Morning inside a colorful villa, in a pink-themed room.
Pale pink—the walls, the curtains, and even the gentle curve of the ceiling were steeped in this color.
The curtains were light tulle; the sunlight filtered through them, casting a warm, fuzzy halo on the room's floor.
A sweet, indescribable scent of flowers and fruit faintly lingered in the air.
"Mmm~~"
A sweet, sleepy moan sounded. Elysia's beautiful eyelashes fluttered, her hazy eyes opened, and a trace of fear crossed her serene, pretty face.
"It feels like something terrifying happened."
Hayashi instinctively didn't want Elysia to remember the tragedy of Itomori Town, yet a trace of emotion still lingered in her.
However, Elysia currently couldn't recall what had happened.
"Forget it! If I can't remember, it must be another beautiful day ♪."
Throwing that slight worry to the back of her mind, Elysia stood up, revealing her delicate figure clad in a sheer nightgown. She stretched, a motion that showed off her ample cleavage, truly earning her the nickname 'Pink Fat Lady.'
Ding-ding~~!
Suddenly, the visitor bell rang, but before Elysia could open the door, the sound of the door opening came from outside.
"Oh dear~ Jeanne, so early!"
Elysia subconsciously glanced at the clock, noticed how early it was, and voiced her confusion.
The reason she assumed it was Jeanne looking for her was naturally because only Jeanne had registered her fingerprints and facial recognition to open her house door directly.
"Was there something you couldn't just call about?"
The confused Elysia instinctively prepared to go out, but just as her slender hand reached the doorknob, she withdrew it.
Besides Jeanne's familiar high-heeled combat boot footsteps, she heard another set of footsteps.
'That must be Hayashi's!'
Reaching this conclusion, Elysia couldn't help but glance down. Hmm—she couldn't see her toes when she looked down.
She definitely couldn't be seen like this!
After retracting her hand as if shocked, Elysia changed into a blue and white fairy dress and walked out of the second-floor room.
Sure enough.
In the fairy-tale castle-style hall, Elysia saw the figures of Jeanne and Hayashi.
"Hi~ Good morning~ ♪, seeing you two first thing in the morning makes me so happy!"
Elysia slid down the white jade railing, jumped in front of Hayashi and Jeanne, and asked with a beaming smile.
"Morning."
Because of Elysia's movement, Hayashi's gaze couldn't help but fall upon the area defying gravity.
"Morning, Ely~"
Jeanne greeted her.
"Is something the matter?"
Elysia asked, simultaneously noticing Hayashi's gaze. Although she was always the beloved Miss Fairy, the center of attention, facing Hayashi caused Elysia's fair earlobes to flush slightly.
Her beautiful eyes subtly glanced at Hayashi, but she didn't dodge. Instead, she playfully bounced up and down in front of Hayashi again... causing Hayashi's eyes to involuntarily twitch.
"Ahem!"
Did they really think Jeanne was blind? She couldn't help but cough, signaling that they had done enough.
Hayashi, be a gentleman! And you, Elysia! You're doing this on purpose, aren't you? Be a lady! Be more ladylike!
"Jeanne, do you have a cold? I have cold medicine, oh~ ♪"
With a tone suggesting she completely missed Jeanne's underlying meaning, Elysia said teasingly, but she stopped bouncing.
"Coincidentally, I also have cold medicine."
Hayashi also said, looking straight ahead.
"..."
'That's enough, you two!'
Jeanne shot them a speechless look. She was a heroic spirit; how could she catch a cold?
Didn't they know she was a heroic spirit constructed with history as her bones and faith as her flesh and blood?
They were both deliberately playing dumb!
"Let's get to the main point—I dragged Jeanne here with me to find you."
Hayashi couldn't quite handle the Saintess's stare, mainly because he was afraid she would switch into sermon mode.
Hearing this, both Elysia and Jeanne turned their gazes to Hayashi. Jeanne was also curious; Hayashi hadn't told her the reason on the way over.
"Let me think about how to phrase this.
If, in order to save humanity, humanity must first be eliminated, what are your thoughts?"
Hayashi's sudden words exploded in Elysia's and Jeanne's ears like a clap of thunder.
"Can you explain? Explain! What do you mean by needing to eliminate humanity in order to save it?"
Jeanne looked at Hayashi as if he were crazy, while simultaneously placing her slender hand on his head.
"I'm not crazy!"
Hayashi allowed Jeanne's hand to rest on his forehead and spoke coldly.
"What's the reason?"
Her smile gone, Elysia frowned and asked.
"Because of this..."
Saying this, Hayashi took out the memory card he got from 173 and inserted it into Elysia's home office computer while also telling them the general situation regarding SCP-5000.
He also gave them a general explanation of the foundation.
—An organization that controls, protects, and contains.
Yet, because of it, they decided to destroy humanity.
"Are you saying there's a demon parasitic in humanity's collective subconscious, which, upon death, makes people retain consciousness and suffer eternally?"
Jeanne said, not entirely convinced.
If such a demon truly existed, how could she not have received any divine revelation?
"That sounds terrifying! Does it really exist?"
Elysia also looked suspicious. As the Herrscher of Humanity and the Herrscher of Origin, she hadn't felt anything either.
"I don't believe it?"
Elysia shook her head, then clicked on the video file on the computer.
She wanted to see what the so-called SCP-5000 was and what kind of terror the highest-ranking council member of a world-protecting organization in a parallel world had experienced to make such an insane choice.
Zzzzt!
Soon, a static sound rang out. Jeanne and Elysia stared intensely at the video file, and quickly, through memetic contagion, they felt the sensory memory left by that O5 Council member in the video.
Death—
The pain of being devoured by everything drilled into their minds.
"Ah—!" said Elysia.
"No—!" said Jeanne.
There was no knowledge contamination, no mental corruption; they merely 'perceived' the feelings of that O5 council member after death.
Even though one was the Herrscher of Humans and the other was the Saintess.
That endless, boundless pain still made them cry out involuntarily.
Pain! Too painful!
Death should have been peaceful. How could it be like this? How could this happen?
Under the pain, although the two women didn't experience a flesh-and-blood riot like Hayashi, the severe shock to their senses caused them to collapse directly onto the floor.
Fortunately, Hayashi caught them, one with each hand.
"Thank you..."
After a while, Elysia recovered a step before Jeanne, saying to Hayashi with a pale face.
"How do you feel?"
Hayashi shook his head and looked inquiringly at Elysia.
He was asking both about her current feelings and whether she now believed.
"Terrifying, absolutely terrifying. Humanity shouldn't suffer that, but... is it possible that the video file is just a trap?"
"Did some mastermind, hoping for humanity to destroy itself, intentionally insert such terrifying memories into the video file?"
Elysia grabbed Hayashi's arm with the back of her hand, asking with hopeful eyes.
The recent experience was too horrific! But precisely because of this realization, even when she fully activated her Authority of Origin, she still couldn't grasp this so-called monster hidden in the human subconscious.
It seemed as if it didn't exist!
Under these circumstances, Elysia was unwilling to believe in its existence.
"That possibility exists..."
Hayashi nodded under Elysia's hopeful gaze, but his subsequent answer disappointed her.
"But I choose to believe it exists."
"So..." Elysia's lips trembled.
"I must force it out," Hayashi said coldly.
"Must it be this way?" Elysia's voice was mournful.
"It must be this way!" Hayashi replied without hesitation.
"What if I disagree with you?" This question from Elysia made Hayashi pause.
"That's why I came to ask you. What is your final decision?"
Hayashi looked at Elysia, then turned to Jeanne and asked.
Notes:
Bad news… No more updates since two months ago.
So… I guess it's over...
I'm searching for something new though maybe in less than one week.