Renji Kurogane, a completely normal high school student, was on his way back from a convenience store late one night when he was suddenly enveloped in a blinding light and lost consciousness.
When he awoke, he found himself in a decaying ocean world ruled by 'Hakos Baelz.' The sky was shrouded in murky clouds, and the sea was black and polluted. The world was slowly being devoured by colossal monsters known as 'Kegareshin' (Corrupted Gods).
Renji manages to reach an underwater 'Safe House,' wh
Elpis of the Corrupted Sea -A God's Despair Game- - Hope of the deep sea, toward the next chaos
The massive watertight hatch of the hangar groaned open slowly, its dull mechanical hum reverberating through the space. Seawater rushed in all at once, white foam engulfing the hull of the *Strom*. The hangar's lights—the orange glow of Lumen Stones—flickered and danced across the wet armor plating.
Kurogane Renji leaned back in the pilot's seat, staring vacantly at those shifting lights. His fingertips were still trembling faintly. Geera's colossal eye. The chill of its miasma, like being pierced through to the bone. The deafening reverberation the moment the modified sonar lance had struck home—loud enough to nearly rupture eardrums.
All of it, just moments ago.
"Touchdown complete. Beginning mooring sequence now."
Volg's voice crackled through the intercom. His usual breezy tone. But Renji didn't miss the faint tremor woven into it. The sea-chart tattoo on his left arm was blurred with sweat. He, too, had been at his limit.
"...I'm alive."
His own voice came out far hoarser than he'd expected. His throat burned. He'd screamed too much.
In the seat beside him, Kirsche Marinard sat with her eyes quietly closed. Her waist-length silver hair, the tie she'd bound it with for battle now undone, cascaded over her shoulders and down her back. The tips were glowing faintly blue. The luminescent patches at her throat hadn't fully faded yet—aftereffects of her song still lingering.
Her shoulders rose and fell heavily. The backlash of unleashing her purification song at maximum output. The physical toll was immeasurable. But what surfaced on her face wasn't just pain.
Relief.
Her left hand lay limp and open on the armrest of her seat. After a moment's hesitation, Renji gently placed his own hand over it.
Cold.
But that coldness, right now, felt strangely comforting. Proof that she was alive.
"...Renji."
A single tear slipped from her still-closed eyes.
"Yeah."
That was all he said, and he squeezed her hand in return.
――――
The mooring clamps seized the hull with a heavy metallic clang. The vibrations subsided, and soon, complete silence fell. Volg released the controls and exhaled deeply.
"Kid. Kirsche. We're home."
The hatch opened.
The hangar's air flooded in. The usual mix of engine oil and seawater. But today, something else was mixed into it.
The presence of people.
A crowd.
Renji lifted his head. The hangar floor was covered—people, people, people. An old man who looked like a fisherman, a woman from the mess hall still in her apron, a mechanic clutching a wrench, a mother holding a small child. All of them staring at the *Strom*'s hatch, holding their breath.
"...Huh?"
The gangway lowered. Renji stood, took Kirsche's hand, and stepped outside—and in that instant—
"WHOOOOOOOOAAAAAA!!!"
A roar of cheers shook the hangar's ceiling.
A deafening, yet somehow warm, mass of human voices. Grown adults shouting, tears streaming down their faces. Children jumping up and down, waving. Mechanics pulling off their helmets and hoisting them overhead.
"Elpis!"
Someone shouted.
"Elpis! Elpis has returned!"
The word spread through the hangar like a wave.
—Elpis.
Renji still didn't fully grasp the weight of that word. Hope. What the people of this dying sea had been waiting for. And now, it was being directed at him.
"Dear boy... thank you, thank you...!"
A stooped old woman stepped forward from the crowd and clasped Renji's hand in both of hers. Her hands were dry and bony, deeply wrinkled. Her face, etched with age, was a mess of tears.
"I, uh..."
Renji had no idea what to say. He just stood there, frozen.
"My son was killed by a Crawler three years ago. But you... you drove that Geera away... that monster. You avenged my son...!"
The old woman couldn't speak any further. She pressed her forehead against Renji's hand and broke down sobbing.
Renji's vision blurred with heat.
(*Avenged? It wasn't anything that grand.*)
(*I was just desperate.*)
(*I wanted to run. I was terrified. But I just... couldn't run away.*)
"...Renji, look."
Kirsche, beside him, murmured quietly. Her violet eyes were wet with tears too. Following her gaze, Renji caught his breath.
The hangar wall.
On the bare, rugged metal wall with its exposed pipes, there was graffiti. No—not graffiti. Writing.
*Thank you, Elpis.*
*Thank you for defeating Geera.*
*Our hope.*
No one should have been here until just moments ago. The residents must have gathered after Renji and the others sortied, writing whatever came to heart. Chalk, soap, machine oil smeared on fingertips—clumsy, yet powerful letters.
"...But I didn't even do anything."
The theory behind the modified sonar lance had come from a casual conversation with Volg. Kirsche had done the fighting. Dan had risked his life to draw Geera's attention. None of it was his own achievement.
That's what he thought.
"Because you were here."
Kirsche spoke as if whispering.
"Because you were here, I could sing. Volg and Dan... I'm sure they feel the same. You became our hope."
Her hand squeezed his back. Much stronger than before.
The tears wouldn't stop.
For the first time in his life, Renji felt with his entire being that his existence had been of use to someone. Swept up by a strange light on his way back from the convenience store, thrown into this world without understanding anything—terrified, suffering, wanting to die more times than he could count. But.
Maybe he had lived for this moment.
"...Thank you, everyone..."
His voice broke with sobs, and he couldn't say it well. But that was enough.
――――
The corridor leading to the command center on the fourth level was packed with people. Residents crammed the full width of the passage, applause and cheers erupting every time Renji's group passed. Volg walked at the front, raising a hand lightly in acknowledgment.
"Hey, hey, I just drove the thing, y'know?"
Even as he said it, his voice carried a hint of pride.
At the end of the corridor, the heavy door to the command center opened.
Standing inside was a woman with her short, silver hair—streaked with white—neatly styled as always. Her sharp, deep-blue eyes fixed squarely on Renji and the others. A large scar marked her throat. Commander of the Kaleidoscope, Mira Vestine.
Wordlessly, she opened her notepad and ran her pen across it.
*You've returned. All of you, well done.*
The handwriting was her usual neat block script, but the final character trembled faintly. Her right hand, still gripping the pen, quivered slightly.
"Commander Mira... Dan is—"
Renji started, but Mira nodded quietly and continued writing.
*Dan drew Geera away at the cost of his own life. His daughter Mia will be rescued, without fail. With the time you've bought us, Volg and I will move.*
"Roger that, Commander. Leave it to me. I'm gonna get that kid out, no matter what."
Volg thumped his left arm—the one bearing the sea-chart tattoo—with his fist. There was no hesitation left in his grayish-blue eyes.
"...But that's the Corundum Council's radical faction base, right? It's way too dangerous."
"Exactly why the Commander and I are going. Kid, you stay here and rest. You've already done more than enough."
Volg placed a hand on Renji's head with a light thump.
"Alright... but promise me you'll come back safe."
"Obviously."
Mira turned her notepad toward Renji one last time.
*You are the key to this world. Do not abandon hope.*
――――
After Volg and Mira departed for the Corundum Council's radical faction base, Renji and Kirsche joined the recovery efforts in the residential sector.
The damage wasn't from Geera's attack. But in the battle before that, part of the outer wall had been breached, and seawater that had flooded in had left several residential blocks waterlogged. People were bailing out muddy water with buckets and rags.
"Ah! It's Elpis!"
A young girl spotted Renji and shouted. Maybe ten years old. Her messy brown hair was tied back in a single ponytail, and she wore a mud-stained dress.
"Mom! Elpis is here!"
"Oh my, really! I'm so sorry—such a dirty place for you to see."
A woman who seemed to be her mother approached, laughing sheepishly. She was carrying a bundle of soaking wet blankets.
"No, let me help. What should I do?"
Renji knelt down on the wet floor.
"What? But you're a hero, you shouldn't have to—"
"It's fine. I can't fight. So at least, let me do this."
Saying that, Renji began picking up the wet clothes scattered on the floor. The mother looked startled for a moment, then nodded deeply and returned to her own work.
Kirsche, too, knelt silently beside Renji and started clearing debris. She didn't seem to care that her long silver hair was getting soiled with muddy water.
"Um, Lord Elpis—"
The girl from before timidly tugged at Renji's sleeve.
"Just Renji is fine. What's your name?"
"...Aria."
"That's a lovely name. What is it, Aria?"
Hesitantly, Aria held out something she'd been hiding behind her back.
A seashell.
A small, white spiral shell—from before the sea had turned black and murky. Something almost impossible to find in this world anymore.
"Here. It's for you. A charm. My grandma had it for a long time. She said it was a treasure from when the sea was still beautiful."
"...But, something so precious—"
"It's okay! Because Elpis is our hope! I want Elpis to have this shell too!"
Aria beamed, pressed the shell into Renji's palm, and scampered off.
The shell in his hand was faintly warm. The girl's body heat still lingered. Renji carefully tucked it into his pocket. The same pocket that held his broken smartphone.
"...I want to protect it."
He murmured the words to himself.
"A world where kids like Aria can live without fear. I don't know if I can do it. But... that's what I thought."
"You can."
Kirsche, who had been carrying debris beside him, spoke quietly.
"If it's you, I know you can."
――――
When the recovery work reached a lull, the two of them sat down in a small rest area at the edge of the residential block. The light of the Lumen Stones embedded in the walls dimly illuminated their surroundings.
Kirsche was carefully picking mud from her silver hair with her fingers. Her profile looked softer than usual.
"...Can I talk for a bit?"
"Yeah."
Kirsche folded her hands on her lap and was silent for a while. As if sorting through something in her heart.
"When I was twelve, I lost my hometown's safehouse."
Her quiet voice broke the silence.
"A swarm of Crawlers breached the outer wall. The corridors were packed with people trying to flee. My sister and I stayed until the very end, trying to help with the evacuation. But..."
"...Your sister?"
Kirsche gently clasped the small pendant hanging at her throat. A tiny, faded photograph was just barely visible inside.
"She shielded me. She was crushed under the rubble. I didn't have the power to save her."
Her voice didn't tremble. But that, in itself, conveyed a deeply submerged sorrow.
"Ever since then, my song has been a weapon for revenge. To wipe out every last Crawler from that day. So I just kept trying to become stronger. I killed my emotions, tried to turn my song into nothing but sound waves. But that didn't work. If anything, my song grew weaker."
"...So unless you put emotion into it, the purification song can't unleash its true power."
"Yes. That's what you made me realize, back at the training ground. The melody between the earth and the sea. It won't reach anyone unless you pour your heart into it."
Kirsche smiled faintly. It was a genuine smile, the kind she hadn't shown in a very long time.
"You gave my song meaning. All this time, my song was a song of hatred. But now it's different. I can sing, thinking that I want to protect someone. Aria, that old woman, everyone. And you."
She paused for just a moment, then continued.
"Renji, you are my hope."
Those words seeped warmly into the depths of his chest.
"...Same here. Kirsche, because you were here, I could keep going."
This time, Renji took Kirsc
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