Chapter 182: Downhill (2)
—
Kimi managed to "explain" the situation to Neji and Momo's parents.
"All-for-One, eh. The boogeyman of Japan. We knew about him honestly, being so high in the society ought you to know things that even most heroes don't know." Aiko, Neji's dad, spoke as the other three nodded.
They were sitting at a round table, the four adults, while Kimi and the other girls were standing around them.
"Well, guess Japan is at an edge now," Touma, Momo's father, said next. "Unless the foreign heroes manage to do the impossible, we are done." Then he chuckled for a second. "It's fine as long as we manage to escape to another country, though. Our companies are international, we won't go bankrupt just because of this."
"Not like it matters even if we go bankrupt." Aiko chimed in. "We can just rise again, at most it will take 6 months."
The two men laughed at each other, quite ambitiously while the two women beside them looked more worried than that.
"Tsk, men…" Gara grumbled and shook her head. "I am more worried about Neji, though. My baby boy… Where is he now? A night's passed since we woke up, but he's still outside."
Miku, Momo's mother, was instead more interested in Momo's hair. For some reason, she didn't want to believe Momo just dyed her hair, and it was understandable why. Why would someone dye their hair in this situation? Kimi found Momo's excuse too rash for the situation.
But either way, it wouldn't matter after Neji returned and "explained" his own story.
'Sigh… all this villain bullshit is ruining my peacetime with the young master.'
Kimi wasn't in favour of all this at all. But it seemed Neji didn't mind for some reason, he even seemed happy these days. Kimi guessed it was because of his very fast growth in power, that power maniac.
She just hoped everything would turn right, enough to battle against those Gods in the incoming decades. Though Kimi would much prefer if he just went to hide in some other dimension, in some other verse even- since he once said the concept of Multiverse was real.
'Then again, the young master doesn't have any way to traverse through dimensions willingly. He said those [Dungeons] just pop up on random spots, he can't make them as wished. He must be just gaining strength as a backup plan in case he never gains any way to traverse through these dimensions and verses as he wishes.'
That seemed a plausible explanation to her. Either way, nothing of that mattered. Whatever he was going to do, she was going to support him on that.
Suddenly,
Everything went silent.
The sound of gossip became deafened, the sound of water boiling in the kitchen vanished and the whole world went silent for a moment.
Only for a moment.
Because the next second a terrible explosion of sound happened in the far sky, throwing shockwaves across the world as it even threw the parents to the floor.
Kimi managed to hold the mothers and the fathers were saved by Nejire's telekinesis.
"W-what the hell was that?!"
Rumi looked around, her expression pained even as she clenched her jaws.
Blood was trailing down her ears.
Her super-hearing was a curse at this moment.
'Shit.'
Kimi cursed and looked at Momo.
"Momo, heal her please."
"O-on it!"
Luckily the little girl wasn't that dazed so she quickly ran to the bunny to help her.
At that moment, however, only Kimi and the Dragon's animalistic senses warned them of something.
Something that was descending from the sky.
-Boom!
So Kimi wasn't shocked when the rooftop broke again and a woman came down casually, uncaring of landing in the iconic "super landing" that was so famous in this era.
Her legs touched the ground, without any huge impact as she looked at the people inside, weary and all, before her eyes fell on Kimi.
-Twitch
Kimi shuddered at the gaze.
She realised that the woman was strong.
Very strong.
And she knew why.
Ujir, her name was. The right-hand man of the ruler of southern Asia, Nawab.
Nawab's face wasn't publicly disclosed, but Ujir was infamous. So Kimi knew about her since her time as a Hero, and her knowledge only increased as time passed.
"I finally found you, you disobedient Bee."
Bee? What the hell was she talking about?
Kimi was confused.
"Tch, yeah, you don't even know you're a Bee. So pathetic your life is." The woman said and raised her hand in Kimi's direction.
Kimi couldn't even tell the others to move away from behind her just as purple energy leapt out of the villain's palm.
Kimi dodged instinctively.
Dodging was easy.
But that dodging was also a mistake.
"T-Toumaaa!!"
Turning around at the source of the scream, Kimi's expression froze as she saw a huge fist-sized hole in Momo's father's chest.
The hole was a see-through one, meaning it penetrated him both ways.
Momo ran from Rumi, who was luckily healed by now and started to put her fire on Touma's body. It was working, Touma wasn't dead yet, which was good.
Kimi turned back immediately, her hair going silver along with her eyes as she glared at the woman.
"Oh, you dodged. Wow, you weren't that strong when we sent you here though…? Whatever."
The woman still looked bored as she raised her other hand. She fired her beam again, but this time, it wasn't one or two.
Each of her fingers released a laser beam.
With two more coming out of her eyes.
The ten beams coming from the fingers didn't target Kimi, only the two from the eyes did.
Kimi wanted to dodge, but she knew she shouldn't dodge.
She clenched her muscles and put her hands in front of her in a protective manner as the beams hit her and blasted before bouncing off.
It hurt, but just slightly.
However, the other ten beams weren't so merciful.
Five of those beams were targeted at Momo, which was a smart move. But, Momo was a Phoenix. Heat-related attacks weren't so hurtful to her. They simply vaporised upon contact with her skin.
The four other beams though, two targeted Nejire and Aiko. Nejire seemed to slap the beam away, while Aiko absorbed it using his quirk «Energy». The other two weren't so lucky.
Both beams hit Gara and Miku, in their neck, making them stumble on their knees with a loud screech.
Momo went horrified while Aiko went to bring the two new injured ones while standing in front like a guard since he could absorb her attacks.
At that moment, Kimi knew the danger she felt from this woman wasn't a bluff.
She was here to kill.
"My Empress told me to not kill you guys, and I ought to go by that rule. But those four adults, she never mentioned them. So don't mind me killing them, it's my hobby."
…That was more horrifying.
So she wasn't here to kill the girls, but Neji's parents weren't included in that rule.
This was bad.
Neji will go crazy if his parents die-
"Goodbye."
Kimi froze.
She was helpless as the woman moved at a greater speed than herself, easily getting closer to the four adults who were gathered in one spot, and blasted a human-sized purple ball of energy in there.
The blast sent everyone stumbling back, including Kimi and also Momo who was close enough to be hurt but her powers didn't allow it.
When Kimi looked back up, looking at the scene where the parents were supposed to be-
Her heart stopped.
"Aww, this guy is quite good. That was a great load of energy, but he managed to absorb it all."
Aiko absorbed it, yes.
But he could only absorb it enough to not hurt himself.
The other three though….
Not even their skeletons remained. It was just a pool of blood and some bone scraps on that spot.
But.
Aiko wasn't safe either.
Ujir had one of her hands inside Aiko's chest, coming out from his back with his heart on her hand.
Aiko's eyes were blank.
He was dead… too.
"NOOOO!"
Momo, Nejire and Kimi all yelled in unison as they ran.
They shouldn't have forced Neji to get the parents out.
They should have waited before all this calmed down.
They really should have….
"Oh no, please don't come any closer." Ujir's hand glowed purple, heating Aiko's body and making it melt in milliseconds. "I was told not to kill, but I am easy to u nerve, so I might just break your limbs and send you to a half-dead state! Ahaha!!"
That laugh was chilling. It was terrifying.
But Kimi didn't care.
Even as the woman laughed.
Nor did the other two girls care.
They ran and threw their own type of attacks- Kimi coated her hand in electricity and moved, Momo simply was a ball of fire as she went to headbutt the woman, while Nejire's hand was shining like the sun, heated at a very great temperature.
The woman though only kept grinning ear to ear, bringing her arms up to shove Kimi's hand to the side, bringing her leg up to kick Momo in the stomach, and firing two laser beams from her eyes to hit Nejire in the face to send her stumbling backwards.
This was bad.
Kimi realised, as her next attack was also shoved away, receiving a punch in her gut that seemed to paralyse her body for a moment.
This really was bad.
The woman then grabbed Kimi by the neck.
"The nuances are done for," she spoke. "Let us leave then, you disobedient little Bee. Keep struggling, and you might just force me into breaking the leftover ones' limbs."
Hearing that, Kimi wanted to spit in her face. But she held on. She raised a hand to stop Rumi and Ryukyu, who was about to intervene, as she instead grunted.
"Why are you after me?"
"Reasons you don't deserve to know."
The woman's words were as cold as ever.
"Looks like you understand your spot now, then let's get going."
Then, without removing the hand from Kimi's neck, the woman started to float.
But she could only float 2 inches up before someone launched down from the broken rooftop, his arm pulled back, as he slammed his fist at Ujir's jaws, throwing her flying, breaking the walls with her teeth coming out.
Kimi was in the arms of her saviour.
"..."
Her saviour- Neji with a pair of cat-ears, a draconic tail coupled with draconic scales on his jawline, looked glamorous.
The expression he was making though…
It wasn't so pleasant.
—
Why was it happening?
Something like this shouldn't be happening.
Everything was under control.
Everything was moving according to plan.
Then why.
WHY WAS EVERYTHING SUDDENLY FALLING APART-
[Rash Emotions detected, Gamer's Mind is reacting.]
[Gamer's Mind is failing to control the rash emotions.]
[Reinforcing Gamer's Mind!]
[User has regained his senses.]
"...."
Neji didn't like the feeling of his emotions being suppressed.
This situation wasn't one where he should feel calm.
"Fuuuh…"
Suddenly, he was feeling angry at the world itself.
[Main Objective of the quest, "Rescue", hasn't been met.]
[Objective "Save your parents" hasn't been met.]
[You have failed the quest, Rescue.]
A minute ago, the moment he cancelled Fusion and fused again–achieving a proper form–to go to the explosion spot to see what exactly happened in there, he got this quest.
So he changed his tracks and rushed here, as fast as he could.
Yet,
He failed.
His parents were dead, now a puddle of blood.
All the strength he gained was in waste, just because of a bad decision.
"This fucking bitch."
Neji put down Kimi, his jaws clenched as he glared at the woman who stood up in the far, wiping her bloody lips with a finger.
"Owho, this is bad." Ujir chuckled, uncaring of the danger ahead. "I really should have just grabbed that cat bitch and left, huh. Now I am almost regretting wasting my time on those flies-"
-Bang!
Her talking jaws slammed close as Neji, who moved in front of her at a blurring speed, punched her in the chin.
She flew upwards slightly but didn't fly out of the troposphere like she naturally should have- because Neji was holding her by the leg.
"Keep your bitchy mouth shut."
He yanked her down by the leg, even as the woman's dazed eyes locked on his face, as he charged his fist with all his powers, going for an uppercut with a fist that was circling with the white crackling aura of OFA, slight blue energy of Fa Jin, and deep blue mass of Mana.
Then he punched at her chin.
-...Boom!
The wind stirred, shockwaves broke the glasses of nearby buildings, and the clouds in the sky cleared up like a gust of smoke.
The woman's head, her hair upwards in the air, bobbled up and down as it finally went still.
She was unconscious.
But she wasn't dead.
None of the girls tried to stop Neji as he went for a final blow, but… something purple shone in the sky.
As the woman disappeared from his hand.
"I am sorry."
A voice spoke, speaking in a sweet Irish accent.
Neji turned around, finding a purple-haired red-skinned woman with horns flying in the sky.
She had Ujir in her hand, holding her by the hair.
"You can't kill her with me here."
The beautiful woman, sculpted out of a painting, spoke.
But,
Her stats were anything but that.
It was terrifying.
Neji narrowed his eyes.
Nawab was here.
The wind whistled as Nawab's hair floated.
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Author's Note: 😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔