An explosive vengeance

'This man in front of me... He will kill us. All of us. I can see it in his eyes. This pressure I am feeling in my heart... is it anxiety? Is it because of him?'

The female robber searched in her pocket for something, probably the device to activate the explosives. Those thoughts made her hands tremble, making it difficult for her to grab the device with her unstable fingers. Meanwhile, the three remaining criminals kept the old man busy, shooting straight at him.

'E-even though this bastard is not circling us anymore but coming straight, we cannot hit him once! It's hard to accept his strength and speed, but his reflexes are just absurd! What kind of human dodges freaking bullets!?'

"We are running out of time, Hina!"

"I am searching it up, damn it! Just how many pockets do you think these clothes have?"

"Shit! I will need to hinder him somehow," one of their partners said. Without the consent of their leader, he put away his pistol and drew a wakizashi.

"Let's see what this old man is capable of unarmed!" he shouted as he jumped off the motorcycle and ran with all his might while charging an attack.

"No, wait!" Mizuno tried to alert him, but it was to no avail.

The old man's eyes sparkled once the robber's feet touched the ground.

'Another opening, huh?' he thought. 'This is getting way too easy for me y'know?'

Surprisingly, he managed to increase his speed even more. His eyes were focused on the robber coming toward him with a sharp blade, but his subconscious was still aware of his surroundings, so it was no big deal for him to keep avoiding the bullets.

Once the old man was in range, the robber swung down the wakizashi, aiming for his head. However, the blade got stopped before it reached his neck.

The old man's fist hit the robber's exposed elbow relatively easily. The precision was superb. Without much strength needed, he broke the enemy's arm. The latter had to absorb what happened for yet another second before roaring in pain, letting his wakizashi fall.

'When? When did he shorten the range so much to be able to hit my elbow like that? A few seconds ago, he was in the perfect range for my wakizashi split his head. But, a second after, it looked like he was two steps ahead all the time!'

The robber watched the wakizashi fall from his hand. He tried not to take even a glance at his arm, which was warped unnaturally.

Before the wakizashi touched the ground, however, another person wielded it, swinging it upwards.

The robber fell to the ground convulsing from pain. The slash opened his abdomen from top to bottom.

'What a terrible sight. This must have been a very painful experience, my boy. I just hope you are really a boy, though. I would hate to kill a woman.'

The old man quickly returned to his pursuit, this time closer than ever.

"Oh! I got it!" Hina declared as she pulled a two-button remote control with her right hand.

"Don't hesitate, Hina!"

She nodded her head, then turned to look at the building where they set the explosives. Since the building had to fall to the street's side, so its structure would block the passage, they had put the explosives on the outside wall of the building. Since it looked like a normal trash bag, nobody would notice it.

Or, at least, that's what they expected.

'Hey, isn't that boy running toward the explosives? Did he figure it out?' Hina frowned as time seemed to slow down a little before her eyes.

'Oh, well. Even I would figure out as much, if I was in the same situation as him. This building is the only one tall enough to block the street on that side.'

Hayato seemed to notice that he was running out of time, because he worked even harder to reach the explosives. He felt both his legs throbbing in pain, such was the effort he was putting in. After all, just some weeks ago he was basically a sedentary.

'I have been needing to run a lot these days, huh?' his dizzied mind thought. The exhaustion of running and shouting was now weighing on his mind. He felt like his head was in the clouds.

'What if I die, though? I mean, I can possibly die by trying to approach that bag, right? I am not sure if those are the explosives, but this trash bag feels off, being in front of such a building. I-I don't want to die, though.

'Ah, damn it! Man up, you bastard! Just keep running, running!'

Hina pressed the button as her eyes followed Hayato. For some reason, that boy picked her interest.

'Hurry up! I just need... to touch... it!'

Hayato dove forward stretching his arms as much as he could.

'D-Did I calculate it well? Did I calculate this jump well? Will I really reach it? I never had a good sense of space, so I suck at sports. This limitation is a very crucial detail now!'

It looked like time was passing slower than normal. Way slower.

The action itself lasted some seconds, but for Hayato, it was a decade until the tip of his middle finger finally touched the bag.

'As long as it makes contact as has about the same weight and size as me, it will teleport together with me. At least, that's what I could discover while training this skill. I hope these explosives aren't above fifty-five kilograms!'

Hayato's heart throbbed strongly, sending a wave of electricity through his body. His pupils got slightly blue and his surroundings got outlined by the same color, an energy that looked like a mist. Soon, he disappeared...

...And the bag of explosives did, too.

For a moment, everything went black for Hayato. However, he was aware of his surroundings.

'I thought for a moment here that it would be better to teleport to one of the fields I passed by with Gen and Hiro... but, you know... I think I owe one to you guys.'

When he opened his eyes, he found himself on top of that one temple. Maybe, it was the first place he teleported to, ever. Because of that temple, his life became a mess. Because of the people living there, Mr. Satoshi got murdered by those guards.

"I think I should return the favor!" he said as THAT expression appeared on his face again.

Before nausea could get him, Hayato teleported back. Less than a second after, the temple got demolished by a strong explosion.

Back where the real action was happening, the old man had to stop running for a second to look where Hayato was a second ago. His eyes were glazed at the blue mist and small lightning tendrils surrounding that spot.

"So, that's the boy, huh? I sure am a lucky bastard, I guess", he muttered as a little smile appeared on his face.

Once he saw Hayato coming back again, he just shook his head and focused on his enemies. The old man kicked the ground and, in a matter of seconds, closed the gap between him and the two remaining flying motorcycles.

Before the leader could react, since he was still baffled by what just happened to their plan B, the old man leaped on his motorcycle and, with a single swing, beheaded him and his partner.

Their female partner was silent until now, her jaw still dropped at Hayato's feat. Once he noticed what had just happened to her comrades, she lost her ground. She didn't even try to draw any weapons.

The old man cocked an eyebrow.

"Do you yield? I don't want to possibly kill a beauty, you know? I am especially kind towards women, as much as you might feel offended by this detail."

She lowered her head.

"Good. I hope you feel indebted, hehe", the old man spun the wakizashi acrobatically, then cleaned its blade. He had a proud and pretentious face. However, although there was one of the few things he liked in his life right in front of him, his attention was all directed to a random boy puking at the street.

'Wait. Puking?'

****

The old man walked across a crowded restaurant, carrying a plate filled with different types of fish and rice. It was not a fancy dish by any means, but rather one that people with little money and too much hunger would ask for. In short, the perfect choice for someone like Hayato.

The latter waited for him on one of the tables of the restaurant. Since that establishment was not so far away from the drama on the avenue right in front of the city's entrance, not too many people were there. They could have chosen any table they wanted, but they went for the one right at the corner of the establishment.

'Apparently, this old man doesn't like to stand out, though it goes against everything he did on that avenue. A lot of people saw him.'

"Sincerely, all that fighting got me hungry. I bet you must be, too", he put the plate in front of Hayato, who drank some water to make the nausea go away.

"After vomiting so much, that was only the expected, right?"

"Yeah. I guess so", Hayato nodded.

'Why is he treating me like this? And...' he glanced to his right, squinting his eyes slightly.

"Why is SHE here?" without meaning to, he ended up saying it out loud.

"Oh, well, many reasons. I am a man of principles, after all. However, look at her. That should be enough reason, ain't it?"

'Why the accent all of a sudden?'

"Look at her...? Whatever, what does it have to do with the question?"

"If you want to keep the food, you better stop questioning, boy. You must learn early that my word is truth and my orders are absolute. Not that I am some sort of deity, though. But I do think of myself as an authority, y'know?"

Hayato sighed.

'Seems like my day is just about to start, huh?'