No, forget how.
It had to be done.
This was his role. It was a matter of pride, as Charon’s captain. Despite being drenched red with blood, Azuma grabbed a piece of one wing in his right hand and twisted. Try as he might, however, he couldn’t tear through it.
This is too much for mere human strength—
He was also injured.
—however, I’m not human.
Azuma summoned all his strength, and the wing began to crack and tear. His own bleeding also increased, but he could worry about that later.
With a buzz, the wings began to vibrate. Azuma quickly leaped backward. He would be in serious trouble if the creature flew into the air while he was hanging on. Maybe he could do that under normal circumstances, but not with this hole in his side.
“What…?”
Just as it was about to fly away, Azuma saw her running past him from behind. Barely as tall as his shoulder, her teal blue hair fluttering in the wind, she sprinted past Azuma so fast it was hard to believe she had been writhing on the ground just moments ago.
“Takanashi?!”
Haru heard Azuma call her name, but she ignored him and just kept running. As she ran, she remembered.
Why I wanted to make it so that no more heroes are born.
The cause was rooted in Haru’s past. After protecting her, one of her allies had turned into a hero before her very eyes. That person had been someone like Kaguya, always trying to save everyone, and as a result he became a monster in the end. One that hurts people. He had tried so hard to save everyone, but it had all backfired.
He could have just died and been saved, but he had rejected even that.
As rare as it seemed, it was actually a common story. Plenty of people had been through the same. There was no need to talk about it, no need to let the emotions raging inside show on one’s face.
That was when Haru became arrogant. She felt no need to explain her own backstory.
Normal weapons don’t work against a Goddess. Not under normal circumstances, that is!
Normal weapons were like children’s toys to heroes and Goddesses. A child could attack an adult with a toy BB gun all they liked, but even if it hurt, they would never manage to injure the adult, no matter how hard they tried—it was the same with normal weapons for these creatures.
However, if the creature was already close to death, wounded, and an effective blow could be delivered to that wound…
The weapon in Haru’s hand was just an ordinary knife. It couldn’t even nick a Goddess, let alone a hero. It was just metal. But Haru was used to the feel of it in her hand.
Two pairs of wings left.
With a buzz, the Goddess’s wings began to vibrate. It was attempting to flee.
“Don’t let it get away—”
“Not a chance!” shouted Rindou.
He batted the Goddess out of the air as it attempted to fly off. Between his physical strength and his brass knuckle–shaped Chronos, he managed to land a precision strike to the part of the wing that had already been bent by Azuma, causing it to break off on one side.
There was now one pair of wings left. With Haru’s meager strength, however, a swipe from her knife probably wouldn’t be enough.
As she glanced behind, Haru sensed someone running after her.
Desperate, unsteady footsteps. Not the powerful footsteps of Rindou, who was used to battle, or even those of Azuma, who was injured and could no longer move. Koyuki, too, had been injured by the recoil from her first shot. Haru was certain it wasn’t them.
Kaguya Shinohara had caught up with her.
“There’s one pair of wings left.”
Kaguya approached from behind to stand beside Haru. No one could call her a princess now. She spoke in a firm voice, without looking at Haru. “There’s good news and there’s bad news. Which do you want first?”
“In that case, the good news.”
“I might be able to use this gun to put a hole in that thing.”
That wasn’t what Haru had expected her to say. She thought Kaguya couldn’t fire the gun—or more accurately, that no bullets came out of it when she did.
“I thought you couldn’t use the gun…”
“Not exactly… I managed to use it once several months ago, against a different Goddess. I’m not sure why, but I felt a strange sensation when it happened, like the weapon gave me permission—”
“Permission…?”
“Yes.”
A thing giving a person permission. Haru raised an eyebrow at Kaguya’s strange choice of words, but after seeing the serious expression on Kaguya’s face, Haru decided just to roll with it. Kaguya wasn’t the type to tell jokes at a time like this.
After all, if heroes had hearts, what else might be possible?
“And the bad news…?”
“I only have one bullet. Missing is not an option.”
If she missed, there would be no second shot. Reading between the lines, Haru understood that Kaguya was asking for her help.
“That’s not such bad news…”
Haru reversed her grip so that she was holding the knife backward, close to her body. Using all her weight…
“Hyrarrgh!!”
She swung at the Goddess, putting every last ounce of momentum behind the knife. The blade was unable to cut through the Goddess’s flesh, but the impact was still transmitted through the blade, much like a punch.
In that moment, for just a moment, the Goddess teetered off balance.
“…After all, you’re not going to miss!”
There was no need for a signal. Kaguya was already in position, the barrel of her gun pointed directly at the Goddess’s head.
Would shooting a Goddess in the head even kill it? Haru had no idea. But one thing was for sure: She had never seen a Goddess cornered like this before.
It was usually difficult to even catch sight of these, but here it was, already in arm’s reach.
There had to be more than one Goddess out there, but in this moment the image of that creature burned itself into their eyes. This was the source of all the tragedy.