ARC II chapter 5

Somewhere in a white void

Traf opened his eyes and saw the familiar white room. But this time, he wasn't alone there. Both Takashi and George were sitting on the ground next to him. "So, we died?" Takashi asked after a few moments adjusting his eyesight to the blinding white of the room and Traf only nodded in response at that.

"Ah, young Trafalgar Jameson, I was expecting you to come back much later," the familiar voice of God suddenly announced and his crewmates looked at him with confused looks and he silently cursed the immortal being for telling his secret so openly and sighed in exasperation.

"Should I?" said the now materialized God in his 'robed grandfather' style of clothing. "No, I'll do it," Traf countered and looked at his crewmates with an apologetic look. After all, it was his responsibility to tell his crew everything, or at least everything about how he got into another world by pure luck.

"Okay, what I am going to tell you might sound strange, but it's true. A few months back, I fainted from the surprise of seeing my tank and my uncle paid a doc to overdose me with morphium to kill me. After I die, I wake up in this very room and God here offers me a new chance at life. And I took it after a few moments of hesitation."

"It really sounds like some Isekai, but why didn't you tell us about it?" Takashi responded. "Because I didn't know, if it was possible and wasn't struck by lightning, if I do tell," he said with honesty in his voice and didn't look away from his friends' faces to further support the truth.

"Hey, old man!" Takashi suddenly called out after a few seconds. "Yes?" God asked back and Traf silently prayed that something bad doesn't happen. "Can you send us back?" George cut in, his voice without emotions, but not cold like Shiho Nishizumi's own voice was at times.

"I can, but it is going to be the last time for all three of you, so you can have one wish. Nothing too overpowered, like magic or Ivan Nadeynov's own superpowers," the being older than time announced and Traf sighed in relief at hearing that and not being atomized by a lightning bolt.

"Any ideas?" Takashi asked, totally unsure about the answer, but George shrugged and they looked at Traf "Well, definitely not gamer powers. So, I guess a slight boost in our efficiency during a match?" he said and his crew nodded at the idea of slightly better reaction time than before.

"Fine, but it'll be only half a second boost and your bodies will be fully healed, when you return. After all, the docs did a very good job," God said and sighed, before clapping and the whiteness overtook Traf's vision once more.

One week after the incident, city hospital of Oarai city

Tsuneo and Ami looked at the trio of boys once again and found no other signs of their situation getting better or worse. True, during the week their heartbeats became stronger and the burns disappeared as they should, after being treated, but nothing more was happening.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door and a doc entered before any of the duo could even invite him in. That, and they had never seen him near the trio. "Who are you?" Tsuneo asked the newcomer with a dangerous tone in his voice. He simply didn't trust him. And he could tell the same about his companion.

"I am here to tell you that visitors' hours end in ten minutes today," the doctor said with a distant look in his eyes, avoiding his question completely. "Really? Why weren't we informed about it by the receptionist?" Ami asked the strange doctor with a raised eyebrow. It really was strange after all.

"Attention all visitors," a feminine voice suddenly said from the radio and Tsuneo cursed under his breath. "The visitor's hours end in five minutes. Please, leave this facility and have a good day," the voice finished and Tsuneo got up with only one thought in his mind. The same one he was getting more frequently, when he saw something even a bit strange.

I have a bad feeling about this.

But at the same time, he knew that he must obey what the docs just announced and so, he just sighed and left the room with Ami Chono in tow.

He knew that what he was going to do to the three defenceless boys was a direct violation of the oath he swore, but they were as good as dead anyway. He also knew that the person who employed him through his agent was probably using spies to see if he actually did the appointed job correctly.

And so, he slowly pulled an oversized injection from under his coat and lined it up with the leader of the boy crew's left hand, just under his shoulder. He didn't care, if a piece of that good for nothing garment, graciously called 'robes', that the hospital issued for all patients, gets a new hole.

And truth be told, for him a cripple was no better than a dead man. He'd rather finish off the dying man with a symptom that lost him his ability to walk than try and save his life. Yet, even if the trio's wounds healed, they were still cripples to him, so convincing him to do what he was now preparing wasn't really that hard.

"Are you really going to kill three innocent and defenceless children, my child?" an old voice suddenly asked in his head and he jumped in surprise. His family wasn't a religious one and he always spat in secret at those who believed in God or gods. But now, the metaphysical non-existing piece of bull-

"Do not insult me. I have them under my wing for now to help them recover and fight a mortal who wants to rise higher than is his rightful place," the voice interrupted his thoughts with a slightly irritated tone. No, not slightly. It was the most irritated tone the old being could muster at the moment.

And after hearing that, Shigeru Tano walked over to the window and dropped the injections with a resigned sigh, watching as it collided with… a head of the agent?! Well damn… he thought and quickly rushed back to his office, almost stumbling over Reizei's granddaughter and her friends. The old woman had fallen from a random set of stairs again and so, she was here.

"The guest hours are over," he mumbled after a quick apology, yet in his hurry, he didn't notice that the tank-obsessed one, that got caught once with a German WW2 grenade of all things by pure luck, was missing

Yukari slowly opened the door leading to the injured trio, checking if Tsuneo and instructor Chono were inside, yet she found neither of them and so, she chose to go inside for at least a few moments before she was found out.

The room didn't change much from her last visit. The only big difference was the lack of the table and chairs that were there just two days ago. And also an almost unnoticeable one: the machines were beeping in the rhythm of a normal and healthy heart and not in that weaker or rhythmical ones.

But, she failed to notice that the chests of the boys started slowly rising and falling. Or, at least until they took a generous amount of air into their lungs. After that, she felt as if a big weight was lifted off of her shoulders and she rushed towards the door, forcing it open in excitement, while trying to keep her voice as low as possible, but at the same time loud enough for Miho and the rest to hear the news.

A/n:

Hey guys! This chapter, albeit short, was one hell to write. But, do not worry, one major event of this ARC is nearing (those who saw Der Film might already know which one it is).

See ya later!