Facing the white-haired old man, the Doctor silently put himself in front of the others and lowered his voice.
"Trouble."
"Sure is." Yu Jin stared at the elder.
He'd only seen descriptions in books, but the moment the man appeared, Yu Jin recognized him.
Angre.
A revenger.
"So he really showed up, huh." Yu Jin stepped forward calmly, blocking the group.
This guy was a pain in every sense.
Especially that old bastard's Word Spirit—Time Zero.
Not true time control, but for people like them, the effect was basically the same.
Angre's gaze swept over the four of them.
Three were tense and wary. Only the gray-haired girl looked completely indifferent.
His eyes drifted past them to the bodies on the ground. He could hear their breathing—steady, even.
"…Just knocked out?" Angre thought.
As he was thinking, Star lifted her bat and took a step forward.
"Hey."
Angre refocused on her.
Star pointed the bat straight at him.
"You're in the way."
"Don't think I won't hit you just because you're old."
Angre didn't get angry.
"Young people. Don't be so hot-headed."
"If you're not hot-headed, you're not young." Star fired back without missing a beat.
While they spoke, Yu Jin quietly linked into the group chat in his head.
[Flamebearer]: "He's hard to deal with, especially Time Zero. It's basically another kind of extreme acceleration. He'll be insanely fast."
[Flamebearer]: "Don't let him cut through to the squishies in the back. I'll try to hold him. You guys find a chance to run."
[Stellaron Sprite]: "Whoa whoa whoa. You telling me to avoid him?"
[Stellaron Sprite]: "You really think that little of me?"
[Stellaron Sprite]: "You three hang back. Let me show you what a researcher can do!"
Messages flashed by.
"She really fears nothing," Yu Jin thought.
Angre laughed twice.
"Haha, you're right. Young people should be hot-headed… but there's a time and place."
"Like?" Star tilted her head, like she genuinely didn't get it.
Angre's smile vanished.
"Like… right now."
"Heh. Then let's try it!" Star's spirit surged.
The instant her words landed—
"Kevin! Get the Doctor out!" Yu Jin barked to the two behind him.
If they couldn't fight together, at least don't make themselves a liability.
Kevin, knowing he might slow them down, grabbed the Doctor and bolted in a different direction.
Angre moved. Star moved.
Angre watched the girl charging with bat raised, Kevin dragging the Doctor away, and Yu Jin holding position.
"Troublesome youths." A cold folding knife appeared between his fingers.
He planned to parry Star's swing, knock her out, then deal with the rest one by one.
But as the bat screamed closer, Angre caught a sly curve at the girl's lips.
"Naive. You think my knife can't stop a bat?"
His alchemical weapon wasn't ordinary.
With that certainty, Angre's blade met the bat dead on.
"Gotcha, old man!"
Path-power exploded around Star. Violent purple lightning wrapped her bat, and her speed spiked to a ridiculous level.
Angre's vision blurred—
and the bat hammered his knife.
A force like a mountain collision detonated through him.
He didn't even have time to react—
his body flew back like a kite with its string cut, vanishing down the alley.
The whole exchange was so fast that even Yu Jin, about to step in, blinked in shock.
"Why are you still standing there? Run!" Star grabbed Yu Jin's wrist and sprinted after Kevin.
"So don't underestimate me! Pretty sick, right?" She shot him an exuberant grin, openly proud.
She'd faced a Doomsday Beast head-on, after all. Know the weight of that?
What could Yu Jin even say? He really had underestimated his groupmates.
He stared at her smug face and, lacking any fancier vocabulary, said two words:
"Badass."
Right then, a black sedan screeched to a perfect stop in front of them.
Yu Jin's muscles tensed instinctively—this was one of the cars that had chased him earlier.
The window rolled down. The Doctor's face appeared.
"Get in! No time to explain!"
"Where'd you get a car?" Yu Jin asked as he yanked the door open and dove inside.
Kevin, in the driver's seat, looked a little embarrassed.
"Picked it up off the street… the key was still in it."
"Then what are we waiting for? Go, go, go!" Star jabbed a finger excitedly through the windshield.
"Hold tight!" Kevin floored it. The black car ripped into the night.
Inside, the Doctor asked curiously, "So what happened to Angre? You got away that fast?"
Star shrugged. "Dunno. I sent him flying with one swing and we dipped."
The Doctor considered that. "Sounds like… he wasn't that strong?"
"Wrong! I'm just that strong!" Star corrected instantly, dead serious.
Kevin chimed in from the wheel. "Either way, we've totally pissed off Cassell now, right?"
They'd flattened the boss himself. That grudge was real.
"So what?" the Doctor leaned back, hands behind his head. "We're leaving this world in a few days anyway."
"I propose!" Star raised her hand high. "Next few days, we go tour this world properly! How about it?"
Kevin: "Touring needs money…"
"We'll figure it out," Star waved it off. "If we're broke, we find a way to make some quick cash."
Yu Jin side-eyed her. "You learn bad habits fast, huh?"
"That's a researcher's top-tier learning ability!" Star puffed up proudly, hands on her chest.
"That wasn't a compliment."
"Then it's decided!" Star slammed the gavel herself.
Everyone laughed. There weren't many choices left. Spending their last days in this world sightseeing wasn't a bad ending.
Deep in the shadowed alley, a group of black-clad men stood tense around a foul-smelling dumpster, carefully hauling out a wounded old man covered in filth.
Was it the collapse of morality? The decay of humanity?
Whatever it was, it had left a century-old man in a trash can.
On a stretcher, Angre stared at the night sky, tainted red by city glow. The stench clung to him. He sighed long and weary.
"I really am old… to think I'd get careless."
"And… they let me off."
"…Stop chasing them," Angre ordered.
The men nodded, though their eyes were full of disbelief.
Was their principal knocked stupid? Getting beaten and then canceling the pursuit?
But orders were orders.
-------
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