Chapter 158: The Weakness of the Ajin
"Transaction?"
Totsaki Yu's brows drew together. His voice turned low and heavy.
"To us, you and Sato are the same. No, your threat level is far higher than his."
"Is that so?" Asagiri's tone stayed calm.
He walked to the Human Asura's side, eyes on the black figure pinned to the floor and still struggling uselessly under its grip.
"No matter what, I'm still human. Even if I wield power beyond human imagination, I'm still human."
His gaze remained steady.
"But Sato is a Ajin. As the head of the Anti-Ajin Special Forces, isn't your top priority dealing with Ajin?"
The words landed cleanly.
Totsaki Yu felt them hit the center of his chest.
His title existed for one reason. Containing Ajin related incidents was his primary task, and in truth, his only task. As for these humans with supernatural powers, that was a matter for the Minister of Defense and the Public Safety Commission. He had already reported the situation upward.
Even if those people escaped, even if they caused trouble afterward, the responsibility could be pushed elsewhere.
But if Sato escaped, the charismatic leader of the Ajin faction, the terrorist who had once broken into a facility and taken an Ajin right out from under them, then Totsaki Yu would bear that failure alone.
Especially if Sato succeeded again and rescued Nagai Kei.
His throat tightened.
"You're right."
After a brief pause, Totsaki Yu made his decision.
"I will ensure your companions can reach the archive room without obstruction and that they won't encounter any enemies on the way. But you must capture Sato."
"You don't need to remind me." Asagiri cut him off flatly. "I won't let my enemy go."
Then he shifted the topic without warning.
"Have your Ajin subordinate talk to me. I have something to ask her."
Totsaki Yu's eyes trembled.
For a split second, sweat gathered in his palms.
He knew?
Shimomura Izumi's true identity was a secret even inside the organization. Aside from Totsaki Yu, only a handful of high ranking officials in the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare knew. There were no written records. Her files had been erased completely, wiped clean by people Totsaki Yu personally arranged.
So how did this masked Player know?
Shock surged, but Totsaki Yu forced it down. He motioned to Shimomura Izumi.
She accepted the headset.
Asagiri did not waste a single word.
"Is there a way to completely kill an Ajin?"
"A way to completely kill an Ajin?" Shimomura Izumi frowned, thinking. Then she shook her head.
"As far as I know, no. Nuclear radiation, corrosive liquids, vacuum sealing, we tried everything modern technology can offer. There are ways to control an Ajin. Keep killing them. Contain them. But there's no way to stop resurrection at the root."
"In other words, there's no physical method." Asagiri's tone remained even.
He was not surprised. He had expected that answer.
In a world with no supernatural powers besides Ajin, they might as well be immortal from a purely physical standpoint. But just because something cannot be done physically did not mean it could never be done.
Ajin could die and resurrect, but they were not eternally unending. Their bodies still aged. They still grew old. They would still die when their lifespan reached its limit.
Most Ajin never even realized what they were until the day they died of old age. Only those who died unexpectedly before their natural end ever discovered the truth.
And there was another possibility.
If the soul, the spirit, the core self was destroyed, then even if the body persisted and continued to resurrect, it would only be an empty shell.
As for how to destroy an Ajin's soul, this world might not have that answer.
Players might.
Asagiri's Persona, Alice, and the Prototype Mita that could strip enemies of San were capable of attacking, even damaging, the soul directly.
From the very beginning, Asagiri had never intended to let Sato go.
Sato was not like Players. He had no human moral framework because he no longer considered himself human. Worse, he was cruel and warlike by nature. Even without profit, even without reason, he would attack Players just to taste the thrill of battle.
A walking time bomb.
It had to be removed.
"Guide me."
"Understood."
Shimomura Izumi glanced at Totsaki Yu. When she saw him nod, she immediately began using the research base's surveillance system to mark Sato's escape route, calling out directions and corridors as she tracked him.
As she guided Asagiri, she also explained what she knew about Ajin.
"IBM is short for Invisible Black Monster. It's like a clone, controlled by the Ajin."
"The exact appearance varies from person to person, but they're all humanoid shapes wrapped in black, like cloth or shadow."
"Ordinary people usually can't observe IBMs. But if their emotions fluctuate intensely, they might be able to observe them."
She continued, steady and precise.
"IBMs aren't subjective powers like yours. They're made from the black particles that appear when an Ajin resurrects. Even if ordinary people can't see them, they are physical entities. They can speak, and they act according to the Ajin's commands."
"The particles forming an IBM are very strong. Even bullets have difficulty affecting them. But they're unstable. In general, after five to ten minutes, the IBM begins to disintegrate and dissipate."
"The Ajin communicates with the IBM through special electromagnetic waves. What you could call telepathic communication."
After she finished, Shimomura Izumi hesitated, then handed the headset back to Totsaki Yu.
"There's one more thing." Totsaki Yu's voice turned grave. "When we captured an Ajin in the past, whether by coincidence or for some reason, they summoned a large number of IBMs upon death. It caused a phenomenon we call the Black Flood."
His jaw tightened.
"So when you encounter Sato later, try not to kill him."
"Black Flood…" Asagiri repeated, quietly.
He had already tested Sato's IBM with the Human Asura.
If the Human Asura's overall power was a ten, then Sato's IBM was at most a three. In raw strength, the gap was obvious.
But in terms of durability against physical attacks like bullets, it was different. Against that kind of damage, the IBM could reach seven or eight, while the Human Asura stood at ten.
One IBM could not beat the Human Asura, yet it would take time to destroy it completely. If Sato triggered a Black Flood and produced many IBMs at once, the situation could turn unpredictable fast.
Asagiri recalled an old incident.
An Ajin named Nakamura Shinya was once captured by the Anti-Ajin Special Forces. They showed him the head he had left behind after one of his deaths. Only then did he realize something horrifying. His head had been severed. He had died. And yet his head grew back, while he himself remembered none of it.
Later, when his friend died in front of him, taking a bullet meant for him, Nakamura Shinya finally broke.
And when Nakamura Shinya died, the Black Flood occurred, wiping out the agents at the scene before he vanished.
Asagiri ran that sequence through his mind, searching for what mattered.
Death itself did not appear to be the trigger.
After all, Sato had just blown himself up in front of Asagiri and no Black Flood happened. And considering Sato's choice to flee, either he did not know the Black Flood existed, or he could not invoke it at will.
So the condition was likely something else.
Spirit collapse. A mind pushed past the edge.
In extreme danger, a human heart rate spikes, adrenaline surges, and the body can erupt with shocking strength or speed. The Black Flood felt similar.
Which meant…
The Black Flood was an unconscious defensive measure, something Ajin erupted with when pushed into an extreme state.
Asagiri pieced it together.
If the spirit collapses, it signals an end. A final boundary. So the Black Flood appears as a survival instinct, a violent safeguard meant to prevent the Ajin's mind from losing control entirely.
Whether that theory was correct did not matter as much as the conclusion it led to.
Trying to make an Ajin's spirit collapse, especially Sato's, would be absurdly difficult.
Sato's personality was cruel and violent by default. He had no family, no lover, no friends. Nothing to threaten, nothing to leverage.
And after years of being captured and experimented on, physical torture meant nothing to him. His pain tolerance was no longer a weakness, it was a background detail.
Even the system's special hints to Kato Megumi and Iwanaga Kotoko proved it. Sato's spiritual strength far exceeded ordinary humans, and it was likely far beyond even Kotoko, a Warlock.
How do you break someone like that?
Asagiri's lips curved.
"But precisely because it's hard…"
He murmured, almost amused.
"That's what makes it interesting."
…
On the other side, after Shimomura Izumi finished guiding Sato's location, Totsaki Yu gestured for the technician to mute their microphone. Then he turned to Shimomura Izumi.
"You will go to the research base. Now."
Shimomura Izumi nodded without hesitation.
"Understood. What is my mission?"
Totsaki Yu leaned close to her ear and spoke slowly, each word deliberate.
"Primary mission: capture Sato."
His eyes sharpened.
"If the one wearing the dark gray mask exhausts himself fighting Sato, loses his combat ability, or is completely worn down…"
"Kill him too."
.....
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