The Legend of Level 0 in Academy City

[To Eika, please open!] — The envelope bore Saten Ruiko's familiar handwriting.

Is this the gift that Ruiko gave me?

Thinking to himself, Inoue Hideka hurriedly opened the envelope.

The letter contained the following:

Yinghua, by the time you see this, I'll probably be dead.

That's right, this is the last gift I'm giving you.

However, it is not just a simple letter.

Do you remember that day?

On the night I woke up, when we were... I used my abilities to control the flow of energy within my body and performed some complex operations.

You probably don't want to know the specifics, and I don't want to say them either. Anyway, the next morning, after you left to find the Demon God, I went to the hospital.

It was taken out.

I don't know if it's a boy or a girl, so I'll just call it 'it' for now.

Yinghua, go find that kind doctor at the university-affiliated hospital; he'll take you to see him.

This is my last gift to Yinghua, and also my last bit of stubbornness.

I know what Yinghua is thinking, and I know what Yinghua would do if I died, so please forgive me, I have to put a shackle on Yinghua.

Raise it, nurture it into adulthood, and then let it grow into a child as handsome as Yinghua, or as beautiful as me.

Although Yinghua is still only 13 years old, please be sure to take our child with you and live a good life together.

—Tears that will always love you.

After reading the contents, Inoue Hideka's gaze lingered blankly at the end of the letter for a long time until his hands lost their strength and the letter floated away from his hands. Only then did he dejectedly come back to his senses.

He no longer knew what to say; his chest felt like it was being crushed by a boulder, making it hard to breathe.

Everything about it exudes an unreal illusion.

Inoue Hideka felt that ever since World War III, the world had begun to reject him, and no matter what he did, it was impossible to proceed smoothly.

But there are some things he has to do.

With a thud, Inoue Hideka knelt dejectedly beside Saten Ruiko's bed, clutching her head in distress as she grabbed her hair with both hands, her face contorted in pain.

You can't live, you can't die.

These eight words are the best interpretation of Inoue Hidekazu today.

During the brief period of self-isolation while kneeling on the ground, he briefly considered killing or abandoning the unborn child to free himself and then follow his heart to go with Saten Ruiko.

But this was immediately rejected by Inoue Hideka.

Along with the denial came boundless pressure and pain.

However, the pain lasts less than two seconds before the thought resurfaces.

so cycle.

Whenever this thought pops into her head, Inoue Hideka feels a sense of relief and relaxation.

perhaps.

perhaps.

This will really make things much easier, right?

Chapter 501 A Series of Bad News, Natural Disasters Are Inevitable

finally.

Inoue Hideka still couldn't bring himself to abandon the last gift Saten Ruiko gave him, the child who had left his mother's womb before he was even born.

Using his ability to impersonate a brain, Inoue Hideka easily obtained a private car.

He went to a university-affiliated hospital and found the Soul Chaser of the Underworld. He asked the Soul Chaser to take him to see his and Saten Ruiko's child and briefly inquire about the child's condition. After that, he drove away from Academy City.

As promised to Saten Ruiko, Inoue Eika erased all memories of her from Saten Ruiko's family. After handling this matter, Inoue Eika returned to the two-story villa where Saten Ruiko's body was kept, where the two had shared brief but beautiful memories.

The ice coffin was still kept in the lobby on the first floor, and Saten Ruiko's pale face was reflected in Inoue Hideka's eyes through the transparent glass cover.

Despite the bright sunshine outside, Inoue Eika's vision was entirely black, except for the area where Saten Ruiko was.

The weather in November wasn't particularly cold, but looking at Saten Ruiko's lifeless body, Inoue Eika felt countless icy chills penetrating her skin and flesh, directly assaulting her heart.

As the saying goes—

If I had never seen the sunlight, I could have endured the endless darkness;

If I had never embraced you, I could have gotten used to the coldness of being alone.

Having long been immersed in the sunlight of Saten Ruiko's smile and her gentle warmth, Inoue Hideka truly understood the meaning of those two sentences at this moment.

If it weren't for the sunlight you gave me, I wouldn't be so afraid of the darkness right now.

If I hadn't gotten used to having you by my side, I wouldn't have stopped on my lonely path.

Scenes replaying in my mind are all the moments I've shared with Saten Ruiko.

When we first met, she was sitting in her seat, and turned around to talk to Shiori Uiharu with a gossipy look on her face.

Every time I tease myself, a sly smile flashes across my face. Although it's mischievous, it has a certain charm.

And every time she gets hurt, the worry in her eyes and the deep helplessness and resentment at not being able to help her are the tenderness that belongs only to Saten Ruiko. Even if she is powerless, she will not do anything unreasonable that will cause trouble.

She silently watched over him from behind, secretly accumulating strength while attentively observing him from a respectful distance.

Thinking and thinking...

Tears silently streamed down Inoue Hideka's cheeks and dripped onto the ground.

He didn't wipe it away, just stared at the already dead Saten Ruiko, relying on the memories remaining in his mind, telling himself again and again, deceiving himself—

Tears are still there.

It was right beside me, right in front of me, lying in that beautiful, transparent box.

then.

Inoue Hideka's life became a daily routine of visiting the hospital in the underworld to ensure her child's healthy growth, and then returning to the ice coffin where Saten Ruiko's body was kept, staring blankly at the now-cold body, numbing herself with fantasies.

Anyway, the body will collapse on its own when it gets tired. Even if your legs are numb, it's not as numb as your mind. When you can't hold on any longer, your eyes will close following your biological instincts.

Then, when he wakes up the next day, he will drag his tired body to Academy City to visit what is actually his last relative in this world.

Afterwards, they would return to the ice coffin and repeat the same life.

Two days later, Misaka Mikoto found Inoue Eika's location. Misaka Mikoto didn't say much to Inoue Eika, who had fallen to such a low level.

Inoue Hideka, who was forced to eat every day, had an expressionless face and seemed to do nothing but stare at Saten Ruiko's corpse.

A week passed in this manner.

Having somehow obtained the news, the three—Shigefuku Shoho, and Misaka Dori—arbitrated and arrived here one after another.

These three people, to varying degrees, all harbored some special feelings for Saten Ruiko during her lifetime.

Upon seeing Saten Ruiko in the ice coffin, his suppressed emotions suddenly erupted.

It's not just that Inoue Eika still hasn't laid Saten Ruiko to rest; more importantly, the reason they haven't interfered too much with Inoue Eika and Saten Ruiko is because they believe that Inoue Eika can protect Saten Ruiko and prevent her from being harmed.

Even more remarkably, Inoue Hideka promised the adjudication court that she would definitely protect Saten Ruiko!

Moreover, even if Saten Ruiko could not be protected, according to the agreement between Inoue Eika and the Trial of Justice, Inoue Eika would definitely die first.

But what about reality?

Saten Ruiko died; she died to save Inoue Hideka!

The three angrily accused Inoue Hideka, and were even more enraged by Inoue Hideka's indifferent attitude towards the arbitration trial of Saten Ruiko's child. They clenched their fists and were about to beat Inoue Hideka up.

Fortunately, Misaka Mikoto was there and kindly persuaded them. She assured the three that she would help Inoue Hideka recover and that she would treat the child well. Only then did the three leave, still angry.

The next few days were relatively calm.

Misaka Mikoto stayed by Inoue Eika's side to take care of him, to prevent him from dying in a car accident due to his poor mental state, and to make sure he was hungry so she would cook for him every day.

However, due to the girl's naivety and Inoue Eika's lack of cooperation, Misaka Mikoto had no way to deal with personal hygiene. All she could do was occasionally use a clean, damp towel to clean the areas of Inoue Eika exposed outside her clothes.

And so another week has passed.

It was afternoon.

As usual, Inoue Hideka was deeply immersed in the fantasy that Saten Ruiko was still alive when she was awakened by a message brought by Misaka Mikoto.

Hospital accident!

A criminal infiltrated the hospital where souls are pursued in the underworld, intending to murder an important figure. After failing, he fled in panic to the culture room where petri dishes are stored. In order to escape, he went so far as to use the countless embryonic babies inside as blackmail to force the guards to compromise.

However, after the perpetrators escaped from the hospital, they detonated another bomb hidden in the incubation room, killing all the embryos in the room.

As the criminals fled to the gates of Academy City, their panic triggered the city's defense mechanisms, and they were blasted into pieces by unmanned fighter jets dispatched by District 23.

When Inoue Hideka heard the news, his mind went completely blank.

The first thought that flashed through his mind was, how should he face Saten Ruiko after he died?

After failing to protect Saten Ruiko, he even failed to protect the continuation of his love with Saten Ruiko.

When I rushed to the university-affiliated hospital, a long cordon had already been set up outside the hospital, and security guards and firefighters were dealing with the impact of the accident on hospital equipment and ordinary people.

He stared blankly out the window of the incubation room where his child was kept, watching the wisps of smoke rising slowly, completely at a loss.

Natural disasters and man-made calamities are, in fact, unavoidable.

The hospital cannot allow him to stand guard outside the culture room non-stop. So how can we prevent such emergencies?

It was as if fate was playing a cruel joke on Inoue Hidekazu, as one piece of bad news after another assaulted his already battered heart.

However, things are not over yet.

The three people who had previously left because of Misaka Mikoto's guarantee—the Arbitration Trial, Shigefuku Shoho, and Misaka Dori—came to the hospital one after another after hearing about the accident.

Upon seeing Inoue Hideka standing dumbfounded outside the hospital, the three, overwhelmed by grief and anger, attacked him without a word.

Feeling guilty, Inoue Hideka naturally couldn't retaliate.