Chapter 6: Barely
"Shit."
Before the Nurse Mask could even step off the bridge, the officer moved.
Fast.
Far faster than I expected from someone who looked like he was one strong breeze away from collapsing.
The metal bat whistled through the air.
A heavy horizontal swing aimed straight at her ribs.
Smart.
Even I knew aiming for the head against something that fast was probably optimistic.
The timing was perfect.
But the moment her foot touched solid ground, the Nurse Mask moved.
She didn't retreat.
Didn't block.
Instead, she lightly stepped onto the bridge railing and jumped.
The officer's bat passed harmlessly beneath her.
Then she flipped over him.
Graceful.
Elegant.
Completely unnatural.
While upside down, she swung.
The katana flashed.
CLANG!
Sparks exploded.
The officer had somehow already raised his bat behind him, blocking the strike aimed at the back of his neck.
Without even looking.
Seriously.
That was straight out of a movie.
The impact still forced him down to one knee.
But he held.
The Nurse landed.
The officer immediately retreated three steps, creating distance.
Good.
Very smart.
The Nurse rushed him.
The officer responded by reaching into his breast pocket.
Three metallic flashes shot through the air.
Throwing knives.
One.
Two.
Three.
The first knife was deflected.
The second was dodged.
The third wasn't aimed at her.
It buried itself directly in front of her foot.
The Nurse's movement faltered for the briefest moment.
The officer didn't waste it.
He lunged.
The bat came crashing down.
BOOM!
Concrete shattered.
The Nurse narrowly avoided the strike.
"What in the..."
Okay.
Maybe the officer wasn't just some random policeman.
Beside me, Yuri looked equally stunned.
The fight continued.
Bat against sword.
Strength against speed.
Human against monster.
And somehow...
The officer was keeping up.
Barely.
The Nurse was faster.
Much faster.
But the officer clearly had experience.
Every time she attacked, he somehow seemed to know where the strike was going.
He blocked.
Countered.
Retreated.
Forced distance.
Used the rooftop itself.
At one point, he deliberately stepped near an air-conditioning unit.
The Nurse followed.
The officer immediately kicked it.
The heavy machine toppled over.
The Nurse gracefully leapt over it.
The officer was already waiting.
The bat slammed into her side.
For the first time—
The Nurse stumbled.
Not far.
Only a few steps.
But she stumbled.
"...He hit her."
I wasn't sure whether I was impressed or terrified.
Probably both.
Unfortunately, reality remained cruel.
The officer was tired.
Very tired.
I had noticed it earlier.
The cuts.
The blood.
The ragged breathing.
He was running on fumes.
The Nurse, on the other hand...
Well, it wasn't obvious beneath all the blood covering her uniform, but now that I was seeing her up close, I realized something.
She was injured too.
Badly.
The kind of injuries that would've left me lying on the ground, reconsidering every life decision that had led me there.
But none of them seemed to matter.
Despite those injuries, her movements remained completely unaffected.
Apparently, injuries and pain were merely suggestions to these people.
The difference between the two combatants slowly became apparent.
The officer blocked a slash.
Then another.
Then a third.
The fourth opened a cut across his shoulder.
The fifth sliced across his thigh.
The sixth—
The officer reacted too slowly.
The Nurse's kick slammed into his stomach.
The officer flew backward.
His body skidded several meters across the rooftop.
The metal bat slipped from his hand.
Not far.
But far enough.
The Nurse didn't give him time to recover.
She immediately closed the distance, katana raised.
"Run!"
The officer shouted.
"Just run! Get out of here! I can't hold her much longer!"
Yuri immediately grabbed my sleeve.
"Hiro! We have to go!"
Honestly?
She wasn't wrong.
We turned.
And ran.
Straight toward the stairwell.
Because when a tired veteran tells you to run from the murder woman with a katana—
Regardless of how hot her character design was...
You run.
The stairwell door slammed shut behind us.
We made it a few steps down before I stopped.
Yuri stopped with me.
She looked at me with a confused expression, but I just stood there.
Listening.
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
The sounds of battle continued outside.
"..."
"..."
I looked toward the stairs.
Then toward the door.
Then back toward the stairs.
"...Shit."
Yuri looked at me.
"What?"
I pointed downward.
"Even if we go down, where exactly are we going?"
She froze.
"..."
Exactly.
If the officer died, the Nurse would eventually find us.
And unlike the officer, we weren't capable of fighting that thing.
Not even remotely.
And somewhere below us, the Sledgehammer Mask was still roaming around.
"Dammit."
Another loud crash echoed from outside.
Followed by a grunt.
The officer.
"...Stay here."
"What?"
"Just for a second."
Before Yuri could stop me, I carefully approached the door and peeked through the narrow gap.
The timing couldn't have been worse.
The officer had lost.
Not completely.
But enough.
The Nurse had grabbed him by the arm and violently slammed him against the rooftop.
BOOM!
"AGHK!"
Hard.
The officer hit the ground.
Then the Nurse raised her katana, intending to finish the fight.
There was no way the officer could dodge the next strike from that position.
"It's now or never."
That was when I made my decision.
I swung the door open and stepped out, my hand immediately diving into my pocket.
A throwing knife.
The same one the officer had thrown earlier.
One of them had been deflected by the Nurse Mask and somehow landed only a few inches from me.
Obviously, I took it.
Now, first of all, I wasn't good at throwing knives.
At all.
But—
I used to play baseball.
I wasn't good at that either.
But I knew how to throw things.
Close enough.
Probably.
I took a deep breath.
Then threw.
The knife spun through the air horribly.
Completely wrong.
No professional knife thrower would ever approve.
Fortunately, it still qualified as a sharp object moving at high speed.
The Nurse noticed.
Instinctively, she abandoned the finishing strike and knocked the knife aside.
A tiny opening.
And the officer—the absolute chad that he was—didn't miss it.
Ignoring the pain tearing through him, his hand shot upward and grabbed the wrist holding the katana.
He twisted.
Hard.
The Nurse lost her balance.
The officer pulled her forward, then drove his foot into her stomach.
The kick lacked power.
The angle was awkward.
But it was enough.
The Nurse staggered backward.
One step.
Two.
Three.
The officer was already moving.
He snatched up his fallen bat and raised it high, aiming for her head.
The Nurse, obviously, reacted even with her footing compromised.
She leaned backward to dodge.
But the officer wasn't a pushover either.
Mid-swing, he forcefully changed the trajectory.
SLAM!
The bat that had originally been aimed at her head smashed directly into the Nurse's sword arm.
A sickening crack echoed across the rooftop.
The katana flew from her hand.
It spun wildly through the air before landing and sliding across the concrete.
Straight toward the edge of the building.
"...Shit."
Seeing the katana about to fall into the abyss, I didn't even think.
I just ran.
Fast.
Very fast.
Because, as it turns out, life-or-death situations are excellent cardio.
The katana kept sliding.
Closer.
Closer.
Then—
At the very last moment, I dived.
"YES!"
And caught it.
Barely.
My body almost followed it over the edge.
Honestly.
That would've been a really stupid way to die.
Unfortunately, life didn't give me enough time to appreciate my continued existence.
Because behind me—
The fight wasn't over.
Not even close.
The Nurse had already regained her footing.
However, the officer moved first.
Probably burning whatever little energy he still had left.
His foot slammed into her stomach, forcing her backward several steps.
Then, without giving her time to recover—
"RUN!"
He shouted at us and bolted toward the bridge.
The Nurse Mask herself was a walking weapon.
With or without the sword, she was still deadly.
No one on this rooftop would've thought otherwise.
This was probably the only opening we were going to get.
We took it without hesitation.
The three of us immediately sprinted across the rope bridge, trying to reach the neighboring rooftop as quickly as possible.
Behind us, the Nurse was already standing again.
Of course she was.
Broken bones.
The newest addition to their ever-growing list of suggestions.
Now we ran.
Fast.
Very fast.
Well, we were running on a rope bridge, so it probably wasn't actually that fast.
But it was definitely faster than we usually crossed these things.
I risked a glance backward.
The Nurse was gaining.
Way too quickly.
Without slowing down, I twisted my body, raised my empty pistol, and pointed it directly at her.
The effect was immediate.
The Nurse stopped.
Not for long.
Three seconds.
Maybe four.
But she stopped.
Apparently, even psychotic murderers respected firearms.
Especially in a space this narrow.
Unfortunately, the hesitation didn't last.
The Nurse resumed running.
Even faster than before.
She had figured out the bluff.
Honestly, fair.
Still.
Those few seconds were enough.
We reached the neighboring rooftop first.
The moment my feet touched solid ground, I shoved the katana toward the officer.
He caught it in his free hand and understood immediately.
One slash.
Then another.
The katana flashed repeatedly.
The ropes supporting the bridge snapped one after another.
A second later, the entire structure began to collapse.
But the Nurse, still standing on the collapsing bridge, did not simply accept her impending death.
Oh, if life could've been that simple.
Instead, she crouched.
Before the bridge could lose its tension completely, she gathered herself.
Then jumped.
Far.
Way too far.
For one horrifying moment, I genuinely thought she was going to make it.
The officer apparently thought so too.
Because he moved.
He didn't risk the chance.
Without hesitation, he threw the metal bat with everything he had left.
The bat spun through the air.
Mid-jump, the Nurse had nowhere to go.
She raised her arms.
The impact wasn't enough to injure her.
But it ruined her momentum.
Just enough.
The Nurse reached.
Outstretched fingers grasping for the ledge.
But she missed.
And fell.
Down.
Down.
And down.
Until the endless city swallowed her.
Silence.
Nobody spoke.
"...Is she dead?" Yuri finally asked.
The officer stared into the abyss for several seconds.
"...I hope so."
He didn't sound convinced.
Neither was I.
She was probably dead.
But after everything we'd seen so far, I was still skeptical.
Regardless, we left immediately.
Because if this place had taught me anything, it was that standing around was usually a terrible idea.
Two buildings later, the officer suddenly stopped.
At first, I thought he had spotted another Mask.
Then I saw what he was looking at.
Bodies.
Two of them.
Both wore the same police uniforms.
Or what remained of them.
One was slumped against a wall.
The other lay sprawled across broken furniture several meters away.
Neither moved.
Blood covered the floor.
The officer quietly walked over.
Stopped.
Then crouched.
He closed the eyes of the nearest body and murmured something too soft for either Yuri or me to hear.
A name.
Maybe a farewell.
Then he stood.
"...We're moving."
That was all he said.
Neither Yuri nor I argued.
What exactly were we supposed to say?
So we moved.
Leaving the dead behind.
Just like everyone else in this place probably had.
End of Chapter 6