Nagumo Shian's Request
Caution! There are no explicit scenes in the text, but the illustration is suggestive. Please be mindful of your surroundings.
I had no idea the attacker was a psychic. The rule is simple: shoot the moment you see them. Kill them before they even register that a gun has been fired.
Sawayanagi Azuma issued the warning to the whole team, then immediately sprinted toward the shattered entrance to pursue the attacker disguised as a Kurotsuki operative. The doorway, however, was completely blocked by rubble and debris.
"They sealed it with telekinesis. To erect such a solid barrier in that short span of time… this opponent is no amateur," Sawayanagi Shigeru remarked, rapping his knuckles against the wall. He was right. Deflecting and returning bullets, then instantly shoring up a collapsed wall, proved the attacker possessed an extremely high level of telekinetic mastery. My own proficiency remained low because I split my training across multiple techniques, but the man in the Hawaiian shirt was clearly a high-level specialist who had poured everything into psychokinesis.
"Wouldn’t it be faster to go over the roof?"
> The roof has automated anti-aircraft AI turrets. My drone was shot down the moment it approached. There’s also electrified razor wire. Reaching the roof is impossible.
Rianna Holden’s telepathic voice echoed inside everyone’s heads in response to Sawayanagi Azuma’s murmur. So we had no choice but to break through this entrance. Typical for a secret laboratory—no windows, only one way in. Which meant it was my turn to step up.
"I’ll clear a path," I said, stopping Sawayanagi Tobey before he could steel-transform and ram the blockage with his body. I took position directly in front of the sealed wall.
Deep Sea Eight Hands
Tentacle Force Wave
I lifted my leg and slammed a kick into the wall using the foundational stance of the Deep Sea Eight Hands style. A ripple of force burst outward from the point of impact, shattering the telekinetic barrier the Hawaiian-shirt man had erected.
The wall collapsed with a thunderous roar. Everyone stared in awe at the single kick that had completely demolished the obstruction.
"Whoa, he really is Lady Fujigasaki Rinka’s disciple!"
"Save the chatter for later. Move in, now."
When Katayama Junichi’s eyes sparkled and he looked ready to swarm me with questions, Sawayanagi Azuma shoved him through the newly opened entrance.
"We’ve opened the way, but we still lost time. Everyone advance! Seari, commune with the wind and guide us!"
"Got it!"
This time Sawayanagi Tobey took point, his steel transformation ready. Sawayanagi Seari and Sawayanagi Azuma—exceptional at pursuit and danger sense respectively—flanked him. I brought up the rear, running while I analyzed strategies for dealing with the Hawaiian-shirt man.
Telekinesis looked like cheap street magic in the beginning, but once mastery and the core Will stat reached a certain threshold, its power became terrifying. It was an ability that scaled dramatically in the late game.
I had plenty of different attack methods, so mixing them should let me win. The problem was the Seryu members who hadn’t finished growing yet. I didn’t want to lose any of them.
Earlier, instead of charging through the bullet storm and planting a Deep Sea Eight Hands punch in his face—which probably would have ended it in one hit—I had raised a telekinetic shield. At least three of my people would have died otherwise. I couldn’t afford to lose a PMC I had worked so hard to obtain.
The secret lab appeared to belong to Taira Bio or Taira Pharmaceuticals; it was clearly used for chemical or biological experiments. The researchers we passed while running were all unconscious, but a quick check confirmed they weren’t dead. They had been hit with tranquilizer rounds.
"They used tranquilizers instead of lethal force. This doesn’t seem like the Kurotsuki after all."
"They’re probably using the chaos from the Kurotsuki incident in Akita Prefecture as cover for a heist. A secret Taira Group laboratory would hold an absolute fortune in valuable data."
Sawayanagi Azuma answered Sawayanagi Shinya after he checked the fallen researchers’ conditions. I had reached the same conclusion. Their behavior didn’t match the Kurotsuki at all. The Hawaiian-shirt man who seemed to be their leader wasn’t among any of the high-ranking Kurotsuki characters I knew.
"Let’s keep ascending," Nagumo Shian said. Unlike the previous Black Tech laboratory, this Taira facility was an above-ground structure with five floors, so we didn’t need to descend into a dark basement.
Along the way we encountered traps the attackers had set, but Sawayanagi Seari’s wind sense and Sawayanagi Azuma’s precognition let us avoid or dismantle them easily.
However, the frequent ambushes prevented us from closing the distance quickly. Every time we stopped to fight, the enemy pulled farther ahead.
Still, ambushes were meaningless in front of Sawayanagi Seari and the wind’s guidance, so we advanced without taking casualties. It simply took time.
We finally caught up to the attackers on the stairs leading from the fourth floor to the fifth.
"Kuhaha! Not bad at all. Not a single one of you died?"
The man in the Hawaiian shirt spoke fluent Japanese now, dropping any pretense of being a foreigner. The Seryu members leveled their guns at him, clearly eager to repay the earlier humiliation. The original plan of shooting on sight had already collapsed. Firing now would only get the bullets reflected back like before.
"Forget the guns! Fight using your abilities!" I shouted.
A telekinetic could deflect bullets, but not the direct powers of other psychics. Techniques like Kiyona Mari’s flames or Sawayanagi Seari’s wind blades couldn’t be bounced away.
"Everyone else, use your firearms on the small fry! Kiyona Mari and Sawayanagi Seari, hit the Hawaiian-shirt guy with your powers!"
"Kuhahahaha! Hawaiian-shirt guy?"
The man threw his head back and laughed uproariously, apparently finding the nickname hilarious. Both sides glared at each other across raised gun barrels in a brief standoff. Then Sawayanagi Mikiyo fired three precise shots that punched through foreheads, and the hallway erupted into chaotic gunfire.
With no cover, both sides simply sprayed bullets at each other. But we had Sawayanagi Tobey. He stood at the front like a steel wall while Kiyona Hori, Sawayanagi Mikiyo, and Katayama Junichi fired from behind his protection.
The moment combat began, Sawayanagi Shinya hurled an electrified grenade that stunned ten enemies at once, then rolled to dodge incoming fire. Sawayanagi Shigeru used his speedster ability to flash behind the enemy lines before they could even aim, slitting throats with his dagger.
Sawayanagi Azuma danced through the bullets with her signature precognitive evasion. It looked less like dodging and more like avoiding glowing red attack zones in an RPG.
Kiyona Mari and Sawayanagi Seari followed my instructions, bombarding the Hawaiian-shirt man with fire and wind blades. Sure enough, even he couldn’t block everything with telekinesis and was forced to dodge frantically. When our eyes met, he grinned, showing his teeth.
"This is the kind of fight you wanted, right? But your people’s abilities can’t do serious damage to me."
The man suddenly planted his feet and thrust both hands toward Kiyona Mari and Sawayanagi Seari. The flames and wind blades slammed into him, but he endured with minimal injury. His Hawaiian shirt burned away and tore to shreds, leaving his upper body bare, yet his actual body remained unharmed. Some kind of defensive trait. A high-level telekinetic with strong defense on top of everything else? That was just unfair.
Instead, the two women he targeted rose into the air as if invisible hands had seized them by the throat. From the choking sounds they made, their slender necks would snap any second if I didn’t intervene. They possessed some natural resistance as psychics, so their necks wouldn’t break instantly, but they would slowly strangle to death if I did nothing.
I tensed the muscles in my calves (the sunglasses were still intact, so I decided to call him Sunglasses Man from now on) and charged straight at him. He kept smiling with his teeth bared.
THUD!
My vision blurred from the massive impact. An invisible fist had struck my jaw dead-on. The brain-rattling blow left me momentarily stunned. What the hell? He could use telekinesis without hand gestures?
"Heh heh heh. Did you think I could only use telekinesis with my hands?"
The way he had kept both hands outstretched earlier was a trap. I had assumed that if he needed both hands to stop me, I could close the distance. Instead I had walked right into his ploy. As powerful as his ability was, the man himself was just as cunning.
"Kuhuhu! Snap out of it. If you don’t, I’ll break these two twig-like necks."
I shook the haze from my eyes and charged again. This time was different. The first blow had caught me by surprise, but now that I knew the attacks were coming, I could endure them.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
I pressed forward like a charging bull, absorbing the telekinetic strikes. Sunglasses Man finally looked slightly rattled.
GRAB!
My hand closed around his throat. I glanced sideways and saw that he had released the grip on Kiyona Mari and Sawayanagi Seari to focus everything on me. The two women had collapsed, clutching their throats and coughing violently. Good. They were alive.
"How’s that? You can’t come any closer, can you?"
Sunglasses Man sneered at me with a triumphant grin. In response, I bared my own teeth and smiled back.
"No. I’m already close enough."
SWOOSH!
Shadow Dominion + Deep Sea Eight Hands
Ten Fingers Full Bloom
A sword of pure shadow erupted through both of the man’s feet. While suspended in midair, I twisted at the waist, spread both hands wide, and slammed them into his chest.
The abyssal energy contained within Ten Fingers Full Bloom exploded beneath his skin. Crimson flower patterns resembling octopus suckers blossomed across his bare torso.
With his feet impaled by the shadow blade, Sunglasses Man could only stand and take the full force of the technique. Had he been free to move he might have rolled or been blasted away to disperse the impact, but this was the beauty of a combo. The perfect synergy between Shadow Dominion and Deep Sea Eight Hands.
"GAAHHH!!!"
Blood sprayed from his mouth as Sunglasses Man collapsed on the spot.
-------It’s so hot that I suddenly felt like making a swimming pool scene haha.
Yukyung and the nude swimming pool ❤️