It wasn’t a ghost or a hallucination.
“Kinoshita…,” Sousei couldn’t help but murmur.
Riamu Kinoshita.
The man pressed his right thumb to his neck and drew it to the side.
“…Kinoshita,” Kuchina quietly said his name.
Kinoshita turned around. He didn’t run, but walked slowly, inviting Sousei to follow.
“I’m sorry, Miss Hitsujimoto…!”
Sousei ran past Kuchina. He looked back as he went past the convenience store. Kuchina was still there, looking in Sousei’s direction.
“Sorry!” he apologized again, even though she probably wouldn’t be able to hear him.
He ran as fast as he could. The wound on his left arm wasn’t too bad, but the bruise on his chest ached every time his feet hit the ground.
Kinoshita turned the corner. Sousei was about six seconds behind him. They hadn’t gotten separated. Kinoshita was running on the ground and seemed to be telling Sousei, “Come with me.”
Did he have some sort of plan? There was no way he’d appear in front of Sousei without a purpose.
But I killed him…! So why…?! No…
That didn’t matter. There was no point even thinking about it right now.
Sharinchou was a residential area. There was a circular road with large stores along it about 550 yards away, but that was in a different direction—the complete opposite direction.
There was a fair amount of traffic, because it was rush hour. Commuters and students filled the street. Kinoshita, followed by Sousei, passed a woman who looked to be in her thirties. The commotion startled her.
Kinoshita ran past a municipal housing complex with white four-story apartments, four on each block. Sousei wondered if Kinoshita would enter the premises, but he didn’t.
From there, they passed through a block crammed with private houses and into one lined with apartment buildings, where Kinoshita cut across the road and down a side street. If they continued straight, there would be a park to the left. It was a large park, big enough for people to play baseball in.
Guess not…!
Kinoshita didn’t even look at the park. One block ahead of them—not on the left, but on the right—was a school.
An elementary school.
Kinoshita swiftly climbed the fence post. On the other side of the fence was the schoolyard. There weren’t any lights on in the school building, nor in any of the outlying buildings or the gym. There was nobody there. The school was deserted.
Kinoshita reached the top of the fence. He didn’t jump down, but ran down. It shouldn’t be possible, but this guy was from the NGS—No Gravity System. Perhaps instead of defying gravity, they could alter it. It was an unbelievable cheat.
Sousei continued running parallel to the fence. It was made of wire mesh that went up about six and a half feet, then had about twenty-six feet of netting above that. It wouldn’t be impossible to climb, but it would take time, and he would be defenseless while he did. The fence stretched around the schoolyard and ended at a low concrete wall. Sousei could jump over that.
Kinoshita cut across the schoolyard, heading toward the main building.
Sousei took out his phone and called his sister. She answered as soon as it started ringing.
“Sousei? What’s going on?”
“Kinoshita is here.”
“Huh?”
“I killed him, but he’s alive.”
“Are you certain? You’re in pursuit?”
“Yes. I’m currently at an elementary school in Sharinchou—” Sousei vaulted onto the concrete wall and down the other side.
“You’re at an elementary school?”
“Yeah, but there’s no one here anymore. Ah, there might be security cameras…”
“Those can be dealt with. It’d be troublesome if you get inside and set off a sensor, though. If it’s just camera footage, that can be manipulated.”
Sousei had ended up having to circle around to the side of the school building in order to avoid the fence. He hurried toward the schoolyard behind it, but Kinoshita was nowhere to be found. There was a door at the back of the building, but it wasn’t open. The windows showed no sign of being disturbed, either.
“…He’s not here. Where’d he go?”
“The enemy is aware of you, right?”
“To be honest, he led me here… I can’t believe he’s still alive.”
“Eliminate him.”
“…I was on my way home from school. I don’t have any weapons on me.”
“It seems you’re enjoying your school life, huh? I’m so glad.” His sister laughed cheerfully. It was sarcastic, of course.
“Yeah, well, it’s all thanks to you…,” responded Sousei.
“The enemy should have weapons. You can steal one of theirs.”
“…That’s easier said than done.”
“If Kinoshita is alive, that means there’s a high possibility he’s figured out your power. Even an idiot like you should understand how dangerous that is.”
“I’m…basically naked.”
“He probably isn’t aware that you’re Samael the Angel of Death from the Church of Assassins. If he is, that’d be really bad. Either way, no matter how many times you end up dying, you need to take out Kinoshita. Without fail. Immediately.”
“Roger,” Sousei said. He hung up and put his phone away.
It’s time to work.
He took a breath.
I’m taking care of an unfinished job. That’s all.
Sousei made a full loop of the school building and the gymnasium, making sure to check the positions of the security cameras. He probably didn’t need to worry about those, though, since his sister had said she’d take care of them. The L-shaped school building was three stories high, and the separate gymnasium building was slightly shorter than that. He paid particular attention to the windows, exterior walls, and roof.
…Not here.
Had Kinoshita left Sousei and run off? That was hard to imagine. He was probably hiding somewhere or moving around so he wouldn’t be found as he watched Sousei’s movements.
The elementary school building had a clock tower. It was about twenty feet tall and rose from the corner of the L-shaped building. It was an empty structure. There was an opening on the western wall of the clock tower, which people could use to see into the tower during the day. He could also tell it had no ceiling and that it was completely open inside.
Kinoshita lured me all the way here.
Sousei placed his bag on the ground and began climbing the exterior wall of the gymnasium, as it looked easier to climb than the school building.
He jumped from the roof of the gymnasium to the roof of the school building. The gymnasium roof was curved, while the school building roof was flat. He was easily able to get to the opening in the clock tower.
Into the lion’s den…
It was a trap.
There was a high chance that Kinoshita was waiting to ambush him inside the clock tower.
What kind of tricks would Kinoshita use? Sousei wasn’t certain, but even if he could predict them, he wouldn’t be able to launch a preemptive attack without a weapon. He had to be on the defensive first. From there, his only option would be to counterattack.
That’s my specialty, isn’t it?
This wasn’t a game—it was a fight to the death. It wasn’t usually possible to win the battle but lose the war, or the other way round. Killing your opponent was normally the end of it. That was the rule.
Sousei, who was different from normal people and could die, was the exception to that rule. That was his strength. It was his only strength, though.
If he kept going another foot and a half or so, he’d be inside the clock tower.
Sousei entered the clock tower on his second step.
He’d anticipated something coming at him.