In times of sickness and in times of health.
In times of happiness and in times of grievance.
In times of richness and in times of poverty.
Not even death shall do us apart.
—That is why I decided to entrust it to you.
First Love:
—His first love was a dead body.
“—”
Reverberating heartbeats accompanied the longing sighs.
Kuga Mushiki, not knowing what the feelings forming inside his chest were, stood silently in that place.
He was neither an assassin with a penchant for blood, nor was he a necrophiliac.
One can at least say that, up to this point, he has never killed anyone, nor has he ever possessed a collection of photographs of corpses. If anything, one could say that he had the same amount of aversion to those things as the average person.
However, he was now unable to take his eyes away from ‘that’ which had appeared before him.
That—was a girl drenched in blood facing upwards.
Her age must have been somewhere around 16 or 17 years.
The lingering traces of her cherubic visage still gave off an alluring and lovely appeal to her face.
The streetlights illuminated her hair as it shone a color which one could not say was Gold or Silver.
Due to her having her eyes closed, their color couldn’t be discerned. Nonetheless, far from taking away something from her, that made her well-defined nose bridge and her beautifully shaped lips stand out even more. The sheer beauty of it all made her look less like a human, and instead emphasized her bisque doll-like beauty.
Finally, as if to give color to the girl’s figure, her bright red blood, reminiscent of a rose, continued to flow from her chest, expanding its territory further and further.
It was…
Appalling.
Cruel.
Brutal…
But most of all, it was so beautiful that it made one feel dizzy with just one glance.
Ahhh, that’s right. There was no doubting it anymore.
For the first time in his life, and with that girl, Mushiki had—
—fallen in love.
“… Y… ou… are…”
“!!”
After a few moments of staring in a daze, what brought Mushiki back to his senses was that weak and ephemeral voice.
Yes, with great difficulty, the girl who was lying collapsed on the ground had just spoken to him.
—She’s still alive.
Mushiki was ashamed of having jumped to the wrong conclusion.
But more than that shame, what he felt was relief in knowing that the girl still had some life left in her.
“Are you okay?! What in the world happened?!”
Mushiki called out to the girl as he knelt beside her and grabbed her by the shoulders to shake her softly.
His mind was in complete chaos after finding himself in a situation in which he could not make head nor tails of anything.
Even so, his instinct to save the girl before his eyes allowed him to hold onto his last straw of sanity.
Slowly and feebly the girl opened her eyes.
Those eyes shone in many different colors. Those fairytale-like eyes softly traced Mushiki’s visage.
“… Ha, ha… I see… This is… Unexpected…
Ahh… Still, I’m glad… I’m happy that… You were the one… I saw in my last…”
“Eh?”
Unable to understand the meaning behind the girl’s words, Mushiki’s expression was painted in confusion.
It must’ve been the loss of blood playing games on her mind. That’s only normal. She needed proper medical attention immediately.
However, just as there were no medical facilities there, Mushik tooi lacked the necessary knowledge to administer it. Even calling for an ambulance is impossible, since his cellphone has been unable to connect since a while back.
In that case, Mushiki’s only choice was to carry the girl on his back and take her to a hospital.
In spite of that, just where could he go in this aberrantly transformed world?
“—!”
At that moment, having faintly heard someone’s footsteps coming from behind him, Mushiki lifted his face.
He didn’t know who they were, but they were a godsend. He lacked the manpower to do anything. As such, Mushiki thought of turning to face them and ask for their assistance.
But, before he could do it,
“…! Not good! Ru…!”
“… Huh…”
It happened before the girl could finish her sentence.
Mushiki let out a bewildered voice at the burning pain that emanated from his chest.
He turned his face downwards. When he saw it, there was a flower matching the girl’s starting to blossom.
It was then that he finally understood.
—He had been impaled in his chest by the person who showed up that moment.
“Ugh, aagh…”
By the time he had processed what happened, he could no longer move his body at will.
The world surrounding him began to flicker and his legs and arms went numb.
As the sharp pain extended and took control of his body, even breathing became a difficult feat.
Gradually, it became more and more challenging for Mushiki to remain on his feet, until at last, he collapsed to the ground next to the girl.
“…”
The footsteps let him know that the person who had assaulted him had turned to leave.
However, for Mushiki as he was now, forget about chasing after the culprit, he couldn’t even manage to turn to look at them and ascertain their appearance.
With a cough, the blood from his throat escaped his mouth and flowed down his cheek to the ground.
His consciousness, assailed by the torturing pain, was slowly fading away.
His sense of touch became sluggish; his sense of taste began to fade; his sense of smell grew dull; his sense of sight blurred.
And yet, even with his senses as hazy as they were, there was one thing that he could feel, but only vaguely.
The girl lying next to him, using the last of her strength, crawled next to his body and then stood above it, covering it.
“… I’m sorry. I ended up… getting you involved.
But… Now that it’s come to this… there’s no helping it. I’ll give you the honor… of me staying with you, until the end…”
As she spoke, the girl put her hand on Mushiki’s cheek—
And she covered his lips with her own.
“—”
The girl’s blood and his own blood.
A first kiss with the horrid taste of their blood mixed together.
Nonetheless, Mushiki could not even show any sort of reaction to it, for his body had already been gradually losing its senses.
His consciousness was on the brink of fading out.
But before it did, with the last remnant of his sense of hearing, he could hear the girl’s whisper.
“—To you, I’ll entrust my world—”
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