[Have you ever seen heaven?]
Even among the most devout believers, such topics are often discussed. And when asked by outsiders, the answers given are largely the same.
[Yes, heaven resides in the heart of every devout person.]
[No, but the path to heaven will be revealed when the soul returns to the sky.]
This kind of belief without seeing is hard for people to truly accept, but most people will, when worshipping sacred images, inwardly reconcile, [It should be so.]
Having just escaped a social errand, Fuuki didn't want to preach to the girl in front of him by quoting scriptures again, so he leaned back against the carved railing, adopting a relaxed posture.
"Of course, I have."
Hearing this, the girl's expression shifted slightly, and something flickered in her amber eyes.
"Though it was just a tiny, very brief moment." Fuuki raised his hand, making a very small gap with his fingertips.
The girl leaned closer, curiously staring at the space between his fingertips, as if she could truly see something.
"What does heaven look like?"
Fuuki recalled the scene he saw in that fleeting moment and offered a fitting analogy.
"If fate is a 'torrent,' then heaven is a rescue ark."
"Torrent… ark?"
"Yes, a 'torrent' more vast than a galaxy, more turbulent than a raging storm."
"Within the torrent are countless living beings, and the end of the torrent is 'destiny.'"
"To transcend it is to board the ark. Do what needs to be done, and enjoy eternal peace of mind."
He looked up at the night sky, as if counting the stars.
"It sounds lonely."
"Does it? I don't think so." Fuuki met the girl's gaze again. As his spiritual power recovered, his thoughts also became more active. Although he was the one answering, he also gained new insights in the midst of it all.
"This world will be with you your whole life, through birth, old age, sickness, death, joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness. If loneliness truly has a source, it can only come from one's own heart."
"If you can transcend yourself, even if you are alone, all things in the world will gather around you, playing the music of your ascent into heaven."
Listening to the young man's narration, the light in Wakaba Mutsumi's eyes first dimmed a little, but then a new color filled them.
She felt an indescribable sensation suddenly appear in her mind, like a blurry speck of light, like a star faintly visible through dark clouds.
============
Midnight, second-floor corridor of the Togawa residence.
Togawa Sakiko was uncharacteristically awake.
In fact, she knew very well that her condition today, while not good, was quite terrible.
Whether it was her repeated dazes when greeting her adopted brother, her emotional breakdown when accepting his help and comfort, or the drowsiness that made her almost fall asleep standing up during dinner, all brought shame to the title of Togawa Family's young lady!
However, after being shamed too much, she would get used to it. When the sun rose the next day, Saki-chan would forget everything.
She paced the corridor, hoping to clear her mind with the moonlight streaming through the window. She accepted the night's gift, conceiving a world unique to herself in her mind.
Its name was Ave Mujica.
The awakening night, moonlight, resurrected dolls… From childhood flashes of inspiration to the gradual completion of the worldview, Togawa Sakiko felt an extreme sense of being in control.
"Ah, I long to loudly proclaim the moment of restoration of power!"
"No, I must not be careless. Before the 'world' can be perfectly presented to the public, I must never expose it due to oversight."
Sakiko recalled once inviting Mutsumi to her home and accidentally forgetting to hide her 'worldview' notes. In the small interval when she left the room to get juice, her friend had glimpsed the 'secret.'
"Saki, what is Mortis?"
"Ah, ah, ah, don't remember it!"
Patting her cheeks to awaken herself from the shameful memory, Sakiko quickened her steps. Unknowingly, she arrived at the door of her father's study and noticed a faint light emanating from the crack under the door.
"This is already my adopted brother's room. What is he doing at this hour?"
"Perhaps he's adjusting to the time difference or something."
"Speaking of which, he's not as cold as I imagined. Maybe I'm just too sensitive."
"That feeling at Mother's funeral might be because he also had similar experiences."
Recalling the events of the day and the news she had heard from her mother earlier, Togawa Sakiko gradually began to accept this new family member, and in her heart, she felt a slight sympathy for her adopted brother who had lost all his relatives.
"Hiss, it feels a bit cold. I should get back to bed."
Feeling a slight chill, the young lady tiptoed, quietly moving away from the door and running back to her own room.
As she departed, a phantom attached to the ceiling retracted through the door crack into the room, returning to its host.
Togawa Fuuki was still seated at the desk, reading the information he had collected from the Togawa residence today under the orange-yellow lamplight.
The information was extensive and varied, ranging from the recent meetings between the family head and several business magnates to the daily slacking off time of the garden landscaper.
The source of the intelligence was the staff throughout the mansion. Through casual physical contact, Fuuki, in just one afternoon, successfully implanted the [Instruction Discs] created by White Snake into several key administrators who could best monitor others' movements.
Because the content of the instructions was merely [record what is seen and heard] and [deliver to a specified location], each implantation could last for a week.
Once the time was up, the one-time Disc would naturally dissolve, and then it would be further simplified, gradually weaving into a reliable intelligence network.
At the same time, to prevent the exposure of intelligence transmission, Fuuki planned to instruct everyone to purchase the same edition of a book to serve as a codebook.
As for the decoding work, he would leave it to his Stand. Although its combat ability was inferior to the leather-clad, bandaged man, it had excellent performance in 'precision' and 'operability.' It could even enter an automatic mode after inputting certain commands.
After all, it was an embodiment of his spiritual power; exploiting it was exploiting himself, so Fuuki naturally felt no shame in burdening it with heavy work.
Glancing at the Stand that had returned to his side, Fuuki added a line to the light blue sticky note on the desk. This represented his 'record' of his mental interference with Togawa Sakiko.
That's right, when Sakiko accidentally strolled to the door, Fuuki, upholding the hospitable spirit of [since you're here,] stuffed some strange things into the young lady's head again.
Of course, the current Togawa young lady could be said to pose no threat to him, so his interference with her was merely an experimental 'test.'
However, it was undeniable that it also contained a little bit of his own mischievousness.
Just a little bit, only a little bit.
After recording the noteworthy information, Fuuki finally decided to go to bed and rest. The White Snake, which had been working all day, finally dissipated as if relieved of a heavy burden.
As he lay on the bed, he suddenly felt something small and hard in his pocket poking him.
It was a small gift given to him by Wakaba Mutsumi, who had chatted (not really) with him before the dinner ended.
A clear, irregularly shaped iridescent crystal.
She called it a [meteorite fragment.]
Feeling the cold touch of the object, the old wound in Fuuki's palm began to throb faintly.
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