“I’m telling you that you can’t think of death that way. If my hypothesis is right, there’s a world after death, and you can use the Robe of the Fire Rat to go in and out of it.”
“Huh? Then...” The look on Keena’s face said that she’d figured something out.
“That’s right. Only the Demon King can enter and leave it,” Yoshie said. ”So this is the plan: We take Keena, the Demon King, and then the Jeweled Branch, the Robe of the Fire Rat, and the Dragon’s Neck Jewel up to the old space station. Then she goes into cold sleep, and after the asteroid hits, the Demon King enters the afterlife.”
“What about the rest of us?” Yuko asked.
“All of us, including me, die. Every. Single. One. Of. Us.” Yoshie grinned.
“W-Wait, that’s...”
“Not something you’re comfortable with. Of course. But we don’t have a choice,” Yoshie said.
Everyone fell silent. It was Keena who broke the silence.
“Um, but what does Ackie do after he goes to the afterlife?”
“I don’t know...”
“Huh?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he can take everyone with him and come home. Maybe he can’t do anything. Maybe he can come and go, but everyone else has to stay there.” Yoshie shook her head.
“B-But that’s so irresponsible...” Yuko said
“I mean, from an emotional standpoint, I’m against it too... But it’s the only way,” Yoshie said with a shrug.
○
Throw a punch. Get hit with a punch. Recover. How many times had both of them repeated that process?
Both Akuto and Marine were covered in wounds they hadn’t had time to heal, and were inflicting yet more wounds on each other’s bodies. Each strike from one of them was enough to easily shatter rock, but the two of them had each taken dozens of hits.
“What good is your pride if you can’t stop the war?”
“It’s better than refusing to stop the war because you’re mad about a girl!”
“You won’t gain anything from winning this fight!”
“That’s better than just looking for something to take your anger out on!”
Still, the speed at which the two of them were throwing their punches had begun to decrease. They would throw a punch, then rest for a moment, taking huge panting breaths.
“You’re almost out of stamina... aren’t you?”
“What about you? You look like you can barely stand. I guess you should’ve trained harder, huh?”
Akuto and Marine spat insults at each other, and then both punched each other in the stomach.
“Still... it’s so strange that we’d be fighting each other when we might all be about to die,” Marine said.
“People once said that if a threat ever came from outer space, humanity would band together to fight it,” Akuto said with a sarcastic smile.
“I guess that was wrong, then.”
“There was also a story about a sage... or a man who ruled his country like a dictator... who brought the world together.”
“That was a lie too.”
“It’s a shame... but I guess it doesn’t matter.”
“Agreed. By the way, you’re about at your limit, aren’t you?” Marine said, breathing heavily.
“I’ve still got a lot of strength,” Akuto said, between panting breaths.
“Liar.”
“...Alright, let’s finish this. Let’s see which is stronger: stubborn pride for one’s country, or misplaced anger over a girl’s death,” Akuto said, and Marine smiled with bloody lips.
“Yeah.”
The two of them raised their fists. The air around them began to roar. Two whirlwinds sprung up, collided, and became tornadoes. At the center, the two of their fists had collided. Sprays of blood and bits of shattered bone and flesh were caught up in the whirlwind. It lasted for several minutes.
Suddenly, the tornadoes stopped, and the wind calmed.
They were both a mess. Both Akuto and Marine’s fists were no longer recognizable. They were pounding raw lumps of meat into each other’s faces. Akuto’s knees buckled and he staggered. But before he could, Marine collapsed backward, sending up a cloud of dust as he landed.
Marine looked up at the sky in a daze.
“So the girl... won out over the country, huh?” he whispered.
“That’s the natural order of things... probably.” Akuto pulled his legs out of the ground, walked over to the Jeweled Branch, and took it.
“What will you do now?” Marine asked.
“It may be a waste of time.. . But I’m still gonna see if I can’t stop that asteroid.”
○
But things were going in the exact opposite of the direction Akuto wanted. Brave had gone on to try and persuade Marine’s little sister on the front lines to stop the war. He’d only succeeded when the Republic forces realized the asteroid was falling.
“...Alright. We’ll pull back our forces.” Marine’s sister, the princess, said.
There was no joy on Brave’s side. This had only happened after he’d shown the princess the data Yoshie had sent, and after she’d seen Marine’s defeat. There was no joy to be had on anyone’s part.
“It’s almost too late... as much as I’d rather not say it,” Brave said to the princess.
The two of them were facing across from one another on her ship. She’d invited Brave here to negotiate. But the princess just gave him a peaceful smile.
“That’s just how politics works.”
“As long as the Empire and Republic can work together to stop the asteroid...” Brave said, but the princess cut him off.
“We will return to the bottom of the sea. There’s some small probability that we’ll survive that way.”
“What? But you can’t...”
“With our technology, there is almost no chance of stopping the asteroid. So we’re going to choose the path that grants us a chance at survival. The sea trench is several thousand meters deep. There must be some places that will survive the impact.
“But...” Brave tried to insist, but the princess’s expression did not change.
“That’s just how politics works,” she said. “We’re also willing to accept you as an honorary citizen, if you like.”
Brave shook his head.
“I’ll pass. I think I’d better go, then...” Brave left, feeling filled with despair.