An overwhelming amount of destruction had been fired by Mugino Shizuri's Meltdowner.
Hamazura turned his back to the wreckage and ran frantically trying to get as much distance between himself and her as he could.
He ran to a different floor of the botanical ethanol fuel plant and Mugino called out to him.
"Hamazuraaa. Quit getting in my way and hand over the Body Crystal and Takitsubo. I won't be satisfied until I've killed everyone in School."
While still fleeing, Hamazura rejected Mugino's words.
"No. I won't let Takitsubo use Body Crystal any more. She's at her limit."
"So what? If Takitsubo breaks down, we can just replace her with some other esper. She's the only one that can search for an AIM diffusion field, but another kind of esper would be fine, too. As long as I find out where those School fuckers are, there's no problem."
Hamazura made it to the floor where the remnants of the grapes that had all the alcohol squeezed out of them were collected, but Mugino's Meltdowner turned it all to rubble in seconds.
Hamazura spoke while hiding behind a mountain of metal that was tinged with heat.
"Sorry, but I'm not going to go along with what you want."
"Ah?"
"You can't defeat that Kakine guy. With the battle in the particle engineering lab and this last one, you've run away from him twice now."
After saying that, he almost thought he heard the sound of Mugino gritting her teeth.
Even so, he continued.
"After meeting him myself, I can tell. This isn't an issue of #4 vs. #2. Most likely, you're losing to Kakine Teitoku in a different way. What good will finding out where he is do?"
It was true that School was made up of horrible people, but they still had enough humanity to let those of lower rank go. Even when Takitsubo used up all her strength before their very eyes, they didn't finish her off.
He didn't think that someone like Mugino Shizuri, who bared her fangs towards her own comrades just because she didn't like something, was "stronger" than Kakine and the rest of School. No matter how overwhelming her power seemed, that impression was not shaken from him.
"This isn't an issue of winning or losing. If you fought risking your life and won, all you would get would be personal satisfaction. I can't let Takitsubo go along with that. I won't let you end her life for something so pointless!"
"Ha. Ha ha!!"
Hearing the answer Hamazura Shiage had come to, Mugino laughed scornfully.
Hamazura ran from cover to cover putting some distance between them as Mugino slowly pursued him.
"How did she draw you in, Hamazura? Did you fall for her cute face? Or was it because she spoke kindly to a Level 0 like you?"
Hamazura did not respond and Mugino's smile grew stronger.
"How stupid. Do you really think everyone who speaks kindly to you is a good person and everyone who speaks harshly to you is a bad person!? You make it sound like you stand at the very center of the world!!"
"…I know that," said Hamazura.
He didn't deny it.
If Takitsubo Rikou hadn't spoken kindly to him, he doubted his heart would have led him to do what he did.
"But she said she didn't want a selfish bastard like me to die. She's the kind of person who says things like that! Someone like her needs to be happy. It isn't people like you or me that should stand above everyone else. If we don't create a society where the kind idiots stand at the top guiding everyone else, this shitty world will never get any better!!"
No response came.
A white beam so bright it made him think it was a nuclear explosion blew straight through the mountain of metal Hamazura was hiding behind. He was knocked back by the gust of wind created and he sensed a presence standing right behind him.
Before he could turn around, he sensed something odd about his right ear.
Mugino Shizuri had stuck a screwdriver in his ear.
"It seems you've got a screw that's just a liiiitle loose in your head."
The tip of the screwdriver slowly moved further into his ear.
"Want me to tighten it for you?"
He couldn't move. If he moved his head even slightly, the inside of his ear would be damaged and bloody. While holding the screwdriver in place, Mugino put her empty left hand in front of Hamazura palm up. She was telling him to hand over the Body Crystal.
Hamazura put his hand in his pocket.
The clear case of Body Crystal was there.
(God damn it…)
Gritting his teeth and closing his eyes, Hamazura Shiage prepared himself.
He ignored the screwdriver and forcefully spun around.