Yuichi knocked Natsuki over.
They both fell to the side, and the shot of light passed through where Natsuki had been. The shot toppled over the tables behind them and kept on going, not stopping even after it blew a hole in the wall.
“The blade! The blade’s digging in! I’m bleeding! I’m telling you, I’m bleeding!” Yurika screamed.
“Isn’t it amazing that I didn’t cut your head clean off?” Natsuki commented.
“That’s not something to brag about!”
It had happened so suddenly, Yuichi hadn’t even thought about the blade, but he was relieved that Yurika was safe.
It seemed that Ryoma needed to focus those light blasts before he could fire them. He hadn’t fired a followup shot, but the light around his body was growing more intense. It wouldn’t be long before he acted again.
As Yuichi began thinking about how best to deal with him, he heard Ende speak up excitedly from close by.
“This is what he is now. He’s totally nuts, but he’s still a protagonist. Anything he does will be run through a righteousness filter, fudging the details of what actually happened.”
“You mean that voice from before?” Yuichi asked.
“Yeah. He can use his event cards to determine what happens next. Of course, it can’t completely twist a person’s free will, but it’s possible that if you lose to him here, what it said will become true. His power can even overwrite things that have already happened. In other words, you’ll be retroactively turned into the killer.”
“Dammit! Was this really what you wanted?!” Yuichi shouted.
“I just wanted to give Ryoma more power. I never thought things would come to this,” Ende said theatrically, throwing up her hands.
“If you’re going to enact a crazy scheme, at least think it through a little more!”
But as Ende had said, he couldn’t leave Ryoma at large. He wasn’t sure if beating the man would really cause him to lose his protagonist abilities, but for now, punching was pretty much Yuichi’s only option.
In other words, it was his usual way of thinking.
✦ ✦ ✦
Now, use your power! Take your revenge! the voice resounded in his head.
He’d begun to hear the voice when he’d been wrapped in the hair, driven to the brink of despair.
Ryoma wasn’t good at fighting.
He’d solved a variety of problems in the past, but he hadn’t done it using his own power. By himself, he was a fairly useless human being. He was well aware that he couldn’t do much of anything without someone else’s help.
But the person who had killed his sisters and his childhood friend was right in front of him.
That person was going to kill him if he didn’t do something.
It couldn’t be allowed.
Not having power was no excuse.
If he was killed here and now, it would all be for nothing.
Ryoma struggled. He struggled and struggled, but his body wouldn’t move. And just when he was about to give up and admit that he couldn’t beat this woman...
Do you want power? the voice asked him.
It was the voice of the devil.
He realized that to respond to it would be to do something he couldn’t take back. But he felt no hesitation.
Give me power! Ryoma answered immediately.
I shall.
Immediately, power welled up inside him. Like a dam bursting, it came out as a torrent from the depths of his soul.
Anger filled in the void in his heart. The power of violence stained his soul black. But he didn’t mind. It was a small price to pay for vengeance.
Nothing else mattered now. He just needed to beat them.
The next thing he knew, the hair that was binding him had blown apart, vanquished by Ryoma’s overflowing power.
He focused that power into his right arm. Crushing it had been extremely simple. He could see everything clearly now.
Kotori’s body crumbled away, leaving only a single rib behind.
A Divine Vessel.
He didn’t know when Kotori had acquired it.
She’d always been the sort of person to invite trouble, he thought, and the memory brought another wave of anger surging inside of him. Still, while it might be a part of a god, it was the only memento he had of Kotori.
Unsteady on his feet, Ryoma began walking towards Kotori. It was then that he saw it.
“Thanks. I really wanted this. Saved me a lot of time.” Yuichi Sakaki stepped on Kotori’s remains to pick up the rib.
That was right.
He was still here.
They were still here.
Yuichi Sakaki, Natsuki Takeuchi, and Yurika Maruyama were here.
“Don’t lump me in with that Alberta freak, okay?” Yuichi Sakaki said with a cruel chuckle.
Kill, kill, kill! something inside of Ryoma was shouting. Was it the thing that had given him power, or his own voice? He couldn’t be sure. But part of Ryoma was remaining excessively calm.
Yuichi Sakaki was merely a human. He wasn’t a yokai like Alberta, or a person with RPG hero powers like Yurika Maruyama, or an awakened existence like Ryoma.
He could feel a clear difference between them. This man was nothing to fear.
Still, that didn’t mean he could just let him go.
He wouldn’t play with him. He’d just kill him quickly. He turned his right hand towards Yuichi and fired a shot of light that had relatively little power behind it.
It was just meant as a diversion, but Yuichi Sakaki wouldn’t know how much power it had. He’d have to dodge it, no matter what.
After firing off the blast, Ryoma moved with all his might. He used the aura around him as a propellant, then ran in an arc to get around behind Yuichi.
A simultaneous attack from the front and behind.
He reared his left arm back, focusing power in it. Once it contained enough power to punch a person into powder on impact, he thrust his fist as hard as he could at the back of Yuichi’s head.
He heard a dull thud.
He was confused.
He was looking at unfamiliar scenery, his body was racked by pain, and his memories were fuzzy.
The sound had come from right above his head, and just before he blacked out, he realized the world around him was upside-down.