Unless…
Azuma broke his stance, stepping forward with his left foot instead. He took a large step toward the hero and then, with his next step, kicked the hero as hard as he could.
The creature was flung far, far away, howling like the wind as it was knocked back—or so it seemed at first. But the hero suddenly pivoted. Spinning even faster and more frantically than before, bolting straight toward the person who had kicked it. Straight toward Azuma.
Azuma could not make out the spinning clearly, but he didn’t need to.
What he could see, however, was the hero’s face. Its expression. The young child’s smile, spinning insanely. He felt simultaneously terrified and nauseous. It was horrifying—something he never wished to see again.
The moment the smiling face was pointed his way, Azuma lifted his blade with unerring speed and accuracy—
—but the hero changed trajectory.
“What?!”
It dodged the blade, evading with absolute efficiency before diving straight at Azuma’s face. There was a metallic clang as Azuma blocked with his sword.
The contact was brief but effective. It was now Azuma’s turn to be flung backward, although he was only knocked back by a few steps. He righted himself immediately, none the worse for wear.
Azuma made a series of snap decisions.
“Koyuki, I need a favor,” said Azuma, letting Koyuki know his plan over the comms. “I need you to fire off six shots. Once the hero stops, I’ll move in.”
“That’s…not the worst idea, Azuma, but it’s too dangerous,” Koyuki argued. “You want me to do a preemptive strike, right? So that you can lunge in once its defenses are open? It’s spinning too fast, though. It’s like a barrier at this point. The bullets will just ricochet. Not even Rindou could get close at this rate—”
“Don’t worry… I know what I’m doing.”
The hero continued to scream and spin about. Its behavior was baffling.
Azuma held his katana in one hand and pointed it out in front of himself with the flat of the blade laid across his forearm, ready to thrust. He had wanted to finish this fight with a single strike. Ever since he began seeing their faces, Azuma had started to feel a vague sense of pity for the creatures—a desire to put them out of their misery quickly.
“What are you planning to do, Captain?” Haru asked. “You don’t even know where the egg is, right? You might as well be going in blind.”
Azuma didn’t really need to be told that right now. He tried to think. What would the old Azuma have done? The Azuma from before he had met Kaguya? Right. He would have probably rushed in headlong, throwing safety to the wind.
That seems like a bad idea…
Azuma immediately abandoned that train of thought. He turned his distinctively stubborn stare toward the hero—and toward the little girl inside.
This was a homicidal monster. That was all. Nothing more, nothing less.
“Going in blind or not…it’s time to stop that thing,” he said, his clear and quiet voice resonating in his comrades’ ears.
What was the best way to stop a rampaging wheel? Simply shove something in its spokes. Not his Chronos, of course. That was irreplaceable. Instead, something with inhuman powers of regeneration—a piece of his own body.
“Once its defenses are open, one of you needs to take the kill.”
“…?! Captain Azuma, wait!!”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Haru, who seemed to realize what he was about to do, turn pale. But he couldn’t spare any more time for her right now.
Without another word, Azuma dashed ahead. As he drew close to the wheel, which was spinning faster than the eye could process, he thrust his right arm forward.
“Argghhh!!”
Azuma’s small scream went unheard, lost in the cacophony of the wheel.
His hand was not torn off, but it was badly mangled and bent. It would probably heal quickly, but the sight was still none too pleasant to see.
As soon as the wheel came to a stop, Koyuki took her shot. Gunfire echoed as the bullet hit its mark, blasting the hero to smithereens, egg and all—wherever the egg had been. There was the sound of an explosion, so small it was almost a letdown, and then all of the previous noise instantly stopped.
“…”
The person beneath the hero had been a young girl. As the blackness covering the creature cleared, her innocent face peeked into sight for a moment and then began to collapse. A gloomy undertone of madness and despair lurked behind her smile, but otherwise, it was now the same smile you might see on any young girl. It took but a few seconds for it to gently drift away.
After watching the hero crumble…
“What the hell were you thinking, flying off the handle like that?!” Rindou bellowed. He rushed forward in a panic and was speaking to Azuma face-to-face instead of over the comms. “I don’t care if you heal faster than normal people—”
“Sorry…”
Haru rushed forward as well. “What are you, stupid?!” she shouted before deftly beginning first aid. Azuma watched her blankly as the comms crackled to life.
“Azuma…” This time it was Koyuki. She sounded concerned. “Does it hurt?”
“Not really…”
Although she had phrased it as a question, her tone implied that she knew how he felt.
Koyuki was Kaguya’s roommate. Ever since Sakura passed, she and Kaguya had become particularly close. They ate lunch together almost every day. The only time Azuma got to eat lunch with Kaguya instead of Koyuki was when Koyuki was already busy. They had grown practically inseparable.
Koyuki tended to mask her own pain. But she never managed to hide it completely.
“I’m fine,” Azuma insisted. “You don’t need to make such a fuss.”
Knowing that Koyuki was in pain, too, there was no way he could just unload his feelings on her. It was better to keep it inside.
“Everything is just back to the way it used to be…,” Azuma told himself.
But deep down, he didn’t really mean it.