Why Can’t You?

There was nothing.

There was nothing here.

In that space where there was no light, yet it was not complete darkness, Kikori muttered as if he had given up.

“Ah… Did I die?”

Otherwise, there was no reason he would suddenly come to a place like this.

He had died while being swallowed by that magical tornado.

And this place was the afterlife or something… Thinking that way was normal.

“How frustrating…”

He muttered that quietly.

“Oh, so that emotion still remained.”

At the “someone” who appeared before his eyes, Kikori instinctively leaped back.

“Wh, who are you!?”

The current Kikori had no armor. No axes.

Even if the someone before him was an enemy, he could not fight.

No, he did have something. There was “magic” he could use even barehanded.

He tried to prepare so he could activate it at any moment.

“Calm down, Kikori. I don’t intend to harm you.”

When that someone smiled at him, Kikori’s head became filled with question marks.

The “someone” before him knew his name.

But who was he?

“Well, you see. If you had acted clever and said something like, ‘Of course I lost,’ I was thinking of casting you out like this. But well, I’m glad that wasn’t the case.”

The form of the “someone” saying such things… closely resembled a human.

Messy black hair and red eyes. The clothes he wore were also black.

Because they were decorated with gold thread and stood out, he looked as if he were floating within this space, but…

That “someone” had still not answered Kikori’s question.

“Now then, Kikori. You are now on the boundary of death.”

“I’m… not dead?”

“No. But that giant lizard’s attack has shattered your armor, and right now, your body is about to be shattered as well. Even if not, you will die if you fall.”

“…”

“Then, Kikori, here is the question. Why will you die?”

He did not understand the meaning.

There should be nothing but factors that would make him die everywhere.

His body would be shattered.

He would fall from a high altitude.

Both were reasons more than sufficient to die. What else could there be?

“That’s…”

He started to say it, then stopped.

That’s wrong. He instinctively thought so.

If his body was shattered, he would die.

If he fell from a high altitude, he would die.

That was obvious. So obvious there was not even any meaning in asking.

And yet, what was it? Kikori felt doubt about “that.”

What was different?

What was he feeling doubt about?

Kikori thought.

Then he saw the battered crown that “someone” was somehow holding.

No… looking at that thing too shabby to call a crown.

“Because I haven’t adapted.”

When he thought that, Kikori fell into the illusion that everything made sense.

That was right.

If he had adapted to flames, was there any reason he could not adapt to a tornado?

If he could adapt to a tornado, then he should naturally be able to adapt to something like falling from a high altitude.

And yet, the reason he would die was.

Because he had not adapted.

“Indeed.”

“Someone” said that and smiled.

“Indeed, indeed! You will die because you cannot adapt! That is the truth!”

The man floated the battered crown into the air and spread both hands.

“Kikori! Then I shall ask you! Why is it… that you cannot adapt?”