Immortal Children

Chapter 4 - Monster

Translated by KuroNeko
Edited by KuroNeko

We rushed to the side of the collapsed building and hid behind a rusty vehicle. Misuzu’s breath was coming in gasps, but she still seemed to have plenty of strength left.

I looked up at the sky and then at Misuzu.

“Well, that’s it for today. Beyond the collapsed building there is a safe place to camp, we’ll spend the night there.”

“Well… I wouldn’t mind, but I can still walk.”

Sweat trickled down from Misuzu’s cheeks as she said this.

“No,” I said, pointing to the sky. “It will soon be dark. It’s no longer the time when people can live safely.”

“Is it…… hours for the monster?”

“Monsters?” Kaguya questioned Misuzu.

Of course, Misuzu couldn’t hear her.

“Are you talking about anthropomorphs?”

When I asked, Misuzu was confused.

“Pseudo-human?”

“There are multiple ways to call them. Mutants, Immortals, Monsters.”

“That…… is probably impersonator.”

“It’s definitely their dominant time zone. But there are more nasty ones out there.”

“Is it more……?”

To get to the viaduct roadway on the other side of the street, we had to cross through the collapsed building. We had to climb up the sloping door edges while being careful not to get our feet snagged on the exposed rebar. I took my time climbing the sharply inclined wall. When I hear a gunshot in the distance, I kneel to make sure there is no danger nearby before continuing.

The sun was sinking and dying the landscape in orange colour by the time we got past the collapsed buildings and reached the slightly slanted roadway.

I reach out and grab Misuzu’s hand, who is struggling to climb up the side of the roadway away from the incoming debris.

“Well done, That’s enough for today.”

Misuzu sigh and rested her hands on her knees, catching her breath.

The abandoned automobiles were placed on top of one another to create an area that could be hidden from view. Misuzu and I entered the interior area by crawling between the car and the ground.

I offered Misuzu some snacks and beverages from my rucksack, as well as a towel to wipe away the sweat. Then I told Misuzu that while I would make sure her surroundings were secure, it would still be risky if she had to go to the bathroom and that she should stay as near to me as possible, even if it was embarrassing, and offered her a soft piece of paper. With a puzzled expression on her face, she accepted the paper.

Unable to understand Misuzu’s reaction, Kaguya’s voice could be heard in my inner ear.

“Maybe she can do it on the spot.”

“On the spot?” I ask Kaguya, without saying it out loud.

“It’s her suit. She probably doesn’t need to take it off to do her business.”

“Does it have a diaper-like function?” I questioned.

“It looks like the suit’s artificial bacteria will take care of it. It’s reprocessed enough to be reused in beverages.”

“Maybe the battle suit is specialized for solo infiltration after all.”

“Yes. I don’t think the big one will work, though.”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“So,” I asked Misuzu. “‘Why were you there?”

Misuzu opened her mouth after chewing the portable chocolate bar happily.

“We are… well, I wasn’t the only one at first, and when I left the facility, there were other people with me, and, well, the facility is in Tokyo, but from there–“

“Wait, a minute. I don’t understand this at all.”

“Certainly,” Kaguya agreed.

“I need you to calm down and explain it to me so I can understand.”

What is the purpose of the Tokyo facility in the first place? When I first heard about it in the abandoned amusement park, it made no sense to me, because didn’t Tokyo drop to the bottom of the sea because of the apocalyptic war?

Misuzu’s cheeks flushed slightly as if she was ashamed to appear perplexed, and she continued with the narrative.

“My friends and I came from the Seventeenth District Nuclear Protection Facility in Tokyo.”

“I’ve heard that Tokyo sank to the bottom of the ocean because of a new type of bomb used in the End-of-Life War.”

“Yes. Our protective facilities are underwater. But not all of Tokyo was submerged.”

“So the entrance and exit are above the sea.”

I nodded at Kaguya’s words. If what Misuzu said was true, that is.

“We were assigned a special mission and invaded the city by boat in the middle of the night. After landing, we–“

“Wait a minute,” I murmured, interrupting Misuzu. “I apologise for interrupting you so much, but what do you mean by breaking in by boat? Also, do you have a boat that you can use?”

“Yes. We have.”

Misuzu looked puzzled as if I had said something amusing.

“I fell asleep shortly after landing and awoke to find no boat, although I arrived in this city via water.”

“What exactly do you mean when you say ‘intrusion’? In the city, there should be no limitations on movement. I know a lot of Torinokago residents in different areas, and I’ve never seen or heard of them being on the lookout.”

“Um… But the captain… I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry. I’m just confused because there’s so much I don’t understand, and Misuzu has nothing to apologize for. I’m sorry I got worked up.”

Misuzu gave a small nod and continued with her story.

“The captain instructed me to avoid contact with people outside the facility, in this case, the residents of other cities, as much as possible because contact with them would lead to unnecessary conflict. That was the captain’s instruction.”

“You mean a top-secret mission that’s supposed to be contentious?” Kaguya said.

I questioned Misuzu, listening to Kaguya’s muttering.

“Can’t you tell me what your mission is?” I asked.

Misuzu bowed her head, “I’m sorry…….”

“I don’t mind. You’re in the military or something, and I know you have a lot of detailed rules.” I said.

“Military?” Misuzu tilted her head. “I was trained in military operations, but…… it’s true what you said. I may be a soldier.” She replied.

“You will not tell me you have amnesia, are you?” I say with a wry smile.

“No, I have a clear memory. I remember everything that happened at the facility,” Misuzu said, shaking her silky black hair.

“That’s significant news. Why did you come ashore in the middle of the night, by the way? If I look at you, I can tell you and your companions brought a lot of gear, but it’s just too risky to come here at night when dangerous monsters are roaming.”

“It’s….,” Misuzu said, feeling severely depressed, a complete change from earlier. “I did not know such a monster existed.”

“I didn’t know….” It was my turn to be silent.

“Hey, Kaguya. Do you think there are people in this world who don’t recognize the existence of anthropomorphs?” Kaguya asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t have information on all the protective facilities.” I replied.

“You mean the restricted access to the classified information in the database?”

“Yes. So it’s no wonder that there are groups of people in protective facilities that I don’t know about that have been sealed off since the old civilization and have completely lost contact with the mundane world.”

“You think Misuzu is a member of such an organization?” Kaguya questioned.

“It’s possible,” I replied.

“The world is and always has been full of mysteries…. “

“Did the anthropomorphs get your friends?” I asked Misuzu.

I thought it was harsh, but I asked Misuzu a question.

“It happened so fast. One of my friends was dragged into the darkness, and the others used the lights to help her. Then there was that monster around, a lot of human-like creatures,”

“You’re very careless,” Kaguya said.

“I didn’t know anthropomorphs existed. It can’t be helped.”

“Maybe so. When she said they brought in the lights, were they trying to build an outpost?”

“An army trained to progress to Torinokago for anti-personnel combat would probably build an outpost or two. But to break in the middle of the night, I think they were expecting a long mission with covert action.”

“So that’s it.”

“What did the anthropomorphs look like?” I asked.

When I asked, Misuzu hugged herself, perhaps remembering the horror of the attack.

“Some were standing like humans, others were running on all fours like dogs, and they were all hideously disfigured. Some of them had lost most of their skin, some of their internal organs were sticking out, and some of them were missing limbs.” Misuzu replied.

I knew what it was like.

“A ‘tracking type’ of a regular individual and an anthropomorphic specialized in quadruped locomotion,” I said.

“Some of them wore what looked like clothing remnants,” Misuzu said. “We fought back immediately, as we had been trained to do, but no amount of gunfire could stop the monster’s momentum, except for a small trickle of blood. The next thing we knew, most of our friends had been killed by the monster.”

“Who survived?” I asked.

“I don’t know the exact number. I survived with the captain’s support.” She replied.

“What about the Captain?”

Misuzu shook her head a few times to the side. As she did so, her beautiful black hair swayed out of place.

“By the time the sun rose, the roaring monster was gone. But shortly thereafter, we were surrounded by a group of armed men.”

“The raiders at the amusement park, right?”

“Yes, the captain was killed for resisting on the spot….. “

“What a very brave captain,” Kaguya said sarcastically.

“They took the captain’s equipment—and unbelievably, they violently took off not only the weapons but also the battle suit, and they took it all away.”

Misuzu’s words contained anger, but there was nothing ‘unbelievable’ about the looters’ actions, and stripping corpses was a normal thing in this world.

I couldn’t believe that they hadn’t violated and killed her.

“Were the raiders aware that they were being tracked by anthropomorphs?”

I agreed with Kaguya’s words.

“It’s possible they took advantage of the anthropomorphic attack,” I replied.

“I was handcuffed and taken to that place,” Misuzu said.

“They did nothing to you?” I asked.

“Yes. Probably because I was not carrying a weapon. I had to let go of my rifle when I was running away from the anthropomorphic because it was too heavy…… “

Misuzu said matter-of-factly.

“It’s not the right thing to let go of your weapon. It’s not the right thing to do, but it’s the only thing to do if you want to avoid being hunted down and eaten alive by a tracking werewolf,” Kaguya said.

However, Misuzu was not carrying any luggage other than her weapon. As I expected, that narrowed down her options for survival too much. The sense of discomfort I had with Misuzu might have come from her words and actions.

“You know what happened after that. I was trapped there until I was rescued by Leila-san.” Misuzu said.

“Leila’s fine,” I said.

“Yes, Leila,” Misuzu said, a smile playing on the corners of her lips.

“What do you think, Kaguya?”

“It’s like the next best thing to nine lives,” Kaguya replied.

“You mean?”

“It’s a little too much to tell.”

Here, a little means a lot.”

“Yes. If she’s right, the unit, comprising dozens of soldiers with military training, collapsed in an attack by anthropomorphic, and Misuzu was lucky to survive. But another crisis comes. The raiders appear amid despair, where the captain she relies on has been killed, and she may end up as sex slaves or as food on the table of raiders. If that’s not too much, I don’t know what is.” Kaguya said.

“That’s right,” I said.

I sighed that.

“Thank you for the food.” Misuzu clasped her hands together as she finished her meal.

Seeing Misuzu like that, I was terribly upset.

When I woke up in this world, it was probably the first time I met someone who said “Gochisosama”. Perhaps Misuzu had also said “Itadakimasu”.

That’s when I got the shock of my life as if I had been hit on the head.

Misuzu had indeed said Tokyo.

“Does Misuzu know anything about the country of Japan?” I asked.

“Japan…… is this country, isn’t it? Huh? This is Yokohama, right?” she said.

Confusion flashed across Misuzu’s face.

“Did you notice, Kaguya?”

“Of course,” Kaguya replied.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It’s because you get agitated, like now. Losing your cool in the middle of battle can be fatal.”

“Yeah…… It’s bad.” I said.

“What’s the matter, Leila?” Misuzu asked.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve met anyone who knows anything about Japan. I’m a little surprised.”

“Don’t you usually know?”

“Most people don’t know, because it’s information they don’t need to live with.”

“Well…… I learned that at the institution’s school.”

“You have a school?”

“Yes. The kids at the facility loved it because they could wear cute uniforms.”

She smiles with an innocent expression.

“Do they even teach history?” I asked her.

“No, we learn very little. We rarely learn about war, because it’s forbidden. What we learned was general knowledge. I learned how to write and do the math.”

“And military training?”

“Yes.”

I’m getting more and more curious about the facility in Tokyo where Misuzu used to live.

“She’s been living in a facility that maintains the same environment as before the war,” Kaguya questioned. “That means there are a lot of relics from the old civilization, and many people who control them, right?”

Such an organization sent humans to the ground for a mission.

What was the purpose of this?

“What does Misuzu plan to do now?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Misuzu said, shaking her head. “I’m completely separated from my friends, and I don’t even know if they’re still alive. The captain, who had the tools and information to carry out the mission, is no longer with us…… Above all, without the boat, I cannot return to the facility.”

“Yeah…… let’s just go to Torinokago, where it’s safe for now. After that, you can take your time figuring out what to do next.” I said.

“Yes, um… Thank you so much for your help.”

“You’re welcome. Well, take a rest today. I’ll be on guard, but this place is safe. Sleep”

Misuzu, who had been held captive by the looters, was extremely tired, and to add to that, she fell asleep like a doll as if her tension had been broken by being released.

I squinted my eyes as I noticed something crawling in the darkness.

“Here comes the nasty one,” Kaguya said.

When Kaguya said this, the outline of the object was framed by a red line.

An inarticulate voice, gasping in pain, came from beyond the dimness. It approached us with the sound of something crawling. Keeping my eyes on the crawling thing, I walked up to the sleeping Misuzu and shook her shoulder.

“Leila…… what’s wrong?” Misuzu said.

I quieted Misuzu, who was rubbing her eyes.

“There’s an anthropomorphic approaching. But don’t panic, they won’t attack you if you stay quiet. So don’t make a sound.” I warned her.

Misuzu nodded anxiously.

The voice that had been panting in pain had now turned into a scream. It was hard to tell if it was a man or a woman, but the anthropomorphic cried out in such a fearless voice and then screamed in pain.

Misuzu gasped in fear and grabbed my arm. Her body was trembling.

Under the moonlit sky, it crawled in front of us, slowly passing by. My eyes, which can see the world clearly even in the night’s darkness, clearly saw the fearless figure of a man.

A collection of people who were once people.

Human limbs protruded from its body, twisting and turning in strange ways. Its irregularly pulsing heart was entangled in a human pelvis that jutted out from the mass of flesh, swinging like a trapeze as it moved.

Several lives form a strange creature. There is nothing to be seen in the countless eyes that exist all over the body, and when the mouths all over the body open wide, they let out a shrill scream.

It is a creature that is terribly difficult to kill. They will not stop moving unless you blow them up without a trace. They continue to meander through the ruins.

For Misuzu, tonight was the first time she had encountered a human-like ‘flesh-mass type’.