Chapter 131, Fifty-Seventh Cycle (3)
December 9th.
The organization's logistics team is also quite different from other departments.
It could be said that there was no centralized base, or that the logistics teams were scattered all over the world.
The same applies to healthcare.
The organization controls many hospitals, but if any member of the organization has a problem that cannot be handled properly, they still prefer to find a private doctor they are familiar with.
After all, many of the doctors in the organization are capable of opening their own clinics, and their confidentiality is very clear; they meet all the requirements.
After being carelessly injured, Vodka was abandoned by Gin and promptly went to his familiar private doctor for stitches.
Dr. Lin is one of the most outstanding doctors in the organization. Although his clinic is in a remote location, its equipment is better than that of top-tier hospitals. He has a bad temper, but he is not the kind of person who is malicious and manipulative.
Therefore, many codenamed members would come to him if they suffered any serious injuries.
However, because he has a very bad temper, a high position, and a wide network of connections, not just anyone dares to bother him.
Therefore, Vodka rarely encounters a similar "queueing" phenomenon at Dr. Lin's place, except for today.
Dr. Lin didn't like people looking into his workplace, so Vodka didn't know what he was doing inside. When he was impatiently told to wait a moment and finish soon, he obediently sat outside.
There's no other way; in times like these, the doctor is the most important person, no matter what.
However, he didn't have to wait long; about three minutes later, the door to the medical room opened.
Vodka turned his head and wasn't surprised to see Scotland, since he had seen Scotland's blue Mazda from outside.
He was surprised that Scotland would come to the hospital, guessing that Scotland might have a serious illness or come to Dr. Lin, with whom he had a good relationship, to replenish medical supplies.
After all, Scotland's own medical skills were already better than many of the doctors in the organization, and his tools and medicines were also well prepared. His partner, Ray Bourbon, always sought his help for treatment, and when they went on missions together, he would also take care of other comrades.
This is also the main reason why Scotland was so popular and well-regarded within the organization. Although Scotland is a formidable figure with a sly smile, he is genuinely kind to his close associates.
Even now, many people believe that Scotland became what it is today entirely because of Bourbon, that he pushed Bourbon to the point of explosion, which led to the terrible and perverse state it is in now.
However, to be honest, apart from the incident at the castle and not provoking Bourbon, Scotland's attitude towards other people hasn't changed much.
At least vodka can now continue to do business with Scotland normally.
Vodka saw Scotland peeking out from behind, saying goodbye to the doctor inside. He was about to ask if he had any serious illness to check on him, but his mouth got stuck as soon as he opened it.
Scotland turned around and walked out completely, revealing the unconscious blond youth in his arms.
Vodka: "..."
Ahhh! It's Bourbon!!!
Did the Scottish leader, who had only been in office as Bourbon's superior for less than ten days, really take action against Bourbon?
Vodka gasped, his abdomen trembling as he gripped the chair and curled up in a ball, the pain from his wound causing him to recuperate. When he looked up, Scotland had already left with Bourbon in his arms.
The blond youth was wrapped tightly in thick, fluffy clothes, with a red scarf tied around his neck. He was carefully protected from any cold wind, and it was impossible to tell whether he was injured or not.
But... but he was unconscious! That proud and vain Bourbon was being carried around in broad daylight without any reaction!
And even his dark skin couldn't hide the flush on his face... Was he running a fever?
Vodka, trembling, leaned against the wall and asked Dr. Lin, "Doctor, what happened to Bourbon?"
The doctor, his face expressionless and dark, pushed up his glasses and said irritably, "It's just a drowsy state caused by overwork and excessive worry. He just needs a few days of rest. He just has a slight fever. That Scottish guy could clearly tell for himself and didn't even need me to prescribe any medicine, but he insisted that I use equipment to give Bourbon a full-body checkup... It's really speechless. If you really care about him so much, you shouldn't have pushed him to this point in the first place."
Vodka: "..."
He could understand Bourbon's overthinking as being nearly driven mad by the combined forces of Scotland and Rye, but...
Vodka nearly slipped: "Overworked... what kind of overworked? And with a fever... oh my god, is it the kind I'm thinking of?"
The doctor, who was also aware of the rumors about Scotland and Bourbon within the organization, rolled his eyes and turned to say, "You're still risking your life for gossip, Vodka."
Vodka followed him in to treat the wound, still unwilling to give up, and asked, "So it's what I think it is? As far as I know, Bourbon's last mission was on December 7th. He hasn't had any missions these past few days, so how could he have collapsed and had a fever from overwork?"
"Who knows? Anyway, it's not what you think. Don't go around saying things like that, or Bourbon will come after you when he wakes up," the doctor said dismissively.
Bourbon's situation doesn't seem to have been going on for just a day or two. Could it be that he's been working desperately for the past month since Rum died? In the end, he was betrayed and tricked by Scotland and Rye, who stole all the credit and even left him helpless in Scotland's hands. No wonder he was so angry.
"...I understand, I won't say anything. This is a secret. I didn't hear or see anything." Vodka nodded seriously after looking dazed.
doctor:"……"
Doctor: "I'm serious."
Vodka: "I understand, Doctor. You don't need to emphasize it. I will absolutely not reveal this secret!"
doctor:"……"
Tsk, whatever, it's none of his business anyway.
*
When Morofushi Kagemitsu brought Furuya Rei home, it was already 3 PM.
He put his unconscious childhood friend back on the bed, covered him with a blanket, and sat down on the chair next to him to take out his phone to notify the others.
[ZERO's Mental State Observation Diary]
[Hiro: We're back, but Zero is still asleep.]
[Hiro: Neither regular hospitals nor private doctors could find anything wrong. They all said it was just because Zero was too tired and sleeping, but Zero still had a low-grade fever, and no medicine was working.]
[Hagi-chan: And it's been two days already, and he shows no sign of waking up. Something just doesn't seem right, does it?]
[Class Monitor: Hopefully, he's just really exhausted this month and needs a lot of sleep to replenish his energy. Maybe after a few days of good sleep, he'll be lively and healthy again.]
[Mazda: Zero started having a fever last night, right? And he's also been having nightmares occasionally?]
[Mazda: I mean, did that damn system do something to Zero again?!]
[Hiro: I'm not sure. Zero did sleep restlessly at first, but after I kept reassuring her, she calmed down and slept peacefully for a day. Then last night she suddenly started having nightmares and had a fever, and she hasn't gotten better yet.]
[Hagi-chan: Did he say anything in his nightmares?]
[Hiro: We've undergone special training so we don't talk in our sleep, even when we're dreaming. Zero's symptoms are physical, like a sudden fever, a pained expression, and occasional cold, trembling hands and feet, similar to his previous nightmares, but more intense and impossible to wake him up from.]
[Class Monitor: This doesn't look normal at all. The most important thing now is how to bring his fever down.]
[Mazda: Ahhh, whatever! I'm going to see what's wrong with him for myself!!!]
*
Rei Furuya probably knew he was dreaming.
He is always very clear-headed; even in his dreams, he can quickly realize that everything is fake, just a dream.
He will linger longer in pleasant dreams, but nightmares will be quickly shattered, rebuilt, and shattered again.
However, despite saying that, Furuya Rei doesn't actually dream often. After all, he's really busy, and people don't dream when they're too tired to sleep.
Moreover, he doesn't sleep well when he dreams; he tends to be in a light sleep and wake up easily.
He probably wouldn't want to linger in either a pleasant dream or a nightmare.
In short, he can wake up from his dream very quickly and decisively, if he so chooses.
But this time it seems a bit difficult.
Rei Furuya felt exhausted. No matter how hard he tried, he had no strength left and was forced to retreat into deeper and heavier darkness.
In the darkness, there are countless dark, bloody, and twisted fragments of memory.
He transformed into the weakest and most helpless form of a seven or eight-year-old child, his whole body soaked, shivering uncontrollably from the cold, his outstretched, childlike hands unable to grasp anything, and even when he ran, he would fall hard to the ground and then suddenly plunge into the abyss.
The sky collapsed, the earth cracked, and raging winds and giant waves devoured countless lives.
The human world has turned into a living hell.
The heart-wrenching cries and screams of countless people echoed in this dark world filled with blood and corpses.
They cried out, they prayed, they went mad with grief.
They were desperate.
How should humanity confront the world?
All people, all living beings, and all objects were instantly destroyed.
The blond, dark-skinned child stood frozen amidst the ruins, his round, slightly drooping purple eyes wide open, staring blankly at the desolate land before him.
Suddenly, a familiar cherry blossom pendant appeared in his field of vision.
Rei Furuya had a hard time controlling his childlike body, but he still stumbled over, climbed onto the ruins, and stretched out his tiny hand, trying to grab the cherry blossom pendant that was swaying gently in the wind.
"Snap—"
The cracked wall collapsed, and the blond child on it and the cherry blossom pendant he was holding tightly in his hand fell down.
The blond child crashed to the ground and rolled several times in the uneven ruins before finally coming to a stop.
He coughed, his mouth filled with the smell of blood. He clutched the cherry blossom pendant and struggled to his feet. As he raised his hand to wipe the blood that had flowed from his forehead into his eyes, he lost his balance and fell backward again.
He fell onto something very soft.
The blond child turned around and looked down.
It was a black body bag.
Rei Furuya immediately realized what was happening, but he still stiffly and tremblingly reached out his hand.
The child's small, tender hands grasped the zipper, paused for two seconds, and slowly pulled the zipper down.
The black body bag was opened, revealing Morofushi Kagemitsu's pale and blood-stained face.
Rei Furuya's brain went blank instantly, his mind going completely blank.
At that moment, he almost completely forgot that this was a dream world, and was once again vividly pulled back into those desperate memories and emotions.
I don't know how much time passed, but the world shattered silently.
The world is destroyed in silence, and then rebuilt and reborn in silence.
Rei Furuya stood still, watching the world be destroyed and then rebuilt.
He thought to himself, "I'll do it again. This time I must save Hiro."
So the blond child started running again.
But it failed again.
He watched people being reborn, and he watched them die, again and again.
Failure, failure, failure, failure again, failure again, and failure still.
Countless huge, square-shaped black idioms fell slowly from the sky like rocks, crashing down on him one after another.
[A long rope tied to the sun] [The fish in the moat suffer] [All efforts were in vain] [Like a moth drawn to a flame] [Good times don't last] [Like a mantis trying to stop a chariot] [Like an egg striking a rock] [Total annihilation] [A fleeting year] [Scattered hills]...
A rumbling sound filled the air, dust billowed, and the road ahead was obscured.
Even so, he still couldn't stop.
Furuya Rei needs to clear this nightmare game. He knows that he has already succeeded in the real world, so now all he has to do is get out of here and meet everyone who truly exists outside.
If I sleep for too long, everyone will definitely worry.
But, he's really tired right now.
It's really cold.
The blond child lay on the snow, staring blankly at the sun gradually setting in the sky.
The sun has set, and it's getting a bit too hot again.
It's so hot.
"Boom!"
The world has been destroyed again.
But this time, the world was not rebuilt; all that could be seen was darkness, without a single ray of light.
Rei Furuya lay in the darkness, completely disoriented.
I'm so tired, and it's so quiet. Maybe I should just take a nap here...
The blond child lay motionless in the darkness.
Suddenly, four blue lights appeared in the darkness.
There were four blue butterflies emitting a faint light, fluttering around the blond child on the ground as if they were worried.
One of them fluttered directly onto his face, and even though it was still shedding tears, it still used its soft wings to touch his cheeks to comfort and encourage him.
Rei Furuya gazed at the four blue butterflies, sighed helplessly, and rose from the darkness once more.
Yes, we can't give up yet. Even if we can't see the road ahead, we must keep exploring and keep moving forward.
Time seemed to have passed for a very long time. The blond child and the four blue butterflies groped around in the dark for an unknown amount of time, and tripped over obstacles in the darkness countless times.
The light emitted by a butterfly's wings is limited. Sometimes, it's not just blond-haired children who fall and get hurt; butterflies can also crash into something and break their wings.
Fortunately, their wounds eventually healed, and they persevered through mutual help and protection.
Moreover, the blond boy had deduced the surrounding terrain based on the injuries they sustained from the obstacles in the dark, and had a clear idea of a safe way out.
So he repeatedly checked all the obstacles on the route in his mind, and finally made a decision: to carefully protect the four butterflies and approach the door, which was uncertain whether it even existed, little by little.
Finally, his hand touched the door.
The door did exist, and he successfully found it.
The blond boy's hands trembled slightly with excitement before he pushed the door open forcefully.
In an instant, the golden sunlight outside the door pierced through the thick darkness, so dazzling that he almost lost consciousness.
But the warm sunlight shone on him, completely dispelling all the darkness and cold.
Rei Furuya was momentarily dazed.
After opening the door, he saw a familiar classroom.
It was a classroom at the police academy, with clean white walls, bright yellow desks, and blue sky and white clouds outside the transparent window—everything was so familiar.
On the desk lay a red scarf and a cherry blossom pendant.
The desks at the police academy were a bit too high for an eight-year-old. The bruised and exhausted blond boy struggled for a while before finally managing to sit down.
He leaned on the table and carefully reached out to touch the red scarf that was warm from the sun.
The scarf is very soft and warm.
A smile couldn't help but appear on the blond child's face. Like Kamen Rider, he tied the red scarf around his neck, one in front and one behind, and then reached out and grabbed the cherry blossom pendant.
Then, he finally lost all his strength and collapsed onto his desk, utterly exhausted, and stopped moving.
He succeeded, right? He can finally relax a little and get some rest, right?
Under the warm sunlight, Furuya Rei's consciousness gradually blurred, yet he was subconsciously and habitually uneasy and tense, unable to fall asleep because he hadn't finished something.
Four blue butterflies slowly flew over, just as they had in the darkness, continuing to surround him and keep him company. One of them landed lightly on his head.
The blue butterflies seem to be saying, "We're here with you. Everything's alright now. Thank you for your hard work. Go and get some rest and a good night's sleep."
The police academy classroom that represents his warmest and brightest youth, the red scarf that symbolizes a hero like Kamen Rider, the cherry blossom pendant that has special significance, and the four blue butterflies that have always protected him.
Everything around me was warm and filled with a familiar sense of security.
The blond child finally closed his eyes peacefully, his round face buried in the warm red scarf, and slowly drifted into a deep sleep.
*
December 10th.
One o'clock in the morning.
Morofushi Kagemitsu, Date Wataru, Hagiwara Kenji, and Matsuda Jinpei all gathered around Furuya Rei's bedside. The four of them huddled together to confirm that the thermometer reading had finally returned to normal, and they all breathed a sigh of relief.
Rei Furuya's fever has finally subsided.
Morofushi Kagemitsu couldn't help but personally test his childhood friend's forehead temperature again, only relaxing after confirming that the fever had really subsided. He gently patted the blond head and sighed, "Really, Zero, you've been sleeping for too long, haven't you?"
“Yes, it’s already the third day, it’s about time he woke up,” said Date Kou, but the fact that Furuya Rei’s fever had subsided finally put his mind at ease.
This guy's fever escalated from a low-grade fever to a high-grade fever tonight, causing the four of them to panic. Morofushi Kagemitsu almost carried the unconscious blond youth out again to find a doctor.
However, while they were frantically trying to help the blond youth, his condition actually started to improve.
In the latter half of the night, Furuya Rei's body temperature finally dropped, and his expression became calmer.
"So, this patch really is the best cure, isn't it?" Kenji Hagiwara said, stroking his chin.
Matsuda Jinpei: "?"
Kenji Hagiwara immediately threw himself at him, laughing as he explained, "It means being close and intimate, like hugging or patting someone's head. As long as you can feel the other person's presence and affection, that's fine. It's the same whether it's family, lovers, or friends. Being close to someone you like is a great way to relax, it can not only heal your mind but also make your body healthier!"
Matsuda Jinpei, with dead fish eyes: "Really? It's not just another one of your twisted logic, Hagi, is it?"
Although this world is already very unscientific, isn't this too idealistic? Matsuda Jinpei said he couldn't understand it.
“No, there is scientific evidence for this; it is indeed true,” said Morofushi Kagemitsu.
Even Date Wataru was shocked: "Huh? It's actually true?"
Kenji Hagiwara nodded: "The skin is the largest sensory organ in the human body, richly supplied with sensory and motor nerves. Therefore, physical contact can increase the activity of the vagus nerve, relaxing the mind and also affecting the respiratory and digestive systems, especially the heart's sensory functions and glandular secretions."
The word "heart" struck a nerve, and they instantly became serious.
Morofushi Kagemitsu continued, "In terms of mood regulation, 80% of the vagus nerve fibers are afferent nerve fibers. Their main function is to transmit sensory signals from our internal organs to the central nervous system, allowing us to perceive whether we are safe and helping us regulate our stress levels."
“Besides the vagus nerve, there’s also serotonin,” Morofushi Hiromitsu continued. “Skin contact increases the production of serotonin in the body and reduces stress hormones, thus making us feel happy; it’s even called the ‘happy hormone.’”
Kenji Hagiwara laughed: "As expected, Morobushi is the expert in this area. So it's not just about the psychology of human beings needing love, but also about professional scientific research to prove it."
Kenji Hagiwara exclaimed, “So, hugging is a must! Hugging is very important! Everyone needs to hug! Humans can only live happily by hugging each other! There’s even a saying abroad that ‘humans need three hugs a day to survive, and another three hugs to look radiant!’”
Date Wataru and Matsuda Jinpei listened in a daze, glancing at the serious-looking Hagiwara Kenji and Morofushi Hiromitsu, then at the sleeping Furuya Rei on the bed, before finally making their decision.
Okay, then I'll stick Zero on my stickers whenever I have the chance!
Before leaving, Date Wataru, Hagiwara Kenji, and Matsuda Jinpei took turns patting the head of the quietly sleeping blond youth before departing.
After turning around and closing the door, Morofushi Kagemitsu couldn't help but laugh.
Well, anyway, it's true, and it's a good thing.
However, Zero would definitely be very embarrassed, and might even be so shy that he'd bristle.
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