MHGA Chapter 255 – The Death of Saburo and the Chaos On-Site
Kazuma's expression at the side was… complicated.
Wasn't he technically the Hero who opposes the Demon King…?
"Why don't you go see the street rats you funded?" Saburo Arasaka said coldly to Yorinobu. "When they find out their mysterious backer is none other than Arasaka's own son, do you think they'll strangle you with your own intestines… or kneel down and lick your boots?"
"Arasaka is my creation. And you… are my heir. Do you really think those scumbags in Night City will view you as some kind of rebel leader?"
"Heir… ha… heir." Yorinobu Arasaka's fury boiled over.
"You think I don't know exactly what you're doing?!"
"Bloodline? Corporation? Inheritance?! You're just a demon who doesn't give a damn about any of it! You care only about yourself!!" Yorinobu shouted. "You're clinging to your sick delusion of immortality! Every second you stay alive, you consume someone else's soul! You treat everyone—Hanako, me, and even those digital slaves you've stuffed into Mikoshi—as nothing but tools!"
"I won't stand for it any longer! I'll reshape this world! It wasn't meant to be like this!"
"Oh? Like how you 'reshaped' it before?" Saburo said mockingly. "Leading gangs of punks to attack Arasaka subsidiaries? You've always been about destruction, never about creation. You bring chaos, not order."
"Humanity needs rulers. Arasaka's rule keeps the world from descending into madness. That 'freedom' you talk about is nothing but anarchist revelry—like that nuke at Arasaka Tower. All it left behind was ruin."
Though Saburo's face had paled from blood loss, his voice remained steady.
"Eternity doesn't lie in the continuation of life, but in the permanence of order. Cherry blossoms wither in seven days… yet bloom again each year. Why? Because their roots are buried deep in the frozen soil of structure and rules. You try to burn Arasaka… but what you're really destroying is the root of human civilization."
"…Hmph."
Yorinobu suddenly calmed down at those words and then broke into a cold laugh.
"You're right. What I did in the past was wrong."
"But that doesn't make you right. I may have strayed, but you never even set foot on the right path." Yorinobu raised the gun to his father's head.
"I've become an old man myself…"
"Fortunately… at my age, I still get to meet people younger and wiser than me." He smiled.
"And as for you… the only thing left for you to do is die."
"You're going to kill your own father? In front of your sister?" Saburo narrowed his eyes at Yorinobu. "All for this ridiculous fantasy of yours?"
"No. I'm witnessing the birth of a hero—and that hero… isn't me."
Yorinobu's finger rested gently on the trigger.
"I will not die. And neither will Arasaka." Saburo said. "Neither I nor this company can be killed by the likes of you."
"No… Saburo Arasaka will die today," Yorinobu said, pity in his eyes.
"What's reborn in Mikoshi is nothing but frozen, lifeless data…"
"Goodbye, Arasaka."
With those words, Yorinobu pulled the trigger.
"Don't—!"
Hanako Arasaka cried out, rushing forward to stop him, but before she could reach him, V had already grabbed her.
And Saburo Arasaka—the man who built the Arasaka Corporation—was gunned down in a private villa, by a standard handgun.
Yorinobu lowered the pistol, watching as Hanako broke free of V's hold and stumbled toward her father's body, now missing half its head.
She didn't even cry.
"V… please calm Hanako down," Yorinobu said. "Go easy."
"…Got it."
Without hesitation, V raised his hand and knocked Hanako unconscious, then laid her gently on the nearby sofa.
Only now did Yorinobu finally start to process the feeling of having just killed his father with his own hands.
"Arasaka… truly is a curse."
He muttered, chewing on the weight of the family name—his and Hanako's. He had never hated it more.
"All that's left now… is Mikoshi."
Yorinobu clenched his fist and looked toward the Arasaka Tower in the distance.
"Kazuma… do your companions really have what it takes?"
"Whether Kairo Retsu and the others can do it… I'm not sure," Kazuma replied with a weird look on his face. "But Kirin definitely can…"
"But hey—you just took down a 'monster' yourself! That makes you a Hunter too!" Kazuma gave him a thumbs-up.
"Is that so? I honestly didn't think it'd go this smoothly." Yorinobu admitted. "Almost too smoothly…"
"…So who was the hacker helping us?" V asked. "Who disabled the system?"
"Don't look at me! The only one among the Hunters who can do that is Joseph!" Kazuma waved his hands frantically.
"I only just learned about the future stuff too. I don't have those kinds of powers," V said, raising his hands in surrender.
"…I was kidnapped in a rush. I didn't plan anything like this." Yorinobu added, confused.
Just as the three stood there dumbfounded, the room's door suddenly burst open.
Lucy, gun in hand, stormed in—only to freeze when she saw the scene.
Saburo Arasaka: dead on the floor, head blown open.
Hanako: unconscious on the sofa.
A street-savvy-looking woman.
A boy wearing gear similar to David's.
And Yorinobu Arasaka, still holding the murder weapon.
What… the hell had happened here?
"W-what the fuck?! Lucy?!" Kazuma's eyes bulged. "Why are YOU here?!?!?!"
"…You know me???" Lucy asked, completely confused.
"Huh? You know her?" V, who had nearly shot Lucy on sight, looked at Kazuma in disbelief. "So she's the hacker we brought in after all?"
"No, no, no!! She's not a Hunter!! But why the hell is she even here?!" Kazuma shouted. "She's the girl David likes!!"
"David… liked this girl?"
Upon hearing that, Yorinobu's gaze toward Lucy softened with sudden kindness.
"So…"
Lucy stared at them in a dazed standoff.
"…What the hell happened here?!"
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