Father...

Uncle Kyosuke moved his hand away from Bewildering Pupil, and another trickle of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

He looked at the two figures leaving outside the window for a moment, wiped away the blood at his lips, and turned his gaze back to the boy lying on the bed.

His gaze gradually softened.

Beneath the pitch-black sky, the city outside the window was deathly still. Only the continuous rumble of thunder echoed in the distance, while dazzling blue light surged at the heart of the city, occasionally illuminating a corner of the dim room.

Uncle Kyosuke sat beside the snow-white bed. The flashing lightning outside cast his silhouette onto the wall, making him look like a towering giant silently keeping watch at the white-haired boy's side.

After a long time, he slowly rose and shuffled toward the desk nearby.

Supporting himself against the desktop with both hands, he struggled into the chair. His fingers trembled uncontrollably; his body was already at its limit.

A faint golden light flickered over Bewildering Pupil's hilt. A moment later, Uncle Kyosuke's figure swayed, returning to his original appearance.

His current condition was no longer enough to sustain a change in his appearance.

Beside the desk under the night sky, a gaunt old man with withered white hair sat quietly, trembling as he picked up a fountain pen.

That was Yurina Kurotetsu's true appearance.

There was no clean, short black hair, no handsome face, no straight and upright posture... He sat there hunched over, gray mottled patches emerging across his skin. Beneath those wrinkled, overlapping blotches was an aged face ravaged by terminal illness.

He raised his head and looked at himself in the mirror on the desk. A bitter smile appeared on his cracked lips.

*I said I wanted to