Chapter 19

"How could he think that way? Isn't that just cheating?" Even Higuchi Ichiyō, an ardent Akutagawa fan, couldn't help speaking up.

"No." Ryunosuke Akutagawa's brows knitted tightly.

"What is it, Akutagawa-senpai?"

"Something's wrong with him." With a stray dog's keen instincts, Ryunosuke Akutagawa had sensed it, yet for the moment, he couldn't put it into words.

Fyodor suddenly let out a laugh and helplessly pressed a hand to his forehead. "What a... consummate liar." More frightening still, even he hadn't escaped this deception. There was even a trace of hatred in his voice.

"What do you mean?" Chūya Nakahara looked around blankly. Hadn't these people been defending An Xinyi just a moment ago?

Osamu Dazai shot him a glance. "Slugs really are single-celled organisms. Being brainless must be a kind of bliss."

Before Chūya Nakahara could explode, he continued, "Does An Xinyi really possess normal love? Is the love he speaks of truly what we imagine it to be?"

The auburn-haired man's eyes darkened. "Or has he told so many lies that even he can no longer tell the difference?"

That love was genuine, beyond all doubt.

But was that love really what they imagined it to be?

Whatever the case, An Xinyi's psyche was far too abnormal.

The screen lit up again.

If anything, An Xinyi, who had always protected humanity, was most certainly an inhuman existence.

Love of unknown origin, an obsession for which he would trample even himself.

An Xinyi was a true outsider living among humanity.

"What an accurate assessment." Osamu Dazai couldn't help agreeing. "Humans possess love, and humans give love, but anyone who takes it this far must be inhuman."

Ranpo didn't refute Dazai either. He merely frowned.

Fyodor sighed deeply. "God loves the world. God has mercy on the world."

"And God is most certainly not human."

So are you a flawless god, or an unparalleled liar?

There was probably no one in the world who could truly understand An Xinyi.

No one could understand his actions, no one could understand his obsession, and still less could anyone understand his love.

Even Fyodor, who had received a star, had never entered 948's inner world. Even Ayatsuji Yukito, who had watched a fireworks display with him, had failed to uncover 143's mystery, let alone all the other An Xinyis who were so similar yet different.

An Xinyis who might be extraordinarily alike, yet still had their differences.

"So why do you do these things, Mr. An Xinyi?" DD asked a similar question again.

"There's no particular reason." An Xinyi 144 didn't stop what he was doing. "Because we're protecting something? Because we love something?"

"If that's what you think, then you're probably wrong."

"143's self-assessment was correct. An Xinyi is a villain through and through."

An Xinyi 144 revealed an utterly indifferent side of himself. "For us, imposing our own will over the will of others is the norm."

"Even if we restart countless times solely to ensure humanity's survival, in the end, we're still toying with humanity's fate."

"By now, we no longer keep trying because we're powerless to reverse humanity's defeat. Instead, we keep restarting to achieve an ending where humanity lives forever, because we're determined to get the outcome we want, because we refuse to accept that defeat no matter what, and... because we want to end this nightmarish cycle."

"So we've been pure egoists from the very beginning."

An Xinyi 144 laughed. "That's why we're villains, not saints."

No amount of justification meant anything, because An Xinyi's original sin had been sealed with the very first restart.

That was why he needed neither anyone's gratitude nor anyone's tears. In the end, all of this was An Xinyi's own affair.

Something that had nothing to do with anyone else.

"This is downright unsettling." Chūya Nakahara voiced exactly how he felt. "Maybe even he can't tell whether he harbors goodwill or malice toward humanity anymore." Because his mindset had been neither good nor evil from the outset.

Mori Ougai frowned. "He's too dangerous." He appeared harmless to humanity, even beneficial, but his underlying mentality was far too dangerous.

Santoka Taneda agreed. "Indeed. He needs oversight."

Fukuchi Ochi shook his head. "There's no way to keep his ability under control. Besides..." He glanced around. "Even if no one says it aloud, hardly any of us have been left unaffected. If it really came to killing him, who would be willing to do it?"

Both Mori Ougai and Santoka Taneda fell silent. Yukichi Fukuzawa slowly shook his head. "Whatever the case, his achievements cannot be erased." Without An Xinyi, that world would have been destroyed long ago.

Moreover, these leaders knew full well that, never mind anyone else, even they found themselves wavering despite themselves. There was even less hope of anyone else hardening their hearts.

"Forget it." Mori Ougai gave up outright. He sought the optimal solution, not futile effort. "He can't be killed." With so many An Xinyis, how could they kill them all? Especially when even their own subordinates might refuse to cooperate. It was pointless.

"Ha! Isn't this guy more like a cursed spirit than I am?" Ryomen Sukuna genuinely found this person fascinating. No, he wasn't human at all.

"If he exists in our world too, I'll have to take a good look at him." Ryomen Sukuna bared his white teeth in a wild grin.

"Get back in there already! This is my body." Yuji Itadori slapped Ryomen Sukuna back down again.

"I'm afraid I cannot understand." DD's logical reasoning couldn't properly evaluate An Xinyi's words. "Regardless, the outcome benefits humanity, doesn't it? A villain harms other people's interests."

"Sometimes self-righteous love hurts people even more." An Xinyi 144 shrugged. "Forcing your kindness on others and giving them too much love must be a mistake too."

An Xinyi 144 finished the experiment he was working on. "Counterfeits like us, whose growth was forced, really do have flaws. I understand these principles, but I still unconsciously go too far... Only Zero is truly human. Even 143 doesn't qualify. But after going through so much, a real human would definitely go mad."

"Even we don't know what state Zero is in."

An Xinyi shook his head, then seemed to remember something and sank into recollection.

"Actually, we do occasionally reflect on some of the things we've done."

DD interjected, "Have you done something wrong?"

"Wrong... If only it were that easy to tell," An Xinyi said, pressing a hand to his forehead. "We merely did what we believed was right. But even we don't know whether it was right or wrong."

"It's just that even the victim hasn't said anything, so we have even less idea how to judge it."

DD wanted badly to press him further, but An Xinyi had no intention of answering.

His gaze merely seemed to drift unconsciously to one of the surveillance screens, where a childish detective was wandering around the streets. Unsurprisingly, he had gotten lost.

Indeed, after so many cycles, An Xinyi and his counterparts had probably worked out which things they needed to avoid.

For instance, Ranpo Edogawa before Yukichi Fukuzawa took him in was someone they absolutely had to avoid.

This was most certainly not just because he was too clever and far too unrestrained. The main reason was... he would latch on to them.

Because Ranpo Edogawa would see perfectly clearly that An Xinyi wouldn't leave Ranpo to starve to death, and that he also happened to be a highly capable, all-purpose babysitter.

Because they were both outsiders living lonely lives among humanity.

And so, after that cycle, An Xinyi had never again met that equally lonely child.

In the end, An Xinyi had no companions at all.