Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"What's up? You okay?" The blond boy stepped forward to steady the staggering girl as blood dripped from her eyes.

"I'm okay now," Kirisame said, wiping her face haphazardly before grabbing his wrist and pulling him away from the stairwell railing near the center. "Won't be in a minute though."

Facing their questioning gazes, the girl cracked a forced smile. "After all, this is the Blood Clan!!"

The word awakened memories buried deep in the Pro Hero's mind for years. All the fragments connected, forming a complete picture.

This was seriously bad, Nighteye thought.

"You—" she paused, then corrected with a sigh, "No, we are just too unlucky..."

Dragging the two toward where she entered, the girl looked like she was about to cry.

"This is way out of normal range. I may not be an official Fang Hunter, but I've trained as a 'Blood Clan counter-specialist,' and my instincts are usually sharp in this regard, so you might wanna trust me on this."

The link to Libra cut out again. Kirisame looked at Nighteye, she looked dead serious.

Nighteye nodded for her to continue.

"When I got the job, the intel was about an object embedded with a spatial spell, so I naturally didn't think in this direction. It is something similar, but there are signs of modification on the barrier—someone must have built on it to trap a high-ranking Blood Clan member." She paused. "The barrier was originally very tight, but from what I see now, I've got a bad feeling—"

"It's just about to let 'him' out," Nighteye finished her sentence.

Different spots in this barrier lead out to different places. Kirisame estimated their location as she walked, organizing her words.

"The way it got past security, the red light I saw when entering—stuck in here so long it's lost its marbles, yet it still managed to erode the barrier this far by instinct," the girl sighed. "It could be a crazy strong Blood Clan member."

"Then why hasn't it attacked us yet?" Mirio Togata, who had been silently listening to Kirisame and Nighteye's conversation, finally spoke.

"I think the barrier's defensive design is 'entry only, no exit,' and that remains even after erosion. The whole defense is running on autopilot now," Kirisame explained. "But to get out, we've gotta tear the barrier open, which will very likely wake 'him' up. Then who knows what'll happen."

They were there. The young Fang Hunter stopped and grinned at the heroes slyly.

"So, heroes, what are you going to do?"

Nighteye thought for a moment and asked, "What if we just don't wake 'im and wait for backup?"

Like it was answering him, a cluster of tendrils resembling blood vessels coiled up along the railing and suddenly straightened and hardened near him.

Nighteye jumped out of the way. They missed, gave up, and wobbled back.

"..."

"Even if we could last in here, 'he' looks like he could break out any second," Kirisame crept up, flicked a tendril, and yanked back, gauging its reaction speed. "I don't mind much—either way, we'll have to fight. Can you handle it? No cell service in here, right?"

"Calling for backup from HL is a no-go. The one-way security from Eternal Void to another world is insane. Sorcerer teleports are always top-secret, entry and exit records are heavily monitored, and setting up the spell takes at least a week. Unless someone has a rare innate spatial ability, we'll be dead way before they show up."

Nighteye went quiet. They had no way to contact the outside world now. If they couldn't handle 'him' here and couldn't get a message out, then—

The small cluster of tendrils from before had already grown into a dense patch, crawling up from the ground, enough to make your skin crawl.

—Time was running out.

Kirisame sighed.

"I'll get you out. Your abilities won't do much against Blood Clan. Go find backup—maybe someone's got a power that can counter him."

She felt the wall, found the spot.

"The exit opens where I came in," Kirisame showed Nighteye the address. "Better hurry. Getting out might not be easy."

Nighteye looked at Kirisame. It was painfully obvious what staying meant, yet even after making such a decision, her bright gold eyes stayed eerily calm, no fear, no tension at all.

This wasn't cool under pressure. It was a natural indifference to life—her own and everyone else's—that came out at times like this.

Unlike her guardian figure, even though she stood on the side of justice doing "saving" work, there wasn't a hint of any "desire to help" in her.

This trait wasn't unique to HL. Having met the boss, Nighteye was certain.

—There was something wrong with this child.

"Not to win—do you even have a shot at surviving?"

"How could I?" Kirisame turned to Nighteye in surprise. "Even Mr. Klaus wouldn't be that confident, y'know?"

"...So staying and leaving are the same? Let's go out together. Maybe we can help."

"Eh—" The girl blinked. "You really think so? There's no way to contact outside now, right? If I stay, even if I'm completely outmatched, I can buy a few minutes. That's a huge difference compared to suddenly letting a crazed Blood Clan charge into defenseless civilians, isn't it?"

Kirisame smiled at Nighteye, her light tone like coaxing a child into eating disliked celery.

"Besides, this barrier's exits are scattered throughout the city. If no one stays to hold 'him' back, it'll be a real mess later."

"You know what to choose, right?"

Even Mirio, who was still out of the loop, sensed the tension. The trainee hero, completely unfamiliar with Blood Clan or barriers, couldn't join the conversation. He just held the girl's hand tightly, waiting for Nighteye's final decision.

The office-worker-looking hero's face was etched with struggle. Even though the choice was obvious, setting aside her identity as a Fang Hunter, leaving a teenage child alone to bear life-threatening pressure was unacceptable to the values he had upheld as a hero.

"I said... don't make such a tragic face yet," Kirisame sighed, dodging another blood thorn. "If I can't win, the pressure will all be on you. Maybe worry about yourselves a bit?"

Time ticked by. The Blood Clan's tendrils had covered half the staircase. Afraid to attack and wake "him," they were cornered in a small area, hopping and dodging. The situation had worsened, and she still hadn't earned the hero's trust, but Kirisame showed no sign of urgency, still slowly persuading him.

"When we go out, we'll inevitably wake 'him.' Once 'he' wakes up, it depends on how much control 'he' has over this prison. If we can, we'll all go out together. If not, you two leave first. How's that?"

"It's untimely, but..." Even though he already had a guess, Nighteye wanted to confirm. "Why do this?"

"Are you one of the few with spatial abilities? If you can find a door back to HL..."

He didn't finish, but Kirisame understood.

"What, you're worrying about that?" Kirisame laughed. "Fang Hunters are literally for moments like this."

The girl narrowed her eyes. "Don't screw with me. I'm a pro."

Nighteye made his decision.

The tall hero bent down to Kirisame's height. His face, usually cold and proud, softened. He patted her head and said, real serious, "Night patrol heroes are out there. Reinforcements will come quickly. If it's too tough, don't force it. Find a way out first."

Kirisame blinked, unsure what to say. She pulled her wrist free from Mirio's grip. "Make sure you call for backup with quirks. If it's just brawlers and they can't beat the boss, don't bother."

"Oh, and since I might only have ten minutes to live, please be polite and don't laugh no matter what I say next."

She took a moment for mental preparation, then took a deep breath.

Then the girl leaped high. In the blink of an eye, flames blazed into beautiful black butterflies, as if they were about to fly out from the depths of her eyes.

The boss's biggest reason for thinking she was the right person—

The katana Sōza Samonji, held horizontally across its owner's chest.

A low, muffled voice came out from the girl.

—"O caged birds imprisoned in the abyss that cannot be seen, known, or thought of——"

Black flames shot up from the hilt to the tip of the blade.

Burn-like markings densely emerged from the hilt, spreading across the entire blade.

—"Higher——"

—"Farther——"

A cold, bright pink light flowed along the grooves of the markings from front to back, filling the entire sword.

The girl suddenly looked up, grasped that light, raised her hand and swung it down hard—

—"Fly————!!!!"

Carrying someone's hysterical pain and exhilaration, the radiant "Blade that Seizes the World" was held by its owner and slashed straight down against the inner wall of this cramped space. The barrier that even Mirio Togata, with his Permeation Quirk, could not penetrate, suddenly cracked open, and a sliver of daylight leaked in through the gap.

As previously suspected, this action thoroughly enraged that "prisoner." The tentacles covering the ground stiffened abruptly, and the entire space warped for an instant, as if a giant had grabbed a towel and twisted it violently. The spiral they stood on twisted entirely, the ground beneath their feet cracked under the strain, and crimson spikes swarmed densely from the dark center of the cylinder. Kirisame grabbed the two people and pushed them forward.

The rift covered in blood-red and pitch-black closed layer by layer like flower petals. Nighteye’s Quirk cooldown finally ended. As he emerged from the wall, he strained to see Kirisame through the ferocious red that had just engulfed her, wanting to see a future where she escaped safely and the crisis was resolved.

—In the blur, he saw that child pinned in midair by multiple blood spikes, her black hair tangled with half-dried blood into an even deeper black, covering his entire vision.

Inside the barrier, Kirisame, who had long been mentally prepared for this situation, grabbed the railing and jumped up a level. The sword engravings of Kashū Kiyomitsu and Yamatonokami Yasusada, which had been burning intermittently all night, guttered unsteadily under her brilliant golden eyes.

"Boss, I feel like this is bad. I might really be done for."

"Although this is just my own bad luck and I can't take it out on others," Even now, amid the spinning and shaking world, with stones falling like rain around them, the girl's grinding teeth could still be clearly heard.

"But if I really die today, please make sure to send that bastard Zapp down to keep me company!!!"

Hellsalem's Lot.

In the Libra activity room, the thin light screen suddenly went dark.