“I knew it from the start... There was just no way I’d be winning this battle.”
“Ugh. I really thought I could pull this off, honestly.”
“A guy like me could never beat the Kiryuu Hajime. I could never defeat Kiryuu Heldkaiser Luci-First. It’d be a joke. But, still...I wanted to give it a shot anyway. It felt like I had to fight you, right here, and right now...”
“I figured that if I pulled a god-tier power, I’d have just one chance to really get him good. Why’d I get saddled with a trash-tier joke instead...?”
“I’ve been a manipulative, self-centered poser my whole life. A garbage ending like this is exactly what I deserve.”
“This suuucks. These powers seriously are just luck of the draw. If this is a game, it blows. Like, seriously, could we get some rebalancing in here, thanks? Make it so that everyone who didn’t get direct combat powers can still use ki or magic or something so we can still have a fighting chance, for crying out loud!”
“You know, Kiryuu...”
“You know, you can always tell how well-written a supernatural battle story is by how much someone deciding to use modern weaponry would totally ruin everything. If a story makes its readers think ‘Wait, why are these people fighting with their powers in the first place? Wouldn’t a gun be more effective? Not to mention efficient?’ then that story’s trash. And this War? It’s got that exact problem. The whole setup’s a shoddy, half-assed mess.”
“Up until now, I’ve always called myself a reader. I’ve stood on the sidelines, taking it all in from an onlooker’s viewpoint. Fighting you was the first time I’ve gotten involved—the first time I’ve tried to make myself the story’s protagonist. Sure, I got wrecked, and pretty pathetically at that...but even so, I’m proud of what I’ve done today.”
“Uggggggh. I wanted to get a super OP cheat power and kick all sorts of ass.”
Please...please shut up for a second, Future Sagami. I’m pretty sure that this is Present Sagami’s big moment, and you’re totally ruining it.
Present Sagami’s satisfied smile made it look like he’d graciously accepted his defeat, but the fact that he was super salty deep down was really, really obvious to me. He was making himself look as good as possible in the moment while having every intention of complaining bitterly to me the second he got the chance.
“By the way, Kiryuu,” Present Sagami said as he gazed up at his opponent, who had walked over to stand next to him at some point along the way. “You took me out in the blink of an eye with some insane instakill ability. You couldn’t have possibly crushed me more completely than you did...but you know, when I stop to think about that, it’s a little strange. Since when did you start instakilling your enemies?”
Present Sagami closed his eyes.
“An instakill...? Obliterating your foe before they have the chance to respond...? I mean, it’s not like there’s anything wrong with that. For most people, it’s just the sensible way to fight. If life gives you a stupid OP power, then there’s no good reason not to bring it out at full force from the very start...but that’s not you, is it? Are you really okay with this? Would Kiryuu Heldkaiser Luci-first really demean himself by using that boring of a fighting style?”
Kiryuu didn’t say a word. He stood there in deathly silence, staring down at Present Sagami with a severe expression on his face.
“Pounding me into the dirt with an ultra-powerful gravitational wave...? Heh... Ha ha ha! It’s just so simple, isn’t it? Sure, an attack like that’s plenty to take down someone with a bullshit power like mine...but it’s just so, so very not like you. What happened to the Kiryuu who went far out of his way to generate black holes just because they’d have the most visual impact? Why didn’t you shout your power’s name like you usually do? Why didn’t you strike one of your signature poses? Why the hell were you so panicked, Kiryuu?”
Present Sagami spoke with a smile. His body was a wreck, and he looked like he might pass out at any moment, but still, he kept grinning dauntlessly. He may have been gazing up at Kiryuu, yet it somehow felt more like he was looking down on him.
“Yeah, so, I was desperately making crap up to buy time here. Figured that if I went super far out of the way to say he’d used an ‘instakill’ attack on me over and over, it’d make it hard for him to actually instakill me later on. Like, I was trying to make a situation where he couldn’t just finish me off without making it look like I’d provoked him into doing it. Gotta say, I’ve got one hell of a knack for high-level psychological warfare when push comes to shove.”
Okay, but seriously—shut up, Future Sagami. I figured that out for myself already. You didn’t have to spell it out, and calling it “high-level psychological warfare” yourself actually makes it way harder to take you seriously.
“All that said...it’s not like it was all nonsense. I did genuinely have my doubts. Why would the Kiryuu Hajime get so worked up over me, of all opponents?”
Was “worked up” the right phrase to describe what Kiryuu had done? I couldn’t judge that. As far as I could tell, he’d just hit Sagami with a perfectly ordinary attack. He hadn’t flailed around or thrown in any unnecessary motions, really—he’d just held out a hand and crushed Sagami like a bug.
That said...I had a feeling that was the point. Sagami was saying that Kiryuu’s attack being perfectly ordinary was abnormal. An ordinary attack was a sign that he was in a panic—a sign that he was so worked up, he’d gone all out in spite of himself.
“Let me guess: You weren’t a fan of the future that you saw?” said Present Sagami.
Oh, I get it. Sagami had used Innocent Onlooker to force visions of the future upon me—but I hadn’t been his actual target. I’d just happened to be in its area of effect, so I’d ended up as collateral damage. Sagami’s actual target was the man he’d resolved himself to oppose with everything that his power had to offer...
“Well, how about that... I thought my power was hopelessly useless, but maybe it had more of an impact than I gave it credit for after all. If I actually managed to get one up on you, then I’ll call this encounter an unqualified success,” Present Sagami said with a sarcastic smirk. “I’m really quite curious now, Kiryuu—just what sort of future did you see in your vision? What kind of premonition would drive you to lose your cool so spectacularly?”