Shoya stared at Aden-Lada in shock. Aden-Lada returned his glance with a smirk. Unlike the person he saw in his mind, she looked far more casual. She wore a pink shirt with shorts and a fur coat.
"Shit..."
Shoya whispered.
"I figured that I'd get you now. Since Regulus is acting up, I guess I'll have to get you before he gets you. Or before they do..."
The latter sentence was a silent whisper to herself.
"Wait, what? He's acting up?"
(So, that's what he took out of the sentence. I guess he's practically identical to Altair. Too bad he's destined to die.)
Aden-Lada sighed.
"You don't need to know."
"What do you--"
The woman slammed the table, breaking it in two.
"You should be occupied with me, the Emperor in front of you, not some guy you couldn't even sense."
(In that sense, they're almost identical. For some reason, I feel comforted knowing they're the same.)
A waitress came over to the two of them and stared bizarrely at the broken table. She looked blatantly annoyed.
"Miss, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
Shoya looked at the waitress, worried.
"Hey, Shoya,"
Surprisingly--
"What did you want to be, you know, before becoming what you currently are?"
--she ignored the waitress entirely.
Shoya did not answer and stared at Aden-Lada. Once more, the Mortal Sin sighed.
"I see."
"Miss, I'm going to have to ask you to--"
It was faster for even the average Streia eye to catch. When everyone noticed, the damage had been done and she had already followed through.
"Huh? He didn't smash through the supermarket?"
Aden-Lada hit Shoya, one punch aimed at his face, and he shot from the cafe to the supermarket, which was a building past the one opposite the cafe.
Everyone watched in awe and the waitress stood there, shaking in fear. Aden-Lada stood up, glancing at her knuckles slightly, walking toward Shoya.
Meanwhile, Shoya was writhing in agony, stuck at the back of the supermarket fridge. People gathered around to observe the situation.
Shoya's arms shook as he tried to get out.
(Huh? I was able to block that instinctively?)
Before the punch connected, Shoya activated Shadow Gauntlets and blocked by putting his arms in an X shape.
(My fucking arms... Ah, my head too...)
Shoya picked a shard of glass from his head. He was lucky that it did not dig deeper into his head otherwise his brain would have been skewered.
He pulled it out and threw it onto the ground. Shadows trickled from his hair and went into the wound. It seemed to be healing quite slowly.
He stood up weakly.
(What is this?)
[It's a special attribute of possessing shadow mana. Passive shadow healing; wounds that are considered fatal, though it won't heal for, at least, 30 minutes. That includes your wound.]
"Hey, you need to go to the hospital!"
Someone screamed at him.
Shoya ignored them.
(I need to...)
Suddenly, Shoya moved to the side and created a sword of shadows. Aden-Lada had suddenly appeared, her fist skidding down his sword, redirecting her punch into the ground.
"Oh! You are interesting!"
Seeing that things were escalating, people began to fan out.
The Pink Emperor used her left leg and swung at Shoya's head while turning around. He dodged it by moving backwards slightly. If he had moved too far back, he would've lost balance and Aden-Lada would be able to counterattack easily.
If Shoya messed up even one step, he would be in a serious condition.
Aden-Lada regained her posture and threw light chops at him. Shoya moved around, parrying each one with his forearms, which would eventually give out. He ignored the pain he felt since he was far beyond his threshold. Suddenly, her hand cut through the air toward Shoya's neck. Aden-Lada increased the speed and power to land a decisive hit, however...
"!"
Her hand passed through him. It permeated.
The Mortal Sin did not understand what he did though it was the same for Shoya.
With his intense concentration, he did something unexpected. Of course, Shoya did not pause to figure out what he had done, unlike Aden-Lada.
He took the opening.
An idea popped into his head.
Shoya primed his fist.
What if Shoya used the Shadow Gauntlets spell on the same hand? What would happen?
A shadow gauntlet formed on his hand, suddenly, it got bigger. The plates shifted and his fist was pushed forward faster than before.
"Overdrive."
The boy called it.
His fist soared through the air, upwards at Aden-Lada's chin. Her teeth chattered as his punch made a connection. Aden-Lada was swung into the air and when she came down again, Shoya hit her with the same move which sent her flying into a shelf of snacks.
Shoya returned to his usual self.
[Now, let's switch Shoya while we have the chance.]
(Switch? But...)
[It's the only way we can beat her! Come on, you don't want to die here, do you?!]
Altair shouted at him.
(I guess not.)
Shoya slowly regained his breath. After that move, it took almost everything out of him. His muscles were aching and he could feel the pain of his injuries and wounds again.
"Alta--"
Blood erupted from his mouth. Two lines of blood burst from his waist and abdomen. Shoya collapsed on his knees, letting the blood leak out of his mouth.
What had happened?
He did not understand.
Aden-Lada stood up, unfazed, and felt her stomach.
"Man, that was one good punch considering that you're not on an Emperor's level yet."
She lifted the bottom of her shirt.
Right beside her beautifully defined abs was a red mark, bump, caused by Shoya's Shadow Gauntlet Overdrive.
"It's too bad for you that I know martial arts."
What she used on Shoya was her own style that she made many centuries ago when she was mindlessly looking for a worthy opponent.
She calls it the Lotus Blade. It is a fast, sharp, powerful and destructive martial art. Not only does it have different attack patterns and stances, the Lotus Blade also had defensive stances.
Kyoka learned the Lotus Blade from her master, Kenjiro Kawashima since he was a practitioner of the martial art.
Aden-Lada stood over Shoya.
"I wanted to see Altair one more time but I'll just kill you for safe me--"
Someone came in from behind and punched Aden-Lada in the face. She made an 'oof' noise. This attack was harder than Shoya's Shadow Gauntlet Overdrive. Her nose even leaked blood.
Aden-Lada stood her ground and looked at her opponent as she stood in front of Shoya.
The boy muttered something but it came out as mumbles.
"N-no..."
"Who the fuck are you?"
Aden-Lada asked, looking at the person.
It was Kuro. She looked directly into Aden-Lada's eyes and glared at her.
Suddenly, when she noticed the girl's appearance, Aden-Lada smiled.
"Haha! I hit the jackpot! Schrödinger's Cat!"
"Shut the fuck up. I'm not Schrödinger's Cat. That individual died months ago. I'm Kuroha Kuroika and I'm the bitch that'll beat your fucking ass."