Using my momentum, I raised my right leg overhead. I thought it was a good idea, but this time another arm growing from future Rekka’s back stopped me.
“Is anything possible with you?!”
“...”
Future Rekka offered me no answer apart from another ball of fire launched from his right hand. Crap! At this range, I was going to get burned!
“Rekka!”
Thanks to Yuuhi’s intervention, the fireball vanished before it could roast me on the spot. The arms sprouting from future Rekka’s left shoulder and back disappeared too.
Yuuhi and I got a little separated there... It seems her breaker ability still works with some distance between us.
With future Rekka’s ethereal arms gone, my leg was free. I used this opportunity to get back to Yuuhi.
“Thanks, Yuuhi.”
“I told you to stay close.”
“...”
Future Rekka stared at us during our exchange.
“Hey, you’ll be disqualified if you kill them, remember?!” Maine warned from afar in a loud voice.
“I know,” future Rekka answered bluntly.
But, actually, yeah... Come to think of it, wasn’t a fireball a little, well, overkill for a no-kill match? Surely future Rekka had a more appropriate ability for this kind of fight... I suddenly got the feeling something was odd, but under the circumstances, I didn’t have any time to think about it.
“...”
Future Rekka raised his left arm in my direction. His hand was dangling loosely at the end of his outstretched arm... which I thought was peculiar until the whole thing suddenly changed shape.
“Omega Blaster.”
“Eep!”
What was this terrifyingly evil-sounding weapon?! It now looked like his hand had become the muzzle of some kind of gun and his arm was the barrel. Based on its name, maybe it was an energy cannon? But gun, cannon... It didn’t matter. If this was a technological weapon, Yuuhi’s breaker ability wouldn’t work on it.
We can’t block this one!
Light gathered at the business end of the Omega Blaster.
“!”
Without thinking, I took off. Future Rekka wasn’t that far from where I was standing. My only chance was to try and kick his arm—er, gun?—away to change its trajectory before he fired. I made a mad dash for it, but even faster than me was...
“Yuuhi?!”
She’d been one step ahead of me. She reached future Rekka first, reaching her hand out for his Omega Blaster. As soon as she touched it, the light gathering inside of it vanished and the whole thing began emitting a high-pitched screech like a broken PC. Was it some kind of hardware malfunction?
“!”
Future Rekka dodged Yuuhi’s follow-up attack and leaped backwards.
“Tch...”
Yuuhi didn’t pursue him, but instead held her ground. We both watched as future Rekka’s arm returned to normal. Or, at least, sort of normal. His movements were odd, and his fingers were clearly bent in unnatural directions.
“A hack... or a virus? No, the actual physical components have been damaged.” Future Rekka opened and closed his left hand awkwardly as he assessed it. “I even insulated the outside to prevent this from happening... How did you do it?”
“That’s a trade secret,” Yuuhi spat, shooting him down in a daring tone.
Hey, that’s right! Yuuhi’s a tech wiz too! Nice!
Back at the extremists’ hideout, I remember L mentioning their advanced security system. Yuuhi had taken countermeasures against both mundane and supernatural attacks.
If she can keep all of future Rekka’s powers in check, we might have a real chance!
It felt like I was finally seeing a glimmer of hope. But then...
“Equipment change.”
The moment future Rekka muttered those words, his broken left arm disappeared. A new one then appeared in its place.
“A 4D pocket?!”
“Sorry. I can swap out my left arm whenever I want,” future Rekka said, responding to Yuuhi’s blatant shock in a flat tone.
A 4D pocket, though? He had swappable parts stored somewhere he could grab them at any time just by saying a command? This was ridiculous!
“Then I’ll just destroy every last one you have!” Yuuhi yelled, going in for another attack.
“Yeah!”
Wanting to lend a hand, I jumped forward after Yuuhi and tried to punch future Rekka too. However, despite both of us coming at him...
“Sorry.”
In the blink of an eye, we both lost sight of him. He simply vanished. Was this another supernatural power? Or was it something like a cloaking device? I couldn’t tell which, but the effect was the same: future Rekka was gone.
“An optical illusion? No...!” Yuuhi yelled as she reached into her jacket.
“It’s not.”
“Mmrgh!”
Future Rekka seemingly reappeared out of nowhere next to Yuuhi, stuffing his fingers in her mouth to keep her from saying any more.
“Hey!”
I swung my fist to try and save Yuuhi, but future Rekka was gone in the blink of an eye again. This time, he took Yuuhi with him, reappearing several meters away with her still held hostage.
“Even if you can nullify abilities and weapons, you can’t do anything about my strength, can you? After all the superhuman blood I’ve taken in, I too have become superhuman.”
“Mmph!”
Yuuhi tried to bite future Rekka’s fingers, but it did her no good.
“I don’t know how you destroyed the Omega Blaster, but the activator is in your mouth, isn’t it? I saw you bite down earlier.”
“!”
The look on Yuuhi’s face told us both that he was right.
“Damn it...!”
I made a mad dash for Yuuhi, burning with regret. It all made sense now. Future Rekka had whipped out his fireballs and his Omega Blaster not to kill us, but to test us! He wanted to know what he was up against. Though it had been an ambush, he’d already lost to Yuuhi once in a humiliating defeat. That’s why he’d chosen to play his cards cautiously this time and assess his opponents carefully. And once he determined we weren’t any real threat, he got serious.
“Now sleep,” future Rekka said, placing a finger against Yuuhi’s forehead.
“Yuuhi!”
“Rek—!”
I reached out for her, but I didn’t make it in time. Some strange power coursed through Yuuhi’s body, causing her to convulse for a moment before collapsing on the arena floor.
“Now... All that’s left is you,” future Rekka said, turning back towards me.
“!”
I braced myself, but it probably wouldn’t do much.
“...”
Beside me, R silently refrained from her typical banter. Even she looked worried.
“Don’t worry,” future Rekka then said.
“About what?” I asked hesitantly, peeking up over my crossed arms.
“I don’t intend to let Sith’s world be destroyed either,” he said casually.
“...What are you going to do?”
“I’ll solve the stories that happen there too.”
“What?!”
In the letter future Rekka had left for me, he said he was going to do everything he could on his own. I couldn’t say for sure that was why... But Yuuhi had noted the black hole looming over her world was a little bit smaller when she returned.
Yeah, I guess there’s no way he’d just let an entire world be destroyed...
He was still me, after all. I knew he wasn’t lying about this. But did that mean I should leave things to him? If he came out victorious, he’d probably be able to save a lot more stories than I could. Neither of us wanted to leave any of the heroines to the horrible fates that awaited them. And future Rekka was just so...