Ep.11 – Gravityless Trial: "Do Emotions Float?"
[Entering Zone 2 – Trial of the Ear]
📍[Middle Ear Traversed / Transition to Cochlea in Progress]
📍[Environment: Gravity Nullification Field]
📍[Focus: Orientation via Auditory Echo Only]
---
My feet left the ground.
Slowly—
I began to rise.
Or perhaps,
this space had simply discarded the concept of up and down.
> "Is this... zero gravity?"
There was no sound around me.
Only the rhythm of my heartbeat,
and the murmur of blood in my veins.
---
📍[Auditory Visualization System Online]
📍[Visual Input Disabled – Navigation via Hearing Only]
---
Then it came—
a sound sharp enough to rip through my eardrums.
"WuuuuuUUUUU—!"
Ultrasound.
More than just noise—
it was an emotional frequency, resonating in waves.
From the center of that sound,
a figure emerged.
A hazy mass, drifting through the distorted resonance.
> "Weightless emotions... have no direction."
"So tell me—where do you even place yourself?"
---
[Phase 1 – Enemy Appears: Emotional Drifter "Braken"]
Braken resembled a translucent droplet.
Its body shimmered like liquid glass.
And from it,
echoes of unfiltered emotion radiated outward:
Grief. Rage. Disgust. Hope...
Feelings that had never been refined—
transformed into raw sound,
polluting the space.
---
Swish—Zoom—Piiing—!
Braken's emotional shockwaves pulsed through the air.
My body staggered.
The instant my hearing distorted,
my balance shattered.
In this gravityless world,
I was flung somewhere—ceiling or floor, I couldn't tell.
> "Your emotions cling only to one name: Juhui."
"So when she disappears…
what will you have left?"
---
[Phase 2 – Collapse of Emotional Axis / Critical State]
> "She's everything to me…"
The moment those words left my lips,
the space collapsed.
Her voice broke through the air like shattered glass.
> "You're not meant to live for me..."
"It's time to let go."
Was that real?
Or a lie conjured by the trial?
I fell apart.
My ears vibrated with dissonance,
my core lost all focus,
and my body—adrift—drifted into unconsciousness.
---
[Phase 3 – Recovery of Auditory Axis / Fixing the Emotional Line]
Then—
Rika appeared.
She placed something small in my hand:
a delicate thread woven from the vibration of a first cry.
> "That moment when you called her name for the first time…
'Because of you… I wanted to live.'"
That cry returned.
Not sorrow—
but joy.
Not sacrifice—
but the raw will to survive.
In that instant,
my ears reopened.
Hearing wasn't just a sense—
it was the way I chose which voices to hold onto,
and what emotions I allowed to resonate within me.
---
📍[Emotional Axis Stabilized – Reference Line Reestablished]
📍[Spatial Coordinates Restored – Echo-Based Navigation Enabled]
---
[Final Phase – Cutting with Echo Angle]
I began analyzing Braken's pulse waves.
1.2 seconds between bursts.
Triple-layered echo pattern.
I sensed the direction—
and wrapped my blade, Azure Dew, in that resonance.
> "Even if it hurts, even if I miss her…
I'll live—
and I'll remember."
PIIIIIIIING—SHUUUUUUUUUNG!
A gleaming arc of blue light
cleaved through Braken's drifting form.
The emotions shattered.
The echoes… finally faded.
---
📍[Trial Complete – Gravityless Auditory Zone Cleared]
📍[Emotional Fragment Recovered: Auditory Core + Echo Angle Tracking]
📍[Emotion Weapon Enhanced – Azure Dew Blade Upgraded]
📍[Next Zone: Warning – Entry to Silent Room Imminent]
---
I gasped for air.
My legs trembled.
Gravity returned.
Up and down realigned.
But somewhere within me…
a voice was still calling.