There Is No Mutual Understanding, Owari no Chronicle Vol 10

“Now, how about I show you my brother’s fixed concept? Mitsuaki.”

Ikkou’s words were followed by a voice resembling the one produced by her own throat. This was the voice of a concept.

The voice spoke to another world that rejected the current one.

—There is no mutual understanding.

With the sound of shattering glass, the world transformed.

After hearing the concept text, Kazami lost everything.

…Eh?

She understood what the concept meant. She could no longer comprehend any information the external world sent her way. It was a version of 2nd-Gear’s Art of Walking that encompassed the entire external world and could not be broken.

She understood the idea, but…

…It can’t be broken?

She could see and she could hear, but she could not understand what was happening around her.

She could see Ikkou standing beyond the wreckage of the motorcycle.

She could see him holding the Azure Dragon Sword.

However, she could not understand what it was she was seeing and hearing.

“Is this…!?”

Her ability to comprehend how she felt about her surroundings was completely lacking.

…What about Kaku!?

Wanting to know what he was doing, she turned left, but then she gasped.

Why she gasped was simple: she could not grasp that he was to her left.

He was to her left. She could see him there.

Nevertheless, she could not find him. Normally, seeing him would provide her with the information that “he is there”, but that information would not reach her.

As she turned left toward him, her gaze continued right on past him. She had already turned to the dark night behind her.

…I don’t know where he is.

She could not tell if he was there or not. To sum it up…

…We have no mutual understanding.

This was a world of only her own information.

She had nothing to compare to, so she could not even conclude that she was wrong.

Suddenly, her memories called forth a similar fact. Something much like this had happened recently.

…When Team Leviathan was ordered to temporarily disband.

She rebuked herself for thinking about that now, but she could not stop her thoughts.

“I can’t understand it, I can’t find a solid answer, and the world is absolute.”

…What can I possibly do!?

While asking herself that, she still decided to move.

But that was when she heard a voice. However, it was a voice that’s very existence she could not comprehend.

While desiring her next action, she heard that incomprehensible voice.

“Can you not move?”

She heard it, but she did not know what it said.

She faced forward. She knew the enemy was most likely there. She turned to face not an enemy she could see but one she could predict was there.

But just as she tried to step toward that enemy…

“…”

She could not move.

No. The truth was she did not want to move.

She knew why.

If she stayed there, she could at least know where the enemy and Izumo had been at first.

…But if I take even a single step, I won’t even know where I am.

The thought of losing her own reference point made her shudder and panic.

She knew she had to move, but her body was trapped by the fear of not knowing where she was going.

The pressure in the bottom of her feet told her the ground was below them.

“But I don’t know where the enemy is!”

If she lifted a foot, she would no longer even know the ground was there. Like carelessly taking a wrong step on a staircase, she might not know where to step and miss the ground altogether.

Then she would fall and not even be able to stand.

…Dammit.

Her anger formed words.

“Why? Why did it all have to end up like this!?”

She felt urgency in her gut due to a variety of things and she let out the thoughts that could not reach anyone.

“Why!?”