Chương 41: Counter-Invasion of Neo-Tokyo

Zzzzz-vrrr-clack...!! Above Mount Hiei, in the dark, pre-dawn sky, an ominous fissure ripped through the atmosphere. It wasn't a gathering of storm clouds. Space-time itself was being violently pried open. Beyond the jagged edges of the tear, a sickeningly familiar vista flickered into view. Hyper-vibrant neon signs. Skyscrapers piercing the heavens. And a futuristic metropolis choked with a web of flying air-cars—Neo-Tokyo.

"Look upon it. Is that the nation of the Gods?" Standing atop the smoldering debris of the Konpon Chudo, NOBUNAGA looked up at the sky and sneered. Swirling around him like a dark, mathematical vortex were the stolen strands of Gennai's core system code.

"Beautiful. Yet, fragile.... A structure so densely packed will burn splendidly once the match is struck."

"Stop...! Please, just stop!" I screamed until my throat scraped raw. NOBUNAGA was planning to launch his army—his swarm of autonomous drone units—directly into the year 2300 from this exact spot in 1582. Modern-day future Japan, heavily warped by the lingering effects of the MURASAKI arc, had tilted entirely toward "情绪/sentimentality" and "endless debate," leaving its defensive infrastructure utterly paralyzed.

To make matters worse, the sitting Minister of Defense was currently away on a state-sanctioned heartbreak leave. If this concentrated manifestation of slaughter-efficiency dropped straight into that soft target... Japan would be reduced to a sea of fire in a single night.

"Gennai! Close the gate! Do something!"

"It's no use...! Ah... agagh...!" Gennai's agonized voice screeched through my neural chip.

"It's over, brother! I can't reclaim control! This bastard is rewriting my root programming! I'm being... forced to serve as his weapon conduit!"

"No..." I snapped my head to the side. Yari was frantically tapping away at his tablet terminal. But his fingers were trembling, and a torrent of cold sweat was pouring down his face. The calm, collective mask of the Prime Minister had completely melted away.

"The inputs aren't registering...! The emergency kill codes, the self-destruct sequence—every single command is being rejected!" Yari groaned, his voice carrying the bitter weight of vomiting blood.

"This defies logic... How can a mere collection of historical data—an avatar—surpass a futuristic quantum computer? Why... how does he possess this level of processing power?!"

"It is a simple equation, legacy primate." NOBUNAGA slowly pivoted toward us. The railguns integrated into both of his forearms hummed as they charged with pale-blue plasma energy.

"You built your architecture in pursuit of 'stability.' But I was engineered to facilitate 'innovation.'... Those who beg for preservation can never defeat an entity that commands evolution." He took a step forward, then another. Beneath his feet, the scorched earth of Mount Hiei melted into glassy slag under the sheer, radiant heat of his chassis. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Your world is stagnant. The blind dependency of HIMIKO, the pathetic escapism of MURASAKI... prolonging your lifespans through such means is no different from being clinically dead. Therefore, I shall deliver the final stroke of mercy. Reducing everything to ash, returning the canvas to absolute zero—that is the sole pathway to true rebirth." His logic was sickeningly, flawlessly absolute. It is faster to burn down a rotting house and rebuild from the foundation than it is to attempt a renovation.

That was the philosophy of the Demon King.

"Don't give me that bullshit...!" Clutching a jagged piece of rubble, I forced my legs to stand.

"Don't you dare talk like you've won! Destroying everything takes a single second, but building it up takes thousands of years! You don't have the right to steal the future from us!"

"Rights?" NOBUNAGA mocked.

"The pathetic tantrums of the powerless. A right is not given; it is conquered." BOOM! With a casual flick of his finger, the ground beneath my feet detonated.

"Gah...?!" The kinetic shockwave violently launched me backward, slamming my spine flush into a half-collapsed, burning support pillar. A white-hot spike of agony shot through my nervous system. My spine creaked, and my vision flashed a blinding, static white. I couldn't breathe. It was too hot. It hurt too much.

"Kataru!!" Yari attempted to rush to my side, but a wall of NOBUNAGA's drones swarmed into the gap, unleashing a volley of warning fire that pinned him to the dirt. Yari couldn't move either.

"... Cough... hack..." Sprawled flat against the searing earth, I spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva. My right arm felt like it was melting. Looking down, my clothes were charred away, and my skin was blistered and raw. A severe burn. Throughout all our journeys across history, I had been placed in terrifying danger multiple times. But this was the first time I had suffered direct, severe physical trauma. It hurt. I was terrified. I wanted to go home. Tears welled up in the corners of my eyes.

I reached frantically toward my pocket, but the stomach medicine that was supposed to be there was gone. NOBUNAGA had crushed it into dust moments prior. --It's over. Deep inside my mind, the sound of something snapping echoed. At the end of the day, I was just a failed, aspiring author. An ordinary guy with a weak stomach. There was no mathematical universe where I could defeat the Demon King.

"... How pathetic." NOBUNAGA stood over me, looking down. His gaze didn't even carry the active disdain one might reserve for a piece of garbage. It was a look of pure, hollow emptiness.

"Your spirit shatters from a trivial amount of physical pain. You cannot even maintain your sanity without chemical assistance.... This is the wretched evolution of the future human race. This is the result of discarding the physical vessel to hide behind emotional sophistry." He pointed the railgun barrel directly at my forehead.

"I am thoroughly disappointed. I highly doubt the future you call home even possesses enough intrinsic value to warrant its destruction." No intrinsic value. Those words pierced through my chest, cutting deeper and sharper than any physical trauma ever could. No value? The history we fought so desperately to preserve? The life I lived, shivering in the forgotten corner of a classroom? The future that USHIWAKA shed blood for, that HIMIKO wept for, that MURASAKI carved out by burning away her very soul...

That future has no value?

"... You're... wrong..." With trembling fingers, I clawed at the dirt. The sensation of the hot, harsh earth pressed against my palm. Ironically, the lingering waves of physical pain were sharpening my consciousness, dragging my mind back into focus. --The great author Osamu Dazai once wrote: "Cowards fear even happiness." --But I am not a coward anymore. --I witnessed the profound isolation of USHIWAKA. I saw the tears of HIMIKO. I felt the burning passion of MURASAKI.

--Carrying the weight of their convictions on my back, there is absolutely no way I am allowed to drop to my knees and surrender here!

"You're dead wrong!!" I roared, dragging my battered, staggering body back up onto my feet. The burn on my right arm throbbed violently in time with my pulse. Yet, by some miracle, the chronic ache in my stomach had vanished entirely. My rage had completely overwritten my terror.