Inside the dimly lit iron carriage of the Hayajiro, the heavy clanking of steel wheels against the tracks was suddenly pierced by a choked cry.
"Argh!"
Ikoma doubled over, his body violently seizing as he crashed to the floorboards.
Cold sweat plastered his green hair to his forehead as he convulsed in agonizing pain.
"Ikoma! Are you alright?!" Takumi dropped to his knees beside him, his voice trembling with panic at the sight of his friend's agony.
Hearing the commotion, Kajika hurried over from the nearby bunks, her eyes wide with worry.
"What's happening to him? Is it an injury?"
"I..." Ikoma gasped, his fingers clawing desperately at the floor, every breath sounding like tearing metal.
"Is he starving?"
Kajika wondered aloud, quickly reaching into her satchel.
"Here, eat this—"
Before she could take another step, a blur of motion intercepted her.
A small, firm hand clamped onto her shoulder, yanking her violently backward out of harm's way.
Mumei stepped fluidly between them, her amber eyes narrowing as she dropped into a defensive stance.
"Stay back. I sense a Kabane."
"A—a Kabane?!"
Takumi and Kajika echoed, the blood draining from their faces as the terrifying word echoed through the cramped quarters.
"Ikoma, you're scaring me, man! Look at me!"
Takumi stammered, trembling as he reached out a hesitant hand toward his convulsing friend.
"Run... GET AWAY FROM ME!"
Ikoma's head snapped up.
His eyes were shot through with rivers of blood, glowing with a frenzied, unnatural light.
With a sickening rip of fabric, the front of his shirt tore open, exposing the horrifying sight of his chest.
His heart was glowing a blinding, pulsating gold, pumping corrupted fury through his veins.
Word of the threat spread instantly.
"There's a Kabane in the car!" someone shrieked, and immediate chaos erupted as passengers scrambled backward, tripping over baggage and screaming in terror.
Mumei let out a quiet, heavy sigh, her hand resting near the grip of her steam-gun.
She had harbored a lingering suspicion that Ikoma might be like her—a Kabaneri, someone who had halted the virus at the neck and retained their human mind.
But looking at the frantic, wild terror in his eyes, it was clear he had failed.
The virus was surging past his defenses, flooding upward into his brain.
"He couldn't hold it back..."
Mumei murmured, her voice laced with quiet sorrow.
"He's losing his mind to the virus. He's turning into a full Kabane."
Takumi collapsed hard against the floor, his face slack with utter despair, while Kajika covered her mouth, tears instantly welling in her eyes as she stared at her doomed friend.
"Ughhh—!" Ikoma roared, his humanity slipping away as his jaw unhinged and his veins blackened with toxic heat.
Steeling her expression against the pity pulling at her chest, Mumei drew her weapon, leveling the barrel squarely at his chest.
"It's a shame," she whispered. "You didn't have the strength to cross the line."
The heavy, suffocating tension inside the iron carriage shattered as a sharp, otherworldly chime echoed directly in There mind.
[Ding! Kajika has initiated a trade request!]
[Trade Objective]: Save Ikoma from becoming a full 'Kabane'!
[Ding! Please confirm trade terms!]
Far away from the grim chaos of the Kabaneri world, Haruto paused during his walk, raising an eyebrow at the sudden notification floating across his vision.
"Ikoma is losing control to the virus?"
He muttered to himself, slightly puzzled.
In his memory, the green-haired protagonist was supposed to forge his own path to becoming a Kabaneri by sheer willpower.
But during his brief past visits to that realm, Haruto had been focused on his own power scaling and had paid little attention to the plot's minutiae.
Still, Kajika's desperate plea caught his interest.
A sly, amused smirk touched his lips.
"She knows she only has her body to offer as currency, yet she's willing to pay it... all for the sake of a friend?"
Haruto mused, mildly fascinated by her fierce loyalty. "Well, let's see what she's really made of."
[Ding! Your trade request has been accepted!]
[Trade Terms]: 'Body usage, one time'
Back in the dim, railcar, Kajika stared at the glowing system prompt hanging in her field of vision.
Her face flushed a deep, burning crimson as she read the terms.
But looking at Ikoma's writhing, monstrous form—and harboring a hidden, desperate desire to gain the strength she lacked, to stand proudly alongside powerful fighters like Mumei—she swallowed her pride and firmly pressed Accept.
[Ding! Trade Initiated!]
Mumei, her finger tightening on the trigger of her steam-gun, suddenly froze.
In the space between one heartbeat and the next, space itself seemed to tear open, and Haruto materialized right behind Kajika, stepping out of thin air with absolute, effortless grace.
Mumei's amber eyes widened in instant recognition.
She lowered her head awkwardly, struggling for a moment to find the right address before murmuring.
"Haruto... sama."
Though she was still unaccustomed to formal etiquette, she knew all too well that the young man standing before her possessed terrifying, godlike power.
Around them, the surviving passengers dropped to their knees in awe.
"The God... the God is here!"
Someone cried out, and a wave of frantic, desperate reverence rippled through the carriage as everyone fell prostrate on the steel floor.
Even Takumi, abandoning all hope for his friend's normal survival, threw himself to the ground in worship, completely forgetting Ikoma's agonizing transformation as the presence of Haruto filled the room.
Haruto, however, kept his focus entirely on the convulsing green-haired boy.
"So, the virus is aggressively invading his brain?" he murmured, evaluating the frantic neural corruption spreading through Ikoma's veins.
He had never attempted to completely cure a host fully infected by the Kabane virus before, but the prospect sparked a clinical curiosity.
Suddenly, Ikoma roared, his half-transformed, monstrous form lunging forward with bared fangs directly at Haruto's throat.
Before the claws could even graze his coat, Haruto casually snapped his fingers, invoking his mastery over time.
The air crystallized, freezing Ikoma mid-leap, his terrifying expression locked in place like a statue.
Stepping forward, Haruto calmly reached out, pressing a single finger directly against Ikoma's forehead.
"Halt."
A gentle, pale frost radiated from his fingertips, but this was no ordinary ice.
At Haruto's higher tiers of control, his freezing domain transcended mere physical temperatures, capable of locking down biological processes, concepts, and microscopic pathogens.
Under his absolute command, the rampant Kabane virus tearing through Ikoma's system was instantly frozen in its tracks and purged from his cells.
The frantic, blinding golden glow of his heart dimmed back to a normal human rhythm, and his graying, discolored skin rapidly flushed back to a healthy complexion.
With a soft click of released time, the temporal lock vanished, and Ikoma collapsed limply onto the steel floorboards.
"Is he... is he dead?" Takumi asked, crawling forward hesitantly, his voice trembling with dread as he feared the worst.
"No," Haruto replied smoothly, withdrawing his hand.
"He's entirely human again. The virus has been completely neutralized; he's simply exhausted and unconscious."
"He... he turned back from a full Kabane... into a regular human?!"
The entire passenger car fell into a stunned, pin-drop silence.
Everyone stared at Haruto with eyes wide in absolute, breathless awe.
The ordinary passengers and even Mumei were utterly spellbound, their chests aching with deep reverence.
For Mumei, the display was nothing short of miraculous.
Even as a Kabaneri herself, she had never imagined that the dreaded, irreversible curse of the Kabane could be undone so effortlessly.
Right at that moment, the sliding door at the end of the carriage rushed open, and Ayame Yomogawa hurried inside, her traditional silk kimono rustling as she rushed straight toward him.
"Haruto-sama!" she cried out softly, closing the distance and throwing herself gratefully into Haruto's arms, a sweet, delicate fragrance trailing in her wake.
The onlookers nearby couldn't help a sharp intake of breath.
A wave of intense, palpable envy rippled through the crowd—though not out of jealousy toward Haruto, but rather a profound yearning for Ayame's position.
To be held so intimately by the one revered universally as a living god, the supreme protector of the Iron Fortress who granted divine strength and could reverse death itself, was a privilege beyond measure.
A few exhausted men in the back even cast wistful glances, half-jokingly wishing they possessed feminine grace so they might catch even a fraction of Haruto-sama's favor.
Haruto, completely oblivious to the eccentric daydreams of the male passengers, gently patted Ayame's back, though he felt a slight drop of sweat at the intense weight of everyone's gazes.
"Ayame, have two pristine train carriages prepared for my use," he instructed calmly, easing her back with a polite smile.
Ayame looked up at him, her cheeks flushed with devotion as she bowed deeply.
"Everything is already prepared, Haruto-sama. I took the liberty of reserving the finest cars exclusively for your comfort."
*****
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