16 / 03 / 2019 - Daito, Prefecture Osaka, Japan.
'This is clearly my signal to leave.'
Pulling back his head a bit, he fully leans his back against the trunk of the tree, while the corner of his eyes is enough to fully see the entire battle while being concealed.
His face is now expressionless, devoid of mischief or time to joke; the bloody-ashen color is gleaming and flowing like water.
'Since everything of his assumption is based on the ordinary, with the introduction of a huge variable of extraordinary, things will get out of control sooner or later.'
That's his interference, as to why he needs to leave this place as soon as possible. The longer he stays here, the greater the risk of exposure to unknown variables.
'Or maybe they had noticed me and just fully focused on the battle in front of them.' Hands hanging limply at the side, fully grasping the back of the tree, this is the worst scenario for him.
He is not prepared for all of these revelations; the extraordinary is his biggest finding of the present. 'The course of things, my plan, my arrangement will change.'
And he doesn't know whether it is for the better or the worse, but anyway, he can process everything later. The most important thing is—
His body is frozen stiff, doesn't move even an inch.
"Still reluctant to leave, huh?" Who is he trying to fool? Running away is obviously the most logical and rational choice after all, but then again…
As he is thinking absentmindedly, he hastily pulls back his head as a loud crash and pure pressure hit the trees all around him, debris of wood and dirt flying through, passing his hiding place.
Leaning on the back tightly, sweat has unconsciously accumulated on his face, trickling down from his temple to his cheek, but still, it can't shake the calmness inside.
'Heh, this feeling… this moment… will you really give up on this chance?' A small thought passed in his mind, small and worthless, but it instantly occupied his brain like a wildfire.
Bloody-red seeping in through his vision, bleeding, overshadowing the ashes.
'The opportunity is in front of me, waving wildly, the chance of contact, to understand even just a tiny bit of it is a huge advantage for one to come…' A smile slowly carved on his face, upturned.
Yeah, the decision was made a long time ago, so—
"Seven minutes, no more, no less, if I can't understand even a bit of a thing, then I am utterly stupid." As he mutters amidst the clashing background, he instantly gets his mind to work.
'Map the escape route, avoidance of detection, total cleaning of traces, and if there is any bit of intention that they will go in this direction… leave, no need to hesitate.'
Thus, the task is created, and he just needs to follow along the inertia here.
Closing his eyes, he regulates his breathing and relaxes his body, letting out a breath, 'The first thing is to map the route, it is easy.' As he thought about it, he drew a pattern in his mind.
In the past few days, one thing he has done is learn about the correlation between various places in and out. By doing this, he memorizes the surroundings of these five places into his mind.
Well, just in case something happens, but he didn't know it could be used this soon; life is strange.
Thus, opening his eyes, just a minute had passed, leaving him six minutes of observation and avoiding detection.
'Observation's formal limit is one person, pushing beyond this isn't optimal for this moment, as I need to rely on this to escape later and to perceive the surroundings.'
This is the most he can do now, but he can be flexible at any time. Observation and Analysis are used to map and draw detection, while also being open to analyzing the three.
Turning his head for a bit, as he is ready, he relies on his peripheral vision to view the entire scene, and apparently, the situation is not so optimistic, it seems.
'This battle is no joke.' He thought while locking his gaze on the crocodile, as even a few passing minutes or seconds in battle are very crucial; he had learned this lesson.
Now…
The black shiny scales are bleeding from various scars that manage to etch themselves into its body, and the rough surface of the skin is now also bearing a hole, probably from the gun in the opponent's hand.
'Then again, this crocodile is very tough.' His eyes roam around the reptile's body, forming some initial conclusion and assessing the physical capabilities of this monster.
'Is it obviously different or not?' He is not well-versed in biology; his eyes flicked to the cracked ground that is sustaining the weight of the crocodile, and as it moves, so does his body.
In his enhanced perception, the crocodile is moving, dropping its two hands to the ground and beginning to crawl, fast, very fast, leaving cracked earth and displacing the air, so that Akane widens his eyes slightly.
'Too fast… unbelievable, how can that lump of mass gain this speed with that body?' As he is engrossed, he shifts his attention to the man who is the target of the crocodile's attack to see his reaction.
And not to disappoint him, the man is more varied; though the shirt is now dusted with blood, the man is still calm enough, concentrating the wind on his feet to move swiftly, creative, if he could say.
Avoiding the incoming claw that crashed, he lashed out his wind-coated knife to the side of the crocodile's stomach, which brought along a huge gash and a dash to the back for him.
Shifting his attention once again, his focus finds its way back to the crocodile. He wants to know if there is anything else he could discern aside from the physical advantage of this reptile.
Well, true to his thought, the reptile rolled over to the far away in place, immobile for a few seconds, while a bullet gleaming in dark and purplish color, caught briefly by his bluish-silver eyes, hit the reptile with a loud boom.
'So noisy…' He complained for a bit while waiting for the dust that rises to the sky to settle, and glanced for a moment at the woman who was running, then settled back behind the man.
While the dust was still over the sky, the woman did not wait, chanting something unknown that he couldn't hear due to the distance and the combat noise in the background.
His gaze is fast enough, shifting to the empty place of the reptile, yes, empty.
But then, there is a chain or thread made of dark and purplish colors in the place where the reptile had stood, attached to the ground.
Akane's heart starts to beat fast. He flicks his eyes, trying to find the missing reptile, 'Using the dust and the loudness to mask your step?' Quite clever, after all, it is a transformed human.
Then he decided to focus his gaze on the two instead, waiting for their reaction to this rather than finding it needlessly. 'That man is obviously a close-combat fighter, while the woman provides support for him.'
It is quite a solid lineup, and as they communicate non-verbally or by other means unknown, maybe? It could be assumed that they are long-term partners who understand each other.
He watches as the man is backing away, stepping in front of the woman, closing the distance to her, and keeping guard on her. That is when a loud boom resounds once again.
With the man as an anchor of view, the man suddenly snaps, grabbing the woman behind him and throwing her to his back, spinning his upper body and slashing his knife in rotation.
The fire area-of-effect is being cut down like a vertical curtain, but the threat is more than that, and as the fire is cut, the crocodile jumps from the fire, its eyes red in madness, its jaw open.
Fire accumulated like the core of a furnace, a ball of fire deep inside its mouth.
"Got you!" as he watched it, Akane seemed to be feeling a phantom heat that hit his face, even at this distance, the high temperature distorting the space around them in haziness.
His gaze somber, the Analysis is computing faster and faster; high processing power seems to slow down his perception of time at this moment.
Changing the anchor to the man once again, instead of horror, there is calmness, but also a maddening smile that is slowly upturned, "Got you too." As there is one forgotten person.
"
All of this in a second: the man pulls the woman, the attention shifts, the reptile appears, and the trap is laid. 'Brilliant.' Akane commented while he watched as the points of light began to distort space and rotate with the jaw as a center.
As if it cannot sustain the stars, and in resistance, the reptile tried to fight the force itself, but it was futile after all. Unmoved, the effect is that it goes and horror is plastered on those yellow-red eyes.
"Goodbye." With the last spurt of the man, the jaw fully closed, and you can imagine what happens next, as the energy of the fireball is released inside that jaw.
Deafening sound, Akane narrowed his eyes as a bright orange-white light spread over the center and pulled back his head.
Leaning over the trunk of the tree, the decision has been made.
"Time to leave." He did not expect them to finish it so soon, and he doesn't even realize how much time he spent after engaging with Analysis; the battle itself fully consumed his attention.
Staying over after this is risky. Crouching over and rubbing the ground where he stood, erasing the traces, while also walking quietly, using the cover noise.
Counting to five hundred as he arrives at the foot of the mountain after a while, he then runs without looking back.
———
10 AM, Saturday. One hour later.
"Haaahhhh… nothing is sweeter than home after all." He breathed a sigh of relief; one cannot imagine the mental tension and physical exhaustion that he felt after the earlier event that had subverted his mind.
Placing his shoes on the rack, he then made his way to the living room out of the corridor, and the bright light of the sun fell into the wide space, along with the noise of the television that drifted to his ears.
This is home, his safe place.
After a while of feeling the warmth absentmindedly, "Akane, how is it going?" a voice called out and fully snapped him awake from his reverie, flicking his bloody-ashen gaze to the sofa.
His aunt is looking at him with her smile and a bit of worry in her eyes, the white-silver hair falling softly draped above her shoulders. She is wearing a casual, oversized, white shirt along with a simple black skirt.
"It's okay—" as he talks to her, his weary eyes then flashed, reminded of something, raising his hands to his chin, "—by the way, where is Irina?" asking casually.
'I'll teach that brat a lesson.' He won't forget what she dragged him into; this time, she won't be able to escape. A malicious thought fermented, as a smile formed on his face, of one hundred ways to discipline (torture) the notorious devil.
Sensing something off from that smile, Riscia is perplexed for a moment, unsure of whether to answer or not, 'Just what the hell did little Irina do this time?' knowing that it is probably harmless.
She rolled her eyes and then hesitantly told him, "She is in her room. Even then, what do you want to do, Akane? Make sure you don't go overboard, okay?" Clasping her hands and winking at him to ease the raging demon in front of her.
But it only met with a sheepish smile, with closed eyes, "I won't do anything, nee-chan, I'll just teach her how to respect her elders and her manners as a girl!" Akane proudly puffed his chest.
After getting the answer, he then said, "Well, I'm a bit tired, nee-chan. I'll see you later." As he excused himself quickly and ran upstairs, entering his room.
But before this, he made sure to knock on the door opposite his room and whisper. He adjusted his voice for a moment and then, after he was sure it was okay, said, "Irina, come to my room later, there's something I want to talk about regarding your information."
Waiting there patiently for the response, Akane's eyes are frosty as he gazes at the door with bloodshot and tired eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, later." As she answered softly, probably busy with something, as there is no more sound after this, but Akane is satisfied with this, smiling lightly and snickering. He turns his body and enters his room.
All of this is heard by Riscia down below, which makes her even more confused, "I hope those children won't do something stupid." Knowing this has just made her more anxious than she already is.
Then, as she turns her upper body back and watches the television, her gaze widens slightly as she realizes something, "That brat didn't really answer my questions, didn't he?" Being sure about it, she gritted her teeth.
'Sister, how is it possible that your children are as problematic as you are?' Though she is truly worried about him as he is recovering very fast, she hasn't told the doctor anything yet.
"Teaching to respect elders, heh? How about you respect me first, later!" whispering, a smile carved to her face, though her eyes are frosty and cold as she is.
It seems tonight, only Akane is being the victim of his own rage and carelessness.
…..
"What do you want to talk about, nii-chan?" Sitting on the edge of the bed, Akane crossed his hands above his chest. His gaze was on his little sister, who was sitting above his desk chair.
Examining her, she has a round and soft face, her large eyes quiet and innocent, hard to see through. Very long and straight silver-white hair, soft and fluffy, with slightly messy bangs above her forehead.
Her face is gentle with a hint of puzzlement, slightly pursed thin lips; her sky-blue eyes are looking at him in silence after questioning him, hands clenched above her lap, she seems nervous about something.
'Look at that innocent face, does she truly know nothing about this?' Looking at that face, he is now a bit unsure whether she is to blame for this; his plain expression falters slightly.
But, after mulling over his decision for a moment, he asked her helplessly, "Tell me, where? No— how were you able to find all of these places?" After this, he looked intently at her.
Silently activating Observation, his bloody-ashen eyes transformed as light came from the depth of his soul, radiant bluish-silver.
'From now on, nothing will escape my gaze.' Everything is beyond his control, but he doesn't care too much about it since his last trial, silently assessing the situation, his eyes gleaming further.
What he wants is insurance or assurance of his loved ones' safety; aside from this, as a baseline, everything is disposable. With this in mind, a hint of red resurfaced from the depths, a bit late.
Just a second has passed.
"Isn't it as I said, I find it by finding the off-tune in some area?" She rolled her eyes, as she seemed to have overestimated the situation and got nervous about it, but now her body has relaxed unconsciously, dropping her shoulders and leaning on the backrest.
That's what he interpreted.
"Well, I know that. What I want to ask is, how the hell do you diverge so much from your home route anyway? Then again, I never have understood your ability, have I?" Letting out a sigh, he seems to have found an initial conclusion.
She seems to truly know nothing about it, but... his gaze hardened, 'The danger of this world has expanded exponentially, and he must tell her exactly what he found earlier.'
And after saying what he had to say, Irina also fell into confusion with her hands to her chin, her face thoughtful and slowly turning bright as if she had a good idea in mind, "If I tell you, then will you be able to guess what it really is?"
Her face is sparkling, finding this godsend opportunity for her, though for him, his mouth twitched as if from those strange words of hers, he got another gist of something.
'Does it mean that this brat never really understood her own ability?' The urge to cover his face and complain is as strong as ever: "What a pain." He mutters absentmindedly with a blank gaze.