Chapter 796

That night, someone stopped in the middle of a hurried walk to look out the window. The moon seemed redder than usual.

They weren’t imagining it.

A blood moon.

The phenomenon sometimes occurred during a total lunar eclipse or when the atmosphere was unstable. With magical power levels rising day by day, not just the atmosphere but the climate itself was changing.

Whoosh.

The scattered raindrops grew heavier.

A downpour that seemed out of place in this barren land, where the annual rainfall was less than 250 millimeters,¹ soon blanketed the whole area.

Across the endless sand and the few trees scattered through it.

And over the head of someone invisible to the naked eye.

Tap. Patter-patter.

The rain struck an unseen barrier and bounced away without touching him.

The Prophet, crossing the vast desert behind an invisible barrier, abruptly looked up at the sky.

The sky was dark and noisy. Storm clouds that had looked ominous for days were unleashing rain and thunder with furious force, as though enraged by what had happened on this land.

The Prophet paid them no mind. He studied the sky—or rather, opened his senses wide and listened to every sound around him.

Rumble. Rrrumble.

Thunder boomed ceaselessly overhead. The Prophet paused to focus on the sounds around him, then muttered,

“They’re gone.”

The sharp cries of eagles that had echoed in the distance were gone.

The persistent flying beasts some pursuer must have sent after him had finally given up and turned back.

They were a nuisance. Good riddance.

Avoiding satellite surveillance and unmanned reconnaissance aircraft was easy enough. Magical power mixed into the atmosphere shielded him from tracking, and concealment spells weren’t meant for making stew.

But those eagles were different. Even the Familiars kept by the few mages who specialized in mental magic were dirt under their claws by comparison.

They’d followed him for hundreds of kilometers² without slowing down. And their eyes shone so brightly with magical power that he’d almost thought they could see through his spells.

They can’t be Familiars… It must be him.

The Skeleton King. Or the Stone King.

The Prophet frowned without realizing it. A mere monster, siding with humans.

The desert was still vast, but the undead army under that creature’s command would cover more ground and cut the search time drastically.

I didn’t expect this.

Then again, more than one thing had defied his expectations. He hadn’t thought Michael Silbert would fall so easily, or that the World Hunter Federation would bring its chaotic ranks under control so quickly and close in on him.

But The Prophet knew what all those surprises had in common. One man.

Jin Taekyung.

Others had shone brightly before, but they’d all been meteors: a brief flash, then gone in the blink of an eye.

Jin Taekyung was different. He was a comet.

From the moment he appeared, he’d been part of the celestial body that was the world. Now he’d become its center.

He was growing so quickly that no one could predict his limits. So quickly that all The Prophet’s preparations threatened to come to nothing.

Clink.

His fingers strayed to something, drawing out a faint metallic sound.

Forcing down the impatience welling up inside him, The Prophet murmured,

“Just a little more. Just a little more, and it’ll be complete.”

Time was the problem.

He still hadn’t gathered everything needed for a plan that could not tolerate the slightest error, and his enemies’ net was tightening fast.

That left The Prophet only one option.

Hunt.

But time was short. To complete his plan successfully, he had to make it bigger and bolder than before.

For example…

Vroom.

From atop a high sand dune, he spotted transport vehicles moving through a thick cloud of dust. His eyes lit up.

“Chikushō.”³

At Yamamoto Genji’s low curse, the Self-Defense Forces Hunters edged away from Japan’s S-rank Hunter and exchanged glances.

Japan was hardly a Hunter powerhouse, but every Hunter it had dispatched to the Middle East was a veteran among veterans. They’d known one another for years, too. By now, a glance was enough.

What’s his problem?

Isn’t it obvious? Who else could it be?

Eeh? Jin-sama?⁴

Yeah. That transmission from headquarters really set Yamamoto-san⁵ off.

The story was simple. About thirty minutes earlier, headquarters had ordered an emergency withdrawal. Yamamoto Genji had refused.

A reply had come at once—not in the communications officer’s stiff voice, but in a young man’s unmistakable one.

“When Leviathan was wrecking Tokyo Bay, you didn’t come even when we called, you son of a bitch. What? You’re not coming now? Give me your coordinates. If you won’t come to me, I’ll come to you.”

Who was Jin Taekyung?

The only person who could fill the void left by the unconscious Cheon Taemin. The Alliance Leader of the World Hunter Federation, with the support of all humanity.

But people shouldn’t forget his temper, either. Sometimes—no, fairly often—he acted without a thought for the consequences. And he had the strength to back it up.

The Self-Defense Forces Hunters, their knees weak at the Supreme One’s reply—practically a murder threat—had desperately tried to talk Yamamoto down. Even after climbing into an evacuation vehicle, Yamamoto Genji still couldn’t contain his anger.

“Konoyarō.⁶ How dare a Chōsenjin⁷…!”

The others pretended not to hear. At a time like this, they needed to be blind and deaf.

They didn’t much like Yamamoto’s attitude themselves. But if word reached their superiors, they’d get cursed out—and Japan would get dragged into it with them.

More bad press?

No. Absolutely not.

The Defense Minister, who had played a major role in the Leviathan incident—including preparing a kamikaze⁸ operation—was now in a federal prison after his connection to Michael Silbert had come to light. And the kind but stupid Prime Minister couldn’t even go a few days without spewing more shit.

[Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi: “People of Yamato, fight for Jin-sama,⁴ the great shogun⁹ who defeated Susanoo for us!”]

[Asked about the strategy for the Self-Defense Forces’ upcoming deployment to the Middle East, Prime Minister Koizumi said, “Combat should be fun, cool, and sexy.”]

[Former U.S. President Joseph Biden: “I understand the Japanese Prime Minister. In the early stages of my dementia, I didn’t know what I was saying, either.”]

[Chuck Hagel: “I think they’re both just crazy.”]

The Self-Defense Forces Hunters felt sorry for themselves.

The Defense Minister was set to spend his twilight years in federal prison, while the Prime Minister was using the media as a loudspeaker to announce, without a hint of restraint, that Japan’s leader was a lunatic.

Even Korean netizens, who’d been holding back because of the tense mood, had started saying things like this:

└ Top comment: I don’t really want to bring this up when things are already tense, but… do those guys have something against Japan?

└ The Japanese Prime Minister and Defense Minister are anti-Japan, lmao. Fuck.

└ If you ask me, they must’ve had something going on in a past life.

└ One of them was a turtle ship in a past life, and the other was a lunchbox bomb. Seriously, it’s not easy to spew that much shit.¹⁰

└ I wonder if this is how the independence fighters felt when they saw Mutaguchi Renya…¹¹

└ Shadow independence army. Agreed.

└ Sushi country: “Uh, what are those guys doing?”

And now Yamamoto Genji, once called the pride of the island nation, had lost face too. People had learned that he’d failed to show up twice in a row: first during the Leviathan incident, then at the launch ceremony.

Why had he skipped the launch ceremony?

The Self-Defense Forces Hunters didn’t know. If they’d known the real reason, they’d have spat in his face, pride of the island nation or not.

Yamamoto Genji had simply been… embarrassed.

Damn it. I should’ve gone.

He’d avoided Leviathan because he was afraid. Then he’d made up a personal excuse to skip the launch ceremony because he didn’t want to face Jin Taekyung.

That might have kept him alive and in one piece. But once it was all over, something worse than death had been waiting for him.

└ Those guys really are something. That S-rank Hunter hasn’t shown his face once, even now, lmao. What was his name again?

└ Genji.

└ Isn’t it Hanzo?

└ That’s Genji’s older brother.

└ Are you guys insane?

└ Why are you talking about a dead game from ages ago, you fossils?

└ It’s true, though? Look it up if you don’t believe me.

└ ?

└ It’s real; he actually has an older brother named Yamamoto Hanzo.

└ How is this real?

└ So can Genji use Swift Strike?¹²

└ He’s great at Swift No-Show.

└ LMAO

└ Goddamn, that really hurts my pride.

└ wwwwwww¹³ I was about to get mad, but I laughed without even realizing it?

└ “Don’t laugh at him too much, okay? I thought it was kind of funny, though.” wwwww

└ Even wasabi’s laughing, lmao.

└ Lmao, wasabi showed up, but where’s the black bean sauce?

└ It’s now confirmed that Jin Taekyung is from Shanxi Province, China. After examining old historical records, renowned historians at Peking University discovered the Jin Family of Taiyuan (see more)

└ ;;;; The second they see an opening, these bastards launch straight into their Jin-is-Chinese campaign.¹⁴

└ Didn’t the Red Guards destroy their old records?

└ (This comment has been hidden.)

└ So did Genji—or was it Hanzo—actually go to the Middle East this time?

└ Yeah. I heard they accepted him since he’s an S-rank Hunter, at least.

└ Isn’t he just going to sit out the fighting? Doesn’t seem like he’d be much help anyway. They should just send him around to entertain the troops.

└ Captain Wasabi.

How dare they? How dare they insult me—Genji—like that?

Remembering the comments, Yamamoto shuddered.

Swift No-Show. Captain Wasabi.

The more he turned those words over, like awls digging into his lungs, the more his rage made him tremble.

And on top of that…

That rude reply? In front of the Self-Defense Forces?

Jin Taekyung’s warning, which was practically a threat—and the way the Self-Defense Forces Hunters had hurried to hold Yamamoto back instead of getting angry at such rudeness—had stripped away every last bit of Yamamoto Genji’s pride.

If I go back now, what does that make me?

By all accounts, he was an S-rank Hunter. But everyone who’d heard the rumors looked down on him. He’d scoured the desert with everything he had, determined to change how they saw him, and it had looked as if he was about to get results.

And now, an emergency withdrawal order.

Yamamoto had been muttering curses under his breath nonstop when a suspicion struck him.

That Chōsenjin… Could it be? No. Of course it is.

That was it. All of this was Jin Taekyung’s scheme to stop him from earning credit. The anti-Japanese sentiment that had started long ago had followed him all the way here.

Having reached a conclusion that was practically a delusion, Yamamoto barked,

“Oi, sutoppu!”

At his sudden order to stop, the evacuation vehicle ground to a halt.

Unlike before they’d set out, when they’d strongly objected to disobeying the withdrawal order, the Self-Defense Forces Hunters now meekly followed his command. Yamamoto’s face brightened.

That’s right. I’m the beacon of the great Yamato people! The one they follow isn’t that Korean—it’s me…!

The thought broke off.

The Self-Defense Forces Hunters looked bewildered. At the same instant, a realization flashed through Yamamoto’s mind.

“Wait. Who’s in the driver’s seat?”

One of the Self-Defense Forces Hunters blinked and answered,

“No one.”

“Eeh?”

“It’s an unmanned vehicle.”

Silence fell.

They stared at one another, then understood why the vehicle had stopped when it had been driving along just fine.

And why they could no longer hear the rain that had been pouring all around them.

“Ambu—!”

“Ambush!”

And at the same time—

BOOM!

A tremendous roar and impact engulfed them.