Chapter 31

"This, this is just too..." Mizuki Tsujimura turned the words over several times, but still could not find an accurate way to describe the footage. "I really don't know how to describe it."

It was magnificent and tragically beautiful, with hope seeming to take root amid the despair.

"Quite clearly," Ayatsuji Yukito said, the footage reflected in his reddish-brown eyes, "this is humanity."

The murderous detective, usually so sharp and cold, seemed a little softer now. "Utterly ugly, yet utterly beautiful humanity."

Mizuki Tsujimura was speechless. She had never imagined that she would one day hear such words from Mr. Ayatsuji. Good heavens, this was Mr. Ayatsuji!

"Of course, do stop exposing your shallowness," Ayatsuji Yukito said, quickly reverting to the demeanor Mizuki knew, a cutting curve to his lips. "Are you a single-celled organism? Completely brainless."

"Mr. Ayatsuji!!" That was going too far!

Satoru Gojo suddenly laughed, his breathtaking Six Eyes seeming to light up as well. "Isn't this a good thing?"

"What is it, Satoru?" Masamichi Yaga had no idea what had gotten into him this time.

"No, I just thought-jujutsu sorcerers are always going on about protecting ordinary people, all on their own terms. Isn't that a little ridiculous?" Satoru Gojo rested his chin in his hand. "I really do hate all that self-righteous talk."

Some ordinary people clearly had far stronger wills than those twisted jujutsu sorcerers.

Kento Nanami adjusted his glasses. "Adults who make children face things like this are pieces of shit."

But then he paused. "Still, they did everything they could." These were natural disasters, enemies of unimaginable terror. Everyone had to go to the battlefield, and perhaps there was simply no other choice. At that moment, Kento Nanami did not know how to describe it either, but humanity's sacrifice and courage had already been demonstrated beyond doubt.

Osamu Dazai was no longer covering his face. He had already been publicly humiliated anyway; a little more hardly mattered.

He simply watched the screen, his russet eyes gentle.

How wonderful.

That Dazai had Yiyi, who loved him deeply, Chen Zhongming, who was willing to guide him at the cost of his own life, and such a lovely group of people.

How wonderful. Even he felt a little jealous.

Osamu Dazai had always been exposed to the evil in human nature, taking in every bit of selfishness and malice. But that Dazai had encountered the light in humanity before becoming the worst version of himself.

In the past, he had joined the Mafia because it was the only way to gain more ready access to death and bloodshed, hoping to find the meaning of life within them. Yet back then, he had found nothing.

But that Dazai was different. He, too, had encountered death and bloodshed, yet from that death had bloomed an incomparably beautiful flower of life.

What the hell? He doesn't even need to search, Osamu Dazai thought enviously. All that Dazai has to do is look down, and he'll see it.

The flower of humanity, blossoming from hope and life.

What Osamu Dazai had encountered was merely the tip of the apocalypse's iceberg, and Chen Zhongming was only one ordinary member of the countless transport workers who had sacrificed their lives.

Every moment, every minute, every second, someone died.

An Xinyi had never stopped working. He now oversaw communications for the factory and several surrounding Sea Cities under construction. If communications went down, so did their lifeline.

The work was extremely important. At times, An Xinyi had no choice but to leave the relatively safe factory and venture out into the ice, snow, and raging hurricanes to inspect the lines. After all, the relentless natural disasters destroyed a great deal of infrastructure.

Moreover, the ionosphere, thrown into chaos by the disasters, prevented radio waves from traveling reliably. This meant that most of their former means of communication were unusable. Even with satellites, the signal came and went.

Compared with quantum communication, which could only be used for major matters, wired communication was vulnerable to natural disasters, but it was still a method people now had no choice but to adopt. Many transport workers were also tasked with laying communication lines.

"Mr. An, please be careful!" Li Lu, who had been assigned here as An Xinyi's assistant because he had majored in communications at university, stood below, watching An Xinyi cling to the cliff as he inspected the lines, and called out nervously.

An Xinyi handled almost everything personally, taking the lead even on dangerous assignments and leaving everyone else in a cold sweat.

Only after An Xinyi had climbed safely down could Li Lu breathe a sigh of relief. Even in this freezing weather, he was drenched in sweat.

"Mr. An, do you think we'll make it through this?" After they returned from completing yet another incredibly difficult assignment, the young man, not yet twenty, asked with a lost look.

He was still in the prime of his youth. He had never imagined that he would be dancing with death amid ice and snow. He lacked neither passion nor courage, but he still could not see the road ahead or know what the future held.

"To be honest, I don't know." An Xinyi patted his shoulder. "I haven't thought that far ahead either."

"I have a lot of confidence in what we're doing now, but that's not the only reason."

An Xinyi looked outside. The temperature had long since fallen to twenty or thirty degrees below zero, and hurricanes strong enough to sweep people away raged on. Humans could barely survive in such a hostile environment.

"We can't just sit and wait to die. We have to do something, don't we?"

Li Lu paused, then laughed. "Right. We can't just sit around waiting to die."

"Whatever happens," the young man said, seeming to mature all at once as he stared at his hands, now covered in scars and frostbite, no longer able to remember how smooth and soft they had once been, "I'll start by doing what I can, and doing it well."

"Exactly! That's what humans do-keep moving forward and never give up!" Nobara Kugisaki jumped up in excitement. "Don't you all think so?"

"Exactly!" Yuji Itadori clenched his fists. "Watching this makes me want to go help them so badly."

After all, with the strength of jujutsu sorcerers, they would be far safer than those people.

"That's my best friend for you!" Aoi Todo's eyes brimmed with tears. Who knew how many scenes of them fighting side by side he had imagined? "All right! I need to train my body even harder!"

"Those children are suffering far too much." Kento Nanami's brow furrowed deeply. "That world... is too cruel."

Being a jujutsu sorcerer was already an extraordinarily cruel fate, yet those ordinary people faced far greater hardship and despair. Unless they forced themselves to struggle onward, they could not see even the faintest hope. Even in death, they could not hold on to a single beautiful thing.

"What remarkable willpower and resolve." Even Mori Ougai could not help admiring them. True insight was found in the ordinary. If everyone in that country possessed such determination-no, even if only thirty percent could manage it-they could come together to form an unimaginably formidable force.

Chūya Nakahara watched the screen, something flickering in his azure eyes. "They're beautiful. Those are a warrior's medals." Those were not scars, but their glory, and the glory of being human.

That was why he had never regretted choosing to live as a human.

Verlaine, seated in the back row, seemed to sense something and raised his head.