Honkai: Fire Moth Herrschers-Chapter 233: Disturbance

(Volume VII: The Year of Flame Chasers)

Whoosh—

Wind swept through the street, sending discarded papers fluttering like snow.

It was indeed the season for snow, but unfortunately, it never snowed here.

The reason was simple: this was 11 degrees North latitude, 149 degrees East longitude. The Mu continent, straddling the Pacific equator, stretched its right arm here, forming the world's largest peninsula—the Moana Peninsula.

And on the peninsula's westernmost tip, right here, humanity had built a colossal city as a "Beacon on the Pacific"—Te Moana Kino.

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Sakura leaned on her sword with one hand, pressing down her wide-brimmed straw hat with the other, walking down the desolate, silent street. Order here had nearly collapsed, surveillance destroyed the night before, so she needed no disguise.

White leaflets and beige evacuation manuals fluttered down onto her head and shoulders, only to be repelled by an invisible force, falling back onto the damp asphalt.

Everything seemed grey, as if covered in dust, but the air was actually crisp and cool. The grey was just the pre-dawn light.

Sakura sniffed lightly. "Used a degradation agent? Not a trace of blood smell left after just one night."

This should have been a bustling commercial street. Was it due to the early hour, or the bloodshed that occurred here last night? The shops lining the street were either tightly shut with "Closed" signs hanging, or their heavy shutters were pulled down, even the second-floor windows boarded up and locked.

The answer was obvious. Sakura glanced at the cluster of fist-sized bullet holes riddling a concrete wall, a flicker of scorn in her heart.

The ground vibrated slightly. Distant clamor echoed faintly. A flock of pigeons scattered frantically between the skyscrapers.

"Is it starting again?"

Sakura gripped her scabbard with just her left hand, her thumb pushing the purple katana slightly out. This stance allowed her the quickest, most comfortable draw for iaijutsu in the face of potential combat.

Although... she wasn't sure if her blade would be fully drawn today.

Seeing the street momentarily empty, she removed her hat. The pair of long fox ears atop her head twitched in the wind, gathering sounds from all directions.

Only at times like these did she feel these ears weren't entirely a disadvantage.

Sakura silently put her hat back on and continued forward at a leisurely pace—the protesting crowd hadn't fully gathered yet, no need to wait there early.

Turning the corner, she saw a pickup truck. A middle-aged man with greying hair was loading items from his shop into the back.

Sakura could have walked past him, but wanting to truly understand what was happening in this city, she suddenly turned and approached the man.

Waking up early to pack, then unfortunately running into someone, the man was already flustered. Seeing the two long swords at Sakura's waist, cold sweat instantly drenched his forehead.

Whoosh—

The wind swept through again, lifting Sakura's hat. Though she reacted quickly, pressing it back down, the man likely noticed her ears.

For a moment, she hesitated, unsure how to ask, or if she should ask at all. The man wasn't young; if she startled him and caused some health issue, should she carry out her mission or take care of him... He seemed to have no one else around...

But strangely, after seeing her ears, the man actually relaxed.

"Uncle..."

"Oh, oh! I get it, I get it. What's that word you youngsters use... Hiss... Why can't my brain remember it all of a sudden?"

"?"

"Cosplay, right? Hey, little lady, are these swords props too? Real swords aren't usually this colorful, right?"

Sakura resisted the urge to facepalm. The man's misunderstanding was surprisingly convenient. She even thought this identity might serve as a good cover in the future.

Seeing her stunned, the man continued loading, tossing a computer tower into the pickup bed, then leaned against the truck, panting heavily as he explained:

"Hey! Don't mind my age. My son used to drag me to lots of your young folks' events back in the day... Ay, but little lady, the quality of your costume, wig, and props is really good. Where'd you buy them? My son always complains about how bad the quality of those costumes is... Sigh..."

Watching the friendly man, now chattering away, Sakura's mouth twitched slightly as she replied, "These... I made them myself."

"Oh, oh! No wonder. Self-reliance brings abundance... Hah, if it weren't for the current situation, I'd ask for your contact info. My son said people in their circle have been unhappy with poor-quality props for a long time... Ahaha, but with things as they are now, events like comic cons will probably become rarer and rarer..."

The man's voice suddenly dropped, as if finally remembering the plight of this city, no, this world.

"Speaking of which, Uncle, are you leaving here? You mentioned a son; why isn't he helping you pack?"

Sakura's initial instinct was that the man's son was gone—due to the Honkai, or... passed away, hence him packing alone. But his later words suggested his son was still alive. So why wasn't he helping? Had he gone to another city?

Or perhaps... Sakura connected his thoughts with the approaching clamor.

"Sigh—" The man sighed heavily.

"Don't mention it. That rascal's been acting crazy ever since he went to hear that Mr. Tova's speech half a month ago... Hah! If you ask me, why get mixed up in this stuff? Protesting? Marching? As if that's useful! Let me tell you something unpleasant... Forget it, I won't say it."

Seeing the noise getting closer, the man decisively gave up trying to convince her and quickened his pace. Sakura estimated the distance to the marching crowd and started helping him move his belongings.

They chatted as they worked—

"Good thing I sent my son to the countryside a few days ago. Otherwise, with his personality, he definitely would have joined last night's... Heh, it's ridiculous. A bunch of innocent people died, and that Mr. Tova still hasn't been caught. But are these people crazy? There was bloodshed just last night, and they dare hold a march this size today? Eh! Little lady, you wouldn't be... Hey, listen to this old man's advice: if you can avoid it, don't go. People lose their heads over things like this!"

Sakura kept her head down, silent. She didn't want to explain, didn't need to, and couldn't explain clearly anyway. This man's imagination was strong; better to let him run wild.

But speaking of which, public opinion worldwide was like a pot of boiling water right now, the lid rattling, threatening to blow off, yet held firmly in place—the United Government's control was still strong.

Amidst this global turmoil, the reason Michael had sent Sakura to investigate Te Moana Kino was precisely because of the city's highly irrational situation—despite global unrest, this was the only place with repeated large-scale bloodshed. And the frequency was a bit...

In just two months, there had been three... no, four bloody suppressions here. But after each suppression, people would gather again as if they hadn't learned their lesson.

The leaders were the same. The Mr. Tova the man mentioned was already the third leader. Each leader's personality was like cast from the same mold—fearless of sacrifice, with incredibly rousing speeches.

This phenomenon was definitely abnormal. If spread worldwide, it could be coincidence, but concentrated in one city...

Moreover, Te Moana Kino wasn't a particularly special city.

If this were happening in R'lyeh (i fix in this name), it might seem more normal. R'lyeh was the capital of Mu, currently the most populous and prosperous continent, largely untouched by Honkai disasters. Furthermore, the United Government had moved its headquarters there three years ago.

But Te Moana Kino... lacked distinction in population, scale, or strategic importance, making the situation very strange.

Unfortunately, Fire Moth couldn't interfere in such matters. All Michael could do was send Sakura to investigate firsthand.

Seeing Sakura's continued silence, the man assumed his warning had hit home. He took the last package from Sakura, tossed it onto the passenger seat of the pickup, clapped his hands, lit a cigarette, and continued:

"Little lady, it's not that I'm lecturing, but when people are young, they always have all sorts of dreams, thinking they're unique, with boundless energy and ability to change the world... But after struggling in society for a few years, or a dozen years, you'll realize...

"No, actually, you always knew. 99.9% of the world are ordinary people. It's just that young people think they'll be the 0.1%. But eventually, you have to accept reality. Setting aside everything else, just from a probability standpoint, becoming part of the 99.9% or the 0.1%—which is more likely? I don't need to elaborate, right?

"An individual's power is so minuscule, and people are prone to conflict. In most cases, your so-called resistance can't withstand the suppression by that 0.1%. No need to throw your life away... While the city still allows people out but not in, leave quickly."

The man went back into his shop, opened a drawer beneath the counter, and stared at something inside.

Due to the angle, Sakura couldn't see what it was. She was slightly stunned by the man's words.

And honestly, for a middle-aged man, his self-serving rhetoric seemed overly sharp. She couldn't entirely agree.

"But resistance has meaning, doesn't it? If you don't resist, and I don't resist, eventually everyone just has to passively accept things." Although her position shouldn't support this kind of resistance, conceptually, she felt the need to refute him.

"Sigh!" The man sighed, ultimately giving up on persuading the girl before him.

"Maybe that's the difference between the young and the old. You care about ideals, beliefs, while we only care about our own lives and our families'. But the one commonality is that we're all willing to sacrifice our lives for what we care about."

He said no more, took a small pistol from the drawer, along with a box of bullets and two magazines, and pressed them into Sakura's hand.

"Uncle, what is this..."

"Don't overthink it. The checkpoints leaving the city are guarded by United Government troops. Carrying a weapon in this situation is just asking for trouble. What if they... Instead of that, better leave it with you. Though its self-defense value is limited if something really happens, for a young and pretty girl like you, its purpose isn't self-defense, understand?"

Sakura's lips twitched slightly. She didn't refuse.

"Then, Uncle, you've given me too many bullets. In that kind of situation, just one is enough."

The man shook his head, saying no more. He got into the driver's seat of the pickup, ignored the wide-open shop door and the fully stocked shelves inside, stepped on the gas, and quickly disappeared from Sakura's sight.

"I hope you and your son can live well and see the victory we eventually win... Forget it, Michael said not to jinx things..."

Sakura wasted no more time. Using her MANTIS physique, she leaped onto the roof of a thirty-story building in a few bounds, then traversed several rooftops, quickly finding an excellent "viewing platform."

Looking down at the square below, the crowd was densely packed, impossible to count. The entire square and the surrounding streets within her line of sight were filled with people. Descriptions like sleeves forming shade, sweat falling like rain, shoulders rubbing shoulders were no exaggeration.

The people at the front cheered wildly around a man in a sharp suit on a high platform: "Xi Hai!"—or something like that. Sakura didn't know the language but guessed it was their unique greeting.

The cheer spread outwards like ripples on water.

Sakura removed her hat, her long fox ears catching the rising and falling cheers. She counted silently—by the time the front rows had shouted "Xi Hai!" for the 327th time, the people furthest away belatedly shouted their first.

"Tsk... This scale is definitely over a hundred thousand people! If this... The United Government wouldn't dare do that, would they?" Sakura couldn't be sure.

But whether to notify Michael now was also a problem.

To prevent exposure during such special missions, she used Vill-V's encrypted communication network. Unlike Anti-Entropy's early encryption, which only protected the main terminal, this was a plus version protecting both ends. The tradeoff was short communication duration and high cost.

"Forget it..." Sakura wasn't worried about the cost, but even if she opened communications now... the time wouldn't be enough to describe an "ongoing event."

Another roar like a tsunami erupted from below, taking nearly ten minutes to subside.

Then, Mr. Tova, with his slicked-back hair, tapped the microphone before him, confirmed the sound system was working, and began—

"We stand here today, not for anything else, but for one thing—to decide how we live, how we die!"

These blunt words were like a spark, easily igniting the entire crowd.

Another ten minutes passed before the cheers, shouts, and even curses gradually died down, allowing Tova to continue.

"Perhaps some will ask me—wasn't our original goal simply to hope the United Government would tell us the truth about that disaster, the Honkai?

"Yes, that has indeed been our demand all along. But is it truly that simple? Of course not! Some might say we only demand the right to know. To sacrifice so many for such a right—before me, a great gentleman and a great lady, along with hundreds, thousands of citizens, have shed blood for this. Is it really worth it?

"First, I say, of course it's worth it! Definitely worth it! Absolutely worth it! Then, I must tell them, what we seek isn't just [knowledge], but something more fundamental—

"Over the past twelve years, humanity has endured one catastrophe after another. At first, it was just collateral damage from a military exercise, then a nuclear weapons depot explosion, and after that? The great earthquake and tsunami in eastern Shenzhou..."

Tova paused, lowered his head, his shoulders shaking slightly. Then he threw his hands open and roared:

"What kind of plate movement could turn the entire eastern Shenzhou and the Far East into uninhabited zones, yet leave the coastlines and terrain completely unchanged? Could their excuses be any more ridiculous? Do they think we haven't studied geography?"

"Yeah!"

"***!"

"Hundreds of millions died so pointlessly, their deaths utterly meaningless! The United Government couldn't even be bothered to count the digits! And what did the United Government and that organization called Fire Moth do? We have no idea.

"Of course, I'm not denying their efforts. Many among them must have died fighting this disaster called Honkai. But because of their concealment, the sacrifices of these warriors remain unknown to us. So, in a sense, their sacrifices also become unremembered sacrifices...

"And the most important point is—why does the United Government do this? What benefit do they gain from hiding this from us? I can responsibly say—None! If they don't tell us the truth, we cannot understand them. If we don't understand them, we cannot cooperate with their actions. That is the reason for the massive casualties in every Honkai Eruption!"

Sakura stared dumbfounded at the man gesturing wildly, full of righteous energy on the stage, then silently covered her forehead.

"He seems to make a lot of sense... No, no, why do I think that? Aren't secrecy measures meant to prevent panic and riots... But he just makes so much sense..."

Her body swayed; Sakura had to grab the rooftop railing.

Her head felt heavy, yet strangely excited. She felt caught between a spear and a shield, unable to move.

"So, since there's no benefit, why do they still do it?" Tova spread his hands, then clapped them together:

"It's nothing but arrogance! They arrogantly believe their small group's decisions can determine the fate of billions of humans! They arrogantly believe we don't need to think about how we live or die, just wait passively for the Honkai to strike, or live day by day in fear where it hasn't yet occurred!

"If their decisions succeed, they proudly think—'Thanks to my decision, humanity was protected.' If their decisions fail, the dead are just numbers in their eyes. Yes, they think they lead us, but in their minds, we are merely pets raised in captivity! Our survival is their gift; they won't grieve if we die...

"No, not grieving would be better. What's worse is their hypocritical tears!"

"This... this... Ah—" Sakura cried out in pain, clutching her head, crouching down on the rooftop.

"Not right... Not right... This is definitely not just a human speech... No wonder it's so rousing..."

Ordinary people wouldn't know, but as a MANTIS, she could naturally feel the Honkai energy laced within that voice.

Trembling, she put on her headphones and turned the music to maximum volume, but she forgot about her other pair of ears—

Tova's speech drilled unimpeded into the long fox ears atop her head, then transformed into rampaging brainwaves. If she were like ordinary people, she would likely be easily swayed. But she was a MANTIS; her cells spontaneously resisted this external Honkai energy invasion. While effective, it placed immense strain on her brain, temporarily robbing Sakura of her ability to act.

"Why are they unwilling to step down from their pyramids and communicate with us face-to-face, as equals? We're not just fighting for the so-called right to know! Shouldn't all of humanity be one family?

"As a family, we should face difficulties together, brave dangers together! If we truly reach an irredeemable point, shouldn't we die embracing each other? This is what we truly seek—

"Even if the Honkai is truly the end of the world as rumored, we humans must face it together, endure it together! Most importantly—we must decide our own path! We don't need those high and mighty figures choosing how we live or die! Tell me, do you want to live in ignorance or die with understanding?!"

"Don't live in ignorance! Die with understanding!"

"Better to die with understanding than live in ignorance!"

Sakura leaned against the railing, watching the clamoring crowd coldly. "Tch, words that are three parts false and seven parts true, plus mind control... Unfortunately, I'm not Aponia or Dystopia; I can't trace the source of that Honkai energy. But if I capture that Mr. Tova, it should lure the snake out of its hole, right? And with the leader gone, the United Government loses its justification for suppression..."

Sakura's mind raced, flashing through countless ways to snatch the man and escape unharmed.

While she pondered, Tova on the stage raised both hands high and shouted:

"No, no, no! All wrong! Let me tell you! We must both live with understanding! And die with understanding!"

The crowd's roar reached its peak. Sakura placed her left foot on the railing, ready to leap down, but suddenly froze.

She looked up, stunned. A patch of cloud directly above was darker than the surrounding ones—then, four small black dots descended, their impact tearing through the cloud, revealing a massive sky battleship above.

"That's—!"

Boom—

The black dots rapidly enlarged mid-air, landing around the central stage in the square before the crowd could react.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Hundreds, thousands of people were instantly crushed into paste by the four landing mechs. A mist of blood and severed limbs sprayed hundreds of meters into the air. Sakura wiped her cheek; unsurprisingly, it came away slick with blood.

The crowd began to surge and push in panic, the earlier fervor completely gone. Many stumbled and fell, like waves rising and falling on the sea—their internal organs crushed, or simply suffocated in the stampede.

The United Government mechs ignored the civilians, simply forming a Honkai energy barrier around the stage.

And on the stage, Tova, who had been speaking so righteously moments ago, now stared blankly at the corpses littering the ground.

Then, he pulled a pistol from his coat and put the barrel in his mouth.

Bang!

Bang!

Two gunshots overlapped almost perfectly. A wisp of smoke rose from the rooftop of the building directly opposite Tova. A pistol bullet fired from there a split second earlier shattered the man's elbow, causing Tova's own gun barrel to tilt slightly outward. The bullet exited through the side of his face.