Toaru Hikuushi e no Seiyaku:Part4

Part 4

Imperial Year 1344, August, Messus Island, Odessa—

A clear summer sky burned from the flames rising from the ground, and hundreds of airships scattered the white, wispy clouds.

The sky was filled with a swarm of aircraft and airships.

Odessa Fortress was ablaze. The fire spread rapidly, consuming the nearby forest, the flames dancing wildly as they grew. In the city, fleeing civIllians were chased mercilessly by enemy propeller planes. The harbor, airfield, government offices, and barracks—almost all the key facilities had been destroyed by dive-bombing attacks, their metal skeletons exposed as they spewed fire.

The air defense systems had been obliterated at the start of the battle, leaving Odessa completely defenseless—a one-sided hunting ground for the invaders. With all the military targets destroyed, the fighter planes, with nothing left to do, began to playfully harass the fleeing survivors, as if they were collecting trophies.

"Haa, haa, haa…!!"

Now fourteen years old, Kiyoaki was also running through the cornfields. Above him, two biplanes circled, searching for new prey. If they spotted him, they would hunt him down relentlessly. Crouching low, Kiyoaki ran through the corn, trying to make it to his secret base. Occasionally, he glanced up through the gaps in the canopy, confirming the menacing insignia on the wings of the enemy planes.

"Sky Clan…!"

The People of the Sky. In St Vault, they were known as the Urano Vasilius.

The airborne city-state alliance that ruled the skies had dispatched just a fraction of its vast air force to attack Messus Island's Odessa.

"My father, my mother, my sister…"

He didn’t know what had happened to his family. When the air raid began, he had

rushed back from school, only to find their home already engulfed in flames. The neighbors had urged him to flee to the mountains, but the sky was full of enemy planes. Kiyoaki had decided that trying to flee that far would only get him caught. Instead, he ran into the cornfields in a daze, driven by an inexplicable feeling that someone would be waiting for him at the secret base.

Eventually, the blue sky opened up to reveal the familiar circular clearing. In the middle stood the old secret hideout with its tin roof. Without hesitation, Kiyoaki opened the door.

Inside, wearing her high school uniform, was his older sister. "Yumiko!!" Overwhelmed with relief, Kiyoaki collapsed to his knees. His sister, five years his senior, held out her arms and hugged him tightly to her chest.

"Kiyoaki, thank goodness. You're safe. I'm so glad…"

Her voice trembled with sobs as she spoke, pressing her cheek against Kiyoaki's head. Kiyoaki wrapped his arms around her slender back.

"Our house was on fire. What about Mom and Dad?"

"I don’t know. They were in the vineyard, so they probably escaped to the mountains… unless Father did something reckless." "It'll be fine. Father knows what he's doing in a war. He'll be okay…" They reassured each other with their warmth. The sound of enemy biplanes’ propellers still droned overhead, even though it had been two hours since the bombing started. With fewer ground targets to pursue, the enemy planes circled, searching for any remaining prey.

Cautiously, Kiyoaki peeked through the gap in the tin roof. Two enemy planes circled like vultures, scanning the cornfields below.

"Don’t leave the base. If they see us, they'll chase us…"

Kiyoaki warned Yumiko, checking their hidden stash of snacks. But then he noticed the growing sound of the propellers getting louder.

"Ah…"

A bad feeling crept over him. Sitting down, he looked up at Yumiko. She tightened her expression and hugged Kiyoaki closer.

"It’s okay. Don’t go outside. Don’t leave…"

She glared at the sky beyond the tin roof. The propeller sounds grew louder, the cornfield rustling as the vibrations from the planes made the thin walls of the secret base shake.

"Did they find us?"

"No. Stay still. Don’t move."

Yumiko spoke softly, pressing Kiyoaki’s face into her chest, shielding him with her arms like a mother protecting her child. She turned her back to the direction from which the ominous propeller noise was coming.

The air shifted. The vibration of the atmosphere changed as the enemy planes dropped in altitude and increased their engine rotations. The sound of the propellers was now filled with malice. The enemy had clearly found the secret

base. Gunfire was coming. Kiyoaki sensed his sister’s resolve in the moment before the attack.

"Big sister!"

As Kiyoaki screamed, a deafening roar shook the small shed, like the direct impact of a thunderclap. Scorching lines of fire pierced through the shed in multiple places.

Fragments of fire splintered off, smoke exploded, and marbles, bottle caps, magazines, and stored food were all swept up in the chaos. The slate walls collapsed, the roof caved in, and a beam of light shot directly down into the shed.

Yumiko pushed Kiyoaki down, covering her brother with her body.

Another plane was approaching. The propeller noise grew louder again as the second enemy aircraft came closer. Yumiko, pinned under the collapsed slate, still held Kiyoaki tightly, refusing to let go. She intended to shield him completely with her body.

"Big sister…!!"

Kiyoaki’s tearful scream was ripped apart by another barrage of gunfire.

Summer sunlight danced wildly in front of Kiyoaki’s eyes. Shattered pieces of slate, the roof that had been shot through, and splatters of blood were all caught in the propeller’s backwash, swirling into the summer sky.

As dust and broken pieces of stone filled the air, Kiyoaki glimpsed the black panther insignia painted on the side of the biplane that had fired.

"Kiyoaki."

Among the reverberating thunder in his skull, Yumiko's lips moved near his ear, whispering softly.

"Don’t move."

Something warm spread from Yumiko’s body to Kiyoaki’s. It was thick and sticky, seeping through his chest.

"I won’t let you die. You’ll be okay."

He could feel the strength draining from his sister’s arms as they loosened their grip around him.

"Big sister…!!"

He couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

All he could do was call out the name of the person he held most dear. "We’ll always be together." The enemy plane, the "Black Panther," seemingly satisfied with destroying the shed, moved away from its hunting ground.

As the propeller noise faded, Kiyoaki realized he was covered in his sister’s blood. He reached around to her back, his left hand coming away coated in a thick, dark substance.

The world in front of him shattered and cracked, and everything was washed away by the blood. His mind was breaking.

"Big... sis..ter?"

He barely managed to choke out the words, and Yumiko, her cheeks wet with tears, gave him a weak smile.

"I’m living with you, Kiyoaki."

With the last of her strength, she tightened her arms around him. And then, Yumiko moved no more. Kiyoaki lay there, holding his sister's weight, unable to move. He could feel her body growing colder as she lay on top of him. Fragments of sunlight filtered through the broken world, slowly beginning to dry the blood on her body.

Kiyoaki called his sister’s name again and again. There was no answer. Holding his sister's cold, stiffening body, Kiyoaki cried. He continued to cry, even as the sun set.

That day, Urano forces did not land.

Their objective had been to demonstrate their air superiority by destroying Odessa’s air defenses in under an hour. This act of aggression had no other purpose. The Akitsu military would now have to engage in difficult ceasefire negotiations with Urano, with this display hanging over them.

After confirming the departure of the air fleet, Kiyoaki carried his sister’s lifeless body back to the burnt ruins of their home. He still didn’t know what had happened to his parents. He laid his sister’s body gently on the ground in front of the house, knelt, and wept with his head bowed.

Late that night, neighbors brought back the bodies of Kiyoaki’s parents, carrying them on makeshift stretchers. Both bodies were covered with blankets.

"You don’t need to see their bodies," they said, but Kiyoaki insisted on seeing their faces. Both his mother and father looked peaceful, as if they were merely sleeping.

"They were shot trying to save an elementary school student. If they’d gone to the mountains, they would’ve been fine. But they couldn’t stand by and watch children being targeted, so they acted as decoys to help them escape. They were such noble people, such good people. Why did this have to happen to them?"

The people who had carried his parents wept as they spoke.

Kiyoaki thanked everyone who had helped, then arranged his parents’ and sister’s bodies in front of their destroyed home. He knelt before them, crying quietly in the dark.

When everyone else had gone, Kiyoaki began clearing away the rubble from the house and dug a grave with a shovel. He made it large enough for all three of them to rest together, then gently laid his mother, father, and sister in the earth.

The moonlight bathed their faces in a soft blue glow.

That morning, they had all laughed together, eating breakfast as a family. Now, their bodies lay broken and still, their faces pale as they slept in death.

Standing at the edge of the grave, Kiyoaki wept.

He decided to cry until he could cry no more. He cried until he was exhausted and fell asleep. When he awoke the next morning, he cried again. His family offered no response.

By midday, Kiyoaki had covered their bodies with dirt. Though he hadn’t wanted to bury them, flies and insects had begun to gather, and he had no choice. After filling in the grave, he piled up the soil into a mound and used pieces of their home’s debris as makeshift grave markers.

That night, Kiyoaki curled up in front of the grave markers and fell asleep. He felt no desire to live. He wanted to starve to death here so he could join his family in the afterlife.

On the third morning, Kiyoaki was woken by a voice calling his name. When he opened his eyes, Mio was standing beside him.

"Mio…"

Kiyoaki, his face dirty with mud and soot, looked up at her. Mio was as clean and neat as ever, untouched by the destruction of the war. Her neighborhood in the hills had miraculously escaped the bombing.

"I heard… I’m so sorry… They were such wonderful people…"

Mio knelt beside Kiyoaki and clasped her hands together in prayer before the grave markers, tears streaming down her face.

No words were needed. It was enough that she was there beside him, crying with him. That alone brought him some comfort.

"I loved your parents… and Yumiko… I was so envious of you, Kiyoaki, for having such a wonderful family…"

"Mio…"

Kiyoaki reached out to her, and Mio, without a word, opened her arms. They knelt on the ground, holding each other for support.

"It hurts, doesn’t it? It’s so painful. I know that feeling. My parents died in the war too…"

Mio had also lost her biological family to war and had been raised by foster parents. She understood the pain Kiyoaki was feeling all too well. Her thin arms clung to him, trying to share his burden.

"Ugh… ugh…"

Kiyoaki couldn’t stop the tears. The pain that had hollowed him out from the inside was slowly being soothed by Mio’s kindness.

Amidst his tears, familiar voices echoed in his mind.

"Stop crying. Don’t run away from your problems. Face them like a man." Those were his father’s words, the ones he always used to scold him whenever Kiyoaki came home in tears.

"Father…"

"When you're sad, it's okay to cry. But then, you must find a way to smile again." His mother’s gentle words, long forgotten, now resonated deep within him.

"Mother…"

"I’m living with you, Kiyoaki." His sister’s final words, etched deep in his heart, whispered softly in his ears.

"Sister…"

Kiyoaki bit his lip, trying to stop the flow of tears. But the sorrow was too overwhelming, and it continued to spill from his eyes.

They held each other and cried, for as long as it took. And Mio, feeling his pain melt away, silently resolved to hold him as long as he needed her.

Two weeks after the Urano air raid—

Kiyoaki stood on the slope of the mountain where the vineyards had once been, wearing a new shirt and slacks, gazing out over Odessa. Beside him, Mio stood in her private school uniform.

As an orphan of war, Kiyoaki had been taken in by a facility provided by Odessa’s town hall. The government would care for him until he graduated from middle school, but after that, he would have to make his own way in the world.

—What should I do now?

Gazing at his devastated hometown, Kiyoaki pondered these questions.

The island, once filled with the smiling faces of its residents, was now reduced to a desolate wasteland.

Most homes had been destroyed by incendiary bombs and explosives, burned to the ground in the resulting fires. In the distance, the artillery batteries of the Odessa fortress spewed smoke, their broken barrels limply pointing toward the ground.

The house his parents had built from wood they cut from the forest, the fields they had painstakingly cultivated from barren land, the livestock they had carefully raised, and the cornfield where the secret base once stood—all of it was reduced to ashes in just one day.

If it were only land or property, it would still be manageable. As long as people survived, they could rebuild. But the lives of his parents and sister could never be restored. The pain of that loss would never heal. It would continue to hurt, even decades from now. All that remained for the survivors was to live with that pain.

"How did it come to this?" Kiyoaki asked Mio, feeling helpless.

"I don’t know. There's no way to understand... but..." Mio looked down, organizing her thoughts before turning to meet Kiyoaki's gaze.

"This... this is wrong. It's not right..."

Unable to fully articulate her feelings, she trailed off.

A breeze passed between them, carrying the lingering stench of explosions. The heavy scent of crude oil, smoke, and gunpowder settled in their stomachs, refusing to dissipate.

"...Yeah. I get it. This is all wrong. Urano is insane..." Kiyoaki’s anger began to simmer. "The ones with the most weapons trample those without. They pillage, slaughter, and steal away homes, fields, and possessions. This kind of thing is allowed to

happen. How is that normal? It’s not. It’s madness. Why doesn’t anyone else see how wrong this is?"

His voice grew more heated.

He stomped on the ground, grinding his heel into the dirt for no reason, before glaring at the ruins of his hometown.

In the clear morning sky, he imagined the shadow of Urano’s fleet looming overhead. Everywhere they passed, people, homes, and fields were turned to ash. They called themselves the "Rulers of the Sky," but all they did was operate killing machines. How could anyone allow this kind of control over the skies?

—Is this the world I’m meant to live in?

—If this cruel, wretched world is what lies ahead for me...

Unable to suppress his rage, Kiyoaki clenched his fist until his knuckles turned white.

To prevent this pain and anger from ever happening again, there was only one thing to do.

"Mio, you'll probably laugh at this, but I..."

Driven by emotion, Kiyoaki stopped himself before finishing his sentence. He wasn't sure if his determination was truly the right choice.

"...I won't laugh. I won’t. Tell me." Mio answered seriously. Kiyoaki, unable to contain the surge of emotions within him, let his soul speak. "I’m going to destroy the Sky Clan, Urano." Mio remained expressionless, quietly accepting his words.

"I’m going to end war. Urano is responsible for the state of the world. They’re the ones manipulating major powers from behind the scenes to cause wars. That’s why I have to wipe out Urano and create a world without war. I’ll do it with my own hands."

" "

"...You’ll probably laugh. It’s a dream only a fourteen-year-old would have. ...But... But I can’t accept the world as it is. I can't accept a world controlled by Urano."

After pouring out his thoughts, Kiyoaki glanced at Mio's profile, uncertain. He expected her to be holding back laughter... but that wasn’t the case. Mio, instead, was smiling.

"That’s a great dream. Go for it." "...You’re making fun of me." "I’m not. Not at all. That’s just like you, Kiyoaki." "...You’re lying. You’re mocking me." "I’m not. If you can create a world without war, your father, your mother, and

Yumiko would all be proud of you." "...It’s impossible, though." "Why are you giving up before you even start? If you’re going to try, believe you can do it. If you push forward, maybe you’ll get closer to your ideal. That’s enough, isn’t it? The world would be a little better than if you hadn’t done anything at all."

Mio said this as she patted Kiyoaki on the back.

Having spoken his truth, Kiyoaki felt a bit embarrassed but also somewhat encouraged. Even though it seemed like a far-fetched dream, Mio’s encouragement gave him hope that maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t entirely impossible.

"Let me share that dream with you, Kiyoaki. Destroying Urano and creating a world without war sounds exciting. Even if we don’t succeed, I want to try. If everyone shared the same dream, wars would disappear, right? Then, my parents and your family would all be happy. They’d know their deaths weren’t in vain."

"Yeah. You’re right."

"Yes. Let’s make that dream come true together." Mio smiled and took Kiyoaki's hand in hers. Blushing, Kiyoaki squeezed her hand in return.

The dawn light broke through the clouds, racing across the sky above them. Beams of light from the depths of the blue sky bathed them in a fresh, radiant glow, washing away the overwhelming sadness that had crushed their hearts. As Kiyoaki accepted the pain and vowed not to be defeated by it, a new strength began to well up from within him.

With a determined look, Kiyoaki raised his head and glared at the world that stood before him.

"Look, it’s Fio..."

The white bird, as if blessing their future, let out a high-pitched cry and soared through the mysterious-colored sky.

"Fio’s with us, too."

Smiling, Mio extended her right hand, and Fio flew straight to it, perching on the back of her hand. The two, along with the bird, exchanged unspoken determination, resolving to face the cruel world with their own will.