Chapter 49: Chapter 47

He turned onto the lower level, attempting to run from his looming pursuer, but it was no use. He could already hear a loud engine fast approaching from the exit of his prior floor. The impending clash would be one he could not avoid.

He slid across the next ramp, changing levels again.

There were only about five or four left… If only he could have made it…

(Damn it…!!)

If only he could have reached ground zero sooner…

“Well, whatever… No use lamenting now.”

Before long, the van was onto him, slowly crawling to his side until the two vehicles were running right along each other. And then, suddenly, the minivan veered to the right, furiously colliding with the Midnight Gale.

Barely managing to keep the car on course, the boy glanced to his side, directly meeting eyes with the older man, who sat on the right side of his car, holding a long rifle in his hands. He had completely let go of the van’s wheel, and behind him, on the driver’s seat, Haruto caught sight of what looked like an enormous sledgehammer forcibly wedged against the gas pedal.

“Did you really think that would be enough to put me down!? You’ve been playing with me for far too long, now, you insufferable little –!!”

He seemed about ready to shoot him down with that thing, pointing it directly at the boy’s face, but still, desperate, he opened up his inventory behind his back, his one go-to strategy by now, and brought out the damaged gauntlet once again, now with a single, full arrow loaded up on its top. While it wouldn’t liquidate him on sight, as it usually did, if he could only hit a single one of that man’s vitals the right way, he would be toast. Of course, there was also the risk of him failing spectacularly…

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you!” the boy yelled, letting go of the wheel with one hand to point the black gauntlet at the gangster. “One shot!”

“Oh, do you really believe I would fall for that!? Have some dignity, boy!”

“Try it. My weapons aren’t just the run-of-the-mill kind you think they are…”

The man did not seem all that sure about his next move for a moment. He went silent there, pondering, though his weapon stayed in place, aimed at Haruto’s forehead.

Sure, it was said gauntlets did not work on the race track, but for that kid to sound so confident in it… Could it be he had actually had something even more insidious up his sleeve, Sixshot wondered briefly?

Deciding to play it safe, he chose to provoke him instead, distracting the boy just enough that he would lose his cool and drop his guard, leading to an easy kill.

“You may not want to admit it, kid, but you’re a fish out of water here, aren’t you? We, the Cyberacers, thrive, above all, on death. We experience our own death just as vividly as our lives, to the point we feel more alive here than in the living realm. We do not hesitate, like you do. We do not cry and wail and run away from danger like pathetic little lambs, like you no doubt do! The truth is, no matter how brave you try to play yourself up as, you don’t have what it takes to survive in an unforgiving world such as this…”

“...”

The boy’s expression hardened. There was an odd glint to his eyes all of a sudden.

Sixshot, on the other hand, showed him an even stronger grin in response.

“And now that your girlfriend is out of the game, you’re left all alone with no one to protect you! Whatever will you do now, you damn fool!? You lost the only ally you had here, and from now on, it’s just you and me.”

All of a sudden, the boy was grinning back as well. Well, not quite grinning, in fact. He was cackling. Laughing out high to the heavens as though he’d just gotten to hear his favorite childhood pun, his own expression disturbingly crooked at its sides.

“Exactly.”

And that was all it took. Right then, without any other prompt. That was the moment a rather weird switch had been turned back off in the boy’s brain. The one that allowed him to distinguish between fiction and reality. The one that allowed him to make sound decisions when the situation called for it. The one that kept his head cool. It was just cranked all out.

Something like that just wasn’t something he cared for, as of now.

It was just no longer needed.

And thus, the Haruto of that moment was no more. Something raw, unhinged from the shackles of logic and reality had emerged.

It was a monster.

Before the man could answer him in any capacity, the boy suddenly veered his own machine violently to the left with his single driving hand, ramming it against the van’s side. The impact pushed the boy partway inside the man’s own vehicle, and, just barely holding onto the wheel with his right arm, he grasped the collar of the man’s shirt with his free, metal-clad hand, squeezing at the flesh within it as the man writhed in place, overwhelmed by the sudden ambush while stabbing the golden arrow, still lodged in its chamber, further and further inside the gangster’s shoulder, prompting him into painful bellowing with each thrust.

He weakly managed to thrust his firearm upwards, pushing it towards the boy’s stomach, or somewhere near it, and pulling the trigger. It went off loudly against him, point-blank.

The boy felt a sharp, screeching pain around his lower torso. But he did not care.

“Is this the best you can do!?” the boy screeched back, his voice just barely intelligible for the common mortal. “How disappointing, for someone who’ll go off so passionately about facing death and not giving in… Do you really think this is the worst I’ve experienced yet!?!?!”

The rifle went off again, several times, some of the bullets escaping past the boy’s arms and legs and hitting the Midnight Gale. The intended target, however, did not move more than an inch back. The iron gauntlet was still in place, gripping the man tightly.

“Release… me… you… crazy… bastard…”

Haruto did not hear him. He heard no one anymore. Helpless, the air running out from his lungs, the man could only look on as the next downwards turn appeared before them. With the boy holding him still in place, though, he could do nothing. He could not properly make that corner if his hands wouldn’t even reach the steering wheel.

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“Damn… you…”

“But sure, you want to experience death!?” the lunatic went on. “That’s cool! Let’s experience it together!! WHOEVER HITS THE GLASS WALL FIRST GETS THE PRIZE!!”

Letting go of his pride completely, the man had eventually devolved into a screaming fit as well, wailing back at the boy’s face.

“Let me go!!” he yelled back, barely mustering up enough air to do so. “You’re gonna get us both killed! Please, let me turn the damn car…!!”

For all his pleading, however, the thug only received a couple laughs in return.

“Get us killed!? We’re already dead, you blockhead! LET’S JUST ENJOY THE VIEW!!”

“NO–”

Both vehicles’ overall speed had been reduced to pathetic numbers during the two racers’ tugging scuffle, making it so barely any work was even required to even make turn as they currently were, despite Sixshot, too absorbed in the scuffle himself, barely realizing it.

At the very last moment, the boy brought his foot down to the pedals in his own car, steering it accordingly so as to move down the ramp, keeping it clear of the building’s outer windows. 

As for the minivan, though, its left half was fiercely pushed against the building’s inner steel linings, heavily damaging its bodywork.

The two vehicles entered the third floor side by side, as the boy’s grip over Sixshot’s neck eased up slightly, so he could lean back to get a better grip over his wheel with the other hand.

“You… maniac…” the thug gasped. “You could… never finish me off… with something like that…”

The two vehicles entered the third floor, as boy gleefully straightened out the blue car.

“Oh, no~. No, no, no!” the boy cackled back. “I didn’t think that was gonna finish you off! It was just to help warm you up.”

“W…What…?”

“FOR THIS!”

From the interior of his vehicle came out the large, mace-like cluster of pipes and glass shards, dragged forcefully across the floor and barely lifted one hand as he shoved it right into the man’s stomach.

The man jerked about, screaming in agony as his body was quickly covered in checkerboard mosaics, but try as he might he could not touch, let alone get rid of the sharp razors tearing through his body.

“You should’ve stayed out of my way.” wheezed the boy, laughing harder and harder.

He let go of Sixshot, fully reentering his own car and flooring the gas pedal. In two seconds, he had already put around twenty meters between the two of them, propelling himself right onto the next ramp and drifting his way down.

“You won’t get away… Damn you…!!” was all the man in the suit could muster before slamming laterally onto a wide steel beam in their path, losing even more speed as he desperately tried to get rid of the weapon stabbing into him.

As he entered the second floor, the boy had had the time to notice his own vehicle’s uneasy quivering, likely owing to extensive damage from the fall it had taken on the upper floors.

It was no good. It would be no good if the Midnight Gale started to break down on him now that he was so close to the goal… Then again, he had barely any items left that he could use to fix it, even if his ability were to finish recharging on time.

A few ways behind him, he could still hear the rumbling of the minivan’s engine as Sixshot tried to make his way back onto him. He could tell, though, that the damage to his opponent’s body had been heavily crippling, even more so than his own.

At least the boy still had the raw rush of adrenaline to keep himself going. Just a little more… Just a little more, and he’d win.

“Come back here, you bastard!!” he could hear in the distance.

“... Tsk, know your place.” he spat, quietly. “What kind of idiot would even think of hearing you out?”

He slid past the last ramp and reached ground. The familiar beacon of white light was right at the entrance, a wide, gateless opening leading directly to the outside, though he could not properly discern the streets themselves as the blinding light occupied the whole extension of that entryway.

Once again, he floored it mercilessly, gritting his teeth as the slowly dying vehicle powered through its last sprint before plunging right into the light beacon, nearly blinding the boy as he kept the car’s wheels steady.

He rushed past the light and the building’s thick, glass walls and onto the exterior road, slamming on the brakes to let himself come to a halt at last, turning back to confirm his outcome.

Without any more stir, the light beacon vanished at once, revealing the crumbling minivan’s lumbering silhouette just entering ground floor a few meters behind.

“Take that, you half-baked mobster!” he cackled, raising his fist into the air as random pieces of the car’s suspension kept creaking below him.

“The victory goes to the H.A.R.U.T.O. party.”

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