—Bang, bang!

I think I might’ve gone crazy. Ever since I woke up in the hotel after I destroyed His and Her Mirrored Terminus, I’ve been hearing this sound like banging on a wall. This hallucination has gone on for a week.

If I keep ignoring it, I get the feeling I will reach the point of no return.

I’m hesitant, but in the end, I decide to go toward it. It may be strange to play along with a hallucination, but I don’t think it’s something I can ignore.

It sounds as if it’s coming from right next to my ears, but I can never seem to reach the source. I follow it through two prefectures. After several train transfers, I arrive in a fairly nondescript suburb. The station plaza is starting to look a little run-down.

It’s a commonplace view, and yet it feels horribly familiar to me. Maybe I used to live here once. Of course, that means nothing to me, since I’ve lost my memory—or it shouldn’t.

—Bang, bang!

That noise is gradually getting louder. I’m definitely getting nearer to its point of origin.

I walk through streets I know yet can’t remember. My feet stop in front of a relatively new apartment building made of brick. No doubt about it. The sound is coming from one of these rooms. I follow the noise up the emergency stairs.

Yes…I’ll see them soon.

Um, see who?

The sound is coming from room 403. I put my hand on the doorknob and find that it’s unlocked. Bracing myself, I open the door.

And I immediately see someone.

“O!” I shout.

That alien being slowly turns toward me and smiles, suggesting they knew I would come here.

“What’re you up to…?”

O has taken the form of a woman with long black hair. She looks close to the same age as me, but it’s hard for me to think so when she has such incomparable beauty to go with her bewitching aura.

She almost looks a little like me.

—Bang, bang!

Incredibly enough, I can hear the knocking coming from within O.

“…Is this sound some trick of yours? What are you after? Did you want to bring me here? This is an awfully roundabout method…”

I notice something. O’s form is growing faint, if only ever so slightly. Darkness has started creeping up her feet, and her expression is just a bit irritated.

O approaches me as I struggle to figure out what’s going on.

“Maria.”

I frown. O has never called me by my name, as if we’re friends. And yet, this all seems terribly familiar.

An unidentifiable emotion catches me off guard.

O gently cups my cheeks in her hands.

“I always wanted to be with you. I always wanted to be with you, Maria.”

“…What’re you saying?”

“But it would appear that’s not possible anymore. You have to accept it. It’s time.”

“…Tell me what you mean!” I shout back. O isn’t making any sense.

O gazes at me with utter tenderness. “It’s time to give up.”

“…What?”

“It’s time to renounce the wish.”

I’m even more bewildered now. “Wh-what’re you…? I wished to bring happiness to everyone in the world. I’ll never renounce that wish.”

This is just another verbal attack.

Still, I don’t brush O’s hands from my cheeks. I’ve endured every painful trial, disregarded every warning, in pursuit of my wish—and yet I can’t shrug off the suggestion.

—Bang, bang, bang, bang!

The pounding on the wall within O is growing even louder.

“We have been defeated.”

“…Defeated? Who have we lost to?”

O doesn’t answer, only smiles. As if I already know the answer, and there’s no need to tell me.

“Maria. You can’t avert your eyes from the past anymore.”

The kindly admonishing smile—

“

Oh.”

I make the connection. I realize whose form O has adopted.

“Stop… Don’t… Don’t mess with me…”

The past forces its way into my mind.

The past.

The past.

I shake my head, desperately driving it away. I don’t want it. I don’t want this. Don’t want to see this. Don’t want to know this. Don’t want to remember this.

However, O doesn’t let go and presses her hands even harder against my face.

“Maria, you must not fight. Your enemy is too powerful; don’t resist. You don’t stand a chance. I know that all too well now. You’ll be completely defeated.”

The name of this enemy won’t come to mind.

But I’m positive it’s one I know. I know he would use his friends and himself just to crush my wish.

What’s more frightening, though, is the warmth filling my chest anyway.

As I stand stunned and frozen with fear, O wraps me in an embrace. I can’t shake her off.

Yes… She shouldn’t smell this way, but that mix of perfumes and essential oils drifts into my nose. This scent from the past, this scent I love, is—

—the scent of my older sister, Aya.

“See you around, Maria.”

I slowly sink into my sister’s body, into Aya Otonashi, like a fly caught in a spider’s web. Reduced to small pieces, I slip into her.

This is my sacred world. No one should be able to trespass here.

But.

There’s a sound.

—Bang, bang!

—Bang, bang!

I’m falling. Falling. Slowly falling. But the bottom is still very distant. It feels as if I’m deep beneath the sea, but it’s still bright. The water is perfectly transparent; even small bubbles are clearly visible. It is pure and right, without any irrationality. Yes, is there anywhere more comforting? Yes, it’s cold and suffocating, but this is my utopia.

I can hear the joyful laughter. “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha.” Joyful laughter. “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.” This place is replete with happiness, misbegotten though it may be. I pass through several miniature worlds as I descend into the watery depths. They are all full of joy, without exception. I can’t help but smile. My quest truly has been just.

As I sink, I unintentionally brush against a certain small world. Light swells around me and pulls me inside.

Maybe it’s arrogant of me to say so, but I’m floating over the world, looking down like a god.

Within it is a happy couple. This is a tiny realm meant for only the two of them.

The pair is huddled together on the edge of a small lake. The lake is surrounded by a lush, green forest, and wild birds are singing in the distance. The water’s surface glitters in the sunlight as if to bless the lovers.

Yes, it may be flawed, but the happiness of this world is undeniable.

“Hmm?”

I had forgotten about the two of them as a side effect of using the Misbegotten Happiness, but I remember now. Maybe it’s because I’m seeing them here before me, or maybe more because I am inside the Box. I used the Misbegotten Happiness on these two in the real world.

Nana Yanagi and Toji Kijima. They had been in a relationship, but by the time I encountered them, it was falling apart. There were too many problems between them. The idea of a breakup had hurt them immensely, especially Nana Yanagi. She had even considered just killing Toji Kijima if their relationship was going to end. Even if I had prevented her from committing a brutal crime, Nana Yanagi’s underlying issues would have remained unresolved. Thinking there would be no release from this pain for the two of them, I used the Misbegotten Happiness.

I saved them and let them live in this perfect world.

“This is it…! This is the peace I wanted to give them!”

Nothing bad will happen here. There’s nothing here that isn’t beautiful. The love in their hearts for each other will remain pure and undistorted.

My Box is flawed, which is why it can create only these small, enclosed realms. But if I can perfect it, then my wish will become reality.

(I won’t let you.)

“Huh…?”

That voice sounded as if it was coming from right inside my head.

—Splorch.

A grotesque, foreign substance drops into this world of beautiful things.

“What is that?”

Nana Yanagi inclines her head quizzically at the anomaly.

It’s a dark-red lump of flesh that resembles an organ. It pulsates unnervingly, much like a heart. Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum.

“Whoa… Freaky. What is it?”

But she doesn’t have much time to wonder. With incredible speed, the throbbing dark-red mass grows big enough to fill the tiny lake.

“E-ew… Yuck, augh, this is so gross!”

The mass rots the vegetation of the forest, pollutes the water into mud, and lunges for the couple. Screaming, the two of them are engulfed.

In the span of a single moment, this world of beautiful things becomes a single gruesome mass.

“…What the hell is this?”

It all comes to an end while I’m trapped in disbelief. The dream I envisioned is ruined. This world of lost happiness shatters, and I am cast out into the bright ocean depths.

“…What happened? What’s going on…?”

—Bang, bang!

It’s that noise again. I turn around and see a shadow in the shape of a person on the bottom. It’s faint, with a wavering, indistinct form that would probably scatter with a touch.

(Ah… Ah…)

That voice sounds like the one in my head from just a second ago.

“Was it you? Were you the one who destroyed that world?”

(No more.)

“What?”

(No more.)

I listen closely for a moment, but the shadow doesn’t say anything else.

I try reaching for it. It disperses easily and vanishes.

“…What is it?”

I know this isn’t something I created. It’s weak, but I’m fairly certain it’s the source of the glob that destroyed that happy world.

I survey my surroundings. I hadn’t noticed earlier because I was focused on that beautiful realm, but there are human-shaped shadows all around me.

When I strain my ears, I can hear voices.

(Help me…) (I’m lonely.) (I don’t want to be by myself; I hate being alone.) (Anyone, please.) (Just kill me.) (Stopstopstopstopstop.)

“…Seriously, what is this…?”

There is nothing but pain in the voices of the many silhouettes.

I’m trying to figure out what they are when a bright flash fills my vision, pulling me into another miniature world. Once again, I’m watching it from above.

This one is a quiet, spacious park. There’s a wheat field nearby glittering like gold. In the center of the park, a mixed group of three about middle school age are playing catch. The only one who isn’t very good at it is the girl in glasses with black hair. The two boys are gently tossing the ball to her in an easy arc, but she still can’t seem to catch anything. Still, the trio keeps laughing; apparently, this is fun for them.

I can tell from the glances between the girl and the charismatic, handsome boy that they have feelings for each other. The other tall boy watches the two of them contentedly.

Ah, I see; this is—

“Daiya Oomine’s happy place.”

Oomine became an owner in an attempt to transform the world by forcing the ignorant masses to confront their guilt, but he failed. He committed several crimes along the way and eventually drove himself to the brink. While he was trying to find a way to atone, Oomine was stabbed by a girl who had become a fanatical believer because of his Box.

I used the Misbegotten Happiness on him when he was on the verge of death.

The other two playing this game of catch are Kokone Kirino and Haruaki Usui as they were in middle school. I understand that now. Oomine and I collaborated for the sake of our wishes, but changing the world wasn’t his true desire. He wanted something simple: for Kokone Kirino to be able to smile as she was here at this moment.

That wish is continually being granted here.

In the real world, this would no longer be possible. Oomine is probably beyond help, and given how wounded Kirino’s heart is already, she would probably never recover if she learned how he died. If Usui ever saw what happened to the two he cares so much about, he would suffer for a long time, too.

Reality is too merciless, too cruel.

This sweet, eternal dream brings unfathomable bliss.

Yes, but still—

“Are you trying to tell me to look at reality?!”

—Splorch.

It happens again. Another grotesque, alien body falls into this happy world.

“Stop… Stop…”

A Box is the only way to realize this happiness—stop destroying it!

“Oomine is your friend, right? You know that this Oomine needs this Box, even if it isn’t perfect! You know that, don’t you?! So please stop… I’m begging you!”

I shout.

“Kazuki!”

I shout his name.

“Ohhh…”

Yes. I remember.

This is my enemy.

“Hmm? What’s that?”

By the time the middle school Oomine with unpierced ears notices the object, the blob of flesh is already swelling up.

The once-golden-hued wheat rots on contact with the dark-red mound of meat, turning dull. The dirt of the field changes completely, becoming something like a swamp. The sky darkens to purple. The fleshy glob catches the trio and traps them. They scream, but the dark-red substance continues to expand. Finally, it swallows them up, filling the world with its freakish mess.

This world is done for, too.

Daiya Oomine’s happy place is gone.