What world is Lixiang in today?

What kind of scene was that?

Dead silence.

The dead silence of nothingness.

What is the origin of the birth of all things?

That is nothing.

Where does life come from? It has always been a topic that human beings are desperately exploring, and when the first life was born ignorantly, it brought a certain kind of existence that had never existed before to this world——

hope.

Prior to all other feelings and experiences,? Life is born because of the desire to have life. Such a subjective statement may not be convincing,? But the beast of hope does rank before all evil and love,? Yes Some kind of existence older than the origin of human beings.

——Despair,?, like the dark side under the light, was born with it.

If we say that hope is the birth of colorful and dazzling life from nothingness.

Then what despair symbolizes is the end of everything and silence,? Returning to the original "nothing" through death.

Just like that, Osamu Dazai stood in the middle of the empty world, looking around, everything has been swallowed up, and he is the only survivor in this world.

why?

He suddenly realized that this was the world he had been seeing all along.

Nothingness,? Empty,? The end of everything is despair. He has been wandering and lost in this despair,? He has no hope for life and tomorrow, and he can't find the meaning of living——

So a person like him, even if he is desperate to the extreme, will not go crazy even if he is swallowed by a beast that incarnates despair,? On the contrary, he can take a leisurely walk in the end when everything is quiet.

He was happy with the situation, found a place to sit down, and recalled the previous things——

Those who were swallowed up with him, besides those alteregos from the original world, seemed to be those two 13-year-old little ghosts,? Are there any more?Hmm, Odasaku should have returned to the original world properly, right?Oops, this way, Odasaku will be hit hard...

Alas, but this is also impossible.

He hummed the song quite indifferently, and finally just lay down.

— On the contrary, it was very quiet.

Quiet and boring.

How about some sleep?

Couldn't the ground be softer... huh?

He found some light spots in the boundless darkness.

In a world where everything should have returned to nothing, there is still light?He leaned over, and the seemingly long distance was actually reached in a few steps——

That is……

An uncapped fountain pen glows faintly in the dark.

Isn't this what those two brats brought...

He reached out and grabbed the glowing pen, and the picture immediately flooded into his mind like a fast-moving movie.

Just one look, and Dazai understands—this is hope itself.

In the abyss where everything is swallowed up by despair, even the holder of hope is swallowed up, but this hope still exists.

Because it has the same source as the despair that devours everything, and it also comes from a girl named Fujimaru Tatsuka——

Which concept existed first, despair or hope?No one can say clearly about this kind of philosophical problem. Maybe the world is like this. Hope is born out of despair, and that hope is swallowed up by despair, repeating this cycle of reincarnation.

Is he going to watch new life being born from a pen here?Dazai felt that it was absurd to be ridiculous, so why did he not let him die properly when he was so desperate——

He lowered his head in self-deprecating manner, and then suddenly found that his body was also glowing with a faint fluorescent light.

——Otherwise, in the real darkness, he should not even be able to see his own body, but he has only realized this now.

why?

This is too strange, right?

Someone like him?

He raised his hand and pressed his chest, but the picture of Tachika Fujimaru grabbing him and shouting kept replaying in his mind.

——Is that kind of thing considered hope?

Did he really get hope?

What a joke, what I want to pursue even if I prolong my painful life, so far——

……

………………

"But, I still want to save you..."

He murmured, burying his face in his arms.

That's right, at that time, when the black mist of despair approached, everyone saw extreme danger and terror, but he seemed to see the girl crying in every desperate night——

That's why he stopped involuntarily, and then let himself be engulfed by the black mist with the mentality that it was a new type of suicide.

At least...Even if he couldn't save her, he still wanted to be by her side, not to leave her alone—just like his past self.

The pen in his hand still emits a warm soft light.

"Really, I can't die if I stay here anyway, so let me do something—"

He took out a stack of paper from his pocket.

This is the so-called "connection" he brought, a page torn from the "book" that is the cornerstone of the world, if BB is still there, should be able to send him back to Yokohama through this, or Chaldea, maybe someday He who can locate this final world through books——

"I lost to Mr. Ranpo in terms of planning." He spread out the creased paper, "This is the last possibility, anyway, it doesn't matter if I go back or not, I'm here to enjoy the world after death Well—probably."

He pressed the pages of the book.

This is the singularity created by the intersection of superhuman disqualification and "book".

The book that brings the ability, and the special ability that denies the ability, the two contradictory existences will create a miracle that is difficult to replicate——

But it wasn't him who needed this miracle right now, so he wrapped the shimmering pen in the paper, closed his eyes, and let the white light suddenly light up, engulfing the items in his hand.

After everything was over, he sat on the ground again, looking at the boundless void.

-

what.

Really.

That way he was really the only one left.

When will he be able to die?Is the world after death also such a boundless void?

A little... a little lonely.

"I want to eat canned crab meat..."

"What I received came from the memory of Osamu Dazai." The leader Zai took out the capless pen and crumpled paper from his pocket, "There are other things like this."

"Because this world is different from ours, even writing on a book can't achieve the effect of tampering with the past." He unfolded the paper, and words were densely written on it, "And I have used books to link myself in all parallel worlds, Having received all the memories of parallel worlds - he used this to convey to me the experiences and possible solutions here."

"Originally, I couldn't use the book, it would only produce the same singularity." He shrugged, "But because Fujimaru Tateka has done messy things in our world, the book has become different—— "

"So as long as I have that 'pen of another world', I can also use books to tamper with some things, such as——"

"It's not the original Osamu Dazai who was pulled into this world, but me in parallel time and space." He pointed to himself, "By the way, because the 'pen' is here with me, the two children in that world seem to be was ejected."

"So that's the case, no wonder there are two people missing." BB muttered.

"So, we have already experienced these things once, and..." Tanjiro looked at the black mist that was still hitting the huge mask in disbelief, "The world was destroyed by Tachika..."

"What happened last time?" Conan asked, "Why did that happen?"

"In the last SERAPH, there was too much content related to the ending singularity, which caused Fujimaru Tatsuka's memory to go out of control once." The leader Zai snorted, "Although because of the seal of the casters, the beast on her body did not appear immediately. , but Sesseiin Kiara noticed her abnormality—”

"One mountain can't accommodate two tigers, so Kiara dispatched ahead of time to take the initiative to get rid of the beast that might threaten him in the future, but instead caused the beast? "Because this guy didn't explain the reason clearly to me, I can only consume energy to strengthen your strength, so that you can become strong enough before Kiara notices, and at the same time step up the production of props that can temporarily restrain beast?zero —Wait a minute, something's wrong!"

She turned her head abruptly: "You guy——"

"I found it." The leader Zai finally showed a smug smile again, "It's about time to come out, right?"

"...It is indeed time to reveal the final mystery."

A dark figure stepped out of nothingness.

In terms of appearance and appearance alone, he is exactly the same as Osamu Dazai, but the person in front of him is completely dark, which directly triggers Conan's PTSD of the man in black: "You, you were in the church before..."

"Originally, I planned to leave the team and not go with Fujimaru after coming to SERAPH, to solve some problems in advance, so as to prevent her from remembering too early time and space, but unexpectedly, I met him in the church..." The leader Jae pointed to that person , "The one who read the data from that shattered future and came back here—Osamu Dazai alter, can you say that?"

"It's okay to say that." The pitch-black Dazai sneered, "Because it was too boring, so I searched for it, and found Miss BB and the remaining residue after the alteregos were swallowed—"

"It's actually mooncell—! This is obviously BB's exclusive job agency!" BB, who finally recognized the data on the other party's body, widened his eyes in disbelief, "You... how could you do such a thing!?"

"In short, it was done, nothing is impossible." The pitch-black Dazai spread his hands perfunctorily, "As you can see, I am mooncell Dazai Osamu, the residue from the world of 'last time'—"

"You guys shouldn't be naive enough to think that this will end easily, right?" He sneered, "I'm a combination of data leftovers from 'The Endless Void of the World Swallowed by Despair', as long as I'm still here, It means that the future has not been changed, so until now, the future of the world is still ending in destruction~"

"Then what are we going to do!" Conan gritted his teeth, "Since you have appeared, there must be a way!"

"There is a way, but the possibility is unimaginably low—" The pitch-black Dazai narrowed his eyes, "Just now, 'I' also said, I want you to contribute something that is a symbol of hope."

"Is it like that pen?" Jiang Gu Ling pondered and looked at the pen in the hand of the leader Zai.

"That's right, that kind of thing will not lose its brilliance even under the devastation of despair, it is the hope that Tatsuka Fujimaru brought to your world." The pitch-black Dazai snapped his fingers, "And—"

Five holy grails lined up behind him, suspended in the air.

"Holy Grail!" BB exclaimed, "How is it possible, five... wait a minute, this is not real..."

"This is a genuine 'Universal Wishing Machine'—because it is completely built with the magic power called 'Hope', that is to say, it is the ending singularity, the magic power that escapes to other worlds when the Beast of Hope activates its Noble Phantasm The Holy Grail." The jet-black Dazai shook his finger, "It's the cup of pure hope."

"There are seven Holy Grails that have escaped to other places. By fusing the magic power of the seven Holy Grails of hope, you can reproduce the treasure that Fujimaru Tateka activated in the Temple of Time, and reverse the appearance of beast zero. , calling back to Fujimaru Tachika." He sighed helplessly, "But the first Holy Grail has been used up, and the last Holy Grail was originally in Kiara at Seseiin, because she is too powerful, so no matter what, it cannot be advanced It was taken from her, so it is also swallowed up now..."

"In this case, the energy is not enough." He spread his arms towards the crowd, "That's why I need to use your strength and integrate your 'hope' into it, so as to activate this treasure [miracle]."

"However, the possibility is still slim." The leader Zai continued, "And it is very possible that you will lose the chance to return to your original world."

"So choose." The two grinned together, "If you let BB work harder now, there is still a chance to send you all home—"

"You, what choice will you make?"