“Are you girls ok?” Lexar asks with a worried voice.

“Quite terrible. Never believed that I would experience death, and that many times.” Yuuko holds her head with one hand and shakes around.

“*gasp* *gasp*” Hinami does not answer but her body is trembling heavily.

“……..” Makoto remains silent with closed eyes. She seems to be deep in thought.

“Makoto?” Lexar calls her.

“Just now, that was not death, right?” She looks to Lexar “No. The multiple “death” just now was just a mind attack that let the opponent accumulate stress due to heavy and bad stimulations. The attack subjected the target in continuous scenarios of extreme pain in short span of time, resulting in mistaking the experience with death. However, if that was the case, when my head was served, why did I still remain conscious for a few second before changing to the next “death”? Did that mean a new “death” will not occur unless the target does not enter death stage? ……..” Makoto gazes down then mumbles alone in the self questioning and answering.

“Makoto!” Lexar calls her in a loud voice.

“Ah! Sorry. I was so engrossed in thinking. You were asking how I am right? I am fine now, just a little bit of headache from the stress accumulated. Nothing to worry about.” Makoto says with a cheerful tone “It’s just that there is something interesting about these “death”.”

Her sentence ends with baffling faces on everyone, even Hinami stops trembling for a moment.

“Makoto, are you sure you are ok?” Yuuko asks with a serious face.

“!” Makoto becomes shocked as she realizes what she just said “Yeah, maybe I am not alright at all. I guess those “death” made me crazy somehow. Please forget what I have just said.” She makes an agonized face as she says so.

“Reception! Are you there? There are some mafias killing each other in my room. Send the polices or the guards to my room, now.” An angry patient shouts to the receiver on the wall.

“I guess we are going through some heavy inquires from the police.” Lexar sighs as he imagines what will happen next.

“Hey! Are you fucking listening? Hey! Damn it! No one is answering.” The patient swears because there is no response from the machine.

Hearing his words, Lexar starts feeling ominous. Hospital’s reception is supposed to work twenty four on twenty four, in case of emergency, especially when this is a crucial period where there is a large flux of patients into the hospital.

Activating clairvoyance, he searches around the hospital. There is no staff found anywhere in the hall or reception room, no doctor, no nurse, no security guard.

Just when his sight stops in front of a big room with a sign “Meeting room”, a door suddenly swings open and a terrifying creature enters his view.

A big lump of round red meat on two legs runs out of the room. The upper body is a mass of meat ball with yellow light blinking rhythmically inside. The lower half seems to belong to human with a pair of blue jeans and leather shoes. The balance between two half is just absurd. The upper body is as big as washing machine while the lower one is only about the size of an adult male, yet it can stand firmly on the ground. The fact that it can run fast safely, even without the arms for balancing, sends shiver to his spine.

Following after it, many more “meat man” run out of the room and scatter to different directions. It takes him five second to register the reality that there are monsters inside the hospital they are staying.

“Hinami, Makoto, Yuuko, stand up and prepare to fight. I saw monsters running in the hospital.” Lexar warns them.

As if fighting instinct is instilled in them, even with exhaustion from the fight, they stand up and prepare for combat immediately.

“Cloak up” x3.

White flame emits from their bodies and transforms the pink patient clothes into their battle suits: a military uniform, a samurai armor, and a stylish witch attire.

The four patients just stare with dumbfounded expression. They had witnessed the fighting scene from the beginning. Although there was usage of Animium to create weapons out of thin air and inflict damage, they regarded the flame as effects created by the weapons, and both sides just drew the weapons too fast for them to see. However, they could not find any explanation for the transformation just now.

“You, just who are you girls?” Another patient says while pointing at them shakingly.

“Can you move? If you can, lock the door and block it the chairs and the shelf after we leave. That should be enough to protect you from the monsters.” Yuuko says to the patients.

“Everyone, look outside the window.” Lexar suddenly calls out.

With the crimson sun above, the scenery as well as the sky are dyed in the bloody red. Even the white hospital room changes to such eerie color. The four men become flustered and panic, while the three girls and the cat's expressions turn grave.

“Again, that crazy world again. Just why? Why won’t it leave us alone?” Hinami tightens her fists while shaking lightly.

Yuuko and Makoto lightly nod to show agreement with her words. Lexar begins to think hard what this situation means.

Will there be a massacre like in Hakugawa academy? If that is the case, what is the reason to do so? What benefit does the man called Taiga Shindou get with those monsters roaming around? There is no answer to any of them and not much time to ponder those questions.

“What do you girls want to do now?” Lexar asks the three girls in a calm voice.

“What do we want to do?” Hinami repeats the question while confusing.

“Are we going to escape from here alone or rescue everyone here before that?” Lexar clarifies his question “This is different from what happened at school. The mastermind did not expect your power in his plan so we were able to escape soundly. However, now that he knew, he definitely prepared more monsters and stronger enemies for us. We barely got through that hell alive, and that Jerome guy could have killed us all if he had prepared a careful plan to attack us. The moment we step out of this room, enemies like him or stronger will definitely appear.”

The three remain silent at his words. This is not only a question about what they are going to do, but also their resolution to fight. The most common choice for people is to escape alone. They know well from when they rescued the Sugihara siblings. If they had escaped with all the students instead, they would have not fought with the slit mouth woman and bandage man in their “boss” forms. That was a close fight that could have resulted into death with just a slight mistake.

If Lexar asked this question in a different time, they would answer that they want to save other people in the hospital immediately. However, now that they understand firsthand what dying really means, they hesitate to answer.

The person who asked the question, Lexar, has other intentions behind it. Not only testing their determination to fight in the future, he wants to know their attitudes toward predicament like this. This also lets him understand better their personalities as well.

He is slightly disappointed yet happy that the girls all face down with hint of fear and anxiety shown on their faces. Normally, most people choose to the first option without much trouble. It is reasonable as the other people’s lives are not related to them anyway. It is a good thing that they are having trouble deciding between two options, meaning that they did have to intent to save people. It is also the same reason why he is slightly disappointed. Captivated by their amazing actions before they even gained the power of white flame, he kind of hoped that they could give him an outstanding response to the situation that he could never predict.

After a few minutes, Yuuko breaks the silence.

“I will find my friends, and save anyone possible on the way. Even though there are many that I can’t meet anymore, I still have more than a few that I can see right here. What use is great power if I cannot protect what I hold precious?” She holds the sheathed katana high. “Besides, if I escape here, I will not be able to fight again in the future. Myself will not run away in a rightous fight.” The katana in her hand slightly glows to show its agreement.

“Yuuko” Hinmai looks at her friend with widen eyes.

“I will stay back to help people too. Leaving so many people to death will probably haunt me back in the future. Also, I think that I may find more about myself as I uncover the mystery behind all of these strange phenomenon.” Makoto fixes the hat on her head.

“Makoto” Hinami turns to her other friend with a disbelief too.

She is very confused. She does not understand why they can calmly face the fight against death like it is nothing. Did they not feel the terror of what death could bring? Are they not afraid of dying? Did they understand that everything becomes meaningless once they are dead? The world is meaningful only when one is still alive.

She wants to ask those questions, but when everyone turns to her, the words cannot come out. Their eyes do not have a trace of fear left, even though they had it shown clearly a few moments ago. Perhaps they have found their own resolution to go forward with courage, but she hasn’t. Right now, a strange embarrassment rises in her chest. She feels inferior to them, even though she has always excelled them in all the areas. She is supposed to stand up and lead everyone out of the trouble, not sitting here and cowering in fear. She knows very well that the right choice of action is to stand up and support her friends, just like what they did each other in the past. Yet her fear overshadows all of her logical reasoning and persistence.

“I will escape from here” Her answer shocks everyone.

“I see.” Lexar who has observed her behavior until now already expected such response. She is the one traumatized the most from Jerome’s eyes.

“I must have made you disappointed, right? That I am not one with the material to save the world.” Hinami says with a sad voice

“Hinami, why…?” Makoto calls to her but is stopped.

“And please don’t say anything more. It already pained me a lot to make this decision. I am not as courageous as you twos, so please forgive this coward me.” Hinami says while heading toward to door “I believe in you two. So, let’s meet again in the outside world.” Then she disappears behind the door.