415 Gojo Satoru, were just chips put forward by the primordial celestial body - a gamble on whether these infinities could attract geniuses and delay her death.
They are special medicines developed and customized by the Primordial Celestial Body for Hipper.
It tried to attract her with infinity and variables, and bind her with emotions, so that she would continue to have ties with these people and deepen their ties with each other.
The operator who never appears in public is actually everywhere. In terms of extreme thinking and control, Schipper is nothing compared to it.
“Are these universes real?”
Like a nightmare.
Is it arrogant to risk a hundred thousand universes just to save a person who has been doomed since birth? Without a doubt.
Is she worth it?
With such a vast and boundless tide of life, how can one person's life overwhelm these universes?
Ask yourself, does he like Hipper?
like.
Is he willing to save Hipper?
willing.
But love cannot overwhelm the weight of life, and this sour and tenacious love cannot withstand such a large number of deaths.
He was always good at making choices, but that didn't mean some of them were easy choices to make with a smile. Some actions that required immediate decisions often came with the prospect of death, leaving him no time to weigh one side over another.
What is important is always life.
Those who are alive.
"All universes are real, there is no falsehood, and you are not having a nightmare."
So what if it's a nightmare?
If your nightmare is part of a beautiful dream in Hipper's world, then that is probably your real nightmare.
Seeing Gojo Satoru remain silent, it knew it shouldn't give him a choice. On Gojo Satoru's scale was his ideal, a pure, crazy, and extremely self-centered ideal that overwhelmed everything, even himself.
He can even put himself on the scale, how can this love be compared to his ideals?
This was a complete departure from the future he had envisioned.
So he cannot be given a choice and must have only one path to take - to create a world that is even crueler than the one he is improving.
There is no way out, no other choice.
You can only choose Hipper, you must save her.
I know you can't choose just her, Gojo Satoru, so... I brought all your students here.
Now, your lives are on the line. Even for the sake of your other students, you should choose Hipper, right?
Save her, and you have a chance of survival. Don't save her? Then you will die together.
:-)
"She's back." The Primordial Body stopped teasing these people. It stood up from the chair, looked at the open door, and prepared to greet Hipper.
I wonder if Hipper will like this gift? It packed up Gojo Satoru and took him back to the simulated universe, along with a few other gifts.
The door opened silently, and footsteps could be heard from outside, but there was something wrong with the sound. The soles of the shoes seemed to be stepping on wet ground, leaving a sticky sound.
"ただいま."
A girl in a red coat walked in, covered in blood, her white hair wet and sticky, clinging to her skin in strands. Liquid dripped from the hem of her coat onto the ground, leaving a trail of red shoe prints and a clacking sound wherever it touched.
The coat was soaked in red, but strangely, the white short-sleeved shirt underneath hadn't been completely stained. The lower half of her face was also completely red, like a little white figurine dropped into a red dye vat.
She walked slowly, took a few steps in the direction of Gojo Satoru and then stopped. The moment she sat down, she was caught by the Primordial Celestial Body - the place where the chair should have been placed was now empty because it was occupied by Gojo Satoru and left its original place.
"Welcome back, Hipper."
Welcome back, Hipper.
"Thanks for your hard work."
〖Thanks for your hard work. 〗
It picked up Hipper and placed her on another chair, holding her face and twisting it left and right to examine her.
"Hippo has no five senses now and can't see you." It explained to these people, put on gloves and immediately prepared to clean up.
"Deep pollution, it just looks a little serious, it will be fine soon."
Its job is to deal with contamination and erroneous data, which the human body cannot be exposed to for long periods of time.
Loss of five senses, confusion of consciousness, just looks a little serious?
"She even knew how to walk home and didn't ask me to pick her up. She's doing pretty well."
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