Chapter 22

(This is a bad joke, it's not possible.)

The costumed man approaches, his knife raised and ready to strike. He runs and brings his weapon straight down, trying to stab me with it.

I step aside to dodge, and kick him in the back, knocking him down with a groan of pain. I pick up my phone to make sure I'm seeing the same thing.

Banda-boy VS Senji Emiya.

(Does this app organize fights? No, it's too crazy, what would be the probability of our meeting... But he's the one who started the fight, maybe he started it with the app? But why through that? Wait, could this be the killer who's been running around town? No... he only acts at night... Oh, he's getting up)

He struggles to his feet and... disappears completely. I don't even feel his presence anymore.

(A power user, of course. But is he gone now? Well, I'd better get down to the police station just in case...)

"Watch out Senji behind you!" Ddraig exclaims.

I turn around suddenly and place my bag in front of me and something pierces it. It's a knife. The guy reappears, trying to kill me in the back.

"You bastard!" I lower my bag.

As I expected, he didn't drop his weapon. I strengthen my leg and hit him, making him crouch in pain, holding his stomach.

"So coward, stay calm, so I can take you to the cop without any trouble."

I approach to remove his mask but he strikes his arm horizontally, cutting me off at the knees.

I dodge just in time, still feeling a slight cut.

"You don't know how to let go... This is ridiculous." I sigh.

"Young man, are you all right?" I turn to see a policeman on patrol.

"Ah sir, hello you're just in time, there's this guy who..." I wanted to point, but my assailant had completely disappeared.

"Hmm? Is everything okay, did you cut your knees?"

"Yes, a guy attacked me out of the blue and now he completely disappeared."

"Hmmm..." He doesn't believe me. "Really?"

"Yes, a vanishing power or something..."

"Well, come with me to the station so I can at least hear what you have to say, but frankly, you're pretty calm for someone who's just been attacked." He said.


"Look, I'm not lying to you, I really was mugged." I try to make myself understood, but the cop looks at me doubtfully.

"And as I told you earlier, you look pretty calm for being attacked. Do you know you can get into trouble for making false charges?"

"You and your colleagues have just put a bandage on my wounds and look at my bag, it has been pierced by his knife, it seems to me that this is evidence no?"

"Okay fine, there are cameras where I found you, I'm going to ask for confirmation of what you're telling me." He stands up and picks up the phone.

"Thank you very much."

Feeling my phone vibrate, I open it to see a message from Usui.

"Do you feel better? I'll send you some porn! Give yourself a good workout, it'll make you feel better!" He says with links to a porn site.

(That's right, I'm gonna watch this in front of a cop, dumbass.)

"Here, Terada, from the east outpost police station! I have something to check out, A high school student claims to have been attacked on X Street by a man dressed as a panda! Yes, Banda-boy, the baseball team's mascot!" A few seconds pass. "Have you seen him? Really?!"

(I never thought I'd say this, but thanks to the camera. He has to believe me now).

"Really?! They both used their powers?"

(What, that's what you're ticking off about?)

"Say! You know it's forbidden to use your powers without liscence?" The cop turns to me.

"I know! But I had no choice, I wasn't going to let myself get stabbed!" I'm getting slightly irritated.

His gaze becomes intense, then resumes the call. "All right, I'll come and take your statement! Goodbye." He hangs up and walks over to me. "Well, apparently there was a guy in a costume! Do you want to file a complaint?"

"Hmmm, yes please." I hesitate, but it's the best way to be left alone with this story for now.

"I'll drop by the supervisory office tomorrow to find out more and then we'll decide how to handle the case. Once we're done with the paperwork, I'll take you home. Where do you live?"

"About a ten-minute walk from here."

"I see, but I'd still go with you just in case, or do you want me to call your parents and have them pick you up?"

"No thanks, I live alone."

Just before he can say anything, blood spurts from his throat and he collapses to the ground, his face taken aback. Blood floats by.

(No, it landed on this guy, he followed me here!)

I rise from my chair ready to defend myself as I see him appear. Then he charges me, knife in front.

I'm getting ready to create a weapon when a shot rings out. Hitting his calf and knocking him over.

"Go away kid! I'll take care of him!" The cop isn't dead yet, his pistol in hand, aiming at the assailant.

He becomes invisible again, and in one fell swoop sinks his knife into his back, killing him for good. He reappears and faces me.

(Damn it, he killed a cop!).

I get into fighting position. He approaches and starts to lower his weapon, but stops. His phone rings. He picks it up and answers.

"Hello?"

(Wait, is he fucking with me?)

"It's Suzuki, from smile credit! You know why I call you Kato!" I hear their conversation.

"Yes..."

You promised to pay back the 2,074,620 yen by yesterday, but you've only paid half of it! What's the big deal!? You were supposed to find money, weren't you? You said you were going to borrow from your family or quit your job to get a severance package! If you don't give a damn about us, we're going to show up at your work..."

"No, please! Anything but that! I beg you!"

"Then make some money! Rob a bank if you have to!"

"I'm so sorry! Give me till tomorrow! I'm about to receive a large sum of money!"

"This is your last change! Got it?"

I feel a rage rising up inside me (I'm the large sum of money motherfucker?!).

He hangs up and turns to me, nonchalantly.

"You do this for money?" I ask, heating up my magic circuits.

"No hard feelings, eh?"

Having had enough, I charged him and punched him in the stomach, sending him tumbling into the lockers at the back of the room.

"What the hell?!" I step back and run towards the exit.

(Fighting him in the police station is a very bad idea, if I want to deal with him without being bothered, I'll have to find somewhere else).

I run through the empty streets at this time of day. I turn to see that he's chasing me at a certain distance.

(He's getting suspicious, isn't he? On the other hand, what does a guy in debt want with me? What's in it for him? Is there a price on my head? Is he confusing me with Kiritsugu because we have the same name?)

But I feel tired, having forgotten that I have a fever. Then seeing that I'm next to a parking lot, I decide to get in to catch my breath. I go up to the second floor and position myself to keep an eye on him. I see him looking for me. Then he looks at his phone and turns towards the parking lot.

(Huh? How does he know? Don't tell me it's because of... Ah damn, I forgot the app!)

At the same time I receive a message. I open my phone to see that it's from Darwin's game, open it to see an anonymous message.

(Well, without even reading it, this message confirms that this fight was launched via this app... There's no coincidence or anything. After all, it's a crazy world).

"Do you want a hand Senji?" Asks the anonymous person.

(A helping hand huh... I'll play ignorant to see how he reacts.)

"Yes, there's a weirdo dressed as a panda who wants to kill me! I'm in hiding! Do you know what's going on?" I hope it's believable.

"You can't win by hiding! He'll spot you with the search option!"

(Ah well of course, a tracker, why didn't I think of that).

I turn back to my aggressor, who looks at his phone, then raises his head, looking straight at me.

(You know where I am, all the better).

Now that I know the basics, I know how to act. I pick up my phone and send another message.

"Look, I don't want to play this damn game! I didn't ask to be dragged into a fight to the death! How do I stop?!"

"LOL! It's too late, you poor thing! You've been bitten by the snake, there's no turning back!"

(But who created such a twisted game?)

The elevator door opens, letting him out, and he starts looking around.

"Well, the search option must not give an exact position. Good."

I place my hand on the floor, and circulate my energy throughout the entire floor. Now I hear all those footsteps.

I emerge from my hiding place and face him.

"If you think you're going to get away with it, you're very much mistaken. You killed an innocent man, so get ready to take a beating, you panda bastard."

I create a sword and run towards him but he pulls out the cop's pistol and fires. [BOOST], I make the gauntlet appear to stop the bullet. I feel the shock throughout my body, but it doesn't stop me. I build up energy in my empty hand and fire, exploding on contact.

"Huh!? Holy crap!" He screams in pain.

"Do you like it? Raw energy. Too bad for you but I can't concentrate my energy to use it in a more flexible way so I throw it all out without filter!"

[BOOST] I hit him on the shoulder, still fuming.

"Argh... No !" He tries to retaliate, attacking me with his knife.

But I cut the hand holding the knife, falling to the ground and holds him down, preventing him from moving.

"Aaah!"

Then he disappeared, taking me by surprise and without waiting, he hit me in the face knocking me to the ground.

I stand up and get into a fighting stance, only to see the knife rise and disappear.

(You should have left that knife on the floor. You'll pay dearly.)

I feel him, more precisely, being connected to the ground I feel his footsteps approaching me.

"You should have given up the moment you lost your knife." I say bringing down 3 swords in his direction.

Two pierce him, he falls to the ground screaming in pain and becomes visible again.

"Not dead yet?" I approach.

"Gh...aaah... Argh..."

"Doesn't look like it. You're lucky it didn't hit any vital organs. That gives us time to talk."

"Ah...Aaah... It hurts! Spare me, please..."

"What's next?" I crouch down to face him. "You're really something, aren't you?"

"Snif... snif..."

"Huh, you're crying too? Lame. Come on, show me your face."

"No!"

I take his mascot face and pull it back to see the teacher from earlier.

"What? You've got to be kidding me! It's you?"

"Snif... Snif..." Tears bathe his face.

"A teacher who tries to murder a student at his high school... You're not the first to try it, you know?" I think back to Mizuki. But hearing him cry is seriously getting on my nerves. "That's enough, what do you have to say for yourself!?"

"Snif... I don't want to die..."

"For that it's too late, unfortunately for you, you're not the first I'm going to kill, and certainly not the last."

I stand up and create a sword. I'm about to cut him down when I hear our respective phones ringing.

"Time's up! The system is going to pick the winner!"

I take it and look at what's on the screen. The fight's over and the scores start to appear.

"It's over, I'm screwed..." Complains the teacher.

There are three criteria: damage, technical points, artistic points and the total. I have far more points than he has, except for technical points. Which qualifies me as the winner.

"I... I don't want to disappear... I've still got plenty to do!"

Suddenly, cubes of light appear all around him, making everything inside disappear. Starting with his legs, sharply cutting through the concrete at the same time.

"Rikaaa! Aaah! Please, no!" He screams in pain and despair, getting sliced up bit by bit.

With only his head and shoulders left, and a quarter of his skull cut away, revealing his brain, he utters his last words.

"S... Stop..."

Then he disappeared for good, leaving only the clean cuts of the cubes in the concrete.

"What did I just watch... Argh!" In addition to my fever, a migraine starts to hit me. "I can't stay here, I've got to get home soon."

I stagger from the scene, completely exhausted, my brain replaying over and over this horrific execution.


"Hmm..." I wake with difficulty, feeling the weight of illness. "What time is it?" I look at my phone to see that it's 4pm. "Ahhh... naps really aren't for me."

Suddenly, the vision of a guy dressed as a panda hits me, making my head hurt.

"This guy, he knew how to use this app, Darwin's game. It wasn't his first murder, for sure, it looked like a walk for him."

I open the application, seeing nothing special.

"What the hell kind of game is this?! When I think that teacher wanted to kill me... Plus I let him kill a cop."

Feeling the blood rush to my head, I get up and head for the shower room to splash cold water on my face.

(To be honest, I'm not surprised by this app. I know there are illegal fighting organizations, but it's done discreetly normally, not via something anyone can have. And the fact that at the end of the fight, the loser dies no matter what...)

"Everything okay Senji?" I hear Chiyo knocking on the door.

"Ah yes I'm just freshening up."

"I'll come in then." As she enters, her gaze lands directly on my cheek. "What happened? You got a bruise on your cheek, did you get into a fight?" She asks, placing an ice pack on it.

"Ah hum... I fell unconscious in class, that's probably why." It's not really true, but it's not really false either.

"Hmmm. Anyway, keep this on, it'll ease the pain and come with me, I've made you something good to eat, it'll do you good." She takes my hand and leads me along.

I let myself go, and when I get to the dining room, I see a plate full of rice and eggs on the table.

"Chiyo, how do you know what to eat when you're sick?" I ask, sitting down in front of the plate.

"I read your notepad of course! I'm learning so much about how you eat, it's really fun!"

"I see, so much the better if it helps you then. Well, I'll start, thank you."

"Bon appétit!"

While I fill my empty stomach, Chiyo flicks through the channels, bored by most of what's on TV. When something catches my eye.

"Wait Chiyo, go one channel back."

There's a journalist, commenting on the damage to a statue and its surroundings in the city center. But I recognize these marks, they're the same as those made by the professor. There's no doubt about it, there's been a massacre here.

"Senji?" Chiyo asks me, worried.

"Ah that's okay, I must have confused it with something else, you can change." I reassure her

Without waiting for an answer, I take out my phone, looking for a contact.

(Why didn't I make the connection earlier! If Hiroyuki sent me this message, it's because he was in trouble! Don't tell me he died there?!)

I make the call, waiting far too long. "The number you have dialed is not available...". Just as I feared, he must be dead already. That bastard Banda-boy was his main teacher.

(And if he ever had it... All right, calm down, don't jump to conclusions. Now it's time to think about what's next. Since I'm trapped in this game, I'm going to have to learn a lot more than I already know, but how?)

"That anonymous guy who contacted you, maybe you can find him." Ddraig advises me.

Without wasting any time I open the app, with some hesitation. Seeing that all is well, I scroll through the menus until I come across our discussion from earlier.

"Thanks for your advice earlier. I'll have more questions for you, if you don't mind." I send him this message, hoping to receive a reply, knowing full well that he is under no obligation to do so.


After I've finished eating, I take advantage of the warming kotatsu to rest, gazing out at the void. When the bell at the entrance rings. I look up, but Chiyo puts my head back on the table.

"Don't move, I'll take care of it." She said.

I'm waiting, wanting to hear what's going on, but I can't concentrate. Then Chiyo returns, as if shocked, accompanied by two men.

"Senji, what happened?!" She asks in a panic, holding me in her arms.

"What's going on? And who are you?" I ask the two men.

"Hello young man, it seems to me you've lost something haven't you?" He says, flashing his police badge. He points to my bag in his colleague's hands.

(My bag! I left it at the police station! I hope they don't suspect me of killing the cop, at least...)

"Sorry but I'm not feeling too well, but thanks for bringing my bag back."

"Oh right! Sorry for the inconvenience, we're from the downtown commissariat." Said the older of the two.

"We'd like to ask you a couple of questions, if you don't mind." Said the younger man.

Chiyo releases me to concentrate on what they want from me, but keeps my hand in hers.

"Uh... About what?"

"Do you know the police station next door? That's where we found your bag! Can you tell us how it got there?" Asks the young man.

I hesitate to answer, not knowing how Chiyo will react, but I can't afford to lie.

"Earlier, I got into trouble with a weird guy, so I went to the station to ask for help. I must have dropped my bag somewhere and forgotten it on the way out." I'd still rather distort the facts.

"A weird guy? What do you mean?" He asks.

"He was wearing a disguise and he had a knife."

"A knife?"

"His disguise, it wasn't this one, by any chance?" The old policeman shows me a photo of the panda mask.

"Yes, that's right. I recognize it." I agree.

"What time did you get to the station? What happened next?" asks the young cop.

"Uh... nothing special, I went home. Must have been about 1pm..." I feel Chiyo's hand tighten, knowing I'm lying, but she doesn't interfere.

"Do you have any idea who was under the mask?"

"No... He attacked me like that, for no reason."

"Excuse me, but is this an interrogation?" Chiyo asks, seriously starting to get angry.

"No, not at all! We just wanted to clear up a few things! Sorry for bothering you while you're sick!"

"Here's my card, please don't hesitate to call me or 110 if you have any problems." The old policeman hands a card to Chiyo, who takes it with boredom.

"Thank you." She replies curtly.

Finally gone, I calm down, exhaling a deep breath.

"They finally let me go... I thought they were going to accuse me of the murder."

"Can you explain to me what's going on?" Chiyo looks me straight in the eye, demanding answers.

"The guy who attacked me was a teacher at my school. I'd rather not tell you why he attacked me, because it might put you in danger too. But he died at the end of our altercation. It wasn't me who killed him, but something. I don't know what yet."

"Does it have anything to do with what you asked me to watch on TV?"

"Indeed it is."

"I see... I don't know what to tell you..."

"To be honest, so am I. On the other hand, they have their doubts, that's clear." (And with all that, I'm no further ahead on this damn game...)

"I hope you're not going to have any more trouble than this." Chiyo said, looking at the cop's card.

"Chiyo, can this conversation stay between us? I don't want to bring you into it, at least as much as possible."

"Yes, of course, but if you have a problem, I want you to come to me, okay?"

"Okay, it's a deal."

Remembering All Might, I reach for my phone to warn him.

"Hello All Might, I'm sorry but I've fallen ill, a violent fever, so I won't be able to continue the training for a few days."

Then, like a sign of fate, the anonymous person on Darwin's Game replies.

"I can teach you everything you need to know about the game! If you're interested, come tonight at 10pm to this address: XXXXX-XXX district OO, Fuyuki."

(Hmm, a tempting proposition... But why does he want to see each other at night? Can I really trust him?! After all, he says he knows the game that involves fighting to the death)


It's 11:30 pm, I sneak out of the house and pick up my bicycle. But before I pedal off, I feel a little hesitant. I stare at the manhole cover for a few seconds, thinking about what might happen. I shake my head to stop.

"There's no point in hesitating. I'll have to take the risk." I say to motivate myself.

I get on my bicycle and head for my destination, ready for what lies ahead.


Hey, hello there, I'm back from vacation, ready to get back to work. Not much to say, except sorry for the wait. Thanks for reading this chapter and see you next week!