Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Ronin Blade (2)

***

“Hey, surrender peacefully! Otherwise, we will open fire!”

The police stood their ground, feeling the tension rise.

“I… I…”

The fugitive from the transport vehicle, now the center of attention, began to grit his teeth and clutch his head.

“I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“What…”

“You did this to me! What did I do to deserve this?!”

His shouts were incomprehensible.

Though his screams were filled with frustration, to the police, he was just a ‘villain’ who had escaped from a transport vehicle.

“Load live ammunition!”

The police loaded their guns with live bullets instead of blanks.

It was the right choice.

According to regulations, villains who do not surrender or are not subdued are to be killed first.

-Click!

At the command, the police replaced their magazines and aimed their guns at the fugitive.

If the order was given, a barrage of bullets would turn him into Swiss cheese unless he had some superhuman durability.

“Arrrgh!”

Frightened by the guns pointed at him, the villain raised his hands.

A ‘shooo’ sound emanated from the holes in his palms, and his arms began to expand rapidly.

“What the…!”

“Everyone, die!”

-Bang!

The moment his hand slammed into the asphalt, the air inside his arms was expelled into the ground.

As the air expanded, the asphalt road swelled like a balloon.

“Ahhh! Save us!”

The road crumbled, overturning streetlights and cars, and the impact began to spread to the onlookers.

All the helpless civilians could do was run.

However, there were still those who couldn’t tear their eyes away from the scene.

“Wow! This is prime footage for YouTube!”

-Bang!

A man filming with his camera was startled by a police officer falling from the sky.

The officer, thrown through the smoke caused by the chaos, was gasping for breath as if on the verge of death.

“…Huh?”

As he exhaled in shock, fear washed over his face.

The reality of what he had only seen on TV and the internet.

-Bang!

Before he could even process his disbelief, falling debris crushed him, but the villain continued his rampage.

“Damn heroes! Damn government! I’ll kill you all! I’ll kill you all!!”

This rampaging figure was nothing but a murder-crazed destroyer.

The compressed air from his hands tore through the sturdy barricades the police had set up like paper.

“Captain! Guns are useless!”

“Damn it, hold them off until the civilians can evacuate!”

Rat-tat-tat! Bang! Bang!

Bullets from rifles and pistols rained down on the villain, but his superhuman abilities formed a barrier that deflected the light lead bullets.

If they could land dozens of shots at once, they might break his concentration.

But the villain wouldn’t stay still, and if they didn’t manage the situation, the damage to property and lives would be even greater.

“All of you…”

But the villain didn’t care about that.

“You’re all the same. Why didn’t anyone save me? Why?!”

His only concern was his own suffering.

He hated the world that couldn’t understand him and believed it deserved to be destroyed.

“Die, die…!!”

Fixing his target on the retreating police, the villain gathered air in his hands and aimed at a truck in front of him.

The air compressed and compressed, forming a barrier through superhuman force.

-BOOM!

A chain reaction of explosions within his arm shot out like shrapnel, sending the massive truck flying.

At the moment of impact, a human body would be torn to pieces.

-Swish!

Just as a police officer, unable to dodge, closed his eyes in fear, a shadow suddenly appeared, slicing through the flying debris with a flash.

Cleanly in half.

As the bisected truck fell to the sides, the villain’s crazed eyes focused on the new arrival.

What he saw was a man standing in front of the police captain.

“…Who are you?”

A villain?

“I heard the commotion and came as a wanderer.”

No, despite the dark atmosphere, he wasn’t a villain.

A suspicious man wearing a black mask and a red scarf, with a sword emblem on his back.

Attached to his wrist was a wrist blade, the signature weapon of the hero who called himself Ronin Blade.

“Are you the one causing this chaos?”

A-Class Hero of the Hero Association – Ronin Blade.

As his blade pointed at him, the villain’s expression twisted in rage.

“Ronin Blade?”

Even in his frenzied state, he recognized the man in front of him.

“Yes, I remember you. You… hero.”

But this only fueled his rage further.

“Damned hero!!”

-Boom!

Air compressed in his hands exploded, pushing everything around him away.

The road stretched out and flipped over in an instant.

But Ronin Blade was already airborne, standing on a transparent thread between buildings.

And then he leaped.

-Swish!

His body moved in a curve due to the rotational force.

As he slashed at the villain, slicing his arm, Ronin Blade drew a shuriken and whispered as he threw it.

“…What made you so angry?”

“Do you really not know!?”

Did he take the calm question as provocation?

The flying shuriken was countered with an air explosion.

A fierce explosion covered the ground, and the villain’s body leaped into the air, aiming at the airborne Ronin Blade.

“You don’t know anything! You don’t know what luxury you’ve built on the sacrifices and suffering of others!”

“You seem to have many complaints, but such destruction won’t change anything.”

“Talking won’t get through to you, so I’ll destroy everything! Everything!”

-Bang! Clang!

Blades clashed with enhanced bodies. Explosions and screams echoed.

In the towering buildings, their destructive fight shook the surroundings, repeatedly pushing their bodies away.

In the end, Ronin Blade lost his balance on the wire and was thrown off.

“Dieee!!”

Even superhuman abilities couldn’t defy gravity.

The villain poised to shoot an air bomb from above as he prepared to fall.

An unavoidable explosion at that range would tear a human body apart.

“What a pity.”

Yet Ronin remained calm, twisting his body.

“The disaster here is too severe for me to show you mercy…”

As the bomb was fired with a bang, it narrowly missed Ronin Blade due to his split-second rotation.

Defying gravity, his body closed the distance to the villain.

This was Ronin Blade’s Gift, Vector Control.

He could control the direction of the force exerted on his body, allowing him to target his opponent’s weak points with movements that defied common sense.

-Slash!!

All this happened in the blink of an eye.

In that brief moment, an unexpected slash severed the villain’s neck.

“At least I’ll send you off without pain.”

“…Ugh.”

From his unknowing head, a wheezing sound escaped.

Before he could even realize it, a transparent thread tied around his head and began to pull his body.

-Swish!!

The wire-wrapped neck swung in the air, eventually tying to a tilted streetlight.

His head dangled, bleeding.

But his pupils had already lost their light, and no more sound came from the mouth that had screamed in agony.

“Do not fear.”

Ronin Blade spoke.

“I have punished the evil with my own hands.”

He addressed the silent crowd observing the scene.

It was only then that the citizens revealed themselves, focusing their attention on Ronin Blade.

The man who appeared suddenly and dispatched the villain.

With just a single sword, he silently declared the end of the crisis, embodying the name of the Ronin.

“Whooooooo!!”

The tense atmosphere quickly turned into cheers.

The crowd began shouting towards the hero standing at the center of the scene.

“Ronin! Ronin!”

“Hero! Hero!”

Indeed, they all united to celebrate one person.

The sacrifices of the police who stopped the fugitive and the destruction caused by the rampage.

They seemed to forget the slaughter scattered on the road.

Or perhaps they wanted to forget.

***

A hero brutally kills a villain and displays his head to the public.

The ensuing excitement resonating through the city was common in this era.

But some couldn’t join in that excitement.

Villains like me.

And the girl across from me, staring out the window.

“…Nella?”

“…”

Silently, she turned her trembling head away from the scene.

Her reaction was understandable.

A person died, even if he was a villain.

Watching her father behead a villain and receive praise was not something a seven-year-old should witness.

Yet the people cheered, reveling in the spectacle.

Punishing evil with justice wasn’t inherently wrong.

No matter how brutal the process, it had to be endured. This society was steeped in such beliefs, and no one would criticize the situation.

“Don’t be afraid.”

The criminal over there.

No one tried to understand why he screamed.

“He’s not after us.”

As I watched in frustration, the Boss’s soothing voice reached me.

She hugged the trembling Nella.

But her gaze was on me.

Her words weren’t only meant for Nella.

‘Yes, he wasn’t targeting us.’

So there’s no need to be afraid.

But why can’t I stop this trembling in my hands?

***

“Really, I’m very sorry.”

No matter what, time passed, and the father had to face me again after I protected his daughter.

James finally joined us late at night, smiling as if nothing had happened.

In the alley lit by a streetlamp, only his gentle demeanor was visible. The ferocity from brutally killing the villain was gone.

End of Chapter