WebNovels

Chapter 33 - Chapter 033: Not So Hard to Handle

Shoo—

With a sharp tearing sound, a beam of pale green light suddenly blasted out from the melted wall, slicing through the air as it shot straight toward Harumura Makoto.

Shhh—

The beam, missing its target completely, struck the wall behind him.

There was no explosion—instead, the wall seemed to melt away under extreme heat, breaking down into its most basic molecular form.

"You're fast… but just like Misaki said, that's a dangerous ability."

Having moved from his original spot, Makoto eyed the damage the beam had caused.

He couldn't deny a faint chill in his heart—this level of destructive power was definitely not something his body could withstand.

If that attack had hit him, being pierced clean through would have been the only ending.

"Heh—"

"Oi, esper lady, hiding your face while going after a low-level ability user like me—doesn't that hurt your proud esper reputation?"

Grinning toward the direction the beam had come from, Makoto called out loudly.

"Hmph, so you are different from the usual trash. But I guess it makes sense—you wouldn't have been able to subdue that idiot Frenda and Kinuhita otherwise."

At a crossroad in the street—

Wearing high heels, swinging her wavy brown hair, radiating an aura of arrogance—a woman stepped out from around the corner.

"What, did you already kill that useless Frenda?"

Her smile was calm, but under that calmness was something clearly being held back.

"Well, I suppose that works too. After all, I got plenty of intel on you from her—Rank Four."

He returned to where Kinuhita lay unconscious on her knees, pressing the muzzle of his pistol to the back of her head.

"So, although this is a bit sudden… Given the situation right now, wouldn't the great esper lady care to have a nice little talk with me?"

Confidence.

Poise.

These two traits were on full display in the man before her.

And it was exactly those traits that made Mugino Shizuri's rage burn even hotter.

"Tch—"

Without any shred of a refined-lady image, Mugino spat onto the ground.

Her smile suddenly loosened into something freer, and her expression twisted.

"I get it now…"

Her voice echoed through the space.

"You think that just because you have a hostage, you can negotiate with me—meet me as an equal?"

The atmosphere suddenly grew heavy, as if something was about to explode—an omen of destruction.

"Looks like I made a wrong move."

Makoto's whole body tensed, but his expression remained easygoing.

"I mean, there's no shortage of groups like ours, right? Give me your word to let us go, and I'm sure an esper like you would honor it for the sake of dignity. I'll even hand back that member you call Frenda."

"You… insignificant…"

Mugino's shoulders trembled.

"An insignificant Level 0 dares to negotiate with me—a worthless gang leader leading a worthless gang."

Purely electronic spheres of light began forming around her.

"And as for that traitor—once I get her back, I'll kill her with my own hands."

Shoo, shoo, shoo, shoo—

The next second, the glowing spheres floating around her fired beams of pale green light like miniature gun turrets, crossing into an interwoven net of fire.

Being the old district, the street layout here had never been properly planned.

Even the main street was still narrow.

"Die."

"This woman, seriously…"

Makoto's eyes sharpened, his body moving faster than his voice.

He had called it a bullet net, but it wasn't quite that extreme—there were only five beams crossing each other, and the gaps left in between were still plenty wide.

He pressed a hand to Kinuhita's head beside him—

Then, using that as a point of leverage, he vaulted into the air, twisting his body from vertical to horizontal mid-jump.

In that instant, the electronic-beam "net" swept through.

The sound of melting rang out repeatedly, but Makoto had almost perfectly avoided the attack.

Even Kinuhita, thanks to him lowering her head just before, avoided the sweep by a few centimeters.

"Really quick-tempered… and careless about friend or foe. But… your ability activation speed is slow. And it looks like you can't use more than six beams at the same time."

Even while evading, Makoto's eyes never left Mugino Shizuri.

All the details had already been extracted from Frenda and Kinuhita's minds by Misaki.

If anyone knew Mugino's ability best—

Other than Mugino herself and the researchers studying her—it would be her own teammates.

"In that case… in a sense, you're really not that hard to deal with."

A faint, almost playful smile tugged at Makoto's lips.

Shoo, shoo, shoo, shoo—

Mugino's attack didn't stop—her light-sphere turrets fired off more straight-line beams, sweeping toward Makoto's position at frightening speed.

"Down, left, right, forward right—"

From the spheres' formation, he instantly read the attack routes.

While still in midair, Makoto flicked his wrist upward, firing a grappling hook from his arm and latching it onto a nearby rooftop.

"So you're not just trash—you're a stray spider crawling everywhere too."

Mugino's face grew darker, more dangerous.

She strode forward, the light spheres around her firing continuously, electronic beams spraying like a Gatling gun at Makoto's landing points.

Makoto twisted and darted through the alleys—

Sometimes using his grappling hook, other times relying on his physical reflexes to dodge.

He kept getting pushed back.

Mugino kept advancing. In just over ten seconds, she had closed about two hundred meters.

"Running around like this… you're pissing me off."

The next moment, she pulled a jagged, chip-like object from her pocket and tossed it into the air before her.

The light sphere in her hand detonated.

More Chapters