Date a Live:This is not the date I wanted! Chapter 303 303: Kill me... please

"It's been an hour and there's still no reaction, is Nia okay?"

"Calm down, Shido. Nia is probably still reading the manga and novel."

Looking at the restless Shido, Yutsuki sighed and said calmly,

"I wrote the novel myself, so I have a good idea of how long it takes to read. And I can guarantee that if Nia finishes it, she'll definitely run over, grab by the collar, and shake violently."

"Haha..."

Hearing Yutsuki's words, Shido couldn't help but smile bitterly.

"Ryou! Gi! Yu! Tsuki!"

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Nia strode towards Yutsuki, grabbed her sleeve without a second word, and demanded with an angry face that clearly showed she had been crying.

"You actually cut it off right there!? You actually cut it off right there!? Do you have any conscience left?"

"How is it? Has your appetite been completely whetted?"

Yutsuki curled her lips proudly.

"Well, don't get so excited. It's not like I did anything heinous. Isn't stopping at a crucial point to keep readers in suspense a very common thing? Don't tell you haven't done the sa when drawing manga."

"You—"

Montarily rendered speechless by Yutsuki, Nia gritted her teeth and glared at her for a long ti. Finally, seemingly having thought it through, she let go, tilted her head up to the sky, and exhaled heavily.

"Honestly, running into you is my bad luck from a past life."

Scratching her hair helplessly, Nia turned her head and looked at Shido with a complex gaze.

"Boy... Shido... can I ask a question?"

"What?"

"...No, actually, forget it."

After hesitating for a mont, Nia smiled and shook her head.

After reading the ending, Nia had almost imdiately taken out Rasiel to investigate the manga and novel. However, the results she found differed slightly from what she expected.

The story of the "boy" told in that manga was, without exception, reality, but the existence of the "girl" in the novel was completely fictional.

Of course, since Rasiel couldn't investigate information about the "girl's" prototype, Ryougi Yutsuki, even if there were real elents mixed into the novel, Nia had no way of knowing.

Even if she asked the current Itsuka Shido, he wouldn't possibly know the answer of the "Shido" in the story.

Rather, from the bottom of her heart, she didn't want to see the Shido before her beco the boy in the story.

"Thank you guys. Even though I made so many unreasonable demands, you still stubbornly tagged along. I am completely won over by your good-natured spirit."

"Hearing you say that, it doesn't sound like you're praising us."

Shido said with a sweatdrop.

"That's not true. I'm really grateful to you guys."

A gentle smile appeared on her face, and Nia spoke frankly.

If it weren't for last night, when Yutsuki patiently stayed with her at the food stall until the end, she would probably still be bound by the knot in her heart.

If it weren't for today, when Shido forcefully gave her a push, she probably wouldn't have been able to muster the courage to reconcile with her old friend at all.

If she hadn't t them, she probably would have kept using the 2D world as a shelter to escape into.

If it weren't for the fact that everyone is so honest and considerate... she probably would have broken down last night.

"Say... boy... Biri-chan... I, actually... I'm really scared..."

Even though a smile remained on her face, tears uncontrollably stread down her cheeks. Nia spoke with a trembling voice.

"Since this morning... it feels like there's a ti bomb in my head... tick... tock... ticking endlessly... I'm so scared... so scared... that when the countdown ends... I'll..."

"It's going to be okay!"

Before Nia could finish speaking, Shido pulled her tightly into his arms and gently comforted her.

"Boy..."

Feeling the man's broad chest, Nia's eyes widened slightly.

"You don't need to think about a future like that. Believe in , believe in Yutsuki. Believe in all of us, we will definitely save you!"

Gazing deeply into Nia's eyes, Shido said with absolute certainty.

"Just like a hero in an ani!"

"...Saying sothing like that at a ti like this, it's way too cunning."

Nia couldn't help but smile bitterly, burying herself in Shido's embrace, hiding her head like an ostrich.

"Say... Biri-chan, won't you get angry with the boy doing this?"

"If I say yes, would you be willing to leave Shido's embrace?"

Yutsuki retorted helplessly.

"...No."

"Then why ask?"

Yutsuki rolled her eyes in annoyance, hmphed softly, and continued.

"Well... regarding the continuation of that story, although I have no plans to write the novel right now, soday in the future, I'll probably finish it on a whim."

"Is that so... then I really... can't..."

Her voice gradually becoming weak, Nia felt her strength continuously draining away.

Tick—tock—

The countdown in her mind, the sound beca clearer and clearer.

"...just... die... like this..."

The surrounding sounds gradually faded away, and Honjou Nia's consciousness plunged into a bottomless darkness.

——————————————

"Hello, Director Westcott! What brings you here today?"

"Nothing much. I just got a little tired of dealing with those old fogeys, so I ca over to kill so ti."

In the cold mories, a middle-aged man with gray hair walked into the laboratory, greeting his subordinates with an amiable smile.

The other party's target was clearly herself. He didn't wander around, but walked straight up to her. Separated by a pane of glass, he looked at her with a gaze full of amusent.

"Long ti no see, Material A. How is your condition?"

Monster.

She couldn't make a sound, or rather, her body had long lost control. Her consciousness was also as slow and sluggish as a crawling snail. After a long ti, only these two words could surface in her mind.

"How is the experint progressing?"

"Yes, sir! Ten days ago, placed in the automated magic cannon shooting training room for continuous bombardnt for ten hours; five days ago, alternated between temperature environnts of minus 200 and positive 200 degrees Celsius every hour; the day before yesterday, underwent amputation, laparotomy, and craniotomy without anesthesia; yesterday, ultra-high voltage was used to stimulate her neurons; today's schedule is to inject a highly corrosive solution into her blood vessels..."

"Hahahaha! Impressive, impressive. As expected of my subordinate, doing things more insanely than a demon with such a cowardly face."

Staring numbly at the interaction between the man and his subordinate, not the slightest ripple was produced in her heart.

For five years, it had always been like this.

Day after day, over and over again. Ever since the day they caught her. It was as if they treated her as a lab rat, conducting various inhumane experints.

No, more accurately. She wasn't even as good as a lab rat.

They didn't want to gain anything from researching her. From the very beginning, their goal was pure torture, to break her completely.

Initially, when facing these tornts, she would still feel anger, pain, cry, and wail. But as ti passed, and the pain gradually beca a daily routine, all sorts of emotions beca numb along with it.

Forgetting was a rather good experience, allowing her to coldly accept everything in this twisted hell.

The only slight downside was that she had forgotten too many things. Sotis, she would forget who she was and what her na was.

"Truly amazing. To endure so much pain and still be able to maintain that sliver of self, an ordinary person would have bitten their tongue to commit suicide long ago. If it weren't for the issue of our positions, I'd really want to offer my praises to your unyielding spirit,Honjou Nia."

Hearing the gray-haired man's speech, she suddenly rembered.

Right, my na is Honjou Nia.

Nia had died once. To be precise, she had walked through the gates of hell once.

That was the most satisfying mont Honjou Nia had experienced in these five years.

Without the constraints of the flesh, the information brought by the five senses gradually blurred. Cold, pain, sorrow, all the noise that had once tornted Honjou Nia were isolated outside this quiet world.

If only she could sleep forever in this world. How wonderful that would be.

This was the only wish that had arisen in Honjou Nia's heart over these five years.

However—

"Are you really going to save her? Ike, with all due respect, I feel this action is completely aningless."

"It can't be helped. Looking at this half-baked Inverse Crystal feels like looking at an underdeveloped vegetable; eating it would ruin one's stomach. Ah, right."

"What is this?"

"An ultra-small Realizer specifically used for implantation into the cranium, to seal her mories. After all, if we don't do this, she won't even be able to maintain her sense of self."

"Could you tell the intention behind doing this?"

"A very simple principle. Rather than just dropping a glass bead, throwing it down from a higher place will shatter it more completely."

(No! No!)

For the first ti in a long while, the emotion called fear surged in Honjou Nia's heart.

Unable to make a choice herself. Like a marionette, Honjou Nia was forced out of that peaceful and quiet darkness, dragged back under the scorching, vicious sun.

————————————

"Ah, ah, ah, ahhhhhhh, ahhhhhhh..."

Nia, who had been resting peacefully in Shido's embrace, suddenly contorted her face in pain and scread at the top of her lungs.

"Nia!?"

"Shido, get away from Nia!"

Without hesitation, deploying a partial Astral Dress, Yutsuki pulled Shido away, creating distance between them and Nia.

Pitch black Spirit power overflowed from Nia's body, flowing into the surroundings like sludge. At the sa ti, piercing alarms rang in Shido and Yutsuki's ears.

[Spirit Power Level, Type E! Nia has inverted!]

[Yutsuki! Shido! Two Wizards are rushing over here with a bunch of drones!]

The reports from Kotori and Tohka in their ears seed to explain Nia's current situation.

Honjou Nia, has inverted.

The pitch black Spirit power was like muddy sludge, gradually spreading outwards with Nia as the center. Any ground touched by this sludge dissolved into mush, like a mountain of salt touched by water.

Imdiately after, the skin and flesh on Nia's forehead, limbs, and various parts of her body suddenly split open, forming various grueso wounds. Massive amounts of blood flowed continuously from them.

Throughout the entire process, Shido and Yutsuki couldn't see any factor causing external injury to Nia. It was as if her body suddenly recalled these wounds, splitting open into stigmata-like injuries. Blood soaked the tattered black nun's habit, forming eerie colors.

—Save—

—Save —

—It hurts so much, hurry and save —

"Ugh—"

"This voice... is it Nia..."

Shido and Yutsuki both frowned in unison.

The Spirit power lingering in their bodies stirred restlessly, and a painful voice echoed in their minds.

(This feeling... is the sa as the cry for help I heard when Shido went berserk.)

"Shido... Yutsuki..."

With a voice as faint as a mosquito flapping its wings, Honjou Nia, using her last shred of consciousness, let out a desperate plea,

"Please... kill ..."