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The sound of the wind… fades away.

“Hey.”

I can’t hear any breathing.

“Yoonseo.”

Isn’t it strange?

“Don’t joke around. It’s not funny at all.”

You just fell asleep.

“…I told you not to joke.”

Why can’t I hear anything at all?

“I said don’t joke!”

The world where sounds that should naturally be present have disappeared is terrifying.

“It’s not fun at all! Do you find this enjoyable? Is it fun to tease people?”

It was horrifyingly… cold.

“…Please.”

My jaw clenched involuntarily.

I was struggling.

“Please…”

Warmth is fading away.

“Wake up…”

Your warmth… is disappearing.

I tightened my grip on the hand I was holding.

Even though I squeezed hard enough to feel pain in my arm, the warmth that had already vanished wouldn’t return.

In the end… was this the fate we were destined for?

Is this our end?

I didn’t know what to do or what I should be doing.

It felt like a giant hole had opened up in the center of my chest.

All my thoughts seemed to be flowing out through that hole.

I gritted my teeth, feeling like my head was empty, but I didn’t feel any pain.

Is this… the end…?

Is this really… the end…?

I didn’t want to believe it.

I didn’t want to accept it.

But no matter how much I denied it, the warmth continued to slip away.

It’s cold.

So cold…

Why…?

Even when I asked questions, no answers returned.

Because there was no one to respond.

I felt my consciousness fading slowly.

But I didn’t resist.

I didn’t want to resist.

The sense of powerlessness that had filled my body made me feel that way.

It was likely the moment when I was chasing after the warmth that was slowly, little by little, slipping away.

“If you catch a cold like this it’ll be a big deal, so please don’t sleep anywhere and make sure to sleep at home, in your bed. I think I told you that until my mouth got sore…”

A familiar yet strange voice flowed into my ears.

“Seriously… neither of you ever listens to me.”

“Mom…?”

Am I seeing a hallucination?

The woman before me, older than the image I kept in my head, had a face I couldn’t mistake, wearing a smile as she looked down at me.

“Long time no see. Our son.”

At first, I genuinely thought I was experiencing some kind of hallucination.

“Why? Does it seem like a dream?”

It was the warmth that began to come through the hand that was caught somewhere, making me realize that it wasn’t.

A warmth that seemed to awaken my mind, which had been fading away.

But what I truly wanted wasn’t that.

So… I could only clench my teeth more tightly.

“Why…!”

“Why did you only show up now?”

Her face seemed to say that she knew exactly what I was going to say, what I was thinking.

That expression left me speechless.

“Well… this was the only possibility.”

That this was the only possibility. I couldn’t understand what it meant.

“Two incredibly terrifying monsters had their eyes wide open, watching mom, so I had to wait for the moment when their focus shifted elsewhere.”

“Are you talking about Another?”

“Yeah, that too.”

As if to agree with what I said, she nodded, but then her expression changed.

“If I had my way, I’d like to solve all my son’s curiosities right here, but time is really tight. So can you wait just a little bit? It won’t take long.”

“But Yoonseo…”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry too much about Yoonseo. She just fell asleep for a bit because she overused her talent.”

Still, she added that it would probably make my son too anxious…

Mom then took something out from her pocket.

It was a small syringe.

Filled with a pink liquid of unknown origin.

That must have been when it was injected into Yoonseo’s right arm.

“Uh…?”

A sight that made my eyes doubt what I was seeing unfolded before me.

The change in her right arm, which resembled my left, stopped.

No, it began to revert to its original state as if time had turned back.

The large needle that had been sticking out of Yoonseo’s forearm smoothly pulled out.

The skin that had been stained purple began to return to its original color, as if it had never changed at all.

Seeing that transformation, like shedding a skin, I couldn’t help but gasp in surprise—

The warmth I had desperately wanted, which I’d struggled to grasp, began to settle inside Yoonseo’s body.

It seemed she was tired; a small sound from her snoring was an extra.

“How…?”

“How could it be? I told you she just fell asleep, didn’t I?”

“No… what kind of sleep…?”

Is this really how you sleep?

Just at the moment when words surged to my throat, something purple that had been pushed back by the newly emerging white began to gather on Yoonseo’s hand.

After a while, it emerged from her palm—

“Why is this…?”

It was the unique-colored jewel that had been hanging from the necklace my mom had sent as a graduation gift.

Or rather, was it a jewel?

I murmured that thought unconsciously, and the look from my mom seemed to say what kind of nonsense that was.

“Dogun, you don’t know what this is, do you?”

“You sent this as a graduation gift.”

“So.”

“…?”

“There should have been a manual included with it, right…?”

Did you throw it away without even reading it?

That gaze seemed to pierce deep into my face.

While receiving that gaze, something came to mind.

That something that had been in the box delivered to me back then, the size of a palm.

I suddenly remembered the existence of something that I had thought was just a warranty and had left in the box because I had been distracted by the letter my mom sent.

“Wasn’t this just… some weird-looking souvenir?”

“Souvenir? My mom worked hard to make that.”

What on earth was it…?

“I had to run from the Hero Association because of that…”

“That… it’s not dangerous, right?”

“Dangerous? I specially made that so that nothing dangerous would happen to you and Yoonseo.”

“Then does that mean my left arm ended up like this too…?”

“Well… I tried hard to improve its appearance, but it didn’t seem to go well.”

“Then does that mean its ability to restore the Talent Organ…?”

“I thought it might help in a really dangerous situation, and that it might also help Yoonseo, so I included it.”

Maybe it was because my tension had completely dissipated.

Suddenly, a pounding began in my head.

It had to be because of the awkward expression on the face of the person right in front of me.

“Is there one more of those?”

“I brought it just in case…”

“Then… put it on my arm too.”

Did my mom sense that my mood was off?

She slowly pulled out the same one she used on Yoonseo.

Then she injected it into my arm.

The transformation of my left arm, which had seemed similar to Another yet felt a bit different, quickly started to revert to its original form right after that.

Eventually, emerging from my palm was—no doubt about it—the sky-blue stone that had been on the end of the necklace given to me by my mom.

“Hah…”

I couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief, watching it roll down across my palm and tumble to the floor.

Perhaps because of my reaction, my mom observed me quietly as she cautiously raised her hand.

“Um… sorry, but can I get back to work? Time is really running out…”

In her hand was a syringe larger than those she’d used on me or Yoonseo.

“What’s that again?”

“Oh, this?”

Could my question have been some kind of trigger?

A smile spread across my mom’s face.

It was a crazed smile that only someone who had spent decades focused solely on one goal could display.

“Poison.”

“What?”

“Oh, of course, it doesn’t work on people.”

“Then…?”

“It doesn’t work on people, but it works really well on certain plants.”

With that, my mom stood up unsteadily and approached the nearby roots that seemed to be in decent condition.

Then she plunged the syringe into one of them with a satisfying sound.

“Let’s go, it’s all done.”

The look on my mom’s face as she said this… seemed incredibly relieved.

As if she had just knocked out a homework assignment that had been weighing on her for decades.

 

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