Chapter 6: A Pause

Having said what he had to say, Darkwater rose from the bed.

Tea Immortal spoke then. “Surely you don't think you can simply walk out of here.” His frustration quickly turned to anger. Someone who was invariably polite and kind could be all the more frightening when he erupted.

But Darkwater had no idea what fear was. His tone was level, utterly unfeeling. “You mean to stop me?”

Tea Immortal was so angry he laughed. “Don't be ridiculous. I don't care what kind of monster you are. Your own admission that you ‘devoured’ Ikeda Nozomi is enough for me to arrest you.”

Darkwater seemed to think for a few seconds before replying. “According to the knowledge in your four colleagues' brains, you should be very strong. Few people in EAS's records have reached Fierce rank at your age.” The blue-green light in his eyes intensified. “However, the Transmitter told me that today's ability-user ranks differ somewhat from the standards of my era. At least, the people I killed all fell below the former standards for their respective ranks. Perhaps this hostile behavior of yours will give me a more accurate idea of the strength of modern ability users at Fierce rank and above.”

Tea Immortal said, “There's no hurry to confess all your crimes. You'll have plenty of time to explain them after you're arrested.”

Darkwater did indeed say no more. He swept his right hand forward, sending several drops of black slime flying. In midair, the semisolid substance instantly hardened into blades.

Tea Immortal tilted his head to dodge them and reached straight for Darkwater's neck. The instant he touched him, he sensed something wrong. He could distinctly feel energy surging across Darkwater's “skin” and immediately withdrew his hand and retreated. A second later, long black needles sprouted from Darkwater's body. He resembled a sea urchin, densely covered in a forest of needles two feet long. Black needles shooting from the soles of his feet pierced the hard floor beneath him, passing effortlessly through the entire concrete slab.

Tea Immortal thought his opponent was another mutant. He had never seen a mutation like this, and close combat would certainly be troublesome. Although a Fierce-rank expert's physical fighting prowess alone far surpassed that of a cyborg, he wasn't about to pit flesh and blood against a forest of needles. Someone like Blood Owl might actually swallow a cactus whole or roll naked across a bed of nails. Tea Immortal certainly wouldn't.

“You dare talk so big with an ability like that? You seriously underestimate high-ranking ability users,” Tea Immortal said.

The strength of an opponent who relied on bodily mutations to fight was plain to see. It came down to speed, strength, and regeneration. To Tea Immortal, opponents with abilities of this kind posed no threat at the same rank.

He raised an arm, pointed an index finger at Darkwater, and shouted, “Back!”

A tremendous crash rang out like a thunderclap, echoing through the sky. It seemed to be an explosion, yet there was no flash of fire, and the affected area was very small. Only one exterior wall of the psychiatric hospital was destroyed.

In fact, what destroyed that wall wasn't a blast wave either. It was Darkwater's body hurtling backward. Struck by an indescribably powerful force, he flew clean out of the psychiatric hospital and landed in the street outside.

Darkwater hadn't bitten the dust, though. He hadn't even lost consciousness. His head was his only weak point, and Gunsmith's successful sneak attack back then had really been a stroke of luck. Unless his head was badly injured right at the outset, the rest of Darkwater's body regenerated at an astonishing speed.

Tea Immortal leaped through the hole in the wall and floated over on the wind, with all the grace of a sword immortal from a martial arts novel. What he had just done had cost him no effort at all.

Darkwater's body trickled back into its original shape. Watching Tea Immortal land before him, he spoke in the same cold tone. “Young man who controls ‘wind,’ was the destructive power of that last blow your limit?”

“I held back to leave you breathing,” Tea Immortal said. “I didn't expect you to remain so composed. Your regenerative ability is quite remarkable.” Even so, Tea Immortal was puzzled. The ability to turn his entire body into liquid to dissipate an impact ought to conflict with the ability to sprout hard black needles all over it. Could a mutant possess two abilities at once? No such case had ever appeared in EAS's records. It seemed there was quite a lot worth investigating about this opponent.

Darkwater replied, “I see... Then fighting any further would be a waste of time.” That brief exchange alone had given him a rough idea of Tea Immortal's strength. Someone this powerful was already beyond his ability to “devour.” Forcibly invading him might cause indigestion. After all, his own people had perished because they devoured certain things they should never have touched.

Darkwater's people had always been eager to learn from history and correct their mistakes. Unfortunately, luck had been against them. A single mistake had nearly wiped them out. Now that Darkwater was the only one left, he had all the more reason to proceed cautiously.

Tea Immortal said, “It's a little late to think of running now.” No sooner had he said this than he discovered that, if Darkwater really wanted to run, it was actually quite easy.

Darkwater suddenly dissolved into a puddle of sludge and flowed into the drain beside his feet. Only his head failed to liquefy, but even that became semisolid, like jelly, and went down with a little squeezing.

Basically, this amounted to chickening out because he couldn't win. Darkwater himself, however, had little understanding of shame. He had no concept of so-called dignity anyway, and didn't find it embarrassing.

When Darkwater devoured humans, he absorbed only their memories and knowledge. Human emotions and patterns of thought were a complete blind spot for him. He still thought the way his own people did. Whatever needed doing, he did. Tian Yi, of course, knew their nature. He understood perfectly well that his words as the “Transmitter” were essentially imperial decrees. Darkwater would never refuse him or betray him, which was why he could confidently entrust Darkwater with his business.

Now, watching his opponent turn into filthy water and flow down the drain, Tea Immortal could only stare into it and sigh, no matter how many tricks he had at his disposal.

...

Not long after that day, Tea Immortal left Hokkaido. All the satisfaction of having successfully sent Divine Key to Tidal Prison a month earlier had vanished, replaced by nothing but frustration.

He remembered every word of Tian Yi's message. A sense of foreboding had taken deep root in his heart. He knew very well what words like “an age of turmoil and strife is about to begin” meant when Tian Yi said them...

The truth about Tian Yi's ability, the truth about that mysterious bookshop, and the black mutant's unfathomable strength all kept Tea Immortal from eating or sleeping in peace. To him, nothing was more agonizing than questions he could neither answer nor ignore, forever surfacing in his mind.

During this time, another piece of news caught Tea Immortal's attention. There had been a frontal terrorist assault in Venice. Generally speaking, anyone bold enough to challenge HL like that on European soil would naturally be its old enemy, Steel Commandment. That much was hardly unexpected.

What interested Tea Immortal about this incident, however, were some of the unofficial reports, such as rumors of a “white whirlwind and a giant dragon.” He also watched some videos circulating online, but they soon all fell victim to the censors. With no other choice, he had to go through HL's internal channels to get the full story. And so an unfamiliar name came to his attention—Elot Nice.

At the time, Tea Immortal could not have known that, one month later, he would meet that man in person.