Chapter 7 — Eternal Force Blizzard, and They Die
“Die.”
Yogiri unleashed his power.
“You fool! Simply telling someone to die like that speaks so ill of your vocabulary...”
Hanakawa must have thought that Yogiri’s statement was nothing but vocal resistance. But as he scoffed at them, he noticed something was wrong.
Higashida had collapsed to his knees beside him, then proceeded to unceremoniously fall onto his face, motionless.
“Sir Higashida? Are you well?” Hanakawa cried, nonplussed.
“I told him to die, so he did. Even you should be able to connect those dots. So don’t move. If either one of you does, another one of you drops,” Yogiri warned them.
Ignoring him, Fukuhara moved to Higashida’s side.
Pointing a finger at him, Yogiri spoke once again in that same clear voice. “Die.”
Fukuhara must have been trying to find out what was wrong with Higashida, but he never made it that far. He abruptly fell over, collapsing on top of his companion, and never moved again.
“I told you to stay still. Move and you die. Do you get it yet?”
“Uh, er, umm...” Hanakawa had gone rigid.
There was no way he fully understood, and probably would have refused to accept it even if he’d had a better handle on things. But he did recognize that something was wrong, and seemed to realize that Yogiri was the source of it. That should be enough to get him talking, Yogiri decided.
“Now, let me explain my ability.”
“Hold on a sec!” Tomochika shouted, once again full of energy. “I figured it was you that did something to the dragon, but you didn’t seem to want to talk about it so I left it at that! Was this not actually a secret or something?!”
“It’s not really a secret. I just thought it would be a pain to try and explain it earlier.”
“You thought it would be a pain?!”
“And Hanakawa looks like an idiot, so if I don’t explain it properly, he’ll probably try and pick a fight with us, don’t you think?”
“Fine. Go ahead then, tell us about your ability.”
Yogiri had steeled himself to be chastised for killing the others. He had felt it was the correct course of action, but had still expected some resistance from Tomochika. It appeared, however, that she wasn’t at all concerned about their former classmates.
“All right, but before I start, could you go confirm that those two are dead for me? Don’t worry, I won’t kill you for moving this time.”
First, Hanakawa had to realize that they were actually dead, and then what that meant for him. If he didn’t truly understand that he could actually die, he could come up with any number of justifications in his mind for attacking them.
Hanakawa knelt down beside his collapsed companions, timidly giving them a shake. Neither of them so much as twitched.
“Heal!” Hanakawa shouted something that sounded like it was supposed to be magic. It appeared to be some sort of recovery spell, but it clearly had no effect on the dead. The two bodies glowed briefly, but that was it.
“Heal! Heal! Heal! Haha! I am a Healer! No matter the severity of the injury or the extent of the disease, I can heal it in a moment! I’ve survived in this world with this cheat-like power, able to recover myself even when cut to pieces...wait, why aren’t they moving?”
“Do you understand the situation?”
“No! Not at all! How could you do something like this?! Has something come loose in your head?!”
“I don’t want to hear that from you,” Yogiri said, rapping a fist against the remains of the bus. “That was quite a bit of power. Maybe he missed on purpose, but if he’s going to throw around attacks that can kill people, he doesn’t really have the right to complain when retaliation comes his way.”
“E-Even so, Sir Fukuhara did nothing at all! And most importantly, I have done nothing either!”
“You have to know that’s not going to work, right? No matter how you look at it, you three were all in this together. It’s clear you both approved of what Higashida was doing.”
Hanakawa was at a loss for words. Seeing that he wasn’t going to protest for now, Yogiri continued his explanation.
“My ability is to ‘invoke instant death at will.’ The moment I want someone to die, they die. Instantly.”
“That’s absurd! What is that?! Eternal Force Blizzard, and they just die?!” Hanakawa shrieked. “Th-That’s just not fair at all! That’s too much to even call cheating! Normally such things need to be more indirect! Are you looking down on this world?! More importantly, you don’t even have any Status, so how can you even do that?!”
“Status, huh? I’m more surprised that you lot were given any abilities.” As far as Yogiri was concerned, their Statuses and Gifts and the like were far stranger than his own power.
“So, that’s what you used to kill the dragon, right? Why did you blow your cover now, though?” Tomochika asked. She must have felt it was more advantageous to keep it a secret.
“So I can use it as a threat. If I want to use my ability to threaten or coerce people, I need to explain it properly for them to understand it. After all, just showing it off, it doesn’t look like much is happening.”
“That’s true, I guess. Even I don’t really believe it...”
“So do you understand my power? If you don’t, it’s probably more effort than it’s worth to keep going this way, so I’ll just kill you and get it over with.”
“I understand! I understand! Please, don’t look at me like some ‘yare yare’ cool protagonist! Don’t look at me like you’re actually going to kill me!”
Judging from the way he screamed the words, he must have thought he was about to die right then and there.
“Fine. Come over here. It’s hard to have a conversation from so far away.”
Yogiri sat down on the grass, leaning against the bus, and Tomochika took a seat beside him. But as Hanakawa tottered over to them —
“Okay, stop,” Yogiri commanded.
“Wh-What is it?”
“You just tried something, didn’t you?”
“Wh-Wh-What are you talking about?”
Hanakawa’s reaction was clearly suspicious.
“I never said I only had one ability, did I? I also have the ability to perfectly detect any killing intent that’s aimed at me.”
“What?”
“So between these two abilities of mine, anyone who has any intention of harming me dies. Or rather, I can choose to kill them.”
“Surely you jest! There’s no way anyone could combat that kind of power at all!”
“That’s not true. If you were, like, a super elite assassin who could perfectly conceal your intent to kill, and could attack in a way that my eyes couldn’t follow, you’d at least have a chance. Regardless, from now on, I suggest you be very careful.”
Hanakawa obediently stepped in front of them, nervously lowering himself to the ground.
“Okay, there’re a few things I want to ask you.”
“Understood. I will explain everything that is within the scope of my knowledge, even beyond what you may think to inquire of...”
“Just answer the questions, please.”
Seized by a visceral terror, Hanakawa had lost all thought of arguing.
“Why were you guys so confident? It hasn’t been that long since you got your Gifts, has it?” It was true that the Gift seemed to give them tremendous abilities, but they were far too comfortable for the short length of time they’d possessed them. And abilities like flying through the sky or being able to obliterate a huge chunk of a bus in a single shot didn’t seem like beginner-level powers.
“Because this isn’t the first time we’ve been to this world. We’re on something like a New Game Plus...” Hanakawa began his explanation.
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