Death Penalty

Dismantle appeared before Judgeman in an instant. Though "Confiscation and Death Penalty" caused Dismantle to dissipate before it struck Judgeman, Xuan raised his head, his golden eyes fixed on the black "shikigami."

"Don't call me that name."

"..."

Judgeman did not speak. After the scales in its "hands" swayed slightly, it spoke again.

"Xuan is accused of killing over two hundred people, including Gojo Reito and Zenin Hajime, on an indeterminate date during the Muromachi period."

Hearing the familiar single-character name, Xuan lowered his eyes again before looking at Higuruma before him.

Higuruma raised his head and met Xuan's gaze directly.

"Do you have any reason for it?"

Higuruma spoke. Though it was quite rare for Judgeman to change its wording, as a court, it had to properly respect the opinions of both the defendant and the plaintiff.

"See? This is modern jurisprudence. Problems arise if you only read out the charges."

"..."

Higuruma fell briefly silent. He recalled the man who had supposedly been "not guilty" on the day he awakened.

"You're right. I should hear your statement according to the laws of the Muromachi period."

"I should explain first: this was originally three hundred people surrounding and trying to kill me alone. Then I... how did I put it again? I acted in self-defense until they were almost entirely wiped out."

"..."

Higuruma said nothing, instead beginning to unseal the file in his hand—according to the domain's rules, it was now his turn to question the defendant.

Inside the file was not a photograph, but an audio tape. Higuruma naturally inserted it into the player that had appeared in Judgeman's chest. After a burst of distorted static, Xuan heard familiar voices.

"No matter how strong he is, there's no way he can kill all of us by himself!"

"He killed the Star Plasma Vessel! We have to kill him!!"

Amid clamorous footsteps and the sound of something being cut, the recording ended.

"...According to the recording, the defendant's statement is correct. But—"

Before Higuruma could finish, Xuan interrupted him.

"Under the laws of the Muromachi period, killing people was absolutely forbidden. There was no such thing as self-defense, right?"

Xuan clapped his hands together without another word.

"Then come on. Let me see what you can do."

"..."

"Guilty!! Death penalty!!!!"

As Higuruma fell silent, Judgeman, as though its brow had been touched, opened its huge mouth and let out a piercing shriek. Xuan, meanwhile, raised a hand toward Higuruma.

No confiscation?

In the instant Higuruma was taken aback, Xuan immediately lifted his hand. A bolt of deep violet lightning streaked through the air and exploded beside Higuruma's ear.

"So, confiscation is actually part of the modern legal punishment of deprivation of political rights, isn't it? In my era, such a thing didn't exist at all... so confiscation does not apply to me."

"...I see."

Xuan did not launch another attack. He merely watched Higuruma.

The longsword in Higuruma's hand, the thing known as the Executioner's Sword, was an object that killed certain people the moment it touched them.

Its effect was an instant kill—but for Xuan, avoiding something that killed on contact was not difficult.

He could become a shadow and sink into darkness. He had plenty of ways to evade that kind of attack, and besides...

Higuruma was someone who easily got tangled up in his thoughts. Right now, he was probably considering whether his own crime truly warranted the "death penalty." Perhaps he was thinking about something else as well.

"If you're not going to attack, then I'm starting."

"..."

Higuruma suddenly remembered why he had sought out the man before him in the first place. During their battle just now, Higuruma had changed his mind more than once. He wanted to defeat the man before him, which was completely at odds with his original purpose.

He had originally approached this man to find his own future.

After killing the judge and prosecutor, Higuruma had indeed felt exhilarated—a pleasure that permeated his heart and mind after finally doing what he had wanted to do. Yet when he left the courthouse and asked the Kogane bug that appeared about the rules of the Culling Game, he only then belatedly realized how much he had changed.

Trying to peel those changes away from himself, he used cursed energy to kill the strange monsters that appeared along the way while stumbling toward the barrier that covered the sky. Walking against the flow of people for the first time gave Higuruma that strange thrill once more.

But it did not change the fact that he had killed people.

Perhaps it was that mindset—letting the law guide his actions—that gave birth to the cursed spirit Judgeman and his technique.

Yet he could not forget that day, in that courtroom. Judgeman had clearly pronounced "confiscation," not the death penalty, yet he had calmly raised the gavel and smashed in the heads of the judge and prosecutor.

Under Judgeman's verdicts, murder was a crime that, once established as fact, would be sentenced to death.

After the "trial," he had killed two "innocent" ordinary people without hesitation. It left Higuruma's heart quiet.

If they were innocent, then did that not make Higuruma himself guilty?

And yet, the instant he swung down the hammer, Higuruma had felt pleasure.

That sense of release had etched itself into Higuruma's mind from that moment onward.

"So boring. Are we fighting or not?"

As Higuruma stood motionless, the Executioner's Sword in his hand flickered between light and shadow.

"Before we begin... I have one last question for you."

"You people really are obsessed with questions. One after another—can't you just have a proper fight?"

"..."

"Looks like you can't. Fine, let's hear your question."

Seeing Higuruma hesitate yet again, Xuan helplessly spread his hands.

"Do you think the rules of the Culling Game can replace modern laws?"

"Huh? With just these few rules?"

"No. More rules could be added afterward, building up the Culling Game's rules piece by piece. People who hurt others would be punished immediately. Something enforced that promptly would be stronger than existing laws... at least stronger than Japan's laws."

"...And then?"

Xuan tilted his head at Higuruma.

"In the end, it would become a world where the strong make the rules and the weak can only struggle to survive. Is that the kind of world you long for?"

"...No."

"You're too weak. Even if you rank among the top ten in the Culling Game as a whole, you're still too weak."

Higuruma looked at the Executioner's Sword in his hand, unsure how to answer Xuan.

Once again, he remembered those eyes—the eyes that had glared at him.

To understand the human heart meant understanding the weakness of others.

Day after day, he had watched those weak people—the victims, and the perpetrators.

"I am not weak."

"Hm?"

"I'm only weaker than you."

Xuan sensed the cursed energy around the man before him suddenly pause.

"Oh? Then show me!"

The instant Higuruma lunged forward, Xuan's slash had already appeared before him.