The Snow in Sapporo That Year Was Beautiful

The world before my eyes is desolate.

In less than a minute, the building was shattered, leaving only large empty spaces and the pouring darkness of the night.

The ground was littered with mangled limbs and bloody remains. After the murder weapon ceased functioning, the world returned to silence.

The villagers are all dead.

Both Daigo and the dozens of villagers who hadn't even reached them in that narrow passage were all caught and turned into dust.

This was an unexpected result and achievement.

Daigo's outstanding leadership ensured that no villager escaped the gunfire, which was the reason for the enemy's complete defeat.

However, Kambara Shuichi was still injured after all.

Before they died, the villagers were completely transformed into Zombie by the uncontrollable Honkai Energy within their bodies. The villagers who were the first to approach Kambara Shuichi used their increased speed and vitality after becoming Zombie to touch Kambara Shuichi with their last bit of strength at the moment when the Gatling gun was at its lowest activation rate.

Even though their bodies had been torn to shreds by the Vulcan cannons and were almost unrecognizable, they dragged their husks along as if using a morbid willpower in a final burst of energy, and indeed managed to injure Kambara Shuichi.

His internal organs were cut open.

"I dedicate everything to the gods." These were the whispered words of the person before their death, expressing their faith in the divine.

His right hand, which was gripping the Sacred God Sword, was also torn off by immense force, revealing the stark white bone, and blood gushed out like a fountain.

The man laughed and knelt down on the ground.

Even a simple Zombie's strength is beyond what ordinary humans can withstand. Even though Kambara Shuichi had mastered Mind's Eye and was able to react to the opponent's movements, his body, which had been Honkai Energy by Honkai energy, was not strong enough to dodge.

This is probably the best ending.

The man was already somewhat delirious, had lost a lot of blood, and his internal organs, which had been partially removed, were ruptured; he wouldn't live much longer.

But at least...

I kept my promise to my wife.

"Kambara Shuichi."

It was a mournful sigh, like the whisper of the dead. Kambara Shuichi looked down at the ground where only large areas of remains remained.

The remains have vanished.

Flesh and bone fragments, entrails and blood twisted and pieced together to form a gigantic monster that could barely be identified as human.

The monster stood swaying, looking down at the man kneeling on the ground, who was nearing the end of his life.

"Kambara Shuichi, the gods cannot be defied." That was Daigo's voice, only more hoarse, more unpleasant, and devoid of all emotion.

The villagers had long been puppets of the Living Doll. Kitahara Shin was able to break free from the Living Doll's control because he had spent much less time in Kambara Village than the villagers, and he also possessed a strong will and the stimulation of pain.

More importantly, it wasn't Living Doll controlling it directly; what remained in the mist was merely the aftershock of the Living Doll's power, which was naturally much weaker and easier to get rid of.

The villagers who are now given tasks by Living Doll are no longer human at their core.

The kind of death that is more tragic than becoming Zombie is being exploited to the extreme, as it is now.

"The offerings are inside, I can feel their presence."

The monster ignored Kambara Shuichi's intentions. The monster before him was neither Daigo nor the villagers, but a tragic product born from the fusion of their personalities, created to more easily complete the mission of the Living Doll.

The monster staggered and walked step by step toward the locked door leading to the basement, its blood drawing a winding, meandering pattern on the ground.

Kambara Shuichi struggled to crawl toward his severed right hand; he wanted to get his hands on the Sacred God Sword.

The man, his life force already fading like a candle in the wind, peeked out a brief, lingering glow as he crawled awkwardly to the side of the hand.

With difficulty, he pulled the Sacred God Sword from between his tightly clenched fingers.

"What an idiot, Kambara Shuichi." The monster sensed the man's movement, but it didn't stop.

The monster mocked the man's pathetic and disheveled appearance.

"How could someone like you possibly change the fate the gods desire?"

The man silently and slowly climbed towards the monster.

But he was too slow; in fact, it was incredible that he could even move under such circumstances.

The door he had fought so hard to protect until now had finally been opened.

The monster had assumed that the door led to a deep and dark underground room, filled with the man's usual cautious mechanisms and modern automated weapons, while Kambara Yuu sat behind the many barriers, like a princess desperately protected by a nation.

However, the princess's kingdom was on the verge of collapse because of her, so naturally, the princess could only meet a tragic end.

However, there were no traps inside the door, and it was never as dangerous as he had imagined. In fact, it wasn't very big inside; it looked like just an ordinary storage room. The monster recalled the feeling of pushing the door open earlier; it was just an ordinary wooden object, and everything seemed quite commonplace.

Inside, there were only some miscellaneous items.

A family photo of the three of them, a box of worn-out toys, and some dolls and plush toys with writing on their labels.

For example, some are named Alice, some are named Knight, some are named King, some are named Queen, etc. It seems that the owners of these dolls used to play house with them.

Perhaps she would sleep with the teddy bear named Knight at night, confide in the doll named Alice, and occasionally place the King and Queen together, staring blankly at the doll named Queen.

Look, Kambara Yuu is such a cute little girl.

So how could Kambara Shuichi bear to see her possibly encounter any mishap?

He let her run away.

Kambara Yuu left the moment the Day of Sacrifice began.

The Living Doll was blocked by Su Qing'an and Satou Yunona. Since it couldn't create clones, it naturally couldn't stop Kambara Yuu from escaping. Under such circumstances, only a fool would let his daughter continue to stay in a dangerous place.

The reason the Living Doll was so furious when it first appeared was not only because the offerings were not delivered on time, but also because the offerings had run away.

She left Kambara Village in Maybach. The village was deserted and unobstructed, and no one realized that Kambara Yuu was no longer there.

The Living Doll has no specific intelligence; it is only driven by instinct to lead the villagers to capture Kambara Shuichi as a substitute. However, the villagers still believe that the sacrifice is Kambara Yuu.

This led to a misunderstanding on their part. They naturally assumed that the gods had sent them here, which meant that the real Kambara Yuu was at the Kambara Ancestral Home.

They wouldn't have imagined that Kambara Yuu had run away, and that the gods had sent them to capture Kambara Shuichi to be used as a substitute for the inferior goods.

Kambara Shuichi was determined to guard this door at all costs, just to create the illusion that Kambara Yuu was still there. The later the villagers found out that Kambara Yuu n't there, the safer she would be.

The villagers were all fooled, including Daigo.

Who would have thought that all his hard work and effort would ultimately amount to nothing more than worthless junk?

But the man acted as if there was something more important than life itself behind him, and that to reach it one had to step over his corpse.

You see, even now, Kambara Shuichi is still acting.

Perhaps...

He's no longer simply acting.

Those things might really be very important to Kambara Shuichi.

It was something so important that he had to protect it, even if it meant crawling over here in such an ugly way.

That photograph, that box of toys, those dolls.

It is a precious treasure in Kambara Yuu's heart.

That would naturally be Kambara Shuichi's treasures as well.

This man valued all his treasures as much as a legendary dragon.

Value even the smallest precious things.

"Since there are no offerings available, we can only use you as a substitute to offer to the gods."

The emotionless monster could not feel the frustration and anger of being fooled until now. It made a calm and indifferent judgment and reached out to grab the man on the ground.

However, their movements were restricted.

The vines broke through the ground from deeper layers of soil and wrapped around the monster's body. Before it could react, an extremely sharp sword light, carrying violent Honkai Energy, easily crushed the monster's form.

The monster, formed from a mixture of human fragments, was Honkai Energy converted from Honkai energy.

The debris, which danced in the air, was blown away by the wind and disappeared into the night.

That wasn't a particularly strong monster to begin with; if you had to compare it to a normal Zombie, it wouldn't be much stronger.

Su Qing'an, who arrived with a body covered in wounds, and Satou Yunona, whose power was greatly restricted, easily killed it with almost no effort.

The world before Kambara Shuichi's eyes was fading, his blood still flowing freely, yet he smiled as he watched the two figures disappear into the distance.

It was a laugh that was incredibly difficult, incredibly faint, yet so joyful.

The fact that the two of them returned can only mean one thing.

The Living Doll was successfully killed.

The five-hundred-year-old destiny of the Kambara Family comes to an end here.

Kambara Shuichi's laughter grew softer and softer as darkness began to envelop him.

For some reason, at this moment, the man's mind suddenly recalled the snow scene he and his wife had seen in Sapporo many years ago.

They participated in the largest snow festival in all of Japan at that time.

Countless lights illuminated Odori Park in a dazzling display at night, with two beams of light forming a giant cross, and countless Valley Lily swaying in the wind, bathed in snow and light.

His wife smiled gently and said to him, "The snow is beautiful."

Yes.

The snow in Sapporo that year was beautiful.

I wish Xiao Xi could see such a snowy scene someday. This world is so big, so very big.

She will surely see many, many beautiful things in the future, and if... she can be happy, that would be wonderful.

"Mr. Kambara! Mr. Kambara! You can't sleep now." The girl bit her lip, her hands radiating a hazy emerald light, trying to snatch the man's life back from the clutches of death.

Blood was conjured out of thin air, the wound on his shoulder began to heal, and his internal organs returned to normal, but the man's face remained pale. The two could feel the Honkai Energy clinging to him like a leech, continuing to erode his remaining life.

Satou Yunona's powers could not make up for the loss of life, nor could they expel the erosion of Honkai Energy; otherwise, why would Su Qing'an have needed to transplant Artificial Stigmata?

The two of them already understood that this struggle against death was destined to end in defeat.

Kambara Shuichi once said that he didn't have long to live, but now that he really was going to die, Su Qing'an suddenly felt very panicked.

But why are you panicking? He's just an older man you haven't known for very long.

Even if he dies, you haven't broken your contract.

You only promised Kambara Yuu that you would kill the Living Doll, and you promised Kambara Shuichi that you would protect his daughter, and now you've done it all.

Shouldn't we be happy?

But at this moment, he was no longer the calm person he used to be; he spoke almost incoherently:

"Mr. Kambara, Miss Yu is still waiting for you to come back. She's looking forward to you taking her to Himeji Castle to see the cherry blossoms, to the aquarium and the zoo, and to Japan's biggest festival. Didn't you say you'd have time to spend with her after that?"

So, don't die.

Seemingly because his superficial injuries had been powerfully healed by his powers, Kambara Shuichi was still able to speak. He smiled and said, "Su-kun, have you ever heard a saying?"

"Given that life is but a fleeting moment, and death is imminent, at this very moment, the seed of enlightenment is filled with regret and sorrow."

"That's what Oda Nobunaga said, right?" Su Qing'an seemed to be back in the day he talked to the man in the Maybach. He responded like this, but suddenly felt a little amused and sad.

He thought to himself, "Just how much do you like Oda Nobunaga? Even on your deathbed you're still talking about him."

"Yes. But I've found that even what people like that say isn't necessarily entirely correct, because I don't feel any regret now."

The man's voice grew softer and softer until finally he spoke as if in a dream:

"I kept my promise to my wife... Xiao Xi is a very strong girl, she will be very, very well... That's all that matters..."

"... I... have no regrets."

Does this mean there are no regrets?

For a long time, the two of them watched like statues as the man's body gradually lost its warmth.

Satou Yunona remained silent, only the light in her hand stubbornly emanating from it, as if trying to hold onto something more.

But in the end, its brilliance gradually dimmed and faded, swallowed by the night.

The power has reached its limit.

Tears rolled down the girl's expressionless face.

She seemed to have held onto something, yet it also seemed that some things were still inevitably slipping away like sand through her fingers.

The boy's expression was blank. He did not recite the Sword Heart Technique, but his Mind Lake resonated with these emotions, and the Inner Demon hidden in the sword's heart was eating away at the sorrow.

It accumulated little by little into a brand new demon, and when the demon has enough power, Kenshin will once again undergo arduous trials.

Such emotions are undoubtedly very dangerous for Su Qing'an, who cultivates the divine version of the Void Sword Qi. But if you really feel sad and upset, how can you possibly control yourself?

"Headmaster Theresa, mission accomplished," Su Qing'an said, pressing the button on the school badge.

This recording will be reported to the Far East Branch within one minute.

Afterwards, Schicksal's Logistics Department will arrive at the scene to clean up the battlefield and remove all traces left by the Honkai.

Su Qing'an gently stroked the man's face with her left hand and closed his eyes.

He gripped the sword hilt with his other hand, so tightly that his fingertips turned white.

The boy said this in as calm a tone as possible:

Goodnight, Mr. Kambara.

Sweet dreams.