"First, I intend to go to another Rootstream and resolve the problem there."
Haseol pointed at the Slap Portal Eska had come through.
"Why?"
"I think I need to become stronger quickly. Is there a better way than resolving Rootstreams?"
"Looking at it comprehensively, resolving Rootstreams is the best option."
Bisan nodded.
"You will resolve the Rootstream, and if you fight ghosts, you can gain information about ghosts as well. If you can obtain ability gear, you can put it in Haseol's Fairy Realm."
At Bisan's words, Haseol looked at him.
"Not comprehensively. What if we only look at dealing with Dictatorship?"
"......"
Bisan thought for a moment at Haseol's question.
"I do not know."
"......"
"We have too little information about Haseol, Rootstreams, and ghosts to reach a conclusion."
"I see."
Haseol nodded obediently.
Perhaps he wondered whether Bisan was hiding a way to pursue only Dictatorship while abandoning the Rootstream that had just appeared.
"Then I will go to the Rootstream right away."
Haseol immediately walked toward the Slap Portal.
"You will not rest first?"
"Huh? Why? Does Bloodline need to rest because it is low on blood?"
"No, it is not that."
"Then let us go. We need to rescue Asha quickly."
Haseol walked forward in long strides.
"Ah, and you do not need to worry about the mental side of things."
"Hmm?"
"If I can feel that you are worried, even when I think I am all right, I start wondering, 'Oh? Am I in danger?' It only makes me worry for no reason."
"Being too perceptive is not necessarily a good thing."
Bisan chuckled and followed behind Haseol.
"Myun is waiting in front of the Rootstream."
"Are you not coming too, Eska?"
Haseol asked Eska, who stood beside the Slap Portal.
"I will investigate the Assassins a little more."
"Okay. I will be back."
Haseol walked through the Slap Portal.
Crunch.
Sand crunched under his feet.
Beyond the Slap Portal lay a desert beneath a blazing sun.
There was only desert before him, and only desert behind him.
It was desolate, yet it had the strange feeling of a clean desert.
There was a Rootstream in that desert.
A white, dome-shaped Rootstream.
Haseol and Bisan walked toward the Rootstream across the desert sand.
Sand clung to his bloodstained shoes.
"Eska knows everything that just happened, right?"
Haseol asked Bisan, who was following behind him.
"She does. I told her all about it."
"But she did not say anything. I thought it was a fairly big incident."
"It was not a big incident."
"What?"
"It would be a big incident if you died, but you are alive."
"Ah?"
"Being in danger of death is not something we need to make a fuss over by asking whether you are all right. We can take care of your mental state for the future, but that is all."
"So being in danger of death is common?"
"I only mean that there is no need to make a fuss about it."
"Eska does not seem like the type to provide mental care, though."
Haseol smiled as he spoke in a joking tone.
It was obvious that he was saying it to lighten the mood in a difficult situation, but Bisan did not bring that up.
The person standing in front of Rootstream came into view at some distance.
A boyish-looking being with white hair, round glasses, an oversized green T-shirt, and shorts.
"Myun! We are here!"
Haseol called loudly as he approached.
"Oh~, you came. You've had a rough time."
Myun answered as he dug at the sand below Rootstream with his foot.
"Yes. A little. What are you doing?"
Haseol came right beside Myun and asked.
"I'm looking below Rootstream."
"Below it?"
"I expected it, but Rootstream seems closer to a sphere than a dome."
Even as he dug through the sand, Rootstream could be seen extending below.
"I see. There was nothing outside Rootstream, right? Shall we go in right away?"
Haseol asked as he rolled his shoulders and stretched.
"Let us. There's nothing else we can learn here."
"For now, I will message the others to see whether they know anything about the location of this desert."
Bisan spoke as he took out his phone.
"Okay. Then I am going."
As though he had neither reason nor time to hesitate, Haseol entered the Rootstream at once.
Inside Rootstream, too, a vast desert glittered under the sunlight.
Perhaps because there were no buildings, or perhaps because Rootstream was truly large, the space looked wider than any Rootstream he had entered before.
Crunch. Crunch.
Haseol walked slowly over the sand.
"For now, I cannot see any people or ghosts."
[What about ability gear?]
"Ability gear? Ah, I can look with Fairy Eye, right? Just a moment. I will look."
Haseol closed his eyes and opened them again as though he had forgotten.
"There is one. It is very far away. I think it is on top of a dune, though."
Haseol continued walking over the sand.
[For now, make that your destination.]
"I will run there."
[You are not going to fly?]
"If I fly, the ghosts might see me."
[Do as you please.]
"Okay. Then."
Haseol gradually began to pick up speed.
He ran as though jogging, then as though sprinting at full speed.
Then, at some point.
He exceeded the speed a human could produce.
Sand exploded backward with a rattling roar.
Like a car speeding forward.
But both the amount of sand flung backward and its speed were beyond comparison with an ordinary car.
[Hmm? Why are you sprinting at full speed?]
"No reason!"
Haseol gave a casual answer, trying to hide it, but Bisan read his intention and explained it instead.
[He is training at the same time.]
A dune with a steep incline.
He went up that dune without losing speed.
Fwoosh!
Haseol reached the top of the dune.
"I can see the ability gear, and I still cannot see any ghosts."
Haseol reported as he ran.
He rapidly approached the ability gear.
Screeech!
Haseol slowed down.
He approached the ability gear, then stopped.
"Huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff."
It was because he heard desperate panting from right beside him.
A girl in a bright red hoodie and bright red skirt.
With a black bob, a small face, and a cute, exotic appearance that blended East Asian and Western features, she was heaving so hard that she looked about to die.
"Huff, huff, huff, huff."
Unable to calm her breathing no matter what she did, she lay facedown in the sand and panted heavily.
Sweat beaded on her forehead and dripped onto the sand.
"......"
Haseol looked down at the girl with round eyes.
There had been no one around just before.
At some point, the girl had suddenly appeared near Haseol and was struggling.
She was not someone he knew well.
He had not met her often enough to be familiar with her, nor seen her often enough to be familiar with her.
But he could never fail to recognize who she was.
"Asha?"
Haseol blankly called to her.
There was no answer.
Asha continued looking down at the sand.
"Bleeergh."
Then she vomited.
So suddenly that Haseol flinched and stepped back.
"......"
"Cough! Cough!"
Asha coughed harshly.
"You are Asha, right?"
Haseol asked once more, just in case.
"Ughhh."
Asha wiped away tears gathered in her eyes and raised herself.
"Asha."
"Ah, fuck......"
"Asha?"
"I don't fucking want to do thiiis!"
"......"
Haseol flinched and moved a step farther away from Asha.
"Does anyone understand what is happening right now?"
Haseol asked.
[I do not know.]
[If that is Asha, then she is Haseol's predecessor, correct?]
"Yes."
[Dictatorship would not have released her and let her act like that, right?]
"Is that not unlikely?"
[Shake her.]
"Ah, okay."
Haseol approached Asha.
Crackle.
Asha's body wavered.
Not because someone had touched her and made her shake, but as though she were a television with a bad signal.
Before Haseol had even touched her.
Crackle.
Then she faded.
Rather than a person in distinct colors, she faded like an illusion made from pure white light.
And then she faded away completely.
"What was that?"
[I do not know. For now, retrieve the ability gear.]
"Ah, okay."
Haseol walked toward the ability gear.
Crackle.
But Asha appeared before the ability gear once again.
Asha's form wavered in white light.
She put her hand into the sand and began searching through it.
Then she pulled something out of the sand.
A small dagger.
Both the blade and handle were simply pitch-black.
Though it had been buried in sand, the dark color that seemed to swallow light had not faded at all.
"Hahh. I found ittt......"
With a sigh of relief, Asha sat down in the sand.
[That dagger was there?]
Myun's voice reached him.
"Do you know that dagger?"
[The dagger's name is Reverse Life. It is ability gear with two forms: a shield and a dagger.]
"Is it good?"
[It is ability gear made for self-defense, but its owners died again and again, so it was discarded. It is cursed ability gear.]
"Ah. Then."
[That is right. The cursed ability gear you were looking for.]
"Was I looking for cursed ability gear?"
[Have you forgotten already? You said we should find cursed ability gear that grows in your stead, because you cannot grow. Shura went to look for that.]
"Ah, right."
Haseol nodded and continued looking at Asha.
Asha was dusting off her backside and getting to her feet.
"Asha."
Haseol tried speaking to Asha again, but there was no answer.
Instead, if it could be called that.
"Ghk?!"
Asha was grabbed by the neck and slammed into the sand by someone.
Fwoosh!
Sand flew in every direction, even reaching Haseol.
Yet the sand simply passed through him.
"......?"
Haseol was puzzled.
"Nngh......"
Asha was being strangled by someone.
Two hands made of pure white light were choking Asha's neck.
A human silhouette made of the same pure white light as those hands was straddling Asha's body.
"What is this?!"
Haseol rushed forward and kicked the person choking Asha.
It missed.
His foot merely cut through the air.
"Nngh. Ngh! Ngh!"
Asha struggled in the sand, but it did not do much good.
Haseol tried to grab the person choking Asha and tried to help Asha, but it was equally meaningless.
[It appears to be a fabricated illusion.]
"It does, but......"
"Ghk. Ngh......"
Watching a girl die while being strangled was not a sight one could simply watch.
All the more so when the girl was someone he knew.
All the more so when she was someone who had once saved him.
But he had to watch.
He had to see it to understand what kind of phenomenon this was.
Tap.
Asha's hand fell to the ground.
She had lost all strength.
Asha and the person strangling her, both made of pure white light, disappeared.
Haseol was left standing alone in the desert.
[Retrieve the ability gear first.]
"I should."
Haseol scratched his head and began walking.
He tried to stay calm, but he could feel his heart pounding hard.
Haseol plunged his hand into the sand where Asha had previously buried hers deep.
He pulled out what his hand found in the sand.
A small dagger.
Both the blade and the handle were simply pitch-black.
It was the same dagger Asha had pulled out.
"This was called Reverse Life earlier, right?"
[Yes. Reverse Life.]
"Are there multiple daggers called Reverse Life?"
[As far as I know, there is only one. There would also be no reason to make another cursed dagger like that.]
"Then what was the illusion we saw before? It was an illusion, right?"
[It was likely an illusion. The question is whether it was of the past, the future, or an imagined event.]
"Hmmmm."
Haseol considered the matter for a moment with Reverse Life in hand.
[But I do not feel Rootstream being released. Look around and see if there is more ability gear there.]
"I will look."
Haseol slowly looked around.
[If it is something that will happen, then one wonders why the ghost that strangled Asha has not appeared.]
"That is true. If Asha had retrieved Reverse Life, Reverse Life would not be here. Ah."
Haseol stopped speaking.
"I found another ability gear."
Haseol tilted his head to one side, looking a little troubled.
"I found it, but......"
[I can see it too. Can you manage it?]
The staff-like ability gear was already in a ghost's hand.
"It is too far away."
It was already being brought down toward a knee.
CRACK!
The ability gear shattered, and bright blue light spread across the desert.