verdantgrove

Location: Beach in Okinawa

Souma: And thus, we have not suffered in vain—we are steadily reaping the fruits of our labor.

Kuro: I’m with ya. The CosPro people were givin’ off such a strong presence from the moment they came to Okinawa, and now even they’ve been shoved into the stampede and trampled, and all they got the nerve to do is moan and groan about it.

Well, I guess doing nothin’ but losing day after day has to have killed their morale. I bet they’d only been fighting chill, easy-win battles until we started takin’ action.

Souma: Every single thing has abruptly begun to go wrong, and so they sulk.

They did not enter having any such reason to fight with urgency. Having accumulated loss after loss, they are not willing to fight to the point of being burdened with scars of disgrace and shame.

Kuro: Well, they’re not gonna be able to fight for their life with some flimsy motive like “the glory of ES.”

The guys who came here to Okinawa who don’t know what it’s like to struggle are gonna get snapped in half just like that by even the smallest setback or failure.

There were more of those kinds of people than you could count at Yumenosaki back in the day. They came here to get pampered, and yet they get forced to gulp down muddy water—they’re gonna get sick of it.

Souma: Still, it would be pitiful to compare them to former Yumenosaki students. There are various indications that those at CosPro have been ordered by higher-ups to retreat (and refrain from pushing themselves beyond their limits) when they find themselves at a disadvantage.

They are rational—or perhaps I should say they are businesslike.

Those at CosPro are quick to cut their losses, and thus I anticipated that they would hastily retreat were we to deal the first heavy blow.

Kuro: (That’s right, isn’t it… So far everything is going exactly as Kanzaki expected.)

(He was persistent enough with that winin’ and dinin’ that he won the trust of those RhythLin veterans and earned a position high enough to be trusted with strategy. And then he reaped the rewards of those battles without a hitch—)

(Kanzaki made those veterans think that things would go perfectly if they left them up to AKATSUKI. That’s about as great of an outcome as it gets.)

(Now they’ve left us to play soldiers for them, and they’re livin’ it up on their nice and peaceful Okinawa vacation.)

(Well, that’s probably a hundred times better than killin’ each other on the battlefield, but still.)

(If we’re up against veterans as careless as them, it’ll be easy to catch ‘em off guard (and betray them).)

(Smooth-talk them out of the SSL$ they’ve earned up to this point, under the guise of keepin’ it as a war fund or somethin’—)

(And if we make off with it, we as AKATSUKI would be able to come out as the sole winner—no one could ever hope to compete.)

(And if we get accused of stealin’ the money, we can just say that was the order we got, and we had no other choice—or some other lie like that.)

(We can get out of it well enough without any future trouble by makin’ excuses.)

(That kind of strategy—that was the plan. And it’s goin’ damn well so far.)

(What we’re doin’ is just like one of those bank-transfer scams that target the elderly, but…)

(To win and move on to the next round here on this ruthless battlefield of Okinawa, we might have to be a little cunning like that.)

(‘S pretty surprising—shocking, even—that Kanzaki, of all people, would go that far.)

(He is a real good fighter, and he’s the kind of guy who will go all in on something once he puts his mind to it.)

(I wonder. If this guy that got pushed out of the way during the War had shown off the same military genius then that he’s showin’ us now—)

Souma: ? What’s the matter, Kiryuu-dono? Could it be, is there something on my face?

Kuro: (Haha. Talkin’ like he doesn’t know. He looks harmless, like some pretentious teenager, but…)

(This guy’s family used to be synonymous with violence itself in this country—he’s a descendant of warriors.)

(And even in this day and age, with violence bein’ frowned upon—he kept that sword polished, and never let it rust.)

(He’s a vicious warmonger. I’m sure he’s been forced to study and train that way since the moment he was born—)

(Everyone, including AKATSUKI, has been lookin’ down on him—or rather, for some reason, we just think of him like some silly samurai idol or somethin’, wielding his sword, and nothin’ more.)

(But he just hasn’t had a chance to show off the military genius he inherited from his ancestors until now—)

Souma: Kiryuu-dono.

Kuro: Huh? Wh, what is it?

Souma: Nothing—I was simply concerned, as you seemed to be in some sort of daze. It is just as I had thought—you are still not feeling very well, are you?

Kuro: No, no, I’m fine. Even if I wasn’t fine, though, it’s not good for you to poke around in my business.

Souma: Hmm. Now I cannot tell if you are truly alright or not.

Kuro: (Haha. He’s got a cute little pout on his face—he’s kind of like a kid in that way.)

(The more innocent a kid is, the more likely they are to do cruel things without batting an eye, huh? I gotta keep a close eye on him so he doesn’t go down the wrong path.)

(I don’t want him to screw up and be full of regrets like I am.)

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