'Understood?'
'Understood what, exactly, do you understand?'
The motion of Gyro throwing the steel ball was seen perfectly clearly by Ryosuke through a dinosaur's dynamic vision.
The horse really did, at a certain instant during its run, assume a posture that matched the proportions of the Golden Rectangle.
Gyro, sitting atop the horse, naturally drew part of his force from the horse's back and stirrups.
Ryosuke could even see clearly how that portion of power traveled along Gyro's muscles and was finally released together from his palm.
But the key issue was, what does this thing have to do with Lesson 5's infinite rotation?
Long before entering the trial mission, Ryosuke had no idea how many times he had flipped through the manga. When riding, he also tried to control the horse, trying to let it enter the Golden Rectangle.
There really would be a surge of power transmitted over. The problem was how to convert that power into the "infinite" rotational force.
To put it plainly, Ryosuke could only turn the power transmitted by the horse into numbers.
The core of Lesson 5, the Cavalry Spin, is to turn this portion of power coming from the horse into a mechanism called "infinity."
How do you change it?
Where do you even start?
Even after seeing it with his own eyes, Ryosuke couldn't find a clue for the time being.
Seeing Johnny and Gyro look over, Ryosuke coughed lightly. "Why are you looking at me? Keep fighting."
Gyro shook his head.
"Too far. We need to close the distance."
Gyro's technique needed no explanation, but his physical body was still just that of an ordinary human. The effective range of the steel ball was limited to about twenty to thirty meters. Once beyond that, its power would drop off.
Johnny's nail bullets were about the same.
Right now, the distance between them and President Valentine was around seventy meters.
That was why he had asked whether Ryosuke, whose physical strength was the strongest among the three, had already mastered the Cavalry Spin.
If he had, then he could take advantage of an opening and strike Funny Valentine in the back of the head, sending him straight to hell.
Ryosuke shook his head.
The chase continued.
At the very front was Hot Pants, sprinting at full speed with Lucy clenched in her mouth and Steel strapped to her back.
In the middle was President Funny Valentine, pursuing relentlessly.
At the rear was the trio of Ryosuke, Gyro, and Johnny.
The three groups raced across the vast wasteland, leaving behind a straight trail of dust.
"Mm… mm…"
Lucy, held in Hot Pants' mouth, suddenly let out faint whimpers. Her skin, which had been as rigid as dried branches, began to soften slightly, gaining a bit of living warmth.
More importantly... she was breathing.
As they moved farther away from Funny Valentine, the parts of Lucy that symbolized the Saint's Corpse were being reduced.
"Lucy! Can you hear me?!" Steel, lying prone on Hot Pants' back, shouted loudly.
While running, he had already used Hot Pants' Cream Starter to heal most of his injuries. He called his wife's name at the top of his lungs, trying to bring Lucy's consciousness back.
Lucy's eyes slowly opened a narrow slit. She parted her lips, about to make a sound, her breathing stopped again.
Steel understood. There was only one person who could affect Lucy.
He suddenly turned his head and met Funny Valentine's icy gaze.
He had caught up.
President Valentine clenched his palm, and like a spear thrusting out from the light barrier, he stabbed toward Hot Pants' neck.
The movement was too fast. Hot Pants had no time to dodge. If it hit, her head would be severed on the spot, rolling to the ground.
A figure flashed by.
In an extremely clumsy yet utterly resolute posture, Steel lunged toward the descending hand.
He hadn't thought about fear at all, nor had he considered that at this speed, falling to the ground would inevitably mean smashing his head open.
At this moment, the only thought in the mind of this timid man in his fifties was, protect his wife.
Even if it meant dying, he could not let Lucy suffer even the slightest harm again.
Funny Valentine's hand hovered in front of Steel and finally stopped.
Even with the power of D4C attached to his body, he could easily pierce through Steel while severely injuring Hot Pants and reclaim Lucy.
But Valentine still stopped.
Because before all the fighting began, Funny Valentine had personally promised Lucy, "I will absolutely not kill Steel."
President Valentine would betray and abandon many people for the prosperity of his country.
But he would never betray Lucy, the goddess who belonged solely to him.
The slash turned into a grab. Funny Valentine seized Steel by the collar and threw him backward, and at the same moment, a steel ball came howling in.
It was Gyro's steel ball.
It wasn't just the president closing the distance.
Gyro and Johnny burst out with all their strength. The horses they had ridden for years sensed their masters' will and no longer conserved their stamina, running in a nearly self-draining manner and closing the distance to thirty meters.
And so, Gyro threw the steel ball once again.
With the experience from the first time, this throw was steadier and stronger.
But...
The Steel that Funny Valentine had thrown flew into the steel ball's unavoidable path like a roadblock.
At the steel ball's speed, it was impossible for President Valentine to notice it first and then throw Steel.
This was a complete coincidence.
If he hadn't kept his promise to Lucy, the steel ball would have flown straight through.
"This is the Saint's blessing upon 'justice,'" Funny Valentine murmured. "And you will personally kill your own companion."
The green steel ball flew toward Steel's newly healed but fragile body.
Valentine was right. In his condition, even a single "deflection" would be enough to kill Steel.
Zzzzt!
Suddenly, streaks of lightning symbolizing infinity flashed across the steel ball, and within that lightning, a green humanoid Stand appeared.
Stand awakening.
Not influenced by the Saint's Corpse.
Not struck by an arrow.
Just like Ryosuke's "Pearl Jam," this was the ultimate manifestation of Gyro pushing his rotational technique to absolute perfection. And the name of this Stand was, "Ball Breaker."
"What?!"
The sudden appearance of the Stand completely caught Funny Valentine off guard.
Ball Breaker guided the rotating steel ball past Steel, sending it once more toward President Valentine's right hand, the one that had extended the light barrier and thrown Steel earlier.
"D4C!"
Funny Valentine roared.
D4C appeared and swung a punch at the incoming steel ball.
Almost at the instant of collision, the great rabbit D4C's fist shattered. The steel ball slid up along its arm and shot straight toward the light barrier.
'Stop it!'
Funny Valentine screamed in his heart.
However, Hot Pants was still running, once again increasing the distance between Valentine and Lucy. The light barrier grew thin, and with almost no resistance at all, Ball Breaker easily tore open a corner of it.
Bang!
The steel ball struck Valentine in the chest.
A surge of agony hit him. President Valentine let out a muffled grunt and staggered back dozens of steps, waiting for Love Train's light barrier to transfer the misfortune away.
Nothing happened.
Funny Valentine looked down. His heart was covered in large cracks, blood gushing out, and even more terrifying, his body was rapidly aging out of control.
Finally, just before Valentine was about to die of old age, the aging stopped.
He understood.
Steel had "saved" him.
Although Ball Breaker passed over Steel, its angle had still been deflected slightly. It was no longer the perfect angle of the original throw, and the rotation had undergone an extremely subtle change.
It was precisely this change that prevented Valentine from dying on the spot.
Without the slightest hesitation, ignoring Lucy who was so close, Funny Valentine took off his coat and used it together with the ground to "sandwich" himself, escaping into a parallel world to find a replacement body.
He had to run.
If he didn't, he really would die.
"Did we… win?"
Johnny scanned the surroundings, searching for President Valentine's figure.
Nowhere to be seen.
If Funny Valentine really could give up Lucy, give up the Saint's Corpse, and just escape using D4C's ability… honestly speaking, there was nothing they could do.
But Ryosuke knew it wasn't over yet.
Just as Funny Valentine would willingly give up reclaiming Lucy to keep his promise, he would also, for the sake of his "patriotic" ideal, come back to kill them again.
This was a fight that would only end in death.
As this thought crossed Ryosuke's mind, the coat lying on the ground suddenly surged upward. The next second,
Rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat!
Howling bullets shredded the coat. Amid flying fragments, five gun-wielding Funny Valentines standing behind it were revealed.
At that moment, they were frantically pulling the triggers toward Ryosuke and the others.
This was Valentine's plan.
Ball Breaker, which could tear through the light barrier, was indeed terrifying.
But looked at from another angle, it was nothing more than the opponent having an "armor-piercing round", a single-shot, range-limited one at that, and the one firing it wasn't a tank or an armored vehicle.
It was a human.
And humans can be killed by bullets.
A single Cavalry Spin fired by Gyro was no more threatening than dozens of bullets fired by five President Valentines acting as gunmen.
This thing, five Funny Valentines pulling the triggers of their revolvers together, was far more useful than rotation.
Leaving behind five clones pulled from parallel worlds, the main body of Funny Valentine carrying D4C continued along the light barrier, chasing after the retreating Hot Pants.
Funny Valentine had served in the military when he was young and had great confidence in his marksmanship.
At this distance, with such a dense storm of bullets, it was enough to take out Ryosuke and the others.
Horse or human, a single hit would be enough.
Hearing the gunshots, Hot Pants, running ahead, was startled and looked back. She was just about to circle back to help when that thought arose, she met Ryosuke's gaze.
Ryosuke mouthed a single word, "RUN."
Keep running. Don't stop. Go straight ahead.
The earlier attack had confirmed Ryosuke's guess. As long as the distance between President Valentine and Lucy was increased, the defensive effect of the light barrier would be greatly weakened.
Now that Funny Valentine knew the Cavalry Spin could hurt him, he would definitely be on guard. Only by maintaining a state of "running" could the Cavalry Spin be used more effectively.
Once they stopped, it would instead be unfavorable for attacking.
As for the bullets flying toward them, Ryosuke reached back and yanked hard, grabbing the reins from Gyro's and Johnny's hands, pulling the two companions who were about to dodge left and right, along with their horses, behind him.
Dodge?
Did they think they were faster than bullets?
At this distance, with Valentine's marksmanship, there was no escaping.
Johnny and Gyro weren't fools, but faced with incoming bullets, they had to do something. They couldn't just stand there and wait to die.
Seeing Ryosuke pull them back, Johnny shouted anxiously, "Ryosuke! What are you doing?!"
Ryosuke didn't answer. He stepped forward and stood at the very front. Ripple and the abilities of Scary Monsters were pushed to their limits. His eyes were sharp enough to see through everything, every bullet's trajectory clearly reflected within them.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sharp claws snapped out.
Ryosuke's arms carved afterimages through the air.
The sound of metal colliding rang out. Gun smoke and dust filled the air, and with every collision, tiny sparks flashed within the haze.
Until the very last shot.
The five gunmen emptied their bullets, their gun barrels smoking with heat.
The world seemed to fall silent.
Mounted on their horses, Johnny and Gyro patted themselves hard, then bent low to look at their beloved mounts.
Not a single wound.
"Ha…"
Ryosuke slowly exhaled.
The dry wind of the West blew from behind him, ruffling his golden hair and dispersing the dust and gun smoke. In that moment, everyone could see, the ground was littered with bullet heads that had been severed and chopped apart.
The five clones stared at the scene in disbelief.
Scary Monsters alone could never do this.
This wasn't something that pure physical speed and reaction alone could achieve.
It was like playing tennis. Even if your eyes clearly see the ball's incoming path, wanting to hit it, wanting to send it back in the exact direction you desire, requires years upon years of practice.
Diego had obtained Scary Monsters during the SBR race. At the end of the day, he was only crudely making use of a dinosaur's physique.
But the man calling himself Ryosuke before them was truly wielding that power with effortless mastery.
Ryosuke gave the five presidential clones no time to think. He lowered his body and charged.
"Fire! Fire now!"
Three clones lunged forward, trying to block Ryosuke.
The remaining two hurriedly reloaded their bullets.
Their reactions were fast.
Unfortunately, their movements were too slow.
Three stone balls struck the three lunging clones with pinpoint accuracy, knocking them back into the two companions who were reloading. All five staggered together in a heap.
Suddenly, a shadow fell from above. The five looked up and saw Ryosuke descending from the sky, landing among them.
A flash of cold light.
All five presidential clones were instantly killed.
Whether ally or enemy, everyone was plunged into shock.
They were all people who, in order to achieve their goals, carried resolve and treated their lives like bullets, ramming them into the chamber.
They had killed before, and they had been hunted before.
That was why they could tell just how terrifying Ryosuke's combat posture was.
The moment Funny Valentine locked eyes with Ryosuke, an uncontrollable fear rose from the depths of his heart.
Not cowardice, this was a biological instinctive fear of a "monster."
If the light barrier was divine power born of the Saint's remains, then the pursuing Ryosuke… was a demon who had walked out of hell.
He had to obtain Lucy.
Staring at the Hot Pants ahead, Funny Valentine formed an incomparably firm and precise thought, 'Only by holding the goddess who belongs solely to me can I oppose the demon named Ryosuke!'
Just then, Hot Pants, who had turned back to watch the battlefield, caught the strong, fishy stench of the sea.
She looked ahead.
On both sides of the road was seawater.
Seawater split apart, standing like two towering walls on either side of Hot Pants' path.
Under the influence of the Saint's remains, the Atlantic Ocean had been pulled over.
Out of habit, Hot Pants took another step forward. Suddenly, the mud beneath her feet, soaked by seawater, became loose, and half of her foot sank into it.
'This is bad!'