Kannagi squeezed his palms over his ears, veins popping on his childish face.
He couldn't do it anymore.
He just couldn't.
He pressed his hands tighter, as if he wanted to burst his own eardrums.
Yet no matter how hard he tried to keep it out, the voice… the scream… the crying… seeped inside his mind anyway, shaking his soul.
This was his punishment.
This was happening because of him.
If he had done his job properly at the harbor, if he had made sure the drug transaction had gone smoothly even after the Heroes' and Apostles' arrival, then… the Boss wouldn't have had to produce a fresh batch of the Quirk-Erasing Drug.
Suddenly, the screams stopped.
With his hands still over his ears, Kannagi saw the Boss walk out of the room where he kept Eri while making Erasure.
The Boss — Overhaul — looked down at him, wiping his hands clean.
"Do you know why this is happening?" Overhaul asked.
Kannagi couldn't hear him.
He couldn't look away from those hands. So clean. So… bloody.
Overhaul walked toward him and casually put those hands over his.
Instead of pulling them away from his ears to make him listen, the Boss squeezed them tighter.
And slowly, Kannagi's eyes met the Boss's gaze.
His heart skipped a beat.
He was going to die.
He was going to die…
There was pain, like the stabbing of millions of needles simultaneously all over his body.
A blackness followed that pain, surrounding him like unseen walls.
Kannagi couldn't think or sense anything in that moment, but he did feel as though an eternity had passed, trapped inside that blackness.
Then, just as instantly as the blackness had arrived, it vanished, restoring his vision.
Overhaul removed his hands.
Kannagi fell to the floor, gasping for air.
"Do you know why this is happening?" Overhaul repeated.
Kannagi lifted his head, crying.
His blurry gaze met the Boss's as he nodded.
"Good," Overhaul said before turning around. "Get stronger."
The rest of the Bullets followed the Boss out of the room, leaving Kannagi alone.
Pain.
Anger.
Anguish.
Were these the emotions that Eri lived with constantly as well?
"Quite a show your Boss put on just to teach a lesson," a voice entered Kannagi's ringing ears. "Do you want me to kill him?"
Kannagi suddenly felt cold.
Which meant…
He looked over his shoulder.
There she was, hovering an inch above the floor like a ghost.
Ariana Jordan — a Monocle of the Chained Pathway — Sequence 5 Wraith!
Sequence 5…
Kannagi hadn't believed it at first.
Now that he had learned more about these Pathways and how Beyonders progressed from one Sequence to another using the Acting Method, he knew it was almost impossible for someone to reach Sequence 5, no matter the Pathway and no matter how much help one had.
Because overhearing Boss discussing it with the other Bullets, Kannagi knew that these Beyonders — who called themselves Monocles, based upon the drug Compound Monocle — had only recently begun appearing in America.
Then how could one of them have suddenly risen to Sequence 5?!
Kannagi would have done his utmost to make Overhaul wary of this woman, if it hadn't been for one simple fact: Ariana Jordan had come to Japan for him!
Or, at least, that's what she had told him in secret before making a deal with the Boss.
Overhaul would prepare a fresh batch of Erasure for her, while they waited for another Compound Monocle shipment through an alternate method.
Meanwhile, she would help the Shie Hassaikai deal with anything, or anyone, that threatened the transaction.
To him, though, Ariana had said that she had arrived here as his guardian.
That's why she had chosen to escape during the port incident, instead of confronting the combined threat of the Heroes and Apostles.
Kannagi could instantly tell she had not told him the entire truth.
But… she hadn't lied about the guardian part.
Nor had she lied about her strength.
This red-haired woman truly possessed the strength to kill Overhaul — a fact the Boss himself was unaware of… yet.
So, the offer was tempting.
If he combined his Territory with her abilities, then he could end it right here and now.
He could destroy this reality and bring his fantasy to light, saving Eri from the monsters surrounding her.
He could do all of this with just a nod.
But he didn't.
He couldn't.
Because there were words in the back of his mind, plaguing his conscience.
Words that belonged to the masked Blessed of Mr. Fool, an Evil God!
The fantasy Kannagi so cherished was corrupt, Dr. Blessed had said, making him question all things that had led to that moment.
No.
Kannagi knew, for a fact, that his will to save Eri wasn't corrupt. How could it be? She was innocent. He was her Hero. He would be her Hero.
So the fantasy was more real than reality itself!
Then why did those words keep ringing in his ears?
Why did he keep hearing Dr. Blessed's laugh and thinking about that day?
[You know exactly why…] the God said. [Say it. Say it, Kannagi. Say it out loud.]
"He wants Eri for himself!" Kannagi said, grinding his teeth, spewing nothing but hatred from his tear-filled eyes. "He wants to use Eri like Overhaul! He is not a Hero… but another Villain!"
Panting for breath, he looked up and found the Wraith smiling at him.
Yes.
He could use her to kill.
But not Overhaul. Not yet.
First, Kannagi needed to make those words disappear — words that threatened his fantasy.
"How…" he asked, looking at the Wraith. "How did you reach Sequence 5 so fast?"
The lunatic grin on Ariana's face widened.
She hovered closer and closer, becoming transparent, before whispering into his ear.
Kannagi's hands shook, but he instantly clenched them into fists.
It didn't matter what he had to do; he must get stronger.
Because killing Dr. Blessed…
… wouldn't be easy.
***************
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