Isayama Tore. II

I was lying in bed when Isayama called me.

“Tatsumi!”

“Isa? What’s up?”

“Tatsumi, please, write this down—it’s everything I need to tell you!”

He sounded frantic, a stark contrast to my drowsy self.

“This is my last chance!” His voice cracked, as though every word took an unbearable effort to say.

“Is everything okay?” I sat up as quickly as I could.

“No, no, no! My time is running out!”

Those words froze me for a few seconds as I made my way to the desk.

“Has the virus advanced that far?” I felt a knot tighten in my chest, an echo of all those we hadn’t been able to save.

“Listen to me, please,” he pleaded. “You’re the only one I have. Write this down!”

“All right, I’m ready…” I grabbed a pen with trembling hands and turned on the desk lamp.

The urgency in Isayama’s voice came through clearly from the speaker.

“It’s about BlackBrain.”

“Take a breath, Isa. Relax. I’ll take note of everything…” Like a gunslinger at high noon, I sat with pen in hand under the dim light, waiting for my friend’s words to strike.

Hold on, Isa, for whatever it’s worth. This battle isn’t over yet...

“Names: Irina Kaft, head of Division 3 of contagion investigators at Cellos Robotics.”

“Huh? Isn’t she your boss?”

“Yes, yes, yes! Don’t interrupt me!”

“S-sorry.”

“Do you have it down?”

“Yes.”

“Ilya Reutermann, contagion investigator at Division 1 of Cellos Robotics.”

“Got it.”

“Hero Enterprise is the brain behind all of this, Tatsumi! The implant company!”

“Wait, Isa, what does Hero have to do with two big shots at Cellos?”

“Yamaguchi-sensei figured it out. Hero Enterprise’s implants are the only ones not connected to the biological weapon. Cellos, Luminous, Cambra—every other company is affected!” he shouted in panic. “I have to hold on…”

“But…”

“Write it down, Tatsumi! Irina Kaft and Ilya Reutermann are working with Hero—I just need proof!” His voice faltered, weighed down by exhaustion.

“Damn it… This is madness…” My fingers shook as I wrote. How was I supposed to help him if I could barely understand what he was saying?

“I thought this was the work of some radical anti-implant groups, but that’s impossible. They wouldn’t have the resources for something like this. The connection between Irina and Touji was obvious from the moment I saw them together at the bar. Damn it, Tatsumi, how the hell didn’t I realize it sooner?!”

I didn’t know how to respond to his rambling; my mind was caught up in memories of our mentor’s final hours—an ending too horrific to forget.

“The Isayama in the videos had the answer right in front of him the whole time. Yamaguchi-sensei knew it all along, but I was too blind to see. Ilya was there the day our mentor died. How the hell did those surveillance drones know where we were?!”

“All right, Isa. Irina and Ilya, from Cellos, working with Hero to attack the other implant companies.”

“Exactly: not just discrediting the competition—destroying it! The anti-implant extremists were just a diversion…” I could hear him smacking his forehead on the other end. “Touji was the perfect decoy. While they erased anyone following their trail, he and his people stirred chaos with protests and distractions.”

“They deliberately infected you with S-Flu to kill you…”

“The moment they touched me; I was already a dead man walking… Offering me Hero’s implants before the surgery wasn’t a solution—it was a threat…”

“Damn it… Isa, this is insane…”

“Listen to me, Tatsumi. I’m going to find the last pieces of evidence to bring them down. The final step to completing the investigation left unfinished by the Isayama from the past.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll go further than ever to achieve it…” Suddenly, he shared his camera feed with me.

He looked disheveled, with tear-streaked cheeks and crusted eyes. Desperate. Longing for rest at last.

“I-Isayama, where are you?”

“Hero Enterprise’s headquarters are in one of the outer districts. I’ve decided to pay them a visit…” He glanced up as the metro bell chimed once more. “Tatsumi, no matter what happens…”

“Wait, Isa! What the hell are you planning?!”

“No matter what happens, fulfill his wishes for me: smile and make this a better place…” He stood and stepped out of the train.

“Huh? W-what do you mean by that?”

Is he bidding farewell?!

“What are you doing, you idiot?!”

I supposed that’s how Isa must have felt, standing helplessly before the people he wanted to save but couldn’t.

“Dad… I finally remembered what you wanted… I haven’t forgotten you…” He struggled to hold back tears as he exited the station. “I’m trying my best…”

“Isa!”

At my shout, he muted the call and lowered his arm.

“If this works… if I manage to expose them, maybe someone else will live to remember her…”

With grim resolve, he set off to avenge his beloved and everyone he’d lost along the way.

It might have seemed tragic, but to Isayama, teetering on the edge of madness, it was likely the last chance he would grant himself to make things right.

Perhaps, even after losing all memories except those tied to his investigation, echoes of the past—phrases, smiles—still resonated in his heart.

Yamaguchi-sensei, Shinpei Yamamoto, Katy Shimizu, Hikaru Tore… I hope you can forgive his recklessness. He just wanted to do something for you…

Or maybe this was entirely his own doing. Knowing him, it was likely he did it simply to remind himself what it meant to feel human.