Chapter 25 (continued)

"All of this is the bitter fruit of the government's own actions. Or you could say it's the consequence of the government carelessly letting me live."

Ōkura Teruko looked at him coldly. "It seems there's no reasoning with you."

"I'm sorry. That's just the kind of person I am." Kamiki Yūhaku smiled, his red eyes full of mockery. "I'm self-centered and only want to do what I want. It doesn't matter how many people I hurt along the way. After all, I was the one who got hurt first."

This is troublesome.

Jōno Saigiku considered what to do now.

Ōkura Teruko was an expert at torturing prisoners. None could keep quiet under her interrogation, because her ability, Soul's Breath, could control the age of anyone she touched. When a person abruptly became a child or an old person, they would often break down.

But Kamiki Yūhaku was different.

He had long since abandoned hope of living and left himself only five hours to live. If the two hours he would spend unconscious from hypothermia were excluded, it should be three.

How could someone truly unafraid of death fear torture by Ōkura Teruko's ability?

"There are innocent people here who had nothing to do with what happened back then," Jōno Saigiku said. "To those innocent people, isn't your revenge a lot like everything you suffered? They're being forced to endure harm too. Is that really all right?"

Kamiki Yūhaku looked at Jōno Saigiku.

The place was dim, with only the emergency lights flickering across their faces. A layer of pure white ability surrounded Kamiki Yūhaku, making him stand out. He seemed to glow in the darkness, smiling there, gentle as an angel.

He said, "Mr. Hunting Dog, don't you think you're being unreasonable?"

"What?"

"Why divide a person's life in two and look at the halves separately?" Kamiki Yūhaku said. "You sympathize with who I was, but criticize who I am now for being irresponsible. But whatever part of my life you look at, it's still the person named Kamiki Yūhaku."

"You never showed me kindness, so what right do you have to demand that I be kind to this world?"

"I'm going to be a villain, and then I'll tell you it's all your fault that I became this way."

Jōno Saigiku listened to Kamiki Yūhaku. After a moment, he touched his chin and nodded.

"I think he's convinced me."

"Huh?" Ōkura Teruko stepped on his toes.

"Ah..." Jōno Saigiku pulled his foot back at once. "Vice captain?"

"Who said you could agree with him?"

Jōno Saigiku smiled and took two steps back. "I just thought what he said was worth considering. A lot of the time, you have to be desperate enough to say something truly compelling. If you guide someone's emotions and say something that resonates with them, you might get good results in an interrogation."

"Then go convince that guy over there!"

"That wouldn't work, of course." Jōno Saigiku smiled. "I haven't had a worse experience than he has, so I can't make him feel the same way I do. Naturally, I can't make him stop either."

Ōkura Teruko stared at Jōno Saigiku. After a moment, she went to a nearby table and hoisted herself onto it, evidently no longer intending to do anything else.

Under the circumstances, the more they moved, the harder they breathed, and the less oxygen there would be.

Just as Kamiki Yūhaku had said at the start, the Hunting Dogs' arrival was an accident. If not for them, Kamiki Yūhaku could probably have destroyed the entire Number Seven Agency without trouble by now.

The entire agency had lost power, and its signals were jammed too. Ōkura Teruko placed one knee on the tabletop, then took a watch from her pocket. After opening it, she confirmed that it couldn't contact the outside world either.

But it wasn't just for telling time. It also contained the Hunting Dogs' tracking system. Once it couldn't transmit, her and Jōno Saigiku's locations would disappear from Hunting Dogs headquarters. That was enough to catch the captain's attention. Now it was up to Fukuchi Ōchi.

She hoped they really could open this damn place from the outside.

Then they could deal with Kamiki Yūhaku.

Fukuchi Ōchi and Suehiro Tetchō arrived at the Number Seven Agency's location.

More than an hour had passed since Ōkura Teruko and Jōno Saigiku's signals disappeared. Hungover, Fukuchi Ōchi only realized something might be wrong when the signals still hadn't reappeared after half an hour, so he brought Suehiro Tetchō here.

"Doesn't look like anything's wrong." Fukuchi Ōchi entered the office building above ground. The office workers inside were busy, each with a stack of documents in front of them.

No one would have guessed that the Number Seven Agency was located beneath an ordinary office. Even the office's employees didn't know.

The people there gave Fukuchi Ōchi strange looks as he entered.

"Hello, everyone," Fukuchi Ōchi said with a smile. "Could I ask you all to leave? We're with the Military Police. There may be a terrorist attack here."

"What? A terrorist attack?"

"Is it another ability user, like last time?"

"Damn it, we're already swamped today, and now this."

Fukuchi Ōchi listened to their complaints and laughed them off, urging everyone to leave quickly. Just then, Suehiro Tetchō walked up to a wall. Without a word, he drew his saber and slashed down in a flash, its sharp blade splitting the wall in two.

Everything around them fell deathly silent for three seconds. Then the ordinary people present turned pale and fled, screaming.

"A little rough, but well done." Fukuchi Ōchi walked over. "What did you find?"

"Inside." Suehiro Tetchō stepped straight through the large hole he had cut in the wall. Fukuchi Ōchi followed him in, and the next moment, they saw the entrance to an underground passage.

Fukuchi Ōchi crouched and knocked on the surface. "This should be it. It's made of high-strength material and sealed tight. Looks like someone inside activated the defense system and sealed off the entire headquarters. That's why their signals disappeared."

"Should I cut it?"

"You can, but it's basically useless. This thing isn't easy to open." Fukuchi Ōchi stood up. "The harder you hit this material, the harder it gets. It's troublesome to deal with."

Suehiro Tetchō sheathed the saber he had already drawn.

"How do we open it?"

"Brute force," Fukuchi Ōchi said. "It's a little late to contact someone who can open it. It's sealed inside, so the air can't circulate. I doubt the people in there can last three hours."

Suehiro Tetchō tilted his head, then drew his saber again. "All right."

Fukuchi Ōchi drew his weapon, enhancing it with his ability, and the two slashed at the door together.

"Hard." Fukuchi Ōchi looked at the wall, which now bore a cut. "Suehiro, again."

"Yes."

The captain of the Hunting Dogs and its strongest fighter put more force into their attack. Bang! A wide gap opened in the metal before them. They pulled hard at its sides, and the door instantly split open.

"There are plenty more doors like this inside." Fukuchi Ōchi looked in. "Come on, let's go get those two trapped fools."

Meanwhile, inside the Number Seven Agency.

The oxygen level kept falling, and even the Hunting Dogs were beginning to have trouble breathing.

Kamiki Yūhaku sat on the floor, taking bird feed he had brought especially for the occasion from his pocket and feeding it to the crow on his shoulder. If the others present had long since begun struggling to breathe from the lack of oxygen, Kamiki Yūhaku should have been feeling even worse. He had lost too much blood; not only could he not breathe, but his body might even have been cold.

Yet he sat there calmly, a smile even lingering in his eyes as the crow pecked at the food in his palm. Neither the man nor the bird looked as though they were about to die.

Just then, Jōno Saigiku stood up and went close to the door to listen carefully.

"Vice captain, there's a sound outside."

"What?" Ōkura Teruko jumped down from the table. "You're sure you hear something? Is it the captain?"

"Someone's swinging a blade and chopping. That's Suehiro's usual style. There's another person too. It's definitely the captain." Jōno Saigiku drew his saber. "This door is the hardest to open. Vice captain, when the time comes, we'll cut at it together. Then we can get out."

Ōkura Teruko nodded. A moment later, she looked at Kamiki Yūhaku sitting nearby. "You'd better not try anything."

"Oh? You'd still pay attention to me at a time like this?" There was a smile in Kamiki Yūhaku's eyes. "Please, go ahead and open the door. I won't stop you."

Jōno Saigiku listened to Kamiki Yūhaku's airy voice. A moment later, a possibility occurred to him.

"Wait!" Jōno Saigiku said. "We can't let the captain open this door!"

"What did you say?"

"He activated more than just the defense system. He also activated the base's self-destruct system connected to it. The moment this main door is breached, the base will immediately self-destruct!"

Ōkura Teruko's eyes widened. "Those people won't have time to escape."

"So from the very beginning, even if the Hunting Dogs came, we couldn't do anything. Your target was the Number Seven Agency from the start. Even if the Hunting Dogs opened this door, they still wouldn't be able to escape, because they don't have the same physical capabilities as us."

"You're putting yourself in a completely hopeless situation. What on earth are you thinking?!"

Kamiki Yūhaku smiled. "I can't help it."

"If I don't put myself in a hopeless situation, how can I put them in one?"

"Some people have to be buried with me."

"Madman!"

Jōno Saigiku faced Kamiki Yūhaku and voiced a suspicion he had held since meeting him. "That crow—isn't it the one you raised at all?"

"Oh?" Kamiki Yūhaku stared at him. "Why do you think that?"

"I can't see, so I rely on hearing and feeling to make judgments," Jōno Saigiku said. "I read your file. That crow is the companion who's been with you through everything. The bond between you is stronger than one would imagine. But when you were feeding it just now, I didn't feel any affection."