Cold Steel
"
"
"Surge!"
With I and Mana going toe-to-toe with him, the already wrecked Subspace where we fought his clone now became nothing more but a ruin of concrete and ice.
"Now, Mana!"
"Right!"
"
"
"Wait-!"
"-?!"
I and Mana tried our best to keep our offense going to pin him down on the defensive. I expected him to send counter-attacks, but that is when I realized that the Taka that I am facing right now isn't going for the pattern that I know he would always get into before.
"Are you only realizing it now, 25?"
"…"
"I am not the same man as before! The one who stands in front of you today is the product of ceaseless deaths and Replications!"
"I knew it…"
"I have died a hundred times! But all those deaths are not for naught! All of those failures and Replications have taught me how to perfect myself!"
The Hirayama Taka that I know is a man of habit. Once you know his tendencies, you only need to plan ahead or around those things in order to corner and defeat him.
But the Taka that is standing here in front of me and Mana is one who has been fighting sporadically and with no patterns at all. Even if he has the upper hand, he will switch into a defensive stance. And when he is at a disadvantage because I and Mana managed to catch him off-guard, he would spike his Astra energy levels in order to perform an area-wide attack.
He is very unpredictable now… and I suspect that there is an explanation as to why is that.
"His Physical-Spiritual Binding is heightening his senses. Because of that, he is getting information about our actions way before we even think of them."
"And that's why he's acting and responding unpredictably?"
"Right… That is the reason."
"How should we bring him down then, Sensei?"
"Give me a bit more time. I'm thinking around it."
"I can only last for a bit more while, sensei… Let's finish this before I collapse."
"I will try my best."
With our short exchange over, I proceeded to shoot forward to lead our charge yet again as Mana tries to recover as much Astra energy as she can to join in the rumble.
"Hya!"
*BYUUK-! BYUUK-!*
"You're beginning to become slower, 25!"
"Tch!"
"Don't tell me that you haven't overcome the side effect of using that weapon yet!"
"You shut your mouth!"
Unlike my master, I do not have the Psychic aspect that can negate the effects of using this sword that explodes out a mass of Astra energy. Because of that, my hand has been aching and shaking for a while.
"You should've stuck with your gun! But you're so keen with keeping a poetic justice against me that you can't bear to kill me using the weapon that your master didn't own!"
"…"
"Bring out your Augmenter, 25! Make this easier for you!"
"Kh-!"
It's true that I started our fight with my own personal Augmenter weapon. But when I thought about how this might be the best time to finish him, I decided to switch back to my master's sword again to fulfill the revenge I needed to enact against him who is one of the people responsible for his death.
"You're mediocre in close combat like this! You know you are helpless once I start throwing my fists, right?!"
"That's not for you to decide!"
I swung the blade around and made necessary steps on the ground and the ice boulders to gain as much momentum as possible for the one clean slash that I am trying to find and use.
"Alright! My body's ice again! Time to beat your ass in!"
"Kh-!
"
After seeing that the area of his torso that was blasted and looked like broken ice was fully recovered, I put up a shield mesh made of steel rebars as he conjured an ability to finally go on the offensive.
"
"Darn-!"
The shield mesh, which was supposed to protect me like a solid steel net but not obstruct my vision, quickly became a mistake as he hit me with a downpour of snow instead of solid ice. It easily went past the net before I can set up a better and more solid sheet of metal and sent me to the ground way below a crushing mass of snow.
"…Oww."
"
"-!!!"
It took a moment for me to regain my marbles after what happened, and it was just in time as I heard him cast another ability when I am at the most disadvantageous of positions.
"Urgh!
"It's too late for you now, 25!
"Kh-!"
The snow around me began to melt and just before it can run off, it turned into a huge iceberg from the tip and down to the base. All of that happened while I was still stuck inside of it.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Now, now…"
"Sensei… I'm sorry for failing to help you in time."
With Sensei caught inside of that iceberg and me still being relatively tired and running low on Astra energy, the situation is direr now that it was before.
"If you would surrender, I would give you a quick death and make sure that a Replicant of yours will be given back to your family… of course, she would be on our side by then."
"Screw yourself, Gardener."
"…"
"I am not here to lose."
But I don't care about the odds. I was taught to win, and I was taught nothing else… I will win, that is all that is in my mind.
"Kaede-sensei told me once… that of all the Psychic aspects that exist in the Psychic world, Pyrokinesis is the most common to exist and most present in the hands of Psychics."
"And?"
"Because of that, it is also the most studied… and with those studies, experiments and tests, Pyrokinesis has something that most other Psychic aspects don't have."
I felt a warm feeling in my belly. Something that seems to pulsate and exude out to my appendages and give strength to my limbs.
"You…"
"I am not like your mass-produced seed Psychics or your substandard Psychic recruits. My body was trained from childhood to be adept in combat, and I developed a sense of self that carries honor and valor."
I sensed that Ephraim changed after he came back from Aokigahara. I already know that he is strong after he managed to defeat countless strong enemies when we are out there fighting both Psychics and Malignances, but the strength that I sensed from him was paired with a more refined sense of duty and responsibility.
I do not know what Kai is up to right now. But even if he is kind of a childish and gung-ho guy, he is strong in his own way and he is resolute in his actions and what he is fighting for.
As for me… I feel like I was being left out. Even if I passed Sir Lucas' tests and exceeded everyone's expectations, I do not feel that it was enough for me. I feel like I was the same person as I was a year ago when our team was formed.
I hated that. I hated being the only one who is still figuring out what she should become.
"I will stand against you even if I am alone… even if I must stand and fight here all alone."
"I've had enough out of you two!"
"What a coincidence… so am I."
Fire covered my fists, and I began emitting a field of extreme heat that the concrete floor below me almost turned into molten rock.
"I've killed your teacher. I don't mind doing the same to his student."
"That's where you are wrong."
"-?!!"
To his surprise, water touched his feet from behind and that is when a piece of metal skidded off the icy surface of his face, forming a crack that lined his face like a shattered mirror.
"Good job at prolonging your conversation, Mana… That was just enough time."
"How… how did you manage to-?!"
"It's that one habit that you can never change about yourself that is the answer to that, Taka. No matter how many Replications or editing of genes and memories that you do, that one thing about you will never change."
"What…?"
"…You're someone who cannot pass up on the opportunity to hear or speak something overdramatic. Like a conversation in the middle of a battle."
"You-!!!"
"Time for our all-out attack now! Mana! Let's do this!"
"Aye, sensei!!!"
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
I talked to Mana earlier about something that I wanted to try out. Though it failed me again and again, I knew there is a habit of Taka that can become his downfall this time. And one that I decided to be the last one to try out is something that I noticed was common between him and his Replicant earlier.
"If ever one of us get caught, start up a dramatic exchange of lines while freeing the other. If I am right, he will lose his attention on everything other than the person who is speaking, giving us an opportunity to help out each other."
"Gotcha, sensei."
And it worked. I was right to think that the one thing he had since our first meeting will still be in my personal habits until now.
"
"
"This is for my friends that you hurt!"
"Gh!"
An overused and cheesy line spoken in any kind of show. I knew that would work to interrupt him from setting up a defense as his attention turned to it. Thanks to Mana shouting out that line, he became distracted, and his spell was cancelled out.
"
"
"Damn you two!"
As my metal rebars flew into his body that is made of ice, Mana also sent a pillar of flames his way as we continued our assault against him.
"
"NO-!"
"Another one!
"RAAAAHHHH!!!"
I made the rebars planted on his body to rapidly rust, making the melted parts of his body that was thawed by Mana's previous and current attack to have impurities that can kill him through an infection if he ever tries to refreeze them after he was hit by another fire storm from Mana.
"This one's for the finisher, Mana!"
"Aye, sensei!"
"I won't let the two of you…"
"Give it your all now!!!"
"Yes, sir!!!"
"Kh-!"
He was trying to recover after our rapid attacks and stand back up, but now that we are trying to finally finish him off, I shouted something that would surely get his head off the fight and also act as an encouragement to Mana who is fighting with me.
"
"Heh. You learned well from Lucas, huh? I can't let my title as your teacher be taken over then…"
After seeing her form a longsword similar to Lucas' Augmenter weapon using her fire, I took from my hip my gun and pulled back my hair to properly aim towards the guy a special form of bullet that I've been researching for a while.
"
"I'm heading the assault, sensei!"
"Sure. Give me some time and I'll be done with this."
"Gotcha… Hyap!"
As Mana lunged towards our enemy and exchanged attacks with him, I painstakingly computed, visualized and compiled the atomic formula of the metal that I knew would become my ace in the hole if I perfected it.
"Everyone keeps on saying that it's nothing but a pipedream… But I know… I know what I saw back then and how much destruction it can produce with even just a speck of that thing."
All of the eyewitness accounts said that it was a total accident… The project was simply just about experimenting with uranium in order to find ways to shorten its half-life more in order to make nuclear energy cleaner and more viable after renewables became more and more costly to the war-torn and recovering nations.
The team who handled it are half-baked, fresh-out-from-university physicists. The team's nuclear energy expert is a guy who was simply there for the money and didn't believe that the research would bear any good outcome. The observation equipment are outdated, hand-downs from a certain particle accelerator megaproject in Europe and the nuclear power plant they used to perform the fission reaction of the uranium is one of the rapidly decommissioned reactors from a certain country in Europe who wanted to earn brownie points from green energy activists but ended up just importing and burning coal whenever winter comes and its citizens needed to use their heaters.
Anyways, the product that came by accident from that research experiment was a type of highly enriched uranium that has a hundred times less yield power (explosive power) than normal uranium and a half-life of thirty seconds, but its destructiveness doesn't come from its explosive power or how long it emits radioactive energy.
"That stuff corroded my laboratory… Even the nuclear containment crucible that I specially made just to contain it never lasted for ten seconds."
It was pure and unabated corrosion that makes that metal so dangerous… and I know that against someone like him who has linked his physical and spiritual bodies, this shot will be his death sentence not just here in a Subspace but also for his physical form.
"
"Come on, you wench! Is that all that you've got?!"
"Tch! Don't underestimate me! I've fought malignances stronger than you!"
"What?! How dare you insult me!!!"
Mana's provocation through cliched speeches and flashy attacks made him stick his attention towards her like superglue. That gave me enough time and focus to fully synthesize atom by atom the element that I needed.
"
"
"
As their attacks against each other ramped up and the bullet carrying the metal that will kill our opponent is beginning to form in the revolving chamber of my gun, I looked at Mana and reminisced about how much she developed as a person and a Psychic in just the span of a year.
"You brat… I'm so proud of you."
*CLACK-!*
As soon as my gun felt so heavy that a single hand can't handle it anymore, I pointed it towards the two and whistled the signal to Mana.
*FWEEET!*
"Got it!
"Wha-?!"
Mana reformed her sword made of flames and pierced Taka's foot to pin him in place before jumping back to a safe distance.
"You took your time, sensei! Were you mumbling something back here earlier?"
"Yeah! I said that I should train you in the sword again! I can't believe Lucas let you pass with those half-done moves!"
"Kh! I won't really get praises from you, can't I?"
"I just have high standards for my students!"
After I secured the line of sight towards Taka, I placed my finger on the trigger and shouted something towards him while he is still struggling to get the fire sword out of his foot.
"Hey!"
"You two-!"
"This is the end of the road for you, buddy."
"Damn-!"
"Go greet Satoshi on the other side for me."
*BYAK-!*
With that type of radioactive metal being so dense and thus, heavy in comparison to normal bullet metals, the force needed to shoot it out was also greater than normal.
"URKKK-!!!"
"Sensei! Your hand!"
And just like how old man Newton once declared, what comes forward kicks out an equal force backwards. In short, that explosive power that shot out the bullet also sent a more or less the same force to my hand and wrist.
"Urgh! GAAAHHH!!!"
"Don't worry about me… This would only sting until we get out of here."
"URGH! AAAAHHHH!!!"
"Sensei… The enemy is-"
"Yeah. As I expected… it's taking effect."
The pain of having a broken hand and a mutilated wrist bone wasn't much of a hassle though after you weigh it against the upside of having our opponent die as painfully as possible now.
"It's corroding his body that's made of ice… and the steam shell that is forming inside of him-!"
"Yeah… he'll bite the dust soon enough."
"MWAHAHAHAHA!!!"
"What the-?!"
"Sensei! This guy is still laughing even though he's dying already!"
I was ready to grin and celebrate our win… until this madman suddenly laughed so diabolically that even I shuddered with the possibility that this isn't over yet.
"How sure are you about that, 25?!"
"You… You can't possibly be-"
"If you really want to kill me, 25… You're going to need a lot more of these."
"Ain't you right about that, me?"
"Right, right! You're very right, me!"
"Sensei! The Subspace!"
"I know… This is what I feared the most when he confessed about him getting cloned…"
As Taka's body began to deteriorate and corrode because of my bullet, the Subspace around us warped in several parts and in came a hundred or so other clones of him.
"You see… The original Taka has died a couple of years ago. The dumbass got too obsessed with chasing after a woman who caught his eyes and ended up being killed by that woman's husband. And as you may know… that guy R.E.A.L.L.Y hates married women… so much so that his first course of action after learning about it was to attempt to kill the couple's baby.
"Of course, he is… that guy was a degenerate who hated a functioning and loving family."
"As you may expect, the husband saved his kid and made an attempt to save his wife too… after that, only Sapporo police's investigation report was the reliable source of information. Since we don't control those folks, they stated clearly that Taka and his men forced their way into the apartment room but was shot by the husband. A few of his men and he himself died during the struggle, but the same happened to the wife, husband and child who are living in the room. But as you already know… that kind of truth won't be getting screentime in our news."
"Why are you blabbering about all of this…?"
"Because I don't care anymore…"
"Huh?"
"What are you trying to say, you fiend? After you hurt Sensei and me like this?!"
There was a short pause as the other clones became silent and his corroding body heaved out a burdened sigh.
"You should understand this one, 25… You're also a Replicant like we are. We Replicants are clones of our gene source and our life's point is to continue their life if an unfortunate event comes to them. In short, we only exist because we are required by our humans to exist for their sakes…"
"I sure do… and don't at the same time. After all, I am failed Replicant from the start. I have a chance to make sense of the life that was given to me."
"Right… that's why you will understand our decision to end it all right here and right now at the hands of the right person."
It was only at this point that I understood what was the point that he and all of these Replicants who has entered the Subspace wanted and came here for.
"We no longer have a human to Replicate and Replace… We are leftovers from the failed experiments of those two mad scientists. We have been asked by the other Gardeners to continue according to how we are designed… but all of us… all of us have no memory of what he is and what kind of person he is to others."
"All of you are living aimless lives… and because of that…"
"Yes… we have that arrogant fool in there who injected himself with partial memories of Hamasaki Satoshi and fought like a butthurt ego maniac. We have the one who just got killed outside this Subspace by your team because he doesn't have the memories to direct or motivate him to fight, making him a pacifist with not even the capacity to defend himself…"
"Sensei… don't tell me that they are trying to ask you to…"
"…"
"And then… you have me. Someone who fooled my fellow Replicants to believe that fighting you will give us a reason to exist… when in truth what I wanted for all of us is to lose our lives to you who can understand our hopelessness and that death is the best way to handle all of this."
Right… that was the point of this all along.
"Well then… You can rest easy, Replicant of Taka…"
"Thank you, 25… I'll leave the rest to you."
After speaking in a soft voice like that between us, he shouted loudly to the others in a fake death wish before the corrosion takes over his body.
"Everyone! He knows Taka very well! If you can kill him and absorb his memories, you can finally be whole as a Replicant!"
"Alright, alright!"
"Let's get this started, sonny!"
As I stood up while being assisted by Mana, the other Replicants around seemed to be at their highest points of excitement and satisfaction after hearing that I am someone who can provide them with the answer to their existential crises.
"Mana… Let us stand our ground here."
"I'm sorry to say this, Sensei… But over a hundred fresh clones against the two of us who barely has any more Astra energy and a lot of wounds… this doesn't look good for us."
"Really? I thought you take pride with never being taught by any of us to lose courage or know defeat?"
"Tch… This is why I like Kaede-sensei and Sir Lucas more than you, Furuta-sensei."
As the clones began to form ranks and either stay back to pester us with ice crystals or charge towards us for close combat, I kind of understood the sense of hopelessness in Mana's voice as there is only the two of us who are battle-weary and wounded against all of these enemies.
"Well then… I'll show you how cool I am and why I am better than those two dainty and unexperienced brats."
"What are you doing, Sensei? Why are you undoing the bandage I placed on your hand?!"
"Let's won't waste too much time… I'll sweep this under the mat in an instant."
"What?"
"Stay near me, Mana… I need you to follow up on what I am trying to do."
"Y-Yes!"
Even if it hurts so much, I removed the bloody bandages on my right hand that is severely injured and broken using my left hand and clasped the two of them together. I then focused on this one-off attack that I have kept as my ace in the hole all this time.
"
"Let's get him, boys!"
"""RAAAAHHHH!!!"""
If I said before that the buildings and the courtyard's concrete floor itself has collapsed or turned unusable, the preparation for my next attack brought that desolation into a higher level.
"
"True-!"
"How did you manage to-?"
I don't plan on holding back anymore… Especially when the other party cannot acknowledge the hopeless situation they are in where even if they manage to defeat me and Mana, only assured death awaits Replicants like them who belong to an outdated cloning method now that Miyazono Ryuichi is possibly revived now.
"
In an instant after I released that spell, everything in the Subspace became covered in steel. Every rubble, every glass from the windows and everything else… it all became covered in steel to the utter shock of everyone besides me.
"Mana… Heat things up."
"Roger that!!!
"Wha-?!"
"My ice!"
"They're melting… No! Not just our ice spells!"
Anyone who is worth to be called a cook knows what a cooking wok is and why it is shaped as it is.
"It's hot… So hot!!!"
"It feels like… I am burning up inside!"
"I can't! I can't conjure my attacks!"
It is a metal cooking device shaped in a way to trap as much heat and circulate it like closed oven. A phenomenon that makes it so darn useful in distributing heat in its enclosure.
"The girl! Stop the girl from spreading the heat!"
"Urgh! The fire is forming a wave of pressurized heat! I can't… get closer!"
One by one, they began to croak from heat stroke while some chose the easy way out instead of dying painfully like the others did. Soon, only a handful who had the bright idea of staying away from the melted ice that made steaming puddles of water that scorched anyone's nostrils if it's inhaled was left. Along with the others who was further from the fire that Mana was emitting.
"Finally… Ran out of steam now, huh?!"
"You couldn't be more wrong."
"Huh?"
"
"Wha-?! Damn it!"
"Again!
Now, this is a definite death sentence. With the still heated atmosphere inside of the Subspace containing more water vapor and humidity in human height level, the desirable amount of oxygen in the Subspace is on a higher altitude and thus, makes breathing harder. But even going around that by reaching your head above the heated air isn't viable anymore.
"Kh! The air… smells like blood!"
"It stings! It smells horrible!"
"That's rusted specks of iron dust in the air for all of you. Have fun breathing them in!"
"Why, you-!"
"Let's end this, Mana!"
"Yes, sensei!"
Finally deciding that this should end our fight, I began to manipulate the steel cover of the area and Mana conjured a storm of flames.
"W-What is happening?!"
"I am fulfilling my duty as both a warrior and a teacher."
"Sensei… I am ready."
"Go on."
"HYAP!"
As the layer of solid steel began to separate from the things on the ground and they attempted to escape by leaping high, a storm of flames met them up in the air, giving them no place to escape.
"This is only one of my beloved students… just imagine if all those brats are here and wiping the ground with your defeated asses."
As soon as the fire storm met the metal, the end came and the Subspace around us was shattered.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Aniki… Aniki!!!"
"Urgh… my head…"
"This is good! He's back to his senses, everyone!"
"You guys are…"
When I woke up, the faces of my team were the first that appeared, and I tried to make sense again of what just happened. Once I quickly recapped everything on my mind, I immediately asked for the status of Mana who was just as beaten as me.
"Agent Fujikawa was taken by the S.S.S soldiers. They said that she is in a bad shape physically after she engaged in both real life and Subspace fights."
"I understand… Urgh…"
"Aniki! Did you bring over a wound from the other side?"
"No… Just a feeling that I can't shake away."
I can still somehow feel the pain in my dominant hand that was broken after I shot that Replicant of Taka. It stings for now, but I know it will settle down later once the aftereffect of that fight gets out of my mind.
"Situation report. How are our side doing?"
"We're on a good footing, Aniki. The S.S.S has convinced the mayor to close up this district so that we can contain the Miyazonos here. A lot of their goons have either been killed or has surrendered already."
"I see… How is Kanbu Imamura doing?"
"She's still inside a Subspace, it seems. Agent Chronia of the S.S.S seems to be fighting alongside her."
"Alright. Let's move on and help them out then!"
"That won't be possible, Aniki."
"Huh?"
After I told them that we are moving towards Kirin-san's subspace to help her and Rai-kun out, one of my men told me that we can't do that.
"I already looked into the Subspace where they are fighting… It's not a normal one."
"What do you mean that it's not a normal Subspace?"
"Its properties aren't the same as normal Subspaces… It's like it is locked from the inside and the Astra energy signature that it emits changes every other moment."
"-!"
That's when it hit me. I already feared the possibility that another one of those Subspaces would be deployed at this kind of battle, but with Kirin-san and Rai-kun being the fighters there, maybe we have a chance to severely turn the tables against them.
"Send a message to our men! Tell them to not only contain the spreading Astra energy pool, but have them push it towards the Subspace where Kanbu Imamura is fighting at."
"But Aniki, we need to have everyone doing that just to achieve that kind of thing!"
"I know! But this is an opportunity that we can't let to pass up!"
"Aniki…"
"If I am right, this wouldn't just let Kirin-san and Rai-kun win their fight… this will also cripple the fighting ability of the Miyazonos!"
Even though they cannot understand my hurried explanation, they nodded to each other and used their earpieces to contact our comrades who are around the school.
"If I am right… the fact that those two are fighting in the same Subspace wasn't a coincidence. If Rai-kun is what Kirin-san needs to finally achieve the level of power that she showed in Old Osaka before, then it means that something bigger is coming."
I fear that this fight which fell on our lap so suddenly and we concluded to be the decisive battle that will end of our war with the Miyazonos is just the beginning of a larger conflict.
"Renjiro! Did you find her?!"
"Lucas?! W-woah!"
"Tell me that you found her! We need her right here more than anyone else!"
"Her?!"
To my surprise while I am thinking deeply about what is and what will happen here, Lucas appeared from behind me and began asking questions madly while shaking my shoulders.
"I told you from the phone that I am bringing that Replicant that we found in Morioka, right? Well, that Replicant sent its spirit to a person here and she's supposed to be up and walking now!"
"What are you talking about?"
"You… You can't be serious… How did you not detect that explosion of Astra energy when she possessed someone in here?"
"Maybe because I am inside of a Subspace and fighting someone!"
As soon as I said that, Lucas' face looked like it was drained of any color.
"Tch! I'll look for her by myself!"
"Wait here! Why are you so adamant about finding the person that the Replicant possessed?!"
"Because she's a living weapon!"
"-!"
"If the Miyazonos get her again! We're all screwed!"
At that moment, I felt my stomach churn in fear of what is to come for us.