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Volume 5 Trouble File First Second Half Part 13

Just remembering all of these faces distorted by the fear of losing their own lives after they have been playing accessories to a mass murder on a much greater scale Izayoi felt that his mood immediately worsened, and his whole body became excruciatingly heavy, to the point where he had difficulty continuing to stand upright.

「「Help me!」. . . .「Do not kill me!」. . .「I do not want to die just yet!」. . . Those were the words that they screamed at me as they begged me not to kill them. . . . . But did Ishi and the other kids at that facility begged them not to do the same to them, with the exact same words? ! ! ! ! ! And did they ever listen! ! ! ! ? ? did they stop for even a moment to think about what they were doing and realize that they are doing the wrong thing! ! ! ! ! ! ! ? ? ? NO THEY DID NOT! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ALL THAT THEY CARED ABOUT ALL THIS TIME WAS LINING THEY OWN POCKETS WITH MONEY AT THE EXPENSE OF OTHERS AND THEIR SUFFERING! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !」

He screamed while clenching his fists so hard that he felt as if they were about to break.

Nobody wants to die. That is the universal truth applicable for all humans.

「Save me」. When faced with the prospect of incoming death, everyone tends to speak these words or some variation of them. If Ishi did not spoke them with her weak voice when she did, it might have been possible that Izayoi would not even hear her cries for help and left the facility after killing everyone who was present there, assuming that there really were no survivors.

If Izayoi really was as special and heroic as Ishi thought him to be, he would not have killed all those people without listening to their pleas for help, ridiculing them and robbing them of their human dignity in the very next moment.

If he had any of the kindness and decency Ishi thought he had, he would have listened to them.

If only reached out and helped at least one person who was begging him not kill them and looked past all the atrocities they have committed or helped others commit. . . . . . . then maybe he would not feel so tormented himself right now.

But when the perpetrators behind the suffering of the black Albinos said exactly the same words they were saying as they were being exploited for their organs and meat, Izayoi felt that if he forgave them and walked away now, he would simply be trampling all over the lives of those who have been condemned to the hell of that facility in much the same way that all those sinners whom he was killing did.

「I know that I acted upon my sentimental impulses, and that it was wrong. I thought that I could be like Ishi and look past all of their sins and transgressions and forget about taking revenge! But the truth is that I wanted to kill them all along! I could not bring myself to forgive them and walk away after all they did! I could not do it, Canaria! 」

After he met Canaria and then Ishi, Izayoi felt like he finally found a way to use his power in a proper way. He thought that as long as he continued to fight for those who wanted to be saved and to protect those who have been oppressed by others, then his power would not be meaningless even in this current day and age. But, the thing is. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . he realized that way too late. Now that it was too late for him to use his power for the sake of the person who needed it the most, he used it for violence and his personal vendetta.

However, Canaria simply walked up to him and hugged him tightly without saying anything, even though every inch of his body was covered in blood. It was a gentle gesture, just like that of a mother who was hugging her child.

「I am so glad. If you had come here just so that you could kill those people for no other purpose than your own selfish revenge, I would have had to stop your rampage even if it meant putting your life at risk. But it makes me happy to see that meeting Ishi seemed to have awakened some kind of personal revelation inside you.」

「Even. . . . even though it feels like I have run out of control this time?」

「Yes, you did, but your reason for doing so is different than you think. You did not raise your fists against these people out of anger, or revenge. You said it yourself: you did not come to them in order to cut them down for their evil, but so that you could judge them for the sins that they have committed. And while these two reasons might sound similar, they are fundamentally different from one another. That is why it is still all right. You have not become 「The Enemy of the World」just yet.」

Canaria hugged Izayoi even more tightly. She was assuming that the worst possible scenario might have come to pass, but thankfully she was mistaken. When she said that she would have to stop him even if it meant putting his life at risk, that was by no means a metaphor. If it turned out that the meeting with Ishi distorted Izayoi to the point of turning him into a monster, Canaria was prepared to use every method available to her to stop him from destroying the entire world in his rage-consumed state. But thankfully, that crisis where Izayoi would have become a walking calamity and an incarnation of death and destruction seems to have been avoided, and that made Canaria feel truly relieved. And as he was hugging Canaria back. . . Izayoi realized that this was the end of the journey that she talked about.

「Even though we did not find anyone else like me, all of our trips have been incredibly fun. The Strait of Gibraltar, the Iguazu Falls. . . . all of these places we visited together brought with itself an immensely valuable experience.」

When he was younger, Izayoi was so immature that he could not find any kind of value in the places they have visited and the sceneries that he saw. But even if there was no monsters there and no ends of the world, that means that these places by themselves were that much more inspiring.

The purpose of all these trips of theirs was so that Izayoi could find a way to live in this era now that it has been ensured that he is not going to use his powers for evil purposes while being influenced by anger and regret for the rest of his life. . . and that means that the purpose of his journey together with Canaria has been successfully accomplished. However, there was still one matter that needed to be settled no matter what.

「Canaria. I am fine with our journey ending like that, but even so, there are still people who we have to get rid of.」

「. . . . . . . . . Those who were buying the mean and organs of black Albinos?」

「Yes, they cannot be allowed to live no matter what. As long as there is still going to be a demand for it, these kinds of incidents are going to keep occurring. And to make matters worse, it seems that some of the buyers include VIP bigshots in several different countries. And since they are going to be protected by the law and the judiciary system. . . . .」

. . . Then killing them is the only option, is what Izayoi was trying to say.

In response to this roundabout suggestion, Canaria looked at Izayoi with blank expression.

「Izayoi. Even if you kill all of the perpetrators, the war will not end. Not until you kill of f the thoughts and customs that led to it in the first place. That is a sin cultivated by the entire human civilization of this era. And unless all of them become aware of those sins so that they could be properly judged for them, wiping all of them out is going to do no good. . . . . but perhaps you are right. If anything, it might buy us some more time and prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.」

A cold light lit up in Canaria’s eyes as she was saying those thngs. They look sharp and merciless, totally unlike Canaria’s usual eyes. It was the first time Izayoi saw her like that, and it made a chill run down his spine.

「Everything is going to be okay now. I will judge them with my own hands. I will show them that a hell outside of the cycle of reincarnation, the one worse even than the one Dante described in his poem can exist in this very world. That is why. . .  you should rest for now, Izayoi. And once you wake up from your dream, I promise you that this nightmare is going to be over.」
Izayoi felt his eyes getting heavy and his consciousness fading, probably due to bot the physical and mental exhaustion of the last weeks. As he was falling deeper and deeper into the dreamworld, he could no longer see or hear Canaria, and soon he fell asleep completely.

「Izayoi. You are still young, and you have your whole life ahead of you. And I am sure that one day, somewhere, someone is going to be waiting for you to use your power to help them.」

Therefore, I will take the responsibility of judging the evil that made its way into this world upon myself.

As she released Izayoi from her arms, Canaria noticed the buyer’s list that the broker that Izayoi killed must have had and picked it up from the ground while looking over it with calm, cold eyes.

And then, five days later when Izayoi have awakened again, he learned that there truly was no one left alive from among all of the people that he still intended to target, but did not get the chance to.