Hajime was reduced to a rag, struggling to get up, his mind still clouded with a confusion about a name he remembered very well: **"Kusanagi."** The same surname as Kuro and Chloe. He never imagined he would face a relative. The woman had short jet-black hair tied in a small ponytail. She looked very young , probably not even thirty. Her eyes were half-lidded, as if she couldn't feel anything , no tears, no anger, no hatred , nothing. Absolute apathy.
Judging by her movements and her supernatural strength, she was at least an Alpha rank , an opponent Hajime had no chance against.
**"Why are you so surprised? Does my name mean anything to you?!"** (Akane)
**"...…"**
The boy didn't reply. He wouldn't say a word. He knew that revealing anything about his children could be a problem for them, especially for himself. He couldn't risk being captured and exploited—forced to talk.
**"Mouth shut, huh?!"** Akane sneered. **"So, you probably know something. Goto-sama has ordered your immediate elimination. Nothing personal."**
In a lightning-fast movement, almost instantaneously, she struck Hajime from behind, slashing diagonally across his back with her sickle. Hajime collapsed to the ground, in pain. His strength was gradually leaving him.
*(Damn... damn... damn... Move... move... I... can't...)*
Akane continued, kicking him hard, forcing him to smash against a wall, trapping him there. As Hajime was lost in his thoughts, his vision blurred more and more, his ears muffled, ringing, barely able to hear anything. He seemed to hear Akane's voice faintly.
Just before closing his eyes, Hajime felt a thud , something spinning in front of him. At that moment, his sight began to return. What he saw was something truly inhuman.
A human head, severed from its body, was lying beside him. His breathing quickened. He tried to say something but couldn't , shock rendering him speechless. Tears, blood tears, started to well up in his eyes. He looked at the face one he knew very well. the head of his mother, now decapitated, thrown onto the ground like an animal.
Akane, who had...
**"Goto-sama ordered the immediate execution of your mother as soon as he discovered what you were doing, dear Hajime-chan. In the end, it was to show you that he didn't care at all about her. Aina was kept only for his daughter's caprice, but once he found out what you did... oh, he went ballistic. And this happened. If it can console you, she didn't suffer while being decapitated—"**
Suddenly, a fist struck Akane's face, sent flying by Hajime, who had instinctively risen, driven by pure rage in his heart. Free from the wall where he was trapped, it seemed as if the Grimorio was about to undergo a transformation along with its bearer, electric discharges were replaced by a black aura with strange dark red and crimson lightning. His sky-blue eyes turned blood-red, and Hajime's body began to heal , recovering from his wounds rapidly, regenerating in a few seconds. He no longer felt fear or sadness. All that mattered now was killing his enemy.
*(What... how does he still have this much strength? I thought his fights and injuries with that squad had exhausted him...)* (Akane)
Akane, after being struck, got up, her nose broken. She touched it, trying to straighten it brutally. Blood seeped from her nose. "Repaired," she muttered, droplets falling to the ground.
Despite her fury, her eyes and expression betrayed her anger. She drew her sickle from her shadow, wielding it again.
*(He healed... regained all his strength... but this time, I aim for his head.)* (Akane)
**"Enough... Enough, enough, enough, enough, ENOUGH!"** Hajime yelled, his voice inhuman. His aura exploded outward, causing shockwaves that shook the entire structure to collapse, destroying it completely. Akane, disappearing into the darkness, had hidden herself easily, then reappeared, attempting a second strike at Hajime's silver-haired back. Unfortunately for her, she had not yet realized it wouldn't work this time. Hajime pointed his finger at her, still turned away, mimicking a gun.
**"Bang."**
A pressurized gust of air struck her in the stomach, knocking her back about fifty meters onto the collapsed debris of the structure. She got up, coughing blood and saliva, clutching her stomach. She hadn't even managed to summon her mana armor in time to defend herself.
**"What the hell—"** ( Akane )
For the first time, Akane revealed a side of herself , shouting out of surprise and fury, her ego wounded.
Hajime, biting his wrist until it bled, let drops of blood fall. Then, he paused mid-air. The tiny drops formed a katana, roughly two meters long, covered in red electrical discharges.
He then turned slowly toward the woman, walking toward her.
*(What was that? An... shockwave? No! was that wind magic?)* (Akane)
"It's been a while since anyone caught me so off guard, This time, I'll give it my all to kill you and hang your head as a trophy , along with your mother's." (Akane)
Hearing those words only worsened the situation. In less than a second, Hajime moved with inhuman speed, arriving in front of the assassin. He attempted a diagonal slash to pierce her chest. Akane defended herself with her sickle's staff, blocking the blow. The force was so great that it created a small crater in the ground during the collision. Using shadows, she conjured other weapons , lances, swords, arrows, daggers, all made of darkness and mana , hurling them at Hajime. He responded by creating a thick ice barrier, forming a dome to defend himself.
*(He can now use ice magic too?)* (Akane)
**"Die!!"** Hajime shouted.
He released an enormous amount of heat from his body, causing a thermal explosion that melted the ice and struck the assassin, leaving her slightly burned by the fire.
(How many magic types can he use? Is he a monster or what?!) (Akane)
Thanks to the Grimorio, Hajime could now wield elemental magic , breaking the seal placed near his heart long ago by Yukihime.
**"DIE, DIE, DIE!"** Hajime roared.
Manipulating the terrain, he trapped her legs in the rock, reinforced with mana. He then charged at her, igniting his katana with flames, unleashing a thermal energy slash toward her. She narrowly dodged, entering Hajime's shadow, attempting a sickle strike to pierce his body and force the blade through.
But Hajime, with an air jump, leapt upward, creating dozens of fire spheres , each about two meters in diameter and looked at his opponent with pure hatred and disgust.
**"I'm no longer falling for it."** (Hajime)
Hajime hurled all the fiery spheres, while Akane generated dark energy beams from her shadows to counter them. The collision caused chaos , shattering windows, crumbling vehicles, and destruction around them in a radius of about 100 meters.
**************************************************************************************
Meanwhile, all of this did not go unnoticed at the base, especially by Hajime's master.
**"What... what is happening?"** (Fumio)
Fumio watched in shock. He couldn't believe his eyes , Hajime fighting against Akane in an unprecedented power duel. Thanks to the drones monitored by Kohaku that watched from above, he saw the decapitated head of Hajime's mother. The sight turned his stomach, almost making him vomit, though he kept his composure in front of his students.
**"That's—"** (Kimiko)
**"HAJIME!?"** (Cloe)
**"What the hell did he do? I was—"** (Kuro)
**"Not now, Kuro!!"** (Fumio)
For the first time, Fumio shouted Hajime's name with a commanding, aggressive tone. Even Kuro was taken aback by such a reaction, losing patience and momentarily losing his composure , something that rarely happened for their teacher.
**"Sorry... Kusanagi-san... I just need to understand what's happening now. Aomori-san, hack all the cameras within a kilometer radius and disable all communications , prevent reinforcements from Black Corps from reaching her. Everyone else, come with me. Kamijou-san won't last much longer against an Alpha rank. It's only a matter of time before he runs out of mana. Let's go."** (Fumio)
And so, the team headed toward the location of the deadly battle, where the two magic users , both bloodthirsty , fought for supremacy.
( Hajime, please... don't die ) (Chloe)
( Kamijou-san, hold on...) (Fumio)
Meanwhile, Fumio sent a message from his phone, sharing the location of the fight.