Chapter 27: “The Connection So We’ll Never Let Go Again”
“...G‚ gggg...”
The world beneath our feet groaned ominously‚ like the stomach of a giant monster long past its expiration date.
Rain slammed down with violent mass‚ and the mud tried to suck at our ankles as if seducing them in.
For a doomsday world‚ it’s amazing how energetic it is when it comes to these kinds of “harassment events for players.”
“Eeeek! Rin-chan‚ this is like the Marshmallow Kingdom getting ‘high-speed whipped’ in a giant mixer!”
Supporting Haru-kun’s mud-covered right shoulder‚ I desperately kicked away fragments of crumbling asphalt.
Behind us‚ even the huge rock I’d shattered earlier to save Haru-kun was swallowed up‚ as a pitch-black torrent chewed through the ruins of the city and surged closer.
“…Nagisa‚ marshmallows can wait. Lower your center of gravity! The ground’s fluidity is… exceeding prior calculations.”
Rin-chan shouted while her feet were caught in the mud.
In her hand‚ the needle of a brass compass kept spinning wildly—like my tail when snacks are put in front of me. A magnetic anomaly. The influence of the “Black Wall” in the west.
“I know‚ but my right leg is like… putting up a sign that says ‘We are closing permanently as of today’! I can’t feel it—honestly I’m not even sure it’s still there!”
“…Don’t close shop on your own. We still have distance to the high ground. Haru‚ stop dragging your leg! Endure while being mindful of the section modulus!”
Rin-chan’s voice was calm‚ but urgency seeped through it.
Beside her‚ Haru-kun made that voice again. A calm equation of despair.
“…It’s pointless. I’ve included the drag of my injured leg and the flow speed of the water behind us in my calculations. At this speed‚ the survival probability of all three of us is below 0.01%. Detaching me is the rational—”
“Haru-kun‚ this isn’t math class right now!”
I shouted and tried to pull his body toward me by force—and at that moment.
CRACKKKK!!
The world made a sound like it was splitting apart.
No—actually‚ it did split.
The block of slope we were standing on slid downstream all at once‚ like a puzzle piece being pulled out.
“Kyaaah!?”
My vision flipped upside down.
Gravity vanished‚ and the next moment came a violent impact.
Haru-kun’s small body was flung toward the whirl of muddy water‚ obeying the law of inertia.
“Haru-kun!!”
My body moved before my thoughts did.
Reflexively‚ I looped the end of the rescue wire I’d been gripping in my right hand around a nearby steel beam protrusion.
Then I thrust my free left hand toward Haru-kun‚ who was flying through the air.
Clack!
The shock shot through me like it would tear my shoulder joint apart.
Mud splashed‚ and cold rain battered my eyeballs.
In my left hand was the feel of Haru-kun’s wrist. In my right hand‚ the lifeline wire.
At the edge of a collapsing cliff‚ I had become the “bridge” connecting two lives.
“…N-Nagisa! Stop! That part’s collapsing too!”
Rin-chan reached out to grab my collar‚ but her own foothold crumbled like sand.
“I won’t let go! If I let go here‚ my ‘exciting life’ will turn into a notebook of nothing but regretful black history!”
Lying flat on the slope‚ I desperately poured strength into my fingers.
I will never let go.
That’s what my whole body screamed.
“…Ah…”
At that moment‚ a “this is over” sensation ran through my left hand.
The fingertips gripping Haru-kun’s wrist twitched like a toy whose batteries had died—completely unrelated to my will.
(Huh…? Just now‚ my fingers… are they alive? Or did they submit their resignation?)
“…Nagisa? Your arm is shaking. Pull him closer. That foothold is completely dead!”
Rin-chan shouted from above the slope.
But that’s not it.
Even though my brain screamed “Grip! Grip until it crushes!”‚ my fingertips completely ignored the command.
There was no sensation.
My fingers felt like they were turning into some cold‚ soft “foreign object‚” no longer part of my body—and the fear was primal.
“Rin-chan… my fingers… it’s like someone magically turned them into real marshmallows…”
I tried to joke to hide my fear‚ but my voice trembled.
“I can’t… put any strength… into them…”
That was the limit.
Yesterday’s injury. Days of forced marching. And the impact just now.
My grip strength had long since spent its advance loan of adrenaline and was completely depleted.
“…What? Dehydration…? No‚ nerve compression from earlier…!”
Rin-chan stared at my pale fist in shock.
Her expression was calm‚ but inside it screamed “don’t break‚ don’t fail‚ don’t die.”
“…See? This is exactly the statistical development I predicted.”
Haru-kun‚ hanging in midair below the cliff‚ spoke calmly in a voice almost swallowed by the sound of water.
“…Nagisa-san’s finger muscle tissue has already reached its limit. Physically holding on is impossible. The friction coefficient is decreasing… you’ll slip in a few seconds. Please give up.”
His voice was quiet and gentle.
But it was correct and cold—like a death sentence.
“I won’t give up…! If my fingers can’t do it‚ then my arms will… if my arms can’t‚ I’ll bite down with my teeth before I let go…!”
I pressed my trembling body against the wire.
But the wet metal slipped mercilessly‚ and my skin was dragged back toward the cold mud.
Haru-kun’s body dropped a few centimeters.
“…Nagisa‚ don’t move! If you wrap it wrong‚ your arm bones will snap under your own weight!”
Rin-chan tried to rush over‚ but a new crack in the ground blocked her.
(This is bad… Rin-chan might fall too…! That can’t happen…!)
My fingertips began opening one by one‚ as if someone had pressed a “sleep switch.”
My tears fell into the mud and dissolved immediately in the rain.
“…Calm down‚ Nagisa.”
Suddenly Rin-chan’s voice cut through the rain.
Low‚ heavy‚ and absolute.
“If your fingers won’t move… then we just secure it with another mechanical method.”
Her voice carried the cold tone of an “engineer” again.
Before my ‘life HP’ dropped to zero‚ Rin-chan’s mind was about to hammer out another miracle.
“…You only give up after my calculations reach complete zero.”
The next moment‚ a shadow fell above my head.
Mud-covered Rin-chan slid down the unstable slope.
No—it was a controlled descent right on the edge of a fall.
She slammed her climbing boots into a rock beside me to brake‚ then violently opened the backpack she was carrying.
What she pulled out was a spare rubber gasket from the tool bag.
And then—she stabbed a knife into the sleeve of the waterproof jacket she was wearing and ripped it without hesitation.
Rip! Rrrrip!!
(Huh… did she just rip her clothes…? That expensive jacket of Rin-chan’s—without hesitation!?)
“Rin-chan‚ what are you doing? Decorating my marshmallow fingers with a cute bandage?”
I joked to hide my anxiety‚ but Rin-chan gave me the look she uses when she’s *really* exasperated.
Even in the cold rain‚ only her eyes burned with heat.
“…Decoration? Of course not. Look carefully. I’m making a ‘lifeline.’”
Rin-chan wrapped a strip of cloth torn from her sleeve around my lifeless left hand.
“Nagisa‚ even if it hurts‚ don’t make a sound. I’m going to physically ‘integrate’ your hand‚ the wire‚ and Haru’s arm.”
“Integrate…!? Does that mean I’ll fuse with the wire and become the ultimate ‘Cyborg Nagisa’!?”
“…Stop saying stupid things and grit your teeth! I’m going to maximize the friction coefficient!”
With that shout‚ Rin-chan overlapped my left hand with Haru-kun’s wrist and bound them with the cloth over and over—like tying them into a single living organism.
Then she wrapped the black rubber gasket over it with brute force and fixed everything solidly with tool duct tape.
Squeeze‚ squeeeze!
The pressure of the tightening made blood that should have stopped surge violently again.
“Ahh‚ that hurts! Rin-chan‚ you’re tightening it too much! My arm’s turning into a sashimi course!”
“…If it’s loose‚ it will slip out. Cry if you want‚ but do not move.”
Rin-chan’s work was brutally precise.
The elasticity of the rubber and the adhesive power of the tape.
Combining them‚ she replaced the uncertain factor of my “grip strength” with the absolute fact of “materials mechanics.”
“Listen‚ Nagisa. Even if your fingers can’t move‚ with this ‘improvised assist tool’ you’ll be able to pull using all the muscles in your arms‚ your back‚ and your body weight. This is a new ‘line’ that physically reinforces your stubbornness.”
Rin-chan’s voice was calm‚ but every knot held a curse-like prayer of “never let go.”
“…It’s irrational. A scrap of cloth and a worthless piece of rubber… it won’t endure the load for even ten seconds.”
Haru-kun protested with a trembling voice from below the cliff.
But Rin-chan did not waver at all.
After checking the knot’s strength with her fingertips‚ she pressed close behind me so that our backs touched.
“…Ten seconds is more than enough to pull you up. Nagisa‚ use my body as an anchor. The two of us will become one unbreakable pillar.”
Rin-chan reached her arms around from behind and firmly embraced the wire along with my arm.
At that moment—
The warmth traveling through my back pushed back the cold rain.
Thump‚ thump. Rin-chan’s heartbeat echoed through my spine into me.
“…Hey‚ Rin-chan… you’re really warm.”
“…Your imagination. It’s merely the maintenance of thermal conductivity through shared body heat.”
A curt reply.
But I felt the trembling core inside me click into place because of that warmth.
“Let’s go‚ Nagisa. Put all your ‘excitement’ and your ‘stubborn pride’ onto this one wire!”
“Okay…!”
The awkward “lifeline” we improvised together cried out with a creak.
The rubber stretched‚ the tape groaned.
But—it didn’t slip.
Instead of my unmoving marshmallow fingers‚ Rin-chan’s “engineering” firmly captured Haru-kun’s life.
(Rin-chan… I can still… do this…!)
“Gooooo!!”
I threw every bit of strength I had left into my legs‚ my hips‚ and the arm “fused” with Rin-chan.
The wound in my right leg exploded with pain.
But I turned even that pain into thrust.
The rubble beneath our feet collapsed with a sinister sucking sound.
The muddy torrent licked its lips and approached.
(No no no! There’s no ‘three-person human platter’ on today’s menu!)
But on my back—I had Rin-chan’s solid weight.
I wasn’t alone. Not by myself.
So I could pull!
“…Ah… aah…!”
Haru-kun’s body slowly—but surely—began rising from the muddy slope.
The “lifeline” we made groaned like a dying scream‚ yet forced the hopeless probabilities into submission.
“…Unbelievable. The calculations… are completely off. How can such a ragged scrap of cloth…”
Haru-kun’s voice began trembling—not with fear‚ but astonishment.
“Haru-kun‚ calculations‚ you know… we’re rewriting them by force right here! Rin-chan‚ just a little more‚ right!?”
“…Don’t talk. Turn all lung capacity into torque! Until the final ground collapse… fifteen seconds… no‚ ten…!”
Veins bulged in Rin-chan’s arms like I’d never seen before.
Her calculations weren’t for giving up anymore.
They were a countdown to push through a winning line.
Rumble…!
One final massive shake.
We roared and pulled the wire with everything we had.
Haru-kun’s mud-covered body flew through the air and rolled onto the rock shelf.
At the same time‚ the slope we had been clinging to disappeared into the torrent with a tremendous roar‚ as if it had never existed.
Spray shot upward and the thunderous noise shook our eardrums.
But in our arms‚ there remained a warm weight.
“Haa… haa… haa…!”
Still overlapping with Rin-chan‚ I collapsed face-down on the cold ground.
My tightly bound arm throbbed with congested blood‚ but it was the pain of being alive.
Inside my heart was an incredible satisfaction—like the time I devoured three top-tier parfaits all at once.
“…Ninety-eight percent. Normally‚ the probability of all of us surviving should have been nearly zero…”
On top of the rubble‚ Haru-kun stared blankly up at the white misty sky.
His small mud-covered body trembled slightly‚ but his eyes held a definite light.
He searched his chest pocket with shaking hands.
What he pulled out was—despite being dirty with mud‚ strangely not torn in a single place—a notebook.
“…Oh‚ that. Your treasure‚ Haru-kun?”
When I asked while catching my breath‚ Haru-kun shook his head a little sadly.
“…No. All the pages inside are blank. I planned to write in it someday when I found data worth recording… but I almost sank without writing anything at all.”
A blank notebook.
To me‚ who had lost the bundle of precious memories—my sketchbook—it looked strangely dazzling and new.
(Blank… that’s nice… If there’s nothing yet…)
“…If it’s blank‚ you can write whatever you want from now on.”
Rin-chan said‚ wiping mud from her face as if she had read my thoughts ahead of time.
Carefully untying the awkward “lifeline” still digging into my arm‚ she gave a fearless grin.
“We’ll DIY that ‘value’ from scratch. Your favorite probabilities‚ formulas‚ what happened today—everything.”
That smile was warm even in the rain.
In the western sky‚ ominous black clouds still sat like a wall.
That shadow would surely stand in our way many times on the journey ahead.
But—
In our hands‚ we held a new companion and a “pure white future” we could begin to fill in.
“Alright‚ Haru-kun! Our next adventure is officially to fill that notebook with our colors!”
I declared loudly.
My voice was hoarse‚ my whole body wrecked‚ but deep in my chest burned with heat.
The roar of the muddy torrent faded into the distance‚ and the mist slowly thinned.
The end-of-the-world was still crying—but our story quietly‚ yet powerfully‚ stepped forward from here into the very heart of a new journey.
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