Chapter 29
Chapter 29: The Demon in the Rain
"Ahhhh! Monster! Die already!!"
Staring at Ikeda's horrifying corpse, Sato completely broke down.
Extreme fear robbed him of all reason. He raised the rifle in his hands and frantically pulled the trigger at Ikeda, who was still being devoured!
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
"Sato! Stop! That's a teammate!" Kujo roared.
But Sato couldn't hear a word. After emptying his magazine, he even activated his ability!
Several wind blades screamed through the air, slicing Ikeda—already half-eaten—into shreds!
Blood mixed with rainwater exploded outward, chunks of flesh flying everywhere.
"Dead...he's dead now, right? Hahahahaha!"
Sato panted heavily, a deranged grin plastered across his face.
Bang!
Kujo charged forward and kicked the madman to the ground, pressing her gun barrel against his forehead, her eyes filled with hatred.
"You bastard! Enough! Who told you to do that to Ikeda?!"
"Why did you have to desecrate his body?!"
Kujo had always harbored secret feelings for that honest, big-hearted giant. She never imagined he would die so miserably—not even leaving a whole corpse behind.
"What do you know?!"
Sato snarled, his face twisted: "I was finishing him off! Haven't you ever played games?! What if he turned into a monster?"
"This way, under my wind blades, even some invisible monster would've died right there!"
Kujo had no rebuttal. She simply stared at the mess on the ground, her heart being cut to pieces.
Sato, meanwhile, struggled to his feet and wiped the blood and rain from his face.
"Let's go! The monster's definitely dead! We finish the mission and get the hell out of this godforsaken place!"
Sato turned and walked toward the school, as if not looking back would erase everything that had just happened.
However.
After just 2 steps, he found the 2 women staring at him like he was already dead.
"What?"
Sato grew irritated: "Why are you looking at me like that? Were you stunned by my heroic figure?"
He stood in the rain and spread his arms wide with confidence, as if embracing the sky.
"Don't worry! After this mission is done, my name will definitely be on tomorrow's leaderboard!"
"When that happens, Muraguchi-san will surely promote me to the new squad leader!"
Sato's confidence was boundless.
In his mind, that was where he rightfully belonged!
Why should he, a Grade A Extraordinary One, work under a Grade C piece of trash?
Just because of seniority?
But the next second.
Sato's voice suddenly lost all its strength.
"Hey...what are you two doing? I'm a hero..."
He watched as Hoshino raised her gun toward him with trembling hands, and Kujo's eyes filled with terror.
Sato instinctively tried to point at them and curse, but found he had lost all control of his arms.
He looked down.
The arms he had just spread wide were now nothing but 2 bare white bones!
And that invisible devouring force was spreading rapidly up from his shoulders toward his neck!
The emotion called fear instantly seized Sato's mind once again.
"Ya—Yamero!! "
"Stop! No! I don't want to die!!"
"Save me! Hoshino! You're a healer! Save me!!"
Sato wept with snot and tears streaming down his face, dragging his ruined body toward Hoshino. All that arrogance was now reduced to nothing but an ugly, desperate will to survive.
Hoshino was so terrified her hands were shaking. She was about to pull the trigger and put him out of his misery.
"Don't shoot!"
Kujo grabbed Hoshino and pulled her toward the Humvee at a dead sprint: "Run, now!!"
"Bastard!!"
Seeing this, Sato completely snapped.
"Kujo! You vicious woman! You want to use me as bait?!"
"You want to buy time by letting me get devoured alive?! Dream on!!"
"I won't let you have your way! Die with me!!"
Sato roared. In the last second before his neck was bitten through, he opened his mouth and gathered every last ounce of his storm power.
"Vacuum Round!!"
Boom!
A highly compressed air round blasted from his mouth, punching straight through the Humvee's hood!
And exploded against Kujo's thigh just as she pulled the car door open to climb in!
"Ngh!"
Kujo let out a pained grunt, blood pouring freely as she crumpled to the ground on both knees.
The car was wrecked.
Her leg was injured.
"You...you lunatic..."
Kujo stared at the smoking engine in despair.
Hoshino rushed to support her: "Kujo-sis! Let me heal you!"
"There's no time!"
Kujo shoved her away and quickly pressed the highest-level distress signal on the radio.
"No, there's no time! The car's dead—we move, toward the school!"
"Why?"
Hoshino didn't understand: "Isn't that just walking into death?"
Kujo didn't answer immediately. She pressed her hand over the wound, and her eyes turned sharp and ruthless.
Her Grade C ability, 【Eagle Eye】, came with a brief enhancement to dynamic visual acuity.
In that instant, everything around her had slowed in her field of vision—including the raindrops.
Through the refraction of those drops suspended in midair.
She had seen the monster's true form!
It was a pale-faced boy wearing a black mandarin-collar school uniform.
He wasn't invisible—he was hiding inside a raindrop!
By now, Sato had been completely devoured, leaving only a white skeleton lying face-down in the muddy water.
And in Sato's eyes—eyes that had already lost their light—a single raindrop was reflected.
Inside that raindrop, the boy was grinning at them, his mouth stretched wide and full of fangs.
The next moment.
The boy inside the water droplet began jumping and transferring between raindrops in rapid succession, closing in on Hoshino and Kujo at terrifying speed!
20 meters...15 meters...10 meters...
It was a race against death—one side meant death, the other side also meant death.
Kujo kept her eyes fixed behind them at all times.
'Too fast...we won't make it.'
She looked at Hoshino, who was helping her run, and a resolute light flashed through her eyes.
"I'm sorry, little Hoshino. You'll have to walk the rest of this road alone."
Kujo suddenly shoved Hoshino hard toward the teaching building ahead!
And stayed behind herself—drawing the katana from her back and turning to face the curtain of falling rain.
Not out of any great compassion, but because the pride of someone born into a distinguished family made it impossible for her to abandon her dignity the way Sato had!
She would not use a teammate as a sacrifice.
And she refused to become like Sato—like the majority of Sakura Nation's people: cowardly, shameless, and hypocritical.
Time became impossibly slow in that moment.
The raindrop so close she could almost touch it reflected the monster's greedy face.
And Hoshino's expression of stunned disbelief as she turned around.
Just as Kujo closed her eyes to meet her end.
Crash!
The second-floor window of the teaching building suddenly shattered!
3 throwing knives flickered through the air like shadows, piercing the single raindrop that was a heartbeat away from Kujo's brow!
The boy inside was forced to shift to another raindrop!
Then immediately began transferring toward Kujo again!
Ding!
In the same instant, a white-haired woman leapt from the window and landed on the ground.
She grabbed Kujo with one hand and Hoshino with the other, and in an instant, pulled them both through the entrance of the teaching building.
Bang!
The iron door slammed shut.
Neither of them had yet processed what had just happened. They sat slumped on the ground.
Still trembling with shock, they stared at the beautiful white-haired woman with European features standing before them.
Typical Slavic face—cold, striking, and powerful.
Just then, footsteps came from the shadowed stairwell nearby.
A middle-aged man stepped out, wearing a worn trench coat and a face full of stubble.
He had a freshly lit cigarette dangling from his lips, the ember flickering in the dim corridor.
The man exhaled a smoke ring. His eyes carried the weight of someone who had seen too much of the world. Looking at these 2 unlucky souls from Sakura Nation, the corner of his mouth curved into a grin.
"Hello there, you two unlucky souls."
"Welcome to Rose High School."
"Ready for...the nightmare that's only just begun?"