Chapter 15: Bloodbath

Blood Owl had only just returned to the surface and had yet to work out what was happening when more than a dozen men surrounded him with guns at the ready.

His luck was rotten, too. Two patrols happened to be passing, one from HL and the other from the garrison. Late at night, during a curfew, a muscular man nearly two meters tall who looked like an action movie star suddenly appeared on an otherwise deserted street. What was the world coming to if they didn't arrest him?

“Put your hands up and turn around.” Rifle bolts clicked as the soldiers closed to within ten meters of Blood Owl.

The noncommissioned officer leading one of the patrols had switched on the communicator clipped to his shoulder strap and was trying to contact his superiors when something suddenly tightened around his neck, leaving him unable to utter a word. Almost simultaneously, the other soldiers suffered the same fate. Their feet left the ground as a force hoisted them helplessly into the air and sent them flying at high speed until they vanished into the night sky.

In an instant, the street and the surrounding area were empty.

“Heh heh heh… Ha ha ha ha…” Blood Owl laughed, louder and louder, his laughter charged with frenzy and excitement.

A man standing on paper slowly descended from the sky. His first words were, “Finally out, are you?”

“Looks like you want a second round,” Blood Owl said.

“If you have the time,” Paper Hero replied. “I've already moved those people out of the way, after all. In a sense, I saved their lives, even if my methods were a little rough.”

“Of course I have time… I really didn't expect you to get even stronger in the little over a month since our last fight. As a mark of respect, I'll make your death quick.”

Paper Hero said no more. He swept a hand through the air, sending a huge curved paper blade slicing toward Blood Owl as swiftly as the wind. Blood Owl intended to catch it with one hand, but just as the razor-sharp blade reached him, it broke apart into ordinary sheets of paper.

At that moment, though, Blood Owl's instincts told him something was wrong. Sure enough, the soft sheets quickly clung to his body, wrapping him from head to foot like a mummy.

“I can't beat you through sheer destructive power. But my ability has countless variations, and that alone puts it beyond someone who relies entirely on brute force.” As Paper Hero spoke, the layers of paper clinging to Blood Owl grew thicker and thicker.

Hard steel could be torn apart, but there seemed to be no way to shake off this thin paper pressed tight against his skin. Blood Owl began to struggle for breath. His sight and hearing were restricted, and his movements slowed under the restraints.

Paper Hero formed a sharp paper spike in his hand and aimed it at Blood Owl's forehead. “It's over.” The spike shot forward, but Blood Owl remained where he stood.

Suddenly, Blood Owl reached out and caught the deadly spike in a perfectly steady grip. Then he laughed, the sound muffled by the paper.

With a tiger's roar, he shattered all the white paper covering his body and easily snapped the spike in his hand. “For just a moment there, you thought you'd won, didn't you?”

“You can break free of restraints like those…” Paper Hero said in shock.

“Of course I can. I was just putting on a little show to see how my prey would react. That's a very entertaining part of it,” Blood Owl said. “You have grown a little stronger, but you're no longer the man I met a month ago. The darkness deep in your soul has made you stronger, but at the same time, it becomes my strength too.” He threw a punch. The blast from it skimmed past Paper Hero's right ear and struck a distant building behind him, spreading a huge web of cracks across its wall.

“Do you understand now? At this very moment, the gap between us is even greater than last time.” Blood Owl advanced. “Change your tactics, smoke a few bags of weed before you fight me, whatever you like. It won't make any difference. This time we're in a densely populated city, not out at sea. I could take on five of you.”

Blood Owl raised his fist and swung at the stunned Paper Hero's head, ready to end this tedious “second round.” Unexpectedly, someone rushed in from the side, launching a flying kick straight at his neck.

Blood Owl had to use the right fist intended for Paper Hero to block the kick instead. He easily caught the attacker's foot in his palm, then reached forward, seized the ankle, and flung him away like an athlete throwing a hammer.

This time, Faru wasn't taken out in a single hit. He adjusted his position in midair, stepped lightly off the walls of nearby buildings a few times, and landed back on the ground.

“Oh, it's you. So that's the sort of ability you have… Were you out of your mind last time, charging at me with your fists?” Blood Owl turned to ask Faru, utterly unconcerned that Paper Hero, a Strong-rank ability user, was standing less than a meter behind him.

“I underestimated your strength last time. I admit I miscalculated,” Faru replied.

Blood Owl snorted. “You think being fully on your guard will help?” He pointed his thumb behind him. “Since you're here, both of you will have to die.”

With a series of hisses, blood suddenly sprayed from Blood Owl's back. Paper Hero, whom he had thought had lost the will to fight, had launched a sudden attack. A pair of paper wings shielded Paper Hero from the front, their serrated “feathers” slicing into Blood Owl like knives.

There was neither pain nor surprise on Blood Owl's face. He merely took a few quick steps forward, just far enough to leave the attack's range, then turned and sent out another blast with his fist. He had deliberately missed with the earlier blow, but this time Paper Hero dodged it.

“Heh heh heh… Go on. That anger at your own helplessness, that bloodthirsty urge to fight. Give me more. Let me feel it.” Blood poured from his back, yet Blood Owl was still smiling as he spoke to the ascending Paper Hero.

Paper Hero flew into the air and gave a wild shout. Vast quantities of paper gathered from across the city, forming a mistlike mass in the sky before breaking apart into countless paper locusts, each covered in tiny spikes.

Against the night sky, the terrifying sight looked like the end of the world.

Under Paper Hero's control, the paper was as hard as steel. The swarm of paper locusts descended from the sky, devouring even buildings wherever it passed. Faru had retreated far away, but Blood Owl still stood motionless in the center of that storm of insects, letting the attack tear at his body.

Several minutes later, the disaster finally stopped. The entire area had been devastated beyond recognition. A typhoon could hardly have done worse.

The dark mass of insects had completely engulfed Blood Owl, and he had not been seen since. Now the paper locusts filling the sky turned back into scraps and drifted to the ground, but there was still no sign of him.

Faru reckoned Blood Owl had been shredded into tens of millions of fragments of flesh and bone, scattered among the paper and utterly annihilated. At last, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Paper Hero descended too, swaying and barely keeping his feet as he touched down.

“Excellent work, Officer Nice. I don't think anyone could survive an attack like that. You've done us a great service.” Faru walked over to offer Paper Hero a supporting hand.

But at that moment, everything changed. Gunfire erupted all around them. Paper Hero had almost no strength left to resist. Faru barely managed to pull him out of the concentrated fire, but both men took several bullets and were badly wounded.

Paper Hero lay on the ground, barely conscious. Faru's vital organs were unharmed, but bullets had struck his limbs, leaving him unable to move for the moment. He shouted frantically, “Who's there?! Who's shooting?! I'm Lieutenant Colonel Faru of HL! You…”

“Don't waste your strength, Faru.” A familiar voice reached them. Those words plunged Paper Hero and Faru into icy terror. This was true despair.

Jim Malone slowly approached through the distant ruins, a cigar between his teeth. Four fully armed special forces soldiers followed him, all dressed in black with black face coverings, their automatic weapons already trained on the two badly wounded men.

“I suggest you don't try anything. There's no way out. You're surrounded.” As Malone spoke, more than a dozen additional special forces soldiers in black emerged from every direction.

“Colonel Malone!” Faru roared. “Do you know what you're doing?!”

“What a stupid question. That's why I say you so-called ‘experts,’ who know nothing but fighting and killing, are all courage and no brains. Of course I know what I'm doing. You're the ones who've been in the dark all along.”

“Heh heh… Ha ha ha ha… Ha ha ha ha!” Paper Hero laughed wildly, blood welling from his mouth. “And all this time, I thought you were my friend.”

“You never knew what was good for you!” Malone barked. “Elot, back in the army, I thought you had potential. I wanted to help you make something of yourself. But after leaving the army, you refused to join HL. You had to become a policeman. It's only natural to want to move up in the world. That was when I realized you were a dog that would never learn loyalty. If you'd stayed out of this Blood Owl business from the start, I might have spared your life for old times' sake.

“Did you listen to anything I said? ‘You know I work nights all year just to avoid you?’ Did you think I was joking when I said that?!”

“What exactly are you trying to do, Colonel Malone?” Faru said. “And the rest of you, I'm Lieutenant Colonel Faru from European headquarters! I order you to put down your weapons!”

“Hmph… Haven't you worked it out yet?” Paper Hero said. “Those men with him aren't Imperial troops at all.”

“Wha…” At last, Faru realized. The masked men were merely wearing special forces uniforms. Given Malone's position, obtaining those uniforms would hardly be difficult. Just what sort of people were hiding beneath those black face coverings?

Malone continued, “After you fought Blood Owl and Bottrini's gang just over a month ago, I knew an opportunity had arrived. So I set in motion the plan you see before you. Preparations took the whole month. At midnight the day before yesterday, the operation began.

“That Time Attendant from EAS suddenly appearing yesterday did leave me scrambling for a while. Luckily, the odd fellow was in and out. Between the discovery of the baron's body and the police contacting the Second Branch, he happened to finish testing you, then immediately left on his private aircraft.

“So everything has gone smoothly, just as I intended. In a few hours, when that Instructor Luca arrives from headquarters, he'll receive a report along these lines.”

Malone threw away his half-smoked cigar and continued. “The gist will be… Blood Owl killed those nobles and wealthy businessmen, then died in battle along with the two of you. Your devotion to the Empire was truly admirable.”

Paper Hero looked up at the sky and said with a bitter smile, “The governor is already old. Under the hereditary system of nobility, once his son came of age in a few years, he would very likely have become deputy governor as a matter of course. But that won't happen now. And the powerful nobles and wealthy businessmen in Venice's political and business circles, all in their prime, have been killed one after another.

“In small and medium-sized cities like Venice, it's common for the local HL commander to serve as governor too. When the time comes, you, Jim Malone, will be the only choice for governor here.”

Faru was utterly stunned. “Do you know the penalty for murdering an HL headquarters officer and killing nobles?” he asked Malone.

“Crimes? Does it matter? Whatever the charge, the sentence is death, isn't it?” Malone laughed. “Unfortunately for you, once you're both dead, I can write whatever report I like about this whole affair. And I'd wager that His Excellency the Governor will soon die of an ‘unexpected sudden illness.’ Perhaps the grief of losing his son will be too much for him. Heh heh heh…

“Then the local army, the police, and HL will all be in my hands. Who'll investigate me? Who can hold me to account? Venice will lie beneath the feet of one man, Jim Malone. Ha ha ha ha ha!” At this, he seemed beside himself with triumph and burst into unrestrained laughter.

“Oh, nice plan. I think I've got the gist.” A vicious-looking brute climbed ashore from a nearby river. Countless bloody wounds covered his body, but none appeared obviously fatal.

Everyone froze, as though what had climbed out was no human being, but a demon embodying bloodlust and slaughter.

Blood Owl worked his neck a little and gave Malone a look full of ill intent. “So you've been sending your men around killing people, pretending to be me?”

Malone turned and ran, shouting as he went, “Kill him!”

The men in black raised their guns and fired. Their fire was well coordinated, and their aim was good, but a blood-red blur flashed past, and the four men who had been standing behind Malone lost their heads in an instant and dropped to the ground.

Seeing this, three black-clad killers farther away immediately discarded their automatic rifles and advanced with bayonets in hand. Their speed and agility were scarcely inferior to Faru's.

“Oh? Ability users.” Blood Owl perked up like a wolf encountering sheep.

Their weapons were already upon him, yet Blood Owl drove straight forward barehanded. He seized one bayonet in each hand and caught the third in his teeth, taking all three weapons. Apart from the one in his mouth, he had caught the blades with his bare hands, and his own blood ran along their fullers. Yet he lifted the knives with apparent relish and drank a few mouthfuls of blood, as though unwilling to waste it.

All three were cold-blooded killers hardened by countless battles, but they had never seen anything like this. Once people feel fear, instinct makes them put distance between themselves and what frightens them. So they drew the pistols from their gun belts, backed away a few steps, and began shooting at Blood Owl.

“Ptoo…” Blood Owl spat, ejecting the bayonet from his mouth along with his saliva. “Trash.” He tossed the two knives in his hands into the air and caught them by their handles. A blood-red blur flashed, and the three men went rigid. Seconds later, their bodies split into several irregular sections and collapsed like building blocks.

Turning around, he discovered that all the remaining black-clad killers had fled. Displeased, Blood Owl walked over to Faru and Paper Hero. “How about I kill Malone for you?”

Faru could no longer speak. Paper Hero said, “That doesn't sound like you.”

Blood Owl smiled. “Quite right. Before I kill him, I'll send you two on your way!”