Ash Returns to the Sky 3

Rei: Anywho, looks like you’ve been all up and at ‘em, huh? Even though you look like you’d break in half if I blew on you. But seriously, good for you. I see you in a better light now.

See, it’s just like I said: you can do anything you put your mind to ♪

Tsumugi: Thank you! But really, I’m nothing to write home about; I’m always holding everyone in fine back~ ♪

Rei: If you know that, then you could at least put some effort into changing. When humans put their mind to it, they can even set foot on the moon, yanno? But, well... looks like Bonze is havin’ a hell of a time, too.^[1]

Dude keeps gettin’ shoved around by a protag who won’t listen to him, and he’s bein’ put to the sword tryna fix his plot.

I told him to quit while he’s ahead, ‘cause you can see him flounderin’ in every word he writes, but whatever.

That’s not important, anyway. I got so used to English that I just can’t figure out this kanji’s supposed to say. Can you read it for me?

Tsumugi: Oh, umm, that’s...

Gweh?!

Rei: Gotchaaa~ ♪ You oughta be more vigilant.

You’re so easy, it just turns me off. Real poster boy for Yumenosaki Academy, aren’tcha? fine, too.

You never know what evils might be lurkin’ around the corner, so you’d better keep yourself safe. The world’s filled to the brim with big, scary people.

You don’t wanna get hurt, do ya? Tickle tickle ♪

Tsumugi: Hey, stop! Ahahaha ♪

Rei: Well, I couldn’t even begin to guess what your definition of “terrible” is.

You never fail to creep me out, though... It’s like you’ve been through so much shit, there’s just nothing left in you to hurt.

Remember that time I sent you bungee-jumping off the roof? You were dead-set on findin’ a silver lining then, too, like “Wow! This is the first time I’ve seen my life flash before my eyes!”

What are you, the main character of a kid’s book?

You keep that up, you’re gonna lose something real important to you one day.

Or maybe you lost it a long time ago...? If you’ve lost your ability to feel pain, then you’re as good as dead.

There’s just no curin’ your stupidity if you’re still like this even as a corpse, huh?

Eichi: ...Excuse me. I’d prefer if you’re not too rough with him, Sakuma-senpai.

The school rules have been amended recently; even if you’re just playing around, it will be counted as violence and injury against another student.

Rei: Ahaha. What gives you to the right to speak to me, you gloomy bastard?

You must be real happy sittin’ behind the desk that makes all the rules. How’s that god complex treatin’ ya?

Eichi: I have no desire to explain myself to you. No one wanted that seat, so unworthy as I am, I took it for myself.

Call that throne what you will.

Rei: Not that I particularly care, but I am older than you. You could at least pretend to show me some respect in public, honors student.

...But you’re the one with the real power here, huh. Guess it doesn’t matter what you say.

Eichi: Correct. It was the fools who never think for themselves that put me here.

They, themselves, chose to forgo thought and surrender themselves to a higher power. Like children spoiled by their mothers.

Rei: Somebody shoulda weaned ‘em off before the evil stepmother swooped in and played ‘em like a fiddle.

Eichi: You had the ability and the qualifications for it, yet you failed to do so. That is your sin, Sakuma Rei of the Five Oddballs. What was holding you back, really?

To be too strong is a fetter in itself. Even should you try to embrace another, they may die within your grasp.

For all of you, that is your sole, tragic flaw.

You are not evil. Though I bestowed upon you that title, arbitrarily manipulated your reputation, and turned you all into the enemy...

You are not the villains of a fairy tale, without blood coursing through your veins.

That is why you can’t defeat me.

You Five Oddballs are monsters, horrifying supergeniuses beyond human comprehension.

Yet you love humanity, and you involved yourselves with us. You should have stayed deep within the mountains until you breathed your last.

When you descended to the realm of man, you became stained and weakened. And you will be slaughtered by that humanity within you.

Rei: There’s prolly no point in askin’, but I got a question about Yumenosaki’s sister schools scattered across the world. They’ve been havin’ incidents of sorts, one after another... Is that your doing, too?

Eichi: You have no proof of it, but I’ll remain vague just in case: The most generous sponsor of Yumenosaki Academy, as well as its sister schools, is the Tenshouin Conglomerate.

It’s an easy task to dig one’s fingers in and manipulate them however I please.

Rei: I see this ain’t your first rodeo. But don’t go stirrin’ up so much trouble off-campus, even if it is overseas. Everything’s gone to shit over there.

Eichi: I wouldn’t know. Most people don’t think much of it when war or famine breaks out in a distant country.

It’s merely a story from a land far, far away; you would be the outlier to feel so strongly as to extend a helping hand.

You’ve studied abroad several times in short periods, and you’ve become deeply invested in our sister schools, having made a network of connections and friends.

Everyone adores and depends on you; yet, your power is a shackle.

You are the only one who can resolve the conflicts at our sister schools across the sea.

But there is nothing more you can do for the war raging inside Yumenosaki Academy.

Rei: All those guys I had actin’ as representatives and stand-ins for me got totally annihilated, after all.

And sayin’ I’ve got a bad rep is the understatement of the century, so it’s not like I could get anything done even if I did come back to the war front.

Eichi: That was my design. I dropped a nuclear bomb while the biggest monster was away.

The hero went around the world saving countless people, and when he returned home, he was met only with a blood-soaked wasteland.

You are too strong; we had to plan our strategy around that. You cannot fight an indomitable foe, so you don’t fight—you kill.

You haven’t moved in a while, now; is it because you lack the energy even to stand?