[...] Suddenly, like a jellyfish’s corpse dissolving into the ocean, he felt as though his own world was melting away.
…King?
…Mikoto?
He heard Totsuka and Kusanagi calling him quizzically like they were far away. This isn’t the time to not be paying attention. Right then, Suou and the other two had been chased into a dead end. If they were to let their minds wander, likely the only thing waiting for them was death.
[...]
Slowly, Suou’s power converged. Leaving the red light leaking from his body as it was, Suou slowly turned around. Surrounding him, the asphalt had deep crevices, and the buildings around him were cooked and burnt, with smoldering flames. Within that, Totsuka and Kusanagi were standing in a daze. From what he could see, neither of them were particularly injured.
Suou let a desperate smile float up to his face.
“…Starting now, I’m going to say something that’s kinda stupid, ‘kay?”
When he carelessly threw those words out with a wry smile, Kusanagi, still looking taken aback, managed to smile with just his lips.
“Nah…. this situation’s already pretty stupid, so…” Kusanagi pointed up at the sky above them.
“You’ve gotta sword above your head.”
Suou laughed under his breath at Kusanagi’s still hesitant but droll way of saying it.
“Is this… the red king…?” Of course, Kusanagi would also know the local legend of the red king. Suou had also heard it from Totsuka. He didn’t know how seriously Totsuka had taken that myth. But, if such a thing really exists maybe you could become it, Totsuka had said in a way that may or may not have been joking.
Suou thought for a little while about where to start explaining from the information he had received from the “Slate”, but in the end that got to be a pain and he stopped. Suou closed his eyes, made both of his hands into fists, and held them up.
He focused his will into both of those fists. Like how he had tied his soul to the “Slate” and received power, Suou birthed the flames tied to the magma-like power within him in both hands. Slowly, he opened those fists. The flame born in his palms wrapped around his entire hands. Kusanagi and Totsuka watched the scene with held breath. Suou lightly held those hands wrapped in flames out towards the two of them.
Putting on a cynical smile, without explaining anything, he said,
“What’ll you do? Wanna try taking my hand?”
In this situation where nothing made sense, the two of them didn’t hesitate. They were hardly indecisive.
The right hand and the left hand that held Suou’s flames. Kusanagi took the right hand, and Totsuka took the left. Kusanagi gained a large power, and while Totsuka took flames into his body he hardly received any power at all. To Suou, Kusanagi would be a sword with reason, and Totsuka would become a chain to hold back Suou who would often be drawn in by his power. It isn’t sure whether that was simply because of the difference in their dispositions, or because Suou’s will and unconsciousness had something to do with it.
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