Chapter 173 - A Story of the Sound of a Neck Breaking
In the darkness, the blades caught the lightning, tracing arcs of light as they clashed. The boy, gripping his short sword in a reverse grip, closed the distance to the Leader and swung his right hand. The Leader, whose nose was grazed by the blade that seemed an extension of the arm, leaned his head back to dodge the slash.
The boy swung his short sword without giving the Leader a moment's rest, but it was the boy who was nearing his limit. The wound on his head where he'd been shot, and his physical strength being stolen by the cold. The Leader also seemed to have sustained more than a few injuries when the car overturned, but not a single shadow of fatigue showed on his face.
"I don't understand. Why does someone with power like you not take action during this perfect opportunity?"
The Leader muttered as he dodged the boy's slash and then turned to attack himself. The boy, who jumped back to dodge the tip of the short sword the Leader thrust out, answered while measuring the distance between them.
"A perfect opportunity, you say?"
"That's right. All the common sense that built the society until now has been overturned. Pointless morals, rules, and vested interests. Don't you think the world now, where such things have all vanished, is the fitting time to start over?"
"Does starting over mean driving weak people who can't fight to their deaths?"
Thunder again. The boy let out a soul-rending shout and slashed at the Leader. He felt the sensation of the tip of the blade slightly cutting the combat uniform the Leader was wearing. But in the next moment, the Leader delivered a powerful kick, and the boy took the blow to his stomach, being blown back completely.
The boy managed to stand up and rolled to avoid the Leader's blade as it was thrust out. He picked up a shard of broken asphalt that was rolling on the ground and threw it at the Leader. But the Leader dodged it with a composed expression.
It seemed the Leader was enjoying this fight. Otherwise, he wouldn't be engaging in such a pointless dialogue.
"There were too many powerless dregs in this world whose lives had no value; don't you think so?"
The Leader swung the short sword he held in a forward grip. The blade grazed the front of the boy's eyes, and his severed bangs fluttered in the air.
"Every last one of them uses their weakness as a shield, doing nothing while doing nothing but complaining. They envy those who succeed, despise those who make an effort, and thoroughly bash those who tried something and failed. The weak think of nothing but dragging others down anyway. Rather than making an effort to accomplish something and climb to the heights themselves, they think of dragging down the people who are in high places. And then they clamor that they're weak people so they should be given more consideration and special treatment, despite having no value for it."
The Leader swung his short sword straight down. The boy caught the blow by holding up his own short sword. The short sword almost slipped from his hand due to the heavy impact, but he somehow endured.
"My friend was also bashed by those dreg-like people, received harassment every day, and took his own life. Even though he was an excellent guy who improved himself in any situation and acted for the sake of many people and left results, those valueless weak people ganged up and cornered him over a slight mistake and killed him. That's why I followed in my father's footsteps and became a politician. To wipe out such powerless dregs from the world, and to create an ideal world."
"I'm surprised you were able to get elected."
The boy was gasping for breath, but the Leader wore a composed expression. Unlike the boy, who had been through a series of battles, the Leader likely still had plenty of physical strength to spare. He must have been injured when the vehicle overturned, but no dullness could be seen in his movements.
"It just means there are that many fools. If you say a few good things and obtain backing and money, anyone can easily get elected."
"That hits close to home."
"But I'm glad I became a Diet member. Thanks to that, even in this situation, everyone followed the title I held like sheep. Because they're nothing but empty-headed, irresponsible people who think it's fine as long as they follow someone important, I was able to grow the organization this large. Though, it's about to be crushed by you all right now."
Perhaps noticing the two fighting, two infected came running with roars. After the boy and the Leader looked at each other, they took distance from each other and faced their respective infected. If they continued their sword lock like this, they would just be eaten by the infected together. The boy decided to defeat the infected first and then defeat the opponent before him again, and it seemed the Leader had the same idea.
The short sword the boy swung down split an infected's skull, and the Leader severed an infected's head. Without taking a moment to notice the two corpses that had lost their strength and fallen, the two once again faced each other and leveled their short swords.
"However, it's a good opportunity. If I die here, it means I was wrong. But if I kill you, I can prove that I was right."
He's just like my former self, the boy thought. People who lived the wrong way die, therefore the way of life of those who are alive is correct. Therefore, I am not wrong. The boy of the past had justified his own actions that way.
But it was different now. No matter how much one tries to justify oneself, one cannot continue to deceive one's true feelings. To survive. They'll attack if left alone. The people who died had no value in living. Even if he made those excuses and justified himself, in the end, he couldn't think that was truly a correct way of thinking in the slightest.
That was why the boy didn't become the Leader's comrade. He didn't have the right to judge The Brotherhood, but if he didn't stop them, even more people would die. That was why the boy chose the path of standing against the Leader.
The Leader swung his short sword. The boy somehow caught the blade with the short sword he held in a reverse grip, but in the next moment, he took a kick delivered by the Leader full-on and was blown back.
While enduring the dull pain echoing in his stomach, he stood up to find the Leader about to swing down the short sword he held. The boy caught the swung-down blade again, but in the next moment, the blade of the short sword the boy was gripping snapped in two from the middle.
"It broke!?"
Apparently, it couldn't withstand the repeated clashing. He somehow avoided the tip of the Leader's short sword as it was delivered again, and the boy measured the distance between them.
It was reckless to dive into his range empty-handed. On the other hand, he no longer had a gun on hand... The boy again picked up a piece of asphalt and threw it at the Leader. But with a body that had lost its physical strength, he couldn't even control it satisfactorily, and the piece flew off in a completely different direction.
In the next moment, along with a bursting sound as if a bomb had dropped by his ear, the entire area was enveloped in a dazzling light. It was a lightning strike. The lightning struck the antenna on the roof of the small office building right next to the two of them, and that intense light was burned into their eyes. Sparks flew from the antenna, and a burnt smell wafted through the air.
The boy, who was a moment late in raising his face, barely managed to avoid being dazzled by that intense light. However, the Leader, who had witnessed the moment of the lightning strike directly, clutched his eyes with one hand along with a groan.
Even though they had been fighting in the darkness, he had suddenly seen an intense light. His vision must be temporarily impaired. The boy did not miss this opportunity and charged at the Leader. The Leader swung his short sword around, but his movements lacked the sharpness they had until a moment ago.
The boy dodged the blade the Leader thrust out and tackled him just like that. The short sword slipped from the Leader's hand and flew off somewhere.
The boy slammed the Leader into the light truck parked behind him. From the bed of that light truck, which had the name of a construction firm on it, toolboxes and materials tumbled to the ground. Due to the impact of hitting the ground, a toolbox opened, and its contents were scattered across the ground.
The boy grabbed a hammer that had rolled onto the ground and swung it down at the Leader with all his might. However, the Leader closed the distance to him all at once just before the boy swung the hammer down, and the head of the hammer, having lost its range, only struck the empty air.
"You brat, don't look down on me..."
Perhaps his vision hadn't recovered yet, as the Leader was still clutching his eyes with one hand. However, along with a low, menacing voice, he grabbed the boy's arm and slammed him onto the ground. And then, he swung down something he had been hiding in the hand that was covering his eyes toward the boy with all his might.
What the Leader was gripping was a long flat-head screwdriver. He must have picked up something scattered from the toolbox in a momentary opening. Thinking his face was being targeted, the boy reflexively covered his face with his right hand, but what the Leader targeted was the boy's left arm, which he was pinning to the ground.
The screwdriver easily pierced deep between the radius and ulna of the forearm, and then penetrated all the way into the asphalt ground. A scream burst from the boy's mouth. The flat-head screwdriver that had penetrated his arm was even stuck into the ground, and partly due to the intense pain, the boy couldn't move his left arm, just like a specimen on a spreading board.
"To think I'd be pushed this far by a brat like you...!"
The Leader showed an expression of anger like never before. The Leader straddled the boy, who was pinned to the ground by his arm and unable to move, and throttled his neck with both hands.
"I'll tell you as a souvenir for the afterlife. That teacher you killed, she died while worrying about you until the very end. You killed someone who cared about you. Die while regretting that."
You killed her. With those words, the boy finally learned that Yuko had died.
Since Aki and the others had said they couldn't find her no matter where they looked, he had been prepared. Even so, he had tried to remain optimistic until he actually found her corpse.
But the Leader said quite simply that Yuko was dead. As if he had simply thrown trash into a trash can, quite easily.
The one who shot Yuko was the boy. Therefore, the boy was aware that the responsibility for her death lay with himself. He couldn't blame the Leader for Yuko's death.
However, what was unforgivable was that he had continued to use Aki and the others without telling them of that death. Aki and the others had harbored hope that Yuko was still alive because of the Leader's words, "No visitors allowed." But in reality, Yuko had died a long time ago.
The Leader told the boy to die while regretting. But what was welling up in the boy's heart now was a feeling of anger, and a clear murderous intent to kill the Leader. Regret had been pushed away to somewhere in his heart.
The boy grabbed the Leader's neck with his right hand, which could move freely. The Leader, who was straddling the boy and throttling his neck, showed a face as if surprised by the boy's resistance.
"Still going? But it's meaningless; you are weak."
Saying so, he put even more strength into both hands throttling the boy's neck. The boy also put strength into his right hand, which was grabbing the Leader's neck. But he couldn't breathe.
His throat was blocked, and the pouring rain began to pool in his mouth. The night sky, illuminated brightly by lightning, was being dyed bright red. Every cell in his body was screaming for oxygen, but the boy couldn't shake off the Leader's arms.
Strength left his body, and his right hand, which had been on the Leader's neck, fell powerlessly to the ground. The boy, whose eyes were wide open, no longer had any strength left to resist.
Am I going to die here? Such words surfaced in the boy's mind.
Even though I thought of killing the Leader just now, I'm in this state in just a few seconds. As expected, can I not win against the Leader? Was I a weak person, as he said?
His vision, which had turned bright red, was now being painted over in black. The pain in his left arm, where the flat-head screwdriver was stuck, had already gone numb and he felt nothing. The Leader, who filled his vision and wore a wicked smile with the corners of his mouth turned up, the lightning racing through the night sky beyond him—everything was turning pitch black.
Am I really going to die this time? Just after the boy's vision was enveloped in darkness, a single gunshot echoed.
I look forward to your opinions and impressions.