Chapter 61 - Aftermath

*ssk*

Atsushi can barely believe it.

Had he not overestimated Mr. Fool, he would not have dodged the flagpole that was thrust to him. Despite his sea urchin defense, Mr. Fool somehow accurately thrust his flagpole inside, bypassing the drill naginatas.

*CLANG*

As he dodges, his urchin defense also moves, and one of his drill naginatas manages to parry away Mr. Fool's flagpole.

He then sends five rotating naginatas to Mr. Fool, making Mr. Fool retreat once again.

Soon however, *clang* *clang* *clang* in quick succession, and in great precision, Mr. Fool manages to swat away three of the naginatas and dodges the remaining two.

After doing so, he charges once again to Atsushi. Atsushi this time, switches tactics. He no longer wants to resort to throwing naginatas, but instead to use those naginatas in closer proximity.

He summons back the rest of his naginatas and surrounds himself with them for defense. The innermost layer of his defense is still the sea urchin defense, and the outer layer now comprises of his sawblade-like rotating naginatas.

Atsushi has used this tactic before and has a name for it; The Meatgrinder.

The Meatgrinder is his ultimate defense and also offense against melee type superiori.

Defense because no one in their right mind will attack sawblades and drills head-on, and offense because all Atsushi has to do aside from maintaining the shape of it, is to easily levitate himself towards the enemy.

He has the right to be proud of his technique as it indeed stops Mr. Fool from charging.

Atsushi however, suddenly gets a bad feeling in his gut.

Mr. Fool, standing still midair, coldly observing his 'Meatgrinder', is sending alerts throughout his mind.

As to why, he does not know.

Suddenly, Mr. Fool simply vanishes to thin air.

This makes Atsushi tense his muscles, and ready to go full-out any time.

He then randomly flies to random directions to make himself less vulnerable to whatever Mr. Fool is up to.

He knows that Mr. Fool did not simply flee, but is still somewhere around, he simply does not know where.

Suddenly, something red appears out in the corner of his eyes. Before he can react, *Cla-cla-cla-cla-cla-clang!*, he sees Mr. Fool do a series of thrust with his flagpole, knocking away a substantial amount of his sawblade naginatas aside. And before he can command his naginatas to attack, he already sees a black shadow, made of pig iron, just a foot or so from his face.

*THUNK*

<><><><><>

"To our main story tonight. The superioris terrorist, only known as Mr. Fool, makes a series of unprovoked attacks on the protesters and the members of the Citizens for Self-Governance in the early afternoon in front of the National Diet Building. On the scene is our reporter, ******-san. ******-san, what else can you tell us about what the people are now calling 'The Fool's Hour'?"

"Thank you, **** ****-san. Fortunately, there have been no deaths or serious injuries out of the hundreds of people who fainted under Mr. Fool's attack. While there are no casualties on both sides, there are numerous reports on the side of Citizens for Self-Governance that its members who encountered Mr. Fool, are suffering minor to serious mental shocks. The most serious ones are expressing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. As for the members of the house, there are no reports yet from the building's staff regarding their status."

"******-san, were there any attempts in stopping Mr. Fool?"

"Yes, there were in fact. The first one in the scene to confront Mr. Fool is the House's Sergeant at Arms, Mr. Murakami Hiroki. I have personally seen how Hiroki-san managed to convince Mr. Fool to go with him at the edges of Murakami Compound. Here is what our drones have captured after they left.

[Footage of the short fight].

"To all of those who haven't seen it, Hiroki-san tried his best to capture Mr. Fool. Unfortunately, he is not powerful enough."

"After fighting the Sergeant at Arms. Mr. Fool went back to the National Diet Building, correct?"

"Yes. Fortunately, Hiroki-san's efforts did not go to waste and it gave time for the rescue teams to evacuate the unconscious protesters, CSG members, and the police officers to safety."

"What about the appearance of a retired hero?"

"Yes. The A-Class superioris Murakami Atsushi was forced to fight in public again, 30 years after taking off his cape. Apparently, as we now know, he must have retired from his superhero duties as he assumed the responsibility of becoming the Clan Leader of the Murakami, and therefore, the guardian of Chiyoda. Unfortunately, despite being much more powerful than he was 30 years ago, he wasn't able to stop the Fool."

"From the drone footage you captured, it seemed like Mr. Fool infiltrated the National Diet Building after taking down Mr. Murakami. Are there any updates since then?"

"Yes. Our cameras were turned off with the request of the numerous A-Class Superiori that arrived to the scene. However, we heard that Mr. Fool managed to leave the building unseen. We have no idea what happened to the members of the house, but at around 3pm, the building staff released a statement that the members of the house of representatives are all safe and sound. We are currently on standby as we heard reports that the congress or the Murakami Clan will soon release statements."

"I see. ******-san, how about any statements from Mr. Fool? Did he say anything about why he did all of this before he left?"

"None. Aside from claiming, using his own words, that 'the place is full of smelly people', and that 'he wanted to have fun', he did not give any clear reasons."

"Do we have a clue of his identity and whereabouts?"

"Unfortunately, none."

"Unfortunate, indeed. *******-san, you are one of the first-hand witnesses to the entire inciden. Is there anything YOU can tell us about him?"

"Yes. Mr. Fool is the type of superioris we have never seen before. He has a great variety of abilities that do not seem to be at all connected. First, he is definitely a physically enhanced superiori, being able take down A-Class superiori with his physical strength.

"Second, he was able to make people who are under B-Class Superioris in power, faint with but a wave of his hands, or with just his voice.

"Third, he can use invisible footholds, which we assume is a variation of wind manipulation, to mobilize himself mid-air.

"Fourth, he can turn himself invisible for a short period of time, which is what started the downfall of the Murakami Clan Head…"

"It is indeed unprecedented to see a superioris like Mr. Fool… How about his transformation? The one he shortly displayed during his fight with Hiroki-san?"

"Ah, yes. And last of his abilities, although we do not have much evidence of it, he can mimic a superioris for a short period of time, and possibly use the superioris ability of that person he mimics…

"Combining all of that, we can say that Mr. Fool's strength falls in between the peak-tier A-Class, and the S-Class. Personally, I think that Mr. Fool, is one of the elusive S-Class. One of the few hundred around the whole world."

"A-are you certain of that, ******-san? I mean, the appearance of a S-Class in public is a huge deal."

"Of course, we aren't. But being able to defeat one of the most powerful superiori in Japan with relative easy in a short amount of time? It is not too farfetched to assume so."

"I see. Do you think he's dangerous to the Japanese people? How's he like?"

"He is a danger. All powerful superiori are a risk to the safety of the Japanese people. But from what we've seen so far, Mr. Fool did not seem to carry the evil intentions unlike the average terrorist. I hope however, that he will be able to work with the authorities, and establish himself as one of the future backbones of this country."

"That's a bold thought, ******-san, but a---"

<><><><><>

"Kiddies~… What are you two doing here?" Kotone and Fumio look up from Fumio's phone, startled at Red' sudden arrival at Muscle Masters.

"BOSS!" "Kichirou-san…" The two greet Red awkwardly.

Kotone and Fumio were just watching the livestream of Fumio's most trusted nightly news.

"What's with those faces?" Red asks the two as he goes to pour himself the tea that Kotone already prepared on the table.

"Boss. I still can't believe that you did all of that." Fumio shakes his head at the out-of-character act of Red.

"Kichirou-san, do you have multiple personalities?" Kotone too, feels the same.

While she knows that Red has the tendency to play small pranks, Red doing what he did during the afternoon is simply inconceivable to her.

"I did say that today is a special day to me. That was just my way of having fun and celebrating." Red shrugs.

"But, why do it publicly like that?" Fumio asks, confused by the contrast between Red's reclusive nature and his actions.

"I don't know where to find the strong superiori, so I made them to come to me." Red explains to Fumio.

"Huh…" Fumio shakes his head.

"But what about those people? Was it really necessary to drug them like that?" Kotone asks, still feeling bothered at how casually Red decided to poison hundreds of people, even though she figures that Red's sleeping poison was harmless.

"I had to. I could feel that there are hidden actors in the protesters. They would have thrown the first punch at the CSG, making CSG have the excuse to unleash their powers on the protesters. It would have gotten ugly." Red explains to her.

"W-Wha…" Kotone's eyes widen at the information.

"Boss, those… actors; did they collude with the CSG?" Fumio asks. He is not as surprised as Kotone as he has heard of similar things before.

"No. The CSG doesn't know about their presence." Red shakes his head.

Fumio's eyes narrow in anger.

"How could they do that?" He clenches his teeth.

"Who were they?" He asks.

"Don't worry about it. I already talked to the congressman involved. It was a funny coincidence actually. The man is our regular." Red chuckles.

"Tomiichi-san?" "That bigoted geezer?" Kotone and Fumio express their disbelief.

Red simply nods in confirmation.

"Well, you must have given him a lesson." Fumio can only shake his head.

"Anyways. Boss. I have a lot of questions… I mean, I thought you were an A-Class or something, but to be that strong…" His eyes sparkle.

"Go ahead. I won't answer ones I deem you're not ready to ask." Red gives his permission.

"Boss. That… your footholds. What were they?" Fumio asks.

"Manipulated my elixir." Red says.

"But how? Isn't it supposed to be incorporeal?" Fumio is shocked at the information. So far, he has only dealt with spiritual energy in its untouchable fog form.

"When you refine your elixir sea to my level, you can do it too instinctively." Red says.

"Shit… But that seems far away with a lot of refining to do." Fumio shakes his head.

"Well. What can you do about it?" Red chuckles.

Kotone meanwhile, is lost.

"How about that transformation to that superhero? Can you also use his ice disk?" Fumio asks again.

"That was an illusion." Red admits.

"Oh…" Fumio is disappointed.

"Still, illusion huh… Boss. How did you copy that superhero guy? You just met him, right? There's no way you made an illusion seal that quickly." He suddenly realizes.

"What? You can do it too. You can cast an illusion on yourself if you want." Red says.

"I can?" Fumio's eyes widen. Kotone, even more so.

"Yeah. That is if you have incredible control and focus to maintain the illusion. Took me decades to use illusions without seals." Red says.

"Oh…" Fumio is disappointed again.

"Buddy… Let's do what we can do for now." Kotone jokingly consoles.

"Yeah…" Fumio nods defeatedly.

"Anyways, boss. Did you go all out on Atsushi?" He resumes his questions.

"Not really." Red shrugs.

Fumio and Kotone are shocked.

"Not really?" Fumio repeats.

"Yeah. All I did was use footholds, strengthen a flagpole with my elixir, and used the basics of spearmanship." Red explains.

"Damn…" Kotone is in awe.

"Sounds easier than it looks, Kotone." Fumio says, no longer surprised.

"Still, boss. S-Class? Are you really?" He then asks, with a serious tone.

"I don't know. Never saw S-Class fight before." Red shrugs.

He genuinely had not met any S-Class superiori yet, much more witness a  fight between two.

[[["Wait a minute, *******-san. We have an update."

"Please go ahead."]]]

The three's chat is interrupted by the news from the phone.

<><><>

"The government has just released an official statement. 'As of 7 p.m today, Mr. Fool, suspected S-Class terrorist, is wanted alive. Anyone who has valuable information of Mr. Fool's whereabouts will be rewarded a hundred million yen. Whoever can capture Mr. Fool and bring him alive to the authorities, will be rewarded five billion yen.'

<><><>

"OHO~! You two can basically report me, and you two can live comfortably for the next decade or so." Red smirks at his two students.

The two only scoff at the ridiculous idea. 

"By the way, Kichirou-san. Have you seen the comments about you on the internet? They love you.." Kotone instead is excited to show Red the results of his afternoon fun to the internet.