"I'm sorry. If I hadn't forced my brother's hand, he wouldn't have let you go. If I knew that lying in front of my brother would make you like this…" The sobbing continued, thick with anguish. "I don't know if you can hear me, but I want you to know that I…" A sharp gasp tore through the speaker's throat. "I have always regarded you as a good friend… maybe my only friend. I'm sorry… Hajime…"
"Hold on, Hajime!" Hajime heard Baishui's voice, distant and urgent, but his eyes were too heavy, too tired. He closed them again, slipping back into the comforting darkness. "Hajime… stay awake… stay with us."
He felt himself shaken violently, jolting him back to a hazy awareness. He opened his eyes, but his vision was blurred, the world a watercolor dream. He felt like he was floating in a thick fog. Hajime managed to lift his head slightly, seeing a man's face staring intently ahead. "Yul…" he mumbled, his voice barely a whisper, before his eyes fluttered shut again, and he slumped back against the man's warm embrace.
"Hajime… Hajime…" Baishui's frantic shouts echoed in the fading distance.
The menacing whistle of arrows, a deadly chorus chasing after the five Tanzang men and the two dragons, made Baishui and Jiāo feel as if they were teetering on the edge of a great waterfall. An inexplicable terror seized their knees, turning them to jelly, and their hearts hammered with a primal fear.
Baishui glanced back, his blood running cold at the sight of a massive wave of arrows surging towards them like a storm. "Jiāo!" he roared.
Jiāo reacted instantly. She spun around, leaped onto the saddle, and sprang into the wagon where Yul, Abrafo, U-ri, and Michio lay. With a surge of her magical power, she thrust her hands forward, manifesting a solid earthen wall that erupted from the ground, soaring towards the sky. It stood as a momentary bulwark, deflecting the torrent of incoming arrows.
But as soon as the earthen wall shattered under the relentless assault, another, even denser wave of arrows arced into the sky, descending upon them like a deadly rain.
"We need to get out of range!" Jiāo shouted, her voice strained.
Spotting the dense forest ahead, Baishui spurred the horses, charging them furiously towards its protective embrace.
Jiāo was about to leap back onto her horse when her eyes caught Abrafo's left leg dangling precariously over the side of the wagon. Without hesitation, she magically conjured another fleeting earthen wall to buy precious seconds, yanked Abrafo forcefully onto Michio, and then, with a desperate surge, jumped back onto her own horse.
"Do you know where you are going?!" Hajime, in his fading state, vaguely heard Jiāo's exasperated shout.
"Let's go straight into the forest ahead!" Baishui bellowed back, his voice raw with urgency. "This is our only chance of survival!" He risked a quick glance back at the wagon, a wave of relief washing over him to see that all four people and some of their belongings were miraculously still onboard.
In this moment of profound trance, Hajime felt as if he was experiencing two disparate worlds simultaneously. One part of him felt the biting wind whip past, the rhythmic thud of galloping hooves echoing in his ears. He heard everything being said between Baishui and Jiāo, every desperate shout, every hurried command, yet he remained inexplicably unable to respond. This was the immediate, sharply insidious reality of riding on horseback, the cold wind slicing through him.
The other feeling was far lighter, almost dull, as if it were a memory so distant it had faded to the point of unreality. If he hadn't strained to focus, he might not have even registered its presence. In this faded reality, he felt himself lying comfortably in a warm bed, someone's hand gently holding his, though the sensation was so faint, it was like a wisp of hair brushing his cheek. Many of the sounds he heard were persistent, high-pitched beeps—machine beeps, the steady hum of ventilators. He heard a cacophony of voices, a multitude echoing near and far, making it impossible to discern who was speaking. But when he strained to catch the faintest, farthest sound, he recognized it.
"Please wake up and let's be friends again," came a sobbing voice, thin and fragile from the distance. "I'm sorry… Hajime…"
"Keiji…" Hajime's own voice echoed, not from his lips, but deep within his heart. He struggled, pouring all his energy into opening his eyes, but they remained stubbornly shut. His heart pounded with a frantic rhythm as he tried to move his lips. He'd never imagined it could be so agonizingly difficult to simply move his lips to speak, as if they were sealed together with extra-super glue.
"What are you doing here?" Hajime believed he heard Kenji's voice, sharper, more present.
"I'm leaving," Keiji said, his voice flat, walking towards a door that seemed impossibly far away.
Hajime exhausted his last reserves of strength, forcing his eyelids to a mere slit. The figures of the two men standing at the door shimmered and wavered like heat waves on a scorching summer day. The taller one, Kenji, the shorter, Keiji.
"You should go home," Keiji urged, his voice tinged with desperation.
"I will when Hajime wakes up," Kenji replied, his tone firm.
"How much longer?!" Keiji burst out, his voice laced with frantic impatience.
"I don't know," Kenji admitted, his voice softening.
Keiji sighed, a sound heavy with guilt. "I know it's my fault that Hajime became like this. If it wasn't for me, you would never have broken up with Hajime." Tears streamed down his face. "Sorry, I lied."
"Whatever has happened has already happened," Kenji said, his voice practical, though not unkind. "You save that apology for Hajime when he wakes up."
Hajime's heart began to beat even faster, a frantic drum against his ribs. He asked himself, with a jolt of alarm, what would happen to his friends still sitting at the dinner table at Saja's house if he returned to this universe. He needed to go back. He needed to save his friends. But how? The distant sound of Baishui's voice began to fade, replaced by the escalating, insistent beeping of the machine beside him. The voices of people rushing into the room grew clearer, sharper, pulling him away from the other world.
"Sir, please leave the room immediately!" A nurse burst in, her voice urgent, pushing Kenji and Keiji aside to make room for two doctors who followed closely behind.
"BP dropping… BP Dropping… Seventy-five over fifty," another nurse called out, her voice tight with alarm.
"Three mg of ephedrine!" one of the doctors commanded.
"Three mg of ephedrine injected," the nurse repeated, her hands moving swiftly as she injected the medication into Hajime's IV line.
"No pulse," a nurse announced, her voice flat with dread. "I don't have a pulse."
"CPR!" one of the doctors barked, immediately beginning chest compressions. "One… two… three…"
"Go get the crash cart!" another doctor yelled, his voice strained.
"Stop…" Hajime heard his own voice, not within his heart this time, but as a guttural plea. "Stop trying to save me. I want to go back to my friends. Please stop… I have to go back to my friends!"
"I'm losing him!" the doctor called out again, his voice urgent. "Crash Cart… I need it right now! Stay with us, buddy. Stay with us… one… two… three…"
"Stop… You are crushing my ribs… I'm hurting… please stop…" Hajime's consciousness spiraled.
(Three Hours Earlier)
Yul looked at Hajime, who was swaying precariously, about to faint. Hajime suddenly grabbed his left thigh. "Hajime, are you alright?" Yul asked, his concern evident.
"I think I'm really drunk," Hajime slurred, his words thick.
Yul glanced around. U-ri was already passed out on the floor. Abrafo and Michio, though swaying, were still faintly conscious. "You two, okay?" he managed to ask, even as he felt his own legs beginning to give way.
Abrafo tried to stand, but his muscles refused to cooperate. He firmly grasped the edge of the table, attempting to prop himself up, but his knees buckled, and he crashed onto the table again with a dull thud.
Saja, who sat across from the five incapacitated travelers, merely smiled, a knowing, almost pitying expression on his face. "Don't try to resist," he said, his voice calm. "Your efforts will be in vain."
"Why?" Yul demanded, his voice strained.
"Because you want to enter Magior City," Saja explained, his smile widening. "Over the years, those who come and go, from having flesh attached to their bones until they become skeletal remains, every one of you has only one goal in your heart." He stared intently at Yul, holding a small knife in his other hand. "You all want the key to No Man's Land."
"We didn't force you to take us there," Yul retorted, even as his head began to swim.
"It's a good thing you didn't force us to take you there," Saja replied, his voice chillingly calm, "unless you and your men would die a worse death. Don't worry, you won't feel anything. When you wake up again, you will be with everyone else in heaven."
Abrafo, his face contorted in a furious scowl, managed to snarl, "You! How dare you… We didn't offend you in any way. Why do you want to kill us?" His words slurred, and then, with a final groan, he slumped to the floor, passing out beside Michio.
"We are not bad people," Saja stated, his voice losing none of its calm. "If you come as guests with no motive, we will entertain you. But you are going to enter Magior City, and I will not allow that to happen. Entering Magior City will cause chaos for us. Don't you know that when you take the key, you will open the gates and let those warriors control us again? We'll do whatever it takes to prevent anyone from taking that city key." He sighed, a hint of weariness in his eyes. "Even if it means we have to kill people."
"You psychopath… you're sick," Abrafo muttered, his head hitting the table with a thud as he finally succumbed to the poison.
Yul desperately tried to reach for his sword, only to remember with a jolt that he had left it in the hut. He stretched out his hand, grasping for Hajime's, and squeezed Hajime's hand with all his remaining strength. He saw Hajime's hand weakly reaching back, and then, the world dissolved into darkness. He couldn't feel anything.
Saja looked at his family, his gaze solemn. "Drag them out," he commanded.
After soaking in the refreshing creek water to rejuvenate their dry skin, Baishui and Jiāo walked back to the bamboo hut, only to be met with a chaotic scene: more than a dozen men were roughly grabbing their belongings and tossing them onto the ground.
Jiāo instinctively rolled up her sleeves, her voice rising in a frantic shout. "What the hell are they doing?!"
Baishui grabbed her hand, his eyes scanning the scene, a growing unease in his gut. "I didn't see the others." He looked around frantically. "You go and see what happened to the others. I'll get the Book of Life."
Jiāo, her heart pounding, rushed towards Saja's house.
"What about the other two?" one of the men at the hut asked, gesturing vaguely.
"I believe they went that way," another replied, pointing towards the creek.
"Let's go kill them," a third snarled, a malicious glint in his eyes.
The men looked at each other, then began to head towards the creek, their footsteps heavy with murderous intent.
Baishui seized the precious moments. He snatched up his two bags, quickly strapped Yul's sword to his back, then grabbed U-ri's cross bag and Abrafo's sword. He glanced around, his heart sinking further as he realized the five horses they had tied to the posts were gone. Just then, Jiāo rushed back, breathless and pale.
Jiāo panted heavily, "Not good. Bad news."
"What's wrong?" Baishui demanded, his voice tight with dread.
"They are all dead," Jiāo whispered, her eyes wide with shock.
Baishui was so stunned, the words caught in his throat. "Dead? Are you sure they're dead?" he finally managed to croak, unable to comprehend.
"I saw them lying on the floor," Jiāo confirmed, her voice trembling. "They look dead."
Without his source of life, Baishui knew he possessed no magical power; he couldn't save them. A desperate thought sparked in his mind. "Jiāo, I need a diversion."
"What kind of diversion are you referring to?" Jiāo asked, her eyes narrowed, sensing his dangerous plan.
Baishui offered a grim, joking smile, a glint of recklessness in his eyes. "Live bait."