【Respect】The Beautiful Future

In the Suburban Research Institute of Japan, Arakawa Sawakita led several researchers busy in an orderly manner in a laboratory.The laboratory is medium-sized, with two iron beds side by side in the center, and the display desks are located on both sides. The helmet and other equipment with flashing green lights are connected to the computer and Arakawa Sawakita conducts the final adjustment.

They have dealt with these machines for a long time and also abandoned them later. They thought that nothing would be the result, but they were asked to start this experiment at an unexpected moment.Everyone's heart is very complicated, and may be mixed with pain to some extent, especially Arakawa Zebei.

Arakawa Sawakita fell silent when he received the notification from Munakata Reiji. He opened the drawer and took out the cigarettes he had collected earlier, then got up and opened the window, and smoked the first cigarette in his life against the cold winter rainy night.Munakata Reishi waited with his usual good patience. After a long time, he heard Arakawa Zebei's hoarse voice, against the background of the pattering rain, "So you will do the same? After standing at that height, it is inevitable to pursue this kind of power?"

Munakata was surprised for a moment, then smiled, "I just want to end the war, but it won't be in the way of those people, you can rest assured."

Arakawa Zebei remained silent, looking at the dark sky in the distance, as if recalling some distant memory.

"You believe me, don't you?" Munakata said slowly.Arakawa knew that he was referring to the false testimony he gave in court, and he didn't know what happened at that time, and he knew the fate of being found out, but after a long absence, he confronted that person in his consciousness again. With purple-red pupils, when he remembered Munakata's words, he suddenly felt that this man could not die.

Arakawa Zebei coughed twice, frowned and pinched his cigarette, feeling that he really couldn't like such unhealthy things anyway, "Whatever you want, anyway, I only have to obey orders."

Although he said it reluctantly, he agreed in the end.

There was the sound of running footsteps in the corridor, and the assistant opened the door and rushed in, before he could catch his breath: "Doctor, Brigadier General Munakata and Colonel Zhou Fang have arrived!"

Arakawa Zebei was still staring at the data scrolling on the screen, and tapped the keyboard with his fingers, "Bring it here when you arrive."

"Doctor...you should go to greet him..." the assistant carefully looked at his face and said.

Arakawa Zebei took a moment out of his busy schedule to look at him strangely: "It's not like they haven't been here before, should I take them for a visit?"

"...Yes." The assistant closed his mouth tactfully, and turned back to ask the two big men to come over.

When Munakata Reiji and Zhou Fangzun entered, the sensory testing equipment had just been adjusted. Arakawa Sawakita ignored Munakata's greeting and Shufang's barely greeting glance, and asked straight to the point: "Are you two conducting a sensory test?"

Munakata took off his coat and folded it aside, said with a slight smile, "It seems that there is no one more suitable than us."

Arakawa Zebei nodded and said nothing more.Shu Fang and Munakata lay down on the iron bed, and the researcher stepped forward to put on the helmets for them. When Arakawa Zawakita switched on the power, a short and clear prompt sounded, and the iron rings opened and clasped their limbs, and electric current flowed from them around them. roam.

The consciousness was connected, no sound could be heard in the ears, and the vision fell into the abyss-like darkness.Like in a moment, or like a vicissitudes of life, the meandering light flows out of the chaos, and as it spreads, the huge Dresden stone slab appears in front of you, close at hand, and as if thousands of miles away.

Zhou Fangzun and Munakata Reishi stepped on the nothingness, and when they saw the stone slab, they looked at each other again.This space is thick and dark, and they can't see anything except each other and the slate, but it makes people feel extremely vast for no reason.

Zhou Fang took a step forward, he couldn't feel anything under his feet, Zongxiang pulled his hand to follow, Zhou Fang curled his lips and clenched it with his backhand, and stopped a few steps away from the stone slab.At this moment they had to look up at it a little bit, as if it had sensed something, the ancient symbol engraved on it was divided into two from the center, overflowing with blue and red flames, the flames hovered on the stone slab, trembling slightly Coming towards them both.

A joy that did not belong to me clearly reached my heart.

A light and vague ballad suddenly sounded in my ears, like a lover's whisper.The flames flowed around them without warmth, and the light reflected their faces indistinctly.The clasped hands suddenly and slowly lifted up, as if the entire arm had lost consciousness from the palm up, and was passively drawn closer to the stone slab.Munakata looked sideways at Zhou Fang in surprise, the other party frowned and looked at the uncontrollable movements of his hands, then looked back as if sensing something, shook his head to indicate that he was not moving.

It's just that at this moment, they were out of their minds, their hands had already loosened and turned into a side-by-side posture, as if... they were going to stick their palms on the stone slab!

Waking up suddenly at almost the same time, Zhou Fang used brute force to withdraw his hand but it was difficult to pull out as if he was stuck in a quagmire. Munakata bent his knuckles with great effort and tried to close into a fist but couldn't make it. He took a deep breath and gritted his teeth. Suddenly turned around and held Zhou Fang's hand again, and the opponent also tightened his strength quickly.

This action probably angered the slate, and the light surged in an instant like a sea tide, and the color that originally belonged to them enveloped them completely.The feeling of suffocation came suddenly, and the flames attached to them. The severe pain seemed to tear the skin apart, tear out the texture and destroy the lungs. They couldn't see or hear anything. The five senses were closed, and only the clear experience of this lingering pain was left. like pain.

Flowing flames lingered on their clasped hands, as if they wanted to separate them forcibly, but the pain made the two hands clenched even tighter, with such force that there was a blue and white mark on the hand, almost twisting the phalanges.

Munakata closed his eyes and tried his best to withdraw from consciousness, his lungs were filled with gel, and he couldn't even take a deep breath.

A pot exploded in the laboratory, and even Arakawa Zebei looked at the energy index on the display stage in disbelief.

"...forcibly cut off contact!" Munakata Reiji's voice suddenly sounded.

Arakawa Zawakita pursed his lips tightly and did not say a word. He typed countless instructions with his fingers precisely and sensitively in an instant, and the researchers also quickly activated the emergency system.The machine was overloaded, and the cooling fan of the host computer was buzzing in rapid rotation. The bright green page in front of Arakawa Zawakita suddenly flickered, and the data that gushed out quickly stopped and remained motionless.Arakawa Zebei opened his eyes wide in shock, and then slammed his fist heavily on the console.

The so-called world's most advanced unit in front of them couldn't handle it due to too large energy fluctuations and got stuck.

Arakawa Zebei turned his head with difficulty to look at the two people lying on the iron bed, their clasped hands were shaking slightly, as if they were enduring some great pain.

Zhou Fangzun suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood, and before the researcher had time to rush forward, he heard him growl like a rage: "Cut off the power!"

The researcher froze in disbelief, knowing that in the current state of the two of them, cutting off contact in such a violent way might damage their brains.The researchers unconsciously turned their eyes to the direction of Arakawa Zebei, and saw that the doctor was stunned for a moment, then turned around and stepped forward, smashed the glass cover with his bare hands, and took a picture with his bloody hands without hesitation. up red button.

Before everyone had time to react, all the lights went out instantly, and the whole space suddenly fell into dead silence at this moment, with the sound of violent heartbeats resounding in everyone's ears.A few seconds later, there was a long exhalation sound from the direction of the iron bed, the power supply was restored in response, the lights came on one by one, and the machine resumed operation slightly slowly.

The iron ring was opened, Zhou Fang and Munakata took off their helmets and sat up, Munakata lowered his eyes as if thinking about something, Zhou Fang raised his hand to touch the cold sweat on his forehead, his eyes were deep and silent.

The assistant closed the door for them politely and left, leaving only Zhou Fangzun and Munakata Reishi in the small meeting room of the research institute.Zhou Fang pulled out his chair and sat down, took a cup of tea and took a sip of tea to cover the bloody smell in his mouth, Zong Xiang leaned against the edge of the conference table with his back to him, and looked out the window with his hands clasped.

"Zhou Fang, I asked Dr. Arakawa some questions just a few steps behind." He suddenly said, "The theoretical effect of the perception test is to perceive the location of the stone slab, and confirm the location through the arrival of consciousness."

"But we only saw a mass of darkness." Zhou Fang answered his next sentence.

"Dr. Arakawa is confident that there will be no mistakes, so the reason may be us." Munakata looked at him sideways, "Maybe what we have entered is not where the stone slab is located... but the inner world of the slate?"

"So what?" Zhou Fang leaned back in the chair, moved his cervical spine, and said suddenly: "I care about another point more than this, the strength of the stone slab seems to have weakened."

Zongxiang glanced at him, and said with a low laugh, "You who were tortured to cough up blood are really unconvincing."

Zhou Fangzun, who was severely suppressed by the slate just now because of excessive resistance and struggle, frowned and said nothing.

"But you mentioned it like this...I seem to feel it too." Munakata rested his fingers on his chin and thought carefully, "Is it because he didn't wake up?"

"It's more like we were reborn because of the splitting of power." Zhou Fang replied, his tone forced the guess to express a sense of certainty, and then found another problem on his own: "But I can't find it." Why did it go to such great lengths to bring us back to life?"

Munakata Reishi was silent for a moment, then pulled the corners of his lips to show a smile: "I figured it out after you said that."

"Huh?" Zhou Fang turned his head to look at him.

"We are the only two experimental subjects reborn, but we are not the only experimental subjects that overlap with the supernatural beings in that world." Munakata smiled unclearly.

Zhou Fang's expression rarely changed significantly, "Anna?"

"In 'that world', Anna was regarded as a man-made king because of her high sensitivity. She has a special perception of the slate, which is different from us who were selected by the slate." Munakata's gradually impatient expression towards Zhou Fang deepened. Smiling, "There will be no coincidences, I try to understand it this way: the three experimental subjects, Anna Kushina is the key to open the way to the slate, and you and I are the food to awaken the slate."

"food……?"

"It splits the power to regenerate us, in order to try to induce us to find it through the key of Anna, and then it will devour us to replenish its weakened power and achieve real awakening." Munakata spread that to Zhou Fang. hand, "as the slate just did in consciousness."

Zhou Fang frowned, staring at Munakata for a long time: "What are you going to do?"

Munakata looked away from him, "You already know."

"Don't even think about it." Zhou Fangzun said.

"Your reaction is not bad at all from what I guessed." Munakata said with a faint smile.

"You know what happened in consciousness, I won't let her experiment." Zhou Fang said.

"Just now I have negotiated with Dr. Arakawa, he will adjust the machine as soon as possible, and what happened just now will not happen again." Munakata said.

"You can't guarantee it."

"It was originally planned that Awashima-kun would take her back to Luoyang, Kyoto today, and it happened to be on the way. I have just informed Awashima-kun that Anna will be here soon." Munakata glanced at him, ready to leave, "She wants She is much stronger than we imagined, and the decision on such matters should be left to her."

As a result, Munakata couldn't take a few steps before Zhou Fang grabbed his wrist and pulled him back. He was caught off guard and backed up and bumped into the conference table. The porcelain cup on the table fell to the ground and shattered.Munakata quickly supported the table with the other hand to stabilize his figure, raised his eyes and calmly faced Zhou Fang who was suppressing his anger.

"We can find other ways." Zhou Fang looked at him with burning eyes, his lowered voice tinged with danger.

Munakata didn't intend to break away from his hand, and met his gaze unhurriedly: "Maybe, maybe not. But what is certain is that every day of delay, there will be countless people fighting for this ridiculous war." to die."

Zhou Fang's jaw stretched into a hard line, he didn't make a sound or move, and Zongxiang stayed silent with him, staring back intently without dodging or hiding.

The suffocating confrontation was not broken until a soft voice came from the door, "I am willing."

They looked back in response, and Anna Kushina's hand was still nervously pressing on the door frame, but her eyes were never firmer than before.The door of the institute never opened silently, and I don't know how long she stood there listening.

Anna lowered her head and took a deep breath, raised her head again and walked closer, stretched out her hand to cover the back of Zongxiang's wrist held by Zhou Fang, stared into Zhou Fang's eyes and said seriously: "No quarrel is allowed."

Zhou Fang let go of his hand silently, Munakata looked at Anna while moving his wrist, and said with the same serious attitude: "I won't let you have any accidents, I promise."

Anna raised her head, with a subtle smile on the corner of her mouth, "Trust Reiss." She paused and looked at Zhou Fang who was frowning, and pulled his fingers reassuringly, "Zun and Reiss are both here, so Don't be afraid."

Zhou Fang held her hand, finally clicked his tongue impatiently, pulled her out, and said to Zongxiang without looking back:

"Let's go."