Dan Gurto stood at the sidewalk, holding an umbrella over his head. The rain was heavy, and it's already swept away the blood on the sidewalk.
Checking his watch, he saw the time. 7:10 p.m.
He snapped his two fingers, and the entire surroundings disappeared. In his vision, he was inside a white space.
The next second, the surroundings started to morph into the world from an hour ago, before the rampaging Tank brutally murdered the young girl.
The orange light of the setting sun landed on his body, and he walked around the frozen figures of the rampaging giant and the frightened young girl.
Looking around, he saw a familiar face. Tiero Vasari, his dear friend. Walking towards his frozen figure, Dan's face slowly turned into confusion.
Scared? What is that expression? Why are you scared, Tiero?
The frozen Tiero had a fearful expression as he stared at the rampaging man.
Dan sighed, and patted his shoulder.
…You're a shadow… of your former self…
Taking a few steps back, he snapped his fingers, and the surroundings sped up, as though he had pressed "Fast Forward" on the TV remote. He snapped his fingers again, pausing the scene.
An unfamiliar man was lying unconscious by the fire hydrant, and the rampaging giant was about to crush the young girl to death with his bare fist.
Dan snapped his fingers two times, and it was at the scene where Tiero was rushing towards what was already too late.
With a sigh, he snapped his fingers again. The rampaging giant crushed the young girl, killing her on the sidewalk.
Tiero halted from his advance, and his expression slowly morphed into a flurry of emotions. Anger, fear, disgust, regret…
Shortly after that, the giant man slowly turned to Tiero. Sensing danger, Tiero rushed towards the unconscious man lying beside the fire hydrant.
As the rampaging giant moved to follow Tiero, it was immediately restrained by chains of lightning. Following that, men in black dropped down from the sky.
Dan paused the scene. "It's just as the report said."
But what he was curious about was Tiero.
Tiero. Why…?
Resuming the scene, Tiero grabbed the unconscious man and ran away.
Dan stared at his retreating back, his figure getting smaller and smaller.
Sighing, he paused the scene and replayed it to the very beginning, right before the rampaging giant arrived at that part of the street.
"...Let's get to work," he said with a faint exhaustion.
***
Donovan woke up, and was met with an unfamiliar white ceiling. Not even a second later, he winced in pain.
His entire body was hurting all over. But what hurt most was his right shoulder. Sh*t…!
All he could remember was him grabbing the young girl's wrist, and being thrown so badly it knocked him out cold…
Wait… The girl!
He abruptly sat up, but was met with even more pain that surged throughout his entire body, particularly his back. F*ck!
Groaning, he fell back down to the bed. Donovan managed to take a look at his surroundings.
White walls, and there were other beds with bandaged patients sleeping on them. It was clear that he was inside a hospital. In the time since he transmigrated, this was the first time he was inside a hospital.
"Could you quiet down?" There was a voice from behind the green curtain to his right.
Huh…?
Donovan steadily laid back down on the bed. "Who's there?" he asked.
No response. He reached out with his right hand, and set aside the green curtain. He saw what seemed to be… a man, in heavy bandages around his neck. He was wearing glasses, and he had a goatee beard. The man was holding a book, and when his gaze landed on Donovan, his eyes visibly widened, and he shouted, "You!"
…Me?
"Damn you! Agh…! Gaah…! Gak, kahah!"
…?
The man seemed to be having trouble breathing, visibly choking.
"I'm sorry, but have we met before?" asked Donovan.
"It's… me! You f**king bastard! You messed up my throat! I'll f**king kill you!" shouted the man. Other patients seemed to be waking up because of the man's shouting.
Oh! He's one of the guys I fought inside that alleyway! Huh? But why's he not in jail? And also, he's probably the one who sent an Assassin, a.k.a. Layla, to kill me!
"Nice seeing you here. Is your throat alright?" he asked.
The man kept shouting profanities towards Donovan.
Donovan tried to put up an assertive persona in front of this man. "Relax. We're both injured now. Tell me, who sent the assassin after me? You?"
"Sh*t! That's right! If you're here, alive and breathing… then the hitman failed! Goddamn it!" he shouted, followed by throwing the book at Donovan.
Catching the book, the two then heard, "Could you two shut the hell up?!" coming from one of the patients.
The man shouted back towards the unknown patient who shouted.
Mr. Tiero… Did he manage to save the girl? How is he doing right now? I hope he and the girl are okay… Donovan sighed, wincing in pain as he slowly sat up.
"Hey. Why are you here, and not in prison?" Donovan asked.
"A good lawyer can save your life. Hell, I was in court with this still on my neck! I couldn't even speak. Hah," the man chuckled, followed by choking.
Damn. That reminds me, I'm not particularly literate in Umbrella's own laws…
"How is your throat still not healed? Almost any injury can be healed in this city, by the way," said Donovan.
The man grumbled, and said, "I… spent all my funds on my lawyer. I don't have enough money to heal this. And I don't know a single Healer in this city…! It's all because of you, you did this to me!"
Hm… I could, technically, have my body healed by paying a huge sum of money, but… I'll just let it naturally heal.
Ah, sh*t, I hope Layla's not doing anything stupid right now in my own home…
Donovan sighed, staring at the white ceiling.
***
Layla slowly woke up, groaning as she did so. Damn it, is he still not back?
It was currently 6:32 a.m., 6th of February, Thursday.
Getting out of the absent Donovan's own bed, she scratched her hair and went to the kitchen. She sighed, and decided to make breakfast on her own.
***
Tiero slowly awoke at 11 a.m. For a good 10 minutes, he didn't move an inch from his bed. He could hear the hungry meowing of his black-furred cat, Goobert.
He sat up on his bed.
For the rest of the hour, it was as though he was doing everything on autopilot. As he fed Goobert by putting the cat food on the bowl, his body suddenly shivered.
Then, he sat on the floor, watching his cat slowly eat its food.
His hands were trembling. He forced himself to stand up, and slightly tripped, hurting his cat in the process.
Letting out a frightened hiss, the cat retreated inside the table.
Tiero kept on calling for his cat, and it slowly came to his side a minute later.
As he stroked its black fur, water began to trickle down his jaw, landing on the cat's fur. His voice trembled, and so did his hands.
He then shakily and faintly spoke in a low voice, "I'm sorry."
***
Donovan took a bite out of an apple, still on the hospital bed. "So, do you want to tell me why, exactly, you and those two were ganging up on an innocent and helpless young man?"
"That's none of your business. Keep wondering," said the man with a goatee beard.
"Was he in debt to you people? And since he couldn't settle it, you decided to beat him to death? You're a grown adult, and you're doing this to poor, helpless people? Do you not have a heart?" said Donovan.
"Shut up… I was just doing what we were told. And yeah, that little bastard's father did owe us tremendous money. But since his father died, it was up to him to settle his old man's debt. But time has run out, and it was time to pay with his life."
…So he was just following orders. Still, that doesn't make him any less innocent. Hm, but who's his boss? And this all sounds like the work of some criminal organization… Wait, don't tell me…
"What organization do you work for?" asked Donovan.
The man scoffed. "You really think I'll tell you so easily?"
Wait, that's right. I seem to remember Layla saying something like, "members will die on the spot if they disclose a single bit of information about the organization"... If he's really from the Plague Rats, it's better he doesn't tell me anything, or else an incident will happen, and they might suspect me of having done it…
But it baffles me that this organization still hasn't been discovered and exterminated out of this city! Is every official in this city corrupt?!
"Never mind, forget about it," said Donovan.
"Hah, that's what I thought," said the man.
"This all sounds very interesting. Mind if I join in?" a voice emerged from behind the curtain to the right of the man with a goatee beard.
The curtains were pulled aside, and the two saw an elderly man.
"Huh? Who the hell are you, old fart?! Don't think you can just butt in on our conversation!"
The two old men started to get into an argument, and Donovan decided to just ignore them. As they argued, Donovan's interest was piqued by the television hung by the corner of the room.
The news was playing. The reporter seemed to be halfway through their report.
"...Gurto, Shade of Umbrellas, has singlehandedly solved the case. The main suspects were found and quickly detained by the authorities. It would seem that this incident is connected to the past incidents of the sudden rampages of Visitors, where some sort of drug is being distributed around, and consumed by Visitors. Authorities say that they are still on the hunt for their main source of supply."
…Ah, that's from a few hours ago. Damn it, I couldn't get to see whether the girl survived or not… Dan Gurto? From the memories of the original Donovan, he has excellent investigational skills. It's stated that each case he handled, he has always solved successfully… That's impressive.
Damn it, Layla, I hope you're doing well. Why am I even worrying about you, you're a grown woman.
Donovan took another bite of the apple while the two old men were still bickering and verbally insulting each other.
***
"You've seen the ending. You, alone, have borne witness to this universe's inevitable ending. Please, tell me what you've seen."
A figure in a white hazy fog stood with a faint loneliness in the middle of a vast wheat field. The breeze blew gently, making one feel as though they were in a mother's embrace. The figure was talking to a floating spot of white fog in front of them.
"It isn't a beautiful one, I must say," said the small spot of white fog.
"Even so, I must hear it. The hour of my purging is nigh, and I have this desire to leave behind… something that will help those in the distant future against the cruel hands of my brother's wrath."
"How noble of you. But I doubt that anything you do will reverse the inevitable outcome that awaits this universe."
"Please, tell me. My father decided to hand you that authority because He trusts you. He trusts that you will someday help steer this universe away from calamity and chaos. Please."
"I… am a powerful being of this universe. And so are you. But even with all that power, your father is naive if He thinks that my authority alone can stop your idiotic brother. But let us leave it to time, shall we?"
"You're not… making sense. Time?"
"Very well. I shall tell you, then. I'll leave it up to you with what you do with this newfound knowledge that you shall receive."
***
Inside a dark office, where the only source of light came from the screen of a monitor, was the unmoving body of Aria.
Amidst her peaceful sleep, she said faintly, "Hurts…"
Tears were dripping down her eyes, wetting her frail and pale arms.
Shortly after that, her rising and falling chest seemed to cease its functioning.