Cyberpunk: Ultimate Cyborg System-Chapter 535: Burn This City.

"Why do you think I want to take down Black Skull?"

"Don’t know," Dante replied swiftly. "Don’t care."

His answer must have been so stunning that his naked friend was left speechless for a while. Letting her head hang, Rose heaved a long sigh.

"You really have no delicacy,"

"Well, we did agree that you would tell me once all of this is over," Dante said.

"We... did?" She asked.

"We did," Dante replied. "Then you went and hogged all the fun for yourself. Aren’t you selfish?"

"... there is nothing fun about it..."

Lighting the mood has never been Dante’s strong suit, but having his attempts fall flat like that was more than a little discouraging.

"You were tracking my movements, weren’t you?" Rose asked.

"Didn’t have much luck with that," Dante said. "Always arrived too late."

"Then, you should know what I have done..."

Dante held back, choosing not to reply to that. Though the answer seemed obvious, he had a feeling that it wasn’t what his friend had in mind.

"Back when we raided that Red Garden mansion... the plan had been to capture Jason and nothing more..." She said. "Saving the children was never our intention. We were going to leave them there, even though we knew what was happening to them. Even after that entity saved them..."

Rose shifted her body, looking over her shoulder.

"’What a waste of time,’ that was my first thought back then," she let out a self-deprecating laugh. "It only got worse when Ben and the others turned their focus to taking care of the girls."

"Didn’t you..."

Rose shook her head.

"I felt a bit of guilt back then, that’s all," she said. "I hated every second of it. That’s why..."

Dante was a little shocked, if he had to be honest. Rose had stated more than once that saving the children wasn’t their goal. Even then, he had always been convinced that destroying Black Skull’s sick business had always been the point behind what she was trying to do.

"It was the same for these past few weeks." She said. "All I did was look for information. I never stopped to think what would happen to all the children. I even avoided interacting with them." Turning away, she raised her head, looking at the ceiling. "That’s the reason I decided to do this on my own, if you still haven’t figured it out. I knew you wouldn’t be able to ignore those children, that’s why..."

Rose fell silent, and the heavy mood grew heavier. Even with his eyes closed, Dante felt that he could see the guilt weighing down on her shoulders. Though he said he didn’t know earlier, Dante was sure he had a decent idea of Rose’s story, and the reason she was going after Black Skull. Same as before their raid on Red Garden, he didn’t really know how to handle the topic.

After spinning back to the same thoughts again and again, the whole thing started to feel rather annoying. Did he have to overthink things that much? He knew what he wanted to do, and he knew what needed to be done. What else was there to think about? 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Dante opened his mouth, intending to voice his thoughts. Just then, an image flashed in his mind, and the words got caught in his throat.

"It’s all your fault."

The child he had tried to save. The child he failed to save. The desperation in her teary eyes. Her trembling lips as she begged for help. The vivid memory struck him like lightning, and just like that, his mind was entirely blank.

’Do I... do I really have the right to lecture her?’

As his thoughts began to spiral, the familiar ringing of a doorbell pulled him back to the real world. It startled him for a bit when he recalled that they were in Hollowstreet, but then he remembered that they weren’t alone in the pocket dimension.

"I will take care of it."

Equipping an outfit with a thought, Dante went to open the door. He saw a blue-haired girl on the intercom.

"Did something happen?" He asked.

The girl was a bit startled when she saw that the tall red-haired demon was the one who came out. Having him talk to her with his eyes closed must have added to the fear she was trying to overcome.

"I-I-I..."

Heaving a sigh, Dante went down on one knee so he would match her line of sight.

"Don’t tell me you got scared," he said, smiling teasingly. "Did you think we ran away and left you here?"

"Th-that’s..."

"That’s not true!" Someone shouted.

Dante spotted two more girls nearby, but they hid right away when he looked their way. He had made sure to leave them with plenty of food and a few things to keep them occupied, but it seems that wasn’t enough to ease their fears.

"Um... I..." The blue-haired girl gathered her courage. "It’s... Adel... she... she was taken away before we escaped and..."

"Adel..." When he muttered the name, that memory flashed in his mind. Looking at the girl in front of him, Dante realized that they were dressed in a similar way. He was quick to figure out what happened, and he felt a sudden tightness in his chest.

’Volcan,’

[There are faint traces of Aether on her.] A voice spoke in his head. [Most likely, the same Sorcery had been applied to her and the other girls.]

’Then-’

[The Sorcery had been erased some time ago.] Volcan said. [Most likely, they had been within the range of Aether distortion during that battle.]

A relieved sigh escaped him, but he came to regret it a second later. He could sense the blue-haired girl’s gaze on him, looking troubled as she waited for his reply.

"I’m sorry," he said. "Your friend... she went somewhere else. Somewhere far..."

"Somewhere..."

The girl muttered the word, her eyes widening slightly. As if understanding the meaning behind what he said, she cast her gaze down, the tears she had been holding back looking as if they were about to flow.

Dante’s hand rose, but hesitation brought it to a stop. Time seemed to stop as he dove deep down into his thoughts. The incident at the underground theater, his conversation with Rose, everything he had done, and everything he wants to do. He went through it all in a single moment, failing to resolve the conflict plaguing his mind time and time again.

’That’s fine...’ he told himself, finally reaching a conclusion. His hand moved, and he patted the girl’s blue hair, making sure he didn’t rest the weight of his alloy arms on her head.

"It’s going to be okay," he said. "You are all going to be okay."

The girl couldn’t hold herself anymore, and the tears streamed down her cheeks. Her friends rushed over right away, looking quite distressed. Surprisingly, they were much better at holding back their tears. They comforted their blue-haired friend until she stopped crying, and after apologizing, they took her and returned to the apartment where the others were staying.

Watching them go, Dante turned to look inside the apartment he just come out of, having sensed his friend’s presence around the corner.

"You know, I’m not that much better," he said. "I had always been on board with your plan, even with all the implications."

"..."

"Even after the fact, I only helped those girls because of the guilt I felt. I had always known what Black Skull does, yet I only decided to go after them because of the money I might make. I never intended to help them." He rubbed the back of his neck and walked back inside. "Even now, I get annoyed just thinking of what we have to do with the ones we brought this time."

Rose had put her clothes back on and was standing behind the corner, her back against the wall.

"We are not heroes, Rose," Dante said, angling his brows as he tried to fix her with a glare. "We are killers, first and foremost. Saving people isn’t what we do. It’s not our responsibility."

"... I know..." She said, her voice tinged with bitterness and pain. "I know..."

Gritting his teeth, Dante went over his thoughts once more. He quelled the little hesitation still holding him back, and with all the force of will he could muster, he forced his eyes open, refusing to dampen the pain coursing through his nerves.

"You still want to save them, don’t you?"

Looking up with a start, Rose turned to face him, her eyes tearing up the same way as that blue-haired girl.

"I... I..."

In the end, she couldn’t bring herself to say the words, and the pain that caused drew her gaze back to the floor. A moment later, a heavy palm fell on her head.

"I got it," Dante said, prompting her to look up one more. Steeling his resolve, Dante put it into words, speaking more to himself than anyone else. "I will destroy Black Skull, and I will free every last child they have in their grasp. I will do it, even if I have to burn this entire city down."