Ch.160Last Episode
by fnovelpia
# Their fists meet.
BOOM.
“…!”
“Ugh…”
Fists that couldn’t reach each other before.
But now, they definitely connect.
While fighting with only parts of their bodies kaijufied, both had blood drying at the corners of their mouths.
“Grrrr…”
“UWOOOOOHHH!!”
We both roared simultaneously and succeeded in kaijufication.
Then another strike.
THUD.
CRACK.
“…!”
“Grrrk…”
Each blow shakes the earth and pierces the sky.
Our black-armored bodies damaged each other, and even when black and white wings sprouted from both sides, the intensity never diminished.
“Impressive.”
“Huh?”
“To think… that a version of me from 20 years ago could fight equally with my current self.”
Han Shinwoo who became Emperor.
He spread his black wings and pressured his past self.
Unlike the past when he couldn’t even dodge, the past Shinwoo could now block naturally.
“You… end here.”
“Oh?”
“I don’t know why I came to you the moment I touched Eve’s body, but that was actually a mistake for you.”
Kyokushin Karate – Straight punch.
The technique that brought me to where I am today.
When our two fists collided, the impact was enough to shake the entire castle.
Yet we both remained standing, and for the first time, I drove my fist into the solar plexus of my future self.
CRACK.
“…!”
“I’m not you.”
“No… fundamentally, we are the same Han Shinwoo.”
My future self grabbed the arm I had extended with my punch and began hammering his fist into my face.
BANG BANG BANG!
“Don’t you think you’ll become like me?”
“Of course… not!”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I’m not you!”
I grabbed his swinging hand and drove a kick into his jaw.
“Your current appearance… what is it exactly?”
“What?”
“How did you shed your pitch-black armor and gain brightly shining wings?”
“……”
“How can Han Shinwoo, a monster, do something like that?”
We crashed through the castle, bounced through corridors multiple times, and fell into the center of the city where monsters lived.
It wasn’t much different from cities where humans used to live.
Only the creatures walking around had changed from humans to humanoid monsters like Lia.
“Huh?”
“Eh?”
“…Emperor, Your Majesty.”
To them, Han Shinwoo was a god.
An absolutely unapproachable being.
And now two such beings had fallen from the sky.
So the citizens roaming the city, soldiers and civilians alike, all knelt down.
“Is this… what you wanted to see?”
Regardless.
BOOM!!
“?!”
“…!”
We both drove our fists into each other’s faces again.
“Kyokushin Karate…”
“Crescent Kick.”
Next came kicks.
All the essence of Kyokushin Karate that I had learned since my previous life.
With each attack against him, I realized we truly were the same Han Shinwoo.
I could gradually see the memories he had experienced through my cells.
“Shinwoo, you’re not a monster.”
“That’s right, you’re human.”
Sophia’s father and mother who tried to protect me but were arrested by humans and couldn’t escape execution.
“Shinwoo… I…”
The day I first massacred humans.
Kurumi who somehow stood before me, trying to stop me.
I can see it.
I can see everything about him that had been forgotten.
And at the same time, he’s seeing my memories too.
All the numerous people who stood by me to change this future, he’s seeing them exactly as…
“Kugh?!”
“Don’t run away.”
The king who had split the earth and surveyed the skies was backing away for the first time in his life.
I grabbed his hand and made him relive my memories again.
“Do you regret what happened that day?”
“…Isn’t that obvious?”
“!!”
“Conversely, can you guarantee you wouldn’t have become like me?”
For the first time in my life, the people I could call parents died before my eyes.
In that rage, I used my power recklessly, and before I knew it, trusted comrades became enemies, and that power ended up burning to death the person I loved most.
Driven mad by that, when I came to my senses, humans were nearly extinct.
Trying somehow to fill this empty heart, I had various children, but the emptiness only grew larger.
It only reminded me that I was still in hell.
“But that doesn’t mean I can forgive it.”
“……”
“I fought for humans. But if the end result was their extinction by those same humans, I’d rather have turned against such humans.”
Like eliminating monsters after being transported into a game.
Now those monsters had simply changed from kaiju to humans.
And he had cleared that game.
In such a situation, what answer would you, the same Han Shinwoo, give?
The future Han Shinwoo looked at his past self, waiting for what he would say next.
“That… I don’t really know.”
But as expected, since he was also me, what he would say was already determined.
“Right, we don’t know.”
“……”
“That’s why we fell, and that’s why we grew to come this far.”
The future Han Shinwoo was about to extend his fist again as before toward his past self who was avoiding his gaze.
Until he heard the words.
“But you know what?”
“…?”
Until he heard what his past self said while looking at his current self.
“You look almost identical to our damn father.”
“…What?”
“Remember? Our father from our previous life who only drank alcohol.”
How could he not remember?
That wretched man who always held onto his only child from behind until he died from alcoholism.
Just because of blood ties, he took all the money I earned as a karate athlete and repeatedly spent it all on alcohol until he collapsed.
After taking all the fire of my youth, he enjoyed it alone and then died.
Later, when I became disabled in the military and my athletic career was completely paralyzed, I realized.
I was truly living a cursed life.
And now my current self looks like that curse itself?
“DON’T TALK NONSENSE!!”
A roar burst from the future Han Shinwoo’s mouth, which had been expressionless all along.
That monstrous cry was enough to make the planet itself tremble, and not just that.
It made every living being in the city tremble with fear.
Nevertheless.
“Among your children…”
“…?”
“How many do you remember?”
“?!”
The past self steadfastly voiced the most disgusting aspect of his future self.
“Just like our father couldn’t remember us, how many of your children do you actually remember?”
“I, I…!”
Since childhood, whenever I saw my father clinging to his alcohol, I always made this resolution.
When I grow up, I’ll never become an adult like him.
I won’t become someone who sometimes forgets his child’s name and just lives by sucking money from the child’s abilities.
And what’s the difference between my future self and our father?
At least from what I could see, there was no difference at all.
The relationship between father and children.
Children who should be loved are risking their lives trying to catch their father’s eye, and the Emperor father doesn’t notice at all.
He’s just playing favorites with his children.
The past Han Shinwoo told this fact directly to his future self.
Then.
“…I see.”
This was an undeniable fact.
Even if he brought the past Sophia to the future, such a small action wouldn’t restore what had been spilled.
“I was… trying to dream.”
“Yes.”
“Even now, I don’t regret exterminating humans at all.”
The actions don’t matter.
He was just disappointed in the results and changed beliefs afterward.
“…Was it Yongjun?”
“You mean my child with Sophia?”
“Yes, I wanted to see him… but it seems I won’t be able to as such a father.”
Eventually, the future Han Shinwoo lowered the hand he had been about to strike with.
Instead, he looked at the fearful gazes around him, and then seemed to realize why he was still alive.
“Hey, Han Shinwoo.”
“…What.”
“Will you not change like me?”
“Of course not.”
The conviction was already there.
Then all that remained was to fulfill that conviction.
“Then I’ll believe you.”
“Believe me?”
With those words, the future Han Shinwoo began to roar.
Black lightning began to envelop everything around his body, and strangely, that light gradually rose toward the sky.
“Using all my life force as a medium.”
“…!”
“At least, I’ll resurrect the humans who lived on this peninsula.”
When the energy of the man who gained divine power falls back to the earth.
Those thought dead will all open their eyes again, and conversely, the man who became a god will be buried in the ground, returning to being merely human.
That’s all there is to it.
“The harmony between humans and monsters will now be the task of future generations.”
“You…”
“So, you should go now. Back to your world where you lived.”
Because I’ve already released Sophia.
With those words.
“Shinwoo!”
“…!!”
A voice I hadn’t heard in a very long time.
A platinum-blonde woman in a white dress ran toward us and jumped straight into the arms of the pitch-black monster.
“Sophia!”
“What? Can you speak human language in that form now?”
Realizing all the fighting was over, the monster’s body began returning to its original form.
The two people facing each other eventually laughed, cried, and finally kissed.
Simply because they were so happy to be alive in this reality.
And to swear they would never be apart again.
And finally…
“Sophia.”
“Shinwoo…”
“Don’t let him… become like me.”
The future Han Shinwoo was gradually disappearing, becoming light.
Looking at him, Sophia’s eyes stung for a moment.
“Of course!”
“…!”
She smiled brightly and promised as if making a vow.
“I’ll absolutely make sure this guy doesn’t become like you! As a good monster! I’ll make sure we live together on our Earth forever!”
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