With every casual movement she made, Talents were cut down as if they were ordinary civilians.
Talents who had once survived ferocious tigers, enraged grizzlies, and genetically enhanced hounds…
All met their end at the hands of Gojo Kowai.
And this happened while she was being pelted by high-powered beams; blasts capable of melting steel and shattering concrete as though it were fragile glass.
Our sixty-strong force had been cut in half in less than twenty-six minutes of arriving.
Shizuka gritted her teeth, immediately sending out a new formation.
The strongest among us would engage Gojo in close combat, while the weaker Talents—those with less potent Ninpō—would keep moving, striking her from a distance in coordinated hit-and-run assaults.
"Good, good," Gojo's voice rose with near-giddy excitement. "Don't just throw yourselves at me. Use a proper plan to challenge me, you rodents."
One of our most powerful fighters, Yamada, rushed forward alongside Aoi.
They were an effective pair, their techniques complementing each other well.
Yamada could switch the positions of objects, while Aoi could create a colorless mucus to keep things glued still.
Aoi suddenly grabbed one of our own and pinned them down, a kunai poised at their throat.
Then, the moment Yamada got close enough, he formed a precise hand sign—and Gojo vanished from where she stood, replaced by the pinned ally.
The plan was simple: Kowai would be swapped into the pinned position, where Aoi could finish her instantly.
But instead, a small hand was now protruding through Aoi's face.
"That was too predictable," Gojo muttered, withdrawing her bloodied hand from the shattered skull. "Don't try it again. It's boring."
Boring…
I understood then.
This wasn't a battle to her, it was a playground… And we were the disposable toys she was free to break.
The Talents fought with everything they had, but Gojo was too fast, too violent, for most of them to keep up.
With their lives, however, they carved an opening for Tanaka-nii-san.
The moment he reached behind Gojo, his breathing shifted. His arm came down on the child with devastating force.
She crossed her arms upward to block, but her legs were visibly shaking under the strain.
A single glance from Shizuka gave me the signal.
I dashed forward at full speed, as unstoppable as a car with failed brakes.
[Ninpō: Kaze no Kokoro]
Gojo was locked against Tanaka-nii-san's brute strength, her movement restricted. It was like taking a penalty shot with the keeper frozen in place.
I gathered dense, pressurized wind into my left palm, ready to strike her directly.
If it connected, she would be reduced to nothing more than a red mist.
The instant my hand was about to crash into her chest—
"Nagisa!" Yasuna's voice rang out.
The attack connected, yet Gojo was still standing… and smiling.
With a sharp stomp of her small foot, power travelled upward, and Tanaka-nii-san's arm snapped like a dry baton.
He grunted in pain and immediately ceased pressing down on her.
"NICE! The best attack so far," Gojo laughed softly, her eyes glinting. "Here's your reward."
…And just like that, I was exposed.
I could clearly see Gojo's fist drawing toward my face, but my body refused to move.
Inside my head, the words repeated over and over:
'I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die.'
Terror consumed me, not because her bloodlust was overwhelming, but because it was so pure, so precise.
She intended to kill me without hesitation.
SMASH!
But… I felt no pain.
It was as though I had been standing still while the entire world shifted around me, until suddenly, my body collided with a massive boulder.
The rock cracked on impact, and I felt my ribs collapse inward, joining the rock in breaking.
When I snapped out of my frozen state, I was slumped on the grassy ground, my back resting against the fractured stone.
Looking up, I saw Yasuna holding me tightly in her arms.
Ahead of us, Kuro and Benimaru had already rushed forward to join the others in struggling against Gojo.
A warm liquid was trickling across my chest and neck.
It wasn't mine.
"Idiot…" Yasuna's face was close to mine, her breath warm against my cheek. "Don't just freeze up before a mammoth like that."
I remembered then—
Yasuna had appeared from my shadow in the very instant Gojo's fist would have connected.
Only Yasuna, a master of [Kakure no Jutsu], could have moved with such speed.
I tried to stand, but my heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was in my mouth.
My body trembled, my breaths came in ragged gasps, and every instinct screamed for me to get as far away from Gojo as possible.
'What a coward. Your comrades are fighting to the death, and you're just freezing up? A failure in this second life, I see.'
I sank deeper into self-loathing, spiraling down a dark drain of helplessness and shame, until—
…Yasuna's lips met mine.
My mind went silent.
For a single, disorienting second, the chaos around us vanished, and all I could do was stare at her in shock.
"I love you, Nagisa," she said, pulling away just enough for her words to reach me. "P-Please… go out with me!"
"Wh… WHAT?!" I shouted, my voice cracking. "Is this even the right time for a love confession?!"
"Ehehe, I've always been a whimsical person," she said, sticking her tongue out playfully. "But… I needed you to know. Since I might not make it."
…Huh?
"What… what do you mean?" I asked, the concern in my voice impossible to hide. "We're all going to do our best here. See? I'm fine now. No more freezes! Okay? So, please, let's just… not…"
Yasuna only smiled at me.
I knew exactly what she was planning. I didn't like it—no, I had never liked it.
By letting the shadows consume her, she would lose herself for several minutes to a state of berserk madness. In that state, the only thought in her mind would be to unleash the full extent of her monstrous supernatural force upon the enemy.
[Jibaku no Jutsu]: We had all been taught the same thing—when pushed to the very edge, when there was no other way forward, we were to play this final card and take the enemy down with us.
But the price was steep.
Burning one's life force would drain it rapidly, and in less than fifteen minutes, you could run out completely… leading to certain, unavoidable death.
"Why?" I asked her quietly, searching her eyes. "Why would you want to do this? We're all doing our best together…"
"You, Nagisa… you are my world," she said, her voice steady. "I cannot live in a world where you are not with me. Do you remember when you got beaten for hours just for trying to help me escape the dogs?"