Chapter 45: A soul for a soul

Haruto measured their distance. They were just close enough to each other that the man in the suit could pulverize him with that weapon as is. But still, he wasn’t aware of his bluff as of yet, which was at least good.

As far as Sixshot knew, the two of them were currently locked in each other’s sight, more or less on equal standing, if one were to exclude Suzuka’s non-fatal firepower. Akane still remained on the floor, witnessing the ordeal with tears in her eyes.

He could see though, that the man was not nearly as sure of himself as he tried to make it sound like. Though he might not have noticed it, his arm trembled in place, ever so slightly. He had to make count whatever mileage he had in the current situation.

Haruto could tell Sixshot still held his own reservations, however minute they were. He wouldn’t just carelessly fire off at the boy while knowing a near-instant, deadly projectile would be coming his way. It was only natural. In that man’s mind, if just a tiny detail went wrong, he would be toast. He was aware, after all…

“The liquid spear’s firing rate is, on the contrary, far superior to your weapon’s.” declared Haruto, loud enough to rock his own throat. “Think carefully, Sixshot. Is this really a risk you would be willing to take?”

The thug gritted his teeth. Haruto could see the fine beads of sweat gather up in his forehead, ever so faint. At last, the man was starting to reconsider his options.

(Heh. You didn’t think this one through all that much, or did you, old man?)

“Spunky kid…” he said, his voice wavering in and out of its usual, calmer tone. “But you still have much to learn, if you want to scare a professional in this field!”

“That’s fair.” he replied. “I guess, then, I’ll just try for lower grounds instead!”

The boy jerked his arm sideways suddenly, moving his aim away from the thug and onto one of the identical servants behind him, who remained in place, her expression frozen, as though whatever happened next was of little matter for her.

Sixshot, on the other hand, let out a low grunt as his shoulders jolted upwards.

“I bet you’ll be fine with one less of these to go around, right? Aren’t they all the same, anyway!?” prodded Haruto.

“H-Hey, hey, easy on the merchandise, pal!! I’ve still got you in my sights!”

“And I’ve still got you. This weapon is still pretty fast. Compensates for the narrow area of effect, doesn’t it!? By the time you throw that thing at me, the arrow will already have hit whatever I pointed it at. Now, where to aim for…”

The man growled at him. It seemed this was putting him in a tight spot, which quite surprised the boy, as he had never quite seemed the caring type…

“Rule number one of business, boy: never mess with another man’s property!”

“Ditto.” smirked the boy. “But I’ll tell you what: instead of pointing little fingers and slingshots at each other like kindergarteners, why not settle this throw the proper manner instead?”

“What are you on about?” the man prompted him, squinting his eyes.

“A duel race between both parties. You and your servants against my own, right here, right now:”

The man said nothing for one singular moment, his eyes darting wildly around as he seemed to lose himself in thought. A moment later, however, he had already snapped right back to his usual self, squinting at the boy once again, with another grunt to boot.

“That sounds like a very strong death wish on your part, little boy. But I’ll allow it. Let’s settle this the old way.”

As the screens popped up at once in front of the two of them, they both accepted the prompt.

Suzuka seemed somewhat apprehensive from where she stood, but nodded at him, believing it to be the right choice.

A moment after, all seven of them had vanished into thin air, leaving deserted the single-lane street, which was now riddled with holes, rubble and dust.

***

“I… freakin’... hate… cars…”

High above the blinding, colored lights of the city, Haruto stepped down as far as he could onto the gas pedal, tightly gripping the Midnight Gale’s wheel with one hand as the redheaded girl, sitting on the passenger’s seat, leaned against the door, ready to open it up once the count of zero.

“Remember what I told you, master! Keep the clutch in place. Make sure it keeps shaking like that!”

“I heard it the first time, just keep your eyes on them!”

His right hand hovered over the vehicle inventory’s menu, index finger awaiting eagerly over the scarlet motorcycle’s icon.

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“You sure he can’t use that thing in a duel race?”

“Yes. It goes against the rules. The system wouldn’t allow it.”

“Wonderful.”

The lights were gone, and so was the street.

Beside the dark blue car, stood a considerably taller minivan, completely deprived of any coating. Past the smoked windows and grayish, rusted outer shell, however, he could catch a faint glimpse of the several silhouettes inside.

Sixshot was at the wheel, one of the ‘Courtney’ women sat next to him, while the other two were at the back, one of them holding Akane in place.

No doubt, the moment the ‘Go’ sign went up, they were planning on jumping straight to the attack as well.

A flimsy-looking row of metallic railing ran along behind the van, tightly connected to the wide, full-glass floor the two vehicles were currently standing on awaiting for their cue to start the race.

Peeking out the window, the boy had been able to see past that glass surface and into the floor below them, and then past that floor’s own surface and to the next.

The closer his sight was moved to the center of the structure, the more blatantly the glass would start to wane, replaced by concrete and steel. The building they currently stood atop of, however, would undoubtedly looked as though it was made mostly from glass when seen from a distance. It stood at the city’s western end, countless stories over the rest of the city, connected by long sets of stairs and enormous sloping ramps which appeared to be able to be able to fit even a large truck in them..

“I’ve run in this course before,” Suzuka had told him. “it’s a total twenty stories of very unstable ground. We have to make it to the bottom as fast as possible without falling to the streets below, and whoever touches the light beacon all the way out takes the victory.”

“I see…”

He kept his eyes fixed on the glass path ahead. It curved right along the edge of the building, turning itself into a wide, see-through road-like path which sloped dangerously right onto the level below, and it seemed the other floors below were the same as well. He bit his lip. The only way to make it out of this would be to properly turn the car around at each climbdown and bring it back around the perpendicular edges of the building’s central structure all the way through its outside portion, and enter the next slope without crashing into or past a wall.

He gripped the wheel tighter as the countdown finished up before the two vehicles, signaling them to go.

“Master!”

The girl jostled the passenger door open, leaning out of the blue car just as it took off with a deafening screech, running alongside the minivan, just left of it.

Immediately he pressed down on the motorcycle’s icon, prompting it to pop up before the girl, roaring right next to his own vehicle as they sped side by side.

She leapt onto it, struggling at first to keep balance as she took over its reins. For a moment, he had actually believed it would tumble over along with her, but it was immediately enveloped by a messy array of checkerboard static and unnaturally wrestled back into straight positioning. He guessed the system was artificially preventing it from toppling over. According to the girl, there was a three-second window for them to pull something like that off, so he supposed this was what she’d been referring to.

And as expected, three seconds past that the static support would have vanished again as she leaned over to kick the car’s door shut again.

“Burn them out of the way, but no explosions!” he repeated himself. “If that doesn’t work, then I’ll come in!”

“Roger that.”

They had to be careful. While a few flames were nothing to worry about, so long as they managed to eliminate their targets, an actual blast could compromise the track itself, and if it came down to both parties just free-falling blindingly through each collapsing floor, violently landing in random places and being crushed by a never ending bluster of sharp wreckage, there would be no way for him to know whether his or Sixshot’s party would come out on top.

The only way he and Suzuka could win this would be if either one of them was able to reach the finish beacon at the bottom of that building, past all that glass and concrete, or they managed to successfully incapacitate each and everyone of the thug’s party members, Akane included.

It felt hopeless. He could tell right off the bat that the minivan, despite its decrepit appearance, was far more resilient than the Midnight Gale itself, as a full dozen of small fireballs from matchsticks hadn’t even made a mark on the darned thing’s tires. Its starting speed and further acceleration were above Haruto’s. Clearly, a tall degree of attention had been put into its upgrades’ stats and synergy, overall.

His car, on the other hand, was tragically naked.

Not even five seconds into the race’s start and Sixshot was already far ahead of them, just setting its tires onto the very first climbdown turn, while he and Suzuka were left struggling behind, still crossing the midst of the building’s top floor. Though the redheaded girl was still somewhat ahead of Haruto himself, considering his vehicle took far longer to pick up speed, and thus kept the stream of fire projectiles going towards the van, though they yielded no reaction due to the comparably low power she was forced to imbue onto them.

Suzuka had said they could cut over some of the track once they had reached the lower floors, since their vehicles were somewhat smaller, and thus would fit in better through all the steel beams. That would make or break that race for them, according to her…

Still, the way things appeared to him right now, he couldn’t be optimistic. The difference between them was just too great.

(This isn't going well at all… Damn it…)

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