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Now… I need to ruthlessly push aside the remnants of the past that I have to carry and examine Helena’s wounds.

Trying to tear off her blood-soaked clothes while relying on the headlights was quite a chore.

Or… even if there was a gap, was it impossible for my weak strength to tear through the sturdy Riot gear in the first place?

“A…sha, I’m… really…….”

“Shut up…! Maintain consciousness and just breathe!”

What could a critical patient possibly have to say? I calmed her down as she kept stuttering and trying to talk to me.

People say you can know the depth of ten fathoms of water, but not the heart of one man, but I couldn’t understand why she, the victim, was speaking in a voice filled with guilt.

Her uncharacteristic, cracked, and damp tone pricked at my heart, and it was bitter to think that my decisions, which I believed were considerate, had ultimately returned as a disastrous result, even though I had several opportunities.

But right now, there was something far more important than Helena’s or my mental health.

That was… none other than Helena’s life.

“Ugh…?!”

Helena herself was holding back groans.

From my mouth, after confirming the alarming amount of bleeding, a shrill sound burst out on its own.

…If she’s alive. If she can just cling to life somehow, there are plenty of ways to save her with the medical technology here.

Conversely… if she dies before receiving treatment and her brain is damaged, that’s the end of the person.

I learned while living in the city that Enama’s regeneration technology hasn’t even been commercialized for civilian use yet, and it’s uncertain whether I could even afford the cost.

In that sense, this amount of bleeding is dangerous. It’s not like Helena is as huge as Omen, so if her life force keeps draining like this recklessly, she might die from blood loss or shock.

Fortunately, even if engineers treated as internal staff are an exception, I remember that basic medicines were on the supply list for general combat police, who are field personnel.

If she’s like a living Field Manual, she should definitely have hemostatic agents or pressure bandages in the right place….

“Helena…! Sis! What happened to all the hemostatic agents?!”

“Ahaha…… Sorry, I already. Used them….”

“On what, exactly…!”

No matter how much I rummaged through her pockets, I couldn’t find the first aid tools I was looking for, so I asked if she had dropped them when the Riot gear tore during the battle, and this is the answer I got.

She let out an awkward laugh, so I couldn’t help but snap at her.

She didn’t use them on herself, so if she doesn’t have them, she must have given them to someone else….

I can already see the obvious story, and a sigh escapes me involuntarily.

So, what should I do now?

If stopping the bleeding is impossible for now…? Then should I pull out the bullet first, since it could cause an infection? Or… should I cauterize the wound to try first aid? …Come to think of it, didn’t I break all the surgical equipment while using it for attack purposes?!

“Crap… let’s calm down, calm down…!”

The thought that the fate of all future actions depended on the judgment I made now made it hard to breathe.

I was only thinking of meticulously erasing Helena’s traces from the system, since she had become an enemy of Paradise, and helping her escape, but I didn’t plan on leading it myself.

I don’t intend to avoid the heavy responsibility…. Ah… seriously!

If I had known this would happen, I regret not leaving something behind.

“……Asha. Go home first…. Then I’ll be right….”

“Don’t even say such ridiculous things, okay?”

I resolutely stopped Helena, who was trying to recite a needlessly dramatic line.

It’s ambiguous whether I, an ordinary hacker, am more valuable than this wrecked facility and the dead soldiers, but if worst comes to worst, I’ll contact Dreyfus and beg for my life to survive… so I’ll politely decline any death flags.

To do that… I need to treat her, even if it’s just a simple treatment, first.

It seemed very difficult to physically constrict her body to block the blood flow.

Because shrapnel bombs indiscriminately hit her arms, legs, and even her abdomen, it was too much for me to handle, as I had only barely learned ambiguous common sense and drug usage.

“……Just hold on a little longer!”

I don’t know if this is a good idea, but I thought of something I could try anyway.

In the end, when people face an emergency, they tend to choose the means they are most confident in.

Sreuk….

I gently put my hand through the torn clothes and touch Helena’s skin.

Inside her body, there are several Implants that enhance her body, although their locations are inaccurate and they may already be damaged.

I have to approach carefully so that unexpected reactions don’t occur… but I put into action the idea that if I could manipulate them, her survival rate might increase.

“……Huh?”

At the same time as I felt a sensation of a signal connecting somewhere. The surrounding scenery changed.

It’s not particularly strange. I just experienced that the Imaginary Library, which I thought was the default, doesn’t always appear.

However, it was the first time that a space I had lived in in the past appeared.

It was also the first time that someone else was in the world where only I should exist.

“……?”

A small convenience store in a settlement not far from here, Orthodox Machinery Shop.

I made eye contact with Helena, who was crouching on the bed in the back room.

…Wouldn’t that rented room in the city be more suitable if the original owner and a former tenant, the sisters who use the name Valentine, were together…?

Why did I, why did she, suddenly fall into a place like this?

“……What a strange death dream. Does that mean Grandpa is working hard right now?”

“Ah?! Wai…t!!”

Whack…!

Before I could even grasp what this situation was, I was led by Helena’s hand and hugged like a kind of attachment doll.

Apparently, she thinks this is something like a dream or hallucination, and the attitude of refraining from excessive skinship after my ambiguous refusal was nowhere to be found.

“Asha is prickly even in my imagination… Even though your sister is having such a hard time, you’re just being curt….”

“…Having a hard time?”

I tried to stop the hand that was stroking my head wildly, but I felt a strange resistance.

It was as if… the ability to control this imaginary world and space was not entirely mine.

“How can I be okay when my only friend is actually deceiving me… hurting me… laughing at my trust and hovering by my side for years…!”

“…….”

I heard a small sob, and I felt a damp sensation from the face placed near the top of my head.

…There was no way to explain the principle. But this is probably… Helena’s inner self, a scenery that reflects her weakened heart that she couldn’t express.

Moreover, she doesn’t seem to be asking for my consent or expecting a reaction from me, a ghost, and the heavy monologue continues.

“Actually… I never wanted to kill you.”

“Was she angry that I didn’t recognize it in advance…?”

“…I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore. I believed I had lived correctly, but I don’t know.”

“Ugh…!”

Suddenly, a strong sense of pressure was given to the hand that had been gentle.

The room, which had been a bright silver color like her hair, gradually darkened, and black smoke began to eat away at the interior.

“……I guess there’s nothing in the world you can trust after all.”

When I quietly raised my head, I could see her slightly clouded eyes.

…If black symbolizes anxiety, sadness, and despair. The yellow light that resembles a wolf, which is swirling in Helena’s iris, is spewing out distrust and contempt.

Ironically… when that paint was added, I could vaguely see Helena Valentine of Neo Haven, whom I knew, but at the same time, a new question arose.

Is it really necessary for a beast to be in that place?

……If you’ve caught a clue, it’s the discoverer’s duty to do your best to grope it and unravel the tangled thread.

Clearing my throat, clearly. I throw out a question so that even someone who has fallen into the swamp of self-hatred and doubt can hear it.

“Where did the idiot sister who proudly shouted to save people instead of me go?”

“That’s because Asha gave me a hint…. No, actually, I was even agonizing over that…!”

Crack… Crackle….

“Ugh?!”

I was going to give her some light advice as an elder, but the speed at which the room and her eyes were being eroded actually doubled.

Take that back…! Please forgive me just once!

I knew that a product of chance like me wasn’t fit to teach someone, but I didn’t realize I would be such a bundle of side effects.

Ah…!! It would be more comfortable to just give up on things that don’t suit me and crash into her head-on.

Hastily. This time, I turn my body and grab Helena’s trembling face strongly with both hands.

I push her back and climb on top of her so that she can’t even go on a downward spiral of depression with foolish thoughts.

“I’m only going to say this once, so listen carefully…. I…! I’ve never had a perfect saint as my sister! Even if you stumble over a pebble, you quickly get up again and crush it…! I liked Helena Valentine, who pretends to be cold but can’t hide her affection…!!”

“…Asha?”

Her blank question and her unfitting expression were funny, but it seems the meaning was conveyed roughly.

Beyond the shallow surface, the ripples reaching the depths shake Helena’s imaginary world as if an earthquake has struck, and the connection weakens.

The detailed interior of the room and the structure of the store seen through the cracks in the door are distorted, signaling that closing time has arrived.

It’s a bit different from the original plan… but I remember learning that the most important thing for a patient’s survival is the will to live, so I have to spit out this last thing before I get kicked out.

“So… forget about some damn death dream or that there’s nothing to trust in the world! Stop with the lousy nonsense…! First of all, live… even for my sake!!”