Chapter 179: Chapter 44
Perched atop the skeletal fra of a half-finished skyscraper was Shirohara Retsu, and despite the wind howling around the jagged edges of steel and glass, she didn’t even flinch.
Wearing her signature white doctor’s coat, which whipped violently in the night breeze, she stood at the very precipice of the roof, completely silent.
She looked down at the city below, a sprawling carpet of flickering lights and pulsing neon, with eyes that were cold, indifferent, and completely detached from the millions of lives scurrying beneath her.
To her, the city was nothing more than a petri dish, and the people within were rely cells to be observed, or discarded.
Yes, they weren’t humans in her eyes, at most, just a cheap imitation of a human.
She stretched out her hand towards the city below. If she wanted, with a flick of her wrist, she can rain down hundreds of acupuncture needles with the force of a teorite, completely reducing this city into ruins, killing everything.
It’s not the first ti she had done that.
Many tis in the past, she would go to the middle east and completely wrecked everything without worry, as the dia would simply report it as an airstrike or a military drill.
That feeling when she does those things was completely exhilarating, like a gar who just found out they can bombard entire civilizations in a ga.
She took back her hands, feeling incredibly reluctant.
Suddenly, the sharp crackle of static electricity tore through the whistling wind behind her.
Imdiately, the air grew ionized, slling of ozone and impending rain.
Retsu didn’t even turn around as she spoke, her voice was a flat, clinical monotone that cut through the gale. "I’ve said it many tis, Hana. Don’t co near
when I’m like this. My impulses are... less controlled. I might really kill you."
Standing several paces behind her was Miyamura Hana, the Horoom teacher of Seijirou, Rei, and Haruka.
At this mont, faint arcs of golden electricity danced around her limbs for a fleeting second before vanishing into the night air.
She stared at Retsu’s back, her golden eyes burning with a mixture of disbelief and fury.
"Retsu, you lied to ! You said you will handle it, so why didn’t you kill those people?" Hana demanded, her voice trembling with suppressed rage. "Those disgusting pieces of garbage... they are the absolute filth of the earth that must be disposed, so why didn’t you even attack them!?"
"I left them for Seijirou to handle," Retsu replied simply, as if discussing the weather.
"Why!?" Hana’s shout echoed off the surrounding buildings. "There are more than enough anomalies in this city for him to handle! Why must it be them? Do you have any idea how much harm they have caused? How many lives they’ve destroyed? They are eating humans, Retsu! They are treating won as cattles to be breed and eaten! They need to die!"
"So what?" Retsu remained motionless, her detachnt absolute. "An ant killed another ant. Big deal. Does the sun stop shining because a few insects were crushed?"
Hana’s breath hitched.
"...I forgot you don’t even consider other people as humans at all," she whispered, her hands curling into fists.
"That’s harsh. I consider Seijirou as a human, just like . You guys just aren’t human to begin with, or rather, you people aren’t even real."
"..." Hana frowned, but decided to say nothing about that topic and move on, "....Tell
Retsu, just what exactly are you planning? Why would you let Seijirou handle those scums?"
"Why, you ask? It’s quite simple, really. I want to see Seijirou grow," Retsu answered as she tilted her head slightly, her voice gaining a hint of philosophical weight. "I’m sure you already know this, Hana. Although Seijirou possesses superior powers compared to all his peers, there is one thing that he completely lacks, the final ingredient required for him to be called a true powerhouse."
Hana remained silent, her golden eyes fixed on Retsu’s silhouette.
"...And that is, a killer instinct," Retsu said, and then she grinned. It was a creepy, uncanny grin, a stretching of the lips that didn’t reach her eyes, a facial expression that felt like a mask slipping.
It was the kind of smile that could send shivers down the spine of a hardened soldier. "All his battles until now have been nothing more than petty squabbles between children, nothing serious, and you can even call them a ga."
She closed her eyes, staring at the night sky as if savoring sothing as she continued, "But this ti, it’s different. He will face a literal, irredeemable evil. Soone who can only be stopped if they are killed. Seijirou will have no choice but to harden his heart and finish it. He must learn to take a life to protect his own."
"But he’s still a child!" Hana gritted her teeth, the golden sparks returning to her fingertips. "He shouldn’t be forced into killing people at his age! You’re robbing him of his humanity!"
"You were ten when you first killed another human." Retsu retorted.
Hana paused, bdfore her eyes turned fiercer, "That was different! We were on a war back then! I had no choice!"
"Yes, and this ti, Seijirou will have no choice." Said Retsu.
Hana remained silent for a few monts before spoke once again, this ti, her voice begging, "Retsu please... Just let nature take its course. Don’t force him to grow too soon."
"He has already entered the world of the supernatural, Hana," Retsu countered. Her grin vanished as quickly as it had appeared, replaced by a chillingly professional mask. "And you know the rules of this world, don’t you? If you protect sothing, you destroy the threat. If you defend yourself, you make sure the opponent can never attack again. And if you fight... you must kill. To do otherwise is rely hesitation, and hesitation leads to the grave."
"....You’re going to make him like you," Hana said, her voice filled with dread. "A monster who feels nothing."
"We are already alike, Hana." Retsu’s uncanny grin returned as she finally turned around.
Hana frowned, and a spear appeared on her hands, coated with lightning as between Retsu’s fingers, she held a long, silver acupuncture needle, pointing it directly at Hana’s throat with surgical precision.
"And it’s you people that have been imitating us! All of you!"
Hana frowned, her heart sinking. Once again, Retsu had started talking in those fragnted, nonsensical bursts and started mittering those words that signaled her mind was drifting into a dangerous place.
"Why?! Why are you becoming real!?" Retsu’s voice suddenly surged with an erratic, frantic energy. "Why is it!? I don’t understand! I don’t understand! We were supposed to be different! Only us! Only the two of us were supposed to be special! You, and those girls too! Why are you imitating us!? Why are you trying to occupy the sa space as us?!"
Hana let out a long, weary sigh. This friend of hers had started getting even more unstable ever since she returned from that mountain to train with Seijirou.
The line between Retsu the doctor and Retsu the anomaly was blurring into sothing terrifying.
Although Retsu was already unstable before, but back then, she can still suppress her psychotic nature, but now...
"If Seijirou wouldn’t hate
for it, I would’ve killed every single one of you already!" Retsu stated, her voice dropping into a terrifyingly calm, lodic tone.
"I think you really need to see a psychiatrist, Retsu," Hana said, her golden eyes softening with a flicker of pity as her spear vanished from her hands.
Retsu shook her head, her erratic energy dissipating as she returned to her usual self, offering a kind and gentle smile that looked perfectly natural. "No need. Or rather, no psychiatrist is willing to accept
anymore. They always ended up insane when they tried to talk to . My ntality seems to be a bit much for them to handle."
She turned her back to Hana once more, gazing out at the city lights. "Anyway, don’t interfere with my plans, Hana, and don’t even try to get involved, or I really will have to kill you."
Hana remained silent for a few monts, the electricity around her humming quietly. "...Very well, but answer
this one thing, Retsu. Do you truly, genuinely care about Seijirou? Or is he just another specin to you?"
"You already know the answer to that, Hana. I care about him more than my life, no, more than anything else in this world," Retsu said, her voice filled with a rare, crystalline sincerity.
"I see. I understand." Hana turned around, her silhouette flickering. "I hope you don’t end up regretting this, Retsu. For both our sakes."
Then, with a sudden, blinding flash of lightning and a thunderous crack, she disappeared from the rooftop.
Retsu simply smiled at the empty space, the wind ruffling her white coat. "Regret? Not in the slightest."
Seijirou needed to grow fast, as the world will only get dangerous from this point on.
She can already feel it, those anomalies have gotten even stronger, and if Seijirou couldn’t keep up, he might really be in danger.
If she and Hana didn’t eliminate those stronger Anomalies, then even one of them would be more than a match for Seijirou, with several of them already being stronger than him.
She sighed. In the end, it’s because of the Grand Order’s greed and lust for power that led to this situation.
And if it weren’t for people like Hana who sacrificed their childhood to protect the world and maintain order, the workd would’ve been overrun by anomalies long ago.
"Seijirou..." Retsu whispered, "You must endure whatever cos your way. Only then can you truly grow stronger."
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