Chapter 49: Animal Form Fist
The sudden, catastrophic explosion ripped the world apart, transforming the once-joyful street festival into a nightmarish landscape of blood, chaos, and terror.
The air was instantly choked with thick, acrid smoke and the smell of burnt-copper. The sounds of celebration were replaced by a symphony of screams, guttural sobs, and the panicked, frantic stampede of a terrified crowd.
Where the man in the baseball cap had been standing, there was now only a blackened, smoking crater. Mangled, charred limbs and slivers of white bone were scattered in a gruesome, radial pattern.
People were completely broken. Some sat on the blood-slicked pavement, their minds shattered, staring blankly at the horror. Most, however, were consumed by a primal, animalistic panic, scrambling to escape, trampling the fallen in their blind desperation to get away. The entire street had become a kill zone, thick with the stench of fear.
Oooooooooom....
The high-pitched, deafening ringing in Shizuku's ears finally began to fade. Her arm, which she had instinctively thrown up to shield her face, was shaking.
"Are you okay?" Kai's voice, strained and sharp, cut through the noise.
"Mm." Shizuku did a quick damage assessment. "I'm okay."
Thank God for their training. The non-stop, daily grind of practicing Ken had saved their lives. That instinctive, split-second defensive reflex was the only reason they were still standing.
Even so, the bomb had been point-blank. The force had been staggering. The blast wave, a superheated wall of pressure and shrapnel, had shredded their clothes. Shizuku's black turtleneck was in tatters, her jeans ripped open, revealing deep, bloody gashes on her arms and legs, the edges of the wounds blackened and seared by the intense heat.
"It's just... superficial," she judged, her voice flat and analytical. She then turned, her eyes widening as she saw Kai. "You... your face is ashen. Are you alright?"
"HELP ME! SOMEONE!"
"It hurts... oh God, it hurts...!"
"My leg! My leg is over there! I can see my leg!"
"Please... anyone... help..."
The air was a wall of desperate, agonizing cries. Kai's face was deathly pale. He had one hand pressed hard against his chest, as if trying to physically hold his heart in place. His eyes, wide with a dawning horror, swept across the carnage.
He could feel it.
Based on the sheer volume of hot-and-cold "Death Aura" that was flooding his senses, the initial blast had vaporized at least fifteen innocent people.
And it wasn't stopping. All around him, he could see the grievously wounded, the maimed, the dying.
Even as he processed this, two more wisps of agonizing energy—two more souls extinguishing—lanced into his heart.
His heart was hammering, threatening to burst from his chest. The phantom pain was excruciating. He knew, with a dreadful, instinctive certainty, that if he absorbed just a few more—maybe even just one more—he was going to lose control. He was going to "transform."
And what happens then? he thought, his mind racing in panic. How old will I be? Six? Ten? Twenty? Thirty?
A man, blinded by tears and screaming, slammed into him. Kai, moving on pure instinct, steadied the man, and in the same motion, ripped the black trench coat from the man's shoulders.
A few yards away, Dako and his team, who hadn't been able to react in time, were a broken heap. They had been caught in the full, undefended blast. But they were Nen users. Their natural Ten (Aura shroud), while not a conscious defense, was still far stronger than a normal person's. They were gravely wounded, unconscious, and bleeding... but they were alive.
"Hey! Sloe! Are you alright?!"
A hand was slapping his face, hard. Sloe's consciousness came rushing back. He looked up, his vision swimming, into the face of Kanzai.
"I'm... I'm fine," Sloe stammered, his mind still reeling. He remembered the baseball cap. The smile. The flash. Kanzai had been in front of him, shielding him. He... he saved my life.
His eyes refocused. And he saw it.
A hand grenade, its pin already pulled, was rolling on the pavement, coming to a stop right at Kanzai's feet.
Sloe's blood turned to ice. His heart stopped. The world seemed to freeze.
Kanzai, however, just bared his teeth. They were no longer human. They were fangs.
"Don't... underestimate... ME!" he roared.
His body exploded. His muscles swelled and tore through his suit, his frame expanding to twice, then three times its normal size. In a split second, the small, spiky-haired man was gone, replaced by a towering, eight-foot-tall, bipedal Tiger-Man.
He didn't just grab the grenade. He dove on it, curling his massive, inhumanly muscular body around the small explosive, shielding Sloe and the world with his own form.
FWOOMPH!
The grenade detonated, but the explosion was trapped, muffled, and contained. It sounded like a damp firework. Kanzai's massive, tiger-like form didn't even flinch. He just absorbed the entire blast, as if it were nothing more than a stiff breeze.
The Tiger-Man slowly uncurled and rose to his full, terrifying height. Smoke and a faint wisp of fire curled from his chest. He unclenched his massive, clawed hand, and a spray of red-hot, twisted shrapnel clattered to the pavement.
[Ability Analysis: 'Animal Form Fist' (Xing Yi Quan) - Tiger Fist]
[Kanzai's Hatsu is a unique martial art, a hybrid of Nen and pure, instinctual combat. By perfectly mimicking the movements and spirit of different animals, he can achieve 100% efficiency in their corresponding Nen categories.]
[Restriction 1: Once a 'Form' is chosen, it must be maintained for a minimum of 5 minutes, even if 'deactivated'.]
[Form: Tiger Fist (100% Enhancement)]
"There's more of them!" Sloe hissed, his bureaucratic composure shattered.
Sirens wailed in the distance. The street was pure pandemonium. It was impossible to tell who was a civilian and who was a terrorist. Kanzai was now locked into his new, terrifying form, and his first priority was protecting Sloe. He couldn't leave his side.
'I'll have to risk it...' Kanzai thought, making a split-second, beastial calculation.
He opened his massive, fanged maw and unleashed a sound that was not human. It was a roar that seemed to shake the very foundations of the city.
"ROOOOAAAAAAAR!!!"
The concussive, Aura-infused shockwave ripped through the street. The entire, panicked crowd—like a field of wheat hit by a hurricane—was flattened. Normal, un-protected humans were instantly overwhelmed by the sonic blast, their minds fogged, their equilibrium shattered. They collapsed, dazed and momentarily incapacitated.
The chaotic scene was suddenly, eerroely... still.
And in that stillness, four figures stood out, their faces contorted in rage and surprise. They were the ones not affected. The ones who were, at that very second, pulling new grenades, detonators, and pistols from their jackets.
Kanzai saw them.
And so did Kai and Shizuku.
Kanzai, bound by his mission, couldn't move. He just ripped a chunk of concrete from the shattered pavement and hurled it.
Shizuku glanced at the terrorists... then immediately looked back at Kai, her face tight with worry. He's in a bad way.
Kai didn't even know what he was thinking. His heart felt like a bomb about to go off. One more... just one more and I'm done...
But his fingers were already moving.
He hooked his thumb, his gaze locking onto the terrorists' heads. Four Divine Flicks, four tiny, compressed bullets of pure Aura, left his hand. They were invisible, silent, and faster than sound.
Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.
Four of the terrorists' heads exploded like overripe fruit.
The fifth was annihilated by Kanzai's chunk of concrete.
And just like that, five new wisps of Death Aura, hot and cold, lanced through the air and plunged directly into Kai's over-strained heart.
It was the final straw.
He staggered, his vision blacking out. Shizuku was there instantly, her small shoulder supporting his weight.
With the last of his strength, Kai zipped open his backpack. Rock Sparrow and the crows were inside, chirping in a panic. "Listen... to... Shizuku..." he rasped.
He pulled the black trench coat he'd stolen over his own head, completely covering his small frame. He collapsed into Shizuku's arms, his voice a desperate, fading whisper.
"Shizuku... Get me... out of here."
"Okay."
Her voice was as calm and steady as ever. She scooped him up, his small, coat-draped form cradled in one arm.
"Hey! Wait! Is he okay?" Sloe yelled, rushing over.
Kanzai, now back in his human form, looked grim. "What's wrong with him? Is he hurt? The ambulances are almost here!"
"That's right, miss, don't be rash," Sloe pleaded. "If he's injured, he needs a hospital!"
"Don't get in my way."
Shizuku's other hand rose, and with a soft pop, Blinky materialized, its cartoonish, googly eyes staring at them.
Kanzai's blood boiled. He'd had enough of this. "Hey! You! I'm talking to—"
"I can," Shizuku interrupted, her voice a deadly, flat monotone, "inhale every single corpse on this street. Right now."
She looked at them, her placid, violet eyes holding no malice, only a simple, terrifying statement of fact.
"If you don't want that to happen... do not... stop me."
Sloe and Kanzai froze.
Before they could even formulate a reply, Shizuku moved. In a blur of motion that a normal human eye couldn't even track, she vanished into the chaos, her precious cargo held tight. In seconds, she was gone.