The beer can in Shizuka's hand fell to the floor, foam competing to gush out wetting the tatami. The face mask she wore tore right in the middle, forming a terrifying gap from drastic changes in her facial expression.
"What did you say?"
Her voice was very soft, as if confirming an impossible joke.
Yukino leaned on the door frame, her chest heaving tremendously. In a voice almost crying, she repeated it once more; every word seeming to drain her last remaining strength.
"Darius-kun... he's going to blow up the bridge!"
Blow up the bridge.
These two words were like a fuse instantly burning away the thread called "logic" in Shizuka's brain. No, that thread directly exploded and snapped. She didn't ask why, didn't ask for details, and didn't think about logic anymore. In front of Darius's name, any common sense analysis was an insult to intelligence.
She only knew one thing: if Yukino spoke truth, then this problem had exceeded limits she could solve with "iron fist sanctions" or "calling the mental hospital."
The next second, Shizuka moved.
She didn't just stand, but shot forward like a raging lioness. The slippers on her feet were thrown into the air forming two beautiful parabolic lines before falling behind. She was barefoot, didn't even care about that ridiculous torn face mask. Her entire body transformed into a shadow shooting past Yukino.
The strong wind she generated made Yukino's hair fly messily.
Yukino only had time to see that blurred back descending the stairs, then heard a loud sound—that was the sound of the west building's front door being brutally smashed from inside to outside.
She stood frozen in place, even forgot that she should also follow. Too fast. That was completely not the speed that should be possessed by a single female teacher wearing a face mask.
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
Bridge Base.
Zaimokuza had finished pouring the last kerosene jerry can. He stepped back beside Darius while panting, his face showing a red flush mixed between fear and excitement.
"General, effect-enhancing combustion agent deployment complete!"
"Good."
Darius nodded with satisfaction. He had installed dozens of "explosive packages" wrapped in oil paper, binding them with precision to the core support structure at the bridge's underside. All fuses had been gathered into one, the end right beside his foot.
He bent down, pulled out a windproof match he named "Flame Thrower" from his pocket. He didn't immediately light it. Instead, he stood upright, tidying his black raincoat as if performing a solemn ceremony.
He gazed far to the other end of the bridge, to the expanse of land connected with the normal and uncontaminated world. His gaze was full of compassion yet firm, like an apocalypse commander about to press the nuclear launch button to sacrifice a few for saving the majority.
"The survival of a civilization sometimes requires necessary sacrifice." He murmured softly, as if making a final farewell salute to the world. "History will remember us. Not as sinners, but as protectors."
He slowly raised the match in his hand, preparing to direct it to the fuse at his feet.
"For humanity..."
"DA——RI——US——!!!"
A roar seemingly capable of tearing the night sky was heard from the west building direction. The anger contained in that voice even shocked fish in the river into fainting and floating.
Darius's movement stopped. He slowly turned toward the source of the sound. A black shadow could be seen sprinting on the rice field embankment at a speed violating Newton's laws. That woman was barefoot, each step leaving deep footprints in the wet muddy ground, splashing soil forming fan-shaped trajectories behind her.
That was Hiratsuka Shizuka.
Darius's gaze instantly became serious. He didn't panic, only calmly analyzed the emergency situation before him.
"The final boss has appeared." He whispered to Zaimokuza beside him. "Just as I thought, the purification operation won't proceed that smoothly. This is the final resistance from the World Correction Force."
Zaimokuza was already scared half to death, his teeth chattering unable to utter one complete sentence. "Gen... Gen... General..."
Just as he spoke, Shizuka had arrived before them. She didn't slow down, instead leaped high when still ten meters from the bridge base. Her body stretched in the air, the edge of her nightgown fluttering in the night wind.
Her target wasn't Darius, but the small match in his hand holding the fate of the entire bridge. A very precise flying kick.
*SMACK!*
With a crisp sound, the "Flame Thrower" match in Darius's hand was knocked away, spinning in the air forming a silver line, and finally falling into the cold river water completely extinguished.
Time seemed to stop at this moment. The next second, Shizuka landed.
*BOOM!*
A dull impact sound was heard. The ground where her feet stood immediately cracked like a spider web with the landing point as center. That wasn't soft earth, but hard road that was already compacted.
Yukino had just arrived nearby and happened to witness this scene equivalent to a Hollywood action film. She gaped, truly losing the ability to think.
Darius stared at the cracks in the ground, then stared at the woman before him whose chest heaved tremendously from extreme running and overflowing anger, with eyes blazing with fire.
He too quietly noted one new piece of data for the experimental subject named "Hiratsuka Shizuka" in his clinical notebook.
[Codename: Berserker. Status: Rampage. Danger Level: Has exceeded measurement limits.]
"Good work." Shizuka hissed those words from between her teeth. Then, she moved.
No nonsense, no interrogation. Only the most primitive and pure physical sanction.
Darius only felt his vision blur, a hand like an iron vise had gripped his collar and lifted his entire body. He tried to struggle, but the opponent's strength was beyond imagination.
"Physical Evasion... not effective... against Elite Mob..." That was his last thought before losing consciousness.
When he regained consciousness, he found himself already tied with rope like a solid zongzi, thrown onto the back seat of a van. Zaimokuza was also tied the same way and thrown beside him, already completely unconscious.
Outside the car door, Shizuka was holding a cigarette, using her trembling hand to light a match stick.
She tried three times before that match lit. She inhaled deeply; even the smoke she exhaled appeared slightly trembling.