Justice of the Hero Killer: The Unyielding Reason of the One Called the Last Boss - Cage of Light, Blade of Afterglow

The night in the old district of Lowside was quieter than usual. 　A faint vibration drifting from the distant industrial zone rattled the cracked windowpanes of the abandoned buildings. In the air after the rain, the smell of rusted iron mingled with the scent of garbage burning somewhere. 　Inami Rai was on the third floor of a crumbling five-story building. A small trading company had apparently once occupied it. The wallpaper was peeling, and bundles of documents lay scattered across the floor. Moonlight cast pale shadows over them. 　Rai faced a folding workbench set against the wall, glaring at his laptop screen. The blue light of the display illuminated his sharp, yellow-green eyes. The yellow-green streak dyed into the right side of his black hair caught the light and faintly stood out. 　Fragments of encrypted data streamed across the screen. What he was analyzing now was classified data from Apex's undisclosed division, the "Clearance Section." The organization's darkness—the cover-ups of heroes' scandals. A piece of it lay here. "...Another fabricated medical report, huh." 　Rai muttered quietly. His voice was low and calm. But beneath it lurked a seething rage. 　Two years ago, this organization had destroyed him. They had framed him—an A-rank hero—as a mentally unstable danger and expelled him. The same methods were still being used now, to hurt someone else. 　Rai traced the thin surgical scar running from his neck to his left collarbone with the fingertips of his left hand. It was the mark left when the Clearance Section had restrained him during the Fallout Incident and implanted a Gear Suppression Device. The pain of that moment was still etched into his body. "...They don't disappear. Your crimes." 　He turned back to the screen. His fingertips struck the keyboard with practiced movements. 　At the same time, part of his consciousness was linked to eight small reconnaissance drones deployed around the building. Rai's Gear, "Machina Link," was the ability to instantly understand the structure of any machine he touched and manipulate it at will. He had now covered the entire area of this abandoned building with a web of machines, stretched out like his own nerves. 　The footage captured by the drones' cameras flowed directly into his mind. The shadows of the ruins, the muddy alleys, the distant glow of streetlights. All of it formed a single map within his consciousness. 　That was when it happened. 　About two hundred meters east of the building, in an alley, faint heat signatures appeared. Not just one. Four. Slowly, but surely, they were approaching this building. 　Rai's fingers stopped over the keyboard. "...So they've come." 　He quietly closed the laptop. The data had already been transferred to the Hollow Base server. There was nothing left to keep here. 　He stood and walked to the window. Night wind blew in through the gaps in the broken glass. The hem of his coat swayed faintly. 　Rai narrowed his eyes. Beyond the darkness, he could see faint particles of light dancing. 　—Sera. 　The remnants of light emitted by her Gear, "Photon Veil." 　Something creaked deep in Rai's chest. 　He had sensed this moment coming. No—he had braced himself for it. He had known from the start that Apex would entrust command of the extermination team pursuing him to her. 　Even so, now that the moment had arrived, his heart made an unpleasant sound. "...If only it weren't you." 　Rai muttered, to no one in particular. 　He raised his left hand. A faint yellow-green light ran across his fingertips. Machina Link activation. The reconnaissance drones deployed around the building all began to move at once. 　To seal the entrance, he concentrated the drones at the front entrance and back door on the first floor. They carried steel beams, piled up rubble, and built walls to block the intrusion. 　But Rai himself knew better than anyone that this would only buy time. 　—Sera's light would blow through something like that in an instant. 　It was right after he thought that. 　A blinding flash overflowed from the building's front entrance. 　A roar. 　The barricade the drones had built was swallowed by the torrent of light and shattered to pieces. Steel beams warped, rubble was blown away. 　From within that light, a woman emerged. 　Her lustrous silver hair, reaching down to her waist, was tied up in a ponytail. A single lock of hair hung down on the left side. Her violet eyes shone as if emitting light from within. Over her white-based combat suit, particles of light wrapped around her like a robe of feathers. 　A-rank Hero, Sera Tamaki. 　One of Apex's top heroes, called the "Goddess of Light" by the citizens. 　And she was Rai's former colleague—the one he had secretly held feelings for. 　Sera looked up at Rai directly from beyond the collapsed entrance. 　Rai looked down at her from the third-floor window. 　Their gazes crossed in the darkness. "...Rai." 　Sera's voice was surprisingly quiet. But within it was taut tension and emotions she could not fully suppress. 　From behind her, another figure emerged—a large man. His blazing crimson hair was slicked back and tied short at the nape. His deep green eyes had become vertically elongated pupils, characteristic of combat. 　A-rank Hero, Kuze Kouya. Rai's former close friend—now a hunter who despised him. "You bastard... Rai...!" 　Kouya bared his teeth in a grin. The large burn scar on the back of his left hand stood out in the moonlight. A wound he had once received during a test of Rai's prototype weapon. That scar only fueled his anger further. 　And beyond the two of them, in the shadows, there was another presence. A black short bob with a white inner color on the left side only. Pale blue eyes, half-lidded and sleepy. A barcode-like Gear Awakening Mark on the back of his neck. Countless piercings in both ears. 　B-rank Hero, Kukuchi Rei. A young information specialist. He chewed gum as he quietly observed Rai's figure. 　When Rai confirmed the three of them, he slowly twisted the corner of his mouth. 　His smile deepens when he's angry. It was a habit of his. Now, a deep, cold smile had settled on his face. "...All dressed up and here together. You Apex lapdogs." 　Rai's voice carried a bone-chilling stillness. 　But the moment he spoke those words, his throat trembled faintly. 　—Sera. I knew you would come here. 　—But even so, I didn't want you to. 　Rai suppressed the emotions threatening to overflow from the depths of his heart with a mechanical tone. "If you have no business here, leave. Next time, I won't hold back." 　He started to turn away. "Wait." 　Sera's voice stopped him. 　Her voice was stronger than before, more serious. "Rai, please. Listen to me. ...Surrender. And then, let's pursue the truth together." 　Rai slowly turned back. 　Sera's violet eyes stared straight at him. What was in them was not hostility, but a desperate wish. "You don't have to carry this alone. I want to know the truth about the Fallout Incident too. Let's expose Apex's darkness together. ...I want you to share your justice with me." 　Rai's heart pounded hard. 　—You don't understand anything. 　—If you get close, you'll be erased too. The Clearance Section would crush you without a second thought. 　—So please. Don't come any closer. 　But the scream in his heart never became words. "...Pretty words." 　Rai spat the words out. "Share my justice? Don't make me laugh. The justice you believe in is a fantasy created by Apex's PR department. You're just dancing happily on top of that fantasy." 　Sera's expression stiffened slightly. "...No. I see with my own eyes, think with my own head, and believe in justice. You have no right to deny that." 　Sera's fingertips moved as if plucking notes. Particles of light began gathering around her. "If you won't talk, I'll take you by force. To keep your hands from being stained with any more blood." 　The moment Sera made her declaration, a blade of light formed in her right hand. 　A materialized sword of light, about a meter long. Its blade burned white-hot, as if scorching the air, scattering a faint afterglow around it. "Sera-san, enough. Words don't work on this guy. I'll drag him out myself." 　Kouya stepped forward. The air around him shimmered like a heat haze. His Gear was beginning to raise the surrounding temperature. "Kouya, shut up. ...Or do you want to get burned by my prototype weapon again, like that time?" 　Rai deliberately glanced at the back of Kouya's left hand. 　Kouya's face flushed bright red with rage. "You bastard...! How dare you say that...!" 　Kouya kicked off the ground. 　A roar. 　His massive body leaped to the height of the third floor in an instant. "I'll kill you!!" 　Kouya's fist came at Rai, shattering the window frame. 　Rai calmly stepped back half a pace. At the same time, the combat drones he had kept on standby converged around him. 　The drones each transformed, forming shields to catch Kouya's fist. 　CLANG!! 　The sharp sound of metal colliding with metal. 　Kouya's fist dented the drone shields, but could not completely destroy them. "...Still all brute force, as always." 　Rai deflected Kouya's attacks with his drones while observing calmly. 　—Sera's equipment. Reaction speed, light convergence patterns, output. Measure everything. 　Rai's Machina Link could absorb information from surrounding machines even in the middle of combat. 　Sera's combat suit, the equipment that amplified her Gear. All of it was being analyzed as data within Rai's consciousness. 　—This is groundwork for eventually jacking her equipment. 　He was searching for a way to free her from Apex's curse without hurting her. "...Stop it, Kouya! The building will collapse!" 　Sera's warning didn't reach Kouya's ears. 　Driven by hatred, he continued swinging at Rai. 　Rai manipulated his drones, deflecting Kouya's attacks one after another. Sometimes he transformed parts of the drones to break Kouya's footing. 　But Rai never launched an attack that would deal a fatal blow to Kouya. "What's wrong!? Fight seriously! Your power isn't this weak!" 　Kouya shouted. 　Rai smiled bitterly in his heart. 　—If I fight seriously, I'll kill you. 　—That's the one thing I want to avoid. 　He couldn't bring himself to truly hit his former friend. 　That was when it happened. 　Sera moved. 　Her fingertips traced a complex trajectory. 　In an instant, a lattice of light appeared around Rai. "...Caught you." 　A cage of light. 　A materialized prison of light created by Sera's Photon Veil. 　Bars of light ran vertically and horizontally around Rai, completely surrounding him. 　Rai's drones attempted to destroy the cage. 　But the moment a drone touched a bar of light, it was melted through by the extreme heat and exploded. "...!" 　Rai found himself unable to move inside the cage of light. 　The output of Sera's equipment had improved dramatically since before. 　—Something's wrong. 　—I helped develop Sera's equipment. The output limit back then wasn't this high. 　Rai felt a sense of unease as he analyzed the data. 　The reaction speed of Sera's equipment, the light convergence rate—all of it exceeded the specs he knew. 　—Apex has been unofficially enhancing her equipment. 　A new suspicion took root in Rai's chest. "...Now, surrender quietly. Rai." 　Sera slowly approached, maintaining the cage of light. 　There was no triumphant expression on her face. Rather, something close to sadness colored it. "Please. Don't make me fight you." 　Those words gouged deeply into Rai's chest. 　—I don't want to fight you either. 　—But I can't take your hand. 　—I can't destroy the justice you believe in. "...You're naive, Sera. I'll destroy this cage along with everything else." 　Rai said quietly. 　Then he gathered all the drones he had deployed around himself to a single point. 　Six drones remained. 　They converged in front of Rai, merging into one. 　The drones clattered and transformed. 　They took the shape of a single massive stake. "...Here I go." 　When Rai snapped

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Episode 2

Name: Justice of the Hero Killer: The Unyielding Reason of the One Called the Last Boss
Author: Novelia

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