Chapter 49
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: 6.1 Lieutenant Shuji, Tsukimiya Akane
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"Fuck."
The woman's mind, approaching me with words of thanks, was so repulsive that I killed her on impulse.
I should have heard how this absurd situation came about before killing her.
But with a mental state like that, I probably wouldn't have gotten any reliable information anyway. No use regretting it now that she's dead.
I roll the woman's corpse aside, blood gushing from her severed neck, and turn around.
Goblins wandering around in a dump like this? I can understand that.
Closed-off zones like this are places for those kinds of experiments in the first place. Whether the experimental goblins escaped or were deliberately released, I can even understand one jumping the woman. This is that kind of trash world, after all.
But.
"Nai... busu..."
What about the dead coming back to life?
There on the bed lay Akane, whom I had clearly stabbed to death, alive and breathing.
And moreover...
-Grhh... uh...
"...Nobuhiko."
Nobuhiko, who had died the same day as Akane, beaten to death by me.
He was there too.
In a form too grotesque to describe.
"Nobuhiko? Lieutenant Shuji?"
Lieutenant Shuji. Was that his nickname?
Akane looked shocked too, clearly not expecting this lump of meat to be someone she knew.
I approached Nobuhiko.
"Nobuhiko. Can you hear me?"
-Grh... uh...
Nobuhiko's condition was far from normal, as was obvious at a glance.
Blind, deaf, unable to speak. He could barely sense someone's presence nearby through raw instinct.
Even in that state, his mind kept broadcasting nonstop.
『Kill me, kill me, please just kill me now, Mom, Mom──』
'When killing a Rune Holder, cleanly sever the neck.'
Words from a senior soldier back in the army. Otherwise, they'd come back as vengeful spirits in your dreams, he'd said.
I thought it was just a silly lie to scare kids.
But who knew the vengeful spirits were real? And not in dreams, but in reality.
"...Nobuhiko..."
Nobuhiko, Akane, even the nameless extras from our class.
If they resented me, I figured they'd come as spirits, and I'd listen to their complaints in my dreams.
My naive pity was the mistake—not severing his neck.
I had turned Nobuhiko into this monster.
"Damn it!"
-Thud.
I slam my fist into the lab floor.
The stone tiles crack, sending a heavy thud echoing through the room.
My fist stings. Blood seeps from the torn skin.
I place my hand on what used to be Nobuhiko's forehead. His body twitches faintly at the touch.
『It hurts, don't cut me, stop, please stop, Mom, save me...』
Pain receptors were intact.
More than intact. His skin was flayed off entirely, raw flesh exposed—like touching it would rip the meat straight off.
"Sorry, Nobuhiko."
I apologize to Nobuhiko, who can't even hear me.
I know it's hypocritical self-satisfaction. But I couldn't help it.
Nobuhiko committed a mortal sin. Unforgivable.
That's why he died. By my hand.
But this? No.
I didn't want him tortured endlessly, unable to even die.
Nobuhiko was trash. But he was made trash by this trash worldview. In a normal one, he'd have been a regular extra—lived ordinarily, died ordinarily.
Instead, dragged to war at ten, his mind snapped from endless brutality. No family left for support.
Lost everything to war, mind shattered, yet the nation tossed him scraps and left him. Not just him among catastrophe victims—no resources to coddle each one. Politics, economy, society...
All Nobuhiko got was scorn and contempt. His twisted growth was inevitable.
So there were mitigating circumstances... Not that I, who beat him to death, should say it.
I activated my Mind Rune, interfering with Nobuhiko's mind.
『Nobuhiko. No, Lieutenant Shuji.』
In the military, nicknames replace real names.
Means cutting all ties to civilian life.
Even the Three Saints—Arashi, Muramasa, Inazuma—used aliases. Yuuki and I did too, naturally.
Nobuhiko's obsession with 'Lieutenant Shuji' made sense. That horrific Great Catastrophe era was the shining peak of his life.
『...Who? Who's there? Kill me. Stop already. Just kill me.』
Nobuhiko trembled in pure terror.
Relentless bio-experiments beyond torture had shredded not just his body, but his mind.
I gritted my teeth.
『...Lieutenant Shuji. You've served well. Thanks to you holding firm against brutal torture and keeping secrets, our operation succeeded.』
『Torture... torture...?』
I used the Memory Revision technique from my Mind Rune—one I'd sworn never to touch—on Nobuhiko.
Rewriting his memories.
Memories of being dissected like a frog, limbs hacked off and replaced with monster parts.
Overwriting those insane experiments with memories of enemy capture and torture.
『Your sacrifice made the operation a success. On behalf of the military, thank you.』
Couldn't fix his mangled body, but at least he'd die with the honor of the soldier he prided himself on.
That was how I rewrote his memories.
『Ah... Aah... Did I... did I help the mission properly? Did I earn honor worthy of my fallen comrades...?』
His body and mind trembled.
『Of course. You're Japan's hero. Everyone will praise Lieutenant Shuji's name.』
Relief floods his mind—the mission succeeded, the pain ends.
『You... who are you talking to me?』
『...I'm KW. Colonel KW.』
『You're that mon... 'War Hero KW'? For real...?』
『Yes. The 'Mad Dog KW' himself.』
『Aah. You...』
Nobuhiko's mind fills with ecstasy.
A single tear rolls from his one remaining eye.
...For the record, my 'Mad Dog' moniker came from misunderstandings and distortions. Don't get the wrong idea.
『...Your comrades await. Rest easy, Lieutenant Shuji. The military won't forget your deeds.』
『Yes, Colonel. Thank you.』
Nobuhiko closes his eyes, content.
-Slash.
I severed his neck.
Sleep well, Lieutenant Shuji.
I gave Shuji's corpse a quiet salute.
Akane watched silently as I killed Shuji.
Her mind chattered away, but her mouth stayed shut.
"Hoo."
I channel mana into Moonlight, shaking off Shuji's blood.
Can't mope forever.
More business to handle.
I turn to Akane.
She's staring up at me, face resolute.
"Don't you feel sorry for Shuji at all? What a heartless bastard. Well, I knew that since you killed me."
『I don't want to die.』
"...Akane."
Bound spread-eagle on the bed, she smirks and taunts.
Even before the man who killed her once—and might again—she doesn't flinch.
But unlike her bold facade, her mind whispers faintly, on the verge of fading.
"You're gonna kill me too, right? Like Shuji."
『Please save me.』
"...Of course."
Akane had already died once.
Whatever brought her back, she shouldn't be alive.
She'd just sow more misfortune. Like Shuji.
Akane spoke candidly, as if leaving her last words.
"Naibusu, I really hated you. You know that? That blank expression hiding your thoughts, that smug know-it-all attitude—hated it all."
『Yuu, help me, Yuu.』
"I know."
I knew Akane hated me.
Hard not to, with her mind cursing me out. Well, without Mind Rune, maybe I wouldn't have.
Even knowing death loomed, Akane wouldn't bend.
That's who she was.
"Akane. One last question. Weren't you dead? How are you here?"
"God, you're insufferable. Gotta hear that from you?"
『Please help me, Yuu.』
"Fine. I'll tell you. Simple story. My parents sold me. For experiments."
『Sorry, Yuu. I don't want to die.』
"Don't know the details. Just died and woke up here, tied down."
『Save me. Don't kill me. I don't want to be alone again. Don't want to go back. Please stop.』
"Happy now? Hurry up and kill me. I don't want to see more ugliness. Hate you, hate my parents who sold me, hate this perverted lab, hate everything. Sick of this damn world."
『Sorry. It's a lie. Save me. Don't kill me. Never want to go back there. Forgive me.』
Akane snaps sharply at me.
Her mind overflows with desperate clinging, but her mouth utters no weakness.
"Yeah."
I reply curtly, raising Moonlight.
The blade gleams under the lights, reflecting in Akane's eyes.
Akane smiles. Lifts her lips in feigned leisure.
But they tremble at the edges.
"Oh. Last thing—tell Yuu I'm sorry. You can do that much, right?"
『Sorry... sorry, Yuu...』
...Right to the end.
To the very end, what a disagreeable woman.
Begging endlessly in her mind to live, don't kill her—yet never showing a hint of weakness outside.
Two-faced to the last, Tsukimiya Akane.
From start to finish, you really were consistent.
I swung down the raised Moonlight.