Bottom II

A strange sound, something he could only describe as a 'beep,' repeats rhythmically, about once every half second.

A mask, connected to a tube, covers her face.

A blanket is draped over her, from the neck down.

"This isn't something you do for just anyone. In such a situation, panic usually takes over, and your instinct is to do anything you can to save yourself. But it seems hers told her otherwise."

"What the heck are you talking about?"

"You both fell from the sky."

"What?"

"As you hear. Maybe she did cause your burns, but what she sacrificed to save you from the fall more than makes up for it."

"What do you mean? What did she…?" A sudden realization strikes him: the lumps under the blanket don't match Hoshina's height—or even her width, for that matter.

Kaji swallows hard, slowly extending his hand toward the blanket. When he pulls it back, his blood runs cold, and he has to lean against the wall.

Below Hoshina's hips, there's nothing. Next to her left shoulder, there's nothing. The only limb remaining is her right arm.

His surroundings spin. Even the corpses from the war can't compare, because somehow, she's still alive after all this.

"She knew what she was doing. She could've used your body to breach the water's surface and reduce the damage. She risked everything just to give you a small chance at survival. After the fall, we couldn't separate her flesh and bones from the pieces of armor, so more than a third of her body mass had to be amputated."

He can't bring himself to look at her, and the man's description nearly makes him hurl the soup.

We had been trying to kill each other from the moment we met. Why would you do this?

Kaji sinks to his knees.

"Who is she to you, boy?"

"I don't know anymore."

༻──⋆༺𓆩⋆𓆪༻⋆──༺

Both return to the room where they first met.

"The soup's gotten cold. Want me to heat it for you?"

"No." Kaji collapses onto the cushion, the fatigue he once felt now magnified tenfold.

"Anything else you wanna ask?"

"Why did you help us?"

"Well, to be honest, I didn't do much. Most of the credit goes to the fellas I was traveling with, but I won't bore you with the details. In short, the world's already bleak enough. It wouldn't have been right to abandon two young'uns like you to your deaths, especially after all your friend did to save you."

"Where are we?"

"A few kilometers north of Nagano."

"Kilometers? Nagano? Is that the name of your God?"

"I don't have a clue what you're asking, boy."

"Aren't we on an island that just so happens to be below the one we fell from?"

"Umm… we are on an island, but you and I don't seem to be on the same page. You people from the ships might have gotten things mixed up."

"Ships? Stop using all these weird words."

"Seems like this is going to be quite the talk we'll be having." Kaji sighs and lowers his head.

"Let's leave it for tomorrow, I'm too tired for this."

"Alrighty. Anything else you wanna ask, or you'd rather go to rest?"

"What will happen to Hoshina? How will she live like that?"

"I have a few prosthetics ready for her if she wakes up, similar to the ones I implanted on you."

"Pros the what? And what do you mean implanted?"

"The ones in your right arm and chest."

His arm and chest... they feel strange. He thought it was just from the injuries, but now he realizes it's not a weird sensation—it's the opposite.

I can't feel my right arm.

Kaji looks down. It's there, wrapped in bandages, yet all he senses is a weight hanging from his shoulder.

He reaches out with his trembling left arm. Instead of a warm, soft texture, what he touches is hard.

What is going on!?

With a sharp tug, he pulls off the bandages, revealing what lies beneath: a grey, inhuman imitation of an arm. Its skin is translucent, and beneath it, dozens of intricate pieces move at varying paces.

"W-w-wha…?" Before he can say anything else, he begins to feel something where his right arm should be.

A mind-numbing burn, like everything below his shoulder is on fire.

"Aaahhh!" He rolls on the ground. "It burns! What the hell is this! Aahh!"

"Kid! Calm down!"

"Take it off! What the fuck did you do to me! You sick bastard! Aaghh!"

It feels as though thousands of needles are piercing his flesh, his bones breaking down from the inside. He's never felt anything so agonizing. His screams trigger a fit of coughing, so violent that drops of blood spill from his mouth.

Then, a small pinch in his neck, and the pain begins to fade, taking with it whatever strength Kaji had left.

Everything goes dark.

༻──⋆༺𓆩⋆𓆪༻⋆──༺

He wakes up in the room where it all started, this time with the geezer sitting beside him.

"You okay, boy?"

"Take this shit off me, before it starts hurting again," he demands, his throat hoarse.

"It's got nothing to do with the implant. It's… well, I'm no expert, I just know it's something about your brain confusing sensations and thinking you're still wounded."

"I'm not asking questions. I'm telling you to take out all this trash you've put into my body without my permission."

The geezer sighs. "Listen, Kaji, I can take the arm out if that's what you want, but I can't do anything about the mechanical organs."

"The mecha… what? How many fucking surprises do you have for me!?"

He touches his chest and feels something there: a small, hard circle at the center. He continues probing, feeling the rest of his chest—light pain radiates wherever he touches. Then, beneath it all, there's movement. Something other than his heart, with countless creaks and grinds.

"You need them to live, so I'm not taking them out no matter what, am I clear?"

I need them to live. I am alive.

That's right.

If dying is the true end, then as long as I live, that's all that matters.

If, while he thought he was dead, a god or any voice had told him that to live again he'd need metal pieces crammed into his body, he would have accepted without hesitation.

So, any other emotion he might feel about this situation is eclipsed by one singular thought.

"Thank you, Ge." The old man is taken by surprise. "I'm sorry for the way I acted. You saved my life, and I'm grateful for it."

"Oh, it was nothing. If an old geezer like me can help secure the next generation then I'm more than happy to assist, he, he!"

༻──⋆༺𓆩⋆𓆪༻⋆──༺

Chunks of metal in all shapes and sizes, some still emitting faint light.

A weak wind carries with it heavy, repugnant air.

If he focuses on what's in front of him, he can see hundreds of small particles, each with an unnatural appearance.

Not a trace of green—mild orange dominates the horizon, the only color to be seen. At just a few feet, everything begins to blur from the contamination.

A wasteland.

"You done sightseeing?" Ge's voice, muffled by the mask, calls him. "C'mon, there's work to do."

Despite how bleak everything looks, the veteran insists survival isn't hard if you know what you're doing. In his words: "An upside to losing 99% of humanity is that there's plenty of leftovers for those who remain, even after 600 years."

Yeah, it turns out... most of the world has been ravaged by past wars. And not only that…

Magic isn't real.

Gods are human fabrications.

And even after the end of the world, people still find excuses to wage war.

"Kaji's 'work' in this new world consists of carrying whatever debris Ge deems useful, though with only one functional arm, that isn't much.

This will be his life from now on. He likely won't see his family again, but at least he's alive. There's no point in getting angry at things he can't change. He tells himself this, over and over, trying to convince himself it's enough.

༻──⋆༺𓆩⋆𓆪༻⋆──༺

After a few hours of going in and out, it's time for a much-needed shower.

Then, right after, his arm has to be removed to clean the joint, which is excruciatingly painful.

Kaji wakes up later, realizing Ge must have put him to sleep again.

At least that part is over. Next comes his 'rehabilitation session.'

The arm still doesn't move. But at least now he can look at it without feeling the so-called phantom pain.

It's so alien to him that he can't imagine it as part of his body, but this is his reality now, and he has no choice but to accept it.

There are no gods to blame for this fate.

He also takes a moment to change the gem in his chest. It lasts up to a week unless he exerts himself, but he prefers to switch to a fully charged one each evening, just in case something happens.

After everything he's been through, it would be stupid to die from ‘running out of battery.'

Then, it's time for dinner and a few lessons from Ge. There's a lot to study in this new world. At the very least, Kaji needs to learn to read as soon as possible so he can do his own research if anything ever happens to Ge.

It's not about being pessimistic; it's about accepting that the old man is far from his prime. Even though the outside world isn't that dangerous if you take proper precautions, you can never be sure.

And lastly, Hoshina.

Checking in on her, making sure her life support works, changing her bandages...

Kaji still struggles to keep his dinner in while doing it, but he insists on it. He owes her at least that much.

He's not going to blame her for his body; instead, he'd rather thank her for how far she went to save him when the alternative was so much easier. He knows he would've never done the same for a stranger.

I still can't guess what's going on through your mind. But I'm willing to try and understand you, if there's another chance.