“You could think of it that way. Incidentally, the girl fallen over there is related in the same way, so you don’t have to worry about her.”
“Like hell I don’t!” Yuichi shouted. “She might be bad, but if she’s dying, then I’m gonna take her to the hospital!”
Yuichi was getting annoyed by the man’s laissez faire way of speaking. It was like he saw through everyone and looked down his nose at everything.
“I doubt that will be enough to kill her, personally,” the man said calmly. “I did hold back, after all. That aside, what is it that you want? As far as I know, you just barged into my territory and started complaining at me for no reason.”
“I’m taking Takeuchi and that woman and I’m going home. You can stay here and do whatever you want.”
“No, I can’t have that,” the man said coolly. “I need Natsuki. Though that woman there... Aki Takizawa, I think? You can take her with you.”
“I didn’t ask for your opinion,” Yuichi snarled. “I’m going to do it, even if I have to do it by force.”
“Hmm, this really is trouble. I’d rather not kill you here, but if you persist, you’re going to leave me no choice.”
“Is that a threat?”
“More like a prediction, I suppose? I’m indifferent on the matter, myself.” It looked like there was room for discussion, but the evil god’s manner was different than it had been back in the alley; he seemed ready to fight if it came to it.
He was strong; Yuichi felt that in his skin. Some people might subconsciously read this as malice, but to Yuichi, it was nothing so vague.
The man’s tone, expression, bearing, posture, gaze, breath, pulse... he evaluated them all, calmly, and his mind’s resultant judgment was that this man was prepared to kill him.
He wasn’t about to declare defeat before he even fought, but he did know that he couldn’t compete while he was protecting Mutsuko and the others.
What should I do? Yuichi wondered.
If he’d been by himself, he’d be fine. He could either put his all into the fight, or he could run away. But in his current situation, that wouldn’t be possible.
If he fought, the others around him might get wrapped up in it. It might not be possible to take them all and run, either.
“I guess there’s no way we can talk this out, huh?” Yuichi asked, despite knowing it was probably a futile attempt from the start.
He knew it was just an image in his mind, but despite this man being labeled “Evil God,” he seemed strangely reasonable. They might be able to negotiate something.
“I doubt it,” the man shrugged. “I have no intention of letting Natsuki go for now, while you want to take Natsuki with you. I can’t see any room for compromise, can you?”
He made it sound impossible, but he was at least open to the attempt. Maybe talking could get through to him after all.
“Hey, you said ‘for now.’ Does that mean you’ll let her go later?” Mutsuko interrupted.
“I’ve already told you a lot, so there’s no point in refusing you now... That’s right. I’m going to conduct a little ritual, and when that’s done, I’ll be happy to free her. But once I do, I’m not sure if she’ll go back to you.”
“What do you mean by that?” Yuichi shot back. There was something about the way he said that that didn’t seem up-and-up.
“I wonder if you know that the serial killer archetype attached to Natsuki right now is Jack the Ripper. It seems he’s grown quite weak recently, so I was thinking of swapping him out for another. It’s a way of bolstering her flagging killer instinct. If I do this, of course, there’s a chance her current personality might not survive it.”
Yuichi paused. “Are you the one who made Takeuchi a serial killer?” He felt a wave of rage surge up inside of him. If Natsuki’s urge to kill had been given to her by the evil god, that meant she was being forced to kill against her will. Yuichi couldn’t allow that to pass.
“Hmm? I think you might be under some misunderstanding... she always wanted to kill people. I didn’t force that on her. It’s easy to talk about killing people, you see, but it’s harder than you’d think to actually do it. People aren’t made to kill other people. There’s a high psychological hurdle they need to clear. So the people I choose as servants must have the basic potential to surpass that hurdle.”
“What are you trying to accomplish?!” Yuichi yelled.
“Murder, of course.”
Yuichi was struck dumb by his totally straightforward answer.
“Well, I am a god of death,” the man said. “Not accidents and suicides, of course... I’m a god of killing. All kinds of killing, from intimate murders to wide-spread wars. Plagues and viruses also fall under my domain.”
“A god of death? Like Hades or Thanatos?” Mutsuko asked cheerily despite the tension hanging over the room.
“Hmm, I’m not directly connected to myths like that. I call myself Nergal, actually.”
“From Babylonian myth! But don’t you have a sun god version, too?”
“Listen, I get a lot of mythology freaks coming to me with these questions, so let me tell you in advance that the myths have nothing to do with anything.”
“If you are a god of death, what are you trying to do? Create serial killers and send them around to kill people?”
“My endgame is the extinction of humanity,” the man said. “But that’s hard to accomplish all in one fell swoop, so I’m generally forced to resort to pettier measures. I would much prefer an enormous pandemic — that or a nuclear war — but that’s too much for me to handle alone. I’m limited in my scope until my main body reawakens.”
“Then why don’t you just go around killing people yourself, without skulking around in the shadows with serial killers?” Yuichi demanded.
“I can’t afford to stand out. If I do, it will trigger the appearance of powerful allies of good. So the most efficient way to do things is to chip away little by little. Grassroots action, you know?”
The extinction of humanity. Pandemics. Nuclear war. The words he was throwing around seemed so outside the scope of reality that Yuichi’s mind could barely find footing.
“Yes,” the man said. “Incidentally, you don’t have any Divine Vessels hosted inside you, but since you are a participant in the war, I suppose I can tell you this... If you gather them all, you’ll have a wish granted, but I’m going to destroy all of humanity.”
“Huh?” Yuichi asked, startled.
“Well, what were you expecting? You’ll be reviving an evil god who craves the slaughter of all humanity. The minute I’m awakened, I’m going to spring right into action.”
“That makes no sense! You make it sound like you’re the god itself!”
“I’m its incarnation. In Hinduism, they’d call me an avatar. My real body was split into many parts and sealed, and I go here and there working my schemes in its place. The war is one of those schemes.”
“By the way, did you know the term ‘avatar’ to describe your character in a video game refers to the same thing?!” Mutsuko asked excitedly.
“Nobody cares!” Yuichi shouted.
“Now... I’ve indulged you a little while, but what now? I’ve got a lot of time on my hands, but that doesn’t mean I can just hang around here forever...” the man said.
“We’re taking Takeuchi back,” Yuichi said again, hardening his resolve. “No matter what it takes.”
Yuichi handed Natsuki to Mutsuko.
“Don’t worry about us, Yu! We can handle ourselves!” his big sister informed him.
He decided to trust her on that. He couldn’t completely put the others out of his mind, but he also couldn’t afford to divert too much attention to them.
He was worried about the serial god killer woman, too, collapsed there on the ground as she was... but he had to put her lower down on his list of priorities.
“I can see you’re really raring to go... so I’m sorry to tell you this, but it’s not going to be much of
a match,” said the evil god casually. “The power gap between a god and a human not making use of a Divine Vessel’s power is a little too wide, I think.”
“So what?” Yuichi glared at Nergal. He knew his opponent was strong, but that was no reason he couldn’t fight him.
“Hmm, you’ve got me in a bind,” Nergal said. “I’m not fond of picking on the weak, you see... Oh, I know. Why don’t we play a game? If you win, I’ll let you go. I’ll allow for you to leave this place unharmed, and for Natsuki to remain as she is. I’ll even throw in a promise to never come after her again.”
“How very generous of you,” Yuichi snapped. “Fine, whatever. Name the game.”
Yuichi was happy to get out of the fight, but he’d be in trouble if the rules were something he couldn’t handle.
“Let’s see... we’ll make it simple. If you touch me, you win.”
“That’s it?” Yuichi was stunned, for a moment, by how simple it was. But then he quickly reconsidered. It was too simple; there had to be some trick behind it.
“The boundaries of the game will be limited to this altar, as high as five meters in a dome shape,” Nergal said. “And just so that it doesn’t go on forever, let’s set the time limit at ten minutes. If you lose, I kill you all. How does that sound?”
“Sounds great.” It didn’t sound too different from an actual fight, Yuichi thought. He had never been so naive as to think that he could lose and still escape with his life anyway.
“Still, even then, you probably won’t stand a chance, so I’ll throw in a handicap,” said Nergal. “I won’t use either of my hands. How does that sound?”
Nergal folded his arms, suggesting that he wasn’t going to use those, either. Of course, that also meant he intended to attack somehow.
“Do whatever you want,” Yuichi said.
“Let’s start the game now, then.”
With that, Yuichi slowly began to walk towards the evil god.
✽✽✽✽✽
The fact was, Nergal didn’t think the boy stood any chance against him.
When he was serious about moving, he could move faster than the human eye. He could just run around within the boundary for ten minutes and he would win. The boy seemed to be anticipating some kind of loophole in the rules, but he didn’t need to resort to such pettiness; his own physical capabilities would hand him the win easily.
At his core, Nergal was a god who enjoyed playing with humans. If he’d just wanted to keep Natsuki with him, he could have just killed them all. The reason he’d gone out of his way to talk to them, and even to offer up the game, was simply to toy with them.
It was a fun way to kill time, watching a silly human try desperately to concoct a plan, and then eventually, die in despair.
No matter how gentle and reasonable he may seem, after all, Nergal was still an evil god’s avatar. Evil was in his nature. He was naturally inclined towards seeking out displays of great hopelessness.
He had never had any intention of releasing Natsuki, either. He had made that very generous promise only because he knew he’d have no need to fulfill it.
The boy was walking towards him now.
Nergal found him rather precious; the way he was trying to smother his anger just brought a smile to his face.
Nergal had no martial arts training — he needed none, with speed and strength like his — but even he could tell that the boy’s carriage was that of a master. His center of balance was rock solid, and he carried himself with great stability. He had almost no openings, likely believing he could react to an attack from any angle.
No matter how excellent his techniques, though, there were limits to human reaction times. He would be helpless in the face of speed that exceeded that. Nergal could move faster than the speed of sound, and think and perceive things at the same speed. No human could ever hope to challenge him, no matter how well-trained they may be.
That was why his claim that he wouldn’t use his hands wasn’t actually a handicap. He could still hit the boy with the lightest of kicks, and deal crushing damage with that alone.
However, he had no intention of ending things that quickly. He had no intention of attacking, or even of running around. Nergal would stand right where he was and dodge until the time limit ran out.
The boy had walked up to Nergal, and now stood before him. His posture was a natural one, his hands hanging at his sides.
Nergal watched him expectantly, interested in how he might begin.
His vision went white.
For a moment, he wasn’t sure what had happened.
He was looking at the dome’s ceiling, which, he realized a moment later, meant that his face was turned upwards.
He looked forward again, quickly, and saw that the boy was standing there, an arm raised in front of his face. His fingers were outstretched, the back of his hand visible, the elbow slightly bent.
Something slick touched Nergal’s lip. As it dripped onto the floor, he realized it was blood, and then he realized he was in pain.
There was an ache in the center of his face. He was bleeding, slowly, from his nostrils.
What did he do to me? Nergal thought, stunned.
The boy’s posture suggested he had just finished an attack.
“I touched you, so I win, right?” the boy said dryly.
✽✽✽✽✽
Yuichi had been afraid Nergal might run away. But perhaps he’d been overconfident, or he’d underestimated Yuichi, because he hadn’t even tried to move. Even when he was standing right in front of him, Nergal had just stood where he was, smiling.
Yuichi had decided, then, to just hit him... and the hit had landed like it was nothing.
Martial arts were full of moves that could be used for a swift first strike. Faster, stronger, more precise... every martial art prioritized the need to get in the first hit.
Yuichi had chosen the fastest attack he knew, a strike from the Tongbeiquan style. Using his arm like a whip, he had snapped his wrist and struck the opponent with the back of the hand.
Nergal hadn’t reacted; he’d just stood there and taken it.
All he’d had to do was touch him, and that was all the strike had done. Normally, it would have been the beginning of a series of strikes, but Yuichi had stopped it with one. Assuming Nergal kept his promise, that was all he needed.
“I touched you, so I win, right?” he asked the god, who seemed to be staring into space, uncertain of what had just happened.
Of course, if he revoked his promise, then that was that; he’d have to fight. But at this range, Yuichi had a feeling he could win.
“Uh?” Nergal didn’t seem to understand what had just happened.
“Ah! He’s trying to play dumb! I bet he made that promise because he underestimated you, and now he’s realizing he can’t back out!” Mutsuko cried.
Nergal wiped his nose, then looked at the blood on his hand. He seemed dumbfounded.
“I won, right? You won’t interfere with Takeuchi again, and we get to go free, right?” Yuichi said.
“Oh, man! Don’t tell me!” Mutsuko broke in. “You don’t think the great, awesome deity, this god who boasted about making all of humanity extinct, is gonna back out of a promise, do you? That’s so funny, I almost want to hear you say it! Go on, try to unring the bell! Be all like ‘Oh, did we have an agreement? I dunno what you’re talking about!’”
“Hey, Sis... please don’t taunt him... you might make it harder for him to back off...”
“Huh?! Come on, you don’t really think he’ll just do it, do you? It was just lip service! This Mr. Big Boss Man who was all ‘I know everything, I’m behind it all, I’m the mastermind’ would never just let us go, right?!”
“What did I just say?!” Yuichi yelled.
“You win. I’ll keep my promise,” Nergal said at last, strangling out the words. Perhaps he was seething with anger deep down, but if so, he hid it well.
“You said you would stay away from Takeuchi,” Yuichi remind
ed him. “That you would let us leave this place safely. You agree to all of that?”
“Yes, I agree to it. A god cannot break a promise, after all.” Nergal seemed to have recovered his calm, as there was no frustration in his words at all. “But could you indulge my curiosity? I pride myself on being able to see and dodge attacks that come at me even at the speed of sound. How, then, did you do it? What exactly did you do to me?!” He was clearly trying to act calm, but his incredulity was filtering out into his words.
“It was Tongbeiquan, but I probably could have hit you with anything,” said Yuichi. “Attacks are all about timing. I’ve fought my share of superhuman monsters, and it’s led me to realize one thing... no matter what the monster, they’re no different from humans. That goes for you, too.”
“Me? Human?” Nergal looked openly surprised; he’d apparently never expected to be referred to that way.
“How to put it... You don’t exceed the realm of what humans can imagine, I guess,” said Yuichi. “You have human thought processes and human reactions. That’s why martial arts logic works on you. You have the same blind spots in perception that humans do. Does that make sense?”
In other words, speed didn’t really matter. It was all about timing.
People thought of consciousness as a continuous thing, but it wasn’t, really. It wasn’t analog, but digital, full of gaps — blank spots in a person’s attention, instants when they weren’t aware of anything.
He only had to sense that timing and strike. Then, if he moved in that split-second, it would seem like he’d disappeared.
It was easy to say, but less easy to accomplish. Most people couldn’t identify the blind spots in a person’s consciousness.
There were techniques in classic martial arts, however, that made it possible, and Yuichi had used an extension of “listening energy” for this purpose.
“Okay! Which way did you come in? If you want to get us out safely, you should tell us the way out!” Mutsuko declared.
Nergal still seemed a bit dumbstruck by Yuichi’s explanation, but he did as he was asked and told them how to get back to the surface. It was through the entrance opposite the one they had come in from.
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