"Touma Kouzaburou?" Sasayama asked aloud.
The two students took a few steps back from the commotion, but somehow felt safer seeing Touko next to the enforcer, so they told him that their teacher had gone to the library and gave him directions. Touko realized that he was no longer a man running through the corridors, but an enforcer blinded by anger and thirst for glory. He longed to have Touma right there, as if he were even willing to beat him up before killing him. When one of the teachers saw them, he stood in the middle of the corridor with a murderous look that even surprised her, and tried to stop Sasayama. He was dressed in a jacket and tie, and both the wrinkles on his face and the gray hair reflected adulthood.
"You said you would be more discreet! You cannot risk the lives of the students!" the old man bellowed.
Sasayama seemed not to hear him and instead pushed the man aside with a force he was not aware of, which made him stagger and fall to the floor. Touko felt her heart racing as if it were about to come out of her chest, but she did not stop running until she finally reached the library. In the center of the room, Professor Touma and a girl with long black hair were sitting in individual chairs. When the steps of Sasayama disturbed the calm of the room, Touko distinguished those amethyst eyes.
Ouryou Rikako's gaze was fixed on hers, but she was drawn into reality as she turned her attention to the enforcer. The dominator in Sasayama's hands shook her in the chair, and Touko could feel her chest rising and falling uncontrollably. Her hands were clinging to the armrests of the chair as if her life depended on it, and although she did not take her eyes off the gun, Touko had the feeling that she was analyzing all her possible escape routes.
Crime coefficient is 50. Not a target for enforcement action. The trigger will be locked.
"I don't understand," the enforcer frowned as he looked at his dominator. "If he is not the perp, then who is?"
Sasayama gritted his teeth as he saw a proud smirk glowing on Touma's face, while he stood up slowly and gracefully. The enforcer, however, still had his hands up and kept aiming at him, as if he were completely suspicious of his mere presence, even though it was the Sibyl System itself that had judged him to be innocent.
Then he noticed the silent figure of Rikako, who managed to go unnoticed while sitting in the same position, as if she were a mannequin. The empty look was indecipherable, and at the same time, strangely sinister. Touko anticipated the movement even before Sasayama performed it, and when his hands moved in the direction of Rikako, it took only a few seconds for Touko to advance towards him, lowering his arms with rigorous force.
"What are you doing?" he grumbled.
Sasayama squinted as he looked at her, and in that very moment he caught a fleeting movement out of the corner of his eye. Rikako had stood up to run towards the exit, and when Sasayama tilted his head in her direction she had already left. Touko gave a brief smile of relief as she saw her walk out the door, but dissolved it instantly when he looked back at her, clicking his tongue. His eyes sparkled with a lively fire, but Touko held those flames without being consumed in the process.
"She is just a student! You will trigger the stress level throughout the academy," she exclaimed gritting her teeth.
It was then that Touma approached both of them. Sasayama noticed the movement instantly, and pulled Touko away with less force than he had used before with the man in the corridor. He aimed at the teacher again with much more impetus, but his index finger remained motionless on the trigger. Touko heard him sighing helplessly. The gun was locked and Touma continued to advance towards him slowly, like a snake rejoicing in front of its prey, until he stopped a meter away. He had an angelic face that bordered on sarcasm, but somehow his presence came to unsettle the enforcer.
"Touko is right," Touma approved in a malicious and sly voice. "After all, you are looking for the culprit behind those works of art, aren't you?"
Touko closed her eyes, feeling her heart beating as slowly as if she were about to become unconscious. When she looked at Touma again, she noticed that he was watching her closely, with a cunning smirk on his lips that was barely perceptible under the dim light of the room. It was at that very moment, that a terror took over her mind. She no longer recognized the young man in front of them. Touma Kouzaburou disappeared in her memories, and she even began to wonder if he had ever really existed.
"Works of art?" Touko whispered in a trembling voice.
The question remained engraved in the air, and she tilted her head looking for Sasayama's reaction, who was motionless and lifeless. His face was as solemn as if death had passed in front of his eyes and Touko noticed that he kept looking at Professor Touma, who sensed the tension in the atmosphere and turned to him, with a tranquility that was sickening to her. For a long minute the two exchanged glances, until Sasayama decided to put his dominator away, in a slow and cautious movement.
"The victims were exhibited in wide open spaces, with their bodies perfectly dismembered to be transformed into something new," the enforcer explained, wrinkling his nose. "But only one person would describe them as works of art… and that is their artist."
The silence made them shudder once again and Touko felt time stand still. She could almost hear the wall clock in the corner of the room, counting the seconds, announcing the inevitable. When Sasayama lunged at him like a beast trying to punch him in the face, Touma remained calm and knew how to react at the right moment, avoiding the blow. The enforcer's lips parted, showing his teeth in an almost inhuman grunt. Both struggled like dogs fighting over a bone, and at some point Touma managed to stick a pen into his neck, thus freeing himself from his grip. It was then that Touko returned to reality and blinked as she saw Sasayama fall to his knees.
The enforcer narrowed his eyes and sighed heavily, denoting his difficulty in breathing. Blood began to trickle down through the wound, but Touma left the pen stuck in his skin and took a few steps back. An animal smile danced on the corner of his lips, and Touko finally observed the real Touma Kouzaburou, who was panting from exhaustion and excitement. Sasayama, to the surprise of those present, placed his hand on the pen and with a muffled scream he expelled it from his neck, throwing it to the side of the room and leaving scarlet drops on the floor.
Stumbling, he managed to get up again and bring a hopeful smile to Kirino Touko. His eyes were burning like never before. Anger had invaded every inch of his body and it seemed that, in those moments, his only desire was to kill him with his own hands. Instead, Touma went to Touko with sensual and victorious movements, like someone who wins a marathon looking for his reward. The young woman took a few steps back when he tried to hold her hand with great delicacy. Noticing the rejection, Touma stopped short, leaving his arms on either side of his body.
"Don't you want to run away with me, princess?" Touma asked sweetly.
Touko's lips trembled for a few seconds, and when she connected her eyes with those brown ones, she felt a suffocating embrace across her chest. She did not realize that she had started to hit him in his stomach, over and over again, with a force that more than caused him pain, only outraged the young man. Touko's face soon turned red with tears and her lips showed a grimace of disgust and hate. If she had any kind of sharp weapon, she would find herself venting all her anger on him without even thinking about how her hue would be darkened. Touma looked like a pinata that did not react to blows, he was lost in himself as he had never been before.
"You killed him!" the young woman repeated incessantly.
Sasayama appeared from behind without being surprised, since Touma turned around just in time to stop his attacks. He was not an expert in martial arts but his reflexes were very well developed, and in those moments the loneliness that invaded him was even stronger than the skill of the enforcer. When Touma took a cutter out of his pocket, he managed to hit Sasayama on the arm, who staggered in pain and fell in front of the first book stack.
Touma began to kick him in the head and stomach with all his strength like a best to his prey, being intercepted by Touko, who took him by the arm making a counter force to move him away. However, he was so blinded by anger that he pushed her violently and continued to deliver more blows. The young woman fell straight to the floor and waved her lips in pain, but he seemed to ignore it or simply did not notice what he had done. When Touma stopped, his heavy breathing was heard throughout the room.
Sasayama did not get up again, and for a few seconds Touko remained on the floor watching his body, which was writhing like a worm. Touma turned around, walked to the opposite side of that big book stack and after some violent kicks, everything fell apart. The sound of the wood hitting the floor made the surface vibrate. In a couple of seconds, the library sank into a blanket of dust and books. Touko's scream broke the silence, and she threw herself over the books to move them away trying to reach the body of the enforcer.
When Touko finally managed to hold Sasayama's hand her heart stopped, but she felt his index finger move and a stream of relief swept through every part of her body, bringing out a choked sob. It took almost a whole minute before she finally got up. Her face was still red with tears, and she was not willing to exchange a glance with the being who had caused such a disaster.
He was not human to her, she no longer felt any compassion for him, and she had to make a great effort in order to remain motionless and indifferent when she heard his steps breaking the sepulchral silence of the library. She sensed the presence of the executioner behind her back, but she knew that he would not harm her, he loved her after all, though in a way that was then repulsive to her.
She could feel the manic smirk on her back. Touko was tired of the deaths, of the pain he was causing the victims' families, of the stress he was promulgating in the academy. The weapon Sasayama used did not seem to work against him, so she could not expect much from the Public Safety Bureau. She had to do something because she knew Touma could harm anyone but her. She had to protect Sasayama.
At that moment, she felt her mouth covered by a piece of cotton and Touma's body embraced her from behind, trying to knock the air out of her. Touko began to hit him in the arms, in the face, where her hands reached, but even so they did not succeed in freeing her, and little by little she lost her air and the will to escape, as if her body no longer responded to her impulses. Touma, on his part, remained upright and unmoving, as if he were a living corpse.
"We are destined to reign together," Touma whispered in her ear, as she melted into the darkness.