The female parasite walked over to Ivan's corpse and said calmly, "For a freak whose parasite location isn't even clear, destroying the heart is the most reliable way."
Life really loves its sick jokes.
The same scene from a few days ago played out again, only this time the one on the ground was Ivan Greevs.
Shinichi, who had just arrived, saw the whole thing and got hit by a wave of pure grief. He clutched his chest hard. He wanted to cry, but he couldn't even remember how tears felt anymore.
"Ivan!" Shinichi growled through gritted teeth, hating himself for being one step too late.
His sudden appearance caught the female parasite off guard. She stared at Shinichi, completely unharmed, and frowned. "Why? I clearly killed you back then. Did I miss? Or is your heart in a different spot than normal people?"
"No… that can't be a coincidence. I should've chopped your head off instead."
Suddenly she realized something and whipped her gaze back toward Ivan's body.
Too late.
Spulch!
A blade shot out without warning and punched straight through the female parasite's heart. The instant reversal left everyone frozen.
The woman looked down at the blade sticking out of her chest. For the first time, real shock showed in her emotionless eyes. Before she could say another word, a second blade slashed across her neck with a wet crunch. Her entire head flew off clean.
"What the—?" Shinichi spun toward Ivan's corpse.
Right in front of everyone's stunned faces, Ivan casually pushed himself up from the ground like nothing happened.
"Fuck me, that was way too close. I almost actually died," he complained, brushing dirt off himself. "And you, Shinichi, your timing was shit. Lucky for me she never saw it coming."
Still talking, Ivan brought his blade down again and again, chopping the female parasite's severed head into mush just to make sure the bitch stayed dead for good.
"You… you got your heart run through, didn't you?"
Normally, any regular parasite would be stone dead the second its heart got wrecked. Even Shinichi with Migi had needed a full day and night to fix his. But here was Ivan, standing there without a scratch, completely shattering everything Shinichi thought he knew about parasites.
"You moved your heart ahead of time, right?" Parasyte on Uda's chin said. Its brain worked way faster than Uda's ever could. "During the fight you already planned for her to stab the heart, so you deliberately acted like you couldn't dodge when she attacked."
While Uda was still standing there with his mouth hanging open like an idiot, Parasyte had already laid out the truth.
"Heh~" Ivan clapped slowly. "Smart bastard. Good thing you didn't merge with Uda's brain. Would've been a real waste of that IQ."
"Yeah, I shifted my heart beforehand," Ivan admitted. "Her attack pattern was too fucking obvious. If destroying the heart worked, she wasn't gonna bother with anything else." He suddenly coughed hard a few times. His face went pale as shit.
Shinichi stepped closer, worried. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing major. Just burned through too many nutrients fixing the wounds. I'll be fine after a short rest." Ivan glanced down at the dried-up, shriveled parasite corpse on the ground and broke into a satisfied grin.
"You're seriously reckless," Shinichi said, shaking his head. "What if she went for your head instead of the heart? Then you really would've been a corpse."
"Nah, nah, nah. When you've got ninety percent certainty, it stops being reckless," Ivan replied with a smirk. "Besides, I'm a guy who values his life. If she changed targets, I'd either dodge or sacrifice something else, like an arm."
"Pretty damn perfect plan," Uda's Parasyte praised.
"Either way, it's finally over." Shinichi felt like a massive weight had dropped off his chest. He stared out at the endless blue ocean, and a small smile slowly crept onto his face.
In the end, on Ivan's suggestion…
The four of them threw a proper luxury seafood feast right on the beach. Satomi was there because Shinichi had invited her.
"Fresh ingredients really do make all the difference," Ivan said, cracking open a crab claw and shoving the sweet white meat straight into his mouth.
"Thanks to you, Ivan, I get to eat something this good," Uda said, stuffing his face and looking genuinely touched.
"This must cost over a hundred thousand yen, right?" Satomi covered her mouth, staring at all the expensive stuff spread out.
"Money's just money. Don't sweat it."
Ivan slid a plate of perfectly sliced tuna right in front of her.
"Yeah, no need to worry about the price. This guy's cash basically looks like he picked it up off the street… actually, that's exactly what happened," Shinichi deadpanned from the side. He then gave them the short version of how Ivan got his hands on all that money.
"I didn't know you were in the news, Ivan. Mind if we take a photo together?"
"No problem at all."
Ivan agreed without hesitation.
"Uda, what are you planning to do now?" Shinichi asked.
Uda scratched the back of his head. "I quit my job before I came here. Originally I was planning to end it all by the sea, but things got way more complicated than I expected. Now I think I'll bring my kid over and look for some normal work around here. It's a really beautiful place."
"It is beautiful," Shinichi said with a small smile, his eyes drifting toward the direction of Tokyo. "Too bad I still have to leave eventually."
"You're going back?"
A flicker of disappointment crossed Satomi's face. Shinichi noticed but pretended he didn't.
Still, she forced a smile. "Then make sure you come back for a vacation sometime, okay?"
"Will do."
"Definitely."
...
The next morning at breakfast, Ivan met Shinichi's father and mother. Both of them were extremely grateful and spoke to him in super polite tones.
It actually made Ivan feel a little awkward.
After leaving the hospital, he walked side by side with Shinichi toward the ferry pier for Tokyo.
"Gotta say, you look better without the glasses. No wonder Satomi didn't want you to leave. If I were you, I'd just marry into her family. They own a whole inn, you know," Ivan teased, grinning.
Shinichi had grown up quite a bit after everything they'd been through. He glanced back toward the inn and said quietly, "Some things aren't necessarily better when you have them. Sometimes the things you miss become the best memories. What about you—"
"Sorry, but I only know one thing: women just slow down my grind to get stronger."
Ivan shrugged, completely shameless and zero romance in his voice.
Unless she's a badass woman with a big ass, Ivan added in his mind.
____
[]~(￣▽￣)~*
Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69