Chapter 161
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 161
Chapter Title: Nighttime Confessions
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"Hmm..."
"Japan is enormous. The reason the government is helplessly losing half its capital and fleeing outside Tokyo is because we launched a surprise attack and seized part of central Tokyo. The advantage from that surprise fades the moment the enemy grasps the situation. And they'll know exactly what I'm thinking—they need time to encircle Tokyo and annihilate us."
"I see. So negotiations are just an excuse, a stalling tactic."
"Precisely. Even though the Japanese government proposed talks first, their TV media is now reporting that we demanded negotiations. That's part of their plan too. Once they wipe us out, the victor's version becomes history."
"Then what's our next move?"
"The urban warfare in central Tokyo is a brutal back-and-forth. It's tough on them, but it's wearing us down too. Modern city fighting favors the defender far too much. Our revolutionary forces need to open a second front right now."
"A second front?"
"Yes. We need outside allies to prevent the Japanese government and Self-Defense Forces from encircling and crushing the area we've taken."
"How do we do that?"
"Divert some troops to recruit more allies on our side. And we need to seize a broadcast station immediately to sway public opinion. We have to show we're not just rebels—we're fighting for a righteous revolution. In hindsight, maybe we should've targeted the broadcast stations before the prisons and detention centers."
"Got it. We'll follow your plan. Secure the broadcast station first, then worry about the rest. Tomorrow, we launch an all-out assault on it. I'll lead from the front. Tell everyone to follow me."
"Yes, my lord."
"And tell everyone to rest up tonight. Tomorrow's going to be grueling."
"Understood, my lord."
After I gave the order to rest, we left minimal guards on watch and settled in to prepare for tomorrow's decisive battle.
The urban combat had ground into a lull, and the hellish roar of gunfire finally began to quiet.
The Japanese government seemed to think we'd halted fighting to negotiate, but I saw no need to correct the misunderstanding.
Night fell, and though a few huddled together trying to sleep, no one could drift off easily.
Somehow, their life stories started spilling out.
It would've been perfect with a campfire, but Kondo Mujia—the former Ground Self-Defense Force officer—flat-out refused to let anyone light one.
Too easy to spot from afar, he said. Lights-out discipline was basic wartime protocol or whatever...
"I was abandoned by my parents in Kamakura when I was ten..."
"The girl I loved, Sakura-chan, stole all my money and ran off with some junior colleague..."
"I worked three years at a hellish black company, sleeping only three hours a day. The worst part was my boss calling me trash every single day... I finally quit because I couldn't take it."
"I had this rude, lazy subordinate who acted like the queen bee, a total nuisance. One day, after I said something, she accused me of sexual harassment... Lost my job, my wife took the kid and bolted..."
"I was born into debt. Huge debt, inherited from my parents. The kind you could never pay off."
"I didn't do it... but no one believed me. This goddamn rotten world..."
"I trusted my best friend and signed for him. Turns out it was a loan guarantee..."
"From childhood, these kids tormented me nonstop. Threw milk at me, made me eat bugs, forced me to lick urinals... They filmed it all and blackmailed me. Thought it'd end after high school graduation, but they tracked me to college too... Finally got a girlfriend there—a sweet girl who'd been bullied like me."
"......"
"We were so happy. Our first relationship, planning a real future together... But right in front of me, those guys gang-raped her. I froze in terror, couldn't do a thing... She apologized for not saving her first time for me, said she was tainted, that they were blackmailing her with the photos and videos, turning her into a sex toilet, forcing her into prostitution... She couldn't take it anymore and killed herself."
"......"
"I endured it, kept bottling it up. Took meds for my mental breakdowns, kept holding on... One day I woke up holding a knife, surrounded by their corpses and pools of blood... The courts and society branded me a vicious criminal, but I don't regret it... I just feel sorry for my girlfriend who died first... I should've acted sooner... Shouldn't have held back... Should've been brave from the start..."
"I was born ugly—that was bad enough—but disabled too, so already miserable. Then came the world's endless discrimination, rudeness, coldness, and mockery..."
"I got bullied and sneered at as 'stinky' just for being poor. Even as an adult, so I beat the crap out of them. Those who called me stinky..."
"My ancestors were eta. That's why the bullying..."
"My family name marks us as burakumin..."
"My dad was a criminal, so the whole village discriminated against me as the criminal's kid..."
"They called me Okinawan scum because my ancestors were from Okinawa..."
"My father was a Chōsenjin... Once word got out, neighbors and coworkers whispered... The cold stares and guilt-by-association chains terrified me."
"This orc bitch on the subway accused me of groping her when I didn't—even I could see she was lying! Framed innocently. Then the sex offender stigma, social isolation... Switched jobs, moved houses, but the vicious rumors followed endlessly. I couldn't take the ruined life anymore, tracked down that orc bitch and killed her. The one who destroyed me... Asked her why before I did it. She said she was in a bad mood that day... Heh... heh heh..."
All sorts of tales and woes poured out.
They all said they never wanted to live like that, sharing their sob stories until the mood turned into a sea of tears.
Before long, Kondo Mujia and my core lieutenants were broadcasting the whole tearful scene over the radios and mics to every subordinate.
Three thousand men listening, sharing, weeping in a vast ocean of tears.
Listening to them, these didn't sound like prison inmates—they seemed like ordinary folks locked up just for lacking money, power, or connections.
'But come on, really? Nah, these guys are just venting how wronged they were. Gotta hear the other side too.'
I had zero interest in their melodramatic male sob-fest, so while they blubbered their tales, I tuned out and let my mind wander—mostly to women.
They were all sniffling messes now, but I couldn't care less, just spacing out with my own thoughts.
Yet these Japanese guys saw my detachment and thought I was some great man.
'...Are they insane?'
Not that they couldn't follow a thuggish leader with zero empathy.
No, they spouted crap like:
"As expected of the oyabun... We're venting our sorrows with tears, but you're silently swallowing yours. You're on another level."
"Indeed. Unlike weaklings like us... the oyabun must carry even greater pain, yet you endure and transmute it into a higher cause."
"Exactly. We're just crybabies spewing it out. But our big boss oyabun is different."
They twisted it into something positive in their weird way.
"Seeing the oyabun reminds me of how Oda Nobunaga expressed grief differently from others back in the day."
"Our oyabun, the great leader, has the vessel of a conqueror—his very caliber and demeanor set him apart."
They kept interpreting it favorably in their bizarre fashion. What a strange bunch.
'If my attitude resembles Oda Nobunaga's... maybe that guy was just bored of the whining around him and zoning out too?'
I figured he probably hated listening to sob stories just like me.
Instead of that crap, he'd be thinking about banging chicks or conquering Japan.
Or like me, expanding territory on the tower's first floor... Anyway, definitely something else.
'Ah, wanna fuck some girls. Still got room for two more, so maybe make two new pussy slaves to use as fuck-holes? After we take the broadcast station tomorrow, have my men drag back two celebrity-grade babes. Hope some pretty girls stuck around the station or nearby instead of evacuating.'