Black Flash...
The hallway didn't so much hear the sound as feel it—his whole body leaving the floor and meeting the far wall hard enough to bring the rest of the ceiling down with him.
He was launched like a rocket before even I knew it.
It was hard to say who dislocated his jaw at this point.
"...Yeah." I exhaled, rolling my shoulder back into place. "It always feels great whenever this happens."
I let the silence stretch for a beat, waiting for the dust to settle, half-expecting him to twitch, groan, do something.
Nothing.
'Oi oi... he's not dead, is he?' I stiffened for a second, but seeing Kogane not mentioning a death or the points I should have earned if he had died, he was most likely still alive.
'Phew...'
Honestly, I could've opened the real deal from the start and ended this in one clean motion. Would've saved me a missing eyebrow and half a shirt.
But then I wouldn't have learned I could throw a man's own eyeball back into his chest using hair I stole two hours ago.
That was worth something. Relying on the domain for everything was its own kind of weakness after all.
Even without the ability to get others' powers, no one would deny that my technique was really strong. Just putting a normal trade inside the domain gave me a sizable advantage in a fight.
However, that same advantage kind of also spoiled a person. Facing enemies day in and day out without the domain was an eye-opening revelation, to say the least.
It's a dependence which I didn't wish to rely on until I could fight without it. At least until I faced someone really strong.
Just as I was done self-coping toward a decision which further made me look like a masochist, I sensed something. It was so faint that I didn't even notice it until now.
Something moved behind me—fast, low, already inside striking range before my brain finished processing "threat."
Only the leftover reflexes from that Black Flash saved me, my body twisting on pure instinct half a heartbeat before a curved shape hissed past where my spine used to be.
"Son of a..."
A tail. Scorpion-shaped, barbed, and—hair?
What is it with Tokyo Colony 1 and hair-related techniques?
I spun to find the girl the hair belonged to. Pretty... maybe my age. Slit dress and bloody murder in her eyes. She could make a fine jujutsu sorcerer... if not for the terrible cursed energy control I'd seen all week on her.
Not to overlook her sloppy form, her technique with no particular bite behind it.
She was weak... so weak that for a second, the obvious—that she should have been the accomplice of the psycho explosion murderer lying over there—didn't even cross my mind.
Instead, I thought of a civilian. Or at least someone who had awakened a cursed technique and was another victim of Kenjaku's jujutsu version of Battle Royale.
So instead of ending her, I grabbed her wrist mid-swing, spun her into the wall, and pinned her—as gently as pinning a screaming, thrashing girl to a wall can be called gentle.
"LET ME GO... YOU BASTARD, I'LL KILL YOU, LET ME GO..."
I couldn't help but purse my lips. If anyone saw me right now, forget saving the world, I'd be in jail for attempted... Ahem.
"Hey—HEY. Calm down, I'm not—"
Before I could even say anything, her knee found my groin with startling precision.
Every ounce of dignity I had left evaporated along with most of my ability to breathe. The gentle grip I had on her tightened by reflex, and she flinched in pain.
"...Okay. Fair." I wheezed it out through gritted teeth, reinforcement eating most of the damage, pride eating the rest. "We're gonna talk now."
She finally stilled, chest heaving—quite an impressive one at that—and by the look of it, getting any answers out of her wouldn't be all that jolly an experience.
'Just great...' I sighed.
I didn't get the chance to actually ask anything before all my instincts started screaming danger at me.
Cursed energy flared behind me, and I snapped my head away after stealing glances at the girl's assets...
The rubble where that bastard had crashed shifted slowly, and the figure gradually became visible.
'Oh, you've got to be kidding me...'
"Reverse Cursed Technique," I muttered, dread and annoyance boiling inside me.
The technique is a lifesaver. Unfortunately, it works just as effectively for others.
'Should've killed him first before handling her.'
He was standing now. Regrowing one of his eyes and the majority of his lower jaw. Grinning like none of the last ten minutes had happened.
A sudden urge to open the domain and end it washed over me. This guy was getting troublesome.
The girl had also gone quite silent after the blond explosion guy woke up. At least she had good survival instincts.
The way he was grinning sent shivers down my spine. He was up to something. Every instinct of mine, from head to toe, was telling me to get out of here.
My eyes followed his own and then almost popped out when I realized what the freak was up to.
Blood.
His blood.
It was all over the floor. My mind went back to the moment the man specially stated that blood can't be used for his technique, and warning signals flare up even harder.
I knew I fucked up, I took him on the face value back then...
No time to debate it further—his blood, pooled thick across the floor, was already glowing, humming with contained pressure.
"Oh, you've got to be—"
I yanked the girl against my chest in a rather desperate pull, her soft body melting against mine, but I didn't have time to appreciate any of it as I curled my body over hers and threw myself sideways as Domain Amplification snapped into place around both of us.
#BOOOOM
The floor where we'd been standing turned into a crater of fire and light.
Heat blasted outward, and everything seemed to reduce to cinders.
The blast took my back whole.
I felt it before I processed it—heat peeling flesh, my reinforcement screaming under the load as I threw everything I had into shielding my front to keep her safe.
And all of it was on pure instinct.
The world went white, then a dull ringing nothing. Pain, sharp and burning, rang through my body. It almost reminded me of Jogo for some reason. This was still better than getting hit by one of his meteors.
"H-hey—" Her voice came muffled, distant, like I was hearing it through a pillow.
I was stunned enough not to even register what exactly she was saying, and she didn't seem to like being ignored, since the moment my grip loosened even slightly, she started thrashing again.
"Let GO of me... you pervert—"
"Kind of in the middle of not letting you die, if that's alright with you—Princess," I grumbled as I saw something small and white streak past my ear and detonate against a wall behind us.
Another one. Then two more, arcing wide, tracking, hungry.
"F*CK!!!"
No time to argue. No time to heal either. I killed Domain Amplification mid-thought and slammed both cursed energy and desperation into the hair on my head, the blades screaming to life, and launched us both straight up off the collapsing floor.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING—" she screamed.
"Saving your life, apparently against your will!"
Her arms clamped around my neck so hard I nearly lost the air I'd just gotten back, nails digging through my ruined shirt.
I banked hard right, an eyeball detonating close enough to singe what was left of my eyebrows, then dove left as a tooth carved past where my head had just been.
"You're going to drop me—"
"I'm not going to drop you if you stop trying to strangle me mid-flight—"
"Then put me DOWN—"
"That's literally what I'm try—"
Her fist caught me in the jaw. Not hard. Barely registered next to everything else currently on fire about me. But it was enough to throw off my balance for half a second, and half a second at this altitude was not a margin I had to spare.
"Okay. Fine." I gritted my teeth, spotted a half-standing rooftop below, and dropped us onto it hard enough to crack the concrete.
The second her feet touched the ground, she shoved off me, putting three furious feet of distance between us, chest heaving, glaring like I was the one who'd tried to blow her up.
Then another tooth screamed in low from the side.
She didn't even hesitate—just folded straight into me, face buried against my chest, arms locking around my ribs like I was the only solid thing left in the world.
"...How shameless are you..." I cursed, curling over her without complaint this time even more.
No fighting, no shouting. Just her, shaking, small, waiting for the next explosion to swallow us both.
But it didn't come since I had my Hair-Copter blades working in reverse again now that I was back on the ground, producing immense air pressure to push back any flying objects coming at us.
"Oi... snap out of it, go hide." I barked, pushing her away before my hair blades reversed their flow, pulling me straight towards the explosive blond going on his rampage.
He saw me coming and was already throwing an eye, which I had to dodge just in time. Once he knew close combat with me would be dangerous, he didn't let me get near him.
I couldn't do anything but dodge until I could close the gap between us. I swear I'm getting a long-range technique after this.
Just as things were looking troublesome enough for me to actually think about popping my domain out, I paused.
Because down below, past the rubble, I caught it—it was that girl from earlier, ducking low behind the blond bastard, saying something that made him half-turn, distracted, his guard dropping just enough.
Wait. Why she's there... was she suicidal?
I paused, but that lasted for only a fraction of a second before my hands flew into a familiar sign.
'I'm ending this now...'
[Domain Extension.]
The cross rose behind me once more, and I shot off the rooftop straight at him, faster than I had any right to move on a body this wrecked.
He caught the movement half a second too late—whatever had distracted him down there had cost him exactly the window I needed.
"Gotcha... you explosion freak."
No fist this time. I just grabbed him and twisted midair, my hair already reshaping, blades spinning up to lethal speed as I closed the last few inches between him and the blades.
His eyes went wide.
"DIE..."
xXx
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