For someone who cannot feel pain, what even is "pain" inside the mind?
At least to Asagami Fujino, it was a kind of key—
a secret that summoned concern.
When she was a child, she could play with a small knife and slice into her finger without feeling anything.
But when her mother—frightened out of her mind—pulled her into a tight embrace, tears would spill out uncontrollably.
That pain she couldn't feel, mixed together with her mother's worry… and in the girl's understanding, "pain" became something like being cared for.
And yet, as Fujino grew, that sensation gradually vanished.
With her mother's death, her "pain" stopped being something anyone paid attention to.
Or perhaps it was because Fujino began suppressing herself—never letting her abnormal "painlessness" show in front of others.
Either way, she could no longer find that feeling again.
All she could do was use the existence of other people to confirm her "pain."
After the last person who truly cared whether she hurt—her mother—was gone, every trace of "pain" disappeared along with it…
…and even her sense of self began to blur.
But now, she seemed to have found an anchor again.
So much so that a thought surfaced from deep within her:
She wanted to be hurt.
If she was hurt for Mr. Arato's sake, then that concern she'd just received would surely return.
If she could keep experiencing that warmth… she felt she could do anything.
Fujino wasn't ignorant of social norms. She knew how strange this was.
But she was a bird that had lived without sunlight for too long.
Now that she'd finally felt even a little warmth, of course she wanted to clutch it with all her strength.
…
At the forest-covered summit, inside the massive hive—
The queen, nearly the size of a human, lay dead.
From cracks in the shattered hive, the seductive scent of honey poured out in waves.
A system notification appeared before both Fujino and Arato at the same time:
[Quest: Clear the giant bee nest occupying the mountain]
[Status: Completed]
[Description: Players may leave the instance voluntarily, or be removed automatically after the 10-minute countdown ends]
[10:00:00]
[Hint: When leaving, you may choose one item to take out of the game. At the moment of exit, stand within ten meters of the item you want to take. You will be given the selection prompt at the moment you leave.]
"It was easier than I expected," Arato said. "Now it's the matter of dividing spoils. Miss Asagami—anything you want?"
They were searching the summit hive for additional loot.
The fight had gone even more smoothly than expected. After removing the worker bees that could attack, the queen's combat power was even lower than they'd imagined.
It wasn't some grand boss at all—more like a production unit that could be slaughtered at will.
Thinking about it carefully, it fit natural law.
A queen whose entire function was reproduction—of course her fighting ability would be poor.
"We can take some honey back," Fujino replied, studying the huge hive. "Is there anything you want in particular, Mr. Arato?"
Deep down, she felt a little disappointed.
Part of her had been hoping—at the very end—she would have to protect Arato in a dramatic final battle against the queen.
"For me… I'm planning to take the queen's corpse," Arato said. "A bee that grows to this size should be valuable. If it's not related to the occult, then it's still a discovery of the century."
Though Arato researched minerals, in this dungeon no ore could possibly compare to a living creature this far beyond common sense.
"If I take the queen, and you only take honey, your haul is a bit small," Arato continued. "I might be able to offer you something else."
Fujino had clearly paid a lot in this quest—she'd been the bait.
Arato didn't know whether they would keep playing together after this.
But if they did, some things had to be made clear.
It wouldn't be right for him to take the most valuable trophy and leave her with nothing but honey.
"According to the system, you and I are from different eras. Different eras can exchange different information. I can offer you information."
That was the compensation he proposed.
"Information…?" Fujino nodded.
She wasn't actually interested in the reward itself.
But the fact that Arato wanted to compensate her made her feel satisfied all the same.
"My time is January 23, 1995," Fujino said seriously. "I live in Kanbuji City, Japan. What information do you want to give me?"
Fujino wanted a deeper connection with Arato.
But she'd already seen how her direct staring earlier had triggered his wariness—pushing further now would probably make him reject her.
This wasn't something she could rush.
She had to take it slowly.
Just having something she wanted to do—some direction she could move toward—already filled her with a warmth that felt like happiness.
But she couldn't show it fully.
Because that would scare Mr. Arato.
Arato watched the girl's restrained expression and, internally, shook his head.
It felt strangely like raising a child.
He'd been like this too, back when he first dated Aoko.
With that thought, Arato's expression softened.
"My time should be 1985… I think that's earlier than yours."
"Then… should I be the one to give you information?" Fujino offered immediately.
"No," Arato said. "Save that for a future trade—if we have one. This time, I'll be the one paying."
Even if Fujino's era was later, Arato—being someone who'd come from another world—was hardly short on "future knowledge."
"Do you have resources to seize the future?" Arato asked. "In 1995, you could try getting involved in the internet industry."
When he thought of Japan around 1995, what came to mind was the spread of personal computers.
It was also around the time the global internet was just beginning to sprout.
Everything was still embryonic—and many things that deserved attention weren't being taken seriously yet.
For example: instant messaging, like QQ or WeChat.
Or search engines, like Google or Baidu.
In the early days of the internet, those things didn't seem profitable. But if you could grow them—
You'd never worry about anything again.
If a wealthy young lady like Fujino had enough resources to enter early and take a bite of that cake… as long as she didn't make catastrophic mistakes, even if she didn't become a titan, she would still build a foundation that belonged to her.
Fujino: "..."
For a moment, the purple-haired girl didn't even react.
One moment they'd been slaughtering giant bees.
The next, they were talking about reality.
The sheer shift made her feel a strange sense of distance.
But it also pulled her out of that dreamlike immersion—
and reminded her that all of this was about to end,
that she would return to a reality she didn't even know how to face.
"…I might not care about those things as much as you think," she said softly.
A girl without a stable self—how could she have strong desires for money or power?
But Arato shook his head.
"Money and status solve ninety-nine percent of real-world problems. Miss Asagami, you're always suffering over your inability to feel pain, right? If you gain enough money and power, even if you expose everything, people won't dare look at you strangely."
He paused, then continued as her eyes began to waver.
"They might even praise your traits—call you chosen by fate."
"When you hold something others want, everyone around you will become 'friends' who care about you."
"And from my perspective… if Miss Asagami has enough chips in hand, she gains something priceless—freedom."
"Then… Asagami would have the right to choose freely."
People always liked to project their own feelings onto others.
For Arato—who craved freedom—being trapped in a small enclosed world was unbearable.
He and Fujino had never discussed her family in detail—
But he didn't need conversation to see it. A little observation was enough.
Fujino was a girl her family didn't value.
A girl who couldn't even be comforted when she was hurt.
"This is… Mr. Arato helping me," Fujino said quietly.
Arato shook his head.
"No. I only gave you information. How you use it—how you make the life you want become real—that's something you have to work for yourself."
"In this world, those who help themselves are helped by heaven. People can only save themselves."
"..."
Fujino stared at him in silence.
The quest panel in front of them ticked down, second by second.
And when the timer finally neared its end—
"I understand," the purple-haired girl said, nodding.
Wind rustled through the leaves.
The sweet scent of honey drifted from the broken hive.
Then the system chimed—ding—
And Asagami Fujino and Arato Sora vanished from that space together.
-------
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