What Do You Wish For With Murky Eyes: Record of Highserk War - Chapter 0

Pleasant moments come to an end with a piercing noise. Takakura Raizou reluctantly opened his heavy eyelids. The body pillow is soaked with drool, and the towel blanket twisted to the point where it was impossible to distinguish the front from the back. The cause of the noise still persisted at the bedside.

Raizou changes the alarm sound randomly every day, but today’s selection was an alarm theme based on a time bomb. It was a suitable sound for the brisk morning hours, making Raizou’s eyes narrow with severity. His blurred vision was useless, and groping around, his right hand finally seized victory.

After dealing with the bothersome approval screen, the noisy alarm that had been going off every morning fell silent. Raizou unplugged the charging cord and placed it on the desk. Finally, he gets up from the sleeping platform. The seasoned bed creaks and plays a rebellious tune, which felt quite irritating.

“Ha~a, so tired…”

Could it be due to the overtime that lasted until late? Raizou speculated on the cause of his fatigue. The email meeting the deadline by the last minute had already been sent. Although he should be welcoming a bright morning with relief and a sense of accomplishment, all that awaited him was the fatigue lingering since last month. Despite his gloomy mood, the morning sun poured in brightly through the open curtains. He squints his eyes and lets out a small sigh.

Lately, things haven’t been going well. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it’s a complete slump. Raizou turned his head, and an unpleasant sound echoed. He proceeded to the sink to change his mood. The aging floor creaked with each step he took, performing a duet with the sound of his bare feet. Reflected in the mirror was a man—Takakura Raizou, thirty-three years old, single. Wrinkles and accumulated fatigue appropriate for his age, though he tried to smile as a token of resistance, the fact remained that he looked older.

“A baby face has its advantages, huh.”

When he was a new employee, Raizou was mistaken for a mid-level employee, and he still remembers being greatly flustered when asked about future schedules on-site. To shake off the lethargy, he turned the faucet, washed his face with cold water, and fixed his hair. As Raizou focused on the sink in front of him, to his surprise, he noticed a considerable amount of hair scattered around.

“This can’t be happening.”

Despite living with earnestly kept, natural hair without dye or extensions, what could be the complaint of the hair follicles? Raizou vented his frustration at his own hair, but it ended up as a futile result. He took out milk from the refrigerator, grabbed a cup from the shelf, and sat in front of the desk. Before starting the meal, he reached for the remote control on the table and turned on the habitual morning news program.

“Several members of the Ground Self-Defense Force, who were involved in the search for young people visiting for video shooting in a certain city in a certain prefecture, have lost contact.”

“In the waters off Yokohama Harbor, NTR Line’s container ship NTR and Erotic Sairline, owned by Sairline, have sunk. The detailed cause is unknown, but it seems that both ships sank after receiving a significant impact below the waterline. There is suspicion that an unidentified submarine collided—”

“It’s unpleasant. Mysterious phenomena continue worldwide. Just the other day, there was a commotion about an unidentified aurora in Tokyo, and it seems like the world has gone mad.”

The commentator with a high-pitched voice appears on the screen. Raizou didn’t particularly like this commentator, but the comments were in agreement. Since the end of last year, strange phenomena have been occurring in land, sea, and air worldwide. From suspicious special programs featuring a self-proclaimed shrine maiden communicating with the gods with arms wide open, interviews with an old man whose pet was taken away by a green humanoid monster, to stories about all the flora and fauna on a mountain being destroyed in an instant, Raizou doesn’t dislike watching suspicious news on TV. Although it smells of lies, there’s something intriguing about it.

“Hmph!”

He dramatically opens a bag of stored bread and shoves it into his mouth. It’s sticky, and the sweetness that can be called the violence of sugar continues relentlessly. Raizou realizes that trying the new Melon Chocolate Caramel Cream Bread was a mistake.

While grimacing, Raizou pours milk into his mouth to wash down the remaining bread. In this manner, continuing his morning routine lazily, he notices the sound of the clock. It’s become the perfect time to catch the commuter train. After finishing brushing his teeth, Raizou starts the final touches. The morning routine he had cultivated for over a decade was a piece of cake.

He puts on black socks, quickly buttons up the ironed shirt, dons the top and bottom of his suit, and completes the preparations by wearing his wristwatch. After checking his business card holder, smartphone, work bag, and the confirmation of the three sacred tools, Raizou exudes a peculiar confidence, believing that with these, he can get through any situation with smooth talk.

Adjusting the worn-out heels of his leather shoes while wearing them, Raizou heads outside. He knows the knack of closing the seasoned door. It requires lifting it slightly and swiftly turning the lock. Whether it’s due to the hinges or the aging of the entire apartment causing the door frame to warp, it could be either.

Although Raizou momentarily hesitates in the choking outside air temperature, he boldly steps outside without flinching. Passing through the narrow corridor and descending the stairs while catching his breath, he reminisces about his younger days when such things didn’t happen in his twenties.

Accompanied by far-from-rhythmic sounds, only three steps remain. Raizou, attempting to take another step, cries out at the sudden change in his body.

“Uh, ah? Ahhh!!”

It comes abruptly. Without any warning, a severe pain grips his chest. Raizou descends the stairs, rolling over, enduring the pain.

Attempting to grab onto walls or objects to somehow stand, Raizou cannot withstand the burning chest pain and the sensation of his body being compressed. He collapses to the ground. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts. His breath is constricted. In addition to dizziness, his vision distorts, and cold sweat doesn’t stop flowing from Raizou’s forehead.

Unable to breathe properly and with limbs unresponsive, Raizou could only gaze at the sky. The hair he had neatly arranged before leaving the house is now soiled with dust, and his partially open mouth is covered in drool. Stretching out his hand in desperation, Raizou finds that, of all days, there is no one around to help.

The edges of his vision flicker with light, slowly narrowing and darkening. Although he doesn’t understand what’s happening to his body, Raizou comprehends one thing: if things continue like this, he will die.

He doesn’t want to die. He still wants to live. As the freedom of his body is gradually taken away, Raizou slowly raises his right hand.

His trembling hand, much like a fawn, is terribly comical, but Raizou doesn’t even have the composure to laugh.

Today is a clear day. Raizou vaguely recalls the weather forecast warning about the heat and the need to guard against heatstroke.

The annoying noise of cicadas, which he had hated so much, doesn’t register in his ears. All Raizou can hear is the irregular sound of his breathing and the weakening thump of his heart.

Perhaps due to the influence of his dimming vision, Raizou experiences a hallucination. The fallen ground is turning black and swirling. Countless shadowy figures emerge from the swirl. The shadowy figures surround Raizou, attempting to drag him into a hole. It’s like a scene from some travelogue.

Oh, it’s a hallucination. The end is near. Faintly, someone’s cheerful voice calling his name is heard, but Raizou can no longer make out anything. His consciousness abruptly and completely fades away.