Uneasy daily life

"Oh dear, heroes are so awkward. They clearly want something but always try to get it indirectly, hinting and suggesting until they can't contain themselves any longer before finally making a direct request..."

"What are you talking about? Someone who happens to be named Yukino Yukinoshita, an idiot who only appears in your dreams?"

The two argued back and forth, and Xiao Yun's life was unknowingly coming to an end.

Yukino Yukinoshita gradually quieted down, ignoring the liar who was spouting nonsense, and instead looked at him intently.

From birth until now, she has seen and thought about many things, but she can't summarize anything for the time being. It's as if the other person's life has turned into a torrent, slowly blocking her chest, and she can hardly feel anything other than a sense of suffocation.

Just by chance, I have a lot of thoughts.

I want to have an honest conversation with my parents, I want to visit my grandfather again, I want to work harder towards my dreams, I want to exercise regularly to improve my health, and I want to treat my friends sincerely…

However, let's leave those things for later.

Yukino Yukinoshita quietly watched the elderly Xiao Yun. She wanted to see the end, to see how this ordinary yet extraordinary person would bring his life to a close.

……

"Dad, we're planning to take you to a nursing home..."

“I have no money left. I can’t eat much or use much each day, so I can’t help you.”

"This isn't about money, we..."

"Son, life has many challenges. You may have seen other parents do their best to support their children, but I can no longer support your ambitions and desires."

“Dad, that’s not what he meant. It’s just that you live here alone, you’re getting old, and there’s no one to take care of you. Mom is in a nursing home, so it’s convenient for me to visit her…”

“It’s my problem. I taught you to be a sincere and courageous person, but I couldn’t protect you all the time. But I chose to interfere too much, which is to say I’m controlling your life. Everyone has their own path to walk in the end.”

Xiao Yun waved his hand, signaling his son-in-law and daughter to leave: "Go back, you don't need to come again... cough cough, or do you think I'm old and blind and can't see why you're being so attentive? I'm a stubborn, eccentric old madman, so you shouldn't show me filial piety, and you won't get anything out of it."

“Child, you may have argued with this boy, or you may have been persuaded by some reason, but that doesn’t change your intention to get something from me for your family. The daughter I remember is completely different from the one you’ve learned to convince yourself with reasons.”

His words were exceptionally sharp, dissecting the reasons and appearances, and ultimately drove away the son-in-law and daughter who couldn't bear it.

Xiao Yun sighed silently, and before he knew it, he was lost in thought again.

People are all the same. Is all this pretense to deceive yourself or others?

Shaking his head, Xiao Yun's life became even quieter. He stumbled as he tried to create his final game, but his aging body and increasingly rigid mind made the task seem endless and he was never able to finish it.

He was getting older, and the rate of decay was accelerating.

The terminal illness failed to take away life decisively, but life itself began to decay on its own.

Food has long been reduced to merely a means of sustaining life; the simpler, the better.

The frequency of washing up gradually decreased, and occasionally I would wear the same clothes for a long time.

Stiffness and imbalance in my body have made walking an unfamiliar and difficult task.

His blurred vision and weakened hearing made his perception of the world unclear.

Perhaps there is loneliness? But I've long since grown accustomed to loneliness.

When do I fall asleep and wake up? When is it day or night? Time begins to dull and blur in my senses.

My body's functions are becoming out of control. It's hard to feel what my body needs, whether I'm hungry or cold. Sometimes I wake up and find that I've wet the bed, and the smell is probably particularly unpleasant, but my nose can't detect any special odor.

It feels like winter has already passed. When will the next winter come?

My grandparents' generation was indeed much healthier than me; they could still work when they passed away.

I've also prepared a lot of convenient nutritional powders and paid all the water and electricity bills, otherwise it would have been troublesome.

"Bad fate" has changed from an adjective to a noun.

Xiao Yun would occasionally wonder why he wasn't dead yet, but then he would think that if he wasn't dead, he should just keep living.

Although it's hard to explain why people live, we can only think about why we live if we are alive.

Speaking of which... is there anything I haven't finished?

Oh, games.

I've been wanting to make another game, but progress has been slow.

What should I do?

……

"Mom said there's a strange old man in the village, very, very old, but he's still alive..."

"Yes! The old man will kidnap and eat the children who don't come home, so he can survive!"

"Why would an old man eat a child?"

"Like in the cartoons, set up a pot, live in it, and then put the sheep in!"

"He opened his mouth and swallowed the child whole!"

The children argued for a bit about how the old man ate the children, and then excitedly ran to the scene to watch how the old man ate the children.

They wore clothes that looked no different from those of city kids, and some of them even had game consoles in their pockets, occasionally throwing out a few colloquial phrases they'd learned online.

The old man's position was very conspicuous; he was sitting on a recliner in the flat area.

The flat area looked like it hadn't been cleaned for a while. Rain and wind had covered it with fallen leaves and mud. Only the area where the old man was sitting had been swept clean, but it wasn't very clean.

A bold child leaned closer and asked loudly with curiosity, "How do you eat children?"

The old man slowly opened his eyes, his gaze cloudy yet clear. He spoke in a hoarse, aged voice, seemingly unrelated to the question: "Want to play a game?"

play games?

Seeing that the leader hadn't been eaten, the other children curiously gathered around, asking all at once what game they were playing—a mobile game or a computer game?

“A game you've never played.” The old man pressed his hand on the armrest of the recliner, straightening his hunched body. He slowly walked to the side of the house, picked up a tile from a pile of shards left over from previous repairs, and returned. “Make way…”

The old man lifted the tile high, then let go, and with a crisp sound, the tile shattered into pieces.

The children, hearing the crisp cracking sound, became even more curious.

The old man seemed to have expended even more energy, and sat back down in his recliner, slowly giving instructions: "Find a small piece of broken metal... just that piece, then feel it against the ground, don't rub the front, rub the sides... see, doesn't it become round? That's a tile."

"This one won't do, it's too big..."

"Hold a pile of tiles, scatter them on the ground, then pick one up and hold it in your palm... and then comes the important part."

"You toss a tile up there, immediately pick up other tiles with your hand, and then catch the falling tile—smack! Doesn't that sound amazing?"

"Of course, the best one is the one who can pick up all the tiles in their hands..."

A group of children immediately became curious about this new game they had never heard of before.

Normally, you're restricted from playing games at home for too long, so this kind of game that you can play anytime is quite novel.

The crisp sound of cracking tiles kept emanating from the roof, but compared to picking up tiles, some children were more interested in grinding them, competing to see who could grind the roundest and prettiest tile. For a moment, no one cared about how the old man was eating the children.

"Is this game fun? A game has to be fun... Playing is a happy thing..."

The old man mumbled, "I want to make a game that people can have fun with... a really fun game..."

A child, grinding a tile, asked curiously, "When will your game be finished?"

"It's being done, it's being done..."

The old man seemed to be talking to himself as he said, "The original game won't do... A game should be fun, how can it be good to add so many unnecessary things... Haha... Have fun, have fun... The most important thing is to have fun..."

A group of children played a game of collecting broken tiles with great enthusiasm until it was getting late. Then they hurriedly left together, trying to get home before being scolded.

The old man slept peacefully.

Until life comes to an end, frozen in time.

He still couldn't create the game he wanted, and could only decay with his life until his last breath.

……

"call……"

Yukino Yukinoshita exhaled a breath of ambiguous meaning, and was about to turn her head to say something when the white figure spoke first.

"The dream is about to end—I never expected that Killer Queen, Puberty Syndrome, and my Stand would all erupt at the same time." Bai Ying shook his head and said, "It's normal, after all, I've always been one with Killer Queen. Whether it's the formation of my Stand or the outbreak of Puberty Syndrome, it's all inseparable from Killer Queen's existence..."

Yukino Yukinoshita couldn't help but ask, "Where is the Killer Queen?"

“That’s what I have to face,” Bai Ying laughed. “Isn’t this a pleasant surprise? The Assassin Queen erased ‘Bai Ying’s’ time reversal, causing you to lose all memories of me, so you can witness Xiao Yun’s life without knowing anything…”

"Erase memories? Is this the effect of the Killer Queen?" Yukino Yukinoshita frowned. "I thought it was your puberty syndrome."

"There's no going back in time for my puberty syndrome."

Bai Ying retorted, "Besides, why would I want to erase your memories of me? To torture myself?"

"Who knows?" Yukino Yukinoshita gradually suppressed her complicated feelings and said coldly, "Maybe it's to erase your crimes so that we, who know nothing, can be deceived."

"You're going too far with the crime, everyone still seemed to be having a lot of fun." Bai Ying suddenly sighed sadly again. "Alas! Brave warrior, you should be shouting out love, affection, courage, and sincerity right now, shattering the barrier of memory, rushing over to hug me and whispering sweet nothings to me..."

"Has Baijun still not woken up from her dream?"

Yukino Yukinoshita said without hesitation, "I can give you a slap to wake you up."

"She's awake, she'll wake up soon."

The white figure stretched and let out a smug laugh: "Hehehehehehe! A mere assassin queen, you think you can live a second life? Watch me annihilate you right now!"

"Wait a minute," Yukino Yukinoshita asked earnestly, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Haven't you been helping all along? The blank paper has already been stained with your colors during this journey."

The white figure waved his hand and walked towards the motionless old man. He turned around and sat down in the recliner, facing Yukino Yukinoshita.

The young man's handsome and healthy body and the old man's hunched and aged body overlapped like two shadows, accompanied by leisurely words.

“I’ve always felt that doing something is a foolish thing. Those things that should be done in a certain way are actually beautiful in themselves, but the beautiful result and the process are separated, and people will only choose the one that suits their taste more... If I could live my life again, how would I spend it? The answer is to play.”

"Fun, unexpected, imaginative, incredible, touching... Playing is a joyful thing, so life should be about having fun. When I started playing, I found that the people and the world I knew were different, full of vitality and energy."

"However, as we played around, you took a liking to me. Sometimes I have these confused thoughts: should I take it seriously, let it go, or go back to real life and face the things I 'should' do..."

"Maybe I'm surprisingly good at this kind of thing? After all, I genuinely enjoy this kind of thing, but I haven't experienced it myself, so it's hard for me to judge clearly."

"How to like you is something I find hard to judge... Why is my adolescent syndrome about showing you my past life? Is it because understanding each other's lives is the foundation for liking each other? Is it because I see you all too clearly, but you can hardly see me, so I want to help you see me clearly? Is it because I want you to choose again? Is it because I hope my life can have some meaning and enlightenment for you? Is it because this kind of game is more interesting? To show you my true self?"

The words were somewhat disorganized and unclear, interspersed with pauses and jumps.

"Is this a confession?" Yukino Yukinoshita frowned. "I'm sorry, I can't accept it."

The white figure pondered as it composed its words, then chuckled softly.

"I want to play the game of life with you all until the very end."

Yukino Yukinoshita rolled her eyes almost imperceptibly: "And you guys..."

"Hehehe! Brave warrior, I've brainwashed you into becoming a member of my harem. Give up the struggle and play with me until the very end!"

Bai Ying returned to her usual demeanor, chuckled twice, and closed her eyes: "Yoshi! Reclaim our past, march towards our future! Soldier Bai Ying, attack!"

Yukino Yukinoshita was about to loudly rebuke those terms about harems and members when she suddenly noticed a snow-white light shining from her body.

This is... something that flowed into my body before, called a substitute?

Wasn't that pale? How did it turn snow-white?

……

A jet-black fist, carrying the power to pierce steel plates, struck Xiao Yun from behind as he lay dying with his eyes closed.

Although it's unclear why the third bomb was delayed, like a gear being stuck by a pebble and failing to explode completely, there's no doubt that this is the past! This is the world of Shirokage's previous life, a world where no one knows Yoshikage Kira, a world where he can finally find peace!

Even if you are an old man who is about to breathe his last...

Only by eliminating you with my own hands can I finally feel at ease!

The white figure opened its eyes.

"Link Fate—!"

Chapter 112 Kira Yoshikage: They were shouting "Love!" and "Like!" (link)

boom!

A dull thud ripped through the air, whipping up a gust of wind in all directions.