Hard to Believe

Different from earlier, I could shortened the gap between us in three steps. Perhaps because I possessed no weapon, thus giving the idea he is safe about our distance.

This is a chance, I thought to myself and moved.

"Now!" I yelled.

Unexpectedly, as soon as I make a move, I only took a single step to close the distance between us. Both of us were surprised.

What's with me today? Suddenly, I became more powerful, a line formed in my mind.

Hanazaki immediately retreated, but then something felt off. His muscles won't budge.

What the?! He screamed in his mind.

He fell to the ground as his flying ability mysteriously disappeared.

Some kind of mysterious power disabled his movement and neutralized his ability briefly.

He landed with a rough thud, dust covered the area. He was bewildered. Afterward, his instinct told him to look down, sure enough, he saw a yellow magic circle took form

To his left, he noticed someone and turned his head. A girl with a wooden staff pointing at him. She was flying in the air.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance and covered himself in steel. I raised my hand and a katana appeared in my hand.

"Ms. Shino, shoot me with fire."

"Alright." She aimed her staff at the sword and blaze shot out. Then, energy came out of the sword in the form of black tentacles, greedily absorbing the flame. This shocked me.

"I don't know it can do that." I remarked and put the thought aside. I swung down the blazing sword at Hanazaki, it cut his body in half like butter.

Blood splashed everywhere, guts spilled out. Burnt meat entered my nostrils. I didn't feel remorse as I knew it was just a clone.

"That's a nice sword." Ms. Shino descended slowly to my side. "So what's your ability, exactly?" She pondered curiously.

Since we're going to work together for now, it will be wise to tell her. I thought briefly.

I threw my weapon into the air. It vanished instantly.

"This ability just appeared all of a sudden when I was just a child." I left out Zero on purpose.

"An ability outside of Divinity, huh? Alright, I believe in you. So, what should we do now?"

"Let's go and find the original body."

"You will not be able to kill me." The voice came from Hanazaki, his pocket, to be exact. I slide my hand into his pocket and grab the phone.

It was from an unknown number, apparently Hanazaki's original body.

"Why is that?" I responded while I looked at Ms. Shino, she nodded as if knowing my intention and cast a spell on the phone. Four magic circles formed, surrounding the phone.

"My ability makes me immortal, I will return again and again to claim your head for the sake of my family. I can't lose them again." Hints of sadness could be found in his tone.

"Aren't you too selfish?"

"Then what choice do I have?!" He shouted as he punched the floor, producing a loud bang. "Do you think I want to kill you? No! But I don't have a choice. It's either them or you." He paused, "So, if you die, please think of it as saving those people."

"I don't care if you do this for your family. The fact remains you're a cold killer that only think of himself, if you aren't, you should've killed yourself.

"I think you should know this deep down. Killing yourself would save more people.

"You said my death will save those people? You must be a fool, my death is not by the hands of you. I will find you and kill you slowly, Hanazaki, you waste a lot of my time here, you know?" I said calmly and slowly.

"Arrogant brat."

"It doesn't matter. Right, aren't you going to run now?"

"You and your partner won't be able to find me."

"Ryuta, I found his location."

Hanazaki quickly cut the connection from the phone. Looks like he heard her words and ran away.

"How are we going to find him?"

She poked my forehead and a mental image of a map with three dots popped up. Red in the distance with blue and green close to each other.

"Let's surround him." I suggested.

Hanazaki jumped out of the building from the twenty two floor. Instead of falling down, however, he floated and launched into the distance sky.

"Who is this guy? Why is he so hard to kill? Isn't he just a high schooler? If I knew he's like that, I wouldn't choose him as a target."

"I thought your ability decides who you should kill. It seems your ability to lie is magnificent, even someone from the future got tricked." I said from behind with Ms. Shino below me. I sat on her back while she fly like Superman with her staff in her right hand.

"What the?! How did you get here so quickly?" Hanazaki looked back in shock.

"Beats me." I shrugged my shoulders.

"Damn it." He snapped his fingers and lightning came at us. I let out a sigh, he should know an attack of this caliber is useless.

When it reached us, an invisible wall shone briefly in front of Shino. The lightning bounced off and vanished when it ran out of energy.

She waved her staff and five bright red magic circles materialized. They launched fireballs rapidly. Hanazaki maneuvered the air skilfully, avoiding the endless attacks.

"He's hard to hit, reminds me of a cockroach." I remarked.

"Any ideas?" Shino couldn't find any magic that could stop him.

"Boost me with wind magic." I didn't even ask if she could use wind magic. Maybe I instinctively thought she could. Yes, maybe. She seemed capable of just everything, after all.

The red magic circles vanished, replaced with a silver one. I jumped off of her back.

"?!" She didn't expect me to jump off and hurriedly cast a magic circle just behind me. Burst of wind came out, strong enough to propel me upward.

Afterward, tiny magic circles formed in two spots in the air. I came into contact with the next magic circle, it sent me back. When I reached my destination, it launched me forward. I went back and fro from these two magic circles.

This repeated for more than ten times and each repetition caused me to move faster, basically, a particle accelerator. This lasted five seconds.

Boom!

Ms. Shino dispelled her magic after I came in contact with the magic circle that launched me forward, this creating a huge sonic boom and shockwave as I pierced through the air, instantly reached him in mere breaths.

When Hanazaki heard the shockwave, a bad sensation looming in his heart. Before he knew it, he felt a painful sensation on his back. He fell to the ground at an astounding speed.

Bam!

In the air, a giant cloud of dust rose and scattered to the surrounding, forming a mushroom. Thankfully, they were in an abandoned town of Japan so they didn't have to worry about casualties.

Birds flew to the air when the earth shook.

I fell to the ground rapidly, but I wore a calm expression. In the next few seconds, my body felt light. I looked down at my foot, a silver magic circle below it

"That kick is comparable to missiles that can destroy a building. I think you killed him." She came down and flew next to me.

"Un." I responded briefly as my gaze fixed on the mushroom cloud.

We landed not far from him and walked in his way. When we arrived, he lay down inside a meter crater 3 meters in diameter. Metal covered his skin, absorbing most of the damage. However, right now, the steel only covered his left leg and his left arm.

One could see shrapnels of steel around the crater. It seemed his ability failed to absorb most of the damages and impact.

In Hanazaki's view, only the sky visible to him until two figures entered his field of vision, but only a part. For Ryuta, Hanazaki's vision only see his head and for Shino, only her hair.

He couldn't move his neck and his abilities strained his eye movement too, so he could only see one direction.

Hanazaki looked at Ryuta. Others might not notice but different from Hanazaki. Ryuta's eyes filled with hidden sadness.

The hatred and anger when they fought a few moments ago had vanished.

Hanazaki failed to understand this. Can a person's emotion changed easily?

"Why are you looking at me like that?" He asked.

"I'm just thinking of your family and can't help but place my shoe in their position after they lost you."

"Didn't you say you did not care? Why the change of mind?"

"I'm lying back then."

"What are you going to do with me now? Spare me?"

"Do you know about the man with the one eyed hat?" I didn't respond to his question and divert the flow of the conversation

"Yes, I know him. He became the talk of town recently. Why are you looking for him?" He replied.

"I wanted to talk with him."

"Yeah, sure, I can help you with that," Hanazaki said calmly despite death getting closer. This indirectly tell that death almost harvests his life a few times.

"Do you want his location?"

"Yeah."

"Okay." He closed his eyes. It continued for fifteen minutes. "He's in Shibuya. If you want to meet him, best to wait him at the station before 5 P.M." He informed.

"How can we believe your words?"

"It's one of my ability. I can get information as long as it existed in Divinity's database.

"However, doing so would turn me into an illness mental patient for two days right... About... Now."

At the end of his words, his speaking gradually slowed down and saliva drooped on the corner of his mouth. His eyes looked into the distance and his pupils faced in different directions.