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Hunter J's bloodless lips abruptly closed. She said nothing, as though Dian's words meant nothing to her.
She glanced at the cracks on her hands... injuries inflicted by the bitterly cold air currents.
But she had suffered wounds like these countless times before. Her heart had long since gone beyond numbness, becoming indifferent and hollow.
"Is that so?" She tilted her head back toward the endlessly towering sky and said only those few words.
As for all those questions of why, it really wasn't that complicated. She wanted to live, and living required a goal.
Dian turned his head. Before him lay a field of ruins. The dark clouds overhead were gradually dispersing, but snowflakes still drifted down everywhere he looked, crystalline and pure.
The snowflakes slowly fell, little by little covering the collapsed buildings, the shattered ground, and even countless scenes filled with memories...
Just then, a soccer ball "?" suddenly rolled over. Not far away, a little girl holding an umbrella "?" watched timidly, afraid to approach.
What her eyes reflected was none other than the Pikachu at Dian's feet.
In the past, she would surely have cried out, "Wow, it's Pikachu!! So cute!"
But now, those eyes held unfamiliarity, concealing fear...
"Pika?"
Pikachu's long ears twitched as though sensing something, and it tilted its head to look over.
Yet that simple movement made the little girl clutch her parasol tightly. Her feet, clad in ill-fitting leather boots, slowly took several steps backward.
Then, without even bothering about the soccer ball, she quickly closed her umbrella and ran away, finally disappearing behind a couple.
From far away, the couple