A hazy drizzle fell in silence, seemingly without end. It struck the moss-covered stone bricks, and whenever a cool breeze swept through, it carried with it a faint, chilling bite.
It was a beautiful little coastal town, as though the entire world had forgotten it. Neither the long and glorious wars nor the steam engines that had transformed the world had managed to change this place. It still looked exactly as it had a century ago, as if time itself had come to a halt here.
Hig leaned against the stone step beside the doorway, his gaze resting on the end of the weathered steps.
As the drizzle continued to fall, the entire town seemed to sink into slumber. There were no pedestrians in the streets. Every door was tightly shut, and not a single light shone through the windows.
Silence enveloped the town. Other than the patter of rain, nothing remained.
Under normal circumstances, Hig might have felt an indescribable loneliness, but he no longer cared. Though he was alone, the sight of this familiar little town still brought a smile to his face.
Ah… the town buried deep within his memories. The town he had completely forgotten.
Hig could never have imagined that one day he would truly return to the homeland he had long believed impossible to see again. It felt like a beautiful dream, and he had no desire to wake from it.
He tilted his head toward the sky. It was a murky gray, but compared to the apocalyptic rainy season of Old Dunling, the rain here was astonishingly gentle. It was like a pair of cold hands softly caressing him.
Slowly, he rose and looked toward the distant edge of the world. The black sea churned and roared, while the howling wind whipped waves several meters high against the dark reefs, shattering them into countless sprays of foam.
Listening to the rain, Hig continued forward. Everything in the town looked just as he remembered, except that now every door was shut and not a single light could be seen behind the windows.
Perhaps everyone had died. Perhaps they had all simply fallen into a deep sleep. But Hig could no longer bring himself to think about it.
Faint sounds drifted through the wind and rain. There were the furious roars of men, the mournful cries of monsters, and something that sounded like explosions.
Hig looked around repeatedly, trying to locate the source of the sounds. But all around him there was only the familiar little town.
Then he blinked.
A figure suddenly appeared beyond the curtain of rain.
"Ah… Joey!"
At the other end of the rain, Hig saw Joey standing motionless beneath the downpour. After a brief moment of stunned silence, he ran toward him excitedly.
This was such a happy day.
After wandering for so long, Hig had finally returned to his homeland. He wanted to share that happiness with Joey, but for some reason, he could not quite make out Joey's face. It was swallowed by darkness, utterly black, with no light capable of illuminating it.
Yet the puddle beneath his feet reflected an entirely different scene.
Joey swung his folding blade, cutting down demon after demon. Amid the savage slaughter, another demon staggered toward him.
"Joey?"
Hig called again.
Joey said nothing. He simply followed Hig and sat down with him on a nearby bench. The two of them sat together beneath the soft, incessant rain.
"I don't want to go back, Joey."
After a long silence, Hig finally broke the stillness. His expression was complicated, as though he did not know how to put his thoughts into words.
"Don't… want to go back?"
Joey's voice sounded distant and indistinct. He turned his head slightly, but his face remained completely black.
"Yeah. 121A Cock Street. I'm a little reluctant to leave it behind, but I don't plan on going back… This is where I belong."
Hig looked around at the sleeping town beneath the rain, a gentle smile on his face.
"Back then, I left this place simply because of some wild idea that had taken root in my head. I wanted to see the world outside. I wanted to know what that world the adults always talked about actually looked like."
"Some people said it was a wonderful place. Others said it was filthy beyond imagination. Everyone had something different to say, but they all agreed on one thing—it was a place you had to see. That was where the world truly was."
"I was curious. So one day, I really left. I really made it to Old Dunling."
Hig sighed, his voice carrying a trace of helplessness.
"It was wonderful at first. I had never seen buildings so tall or streets so wide. And then there were the airships racing through the sky, and those iron serpents winding throughout the entire city."
"But I didn't belong there, Joey. I really didn't. I was just some brat from a little seaside town. Old Dunling was simply too big for me. So big that I could barely understand what I was looking at. All I wanted was to find some corner and hide in it."
Joey said nothing. He merely kept his head lowered, listening to Hig's muttering.
"But… if I don't go back, will anyone be sad for me?"
Hig asked the question, then thought for a moment. The face of his roommate, Lloyd Holmes, surfaced in his mind.
"Would he be sad?"
Hig immediately laughed, finding the thought absurd.
"How could he be? That guy would never be sad for me. Even if he really were sad, he'd never show it. But… what about Mrs. Valende? She's already so old. She probably needs someone to take care of her for the rest of her life. That Lloyd fellow certainly isn't reliable…"
"Though I'm not exactly much better."
"That's a troublesome thing, isn't it, Joey?" Hig asked.
Joey nodded before answering.
"Yeah. Life is full of helplessness. There are so many wrong roads, and once you make the wrong turn, sometimes you just keep going down the same road."
"Like hallucinogens?"
Hig patted Joey on the shoulder.
"Back at the factory, people said that stuff could let you see whatever you wanted. Some people used it to see their dead relatives. Others used it to see mountains of wealth. I was tempted by those stories, so I used it to see my hometown."
"It was only an illusion, but it felt wonderful."
"Though I have to admit, I'm a little surprised, Joey. You're such a serious person, yet you used hallucinogens too."
"So what if I'm serious? I'm still human. As long as I remain human, I have human weaknesses. Human ugliness."
"Then what were you running from?"
Hig looked at Joey.
The darkness covering Joey's face seemed to recede slightly, revealing a pair of bewildered eyes beneath it.
"A nightmare. I was trying to escape a nightmare."
Joey spoke as though explaining himself to Hig, or perhaps trying to convince himself.
"I'm a soldier. Soldiers follow orders. Whether it's killing people or burning things, we do what we're told because that is our duty. When the time comes to assign blame, perhaps it isn't really our fault…"
"But… I was the one who killed them. I was the one who witnessed all that cruelty with my own eyes."
"I kept having nightmares. I dreamed that the earth and sky had disappeared, leaving behind nothing but countless hands waving like seaweed. They grabbed me, wrapping themselves around me like vines, until eventually they tore me completely apart."
"That sounds like a terrible nightmare."
Hig seemed to understand Joey. He nodded as he spoke.
"Do you still use hallucinogens?"
"No."
"Good."
Another long silence followed.
The two of them sat on the bench like statues, perfectly still even as the drizzle soaked them completely. They remained that way for a long time, until Joey finally broke the silence again.
"I have to go, Hig."
"Yeah. You don't belong here. This is my hometown, not yours. And our missions are different too. There was always going to be a time when we had to part."
Hig smiled.
"But seeing you like this, Joey… it's good."
"You too, Hig."
They comforted each other with those simple words, and then, without warning, they both burst into laughter.
Hig suddenly punched Joey.
Then, like a child, he turned and ran toward the alley.
Joey froze for a moment before chasing after him.
The two of them ran and played like children.
On anyone else, such behavior might have seemed childish and ridiculous. But neither of them seemed to notice. They simply ran down the road, as though it stretched endlessly into the distance.
The puddles on the ground reflected their figures.
But what those puddles showed was another world.
A blade of burning white light tore through the rain, chasing after that swiftly moving, unnatural creature.
The puddles became mirrors, separating the two worlds from one another.
For Hig, this feeling was wonderful.
He remembered that long ago, he had run along the shore with the other children, chasing the waves as they broke upon the beach. It was a memory that had long since yellowed with age, yet now it was becoming clearer and clearer in his mind.
Little by little, he was finding his past again.
He left the wind and rain behind him.
Then a faint sensation came from behind.
A hand suddenly seized Hig by the collar.
Joey threw himself at him, knocking him down. The two of them tumbled down the steps together before finally crashing into a puddle.
Joey lay on top of Hig and struggled to get back to his feet.
Hig did not move.
He simply lay in the water, staring blankly at the sky.
"Is this a dream, Joey?"
He asked.
"I don't know."
Joey could not answer.
"Actually, I think it is a dream. A beautiful, exquisite dream. A dream that feels like a cage…"
"I know I can't go back anymore. Sometimes I can't even be sure that little town ever truly existed."
"What about all this? You're really here right now."
Joey argued back.
Everything around them felt so real. This was Hig's homeland. His home.
"No. This is my dream, because this is all I remember."
Hig turned his head and looked at the buildings nearby.
"I only remember them looking like this, vaguely. So they won't open their doors, and there won't be any pedestrians. And this rain will never end, because I've forgotten all those things."
"But perhaps that's not so bad. People have to deceive themselves to some extent just to keep living, don't they?"
Hig's gaze gradually became indifferent.
He looked again at Joey, who was still leaning over him.
"…You don't exist either, do you?"
"You're probably something I imagined."
"But I'll deceive myself into believing all of this anyway. It makes no difference."
Yet Joey shook his head.
His expression was filled with sorrow.
"No…"
"I'm sorry, Hig."
The folding blade pierced through the dream.
It tore through the endless rain.
Dream and reality overlapped in an instant.
Suddenly, every chaotic sound became clear.
Flames devoured the entire town.
The gentle drizzle became a violent downpour.
In another curtain of rain, Joey finally caught up with the demon. He drove his blade deep into it, pinning the creature firmly in place. Around him lay countless shattered corpses.
Joey's face was twisted with rage, but his eyes were filled with sorrow.
He looked down at the demon beneath him.
That familiar face filled him with indescribable fury.
"Joey…"
The demon made a vague sound.
Its scarlet eyes gradually settled as the folding blade pierced its heart. No one could tell whether it had finally awakened, or whether it had simply fallen into an even deeper sleep.
Its words sounded like the incoherent murmuring of a child caught in a dream, broken into meaningless fragments.
"I'm here, Hig. I'm so sorry."
Joey simply looked at it with sorrow as the rain washed across his face.
"If… if there were no demons…"
"If there were no demons, perhaps we could have become good friends."
As he spoke, he twisted the folding blade with all his strength, crushing the demon's heart completely.
And within the demon's fading vision, the silent little town beneath the rain slowly froze into stillness.
The image remained forever in its eyes.
At the end of his life, Hig had finally returned to the homeland he could never reach again.
It was an illusion.
But it was also the final comfort he could give himself.
As demonic blood continued to multiply within his body, Hig could feel the increasingly scorching power spreading through his veins. At the same time, he clearly sensed his consciousness slipping uncontrollably toward the abyss.
Thinking about it carefully, the feeling was truly unpleasant.
It was downright terrible.
The demons Joey had killed were all patients from Black Mountain Hospital. And before they became patients, most of them had been Joey's comrades—soldiers who had devoted their entire lives to fighting the demons.
It was like some kind of curse.
A curse that tormented everyone who lived beneath its shadow.
"Nightmares are like the rain…"
A twisted voice suddenly emerged from beneath the folding blade.
"The rainy season always ends, Joey…"
No one knew whether those were the last fragments of a broken will or merely some strange dream-muttering.
His trembling eyes slowly became still, like frozen glaciers.
But that stillness did not last long.
The ice began to melt.
"Yes."
"Farewell."
Joey whispered.
But beneath his folding blade, the demon could no longer distinguish his words.
Hig had already begun transforming when Moriarty first corrupted him. With the outbreak of this battle, the corruption that had tormented him for so long finally completed its work.
He had become a demon.
The folding blade rose once more and severed his head.
As blood sprayed through the rain, every demon in the elevator sector was cut down.
The survivors collapsed into the corners, seemingly unable to believe that they had actually survived the catastrophe.
Joey's gaze swept across the battlefield, passing over the survivors and then over the countless corpses.
If there were no demons, none of this would have happened today.
So many people would not have died.
So much sorrow would never have existed.
An unnamed fury burned within Joey's heart.
For one brief moment, he finally understood Lloyd's rage.
That uncontrollable, all-consuming fury.
But the next thing that overwhelmed him was endless sorrow.
Joey lowered his head and stared into the dark-red puddle. His reflection stared back at him, his face twisted into something almost unrecognizable.
He tried to pull out his folding blade.
But he had no strength left.
His body finally gave out, and he collapsed helplessly to his knees in the bloody water, surrounded by the corpses of the demons he had slain.