Chapter 36: I Don't Want to Lose
"Ugh, GAAH—!"
Maruko gasped, a low growl rumbling in his throat. Drool, mixed with red, trickled from his mouth.
"How... to live?"
He heard Shiraki Kei's words, and his mind flashed back to Q-Taro's "lessons."
{Maruko, kill!}
{All you have to do is kill! Don't think about anything else!}
{Tch, this Maruko is useless. Just bring out Rodem...}
"..."
The memories flooded him. The words "how to live" were a trigger, and his emotions exploded.
"L... Liar..."
Maruko glared at Shiraki Kei. "You... and Father... are both liars! You're bad people!"
Swish!
Maruko lunged, throwing a vicious kick.
But Shiraki Kei had anticipated it. He stood his ground, angled, his left arm low and his right arm high, bracing himself in a fixed stance.
A counter—a technique used to intercept a specific move and reverse it.
Zangief's style, a fusion of Russian wrestling and American pro-wrestling, relied on an indestructible core and upper body to absorb attacks. He was a master of the counter!
[Zangief • Tundra Storm]!
Shiraki Kei clamped his arms, catching Maruko's kick like a vise. He then twisted, using the momentum to slam Maruko face-first into the ground.
BOOM!
The entire floor seemed to shake.
Maruko was down, blood splattering around his face, his body twitching unnaturally.
Shiraki Kei crouched, ready to follow up, but a sudden chill ran down his spine. He threw himself backward.
The next instant—
SWISH!
Maruko slammed his hands on the floor and kicked upward, his feet grazing Shiraki Kei's face, scraping the skin off the tip of his nose.
"...Hss!"
Shiraki Kei retreated, touching his nose, his fingers coming away bloody. But his eyes never left his opponent.
Is that Maruko? Or Rodem?
Shiraki Kei couldn't tell.
The man before him was in a state of chaos. One eye was twitching savagely, while the other was weeping tears of blood.
"Kill... KILL!"
"No! Killing is... wrong!"
The savage and the childish voices switched back and forth. Maruko's face twisted.
"I WANT TO KILL!"
Finally, as Maruko hesitated, the Rodem personality took over, launching himself like a beast at Shiraki Kei.
But Rodem hadn't expected Shiraki Kei to leap at him at the exact same time.
For an instant, they were face-to-face in mid-air.
With no room to wind up, Rodem's monstrous strength was useless. Shiraki Kei, on the other hand, now had the perfect opening for a throw.
Swish!
Shiraki Kei's left hand grabbed the back of Rodem's neck, yanking him down. At the same time, his right arm drew back and smashed upward.
BANG!
The lariat sent Rodem flying up.
Shiraki immediately hooked Rodem's leg, locking him in a four-limbed grip, using the last of his rotational momentum to drive Rodem's head toward the ground.
[Zangief • Borscht Dynamite]!
THUD!
A dull boom echoed through the building.
The move had the power of a finisher, enough to kill a normal man on the spot.
But as Shiraki Kei relaxed his grip, he looked down and saw Rodem had blocked his head with his left hand, while his right fist shot up from below.
BANG!
Shiraki Kei took the blow flush on the chest. He felt his ribs crack, and his heart skipped a beat.
"Ngh—!"
He tasted copper in his throat but forced it down.
He didn't have time to bleed.
Rodem seized the opening. He scrambled up, unleashing a barrage of heavy punches.
THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!
Shiraki Kei raised his arms, blocking, his mind racing, searching for any possible opening.
Seeing Shiraki Kei retreating, about to be "beaten to death," the childish personality resurfaced, suppressing Rodem.
"I... I'm strong!"
Maruko's voice cried out. He couldn't stop the tears as he fought a painful, internal battle. "I'm strong, but... I—I don't want to kill!"
"...Alright!"
Amidst the storm of fists, Shiraki Kei found his opening. He responded to Maruko, his leg snapping out in a lightning-fast front kick.
[Aura Counter • Reverse Russian Kick]!
BANG!
Maruko was knocked back half a step.
Kei followed with a chop, which Maruko barely blocked. But the second and third chops were too fast. They struck home.
"Hurts..."
Maruko instinctively retreated, but Shiraki Kei didn't give him the chance.
SWOOSH!
[Aura Burst • Russian Double Lariat]!
The two chops struck both of Maruko's arms, numbing them, making it impossible for him to lift them.
"Strength—doesn't have to mean killing. And it's not a bad thing."
Shiraki Kei finally had a moment to breathe, spitting out the blood he'd swallowed.
"The 'strength' you're talking about... is just a lie Q-Taro forced on you. You've never experienced true strength!"
"It's time you learned!"
Shiraki Kei opened his arms, gesturing behind him.
Maruko looked. At some point, Madarame Baku, Akagi Shigeru, Kaji Takaomi, and even Yako Hikoichi had all come to the sixth floor. They were watching them fight.
Their eyes... they were different from Q-Taro's.
Q-Taro only wanted to satisfy his own desires. But their eyes... they genuinely wanted to see who would win.
In a daze, Maruko felt that empty void inside him fill up. A sense of peace he'd never known.
The Rodem personality was completely suppressed, gone.
"Maruko... doesn't know..."
Maruko paused, then clenched his fists. He looked at Shiraki Kei, nervous. "But... if you ask what Maruko wants to do right now... Maruko wants to beat you!"
"Nice! That's awesome!"
Shiraki Kei spread his fingers, settling back into Zangief's stance, his breathing steadying.
Here we go!
SWISH!
The two of them, with almost no stamina left, charged each other.
Maruko raised his fist to strike, but his motion froze. He looked down. Shiraki Kei had stomped on his foot.
[Zangief • Energy Stomp]!
"?!"
Maruko felt a rush of wind and couldn't react. Shiraki Kei wrapped his arms around Maruko, driving him backward, pushing him off balance.
"Maruko doesn't want to lose!"
Maruko tried to plant his feet. "Rodem was the bad guy who killed! Maruko wants to atone! Maruko needs to win this chance!"
Shiraki Kei gritted his teeth, his eyes wide. "But you don't get a chance!"
"I do!" Maruko yelled back.
Their monstrous strength clashed, but Maruko had lost his footing. Shiraki Kei drove him backward, straight toward the broken window.
WHOOSH!
Before anyone could react, Shiraki Kei and Maruko tumbled out the window together, plummeting.
This was the sixth floor!
A fall from twenty meters... even the inhuman "enhanced soldier" Rodem would need a cable. A normal person would be killed instantly.
"Hey! They didn't have to take it that far!" Kaji Takaomi cried out. "Maruko said he wanted to atone! Why did Shiraki-san say he didn't get a chance?"
At the same time, Akagi Shigeru, Yako, and Madarame Baku all walked past Kaji Takaomi to the window.
"The reason is simple, Kaji-kun."
Baku clapped him on the shoulder, holding his umeboshi, and motioned for him to look.
Kaji Takaomi ran to the window and leaned out.
He burst out laughing.
Shiraki Kei and Maruko had fallen... but a car was parked on the street below. They had landed right on top of it, crushing the roof.
From this distance, he could see them both lying on their backs, gasping for air, but alive.
And next to the car, a short-haired girl was standing, arms crossed.
She drove the car here?
"That must be Kei-kun's sniper support," Baku said, tearing open his snack. "She moved the car over to cushion their fall."
"All that talk about 'not getting a chance'... he just wanted Maruko to go all out, to see if he could win..."
Baku chuckled, popping an umeboshi into his mouth. "Kei-kun's a liar, too." He generously offered one to Akagi and one to Kaji.
...
...
Down below, Shiraki Kei and Maruko lay on the wrecked car.
"Hahaha!"
Thinking he had a chance to atone, Maruko let out a childish laugh.
"Hahaha..."
Thinking about how he now owed Kure Fusu for another expensive car, piling on even more debt, Shiraki Kei also laughed, completely resigned.
Well... that was one hell of a fight. Isn't that good enough?
In the distance, the sun was slowly rising, its warm light spilling over the city.
The long night was finally over.