episode_0088

*CRUNCHING!*

The raining bullets, as if chainsaws were grinding wood, utterly destroyed walls and furniture, continuing their work to eliminate hostile targets.

The targets were three people hidden among the acrid gunsmoke blooming from exploding muzzles and the hot, black gunpowder smoke that covered the room as grenades exploded.

Seira, a member of Vanishment, and K.I.T.S.U.N.E’s boss, Shirokitsune Yuki and Kurokitsune Kana, who had somehow gotten entangled in the affair.

Because she was active in Vanishment, a top-tier team even in Eclipse Point, her standards had become so high that while those two weren’t bad at all, it was still difficult for them to survive comfortably at this level.

‘This is troublesome.’

In truth, Seira could have broken through this hail of bullets and escaped at any time, but the condition of the other two was not good.

“Kana, can you move?”

“…Ugh, I’m sorry.”

While they had managed to react to the first surprise attack, it seemed completely avoiding it was impossible, as the black fox (Kana) clutched one arm and leg, where fragments had pierced through and caused bleeding.

Furthermore, it seemed her joints and ligaments were damaged, as even standing up looked difficult, and perhaps poison was mixed into the smoke, as her complexion was pale.

‘Just by myself…’

She had briefly considered that, but Seira quickly shook her head.

‘Johann-nim said we should maintain a friendly relationship with them…’

If she left them to die and escaped the encirclement alone, it would be difficult to maintain a friendly attitude, even if not an outright hostile relationship.

Seira, continuing to make judgments as a seasoned mercenary, felt a sense of predicament beneath her indifferent expression, and was busy defending herself by deflecting with her sword bullets that pierced through the steel bed frame and tried to reach her.

The only remaining option was for them to notice this commotion and come for support.

*Whiz.* Wiping away the blood flowing from her cheek, grazed by a tungsten bullet, Seira rose from behind the steel frame that concealed her, and confronted 27 pairs of red lights that proudly asserted their presence even within the acrid smoke.

*THUNDEROUS ROAR!*

Loaded with more gunpowder than usual, Maximum rounds, which unleash overwhelming firepower for their caliber, were fired indiscriminately at hundreds per minute, attempting to pulverize the target.

Electromagnetic accelerated projectiles, flying as if in retaliation, struck the bulletproof vests, but the damage was utterly negligible, not even a drop in the bucket compared to the torrent poured out.

Furthermore, agents whose bulletproof plates were damaged and protection performance diminished after being hit by warheads switched with agents in the rear, making the Tag Force’s damage virtually non-existent.

“Fire! Fire! Fire!”

The heavy recoil transmitted through their arms and the piercing smell of gunpowder furiously erupted adrenaline and dopamine, making the Tag Force agents let out crazed laughter beneath their goggle masks, the kind only trigger-happy individuals would make.

Just how much gunpowder had been expended?

As the lead agent raised a hand signal for firing cessation, they all simultaneously ceased firing, and the muzzles, which were about to glow red hot, cooled as they radiated heat into the air.

*WHOOSH—*

A sudden silence descended.

Only the explosions of gunfire lingered like tinnitus, deafening their ears, but even that slowly subsided and faded away with the gunpowder smoke.

“Life signs…”

The Tag Force, having poured out nearly thousands of rounds of ammunition, attempted to detect life signs using their scan system to confirm eradication, but then a certain noise was heard from afar.

Still distant but approaching rapidly, it momentarily drew their attention—*RUMBLING!*—the rough and audacious sound of steel wheels!

As many agents turned at the boisterous presence, there was a madman rushing towards them at incredible speed, using a steel medical tray cart as a board.

“Everyone there, stop right now! If anyone doesn’t stop, I’ll punch them in the face first!”

“What in the…”

At his brazen declaration, the Tag Force’s sub-commander made an incredulous expression, but that face, hidden within the mask, would never be seen, and he merely replied by raising and aiming his gun.

It seemed his dispersed squad members had been dealt with, as he was holding a squad member’s assault rifle, but he seemed to have no other significant armament, so a mere mercenary like him could be quickly torn apart and silenced.

The moment he thought that, a gun-shaped shadow filled his vision.

“..!”

*SMACK!* In the absurd situation where it wasn’t a bullet but an assault rifle itself flying at him, his vision shot upwards significantly, and his aim was disrupted, sending bullets scraping against the walls and ceiling.

As he stumbled backward, a steel cart immediately crashed into his body, sending all sorts of medical tools flying and making him lose his balance and fall.

The madman had leaped from the cart, kicked it to increase its speed and crash it, and began rushing forward on his own legs.

“One shot.”

A speed as if time itself had momentarily been erased.

A fist, flying with movements no one could perceive, made a sound like a hard fruit bursting and blew off the head of the falling agent.

“The enemy is equipped with Speedware! Everyone, accelerate!”

*Clicking* As the Speedware inserted into the agents’ spines activated, they entered an accelerated world and began to perceive his movements, but they still couldn’t catch him.

Despite accelerating with highly advanced military cyberware, they still followed the madman’s movements, which seemed to remain in an accelerated world, not with aimed shots, but with suppressive fire combined with prediction.

A hail of armor-piercing rounds poured down during his aerial maneuver.

As he twisted his waist and rotated, his fluttering robe wrapped around his body, and the embedded armor-piercing rounds bit into the fabric and stopped with his rotation, then bounced off with a reverse spin, aided by the self-repairing properties of the special fibers composing the robe.

Despite this, the Tag Force continued to unleash continuous fire at him as he remained airborne without stopping.

*Whoosh—*

As if this was their chance, from the room filled with thick smoke from grenades and rapid fire, something emerged, piercing through the smoke.

The figure, crouching low to avoid the bullet trajectories, was a battered girl holding a sword.

‘Looks like she took a bomb to the head. Must have had a tough time?’

‘It was quite difficult because you didn’t come sooner.’

Their gazes met in the air, exchanging such inner thoughts, and as if on cue, their respective movements occurred simultaneously.

A silver blade was drawn.

*Slish.* Without any warning, from the abdomen of the Roden Global Enterprise soldier standing at the very front, blood and organs burst out along a red line, splitting him in half.

After that, as John Doe landed while receiving all the projectiles and charged headlong, Seira attached herself to his back, forcing a close-quarters brawl.

Added to the overwhelming physical performance of the monster, which overworks its entire nervous and muscular systems, burning its brain, and the impact force of the Power Charge Gloves, a fist pierced through the back of an agent whose sternum had been punched, *splattering* outward.

In response, a sword attack that drew a semicircle with a slightly slower trajectory, cutting upwards, cleanly severed both arms of the agent who was attempting L-6 CQC, then immediately rectified the sword and brought it down, bisecting the person vertically.

He seized the gun of the agent he had punched through, and holding the corpse as a shield, he pressed the muzzle against the abdomen of the agent behind him and fired in rapid succession, completely piercing the abdomen in just four shots, and the remaining muzzle flash utterly pulped the internal organs.

The utterly dreadful stench of bursting blood and brain matter stained the corridor, and the irregular gunfire sounds, saturated with screams and terror, gradually subsided, and in less than a minute, everything vanished.

Standing atop the terribly dead bodies, as if from a nightmare, were only the two of them.

***

“Huuuh…”

Seira, who moments ago had been slicing through soldiers like tofu, as if they were specters she’d met when hunting Bram Stoker, flicked off the blood from her sword as if exhausted, took out a cloth to wipe the blade, sheathed it, and leaned her back against the wall.

Her body was so mangled that it would be faster to find uninjured spots than injured ones, and she had rampaged after me in such a state, so it was understandable.

I shook off the bubbling joyous emotions in my head, *tap-tap*, tapped my temples with my palms, then released the warm blood flowing from my nose, letting it spill onto the floor.

I needed to ask something more important than that.

“Where are Yuki and Kana? Are they safe?”

“They’re inside. Still breathing. I’m not sure if they’re safe.”

Seira pointed to the completely shattered room she had just emerged from, as if telling me to see for myself.

Feeling uneasy at that extremely ambiguous answer, I urgently pushed through the still-lingering smoke, searching for them.

“Are both of you safe?!”

As I pushed through the acrid metallic smell and entered, familiar faces were huddled there.

“Ah… It’s Jun.”

Blood profusely soaked the floor.

With a dark, dying pallor and profusely sweating cold sweat, Kana looked at me and smiled faintly, as if to reassure me. I hardened my expression, quickly approached, knelt, and examined her wounds.

A deep-looking injury that, by my standards, would require several hours of rest and nutrient replenishment to move smoothly.

Yuki, as if she had also been hit by something, was dripping blood from her nose, *drip-drip*, and while making a tearful face, she was trying to staunch Kana’s bleeding.

“The blood, the blood won’t stop… Wh-what do I do?”

However, it seemed she was in a panic, as her hands trembled like essential tremors, and she didn’t seem to be of much help.

“It seems there was an attack mixed with toxic substances. The bleeding is a problem, but the symptoms of poisoning also look severe.”

“…”

Seira, who seemed to have finally caught her breath, approached, and when she sprinkled powdered hemostatic agent on Kana, the profusely flowing blood stopped instantly, but her pale complexion showed no signs of returning.

A pitiful sight, bleeding from her eyes and nose, gasping for breath.

“Can you tell what kind of medicine it is?”

“…I don’t know.”

‘Based on external symptoms, it is presumed to be X-36 series organ failure hemorrhagic poison. For an accurate diagnosis, blood tests and X-rays must be performed concurrently, but if a lethal dose was used, the golden time is 660 seconds.’

My head throbbed.

How many minutes had passed? Even if I pushed Cerberus to its limits and rushed to the hospital right now, could she be treated immediately?

‘Should I tear them all apart?’

With Kana’s body rapidly growing cold in my arms, I, growing anxious, suddenly became aware of a murderous intent bordering on madness.

Such emotions were of no help at all now. Shaking my head to dispel them, I racked my still-throbbing brain, striving to save Kana.

‘Damn it! What do I do? Should I ask Pointless if they have an antidote? But that place was all destroyed.’

“…Jun.”

Perhaps sensing the expression on my face, Kana, with a rather peaceful expression, gently caressed my cheek.

“I love you. And I’m sorry. I may be a foolish older sister, but… you have to love Yuki until the very end, okay?”

“K-Kana. I don’t like those kinds of jokes…”

Her vacant eyes looked as if she were drunk.

Words that seemed to foretell a farewell, about to be cut short at any moment.

Yuki also, as if she had been poisoned, coughed up a gush of blood and burst into tears, and Seira, who had been watching us with indifferent eyes, soon couldn’t hide her utter despair and gloom.

“Shut up.”

“Huh?”

Supporting Kana with hands stained with the blood of dozens of Roden Global Enterprise, or whatever megacorp, soldiers I had just torn apart, I asked Martina.

‘Martina, the Nanowear in my body is circulating in my bloodstream, right?’

‘…Affirmative.’

‘It begins self-destruction the moment its integrity drops, so it can’t be transferred through blood extraction. What if I transfer the blood without it being exposed externally?’

There was a case where I had succeeded in such an attempt once before.

Of course, it wasn’t intentional, but the important thing was that it had succeeded.

‘That was due to the special characteristics of the organic terminal. Even if successful, the Nanowear will self-destruct and disappear before long.’

‘I don’t care.’

These nanomachines have a mechanism that detects unneeded stimuli within the body and attempts healing through decomposition, reconstruction, and expulsion.

That it can solve not only injuries but also poisoning in the same way is already proven by me, who was perfectly fine after inhaling a large amount of Tony Boni’s toxic smog.

*CRUNCH!* I, without an ounce of hesitation, bit down hard enough to sever my tongue, and my mouth instantly filled with coppery blood.

Then I immediately grabbed Kana’s jaw and pressed my lips against hers.

As soft lips met, my blood flowed into her open mouth, and I continued a kiss full of a coppery taste, indiscernible as to whether it was my blood or Kana’s, intertwining our tongues.

*Slurp-?* *Gulp.*

Kana, seemingly flustered, received the lingering kiss and swallowed the blood, *gulp-gulp*, into her injured insides.

It must have been almost a cup’s worth.

I felt a considerable loss of blood, hunger, and slight dizziness, but my wound was already healing, and I bit off my scabbing tongue once more, then pulled in the perplexed-looking Yuki and poured a kiss onto her.

“Mmmh?! Uhp..!” *Gulp.*

Yuki, whose condition wasn’t good but was clearer-headed than Kana, when the blood suddenly pushed into her mouth and down her throat, stared at me with bewildered eyes and swallowed it, *gulp-gulp*.

A long moment of kissing.

That moment ended after the wound in my mouth had healed.

*Pah!* Instead of the usual long, silvery strands of saliva, a reddish strand connected and then *snap* broke off, and the two who had received my coppery-tasting kiss blinked and stared blankly at me.

“Did you think I’d let my women die? You messed with the wrong person. You’ve literally put your lives on the line for me, haven’t you?”

Hooking a finger into the chokers around the necks of the two, who wore blank expressions, I tugged lightly and smiled with utmost wickedness.

” “Hee hee…♥” ”