Justice of the Hero Killer: The Unyielding Reason of the One Called the Last Boss - Deadline at Dawn

The night in the old city had not yet fully broken. In the rain-washed ruins, the deep blue air before dawn hung heavy. The outlines of crumbling buildings gradually surfaced as the eastern sky paled. From the distant industrial district, the low rumble of heavy machinery rode the wind. Inami Rai walked across the cracked asphalt. The hem of his black half-coat swayed in the damp night breeze. From the ear-cuff communicator on his left ear, faint static crackled intermittently. Beneath his short black hair streaked with yellow-green, his sharp yellow-green eyes gazed quietly at the ruins ahead. There was a dull ache in his abdomen. It was not the wound from last night's battle with Sera. Those had been shallow cuts and bruises. What tormented Rai's body now was a pain rooted far deeper. ——Sera. He remembered the moment her blade of light grazed his throat. At that instant, Rai had looked straight into her violet eyes. What he saw there was not anger, but a deep, seeping sorrow. She had not truly been trying to kill him. On the contrary — she had unconsciously carved out a path for him to escape without harming anyone. That was unbearably painful. "……Damn it." Rai muttered under his breath. His voice was hoarse, dissolving into the pre-dawn stillness. As he walked, he traced the thin surgical scar running from his neck to his left collarbone with the fingertips of his right hand. The implant mark from the Geass suppression device, carved into him when Clearance Division had detained him after the Fallout Incident. Every time he remembered that pain, his resolve sharpened, hard and cold. But right now, more than that pain — Sera's face would not leave his mind. Rai was moving through the eastern edge of the old city, through a district once lined with textile factories. If he descended into the underground waterway ahead, it was a straight shot to Hollow Base. The route through the surface ruins was the most efficient for shaking pursuers, but also the most dangerous. Visibility was poor, and there were countless places suited for an ambush. His Geass, Machina Link, probed the surrounding machinery. Broken vending machines. An abandoned light truck. Old pipes buried in the earth. They surfaced in Rai's consciousness as a map of faint light. That was when it happened. From the northeast, roughly three hundred meters away in a cluster of ruined buildings, he detected a faint electronic signal. Drones. Not just one or two. Multiple. Rai stopped and narrowed his eyes. "……Reinforcements, huh." His consciousness swept through the surrounding machine network via Machina Link. Eight small field-combat drones. They were dispersed throughout the old city ruins, forming a loose encirclement along Rai's path. Each was emitting jamming waves, interfering with his communications and machine control. The positioning was eerily precise. It sealed off the shortest route to the underground waterway entrance perfectly. With an accuracy that suggested whoever set this up had known from the start that Rai would choose this path. "……They've read me." Rai clicked his tongue. At the same time, a thin smile touched his lips. It was his habit — the deeper his anger, the deeper his smile. He analyzed the drones' control patterns. Not an amateur. But not an expert, either. The communication protocols switched frequently, movements betraying an awareness of counter-detection. Yet there was a faint regularity in the timing of those switches. A textbook pattern, typical of a young engineer. "……Interesting. Who are you?" Rai muttered, pressing himself against the wall of a ruined building. He leaned his back against the cold concrete and steadied his breathing. One of the drones passed slowly overhead. A red sensor light swept across the dark ruins like a caress. Rai did not move. He masked his own biological signature with Machina Link, hiding himself from the machine's eyes. Then, a voice spilled from the drone. Young. Still a boy's voice. "How about you come out already? Former A-rank hero, Inami Rai-senpai." Rai frowned. He had heard this voice in last night's battle too. The young information specialist on Sera's subjugation team. His name was — Rei, if he remembered right. A B-rank hero. Still a teenager, the boy who had been chewing gum. "……I don't recall giving you permission to call me senpai." Rai stepped away from the wall and began walking slowly. The drones all turned toward him at once. "That so? Well, to me, you're someone out of a textbook. I'll just call you whatever I want." The voice echoed through the drone's speaker, laced with faint noise. As he walked, Rai used Machina Link to trace the drones' communication lines back to their source. He was pinpointing Rei's location. But Rei switched protocols every few seconds. Every time Rai chased, the trail scattered like mist. "It's pointless. Your drones will all be down in four minutes." "Oh yeah? Go ahead and try. Let me collect some data on just how far your Geass reaches." Rai's mouth twisted. Young. Green. But not bad. The way this encirclement was constructed, the communication switching, the coordination between drones. The execution was rough, but the ideas were sharp. He could tell these weren't Apex's mass-produced drones — they had been modified with original improvements. "……You modified these drones yourself, didn't you." For a moment, the other end of the line went silent. "……You can tell?" "Obviously. That control board wiring isn't something an amateur could put together. Who taught you?" "Who knows. I just studied on my own." A lie. Rai knew it. This wiring pattern was not something acquired through self-study. Someone — a considerably skilled engineer — was behind him. "……There's something I want to ask you. Senpai." The sarcasm drained from Rei's voice. "Where are the real heroes?" Rai stopped walking. The pre-dawn wind swept through the ruins. "Are all the heroes at Apex fakes? Are the people you're judging really all scum? Or——" "Shut up." "——Or is what you're doing really justice?" Rai did not answer. Instead, he flicked his right hand lightly. Yellow-green light raced along his fingertips. One of the drones suddenly froze in midair. Its propellers stopped spinning, and the craft tilted. "……Eh?" Rai had completely seized control of that drone with Machina Link. The craft's camera turned to capture Rai's face. Rai spoke quietly to Rei, who was watching from beyond the lens. "Real heroes never existed anywhere from the start. Everything you believe in is an illusion." With those final words, Rai forcibly severed the drone's communication line. The craft plummeted, obeying gravity. It slammed into the asphalt and shattered pitifully. The remaining seven drones rushed toward Rai all at once. Rai readied himself. But at that moment — A roar. To Rai's left front, the wall of a ruined building exploded from within. Concrete fragments scattered like bullets. Dust billowed up, blotting out the pale morning light. From within, a man burst forth. His blazing crimson hair was slicked back and tied short behind him. His deep green eyes had slit vertically with the thrill of combat. A massive frame, one hundred eighty-eight centimeters tall, kicked off the ground and closed in on Rai. "Found you, you bastard!!" Rai spun aside on reflex. Kouya's right fist swept through the space where Rai's head had been. The wind pressure made Rai's coat billow violently. "……Kouya." Rai bit down on the name of his former friend, not letting it escape his lips. Kouya landed and immediately pressed the attack. His left fist aimed for Rai's side. Rai deflected it with his arm and tried to create distance. But Kouya wouldn't allow it. Like a wild beast, he relentlessly threw himself into Rai's guard. "You've got some nerve showing your face! Making Sera-san cry like that!" A fist grazed Rai's cheek. Skin split, blood welling up. "Do you have any idea how worried we were?! How much Sera-san suffered after you disappeared!" Kouya's voice trembled with anger and grief. "If you'd just talked to us, maybe we could've done something! Why do you have to carry everything alone, damn it!" Rai gritted his teeth as he blocked Kouya's fists with his arms. He couldn't have consulted them. No — he hadn't consulted them. If he had, they would have been dragged in too. The darkness of Clearance Division wasn't something so forgiving. "……This has nothing to do with you." "Hah!? Of course it does! We're friends, aren't we?!" Kouya's right fist struck Rai square in the chest. Rai's body was sent flying backward. He slammed into the wall of a ruined building, the breath driven from his lungs. Kouya approached slowly. On his right hand, a reinforced prosthetic had appeared at some point. Its silver armor reflected the morning light with a dull gleam. "……You're still using that prosthetic." Rai murmured, slumped against the wall. That prosthetic was something Rai had designed long ago. When Kouya lost his right arm on a mission, Rai had built it from scratch. "Shut up! I threw away something you made ages ago!" A lie. Rai knew. That prosthetic was being carefully maintained, exactly as it had been when Rai last adjusted it. Rai recalled the data he had received from Shade, Vise's intelligence unit. Kouya's equipment data. The armor at the right shoulder joint had been weakened in a past battle. "……Sorry, Kouya. Knowing you still use that prosthetic — it made me a little happy." Rai said it quietly. Then he raised his left hand. From the surrounding rubble, three small mechanical soldiers rose to their feet. Combat drones Rai had positioned in this area beforehand, for ambush purposes. "But right now, I don't have time for that." The mechanical soldiers attacked Kouya all at once. "Get out of my way!" Kouya grabbed one of the mechanical soldiers with his bare hands and slammed it into the ground. The grating sound of crushing metal echoed. But Rai's aim lay elsewhere. One of the mechanical soldiers targeted Kouya's right shoulder with precision. CLANG! The armor on Kouya's right shoulder screamed. "Guh……!" Kouya's right arm movements dulled for an instant. Rai seized that opening and created distance. "Your right shoulder. You injured it in a previous fight, didn't you. Don't push yourself." "I don't need your concern!" Kouya aimed his left fist at Rai's jaw. Rai reacted. But the movement was exactly the same pattern as before. ——A wide left swing. A right feint. Then a reckless charge. Kouya's habits from back when the two of them trained late into the night. Rai's body remembered that attack pattern. So, for an instant, his movements stopped. And Kouya did not miss that instant. "DIIIIE!!" Kouya tore off the armor on his own right shoulder. Discarding the weakened plating, he lured in the mechanical soldiers' attacks while throwing his entire body at Rai. Rai couldn't react in time. Kouya's reinforced prosthetic drove deep into Rai's abdomen. "——!?" Agony. Blood poured from his abdomen in torrents. His black coat rapidly stained a dark, blackish red. Rai looked at Kouya's face before him. Kouya was crying. "……Why, Rai. Why did you leave us behind?" That voice was no longer anger. It was grief. Scenes from the past flooded Rai's mind. The maintenance room late at night. Days spent adjusting their equipment together, laughing at stupid jokes. The first time Kouya wore the prosthetic — the way he had clenched his fist with joy. "……Kouya." Rai spoke through the blood, his voice hoarse. "……Is your prosthetic still working?" Kouya's movements stopped. In that gap, Rai used Machina Link to rupture the pipe of a nearby fire hydrant. A roar. High-pressure water blasted Kouya's body away. "Guah!?" Kouya was slammed into a wall by the force of the water. Rai rose to his feet, pressing a hand to his abdomen. Wa

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Episode 3

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

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