My youth story cannot be a knight war

The helmet made a clear cracking sound along the trajectory of the sparks, and finally split into two and fell to the side, revealing the blood-stained black hair.

“Gu… Ugh…!”

The helmet fell to the ground beside him, which was covered with rose petals. Kousaka's face was half stained with blood and his expression twitched. His legs trembled as he tried to stand up, but he still failed in the end.

"...Finally, any last words?"

Pale, sharp fingers stroked a retracted vine in front of him. Baruba stroked the branch stained with Kousaka's blood and broke it with force of his palm.

The branch stretched in Baruba's clenched palm, transforming into a blade exactly the same as the one before. Slowly raising the blade in front of his face, Baruba's indifferent eyes and words were all reflected in the bright blade.

"It seems... it's gone."

Kousaka, who was kneeling on the ground, lowered his head and spoke in a weak voice.

"Really? Then go die."

The pale blade was raised, then tore through the air and slashed towards Kousaka's neck.

Blood splattered, splashing onto the helmet and rose petals, giving the scene a bloody artistic feel.

"I haven't asked you before..."

The five fingers of the right hand wearing armor tightened, and the blade easily tore through the armor's protection, and blood flowed out from between the fingers.

His index finger fell to the ground after being cut by the blade, but Kousaka ignored the severe pain in his palm. He raised his head and looked into Baruba's indifferent eyes with cold eyes.

And his left hand had been tightly gripping the black and gold crystal card without him knowing when.

"Don't you have any last words?"

"That kind of thing never existed."

The hand holding the hilt slowly increased its strength, and the blade cut off Kousaka's fingers one by one, and the bloody blade pierced his forehead little by little.

"That's good, then let's... hit the road together."

Looking at the approaching fierce blade without dodging, Kousaka placed the crystal card into the brush slot of his belt, but suddenly stopped at the last moment.

"..."

His gaze passed through the powerful enemy in front of him and stared blankly at the wide harbor behind Baruba, where countless people in police uniforms stood in the falling snow.

Takasaka knew those people because they were all police officers who died in the battle with Gurongi in the past year, and he even put the bodies of many of them into coffins with his own hands.

Standing in the front of these people was Morimichi Sugita in police uniform. The eyes of these people looking at Takasaka were filled with heavy emotions, and there was even more sadness in Sugita Morimichi's eyes.

But they said nothing, just stared at Kousaka quietly, then slowly raised their hands.

Finally, all the police officers who died in the line of duty saluted in unison.

"..."

Glancing at the group of ghosts that appeared behind him, Baruba said nothing and indifferently withdrew his gaze.

"So you guys have been here all along?"

Looking at the group of police officers who were saluting, Kousaka smiled, his grinning mouth revealing his blood-stained teeth.

He immediately understood—this group of people came to greet him.

The time has come, the dead are on the road... At this moment, Kyosuke Kousaka's life has finally reached its destined destination.

But before hitting the road, he had something else to say.

"This time... it seems like this really is the end. This is what you paid for with your lives."

"So please watch my battle, the final..."

Looking directly at Sugita Morimichi, who had a sad look in his eyes but remained silent, Kousaka spoke softly.

But the crystal card in his hand had already been swiped, and a dazzling golden light bloomed on the screen of his belt.

"—I'm sorry, I can't send you on your adventure."

"Complete liberation"

13. The Past Embraces the Future (7k)

"Well--!!!"

In this mental space that was gradually being eroded by darkness, Xu Guoliang let out a low howl of pain from his throat. This time, he grasped the hilt of Grutidhede's sword with both hands, and his whole body began to tremble uncontrollably.

And those black stains that spread across his body seemed to be given life at this moment, dancing in an almost wild manner. The black fluid branched out into tentacles, twisting and rising on Xu Guoliang's body, spinning around him.

These black energies gradually began to gather into a black evil flower, and Xu Guoliang who was entangled in the middle was not the pistil, but the parasitic branch. The speed at which those energies eroded him was geometrically multiples of the original speed, and so was the pain.

"Damn it! Could it be..."

In this pain that seemed to shake his soul, Xu Guoliang tried his best to maintain his will. If he lost consciousness now, the arrival of the "ultimate darkness" would no longer be hindered by anything, and the whole world would be completely swallowed up by this power.

His other eye, which still retained its original azure hue, now flashed with light, and he activated his ability to control the book to investigate the cause of this sudden change. The scene he saw made Xu Guoliang's expression under his helmet change instantly.

"S-Stop it! Kousaka, you can't...ah!"

Crackling...

At this moment, fine cracks began to spread in the left eye area of ​​the helmet, and black evil light burst out from the cracks. Then, with the sound of goggles shattering, an eye with half of its whites soaked in inky black and part of its face appeared, and the facial muscles were twitching violently.

"This power... is 'ultimate'... Damn it!!! Another 'beacon' guiding the arrival has been added..."

Xu Guoliang clenched his teeth so tightly that his molars began to make dangerous cracking sounds under the force. The smell of blood spreading in his mouth slightly sobered his gradually drowsy consciousness.

"We can't delay any longer. The outcome must be decided within the remaining day... Please..."

"Kousaka, please stop..."

……

In the pitch-black laboratory, the red alarm light covered everything with a red curtain. The continuous noise did not annoy the only person here, but made him feel bone-chilled.

On the display screen of the laboratory's central computer, the human-shaped pattern on the detection interface has been completely dyed scarlet. That color blends with the amber pupils behind Ebina Hime's glasses, turning it into a bright red color like wine.

"...!"

Looking at the glaring scarlet 100% in the lower left corner of the screen, she slumped in the chair as if her spine had been pulled out, with her head lowered, her lipstick-coated, moist lips bitten white by her teeth.

"Goodbye...Kousaka-kun."

……

Nourishes—

The black wheels rubbed against the road, making a harsh sound. The Leap Pursuit 2000 left a standard drift mark on the road and then stopped.

His palm still gripped the right handlebar tightly, but his left hand was also tightly gripping the brake valve, so the engine could only roar in vain. Zaimokuza, wearing a helmet, also lowered his head, and the reflection of the goggles obscured his expression.

He felt an incomparably powerful force erupting in the distant Tokyo. It was magnificent and majestic, yet rapidly fading and weakening. Both strength and weakness coexisted in this breath, just like a comet passing across the sky, disappearing in a flash.

"Mr. Kosaka."

……

Snow like flower rain was falling in the pitch-black sky. Kousaka Kyosuke walked quietly on a path without any light, without any pause.

Even though it was pitch black ahead, Kyosuke Kousaka walked as if it were daytime. He was very familiar with this road because it had been with him since he was born until he was seventeen years old.

He could even use the echo of his footsteps to judge the surrounding scenes and the information about these scenes.

On the left was an old small shop owned by a woman in her seventies. Their most popular drink was marble soda, and every time I drank it, I could hear the sound of marbles hitting glass. On the right was a twenty-year-old sushi restaurant. The owner was planning to buy the ramen shop next door and connect the two to form a chain. And in front was...

As he walked, Kyosuke Kousaka recalled all the memories of this journey in his mind, and used this memory to awaken the impressions dormant deep in his heart, weaving a path to the future.

Suddenly, his steps stopped.

Because a dim street lamp suddenly appeared in front of them, and under the lamp was a bench. A tall and strong figure in a windbreaker was sitting under the light of the lamp and the drifting snowflakes, with a cigarette in his mouth, looking forward and puffing out smoke.

Kyosuke Kousaka also recognized the street lamp and bench, because the bench was just at the corner of two alleys away from his former home, in a small undeveloped park. When he was a child, he was often taken there to set off fireworks and practice on the horizontal bar.

And in those distant memories, there was a person who had always been with him at that time, and that was the person sitting on the bench over there now.

"...Sure enough, I guessed you would be here."

He slowly walked to the bench, looked down at the gloomy face that was vaguely visible in the smoke, and after a long silence, Kousaka Kyosuke spoke softly.

"..."

The man remained silent in response to Kousaka Kyosuke's question, and he didn't care. He turned around, lifted the hem of his windbreaker, and sat on the chair. The two of them sat together and looked quietly at the darkness ahead.

Then, without turning his head, Kyosuke Kousaka stretched out his left hand towards the man, and took out a lighter from his pocket with his right hand.

"Can I have a cigarette, Dad?"

The man, Kousaka Daisuke, paused smoking for a few seconds because of this sentence, then slowly turned his head and looked at Kousaka Kyosuke face to face for the first time.

Looking at this profile that was obviously young but gave people a sense of vicissitudes of life, his eyes, which had always been serious in Kosaka's memory, revealed an emotion that he could not understand.

"...So you're old enough to smoke now."

"Well, I've been working on cases for so long, I don't know when I'll start smoking."

Click.

Kousaka Daisuke's voice was very low, and then he took out a cigarette from the inner pocket of his windbreaker, and Kousaka Kyosuke also skillfully reached out to take it and put it to his lips. The light from the lighter illuminated his calm expression.

"And then? You're not going to say anything to me?"

Kyosuke Kousaka took a deep puff of his lit cigarette, and two streams of smoke slowly came out of his nostrils. He turned his head and looked at his father whom he hadn't seen for many years, but his eyes did not show any joy or excitement after the reunion, only a kind of boredom that was completely inconsistent with other people's previous impression of him.

"Like, say, scolding me for dying too hastily, or too early?"

"If I curse you, will you be able to come back to life?"

Kousaka Daisuke said in a low voice, turning his gaze away, to which Kousaka Kyousuke shrugged.

"I'm sorry, I can't."

"Then there's nothing more to say."

"...You don't have it, but I do."

"Ok?"

Kousaka Kyosuke said this suddenly, and Kousaka Daisuke was stunned for a moment after hearing this, and turned to look at his son again.

But what came towards him was a swinging fist.

The punch was unrestrained and instantly hit Kousaka Daisuke's abdomen. The huge force of the impact was comparable to a police battering ram, which made Kousaka Daisuke show a distressed expression and bend over.

"Well……"

"This is what I've wanted to do to you all these years... You died in such a cool way, but couldn't you consider how I felt about being left behind by you?"

He retracted his fist and looked down at his father who was hunched over in front of him. His eyes were as sharp as two freshly polished daggers.

"—It's fine if you leave me a mess, but don't leave me your responsibilities as well! Asshole dad!"

……

"Remember to lock the doors and windows, stay home, I will be back soon."

"Is everything really okay? Kyousuke and Kirino are now..."

"Don't worry, they are your and my children, nothing will happen to them so easily."

At the door of the Takasaka family, Takasaka Daisuke, wearing a bulletproof vest, put his pistol into the holster on his leg, put on a backpack filled with a bunch of explosion-proof tools, and looked at his wife with a worried face and comforted her.

When this incident happened, he immediately anticipated the riot that would follow and took out the police tools that he had kept at home in case of emergency.

However, the speed at which events developed exceeded Daisuke Kosaka's expectations. Receiving countless messages from colleagues on his mobile phone, he knew how chaotic even Chiba Prefecture, which was relatively backward by Japanese standards, had become. It was hard to imagine how chaotic the densely populated cities around the world were today.

What Daisuke Kosaka immediately thought of was his two children who were still outside, and he immediately decided to find a way to settle the whole family down first.

As for the rest, we can only take it one step at a time and see what happens.

hum-

However, before Daisuke Kousaka could say goodbye to his wife and get into the car, a loud buzzing sound filled the whole world.

Literally the whole world.

At this moment, the sound suppressed all the riots around the world caused by this mutation. The world briefly regained peace, and everyone looked up at the direction where the sound came from - the sky.