Humanity Salvation Academy Episode 8: 'What is that!' ii

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ii.

Above the entrance corridor, a massive auditorium was floating. Seeing it up close, it reminded one of a jet-black suspended ceiling, looming over the sky and closing in.

An absurd sense of oppression. Seeing it with his own eyes, Sakurabo gulped. If this massive darkness were to fall, he would be crushed without any way to stop it. Recalling the sight of that huge, magnificent school building collapsing so easily... Sakura felt terror.

He glanced at Houomaru. Her uniform was stained bright red with blood. Her hair was slicked back using blood. Her eyes were sharp and stern as she looked up at the auditorium.

Sakura thought: This person, her atmosphere has changed, hasn't it?

No, Sakura shook his head as if to deny it. It's only natural that she would change, isn't it? Because, well... things have turned out this way. We've ended up in such a tragic situation...

Sakura remembered well the dream Houomaru had told the members of the Public Morals Committee. It was a brilliant, beautiful future. It was overflowing with hope. But the current situation is... darkness, and despair. It is dark and sunken. It is so far from that brilliance...

Sakura also looked up at the auditorium. From that auditorium, a girl fluttered down, as if gliding through the air. The girl, holding a wooden sword, landed silently in front of Houomaru.

'There is no one inside the auditorium.'

The girl... Ashura, said.

'As expected, the Vice President must be inside the entrance corridor.'

Houomaru nodded.

'...Let's go.'

Houomaru looked at the entrance to the entrance corridor. In that place, which used to be a white-walled space, there was now only a void-like darkness.

'............'

Houomaru walked inside without a word. Ashura followed alongside her. Kamimine followed, skipping.

'............!'

Sakura gasped. Darkness. Absolute darkness. That dark corridor felt like it led straight to Sakura's expulsion... that's what he felt. His knees shook with fear.

'What's wrong? Let's go too.'

Amulet urges him on. That's right... Sakura nods. That's right. Pull yourself together, Sakura-bo. Cold sweat trickled down his cheeks. So what, he encourages himself once more.

I will dedicate my entire being.
Just like everyone else... I, too!

Sakura started running.

◆

Houomaru walks straight through the darkness of the Entrance Corridor, without a moment's hesitation.

Houomaru was certain. He didn't know why. But he was certain there was no mistake. At the very end of the Entrance Corridor... the place where he first met Kyusei... he is surely waiting for Houomaru. And in that place... everything should be settled.

'What do you want to do?'

It was Ashura who asked Houomaru that.

'............'

Houomaru replies in silence.

'If that is what you wish...'

Ashura stated clearly.

'I could end it in an instant, if I wanted to.'

Even if the opponent is that Kyusei, he could settle it in an instant... that was what Ashura was implying. Houomaru lowered his gaze.

'...No.'

Houomaru said, as if whispering.

'I have to be the one to settle things with him.'

'...I see.'

Ashura said nothing more. Behind him, Kuzuryu Takigamine was jokingly whispering to the Amulet on Sakura's chest.

'Hey, hey, Nakamiya-chan.'

'What could it be?'

'Let's join forces and beat up the vice president.'

'...Huh?'

Sakura raised her voice in surprise. 'Hehe.' In the darkness, the amulet flickered.

'That is a good idea... truly good. But there is no need for that. I have an even better idea... hehehe.'

Where the group was heading.

The deepest part of the Entrance Corridor.

From there, a faint glow became visible. As they approached, it grew larger and larger. A glow... yes, it was certainly a glow. However, it was also strange to call it a glow.

A black light shimmering in the darkness.

In the depths of the Entrance Corridor.
Wrapped in that light, the boy was waiting.

'...You've come, Houomaru.'

Yumedono Kyusei.

The source of the light, it was emanating from the magic circle behind Kyusei... the circular pattern that had surrounded Houomaru's body when he enrolled.

Kyusei was smiling.

'Houomaru... back when you fell from the auditorium. Even then, I believed that you hadn't been expelled, that you weren't the kind of man to disappear from something like that... yes, I believed it.'

'...Shut up!'

Houomaru waved his hand as if to cut him off. His face twisted, a mixture of anger, sadness... and various other emotions.

'Do you... know what you have done... are you smiling like that knowing what you've done! What are you... what are you... you!'

Kyusei lowered his eyes sadly.

'Do you want to get me expelled, Houomaru?'

"......!"

Houomaru gritted his teeth and took a step forward.

"That's not what this is about... that's not it... what you need to say isn't that kind of thing!"

"......I'm sorry."

"You..." Houomaru reached out. "You...!" He stepped in front of Kyuse. "You!" And then, he grabbed him by the collar.

No one stopped him.

"My feelings don't matter... whatever your goal is, that doesn't matter... that's not what this is about. It's not... why are you... why!"

Houomaru hung his head while still gripping the collar, looking at the floor.

"Why can you smile... after doing that... after doing even that... Why can you do something so insane... as to stare only at me... amidst the screams of the students..."

His body was trembling. From his eyes, several streams of tears spilled out and fell onto the floor of the corridor.

"You're not right, you know...!"

"I..."

Kyuse closed his eyes as if in meditation... and a silence flowed.

At that moment, no one noticed. That there was something writhing in the darkness. That thing was mocking everything. It was laughing, truly gleefully. No one noticed. No one was aware of that fact--.

"I,"

Kyuse opened his eyes and reached into his pocket. And what he pulled out was... that book.

"I have come to know. The secret of this academy. Once I knew that, there was no turning back..."

Houomaru looked up. Kyuse stared intently at his face, which was a mess of tears. --The thing writhing in the darkness stared at the book, delighted.

"It is a hell... this academy. To liberate everyone, there is no choice but to destroy the academy itself... no matter how things turn out, no matter what I do! It is nothing but suffering...!"

Kyuse's face twisted in sorrow. --The thing writhing in the darkness suppressed its laughter, its shoulders trembling slightly.

Ah, Ho-omaru. I regret from the bottom of my heart that I deceived you, used your plans, and caused you suffering... I should have spoken. I should have told you everything from the beginning... I believed that you, of all people, would surely understand...

...That's not it, is it?

Ho-omaru said, cutting him off. The one writhing in the darkness could no longer hold it back.

That's not what you should be saying...!

Ho-omaru, I...!

The words of salvation he started to say stopped.
Then, he furrowed his brows.

What...?

His eyes were fixed on something behind Ho-omaru.

What... is... that...

At that moment, Kyusei saw it.
Floating in the darkness, an eerie...

It was malice.

What... the...

Kyusei pointed a trembling finger at the writhing figure.
Then, he let out a scream that sounded like a cry of agony.

Ho-omaru, what is that!

Ho-omaru turned around.

It was a moment where time seemed to have stopped.

In the darkness, Ashura's eyes were wide with shock. Her beautiful mouth moved, gasping, and blood began to overflow from it. A blade protruded through her chest, and the malice roared as if mocking her.

Hehehehe! Weak one, thy name is woman!

Ashura's body was lifted up. In that moment when time seemed to have stopped, Ho-omaru stared into Ashura's eyes. Ashura, too, was staring at Ho-omaru. Ashura wore a sad smile. Her mouth moved. It was telling him.

I'm sorry.
I couldn't keep my promise.

Ashura was... tossed aside carelessly. Blood sprayed from his body, and he spun through the air like a doll with its strings cut.

“Ah... aaaaaah...”

“Get out of the way! Hououmaru!”

Shouting this, Kyusei shoved Hououmaru aside and dashed forward. He was now a black wind. Drawing his blade, darkness flashed. With a grim expression, he closed in on the malice. In an instant.

“Guh...!”

His face twisted in agony. Into his stomach... faster and sharper than Kyusei’s blade, a god-speed front kick had been driven.

“Hehehe... hahahaha!”

Kyusei’s body bent like a V-shape and was blown away. He was slammed into the wall, and the wall of the entrance corridor, which should have been sturdy, shattered. Kyusei fell to the floor... and then, stopped moving.

Everything had been so sudden.

“You... you...”

Where Hououmaru stared in a daze.

Sakurabo was there, his eyes rolled back. Sakura’s body shook violently, and his upper body bent backward at a ninety-degree angle.

At his chest, the amulet began to emit a purple glow. And within that glow, arms extended from the amulet as if emerging. First the right arm. Then the left arm. The arms stretched upward as if pleading to a celestial being, as if in prayer. Then the head. The upper body.

Hanka Shii Chugu.

“Ah... it is your fault, Hououmaru. Because you would not listen to what I said, this has happened...”

Wrapped in a purple glow, Chugu looked up at the heavens.

“Ahahaha... fufufufu...”

With an ecstatic expression, he spun his words sonorously. “Ah...” It was a prayer, and it was a curse.

“Within the hollow crown encircling the king’s temples... the jester known as the Grim Reaper leans back, mocking the king’s authority and glory. He grants the king a fleeting moment of time, making him perform a one-act play. Unaware of this, the king reigns, is feared, and deludes himself into thinking he can kill people with a single glare... He prides himself on the fragile wall of life that is the flesh, as if it were impregnable—and then the Grim Reaper arrives at the final moment. With a tiny needle, he pokes a hole in that rampart and mocks, ‘Goodbye, King!’ ...Fu, fufufufu... ah, hahahaha, ahhahahahaha!”

Hououmaru... screamed.

"Hanka Shii... Chugu, you... you!"

A supernatural thunderclap roared through the entrance corridor. A scarlet-glowing war hammer was gripped in Ho-o-maru's hand.

Ho-o-maru ran and shouted.

"You... you!"

Hanka Shii Chugu laughed.

"Hahaha! I love you, Byodoin Ho-o-maru!"

The war hammer was swung, and a scarlet radiance pierced the darkness. And so... the curtain rose on a gruesome battle to the death.

【Continued in Episode 9: "Battle to the Death with the Unforgiven"】

"Humanity Salvation Academy" is scheduled to be updated Monday through Friday at 7:30 PM (tentative).