For a five-year-old child like Afterglow, lying in a beautiful illusion was preferable to opening his eyes and touching the truth.
He wanted to return to the Takekawa Society's factory apartment. He wished he were the one who was sick. He wanted his mother back.
"Go away! Get out of my home!"
Afterglow's little hands flailed at the air, but the blood-soaked figures only pressed closer.
"Run, Afterglow! Escape this city! Don't become medicine for the adults. Run as far away as you can!"
"I have to wait for Mom to come back!"
"She won't come back. She only saw you as something she could sell for money, using her womb to sell your soul."
"You're lying! You bad children! Mom was right. You're all bad children, and that's why you were punished."
"Deep down, you know we aren't lying. That's exactly why you're scared, why you're falling apart, why you're suffering! Afterglow, run away. Take our memories with you and leave this city!" The children's voices grew shrill.
"Shut up! Shut up! Get out of my home! Get out of my head!" Unable to hit the children, Afterglow began pounding his own head, as though he wanted to smash a hole in it and dig out the voices hiding inside.
"We can't be separated anymore. Your father, Black Man-Bear, has been mixing Old Medicine into the nutritious meals he feeds you. Afterglow, you grew up drinking our blood. Our memories seeped into your body long ago."
"You're a sickness! Once I'm cured, I'll never see you again!"
"Afterglow, it's the adults in this city who are sick. Run away. If you stay, you'll become medicine. If you fight back, you'll turn into a mindless monster and become a forbidden zone. We tried so many ways, but none of them