Hagure Yuusha no Aesthetica:Volume 8 Epilogue

Epilogue - Tragedy's Starting Point

Part 1

Around the same time Akatsuki and Listy were advancing forward, and Kyouya had confronted Tiana.

Nanase Haruka had appeared in main school building within Babel -- Strictly speaking, she was making her way over to stairs en route to the uppermost floor.

The plan was to invade from the roof with a single 〇 on top.

It was different from other rooftops, as it was equip with a heliport. In case of an earthquake or fire it was to be used as one of the evacuation routes. But in times of emergency passages such as stairs, corridors and even entrances may not always be open. Therefore, in a pinch it may be necessary to destroy some property to be able to escape.

But it was also because of that, that destroying the ceiling to the roof or walls were a lot easier compared to other places.

Under normal circumstances infiltrating from the sky would be conspicuous, and be impossible.

But......

"...... Still, the security was too lax. "

While stepping off from the rooftop into the stairwell, Haruka couldn't help mutter to herself.

Everything was going as expected. At an earlier time she anticipated JPN-Babel would currently be undermanned.

"Because --"

After swallowing the rest of her words, Haruka considered it in my her mind.

Kyouya betrayed her, and even murdered Ryohei and Minami -- and,

We were Kyouya's most trusted comrades. Of course, whether Kyouya himself also thought so was unknown. However, at least in the eyes of everyone around it was that way.

Externally as well, the members of JPN-Babel's student council were known to be Kyouya's right-hand men. Nevertheless Kyouya tried to eliminate people such as themselves, without the slightest trace of emotion on his face.

Merely because we might have become a risk to establishing his ideal.

...... He also mentioned something else.

Haruka recalled what Kyouya had said.

-- This plan cannot afford to be discovered by COCOON.

But with a secret, naturally the more people who know of it the greater the risk was of it leaking. For that reason Kyouya must of carried out his plan in private behind Haruka and the others backs.

In other words, currently within JPN-Babel there shouldn't be any other people involved in his fanatic plan.

So......

"............"

Just like several hours ago, in front of the student council room on the top floor door Nanase Haruka stood silently.

"------------------!"

Recalling that earlier encounter, Haruka couldn't help from tensing her body to the point it was difficult to breathe.

The overwhelming fear carved into her heart when she was almost killed by Kyouya still didn't completely disappear.

...... Even so.

Nanase Haruka made a fist with her right hand, and touched it her chest.

There within her now, was the courage and warmth Akatsuki given her. And thoughts as a fellow comrade of wanting to be useful to Akatsuki, and also thoughts as Miu's close friend in wanting to help rescue her.

Haruka's present self was no longer the Vice President of the student council or Chairman of the discipline committee.

Rather Nanase Haruka was Akatsuki, Miu, Listy, Chikage, and Kuzuha's -- friend.

Haruka also understood it was impossible for her to defeat Hikami Kyouya.

Probably right now only Akatsuki was capable of accomplishing such feat.

...... However.

There were must be something she could do to help -- Haruka thought.

In terms of fighting strength, there were already Listy, Chikage and Kuzuha to provide the necessary power. Still, if she joined them that strength would be even greater, however Haruka thought it would be more advantageous if she help in other ways.

As she was a former member of the student council there were some things only she could do. That's why she chose an independent course of action instead of joining with them.

That's what Haruka believed was her role.

So......

"...... I can't just keep standing still."

After muttering, Haruka pushed open the heavy door of the student council room.

Part 2

Inside the student council room she was met with darkness and silence.

And -- there ware no signs that Hikami Kyouya was there.

Once Haruka confirmed that fact, some of her tension eased.

"As I thought...... he's somewhere else."

Kyouya had said, he was going to create a utopia using Miu.

However, the student council room was clearly not the most suitable place.

After all, beside himself, there were three other members of the student council using the room.

At times when Kyouya was absent from Babel the other members had free access to come and go.

Moreover the heliport rooftop, which was to be used as an the evacuation point, was so close to the student council room. Kyouya would never consider such a semi-open space to conceal secrets that were tantamount to betraying COCOON.

Exposed to the stillness of the night inside, Nanase Haruka couldn't help think that what happened a few hours ago was only an illusion.

But......

"Uesaki...... Minami......"

The harsh reality remained.

Ryohei and Minami's frozen corpses were still lying on the floor. However, now was not the time to hold a funeral for them.

So while Haruka's gaze was fixed on the floor,

"I will take on your enemy for both of you. President Hikami -- No."

After shaking her head, she further strengthen her resolve,

"Hikami Kyouya's ambitions will be stopped......!"

That meant Haruka recognized Kyouya as a clear enemy.

Then, she tightly clenched her fist, and headed towards the work desk in depths of the room.

"Time to get started......"

After saying so, she pushed the power button on the computer.

The light from the monitor emerged through the darkness.

And after the OS booted, she was prompted to input the user authentication password.

...... I can't make any mistakes here.

Facing the first barrier, Haruka prepared herself mentally.

Having announced her resignation to the student council, because she decided to side with Akatsuki and Miu, Haruka didn't think Kyouya would be that easy on her, so as to allow her to keep her password.

However, Haruka silently tapped away at the keyboard,

"......!"

After suppressing her inner tension, she pressed the ENTER key.

Suddenly the screen blacked out -- and after between kana. (The time it takes after writing one then starting the next.)

The desktop screen appeared on the monitor.

The system had successfully started.

"Hah...... It seems everything went well."

Haruka softly sighed.

She had entered the system administrator password .

-- However, Haruka didn't start up her own computer.

The desk she was at now belonged to Minami.

It was a situation in which there were dead bodies in student council room. Kyouya's having killed Ryohei and Minami, most likely was because he never anticipated a need would arise to kill them. And naturally the idea of changing their access to the computers would never cross his mind, since they were dead and could no longer pose any threat.

"If I accessed my computer the security program would of been immediately triggered even with the administrative code."

As expected, Kyouya didn't touch Ryohei and Minami's PC.

However, she wasn't satisfied with just that.

...... I must hurry.

In order to grasp JPN-Babel's current situation, Haruka plunge directly into the security system.

"Sure enough...... it has entered a into complete lock down."

It was confirmation of what she had anticipated.

After he had successfully captured Miu, Kyouya also said that everything was ready. In addition, Haruka had slipped out from under his finger because of the transfer seal Akatsuki had placed on her.

In this case, Kyouya determined it was only a matter of time before the rest of COCOON was aware of the situation, therefore adopted tougher measures.

Still, the barrier that isolates the campus from the outside had already been destroyed by Akatsuki.

All of Kyouya's plans were not progressing as smoothly as he expected.

And Haruka started a course of action to create a more advantageous situation for Akatsuki, even if it would be only a little.

The utmost support that her present self could do was to lift the security system, and destroy the program itself.

In order to prevent it from being re-started.

Since JPN-Babel was Kyouya's so called castle, Haruka was going to sabotage it from inside.

"First......"

Haruka began to disable the [guardian beast system.]

And at the same time began searching for Kyouya and Miu's whereabouts.

So......

"This......"

Unexpectedly, Haruka detected areas where the [guardian beast system] had stopped functioning.

The first place -- was outside away from any buildings within JPN-Babel's grounds.

Most likely Akatsuki or someone else eliminated all of the gargoyles at once forcing the system to shut down. Now the system was in standby mode, waiting for consent to reactivate.

-- But, the problem was the second location.

It was within Babel's underground -- the lowermost floor.

That place housed the power reactor to all of the systems, also was the location of the 『Babel system.』 As the most important area within the entire campus, naturally the security imposed on that floor was the highest.

However, the security there now had actually been turned off,

"Could it be --"

Haruka went to pull up the surveillance camera footage, and as she was typing,

"-!?"

At that moment, Haruka had suddenly jumped to the side -- Immediately after.

A crashing thud was heard, and a pillar of flames arose from where Haruka had previously been.

Minami's desk and computer had burnt to ashes.

An enemy's attack. There was no hesitation in Haruka's movements as she made that judgment instantly.

While rotating on the floor she materialized her weapons with her AD,

"There!"

By crossing her arms, her two half-moon blades shot out in the dark -- towards the entrance of the room.

However, both were repelled along with two high-pitched metallic noises.

"What.....?"

Nanase Haruka was startled, but it was not because her attack was stopped.

Instead it was from the moments the metals clashed, and caused sparks allowing her to catch glimpses of the enemies weapons.

A Chinese Dao (Broadsword) and a Liu Xing Chui (Meteor Hammer) -- Both of which Haruka was quite familiar with.

Then,

"-- I thought that I took you completely by surprise, but as one would expect your reaction was indeed good."

"Haruka... ... Don't use my computer without my permission."

And from out of the darkness the attackers emerged.

It was two people wearing JPN-Babel's uniform, Uesaki Ryohei and Aihara Minami.

Therefore,

"How is this possible......"

Haruka was overtaken with surprise, however incidentally she suddenly thought of one possibility.

It was what she heard from Alayzard before.

On how Disdiya had used a forbidden spell to revive the previous Hero Leon Esuperio.

-- Could it be that Ryohei and Minami were revived by a similar spell, and are being compelled to take orders from Kyouya?

Within her chaotic mind she derived at that conclusion.

...... No, that's not it...... because......!

Haruka turned her gaze to the floor.

To see Ryohei and Minami's bodies still lying there left in the same condition.

So,

"No way......"

Nanase Haruka then remembered something. On the eve of decisive battle in Alayzard, Kuzuha had used her magic to create something to deceive the enemies troops. It was an elaborate clay puppet of Akatsuki that imitated him to perfection.

A feat that was only possible because Kuzuha was a master of earth magic.

Conversely, someone on the same level as her would have the same ability.

And -- Aihara Minami right in front of her happened to be a master class earth magic user. For her, that would be a trivial matter like it was nothing.

In other words,

"Both of you...... were never dead from the start.......?"

Haruka said in a daze.

Then Ryohei and Minami were right now standing in front of her because out of their own free will.

The thought of what that meant, caused Haruka's vision to shake violently.

The truth right in front of eyes was similar to as if she collapsed from her feet.

Then, Ryohei and Minami were enveloped in strong light.

The two had changed their uniforms into battle attire.

And,

"You manged to narrowly escape. You could have quietly waited inside Ousawa's house. Why did you have to come......"

"Kyouya's plan can't be stopped -- by anyone."

Ryohei and Minami slowly moved towards Haruka.

With their weapons in hand -- and a clear intent to kill.

Part 3

At the same time.

A Japanese nuclear-powered submarine headed for the mainland from the Pacific suddenly changed course.

It was originally set for the third Yokosuka, but now was on course for the special autonomous region of the artificial island.

Also a scramble order was issued for the troops attached to the top-secret new stealth fighter underdevelopment in the second Fuchu.

After the failed recovery attempt of the <Phoenix cells> by the National Information and Research Office the Japanese Government, which had remained silent until then, had resorted to stronger measures.

-- It meant that the battle within JPN-Babel had taken on a completely new direction.

The aesthetics of Ousawa Akatsuki and the ambitions of Hikami Kyouya.

COCOON's plan and Crimson Twilight's expectation.

All parties felt they were locked into a confrontation, and now the Japanese government was also set on intervention.

The situation was rapidly advancing towards "war."

It was as if they were being ridiculed and toyed around with by -- cruel fate.

Translator's Notes and References

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