“Takumi-san…!”
Shizuka could no longer hold her silence and thumped on the glass.
“Saki-chan, what is that?! I thought his power was flying slashes?!”
“I-I don’t know! Daniel has never shown this before!”
Both Saki and Jun panicked as they saw their teammate being treated like dirty laundry in a washing machine.
The one who answered Jun’s question was Momo.
“Of course it’s not flying slashes. Zero’s real power is Projection, he can project out anything he wants. By tracing the curve of his sword’s slash, he creates the projection of a slash that he sends out flying. That’s the true nature of Zero’s Yoruga-tensho. …right now, he’s projecting out his sword, that’s why it’s become so big.”
Momo looked down as Daniel thrashed around the giant translucent katana in the arena like a highschool girl trying to get an elusive boba pearl in her drink with an oversized straw, except this boba pearl was a human being who let out ear shattering painful hollers every now and then.
While it wasn’t as powerful as his flying slashes, Daniel’s giant katana felt like a tree log being swung by a giant. Each time it hit Takumi, air escaped his lungs, and pain so strong attacked him he felt like fainting.
Every single inch of his body hurt like never before, Takumi could no longer tell what part of his body was what.
If not for Takumi’s sheer stubbornness, Takumi would’ve let his consciousness go a long time ago.
“Ooh, Kou is in a huge pinch all of a sudden! Can he turn over this hopeless situation, or will the battle end right now with Daniel as the winner?! …Chat, who said that he’s overcompensating?! That’s not nice! It’s all in the technique!”
Even Bobu’s vulgar commentary didn’t enter Saki’s ears as she was watching Takumi slowly slumped down like a used rag.
This time, for sure, Daniel was sure of his victory.
Daniel waited for Takumi to be teleported out by the Staff. —and yet, once again, the situation betrayed his expectations.
Out of nowhere, darkness started pouring out from Takumi’s slumped body.
It was like a thick, smoky substance of pure jet-black darkness, slowly but surely filling the arena before Daniel.
“What is this, Kou created a smoke screen?! Does he want to hide himself in the darkness so Zero’s giant katana couldn’t hit him?!”
“It’s useless! I can feel you with my Ame-no-Masamune!”
“nn…!!”
True to his words, even without being able to see Takumi’s position, Daniel’s sword kept hitting him. Takumi grit his teeth, trying not to let out another scream.
Daniel swung his sword right. When he couldn’t feel Takumi there, he figured that Takumi had escaped to the other direction so he swung his sword left.
However, Takumi wasn’t there either.
Daniel started to panic. Has Takumi been teleported out? But he should be declared as the winner then.
Daniel then flailed his giant katana, right and left, repeatedly. The warehouse was starting to crumble because of it with rubbles falling down, but he continued.
“It appears that Zero has lost Kou in the darkness! Has Kou finally escaped the entrapment?!”
He hasn’t turned invisible and circled me again, right? Daniel turned to the empty space behind him, eyes swimming in fear and panic.
“I-I know you’re there, Koh! Show yourself! You can’t escape me, the Grim Reaper!!!”
Daniel shouted at the empty space.
What Daniel didn’t know was, due to the curvature of the tip of his wooden katana, there was just enough space at the very end of the room where Takumi was laying in wait, safe from the onslaught of the gigantified katana.
Whilst Daniel was getting freaked out over nothing, Takumi slowly rose to his feet.
Takumi picked a sizable rubble from the ground — an unspeakable pain jolted through his right arm, but he grit his teeth, refusing to let out a sound.
His arm must’ve been broken in a few places.
Nevertheless, Takumi gripped to the rubble hard, positioned himself, and—
thud!
“AAAGH!!”
A piece of rubble flew straight towards Daniel’s head from the darkness, hitting him in the back of his head.
Takumi hurled another piece of rubble, hitting Daniel right in the eye as he turned around.
“My eyes! Ow, my eyes!!”
Daniel tried to rub the dirt out of his eyes. When he opened them back up, he saw a hail of rubbles raining down his way.
Most of them were holograms, but for the dismayed Daniel, just getting hit by one and two was enough to make him freak out. Each time something touched his body, Daniel would squeal. He curled up on the ground, trying to protect himself.
“S-stop! Stop it! That’s-that’s cheating! Nobody said you can throw rocks! You’re using a projectile weapon, that’s cheating!!”
Daniel whined. He seemed to have forgotten that he was holding a wooden katana, one that he used to send flying slashes towards his opponent. It was both a blunt weapon and a projectile weapon.
Perhaps it was only cheating because it was his opponent, not him. After all, he was the ultimate righteousness. It was okay if it was him.
Anyone else would’ve called him out for his childish bullshit, but Takumi decided to comply.
He’d play along with Daniel’s excuses.
Right after Daniel whined, the hail of rubbles disappeared. Takumi scattered the darkness he created, revealing his figure to the world.
He was bleeding from every orifice, both his eyes were closed shut. He was battered beyond recognition. With a single glance, it was clear that Takumi sustained a greater degree of damage, and yet not a single whine was heard from him.
Just the sight of him was painful to see. And yet he just stood there, menacingly.
“…stand up,” Takumi commanded. “STAND UP!!”
Takumi huffed heavily. His lungs felt burning. In all honesty, he couldn’t even tell right from left.
Daniel looked up from his position. When he saw Takumi, what he saw was the shadow of death looming over him. The crimson red tie almost looked like a noose reserved for Daniel.
Trying to crush the fear in his heart, Daniel shouted.
“Y-YOU’RE JUST LUCKY I HAVEN’T—”
“THEN DO IT! DO YOUR WORST!!”
Takumi shouted back, coughed some blood, then wiped his mouth.
Internal bleeding. His lungs were flooded with blood. In a matter of minutes, Takumi would actually lose his life.
It was a miracle he still stood at all.
Daniel held his wooden katana up.
“Y-you asked for this! Have a taste of my true full power, —GIANT YORUGA-TENSHO!!!”
With his wooden katana still gigantified, Daniel swung it down ferociously, creating a flying slash that was multitudes bigger than the ones before.
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It reached the ceiling from the ground, absolutely obliterating everything in its path, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake. Concrete, cinder blocks, nothing could stop it.
It was approaching Takumi fast, and Takumi showed no sign of evading it.
He hadn’t created any hologram.
It was Takumi’s own real body.
—and then, an earthquake, or a tremor strong enough to be mistaken as one.
The scream of the Staff member who created the space could be heard throughout the backstage space. The load was tremendous for him, it was as if his head was about to be split in half, but he persisted.
Omega better pay him extra for this.
As for Takumi…
“…?!”
Daniel almost couldn’t believe his eyes. Takumi only took half a step back, evading it paper-thin.
He then started walking forward in silence, inciting fear in Daniel.
“G-giant yoruga-tensho!”
BAM!!
“Giant yoruga—”
BAM!!
“G-giant aaah—AAAAAHHHH!!!!”
BAM BAM BAM!!
Daniel grew more and more panicked as he unleashed a barrage of giant flying slashes. No matter what he did, Takumi just effortlessly evaded his attacks. He even looked like he evaded before Daniel made his attack.
Takumi himself didn’t understand what he was doing. His mind was empty, incapable of thinking, and his body just moved by reflex.
All he knew was he must continue forward.
“—it can’t be.”
Momo, who was watching it unfold, let out a surprised exclamation.
“Wh-what’s happening, Momo-senpai? How’s Takumi evading all those nasty attacks? They don’t look any slower than the small ones.”
Jun asked, Saki looked just as confused.
“…this is just my speculation, but the speed of light is constant relative to everything in the universe. However, they still need to cover some distance to reach your eyes, meaning that what you’re actually witnessing is delayed in comparison to what is actually happening…but, if my speculation is correct, then Kou-kun erases that delay using his ability. While limited, he is witnessing the universe exactly as it happens. Perhaps he isn’t even looking at the attack, but the contraction of muscles that would produce the attack, so it appears to us that he is looking into the future and reacting to what hasn’t happened yet.”
“You mean, like precognition?”
Momo nodded at Jun’s question, not noticing she spoke out of her character.
“An ability that should’ve been impossible for the original ability; Kou-kun just now has reached the Second Step.”
Daniel flailed his sword in panic. The closer Takumi got, the bigger the fear Daniel had in his heart.
“S-stop moving around! I can’t hit you if you’re moving!”
However, Takumi didn’t listen to his plea.
Eventually, Takumi was close enough to grab Daniel’s collars with his two hands. Daniel dropped his sword to try to get himself free by grabbing Takumi’s hands.
Pain jolted, but Takumi paid it no mind. After a sharp inhale, Takumi butt-headed Daniel in the nose.
“Don’t throw rocks? Don’t move? What else, don’t hit me?!”
Takumi delivered another butt-head. Daniel was reduced into tears and nosebleed.
“This is Battle! You don’t beg to win!”
And then, a third butt-head.
Takumi staggered back after that, then fell to the ground. His heart was thumping like crazy. There was enough adrenaline in his bloodstream to give anyone a heart attack.
But he wasn’t done. Not until Daniel was done.
Takumi reached for the wooden katana, thinking of giving it to Daniel again. However, Daniel looked off. He was trembling.
“You-you’re just making fun of me. Otaku King, Aizen, Isshin, Koh, all of you. F-fine. I’ll show it. I’ll show my ultimate form. You’ll regret it! YOU’LL REGRET IT!!”
Slowly, Daniel’s body grew in size. The already huge physique grew even bigger. It wasn't that he was getting fatter, he was quite literally growing into a giant.
Before long, he hit the upper limit of the EXP zone, so he crouched down to grow even bigger.
By the end of it, Daniel was on all four, fully occupying the entire warehouse with his body, save for the small space in front of him where Takumi was. Takumi had nowhere else to go.
“This is it, my ultimate form—SUSANO’O!”
“THAT’S A DIFFERENT ANIME, DAMMIT!!”
Bobu couldn’t help but make a retort. Her chat was having a blast making fun of Daniel.
“You can’t escape anywhere! A single flick of my finger and you’re dead!!”
Daniel’s giant face breathed down on Takumi.
Indeed, he was right. Takumi was quite literally driven into a corner. He could evade to some degree, but a single flick from Daniel and he would be Takumi pancake.
But, he didn’t need to.
Takumi walked up to the giant face, in his right hand was the wooden katana Daniel dropped, clad in jet-black darkness that he created. The darkness spilled out from the sword like an ink, but instead of dripping down, it was dripping up.
“Wh-what are you doing?”
Instead of answering, Takumi held the wooden katana up — and swung it down.
Then, as if it was made of real blade, a fresh cut wound opened on Daniel’s face. Daniel screamed in panic, trying to hold his face in pain, but he was too big to properly move around.
Judging from his earlier remark, Takumi knew there was a feedback between Daniel’s projection and himself, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to know when he hit Takumi with his giant sword.
What Daniel didn’t know was that his skin had become too large a surface that the dull wooden blade was relatively small enough to act like a metal needle.
In Daniel’s eyes, the wooden katana had become a real katana clad in jet-black darkness.
Daniel quite literally shrunk in fear.
Whatever he did, he was powerless against Takumi.
He crawled back, further and further back, crying “no, no, no.” But Takumi didn’t stop his pursuit, he looked like the grim reaper himself.
By the time Daniel was back to his usual size, he was cowering on the corner, refusing to even look at Takumi.
Takumi threw the wooden sword back at him. “Stand up,” he commanded.
Daniel shook his head.
“Stand up,” Takumi repeated.
Daniel shook his head again, firmly refusing.
“I-I give up. Please…don’t hurt me. Please…”
From those words, it sounded like Takumi was bullying the large-bodied man, while in truth it was Takumi who was one foot in the grave.
Daniel wasn’t hurt as much in comparison. He was by all rights much, much stronger than Takumi was.
It was his heart that was defeated.
“…and the winner is KOU!!!! What a fight, what a fight!”
Bobu declared Takumi’s victory, and that was when Takumi limped and fell to the ground.
♤♠♤♠♤
“Takumi-kun!”
“Takumi!”
“Takumi-san!”
Saki, Jun, and Shizuka bursted through the door to the medical bay where Takumi was teleported to.
They had expected to see Takumi still covered in wounds and bruises, unconscious. Instead, what they found was the sight of Takumi, fully healed, and was sleeping soundly on the bed.
—along with another person they didn’t expect.
““Chaudhary-san?!””
When the Indian woman — Amrita Kaur Chaudhary put her index finger on her lips, Saki and Jun immediately closed their mouths with their hands.
“…he overexerted his psyche, his brain is practically fried. I’ve restored his body to its normal functions, but psyche and psychic powers are outside of what my powers can interfere.”
Explained Amrita. “I see,” Saki and Jun sounded convinced, but a moment later a question mark appeared above their heads.
“…I thought your power, psychometry, was learning information?”
Jun asked, confused.
“I read the entire information of Kurogane Takumi without missing a single genome sequence and stored it in 7 digits of pi. I simply restore that information when I need it. —in effect, I practically rewound the time of an object I’ve learned. It’s my Second Step. There’s a 600-page essay as to how it works if you want to know.”
Explained Amrita again in disinterest.
“N-no thanks,” Jun refused.
“H-how bad was it, doctor?”
Shizuka spoke up, mistaking the assistant professor for a doctor. Amrita couldn’t be bothered to correct her.
“Broken bones in 35 different places, internal bleeding, flooded lungs, bruised organs, cracked skull…and, among other things, both of his eyes were crushed. This whole time, his only vision was a single horizontal line.”
Shizuka covered her mouth, eyes watery.
“He supplemented his vision with his power, that must be how he awakened a Second Step.”
Of course he’s fully healed now, added Amrita. That didn’t alleviate the heavy atmosphere however.
5 minutes later, a Staff member with a big headphone on her head came to notify them that there was an interview segment for the winner. However, after seeing that Takumi was still unconscious, the interview was called off.
An hour later, Momo showed up to the medical bay. She was late because her slot was right after Takumi’s. Takumi, however, still showed no sign of waking up.
After being filled in on Takumi's current condition, Momo made a comment.
“What a monster of a junior Momo has.”
In the end, it was decided that Takumi’s group would leave the premises early. Takumi was carried to the limousine by two Staff members, they had him lying on the backseat whilst Shizuka and Saki were sitting on the back-facing seats in front of him. This time, it was Jun who sat in the passenger seat.
Different from the excitement they had had in the evening, the atmosphere inside the car was solemn and grim as the black limousine cruised down city streets.
The limousine stopped in front of the park where they were picked up before. After everyone stepped out from the car, the driver offered to carry Takumi, but Jun stepped in.
“It’s okay, let me do it. Hup.”
After an exclamation, Jun carried Takumi on a piggy-back. Takumi’s bag was carried by Saki. Soon after, the limousine drove away and disappeared into the city.
Saki and Jun followed Shizuka back to her and Takumi’s apartment, and what they found appalled them.
You can’t call that place exquisite even if you try to be flattering. It was a small and old apartment on its last leg. It could’ve been a stigmatized property as well, seeing that seemingly the Kurogane was the only one occupying the whole building.
Once Shizuka opened the door for them, they found it was a small One-Room apartment. Right past the door was a small kitchen, and past that was a single room being divided by a wooden partitioner in the middle. Other than the built-in closet, bathroom, and toilet, there was no other space in the apartment.
“This way,” Shizuka led Saki and Jun inside after turning the light on. After a series of “excuse me,” they stepped inside, with Saki closing the door behind her.
Shizuka opened the closet and pulled out a futon for Takumi to lay in. Seeing that, Saki stepped in, offering to help.
While they were mother and son, they were still a man and woman, and so the partitioner was to create private spaces for each other. Takumi’s space was on the other side of the partitioner, facing the balcony.
As Saki crossed the partitioner, what she found was mountains of books on every corner. There was a small bookshelf, but the amount of textbooks and reference books were too much.
After clearing enough space, they put the futon down then laid the still unconscious Takumi on it.
Takumi’s breathing was stable, his chest went up and down rhythmically. However, there was no sign of him waking up at all. The clock showed 22:11, it was getting late.
“Thank you very much. I am sorry we couldn’t serve you with anything.”
“N-no, no. Please don’t mind it.”
Saki shook both of her hands when Shizuka bowed her head at her and Jun on the front door. After saying their good-byes, Saki and Jun left the small apartment behind them. They had wanted to stay until Takumi woke up, but there was simply no place for them.
And so, with Takumi sleeping peacefully while the people who cared for him were worried sick, the fight against Daniel Mitchell aka Kurosaki Zero had come to an end.
…for now.