Chapter 48

The outstretched hand caught nothing.

Of course, nothing can trap the light.

Broken vision cannot, panic calls cannot, the human heart cannot, and even invincible supernatural powers cannot.

Reflected between the shrunken pupils, the last bit of light also dissipated into nothingness.

Nakahara Chuuya's body was enveloped in the red light of his special ability. The gravity that he could control freely suddenly became extremely sluggish. He couldn't even lift his feet. With every step he took, he could almost hear the bones crackling under the heavy pressure.

He half-crouched stiffly, and his fingers wrapped in black silk gloves touched the ground, but it was as if they sank into a ball of soft cotton. He tried hard to grab something in the void, and from the initial slowness, he became extremely urgent, and his supernatural power was stimulated uncontrollably again.

The ground beneath my feet was nailed down by gravity, and every speck of dust was bound by the red beam and could not float up.

Alice dodged him in fear and trotted back to Mori Owl. She clutched the latter's coat and stared at the sea of ​​flowers through the two of them. Her doll-like delicate and lovely face was no longer carefree, but showed an overly sensible calmness and sadness.

She loved beautiful flowers, and she knew that the person who gave her such a sea of ​​flowers would never appear again.

“…Boss.”

Nakahara Chuuya turned his head suddenly, his eyes suddenly flashing with cruelty and brutality, "Is this a supernatural power used by some enemy organization? Please give the order, I will immediately destroy all the enemies——!"

The red light could not remain stable in the excitement of its owner. Nakahara Chuuya stared at Mori Ou with a look of eagerness, as if as long as the leader gave an order, he could immediately use gravity to crush all obstacles and dig three feet into the ground to find the person alive or the body dead.

But Mori Ogu didn't say anything. He just looked at the flowers in the distance calmly. No one could see whether the same sadness as Alice's appeared in his eyes.

"Boss!!"

Since joining the Port Mafia, Nakahara Chuuya has never used such a harsh, interrogative tone when speaking to Mori Ougai.

In the increasingly depressing atmosphere, the black-haired man looked at his most loyal and capable subordinate and sighed softly.

"Chuya-kun," Mori Ogai stated the facts calmly and cruelly, "no enemy can break into the territory of the Port Mafia and kill him in front of me without any effort."

"This is Kono-kun's own choice."

The flower flesh under his feet became transparent. Mori Owl narrowed his eyes, nodded to Nakahara Chuuya, and whispered, "If you want to stay, stay. No one will disturb you."

From the time Moriou opened the door to the time he left, Nakahara Chuuya did not move.

He froze where he was, his heart twitching slowly for a long moment.

The anger and pain in his blue eyes disappeared, leaving only confusion, as if mist had lingered on the azure sea for a long time.

A small petal was blown away by the wind and fell on the back of his hand.

Nakahara Chuuya stood in the moonlight and suddenly didn't know where he was.

…

The gravity of the Port Mafia is searching everywhere for space-related esper - Nakahara Chuuya is still very busy, but after each of his missions is completed, such news will spread wherever he passes.

Some people speculated that some space mutant had offended him, some said he was recruiting people for the port mafia, and some believed that this was simply a transaction to borrow superpowers.

When Ozaki Koyo came to see him, she thought she would see a frustrated man who locked himself in the room and drank. She was even prepared to fight this guy to wake him up.

Yasha swung his sword accurately to chop open the door lock, and before he could retract the cold blade, it met Nakahara Chuuya's surprised and alert blue eyes.

"Sister Hongye?" The ochre-haired young man relaxed his tense body after seeing who was coming. The alertness in his eyes turned into confusion, and he was clearly asking, "Why don't you just knock on the door and let me open it?"

Ozaki Kouyo, who put on a serious attitude in advance to educate her child: "..."

"...I heard you've been looking for someone recently," she coughed lightly to cover up her embarrassment and sat down elegantly across from him, "How's it going? Do you need my help?"

Ozaki Kouyo raised her eyes and looked at the auburn-haired young man in front of her. Nakahara Chuuya no longer needed her guidance. She didn't know when he had grown into an adult who could hide his emotions.

This maturity will undoubtedly make him stronger in the inner world, but at this moment, she suddenly missed the child who would quarrel childishly with her partner and blush when mentioning the person she liked.

In fact, all these changes happened in just two months. By the time others reacted, Gongye Mutsu had disappeared.

Not death, but something more unacceptable than death.

He took away all traces of himself. The apartment that had not been entered for a long time was now empty. The office he often visited was restored to its original state. Even the ward where he had last stayed was as clean as new. Files, mission reports, accounts... all records that could be manipulated by humans were completely cleared.

I came with nothing, and said goodbye silently before leaving.

“…Nothing.” Nakahara Chuuya paused.

He closed his eyes, made up his mind, and as if talking to himself, he squeezed out a reply from his dry throat, "I won't look for it again."

If the person doesn't want to leave any traces, then he won't look for it again.

…

When autumn came again in Yokohama, Nakahara Chuuya received a phone call.

It was his personal cell phone that rang. He was stunned when he saw the unfamiliar number. After thinking for a long time, he still had no impression of it. He simply answered the call with a frown.

After a few insignificant greetings, Nakahara Chuuya finally remembered where he had heard the voice on the other end of the phone.

The memories that he had deliberately avoided came crashing down like a mountain torrent. His breathing suddenly came to a halt, and even the sounds in his ears became vague echoes.

"Now is the season for viewing maple leaves. The hot spring you reserved earlier will be open at the end of this month. If you are sure you will come, we will clear the venue in advance."

After a long period of no response, the proprietress called out the customer's name twice in confusion, "...Mr. Zhongyuan? Are you there?"

She heard a burst of disordered breathing that was distorted by the electric current. After a while, the hoarse voice of the young guest sounded: "...I'm sorry."

"Cancel it for me."

…

After hanging up the phone, Nakahara Chuuya did not return to the headquarters, but went straight home.

He opened the wine cabinet as if to vent something, and in a short while, the red wine in the bottle was gone. Perhaps it was revenge for his drinking method without any appreciation of the wine, and the alcohol did not make him tipsy as usual.

Excessive alcohol erodes the nerves, and true memories and false fantasies become confused.

Nakahara Chuuya has just returned from the battlefield in the Middle East. Although there are no troublesome psychics there, the situation on the battlefield is too chaotic and he dare not slack off for even a second.

In the past half month, he had very few opportunities to rest, and even someone as strong as him had to force himself to get through it. As soon as the plane landed, the tension suddenly relaxed, and Zhongyuan Zhongya fell into a deep sleep on the way back to the Port Mafia.

The result of sleeping too deeply was that... after trying more than a dozen ways to wake him up without success, his subordinates thought he had internal injuries and rushed him to the medical department crying and begging for mercy.

He slept from dawn to dusk, and when he woke up, he almost thought he was still lying in the tent in the Middle East.

But soon, he stopped thinking so.

The incessant sound of gunfire explosions, which he could faintly hear in his dreams, disappeared completely as if a pause button had been pressed after the gentle gaze of the person next to him fell on him.

Nakahara Chuuya suddenly remembered that this scene seemed familiar, except that the positions were reversed - the person lying on the hospital bed became him. Although he was not actually injured, he still felt a subtle sense of shame.

He stood up uncomfortably and was about to get out of bed, but was stopped by someone.

The cool back of the hand was pressed against his forehead, and the golden eyes so close to him seemed to be looking at him disapprovingly. Nakahara Chuuya froze and looked away in a disguised manner.

As he turned his eyes away, he saw a foreign book with complicated cursive handwriting on the cover. The words on it did not sound like English.

A doubtful thought just popped up in my mind, but before I could study it carefully, I heard a gentle voice with a smile, "Thank you for your hard work, Chuuya."

"By the way, you must be hungry after sleeping for so long." The person in front of him said, and suddenly remembered something. He stood up and tilted his eyes towards him: "The porridge is warming outside, I'll go get it."

“……!”

Zhong Yuanzhong didn't know why he stretched out his hand. He subconsciously grabbed the man's wrist. Facing the other person's puzzled gaze, he opened his mouth but couldn't say anything.

…Is it “I’m not hungry” or “Don’t leave”?

The ward began to twist, deform, and dissipate from the edge of the wall. The young man with gray hair and golden eyes allowed his wrist to be grasped. He neither rejected nor accepted it, but just looked at him quietly.

The harder he pressed his hands, the faster it dissipated. In the blink of an eye, they were the only two people left in the space that could no longer be called a room.

The silhouette of the other person was also becoming blurry, and Zhongyuan Zhongye could feel the reality of what he was holding in his hand becoming weaker and weaker.

He suddenly felt a sense of panic - if he didn't hold on tightly, the other person would leave, but if he held on, he would accelerate the other person's disappearance.

No matter what choice he makes, it will end in failure. Nakahara Chuuya is not afraid of failure. He knows that this is the only outcome of being inferior to others, but he deeply hates himself for being helpless at this moment.

His hand, which was about to lose consciousness due to exerting so much force, was suddenly gently held back.

"Chuya."

The person whose face could no longer be seen seemed to be speaking to him with a smile.

[“I am so lucky that you are the first person I meet after arriving here.”]

"--goodbye."

…

Nakahara Chuuya had a splitting headache. He opened his eyes and saw his own expression in the floor-to-ceiling window.

Like a wild beast trapped in a cage that won't stop even if it gets its head broken and bloody.

He stood up suddenly and searched for something in the study based on his intuition - he remembered that not long after he woke up in the ward that day, Gongye Mu was called over by the doctor, and the book was casually placed on the table. The nurse thought it was his and handed it to him the next day.

——The book with a foreign language in cursive script on the cover was placed in an inconspicuous place along with the gem album.

Nakahara Chuuya turned the pages of the book, his fingers trembling slightly, barely perceptible.

Unlike printed text, the light blue handwriting is smooth and clear, familiar yet strange.

As if he suddenly understood something, he quickly took out his cell phone from his coat and called back the most recent call record. After a long waiting tone, the call was finally connected.

The person on the other end didn't mind his midnight disturbance and was able to extract useful information from the intermittent and fragmented sentences that were obviously out of place.

The lady boss suddenly realized: "I see, so you want to reinstate the reservation, right?"

“…Yes.”

Ling Luan's palpitations suddenly calmed down at this moment. In the silence, Zhongyuan Zhongye heard his own hoarse voice: "I will go."

If there is no response to the agreement, he will complete it even if it is useless or he is the only one left.

Maple Leaf, you will like it too, right?