Ichikawa Kana.
She was the only younger sister of Ichikawa Aya, who had once been his lover.
"Is it really you, Takahashi Oppa?"
"How... how are you here...?"
Before the world had fallen into chaos, they had t quite often.
She would sotis join them on their dates, and they even traveled together occasionally.
When she got into Waseda University and moved to Tokyo, they would et up sotis to catch up, so they had been close.
Ichikawa Kana, showing excitent at the unexpected encounter, asked eagerly.
"That's right! But where’s my sister? Where is she?"
Her bright tone, unaware of what had really happened, made the entire room fall into an eerie silence, like cold water being thrown over everything.
The man who had been grilling at beside Ichikawa Kana, Watanabe Takeo, stiffened and cautiously opened his mouth.
"Is the na of Ichikawa Yumi’s sister...?"
Reading the strangely tense atmosphere, Ichikawa Kana answered with a puzzled expression.
"It’s Ichikawa Aya, but...?"
At the sa mont.
"AAAH!"
Takahashi Ryo suddenly exploded in fury.
As he pulled out a knife from his sleeve and moved to attack Sasaki Aiko, he was stopped instantly.
"Ugh!"
Nakamoto Hiroshi moved faster than ever and quickly subdued him.
Thud!
The sharp blade sank into the tatami floor, and Takahashi Ryo, now pinned, shouted with a voice filled with fury.
"Let go, you piece of trash!"
"...."
"You filthy murderer!"
Aside from the shouting of Takahashi Ryo, the room was deathly quiet.
In that uncomfortable silence, Ichikawa Kana, sensing sothing wrong, spoke up.
"What do you an... murderer?"
Then,
"Aya is dead! She died at the hands of this trash!"
A brief silence followed.
The previous quietness seed to settle in the room, but this new revelation roared through the space, shaking everything.
Ichikawa Kana, with a vacant look in her eyes, slowly opened her mouth.
"Is that true?"
In a small voice.
"Did Nakamoto-san really kill my sister?"
Her words were sharp, like a needle, aid at Nakamoto Hiroshi.
"Is it really true...?"
"....Yes."
As he spoke, Sasaki Aiko quickly defended.
"It was an accident! Hiroshi was in a mutant state!"
"A mutant...?"
"Yes!"
Sasaki Aiko continued with a twisted expression, as if about to burst into tears.
"You know that too, right?"
At that mont, Ichikawa Kana quietly stood up.
"...."
Everyone kept silent, watching her, and Ichikawa Kana slowly picked up the knife that was stuck in the tatami floor.
Holding the knife, she silently looked down at Nakamoto Hiroshi.
"Yes, Kana! You’ll avenge Aya with your own hands!"
Takahashi Ryo scread in a fit of madness.
Nakamoto Hiroshi, frozen, looked up at the woman holding the knife.
It was as though the chains of guilt, the vengeful spirits of everyone who had died unjustly by his hand, were squeezing his body.
As if this was the place where he would be judged for his sins, the place where he would die.
At that mont, Ichikawa Kana spoke.
"Takahashi Oppa."
"When you beco a mutant, you can’t feel anything."
"It’s like floating in endless darkness. It feels like drifting in a universe where not a single star is visible."
"You can’t see anything, you can’t hear anything. Even when you try to curl up, you can’t feel your body. Nothing can be grasped. And..."
Her voice, speaking so calmly, trembled slightly.
"I could feel myself slowly fading away."
Nakamoto Hiroshi, listening to her words, couldn’t stop trembling.
The fear of losing oneself could not be conveyed through words.
Only those who had experienced it could truly understand.
"It was when I gave up on everything. That’s when soone reached out to from the darkness."
Ichikawa Kana continued.
"It was Nakamoto-san."
Her voice trembled with emotion.
"Nakamoto-san saved my life."
She continued speaking.
"I heard that Nakamoto-san was also in great danger during the process of saving . He could have mutated again. If it were ... I don’t think I could have done it. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to beco a mutant again."
Ichikawa Kana slowly sat down.
Then, holding the knife in her hands, she looked at Takahashi Ryo, who was pinned beneath Nakamoto Hiroshi.
"Doing this... won’t bring my sister back. Nothing will be solved..."
Ichikawa Kana threw the knife into a corner.
She covered her face with her hands and began to sob.
Takahashi Ryo fell into a long silence, lost in thought.
Ichikawa Kana’s crying voice sounded so much like Ichikawa Aya’s.
If you are reading this translation anywhere other than Novelight, it has been stolen.
Perhaps that was why it felt as though she was crying right beside him.
After a long silence, he finally spoke.
"I can’t accept it."
He understood what Ichikawa Kana was trying to say.
She had undoubtedly killed many people as a mutant, and she had no control over those actions.
She had beco a victim, just like everyone else who had mutated.
‘I knew that too.’
Ichikawa Aya’s death had been an accident, like a car crash.
Nakamoto, who killed her, was just the unlucky one driving the out-of-control vehicle.
He was also a victim.
He understood it.
But he couldn’t accept it.
"I can’t accept it!"
It irked him.
Ichikawa Kana explaining it from the mutant’s perspective.
Nakamoto Hiroshi, trembling like a coward while listening.
Even the fact that he felt sympathy for him.
"Why...!"
Why did it have to be her?
Why her, of all people?
"AAAH!"
If everyone is a victim, who can we bla?
Who is supposed to take responsibility?
"Goddamn it!"
A thought was wriggling in Takahashi Ryo’s mind.
A thought that had been crawling incessantly since the mont Ichikawa Aya died.
‘If only I had died with her back then.’
It wouldn’t have been this painful.
‘What am I even living for?’
Wouldn’t it be better to just die here, now?
His thoughts were spiraling toward an extre, when suddenly.
"Hello, everyone."
A man with a mysterious aura appeared in the chaos of the room.
The mont Takahashi Ryo heard his voice, he instantly knew who he was.
‘Kim Jae-hyun...!’
The person responsible for annihilating the monsters in Fukuoka.
The savior who had saved all of Korea and was extending his influence to Japan.
The transcendent being who had only been rumored about until now—this very man was standing right in front of him.
It was obvious, as it was the sa voice he had heard telepathically back then.
He could still vividly rember the warm energy that had surrounded him, when he had accepted his impending death, not eating or moving, in the depths of despair.
He spoke.
"Nakamoto-san. Please step aside."
"...Yes."
Even though the force that had been holding him down disappeared, Takahashi Ryo couldn’t muster the courage to lash out.
He just stared up at Kim Jae-hyun, blankly.
Kim Jae-hyun slowly began to speak.
"I’ve found the source that’s creating the mutants."
At that mont, everyone’s expressions changed.
"The source of the mutants?"
"Such a thing existed?"
Kim Jae-hyun continued, as though it was obvious.
"Mutants only exist in Japan. There have been no cases like that in Korea. So, we predicted that it was the work of so other entity, and we were right."
In that mont, Takahashi Ryo felt as though Kim Jae-hyun’s gaze was directed at him.
Even though he wasn’t actually looking at him.
"Tokyo."
The source of the mutants.
The mastermind behind all of this.
"There’s a being in Tokyo who is creating mutants."
The mont Takahashi Ryo heard that the source was in Tokyo.
"If we deal with it, perhaps the mutants throughout Japan will regain their sanity."
Takahashi Ryo felt a deep resentnt building inside him toward the being in Tokyo.
"I plan to organize a strike team to tackle it as soon as possible."
And in that mont, he felt a sense of destiny pulling him in.
That was why.
"I want to join the strike team."
He pleaded, grabbing Kim Jae-hyun’s pants.
"I don’t care if I’m cannon fodder or a at shield. Please, just let join."
His eyes were burning with determination.
***
The divine being that created the mutants in Japan.
The mastermind behind it all.
The fact that it was in Tokyo spread like wildfire.
And with it, people’s anger toward the mutants shifted entirely toward the being responsible.
A great public enemy.
Its existence had managed to unite people.
‘Phew.’
In truth, there was no real need to tell them about the being in Tokyo.
Their power was weak, and frankly speaking, they wouldn’t be much help.
But still, it was sothing I thought needed to be done.
‘Why, though?’
Why did it have to be her?
No matter how much I thought about it, the answer from the world was nothing but silence.
The event simply happened, and there was no reason behind it.
‘Takahashi Ryo.’
He must have been in so much pain.
With such a sharp knife in his heart, it was no wonder he kept stabbing himself with it.
‘Should I give him a chance?’
He seed like soone desperate to die.
If soone kills a person within a safe zone, they imdiately gain the title of "Murderer" and are subdued.
I would imdiately recognize that existence, and without a valid reason, they would lose their citizenship and be exiled.
Even if citizenship is revoked, the penalty doesn’t disappear, aning exile was essentially a death sentence.
Takahashi Ryo knew all of this.
‘After hearing Ichikawa Kana’s story, he even tried to commit suicide.’
The reason I went directly to talk about the being in Tokyo was to stop his suicide.
And the mont he heard about the being in Tokyo, he asked to join the strike team.
Even though I thoroughly explained how dangerous it was.
He was like a moth flying into the flas.
‘Registering him as a vassal and leveling him up might help.’
But in his current ntal state, he would only be a hindrance.
The monster in Tokyo was no easy opponent.
If it had been an easy one, it would have been eliminated the mont it was found.
‘Eyes of the Absolute.’
Thanks to Kim Geon, who was hovering above Tokyo, I was able to check the being’s status in real ti.
‘......’
There, a massive serpent was coiled up.
A huge snake with silver scales.
Its size was so vast that it covered all of Tokyo.
A monster so enormous that it could envelop an entire city.
A gigantic serpent with eight heads.
It was nothing short of a catastrophe.
"Yamata no Orochi (Lv. 83)"
‘...Level 83.’
It was a monster that I couldn’t even begin to fathom how to tackle.
And then.
Kugugu―
One of its eight heads slowly raised.
Reviews
All reviews (0)