Chika Fujiwara, Yu Ishigami, Beam, and the rest of Makoto Nishikado's inner circle stood beside the raised platform.
Chika stood alone on the left. Ishigami and the others stood on the right.
Civil on the left, military on the right.
Makoto's women remained inside the sleeping palace, watching his back through the windows with naked adoration written across their faces.
People like Hachiman Hikigaya, Saika Totsuka, Yukino Yukinoshita, Haruno Yukinoshita, and Shizuka Hiratsuka were here too.
They were players with supernatural powers, but because their relationship with Makoto was only average, they could do nothing but vanish into the sea of ordinary people.
Hachiman and Saika were the exception.
The two of them had originally been Marina Akizuki's teammates back in the Naruto world. If they had asked Makoto for help, the odds were not low that they could have moved into Makoto Palace.
But Hachiman refused.
When Saika asked why, Hachiman said his relationship with Makoto was nowhere near that close, so there was no point forcing it.
He knew Makoto might actually agree if he asked.
But what then? He would be living there long-term, eating and drinking for free, contributing nothing.
At that point, even the relationship they currently had would probably be gone.
For once, the great teacher really did deserve the title.
One of the few romance-war protagonists with a functioning brain.
Painfully sober.
...
When Makoto finally stepped out, people from all over the world began shouting the same two words in different languages.
"Leader!"
"Leader!"
"Leader!"
"Leader!"
Just seeing him appear was enough to push them past the edge. People screamed until their throats almost tore open.
"Leadeeer!"
Then some of them did something even more shocking.
A portion of the crowd pulled out knives and other sharp objects and stabbed themselves, trying to force themselves into clarity so they could hear every word Makoto said next.
The sight scared the life out of people like Hachiman Hikigaya and Hayato Hayama.
Was it really this extreme?
"Leader!"
"Leader!"
"Leader!"
"Leader!"
The fervor had already turned this place into an inferno.
Standing high above them, Makoto took in every scrap of that worship.
Leader of this nation... no, this world.
A god.
"Quiet."
Makoto pressed one hand downward.
Sniffling echoed across the square.
People wiped away tears, reined in their excitement, and fought to steady themselves.
With a single command and a single gesture, Makoto froze the emotions of ten million people in an instant.
No one even dared breathe too loudly, afraid they might miss a word from their leader.
The atmosphere grew heavier with every passing second, pressing down hard enough to make people uneasy.
Hitler had used silence before speeches too, letting tension build for a full minute.
Compared to the pressure radiating from Makoto now, that man looked like a clown.
Then Makoto finally spoke.
"Did you see it?"
Faces changed throughout the crowd as his gaze swept down over them.
"Did you watch our war with America? Did you see my power?"
The next instant, the square exploded.
"We did, Leader! You humiliated America! You're unmatched in the world!"
"Unmatched!"
"Unmatched!"
"Unmatched!"
"Unmatched!"
The people roared so hard it felt like the sky itself might catch fire.
Makoto suddenly barked, "Damn right I know I have an invincible body. But you people still doubted me, still hesitated, and that made me feel something. It made me go and do something this meaningless."
"Didn't I tell you already? This whole world belongs to me, Makoto Nishikado. Everything that belongs to me, no matter how stupid it is or how useless it is, I will still protect it. Even trash like you."
"So if anyone still wants to doubt me or complain in the future, get out. Leave this place. There is no injustice in my world, and there is definitely no damn capitalism"
"The only thing here..."
Makoto raised his arm and shouted to the heavens.
"...is me. Your Leader."
"I will destroy anything that harms or takes what belongs to me. I don't care whether it's a person or a country. Makoto Nishikado will crush it all the same."
"Remember this. As long as you are mine, and as long as you obey my words, no one can hurt you."
"Here, you don't need to worry about war. You don't need to worry about corrupt officials."
"In my land, the only things you need to worry about are whether your intelligence is enough to win a better life in this world, and whether too much comfort will make you forget the joy of labor."
"In my territory, the capable rise. My existence gives this world space to become better."
Yukino stood in the crowd with her sister and Shizuka Hiratsuka, completely stunned.
Back in the Naruto world, Hiruzen Sarutobi had given his "Will of Fire" speech every year at the academy entrance ceremony.
Compared to Makoto's speech, Hiruzen looked like garbage.
"Leader! Leader! Leader! Leader! Leader!"
Countless people cried with joy, because they knew he was not speaking empty words.
People who had never even seen a high-speed rail train in their lives had now flown across the world to the richest land on the planet.
That alone proved his point.
Makoto clenched his fist and said in a low voice, "Everything in this world is under my control."
"In your eyes, I am god. I am supreme wisdom. If I want you to die, then dying is the highest honor. If I want to fuck your wife, you'd better offer up your daughter along with her."
Makoto pointed at the crowd.
Yukino: ???
Shizuka Hiratsuka: ???
Maruo Nakano: ???
Quite a few original cast members who were not especially close to Makoto froze on the spot.
No, seriously, did you hear yourself?
Makoto went on as if nothing had happened.
"I don't need idiots who think too highly of themselves challenging my theories or my policies, because none of you are qualified. I don't have the time or space to explain myself to you either. Anyone who betrays me or does not trust me has no place here."
"Because I, Makoto Nishikado, am not a man who blindly toys with power or lets power toy with me. I possess supreme wisdom."
"With supreme wisdom and the power of a god, I, Makoto Nishikado, will lead you into a life without fear and without worry, a life where your desires can be fulfilled, because I am your greatest treasure!"
By then, the crowd had completely lost control.
No one could hold back their tears anymore.
The first to break was Yu Ishigami himself, standing right beside Makoto.
"Leader!! I adore you!!"
Beam was no quieter.
"Leader! I can die for you anytime!"
The ordinary people below were no less fanatical. Makoto's words hit them like a drug straight to the brain, addictive and irresistible.
"Leader!"
"Waaah! Leader!"
"We'll never repay your kindness, Leader!"
"Leader, I offer myself as well!"
To the horror of Yukino and the others, many of the people nearby had become so excited that they completely lost control. They clawed at their skin, bit their fingers, and vented their frenzy through self-harm.
"Ugh... ngh... ah..."
Hearing cries disturbingly similar to the ones her mother used to make, Haruno turned her head and nearly dropped her jaw.
Men and women alike had their hands down their pants, shamelessly working their shamelessly touching themselves in public.
Terrifying.
Inside the palace behind Makoto, the women who had already felt completely satisfied moments ago now wanted nothing more than to pounce on that infuriating man outside. Even if he filled them until they were like cream puffs, they still wanted him to do it again.
Among the officials standing at Makoto's side, Chika Fujiwara was the only one barely managing to stay calm.
Even so, her pale skin was visibly flushing red.
It feels a little uncomfortable down there...
What Chika did not know was that inside one of the guest rooms at Makoto Palace, her younger sister Moeha Fujiwara was watching the same scene through a window with one hand on a chest no less impressive than Airi Akizuki's own assets and the other lifting her skirt while she moaned Makoto's name.
Since Chika was serving as Prime Minister of Makoto Nation, her family had the right to live here too.
That naturally included Moeha.
Kei Shirogane, Moeha's best friend, had also been invited to stay for a while.
Seeing her best friend acting so thirsty, Kei was completely dumbfounded.
Seriously? Did you forget I'm right here?
Then, in the next second, Moeha pulled out something labeled "Senior Makoto's little Makoto," inhaled it like a woman possessed, and grabbed Kei to drag her closer.
"Kei, come..."
...
On the platform, Makoto held both arms out flat.
All their excitement, all their hope, came from him.
The trust and adoration he had earned with everything he had given slammed straight into his heart, and for one brief moment he felt a satisfaction unlike anything he had ever known.
Uraaaargh!!!
...
Makoto Nishikado could never be called a good man.
In some ways, Hiratsuka had been right from the beginning.
He really was rotten to the core.
But people were never just one thing.
Makoto was bad, yes.
That did not stop him from doing what he could after gaining power.
For example, he deeply despised those parasites who already lived in comfort and still kept trying to snatch the few scraps left to ordinary people.
In his previous life, during that great earthquake, Makoto had been one of the victims too.
He had been lucky. The area where he lived had not been one of the worst-hit zones. A few huge cracks had opened in the walls of his house, enough to look frightening, but the place was still barely livable.
Many more innocent people had not only lost their homes in the physical sense.
They had lost their real homes too.
Their families.
Compared to them, Makoto had been fortunate.
Only more than ten years later did he learn that donation drives had been held all across the country after that disaster.
At the time, he and countless other survivors had been stunned.
What donation money?
Most of them had never seen a single cent.
So where had that money gone?
Into a pair of earrings, of course.
Damn it.
When Makoto learned that in his previous life, he had wanted to kill every last rat in the world.
Unfortunately, he had only been a shabby hack writer then.
There had been nothing he could do.
This life was different.
This time he had the chance to change everything.
Naturally, he would make up for the regrets of his former life.
So after that epoch-making speech, Makoto did not sit idle.
Any capitalist who refused to join Makoto Nation and sign a contract with Nayuta...
Kill them.
Kill them all.
They ran away?
Hunt them down.
Seize every company they own, fold it into the treasury of Makoto Nation, distribute the wealth to the poor, and put them on a global wanted list.
Then execute them by a death of a thousand cuts in front of the whole world.
For animals beyond saving, taking their money and power hurt more than taking their lives.
Even when they were driven into a corner by the army under Yu Ishigami, they still searched for ways to preserve their celestial-dragon status.
"L-Lord Ishigami, please, please spare me. Look how pretty my daughter is. I'll... I'll give her to you!"
The old geezer shoved forward a girl who looked about eighteen, barely an adult, though for some reason she had the unmistakable face of a rat.
The girl put on a pathetic, seductive expression and pressed herself against Ishigami, turning her head now and then to show off the earrings she was so proud of.
In the sunlight, the jade flashed with sharp, painful brilliance. The quality was exquisite. Every stone was worth a fortune.
Her ears were covered in those heavy ornaments, dragging her lobes down with their weight, flaunting in silence how every coin had been torn from the mouths of disaster victims.
The old geezer's face twisted into a fawning smile.
It wrinkled and squeezed his features until he looked even more like a rat.
His eyes kept darting over Ishigami, calculating how much his daughter's "value" could buy.
"My daughter just turned eighteen, Lord Ishigami. Look at her skin, her figure..." His voice came out shrill and hurried, like a rat scratching in the dark. "If you'll only show mercy, she's yours. You can play with her however you like..."
The girl leaned closer on cue. Her fake shyness paired perfectly with the heavy green earrings hanging from her ears.
There was not the slightest trace of shame in her smile.
Only naked transaction.
Only calculation.
Only the greed and slyness of a rat.
"My family has lots of money. So much money," she purred. "Lord Ishigami, if you want me, I'll give you everything..."
Then came the answer.
Bang.
Ishigami put a bullet straight through the old geezer's fawning rat face.
Blood mist exploded in the air.
His expression did not even have time to change into fear. It froze there, still wearing that revolting look of oily submission.
"Get lost. Don't let the stink of capital touch me."
The girl screamed and collapsed to the ground. Several of the jade earrings tore free from her ears and skittered across the pavement with brittle, grating clinks.
"In a world ruled by Senior Makoto, parasites like you have no place to stand."
...
That afternoon, Ishigami returned to Makoto Nation.
He hung the bodies of that family from the streetlights by the roadside.
This too was in obedience to the great leader Makoto Nishikado's orders.
Any noble, wealthy, or powerful figure who tried to flee or refused to obey would be hung from a lamp post for the people of the world to see.
"Please... mercy... spare me..."
The old geezer, hanging from the lamp post with his face drenched in blood, still begged for his life.
"You're not killing him?" Beam asked as he walked over.
"Senior Makoto said he should die more painfully than that," Ishigami replied flatly. Then, with a trace of pride, he added, "How many did you kill today? I'm only at two hundred."
Beam rolled his neck and clicked his tongue. "Tch. You're only ahead because of the Gun Devil's power. If my ability were that strong, I'd catch more than you."
Just then, the old geezer's face, already punched open by the bullet, started to rot.
"Did... did I do anything wrong? I only bought earrings for my daughter. Was that wrong?!"
The sudden roar startled the watching crowd.
Even Ishigami, who had been busy competing with Beam, turned his head.
That old bastard still had enough strength to yell with half his face shot through?
The daughter hanging from the lamp post beside him began swelling rapidly. Black fur sprouted visibly across her skin as her expression twisted into something hideous.
"Why? Why are you doing this to me? That was my family's money. Why should those filthy commoners have it? If they died, that's their business. It's all your fault. If not for you, my family would never have ended up like this! Aaah!"
Her voice was thin and shrill, like the squeal of a rat with its tail pinned underfoot.
Her face warped as she screamed. Her cheekbones jutted sharply upward. Her front teeth pushed out. Her nose shrank into a tiny fleshy knot.
She no longer looked human.
Or rather, she had finally taken on the shape she was always meant to have.
The force of her scream spread outward as a blast of wind.
It blew the surrounding spectators off their feet and sent some of them flying backward.
Crack.
The streetlight collapsed.
Father and daughter dropped to the ground and transformed into a pair of giant rats, one large and one small.
No.
More accurately, they had finally shown their true forms.
The father had become a hunched dwarf rat with filthy gray fur and absurdly short forepaws, still clutching a wallet he had not managed to hide.
His rat eyes rolled wildly in terror, searching for the next corner where he might profit.
The daughter, once slim, had become an even larger rat, her obese body still loaded with clinking jewelry that flashed with greedy light under the sun.
The giant jade earrings hanging from her rat ears were the most striking of all, dragging the lobes down so far they looked ready to tear.
"Daddy, Daddy, I want money! I want my money!"
There was not a shred of remorse in the rat daughter's voice.
Only desire, fermenting into something uglier.
The dwarf rat father nodded frantically, plastering an obscene smile across his rat face.
"Of course, sweetheart. Daddy will definitely embezzle... no, earn even more money for you!"
Bang.
Another shot rang out.
The dwarf rat father exploded into bloody paste.
"You killed my father?!"
The earring rat daughter roared, baring her fanged maw.
Ishigami's face remained expressionless.
"I heard that crab monster who attacked Senior Makoto turned into that because he ate too much crab. I thought he was lying. Looks like people really can become monsters for bizarre reasons like that."
He paused, gaze sweeping over the jewelry hanging from the fat rat's body, over all the luxury bought with money wrung from disaster victims.
A cold smile touched his lips.
"No, that's not right. At least the crab monster changed because he ate crab."
"This one changed because of greed."
"Aaah!"
The earring rat daughter shrieked again and tore the jade earrings from her ears, hurling them at Ishigami like a spray of green gemstones.
Before Ishigami could even move, Beam had already transformed into a shark. He swam through the ground and the flying jewels alike, then bit the rat girl's head clean off.
Blood sprayed from the headless rat body, splattering across the scattered gemstones and staining the jade and diamonds crimson.
The bloated rat carcass twitched a few times beneath the lamp post, then crashed to the ground.
Jewelry rolled from her body in every direction, ringing as it scattered across the street.
In that blinding shine, it almost felt possible to see countless desperate eyes reflected back.
Watching the headless rat body pump blood into the air, Ishigami narrowed his eyes.
"I'll need to report this to Senior Makoto later."
Then he turned and let his gaze pass over the crowd.
Their faces held fear, satisfaction, tears, and even smiles.
Behind him, the headless rat corpse swayed gently beneath the lamp post.
Together with the father's burst of blood, it became the most striking marker on the entire street.
A warning to every greedy rat alive.
There is no place for you here.