Bounty Hunters - Shokin Kasegi

Leonhardt Arc: Chapter 149

==Outcry==

Erika doesn’t know what to think and cannot comprehend the situation she suddenly finds herself in.

Everyone is overwhelmed so Flora-san repeats himself: “RUN ALREADY! THIS IS YOUR ONLY CHANCE FOR FREEDOM!”

All the people’s instincts kick in and they start running past Erika who still holds Flora-san in her arms.

“But what about you?!”, she asks in desperation.

Flora-san puts his hand on Erika’s cheek as the other kids start gathering around them and speaks his final words: “My journey ends here. It already ended when I got caught, but you kids are different. You never had the chance to be free, to travel among the stars, because you were born here. Use this chance I gave you… that’s the only thing I care about now.”

He closes his eyes and the kids realize the cruelty of the world for the first time in their lives.

They start crying but Wista instantly shouts: “We need to run! No matter how blurry our eyes might get now, we mustn’t lose sight of our future! A future in freedom!”

They start running with the crowd. They keep running but already can’t see a thing anymore. They lose sight of each other but keep on running. Other guards already stop the turmoil but Erika manages to squeeze through. She keeps running and running until she reaches a small ship in a part of the asteroid she never saw. She runs inside the ship and then realizes it. She had left behind her newfound friends because she couldn’t see anything but her future through her blurry eyes.

She instantly regrets what she had done but realizes she cannot turn back anymore as other guards are already getting close to the ship. She panickingly presses some buttons that start the ship’s takeoff but then rushes to a window again. The ship takes off while the guards are trying to open the door.

She throws her fists at it, seeing her friends still running after her ship and bawling her eyes out and shouting: “I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry! I left you behind! I hope you all can make it as well!”

She sinks to the ground and mumbles: “…I hope… that you guys… forget about me…”

She sits, leaning onto the wall and declares: “I can never… come back here again.”, and wipes away her tears.

“That fateful day, at least Erika managed to escape, making Flora-san’s sacrifice not completely worthless.”, the old Chroji of the present concludes in front of Horuteph and Yafumi.

They both have tears in their eyes and Yafumi holds her hands over her mouth.

After some time, Horuteph gets the courage to ask with a whiny voice: “Tell me! Please, tell me! How can we help you!? How can you guys finally be free!?”

Chroji replies with a sad tone: “We also learned that we just can’t win against him. That day, our hope died out.”

At the same time, as Erika finished telling her story, Atsume is crying rivers.

Ketsuki actually also teared up a little and says: “This time, we’ll free them for sure. We can just beat up everyone who’s our enemy, right?”

Atsume asks: “Are we strong enough for that? Ketsuki, you saw him! Tell us if we can win!”

She shakes Ketsuki who replies: “It’ll be hard, but I actually think we can beat them. We have to.”

Erika’s worried expression turns into a smile and she thinks: “Right, with these guys by my side, nothing can go wrong. They’re the family I always wanted.”

She then asks: “And Raiden? You still haven’t said anything. Do you also want to beat up my shitty dad?”

Raiden is incredibly angry again and little crackling lightnings surround him as he says: “The more I hear about him, the angrier I get… I’ll kick his ass into this system’s sun! I swear!!”

“Would it hurt if you at least tell us your plan from back then?”, Horuteph asks.

Chroji replies: “That’d be useless.”

Horuteph gets angry and grabs Chroji by his shoulders: “Listen here, you stupid pessimist! Our human friends above the surface are strong as fuck! If they hear about Erika’s past, they’ll beat the shit out of her dad! And if you guys keep being this pessimistic, we’ll also reignite your hope until it burns brighter than ever! We saw the ‘Heart’, still glowing and illuminating the entire cave system, so where the hell has your hope gone?!”

Chroji doesn’t know what to reply so Horuteph answers for him: “NOWHERE!!”

That echoed throughout the entire cave system.

Chroji gets touched by Horuteph’s words who continues: “It’s still in there! Somewhere, a faint glim, inside every single one of you people! You just gotta breathe the fresh air of freedom again… TO MAKE IT BURN BRIGHTER THAN EVER!!”

People, in the hall Horuteph just shouted in, gathered around them. They heard every word. Not just in the hall, everybody heard it echo through the caves and everybody is touched. Many of them start crying and Chroji walks out of the hall. Horuteph and Yafumi follow and watch Chroji look toward the ‘Heart’.

“HE’S RIGHT!”, he shouts as loud as he can, “WE NEVER GAVE UP OUR HOPE!! AND THIS SYMBOL OF OUR DREAMS HAS NEVER ONCE STOPPED GLOWING!! TODAY IS THE DAY! THE DAY WE WILL FINALLY BE FREE!!”

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Horuteph sparks the revolution! We're gonna free some slaves!!