254 Regret

Akira teleported to the apartment he bought on a whim.

"Everything is fine, I'm here. Don't be afraid anymore, Shouko."

"Sob... Sob... Sob..."

As if she didn't hear that, Shouko cried in Akira's arms and refused to let go. She didn't even mind the fact that the two of them had just teleported.

Walking to the bed, Akira sat down with Shouko in his arms.

He didn't know how to comfort her. He knew his words were useless.

The situation in the bedroom was silent, other than the woman's faint cries, there was no other sound.

After a few minutes, Shouko stopped crying.

"Shouko, I---"

Seeing that the corners of her eyes were red from shedding too many tears, Akira was speechless.

This was the first time he had seen her this sad. His heart was filled with regret.

"It's not Akira's fault. If only... I... didn't do anything ridiculous... This would never have happened."

Shouko's forehead rested on Akira's chest, and she bit her lower lip so hard it was dripping blood.

"No, Shouko, this is all my fault. I shouldn't have neglected you and met you sooner. This is all because I was too preoccupied with other women, to the point that I forgot about you."

Akira took Shouko in his arms. He blamed himself for his actions.

The two hugged silently.

"I want to go to the bathroom."

"Ah, the bathroom is next to the kitchen. Let me take you."

"No need, I can do it myself."

Leaving Akira's embrace, Shouko didn't care that her yukata was messy, and left the room.

Seeing her, Akira's gentle expression was replaced by extreme anger.

"Fuck! What is the strongest! I can't even save the people I care about. Shit, shit, shit..."

He didn't know who to vent his anger on. The two hooligans responsible for this incident had been killed, but his anger had not dissipated at all. This caused Akira to feel a terrible headache.

Holding his head, Akira tried to suppress his anger. As time passed, he began to calm down.

"Master, I have eliminated the corpses of those two people."

Skadi appeared in the bedroom and gave a report.

"Oh, thank you for your hard work." Akira showed a smile that was uglier than crying.

"Don't smile if you can't. Don't push yourself, Master."

"Um."

The topic of conversation ends.

Then Skadi switched to the Spiritual Body.

Ten minutes later, Shouko still hadn't returned from the bathroom. Akira is a paranoid person, the worst possibility comes to mind.

"Not good!"

He ran out of the room and rushed to the bathroom. His facial expression darkened as soon as he found the bathroom door locked.

*Knock Knock Knock*

"Shouko, open the door! Don't do anything stupid, open it quickly!"

No response.

Finally, Akira pulled the door off its hinges. Then he saw a sight all red.

Water filled half of the bath, Shouko was holding a kitchen knife, and there was a cut on her hand dripping fresh blood.

"SHOUKO!!!" Akira shouted while getting her out of the bath.

"[Gold Experience]!"

A humanoid figure appeared behind him and transferred a large amount of life energy into Shouko's body. However, her closed eyes never opened again.

"Shouko, wake up. I have to be kidding, right? I beg you, wake up… I don't like this joke."

Akira shook Shouko to wake her up, but he knew it was just an attempt to make a fool of himself.

Shouko's face quickly turned pale, her heart stopped beating, and she stopped breathing.

In the past, Ichika was also in a similar state. However, Akira has a scroll that can raise humans from the dead. This time was different, he didn't possess a heaven-defying item.

"Shoukoooo!!!"

Unable to hold back his tears anymore, Akira hugged Shouko's lifeless body, and cried like a child.

Skadi switched to Material Body, watching this scene silently.

(This girl must have valued her chastity more than anything else. She chose suicide… This is an extreme decision.) She thought as she sighed in her mind.

In this modern era, only a few women think that 'virginity' is only given to men after marriage.

Most women are not virgins before marriage. Unfortunately, Kirishima Shouko is a conservative woman. She couldn't accept the fact that her virginity was stolen by a rapist. Instead of living with regret, she would rather kill herself.

She felt herself 'unclean' and unworthy to be side by side with Akira.

"If we had known this sooner, this tragedy would not have happened." Skadi muttered.

"To know sooner..." Akira repeated the sentence and suddenly remembered one of his plans.

"That's right! How could I forget such an important matter!"

"What are you talking about?"

Seeing the light of hope in her Master's eyes, Skadi was confused.

Akira didn't explain straight away. Holding Shouko in princess carry, he put her gently on the bed.

"Just because she's 'still warm', don't do anything immoral! I will be disappointed in you, Master."

Skadi thought her Master would do something to Shouko's corpse, just like Takuma, the perpetrator of kidnapping and raping the corpses of junior high school girls.

"Chamber, is subject 001 still being held in the research facility?"

Akira wasn't in the mood to explain the situation, so she picked up the cell phone and asked the artificial intelligence, Chamber.

<Yes, sir. Researchers are afraid that subject 001 will escape, so they dare not transfer him to another research facility.>

Chamber gave an answer.

"Good. I never thought I would use this plan."

Taking out [Slime Bodysuit] from inside [Storage Magic], Akira transformed into Ars Nova form.

"That appearance... Master wants to cause trouble, right?"

Every time her Master assumed the identity of Ars Nova, Skadi was sure there would be trouble.

Akira touched Shouko's cold face, it's not a figurative word, but her body temperature is really cold.

"Since I don't have the method of raising you from the dead, then I just need to 'change the world'. I will make your rape tragedy never happen."

"Changing the world... Never happened... Could it be?!?"

As a Divine Spirit from the Norse Pantheon and also a witch of the Age of Gods, Skadi wasn't stupid. Combining the clues from her Master's demeanor and words, an absurd guess emerged in her mind.

"Master... You want to go back in time? Do you have that ability?"

"No, I do not have. But... We just need to find someone who can. Let's go see the Regessor."

"Interesting. This world has such ability. It is even more powerful than True Magic."

Skadi was curious what kind of person her Master was referring to.

Akira didn't say anything else, glanced at Shouko one last time, he held Skadi's hand, and used [Hiraishin no Jutsu].