Read Online Mercenary Road by Hideyuki Kikuchi - Free Book Online

You can keep on living!”
    The green, glassy eyes of the soldier reflected D’s handsome visage. Pupils that had lost their vitality suddenly regained their luster.
    “You’re . . . beautiful,” he said with a parched mouth. “So lovely . . . I . . . want to live now.”
    “Then you’d better talk.”
    “Don’t want . . . to die . . . Please . . . save me . . . We were . . . brought back by . . .”
    “Yes?” the left hand said, coming closer to his mouth—and then the hand found itself placed on his chest.
    The soldier twitched. These were his death throes. In less than two seconds’ time, his body had turned to gas and lent a white tinge to the wind.
    “We’re too late,” the hoarse voice said morosely. “It seems your face brought feelings back into him right before the end. Scary what a looker can do, ain’t it? Gaaah!”
    Keeping his clenched fist down, D stood up. Nothing about the remnants of the tank or barricade was any different.
    “They just threw these together from whatever they could find. But what’s really scary is—”
    “Soldiers who’ve forgotten what death is?” D said, his voice casting a pall over the world of carnage.
    Apparently the hoarse voice hadn’t learned its lesson.
    “That’s right. No use threatening ’em. But maybe if you were to give ’em a kiss—gaaah!”
    As he was squeezing his fist twice as tightly as before, D heard something approaching from the rear. It was his cyborg horse.
    D quickly became a vision of beauty astride his steed.
    “It’s a hard road! Wonder what kind of clowns will be waiting for us next? Scary, ain’t it?”
    Naturally, D made a fist for a third time, and then started off on his horse.
    —
    After the Hunter had continued on for about thirty miles, what appeared to be a factory came into view to the left of the road.
    “This is supposed to be an abandoned geoflow power plant. What have we here?”
    Black smoke was rising from a rusty chimney on the factory. Even from a few miles away, D’s ears could catch the sounds of activity in the plant.
    As D focused his gaze on the objects constructed around the building, the hoarse voice asked him, “You know what those are?”
    “Mobile missile launchers.”
    “Bingo! That plant’s another one of their posts. But what’s that sound? Why would they put the plant back into operation? Whatever the case, we’ll have to make a detour.”
    D didn’t reply. His dark eyes were trained on something else.
    From behind the factory, an old-fashioned motorcar resembling some sort of beetle had begun speeding toward him. Just behind it, three identical cars and what appeared to be an armored vehicle were in hot pursuit.
    “What’s all this?”
    “Doesn’t look to be an internal squabble.”
    Even before D spoke, he’d spurred his horse into a gallop. The old-fashioned motorcar’s top speed was just under a hundred miles per hour; D pushed his steed at exactly the same pace. In less than thirty seconds he crossed paths with the car. D went by without stopping.
    Out of the corner of his eye he’d caught a glimpse of the driver’s profile through the windshield. It was a girl with golden hair. He could see the faces of the supernatural soldiers in the three small pursuing cars. All looked the same—like mannequins. Each had a glittering longsword in hand as the cars closed on D.
    All four of their paths came together at a single point. The three vehicles rolled in rapid succession. Every last soldier had been beheaded.
    Challenging the armored vehicle without pausing for a second, D must’ve looked like a mirage as he rode past. A cloud of dust appeared behind him. The armored vehicle had fired its gun.
    Just before flames and clouds of sand could envelop them, D and his cyborg horse made a mighty bound. In midair they shifted and flew right at the armored car.
    Overhead, they heard a familiar sound. The instant D and his cyborg horse landed, the recognizable whistle became a song of