Daigo is also someone who was disadvantaged by the issues with Garesto’s ideas and the interaction with otherworld that they mentioned.
He heard that that was the reason why they were doing this.
They probably wanted to demand something along those lines from society, but now that they had no way to contact anyone, they can’t move from the third floor.
“Not only do they not want to listen to us, they even locked us in!!”
“Garesto dogs, are you planning on quietly snuffing out all dissent!?”
They became even angrier as they took it out on the things around them.
Meanwhile, the suited man approached Daigo. “It’s too bad. But it seems the authorities have already given up on saving the hostages.
Not only do they refuse to negotiate, they’ve even locked us in here.
Perhaps they’re planning on destroying the building along with us.”
“T-There’s no way that’s true!”
The girl screamed from behind then sat while still hugging the child. Daigo, who had his back turned to her, also shook.
The common sense that such a thing couldn’t be possible and the anxiety that they might have been abandoned battled within them.
A woman from the criminals diagonal from Shinichi approached him and said something similar.
“Look, this is reality. This is this world.
The people who can’t keep up will be abandoned by society.
I’m sure you all have similar experiences, right? Let’s destroy it together.”
“What are you…”
Daigo was surprised to feel that he was wavering.
The voice of the suited man was gentle and entered the gaps in his heart.
All this time he has hidden his discontent with the changes of the world.
He couldn’t allow himself to be moved by those dark emotions, but he also couldn’t allow himself to remove them.
“We have many plans. We’re like this right now, but we have friends.
Everyone is someone who suffered from Garesto like you. You don’t have to endure it.
Let your anger burn. Don’t hide your hate. We’ll change the world.”
Those words that seemed to understand him fell on his ears like sweet temptation. Perhaps he had been looking for those words all this time.
Right. Garesto is to blame for all of his problems.
The voice within that demanded to bring back those days became louder and louder.
“That’s why—”
“—Kyaa!? What are you doing!!?”
Those last words were cut by a woman’s scream.
When the eyes gathered on her, it turned out to be the woman who had been talking with Shinichi. She wiped her face with her sleeves.
“What’s the matter?”
“He suddenly spat on my face!”
“Be grateful that it wasn’t a head butt, single-celled organism.”
As Shinichi said that, he rejected the invitation of the criminals with a snort.
Everyone around was only annoyed even more, but Daigo felt chills.
“Those blinded by anger are pitiful regardless which world.
I was being nice enough to teach you that you were trash, but you still intend to act like humans?”
Shinichi hurled even more abuse at them.
Normally, Daigo would stop this childhood friend of his, as pouring oil into the flames when the criminals here were equipped was just too dangerous, but he was his childhood friend. Because of that he could tell that the atmosphere about him had changed; that change made him take a step back.
The tone of Shinichi’s voice had hit the bottom of the depths. His eyes were dark. And though he seemed to be smiling, he wasn’t.
That was proof that his displeasure had reached its acme. This was not something that Daigo could stop.
“Do you still not understand your situation!?”
“…Truly pitiful. In the end, you are nothing more than a herd of sheep pretending to be wolves.
My apologies to the sheep, but it’s like looking at the old me, it’s disgusting. Get lost.”
Shinichi’s cold eyes looked up at the criminals approaching him angrily. Those eyes were overbearing and vicious.
So much so that it made one forget who was the armed criminal between him and the group of the people.
No one knew just how many have been traumatized by him when he was like this, and that the boy named Nakamura Shinichi has never once lost when he looked like this.
“W-What are you…
S-Saying a bunch of things that don’t make sense…”
Pressured by that overpowering aura, they faltered.
Although his eyes and voice were overbearing too, but that glint in his eyes that never weakened no matter how much they beat him roused a primordial fear within them.
Even Daigo who has never been on the receiving end of that pressure before was scared.
Those who directly received that pressure quickly lost their nerves and became weak.
“Tch.”
The only thing Daigo heard was the man in suit clicking his tongue.
When he thought something was strange, that man had already moved on to his next course of action.
“Enough. We have no reason to associate with that one.
What’s more important now is what we’re going to do now.”
The suited man didn’t bother to clasp the shoulders of the people pressured and instead turned to Shinichi with a smile and a sharp glare.
“The countermeasure department are probably making light of us, thinking we can’t do anything.
As such, we just need to show them that our resolve isn’t so half-assed.”
But he turned around to his friends and spoke in a voice that seemed gentle.
“E-Exactly what do you have in mind?”
“We’ll kill one of the hostages.”
He said that so easily that the criminals wavered.
They might have done it when the blood had gotten to their heads, but now that they had been pressured by Shinichi and were faltering, it could be said that they had already calmed down.
“What’s the matter with you?
Oikawa, weren’t you saying just a while ago how you were going to kill that Garestonian girl (brat)?”
“Ah, no, but… there’s only four of them left.
And there’s no point in killing them unless we have a way to contact outside…”
The man in suit picked out the giant man, but he rejected him indirectly while being flustered.
Once calmed down, their common sense, morals, and virtue will torment them, and they won’t be able to help themselves but ask ‘is this really alright?’
“There’s a way.
We can stuff the dead body into the elevator and then cut the wire.
When the elevator falls, they’ll surely check it, and they’ll find out that we’re serious.”
It’s a good idea, right?
The man seemed to say, but the women just averted their eyes as if they found the idea revolting.
Even the men paled when they imagined it.
“A~a, you’re all scared.
Hey, Takamine. I’ll let you go, so can you kill this girl?”
Mitsuda said lightly as he offered a knife to Daigo.
At this point, Daigo couldn’t help himself but wonder if this was really the same person he had been working alongside with.
Did he really think he would nod his head and say okay to a request like that? Horrible.
“As if anyone would do something like that!”
“You can refuse if you want, but what will happen to that guy?”
“What!?”
A different man quietly aimed his automatic rifle at Shinichi’s head.
No one said anything, but anyone could tell what he was intending.
“It doesn’t really matter either way, so hurry up and choose.
Your friend or that girl from Garesto who you don’t know.”
“…”
There was no way he could choose.
But the scales within Daigo leaned toward Shinichi.
If he were to be asked who was the most important person here to him, it would be undoubtedly Shinichi.
But that didn’t mean he could kill someone.
Still, if he didn’t do anything, Shinichi was going to be shot. This guy was different from the others.
Daigo knew that he was dead serious.
“Come on, do your best.”
He took advantage of Daigo wavering to make him hold the knife.
Inadvertently, Daigo looked back and forth between his best friend and the girl, but while the girl muttered ‘coward’ angrily, his childhood friend was eerily calm and didn’t say anything.
It was as if he was leaving the choice to Daigo.
Daigo wavered.
“There’s no need to think about it so hard, right? Didn’t you say it?
That your parents lost their work or something. That your dream was broken.
Look, the Garestonian responsible for your misery is right in front of you. Kill her.”
As if the devil himself was tempting him, Daigo wobbled.
‘That’s right’ said one voice. ‘Stop it’ yelled another. The voices echoed in his mind and the knife in his hands shook.
Daigo could barely hear Mitsuda’s laughter as his eyes met the girl’s.
“…”
The girl quietly nodded and brought the boy behind her.
‘Are you telling me to stab you?’ ‘Don’t be stupid!’ But as those thoughts yelled loudly within him, it suddenly occurred to him.
Could the knife in his hands even stab that girl?
The Garestonians supposedly have higher stats on average.
In that case, wouldn’t it be impossible to stab her with just his strength?
She knew that that’s why— When Daigo thought that, he wanted to punch himself.
“…”
The girl was shaking.
A weapon was being pointed at her while she was completely unarmed.
Any human would be afraid when put into a situation like this, and yet that girl was actually willing to receive that knife.
Daigo wondered to himself if the reason she was willing to do that was because she wouldn’t get hurt.
But…
“If you don’t hurry, I’m going to shoot that boy.”
He didn’t have the time to think.
Still, he couldn’t choose between them.
What should he do? What was the right thing to do? What did he want to do?
As his head boiled over from asking himself so many questions, he raised up the knife—
“It’s okay… to give up on your dream.”
—Somehow, someway, the calm voice of his friend stopped him.
“Hey, you shut—”
“—Of course, it’s also okay to keep chasing after it.”
The criminal pointed his gun at Shinichi and told him to shut up, but Shinichi just ignored him and calmly spoke as if the gun was irrelevant.
“‘But just don’t forget why you yearned for it in the first place.’”
Why is it that those words resounded within his heart so heavily?
You can give up. You can keep chasing after it. But don’t forget.
Don’t forget what?
The reason you dreamed that dream.
“I…”
Why did he want to be a cop?
Was it because his sense of justice couldn’t forgive evil? No, that’s not all.
Was it because he was confident in his strength? That should be it.
If so, then when and why did he think that?
Thank you, Daigo.
You’re tall and cool.
When you grow up, I’m sure you’ll save not just me but everyone too.
That yearning voice that praised and admired him.
It was because of that voice that he grew to love his overly tall stature despite his complex about it.
It was because he learned that he could help those who couldn’t protect themselves with his body.
Yes. That’s probably the reason why he started chasing that dream… Since becoming a cop was the job most likely to allow him that opportunity.
It was a reason like that, wasn’t it? When he realized that after all this time, he smiled.
If so, then what he should do wasn’t to abandon Shinichi or to stab the girl.
—What I should do is!
He changed his grip over the knife into a backhand grip, and before anyone could ask what he was doing, he swung the knife toward himself
—Blood gushed out.
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