Chapter 8 – Collapse 2
Satsuki saw the hangar’s explosion from outside the training grounds.
He was still in the middle of assigning posts for the subordinates who were awaiting orders from him, but it appeared that Hajime and Azumi got the job done in the meantime.
Crimson flame and black smoke spout out like a whirlpool, charring the high-up dome.
Despite the situation, the Guardians that had yet to receive orders were still standing still. Just like how a dog would be at ease from looking at their master’s face at all times, they were quick to react to each and every one of Satsuki’s words, but it was as if they had no will of their own.
Satsuki felt frustrated at himself from realizing that he was just the same until not too long ago.
Even so, fear and unrest spread throughout them in an instant.
“It’s the Anti-Admirals!”
“They’ve breached the training grounds!”
“They’ve blown up all our weapons!”
“We’re done for!”
“We’re all gonna die!”
The Guardians grew pale and restless, fidgeting about in panic.
“Calm yourselves! Do not leave your posts! Keep your composure!”
The situation was grave enough that even Satsuki’s orders failed to reach them.
Consecutive gunshots rang out, and the Anti-Admiral Faction guerilla revealed themselves, their numbers surpassing thirty.
Panic reached a peak.
Some recklessly tried to run only to get shot down, some were shot to death upon attempting a final desperate attack, while others shoved their gun into their mouth and pulled the trigger.
It happened all within a frame of a few seconds.
“Stop! Stay calm! Everyone, stop shooting!”
Satsuki shouted as he ran between both sides with his arms raised.
The Anti-Admiral Faction’s snipers lifted their faces from their scopes in surprise.
It seemed that some of them recognized Satsuki, and urged their comrades to stop shooting.
However, the Guardians continued to fire.
“You all need to stop shooting too! Stop shooting! I said stop!”
Upon Satsuki running into their line of fire, the Guardians finally stopped shooting, but their fingers remained on their triggers.
“Don’t make light of people’s lives! That’s not what courage is! Think about this. Don’t go by my orders. Think with your brain and your heart. I’m not giving out orders anymore. There’s not even an admiral anymore!”
His final words did the trick.
The Guardians dropped their shoulders in defeat, and their weapons fell to the floor.
The gunshots ceased, allowing Hajime to realize the battle had reached its end.
“Is it… over?”
Azumi had yet to come to grips with reality.
The two of them were hiding a hundred meters away from the burning hangar.
“Go meet up with Satsuki.”
“All right… But what about you?”
Hajime stepped out of hiding without responding.
“Wait!”
Azumi chased after him.
“You’re going to go find an exit, right? And then you’re going to scatter that man’s ashes in the ocean. I know all that. But… will you come back after that?”
He expected that question.
“No, what I really want to say is… I want you to come back, Hajime.”
Azumi’s voice rose, but Hajime did not answer.
He felt that he shouldn’t answer. He didn’t expect Azumi to understand his decision to leave this land.
“Say something, Hajime… Hajime!”
Suddenly, a crack ran along the sky.
“Huh? What…?”
Azumi dumbfoundedly looked up as cries could be heard all around them.
The crack—formed from the burnt sections of the dome—began to spread out like a stitch coming apart.
For the first time in three hundred years, the sky could be seen.
However, what flew in wasn’t just the freezing blizzard of the South Pole.
Hordes of Undead of the sky, as well as Undead of the land and sea that had presumably climbed up the wall, began invading the city.
“The Undead!”
Standing in front of the heaps of Undead corpses was Garren, his entire body soaked in the blue blood of his victims.
“Are you… satisfied now?”
He spoke to that voice.
“You made me mad, you made me fight, you made me go insane… But it’s pointless no matter what you do to me. I won’t ever again mistake the enemy I must fight!”
The corpses disintegrated, and the gasping Tachihara collapsed to his knees after undoing his transformation.
The waves approached the shore, and the wind blew.
Tachihara walked forward with Saeko’s remains in his arms.
I don’t care about no déjà vu. The Saeko I know of is right here.
He dug a hole outside of the harbor and buried the silent corpse after giving it a kiss.
And then he spoke out once again.
“I’m right here. I won’t run or hide. Don’t you think it’s about time you reveal yourself?!”
As if responding to his fist raised up towards the sky, a giant pitch-black stone slab manifested itself.
It silently emerged from a small hill, towering over him.
“The Stone of Sealing…!”
As Tachihara stared at the oddly twisted stone slab, he noticed the words he unconsciously whispered to himself.
The storm showed no sign of settling down.
The Ark’s slant had grown immensely askew, with Tougo and the rest grabbing whatever there was around to them in order to barely manage to keep standing. The Ark was about to capsize at any moment.
They had to escape as soon as possible, but half of the boats had been washed away, and everyone knew full well that evacuating all the passengers would be impossible.
There wouldn’t be any time to make round trips from any land they happen to come across, either.
“We’re sailors. Although, we might’ve forgotten about that for a while now.”
The captain smiled wryly. Despite the exhausted look in his eyes and the chief engineer’s face, they somehow appeared to be shining.
“Right. Let’s show off our pride as sailors before this is all over!”
“Yeah!”
The crew rose their voices with smiles.
They first seperated the women and children, the sick, and the elderly as they boarded them onto their own boats.
We’ll stay here. We’re not children. We can be the last ones. Tougo and the others tried to argue, but of course, their words fell on deaf ears.
Kenzaki and Tougo and the others got on the boat too. Take care of everyone. Upon being told that by the captain, Kenzaki had no choice but to nod and accept.
“Rikiya, sorry for all the beating we gave you. Become a great man.”
Rikiya cried upon hearing the chief engineer’s words.
“Chief Engineer!”
Following after them, the villagers who boarded the Ark from that island, the survivors of the Guest Cabin Area, and the members of the former Disposal Area were separated into their own groups.
And that was all of them.
The captain, chief engineer, and the thirty-or-so leftover sailors saw them off as Tougo and the rest departed the Ark.
Tougo and the rest waved as hard as they could towards the crew who were lined up and saluting on the edge of the greatly slanted deck. Everyone was crying. Crying while gritting their teeth.
By the time there was about three hundred meters between them, the Ark finally fell to its side.
The captain and the rest couldn’t be seen since they were all at their posts, fulfilling their duties until the very end. That was the only silver lining.
Upon collapsing from its own weight, the Ark let out a creaking noise that resembled the final cry of a large elderly elephant.
At the very end, after splitting into three pieces, the ship was ruthlessly torn apart by the waves of the raging sea.
“Captain!”
“Chief Engineer!”
Tougo and Rikiya’s screams were drowned out by the roars of the sea that showed no sign of ever abating.
“…Let’s go!”
Takuho’s voice brought them back to their senses, and they resumed rowing the boat while biting their lips.
The other boats that had set off before them could be seen heading forward.
Since the boats were small, there was little risk of running aground, but the chance of capsizing was still significant.
The storm within the archipelago attacked them from all directions, making it extremely difficult for them to keep a straight course.
The truth was they didn’t even have the leisure to row the boat. It took everything they had to hold each other’s hands or the side of the boat in order to keep themselves from getting thrown off by the raging sea.
Tougo’s boat was crammed with the Rat Gang, Kenzaki, Kojirou, and around ten other people.
They were all soaking wet and exhausted from bailing out the rain and sea water that kept filling up their boat.
Eventually, they even lost sight of the other boats heading forward.
They must have had either capsized or fallen off course. And of course, if they had fallen off course, there was no way of determining their route.
They suddenly found themselves in a beam sea.
With the boat being lifted up by a large angle, seven or eight people ended up getting tossed out from the left. Among them were Dai and Mei who had failed to keep hold onto Ren’s hands.
“Dai! Mei!”
At the same time Ren screamed out, Takuho dived into the grey sea.
“Takuho!”
Tougo and the rest shouted, and just a second later, Kenzaki had dived in after them. Just before he disappeared under the sea, a bright wave of energy passed through him, transforming him into Blade.
“Don’t move the boat!”
“Wait here!”
Tougo and Rikiya grabbed onto the oars, but the boat continued to get thrown about, moving them away.
“It’s no good! It’s not working!”
“Stop moving! Stop moving!”
Just then, the surface of the sea broke apart, and Blade jumped out with Dai and Mei in his arms. He hovered to the boat in his Jack Form and handed the two of them to Ren.
“Dai! Mei!”
Embraced by Ren, the two of them coughed out sea water and began to cry.
“It’s okay! You’re all right now!”
“Blade, what about Takuho?”
“What about the rest?”
In response to Tougo and Rikiya’s questions, Blade turned around wordlessly and once again disappeared under the sea.
Within a few minutes, Blade had managed to rescue three other people, but he failed to find the rest, including Takuho.
Blade searched under the sea again and again, but the results never changed.
“No… It can’t be!”
“Takuho… Takuho!”
Next to the dumbfounded Tougo and Rikiya, Ren cried out while holding Dai and Mei.
“No… No! Big Bro! Big Bro!”
“…Huh…?”
“Big Bro…?”
Tougo and Rikiya exchanged glances, and then they realized what she meant the very next second.
That’s right. I forgot. Takuho and Ren were actually siblings.
They had to hide that fact for some reason, but Tougo understood why.
He then recalled the anger Takuho showed when Rikiya pushed down Ren.
The two of them must have had feelings between them that went beyond just brother and sister. They couldn’t tell anyone that, but it would’ve been even harder for them to keep those feelings hidden by telling everyone they were brother and sister.
Blade could be seen hopelessly floating in the sea, jostled about by the waves.
Suddenly a voice rang out inside Tougo’s head.
The voice laughed, as if mocking him, and then disappeared. Just as he was about to dismiss it as an auditory hallucination, Blade struck his fist at the waves and shouted out.
“Don’t laugh… Don’t laugh!”
Tougo was the only one who realized that, but Kojirou then began to respond in his own way.
“It’s all my fault… It’s all because of that story I wrote… I’m sure that’s what started all of this… It’s all my fault!”
He started sobbing and gulping down the alcohol he had kept hidden on him.
“Stop! Don’t drink at a time like this!”
Rikiya snatched his alcohol and threw it into the sea.
He then noticed that Ren was smiling. She was mumbling something.
“Big Bro… Let’s play… Play with me, Big Bro…”
Her eyes had lost their focus. She couldn’t see anything other than the Takuho within her heart.
“Ren… What’s wrong, Ren?”
Rikiya shook her shoulders, while Dai and Mei who had stopped crying looked up at her with unease.
Just then, Tougo realized something. The sounds of the sea had suddenly gotten quiet enough to the point where Ren’s mumbling was audible.
The storm was finally leaving.
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