Kiri La Kill - Chapter 11

This is the chapter right before the public release on QQ and Akun, enjoy! And happy birthday to Catz, who has helped me out so much with patreon… I am making today a double update to commemorate it all.

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For all that a big focus of his preparation research had been focused on Honnouji Academy, Kiri had not been negligent enough to ignore the existence of the Island that it was attached to, and the city that lay atop said island.

The Honno City that he saw online had been the picture perfect image of an utopia.

People living in luxurious highrises provided by Honnouji Academy to its best and the brightest, to live with their beloved families. Their every single need accounted for in a school that received so much funding that it could give something like that to a student body whose count neared the thousand mark.

He had thought then, that there really must have been something to Honnouji’s System if it could accomplish something like that, while still ostensibly being governed by a High Schooler and her clique. He had thought it might have sounded too good to be true, assured by the hands of the girl’s mother, who owned a corporation whose influence reached worldwide…

…He really should have known, in hindsight.

If it sounded too good to be true, it likely was.

Kiri was shown that, when he beheld the slums that stretched out as far as the eye could see. A shanty town that he hadn’t seen a single whiff of in his research, carrying none of the wealth and status that seemed so prevalent on the internet.

People shied away from him as he walked through the streets, either out of abject fear, or with more hostile feelings. But there were others who eyed Kiri with sinister intentions. Eyes filled with anger, greed, envy,  and even lust… there were all sorts of people in this place evidently, and all of them shared one single aspect.

The air reeked of desperation.

The filth of humanity, who had been promised everything, only to find that none of their dreams would ever be fulfilled. Now left with nothing, and without the power or the will, they had turned to doing anything they could do to survive, even at the cost of their dignity.

Kiri had a feeling that he had never really faced something like this in his own life, before he’d lost his memories. For he had strength, and had been blessed with power to turn his own situation around.

But these people didn’t have that luxury, and as Kiri climbed higher and higher, it inevitably became a worse and worse sight.

Sickly people crowding a line around a rickety shack with a sign that had misspelled the word ‘clinic’, women of all ages going as far as to openly proposition him in the middle of the street, beggars shouting after him, people trying to sell him this or that, and a growing congregation of watchers that looked at Kiri like meat to be torn apart.

And worst of all… Children with barely a scrap of clothing covering their dignity… Crowding around him. Kiri didn’t even react as he felt grubby hands reach for whatever remained in his wallet, only taking care to preserve his phone… and even that was an uncertain thing for him.

All of those adverts he had seen about the top performing students being given opportunities that many others didn’t have the ability to access too… it rang all too hollowly in his ears now, as he kicked himself for not seeing the bigger picture.

He could see it all from here, it was in clear view. While the forgotten refuse languished in the bottom, higher on the ‘mountain island’, were the high rises that had been featured front and center, looking like they were gleaming invitingly with the light of the sun bearing down upon them.

Hanging over it all was Honnouji Academy.

And really, it made sense, didn’t it?

This whole affair seemed like a power fantasy. A teenage girl being given all of the money and opportunities that she could ask for, being given free rein over a town… and then turning it into a Kingdom with herself as the Queen, and caring little of what happened to the people below her.

How many people had actually died in Honno City? Kiri wondered, while she played the princess in her castle above.

Kiri’s fists clenched, and he felt a scowl slowly come over his face as he continued walking higher and higher to that destination above, the cause of all of this hurt. What he saw rankling all of his sensibilities, down to the very ones that had been locked away.

It disgusted him.

And for a moment, he forgot all about what he was here for.

He forgot that he was supposed to be here to retrieve his memories, he forgot that he was here to find a way back to his home. He forgot that he had been planning to negotiate with Honnouji if it came down to it, forgetting all about their attempt to bring him in by sending some goons after him… and didn’t that make it all feel so obvious now.

He forgot all about those flashes of pink that he kept seeing in his dreams, the flashes of joy that it all made him feel, and the crushing feeling of loss that accompanied it whenever he realized he still couldn’t remember anything about it.

No, all of his world became this anger he was feeling at the plight of these people, who had been reduced to nothing more than discarded rats at the whim of a girl with more money than sense. He harnessed that anger, and told himself that he would be the one to change that, to instill some sense into this experiment that should have never been.

He was going to be a Hero to these people, he swore it.

Kiri had reached the top of the slums of Honno City, and saw with his own eyes… that the empty stretch of wasteland that stood between him and Honnouji was now filled with people, his age, he noted with belated realization.

They were not lying when they said that there were nearly a thousand students. All of them wearing stylized military uniforms, and most of them carrying stars that gleamed ominously in the sun. And that wasn’t all, for clearly Honnouji’s budget and freedom had allowed them to allot even stuff like full blown military tanks into their budget it seemed.

Why were they all here? One might wonder.

‘Honnouji Festival of Home Defense’ One of the fliers read, having slowly fluttered down in Kiri’s direction with the aid of the wind. His scowling face was plastered front and center, words calling for students to ‘mobilize’ to deal with his threat.

He set the flier down, and cracked his knuckles, before he began walking forward, slowly increasing his pace as he went.

From a leisurely stroll, to a power walk, to a brisk jog, to a full blown run. And then he was dashing. Hearing the shouting of the students, as weapons and powers began to be aimed in his direction with the intention of stopping him, Kiri wasn’t deterred, as before long, he was full on bounding forward.

If these people thought they could stop him, now that he was fully determined? Well…

They.

Could.

Try.

He would tear through them all if that was what it took.