Chapter 11: Time and Space

“Onomi-san!!”

Soui Shuryakuma screamed.

In the next instant, Onomi Rokuzan collapsed to the ground.

His body was riddled with the marks of countless blows, his neck twisted a full one hundred eighty degrees. Onomi Rokuzan was already dead.

(Wh-what happened? No, what did he do!?)

(I couldn’t see a thing. That was the only thing I knew for sure!!)

Shiga Inui laughed at their bewildered faces.

“Don’t look so shocked. My Art is surprisingly simple.”

His words irritated the other Art-users.

(If we knew what it was, we wouldn’t be having this much trouble!!)

(We have no choice but to keep attacking until we figure out his Art!)

The other Art-users unleashed their techniques on Shiga Inui.

Todoroki Sabiza’s Iron Sand Art was an ability that allowed him to control iron sand as his own weapon by pouring flow into the earth and infusing it.

(Iron Spikes!)

He manipulated the iron sand, lashing it out like a whip to attack Shiga Inui.

The instant before the attack made contact, Shiga Inui vanished.

And when he reappeared, it was in front of Tsunoi Mon’o.

Recognizing Shiga Inui, Tsunoi Mon’o crossed his arms and simultaneously activated his Lubrication Art, secreting a copious amount of lubricating fluid.

(If it’s a physical attack, this lubricating fluid can make even a blade slide right off! With this, I’ll see the principle behind his attack!!)

The multiple impact marks, just like the ones that killed Onomi Rokuzan. If he could just understand them, he theorized, it would prove his opponent’s Art specialized in physical attacks.

“Not gonna touch you. Gross.”

He extended his hands, spreading them wide as if measuring something.

For a moment, Tsunoi Mon’o didn’t understand what he was doing.

“Here, take this.”

As he uttered those words, Tsunoi Mon’o felt a heat-like pain on his lips.

Immediately after, his entire body began to boil. Blood erupted from every single pore as, overcome with heat, Tsunoi Mon’o collapsed.

“Damn it!!”

Kammuri Kokeiraku unleashed his Casting Art: Mold.

He attempted to trap Shiga Inui’s body using invisible walls.

But the invisible walls were stopped by a flow that streamed around him like a shroud.

(What? He has an invisible power, too!?)

Shiga Inui looked at Kammuri Kokeiraku and beckoned.

“You the one trying to hold me down? C’mere for a second.”

(Like hell I will—Gveah?!)

Shiga Inui appeared right in front of Kammuri Kokeiraku.

At the same time, his arm plunged deep into Kammuri Kokeiraku’s abdomen.

“H-how…?”

Shiga Inui’s high-speed movement. With that, Kammuri Kokeiraku was about to meet his end.

“C-could it be… you…”

Kammuri Kokeiraku tried to voice his hypothesis.

“Sorry, but I don’t take last words. I tend to forget what guys like you say right away.”

Just as he clenched his fist to smash the man’s face in, a needle flew toward Kammuri Kokeiraku’s back. It stitched itself into his flesh, and a thread extending from the needle’s eye pulled him away.

It was the work of Karizome Tenhyo, user of the Suture Art. Using his physical strength, he yanked the dying Kammuri Kokeiraku, sending his body flying toward him.

Catching his body, Karizome Tenhyo looked at Kammuri Kokeiraku’s face. The man was dying, but he was desperate to tell him something.

Enduring the pain, Kammuri Kokeiraku spoke to Karizome Tenhyo. He told him he had figured out the true nature of Shiga Inui’s ability.

They had investigated Shiga Inui thoroughly beforehand.

He had awakened his abilities as an Art-user after single-handedly destroying the villainous and inhuman Yukoku Clan.

That was how Shiga Inui had started down the path of an Art-user.

The Yukoku Clan. Though they had long since been eradicated, stories of their evil deeds—and their abilities—were still told.

It was said that the Yukoku Clan was a gathering of individuals who could control time.

Most of them either manipulated the time of their own bodies or set time limits on things to gain some sort of advantage.

By defeating such opponents and wiping out the Yukoku Clan, it was possible that Shiga Inui had acquired the ability to manipulate time himself.

If he had indeed taken the Yukoku Clan’s strange power for his own, it would mean he possessed an ability of incredible strength.

(The ability I’d anticipated was something like a Velocity Art or a Time-Limit Art.)

He applied the information from the Art-users who had been killed in action.

Certainly, some of his actions could be explained.

First was the murder of Onomi Rokuzan, which happened the instant he declared he was using a technique.

In that moment, after more than ten impact marks were hammered into him, his neck was snapped.

This resembled an ability like the Velocity Art.

An ability to accelerate the body by setting a velocity in advance.

But if that was all the ability did, the other phenomena couldn’t be explained.

When he killed Tsunoi Mon’o, he activated some kind of heat-generating ability.

If it were a Velocity Art, what could he have accelerated to make a body boil from the inside?

And the same goes for Kammuri Kokeiraku.

Shiga Inui had appeared before him without taking a single step.

If it’s a time-related ability, is something like teleportation possible?

It might be, but the principle of the ability should be consistent.

Accelerating the body, controlling heat, moving an opponent.

As he considered these possibilities, on the verge of death, Kammuri Kokeiraku reached a single conclusion.

(Body acceleration, internal boiling… things related to time… the theory of relativity? No… could it be…? If so, then—!)

Kammuri Kokeiraku had finally understood.

If his hypothesis was correct, then Shiga Inui was, truly, the strongest.

He couldn’t even fathom how one was supposed to fight against this ability.

But he had to pass this on.

Their objective was to see through Shiga Inui’s ability.

He relayed this information to Karizome Tenhyo.

“His… Art… is…”

Karizome Tenhyo received the message.

He was shocked, but he swallowed hard and stared down his opponent.

Kammuri Kokeiraku was already dead.

Still holding the lifeless Kammuri Kokeiraku, Karizome Tenhyo activated his Suture Art.

Extending a threaded needle from the back of his mouth, he sent it out toward the other Art-users around them.

The threaded needles connected to their ears, and from there, Karizome Tenhyo vibrated his throat.

The vibrations of his voice traveled like a string telephone, conveying the secret information to them.

“Impossible!”

“But… if that’s true…”

They looked at Shiga Inui.

They seemed to understand the man’s ability and were struck with terror.

“What are you guys doing… Is it boring playing with me?”

Shiga Inui said sorrowfully as he closed in.

“Damn it!!”

Todoroki Sabiza was the first to move.

He swung his iron sand whip, unleashing it at Shiga Inui.

As the blow came, Shiga Inui vanished and instantly reappeared next to Todoroki Sabiza, swinging a fist at his face.

It was a blow that would certainly mean death on impact. Todoroki Sabiza transformed his iron sand whip into a shield.

The iron sand shield absorbed the impact, dispersing Shiga Inui’s attack.

(I stopped one hit, but—!)

He tried to get away.

But Shiga Inui, sensing his movement, formed a fist and released his flow, striking the iron sand shield.

The shield still didn’t break, but his flow, now thin and sharp as a nail, pierced the iron sand shield and stabbed into Todoroki Sabiza’s body.

(Wh-wha-this is—!)

A wedge.

Todoroki Sabiza had been struck with it.

A wedge made of flow was originally just a source of flow for projecting one’s own power onto a target.

Getting hit by one should, at most, just cause a continuous stream of the Art-user’s power into the target’s body.

But that was more than enough.

Todoroki Sabiza’s movements and consciousness gradually dulled.

(Th-… the… impact… my consciousness… is—!)

Without even giving him time to think, Shiga Inui crushed Todoroki Sabiza’s face in his hand.

“Damn it!!”

Karizome Tenhyo clicked his tongue.

There was no way they could control this monster with the cards they currently held.

“We’re running, Shuryakuma!!”

Karizome Tenhyo yelled.

But Soui Shuryakuma couldn’t move.

“There’s no proof yet. Without something definitive… we can’t retreat—”

Soui Shuryakuma, Karizome Tenhyo—he saw him.

Not Shiga Inui.

The man further beyond him.

It was Takenawa Kiriyoshizen, one of his legs having been destroyed by Shiga Inui.

He had leaped on one foot, trying to attack from a blind spot.

He tried to land a kick powered by his Spur Kick Art.

“Like hell I wouldn’t notice.”

As he muttered, Shiga Inui turned, grabbed his leg, and generated his flow.

The man’s body gradually began to seethe, and heated blood erupted from every single pore.

“Kiriyoshizen-san! (There were seven Art-users, and now there are only two left!)”

(…I can’t say for sure, but if so, it would explain everything.)

Space.

A vacuum without air.

If a human were thrown into the vacuum of space, the blood flowing through their body would boil, and they would die.

It had looked like he had moved through space.

The slowing of the body’s movements after being hit by the wedge.

From these clues, the name of Shiga Inui’s Art was…

^[1]“Spacetime Art.”

The two of them concluded that it was an ability that allowed him to command and manipulate time and space.

Having found their proof, Soui Shuryakuma and Karizome Tenhyo immediately thought of escaping.

(Can we do it?… Can we really escape from this monster?)

Neither of them had an Art that specialized in escape.

They could choose to have one act as a decoy while the other fled.

But the two of them were still young.

They couldn’t muster the resolve to bet their own life to let the other escape.

(All we needed to do was figure out what his Art was!)

They never intended to die here.

They thought if they just prodded the enemy, he’d immediately unleash his techniques.

They never imagined that by the time they had definitively identified his Art, their numbers would be down to just two.

(Damn it, I don’t want to die. I still want to live!)

Gritting his teeth, Karizome Tenhyo looked at his face.

(Forgive me!)

And then, Karizome Tenhyo activated his Art.

Not on Shiga Inui.

But on the one who was supposed to be his comrade, Soui Shuryakuma.

A threaded needle shot from his fingertip, squirming like a living thing as it stitched Shuryakuma’s leg to the ground.

“!? Tenhyo!!”

Soui Shuryakuma tried to run.

But his foot was sewn to the ground, and he couldn’t move.

Alone, Karizome Tenhyo fled with all his might.

“There’s no way I’m gonna die!!”

He shouted, abandoning his comrade.

Left behind, Soui Shuryakuma stood there, stunned.

“Looks like you got left all alone… How pitiful.”

Soui Shuryakuma said nothing.

He just kept staring at his opponent.

“…Incredible. Just as you’d expect from the Hiryuin family’s trump card, I suppose.”

He was overcome with resignation.

It couldn’t be helped if he were killed here and now.

Soui Shuryakuma faced it with a clean conscience.

Finally, he pictured his mother’s face.

(Ah… Mom, all your efforts will be for nothing… That alone is what I can’t bear… Please forgive your unfilial son for going before you.)

As he muttered an apology to his mother, Shiga Inui grabbed his face and released his flow.

A shockwave erupted, and Soui Shuryakuma’s consciousness was snuffed out in a single blow.

Soui Shuryakuma collapsed.

Instead of chasing Karizome Tenhyo, who had fled, Shiga Inui forcibly tore the stitches from Shuryakuma’s leg and lifted him up.

He headed toward a nearby parking lot.

Moving over to Abarabana Tenri, who had been watching the fight from afar, he slid his sunglasses back on.

“Aah… man, I’m beat. What’s with these guys?”

Shiga Inui complained as he looked at Soui Shuryakuma.

Abarabana Tenri was speechless.

(It’s frustrating, but this man is strong… I never thought he’d be this strong, though… And that Art is the Spacetime Art…)

Having watched the battle, she too had come to the same conclusion about Shiga Inui’s ability.