Fuyou Yuuna wa Yuusha de nai - 5

Hero History Apocrypha - Part 2

Fuyou Yuuna is not a Hero

Chapter 5 - The first step is always the hardest.

After coming back home, I went to my room and opened the shelf drawer.

Inside it was all the money I'd earned by helping with the Hero Club activities. I meant to return the money back to Lily at some point, so I hadn't used even a single yen.

It all added up to 152 000 yen. And once you added what I'd saved up before starting the Hero Club gig, it went past 200 000.

I wasn't sure if that was an adequate amount of funds. But I had to make the first step. First of all, I had to start acting.

I continued to make preparations. After our plan to cross the sea by boat fell through, Lily hasn't done much. There was, of course, the possibility she was doing something out of my sight. But either way, if she was seriously planning to get over the wall, it would’ve taken her some time regardless of the method. All I had to do was to just get over the wall myself in the meanwhile.

In any case, I had to realise my plans by winter.

There wasn't a lot of time left.

I used all of what little time I had left on the preparations. Basketball, volleyball, tennis - I refused them all.

The harsh lingering heat of September soon passed, as did the autumn cold of October, and November began, with winter finally beginning to show its face for real.

If I delayed any more, the cold would’ve made it hard to put my plans into action. So I decided to go for it, despite my insufficient preparations.

That evening, I sent a message to Lily and summoned her to Ariake Beach.

Nights in November were considerably chilly, and Lily showed up wearing a coat over her tiny body.

"What is it, Yuzuki-kun? Why did you call me out here so late? And what's with the backpack?"

Lily looked at the large backpack I was wearing with a puzzled expression.

I ignored her question and responded with one of my own.

"Have you found a way to get over the wall yet?"

Lily shook her head in response.

"It all went up in flames, a hopeless state of affairs. You destroyed the canoe, and it's far too cold to attempt to swim across the sea by now", said Lily with a stare full of resentment. It seemed that she was yet to forgive me for the canoe incident.

"And besides, I can't do anything without your help. Weren't you avoiding me for the past month? I was hoping for more assistance from you since you said you'd show me the world outside."

"I wasn't avoiding you, I was just busy preparing. I was serious when I said that. I finally finished the required minimum of preparations."

"Preparations...?"

"We're getting over the wall. Now."

We went to the Hashihama station, changing several trains on the way there. From that point onwards, we walked by Shimanami Expressway.

"We came here during our first Hero Club outing, remember? When we went to check out the three bridges that connect Shikoku to Honshu."

That time we used bikes, but this time we were simply walking.

"That we did. But I believe we deemed passage through the Shimanami Expressway impossible back then..."

Lily was confused, but followed me nonetheless.

It took considerably longer compared to our bike trip in July, but we finally reached the fence blocking off passage any further.

It was already late at night. We were probably too late to catch the last train going home, too. I told Mom that I'd be staying at a friend's house that night. Lily didn't say much about the fact we wouldn't be returning to our homes that night. Maybe not sleeping at home had become something ordinary for her ever since she began building that canoe of hers.

We took a look at the fence preventing passage further towards the wall.

"Yuzuki-kun, looks like this really is as far as we can go."

"No, we can go further."

I took a small electric saw out of my backpack.

"Wait, eeeh..."

Ignoring the bewildered Lily, I cut a human-sized hole into the fence.

"See, we can pass now."

"Wait, wait, wait! I mean, we can pass, true... But is this okay to do?"

"That's coming from someone trying to cross the wall? That's way bigger of a crime than cutting a fence."

"M-Maybe... You're a lot crazier than I am, huh..."

"Hurry up."

I grabbed Lily, who was ready to chicken out any minute, by the hand and pulled her into the hole in the fence. From that point onwards, we were running against the clock.

If security came by, they'd immediately know that we infiltrated past the fence, so we had to be as quick as possible.

We continued on the Shimanami Expressway and finally reached the wall.

The bridge we stood upon was engulfed by the wall across its width. Had it not been for the wall, the path would've continued onwards, reaching Honshu eventually.

The wall was made out of entangled vines and roots. It stood far above our heads, and the darkness of night made it impossible to see how far up the top was.

"This is... Shinju's wall..."

Lily was overwhelmed by how gigantic it seemed from up close.

I also went speechless from how intimidating it was. But I forced both my fear and hesitation down with willpower.

I put my backpack down, pulled out the tools I brought with me, one by one, and began to put them on myself.

"Yuzuki-kun, what are you doing?"

"I'm about to climb this wall."

"C-Climb? Are you serious?"

"You bet I am. 100% refined seriousness."

"That's impossible! Do you understand how high this wall is!?"

"Yeah, I do. I've been surveying its height for the past month and a half with the laser rangefinder, just like you did. The bridge we're standing on right now is several dozens of metres above the sea level. It's not even 200 metres to the top of the wall. Climb that tiny distance, and we're across the wall!"

"That's not a "tiny distance"! It's higher than the Gold Tower at Utazu! There's no way you can climb so high!"

"Lily, do you know what climbing records humans set in the old era? There were people that climbed the north face of Mt. Eiger, a sheer face 1800 metres high. People who climbed nearly a kilometre of sheer mountain wall without any equipment. This piece of the Shinju wall is just a tenth of Eiger's north face. And I get to use any equipment I want. Look at mankind's climbing history and you'll see that this isn't a hard task at all."

I've been doing what I could to prepare since summer: going to climbing class, dropping by climbing gear shops, etc. I used all of my money I'd earned from the Hero Club activities and my other savings on climbing class tuition and buying gear.

Harness, rope, carabiner, SLCD, passive protection, a belay device for solo use, a helmet with a head lamp, gloves and many other sorts of gear... In addition to the basic stuff, I got a T-type ice axe, as well as 12-point crampons. I got the axe and crampons because I thought they'd be useful, since I'd be climbing a mass of plant matter and not a rocky cliff. They'd dig into the roots and vines a lot easier than into rock. I would attach the crampons to my shoes, take the axe in my hand and begin climbing, driving the crampons into the wall. That'd make it a lot easier than climbing with my bare hands.

The plant-based wall was uneven with a lot of gaps, so setting up anchor points would be easy. Same with belaying, it would be easier than with a rock surface.

Preparations, resolve and technique.

With those three combined... I could see beyond the wall.

I finished attaching the harness, rope and the other pieces of gear and turned to the dumbfounded Lily.

"I'll call you on video once I reach the top and show you what lies outside the wall."

--

Xth of November.

What happened from thereon was like magic.
Yuzuki-kun, using her ice axe, boots with a myriad of sharp points and various tools hanging from her waist, began to climb.
She climbed the wall. A person climbed that sheer, vertical face. It felt as if I was watching someone defy the laws of physics.
Yuzuki-kun got used to using the tools on her waist with one hand, and kept setting up her lifeline (I don't know much about it, but I think it's called belaying) as she climbed. But she didn't climb in one straight line. She'd climb up to a certain height, then go down, use some kind of tool then climb up again. Up, down, up, down... She kept repeating those movements as she ascended.
The way she used her tools looked like some incomprehensible magic to a layman like me.
The repetition of climbing up then down seemed like some sort of secret ritual.
Which made her actions seem all the more magical.
It was late at night, so all the illumination Yuzuki-kun had was the moon, the stars and the lamp attached to her helmet.
As she climbed the wall and rose higher and higher from the ground, Yuzuki-kun's figure began to melt into the darkness.
The light of her head lamp was the only thing that still let me tell where she was.
When Yuzuki-kun had almost completely disappeared from sight, I was assaulted by an indescribable bout of anxiety.
What if she made the wrong step somewhere and plummeted down?
I shouted towards the faint light visible in the darkness. Shouted that she could've fallen, that it was too dangerous and that she should've gotten down.
She answered that she wouldn't die since she was belaying and at worst would have bone fractures.
"Stop it, cut it out already! I don't want you to get hurt, Yuzuki-kun!"
"Lily, you started this, this is what you were trying to do. And when you tried to cross the sea by boat and by swimming, that was a lot more dangerous than climbing this wall."
"Fine, I get it. I'm sorry. So please, stop it already."
"You're too far, I can't hear you. I'm gonna stop talking since it's distracting. I'll call you from the top of the wall, so stay put and wait."
After that, Yuzuki-kun's voice stopped reaching me. No matter what I said to her, she wouldn't respond.
The lit-up lamp moved ever further away, growing smaller.
Just what had I been doing?
Yuzuki-kun must have been every bit as worried about me in the past as I was about her at that moment.
It was my fault that she was doing something so dangerous.
To see outside the wall.
To learn the truth.
Was it worth worrying my friend for? Was it worth getting into danger for?
I didn't know.
However...
Even so, for me seeing the truth outside the wall was...

--

And so, I faced the wall.

I drove the frontal spikes of the crampon on my left foot into the wall.

With the spikes on both feet firmly lodged in, I made sure they were supporting my weight, put my strength into the axe-holding arm and pulled myself up.

The night was deep, and I couldn't see the surface of the Seto Inland Sea spread out below me.

I could hear Lily's wailing up to that point, but that was also gone.

I was alone in the dark.

I climbed the wall, set up an anchor point, built a belay, dropped down to recover the gear and the anchor, climbed back up and then repeated it all over again, inching closer and closer to the top of the wall. All by myself, I repeated the steps of climbing.

Normally, solo climbing was something you only attempted after learning and gaining experience for several years. And it was highly unlikely that I was at the proper skill level for that.

And besides, climbing in general was something that was normally done in groups of several people. Solo climbing was not the recommended way, and thus nobody taught me the correct way to do it. Even looking it up on the internet didn't get me concise information. So my climbing style was largely self-taught. I told Lily I'd be fine with my belays, but in truth, I wasn't sure if I would be fine if I fell off.

A seasoned climber would probably say that what I was doing there was akin to suicide.

And for crying out loud, why was I even doing it?

I got stubborn and went on to do something insane. Hey, Lily...

Why was I... Why were we doing all that?

We wanted to see outside the wall. We wanted to learn the truth. But was it really worth staking our lives on?

In the previous era, back before the wall had formed, it wouldn't have taken us even two hours to ride a train outside of Shikoku.

We could've gone anywhere. Why did we have to be born into a world like this?

If we were born just a little bit earlier, we could've lived in the entirety of our massive world.

If we were born just a little bit later, we could've lived happily, like birds in a gilded cage, with no knowledge of the old era.

The world we lived in was so half-baked.

I glanced at my watch to see that considerably more time had passed since I began climbing than I thought.

I climbed the wall - to see the truth, to show Lily how the world outside of Shikoku looked.

My axe arm had become tired and my grip strength was falling.

My legs were exhausted too.

Yet the top of the wall was still far away.

My right foot slipped, and for a moment my body dropped down. Using my left foot and both of my hands, I somehow managed to hold on to my balance and prevent myself from falling.

I kicked the wall with my right foot, driving the crampon spikes into the wall and regained my posture.

(Phew...)

Was I actually going to reach the top of the wall?

Was I going to see outside the wall?

If I climbed up... What would be there, outside of Shikoku?

But whatever I saw outside didn't actually matter to me.

If the world wasn't actually destroyed, it would've been massive news. If there were countless Vertexes and a world in ruins, it would've just ended with my thinking "Guess that really was it".

It didn't matter.

But for me... The reason I was risking my life to climb this wall was...

To grant Lily's wish.

To stop Lily from doing anything crazy.

And as an act of protest against this half-baked and miserable age.

To rebel against this unreasonable world.

My axe arm was getting cold. It was already November, so nights were cold. And low temperatures sap both one's stamina and one's mental strength.

The top of the wall was still far away.

If I had fallen, I would've probably died. Or at the very least, I definitely wouldn't have been in one piece.

But I told Lily I would show her what lies beyond the wall.

And I would. I lifted my face. I began to move my arms, slowly but steadily. I began to advance, step by step.

I was aware that my mental state was beginning to deteriorate.

I wasn't forgetting about the possibility of death. No, I was assuming I would die from the start, and was doing all I could to stay alive.

(I see. So this is what it feels like to risk your life for someone...)

It was a strange feeling.

It felt intoxicating, paralysing and above all, it made me feel like I had a duty to fulfil. Made me feel like I would accomplish this even if it cost me my life.

For Lily.

If you asked me "Why go this far?", I wouldn't be able to answer.

But I could still move my body, and thus continued to climb.

Lily was most likely the same. She knew that her life could've been short, and thus tried to live her life to the fullest.

She assumed she would die early and lived in the moment.

I looked up at the sky.

The only things there were the stars and the moon, indifferently shining down on us humans from above.

Nothing else. The stars and the moon.

Then, all of a sudden, my body became weightless.

A spasm gripping my insides ran through my body and I got nauseous. For a moment I nearly lost consciousness, but I opened my eyes and held on to it.

I must've driven the crampon spikes in too shallowly and slipped down because of that. Had I completely fallen off, not even my belay would've saved me from injuries from such a shock.

(Haah, haah...)

(Agh, dammit. This really is impossible. But getting down from here would be hard. Should I just stay here and wait for a rescue team?)

(No, I'd rather climb. If both climbing up and getting down are hard, then it's better to climb.)

My thoughts were interrupted by a tremendously loud sound.

I lifted my head up and saw a helicopter. The door opened, and someone - a woman - jumped out of it.

Was she trying to commit suicide right next to Shinju-sama's holy wall?

The woman who jumped off had swords in both of her hands. She thrust one of them into the wall. Sliding down on it, she stopped right next to me.

Then, still holding another sword in her hand, she spun around the other sword, like a gymnast on a horizontal bar. After that she used her second sword as a foothold and stood up in midair.

No amount of training and reflexes could allow someone to pull off a superhuman feat like that.

I had an idea of who the person standing atop the swords was. You would've been hard pressed to find someone in Shikoku who didn't.

Nogi Wakaba-sama. One of the leaders of the Taisha, Shikoku's most powerful organisation.

She was already in her mid-forties, but her sharp features and limbs that showed no signs of decline didn't show her age at all. She was as strong as an athlete in her prime.

"Yuzuki Yuuna, is it? Are you unhurt?"

For some reason, she knew my name.

Nogi-sama attached a rope hanging down from the helicopter to my harness, and gave the command to pull me up. The helicopter then landed on the bridge.

Standing there were Lily, Nogi-sama and right next to her was another leader of the Taisha, Uesato Hinata-sama.

"Y-Y-Y-Y-Yuzuki-kun! You were safe!?"

With those words, Lily hid behind my back. The sudden appearance of officials like Nogi-sama and Uesato Hinata must've scared the mind out of her.

"Uh... So, what's gonna happen to us now?" I asked Nogi-sama and Uesato-sama.

"Y-Yuzuki-kun! Are you really sure you should be talking in this manner to Nogi-sama and Uesato-sama!?"

"I'm already a criminal, why get scared at this point?"

I wasn't sure what kind of punishment awaited me for breaching the fence and approaching the wall, but it would definitely have been something heavier than a lecture.

"Oh yeah. I was climbing the wall completely by myself just now. Lily... This girl, I mean, has nothing to do with it. I brought her with me by force. It's all my fault."

"Yuzuki-kun..."

Lily looked at me with concern.

Uesato Hinata let out a sigh of exasperation.

"No, you are not criminals. I was the one who let you approach the wall in the first place."

"...Eh?"

My jaw dropped, and Uesato-sama continued.

"Did you really think you could have reached the wall with something as sloppy as cutting through a fence? We've seen you cut through the fence... No, Yuzuki-san, since you left your house today... Since you went to the store to buy climbing gear and began to go to climbing classes... Since you first met Fuyou-san back in July. All this time, we've been observing you. And you, Fuyou-san, have been under our watch since you were born. So we're aware that you began to look into ways of getting over the wall since you entered middle school, as well as that you attempted to build a canoe."

A chill ran down my spine, as if I had a bucket of water dumped on my back.

(They watched everything we did? Why...?)

Lily turned pale, equally terrified by Uesato-sama's words.

"Normally, guards would've seized you the moment you passed the fence, but I... Or should I say, Wakaba-chan stopped that. She said to let you do what you wanted."

The cutesy "Wakaba-chan" name was horribly out of balance with the position the two of them held.

Nogi-sama said nothing, simply looking over us.

"We merely allowed you to approach the wall and closed our eyes to it. But attempting to climb it and seeing what lies beyond was too much. We decided that allowing you to proceed further would've been dangerous and sent a rescue team. Now..."

Uesato-sama looked at us.

"Do you understand? We're completely aware of your actions. We let you off this time, but we'll crush you if this happens again. Give up. It's impossible to go outside that wall."

Lily, clutching my sleeve, was staring at the ground, all stiffened up.

We had the two most influential people in Shikoku in front of us. And the two of them pretty much openly declared war on us.

It was natural to be scared. Lily was a timid coward to begin with.

But I...

I grabbed Lily's hand and looked at her.

(There are adults spouting nonsense in front of you, yet again. In the past, you were too scared to say anything to the adults who hurt you. But now I'm here. I don't care who it is: Nogi-sama, Uesato-sama or the Taisha. I'll protect you.)

"Lily, I'm on your side no matter what happens. So tell them. Tell them what you think. What you want to do."

She gripped my hand and lifted her face.

"I... I won't give up! You can say whatever you want, you can do whatever you want to stop me, but I won't give up! My will is unbreakable! I won't stop until I see what lies outside!"

"...Why go so far?" Uesato-sama calmly accepted Lily's words and looked at her with eyes devoid of emotion.

"I want to know the truth", calmly responded Lily, meeting Uesato-sama's gaze.

"Our age is an age of ignorance. We don't know what lies outside the wall, we don't know the history of the world prior to the Divine Era, we don't know if the Vertexes really existed, and we can't verify that for ourselves either. But I'm nowhere foolish enough to blindly believe what other people tell me. We want to decide how to live our lives after we see the reality and learn the truth. As those living in this Divine Era... those living in this closed world, I think we should have that right."

"I'm in full support of what Lily is doing."

Uesato-sama went silent upon hearing our words. Nogi-sama put her hand on Uesato-sama's shoulder.

"It was impossible to make them give up, after all. Nothing an adult says can make a stubborn child change their mind. We used to be the same. But still... forcibly changing their mind is what adults do."

Nogi-sama's final sentence had a cold ring to it. Uesato-sama looked visibly conflicted.

"I suppose there is no choice... I understand. Then I'll show you what lies outside the wall."

We boarded the Taisha helicopter. Before boarding, we were told to leave our bags and phones on the bridge, so we did just that.

The helicopter took off.

"What you are about to witness must never leave your lips. As I just told you, we have all of your life under surveillance. If you reveal even the tiniest bit of information..."

Uesato-san reached into Lily's coat pocket, took out the voice recorder that was hidden in there and switched it off.

"You will disappear. Along with your families, friends, and anyone who you've so much as exchanged a word with, be it face to face or over the internet. This country has had countless disappearances ever since the old era. Nobody will notice a few hundreds more."

"...I understand. You would definitely do that, Uesato-sama... I've read about the methods you used to take over the Taisha in a mere few years."

Uesato-sama faintly smiled when she heard Lily's answer. Lily's expression and tone betrayed a clear fear of the woman named Uesato Hinata.

Uesato-sama had been in charge of the Taisha since before adulthood. Words of such a person couldn't possibly have been an empty threat. They were a warning.

In contrast to Uesato-sama who was talking to Lily, Nogi-sama was simply sitting with her arms crossed and her eyes closed. It wasn't clear whether she had no interest in worldly matters or simply left everything for Uesato-sama to manage and didn't want to get involved. But whichever it was, she gave off an atmosphere of an aloof person detached from the world.

Then she opened her eyes and looked at me.

"Looking at you girls reminds me of an old friend. What you are doing the society would normally call a "wrongdoing". As well as reckless and borderline suicidal."

"..."

"But it's also a heartfelt expression of your feelings. I can't say I hate that. I would even say I like it. But you went too far this time. You could've lost your life there."

"I..."

I looked at Nogi-sama.

"I don't have any "power" like you Heroes did... I can't accomplish anything without going this far."

"Don't have power, huh. Looks like that is what has been on your mind for the longest time, Yuzuki. That is... something that troubles everyone to some extent. You just think about it a lot more than the others, too much."

She even saw right through the source of my worries. What was she? What was the Taisha?

"Any human, no, any living creature will inevitably encounter a problem it cannot overcome in its life. It is at that moment that we humans feel our powerlessness. Everyone feels that way."

"Nogi-sama... Even you?"

"Naturally. Over the course of my life, there were countless moments when I keenly realised just how powerless I was. It isn't just you. All humans are powerless. But you see, Yuzuki-kun, what matters with "power" is not how strong or big it is. What matters is what you use it for. Just now, you... were using it in an earnest attempt to help a friend. And as a result, the two of you will get to see what lies outside the wall. You managed to fulfil your friend's wish. Your power... It might be weak and insignificant compared to that of us Heroes, or maybe those people they call geniuses. But what you managed to accomplish with that insignificant power is a tremendous feat that nobody else has since the very beginning of the Divine Era."

"...Is that so?"

"Yeah, it is", said Nogi-sama indifferently.

So even my tiny power meant something.

The helicopter landed on the wall. We came out of it and looked over the outside of Shikoku. But the only thing visible was the night sky and the stars. There was no sight of Vertexes or those monsters they called Stardust.

"I knew it... There were no Stardust or Vertexes! The world wasn't destroyed! We can go outside Shikoku!" shouted Lily, looking at the sight of it all.

But then Nogi-sama took mine and Lily's hands and walked a few steps forward. And at that moment the scenery changed, as if we had suddenly awakened from a dream.

The scenery that unfurled before our eyes was exactly the kind of hell we had imagined. The land was covered in burning lava, and the sky was blotted out by hordes of giant monsters I had never seen before. The despair-inducing scenery continued no matter how far you looked. Not even remotely close to the land of Shikoku.

"Ah..."

Lily's knees gave out, and she fell on the ground, astonished. I was at a loss for words from the strange scenery.

"This is what the world truly looks like",  Uesato-sama emotionlessly told us.

"Shinju-sama's divine power makes it so that the true state of the world outside is invisible from the inside. But take a step outside, and you will see its true form. This world, aside from Shikoku, is no longer inhabitable by humans. It's safe to say that it was destroyed. We will not reveal this scenery or the existence of the Vertexes to the public under any circumstances. Many people would be unable to remain sane if they saw the horrifying state of the destroyed world and the overwhelming power of the Vertexes. Some things have to stay hidden for the sake of Shikoku's peace."

Lily said nothing, simply staring at the ruined world.

"Do you feel despair now that you've learned the world was destroyed?" Uesato-sama asked Lily.

Lily slowly stood up. She was... not despairing at all.

"...No. It definitely had an effect, but "the world outside Shikoku is destroyed" is something I've been told ever since I was a child. I wished that wasn't true. I believed in that, but... My hopes didn't come true, but I'm satisfied. I have learned the truth."

Of course.

Lily's goal was "to learn the truth" from the start. It might not have been the answer she wanted to see, but Lily would accept it, for it was the truth. She would deal with it. If she denied reality because it wasn't what she wanted to see, she would've been no different from the fools drowning in blind superstition, people she hated the most.

Uesato-sama smiled.

"Fuyou-san, you are a strong girl."

Then one of the white monsters floating in the sky spotted us and attacked.

Nogi-sama and Uesato-sama grabbed our hands and pulled us towards the inner side of the wall.

The scenery outside the wall changed back to its usual state, and the night sky was peaceful once again. A boundary ran along the wall, blocking off the outside scenery from inside. It was a magical phenomenon. That was how the outside world was concealed from people's eyes.

Uesato-sama let out a small sigh.

"It has been thirty years since the world was destroyed. We live in troubled times. When more time passes, the idea of there having been an "old era", as well as people who knew it will both disappear. And for better or worse, it will bring a form of stability to society. But right now, we're in the transitional period between the two eras. Both society and the human minds are warped in various ways. The families of you both are victims of that."

"So you know about our families..."

Uesato-sama nodded in response.

"We can't stop everyone from becoming a victim of our age. It's because we, too, are powerless. I can only apologise."

Uesato-sama lowered her head before Lily. It was a gesture ill suited for someone as supremely powerful as the leader of the Taisha. And...

"So even someone like you can feel powerless, Uesato-sama..."

"Yes. Humans must always realise how powerless they are, and live their lives in spite of that fact. The origin of your names, Takashima Yuuna, was also a powerless human who continued to struggle against her powerlessness to us, who saw her from up close."

I couldn't forgive myself for being powerless. I thought I and my lack of ability to do anything were pitiful when compared to Takashima Yuuna. But if even the great heroes of our time were powerless...

I could forgive my own powerlessness. I could accept my name, "Yuuna".


Two weeks had passed since I and Lily saw the world beyond the wall.

No common people knew about the fact we approached the wall, nor about the fact we saw what was outside.

Nothing about our daily lives changed, and we simply continued our school activities amid the winter air that grew colder by the day.

And for the first time in two weeks, I received a message from Lily on my phone. "I'm waiting at the Ariake beach after school", it said.

I went to the Ariake beach after school ended, and found Lily standing there, on the sandy beach. She was looking at the sea, her little chest puffed up as hard as possible and her tiny back stretched.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Lily turned around.

"Good to see you, Yuzuki-kun. I have something important to talk about today."

"What is it?"

"For the past few weeks, ever since we learned the truth of the world, I've been wondering. What would become of the Hero Club now..."

Lily spoke with a serious tone and a bitter expression.

"The Hero Club is a club that seeks to find out the truth of the world. But now we've achieved our goal... In other words, our club has lost its raison d'etre."

"Yeah, true."

"Yuzuki-kun, I deeply treasure the group known as the Hero Club where we two spent time together. But with no more reason to exist, how long can it last..."

"Hmm."

"Any organisation without a reason to exist quickly falls into corruption... And I cannot bear to see my dear Hero Club suffer such a fate."

"Huh."

"And... And so, it is with a heavy heart that I must announce..."

"Right."

"That our Hero Club is... to be dissolved, effective today!"

"I see."

"Now wait a minute, Yuzuki-kun! What is it with those half-hearted replies!? Do you have any idea how hard I've been worrying until..."

Lily was furious. But even furious she looked like an elementary schooler throwing a tantrum, that is to say, unimpressive.

"I mean, you've got all this talk about disbanding... when the Hero Club doesn't even exist."

"...Huuuuh!? I am positively dumbfounded! What are you talking about? Are you suggesting that all of what we've done so far was some grand narrative trick?"

Lily was genuinely panicking.

"I have no idea what "rat eve" you're talking about. I just mean that the "Hero Club" is just something you came up with, not a club the school recognises. It'd have to actually exist before you could disband it."

"...Now that you mention it."

"I've asked a teacher if they knew about the Hero Club before. They said this, "I've heard Fuyou-san say something to that extent, but I honestly have no idea what that is. Yuzuki-san, do you know anything about that?" The school doesn't even know about it."

"Eeeh..."

"And there you have it, can't disband a club that doesn't exist."

"...Haaah...I feel like my very existence itself just got denied..."

Lily's shoulders dropped.

"Besides... It's just the two of us in it, so who cares about the Hero Club's goals and reasons for being? So what if we don't have an objective to see beyond the wall anymore... If the two of us are together then nothing changes, right?"

For some reason I was unable to look straight at Lily while saying that, my gaze drifting off to the side.

"...You're right!"

Lily sprung up from her dejection, her eyes glittering.

"You're right! The two of us together are what makes the Hero Club! No, we'll stay the same even without the Hero Club!"

"...Yeah."

I bashfully nodded.

"But still, it feels kind of sad not to have a goal. We should probably come up with an objective for our club after all..."

"I'm fine whether we have a goal or not."

Lily folded her arms and thought for a brief moment.

"...Okay, then from now on our club's goal will be... To make this world even a little bit better!"

What a loose goal that was.

But I was fine with that.

Hero History Apocrypha - Part 2 - End.