86 Volume 12 Summary/Translations (Chapter 5 to Final Chapter)
Chapter 5: Bloody Mary in the Fog
Miarona’s Lady Bluebird Regiment have found the Hail Mary Regiment and begin slaughtering them mercilessly with their Vanagandrs. Miarona sees them running and screaming, and thinks that this is all they have ever been doing. Running around in fear.
As her soldiers cry to her for help, Noele runs around screaming, trying to drown them out. “It’s not my fault, it’s not my fault! It’s not me, it’s all of you…!” She blames them all for only relying on her, for not being able to carry out her plan, and then blaming her for it.
Suddenly, Ninha embraces her. “You’re right, you’re not to blame. It’s okay now. I’ll protect you.”
Noele is filled with relief that she can finally let go of her heavy burden. Then both girls are torn apart by a Vanagandr’s machine gun.
The slaughter continues. After she mows down the last soldier, Miarona thinks of how the Federacy was irresponsible, forcing freedom and equality onto everyone when some didn’t want it and couldn’t handle it. They couldn’t take responsibility for themselves, and this was the result.
Mele's platoon hears what happened to the rest of the Hail Mary Regiment over the radio. They are in shock that everyone else is dead.
Mele rages at their enemies, at the Leviathan, and at himself. He had been aware of Noele’s feelings for him, but thought he didn’t deserve her, so he’d pretended not to notice. He regrets not responding to her now.
He spots the Reginleifs approaching. The Reginliefs don't notice them, so Mele thinks they are deliberately being ignored and this stokes his rage. He blames the Strike Package for not saving them and decides to take revenge...by attacking the Leuka and siccing the Leviathan on them.
Kurena spots them and alerts Shin. Shin just happens to be in the right place and jumps in between the Leuka and Mele's platoon. He put his finger on the trigger as they rush toward him. He knows he'll have to kill them if they don't stop. He hits them with his fire-control laser sights and prays it will make them stop. They flinch, but then their faces become filled with intense rage. The sight of their identical expressions horrifies Shin for a reason he doesn’t understand. He realizes that he has no choice and prepares to pull the trigger.
Then the armored infantry and Ishmael's recon unit arrive and blast Mele's group away. Shin just stares, dumbfounded, the blood spray and their hatred-filled gazes burned into his eyes.
Vika notices Frederica trembling. She is using her ability to see something. “I told you to abandon them, Mascot.”
She tells him she doesn’t want to, and that he has no right to order her around. Frederica glares straight up at him. “Yes, I cannot betray my conscience. And the only thing I can protect right now is my conscience. Certainly, right now, I cannot protect anyone. I cannot save anyone. But if I decide to abandon them, then I wouldn’t even be able to protect my own conscience. In that case, what I ought to do now is to not avert my eyes. The battle I fight now is to witness everything, so that someday, when I gain the power to protect and save like you and Shinei, I will leave no one behind. You have no right to interfere in that.”
Vika narrows his eyes slightly. “A conscience, huh? …Even if you have one, it will only get in your way.”
“You once said this. That even if you won’t be king, you will act as a royal would. That you believe that is how you ought to act. I will learn from your example. Rather than by a crown that is bestowed upon me, I will be my own king through my demeanor and resolve.”
Vika is taken aback by her words. ‘Rather than by a crown bestowed upon me’? He realizes who she really is and for a moment, is stunned.
“I see, your discomposure truly doesn’t show in your expression or behavior. I must learn from that too.”
“You–”
“I thought you weren’t interested in my circumstances?”
Vika lets out a small sigh. “...Well, that is true.”
Even the United Kingdom wouldn’t want to go head-to-head with the continent’s largest superpower, and he doesn’t want to get dragged into the absurd power struggles between the old empire’s nobles. However.
Vika asks whether she considered that he might think differently now, with his motherland in crisis, and having the key to stop the Legion right before him. Frederica replies that the Idinarohks’ Amethystus wouldn’t be so rash as to make a move before all the conditions were met.
“Who else knows? Does Milize…no, she wouldn’t. Does Nouzen know?”
“...He does.”
Vika thinks that he'll put a caterpillar down Shin's shirt later. He understands why Shin hid it, but he's still kind of pissed about it.
“Then I’ll cooperate with him as I have up to now. As you said, I don’t have enough cards in my hand.” Unable to even return to his homeland, Vika still needs the cooperation of Shin, the Strike Package, and the Federacy’s military, as well as Ernst.
The Leuka and Leviathan are finally reunited. Shin and the other Processors are all too exhausted to be moved by the happy reunion. Only Fido walks up to the shore and lets out a friendly beep at them. The Leviathans don't answer. Fido is a little hurt by this.
The Leviathan glares at Ishmael, still recognizing him as an enemy. Ishmael feels both happy and pissed about this as the Leviathan finally leaves.
When Ernst hears that everything with the deserters was resolved, he feels disappointed.
His internal monologue reveals that he doesn't actually care about his ideals, or about anything or anyone at all. Those were "her" ideals, so he tries to uphold them, but if anything were to defile them, he feels that people, the country, the world should be destroyed. But he actually doesn't care about that either. Because "she" is gone.
They successfully blow up the dams. As the Leviathan and the Leuka return to the sea, the Leviathan thinks back to the humans it saw when it reunited with the Leuka. Among them, there was one individual that called out to them. It wonders what that was.
Claude's brother, Henry, is at a Federacy training base as a volunteer soldier. Since he was one of the rare Republic soldiers who was actually diligent at his job, he was allowed to keep his rank, but the other Federacy soldiers keep their distance from him and talk behind his back. He thinks that's only natural because of what the Republic did to the Eighty-Six, and the fact that he hasn't been harassed speaks to the Federacy military's discipline.
One of his colleagues tells him he's got a phone call from his brother. Before he takes the call, the colleague looks awkward, saying, "Your brother is an Eighty-Six, huh?" Henry freezes, thinking he's going to be blamed for abandoning his family. But instead, his colleague says "That must have been tough" and offers him sympathy considering how young he must have been when the internment started. He tells Henry not to avoid his brother and to take the opportunity to talk.
Henry and Claude talk. There is a distance between them that wasn't there when Claude thought he was just a white pig Handler. Claude called because he heard Henry's training will end soon and this might be their only opportunity to talk before he's sent to the front lines. Claude tells him that the Strike Package is currently having a moon viewing party at the Rustkammer base.
Shin's POV. They're finally having the moon viewing party that Kujo proposed two years ago. With Michihi and other Orientas’ help, they make food for the occasion that is possibly very inauthentic, but they tried. Raiden started making rabbits out of apples and somehow ended up teaching others how to do it too.
While eating some of the food, Shin is talking to Lena over the ParaRAID. They're both looking up at the moon as they do so. Lena wanted to know about the operation so Shin tells her everything that happened. One piece of good news: they were able to confirm that the Tausendfüßler decontaminates occupied areas as it collects things, so the effects of the dirty bomb should be minimal.
Shin tells Lena what he heard about the Hail Mary Regiment's leader, how she tried to meet her soldiers’ hopes and demands, and ended up unable to stop as a result. This caused him to feel a little regret. He says that those who are below shouldn't just demand and obey. They have to be able to support the one above them, or else they'll just keep pressuring them until they're crushed. He worries that the Eighty-Six were placing a burden on Lena.
Lena thinks this is ironic coming from Shin, the Headless Reaper of the Eastern Front. He'd been more than a king back then, he'd been a god offering salvation. She assures Shin that they had supported and believed in her instead of demanding and obeying.
"Besides, it's hard not being depended on at all too. You should know. I'll cry again."
Shin smiles wryly, remembering their fight in the United Kingdom. Lena says that if anything, he should fawn on her more, like when he was having a Lena shortage before. "Oh? Should I consider that a promise?" he asks jokingly, like a child planning mischief. Then he suddenly becomes sincere. "I don't have enough of you. I want to hurry and see you. I want to be by your side."
Lena smiles. Because she was able to get enough rest, now she has enough room in her heart to fill it with him. "Yes. I don't have enough of you either."
Anju sees Claude returning from his phone call and asks Dustin if he's called his mother yet, she must be worried. He's like "Well, yeah..." but a boy his age doesn't want to be fussed over by his mother much. He thanks Anju for telling him before that he's allowed to be crafty, because that allowed him to get his mother evacuated safely. Anju laughs, then thinks, and averts her gaze. “...You can be crafty for my sake too.”
“I know you’re fastidious, Dustin, so I know you don’t like playing tricks. So I want you to do it for my sake. Before you’re unable to come back, I want you to stop and return.” She thinks of the one who left her behind and never returned. She doesn’t want to bear the same wound again.
“...To the extent that I won’t make you hate me.” He doesn’t intend to be so sneaky as to make her hate him, but he doesn’t want her to be wounded further. “Also, that’s the same for you, Anju. You can blame it on me, so be crafty. You have to return too.”
They flirt a bit then she rests her head on his shoulder and he embraces her.
Vika is making apple rabbits and he is surprisingly skilled at it. Rito asks Lerche if she can make rabbit apples too, but she says she can't. Vika says it's the same as asking Fido to make one. Fido comes over and tries it. He fails. Lerche pats him in sympathy.
Raiden addresses Vika as "Vika" and not "Your Highness," which surprises Vika. Raiden says he wondered if being a prince is a heavy burden too and if it bothered him to be called a prince by people who aren't even his subjects. Vika says it never felt like a burden, but Raiden is right, he does prefer to be called by his name. Everyone jumps in and says they'll call him Vika from now on too.
Tohru says, "Hey, Vika is long, so how about we call you Vi?"
Vika gives him a beautiful smile. "Do you want your head to be blown off, you bastard?"
He's joking. Lerche apparently did not realize it was a joke. Vika tells her to stand down. Tohru is scared shitless.
Yatrai visits Zelene for the first time in a month. She’s been answering all of the Federacy’s questions to the best that she is able. “We’ve confirmed the strength of the prohibitions you’ve placed on the Legion. A grain of sand’s worth of your credibility has been restored.” In the operation up north, the Legion didn’t try to steal the nuclear fuel.
Yatrai asks Zelene something he was curious about. That path that she’d made that led from her ‘throne’ to the lava lake, was that for self-harm? In case no one was able to defeat the Phonix and come visit her. He suggests that if she’s too ashamed to live, that someday, if she wants, he could have her destroyed as a mercy from one imperial warrior to another.
Zelene says no. As long as Shin and Vika don’t give up, as long as her information might be able to help them, she won’t choose death.
Annette asked for permission to go out in the city, and her request was granted on the condition that she wear plain clothes and have two MP's accompany her. Apparently, for her own protection. Once outside, Annette sees why.
The news of the eavesdropping has finally been reported to the public, and the Republic is clearly being blamed for their treachery. The people around her keep sending her glares. Since she's in plain clothes, it's not like they would know she's a Republic soldier. This is affecting all Alba, even those who are Federacy citizens. Annette confirms with the MP's that this is happening even in the military. They're all being treated like traitors. She hears people saying things like "No wonder those Eighty-Six took revenge on them." Annette sighs, suddenly craving a cup of coffee with a cute cat drawn on the cup.
Theo calls the Fox Commander's kid, who is named Miel Renard. Renard meaning 'fox.' Theo realizes now that's what his Personal Mark came from. This family apparently has an attachment to foxes. Miel lives with other Republic refugees in the west. Theo asks how Miel is doing. Miel says something seems to have happened in the city where all the important people lived, but the city where he lives is fine. Everyone in the Federacy is being nice to him. Also, the food is really good. As Miel talks about how good real food is, Theo smiles, relieved. He says once things have calmed down, he'll take Miel fishing and show him how to make cakes and jam.
This time Miel asks if Theo is okay, since the number of people with the long funny names are increasing. He means the Bleachers. Apparently they've been gathering and blaming the Eighty-Six for the Republic's fall. Theo assures him that those people are only in the Republic areas, and asks if they're really increasing? He'd heard they'd lost approval after the Second Large Scale Offensive. Miel says the important people who started saying those things haven't returned, and people are still bad-mouthing them. But people blaming the Eighty-Six and saying they should make the Eighty-Six fight instead are increasing.
The Republic’s government is set up in a big hotel in a winter health resort city in the west (the original inhabitants have been evacuated), and other officials and former nobles are living in rental villas in the suburbs. After the arrest of those involved in the eavesdropping, everyone is tense. Anytime someone else is suspected, the MP's visit, and Primevere is one of those who are wary of a visit, though she wasn't involved in the eavesdropping herself. But on this day, the reason she turns pale isn't because of a visit from the MP's. A comrade who saw the Federacy’s news broadcasts informed her of the situation. About a female Eighty-Six who has gone missing, and her headshot photo.
“Actaeon has survived…and escaped…?”
In the Federacy military, there are still many who have received only the bare minimum education and don’t have detailed knowledge about nuclear weapons. News of the rebellion in the Second Northern Front spreads through the entire Northern Front, and then to the other fronts, in the form of vague rumors, spreading even more inaccuracies.
The Mobile Strike force stopped the Second Northern Front from being destroyed by nuclear weapons.
The Fleet Nations summoned a monster called a Leviathan to protect the Second Northern Front from the nuclear weapons.
The Legion can be destroyed by nuclear weapons, but the traitors hid them.
The Federacy military could have defeated the Legion with the nuclear weapons, but the Leviathans got in their way.
The traitors took the nuclear weapons and tried to work with the Legion, but the Mobile Strike Force defeated them.
‘I don’t really get it, but Mobile Strike Force, the Eighty-Six, are an elite unit and they’re amazing heroes!’
The soldiers carelessly listen to and spread this gossip.
“...But if they’re heroes…”
Vyov Katou(?) (young armored infantryman who had previously hero-worshiped Shin) looks over the expanse of mud. This end that the Mobile Strike Force brought about was deeply shocking to the soldiers. In this sea of mud, they can’t farm, they can’t keep livestock. Most of them were originally peasant farmers. The farmland has been so destroyed by mud and water that there’s no telling when it could be returned to normal.
Vyov grits his teeth. This is no solution. It’s not a success, let alone a victory. They were heroes. They were elites. They were supposed to save them!
During his conversation with Lena, Shin abruptly has a flashback to when Mele's platoon rushed at him. In that moment, they all wore the same face, said the same words, had the same thoughts and emotions. It horrified him. They were powerless, but they could still blame others. It horrified him.
Lena notices that he sunk into thought and asks what's wrong, but Shin says he doesn't understand it either and brushes it off. They return to talking about Halloween. Shin tells her about the party they held while Lena was away.
They didn’t have the leeway to order costumes for everyone with the current war situation, so they’d made costumes with plain clothes and whatever was lying around. There were a lot of ghosts made out of bed sheets, monsters with only stitch marks drawn on their face, werewolves with ears made out of handkerchiefs, and witches who only had heavy makeup. Michihi and other Orientas taped paper talismans to their foreheads and became ghosts from the Far East. Marcel wandered around with only the word “ghost” written on his forehead.
Lena asks about Shin’s costume. He was made to wear an eyepatch and carry around a mop as his spear, as a god of war and death from some mythology. Rito (who just drew a pumpkin on his face), Raiden (who was a zombie), Anju (a snow queen with blue makeup), and Kurena (a vampire with red lipstick) had all laughed at him. Shin grumbles about this, sounding fed up.
Shin asks what Lena wants to wear next year. Lena says that maybe she’ll be that magical girl Frederica is a fan of. She suggests that Shin be a werewolf next year, because she wants to see him with dog ears and a tail and she wants to pet them. At this, Shin sounds the most disgusted that Lena has ever heard him. She bursts out laughing.
Final Chapter: Welcome to Mary Jane’s Nightmare, Deer Hunter
No Face realizes that the Federacy has leaked fake information now. He doesn't know when the Federacy took over the Republic's communications, but he has to commend this move even though they're the enemy. However, having uncovered the Republic's treachery, now the Federacy will have a new cause of conflict. The Legion have no lives or emotions. They do not fear battle or death. But the humans on the other hand…
Chitori's boots and body are dirty because she mostly walked all the way from her home to the capital, only sneaking into freight trains. She wants to avoid public transportation as much as possible. She wants to avoid people and places they gather. When Yuuto hears the reason for this, he gives up on reporting this to the Federacy military. He can't report this, though he knows he should. Because he knows that the military would capture her, and probably never let her out again. Even though she has no more time left.
Yuuto decides that, though they haven't fought together, if he has to choose, he will side with a fellow Eighty-Six and betray the Federacy. In order to accompany those girls on their journey.
"Yuuto, is this really alright? We Actaeon are..."
"Yeah. ...You want to avoid people as much as possible, right? Then you'll need someone who can get you food until you leave the Federacy. And after that, if you're going through Legion territory, you'll need a guide."
He only tells Amari about this. She wants to come too, but he needs someone to report this to the Federacy once they have left Sankt Jeder. He buys all the things they'll need and they head to where Chitori's friends are hiding.
"I'm sorry to get you mixed up in this."
"It’s fine. ...I've heard people wish for this many times, but I've never been able to grant it."
Back in the Eighty-Sixth sector, it was a wish many had at the moment of their death, a wish that was never granted to any of them. He remembers it, this wish that Chitori, the "fawns," share.
"I want you to tell me the way home. To the Republic-- our homeland."
And there was one more thing. A name Chitori asked about.
"And also, if you maybe know this. Among the people from the Republic who survived...."
"Was there a man named Dustin Jaeger?"