Chapter 4 (2/2)

Above the highway leading to the airport, I keep teleporting to find Popper’s wheels as indicated by the GPS But it turns out to be an easy task to locate that huge limousine tinted in black

But I have no time to feel relieved I land on the vehicle roof and unsheathe ht opens without a sound Unexpectedly, Hibiki shows up her face

“Ah, if it isn’t Minami-sama~”

Ju-sleeve kimono, spreads out her arms and runs towardsover 80 kph Falling will not end with just bruises, but her gait is light in contrast

Thinking to smash her skull, I lift my katana overhead But at the same time, she reveals a dosu1 from her sleeve and tries to cut me with her weapon Her

1 A very short sword,it easy to conceal Often seen in Yakuza films

She is already too close for ainst her attack Thesound, then ht, half of my katana spins in the air and disappears to the road behind

I am left with a useless sword handle on my hand My opponent, on the other hand, has not received even a chip on her dosu

By adding oscillation to an edged tool, she increases its cutting power This h Frequency Blade like in sci-fis In reality, this function is already implemented in the ultrasonic scalpels used in medical treatments With her ESP, it has been made possible to use in a battle

With an aroused face, she produces another dosu She is noielding a pair with both her hands

“You’ll keep struggling as long as you own your liht? Don’t worry, it won’t hurt~”

But she is ai dosu toher attacks, but this li a counterattack, her ki armor will just flick my arms away My only chance is to hit her exposed head But in other words, as long as she protects her head, I can no longer do anything

“Why do you keep running away from me? …Are you embarrassed? How childlike of you~”

She sounds like she is shi+vering Her eyes are giving off a dangerous, covetous glint And she licks her lips, glistening them

“I shall do this, then”

She spreads her ar, but I have nowhere to run on this limousine

If so, I just need to escape into the vehicle The limousine shakes like crazy fro does not sway at all

Like I thought, this is not a normal limousine Rather, it is one that befits even the ruler of a country

“Desperate, aren’t you?”

Sitting to the opposite of the back seat is Popper The sharp tip of his pointed uht in front of h to pierce through my neck

“You should check yourself in a htly”

I can see the Ark—the wooden box carrying it—on the car floor Looking closer, it has been fixed to the floor with screws This preventsit away at a moment’s chance

But, I will not give up There must be a way

“I don’t care about appearance I’ve decided that I will survive no h, I suppose someone of your level won’t understand such sentiments”

A vein is bulging on his forehead It seems that I hit a nerve somewhere

“You’re going to die here, you understand? You will shed your tears, looking unsightly, just like that one man in the theater”

I grip a nearby seat, and I focus my consciousness I have lost my weapon, and I a left—my ‘merit’, my ESP

I will dash along with this limousine whole A limousine that is far frolass that aht I have no other choice but to pull this off

I desperately try to dash But, the vehicle keeps swaying and it is not budging at all Instead, sharp pain runs through my whole body and fresh blood trickles froing pain along with it It feels as if there is a power asking to be released, and it burns my nerves

“I can’t stand looking at you Die”

He is now ai his pointed umbrella towards er move h, no matter what

There is no way I aonna die here I a with my own eyes The one behind Mother’s death, Kyoutarou’s path, Levan’s future, and also, the end of everything

I ae of power, an a released froht dances around me And in it, I dash with my heart and soul

The light vanishes, and I ahtlessness, whichdown Fro within the darkness

Since the capsules of the huge Ferris wheel are lying right in ed tens of round

We are approaching the ground I dash out of the limousine before it crashes

Soon, the falling vehicle pierces the ground, shaking it Then, it grandly pitches forward as if trying to plow the park, rotating vertically It then turns upside down, sliding on its roof with an unstopping momentum for a few meters until it crashes onto a raised path at the end of the lawn before it finally stops

Startled by the incident, the passersby area ruckus I need to retrieve the Ark, quick

Nohere is Hibiki? I cannot see her anywhere She should have been transported along if she was still on the roof Forget it, the Ark comes first

The wooden box is unscathed, still clinging to the floor of the now inverted lirateful that they have done their job fixing the box in place properly

I reach out my hand towards it, but at that moment, I feel stitches all over my skin It is a bodily reaction that activates when one enters a battlefield Hostility, murderous intent, malice, I have sos like this I abide er, and I dash towards my rear There, I see a ball of fire erupts at the place where I just stood

On the other side of the s his feet, and there is blood flowing froood health

“I won’t let you have it This is already mine…”

He holds his hand towardsfire sparks all around Did he just miss?

“shi+t!”

He furiously wipes off his blood that was entering his eyes This is ht to his front and use my palm heel to strike his jaw A dull sound reverberates froht ends now I ju once, his head strikes the floor with the same force

With his body sprawling on the ground, I straddle on him and punches his face several times

“I’ll be getting the Ark back And you’ll be giving me Professor’s notebook, too”

If this was a match, it would have already beenis not aWith blood in his one insane

“Killyour weapons”

“You don’t have to worry, then I won’t kill you We’ll let you live and become our puppet”

Popper bursts into a ether splatters onto his cheeks and throat I punch once usts me

“Give me his notebook!”

“I’ orders anymore With the Ark, I will obtain the world”

“You should really think carefully about your current situation, Weapons Dealer

You won’t attain the world Because your life is currently at my mercy”

“It is the other way around, Terrorist The whole underworld will turn their faces away from you

You will lose yourweapons, while the whole world will point their muzzles at you, and at Tokyo And this mayhem that we deliberately keep under wraps will all be blamed onto you”

Then he glares ataboutto coil around me

“It doesn’t matter how many miracles you people try to make, because they are only liainst the world like that A better method would be to use it to serve the world, instead”

The world——it is indeed a scale too big to make an enemy of We are an existence that it discarded away, and it is not just recently that we have struggled against it And to fight the world, we need to own parts of the world itself—money, personnel, information However, the world has robbed almost all of it fro in Tokyo will turn into scapegoats And Kyoutarou, too…

“If it’s the methods that you’re clueless about, I’ll teach them for you Just show me in”

And he smiles triumphantly I raiseits target What should I do? Just, what should I choose to do?

Shrouded with hesitation, my reaction has dulled I am suddenly embraced from behind, and I am forcibly moved away from Popper

“I~ got you~”

A warh hits rave of a danger I am currently in The instant she uses her oscillation power to me, my whole skeleton will crack, and I will die

“Well done, Hibiki”

Popper picks up his umbrella, and he hits my face with its tip

“Gah!”

“Aahn, what a luv’ly voice Ah can’t… hold er…”

Hibiki sticks her face to the nape of oosebumps all over from the discomfort I dash before Popper can let loose another attack, along with Hibiki My destination is the highest capsule on the London Eye With Hibiki still behindthe momentum, I hit her nose with the back of my head

“Ugh,” she raises a groan I take this chance to slip away from her

“Haa… that hurts~”

She stands with a wobble She scoops her nosebleed lovingly and hted face

Love, although too much and over the top, she keeps such expression on her face as she extends her hand towards me

“Why me…?”

Her affection towards me is not that far apart from what Levan has Her eyes are dark, her behavior is clear, but she isno sense She rarely talks for herself, but she parades so e as me, but I can only see her as a mysterious creature

“Although I aed to Professor’s group, you know”

She talked and laughed as if it was nothing, but I am rendered speechless I recall what Popper said

‘I have ed to sell, already,’ is what he said I should have knohat it e to hear if sootten themselves involved in it

“Many things happened after I was abducted… but now that I have s don’t matter anymore!”

As if iers

“Let’s go together As long as Minaether with me, I—”

“No, I can’t”

Her smile cra her like this I sy

I have decided I will finish what Professor has started I will cut anyone who stands against me, even say a former ally That is my resolution

“Why? You sure ain’t ht?”

“I am sorry, but that’s my decision I will protect the Ark, and no one else will lay their hands on it”

She retrieves her dosu frorowls, almost like an animal Then she comes to cut me down

“Ark, Ark, Ark, Ark! Stop looking at that old box! Notice me, instead! Ah has confessed so much to you ‘ere But what is it that you not understand!!”

Hibiki is broken Her precious thing must have been chipped, and harmed And she could not bear it But it is not her fault, nor is it due to her weakness Because Professor, and

“Noyou with me, even if I need to turn you into a limbless doll first!”

Hibiki’s movement is like that of a beast The space inside this capsule is even smaller than on the limousine’s roof I am not sure how to handle her, but I have to prepare to face the consequences

It happens just before her steel-cutting dosu reach ht punch to Hibiki’s face She was bloay into the next capsule nearby

“O~hohoho! It is the rule of the world for the rescuer to arrive late!”

This irritating laugh, this silhouette is Kuroi Kozuki, without a doubt She puffs her chest as she laughs, pointing her finger in the direction where Hibiki flew to Although, Kozuki’s appearance is dirty with soot and dust

“You…”

“I somehow h place? It was troublesome to climb all the way up here”

Acting as if the fight between us never happened, she puffs her cheek as she complains to me

“Oh well, it is said that idiots and suess you couldn’t help it in your case”

“I’onna kill you”

That wasin But Kozuki does not seehs

“What have you been doing?”

“Well, various things Getting out of that debris took me way too much time Since I made it in time, all is well, no?”

Debris…? That explains why she looks so tattered Maybe in her oay, but it seeh quite the trouble”

“You saved me there”

“Hm? Did you just thank me?”

“Of course not I was speaking the truth, that ‘you saved me’ That’s all”

“Not yet though, we aren’t out of danger yet”

Kozuki takes off her tattered dress and throws it away It reveals what she wears underneath it, a skin-tight bodysuit, which is her personal battle dress

Hibiki rises back on her feet like a revenant If she had an ESP capable to kill with enmity alone, Kozuki and I would have surely died That is what her eyes are telling me

“Aah~ I should have left London instead of going back here”

“Then why are you here?”

“Eh? That’s—— um…”

Kozuki’s eyes are swilances atme out

“Because… you are my f… f-f-…”

She is stuttering Threeof a period, but this is the first ti out of character

“What do you mean by ‘fu’?”

“Fu- A funny fellow that le!”

Just what the heck is she blabbing about at such a tiht?

“I’ve never played it before, though”

“R-really? But, I a the violin, so I will let you play the triangle as my accompaniment sometime”

I have never heard of a violin instruh

Kozuki is acting as if she just said so her flushed face with both her hands Maybe, this is her way to reat development from her

“Okay then, I’ll make sure to practice”

Kozuki opens her eyes wide It seems that she is surprised to hear my frank answer We really do not have the ti

“How dare ya flirtin’ around right in front of me, ya damn bitches!!”

A loud clap resounds to the area With her oscillation, it turns into a strong gale, shaking the London Eye Glass shatters, reflecting light in all directions as it falls from the capsule

“Minami, here”

Inside the furiously shaking capsule, Kozuki uses her ESP What she is giving lossy black scabbard It is a japanese sword

“It is a sharp sword that I got froht?”

I aht I remove the katana from its scabbard Like how the surface of water reflects themy face This is undoubtedly another historical relic It is absurd for anyone to swing it around, but now is not the right time for me to complain

Theinto the capsule where Hibiki is on, I realize that the terab Kozuki’s arulfs the one ere just at And it explodes, which is all caused by Popper’s ESP

A clap resounds again The gale brings the fireball with it, transforale that approaches us Kozuki produces a Spartan shi+eld to protect us both from the flame

With no ht away Another explosion The fire spreads through the fraiant fiery chariot

“Minairl first”

Kozuki nods to uys So, I will believe in Kozuki who has come to save me

I answer her nod with my own, and she transfers a sniper rifle into her hands She takes her stance and aims it towards Popper below

Siunshot, I dash towards Hibiki With ht in front of her, Hibiki opens her

“Mi~na~mi~ sa~ma~!”

We both have entered our respective striking distances But on this crae

Kozuki’s sniping is holding Popper in check,hiht with all of my focus

But thesound resounds At the same time, a severe tremor hits the whole Ferris wheel Its fulcrum has been hit by an explosion

And the explosion raises a ht in London

4

The whole Ferris wheel is swaying like a baby cradle Its steel fra on the ears

Another explosion occurs The wires that are holding the structure in place, start to snap one after another Due to their thickness and y The wires are lashi+ng the ground with snakelikeclouds of dusts

People around the public park are screa while they flee But in theat et me directly thanks to Kozuki’s cover fire In the end, he decided to bury us all under this Ferris wheel itself

More explosions start occurring Although maybe due to his short te not only at the Ferris wheel, but throughout the public park as well

Kozuki fires at hi foothold, she round near Popper’s feet

Another wire snaps froiant snake and whips the ground Then, the Ferris wheel starts to heel over Any structures will collapse when they lose all their supports I wonder if it will fall into the river Instead, it may actually keel over towards the public park because of all these explosions

The wind blows, sending fire sparks right before round below is blanketed with fire Shrieks resound, and explosions roar The burnt stench of goods and huh the air

What unfolds below is the scene of a battlefield No…

“That’s not quite right”

It is different This is not what battlefields are

I glare at Popper All of these fla Rather than a battlefield, this is just hier; a tantruuy, there is no way I will let such a human possess the Ark!

He needs to be taken down first When I decide to dash towards Popper, I see a dosu approaching me

“Ya is playin’ with oin’?”

I dodge her attack barely in ti my sword However, it is blocked by her oscillation armor

“Why are you so obsessed with me?!”

“Because ah love ya, of course! Ah wanted to beco, ya is truly the sun!

Ah was content with gazin’ at ya from afar, but no more It is human nature to desire what’s within our reach!”

She is saying that she loves me But, unlike hoith Levan, I do not feel even the slightest war to her confession Because her love is brutish, seeking to donation

Are we the ones who have created her? Or did she turn like this because of Popper’s influence? I do not know But as apologetic as I a that I can do for her

That is, to kill her

“It’s all right I will ood care of you Ah will love you in the same way as they did to meee!!”

There is only one way to take Hibiki down That is, to aim at her exposed head I also need to consider the fact that I have notto cutsome of her attacks with my katana But it has its limits; for every spark our blades produce,smaller Now that it has come to this…

“It’s all or nothing!”

I store ht side with half its blade unsheathed: the ‘Kaht, I will dodge all of her attacks

With inter capsule, I start a circle dance with death Without parrying, without countering, I keep evading her inco attacks

In tietting wider and wider And finally, she raises her dosu overhead and swings it vertically with great force

I match her movements and I raise my katana as well

Hibiki is using ESP on her ki it into an oscillation armor But, her skin is not under said protection On the other hand, et is not her head She has just one other part of her body that is peeking out of her arers

Blood spurts ontoa silk, her fingers fly through the air I swing ers of her other hand

Hibiki looks at her hands, left and right I hear her roan while she falls on her backside

“No way… this… no way…”

I push my katana to her neck

“Minami-sama…”

Hibiki looks up atit, she smiles

One strike A sushes out Hibiki closes her eyes, and her neck inclines A large gash opens and this tie amount of blood spurts from it

Her body topples, and she falls face up

I will not syize, either It is likely that I will need to kill more people like Hibiki But, I will remember I will remember all these people that we have created with our hands

Another big explosion erupts The Ferris wheelcreak and starts to slant I dash to Kozuki

“Kozuki!”

I grasp her ar the fulcru distorted like a sugar sculpture The wheel that was protruding towards the river is now entering the public park The scene is prettyto bend its own body

There are no wires left attached the ground Losing all of its support, the giant wheel pounds the earth as it falls

Cladding fire, the wheel falls diagonally from the public park In the end, it crushes the London Aquarium nearby

“My goodness”

Closing her mouth with her hands, Kozuki shows her astonish at Popper And Popper, he is giving lare, too; one full of hatred

“Kozuki, step back for this tiuy”

A duel while surrounded with fire No, it is not going to be anything that grand This will only become a one-sided death penalty

I hold ine a path within my mind My destination is… Popper!

Faster than he can wave his hand around, I enter the vortex of light an dash He swings his uht wrist along with that umbrella from his body

“Fgyaaaaaa!”

Still gripping the uht hand leaves a trail of blood as it lobs in the air He is screaround

“I’ the notebook… and the Ark”

I pull out the notebook stored in Popper’s breast pocket Checking its content, I confir in it

“You bitch…! Don’t you think you’ll get aith this…… The moment you kill me, will be the moment you turn the whole world your enemy!”

He is squirround like a worm I look at him with disdain, and he shuts himself up

I hold ainst the scruff of his neck The sword crest reflects a blue light to his face

“You will beco proof… of what happens when you try to mess around with us”

His crooked face is unsightly He is not laughing anymore, because he is afraid We are terrorists, the ones who spread terror as we fight against the world

I will carry outwith my own eyes

“Let’s negotiate, Weapons Dealer”

“W-what do you want?”

“Weapons, of course I eapons for our comrades who are in Tokyo”

I lightly press the blade on his neck, and a stream of blood flows from it

“We’ll pay for it, you know?”

Like a broken toy, he nods his head It reflexively h, and Popper makes a small shriek

“Then, it’s about ti”

“F-fishi+ng?”

Withouta sound, Kozuki walks to me with a thin wire in her hands

“I’ that there is noit back”

“W-hat are you—”

I make Popper stand and present him before Kozuki With dexterous hands, she coils the wire around his thin neck

“But you said you weren’t going to kill me!”

Popper screa It is annoying me

“We’re not going to kill you We’ll only have you die once The fish won’t come out otherwise”

The ESP-granting glowing fish will leave the moment it senses that its host’s heartbeat has stopped

“Do be assured I shall bring you back to life immediately after you die”

While saying so, Kozuki points at an AED (Auto nearby She is well-prepared Kozuki looks at me, and I nod

“Well then, let us start!”

“No, wait…”

Popper’s screaroans The noises that he e park Mission coo and retrieve the Ark

To be Continued in the Epilogue