Birthday, Yet Drowning, and the Bio-Force Field—Move for Me!

Birthday, Yet Drowning, and the Bio-Force Field—Move for Me!

The setting sun painted the school bus orange-red as Dio stepped aboard with one hand in his pocket.

Clark followed close behind, carrying a paper bag full of handmade class projects.

"Mr. Kents!"

Their homeroom teacher, Mrs. Green, suddenly poked her head out by the bus door and lowered her voice mysteriously. "Happy birthday~"

Clark's blue eyes instantly lit up.

"How did you know, Mrs. Green?"

"Dummy."

Without turning around, Dio said, "Do you think student records are just for decoration?"

"Besides, our birthdays are on the same day."

Clark nodded in sudden realization. "Then what do you think Uncle Locke prepared this year?"

"An astronomical telescope." Dio cut him off and casually pressed Clark into the window seat. "A custom model from the Royal Academy of Sciences."

"Huh?!"

Clark nearly sprang out of his seat. "How did you—?!"

"Dad made seven overseas calls in the past two months." Dio rolled his eyes. "To someone vacationing abroad."

"Every time, he said—"

"Brother Anthony, my two kids, this year they—"

The boy imitated Locke's tone perfectly.

"It'd be hard not to know."

"Dio, you're too evil. You actually told me in advance."

"Who asked?"

"Oh..."

Clark's shoulders visibly drooped, like a punctured Krypton balloon. He nervously twisted his fingers together.

"Um... Dio..."

"Don't even think about it." Dio flipped through his notes without looking up. "I'm not using 'The World' to punch you into amnesia."

"The World's fists hurt too, asshole!"

Clark was about to protest when the school bus suddenly lurched violently!

He instinctively grabbed the handrail, accidentally twisting the metal bar out of shape in his palm.

But what was even more terrifying was—

"Kids, we're in trouble!"

Old Tom, the driver, suddenly roared. The steering wheel spun wildly in his hands. "Everyone, quickly, the windows—!"

Amid the shriek of brakes—

"Boom—crack!!"

With the groan of snapping metal, the bridge ahead of the school bus collapsed before their eyes.

Then the bus plunged nose-first into the raging river in an instant. The windshield exploded into a spiderweb pattern the moment it struck the water.

Old Tom was the first to be knocked unconscious.

"Ahhh—!!"

Screams filled the bus.

Icy river water surged through the cracks like countless silver snakes, rising past the boys' knees.

Clark's super senses expanded infinitely in that instant—

He saw Mrs. Green unconscious in the front row.

He smelled the pungent stench of diesel mixed with river water.

He heard his classmates' heartbeats pounding so violently they seemed about to burst.

He even...

Tasted the salty tears of some terrified child mixed into the water.

"What is this...?"

The boy froze in place, his blue pupils contracting to pinpoints.

But before he could think any further, the water had already flooded over the front seats and reached his chest.

The school bus was still slowly sinking.

"Boom!"

Glass shattered.

An invisible giant hand suddenly seized the back of his collar!

"Splash—!"

Clark's vision blurred. By the time he came to his senses—

He had been forcibly dragged out of the water. Dio stood on the shallows nearby, his golden bangs plastered wetly to his deathly pale face. Beside him, the unconscious Mrs. Green was being held aloft over the water by an invisible hand.

"Dio! Everyone—"

"Shut up, idiot."

Dio gritted out the words, veins bulging at his temples.

Overusing his Stand had made his vision go black, but he still commanded The World to drag the unconscious teacher onto shore.

As for everyone else—

Sorry.

This wasn't like saving one person from a meteor strike. There were twenty or thirty students in that bus!

Unless he could lift the school bus straight out of the water, there was no way to save them.

So this time, Dio—

Could do nothing.

But—

Clark took a deep breath and turned to look at the river.

—Only half the school bus remained above the surface, bubbles burbling upward.

Without hesitation, he dove back into the water and swam toward the bus.

"Clark!!"

Dio's roar was muffled into a vague vibration by the water.

The underwater world was terrifyingly silent.

With his eyes wide open, Clark could see more than a dozen children, like insects trapped in amber, struggling sluggishly amid the steadily rising water inside the bus.

Their hair, textbooks, and backpack straps floated eerily in the water.

At the deepest point, a girl's red hair ribbon was gradually being swallowed by the river.

The lack of oxygen...

Had caused many of the children to pass out.

"Bang!"

The Kryptonian boy's fist shattered the glass.

Within the whirlpool formed by the rushing water, he grabbed the nearest two children.

They felt cold and soft, just like the litter of little rabbits he and Dio had rescued last winter.

After pushing them toward the surface, Clark turned to save a third person, a fourth, a fifth...

Until—

He had overestimated himself.

His oxygen was being rapidly depleted, and a burning sensation flared in his lungs.

Through the distorted current, Clark saw more children with pale faces being swallowed by the water inside the bus.

One girl had her eyes tightly shut, her lips moving unconsciously. From the shape of her mouth, she was calling—

Mom?

Yeah. I have a mom too.

Clark regretted it. He regretted trying to play the hero.

Death—

Followed him like a shadow.

Black spots began appearing at the edges of his vision, like a broken television screen.

Today was his and Dio's birthday, but it seemed he had ruined it again. His mom and dad would cry, and Uncle Locke and Dio would be sad.

Was this...

The wrong choice, Uncle Locke?

The pressure of the river made his eardrums buzz. In his haze, Clark heard a voice drifting through his memories.

"The unavoidable path of growing up, Clark."

"When you make a choice, it means you are ready to bear responsibility."

"There is a price to pay, but there are gains as well."

"But remember this."

"You only need to keep growing. Nature's miracle will bring forth new life!"

Darkness surged in like a tide, and his consciousness was about to fade...

In an instant—!

The boy's eyes snapped open.

He had reached the depths of the river, both hands braced against the front of the bus.

"Boom!"

A sound so faint it was nearly imperceptible!

But that was the sun!

That was Clark's cells!

At the brink of despair, they erupted with a brilliance like the sun!

A newly born pulse of energy burst from the boy's fingertips, and an invisible force field spread outward in ripples!

"Hummm—!"

The metal frame let out a groan under unbearable strain.

The river water began to tremble. Schools of fish fled in panic, and every pebble along the riverbed bounced slightly!

"Get..."

His muscle fibers tore and reformed under the overload. Countless bubbles escaped through his clenched teeth, rising to the surface streaked with blood.

"Up!!!"

"Boom!"

The entire river fell still.

Then a dazzling shockwave shook the riverbed!

And on the riverbank at that moment—

Clark.

Clark!

Staring at the water's surface, where no more figures had floated up, Dio struggled to enter the water, but—

The aftereffects of however many seconds of stopped time earlier had left his brain unable to think through the agonizing pain.

He had even just helped Clark pull those children out of the water.

Now—

He could not even summon The World!

Dio slammed his fist into the ground and roared, "Clark, you asshole!"

"You ruined today just like this, you—"

"Boom—!"

His words were abruptly cut off. Dio's face went blank with shock as he forced himself upright and looked toward the river.

There—

A massive bulge of water had risen!

The huge metal object that had almost entirely sunk was being lifted by an invisible giant hand, breaking through the surface!

Under the sunset, thousands upon thousands of rainbows refracted through the air.

Countless droplets hung suspended in midair, motionless as though time itself had stopped!

Even Moses parting the sea in legend was probably nothing compared to this, right?!

Staring in astonishment at the divided water, Dio looked in disbelief at the deformed school bus being lifted back to shore.

Could there really be gods in this world?

Had the river god exerted its power...

Or something?

"Bang!"

The front of the bus touched the shallows.

A drenched blue-eyed boy crawled out from behind the bus.

And turned Dio back into a staunch materialist.

Clark's face was pale as silver, yet he still forced a weak smile at Dio.

"Hey, Dio, I didn't ruin it this time, did I?"

"Idiot! Who told you to play the hero?!"

"Because..."

"Dio, if you had the ability, I think you would have done the same, just like how you thought you could save people beneath the meteor."

Before he could finish, Clark toppled forward like a puppet with its strings cut.

In his final moments of consciousness, he heard Dio's curse drawing closer and closer:

"Clark, you bastard."

In the wheat field, the setting sun dyed the stubble a golden red.

After a long day of labor, Logan lay sprawled atop a haystack, his steel claws idly poking at blades of grass as he muttered nonstop:

"Locke, where's the birthday party? I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry."

Locke could not help but smile.

He rose to his feet. "By now, they should be back."

"Logan, thanks for your claws. You might still have time to make your Canadian honey cake."

With one arm under his head, Logan snapped irritably, "It's maple syrup cake, you tasteless farmer."

His voice abruptly cut off.

Because Locke's expression had suddenly frozen.

The farmer slowly sat up, his gaze fixed on a point in the empty air.

Logan followed his line of sight—

There was nothing there but swaying ears of wheat.

"Uh, Locke?"

Wolverine swallowed, his steel claws retracting unconsciously. "Honey cake it is, then. If you want some, I can make it too—"

But Locke seemed not to hear him.

Words only he could see were reflected in his pupils—

[Dior Kent, nine years old]

[Stand: The World]

[Ability increased → The World · Time Stop · 1s]

[Loading parental privileges for host]

[Stand: Star Platinum]

[Ability increased → Star Platinum · The World · Time Stop · 5s]

Chapter 35 has been unlocked. You can read it now.

Whew, that scared me to death.