Logan's Efforts to Avoid Getting PTSD

Kryptonite?

Why did the Kryptonite mark appear on The World?

Was it radiation from the last meteor shockwave?

Locke hadn't forgotten that, according to Dio, The World had blocked the first shockwave back then.

This was bad.

If Locke remembered correctly, little Lex had gone bald because of that radiation.

Could The World's intense self-improvement be because of...

"All right, I was just checking whether 'The World' would keep developing." Suppressing his surging emotions, Locke smiled calmly on the surface. "Dio, go back to sleep."

"Oh."

Dio lay down and chose to sleep.

Locke quietly left the room, but before he went, he couldn't help saying,

"Dio."

"Aren't you curious about the future that future person mentioned?"

"Tch."

Dio turned over. "Dad, wasn't that what you said?"

"You don't have any responsibility to worry about what happens in the future."

"And Dad, haven't you been getting a little too naggy lately? Menopause?"

The corner of Locke's mouth twitched violently.

Good kid, using his own words to shut him up!

If you don't know the future, how am I supposed to beat you?!

"Good night, brat."

Stepping forward quickly, Locke gritted his teeth and messed up Dio's hair. Amid the teenager's muttered protests, he walked to the door and left the room.

He might as well check whether Logan was awake.

Quietly heading downstairs, Locke used the Platinum-Grade Listening Device's extraordinary hearing.

Rustling sounds came from the kitchen again.

"F***! F***! Why is this damn gas stove so hard to use?"

Low curses came with sharp clinks of metal striking metal.

"Where's the fire? Where's my fire? Damn it..."

The corner of Locke's mouth twitched. He deliberately made his footsteps heavier and even coughed twice.

"Cough! Cough cough!"

Sure enough, the rustling in the kitchen stopped at once.

By the time he strolled into the kitchen, he saw Logan with an unlit cigarette between his lips, one hand braced against the counter as he struck the pose of a brooding tough guy.

Honestly.

Locke really couldn't appreciate this kind of aloof wolf.

He preferred that stray dog from earlier.

"Farmer."

Without turning around, Logan said hoarsely, "Your gas stove..."

"Actually, this is the age of induction cookers."

Expressionless, Locke pressed the power button. Blue light immediately lit up on the stovetop. "It's 1997. We're starting to care about the environment, Logan."

Logan's expression froze. He pretended to study the control panel.

"...I was wondering why I couldn't find the ignition switch. So we're already so close to the twenty-first century, huh? Ha ha."

Shaking his head, how could Locke fail to understand after seeing Wolverine like this?

His future friend had gone back.

To be honest, he'd initially thought future Logan had physically traveled through time like Giorno. It seemed that only his consciousness had come instead.

"Farmer, it's been a long time." Logan cleared his throat and leaned against the refrigerator in the toughest-guy pose possible. "So... where did you pick me up?"

"..."

Locke shook his head and gave a helpless smile.

"You might not believe it, but you broke into my house yourself."

"Heh."

With a cold snort, his steel claws unconsciously extended half an inch.

"Farmer, you think I'm an idiot you can fool?"

He pointed at his mud-caked boots. "My last memory is of hunting down a group of human traffickers in the forest in the next state over!"

"Is that so?"

With no intention of arguing, Locke merely made a gesture.

Hmm?

Frowning, Logan was somewhat displeased, but he still chose to follow.

He'd treat it as running into an old friend in a foreign land and catch up with this pretending fellow countryman.

Accompanied by heavy footsteps, the two went to the living room one after the other. Locke then crouched down and turned on the recording equipment beneath the TV cabinet.

The old CRT television flickered a few times before it began playing the living room surveillance footage.

Tom's prosthetic leg...

Why would a twentieth-century farmer install surveillance cameras in his house?!

But before Logan could sneer, he frowned deeply and stared at the footage playing at quadruple speed.

The image flickered, and somehow, he saw himself stumbling through the door.

He stretched lazily, as if he had returned home.

He casually poured himself a drink, then headed to the kitchen like he knew the place well and brought out all sorts of food. When Locke appeared, his happy self tossed the food aside and excitedly rushed over.

Then...

He hugged the other man's leg and burst into tears?!

"What the f—"

The cigarette fell from his hand, and Logan's eyes widened involuntarily.

His memories told him it could be AI-generated.

But reason told him that the twenty-first century hadn't even arrived yet.

He swallowed and continued staring at the television.

His on-screen self was even shouting nonstop.

Locke, you can't die!

Aaaah!

You naturally evil Kent brat, I'll—

For no apparent reason, he collapsed to the floor and passed out.

In just ten minutes, Logan's expression went from shock to confusion, before finally turning into deep self-doubt.

Trembling, he touched his own face as though confirming whether this was a nightmare.

"I actually, toward a kid..."

His voice was dry. "...got PTSD?"

How could Logan not recognize what condition he had been in?

Patting him sympathetically on the shoulder, Locke sighed. "It's all because I failed to discipline my son properly. Sorry, Log—"

"Enough!"

Logan shot to his feet, and the steel claws he unconsciously extended punched three holes through the sofa's armrest.

He took a deep breath and forcibly changed the subject.

"Forget that. Shouldn't we be talking about the crisis that future me mentioned?"

"Because you died, the kid in your family went without supervision and turned the world upside down?!"

"That's right."

Locke nodded heavily. "That future version of you said I might die before 1999."

He pointed at the frozen image in the surveillance footage of Wolverine weeping bitterly.

"And then you'll become like that."

Logan abruptly stood up and began pacing back and forth across the living room, his steel boots thudding heavily against the floor.

"F***! How did I get dragged into this kind of thing again?!"

He violently raked a hand through his hair.

"Last time it was some purple-potato tyrant, and now it's a future tyrant... Am I a goddamn babysitter?!"

But...

When he caught sight of his own collapsed appearance in the surveillance footage from the corner of his eye, Logan shuddered all over!

No.

Absolutely not!

That humiliating sight could never happen again!

What the hell did future him go through to become like that?!

Just thinking about it was terrifying.

He'd been imprisoned and experimented on so many times without getting PTSD!

Gritting his teeth, he stopped pacing and looked at Locke with a complicated expression.

This farmer...

Future him seemed to have a very good relationship with him?

Good enough to cling to his leg and cry his heart out?

The corner of Logan's mouth twitched as he tried hard to force that image out of his mind.

"Tch, forget it." He irritably rubbed his temples. "I'll treat it as protecting a friend."

Taking a deep breath, Logan suddenly turned and pointed at Locke's nose.

"All right! I've decided!"

"From now on, I'm living here and keeping an eye on you!"

"No."

Locke flatly refused.

Logan froze. "Huh? Why?!"

"Because you're a ticking time bomb." Locke pointed at the dark night outside the window. "People from that organization came this afternoon. They might be searching all of Kansas for you right now. I can't keep someone like you around."

"Future you made it very clear. It's October 1997 now, and my date of death is before December 1998."

"And no matter what happens, I'll be the only one who dies. Dio, Clark, Martha, and Jonathan will all be safe."

"But if you get involved, and that organization finds out..."

"Sorry, Logan. Thank you for your goodwill, my future close friend."

"But I don't want my family to get hurt."

Logan's expression stiffened.

"..."

He slowly raised a hand and frustratedly scratched his head—

Fuck, he'd completely forgotten about that!

"That bastard..." Logan gritted his teeth. "I'd forgotten that department has put me on a global wanted list."