Project Necro is an official initiative by Re:Library.

Author’s Note:
The perspective shifts in the order of Sol → Iris → ???

Translator’s Note:
Due to the untranslatable nature of the first person pronouns, I will be using 僕 (boku) for Yanagi and 私 (watashi) for Iris. Anything that isn’t labeled with either is a collective thought of both.

***

Once we reached a safe distance, I set Iris down. I’d been holding her in my arms, and now I sat her against the wall of a house.

Ever since I’d picked her up, her body had been so cold that I’d begun to worry whether she was even alive. Her body temperature felt as if it had frozen solid.
Her complexion was pale, and her once-pink lips had turned a sickly purple. The skin visible through the gaps in her disheveled clothes showed marks where she’d been restrained in several places, and some areas were severely swollen—perhaps from broken bones.

I had knowingly exposed her to danger.

It was a blunder unbecoming of a shield class.

Seeing her in such a pitiful state, a sense of self-reproach squeezed my chest.

I took a small vial, about the size of a pinky finger, out of my magic bag. It was the “Dew of the World Tree,” which I always carried as a good-luck charm for emergencies—even in the game, it was one of the top-tier healing items.

I broke open the ampoule-shaped vial and was about to pour it into Iris’s mouth… but then I reconsidered. I was uneasy about giving it to her while she was unconscious. Worried about what might happen if she failed to swallow and ended up spitting it out, I stopped.
Although it was a drop item from certain raid bosses and had been considered a dud back in the game, it was now a very rare potion—and if I messed this up, I didn’t have anything else I could use right now.
Realizing I couldn’t afford to waste even a single drop, I emptied the contents into my own mouth and pressed my lips firmly against Iris’s, sealing her mouth completely.

Then, I slipped my tongue into Iris’s small mouth and guided the liquid gathered on my tongue down the back of her throat.

She showed signs of coughing, as if trying to spit it out, but I held her writhing body down and forced the liquid further back with my tongue, keeping it there against her will. Eventually, I heard a soft gulp in her throat, and after confirming she had definitely swallowed it, I finally pulled my lips away.

“……Mmm…… Ugh……!”

Immediately after swallowing, she let out a groan as if enduring something, and Iris’s body twitched repeatedly. Perhaps the medicine she’d just swallowed was clashing with the curse that had been forced down her throat by that creature. All that was left was…… to hope it took effect safely.
It might not have the same effect as it did in the game. As I straightened her clothes—which had been torn and disheveled by that monster—I watched over Iris’s condition with a prayerful heart, listening to her pained moans.

…The effect was dramatic.

The painful-looking bruises that had been visible beneath her disheveled clothes glowed faintly and faded away, and her pale face immediately began to regain its color. Her eyelashes trembled, and slowly, her eyelids lifted.
It seemed she hadn’t regained full control of her body yet; her small hand, rising sluggishly, grasped my clothes. Were those eyes, trembling with anxiety, filled with worry for Reiji, who had been left alone on the battlefield? I placed my hand on her head to reassure her.

“Don’t worry. I’ll go save Reiji. Once you can move again, you should evacuate with everyone else in town.”

As I said this while stroking her head, the hand clutching my clothes trembled slightly.

“Listen. Just the two of us weren’t enough. I’m sure there will be many more situations like this in the future. So, we’ll gather allies to fight alongside us. I’m sure there are still plenty of people who’ve been transported here just like us. There must be some we can trust among them.”

Iris shook her head in protest. Her pleading gaze made me realize I’d said the wrong thing. Did that sound like I was sending her to her death? Honestly, that wasn’t my intention at all. He really is such a cowardly big brother, as always.

“Don’t worry—there’s still so much I want to do. I want to dress you up in all sorts of outfits, and I haven’t had enough of doting on you yet. I’d like to try spooning you in my sleep as a body pillow, too. We haven’t taken a bath together yet, and I haven’t taught you how to take care of your skin and hair. Or how to apply makeup, or do your skincare routine. And when your period comes, I have no intention of letting anyone else take over the duty of cooking red rice. I can’t just bow out here. I’ll definitely bring him back. So… believe me?”

At last, her hand tentatively let go of mine. I thought I detected a hint of fear or hesitation in her gaze, but it was probably just my imagination. Ah, really, I can’t just die here. I’ve got a mountain of things I want to do.

“…I’ll… do anything… for you… so please, just… make sure you come back… safe and sound…”

It seemed her mouth had finally started moving again, and as her words came out weakly, I did a silent fist pump inside.

All right, I’ve got her on that.

Now I can use those words as an excuse to force her to do all the things she’s been shyly refusing. I’m definitely making her do them. Once we get back, we’ll do this and that—oh, I’m so excited. Oh no, I’m about to get a nosebleed.

“…Just hearing those words makes me feel like I can’t lose. Well then, I’m off for a bit!”

I’ll grab that reckless idiot by the collar—so that this time, we can really be together.

.

.

.

I watched Sol’s back as he walked away.

He lied.

He didn’t go there to get himself killed, I know that.
But he doesn’t think he stands a chance of winning either.

We’ve been together for over ten years—I know Ayame’s quirks better than she does herself. At the very end, she scratched her left cheek with her finger. That’s a habit she uses to hide her lack of confidence.

I really shouldn’t be sitting here like this. The memory of what happened just now—being rendered helpless in the blink of an eye, subjected to pain far beyond what I could bear, and having my purity nearly stripped away like a scrap of paper—is seared into my body. I’ve been forced to realize that I’m nothing but prey, and I can’t bring myself to stand up.

Rage is probably still fighting there, wounded.
Sol, too, stepped into the fray even though he had almost no chance of winning.
And yet, even though I want to move, my spirit is broken, and my body refuses to answer.

Memories of when I first came to this world suddenly resurface. That sensation of being reshaped. In truth, I must have vanished back then and been reborn as “Iris.” I’ve been looking away all this time, but the truth is, the fact that “I 僕” am here goes against the original plan.

Hey, Iris. If it were you… if I were “Iris,” could I have saved the two of them?

I 僕 failed, but if I left it to you… as the true Lightwing that you are, would you be able to save everyone?

If you can… then I 僕 don’t mind disappearing. I’ll give back everything I took, so please, help them.

.

The hand I’d reached out in search of salvation—I almost felt it touching someone else’ hand.

.

.

.

…In the pitch-black darkness sat a small, scarred girl.

The girl was crying, her knees drawn up to her chest, with small hiccups occasionally escaping her. In the deep darkness, the girl sat there, crying whilst hugging her knees. Her pale, naked body was covered from head to toe in gruesome wounds, and her small, glowing wings, flickering feebly, looked as if they might vanish at any moment.

I had thought that I couldn’t do this on my own, that I needed her help.
But “Iris” was nothing more than this fragile little girl.

.

Ah, I see. I was trying to dump everything onto this tiny, fragile child and run away—trying to disappear. Even though I knew I 僕 alone, or I 私 alone, could never have shouldered it all.

――I’m sorry for leaving you alone.

The girl shook her head, tears streaming down her face.
It was me who monopolized what should have been shared between the two of us, who pushed you into this dark place, and who kept forcing only the painful things onto you. You kept crying, telling me you were sorry for making me disappear, even though there never was any need for you to apologize.

Somehow, I understand. You were the one who let me escape when I was about to vanish back then. You handed over to me what was originally yours.

――I 僕 just came to return what I took from you.

――But if I 私 receive it, you’ll vanish.

――No. This was something you gave me in the first place. And… there was never a boundary between us to begin with.

You must be a being born from the “Iris” that I portray. A fictional girl I imagined, fueled by the wishes of countless players, brought to life by my own will to make her so. But her essence remains me, and so I won’t vanish—I’ll simply return to being one. You and I surely desire the same thing. We’re facing the same direction. We’re looking at the same thing. My sense of self 僕 and your sense of self 私 might have separated us—but originally, we were the same me 僕 / 私.

―So… I want you to help me. Let’s go save the two of them… Reiji—Rage-san—and Ayame—Sol-niisama… together.

I walked around to face her and held out my hand.

The girl stared at my hand and face with a momentary look of bewilderment… then, with a gentle smile like a flower blooming, she took my hand.

I’m fading away.

I’m turning into her. This time for sure.

I wasn’t scared at all. It felt as if the empty spaces inside me were being filled, and I never imagined I could feel so… at ease—…………

.

.

.

.

.

—It was a strange sensation.

The memories of the “me 僕” I used to be certainly still existed, and my awareness that all of those experiences were my own had not changed.

I 僕 am me 僕. There’s surely no mistake about that.

However, at the same time, the awareness that I am a girl named “Iris” also exists within my heart. This body, which until now I had somehow been unable to fully accept as my own somewhere deep down, I now accepted without any sense of discomfort.

I felt heat on my back. My senses throughout my entire body, especially on my back, had become sharper, and I could now clearly sense the flow of power within me that had previously been vague.
With just a slight effort of my mind, my wings of light appeared much more naturally than before. The sense of discomfort that had been tormenting me for a while had completely vanished, and I could now control them freely as if they were a part of my own body.

The trembling had stopped. What I must do, what I want to do. And… what I can do. All of that was now crystal clear to me.

“…Well then. The two of them are waiting. Let’s go save them—the two of us.”

“I 私” took my first step toward that place where the battle was still raging.

***

Author’s footnote:

From this point on, the tone of the narrative from the protagonist’s perspective will change.