Chapter 6.2 (1/2)

K R:B by Azano Kouhei

6 (extract 2, pages 164-172)

<…>

“You two, too,” Totsuka addressed the two boys. “You now understand what kind of place Homura is, right? So just decide by yourselves what you’re going to do next. After carefully thinking it over, OK?”

“…”

The boys looked bewildered. But despite their puzzlement, it seemed that they both were now properly facing ahead - facing towards the future.

Now that Totsuka thought about it, he was about their age when he first met Suoh. It was only a few years, too, but it felt as if they had been spending time together ever since his birth.

Disbanding Homura would be a mistake, after all, he was convinced. Even if the problems it faced were agonizing, hard to figure out and hard to do something about, it was worth it - at least to Totsuka - to try and struggle till the bitter end.

“Alright then,” Totsuka strengthened his resolve.

But…

“Found them! Over here!”

The once popular shopping street was almost abandoned, but suddenly not a small number of men came crowding it all at once.

All the men wore the same uniform. The blue uniform. A groan was threatening to make its way up Totsuka’s throat. Scepter 4 had arrived. What were Yata and Fus.h.i.+mi doing? No, these men didn’t look like the remnants that made it past those two. Another squad then.

Scepter 4’s troops made to charge in but suddenly stopped with a start.

Suoh was standing there.

Totsuka ventured a glance to the side but promptly looked away. Although Suoh was his king, the pure villainous face he was making, made the pit of Totsuka’s stomach run chill. Suoh was gloomy beyond measure, truly looking moments from exploding. Wrong time, both for Totsuka, and, of course, for Scepter 4.

“…Hey.”

That one word almost sent the two boys swooning.

“What d'you want.”

It was like a gust of doom from h.e.l.l. As if strummed by it, the Blues took a fighting stance, their now sweaty faces drawn. Totsuka couldn’t blame them, because he himself shared their sentiments at the moment.

And it was only the beginning.

“I thank you for the earlier, Red King.”

The Blues crowding the place parted to let a single young man unhurriedly come forward. Totsuka’s cheeks twitched.

The blue uniform the man was clad in looked offendingly good on him. The brilliant guardian governing “order”, he walked as if gliding, the coattails of his uniform swis.h.i.+ng elegantly, and his presence was absolutely overwhelming.

The Blue King, Munakata Reis.h.i.+.

To make things worse, Totsuka had no idea how to interpret that “thank you for the earlier” remark the Blue King dropped. It couldn’t be that they…? Totsuka chanced a sidelong glance at Suoh and found that Suoh’s already fiendish-looking countenance got even more steamrolling.