“Gah!” The man let out a brief cry as Mitsuki slowly tightened his grip, applying pressure to his carotid artery. His face turned a blue-black and saliva spilled out of a corner of his mouth. The scrabbling hand dropped down to hang limply at his side. The whole process took seven seconds. When Mitsuki released his hand, the man slid to the ground, unconscious.
Good. That’s two of them out of the way. Mitsuki breathed a sigh of relief, but the moment was fleeting.
The sudden roar of an engine echoed across the ocean. He raced over to the railing and leaned over to look toward the rear of the ship. The two men who had fled were escaping on the jet skis.
“This is bad!” Mitsuki leaped over the railing and dropped toward the ocean surface twenty meters below. Just before he hit the water, he kicked at the ship to send himself shooting out to one side. He reached toward the jet ski with everything he had. His fingertips just barely latched onto the rear of the fleeing machine.
“Dammit! Let go!” The rider veered wildly from side to side, trying to shake Mitsuki loose. Powerful jets of water shot out of the nozzles right at Mitsuki, but he maintained his grip. He contracted his arm to slide along the water surface and jump onto the seat of the jet ski.
“You—!” The man looked back and turned his gun on him, but they were too close together. Mitsuki grabbed the gun with his bare hands and turned it to the sky. The gun fired and Mitsuki used the recoil to yank the weapon up and slammed the grip into the back of the man’s head.
“Aah!” He lurched forward, and Mitsuki followed up with a knee strike. The man’s eyes rolled back in his head as he lost consciousness.
“That’s one…” Moving the unconscious man to his feet, Mitsuki grabbed the handlebars and yanked on the throttle.
The engine roared, and working at top speed, the jet pump beneath the seat pushed the jet ski to maximum speed in the blink of an eye. Spray shooting up around him, Mitsuki raced after the man fleeing ahead of him, but he couldn’t manage to close the distance between the two machines. The jet skis were both capable of the same performance and were both running at full throttle.
I’m not going to get anywhere like this. If he would just slow down a tiny bit…
Frustrated, Mitsuki noticed a small button just below and to the right of the handlebars. An orange diode shone in the square button, and below it, the word ignition. The button that turned the engine off and on. If he pushed it, the jet ski would immediately decelerate.
He looked ahead at the man he was chasing. His jet ski had the same button, and he was just five meters ahead of Mitsuki, a distance his Wind Style could cover with ease. If he sent a breeze to push on the ignition switch of the other man’s jet ski, he could catch up.
Mitsuki gripped the handlebars and considered. After a moment’s hesitation, he made his decision. It’ll be okay. I know I can do it. The button’s not as fragile as a sugar cube.
At that moment, a slightly larger wave rolled in, and the machine bobbed up into the air.
Mitsuki gripped the seat tightly between his legs and stepped hard on the chest of the man stretched out at his feet so he wouldn’t fall off. He reached out to launch a Wind Style attack at the candy-sized button. The gust twisted and roared as it flew toward the orange light. He couldn’t see whether or not it hit the ignition switch.
A moment later, Mitsuki’s jet ski crashed back onto the water surface. Instantly, he was opening up the throttle again. He cut through the pillar of water his landing had created and charged forward.
The jet ski in front was advancing with similar ferocity, but its speed was quickly dropping. The orange light of the switch was out.
Did I hit it? Mitsuki licked his dry lips.
Clearly perplexed, the man ahead of him yanked on his own throttle, but he kept slowing down. The distance between them was shrinking with every breath.
Just about within reach!
Mitsuki stretched out his arm as the man turned around. A look of shock rose up on his face, and his panic made his riding erratic. In the next instant, the jet ski pitched forward with incredible force. The man was launched high into the air. The jet ski kept going, skidding along the water surface and spinning three times. Black smoke erupted up from the engine. A second later, the machine exploded.
“Aah, give me a break!”
Mitsuki jumped up from his seat. Swinging his arm like a whip, he caught the man who had been tossed up like a rag doll and then whirled around in midair to slam a fist into the man’s head to keep him quiet before dropping back down onto the jet ski. He laid the unconscious man at his feet on the opposite side of the first man and grabbed the handlebars.
Oof. That’s my mission complete. Taking a breath, he loosened his grip on the throttle to slow the machine. But his speed showed no sign of changing.
“Huh?” He tried pushing the ignition switch.
Not only did the jet ski not stop, it didn’t even slow.
“Is it maybe broken?”
Was it the impact with the water?
The machine should already have been going as fast as it could, but now its speed seemed to be gradually increasing. It was only a matter of time before he lost his balance and the jet ski toppled over. Each little bounce sent a stinging shock through his body. If we flip over at this speed… He could have saved himself any number of ways if he had been alone, but it would be a Herculean feat to also rescue his unconscious prisoners.
Up ahead, he noticed a large wave coming right for him.
“Th-this is not good…” He had no choice. If he could just keep these two alive and able to talk, his team would take care of the rest in the worst-case scenario.
Mitsuki pulled the two men in close and tucked them under his arms. The wave was about to hit them and flip the jet ski over. The instant it did, he would jump up and fall backward onto the water. He’d just have to hope he would still be able to swim back to the ship after that, and to bring the men back with him. Bracing himself for impact, Mitsuki got ready to jump.
There was a sudden crack, and the jet ski abruptly slowed down.
“Huh?”
Crackle crackle.
It sounded like something crystallizing around him.
Decelerating in the blink of an eye, the jet ski slid over the tall wave and finally came to a stop. Cold air descended around them, even though they were out on the open water. His breath was coming out in white puffs. Mitsuki looked around incredulously.
“This…”
The ocean had frozen as if to embrace the jet ski. He looked back and saw an ice bridge stretching out from the prow of the ship in the distance.
“Is that…Sasuke?”
After sneaking down onto the third and lowest level, Boruto held his breath and examined his surroundings. The wooden floor was covered in enormous containers, each about two meters tall, making for poor visibility. On the other hand, the containers also meant there were plenty of places for him to hide.
According to Sarada, there was only one man on the third level. He was apparently walking around the containers on his own, which meant he might have been looking for something to steal or maybe places to lay more explosives.
Boruto spotted the shadow of a man crouching down in front of a container near the center of the room. He appeared to be alone, just as Sarada had seen with her Sharingan.
Behind a container, Boruto kneaded chakra in his palms. Up against just one enemy, his best option was to knock him unconscious with a Rasengan blast. But he needed to fine-tune the blast so that he didn’t do anything more than knock the man out. Plus, the path between Boruto and his target was littered with heavy containers on both sides. He would have to carefully determine his trajectory to avoid hitting them.
He set his aim on the man’s back and quietly slipped out of the shadow before launching a super-controlled version of his Rasengan to make sure he didn’t accidentally kill the man.
Whr whd whd whd whd!
The Rasengan was supposed to silently whizz ahead and knock the man out, but instead, it sent a dozen or so of the containers flying, making a shocking amount of noise in the process. The blow hit the man squarely in the chest. As he collapsed, pieces of the destroyed containers rained down on him.
“Huh?! Why?!”
Boruto had been careful to adjust the amount of power he used, so why had the containers flown up? He was baffled for a moment, but then it all came together for him. He’d thought the containers were full, but they were actually empty. With nothing to weigh them down, the close-range Rasengan wind pressure had been more than they could take. He nodded in understanding just as a remarkably large container fragment fell on top of the man with a thud.