FAREWELL

Kozuki was kneeling on the floor. He kept banging his head on the ground, crying. Each blow echoed with his guilt. Behind him, people were screaming, crying, and running around. The chaos caused by the explosion was his external world. Inside him, there was only one echo:

"Why me?! Why am I still here?!"

He screamed. It pierced the sky. Then everything fell silent.

Home...

Everything seemed to have returned to the way it was before the explosion. Clean. Quiet. Familiar. Suffocating.

The sheets in the bedroom were flat. It was like the morning Yurika woke Kozuki up.

The tables in the kitchen had been cleared. Everything was tidy, just as Irva had left it.

The bathroom cabinet was open. Inside were three toothbrushes: one was Yamato's tiny toothbrush, one was Yurika's. The other no longer had an owner.

Kozuki slowly closed the cabinet. He looked in the mirror. His eyes were sunken, his skin pale and grayish. His hair was disheveled. His skin was as pale as a corpse. This man could not have been the man who once held Yamato in his arms and smiled.

He silently headed for the kitchen. The floor was cold under his feet. His eyes fell on the motionless body on the floor.

The sick dog, Shushu, was lying next to his food bowl. The bowl was completely empty. Shushu's eyes were half open. His breathing was faint. Kozuki stared at him with dead eyes. No sadness, no panic. Just a blank stare.

With this expression of indifference on his face, he left the room and headed for the bedroom. But he didn't lie down on the bed. He was now a man for whom comfort was a punishment.

He collapsed on the floor. He tried to lie down. Just as he was lying down... the moment of the explosion came back to him.

His whole body trembled. He jumped up from the floor.

He went to the table. He took out a small, worn notebook from underneath it. He dipped his pen in ink.

He slowly turned the pages.

---

**Day One**

I knew the car was broken three days ago. Still, I didn't fix it. I was tired.

So why wasn't I on the bus? Why are those who survive always the ones who regret?

**Day Three**

I'm afraid I'll forget Yamato's laughter. First the sounds fade away. Then the images. Then the life inside a person.

**Fifth Day**

Today, I looked in the mirror for the first time. There was no human left in my eyes. Me. Kozuki. This sentence is now just an empty shell.

**Seventh Day**

What is it like to jump out of a window? Waking up in the morning is like a punishment.

**Ninth Day**

Today I picked up a stone. But I still carry three gravestones in my heart.

**Twelfth Day**

I always thought that people who committed suicide were cowards. But maybe they are the ultimate form of courage.

**Fourteenth Day**

Today I thought my heart stopped for a moment. Maybe I was the one who should have died. But I'm still alive.

---

Kozuki dipped his pen in ink once more.

**Fifteenth Day**

Goodbye.

He put a gun in his mouth. Without blinking, he stared at the word on the notebook. Goodbye.

He pulled the trigger.

But... suddenly he opened his eyes.

He was outside. There was no gun in his hand. Only a little blood was trickling from his mouth. He raised his hands. Blood was slowly dripping from his trembling hands. That moment, mixed with tears...

Eden's influence, the subconscious toll he had taken on Kozuki's mind, was shaping him. He was not Eden's definition, but Eden's atonement.

Kozuki smiled. It was not a smile of hope, but of acceptance.

"I couldn't save them... But I can save others. Maybe this is the only way to keep their names alive."

At that moment, a child ran out into the road. A car was heading straight for him.

Kozuki didn't think twice.

Suddenly, he was beside the child. He pushed him to the other side of the road.

Women screamed, cell phones in the air.

"That man! That man again! Didn't you see him?! Take a video!"

Kozuki walked away without looking around.

**Voiceover**: "The further I go, the more visible I become."

Another day. An old man was sitting on a bench when he was about to fall onto an electrical cable. Kozuki appeared out of nowhere. He saved the man. He wiped his nose. He smiled.

**Inner voice**: "It's working..."

Kozuki, trying to annoy him:

"We're not playing ball just because you want to."

Yamato jumped up:

"I didn't ask to!"

Kozuki thought to himself:

"Thank you for making me forget the past…"

As the bus moved forward, someone got on at the next stop. He was wearing a thick coat that didn't suit the season. His eyes were vacant. Despite the summer heat, he wasn't sweating at all. Unintelligible words fell from his lips in a foreign language.

Yurika whispered:

"What did he say?"

Kozuki, not understanding:

"Huh?"

Yamato was scared. The man had long, dirty beard, messy hair, and muddy shoes. His eyes were narrowed, pale, and looked like he hadn't washed in years.

Yamato hugged his mother tightly:

"He looks terrifying…"

Suddenly, the man took off his coat. His body was wrapped in cables, with small lights glowing all over him. His chest was wrapped in bomb belts. The cables were wrapped around his body like veins. Suddenly…

**A huge explosion occurred**

Everything went silent.

Kozuki reflexively pulled Yurika and Yamato between his arms. He used his body as a shield for them.

But suddenly, he found himself in the same position, outside.

The bus exploded before his eyes.

Time seemed to stop.

Flames… smoke… shards of glass flew through the air. Shattered backpacks, screams, severed arms and legs…

A small shoe… had flown off on its own.

Kozuki couldn't breathe. He collapsed to the ground. His eyes were wide, his lips parted.

And there… on the slope… a small, burned, shattered body…

All that remained of Yamato… an arm torn from his chest.

Yurika's body was a few meters away, her clothes burning, her knees gone. Her face was unrecognizable. Despite being side by side, they couldn't see each other. Death had found them all separately.

Kozuki's world turned gray. The silence turned into a roar in his ears.

**Kozuki cried out in anguish**

WHY ME, WHY AM I STILL HERE?

His cry echoed in the flames.

Time had stopped. Kozuki fell to his knees and pounded the ground with his hands as if digging into the earth.

Tears streamed down his face.

And the world changed forever.