“Hah… hah… hah…”

Kenya Mikazuki and Kaguya Kurokami arrived at the edge of the slums.

“No way… no way!!”

What Kaguya saw were blood-soaked corpses.

People crushed under rubble.

Many of them no longer retained any recognizable form.

Kenya stood frozen at the sight, unable to utter a word.

“What the hell is this?”

He had never seen anything like it.

He had come across mosaiced images of bodies online before, and even those had turned his stomach.

But the scene right in front of him was far too vivid.

Far too red, far too real.

“Urghhh!”

The smell of gunpowder, the stench of gunsmoke.

The piercing odor of death assaulted his nostrils, and Kenya vomited.

The cheerful auntie who had always laughed so brightly with him until now.

The gruff uncle who greeted him with a good morning every day despite his tough face.

The kids who adored him like a big brother and begged him to play.

All of them lay dead there, equally lifeless.

“What the hell… why would anyone…”

And then the gunfire rang out again.

Kenya wiped his filthy mouth and looked up toward the sound, his face draining of color.

“Over there… the orphanage!”

The place where he had stayed almost every night, playing with the children.

Kenya forced his trembling legs forward.

Kaguya’s eyes brimmed with tears as she understood what needed to be done and started running too.

They raced toward the orphanage.

His heart and body felt disconnected, refusing to move properly.

The orphanage had been reduced to rubble.

And in front of it stood rows of trembling children, clutched tightly by a woman holding them close.

Before them loomed two KOG units.

“Announcement to the resistance~! Everyone, please surrender~. Otherwise, all these kids here are gonna die~.”

A woman’s voice boomed from the massive loudspeaker.

Yumir Earthguard. One of the empire’s princesses.

Kenya arrived, gasping for breath, and stared at the scene.

For a moment, he couldn’t comprehend what was happening. But then her voice made it clear.

“Stop… hey, stop it.”

His ragged voice trembled as he took in the sight.

The KOG’s shoulder-mounted machine guns were aimed at the children.

And then it began.

“3, 2, 1.”

The countdown to death.

“Stop it, please stop!!”

Kenya’s scream made the children who heard it turn toward him.

Takeru, the clingy one who pestered him to play every day despite his loneliness.

Midori, who always ate from Kenya’s lap like a spoiled child.

And Azusa, the girl who had cried every day and called him “Papa” while holding his hand.

They reached out toward him, pleading for help.

“0. Bye-bye~.”

The gunfire erupted, bullets tearing through them.

“Uwaaaahhh!!!”

“No, Kenya! No!!”

Kaguya threw her arms around Kenya, stopping him as he tried to rush to the children.

“Everyone! Kaguya, let go!”

“You can’t, Kenya. Please… you can’t… We have to run now.”

Ahead, in Kenya’s line of sight, lay the shot children.

Some were still breathing.

“Big brother…”

Their hands stretched toward him.

Treat their wounds now, and maybe they could be saved.

Everyone was reaching out to him.

Hands begging to be saved.

He had to grab them quickly, hold them tight, reassure them.

“Like cockroaches, so persistent. Gotta exterminate them properly.”

But those hands went still.

Another burst of gunfire echoed.

“Ah… ah… aaaahhh!!”

“Kenya!”

“N-nooo!!”

Kaguya desperately clamped her hand over Kenya’s screaming mouth.

She dragged him away bit by bit, fleeing the scene.

Tears streamed from their eyes, red as if streaked with blood.

The girl pressed on straight ahead, while the boy trembled in a daze.

What separated them was the difference in resolve and experience.

One had already endured hell; the other had basked in peace.

He knew it.

He thought he knew.

This world was hell. But he still hadn’t truly understood.

Lives could vanish so easily.

The fragile peace he had enjoyed until yesterday was nothing more than a momentary illusion on a thread.

“I thought I saw something… oh well, let’s go, Jilian.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

…

“Dad!”

“They’re here!”

Isshin Kurokami and the others waited in the warehouse.

Kaguya and Kenya arrived.

Isshin embraced his daughter.

Kaguya felt relief at her father’s safety but quickly pulled away to ask about the situation.

“Isshin-san. Lend me a KOG. I’m going to… kill those bastards.”

“Kenya…”

As soon as the explanation ended, Kenya made his request to Isshin.

It meant he would fight himself.

“I still didn’t understand. About this world. About war.”

His fists clenched tight, trembling.

Yet Kenya was shockingly calm, even to himself.

He had zoned out, questioning “why” over and over.

He arrived at a single conclusion.

“I thought killing people was wrong. But right now, all I feel is the urge to kill them.”

Anger dominated Kenya.

In his peaceful world, he had learned revenge was wrong, retaliation forbidden.

He thought he had learned that.

But.

Even now, closing his eyes brought back those hands reaching for him that he couldn’t grasp.

The children’s screams, the blood, eyes losing their light.

So he wanted to kill those bastards. That impulse controlled him.

“I can’t hold it back anymore. Nothing but their deaths will do. For everyone who died… for Azusa… I can’t face them otherwise.”

“Kenya…”

Kaguya gripped Kenya’s hand.

She squeezed it hard, painfully so.

“…I understand. Go, Kenya.”

“Dad!”

“Unleash that anger. Revenge is wrong? No one in this country… no Japanese person would say that seriously!”

Isshin’s powerful words.

Looking around, the soldiers gazed at Kenya with the same burning eyes.

As if saying they felt the same.

“We’ve had everything taken from us. Our country, our families, our loved ones. And we still haven’t taken it back… So go! Kenya!”

“Yes.”

As Kenya moved toward the KOG on shaking legs, Isshin approached and clapped him hard on the shoulders, leaning in close.

“But don’t forget one thing.”

Isshin thumped Kenya’s chest firmly, as if to jog his memory.

Just like that night—the first time Kenya piloted a KOG and killed someone.

“Remember what’s inside you.”

Kenya had come here every day.

Not just to protect Kaguya, but these people too.

Before he knew it, he harbored that vague desire.

Grown attached? Exactly.

Living together, eating together, laughing together, sleeping together.

Days spent like family, treated as such by everyone.

It felt good.

Is this what a close family is like?

The kids who called him big brother felt like little siblings.

The uncles and aunties who fussed over him overlaid with images of parents.

Everyone laughing over the smallest things.

This must be what family is. So warm.

That’s what he felt.

So he wanted to protect them.

That’s why he hated those bastards so much he wanted to kill them.

“This isn’t a fight to kill. It’s a fight to protect. What do you want to protect? Who’s still alive?!”

Flames of revenge burned in Kenya’s eyes.

But those words made them flicker.

Ahead, in his gaze, the girl gripping his hand tightly, trembling.

The girl with red, tear-swollen eyes watching him worriedly.

Seeing her, Kenya remembered.

Why he came to this world. What his purpose here was.

(Kaguya…)

Kenya remembered.

The one thing anchoring him inside.

“Regulate your breathing. Take a deep breath. Clear your head!”

“…Yes.”

Blood flowed to his rage-clouded mind.

Oxygen circulated, calming his heart.

Yes, remember.

Why did I come to this world? Why did I decide to fight here?

“Sorry, Isshin-san. I’m calmer now. And I remembered. The reason I came to this world… it’s to protect! Everyone, and…”

Kenya looked at Kaguya.

He held her gaze steadily and continued.

“You.”

Isshin nodded at the sight.

He’s fine now. This boy isn’t ruled by anger.

He’s controlling it fully.

He can turn that rage into power.

As long as he remembers that one precious thing supporting him, he’s good.

“Go, Kenya. It’s prepped and ready.”

And so Kenya climbed into the KOG.

He gripped the controls tight, quietly bottling his anger.

What lay ahead was undoubtedly a battlefield.

Life-threatening, where death was a real possibility.

Kenya had been just a high schooler, a shut-in from a peaceful country.

But not anymore. He understood the meaning of this power, embraced it.

If.

If there was a reason he came to this world, it was probably this.

To fight.

To resist the injustice.

Flames of anger burned in his eyes.

“I’m off. Isshin-san, everyone. And Kaguya.”

No trace of fear in those fiercely burning eyes.

“KOG, launch!”