ch41-ch60 · 055-ch54

Chapter 54

To Sasamori Takeshi, who wasn't an explorer, most of what was unfolding before his eyes was incomprehensible. If someone told him it was all a tasteless joke, he might have believed it without question.

First, Hamamatsu Nanami, who'd emerged from the wall, took the pale purple man's provocation at face value and charged at him again, launched like a projectile.

He didn't know what the light short swords in each of her hands were, but she clearly thought she could kill him if she struck with them.

But the result was failure.

The moment she reached the pale purple man, Hamamatsu Nanami was sent flying like a pinball, this time slamming into the ceiling and falling. The sound and impact of heavy machinery violently striking a house echoed through the room, and several pipes running along the walls — including the one restraining Sasamori — were crushed, their brackets tearing from the walls and ceiling.

Concrete fragments from the ceiling scattered across the floor.

If a human body was smashed into something with that much force and speed, they shouldn't possibly survive... and yet.

"Kill. Kill. I'll absolutely kill. You..."

Muttering curses, Hamamatsu rose unsteadily. Apart from her pantsuit being torn to shreds, she didn't seem to have any notable injuries.

Zizi zi — that strange sensation again, and light short swords appeared in both of Hamamatsu's hands.

A pair of blades. Hamamatsu held them crossed before her eyes — and the next instant, a fierce torrent of light tore through the air, like a lightning strike.

But the lightning bolt didn't hit the pale purple man directly. It slid along his surface, striking the basement entrance. A violent cracking sound, and the smell of burning air.

"——Why..."

She seemed to be saying "why didn't it hit." Hamamatsu muttered in shock, clearly lost in her own world, looking wide open even to an amateur's eyes.

But the pale purple man didn't counterattack. Instead, he curled the corners of his mouth into a grin and let out an exaggerated laugh.

"Hah hah hah! My, what a ferocious attack that was! If I'd taken that directly, even I might have been in danger... would saying that give you any hope? To be honest, it's hardly worth mentioning."

He twirled the cane in his left hand, mocking her with deliberate exaggeration.

Hamamatsu fell for the blatant provocation without hesitation.

"Uwaaaaaaah——!"

A roar like a scream, and a crackling sound of air being torn apart. This time, Hamamatsu wasn't sent flying — she stopped in front of the pale purple man, and several exchanges of offense and defense seemed to occur.

Too fast for Sasamori to see.

In the time it took to breathe once, Hamamatsu was effortlessly handled, her chest struck by the man's cane, and she was sent flying again. In a straight line to the wall opposite the entrance.

Another terrible impact. Since the spot she'd been sent to was the same as before, the already shattered concrete scattered along with dust, and shrapnel-sized fragments grazed Sasamori's cheek, cutting his skin. Not that such a minor injury was worth worrying about in his current state.

"You humans of this world really do love electricity, don't you? I'm impressed by your scientific technology, but that's hardly a reason to be cautious of you personally. For me, the fact that the television works is a far more wonderful thing than your strength."

"Shut up! I'll kill you! Absolutely!"

Hamamatsu burst out of the wall she'd embedded herself in, light short swords in both hands again... but this time, she didn't charge in recklessly. That lightning attack had been easily deflected, so she probably couldn't use it carelessly. And in close combat with her feet planted, she was no match and got sent flying.

In other words — was she cornered?

Unless she had some kind of trump card, even to an amateur's eyes, Hamamatsu Nanami seemed to have no chance of winning. Not that he wanted her to win, but if this woman was killed, it would change the fate awaiting Sasamori.

The pale purple man — why had he appeared here and fought Hamamatsu? He'd said he came to check on things, but perhaps he still intended to use Sasamori for something.

Hee hee hee — Sasamori laughed without making a sound, just in the back of his throat.

Because he no longer cared. Beaten this badly, with two monsters rampaging before his eyes — whatever fate awaited him now, so be it.

"Oh my, already at a dead end? As a former B-rank explorer, this is disappointing. So absorbed in pushing children to the front lines that when one meager special skill fails, all you can do is growl and bark — haah... it's 'Trashmatsu Trashko-san,' was it? You're no different from middle-aged men watching baseball broadcasts from their living rooms. 'What are you doing, let me manage the team,' 'Yeah, that's it, you can do it if you try,' 'Don't use a player like that.' Hahaha. Your dead clan leader must be turning in his grave. Since he died protecting Trashmatsu-san, you see."

Sneering with a leering grin — when he was disguised as a human, his expressions had been so hard to read, but now — the pale purple man tapped his cane with deliberate affectation, making a sharp sound.

"Shut up shut up shut up! AAAAAAAH!"

Hamamatsu, completely triggered by the cheap provocation, charged at the pale purple man, her whole body crackling with light.

But the result was the same.

After an exchange of offense and defense at speeds Sasamori couldn't perceive, Hamamatsu, who'd been wreathed in light, was launched vertically into the ceiling, and just before she fell to the ground, the pale purple man's kick sent her flying horizontally.

"You really are dull, Trashmatsu-san. After surviving all this time, what exactly have you been doing for ten years?"

He said it with utter contempt, then swung his cane. The swung cane bent like a whip — CRACK — and slashed through Hamamatsu's shoulder as she lay embedded in a different section of wall.

"Haaah, boring. You're not cut out for that job. Why not quit? Want me to find you a good one? It's called a dungeon cleaner. A simple job of hunting trash mobs on the upper floors of labyrinths. Perfect for Trashmatsu-san. Look, the cursed blade user seems to be closing up his cleaning business anyway."

Saying such things, the cane bent and stretched limply as it swung, precisely carving into Hamamatsu's body. Shoulder, then thigh, side, right cheek, ankle...

Flowers of blood bloomed where it struck, and blood trickled from the cracks in the broken concrete to the floor. Sasamori thought that for a normal person, this would be dangerous blood loss, but he didn't actually know. How much blood a human could lose before dying.

"Die, die, die... I won't forgive... you of all people..."

Whether she no longer had the energy to shout, Hamamatsu muttered curses like a spell, and the pale purple man returned his extended cane to its original form, tapped the floor with it again in that deliberate way, and laughed.

"Oh my, weren't you going to kill me? What are you praying for? 'Forgive' or 'not forgive' — that's not even relevant. Trashmatsu-san really is boring. By the way, this is a phrase I learned from the humans of this world, and I'd very much like to hear it from you. Facing the murderer of someone precious to you, unable to do anything, dying — Trashmatsu-san. So, how do you feel right now?"

"——..."

Stop it, he thought.

That's wrong — something like Sasamori's entire worldview sounded the alarm before reason could. It wasn't that he was worried she'd be provoked into turning the tables on him. No — he felt that Hamamatsu Nanami's position would change.

Until moments ago, she'd been on the verge of falling to Sasamori's level.

An unconscious, careless perpetrator. A coward who disregarded others solely for her own convenience. Without ever realizing her own ugliness, she should have fallen to the same place as Sasamori.

But that pale purple man's actions had turned her into a proper victim.

A pitiful, powerless victim deserving of sympathy.

He'd done something unnecessary.

With his crushed shoulder and other injuries screaming in agony with every heartbeat, feeling as if he were delirious with a high fever — Sasamori found himself laughing at the fact that he didn't think, strangely enough, "if only this man hadn't given me that strange stone."

No — it was that he hated the idea of that gutter-smelling woman dying cleanly. He wanted her to experience what he had — to be disappointed in by those around her, to be let down, despised, and wished dead while she lived.

"Please——"

Before he knew it, the words had escaped his lips.

It should have been a far smaller voice than even a restrained cough, but the pale purple man shifted his gaze from Hamamatsu with mild interest and looked at Sasamori.

"What did you say?"

He tilted his head as if simply, genuinely curious. This monster — probably not even human — who didn't give a former B-rank explorer a second thought, held simple curiosity in his eyes.

When he'd appeared human, his expressions had truly been unreadable.

So this must be his true form.

"Don't kill her. Please. Don't let that woman die. Don't let her die cleanly."

Without meaning to, Sasamori said it, tears streaming down his face.

For his true wish at the boundary of life and death to be this — even he knew he was hopeless.

But it was his honest feeling, so it couldn't be helped.

"That woman is a gutter-stinking, worthless woman. If she dies like this, no one will ever know her true nature. On the contrary, she'll become a victim of your threat, and those around her will burn with righteous fury. Despite being gutter-trash. Despite being gutter-trash... don't let her die such a clean death. Please."

Even if he died here for that, he didn't care.

He genuinely felt that way.

Perhaps this was the first time in his life he'd begged someone so earnestly. And at the same time, he didn't have a shred of hope that such a wish would be granted. The pale purple man didn't seem like the type to listen to others' pleas... especially from someone like Sasamori, who'd outlived his usefulness.

Even so, he couldn't help but wish.

Please don't let that woman become a victim.

"Ha — Hahaha hah! This is interesting! Splendid, Assembly Member Sasamori! This is why humans are so interesting! Far more jet-black than we are!"

The pale purple man doubled over laughing, but Sasamori had no leeway to feel any particular sentiment about it. His body hurt, he was feverish, and his vision was blurry.

The man's roaring laughter lasted — a few seconds, or a few hours.

By the time the laughing fit subsided, a desolate stillness had settled over the basement space.

Sasamori could barely even hear his own breathing anymore.

Hamamatsu, embedded in the wall and carved all over by the cane... was she alive or dead? The muttered curses were certainly no longer audible.

"Well now, you've truly entertained me. It's a shame I won't be able to see what happens next with my own eyes, but I'll take my leave here. Assembly Member Sasamori — no, Sasamori Takeshi-san. In recognition of your magnificent ugliness, I'll refrain from finishing off Trashmatsu. Do pray that help arrives in time."

"Farewell," he said politely, and left.

As he left, his back seemed to have resumed its human disguise, but Sasamori couldn't be sure.

He thought he heard the tap of a cane.

——And then, Sasamori Takeshi's consciousness faded.