Chapter 23&24

Chapter 23: Elegance, Timeless and Unyielding

The duel had begun.

Akutagawa's gaze sharpened, chilling as if honed into a lethal blade. Despite his frail, consumptive appearance, he exuded a hellish aura.

His black cloak twisted, taking on a monstrous form born from the deepest pits of darkness—a beast, forged through blood and strife, symbolizing death itself. What began as a mere ability to manipulate fabric had, through his brutal training, transformed into a hellhound capable of devouring life itself.

This was Akutagawa's notorious power, the power that paved his bloody path.

Ability: "Rashomon"

Facing an opponent as formidable as this in her first real battle, Tokisaki Kurumi remained eerily composed. Despite the imminent danger, she appeared entirely unfazed, her mind wandering to irrelevant thoughts.

"This is my first real fight... so why don't I feel afraid?" Kurumi mused, her mind somehow calm even with Akutagawa ready to strike. "I barely felt anything when I killed yesterday, too. How strange..."

But neither Akutagawa nor the flow of time would allow her to contemplate further.

The ravenous black beast was already lunging toward her.

"Rashomon—Jaw!"

At his command, the monstrous cloak opened its fanged maw, its crimson mouth reflecting the shadows of countless lost souls. With terrifying speed, the beast charged at Kurumi, aiming to rip her arm off in one vicious bite.

Kurumi raised her long flintlock.

Bang, bang, bang!

The bullets, formed from her spirit energy, collided with the beast. But, like a gluttonous fiend, it devoured the bullets, unaffected by the high-density energy they contained. Ordinarily, such projectiles would pierce flesh with ease, but this shadowy beast seemed immune, its pace merely slowing.

"You didn't know, did you? My beast is omnivorous. Nothing escapes its hunger," Akutagawa remarked coldly.

"Is that so? But some things are hard to digest," Kurumi replied, calm as ever.

As the beast closed in, Kurumi, unfazed, lifted her shorter flintlock, aiming squarely at the oncoming black beast.

"Seven Bullet ."

The bullet of stillness hit its mark, freezing the beast mid-attack. No matter how Akutagawa commanded it, the creature wouldn't move.

Unlike her spirit bullets, the power of the clock's ability bullets retained their effect even when devoured.

"Without its power, your Rashomon is just ordinary fabric," Kurumi said, firing another shot that shattered the beast into pieces.

Shreds of black scattered, falling like dust. One gust of wind, and they'd be gone.

"Your weapon can freeze its target, I see." Akutagawa narrowed his eyes, a hint of surprise breaking his cold exterior as he reevaluated her.

"But it's useless if it misses!"

The air seemed to crack as a new beast emerged, tearing across the ground in a blur of black lightning, gouging deep trenches as it approached.

The first attack had only been a test to gauge her reaction. If she couldn't handle that, there was no need to fight further.

Kurumi gathered spirit energy, propelling herself upward in a swift jump that barely avoided the beast. In midair, she spun gracefully and struck out, landing a fierce kick on the creature's neck.

Boom!

The beast slammed into the ground, shattering the area around it, forming spiderweb cracks radiating from a five-meter-wide impact zone.

While not the strongest of Spirits, Kurumi's strength still far surpassed any ordinary human.

And Rashomon, always connected to Akutagawa, transferred the impact force back to him. The residual shockwave almost brought him to his knees.

"What—?!"

He looked up, shock flickering across his usually emotionless gaze.

The power, the agility—she could rival even elite combat-ability users.

She wasn't merely equipped with recon, stealth, and support capabilities. Her physical prowess was astounding, too.

"That hit would barely get a passing grade for destructive power." Kurumi smiled, glancing down at the deep gouge left by the beast. "But if it misses, it's worthless."

"Missing the first hit means nothing," Akutagawa replied coldly. "As long as the follow-up lands."

Just as he spoke, black spikes shot out from beneath Kurumi, piercing through her thigh and abdomen in an instant. Blood and bits of flesh sprayed like a gruesome fountain.

In mere moments, she was grievously wounded.

But even as her body was riddled with holes, her smile didn't waver.

"Fourth Bullet ."

She pressed the gun to her temple and fired, causing Akutagawa's eyes to widen.

The blood staining the ground reversed course, flowing back into her body, while the gaping wounds closed rapidly. Within seconds, the girl who had been on the brink of death returned to her pre-battle state, completely healed.

Then, with a casual shot, she shattered the spikes beneath her and tossed her hair back, her gaze steady. "This kind of weak attack doesn't bother me in the least."

A weak attack?

Such a blow would have been fatal for anyone else. Even those with healing abilities would still suffer the agony of torn muscles, shattered bones, and twisted organs.

Yet this woman...

Akutagawa's eyes narrowed in frustration as he watched the girl standing elegantly before him, as if she were merely enjoying a stroll amidst a battlefield.

Chapter 24: Part of the Plan

A strange feeling stirred within Akutagawa Ryuunosuke.

It was as if he wasn't fighting a human, but something monstrous, devoid of humanity. In this brutal duel, the cold indifference toward life and death, the joy shown, and the barely contained madness hidden beneath rationality—it all spoke of someone who was gracefully walking toward ruin.

Akutagawa had thought himself detached enough, but this young girl was even more twisted.

"How many people have you killed?" The question slipped out unexpectedly as he looked into the girl's eyes.

The Port Mafia was filled with those rejected by society, cast out as trash who could no longer fit into the world. Each time they committed a crime, killed, spilled blood, or sowed chaos, they lost another piece of their humanity, becoming creatures that the world would fear.

He thought of her as one of his own.

Akutagawa sensed this: the girl standing before him was like him. She had chosen to become a monster for some purpose, sacrificing her humanity without hesitation. Perhaps even more thoroughly than he had.

"If I had to count each kill, it'd be such a hassle." Kurumi tilted her head, puzzled. "Do you remember how many slices of bread you've eaten?"

"You're right. That was a foolish question," Akutagawa acknowledged, his expression darkening. "I misjudged you, Tokisaki Kurumi."

"Should I feel honored?"

"No. You should feel despair." His black coat swirled, conjuring the intense murderous aura of Rashomon, as numerous blood-red eyes opened, glaring at Kurumi.

Akutagawa raised his silver-gray eyes, delivering what sounded like a sentence of death. "Because from now on, I'll consider you the greatest enemy I've ever faced."

"...Eh?" Kurumi's expression froze, baffled by the sudden proclamation.

This was bad news for her.

Originally, she had hoped to quickly overpower him while he underestimated her, gaining control of Kyouka's fate. But now, he had woken up to her true strength, intent on fighting her seriously.

If she had enough time, she was confident she could handle Akutagawa Ryuunosuke—no, even the entire Port Mafia, if it came to that. But time was something she couldn't afford.

Even after absorbing the lifespans of over twenty gang members, Kurumi had expended most of it in creating shadows, firing bullets, and using other time-manipulating powers. And unlike in the original story, where Kurumi had millions across Japan to draw from, her current sources were limited.

"Looks like I'll have to take a risk," Kurumi thought, exhaling slowly, her mind sharpening. "I can't let him adapt to my fighting style. If this drags on, I'll lose for sure!"

With a plan in mind, Kurumi raised her short flintlock gun: Five-Bullet.

The five-bullet's power allowed her to briefly see into the future. Using it, she glimpsed Akutagawa's tactics in the upcoming moments.

"Rashomon—Multiple Fangs!" Akutagawa snarled, unleashing a swarm of smaller black beasts, each moving faster and with greater precision than his previous attack.

But Kurumi, having foreseen this, already had a response.

"Time to go to work, ladies!"

Her shadow stretched unnaturally, and four clones of herself emerged, each armed with a flintlock pistol and dressed in spiritual armor. They raised their weapons and fired rounds of spiritual bullets at the oncoming fangs, shattering the smaller beasts into fragments with each shot.

"Cover me!" Kurumi commanded her clones. They spread out, encircling Akutagawa and launching a barrage of bullets. Forced into defensive mode, he commanded Rashomon to shield himself.

Using this distraction, Kurumi fired a One-Bullet, instantly teleporting above him.

"Seven-Bullet!"

Akutagawa's eyes widened in shock, recognizing the bullet's effect: it could freeze any target in time.

"Rashomon—Thicket!" he responded desperately, forming a dense web of black beasts around him. The beasts managed to intercept the seven-bullet just in time. But his instincts kicked in, and he immediately retaliated.

Countless dark blades erupted from beneath Kurumi, piercing through her body, and even her spirit armor proved useless. The black threads coiled around her heart, crushing it.

But this time, Akutagawa didn't retract his beasts. He let them stay within her, preventing her from healing with a Four-Bullet as she had before.

"It's over."

Just as he thought this, he saw Kurumi, her gun raised toward her own temple, with a blood-stained smirk on her lips.

"I've got you."