Chapter 34: A Momentary Madness

"...Stop it, Yuki."
"Go back. It's late."
This is...
Yuki felt solid ground beneath his feet, and the world before him brightened.
It was, in the usual sense, a scene that could be called 'chaos.'
"A magical... space, right? I think that's what it's called."
He rummaged through his memory, finally overlapping the sight before him with a distant recollection—wasn't Tregear hiding in a similar space, watching a livestream on a screen?
As Yuki looked around, that voice grew clearer, echoing in his mind.
"Let it go."
"...Who are you?" Unable to find the direction the voice came from, Yuki could only mutter his question.
"Think carefully."
"Don't you want to see Titus again?"
Yuki was startled.
"If you do nothing, you'll soon be reunited with Titus."
"Can you really bear to take away the body Titus could rely on, forcing him to drift endlessly through the universe?"
It was such a convincing argument that he could find no rebuttal.
"What nonsense."
Yuki scratched his head helplessly.
"Tregear would never say something so jarring and dim-witted; he always prefers subtlety, like rain moistening things silently..."
"Then it must be Grimdo."
"No, that can't be right. Even Grimdo wouldn't know about this. In fact... I've never seen Grimdo display the actions of an intelligent being; it's more like a beast driven purely by instinct."
Could it be...
Yuki pressed his hand to his chest, glancing down at the fabric gently rising and falling with each breath.
He felt a heavy, stifling pressure.
"...Is this the darkness within my own heart?"
At some point, the voice had vanished, as if there was no longer any need to intervene.
"..."
Yuki frowned, bowed his head in thought, and slowly said, "This is... because this plan is risky, isn't it? I could get hurt, or even die, and I was never obligated to take such a risk."
"The safety of the space station has nothing to do with me."
"If I do nothing, I could reap the rewards without any effort."
"If Nana Kudo survives this disaster, then Titus won't be drawn to her by her dying wish... Perhaps he'll just keep drifting, invisible and unknown, through the void. No one knows if or when Titus will return to Earth and reunite with Taiga again."
In the original story, the blessings that came from disaster would be lost if the disasters themselves never happened.
In other words, what he was doing now was truly harming his own interests as 'Yuki.'
It wasn't just himself who would be affected. As the story progressed, not only should Yuki have grown, but also Ayu, Merika, the president, and the others...
A self-styled heroic act ended up harming everyone's interests.
The heavy feeling in his chest did not dissipate with his confession.
Yuki bit his lip and carefully examined the emotion spreading through his mind.
He was afraid.
"I'm scared...? Afraid that my actions will disrupt the plot and make me lose the advantage of being a 'prophet.'"
At this thought, Yuki could only smile wryly.
Before activating his ability, he had considered the effects that using the power of the evil beast Grimdo, unprotected, might have on him.
So that's how it is.
The chaotic space around him gradually faded, and after plunging into complete darkness, the world brightened once more.
The first thing Yuki heard was pained, suppressed groaning.

Where is this...?
He lowered his hand holding the stun baton and glanced at the security personnel sprawled haphazardly across the floor. On closer inspection, weren't those the uniforms of the institute's security?
"Oh... what a mess."
Yuki shifted his gaze from the guards to survey the room. The furnishings had been ravaged by battle; the place looked as if a tornado had struck. The unidentifiable shards of wood on the floor were clearly what remained of a shattered coffee table, and a human-shaped crater had been punched into the cabinet by the wall, scattering more than half its files across the ground.
Wasn't this... the president's office?
He had landed here? Yuki was puzzled. He distinctly remembered targeting the network node at the rocket launch site for his jump, but it seemed he had stopped halfway. And from the look of things... he had already wreaked havoc!
What was this—an episode of sudden berserk rage? Had he performed a successful self-psychoanalysis and snapped out of his madness?
The aches lingering on his body, arms, and hands were proof enough that he had wielded the stun baton with force not long ago.
Yuki glanced at his wristwatch; only three minutes had passed since he set out.
So he hadn't been insane for long; the battle had ended quickly.
"Well... so be it."
Stepping over the bodies littering the floor, Yuki headed to the wall, slid open the wooden door, and found the safe embedded within.
He had claimed to have evidence, and indeed he did; he just hadn't retrieved it yet. Since he was here, he might as well grab it before they could destroy it.
Yuki closed his eyes and conjured up the memory of what he had seen in the safe, reaching in.
Perhaps experience had made him deft; his hand hovered at the safe's door for only a few seconds before he felt something bump into his palm—he seized it at once.
It was a dossier, an envelope, and a thick stack of traveler's checks issued by the Interstellar Alliance. He had no time to examine them further; he bundled everything in the file folder, folded it twice, and stuffed it into the cargo pants' side pocket.
It pressed awkwardly against his leg, but that couldn't be helped.
Yuki returned to the president's desk and lifted the metal plate embedded in the surface, revealing the internal network's cable port. If he hadn't seen the data streams visualized flowing into the desk, he never would have discovered this 'entry point.'
What would happen if he used the power of the evil god twice in a short period?
Would he go mad again?