Chapter 1703 - 237 - The Moral Regret (1)

"She lost a lot of blood," Leon said, his expression remaining serious as he looked toward us. "Unfortunately, she was already on the verge of death before she was brought in front of Natasha. Natasha did everything she could to revive her, of course, but by the time she got to her, it was already too late."

My legs gave out beneath me, and I dropped down onto my knees without even realizing that I had done it.

"C-Can't you heal her?" Kashiwagi-kun asked, his voice trembling as he stared at Leon with desperation written all over his face.

"I have the power to do so," Leon answered calmly.

I slowly raised my head and looked up at him.

For a brief moment, those words gave me hope.

If he really had the power to heal her, then surely there was still something he could do. Surely Ayaka didn't have to stay dead when someone standing right in front of us had already admitted that he could bring her back.

"But I think this is an opportunity for all of you, and especially for you, to learn from your mistake," he told me.

Kashiwagi-kun immediately snapped.

"Are you kidding me?!" he shouted. "You have the power to heal Ayaka, but you're refusing to do it because you want us to learn from our mistake? How the hell does that make any sense?!"

His voice echoed through the area, and I couldn't blame him for losing his temper.

I felt the same way.

"If you believe that, then go ahead and keep berating me," Leon replied, remaining surprisingly composed despite Kashiwagi-kun shouting directly at him. "However, reviving someone who has already died is not something that can simply be done without consequences. It requires a tremendous amount of power, and using that much power could result in many other people getting killed."

Leon paused for a moment before continuing.

"There is also a risk that I could die in the process. I cannot have myself dying here just to save a person who has already passed away, because my death would significantly increase the chances of our defeat."

"B-But..." Kashiwagi-kun began, but his voice weakened almost immediately.

"You still don't understand a thing, do you?" Leon asked.

His eyes shifted toward me.

"I don't think I would be able to change anything simply by bringing her back. However, I don't think you should give up on Sakai either. You still have people depending on you, and you need to understand what kind of situation you're actually standing in right now."

He looked between the two of us.

"Think of this as a lesson from now on. If you cannot handle killing someone, then you should not join a war in the first place. You should simply return to wherever you came from instead of putting yourself into a situation where someone else's death becomes the consequence of your hesitation."

I fell completely silent after hearing those words.

Kashiwagi-kun didn't say anything either.

For all we knew, neither of us could possibly come up with a response to what Leon had said.

Arguing with him wouldn't change anything.

Begging him wouldn't bring Ayaka back.

Even getting angry wouldn't undo what had already happened.

I had failed her.

Because of my failure, Ayaka had died.

That fact kept repeating itself inside my head, over and over again, no matter how hard I tried to push it away.

I wanted to deny it.

I wanted someone to tell me that Leon had been wrong.

Unfortunately, reality didn't care about what I wanted.

Ayaka was dead.

My throat tightened as I lowered my head again, and the tears that I had been desperately trying to hold back finally started falling.

I couldn't find anything else to say.

I couldn't even find the strength to blame anyone else.

All I could do was cry.

***

Leon's POV

Morofuji was standing outside the medbay. When she noticed me approaching, she immediately stepped aside and allowed me to enter without asking any questions.

The expression on her face told me enough.

She probably already knew what had happened.

Inside, Natasha was still there.

Natasha was carefully examining Sakai, checking her condition as she continued working on whatever she could possibly do.

I hadn't been lying when I told Kaori that Sakai had died.

She really was already dead.

There was no pulse.

Her body wasn't responding.

There was nothing that suggested she was still alive.

Yet Natasha were still trying to revive her.

She continued working despite the fact that the situation looked hopeless, because apparently giving up wasn't something she was willing to do while there was even the smallest possibility left.

"What's her status?" I asked quietly.

My own voice sounded strange to me, almost like it belonged to someone else.

Natasha looked at me with an exhausted expression.

She looked like she had already spent every bit of energy she had, and judging by the state of the medbay, she probably hadn't had much time to rest either.

"I don't think you can really ask us something like that while we're this busy," she said, her voice carrying a noticeable amount of exhaustion rather than actual anger. "Still, if you want the answer, she lost a tremendous amount of blood, and her body is already losing its life force."

She briefly looked back toward Sakai.

"I don't think there's much we can do about her losing life force itself, but her blood is another problem entirely. Her blood isn't something I recognize, and I don't think it's compatible with anyone here."

Natasha frowned slightly.

"Actually, I've never seen anything quite like it before. Even the heroes don't have a blood type that's similar to hers, so I can't exactly transfer blood into her."

I quietly listened to her explanation.

Well, I suppose it made sense that Ayaka's blood would be strange to Natasha.

Ayaka had come from another world, after all.

The people here might have looked almost exactly like the people from my previous world, but that didn't necessarily mean we were actually identical in every biological sense.

Our bodies had the same basic organs.

We had hearts, lungs, blood vessels, bones, muscles, and all the other things that made up a normal human body.

Yet having the same organs didn't necessarily mean our bodies were completely identical.

Our DNA could still be different.

Our blood could still be different.

Even the smallest biological differences could become a huge problem when someone was already on the verge of death and needed a transfusion immediately.

I took a slow, deep breath as I tried to think of another option.

Then one possibility came to mind.

"Beelze."

The moment I called her name, someone immediately appeared in front of me.

"Yes?!" she answered almost instantly.

The slime who had been accompanying me ever since then quickly responded, looking at me with obvious curiosity.

"Taste her blood," I told her. "If you think there's someone who might be compatible with her, then tell me. Can you do that?"

Beelze stared at me for a moment.

Her expression suggested that she was carefully processing what I had just asked.

"So, you want me to taste her blood and then find someone whose blood I can taste to determine whether it's similar to hers?" she asked, apparently making sure that she understood my request correctly.

I nodded.

"I can probably do that, but..."

She paused for a moment.

Her expression slowly changed.

"I wonder what's in it for me?"

A sly smile appeared across her face.

I already knew that expression.

She wasn't asking because she was genuinely confused about what she would receive.

She was negotiating.

"Well, something that you want, of course," I answered.

The moment those words left my mouth, her smile widened even further.

Her already mischievous expression became noticeably more devious, and the change was enough to make me immediately wonder whether I had just offered her far too much freedom.

Beelze looked at me with the kind of smile that made it painfully obvious she had already started thinking about what she wanted.

Judging by that expression, I had a feeling I had just made a deal that I was probably going to regret later.