Damn it!
Damn it!
Damn it!
The scenes born from Nao's account kept replaying in his mind. Chiba gradually clenched his teeth tighter and tighter, until his gums turned white and he nearly crushed his teeth.
To personally kill the lover who was almost family, the person most important to you... If it were him, he probably would not be able to bear it. If he had to face that kind of pain, Chiba might linger at the edge of collapse every day, ultimately breaking down into madness under that torment.
And precisely because of that, he did not know how to comfort Hirohiko, how to help Hirohiko escape this pain, how... to save Hirohiko! From Nao's account, Chiba could infer with certainty that Hirohiko had been conscious when he killed Nao. His body had simply been beyond his control. After all, while the condition for awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan was said to be killing or witnessing the death of someone closest and most beloved, what truly awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan was the intense emotional upheaval after losing that person.
If that man had used genjutsu to make Hirohiko lose consciousness, then Hirohiko would not have seen Nao die, nor experienced the process of her death. In that case, he could not have awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan—or rather, he could not have awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan at that very moment.
And according to Nao's account, in the last thing she saw, Hirohiko had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan.
That was to say, Hirohiko had retained his memories while killing Nao. He could even feel every physical change that occurred as he killed her.
Though he could not control himself, all his senses remained intact.
This was also the viciousness of the man Nao had spoken of—the man Chiba had basically confirmed