Chapter 96: Red Man

4th State Middle School of Nagano Prefecture

"Welcome, to Deadman Wonderland! All adults and all children, let's all dream well! This summer's biggest hit - the lunatic parade, starts now!"

An announcement/promotional advertisement was announced through the tiny device in my hand known as a phone. With the typical flip phone base and a not-so-typical hologram screen floating just above the base, the phone of this era was much ahead of those in my previous world.

On the hologram screen, a funny-looking chicken that was wearing a prisoner's attire spoke. It was rather cute and popular amongst the younger population.

"Fuutarou! What're you watching?" A female voice sounded, and I turned my head to face the girl, Mimi.

Mimi had smooth upper-back length black hair with square bangs hanging just above her eyebrows and grey eyes. She was wearing the school's female uniform - a white shirt with a red ribbon tied in a shoelace knot and a short black skirt.

"Hey, Mimi. I was just thinking; the class trip is kinda dumb. I mean, I wouldn't mind it if it was overseas, but a prison? What can we even learn from there? Not to be bad people?"

"But you're an escapee, right? You lived in Tokyo before, so it might even be nostalgic!" Mimi spoke excitedly.

Honestly, I had no idea where I was born or kept. I could only roughly guess where I escaped from, Tokyo, so I put it as my address when creating my identity. It also helped that Tokyo was basically destroyed in some earthquake, which meant that no one could validate my information.

"That's like ten years ago, Mimi. I can't remember something from that far back." I lied as naturally as I breathed as I continued fiddling with my phone. I'm really interested in bringing this technology back to my world. Apart from the technology improvement, I could also earn more money for my family.

10 years ago, a year before I woke up in this body, a great earthquake struck and sunk over 70% of Tokyo. I'm not sure what the cause of such a disastrous earthquake was, but I assumed that it was the cause of my parent's deaths.

Currently, I'm an orphan with no background, so to speak. It wasn't lonely - I had friends to accompany me whenever I was not training. And being alone allowed me a significant degree of freedom.

"Yo, Fuutarou. Still fiddling with your phone, huh? How many phones does this make?" Another voice sounded, and this time, a boy appeared.

"What do you want, Yamakatsu? Can't somebody be interested in making my own technology?"

Yamakatsu had dark skin, short, spiky brown hair, and brown eyes. He wore his school's uniform - a plain white shirt - with the school's logo stitched onto the breast pocket and black pants.

"Who is so interested in this? If you want, you can easily find it online."

"You can't find trade secrets online, Yamakatsu. If companies did, they would have gone bankrupt, and everyone would just be making their own phones instead." I said, "And get away from me. You stink of sweat."

"Hey!"

Mimi laughed when Yamakatsu couldn't find a retort to my words.

"Well, it doesn't really matter where we go for the trip, really."

"Nah, I'd rather go overseas." Yamakatsu denied her words without hesitation as he tried to pick a fight with me.

Of course, he failed as he fell on his back after a judo flip over my shoulders.

"If I can go and mess around with my friends before studying kicks in, I don't think it matters where we go." Ignoring everything that happened in front of her eyes, Mimi continued explaining her train of thoughts.

"That's true, but isn't that what we have always done?" I said, "We-"

"We what?" Mimi asked, "Don't stop your sentence halfway."

"What's this song?"

"Song?"

I've heard this song, and the only place I ever heard it from is someplace I never want to go to again. I may not have suffered, but seeing others suffering in there was still...never mind.

Turning towards the window, I spotted something. A man was wearing a red, worn-out cape with a mask covering his nose and eyes without holes. A heavy suit of armor that defends his body, legs, and arms covered those respective areas.

Behind him were two chains of hexagonal purplish-black substance, and the red man stared at us...no.

He was staring at me.

Without warning, the two chains immediately smashed against the window, creating a massive crash as countless glass pieces smashed against everyone in the class.

I didn't have time to do anything apart from covering my eyes as a huge shockwave was emitted, and a cloud of dust was kicked up.

"Screw this..." I cursed as several pieces of glass sliced and diced me up. Only about fifteen seconds had passed, and when the dust cloud finally settled, I could see that all but one of my classmates had already been killed.

Holding in my urge to vomit from the bloody smell in the air, I looked at the red man lifting one of my friends in the air by her neck.

"MIMI!" My tails appeared as I dashed forward to try and save her. At this point, I don't care anymore. After nine years, my control over my tails has already been impeccable, able to easily control all twelve of my tails independently without any issue.

At the same time, I also completed one of the two quests given to me at the beginning in the white room, earning me two premium gacha tokens. But since the gacha function was down, I left the two tokens in the storage for the future.

My twelve tails wrapped around the red man, or at least, tried to as the red man easily stopped all twelve of my tails using his purple chains.

"Fuu...ta...rou..." Mimi cried out weakly as she turned her head as much as she could to me.

"Let go of Mimi!"

The red man remained silent as he turned to face me. My claws were already right in front of his face, and just when I thought I would scratch his entire face, my arms suddenly felt a surge of pain.

"ARGHHH!" I yelled out in pain as I saw both my arms bend out of shape. I didn't have any time to breathe as I felt another wave of pain appear on my abdomen.

The wind got knocked out of me as I struggled to breathe for a moment. I could feel my ribs being broken. But Mimi was still alive and struggling in the red man's hand, so I wasn't backing down anytime soon.

Adrenaline flowed through my body as my ten tails stretched longer than they ever had to reach across the entire classroom for the red man.

This time, the purple chains were easily broken as I chased my tails towards the same target. My tails were no longer fluffy; they were sharp and aimed with the intent to kill. I couldn't use my arms anymore, but my legs were still functioning.

Without my arms, my balance was off, but the remaining two tails helped with that.

Baekdu is a knee attack delivered to the opponent. A simple attack meant for beginners to learn, but it can turn perilous depending on executing it.

The knee joint is one of the strongest and most important joints in the human body, and being the largest and most complex synovial joint in the human body, it can absorb the vertical force of nearly seven times the body weight.

All the chains between us trying to defend my knee attack were shattered like glass as the red man finally received the impact of my knee. My tails stabbed through the red man as I kneed him, causing several large gashes to appear on his body as he flew backward.

At the same time, Mimi was finally released from his grasp as he flew backward for but a moment.

"Mimi!" I could have chased the red man, but Mimi was of greater importance. Catching her before she could fall to the ground, I immediately dashed back to safety.

"Mimi!" I looked at her face but then realized something. Her head was twisted so much that she was facing backward instead.

"Mimi..." I put her down without moving her body at all and glared at the red man, "You..."

Mimi was a friend. A friend in a trial world might not be "real", but a friend was a friend, regardless of reality.

"You'll pay for this..."

Bo-Bup is a technique that allows the user to appear behind, next to, above, etc., their opponent instantaneously. I might not have fully mastered the technique and need to get close to the target for it to work, but it remains to be a versatile skill.

My right leg swung down while my tails swung up simultaneously, aiming to completely incapacitate the red man.

It sort of did, but I wasn't too sure. I heard the sound of broken bones, but the red man retreated without a single sound of groaning or whimpering.

He didn't really rely on his legs to walk, not that he could now that his legs were bent towards the opposite side. His arms were also unusable now that his right shoulder bone was utterly smashed, or at least, I hoped it was.

"Hehe..."

For the first time, the red man finally let out a sound. It wasn't a sound that I expected, but it was a sound nevertheless.

"What are you laughing at..." I was angry, but hearing the sudden giggle stopped me for a while.

The man didn't reply as he revealed a red crystal in his left palm.

"What is that?" I didn't know what that was, but I'm sure as hell not going to let any random thing hit me. The red man didn't throw that thing towards me like I expected and instead flew towards me.

Of course, I don't give mercy to someone who killed all my friends, and I immediately dashed towards the floating red man. He raised up his left palm, and I made the same knee attack as before.

But this time, I did not face any resistance as my knee landed on his chest.

"Huh?"

Before I could react, a leg had already found its way towards my face, aiming to kick me so hard that I decapitated my own neck. Fortunately, I just spun my body in the same direction where my head was kicked.

It still hurt like hell, but I was alive. Barely, but alive. Slumping at the wall, I looked at the red man, tired.

Am I going to die here?

My tails rushed out to pierce the man through his limbs and chest, but it seemed as though he was immortal.

The red stone in his hand was shrouded with a black aura, and he slammed it towards me. I was too injured and tired to move, and I couldn't dodge it in time.

The moment it reached my chest, a bright red light shined, the black aura spread out, and a cracking sound could be heard simultaneously.

"Who...are...you...?" I was slowly losing my consciousness as my vision blurred.

The red man didn't reply to me. He merely continued to stare at me as I slowly slumped down to the floor, where I finally lost my consciousness.

∞3rd POV∞

Seeing the young boy finally lose consciousness, the red man walked away as if nothing had happened. He flew towards the window and out into the open. His blood-red chains floated freely behind him.

It was as though he was invisible; despite floating so obviously in the air, not a single person noticed him.

The naughty little woodpecker ♪

Knocked holes, crumbling the forest.

The angry wood god turned his beak into poison! ♪

The poor little woodpecker, his nest was poisoned, his supper too.

He touched his friends, and they all died. ♪

"Fuu-ta-rou~!" The red man revealed a broad smile in the small gap in his mask, excitedly giggled after he sang, "I won this time around~!"

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A/N: Since the title I originally planned to put was a spoiler, I changed it. But after everything becomes clearer and you guys know what world we are in, I'll put in a better title.

Sigh, I haven't written anything in 4 weeks now. School really sucks~

If you want to support me or/and want chapters in advance, link:

https://www.patréon.com/spirits_everywhere. We are currently 8 chapters ahead~