Sweeten Ch4 bit – Betrayed

“It’s hard to change the ways you were taught,” Ayame allowed. “My own uncle doesn’t understand what we’ve done here on the Koutetsujou.” She bent her head, letting some of her pain show. “My people have kept his alive, and all he can see is that they’re tainted.”

“Stings, huh?” A wry, bitter smile. “But you… you’re just hurting. This is going to kill my men.”

Beside her, Kurusu stiffened. “You need a suicide watch?”

Ayame stifled a gasp, chilled. “But – we’ve fought so hard against the Kabane! Why would anyone want to die when we can still fight?”

“Because he lied to us.” Uryuu hissed it, eyes damp. “He swore he was taking care of us, swore we were doing it all right, swore the Kabaneri fighting with us had everything his scientists could do to help!”

Ayame flinched, the depths of that treachery starting to become clear. “If the Kabaneri need medicine to think….”

“You don’t throw muddle-headed fighters at the Kabane!” Uryuu gritted out. “It’s a death warrant; for them, and everybody else around! And if he was willing to do that, to just use them up like sword-wiping rags, and throw them away-!”

“Then you were all disposable,” Kurusu finished, steel-eyed. “Hunters. Scientists. Kabaneri. None of you were truly his. Only… convenient tools to achieve his revenge.” He paused. “As the Koutetsujou was, to gain entry to Kongokaku.”

Uryuu touched his cheekguards, as if he wanted to bury his face in his hands. “This is going to kill my men.”

It might. It very well might. The shame, the dishonor, the loss of all the good they thought they’d done in the world…. The Hunters faced the Kabane. They knew how to suicide.

I can’t let this happen. We need them! And… they’re hard, but they’re not evil. I won’t let Biba kill them now! “You weren’t the only ones he betrayed.”

“Yeah.” Hazel blinked at her, exhausted as if he’d fought the night through. “That’s the point.”

“So you’ve become the monsters all should fear.” Kurusu’s tone was cool. Unhurried. “I dealt with a man like that. I shot him off the Koutetsujou myself.” The samurai stared the Hunter down. “And then Ikoma walked through the Kabane and saved us all.”

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