Why... why?!
Was this the price of trying to change fate?
Hirohiko and Yukina had been dragged down with me too? No! Absolutely not... I absolutely couldn't let Hirohiko and Yukina be dragged down too!
I wasn't dead yet, not dead yet. Since I wasn't dead yet, there was still a way, still a way! Regret, despair, indignation, self-reproach, shame... all kinds of emotions tangled together, ultimately turning into an intensely unwilling thought in Chiba's heart.
"Bang!"
A heavy, muffled impact echoed through the Sealed Space's dim yellow world. Ripple after ripple slowly spread from beneath the standing boy's feet, wave after wave.
Calm down!
Taki Chiba, calm down!
You're not dead yet, not dead yet!
Nothing has been set in stone. The fact that you still exist is the best proof that there's still a sliver of hope! His tightly shut eyes slowly opened, and his twisted, almost ferocious expression gradually eased. Chiba took a deep breath. The pain in his fist felt somewhat illusory, yet also somewhat real.
But it truly stirred his pain receptors, allowing him to clearly feel "pain."
This pain seemed like physical pain, proving that I still exist, that I'm not dead yet!
And this wasn't the Pure Land, but the Sealed Space within my body whose existence I had long confirmed!
So, I wasn't dead yet! Since I wasn't dead, there was still hope. As long as there was hope, I hadn't lost. If I hadn't lost, then I could still win! Don't let it crush you!
It wasn't time to give up yet! It wasn't time to give up!
As long as I didn't give up, it wasn't over!
But if I gave up now, then it would truly mean the end!
"Whew... whew..."
With that thought, Chiba took several deep breaths.