Chapter 73

Act 4 The Hollow Desire 1 You’re special, she said. She took it to heart that she was a special dragon medium. Tristitia’s medium, Kaname Kashima, was indeed special. After all, she was the only medium not connected to Ganzheit, with the only exception being the heavenly dragon Gula’s medium, who had yet to appear. The boy Kaname blessed also had tremendous combat prowess, deserving to be called the strongest Lazarus. Kaname’s role was to keep him in check and keep him under the surveillance of the Heavenly Imperial House. Diligently, she did her part. Toru Natazuka went on a fair number of rampages, but the instances of indiscriminate killing were dramatically reduced. He was generally cooperative with the missions the Heavenly Imperial House assigned them. It was also largely in part thanks to Natazuka being tamed that the Heavenly Imperial House was able to remain neutral with Ganzheit. Natazuka would be able to inflict lethal damage on Ganzheit’s investors’ forces if he got serious. Ganzheit feared him. And the Heavenly Imperial House, too, feared him. Despite being part of a clan like the Myoujiin, his temper was too irregular. He was fickle, hedonistic, and cruel like a child who had yet to learn the value of life. At the same time, he was clever and thorough. Even without the J-nocide or his becoming Lazarus, he would have left a mark on history, whether as a hero or an extraordinary mass murderer. Only Karura Myoujiin did not fear him. On top of her abilities with the Heavenly Imperial House’s Relict Regalia, she had the majesty of a future empress; she did not panic nor deprecate herself when facing him. Natazuka, too, seemed to like her for whatever reason. Kaname respected Karura from the bottom of her heart for being able to talk on equal terms with the monstrous Lazarus. And it was Karura herself who had called Kaname special. Kaname’s goal in life was to live up to her expectations. And yet. And yet… She chose not Kaname, but Avaritia’s medium. Iroha Mamana and her Lazarus were summoned to the Myoujiin and granted the divine instrument directly from Karura’s hands. “How are your wounds, Toru?” Kaname carried warmed military rations to Natazuka. They were hiding in an old house in Kyoto. Natazuka sat on a futon as he looked up at her with annoyance. He had a terribly long sword in hand, an ancient katana with barely any curvature. Its name: Kotofutsu-no-Mitama. It was a Relict Regalia with Tristitia’s blessings temporarily sealed within it. The Heavenly Imperial House linked it to a barrier to keep Natazuka prisoner. That said, Natazuka could sync with the power inside it and boost Tristitia’s blessings. It was simultaneously binding and the ace up his sleeve. Natazuka didn’t bring out the Kotofutsu-no-Mitama frequently, however. Reason number one was that it was too unwieldy at well over six feet long. Reason number two was that he didn’t find it necessary. He was powerful enough not to rely on the Relict Regalia. Yet now, Natazuka held it to his chest like a talisman as he stared into the void with darkness in his eyes. “I’m tired, Kaname. I’m fed up with everything.” Natazuka grabbed the food with his hand and threw it into his mouth. Then he wiped his dirty hand on a bloody bandage. The immortal boy was hurt and continued bleeding even now. Sui Narusawa had gouged a piece from his side. The wound was healing, but his Lazarus power could not keep up with the speed at which the wound kept opening. It was too deep to fully heal, like a curse. “This wound! It stings! That Sui Narusawa bitch! She’ll pay for this!” Natazuka threw a fit like a child, scattering the unfinished food all over. Kaname bit her lip in silence as she looked at him. Natazuka was suffering from dragon factor deficiency. Sui Narusawa had little of it after she awoke from a long death slumber. The great volume of Superbia’s dragon factor she had poured into Yahiro Narusawa was burned away by Iroha Mamana’s purifying flames. She also suffered from the effects of that. In order to refill her dragon factor, Sui stole it from Natazuka. The wound carved into him continued robbing him of dragon aura like a curse, wearing him out. The only way for him to escape this pain was to get rid of the source and kill Sui Narusawa. He had to get a rematch to escape the suffering, and to clear the humiliation of his defeat, that much was obvious. But Kaname was confused. This wasn’t how the strongest Lazarus behaved. He was no longer killing out of pure whim, attacking indiscriminately like a natural disaster—he was no longer a monster. To kill for his own benefit was the behavior of a human. “Let’s go, Kaname. Staying here is pointless.” Natazuka held his bloody side while using the sword as a cane to stand up. “Yes…” Kaname followed behind him, though befuddled by an emotion she hadn’t felt before. Tristitia’s medium was special. She could only believe that because Karura had said so, and because her Lazarus was the strongest. But now? If her strongest faltered…what could she believe in? 2 The first to notice and run up to Yahiro and Iroha as they returned to camp were her siblings. “Ah, Yahiro’s back!” “Mama!” “Iroha! You’re back!” “Kyouta! Kiri! Honoka! You all okay?” Iroha hugged the three youngest at once. The outside of the Kyoto Station seemed calm under the Far East Branch’s control. The Moujuufication effects hadn’t reached the camp. “We’re okay. Zen protected us,” Ren, the oldest of the three, replied bashfully. “…Zen? Zen Sagara?” Yahiro asked. “Yeah. He’s over there.” Rinka pointed at the station. A Japanese boy and girl in school uniforms were having a meal among the Galerie’s operators. Zen Sagara and Sumika Kiyotaki. Sumika noticed them and waved her hand emphatically, still holding a barbecue skewer. “Welcome back, Yahiro! Iroha!” Her short skirt bounced as she ran over to them with a wide smile on her face. “I heard you met the princess. Did you? What was she like?” “We did. She was pretty. So pretty…” Iroha nodded with a sad smile. Sumika needed no more to understand what was behind her reaction. She hugged Iroha quietly and gently rubbed her back like she was comforting a small child. “Sagara, what’re you doing here?” Yahiro asked as Zen came up to them. His skeptical tone was expected. Although it was unlikely Zen and Sumika would antagonize them at this point, he couldn’t help but feel weird about seeing them mingle so naturally with the Galerie’s operators. “Rosetta Berith hired us to take Sui Narusawa back and to guard Paola Resente as a countermeasure against the possibility of a Relict Deserver.” Zen didn’t take offense to Yahiro’s tone; he realized he was out of place. Yahiro frowned. “You ran into Natazuka?” “Yeah. He’s just like they say.” Zen sighed with loathing, before putting on a serious face and lowering his voice. “But Sui Narusawa beat him like it was nothing. She’s a monster.” “A monster…?” “I’ll be honest, Yahiro Narusawa. I’m scared of her. It feels weird to say this to her brother, but I regret not killing her when we had the chance.” “…Yeah.” Yahiro nodded sincerely. Killing her would have been easy while she was in a coma. They had enough of a chance to do so. “But who knows if we could’ve done so even if we tried.” Zen sighed with self-deprecation. Yahiro was disturbed. He had heard she drove Natazuka away, but he didn’t expect Zen to find her so dangerous. “Do you know where she went?” Yahiro asked to try and brush aside the fear. Sumika answered, “Rosy said they’re looking for her, but it looks like they’re having some trouble. Can’t be easy with all the Moujuu hubbub all over the country, I guess.” “All over the country…? It’s not just Kyoto?” Yahiro raised his eyebrows and drew closer to Sumika. Sumika took half a step back in alarm and nodded. “Uh, yeah. Not that I checked personally, but Rosy said so. Sounds like chaos over at the military bases around Kobe and Yokosuka.” “All over Japan, huh… Hopefully that’s the extent of it…” Miyabi chuckled as she heard their conversation from behind the car. Zen glared daggers at her upon noticing her presence. “What do you mean, Miyabi Maisaka? And why are you here now?” “Whoa, calm down, Sagara. She’s not our enemy. Sumika, help.” Iroha panicked as Zen reached for the sword on his back but stood before Miyabi. “I don’t know, girl. She’s been after us the whole time…” Sumika grimaced. Miyabi was Zen and Sumika’s enemy after she used them for her own benefit. It was hard for them to believe she was no longer against them. Miyabi wore a look of composure and brushed aside their hostility. “Relax, I won’t be messing with the dragons or the Regalia anymore. My wish has already been granted.” “And what was your wish?” Zen froze, taken aback by her comment. Miyabi shrugged. “I wanted to tell the world the truth, but there is no truth in this fake world. That is the truth in itself.” “Fake world? What do you mean?” Zen glared at her, confused. She looked back at him with amusement. “This is the underworld—the land of the dead. An illusion the Corpse system shows us.” “You’re saying we live inside a delusion? Don’t be ridiculous!” “Sumika Kiyotaki, you should have some relevant memories as a dragon medium. That we’re already dead.” “No… There’s no way… That was just…a dream…” Sumika shook her head, her voice trembling under Miyabi’s stare. “Sumika…?” Zen was taken aback. “Yahiro Narusawa! Iroha Mamana! You accept this nonsense?! You’re not gonna say anything about that crap that everyone in the world is dead?!” “Think, Sagara. How are we, of all people, supposed to object? We’re Lazaruses. We’ve survived death many times already,” Yahiro remarked coldly. “But…!” Zen couldn’t find the right words to argue. Yahiro recognized he was dead because he had died several times. How could he deny it? Zen had the same experiences. Everyone in this world was already dead, they just forgot and acted as though they were still living, continuing like it was the real world, an illusory boxed garden. That was why the Lazaruses could revive. They weren’t special, they were simply puppets chosen for the role. “Then what’s the point in everything we’ve done up to now? We’ve been killing corpses, getting killed by the dead?!” No one answered Zen’s question. It was too cruel a reality, but everyone had considered it previously. Miyabi gently said, “Even if the world is full of lies, the memories and feelings of those living here are real. That is why I’ll do my job from now on.” “Your…job?” “Tell the world the truth. Not my job as a dragon medium, but as a human—as Miyabi Maisaka.” She took out her phone. Although Japan’s communications infrastructure was wrecked, one could still access satellite internet connections. One didn’t need large-scale broadcast equipment to transmit video to the entire world. A phone was enough. “You’re gonna tell the whole world what you just said?! It’ll be chaos!” Zen yelled. “I doubt anyone will believe it to begin with…,” Sumika cooly pointed out. An unexpected character denied their comments. “No, that broadcast might be surprisingly important at this moment.” Rosé cut into the conversation as she arrived to greet Yahiro and Iroha. “What’d you mean, Rosé?” Yahiro scowled, a bad feeling in his gut. “Want to see what Manhattan looks like right now?” She handed him a tablet. The screen showed a satellite news channel, broadcasting live from New York. The scenery there was unlike anything Yahiro could have expected. Screams, gunfire, the smoke of buildings on fire, overturned cars, people running every which way. Bizarre, unnatural monsters attacked them. Moujuu. “What the… This is happening in New York?!” Yahiro shook his head in disbelief. Moujuu had appeared outside Japan—in New York—if the images were real. Like what happened four years before in Japan. “Why’s there a Ploutonion in the US…?” Zen asked in bewilderment. The feed showed a pitch-black hole on Fifth Avenue. Eerie miasma and Moujuu came crawling out of what was undeniably a Ploutonion. “Not just the US. Central and South America as well as Canada, of course, but also Asia, Oceania, the Middle East, Africa, Europe… The same thing is happening in major cities around the world. The Ploutonions are small so far, but I expect them to grow in size and number.” “A world-scale genocide… No, at this point, we might as well call it mass extinction,” Miyabi whispered. Only Japanese people had died in the J-nocide four years prior, and that was enough to damage the world economy so badly it took years to recover. If the same thing happened all over the world, humanity itself could be headed to its demise. “Did Sui do this…?” Yahiro growled. “If she really got access to the Afterlife, it wouldn’t be odd for her to do something on a global scale like this. And I would say that this is only the beginning,” Miyabi pointed out. The despair was solidified as the obvious was put into words. “Where is she, Rosé?!” “We don’t know where Sui Narusawa is yet. Ganzheit’s pacifist faction is asking all armies stationed in Japan for cooperation, but we haven’t got a clue yet.” Rosé shook her head. Yahiro ground his teeth in silence. They needed to find Sui to get to the Ploutonion to the Afterlife. Otherwise, they would be wasting the divine instrument Karura gave her life to entrust to Iroha. But if not even the Galerie collaborating with Ganzheit could find her, it might be impossible. There was no better information network in Japan. “Ho-ho! Looks like you’re in quite the pickle, Yahiro.” Yahiro tensed back up reflexively at the sound of that familiar voice. A man appeared—clearly out of place in the camp guarded by the Galerie’s operators. Giuli showed the way to this old man with gray hair and an ostentatious shirt. “Wha…?” Yahiro’s throat closed up. Even Rosé’s eyes grew wide in surprise. The old man showed no hostility. He smiled nonchalantly. “I’d be willing to sell you some intel. But it’s gonna cost you a pretty penny.” The old man bared his teeth with a smirk. “What’re you doing here, Ed?!” shouted Yahiro as he came back to his senses. 3 “Ed…? You know this old man, Narusawa?” Zen narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Yahiro accepted his side eye with a disturbed sigh. “Yeah, this guy’s an informant. Professional scrooge, Eduardo Valenzuela.” Ed was a shady old man who ran a small shop on the outskirts of what used to be the city of Matsudo. He was privy to the internal situations of various PMCs and armies stationed in Japan, and sold the information to whomever would buy. Galerie Berith was but one of his many clients. Yahiro used to be in touch with Ed while searching for Sui, and Ed gave him all sorts of jobs to pay for the info. They were mostly preposterous jobs, such as being a guide around the dangerous 23 Wards or salvaging art pieces left behind in the ruins. That was not for nothing—that work eventually led him to meet Iroha and Galerie Berith. In that sense, he owed Ed a lot. But to be honest, he couldn’t feel grateful. Ed basically scammed him with the jobs and irregular pay. Yahiro did not have a good opinion of Ed. Then Zen objected to Yahiro’s explanation. “That’s not true.” “What?” “Narusawa, that man’s name is not Eduardo Valenzuela,” Zen growled. Yahiro was bewildered by the other boy’s reaction. “What’re you saying, Sagara? Then who is he?” “Alfred Salas…” Miyabi responded in Zen’s stead, her voice also reflecting fear and hostility for the man. “He’s an affluent arms dealer who sold bombs in past wars. He’s the chief of the Salas Foundation and board chairman of CERG, the European Organization for Graviton Research, Nina Himekawa’s employer, and the leader of the neutral faction, the biggest of Ganzheit.” “Ed…is the leader of Ganzheit…?” Yahiro looked at Miyabi, then at Ed, flabbergasted. The old man didn’t say anything, he only looked at Yahiro like a brat whose prank had landed. “Did you know that, Rosé?!” “…No. It pains me to say this is the first I’ve heard this. We did expect him to have a powerful organization behind him, considering his intel-gathering ability, but…” Rosé spoke flatly, but with an unusual and obvious hint of annoyance. Giuli shrugged. It was the first time Yahiro saw the twins get bamboozled. “It’s nothing to get mad about, though, is it? I’ve helped you a lot, right?” Ed said condescendingly. Yahiro scowled. “Helped me? You only used me!”