Chapter of Crow: Episode 2-3
Jan 4, 2023
I should try to heal her wounds...!
But how...?
Blood still gushes from the wound on the butterfly girl’s back. Time is running out.
You recall Kenji using bloodstones to heal a deer wounded by a hunter’s trap.
Maybe I can try to heal her wounds like that too? But I don't have any bloodstone...
Wait, I do!
You grip the pills tightly in your hand. You look up to the sun, the fiery ball perched in the same position as it was yesterday when you took
your pill. It’s time for you to take the pill…otherwise, you’ll melt.
Two pills. One for you, one for Kenji. But Keni will live…he has—
The girl groans in pain. It’s time to act. But you realize even one pill won’t save her; Kenji gave the deer two pills to save it.
Two pills. Two for her...?
You face two choices:
You live
or she lives
…
…
Ah, I hate this...
There should be nothing stopping me from choosing myself to live...
It's my own life.
But why am I struggling?!
I told Kenji I wanted to die. To melt away, to leave it all behind. I asked him for it. Begged him for it.
Yet, here I am, afraid to choose not just for myself but for this butterfly girl on the brink of dying in the show.
...
It's her fault!
Her own fault!
She may have survived if she left the cat behind and run at full speed. Now, she knocks on death's door to save the cat.
Was it worth it?
And now it's me who must pay the price for her kindness...
You idiot...
Ugh...
If one of you has to die...
...
I guess...
her life is more precious...
Why?
I don't know.
Do I need to give myself a reason?
Okay, okay. Here's a reason:
Because I won't sacrifice myself to save a cat. I wouldn't sacrifice myself to save anyone nor anything.
All your life, you’ve learned how to kill. How to take. How to end things. End lives. End breaths. You learn by stealing, by cutting, by stabbing, and by murdering. You sacrifice a part of your soul every day. And for what? For Kenji’s stupid saint game?
𝙀𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨! 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙠 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜! 𝙄 𝙢𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙨𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙧!
You put the two pills into the butterfly girl’s mouth and tilt her head back to make her swallow. The cat hisses and bears its sharp teeth as you do this, but it waits to see what will happen next.
You sit down next to the girl, and finally start to process the decision you have made, think back on the life you have lived.
It was long, a life without a real purpose.
So many innocent lives I have taken.
If I disappear, will anyone be sad?
Will Kenji look for me? Will he cry for me?
Will this girl even know who saved her and the struggle I went through? Everything I've done leading up to this moment?
Will she ever know my name, my face, my soul, looking at the pool of flesh I became?
The sun’s rays warm your skin as you sink into the snow. The cat, at first scared, now approaches you carefully. It notices your skin bubbling, your eyes glistening, and your mouth curling into a warm smile. It rubs against your leg, purring and bumping its scratchy nose into your knee.
Is this the emotion called "love"?
Feeling it the first time in your life, it brings you peace, even as you watch your fingers lose texture and drip downwards.
Is this...how it feels?
There is no pain. You feel like lying in a soft bed, being hugged warmly. By your parents lost in the flame? By Kenji, finally free of hate? By the cat, trying to save you?
By the butterfly girl, saying thank you?
This might be a blessing rather than a curse...
This, dying in peace and comfort…
The goddess who put this curse on us citizens of Naer must have a good heart.
You can’t feel your body anymore: your hands, legs, back, shoulder, neck, anything. It all goes away.
But you can still see. The blue sky, the snow-covered forest, the butterflies flying around you.
…
…
Darkness
…
This is where it ends.
...
Finally...
...
I'm free...
…
…
…
???
「Hold on to it.」
…
…
Me...?
You feel something in the grip of your hand. Cold metal.
???
「Now open your castle of memory, and welcome me in.」
What...?
[ Yes... ]
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