Chương 702: Meeting the Juggernaut Again
Ryuu was incredibly shocked by Kisuke's sudden outburst, but weirdly enough, it gave her a sense of comfort that cleared her mind and made her comprehend what he just said a lot better, "What's a 'real' justice then?"
"Before I answer that, you first have to understand that justice can never be objective. It can only be subjective, after all, it can only be based on one's beliefs and their perspective of the world. The reason why I called blind justice a 'fake' justice is because it's an act of one entity forcing their standards on everyone else and everyone else has to follow it blindly. Truthfully, such a thing is impossible, hence, a 'fake' justice."
"With that in mind, what do you think a 'real' justice is?" Kisuke finished his words by throwing back Ryuu's question.
Ryuu thought for a moment before answering with a frown, "A justice for oneself... A selfish justice."
Kisuke gave a big nod and said, "Correct~!"
However, Ryuu couldn't accept it and murmured, "How can that be?"
"Then let me ask you something else. What do you think is the difference between ideals and reality?"
Kisuke's question reminded Ryuu of her conversation with Alise and her argument with Kaguya and Lyra regarding the matter. Should the Astraea Familia follow their ideals or should they just accept reality? Until now, Ryuu didn't have an answer to this question, "Ideals are the reality you want to achieve." She replied.
"Uh huh... That's what people generally describe them as. Nevertheless, I have a different answer."
Ryuu stayed silent and waited for Kisuke.
"My answer is, there is actually no difference between them. Ideals are already a reality and reality is mostly made up of ideals."
"Huh?" Ryuu became incredibly confused at his answer, "T-then how come there is still suffering everywhere if the ideals are already a reality!?"
Kisuke then gave her a look of disapproval, "You're one arrogant girl, aren't you?"
Ryuu was instantly taken aback by his sudden insult and wanted to retort back. But before she could do so, a flash of inspiration entered her head, "...That's... But..."
"What? Trying to deny it now? Your ideals were never the correct one, nor was anyone else's. So in the clash of infinite and ever changing ideals, where you can never prove the others are wrong, what do you think it'll result in?"
"...That is reality," Ryuu answered after a few moments of silence.
Kisuke then turned back around and said, "Yep~ It's the hot mess called reality. Let's end it here for now. Those are my beliefs, but they may or may not help you with your own dilemma." Closing his eyes, Kisuke went back to concentrating.
Ryuu didn't move for a few minutes, until she noticed the unused bandages in her hand. But even while tending to Kisuke's wounds, her mind was somewhere else.
.
.
.
It took another day for Kisuke and Ryuu to fully recover, however, their food supplies were already running low. Since they were moving very slowly due to the danger the monsters on this floor posed, the two of them decided to go back to the 38th floor to replenish their supplies.
But on their way, Kisuke noticed that Ryuu was mostly spacing out, so he reprimanded her. Although he understood that she's thinking hard about her own dilemma, that's no reason to compromise on safety.
After apologizing profusely, Ryuu went back to focusing on their enemies, but only during their travels and she would often space out whenever they took a break. Regarding this, Kisuke didn't say anything further as he's fine with their slow progress as he's making some great progress in his own training, 'It won't be long until I can use the highest class spells again.'
He then looked at Benihime, who's still trying hard to adjust and thought, 'It's going to take some more time for her, however.'
.
.
.
Since the path they took before was already destroyed, they took another one. Unlike the direct path where the Colosseum was in the middle, the route they took this time was very long and had taken four days.
Ryuu and Kisuke finally saw the staircase to the 36th floor and the former was overjoyed. However, Kisuke didn't tell her that with his keen sense of hearing, he'd already detected a large entity rampaging through the 37th floor and he had been leading the way so that they didn't come across it, 'It's about time...'
Monsters started gathering behind them and Ryuu immediately urged Kisuke to move forward, but before they could do so, a large shadow descended from above them and landed no more than ten meters away from them. It was the Juggernaut, blasting them with its familiar roar.
However, instead of the usual skeletal body it previously had, it was the chaotic amalgamation of many monsters that are found in the Dungeon.
After Kisuke destroyed a third of its body, it was incredibly furious at its assailant. However, its mission was to clear out all the intruders, so it could only ignore him despite its rage. But thanks to Jura's magic item, the Juggernaut was able to circumvent the Dungeon's orders and went wild with its desire for revenge.
However, its existence was on borrowed time and wouldn't even be enough just to search for the hateful prey. So instead, it started devouring other monsters in the Dungeon and using their body parts to replace its failing ones to extend its lifespan. Thanks to these actions entirely unheard of, a Juggernaut much more dangerous than a normal one was born.
While Ryuu started shaking in fear, Kisuke started rubbing his chin in contemplation, 'Now then, how should I go with this? I can blast that thing without any problem, but it doesn't really benefit me in any way. As the source of her trauma, it would be good if Lion-san would be able to kill that thing, but how should I assist her?'
While Kisuke was still contemplating what he should do, the Juggernaut suddenly dashed forward and passed Ryuu, instantly arriving at the spaced out Kisuke, swiping its claws against him.
Kisuke was thrown back from the attack and hit the wall, crushing it and sending dust everywhere, "NO!!!" Ryuu cried out loud.
After taking out its enemy, its line of sight transferred to Ryuu, freezing her in place once again with its intimidation. But when it was about to attack, a bloodied Kisuke suddenly appeared on top of its head and grabbed its horns, "Go! I'll take care of this thing!"
Before Ryuu could even reply, the furious Juggernaut started shaking its head and randomly smashed it against things, but Kisuke wouldn't let go, infuriating it even further and prompting it to make even more drastic moves.
A few moments later, the Juggernaut and Kisuke had already disappeared from Ryuu's sight and only the former's intermittent roars could be heard from afar.
Because of her talk with Kisuke and her deep contemplation these last few days, Ryuu's trauma had resurfaced much worse then when she'd first encountered the Juggernaut in the upper floors.
Ryuu wanted to run away since it was impossible to defeat the Juggernaut, and without a doubt, this was the correct answer. But before she knew it, she was already running towards the noise, dodging and evading all the other monsters coming after her. Even if a monster hit her, she'd still ignore it and move forward.
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
Goyya
Goyya Editors:
28th00: Chimera Juggernaut? Well, that’s… weird? Magic, the magical kind. Not sure what to say about Ryuu here, but… Good for her? Maybe? I mean, from her POV, this is turning into a trauma conga line, and those are never a good thing.
Goyya: Looks like I went off more than necessary regarding ‘justice’.
And a small note to the readers.
Ryuu’s behaviour might seem really frustrating and it really is. I won’t deny that. But as someone who went through a traumatizing experience (nothing major, just being mugged with an ice pick when I was a young student) no amount of words, no matter how logical or comforting could make it disappear.
For one, a few weeks after the incident, I still get nervous whenever I see an ice pick laying around even though I kept telling myself that there’s nothing dangerous about it. I assume Ryuu’s situation was way worse than that.
And even after getting over it, it’s not ‘everything is already fine’. An invisible scar was already made that may or may not disappear so after this encounter or incident, the lasting effect of her trauma would surely still haunt her.
Finally, why am I explaining this?
‘Cause I hate developments of a single encounter or incident suddenly resolving years of trauma in other fictional works! I just can’t understand that! Human mind is much more complicated than on or off switch and much more stubborn than one might think.
End of rant… (please forgive me. This is just my opinion, nothing more. You may have a contrary belief and that is mighty fine! Nothing wrong with it. That’s just how the world works. Full of contradictions.)
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