Chapter 1 / The Null Hypothesis, Part 4
As the bat closed in from the left, Murasame pushed the boy backwards as he frantically ducked out of the way. The force rolled the boy over to the edge of the room, knocking him up against the wall, but he didn't look offended by the action. If anything, he was glad that Murasame did that, so that he wouldn't be a hindrance.
Meanwhile, Murasame pulled his body out of harm's way, grazing against the bat's intense swings every time he moved back. For every step he took, he dodged another strike somehow. It didn't matter how many times he could do this. A single hit would have knocked him right out regardless.
His footsteps then overlapped on themselves, causing him to trip under a wide attack. It was a lucky mistake. His back slammed onto the ground, but his eyes were still on the moving bat as it was pulled back over the masked man's shoulder and brought down with an overhead swing. His body moved before he could think, rolling out of the way as the bat collided with the floor tiles, shattering them into pieces. He didn't want to think about what would have happened if his head was still there.
Murasame scrambled back onto his feet, using one of the tipped-over beds as his leverage. If it weren't for the fact that the room was already a huge mess thanks to the boy, this room would have been messed up by this masked assailant who had clearly had no regard for the possible collateral.
"You're a skittish fellow, aren't you!? Stay still!"
"Are you crazy!? Why would I do that!?"
A wild attack followed up towards Murasame. An underhanded swing came dragging forwards, but Murasame grabbed the bed—it was surprisingly lighter than he expected—and slid it to form a makeshift shield. It wasn't enough—the man didn't have enough strength to break it, but the force pushed the bed into Murasame which then knocked himself into the wall.
The masked man leapt over the bed and brought down the bat onto his head. Murasame dragged his consciousness out of its daze and threw his body to the side. He looked back over his shoulder to see the bat break open a hole in the wall. The man didn't even bother to pull it out—the man simply swung it to the right to get the bat out, making a tear in the drywall.
The sudden escape caused him to be blindsided by a good hit. He didn't suffer the full brunt of the attack, managing to step with the force as it smashed against his arm, but Murasame would have been lying to say he could shake it off easily. He was able to use the falling momentum to open the distance between them a little, though Murasame could only assume it wouldn't be for long.
"Grrh… A lucky shot…"
"How many more lucky shots do you think I'll get?"
Murasame winced, catching his breath as he gauged the situation. There was no way to put it softly, but this entire time, he had been on the defensive.
There was a significant difference between using his kusarigama in an organized tournament and an actual fight where he could have the chance of dying. This wouldn't have been his first brush with possible death before, but his only answer this time was to fight.
So staying on the defensive was a good way to lose.
Biting through the pain, Murasame tossed the weighted end at his opponent who had lifted their weapon to block it. It bounced off the metal surface, but Murasame grabbed part of the chain to control its trajectory. He slammed it back down in order to redact the angle, returning it to the bat. The force allowed the weight to push its chain onto the bat and wrap it around tightly.
Now that Murasame had the weapon locked down…
Honestly, he didn't think he would get that far.
"Is that all you've got!?"
The masked man reacted first by yanking his bat to tug Murasame forwards. He stumbled towards the masked man, seeing a fist being prepared for him, but he tripped and fell underneath the attack. Murasame continued his tumble, rolling over to the other side while continuously pulling on the chain, but the grip of the masked man on the bat was too tight.
Murasame was the one that stopped moving and got yanked back, but he was able to get back on his feet. He swore under his breath as he felt the chain's tension loosened up. He looked over to see the bat swinging at him again and he responded by lifting his sickle to block it.
It gave Murasame time to have the chains get unraveled by swinging the blade at the handle like a fishing reel. He already realized that teetering the two of them together was a huge mistake, but he was too focused on getting them apart.
The masked man tightened his open hand into a fist and smashed it into Murasame's gut. He was sent flying across the room, crashing into some of the medical equipment. Compared to the average person, Murasame was rather durable, but even that had taken some wind out of him. He was still able to get back on his feet, but the question still lingered in the air.
What should he do now? How was he going to win?
He noticed a few containers within the cabinet, so out of desperation, he started chucking them at the masked man. With a laugh, the man made light work of it, treating the containers like they were baseballs as he slowly approached Murasame.
A swing came crashing down, forcing Murasame to jump out of the way. The noise of broken wood and shattering glass echoed throughout the room, leaving the masked man audibly more frustrated.
However the grumbling might be coming, the masked man looked over to Murasame to notice that he was in a strange position. The weighted end was not in Murasame's hand anymore, but its chain had been coming from his direction.
His gaze quickly traced the chain to see it tied to the cabinet's handles.
"Damn it! Why did you look over!?"
Distressed, Murasame pulled on the chain to cause the cabinet to fall right on top of the man, but they ducked and rolled out of the way before the furniture could crush them.
While Murasame had been distracting the man with the glass containers, he managed to get the weighted end onto the handle in the hopes of trapping him there. While frustrating that such a great plan failed, it at least confirmed something for Murasame.
The mask the man was wearing was a weakness. The man didn't have the wide peripheral that a normal eyesight provided. He needed to turn to see where the chain was attached to, rather than already seeing it within his sight. The problem was wondering how he could use that to his advantage.
Murasame pulled back his weighted end as the masked man grunted.
"Are tricks the only thing you have? How pathetic."
"Yeah? You want to see me try!?"
Pressured by the taunt, Murasame blindly ran at the masked man, wildly swinging his sickle, but the essence of his attacks were simply that—wild. There was no technique behind his swings. There was no thought laid behind them. He wanted a single slash to land its mark to prove the man wrong, but the masked man dodged and blocked every one of them.
All of the swings became predictable, allowing the masked man to parry and counter with a swing of his own. This one had been a clean hit on Murasame's side and flinging him over into some of the other beds. He squirmed on the ground, thinking some bones were definitely cracked from that.
"You should have listened when you had the chance. If you handed over the target, I would have been content with breaking only your fingers."
"That still sounds pretty bad to me!"
"Well, I have to make sure that you aren't going to be in the way."
"Why the hell do you even want that kid to begin with!?" Murasame spat, grabbing onto a bed to support himself. "It seems like a pretty mundane thing to do! Barging into a hospital yourself to kidnap a young adult!? Don't you have anything better to do with your time!?"
The moment he moved, the masked man swung again, but Murasame feigned his intentions and actually rolled underneath the bed to the otherside. Once there, Murasame managed to stumble back onto his feet, getting some distance away from the man. He held his side, unable to ignore the searing sensation digging within.
"For crying out loud! Leave the kid alone!"
"No can do." The masked man shrugged as he rested the bat on his shoulder, no worse for wear since starting the fight. It was a stark contrast to Murasame. "We got hired for the job, so we're not leaving until the job is completed."
Murasame widened his eyes. "There's more of you bastards!?"
"We have the building on lockdown. I was the lucky one to find the target first."
Murasame was already spent just dealing with one of them. He couldn't imagine trying to get through countless more. Out of mere frustration, he recklessly tossed his weighted end at the masked man, but he merely stepped out of the way to dodge it.
"Struggle all you want. You should be more worried about what's going to happen to you, rather than what our intentions are with the target."
The feeling of his breath scraped against the inside of lungs. The pounding of his heart resonated through his entire body. His energy dissipated, losing his senses in his hands and legs.
This wasn't good for him.
Murasame simply believed he needed one good distraction to defeat this man—
From the side, a shadow leapt from the darkness and clenched their fist. The man didn't see the retaliation because of his mask.
"Leave him alone!"
"What the—!?"
The masked man turned around to the voice far too late and his face was smashed in by the boy's fist. He growled back at the boy, obviously pissed at the interruption, but that was the distraction Murasame needed.
With a small prayer, Murasame pulled back the weighted end as the boy landed on the ground and the masked man lifted his bat. He wanted this to work desperately.
"Damn it, brat!" the masked man shouted. "You're better out of the way!"
"Oh no!"
"Hey! Don't you dare forget about me!"
Murasame whipped the chain at the perfect moment, having it wrapped right around the man's arm as it was pulling back with the bat. Of course, the man didn't see the movement because Murasame was directly to his right. Murasame pulled with his good arm and spun the masked man around, but if he put any more pressure on the chain, he would end up dragging him over and give him time to recover from the confusion.
Instead, he first released the chain to grab onto another target, the bat.
And then exploding from his legs, Murasame rushed forwards.
"Kid! Give me some help! We'll blow him away together!"
Instinctively screaming for support, his prayers were answered as the boy rushed in with Murasame. "Alright, Mister Murasame!"
Closing in on the dazed man, Murasame noticed he was already recovering and preparing for a counter. It wasn't going to work in his favor since he didn't look at his bat on the side. Murasame tugged on the chain once more and as if the man had become a puppet, he forced a bad swing out from him.
"Now! Punch him as hard as you can!"
Murasame clenched his fist. The boy clenched his fist. They both pulled back their arms and drove them forwards into the man's chest. The attack dug deep into his body, as if the ribs themselves were collapsing on itself, and on release—
"You're finished!"
The man went flying into the wall with a loud impact. Reticence stirred within the room as the man slipped off, collapsing onto his stomach. There was no movement anymore, the bat was released from the man's loosened grip, and that loud mouth of his was finally silenced.
"Is he down yet? He's not going to take me away like that, right?"
"Not that I would know of…"
Murasame needed a moment to breathe. The adrenaline was what kept him running, but now that it was starting to wear off, it was his mind that was trying to drag itself back onto the helm.
"Never mind that. If we stay here, it's going to be a problem. He's got backup scattered throughout the hospital, so it won't take long for us to be cornered."
"More of them? It wasn't just him!?"
"Hey, kid?" Murasame raspily asked. "I probably already know the answer to this, but you wouldn't happen to know what the hell is going on, right? They're after you, after all."
"I've never seen these guys before!"
The boy quietly pondered what he said. "I-I mean, if I did know them, I don't remember them. This is my first memory of seeing people like this."
"Yeah, I figured."
Murasame dragged himself over to the door and opened it. He peeked out using a random mirror he found in the room's mess. It didn't look like there was anyone in the immediate hallway, so they needed to get a move on. The safest place would have been outside.
"By the way, you've got a mean punch. Mine was obviously better, but how did you come to throw one out like that?"
"I wanted to help you, but I didn't know how to do it without getting in the way. It looked like you had the situation under control."
Murasame had no idea what the boy saw in his ass getting kicked around, but he wasn't going to be the one to correct him on that.
"And then, this random thought came into my head, so I threw myself at the man to see if I could distract him for you. I'm glad I didn't mess up your strategy."
"A random thought?"
"It's true! That's what happened!"
"Oh, whatever. I'm already feeling really tired—I mean, I'm too busy to be dealing with this, so I want to get this over with as soon as possible."
Murasame rolled his shoulder. He should consider himself lucky that this "random thought" of a distraction came about just as Murasame hoped for one.
"You don't want to get captured, right? Follow me and don't make a sound. We can't be sure where these bad guys are. They could be around any corner."
"Sounds scary."
"Yeah. That's why you leave it to me."
"Of course! Someone like you can handle this without a problem!"
It shouldn't have to be mentioned that Murasame was frightened out of his mind as well, but his willpower to get through the situation was temporarily stronger than his feeling of running away with his tail tucked between his legs. He couldn't say what it would be like in the next few minutes.
"Shush already." Murasame stepped out to the hallway over the unconscious police officers and proceeded on the way. "We're moving out."
The boy glanced at the police officers, but he didn't give them much thought before listening to Murasame's orders. As Murasame stuck to one side, so did the boy as they quietly traversed the area.
Running on the memory of the path that the nurse took him en route to the room, something told Murasame that it might not work out the same way. As he peeked out to the stairwell, he immediately pulled himself back to avoid being detected.
"Great. Two guys right there, guarding the way down."
"What do we do?"
"Shut up. Let me think."
They were different clothes compared to the man they fought, so it doesn't look like this organized group had uniforms. The only thing that kept them unified were the masks on their faces, something Murasame was able to catch a glimpse of when they looked at each other for small talk. Despite what the situation may suggest, Murasame thought about a good way to simply walk on out without even trying to hide in the shadows.
He didn't have the energy for another fight, after all.
"We're walking back for a bit. You're going to have to trust me on this as well."
"Huh…?"
Murasame brought the boy back to the original room where the masked man was still on the ground. Without wasting time, he removed the mask, showing some unmemorable thug underneath, while stripping him of his rough clothing. Murasame tossed aside his white jacket and exchanged it for the man's outfit. He could replace it with a new one anytime.
"Alright, this should work."
-/SK-EV/-
"Hey, I found something. This might be our target."
The two guards turned around to see a masked man approach them. They glanced over to see that the masked man had a young adult with him.
"That was quick," one of the guards said. "You sure don't waste any time."
They narrowed their eyes.
"Not to doubt you or anything, but are you sure this is the one?"
"How should I know?" the masked man grumbled. "This is the first kid I saw that matched the description of who we were looking for. I'm planning to bring this one out to see if we've got the right one here. If not, we can just toss her aside."
"Isn't the target supposed to be a male though? That person looks like a female."
The masked man shrugged. "You see, that's what I was thinking too, but there wasn't anyone else that matched the description on this floor and, well, this kid seemed to have come with me without any resistance. I might as well bring her along to see if there was a mistake in the description or something. If it is, that's better for us. If not, we can just leave her behind."
The guards looked at each other before glancing back at the white-haired patient.
"Alright, then we should head back down."
"Nah, that would seem like a waste of manpower. If we're the ones that are mistaken, that wouldn't look good on us, right? I'll take the kid down while you guys help out the other floors."
"You just want the glory for yourself," the guard scoffed.
"We all get paid the same at the end of the day. Glory doesn't put food on the table."
The other guard nodded. "He's got a point. There's no reason for all of us to accompany him if this girl is willing to come with him."
"Fine, fine. Do what you want," the guard resigned. "You've always got such a hothead when people don't listen to you."
"By the way," the other guard said, "you sound a little different than usual."
"Hah? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Are you trying to ask if I got infected with an illness or something?" the masked man snapped. "We might be in a hospital, but that sounds like a terrible attempt at a joke."
"Whoa, hey, calm down," the guard wryly laughed, feigning a surrendering motion with his hands up. "You didn't have to take it personally. I didn't actually mean it…"
The other guard nudged their partner. "Come on already. Let's get a move on before our guy here snaps at us even more."
The two guards moved upwards on the staircase, leaving the path downwards free for them to access. The masked man was hoping that they wouldn't have gone downwards and he was coming up with excuses on why they shouldn't descend, so he was glad he didn't need to pull anything out from the lootbag. Not only that, he was thankful his body wasn't showing any signs of injury in front of them. It would have conflicted heavily with the story he was running, but he had to wince at his pain once they were out of sight.
"That's so amazing, Mister Murasame…!" the boy then gasped once the coast was cleared. "You got them to move without even fighting them!"
"Shush! Stay quiet!" Murasame clicked his tongue as he recovered his posture. He was already sweating bullets the entire time. "We're not out of the woods yet."
"I thought we were in a hospital. Where are these woods?"
Murasame was not in the mood to correct the boy on what a metaphor was.
"I have a feeling that we can't leave the way I came in," Murasame mulled as they descended. "If this is a large-scale operation, there's no way that they would leave the lobby unattended. That area is probably littered with them."
He did wonder what was happening with all the visitors and patients that were waiting their turn to see a doctor in the lobby. Murasame was no hero, nor anything close to their strength, so if they were all held hostage, he couldn't really do anything about it. Other than the person they beat, it sounded like the hospital assailants didn't want to hurt anyone if it wasn't needed. They only wanted to find and capture their target.
It should be fine if Murasame went to ignore them and focus on himself—and the boy, not that it almost went over his head.
As they went down the stairs, Murasame had to figure out what exactly was the plan. He had to assume the same trick wasn't going to work twice, but such an encounter may not even happen for a second time. He was hoping for the latter.
Upon reaching the first floor, he noticed that there weren't any guards stationed there. It was likely that there was no real need to if they've already swept the entire area for possible stragglers. Murasame peeked around the corners to see some guards on patrol, but they had just walked back to their location.
Murasame had his sights on an open room on the other side of the hall.
"Quickly," Murasame whispered, "now!"
The boy followed Murasame's lead as they shuffled over to the empty room. Murasame was hoping that they would come across a window they could possibly break to escape, but to his luck, it was simply a spare storage space. Nevertheless, it provided him with a place to think about their next steps without being out in the open.
This was at least a good place to call someone for help on his phone, but when he patted himself down, he couldn't find it. The panic within him prevented him from thinking straight, leading him to believe that he dropped his phone somewhere during the fight. There was no way he could go back upstairs. It wasn't worth the risk.
"Are you looking for something, Mister Murasame?"
"It's… No, it's not important. Don't worry. I still have this handled."
The police had probably caught wind of the situation by now. There wasn't any evidence of them, such as loud sirens down the corridor, but he had to trust that there was someone competent enough to phone emergency services before everything went to hell. He couldn't have been the only one trying to salvage the situation after all.
"We'll have to slowly make our way down the hall."
Murasame poked his head out once more when footsteps weren't echoing. The intervals were large enough that they could safely move from one room to another, but Murasame was starting to get worried that the gap wasn't big enough for them to even smash a window. Something like that could be heard from a distance, even if he closed the door. Once that happens, he was basically locked into running as fast as he could and with the damage he took, he wasn't going to be outrunning them.
"Then we'll have to take an emergency exit, but that would crack an alarm as well. There are a couple around here, but we need a good moment to leave through one."
Another variable they were working with is how large of an area these grunts had taken over. It would be one thing if they simply had the building locked down from the inside, but if there were people on guard on the outside as well, they wouldn't even get far before being stopped. Murasame bit on his lips as he took everything into account.
"Shit," he muttered to himself. "I can't work anything out with so much information lacking."
They eventually came to a rehabilitation room that was close to an emergency exit. It had all the equipment needed to help a patient get back onto their feet through physical exercises with a nice view on the outer wall. From where he was standing, he could see a couple of grunts. The window had a reflective tint on the other side, so Murasame didn't need to worry about the grunts seeing them. There was also an attaching room with some more storage that connected back out into the hallways.
A small plan was concocted in his head.
"If we can't find our information, we'll have to stir up their formation."
-/SK-EV/-
After Murasame informed the boy about his plan, the boy was excited to do what he could to contribute. Having the two of them start out in the rehabilitation room, the boy had the weight in his hands. Murasame was surprised that he lifted up some of the heavier ones without looking bothered by it, but the plan wasn't picky as to how heavy the weight was, so Murasame didn't think too much about it. The boy simply needed to have a couple in hand.
Murasame dusted himself off before taking a deep breath.
"Ready to do this? You don't have much to do, so I don't think you can mess this up."
"I'm ready, Mister Murasame! On your count!"
"Already, go ahead with it!"
Without hesitating, the boy launched the weights at the window to smash them wide open. A loud shatter echoed throughout the area, leaving little to the imagination as to what the grunts might have done concerning it—that is to say, they started moving towards the noise.
However, Murasame and the boy were not exiting through the window.
As Murasame could hear footsteps coming from the hallway, he glared at the boy to escape through the connecting storage room and hide there for a short moment. In the meantime, Murasame threw himself out into the hallway as if he had just been knocked out.
When he crashed on the ground, a few of the inside grunts approached him.
"What happened!?" one of the grunts exclaimed. "We heard a commotion!"
"Grah…" Murasame stumbled back onto his feet. "It's the target! I found him, but he's putting up a crazy fight! He escaped out through the window there!"
His real injuries may look far more believable as he waddled over to the wall.
"Damn it! The sneaky bastard got me good! I ain't in any condition to lock him down anymore, but I'll get some back-up here as soon as possible! Someone else should spread the word as well! Hey, stop standing around and do something! I'll set one of the alarms to get everyone else on high alert!"
Murasame stumbled to one of the fire alarms and pulled it. That was going to confirm their auditory disguise and since the other grunts saw him do it, they can attest to his action.
"Hurry up! The target's getting away!"
Throwing on top a time limit, their first instincts would be to heed his words without thinking too much about it. The moment some left for the rehabilitation room to investigate and others left the area to alert more of them, Murasame knocked on the door to the storage room. The boy quickly emerged outwards, leaving them the opening of leaving through the emergency exit without any major obstacles.
As to how tight of an opening they had, Murasame had no clue, but this was likely their only shot at escaping. Murasame led the way and broke through the exit, bringing them to the blue skies above their heads. It wasn't all done though.
Murasame and the boy had to duck over to some of the shrubbery to avoid some of the grunts from seeing them. They were passing by to investigate the broken window and the alarm as well, but to be honest, Murasame didn't think it would attract such a large number. They must have exhausted the area of their searching and once a lead pulled up, they diverted all of their grunts over to locking down that specific area.
"That plan went perfectly, Mister Murasame."
"Of course it did. I'm the one who devised it."
Despite his confidence, Murasame's heart was pounding pretty hard. He wasn't sure how two consecutive plans had worked out so favorably, but he wasn't going to complain. All that was left was the home stretch and they were out of sight.
Sneaking through the greenery, Murasame could see the way out. All that was left was one sprint across the open parking lot and they were free. He was a little baffled by the fact that it didn't look like anyone was guarding it, but he marked that up to them being distracted by the alarm as well. He was just so excited that he was actually going to make it out of here without anybody's help. He couldn't help himself in thinking how he was going to rub this exploit into his sister's face, proving that he was in fact component enough to deal with such a dire situation.
So much so that Murasame pushed the bad feeling down as he prompted the boy to make a run for it. It was a hasty choice for sure—
—and it was one that cost Murasame the entire plan.
"Huh? Mister Murasame? What's that noise?"
"Noise?"
Murasame looked over his shoulder to see a black van accelerating behind them.
"What the—!? Kid! Look out!"
Without thinking, Murasame pushed the boy into the pavement to avoid having the both of them being flattened by the speeding vehicle. His mask came off during their landing, bouncing a few feet away.
"Ouch!" the boy cried. "That hurts!"
"Stop whining! I think getting scraped on the pavement is better than getting hit by a van!"
Murasame pushed himself up, staggering a bit since he fell on his bad arm, but his gaze was good enough to see the van come to a halt. The back doors opened up as a figure showed themselves from the inside. A muffled laughter, an almost-filtered laughter, emerged outwards.
They started clapping.
"[Well done. I must applaud you for your efforts in pulling the wool over my men's eyes.]" The speech was covered by a mask, but the filter over it made it impossible to discern their true voice. Murasame gritted his teeth out of instinct. "[Though, I suppose calling them my men is very unreasonable since they are simply hired muscle for the occasion. The people I would personally keep around are far more meticulous and careful in their employment.]"
"Then I suppose it's not farfetch'd to assume you're the boss here?" Murasame asked coyly. "If so, I'd suggest hiring better grunts that aren't stupid."
The mysterious figure stepped out of the van to reveal their appearance. Unlike any of the grunts that they encountered, the boss certainly had that special atmosphere to him. A clean and straight coat, darkened in a gray tint to contrast the blue skies. An outfit which tucks away any skin from seeing the light. A full-covered mask with markings that rested on their head like a helmet. A fedora hat that matched well with their clothing in style and color.
… It felt a little wish-fulfillment from the perspective of a growing middle-schooler with chūnibyō, but Murasame couldn't disagree that it was entirely practical. If they wanted to make sure no one knew who they were, they were doing a good job at it.
"[Your feedback is appreciated.]" They tipped their hat. "[I shall take that into consideration for next time.]"
"No need to bring out the sarcasm," Murasame scoffed.
"[I'm being genuine, but allow me to get straight to the point, as you wish.]" The mysterious figure lifted the brim of their hat, as if they were staring right at Murasame. "[You have something we would like back. If you would be so kind, I'd like to ask that you return it to us.]"
"You mean the kid?"
Murasame looked over his shoulder to see the boy dusting himself off before noticing they were locked in another encounter.
"Are we making it out, Mister Murasame?"
"Not quite." Murasame turned back to keep his eyes on the mysterious figure. "You wouldn't happen to recognize that person, would you? They say that they're here because you were once with them."
"Uhm… I think I would remember someone that scary, but even if I can't remember anything about them, if I've ever encountered them before…" The boy grimaced as he became short of breath. "There's something about that person that I don't like and I'm not saying that because they look scary."
Murasame had a feeling that they were bad news, but he was surprised that even the boy could feel that atmosphere in the air. Maybe there was something else he was feeling though? It didn't matter to Murasame because for the mysterious figure, the decision was made clear.
"[Oh my. I know we weren't on the greatest terms back then, but for you to have declared something so ridiculous, it's almost heartbreaking. Regardless, I'm here to bring you back to where you belong. This hospital isn't a place that could hold you.]"
"Okay, you've spoken for no longer than a minute and I'm already sick of that synthesizing-ass vocal cords you're running here," Murasame growled. He struggled to lift his sickle, but he forced himself through the pain. "Why don't you shut up already and let us through? It's already clear that the kid doesn't want to go with you."
The mysterious figure looked at Murasame in silence. As if contemplating something, but they sighed following with an amused chuckle.
"[How strange.]" They lifted their hand to reveal some kind of metallic sphere. "[I don't ever recall giving you a choice.]"
Almost instantaneously, the mysterious figure threw the metallic sphere at the boy and just as it was about to make an impact, the sphere exploded into a wire. The boy couldn't move out of the way, nor could Murasame react in time to do anything about it. Before anyone could realize, the wire captured the boy by wrapping around his body and pushed him off his feet.
"M-Mister Murasame! I'm stuck! I can't move!"
Murasame clicked his tongue. "Damn it!"
A shock surged through the metal instrument, sending electricity right through the boy's body. A blood-curdling scream erupted from his lungs.
"Kid!"
His screams withered away as the boy collapsed like a lifeless puppet.
"[I wouldn't worry too much about it if I were you. I suppose what I mean by that is that you might have different problems to tackle.]"
He wanted to step in to help, but he noticed that the grunts were finished with their investigation. They were gathering in the rear and while it wasn't an army, it was easily around twenty to thirty people.
Murasame sweated. He raised his sickle, pointing it back and forth between the grunts, but he clearly couldn't take them on. "Wait a minute. Hold on! Weren't you here for the kid!? What do you think you're doing then!? I'm an innocent bystander, so don't you dare get closer to me! Don't you know who I am!?"
"[Murasame Houou]" the mysterious figure responded. "[Obviously, we would know such a famous person, one born into wealth, but one succeeding on his own terms. You have an impressive resume, Murasame.]"
"Thanks for doing your research."
"[And while our primary target was the boy, it would be a shame to waste such a perfect opportunity.]"
Suddenly, the voice of the mysterious figure became closer. Murasame looked back to see that they had closed the distance within a blink of the eye. Their hand had some kind of baton gripped tightly within and before he could even swing his sickle, they swung first.
"[Say, Murasame. You are good at making business deals, are you not? Then allow me to provide a possible proposition for you.]"
With one strike, the baton smashed itself across Murasame's face. He couldn't remember the next thing that happened. All he could feel was his body hitting the cold ground and the world quickly becoming black.
"[Sleep well, Murasame. Make sure you're in top condition when you awaken.]"