“I’ve done everything I can to save the world!”
“That’s not what I’m talking about! And all you’ve ever done is lurk in the shadows, making small changes! That’s what makes The One better than you!”
The four of them collided in aerial combat. Marine and Brave soon found themselves back to back, realizing they were getting nowhere.
“Is it safe to kill that man?” Marine asked.
Brave shook his head.
“He’s got the controller for this suit. We can’t kill him until it leaves his hands.”
“Understood. I can find the location of the controller and get it for you. I’ll handle him. You take the Demon King.”
“So we split the work? Got it.”
Brave broke right and Marine broke left, and the two of them came barreling down on Kei and Kento from both sides.
“Damn...!”
It was a losing fight to begin with, but with two enemies working together, it was all but hopeless. Kento panicked. He moved so he was back to back with Kei.
“We need to work together too.”
“That’s true, but...” Kei looked at him with cold eyes.
“...Why don’t you just cut the switch on Brave’s suit?”
“Because... I still need him. I can’t have him dying.”
“Are you trying to manipulate someone for your own purposes again?”
“That’s not it!” Kento yelled, but he didn’t seem to know how to express his own feelings.
“Then turn off his suit! Or do you not care if I die?”
“That’s not it!”
“It is! It’s about what’s most important to you! If you turn off the switch, I can kill both Brave and the Republic prince. But you...”
“Calm down! We need to stop The One together! He wants to wipe out all humanity! With that asteroid! So we need to cooperate...”
“I can beat that dog on my own! So..”
“He’s got an implant in you!”
“Don’t lie to me! I know you can remove those things! So...”
Before he could continue, though, Brave and Marine were upon them. Kei and Kento began to climb up into the air, circling, backs pressed together, and just barely managed to dodge.
“So...!” Kei continued, “So turn off Brave’s suit and just tell me one thing! Say you love me! And that’ll solve everything!”
“Kei...!” Kento fell silent.
He’d never said those words before. He knew that the desire to hear them was at the base of every action Kei took, and he’d constantly taken advantage of that fact. But could he really say that he loved Kei, right now?
“Stop it, Kei! Now’s not the time!”
“If now’s not the time, when is? I’m asking you to pick between me and Brave!”
“Just give me some time...” Kento hesitated, but Kei yelled at him.
“Answer me! I can only keep us alive another 3 seconds!”
From the intensity in his voice, it was clear that Kei was telling the truth.
“3...”
But Kento remained silent.
“2...”
Maybe he was as small as Kei said, if he couldn’t answer here.
“1...”
He’d...
And then there was a low rumble.
“K-Kei...” Kento let out a groan. Kei’s arm was embedded deeply into his chest.
“This is why you never really mattered...”
Blood ran down Kei’s arm. He pulled Kento’s body forward, and kissed him on the lips. Kento spat blood, staining Kei’s mouth pure red. Kei ripped out the arm, still dripping with blood, and quickly reached into Kento’s pocket, pulling out a small control device and flipping the switch.
Brave’s suit shut down. Brave fell. Kento’s body fell.
“Farewell...” Kei whispered.
Marine accelerated toward the two falling bodies. Then, he grabbed Kento’s body and pulled it close, and turned around and began to climb.
“...!” Kei was caught completely off guard, just like Marine had expected.
Marine flew toward Kei, using Kento’s corpse as a shield.
“What are you doing?!” Kei howled. He fired a mana blast at the corpse, one powerful enough to vaporize it in an instant. The body was turned to dust, scattering beautifully in the wind. Marine got closer to Kei, using the dust to blind him.
Kei managed to dodge at the last minute, but Marine was never after him to begin with.
“No...!”
The control device slipped from Kei’s hand. Marine had knocked it from his grasp. Marine spun in mid-air and grabbed it.
“Defiling the dead isn’t my style... but I saw your obsession with beauty. You wanted him to have a beautiful death, right?”
Marine flipped the switch on the control device. A light appeared from below the waves. Brave’s power had returned to him.
“You bastard!” Kei had gone totally pale.
He began firing mana balls in a haphazard spray toward Marine. But Marine’s power was just as strong. At least, he was able to block them.
“Uwaaah!” But Kei ignored that and kept attacking Marine. There was no way he could fight against Brave, who was rapidly rising out of the ocean, in that state.
“Repent your sins of slaughter!” Brave was now in anti-Demon-King Mode.
“I’ll never regret anything, even if I die!” Kei clutched his hands tightly.
He still intended to resist. Of course, the mana within his hands faded as Brave approached. But still, Kei refused to run.
“Are you ready to die, Kei?!” Brave surrounded himself with a high-temperature plasma ball.
“I’m not, no!” Kei spread his arms wide. “But I’d rather fight and die beautifully than flee in an ugly way!”
As Brave approached, Kei struck him with an open palm. Of course, this was pointless. The mana was gone, and Kei’s strength was less than normal. But even so, to Brave, to Hiroshi, it felt like a heavy strike. In the next instant, the high-temperature plasma vaporized Kei’s body. There was absolutely nothing left of him.
“It feels... like he’s the one who won.”
The plasma disappeared. There was nothing left in Brave’s hands. All he could see was the quiet, terribly cold air. He heard cheers, and turned around. The Republic soldiers were leaning off the bows of their ships, clapping and cheering. Only then had he realized what he’d done.
He’d led the Republic to victory. It didn’t matter what was right and what was wrong. All that mattered was that the tide of battle had now turned against the Empire.
“All I did was defeat a murderer... that was all, but...”
“There’s nothing wrong with fighting for a bad reason... it just makes you a victim of fate.”
Marine stood next to Brave.
“There are people and things in the Empire I want to protect.”
“I’ll find a way to stop the battle. We should be able to come to peace with the Empire on good terms,” Marine said.
○
“A war and a brawl are different!” Lily Shiraishi said, annoyed.
She was preparing the airship that was moored in her yard to launch, while complaining to the Student Council trio. The airship was a small one for personal use, not much bigger than a small yacht. Lily was in the engine room, checking the fuel levels.
“But it feels like the Empire’s gonna lose, gyah,” Kanna Kamiyama said while watching the mana screen.
“What happens if we lose?”
“Gugah.”
Both Michie Otake and Arnoul looked worried. But they were sitting in the airship’s seats, and doing nothing. Lily was annoyed that they weren’t doing anything to help, but since there was nothing for them to do, she couldn’t get too angry.
“If it was a brawl, I’d be out there fighting. But sometimes there are times when you shouldn’t fight as a soldier.”
“But if we lose, we’re screwed,” Michie said.
“I know that. That’s why I’m loading up the airship.”
“To go to war, gya?”
“Nope. We’ve got information on that dog thing. Data from Yoshie Kita. So we’re going to get sneaky.”
“Sneaky?”
“That Faceless Power crap is probably stored in the ship that travels to the stars. So all we have to do is cut the source of its energy,” Lily said, and closed the lid of the engine.
“So we’re heading toward the Marlay village?”
Lily nodded, sat down at the controls, and took off. Then Kanna, who’d been watching the mana screen, shouted.
“P-President, something crazy just happened!”
“It’s a war. Crazy stuff happens. Don’t bug me now, I need to focus on piloting.” Lily said, without even glancing back.
“Then at least listen to the audio!” Kanna said, and turned up the volume.
“We still have the Demon King!”
“Down with Brave!”
“Don’t hide the Empress! She’s with the Demon King, right?”
“Hurry! Have the government send out the Demon King!”
It was the sound of countless voices shouting. Lily made the ship climb, then leveled it out and turned around.
“A protest?!”
It was footage of people gathered outside the palace, screaming at the government.
“I remember the last protest when they were protesting against the Demon King...” Lily sighed, irritated.
“So, why is this important?” she asked Kanna.
“Well, don’t you think that a certain someone might come to save them, since they’re all asking for him?”
“Knowing that idiot, probably not. He’s not concerned with what people think. He’s only concerned with what he thinks is right. But if somebody tries to take advantage of that, we might have a problem.”
“A problem?”
“If it were me, I’d try to have Akuto fight the Republic Prince. They’re both hungry for it.
It’s possible.” Lily grinned.
“You’re a nasty lady, President.” Kanna laughed innocently. Lily reached out an arm to slap her.
“Quiet. If a nice girl like me can come up with the idea, then somebody really nasty can probably think of it as well.”
“A nice girl... W-Well, never mind. We don’t want that to happen, gya.”
“That’s true. It’s no fun trying to predict things that nobody wants to happen.”
Lily whispered, as if remembering an event from the past.