It was early morning, the time of day when it had only just begun to grow light on the far side of the horizon, and Tsushima shook Holy awake as she cried out in her sleep.
“Hey, wake up.”
Holy’s eyes snapped open, large beads of sweat dripping from her forehead. She exhaled deeply and looked up at Tsushima. Seeming unsure of the boundaries between her dream and reality, she flitted her eyes left and right.
“You were crying out in your sleep a lot,” Tsushima told her with concern. Holy lifted her upper body as if it were heavy and wiped the sweat from the base of her neck. With a pained expression, she pressed her fingers between her brows and forced out a hoarse response.
“I get nightmares a lot. I’m fine.”
“Seems that way.”
With a dark look on her face, Holy told Tsushima this happened all the time. As he gazed at her, Tsushima decided not to say anything unnecessary.
Knight. Betrayal. Save me.
Those were the words she had cried out in her sleep. It was an unsettling list, no matter how you strung its pieces together. Tsushima noticed the shadows flickering around Holy but thought twice about venturing any further.
It would be better for their relationship to remain strictly one of business. He’d settled on taking this precautionary measure because he sensed it might cross a line at some point otherwise.
“I’m a bit thirsty. I’m going to go get some water,” Holy said, getting up off the sofa. Tsushima noticed something with the creak of the floorboards and stopped her straightaway.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, tilting her head questioningly. Tsushima ignored her and directed his attention outside the residence. He could sense a slight vibration in the information factors. The familiar presence actually gave Tsushima a sense of relief.
“There are signs of people.”
“Pursuers?”
“Ah, probably Informationists.”
“Huh? How do you know?”
“There aren’t enough presences for it to be the Fourth Division. Besides, my instincts as someone in the same profession are telling me so,” Tsushima said, a smile naturally coming to his lips. He likely wasn’t aware of it, but his expression wasn’t exactly praiseworthy.
Holy looked at his face and stiffened her own.
“So what should we do?”
“The front of the building is already surrounded, so we probably can’t take the car. To get to it, I’d have no choice but to confront them. But I can’t keep protecting you if I’m up against Informationists,” he said, scanning the interior of the room. He was looking for a good place to hide Holy.
Then his gaze fell on the ash-filled fireplace.
“No way,” Holy protested, anticipating what Tsushima was about to say. Her objection to his proposal wasn’t trivial; her face made it clear she was completely opposed to the idea.
Tsushima let out a sigh.
“It’s not fit for people in the slightest,” added Holy. “Look, it’s full of ash!”
“It’s surrounded by heat-resistant bricks and is the strongest structure here. Quick, get in,” Tsushima said, grabbing Holy by the scruff of her neck like a cat and forcing her to stand. Holy shot him an icy glare. Tsushima nodded toward the fireplace. “They’re right on top of us. Hurry.”
“Don’t forget I’m here.”
Leaving him with that parting remark, Holy slid herself into the large fireplace, her delicate frame easily fitting inside. Now able to breathe a little better, Tsushima waited for their uninvited guests.
Just as he took out a cigarette from his pocket to start having a morning smoke, he heard the front door open. Then he sensed two people entering the house.
He heard the sound of the floorboards creaking under leather shoes. Tsushima deliberately struck his gas lighter loudly so as to announce his whereabouts.
The footsteps stopped on the other side of the wall separating the entrance and living room. Tsushima slowly made his eyes glow blue and faced the Informationists on the other side of the wall.
“I’m telling you this for your own good: Turn back now,” Tsushima said, giving a final warning to the Informationists. It was both an alert and an act of mercy.
However, his message was also in vain.
Pinpointing Tsushima’s location from his voice, the enemy Informationists executed Codes from the other side of the wall. Just as Tsushima thought he could see some residual blue light, the wall was pulverized. One of the Informationists had used a basic Code to improve his physical capabilities, then charged straight for Tsushima.
Eyes glowing blue, the dust-covered man approached while fixing Tsushima with a glare of hostility.
But despite the man being directly in front of him, Tsushima was looking elsewhere.
That was because Informationists often fought in pairs, with one serving as the vanguard, and the other the rear guard. In those situations, the vanguard would often act as a diversion and shield while the rear guard executed more aggressive Codes.
Just as Tsushima anticipated, there was another person kneeling on the floor on the opposite side of the dust—a female Informationist. She was steadying her body and aiming a handgun. She pulled the trigger without once blinking.
Right after the violent sound of the gunshot, the woman’s Code endowed the bullet she’d fired with an additional effect, giving it extra speed. The accelerated shot generated flames as it tore through the air.
Normally, bullets were too fast for people to react to, but Tsushima had already readied his right hand in line with the projectile’s trajectory, which he had estimated based on the muzzle of the gun.
Tsushima wrapped his hand in enough heat to distort the air, altering the path of the bullet, causing it to merely scratch his left cheek and tear a hole in the wall behind him.
The enemy Informationists had done everything perfectly. However, the situation was still heavily in Tsushima’s favor.
“Nnnngggh!” the male Informationist shouted angrily, trying to banish his fear with his voice. Tsushima immediately switched his focus to him.
Using the fist with which he had deflected the bullet, Tsushima swung at the approaching man. Determined to win, the man returned the punch. Right after their fists crossed, the air in the room trembled.
With a violent thud, Tsushima struck the enemy Informationist, making him bend backward. For his part, the man had managed to land a hit on Tsushima’s cheek.
But to compensate for that, Tsushima had knocked off everything above the man’s neck, leaving nothing behind. His opponent fell to his knees with a thud. Tsushima immediately grabbed his body and used it as a shield.
“Shit! Useless idiot!” the female Informationist shouted angrily, spewing criticism at her fallen comrade after seeing him die. She pulled the trigger of her gun without even executing a Code, but the man’s brawny corpse successfully absorbed the bullets.
“Sorry,” Tsushima muttered, consoling the dead man. Then he made his eyes glow blue and secretly observed the woman.
From what Tsushima could make out from his position, the female Informationist was executing a Code. But when it came to Code activation speeds, Tsushima was faster.
The instant the woman went to pull the trigger of her handgun, the weapon turned red. The barrel of the firearm bent according to an intense gravitational force.
“Boom!”
When Tsushima spoke the sound of an explosion, the handgun in the female Informationist’s hands spontaneously discharged. It was like a timed explosion had been activated.
The violent detonation blew away the woman, who collapsed on the floor and lost the ability to move.
Tsushima slowly stood and confirmed the two Informationists were both unable to continue fighting. The cigarette in his mouth had barely turned to ash.
The whole thing had ended in an instant. Stunned, Holy peeked her face out of the fireplace.
“Tsushima, just who are you really?”
His skill in dispatching the other Informationists, the high level of precision of his Code execution, and his nonchalance over killing two people—everything about Tsushima the Informationist was on a different level.
He answered Holy’s question as he exhaled smoke.
“I’m just a common Informationist. What, do you not like my answer?”
“No, it’s good enough.”
“Then leave it at that. More people might be after us, so let’s hurry and get out of here.”
Holy got out of the fireplace and headed toward the front door, putting as much distance as possible between herself and the corpses lying in the middle of the room. Seeing her reaction, Tsushima muttered with a sigh, “Try not to stare at the dead too long. It’ll make food taste bad.”
Says the person responsible for killing them? Holy conveyed to Tsushima with her gaze. He snorted, and a nihilistic smile appeared on his lips.