However,
reality wasn't a Passion manga; it wouldn't grant you a miracle just because you refused to give up.
No matter how strong the Girl in the Baseball Cap's will to survive was,
she was, in the end, just a Cursed Child suffering from long-term malnutrition.
The exhaustion from prolonged hunger and the searing pain from running barefoot made her speed falter more and more.
The distance between her and the two adult Patrol Officers behind, even though they were gasping for breath, was gradually shrinking.
"Run! Keep running!"
One of them, a Fat Patrol Officer with a face full of fleshy folds and a belly that bounced with each step, finally closed in.
Gasping for air, a ferocious smile spread across his face.
*Thud!*
A dull sound.
The already weak Girl in the Baseball Cap suddenly lost her balance and pitched forward.
*Crash!*
"Oof..."
The Girl in the Baseball Cap let out a pained whimper, curling into a ball, trying to protect the only food in her arms.
"Damn it, still protecting your loot?"
Seeing this, the Fat Patrol Officer became even more enraged.
He had been chasing for so long, his anger had been building up.
Now, seeing this little monster on the ground still stubbornly clutching the stolen goods, he felt his authority was being greatly challenged.
He raised the rubber baton high.
"These red-eyed monsters, stealing right in my jurisdiction!"
"I didn't steal! I found this in a dumpster!"
"Still talking back! Looks like I need to teach you a lesson so you know what rules are!"
Just as the Fat Patrol Officer's baton was about to crash down on the Girl in the Baseball Cap's back, so thin it seemed all bone,
"Stop!"
A sharp cry, trembling with emotion, suddenly rang out.
A figure in white rushed forward from the shadows, heedless of everything.
— It was the Seitenshi.
At this moment,
her mind went blank.
Only one thought remained.
That she could not let this happen again!
Absolutely could not
let such brutality play out before her eyes again!
If she couldn't even save this one child right before her, what right did she have to talk about saving this country?!
And so,
the Seitenshi threw herself forward.
With an utterly resolute stance, she shielded the little girl who had fallen to the ground beneath her.
*Whack!*
A dull thud.
"Ugh..."
Even though it was just a rubber baton,
the force behind a full-powered strike from an enraged adult male was It is conceivable.
For the Seitenshi, who had been raised in privilege and had rarely lifted anything heavy in her life,
it was still an unprecedented, searing pain.
The Seitenshi stiffened, her vision instantly going dark.
Cold sweat soaked her forehead.
However.
Finally, enduring the searing pain in her back, the Seitenshi sharply raised her head.
The eyes that were usually filled with gentle, placid calm now burned with two flames.
—Utter fury!
"What are you doing?!"
"She's a person! A child!"
"Even if she stole something, even if she made a mistake, you can't treat her like this!"
"The Tokyo Area has laws too!"
Although the Seitenshi's voice trembled from the intense pain.
The authority cultivated from long years in a high position surfaced in that moment.
Causing the two Patrol Officers to freeze momentarily.
They were momentarily dazed by this sudden turn of events.
But soon.
After a brief moment of shock, that daze was replaced by deeper malice.
—Under the interference of Heimer's divine power.
No matter how much the Seitenshi acted like a superior, in the eyes of these mortals, she was just a well-dressed, crazy woman with a screw loose.
"Hah? Who the hell are you?"
The Fat Patrol Officer was the first to snap out of it.
He had absolutely no awareness of the woman's identity before him.
In his eyes.
This was just some crazy woman who had popped up out of nowhere.
Thus.
He spat a thick glob of phlegm onto the ground with extreme rudeness and pointed the baton he had just used to hit someone directly at the Seitenshi's nose without any courtesy.
"Dressed up all fancy, these clothes are pretty white..."
"What? Are you this little monster's accomplice?"
"Or perhaps..."
The Fat Patrol Officer looked the Seitenshi up and down, followed by an even more malicious speculation.
"You're one of those perverts who specializes in taking in these monsters?"
"I hear some rich people are into that sort of thing. Really, the bigger the forest, the more kinds of birds you get."
"I am..."
Faced with this blatant insult.
The Seitenshi trembled with anger, her nails digging deep into the soft flesh of her palms. She was about to instinctively reveal her identity.
"I am of the Tokyo Area..."
She instinctively wanted to reveal her status.
To tell this brute before her that standing before him was the ruler of this nation.
However.
The words reached her lips.
But then they choked off abruptly.
Stuck in her throat like a fishbone.
Because the Seitenshi remembered Heimer's earlier meaningful words—in the eyes of mortals, they couldn't see her true identity.
In that instant.
It was like a basin of ice-cold water poured over her head.
An unprecedented sense of absurdity surged in her heart.
So this was what it was like when she shed—the halo of the Seitenshi, shed the cloak of power, and stood in this world as an ordinary person?
Without that identity.
Pale and weak.
Worthless.
Not even having the right to protect a single child.
"Get lost!"
"Don't get in the way of me enforcing the law!"
"These red-eyed monsters, you can't kill enough of them! If you dare block me again, I'll beat you too!"
Indeed.
Seeing the Seitenshi suddenly go silent, the Fat Patrol Officer had clearly lost his last shred of patience.
In this deformed society shrouded by the shadow of Gastrea, hatred was the best outlet, violence the only universal language.
As long as it was dealing with the Cursed Children.
Any atrocity could be justified in the name of justice for humanity.
Killing was not a crime.
Violence was reasonable.
...
People had long since lost their reverence for life.
They had even lost their qualification as human beings.
"Get lost!"
Thus.
With a furious roar.
The Fat Patrol Officer suddenly raised the black rubber baton in his hand high.
Without holding back in the slightest, without even a moment's hesitation because the other party appeared to be a delicate-looking woman.
Aimed directly at the Seitenshi's head.
His eyes fierce, without any hesitation.
Since she was a crazy woman protecting monsters, then go show your kindness in hell!
If this blow landed solidly, death or crippling injury was certain.
"Ugh..."
The Girl in the Baseball Cap, who was being desperately shielded under the Seitenshi, seemed to glimpse this scene through the gap in the Seitenshi's arm.
The red eyes hidden beneath the brim of her cap instantly widened.
Although she didn't know why this exceptionally beautiful big sister was helping her.
She knew.
If this baton came down, this delicate big sister definitely wouldn't be able to withstand it.
She would bleed.
She would die.
Just like the stray dogs that had tried to protect her before, they would all end up as corpses thrown into garbage trucks and hauled away.
No...
Don't die because of me...
"Don't..."
The girl tried to push the Seitenshi away.
But the Seitenshi held her tighter.
Pressing the girl's head firmly against her chest, not letting her see the violence about to descend.
Then.
She tightly closed her eyes.
Making no attempt to dodge.
The Seitenshi could feel all of this.
She could even hear the murmurs of the surrounding passersby.
At this moment.
The Seitenshi suddenly felt very tired.
That kind of tiredness wasn't physical.
It was the feeling of emptiness, of having nothing to grasp, after the pillar in her heart had collapsed.
Was this...
The country she had ruled all along?
Was this...
The world she had sat diligently in this position for so many years for, not daring to rest even when ill, exhausting herself for these people, the world she wanted to protect countless times in her dreams?
No love.
No tolerance.
Not even the most basic humanity remained.
Only naked malice and instincts uglier than those of beasts remained.
So.
Everything made sense.
If this rotten flesh wasn't completely cut away, if this tilting edifice wasn't completely toppled.
Then no matter how much it was patched up, no matter how much peace was painted over it.
In the end, this was just a hell that devoured people.
If that's the case.
If this world was already terminally ill.
"If..."
"This world truly is beyond salvation..."
"If this is humanity's true face..."
"Then..."
"I beseech you, Lord God."
"Descend Your judgment."
"Even if everything is reduced to ashes"
"It is better than letting such a hell continue to exist in this world!"
...
To build, one must first destroy.
Since the rotting flesh has already covered the entire body.
Then let all of this be completely destroyed.
At this point.
The moment this resolute thought settled in the heart of the Seitenshi.
This world truly heard her prayer.
Or perhaps.
The god who had been waiting for this moment finally received the answer he wanted.
"Vrrr—!"
A piercing, extreme ringing in the ears.
Without any warning.
Instantly filled the entire world.
The originally noisy and bustling commercial street fell into a deathly silence in that instant.
The rubber baton held high by the Fat Patrol Officer froze in mid-air, unable to fall even an inch further.
Because.
The god was no longer lurking.
He heard.
That resolute will to die emanating from the depths of the Seitenshi's soul.
Thus.
The layer of weak cognitive-confusion magic previously cast upon the Seitenshi instantly failed under the agitation of divine will.
The mist dissipated.
When the silver-haired girl, who had been kneeling on the ground, clutching two dirty Cursed Children in her arms, refusing to let go even after taking a blow, was revealed.
Her true appearance was finally exposed to everyone's sight without reservation.
The originally blurred face became incomparably clear under the reflection of the red light filling the sky.
That iconic silver hair.
That stunningly beautiful face that had appeared countless times on television screens.
That white dress that could not hide its nobility even when stained with mud.
The passersby felt as if they had been struck on the crown of their heads by a thunderbolt.
Their eyes were about to pop out.
This...
Is this the Seitenshi, who waves elegantly on TV every day, sacred and inviolable?
That existence who rules this region and symbolizes the highest power?
Kneeling in the mud at this moment?
And...
That blow just now...
"It... it hit?"
Someone, not knowing who, broke the deathly silence with a trembling voice.
Immediately after.
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