The moment the Tai Particle crisis ended, Ryuuto finally took a breath. A real one. Sun on his skin, warm breeze rolling in off the coast, and an obscene amount of seafood piled across the long wooden table. Gwen, Susan, and Katie Dee lounged beside him like they were on paid vacation instead of, you know, surviving cosmic nonsense on a weekly basis.
Katie Dee stuffed a shrimp ball into her mouth, cheeks puffed up like some adorable assassin.
"Ryuuto-nii… now that the Tai Particles are gone, Jane will really go back to normal, right?"
"She'll be fine."
Ryuuto brushed a crumb off her lip with the corner of a napkin. "Her body just needs time. No need to panic."
He leaned back, stretching lazily as the sun soaked into his bones. A sip of whiskey. A satisfied exhale. Simple things he should probably enjoy more often before fate threw another superpowered maniac at his head.
Gwen nudged him with her shoulder.
"Next time you're fighting bad guys, take us with you."
Susan added, "We're not decoration. We can actually help."
"You two already did," Ryuuto murmured, flicking both their noses. "And relax. As long as I'm around, none of you are getting hurt."
It was a rare, stupidly peaceful atmosphere…
Which of course meant it lasted a whole five seconds.
A spike of energy slammed into Ryuuto's senses like a steel pipe between the ribs.
[Ding! New mission detected. Target: Mutant Icarus. Defeat and subdue him to earn an Itachi Puzzle Piece.]
Ryuuto's eyebrow twitched.
"Icarus, huh? Great. Another winged idiot asking for a beatdown."
His fists tightened, blood humming with anticipation.
"Shion… if I drop him with one hit, does it still count?"
[Host, if you kill him early, I'll just penalize you. Don't be greedy.]
"Tch. Fine. Lucky him."
Susan, Gwen, and Katie Dee immediately rose to position around him, like they'd trained their whole lives for this moment.
"Ryuuto," Susan said, "we're doing this together."
He nodded. "You three soften him up. I finish it. Easy."
A ripple of wind hit the beach.
Tourists looked up.
Screaming followed.
A young man soared overhead, white wings spread wide. Not angelic. Just dramatic. And painfully proud of himself.
Phone cameras clicked nonstop.
"Dad! Look! A real flying guy!"
"Oh my God—is that an angel!?"
"Hmph. Ignorant humans," Icarus scoffed.
He hovered above them, chest puffed, golden hair blowing like he practiced in front of a mirror. His eyes sharpened when they locked onto Ryuuto's group.
"The one I'm here for is among you."
He folded his wings—then dive-bombed the beach, blasting sand and tourists everywhere.
"Tell me," Icarus demanded. "Which of you is Ryuuto? He should be male."
Gwen rolled her eyes. Susan facepalmed. Katie Dee's eyebrows rose as if thinking, really?
Ryuuto finally stood, pointing at him.
"You flew all the way here to pick a fight… without even knowing who I am? Did your brain fall out on the way down?"
He didn't give Icarus time to answer.
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!"
Steel flashed. A cluster of shuriken split mid-air, tripling and accelerating.
"What—!?"
Icarus twisted to avoid them, nearly crashing into a snack stall. "You attacked me first!?"
"Gwen, Susan—go."
"On it!"
Susan leaped onto a hard-light force field she'd generated mid-air, sprinting upward to cut off Icarus's flight pattern. Gwen fired a pair of webs, snagging his legs with a satisfying snap.
"You—mutants!?" Icarus snarled.
Katie Dee blurred up beside him with a tiny pink fist.
"Stop bullying my brother, stupid bird!"
She decked him square in the face.
Like… absolutely wrecked it.
Icarus spiraled like a dying pigeon.
Susan cheered. Gwen laughed. Even Ryuuto clapped once.
Katie Dee puffed her chest proudly.
"His head's so hard. Kind of fun to punch."
"Oh, we're doing plenty more of that," Susan teased. "Until he begs."
The three girls swarmed him, a coordinated assault of force fields, webs, and deceptively cute fists.
Icarus snapped.
"Enough! Let me show you my true power!"
He released a shockwave of wind and sound, knocking Susan and Gwen back and blasting Katie Dee with a sonic scream.
But the scream phased straight through her.
"What—!? You too are a mutant!?"
"Wrong," Katie Dee said with a grin. "I'm just not easy to bully."
Ryuuto appeared in front of her, hair whipping in the wind.
"You want me, right? Then get through her first."
"What—"
Ryuuto twisted.
"Leaf Hurricane!"
His kick smashed into Icarus's face with the precision of a shinobi and the satisfaction of someone punching a vending machine that ate his money.
The beach shook.
And Icarus hit the sand like a divine chicken dropped from heaven.
...
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