"So you're saying, Yuki, you're the savior who's come to rescue us Cursed Children?!"
After understanding the whole story, Enju Aihara exclaimed with wide-eyed surprise.
"You could definitely put it that way!" Yuki gave a gentle nod.
During their conversation, Enju had gradually started calling Yuki just 'Yuki,' a change he didn't seem to mind at all.
Hearing this, the other Cursed Children's eyes all lit up with a desperate hope.
"But... if we don't have to fight, how are we supposed to live?" Enju's expression clouded with confusion for a moment.
The other girls, hearing this, also looked lost. From the very beginning, they'd been taught they were monsters, meant to fight the Gastrea. Now, suddenly being told they didn't have to fight anymore... it left them completely unprepared.
Seeing their bewilderment, Yuki simply smiled. A warm, gentle smile spread across his face as he softly said to the Cursed Children, "Don't overthink it. You can live however you want to live."
"You can go to school! Learn new things! You can wear pretty clothes every day, eat delicious food and snacks."
"However you want to live, that's how you'll live. Free and unrestrained. No need to worry about the virus corrupting you, no need to suffer under everyone's hateful stares."
Yuki painted a picture of that future for them, leaving the rest to their imaginations.
As they all became lost in this hopeful vision of what could be, Enju, too, had a look of longing and wonder in her eyes. Though her gaze was fixed on Yuki, a faint blush coloring her young cheeks.
After letting them dream for a little while, Yuki soon opened a shimmering portal.
"The other side of this gate connects to the starship orbiting above. Someone will be there to welcome you."
"Just stay there for about a day. Once we've sorted things out here, we're heading to a new world!"
After his brief explanation, Yuki guided the Cursed Children toward the ship.
The young girls stared at the starry, shimmering portal, hesitant and a little afraid of this strange new thing. For a moment, no one dared to take that first step.
Seeing their hesitation, Enju decided to lead the way. She took a deep breath, quickly stepped forward, and vanished into the portal's light.
"See! I'm perfectly fine!" her voice came from the other side. "I trust Yuki! He wouldn't lie to us!" Enju declared, hands on her hips, brimming with confidence.
With Enju taking the lead, the other Cursed Children soon found their courage. They filed through the portal in an orderly line. Once they were all through, Enju popped back to Yuki's side.
"Hehe, Yuki! How did I do?" Enju chirped, seeking his praise like a kid showing off a good grade.
Yuki smiled softly and gently ruffled her hair.
"You did great, Enju."
"Hehe!"
A pleased grin spread across the girl's face at his praise.
In under a minute, all the Cursed Children had boarded the starship and were being guided by Saintess and the others to their resting areas.
With that done, Yuki prepared to move on to the next location.
"Aren't you going up?"
Yuki looked at Enju Aihara beside him and asked.
"Nope! This one wants to stay by Yuki's side! I want to help you!"
"Why?" Yuki asked with a light chuckle.
"Because being with you is the life I want!" she declared. "And becoming your bride, and all that..."
The girl shyly twisted her fingers together, looking up at him with a hopeful, adoring gaze.
"Well... you'll have to wait a few years for that," Yuki replied, amused, gently pinching her cheek.
Enju immediately puffed her cheeks in protest. "Hah? Why! This one is all grown up already!" she insisted. "I don't care! Even if I have to wait, I'm going to be Yuki's bride!"
She clung tightly to the hem of his clothes, looking up at him with pleading, puppy-dog eyes.
Seeing her like that, Yuki could only give in. "Alright, alright, I promise. Is that good enough?"
"Hehe! Yes! I knew you were the best!" Ecstatic that he'd agreed, Enju bounced up and down with excitement.
She didn't return to the starship, instead choosing to follow Yuki to the next location. Before they set off, however, Yuki conjured a new outfit for her—the iconic yellow dress from the original story.
"Ooh! So Yuki likes this style! This one will remember that!" Enju exclaimed, turning in a circle to admire herself in a full-length mirror, clearly getting the wrong idea.
Yuki didn't bother correcting her. He simply took her hand, and they vanished on the spot.
Meanwhile, in the Tokyo Area administrative conference room.
The officials had been repeatedly watching the footage of Yuki's earlier speech and comparing the Saintess shown there to their records. They had finally confirmed it was indeed her.
"Damn it! What does the Saintess think she's doing?! Consorting with a character like that!"
"I always said that naive little girl was unreliable. Now look! She's brought aliens to our planet!"
"Now, now, we can't be sure they're aliens. But their target is clearly the Cursed Children!"
"Exactly. In this world, more or less everyone holds some hostility towards those... monsters. Which means all of us fall within their criteria for judgment!!"
As they mentioned the Cursed Children, the officials' faces naturally twisted into looks of disgust, a habitual reaction. But then, remembering the standard by which this "judgment" was being carried out, their eyes filled with fear.
The thought of that punishment—being trapped in that lightless, eternal dark space—was terrifying just to imagine.
"Our most urgent task now is to understand the movements of these so-called 'Celestials'," slowly stated Kōjirō Tendō, the head official.
He ordered his subordinates to present the intelligence they had gathered on the Celestials' activities.
"We have video footage!"
His subordinates acted quickly, soon playing the captured footage on the large screen in the conference room.
The screen showed a Celestial clad entirely in red armor descending upon the Hokkaido region. With a mere wave of its hand, countless buildings were instantly erased.
Then came its proclamation:
"I am the Cosmic Celestial Judge, sent by the Sovereign to pass judgment upon all living beings!"
As its voice faded, crimson markers instantly materialized above the heads of the crowd.
The red markers signified the guilty.
White markers appeared above those who had helped the Cursed Children or held kindness towards them.
As for the Cursed Children themselves, their markers shone gold.
"Those marked guilty, your punishment begins now!"
With another wave of the Judge's hand, countless instruments of torture materialized around it. Those marked with red found their bodies moving against their will, walking onto the devices to be subjected to wave after wave of excruci torment.
Simultaneously, the Judge opened portals, allowing the Cursed Children and those marked with white to be transported to the starship above.
During this process, it wasn't as if no one fought back. On the contrary, the high officials of the Hokkaido administration directly dispatched military forces to attack the Judge.
However, before their attacks could even reach it, the Judge merely raised a hand. A beam of light swept out, and the assaults vanished. Then, those attackers found themselves frozen in place, awaiting their turn on the torturous devices.
To be honest, for the Cosmic Celestials, this work was a novel experience. Their usual method of judging a planet's inhabitants involved straightforward annihilation. This kind of prolonged, meticulous torment was something they had never tried before.
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