Chapter 5.1

As he moved across buildings and roads, Tozue was lost in his thoughts.

Two questions weighed on him.

He was concerned over:

"Who unbound me?"

But found that his greatest threat was:

"Why am I not being chased."

Confused as to why nothing was happening, the thought replayed over and over.

After one last bound across a building, he stopped moving, realizing the pointlessness of it.

Tozue dropped down into the streets and loitered in front of a cosplay cafe.

Still in his mixed state, he looked at the parts of his body which were not transformed.

Everything suggested that he was perfectly healthy, with no more visible bruises or cuts on his stomach.

As he paced back and forth, he looked around at the sights with his compound eyes.

He was in Tokyo's bay area.

In front of him was large bridge connected to sides which were gapped by a river.

Roads riding on the edge of the land, the only thing stopping a car from flying into the sea is the metal railings.

The air had a strong smell.

Tozue could only compare it to calamari with clam sauce.

With very few people around at the time, you could hear the water's waves crashing against the banks.

"Just come out already."

Multiple people in black suits appeared.

Some walked out from alleys or from inside buildings.

A few stood up from their position on top of rooftops.

The rest were in vehicles, stopping to get out.

Even though they emerged, they didn't move on Tozue.

A minute had passed, into this strange standoff.

Without letting the nerves get to him, he squatted down and looked at the concrete below him.

Tozue spoke, just to himself.

"Yeah, guess this is just the way it has to be."

Attempting to scratch his head with the scythes he now had instead of hands, he sighed.

A sweat built up on his back and armpits.

He stood back up and looked into the glass window of the cosplay cafe.

The Insect Devil was in the reflection.

Standing next to him, the same old ambiguous mass of insect parts that had captivated Tozue days ago.

A limb laid on Tozue's shoulder.

Even though he couldn't feel it, the message got through to him.

Then the devil spoke.

"Go all out, mate. Trust my strength. Trust how much all of the pricks in this whole goddamn world fuckin' fear me. I can show you some real fireworks, but you have to let the power be."

As he watched the Insect Devil fade away from the glass, an electric shock hit the back of Tozue's head, causing him to clutch at it with his blades.

Like a metamorphosis, his body actively shifted and reshaped.

Chitin plates covered the rest of his body now and his legs became like a grasshopper's.

Two arms emerged from his back.

Like his original two, they also had scythes, and were adorned with multiple jagged spines.

The pincers he had for a mouth had downsized, as the organic chitin plates morphed into a helmet.

Functioning compound eyes emerged from his shoulders and back.

A hole opened from his abdomen and from it a part of his intestines snaked out.

They flew around the air before it became the shape of a halo, now in a fixed position just, a few inches away from the back of his head.

Tozue had realized his full-power form with the Insect Devil.