Chapter 336: Slave of Fate
April 5, 1999, 17:59 p.m.
The public bench closest to the exit in the square in front of Morioh-cho Station.
Kishibe Rohan was sitting upright on this ordinary-looking bench, with an ink-stained paintbrush in his hand and a sketchbook on his knees.
His eyes were full of concentration as he looked at the drawing paper, and beneath that concentration there was a hint of fanaticism towards art.
At this moment, a few little fans passing by were chattering and pestering the great cartoonist.
There was no trace of impatience on Kishibe Rohan's face.
While he responded to the greetings from his little fans with a gentle expression, he was drawing on the drawing paper with a focused look.
At the same time, he was counting silently in his mind:
"59 points, 05, 06, 07, 08..."
"Here we are, 17:59:09."
The man from the future carefully warned him:
He will accidentally run into Diablo at 17:59:09, and will successfully activate Heaven's Gate at 17:59:50.
The time will not be off by a second, and it cannot be off by a second.
As expected, as the "prophecy" said:
At this moment, at 17:59:09...
A middle-aged foreigner with pink hair appeared in front of Rohan Kishibe as if destined.
That is Diablo, the villain of this story.
An indescribable excitement quietly welled up in Kishibe Rohan's heart, but he did not show it on the surface.
He continued to complete his painting calmly, while also sending away those overly enthusiastic little fans.
Soon, the little fans passing by went away as Rohan watched them off on the shore.
And Kishibe Rohan still ignored Diablo. He just lowered his head with a serious expression and concentrated on painting the painting that was about to be completed.
Finally, the painting was completed.
Kishibe Rohan breathed a sigh of relief, put down his brush, and then looked up and said to Diablo:
"Sir...you seem to have been observing me for almost half a minute."
"Are you interested in my paintings?"
"If that's the case, I'd like to have someone taste it ."
As he spoke, he gently picked up the painting with the ink still wet, as if he was waiting for Diablo's answer.
"Hmm..."
Diablo hesitated.
He is now busy meeting with Kira Yoshikage and his vigilance is at its highest.
So, with his suspicion towards Kishibe Rohan, he began to test him silently.
Just like that, after a series of trials...
Diablo finally dispelled his doubts and believed that the other party was just an artist who happened to be sketching here.
"Okay...thank you."
"I was just wondering what you were drawing."
He continued to play the role of an art lover and perfunctorily agreed to Rohan Kishibe's words.
"Then I'd like you to review and appreciate it."
Kishibe Rohan handed over the sketchbook calmly, with a hint of excitement beneath his calm expression.
Diablo gently took the sketchbook and pretended to read it:
“It is indeed a painting that makes people’s eyes light up.”
This is not entirely perfunctory.
Although the painting looks simple and like a doodle at first glance, a closer look reveals that the lines are simple and clear, and the details are substantial and rich.
It seems to be just a few strokes, but the simple pattern is vividly depicted with the most delicate brushstrokes.
only…
Diablo still didn't understand what the pattern depicted in the painting was.
Obviously, the other person was sketching at the entrance of the station, but the content of the painting was not the scene of people coming and going in the station, but...
A snake.
A snake connected head to tail.
It's like a cycle with no beginning and no end.
“This painting should be…”
Diablo hesitated, not knowing how to respond.
"This is a mystical symbol that has been passed down from ancient times to the present day."
"I'm sure you'll be interested in it, too."
Kishibe Rohan introduced Diablo with a smile:
"And its name is—"
"Ouroboros."
※※※
Naples, in the port warehouse where the explosion just occurred.
"Ouroboros..."
Another lost memory resurfaced in my mind.
It turns out that before he awakened his ultimate ability, he had already seen the "Ouroboros" in Rohan Kishibe's paintings.
An unspeakable fear surged in his heart, and Diablo completely collapsed:
"Kishibe Rohan..."
"So I had completely failed at that time?!"
He was shouting hysterically in his madness.
Li Qing smiled with relief:
Indeed, Rohan Kishibe is the key to solving all of this.
Since arriving in Morioh Town, Li Qing has been haunted by a lot of questions that make him uneasy:
That is, why did he have a teammate in Morioh Town whom he had never met before, even though he had never been to Morioh Town?
Why was Rohan Kishibe able to obtain his information in advance?
How did Rohan Kishibe defeat Diavolo, who could predict the future, and capture this overly cautious guy in one fell swoop?
These questions have never been answered.
However, after knowing that Diablo's ultimate ability is "travel through time"...
Li Qing vaguely guessed the answer:
He must have gone back in time too!
If he goes back to the past, he will definitely contact Rohan Kishibe.
And this great cartoonist with a weird personality will certainly believe what he says and become his companion.
Because these are both the future and the past that has already happened.
The past cannot be changed, but the future will surely come as written by fate.
So, after the previous crash...
The first thing Li Qing did was to look for his cell phone everywhere, wanting to contact Kishibe Rohan directly by phone.
The cell phone was found, but no one answered the initial call .
This is actually normal:
Because of the time difference, it should be around 1 a.m. at Rohan Kishibe's place now.
This great cartoonist might have been sleeping or concentrating on his creation, so it's not surprising that he didn't answer the phone.
Just when Li Qing came to the warehouse door to wait and planned to continue bombarding the famous cartoonist with phone calls...
Diablo had already arrived on his motorcycle.
But Li Qing was not panicked by Diablo's sudden attack.
Because this gave him a big reassurance:
Before the call was connected, Diablo had already arrived.
what does that mean?
This means that Lee Sin has 100% won the battle.
Otherwise, if he loses this battle...
He would have no way of contacting Rohan Kishibe, and Rohan Kishibe would not have been able to become his teammate without having met him before.
The past that has already happened is absolutely [unchangeable], so Rohan Kishibe will definitely be his teammate, and he will definitely be able to contact Rohan Kishibe smoothly.
"I will definitely win."
This is not setting a flag.
Because Li Qing had already understood the script in advance:
“Everything is already written.”
"The future is the past that has already happened, and the past can never be changed."
"So we're really just repeating the cycle of time."
"And in this irreversible time loop , I am destined to win and you are destined to lose!"
Li Qing paused for a moment, then said in a deep voice:
"Diabolo, don't you understand yet?"
"Think about it carefully..."
"Who defeated you?"
Diablo's whole body trembled, as if he suddenly fell into an endless abyss:
Yeah, who defeated him?
Is it Li Qing?
Or is it Kishibe Rohan?
No, neither.
The reason why Rohan Kishibe was able to bypass Epitaph and hit Diablo was because Lee Sin told him the exact time to attack in advance.
The reason why Li Qing was able to tell Rohan Kishibe the exact time to attack was because Rohan Kishibe had told him this information in the past.
This is just the simplest example:
It proves that time is a cycle.
I don’t know where it starts and where it ends.
Li Qing and Kishibe Rohan, they are actually just moving along the established trajectory of the time cycle unconsciously.
So, the one who really defeated Diablo was:
"It's fate..."
"It's the destiny that has already been determined!"
Diablo collapsed, became desperate, and went crazy.
It turned out that he wasn't fighting an equal enemy at all.
His enemies are God, fate, the whole world, and the script that has already been written.
At this moment, a bolt of lightning exploded in Diablo's mind.
A long-forgotten memory suddenly came to my mind.
That memory is not that long ago.
If we count by “now” time, it was only about 2 hours ago.
At that time, in the dark alleys of Naples, a sculptor told him with his life:
“It’s fate.”
"All of us are nothing but slaves of fate."
“…”
“No…No!”
“I won’t accept this!!”
Diablo roared hysterically:
"I clearly have the power to defeat fate..."
"I don't want to die. I don't want to lose to this ridiculous fate!"
"Yes, Ouroboros... I have activated Ouroboros!"
He looked at his body which was gradually becoming ethereal and yelled incoherently:
"I am invincible in my Aetherial state."
"And once the transformation into a virtual being is completely complete, I can travel through the long river of time back to the past. Yes, back to the past!"
"I want to keep going back and forth between the past and the past—"
"I can have enough time in the past to live forever on a journey through time and never come back!"
Diablo completely lost the courage to face Li Qing.
In other words, he no longer dared to face that desperate fate.
He even wanted to hide in the past and "spend his old age in peace" in the infinite time that was accumulated hour by hour.
"Are you still resisting fate..."
"It seems you still don't understand at all, Diablo."
"No matter what you do, it's useless because you've already lost."
"Just now, after the huge explosion, you have provoked an extremely dangerous existence."
Li Qing sighed helplessly.
Then, he stretched out his hand and pointed a direction for Diablo:
"See for yourself."
“It’s time to recall some forgotten memories.”
"W-what?"
Diablo's madness suddenly stopped.
With an unspeakable fear, he looked in the direction of Li Qing's finger.
The first thing that came into view was a scene of ruins and some lingering flames.
The powerful explosion just now seemed to have shattered one side of the warehouse's wall, allowing the scene outside the warehouse to pass through unimpeded.
Therefore, Diablo could clearly see at this moment:
Outside the warehouse, there was a familiar car parked.
In that car, sat a familiar young man.
Diablo saw the boy with bright pink hair.
Through the blazing firelight, the pink-haired boy also saw him.
