.Hack//ZERO ME:1071

ME:1071

I flinched as I stepped into the center of the Cathedral.

My head felt number, and I started to examine my surroundings.

I could sense someone’s presence near me. It was a vague sensation – like catching the last ripple on the surface of a pond before it had fully settled, or hearing the last echoes of a cymbal crash before silence returned.

My breathing became shallow.

Was this some kind of an ill omen?

Even if it was, it didn’t stop me from walking towards the altar. It felt like I was being pulled in.

There was someone huddled quietly behind it.

He was sitting with one leg folded over the other.

And he was hunched over, so I couldn’t see his face.

But he had a cloak wrapped tightly around his arms and shoulders as if to protect him from the cold.

Suddenly, it felt like my body was being weighed down by heavy metal armor. I couldn’t move a muscle; I could only stare at the person in front of me.

I tried to say something, but my throat suddenly felt completely dry.

I couldn’t blink, and tears started to sting at the corner of my eyes.

“……Sora?”

I finally managed to force my voice out.

But Sora didn’t react to me, like he hadn’t even heard me.

I called his name again, louder this time.

And my voice cracked despite my best efforts to maintain composure.

Again, Sora didn’t move.

He might just be pretending not to have heard me.

Because otherwise, there was no way he wouldn’t have noticed me call to him twice.

A huge lump grew in my throat, and I realized that I was about to cry.

I tried to hold it back, but my breath was already catching in my throat.

Was I really about to cry?

But for the first time, I actually wanted to cry. I’d thought my tears were all dried up, but it turned out they weren’t.

And that was when it happened.

Sora whimpered.

Then, as if being pulled along by some invisible strings, his body was lifted up.

He rose so high that I flinched in reaction.

Slowly, he turned his eyes towards me.

He had a smile on his face, his lips curling wide at the edges.

My whole body froze.

His grin looked like it had been carved into place.

“Who……?”

My voice was still trembling.

And then, Sora laughed under his breath.

But it wasn’t a human laugh that I heard. It had a low, grating quality to it – like rocks grinding against each other.

A chill ran down my spine.

This Sora was not the Sora that I knew.

It wasn’t a matter of them being an imposter wearing a disguise.

It was like a moth mimicking a flower or a deep-sea fish hiding between the rocks waiting to get the jump on their prey – this thing was evil.

It looked like Sora, but it was not Sora. It was something entirely different.

The laughter stopped and that Thing stood up like it was being pushed and pulled at the same time.

And then it jumped high.

It leapt with inhuman strength.

It was an impossible jump, even here in The World.

This was a world of swords and sorcery based on the epic poem – the Epitaph of Twilight – but there was still a floor. Unless a PC had special equipment, powerful items, or magic, they were still bound by the laws of gravity.

But that Thing jumped incredibly high and then just hung in the air for a moment, standing upside down.

Then it kicked off the air and dashed towards me.

I screamed. I saw something like veins rising up between the bandages covering his body and head, and they were glowing.

It held its arms wide, reaching much farther than a humans could.

They stretched out and flew towards me like snakes.

“Stop!”

I couldn’t help but scream when I saw Sora’s eyes glowing with killing intent.

But there was no way it would stop.

Without hesitation, that Thing whipped its arm down and slammed me into the wall.

My vision went spinning, and for a moment I felt so disoriented I couldn’t even tell where I really was.

The stone floor that usually blurred out of focus when I looked too closely was for some reason crystal clear now, almost as if it were real.

Carl was the one falling, so why did it feel like Junka was falling at the same time?

And why could I actually smell the dust in the air?

I didn’t even get a moment to think about it.

That Thing struck me again.

I didn’t have time to catch my breath.

Not just in the game – for real.

That Thing jumped high again and dropped down on top of me with all the weight of its body behind it.

It grabbed me by the hair, and I squirmed in its grasp.

My throat and chest were left exposed, and tears stung at my eyes from the humiliation.

I looked passed that Thing’s bangs to its eyes, but its face was completely expressionless.

It felt no satisfaction in tormenting me like this. It didn’t care about achieving a victory here. It was just carrying out a task.

“Don’t do this! Please…… Sora!”

If he hated me, then he could hate me all he wanted to.

If he didn’t want me around, that was fine.

But if he was going to kill me, I wanted him to at least recognize me.

Why?

Why had he forgotten me?

Did he really not remember me?

Or had he never really cared in the first place?

Did I not deserve to be remembered by Sora?

“Sora……!!”

That Thing just grabbed me by the chest and lifted me up.

Its red sash waved gently in the air.

It slammed me mercilessly against the floor, and I stopped breathing for a moment. I tried to draw in air, but it was no use.

Its shadow loomed over me.

“I don’t…”

I finally burst into tears.

I tried to hide my face.

But my arm was kicked away.

Then it kicked me in the side, back, and both my legs one after another until I was left in a heap on the floor.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry……”

I apologized profusely.

I finally knew that I didn’t belong here.

I was completely unnecessary.

I just wanted to disappear. But I was still here, getting in the way and making things worse.

I couldn’t feel my limbs, they just dangled uselessly from my sides.

My vision blurred.

I recoiled from the pain.

“O………o…ra……”

My voice sounded like crunching paper.

All I could do was try to be louder, until it sounded more like a beast’s wailings than a person.

It was a sound of desperation and fear, completely devoid of hope.

I had heard this sound once before.

A pearlescent light entered my vision.

Yes, that was right.

I lifted my gaze.

And saw a young girl floating in the air.

She had loose, wavy hair and soft, round features. However, she had a look of confusion on her face this time.

That Thing which had once been Sora craned its neck up and let out a venomous hiss.

“Stop!”

I screamed.

Was I screaming at Sora? Or was it Aura?

For that matter, just what the hell was I even trying to stop, anyways?

Sora’s screams became even more intense.

His body swelled, and his presence grew even fiercer.

“Get away from me!”

This time, I was definitely screaming at Aura.

But at the same time, Sora ran towards Aura.

The patterns on his body grew even brighter and more vivid.

For the briefest moment, I forgot how to breathe as I admired the beauty and misery of the sight.

Sora raised his arm. I saw a glimmer of power forming there, and it definitely wasn’t a force for good.

It was a force for evil.

And the brunt of that power was being directed at Aura.

Hatred. Fear. A plethora of negative emotions gathered in Sora’s arm.

My voice would not stop this Sora. I had no power here.

Yet Aura took the attack with a calm expression like the surface of an undisturbed pond. She showed no sign of pain or any other emotion. And then there was an explosion of light.

Space distorted. My senses were assaulted by a blast of colors and sounds that my mind couldn’t even comprehend.

I hunched over, shut my eyes, and covered my ears to try and endure it all.

But then I quickly thought better of it and straightened back up.

“Sora!”

Aura was lying on the floor in front of me.

She was curled up in a pile like a dead cat on the side of the road after being hit by a car.

Why?

I blinked dumbly at the sight of her.

Why was Aura – who was so powerful and capable of incredible things – lying on the floor.

Aura bolted upright.

Her eyes peeked out from behind her now tangled up hair stuck to her face.

After all of that, her gaze was still as calm as ever.

“Ah…”

I saw her.

I finally understood.

Aura was a child who didn’t know anything.

A child who did not understand the concepts of good or bad, or the feeling of either pain or joy.

A saw a flash of lightning out of the corner of my eye.

Sora’s appearance was changing again. His limbs adapted a stone-like texture, growing thicker and longer.

The only thing left that reminded me this Thing had once been Sora was its eyes. But even those eyes were almost completely overtaken with a mixture of pain, emptiness, and pleasure.

Stop it! Please, stop it!”

I shouted for Sora.

I wasn’t trying to protect Aura.

Right now, I was still jealous. I was still jealous of Aura.

It was a raging jealousy so fierce that I felt like it might burn me with its own intensity.

And I was jealous of her because her existence was able to infuriate Sora so completely like this.

I couldn’t have done anything like that.

When it came to Aura, Sora could express his true emotions.

They had a bond that connected them that way.

Even if it was born of malice and hostility, it was still real. And I was so envious of that connection. Even though he was trying to kill her, I was jealous.

And I hated it.

“Why!? ……Why did you come here!?”

With venom in my voice, I screamed out at Aura.

Aura opened her mouth slightly.

“……Be……cause…”

I couldn’t hear her.

I had no idea what Aura was trying to tell me.

No. Actually, I did know.

But I didn’t want to admit it.

Behind her, Sora’s body continued to swell.

The wind roared around us and it felt like my blood was on fire.

His power – his killing intent – struck through Aura.

And once again, Aura just stood there and took it.

She flew backwards like a discarded doll. Her body spun through the air and then landed on the floor with a thud.

Sora’s laugh was deafening.

I stared at Aura lying on the floor.

She wasn’t crying even now. She couldn’t. She could barely even lift a finger.

“Why!? You can just run away again…… can’t you!?”

I screamed at Aura again. “You can do anything! You have that kind of power!”

Aura moved her head. She turned to face me; one cheek covered by her hair.

The line of her jaw moved as she tried to say something to me.

I listened to Aura’s voice.

It was faint, yet confident.

“Because then Carl…… would be sad.”

Stop that!

I didn’t want to hear that! I didn’t want you to say anything!

I opened my mouth to scream. I tried desperately to scream.

But my voice was trapped in my throat and my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth. I was about to get swept away in a wave of panic.

My breaths came in ragged fits.

“Why?”

I forced my hoarse voice out through gritted teeth and tried to identify what I was feeling.

Hatred. Repulsion. Confusion. Disgust. Like I was chewing on sand.

I raised a hand to my throat.

I shuddered and took in a deep breath that sounded like a whistle.

“I am not…… I am not sad!”

I sounded like a crying child.

I didn’t want to be pitied.

I didn’t want anyone protecting me or showing me kindness.

So, I screamed.

Because I believed that the more I screamed, the stronger I would be.

But really, it was the opposite.

I was like a driver who’d driven into the sea. As they ran out of oxygen, they would lose all sense of direction. They’d keep struggling and searching for light and air, only to end up diving deeper into the dark, unforgiving ocean.

“Sora!”

But I still screamed out his name with all the strength and willpower I could muster.

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