Chapter 31 – Did Akagi Break Hishya?

Chapter 31 – Did Akagi Break Hishya? Announcement

There will be two chapters today. And thank you for 100 readers!

Hishya's interview continued for a while longer with Kirika trying to return to less tense topics. Hishya's declaration that she wouldn't fight Akagi caused the net to catch fire as message boards and SNS filled with panic, praise, anger, and a variety of other comments. Though the person who was most surprised by her comments was Akagi herself. She was prepared to fight an all-out war against the other players if necessary, and she assumed that Hishya would be at the center of any action. Hearing that she was not only afraid of Akagi but that she would be actively avoiding confrontation was a surprise. The entire time she knew the girl, she'd always had her pegged as a massive egotist and someone who would do anything for attention, so to see her act completely against those assumptions threw her for a loop.

{Is it a trick to get me to let my guard down?} Akagi didn't understand Hishya's actions.

"Onee-chan." Kana looked at her sister. "What did you do to poor Hishya?" her eyes looked quite judgmental.

"Oi!" Akagi exclaimed. "Why are you assuming that I did anything to her? Just what do you think of me, Kana!"

"I think that I know you very well, Onee-chan." she sighed. "You have a tendency to take things too far and that you have a sadistic side, which has only gotten worse I might add." she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Didn't you tell me that Hishya is actually a very vain person under her heroic exterior? That she was actively seeking praise to boost her own ego?" Kana pressed Akagi.

"Well yeah she is but-" Akagi's response was cut off.

"Then what does it tell you that she just threw all of that away on live global television!" Kana was annoyed that her sister wasn't getting her meaning. "She just threw away her status as a hero and is likely going to attract a lot of negative attention because she refused to fight you! So sorry for assuming you did something so bad it caused this girl to break character!" Kana threw her hands up.

"I didn't exactly do anything bad to her per se Kana." Akagi searched her memory until she recalled something that might have caused this. "Oh... that might be it."

"So you did do something to her!" Kana's stare intensified.

"Well, I might have shown her everything regarding my new form when I battled her in Hassan. And that might have caused her to pass out in fear....." Akagi scratched her cheek in embarrassment.

"???" Kana's face looked confused "I mean, sure you're scary in that shadow form, but I wouldn't say it's that bad." She looked at Naomi and Mika who agreed.

"Yeah I've seen worse things in horror movies." Mika chuckled.

"Strange, but not so bad to cause such a dramatic change, at least in my opinion." Naomi shrugged.

"Uhh... About that." Akagi stammered. "So you see. What I showed Hishya and what I showed you were not the same thing...."

"What does that mean? I thought you said that your real body was that shadow?" Kana was both annoyed with and confused by her sister. "Don't tell me you lied?"

"Don't get all mad, Kana." Akagi moved to placate her. "I was not lying to you. What you saw was my real body." she continued. "However, when I showed it to you three, and when I was in the press room, I restrained my presence." Akagi didn't really have the right words to explain what she meant.

"No," Akagi flatly refused. "You do recall that she was trying to kill me in that fight, right?" Hishya was tasked with her elimination so that the Hassan defenders didn't have to worry about a knife pointed at their back. "So why should I apologize for using everything at my disposal to stop her? Even if I do get along with her, I knew why she was there that night, and I was prepared for a battle to the death. The fact that it ended so anti-climatically doesn't change the context around the battle." Akagi scoffed at her sister's demand.

Her statement caused Kana to flinch, she'd forgotten that it was a battle to the death.

"To be honest, Kana, she's lucky I didn't take the opportunity to kill her right then and there." Akagi pointed out how vulnerable Hishya was after she blacked out. "The only reason I abstained from doing so was because of my own sentimentality and the absurdity of how things ended. If things had continued normally, I intended to kill her that night." Akagi grinned.

{I guess she's right. If Hishya was there to kill her, I can't exactly get mad that Onee-chan was prepared to do the same, now can I?} Kana mentally scolded herself.

"Your right. I guess I forgot just that things were pretty tense in FWO. It wasn't just a game, and you fought with your life on the line every day. Sorry." Kana apologized.

"It's fine, Kana." Akagi shrugged. "Now that I think about it, that would explain why she pushed so hard for a truce between me and the assault team. I guess she was afraid of pissing me off, which I can understand." Akagi laughed. "If only the Empire learned not to fuck with me as quickly as she did, perhaps the crown prince would have kept his head." Yumi let out a giggle at this comment.

{Just casually mention that you assassinated a member of Royalty why don't you.} Naomi wasn't sure whether to laugh or sigh at Akagi's statement.

"Well, whatever her reason, if she doesn't want to fight, that's fine by me. It just means one less person to cause problems." Akagi chuckled. "Perhaps seeing their great hero tuck their tail between their legs will cause the others to reconsider their actions." Akagi doubted this, but it was nice to hope.

"It seemed like people wanted to use Hishya as a trump card against you." Naomi understood just how powerful the girl was. "Even still, can you really beat the other players if they attacked together? I mean, Hishya was powerful, but I'm skeptical if they even needed her."

"What, you don't believe in me?" Akagi looked at Naomi.

"It's not that I don't believe you're strong; it's just that I find it difficult to believe you can beat 97 other people, each with their own powers, all at the same time." Naomi stood firm.

"If they came at me all at once in a locked room with no way out, that might be tricky." Akagi conceded. "However, they won't have those numbers or the coordination to pull something like that off. Besides," Akagi smirked. "Don't think you've seen every trick up my sleeve. If they try something like that, I've got a few plans in place."

"You've always got a plan, don't you Onee-chan." Kana sighed.

"I wouldn't be alive today if I didn't; in this line of work, planning and preparation are 90% of what I do." Akagi stuck out her tongue. "Hopefully, I don't have to dip into my plans, and these idiots stay away from me." That was the best-case scenario, but unfortunately, the chances of such a peaceful ending were low.

Spoiler

The girls in casual!

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