Chapter 111, Twentieth Round (30)
November 7th.
After midnight.
Police dormitory.
"Hagi, if you don't go to sleep, I'm really going to punch you unconscious and make you fall asleep." Matsuda Jinpei opened his eyes, unable to bear it any longer, and kicked Hagiwara Kenji.
Kenji Hagiwara, tossing and turning, let out a soft "Aww," turned around to look at him with a pitiful expression, and said, "Or... should I take a sleeping pill?"
"If you're still not asleep in an hour, take one. It's only one day left anyway," Matsuda Jinpei sighed. "You're way too anxious, aren't you?"
Kenji Hagiwara was indignant: "Jinpei, do you even remember how you reacted on November 7th four years ago?"
"..." Matsuda Jinpei remained expressionless. "Who would remember something from so long ago?"
"You're kidding! Jinpei is shy!" Kenji Hagiwara shouted.
"And that night even Kofuya and Komofushi, who needed to hide their identities, came over. You guys were much more dramatic than I am now."
Thinking back to what happened four years ago, Kenji Hagiwara couldn't help but sigh, "But it's true, after all, back then I..."
He suddenly stopped.
Matsuda Jinpei narrowed his eyes sharply: "What? Is there something you're hiding from me? Is that why you're so nervous?"
“No, I just suddenly remembered that Kofuruya said he had already experienced three years, three years after three years, so for him now it’s actually seven years ago, right?” Kenji Hagiwara turned and stared blankly at the ceiling.
"Seven years... Every time I think about the time difference and memory gap between him and us, I can't help but feel worried, regretful and sad. Fortunately, Morofushi has always been by his side, otherwise I really don't know what would have happened."
Well, actually, he was thinking about those five cycles of reincarnation.
Those memories of death and explosions were also the reason why he hadn't slept well last night, having nightmares repeatedly, which led to his poor mental state the next day.
So, Kofuruya is really amazing. He couldn't even endure those five cycles. How did Kofuruya manage to maintain such a good condition after so many cycles with complete memories?
Kenji Hagiwara clearly remembered how many times his childhood friend had been implicated by him and died as a result of the butterfly effect of the world line convergence. Now that the world line was actually being converged specifically for Jinpei's death, how could he possibly sleep?
Just as Furuya Rei's greatest fear was that the system would create a save file where one person died and the other was alive, making it impossible for him to save Morofushi Kagemitsu, Hagiwara Kenji was driven almost insane by the possibility that Matsuda Jinpei might die and could never be saved by reloading the save file.
There is nothing more desperate than this.
"Jinpei, don't you think everything is going too smoothly?" Kenji Hagiwara took a deep breath, his expression serious. "When everything seems to be going too smoothly, perhaps it's a reminder—"
"It's a reminder that there's a cliff ahead, it's time to hit the brakes, right?" Matsuda Jinpei blurted out.
Kenji Hagiwara froze, then turned and said helplessly, "Jinpei..."
Matsuda Jinpei smirked: "I think it's good that things are going smoothly. Zero also said that I'm not a key main character after all. Maybe my death has already jumped out of the original death convergence range because of the various changes to the world line over the past four years. It's just that we can't be sure. And even if the world line really does converge, I will definitely break that world line."
“I will not die,” he said. “I can say it as many times as I want, I will not die.”
Kenji Hagiwara stared blankly at his expression, his fluctuating and uneasy heart actually calmed down.
After four years as a police officer, the curly-haired youth now seemed much more composed. He put his hands behind his head, his eyes firm and sharp: "And just like you said, if Zero continues to reincarnate, the time he spends struggling undercover in the dark world will exceed ten years. And there's still so much time left after that, even Zero can't withstand it."
"Like I said, all I have on me is the accelerator." He grinned, revealing a wild and unrestrained smile. "So let's just floor it and get through this!"
Kenji Hagiwara was silent for two seconds, then suddenly started screaming and rolling around on the bed.
Matsuda Jinpei: "?"
"Damn it! Jinpei is still so handsome!" Kenji Hagiwara finally sat up abruptly in bed, his eyes sparkling as he clenched his fist and made a decision, laughing, "Alright, since it's your invitation, I'll go all out and charge in!"
*
On the other side, Rei Furuya had just returned from outside.
That night, Gin called him out to do a mission, and he also took the opportunity to test Shuichi Akai's reaction.
“He probably doesn’t remember that dream,” Furuya Rei said to Morofushi Kagemitsu, who had been woken up, as he dried his hair after showering. “If he did, that guy would be even better at pretending than before.”
"That's good." Morobushi Kagemitsu trusted his observation skills and immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
Morofushi Kagemitsu prepared to go back to sleep. Tomorrow's matters were so important that he needed to be well-rested and get some rest.
Rei Furuya silently followed behind him.
Morofushi Kagemitsu paused, a slow smile playing on his lips. He turned and extended his hands to his childhood friend: "I'm a little nervous tonight and can't sleep. Zero, can you keep me company?"
The blond youth blushed instantly, lowered his head, and muttered under his breath, "Okay, I really can't do anything with you," before stepping forward and giving him a hug.
Morofushi Kagemitsu patted him on the back with a smile: "Alright, alright, go to sleep, it's already very late."
"Mm." Furuya Rei tried hard to control the corners of his mouth and nodded seriously.
Feeling Hiro's presence nearby, Furuya Rei was finally able to recover from last night's nightmare and gradually fell asleep peacefully.
When I woke up the next day at seven o'clock in the morning, I was in a great mood after sleeping for six hours. I smiled and said good morning to my childhood friend before going back to my room to change my clothes.
But the moment he opened the wardrobe, his smile vanished.
There were clearly so many clothes in the closet, but for some reason, he immediately spotted the two pieces of clothing that were next to each other.
A black turtleneck sweater, and a loose white V-neck cardigan.
It was the same outfit that Rei Furuya was wearing in both the past reality and the present nightmare, the one where he witnessed his childhood friend's death.
With a grim face, Furuya Rei tore off his clothes, crumpled them up, and threw them into the back of the closet. He frowned and picked out a completely different set of gray clothes before he could barely suppress his unease.
He stood in front of the mirror to adjust his mood, and only opened the door and went out after his expression returned to normal.
Just then, Morofushi Kagemitsu opened the door on the opposite side and came out.
Upon seeing the clothes he was wearing, Rei Furuya's smile froze once again.
Morifu no Kagemitsu tilted his head in confusion: "What's wrong?"
Rei Furuya stepped forward and began to pull off his white coat and black shirt: "It's so cold today, why are you wearing so little? Go change into something warmer!"
Morofushi Kagemitsu looked bewildered as he was pushed back into the room, watching as he forcefully threw aside the coat that had been pulled off his clothes, and then opened the wardrobe to start picking out new clothes for him.
As he watched, he gradually understood.
"Is this the outfit I wore back then?" he sighed.
Rei Furuya froze as he flipped through his clothes.
Morofushi Kagemitsu stepped forward, took out a black fleece-lined coat matching the shirt from the closet, put it on, and then pulled Furuya Rei to sit on the edge of the bed, looking at him intently.
“Zero, I didn’t want to ask, but I feel it’s not right. I’m very sorry to force you to recall those bad things and pry into your painful memories, but…” Morofushi Kagemitsu grabbed his shoulders and looked him in the eye, “About that matter, is there some very important detail you’re hiding from me?”
Rei Furuya couldn't help but lower her eyes to avoid his gaze.
Morofushi Kagemitsu had already made up his mind, otherwise, given Zero's current state, something really might have happened.
“Okay, let’s take it slow. Can you tell me more about your relationship with Shuichi Akai?” He softened his voice. “Even if you initially hated him because of a misunderstanding, you should have cleared up the misunderstanding by now, right? Why do you still dislike him so much?”
Rei Furuya pouted: "Even if that incident hadn't happened, I would still hate him. It's always been like that; it's a matter of personality and aura."
"The situation between him and me can no longer be simply explained or resolved. Even if the misunderstanding is eventually cleared up, everything that happened before and the intense emotions that arose at the time cannot be ignored. After so many years of hatred, our relationship can never return to its original normal state."
The blond youth hesitated for a few seconds, then finally gave up struggling and closed his eyes. After taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes, which were dark and purplish-gray.
“At first, I thought he shot and killed you. I almost lost my mind. My hatred and anger reached their peak in an instant.”
"But after running over and observing Hiro's appearance, I realized that you must have shot yourself in the chest with the gun, so I deduced that Ray gave you the gun and forced you to commit suicide."
“He said some really offensive things at the time, like how traitors should be punished like this, and that it was unpleasant to not get any information out of him, like killing a ghost… I really couldn’t control my expression and reaction, and that’s probably when he started to suspect my identity.”
“I… managed to save your body so the police could take it back for burial, and I attended your funeral.”
"Looking at your simple funeral where even family and friends couldn't attend and your tombstone where you couldn't write your name, I've decided to kill Ray."
"But at that time, he quickly rose through the ranks in the organization by killing the undercover agent in Scotland. He was very successful and even gained the high regard of the organization's boss. In the end, he was suddenly exposed and ran back to the FBI in disgrace."
"It's ridiculous, isn't it? When I found out he was also an undercover agent, my hatred and resentment intensified."
"He later explained to me that he wanted to save you, but he couldn't. He also said that he still feels sorry for what happened to you."
"Of course I can't forgive him. Given the circumstances, how could he not have saved you? He was just worried about his identity being exposed and then abandoning you to your death, right? That's why he handed you the gun and let you commit suicide, wasn't it? He was clearly coldly climbing over your corpse all the way up the organization..."
Jiang Gu Zero takes a deep breath.
"Even if he had no obligation to save an undercover agent from another country, weren't you partners for several years? Even if he didn't save you, he could have easily avoided going all out to hunt you down, right? He clearly said he would save you, but he didn't do his best to save you. What exactly was he trying to do? If he hadn't pushed you to the brink and handed you that gun, you wouldn't have died. I could have gotten there right away. I could have saved you. He's the one who drove you to your death first."
“I hate him, I can’t forgive him, but he saved me several times afterward. The more I realize how powerful he is, the more I hate him for not saving you back then.”
"But then one day, in order to achieve complete cooperation in the final battle, he confessed to me something he had kept from me for a long time—the truth about that rooftop night..."
At this point, Rei Furuya's body finally began to tremble uncontrollably.
Zhu Fujingguang quickly grasped his hands, his eyes reddening.
"He said that when he chased you to the rooftop, you took his gun and saw that you were about to commit suicide, he immediately confessed his FBI undercover identity to you. He was really trying his best to save you, but you didn't believe him."
After pausing for a moment, Furuya Rei continued.
"Of course Hiro wouldn't gamble with the safety of Komei and me on this possibility. At that time, Ray in the organization didn't seem like an undercover agent at all, and the situation was extremely urgent. So it's not surprising that you wanted to shoot your own heart and the cell phone in your chest at the same time, so that Scotland would die as a ghost unrelated to Morofushi Hiromitsu. I can completely understand Hiro rationally, but I can't accept it emotionally. I think that even so, Akai Shuichi could still hold on and save you."
"But Shuichi Akai hesitated for a long time before finally telling you that he had actually caught you in time, and that you could no longer shoot yourself. He was going to explain to you to prove his identity and try to get you to fake your death through the FBI's witness protection program."
"At the time, I thought, if that's the case, then why did you hide it from me for so long? Why did you look so hesitant and conflicted?"
Morofushi Kagemitsu also had a very bad premonition. His eyes slowly widened as he stared intently at him.
The blond youth forced a smile that looked like he was about to cry.
"Then Shuichi Akai said that while you were at an impasse, you suddenly heard footsteps behind you."
"He was startled by the footsteps and subconsciously turned his head to observe who was coming. But in that instant of distraction, you seized the opportunity and resolutely and successfully shot yourself."
Morifushi Kagemitsu felt suffocated; his pupils contracted, his breathing became rapid, and his hands began to tremble.
“That was my footsteps.” Rei Furuya looked at him quietly. “Actually, it was I who killed Hiro.”
“If it weren’t for me, Hiro would have actually had a chance to survive.”
"No, no! It's not Zero..." Morofushi Kagemitsu gripped his hand and shook his head vigorously, trying to explain immediately, but his voice was so broken that he couldn't organize his words for a moment.
"Hiro, do you know?"
Tears streamed silently down Rei Furuya's face as he calmly broke down.
"Nothing hurts me more than the fact that I killed you, but that is the most desperate truth."
"The person I hate the most is actually myself," he said.
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