Whoosh—
A sharp whistling split the air as a beam of glowing green light shot from the melted wall, tearing through the air straight at Haramura Makoto.
Hiss—
The beam missed completely, striking the wall behind, which didn't explode but, as if touched by incredible heat, simply melted down to its most basic molecules.
"They're fast… just like Shokuhou said, this power's dangerous," Makoto thought, eyeing the aftermath. He felt a chill—an attack like that was absolutely beyond his body's defences. If he got hit, there'd be nothing left but a hole.
"Heh—"
"Oh, mighty esper, is it so hard to face a lowly non-esper that you must hide in the shadows? Isn't that a bit beneath your lofty title?"
Grinning, Makoto called toward the direction from which the beam had been fired.
"It seems you're not so ordinary after all. Otherwise, you wouldn't have taken down that idiot Flanda and Junko either."
At the street intersection, the sound of heels pounded the ground. Brown wavy hair swayed, and a proud aura radiated as Mugino Shizuri—calm smile on her face but anger simmering beneath—walked into view.
"So, did you kill that idiot Flanda already?"
Her tone was easy, but the calm surface did little to hide a storm beneath.
"Well, that's one way to look at it."
"After all, I hear quite a lot about you, Fourth Seat."
He moved back beside the still-unconscious Junko, pressing his pistol to the back of her head.
"So, apologies for the rush—but seeing the situation, how about an honest conversation, Mighty Esper?"
Confidence and composure—Makoto had both in abundance, and his poise only made Mugino's rage spike.
She spat on the ground, all traces of her usual elegance gone. Her smile twisted, her features hardening.
"So that's it…"
Her voice echoed across the empty street.
"You think with a hostage you can negotiate with me, stand on equal terms?"
A terrible sense of pressure thickened the air—a preview of annihilation.
"Seems I may have misplayed my hand," Makoto admitted, wholly alert though still smiling.
"But tell me, aren't there a thousand like us in this city? Give your word, and we walk away. I'll even return Flanda to you—surely even an esper has a reputation to keep."
"How dare you!"
Mugino's shoulders trembled.
"A mere powerless worm dares bargain with me? A trash leader of a trash band of degenerates?"
Crackling energy grouped around her, balls of electronic light floating like cannons in orbit.
"And that traitor—if she comes back, I'll kill her myself."
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—
The floating orbs fired in unison, emerald beams slicing through the air to form a crisscrossed barrage.
This part of the old city had narrow streets—barely wide enough for such a fight.
"Die already."
"This woman…" Makoto's eyes narrowed, body moving faster than thought.
The 'barrier' of energy beams might have been described as a net, but it was simply five beams crossing paths—plenty of gaps remained.
He pushed Junko's head down, then used her as a fulcrum to leap, twisting midair to turn vertical momentum to horizontal. As the web of beams crashed down, the sound of melting echoed, but Makoto dodged perfectly.
Even Junko narrowly evaded the blast thanks to his hand.
"Violent, indiscriminate—she doesn't care who gets hurt."
"But her firing is slow, and I doubt she can manage more than six at once."
Even while evading, Makoto's eyes stayed trained on Mugino. He'd already had Shokuhou extract every detail from the minds of both Flanda and Junko—no one understood Mugino's powers better than her own team and those who had studied her.
"In that case, she really isn't so hard to handle after all…"
Makoto's lips curled in a subtle smile.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—
Mugino launched another volley—beams firing from her orbs, lancing toward Makoto at tremendous speed.
"Down, left, right, right front—"
Tracking the positions of the orbs, Makoto instantly read the beams' trajectories and, from midleap, launched his grappling hook skyward, hooking the edge of a rooftop.
"Not only are you trash, you're a scampering little spider, too," Mugino sneered, face growing darker. Her orbs spun and spat beams like a Gatling gun, carving up Makoto's likely landing spots.
He darted through alleyways, dodging sometimes with his hook, sometimes with raw speed and reflexes. Relentlessly, Mugino advanced, closing the gap from two hundred meters down to a few dozen seconds.
"Running everywhere—how annoying."
She yanked a jagged crystalline chip from her pocket, tossing it before her, and detonating the orb in her hand in a blinding flare.