The diesel fumes inside the subterranean transit bay were thick enough to burn the back of Yuzuki's throat. Beneath him, the medical gurney vibrated against the wet concrete, transmitting every minor shudder straight through the rigid thoracic brace locked around his ribcage.
Ahead, the oversized wrapping sheet stretched across the subterranean exit. Owl held two corners of the square cloth taut between his calloused fingers, his dark hair framing a short beard, his eyes completely hidden behind black sunglasses despite the dim lighting. The fabric hung with an unnatural, heavy density, its edges curling inward.
Behind the gurney, the air shrieked with high-frequency friction. Mantis stood atop the wrecked ambulance he had sliced across the narrow lane. His gaunt frame crouched low, both forearms tapering into long blade-like structures whose edges vibrated rapidly enough to cut through ordinary Ken.
Between them, three hospital orderlies cowered against the concrete bulkhead beside an unconscious civilian patient strapped to a transport board.
Yuzuki lay flat, his dark silk mask cutting the harsh glare of the halogen lanterns. His Six Eyes mapped the immediate space, tracing every thread of Nen in the damp air. His core was a tiny, unstable reserve recovered from absolute zero, nowhere near enough for sustained Ren, but sufficient for a few surgical applications of Limitless. Every shallow breath pulled against the active chest drain in his left intercostal space, pulling dark fluid into the suction canister beside his mattress. The sutured laceration across his right flank throbbed, and the torn muscles of his left thigh and lower back burned like exposed wire.
'Neither of them is close to me at full strength,' Yuzuki evaluated silently, his jaw tightening. 'Right now, that hardly matters.'
'Owl. Fun Fun Cloth.' Recognition came immediately. 'Anything completely enclosed gets reduced and captured. Don't let the cloth close.'
"Do not move," Owl warned, snapping his wrists to flick the top two corners of the Fun Fun Cloth upward. The fabric expanded rapidly, catching on the concrete ceiling and draping over a row of overhead high-voltage conduit pipes.
With a soft, muffled sound, twenty metres of heavy steel piping and concrete cladding vanished as the cloth enclosed them. Owl casually gathered the folded material into his palm, reducing the enclosed section to a hand-sized bundle. He tucked the occupied bundle away and conjured a fresh Fun Fun Cloth, spreading it across the tunnel before Yuzuki could exploit the opening. The sudden removal of the support structure instantly compromised the tunnel roof directly above the cowering civilians.
Three fist-sized chunks of concrete broke loose directly above the civilian patient's head. Yuzuki couldn't afford a full technique, but he leaked the smallest possible thread of aura into Blue. Three microscopic attraction points flickered beside the falling debris. The chunks jerked sideways by inches, just enough to miss the transport board and hammer into the empty wall instead.
One orderly stared at him in wide-eyed terror.
"Stay beside the patient," Yuzuki rasped, his voice raw. "Don't run. He's using your movement to divide my attention."
The man's face went pale, but he dropped back beside the transport board, pressing his hands over his ears.
Seeing Yuzuki's focus shift toward protecting the civilians, Mantis lunged from the top of the wrecked ambulance. He swept low along the left wall, his blade-like forearms aimed at shearing through the gurney frame to drop Yuzuki directly onto the damp floor where Owl's fresh cloth was creeping forward.
'They are coordinating,' Yuzuki thought, his breath growing shallow as copper tasted in his mouth.
Yuzuki raised his right hand, his fingers forming a single sign despite the deep aches in his forearm tendons.
'Blue.'
He targeted the upper-left corner of the Fun Fun Cloth as it drifted toward the ceiling. A tiny point of absolute attraction pulled the top seam backward, pinning it against the wet concrete wall.
Blue yanked the cloth's closing angle sideways just as Mantis committed to his strike. His vibrating right blade struck the conduit brace at an oblique angle. The edge could cut head-on, but the sudden lateral torque snapped the final hand-length section of the bone blade free. It spun wildly through the air. Owl reacted to the sudden motion and snapped the cloth shut; the severed blade segment vanished inside the fold.
"What—" Owl grunted, struggling against the residual pull of Blue.
Yuzuki didn't let the opening pass. He released Blue from the wall and redirected a micro-attraction point directly behind Owl's shoulders. The sudden gravitational tug pulled Owl forward off balance, dragging him within arm's reach of the gurney.
Yuzuki drove a short, compact body blow straight into Owl's solar plexus, reinforcing his knuckles with a focused burst of Gyo.
THUMP.
The measured impact folded Owl over the strike. His breath vanished and his consciousness went with it. Owl's grip vanished, and the active fold of the Fun Fun Cloth slackened across the floor.
Before Yuzuki could reset his guard, a shadow fell across his flank.
Mantis had already recovered. Exploiting Yuzuki's complete lack of lower-body mobility, the gaunt beast drove his intact left blade downward in a vicious arc.
Yuzuki tried to drag his left leg away, but the torn quadriceps barely answered. He twisted his upper torso to keep the blade away from the drain in his left chest. Mantis changed the angle instantly and raked the blade across his right flank instead, tearing through the sutured wound.
Warm blood immediately soaked his hospital gown, and a sharp spike of agony rattled through his broken ribs. His breathing collapsed into shallow gasps, and the chest-drain chamber bubbled harder as his fragile left lung struggled to remain expanded.
"You're wide open!" Mantis spat, raising his blade for a vertical strike.
'If I use a full-output Red,' Yuzuki calculated, his vision swimming as blood leaked from his side, 'the shockwave will collapse the ceiling over the orderlies.'
Yuzuki pointed two fingers straight at Mantis's sternum.
'Compress it. Narrow the output.'
'Reversal: Red.'
Yuzuki compressed Red into a narrow, directional burst of repulsive spatial energy. The repulsion hit Mantis straight in his centre of mass.
BOOM.
The focused force launched Mantis backward down the tunnel, slamming him hard into a heavy concrete support pillar near the bulkhead. Concrete cracked, dust erupted into the corridor, and Mantis hit the floor stunned, several of his ribs fracturing under the impact.
Recoil flared through Yuzuki's right arm, reopening internal micro-tears in his muscle tissue. He choked on a wet cough, blood staining his lower lip beneath the silk mask.
One of the orderlies started towards Yuzuki, but he lifted two trembling fingers without looking away from the settling dust cloud.
"Stay back," Yuzuki commanded quietly.
The man froze in his tracks.
Yuzuki could feel warm blood spreading beneath his thoracic brace. His right arm barely responded after the recoil of Red, and the cold numbness in his left thigh was already creeping towards his knee. If Mantis stood again, there would be no large technique left to spend.
'Reverse Nen...' he searched inward desperately, but the core remained cold, the memory of the technique unreachable.
Across the dusty tunnel, a sickening crack echoed from the pillar.
Mantis rose slowly and seized his already-damaged right arm. With one savage wrench, he forced the shoulder from its socket.
CRACK.
His aura sharpened. The vibration along the intact left blade climbed until its outline disappeared into a translucent blur.
Yuzuki lay on the blood-stained mattress, his aura down to a sliver, realizing the truth as the beast advanced.
'His ability... it rewards voluntary self-destruction.'
---
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