It wasover in an instant.

Let mebegin with an excuse. I tried to save him. My cla.s.smate was before my eyes,descending into depravity, and I tried to enlighten him and set him back on theright path.

ButMasato Yahara tried to kill me. I didn"t understand why. I extended the helpinghand that he so desperately sought, but not only did he brush it away, he triedto consume to sate his hunger. I had no idea that such a person could evenexist.

It wasover in an instant. I was versed in self-defence, so in an instant I reversedthe hand he was holding his knife in. Although I didn"t mean for it to, theblade struck his heart fatally.

Thescent of rusted iron, which already pervaded that abandoned factory, grew evenstronger. With a look of anguish on his face, Masato Yahara collapsed.

It wasthe worst outcome imaginable.

—Whydid this happen?

—Such athing shouldn"t happen, should it?

—Whatwill become of me now?

Iblocked off my sight.

Irejected the world.

Irefused to accept reality.

White.

White.

White.

Peopleonly hear what they want to hear. And every solution they come up with isopportunistic.

Isimply decided to surrender myself to a world of opportunistic.

I wouldsimply forget all the inconvenient truths.

3, 2, 1—— And lo, they"re gone.

Nowthen, why did I stab Masato Yahara to death?

Itwouldn"t do for it to have simply been a coincidence. It had to have beennecessary, it had to have been just. I never made a mistake. I wasn"t in thewrong — which meant that Masato Yahara must have been. Masato Yahara"s deathwas necessary; killing him had been just.

It hadto be that way.

That"sright… I had called Masato Yahara a monster, hadn"t I? That"s right, that"sright! Just as he had tried to kill me, he was a monster who could only affirmhimself through killing others. If I hadn"t killed him, innocent lives wouldhave been lost!

Wasthere any problem with me killing a man like that? Of course not. It was anunavoidable measure, like shooting a bear before it can eat people. Somebodyhad to do it.

Theevents before my eyes were moving in slow motion. In this closed world, theconcept of time was ambiguous, and all that thought could be accomplished in amoment.

Nowthen, time for the reception.

What Iaccepted into my field of view was a world that was amiable to me.

Ilooked down upon Masato Yahara.

"Now you can get out of here, hm… On thatpoint alone, we are of the same opinion."

He gazed at me with eyes full of hate.

"Your life has no value... or rather, you"relike a vermin that deserves to die."

Indeed. That was my reason for killing MasatoYahara.

That would do fine.

But I probably realized it even then.

Such a world could be poppedmore easily than a soap bubble.