Chapter 107 - Kotone 3

Here he is, Oonishi Gentarou. Sleeping on his bed soundly as if he didn't cause me and my brother's suffering over the years. Sleeping without worry as if he was not sacrificing innocent lives every day. How can someone who has done reprehensible things sleep so soundly like this?

And this… woman next to him. I'm pretty sure this woman is too young to be this man's wife. A mass murderer and an unfaithful husband, what a 'nice' combination.

The last time I saw Gentarou, Fumio was able to send him in a coma. But after Fumio and I spent six months in that dimension, Fumio is now multiple times more powerful than he was then. Even I am a lot more powerful than the Fumio then.

Even though Fumio's growth in strength has slowed down since he started consolidating his True Elixir Sea, and that the gap of strength between him and I are now much closer, I still can't beat him. But even though I can't hope to defeat him anytime soon, doesn't mean I don't have the power to take my revenge on Gentarou… At least that's what Kichirou-san said.

I take out Fumio's concoction, the sleeping powder, and flick it to the woman and Gentarou's noses. I then carry Gentarou out of his house.

I visited the Oonishi's demon prison just a few minutes ago, and I am relieved that they have paused their activities, therefore no guards. But where did the human sacrifices go? I'll find out later.

For now, I settle Gentarou in the lowest, and biggest sublevel of the facility where the most powerful demons were kept. I can't believe that with just an illusion seal on my clothes, it is this easy to break in and kidnap a clan head.

.I can just drive my blade to his neck, and my revenge is done.

But no, I can't let him go that easily. Not after the things he has done. Not after his actions took my parents away from me and Haruto. Killing him in his sleep is no different than waiting for him to die of a heart attack or a stroke. He deserves worse than that. Much worse.

For now, I sprinkle the antidote in Gentarou's nose and wait.

I did not wait too long as just a minute or two after I applied the antidote, Gentarou is now awake.

"*groan* How did I get here?" He gets up and checks his surroundings, immediately seeing me.

"Oh? Hello there~ Who are you?" He asks me with a flirtatious grin.

Pervert.

"I'm here to kill you." I return.

"Kill me? Why?" He asks.

"Itabashi, ten years ago. Rock Stampede." With my simple answer, his eyes widen in recognition.

That confirms it. It really was his fault.

"You could have killed me in my sleep. Why didn't you?" He asks with a mocking smirk. What an arrogant bastard. 

I simply run at him with a punch as a response.

As I approach, I see him coat his body with a layer of clay. I don't care. After Kichirou-san 'washed' my bones and muscles with his poisons, clay won't stop me. And I was right.

*Thud* My fist penetrates Gentarou's clay shield easily without resistance and proceeds to land squarely on his face. He flies a few meters away and is caught by the wall. Even though he was knocked down, the fight is not over.

Five seven-foot-tall humanoid mud golems suddenly spurt off the floor and they start marching towards me. Behind them, I see Gentarou encase himself with another clay golem.

These golems, while tall and big, are slower than Tez-san at full speed, and I can beat Tez-san easily now.

I easily dodge the golems' swipes and bypass their line to get closer to Gentarou once again.

Gentarou now looks like a mud golem himself and only has his face exposed at his golem's head and the rest of his body is covered with mud.

With a much faster speed than the other golems, Gentarou throws a kick at me with his huge clay legs, which I easily jump over. The kick is followed by a straight, which I easily dodge with a step to the side.

I then grab the outstretched arm and yank it towards me, hoping to make him lose his balance. Instead, the arm is simply stretched and tries to grab me.

I hop back to get away, not only dodging the arm, but also unintendedly dodging the assault from other golems.

That was close.

"You should have killed me when you had the chance." Gentarou says as he summons more golems.

This makes what is supposed to be a spacious floor, very crowded, and harder for me to approach him once again.

Do these golems have a mind of their own? Or are they all individually controlled by him? These golems do not have eyes, or ears, so can they hear?

While these golems are slow, there are many of them and I don't know how tough they are. I don't know what will happen if they manage to catch me.

I apply a bit of spiritual energy to my left leg and I throw a front kick to the nearest golem on its waist. To my relief, the golem breaks apart easily in huge chunks. As the chunks of the golem fall to the ground, I observe it in the corner of my eye as I continue to flee from the other golems coming my way. I then notice that the fallen golem is not getting up, or reattaching itself. Instead, it crumbles to dry clay soil before fading away into nothingness.

So that's how it is. They're not as tough as I thought. I could have simply broken the arm of Gentarou's main golem, and the fight would have been over then if it weren't for the other golems.

Alright. I then proceed to break apart every golem that comes my way while slowly approaching Gentarou. I realize while doing so, that I'm breaking golems faster than Gentarou can summon them. Gentarou's frantic face gives me confidence in that realization.

While this is the case, I can't keep this up forever. Breaking apart Golems one or two at a time is a waste to my elixir sea.

So, I apply some spiritual energy to the bottom of my feet, giving myself a speed boost, making myself half as fast as a full-speed bullet train, and I proceed to weave through the crowd of golems, and only breaking the ones that I can't pass through.

Soon enough, Gentarou, in his main golem is within my reach again, and I throw a punch infused with spiritual energy to his golem's midsection, breaking it apart and the leftover momentum of my punch lands on Gentarou's body.

"*ack*"

I stunned him and I continue to assault him with punches, ones without spiritual energy this time as I don't want him to die, at least not yet.

While doing so, I peek at the other golems and see that they are frozen in their places, making me realize that they don't have a mind of their own and are instead controlled by Gentarou directly like puppets.

I throw one more haymaker, to his head this time, and he is sent flying back against the wall once again. I see the golems in the room also crumble all at the same time, disappearing back into nothingness.

I then look at Gentarou again and while he is still conscious and giving me a glare, he cannot stand up anytime soon.

"HELP! ANYONE!"

He suddenly starts screaming for help instead. What on earth.

Luckily, I decided to bring him here. This place really is perfect. Any screams, any noise, cannot be heard by the Oonishi clansmen near the facility.

"Shut up!" I yell at him.

"You know this place better than I do. So you know how useless screaming is."

He shuts up, hearing that.

"Are you really an A-Class Superioris? A high-tier one?" I cannot help but ask. I found it too easy.

He glares at me. "You fight me in a place with no clay soil, limiting me to just a third of my abilities. You trap me in here, limiting the size of my golems. And you ask me that? Is there a need for this mockery?" He asks through gritted teeth.

So that's how it is. Well, that's really inconvenient for him.

It doesn't matter.

"But could you get any faster than what you've displayed?" I ask him.

"…" Gentarou glares at me bitterly.

It seems like he can't be any faster.

Doesn't matter. As long as I'm faster, he can't harm me.

"Who are you?" He asks me instead.

"Someone whose childhood was ruined by you. Whose loved ones were taken away by your failed demon experiment." I reply as I pull out my katana.

While I'm not going to tell him my name, I want him to know that he has an unpaid debt.

"What do you want? Money? Demon cores? I can give them to you!"

He's negotiating? Really?

"None of the above. Can you bring back the dead?" I ask him.

"…" He's speechless.

"Your life isn't even worth the thousands of innocents lives you've taken. But it is the only one I can take. Don't you think it's unfair?"

I rest my sword on his neck.

I'm so close…

I can't believe it.

"Unfair? In this world, the powerful dictate what is fair and what is not." He tells me.

Is that conviction in his eyes? It looks like he really believes what he just said.

"I'm more powerful than you. Does that mean that if I say it's fair to detach your head from your body, then it's fair?" I ask him.

"…" Instead of replying, he suddenly slaps my sword instead.

He's too slow however as before he can summon a golem, I simply stomp at his chest out of anger, keeping him pinned to the wall.

*crack* I also hear some of his ribs break.

"*ACK!*" He coughs up blood, the golem he was summoning beside him crumbles before it can even be fully formed.

"According to what you believe, I'm more powerful than you right now, so I dictate that you die. Isn't that right?" I ask him.

"T-that isn't always the case."

Fear. I see fear in his eyes for the first time.

"Y-you told me that my life isn't worth the lives I've taken, right? If you kill me right now, you're losing out." He says.

A clever argument.

'People like them, like Gentarou, are different, my dear child. Things you see as unfair, wrong, or deplorable, they simply see as normal practices.' I hear in my head what Kichirou-san once told me when I asked him how people like Gentarou can do the things they are doing.

I also asked him if people like Gentarou know how terrible their actions are.

'It's a difficult question to answer… Do they know it's wrong? They do, at least that's what I think. But that's it. They 'know' it's wrong because that's what majority of the people in the world feel. Now, do they feel it too? That what they're doing is wrong? Maybe they don't, not anymore after getting used to doing the wrong things. They no longer see lives as belonging to people. People with emotions, with families. No, they just see them as figures in spreasheets.'

From what I'm seeing in Gentarou right now, and the things he said, it seems that Kichirou-san is right. 

"One life for thousands. I'm losing out indeed. But remember this. You've killed sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers. The rest of the debt that your life cannot cover, I'll collect from your songs, daughters, and grandchildren" I tell him.

I don't know if I can do that, but I just want him to lose his mind before I end him.

"No! No! They're innocent! Leave them alone! It's me who's sinned! It's me who should pay!" He gets down to his knees to plead.

"And how would you pay? Hm? Just you?"  I rest my blade to his neck again.

This is it.

I can already see it.

Just one pulling motion, and my blade will cut open a bloody wound on his neck, bleeding him to death.

Just one pull.

Come on. Why is my hand shaking?

"*sigh*"

Why can't I do it?

He sacrifices all those lives easily like drinking water, but why can't I take one life?

It's just one, deplorable life.