K side red, p.23
K Side Red, page 23
That was how Kusanagi had seen Suou since before Suou had become king. Back when Suou was just a single human, Kusanagi had gotten angry at him for going too far and getting hurt. Probably, mixed in within the anger he felt back then was something like a feeling of guilt that ended up shoving him into a position along with Totsuka where he had to call Suou king.
Back then, Kusanagi got angry while Suou looked at him with a wry smile.
Now, Kusanagi would never get onto Suou seriously again.
The blue light sparkled.
When he came to his senses, Shiotsu’s sword which had jumped up was hitting his shoulder. Kusanagi, who had completely gotten lost in thought, was cut quite deeply. He clenched his teeth at the sharp pain running through his shoulder. Just a moment late, blood came spurting out. In response to the pain that now also held heat, for some reason his head actually cooled off.
He couldn’t put pressure on the wound and didn’t put distance between the two of them, instead Kusanagi just clicked his tongue and sharply lifted his leg. His toes hit Shiotsu’s sword wrist. He felt bone shattering. Shiotsu’s saber flew from his hand. Kusanagi then swung that same leg. His heel dug into Shiotsu’s temple. He stomped on Shiotsu’s chest, and pointed the lighter at his head like a gun. At the same time, Shiotsu’s sword stuck itself in the wall with a thud.
The blood from Kusanagi’s shoulder stained his shirt red. Both him and Shiotsu were breathing hard. Enduring their slowly spreading pain, they glared at each other.
After a while, the venom left Shiotsu’s eyes, and as though to show he no longer had any desire to fight, he relaxed his body. Kusanagi’s expression twisted as he looked down at that, and responded quietly to Shiotsu’s earlier taunt.
“…it’s an advisor’s job to consider the worst case scenarios too, right?”
“You’re so admirable.” Said Shiotsu in a tone that could have been sarcastic or serious, it was hard to tell.
“Relax… you won’t turn into me.” He looked up at Kusanagi with narrowed eyes.
There was no murderous intent left in Shiotsu’s body. Losing even the slightest venom, he looked even older, and yet even as he was enduring pain, there was something peaceful about the look in his eyes.
“I lose.”
Suou and Totsuka found the elevator leading down deeper and get on it. A worker they grabbed shared his pass with them. Suou was still silent, had his hands stuck in his pockets, and was so relaxed you wouldn’t know he was in the middle of enemy territory.
“I wonder if Kusanagi-san’s okay.”
“Don’t worry.”
Being told that by Suou in a calm way, like it was just a matter of course, Totsuka smiled wryly.
“You really trust him.”
Of course, Totsuka trusted him too. But, when he thought of how Kusanagi came home from visited Scepter 4’s base looking tired, somehow, it bothered him a little. The elevator reached its destination slowly. With the heavy sound of machinery stopping, its doors opened.
With a thud, the sound and blast from an explosion flowed in through the gap in the doors like a rapid river. Totsuka narrowed his eyes, but Suou didn’t tense up in the slightest, and simply canceled out the blast with red power that softly left his body. Suou’s power and the blast rammed into each other and made a noise that practically shook the whole Center while burning the walls and floor around them. Smoke began to fill that floor.
“Huh?”
In a situation where he had been blasted by a powerful energy with no warning, Suou twisted his neck and let out a noise that could even be considered a bit sleepy.
What happened just then was not caused by the power of a blue clansman. In the first place, it was hard to think that someone with this much power was still being held in reserve in Scepter 4. But Suou didn’t think too deeply about that and just stepped out into the floor. Totsuka followed silently.
When they left the box of the elevator and stepped on the ground, a sharp cutting attack sliced through the air towards them from a different direction. It was a sharp blade sticking out from the smoke still surrounding them. Suou looked at that out of the corner of his eye, then blocked it with one arm.
Using a fist holding red power, he lightly threw the blade aside, and- well, in the first place, if someone thought normally then a blade and a bare hand shouldn’t be exchanging blows, but this was done so casually and naturally that one may have begun to think it was normal- and then he knocked aside the blade that was trying to cute them. After that, he roughly reached out and tried to grab the wrist of the attacker who was holding that blade.
However, as Suou tried to grab the attacker, their movements changed. They became faster, as though they were in a video being fast-forwarded. They slipped away from Suou’s hand, even though they seemed to be completely caught. The attacker straightened up in midair, landed for just a moment to kick the ground again, and jumped up like a grasshopper. They hit the wall once, then flew off and away directly afterwards, putting a wide space between them and Suou. It took about 0.5 seconds. The smoke was beginning to clear.
“That was close, that was close. I was about to get crushed to death all of a sudden.”
The attacker with a sword and movements like a grasshopper said that while letting out a breath.
“But anyway, they sure are making us go too far.” Said the man of small stature from the opposite side of the attacker. His hand held a powerful energy, and it was shining while letting off crackles that made it seem like it could explode at any second. It was probably this man who had attacked as soon as the elevator doors opened.
“Going too far was part of the job description, wasn’t it… there’s no way they’d /let us off/ for our crimes if it wasn’t something dangerous.” Said the attacker with the sword.
Thump, thump, with heavy footsteps, a large man came walking slowly in from the front, where the smoke hadn’t finished clearing yet.
“…are you guys gonna fight with the red king t'get out of here.” Said the large man. He was a head taller than Suou, and was wrapped in thick, armorlike muscles. However, his blue eyes alone shone strangely in a strangely childlike way.
“Of course. Why else would anyone cross such a dangerous bridge?” The attacker with the sword looked exasperated and glanced at the large man like he was seeing something creepy.
“M'different. Right now,” The big man laughed. With a body made of muscles like bronze, and letting off a sinister murderous intent, his smile was still strangely innocent.
“-My heart’s dancing.”
The large man kicked off from the floor. His great body flew straight through the air like an arrow. With the sound of cutting through the air, the next second he was in front of Suou. The man punched Suou from right in front of him.
“Heh…” Suou didn’t move an inch as he blocked the man’s fist and smirked a bit enjoyably. He raised his arm and with a light movement, he threw off the man’s arm which was trying to break Suou’s barrier. The man’s fist ended up being deflected into the wall. It made a hole. It wasn’t as though the wall was destroyed- it was a clean hole, about the size of the man’s face.
“A Strain, huh.” Said Suou as he looked around at the ones surrounding them. Looking around, the floor was a wide hall, which led off into multiple mazelike turns.
“…I guess they’re the dangerous Strains kept accomodated down here, huh.” Said Totsuka while tilting his head.
“Seems like they’ve been told they’ll be let free if they beat the red king, or something.”
Suou didn’t care about what was being said. The man who had assaulted Suou from the front and left a pretty little hold int he wall stood up with a sway.
“M'different. They gave me their offer, sure, but the reason why m'here is cause the chance to fight with the red king itself is a prize to me.” As he said that, the large man’s eyes sparkled like those of a child.
“That guy’s the man called ‘Senkouki’.” Said the attacker with the sword.
“His crime’s murder. He’s also called the 'Strain-killer’. He’s a perv who can’t have fun with anything but fighting strong people.”
'Senkouki’ was wearing an innocent smile that didn’t match his looks or the introduction he was just given. Power focused on his arm, and it was clear that he was putting power into his fist again. The little man with crackling white energy in his hand glanced at 'Senkouki’.
“Don’t jump in alone. As much as I hate to say it, we don’t have a chance if we’re not in this together.”
“It’s like the 'Pyrotechnician’, says!” The attacker with the sword jumped. He leaped like he was on springs. His sword sparkled, and was swung down at Suou’s head. Suou messily waved his right arm as though to shake that off. The power surrounding Suou’s arm turned to flame and tried to swallow up the attacker.
However, he sped up again. With speed that may have made him look like he up and vanished to the eyes of a normal person, the attacker twisted around in mid air, dodged the lump of flames, bounced off the wall, and jumped towards Suou’s side. With his speed, all of that took only an instant, and Suou ended up letting the attacker get into his space and try to cut. But Suou’s arm just blocked the sword.
As if it was a pair of swords hitting each other, the attacker’s blade and Suou’s arm exchanged hits. Normally, Suou would have lost his wrist. However, his arm was holding off the blade without a single scratch. The blade went red hot as it took Suou’s power.
“Outta the way, 'Grasshopper’!”
The attacker pressed his sword at the same time as that voice, and using that action he jumped again. Again, it was so quick it may as well have been instantaneous. As 'Grasshopper’ jumped so quickly he practically vanished, white energy went flying towards Suou. It was power unleashed by the man called the 'Pyrotechnician’. Suou knocked away with one hand that ball of energy, which was crackling and like a bomb.
When he knocked it away, that ball of energy let off a violent flash and scattered. Suou’s eyes were burned for a moment. In that moment when his eyes were blacked out, from beyond the light, 'Senkouki’ came flying. His right hand tried to make a hole in the middle of Suou’s body. Suou stopped that with his palm. 'Senkouki’s’ fist, which always left a circle on whatever it was used against. Having taken that, Suou’s palm stung. Because of 'Senkouki’s’ charge, he slid back just a little.
Suou strongly threw away the fist he had blocked. 'Senkouki’ spun as he went flying, but he dextrously straightened his great body up in midair and landed. Suou looked down at the palm he used to block. There was a small black abrasion on the skin. He smirked. He was having a bit of fun.
“Hey.”
While looking in the direction of the Strains, Suou spoke to Totsuka behind him.
“/Can I?/”
When he was asked in a faintly cheerful voice, Totsuka shrugged his shoulders.
“…if you’ll be with me when Kusanagi-san gets on to us later?”
He said that in a tone that had exasperation mixed in, making Suou laugh voicelessly.
The next instant, power shot out from his body.
+++++++++++++++
The blue clansman Kamamoto picked up and threw far away was the last. All of the clansmen protecting the Center had been defeated by Homura, and were escaping.
Now then, what should they do from here on.
Should they follow King and company into the Center-
When Kamamoto turned to Yata to discuss it with him, he noticed people running out from inside the Center. He thought they were reinforcements and readied himself, but soon realized that that didn’t seem to be the case. On the faces of those running out was a the look of someone who had no idea what was going on, and of the anxiousness of someone who still felt they were in danger and wanted to escape. It was probably Strains from the Center. Kamamoto found a face he recognized within them.
“Ah, you!”
It was the boy they questioned when they infiltrated the Center. The boy also seemed to recognize Kamamoto and pointed at him with an 'ah!’.
“It was you guys after all, huh!” The boy ran over.
“What the heck is going on, seriously. You guys are the red clan, right? Are you attacking the Center?”
“We came to save a little girl.” Said Kamamoto while puffing up his chest as though to stick his big stomach out.
“Did you guys run out without permission?”
“Well, yeah… it looked like things were getting bad, and thinking about it, I didn’t really feel like trusting the Center and staying put…” As the boy spoke, red light shot out above the building. From amid the sparking light, the form of a sword appeared. At the same time, a great presence that was both familiar to and shook the souls of Kamamoto and company swelled beneath the blade.
-It’s Mikoto-san.
Kamamoto felt the hair all over his body stand on end. Tension rose from his stomach, and while feeling hyped up he rose a fist to the sky.
“No blood! No bone! No ash!” When he called that out, the members around his lifted their fists and did the same. The voices of Homura resounded through the Center’s courtyard. The Strain boy looked surprised at Kamamoto, who was shaking with a tension that made him feel like running off.
“Ah.” Abruptly, the boy looked off into the distance and made a weird noise. Kamamoto felt like he had had water splashed on his party a bit, so he went 'what’ while looking in the same direction in an annoyed way.
“Ah!” The voice Kamamoto raised was much louder and full of surprise.
In the corner of the path from the Center to the courtyward was the form of a woman standing around with a shocked look on her face. Perhaps she had run all the way there, she was breathing hard and there was sweat on her pale skin.
“Nee-san!” It was Honami.
“Nee-san! Why are you here!” Kamamoto ran over to Honami while speaking accusingly towards her. It looked like Honami was barely paying attention to him, as she was focused on the situation in the courtyard.
“What… is going on here…”
The armed members of Homura raising their voices in victory, and the crushed blue clansmen. The escaping Strains. And above it all, a great sword. She watched in shock.
“Nee-san, I’m sorry. We’ll explain later, so…” Kamamoto anxiously tried to move Honami to a safe place, as suddenly, a human shadow appeared over him. Honami also noticed and looked up at the shadow’s owner. She froze. Kamamoto also shuddered. At both the strangeness of that group’s appearance, and at the fact that he hadn’t noticed their presence at all until they were this close.
It was a group of tall people. They wore strange Japanese clothes, and wore masks above their noses. It was a creepy sort of masks. It had no expression, and had symbol-like things carved everywhere but the eyes. And most noticeably, that mask had two long ears attached to it. Those ears were almost like…
Kamamoto suddenly remembered.
“You guys, you’re 'Rabbits’, huh…”
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Anna shuddered and raised her head.
She had been trying to contact the 'Slate’, but her consciousness was pulled back by the presence of a strong power right nearby. The scientists around her were also making a clouded fuss. Anna remembered his sword of Damocles, which she saw from the top of the ferris wheel, and a beautiful red. As though she were being tempted, Anna picked up one of the red marbles by her hands. She held the small glass sphere between her thumb and forefinger and gently raised it to her left eye.
There were certainly the feeling within her that she wanted to see it once again. And also, the experience of having 'connected’ with Suou once made Anna’s consciousness easily contact with Suou through the red marbles.
Anna saw Suou through the marble.
Suou was smiling. Power that couldn’t be contained within his body was spilling out as red light and wrapping in circles while spreading out. Anna’s eyes, her will, went deeper within Suou. Towards the source of the red shine spilling out of him. What she managed to see was pure red magma. A violent sea of red. The magma boiled and twisted. She figured that anything that touched it would melt away in an instant, it was a terrifing red world.
“…pretty…”
But the one word that escaped Anna’s lips was that.
The fearful red world, the world within Suou, charmed Anna. She remembered that time they accidentally 'connected’. She was swallowed by that red sea, and thrown violently around. But what she felt then was certainly not just fear, but also a strange peace of mind. She felt that what she was bottling up inside her so it wouldn’t escape was something tiny compared to this. Being wrapped up in a great power like that was something that gave her more relief than anything else until then.
