"Ripple Sprint!"
Crazy Diamond's sudden attack caused Quanxi to falter for a moment.
Amanatsu Kazuha had already begun channeling the Ripple through her Parasyte.
Unfortunately, Quanxi herself was no ordinary person.
She merely tilted her head slightly, and as she swung her blade to meet the Parasyte, she dodged Crazy Diamond's fist at the very same time.
In the instant they passed each other, Quanxi reached back and snatched—right out of the hand of Housen Kazutomi at her side, who hadn't even noticed anything was wrong—the Black Sphere Battle Blade he'd only just traded for and hadn't even had time to warm up!
"What?!"
Housen Kazutomi felt a sharp pain shoot through the web of his hand.
By the time he came to his senses, his hand was already empty.
Snatching the weapon, leaning back, leaping—three movements executed in one fluid motion in under half a second.
Quanxi landed lightly on an open patch of ground several meters away, casting a glance toward Horikita Suzune and Amanatsu Kazuha from before.
A pinkish-white Stand figure, and a devil-like power.
But.
No devil's stench, and not a fiend either... human?
'Some kind of brand-new power I've never seen before, huh.'
However, since her target this time wasn't this group of students in matching uniforms, Quanxi didn't dwell on it.
Having gotten herself a handy weapon, Quanxi didn't pause, her body sliding sideways like water.
In the field of view of Horikita Suzune and the others, they could just barely catch two afterimages crossing in midair.
"Thud."
It was only then that Housen Kazutomi, having lost his balance, staggered and collapsed to the ground.
On the puppet marionettes around them that had been shrieking and lunging, the thin lines that had appeared at their necks finally widened.
The next second, their heads rolled off like overripe fruit, the cut surfaces smooth as mirrors.
Over on Hayakawa Aki's side, he'd actually noticed something was off the moment Crazy Diamond made its move.
Unfortunately, it all happened too fast.
Before he could even warn anyone, more than half of the personnel Public Safety had brought in to protect Denji had already been lost.
Every one of them—head separated from body.
"Look out!!"
Relying on the brief danger-precognition granted by the Future Devil, Hayakawa Aki forcibly swung the longsword in his hand to block just as Quanxi slashed her blade toward Angel.
"CLANG——!!!"
Sparks flew everywhere.
Thanks to the fact that Hayakawa Aki's longsword was in essence a specially-made spike-tachi imbued with the power of the Curse Devil, with that devil's blessing the blade didn't shatter when pitted against the Black Sphere Battle Blade.
But the weapon not breaking didn't mean the one wielding it could withstand the blow.
Quanxi, as the strongest fiend, was also the very first devil hunter.
Even without entering her fiend form at this moment, her experience and strength were nothing the current Hayakawa Aki could compare to.
The tremendous recoil shattered the web of Hayakawa Aki's hand outright.
He let out a muffled grunt and, together with Angel, was sent flying backward by the blow.
"Ahh! So scary! This great one's dead!"
Seeing the situation turn bad, Power flopped to the ground with utter smoothness, stuck out her tongue, and just started playing dead.
Quanxi landed lightly.
She paid no mind to the dead-playing Power, nor did she press her advantage.
She merely raised the Black Sphere Battle Blade she'd snatched from Housen, her single visible eye narrowing slightly.
After enduring such high-intensity hacking, and even a violent collision with the cursed sword.
The edge of this blade, astonishingly, didn't have so much as a single roll or chip!
Quanxi stayed silent and said nothing, but the way the pads of her fingers kept stroking the hilt betrayed her fondness for the weapon.
And not far away.
Facing the headless puppet corpses littering the ground all around, Kouenji Rokusuke raised an eyebrow and looked at Housen Kazutomi on the ground, whose expression wasn't very good:
"Boy, can you get up on your own?"
Housen Kazutomi gritted his teeth, but in the end he didn't burst into curses—he just climbed up silently with a sullen face.
Seeing this, Kouenji nodded, but his gaze stayed locked tight on Quanxi up above the whole time.
Behind him, a golden Stand specter flickered in and out of sight.
He had to admit, the speed Quanxi had just displayed nearly brought back to Kouenji the terror of being dominated by the cat-girl Neferpitou in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber not long ago.
Had Quanxi not regarded them as non-targets from the very start.
Kouenji probably wouldn't have even gotten the chance to activate "Time Stop" before having his head lopped clean off—a life wasted for nothing.
'Still, now that I've got experience fighting the cat-girl...'
Kouenji lightly rubbed his fingertips together.
He was confident that as long as Horikita's [Crazy Diamond] could hold Quanxi off for a moment, he could use Time Stop to gravely wound her within two seconds.
But just as Quanxi had ignored them.
Kouenji was also well aware that their top priority this time was to clear out the "Santa Claus" who could spread infection, along with the puppets; provoking a neutral, top-tier powerhouse when it wasn't necessary would be unwise.
"Is everyone all right?"
Horikita Suzune tightened up the formation.
Amikura Mako, somewhat puzzled, instinctively turned her head to look at Amanatsu Kazuha, who was pursing her lips and frowning.
But before she could even ask, Hayasaka Ai, standing at the rear of the group, had already walked up holding a Y-GUN.
She showed the radar screen to everyone and calmly explained on their behalf:
"Most of our primary targets were wiped out in an instant by that woman just now. Right now the radar shows—"
Amikura Mako looked down and spotted the red dots representing the monsters.
A few were concentrated at Hayakawa Aki and the others' position.
A few others lingered outside the mall's main entrance—that is, in the direction where those fiends were.
Amikura Mako instantly grasped Hayasaka Ai's meaning and lowered her voice:
"Our top priority right now is to find that Santa Claus..."
And right beside them.
Kushida Kikyo, her shoulder-length hair framing her face, looked at the headless remains all over the ground and couldn't help swallowing hard.
That familiar sense of instant death.
That familiar despair of being utterly powerless to resist.
The terror of being dominated by the cat-girl yesterday surged up in her heart again, making her calves start to faintly tremble once more.
"You okay, Kushida?" Matsushita Chiaki, sensing something off about her, asked in a low voice.
"I'm fine..."
Kushida Kikyo pressed her lips tightly together, forced out a strained smile, and shook her head:
"I'm fine... It's just, since the puppets here have pretty much all been cleared out... where should we head next?"
"Fewer is better, too."
Matsushita Chiaki offered a word of comfort: "At least we don't have to worry about being ambushed and assimilated, and it makes it easier for us to lock onto the real target."
As she spoke, Matsushita followed Kushida's somewhat wandering gaze toward the mall entrance.
There she saw a middle-aged man with a knife scar on his face who—at some unknown point—had already strode into the department store building, a fiend gripped in each hand.
He looked up at the figure above the atrium, his voice hoarse:
"Quanxi, long time no see."
Hearing this.
Quanxi, who was about to deliver the final execution to Hayakawa Aki and Yoshida Hirofumi, paused.
She turned her head and looked over coldly.
When she realized that her lover Pingzi and the Stitched Fiend were being captured alive by her former partner Kishibe, and used as leverage against her.
Quanxi fell silent.
She slowly withdrew the battle blade she'd been about to swing at Hayakawa Aki's neck, and took two steps back.
"Resurrected!"
Power, who'd been lying on the ground playing dead, saw this and sprang up with a "whoosh," pointing at everyone and laughing uproariously:
"This great one told you playing dead is an unbeatable move! Hahahaha, the right choice after all!"
Denji, clutching his still-bleeding wound, twisted his mouth speechlessly:
"While we've got hostages, let's hurry up and tie her up!"
But Kishibe shook his head, ignoring Denji's clamor, and just quietly watched Quanxi.
Quanxi looked at her captured lover.
In the end, she loosened her fingers.
"Clang."
The Black Sphere Battle Blade that had pleased her so much was carelessly tossed onto the marble floor.
Seeing this, Kishibe gave a slight nod and issued an order to Denji and Power:
"Denji, Power, go over and pin down those two. If they dare act up, kill them."
"I want to catch up with Quanxi for old times' sake."
Having arranged all this, Kishibe finally turned his head.
His gaze fell upon Kouenji, Horikita Suzune, and the rest of these students in matching uniforms.
The old hunter's instincts told him that the weapons in these students' hands, and the aura they gave off—distinct from a devil's—were absolutely a huge variable.
"As for you lot..."
Kishibe paused:
"I imagine you have your own business to attend to."
Hearing this, Kouenji Rokusuke casually brushed back the golden hair hanging over his forehead and gave an elegant little bow:
"Mister, it's wonderful that you can be so reasonable."
"Honestly, we have no interest whatsoever in the grudges among you all, and even less desire to make enemies of you."
The smile on his face faded slightly, and his gaze turned sharp:
"But let me state this in advance: our sole objective in coming here this time is 'Santa Claus.'"
"So there's no fundamental conflict of interest between us."
"But first I'd like to ask a question... that 'Santa Claus' who can create puppets—he's got nothing to do with any of you, right?"
Hearing this, Denji couldn't help rolling his eyes and loudly retorted:
"Are you nuts?! Didn't you see us getting chased and hacked at by the puppets that bastard made just now? How can you even ask a question like that?"
Kouenji paid Denji no mind and instead looked directly at Quanxi, who had already laid down her weapon.
Quanxi shot a glance at the golden Stand specter behind him.
Then, indifferently, she shook her head.
Kouenji nodded with satisfaction:
"Beautiful. In that case, let me add one more thing."
"Next, we may be searching around this building for our scattered companions. If we give any slight offense, I hope you won't mind."
He paused, his gaze sweeping over Kishibe and Hayakawa Aki, and said pointedly:
"By the way, according to reliable intelligence we've obtained... Santa Claus is secretly hatching a conspiracy."
"Although I can't be certain of the specific details for now, the threat level of that conspiracy absolutely far exceeds your imagination."
With that, Kouenji turned around with flair and waved for the group behind him to follow.
Kishibe and Quanxi quietly watched these mysterious students depart, making no move to stop them.
Housen Kazutomi, whose face had stayed sullen the whole time, glanced at the battle blade on the ground that belonged to him and opened his mouth.
He was tempted to ask Quanxi to return the blade to him.
But recalling the overwhelming strength with which Quanxi had just slaughtered dozens of puppets like a phantom...
Housen gritted his teeth and in the end shut his mouth, following along after the main group, full of pent-up frustration.
In the face of an absolute gap in strength, learning to shut up is also a required course for the weak to survive.
Meanwhile.
Before the glass corridor on the fourth floor of the mall.
Taking in the entire clash in the hall below, Yamada Albert reported in a low voice to Horikita Manabu beside him:
"President... what should we do now?"
"Should we just jump straight down and link up with them? We've got the Combat Suits to cushion us anyway—a height like this won't kill us."
Horikita Manabu pushed up his glinting glasses.
He wasn't surprised that Yamada Albert had recognized his identity.
As the Student Council President who had been the first at Advanced Nurturing to spread the Black Sphere benefits throughout the entire school, his prestige had long since taken deep root in people's hearts.
Not recognizing him would be the strange thing.
But faced with the current complex situation, Horikita Manabu was in no hurry to make a decision.
"Don't move for now. There are still too many variables."
He analyzed in a grave voice: "Whether it's the Immortal Brothers from America, Germany's Santa Claus... or that woman called Quanxi. Even though I know they exist, I have absolutely no idea what their abilities are."
"Although their current target is Denji, there's no guarantee that our appearance won't provoke their hostility, which could in turn endanger Suzune and the others' safety and make them the focus of everyone's fire."
Horikita Manabu patted Yamada on the shoulder:
"Before their true trump cards reveal themselves, we'll hold our position for now."
"We just need to observe from the shadows."
Hearing this, Yamada Albert thought it over and felt Horikita Manabu had a point.
He'd been considering things too one-sidedly.
And even setting aside the Student Council President's status.
Compared to himself, who was completely in the dark, since there was a wise man at his side who clearly possessed far more intelligence about the otherworld, following his advice was always better than blindly guessing on his own.
And in another concealed storage room of the mall.
Tachibana Akane and Wang Meiyu were holding their breath, hiding behind a stack of cardboard boxes.
As they listened, the shuffling, dragging sounds of the puppets out in the corridor suddenly ceased, and the entire mall fell into silence.
Tachibana Akane tentatively pressed her ear close to the wall.
Wang Meiyu, nervously clutching the hem of her clothes, tentatively asked in a small voice:
"Senpai... the sounds outside seem to be gone. Should we go out and take a look?"
"No."
Tachibana Akane shook her head decisively.
Although she couldn't hear any sound now, in a sense, too much quiet was in itself a dangerous signal.
What's more, it was currently the underclassmen's advance test period; with the seniority they'd accumulated, even without Ayanokoji Kiyotaka at their side as a test supervisor, they presumably wouldn't be too short on Black Sphere equipment.
And Black Sphere equipment came with its own radar, which could clearly show the positions of enemies and teammates at a glance.
Tachibana Akane lowered her voice and explained:
"Since it's safe for now, we'll just stay here and wait for our classmates to come to the rescue with the help of the Black Sphere radar."
"If we wait and they do come for us, naturally that's a happy ending for everyone."
"If they don't come for a long time, that also means either we or they are very close to danger."
"If we rashly go out now and happen to run into that monster that can assimilate humans, we're as good as dead."
Watching Tachibana Akane's clear-headed, methodical manner, Wang Meiyu silently nodded.
And Tachibana Akane, seeing Wang Meiyu beside her trembling just as hard yet still forcing herself to stay calm.
Couldn't help feeling a twinge of guilt in her heart.
She was the upperclassman senpai, the secretary of the Student Council, and yet in a situation like this, all she could do was huddle with her junior in a dark corner like rats, barely clinging to survival.
Recalling how Wang Meiyu, as a victim of the spacetime rift, had somehow managed to survive so many days in this world full of malice on the strength of being an ordinary person.
And could quickly identify the ways the monsters' abilities were triggered.
Honestly, Tachibana Akane felt she didn't even measure up to this junior of hers.
If she were tossed alone into such an unfamiliar world—even right in the middle of Tokyo—Tachibana Akane didn't think she could have kept her sanity and held on until now.
By the way... she wondered who the mysterious merchant for this exam would be designated as.
Tachibana Akane calculated quietly in her mind.
If she was lucky and the merchant wasn't all that far from them, perhaps she could use the item points accumulated from the last exam to buy some practical self-defense gear.
After all, the last exam had pitted them against Chimera Ants; even though destroying the ant eggs was the only channel for earning item points, and the points had to be split evenly among everyone, in fact the item points on everyone's books weren't all that few.
They hadn't splurged at the time simply because the shop had no suitable, reasonably-priced items worth buying.
Like most of her classmates, she'd made a similar choice and exchanged for a [Detonation Talisman] and a [Stone Mask].
Unfortunately, given the layout of this mall, with floor-to-ceiling windows and lights everywhere, it was all too easy to get hit by sunlight or ultraviolet rays, so the Stone Mask was clearly unsuitable right now.
So the only thing on her that could serve as protection at the moment was the Detonation Talisman...
Just as Tachibana Akane was deliberating, an extremely faint sound of footsteps suddenly reached her ears.
Tachibana Akane's heart clenched, and she instinctively reached into her pocket and gripped the edge of the Detonation Talisman.
"Classmate? Are you listening?"
From not far away came a deliberately lowered girl's voice calling out: "We've come looking for you; there are no monsters on your side for the moment... We're the test supervisors this time, so rest easy—I'm from Class A..."
Hearing this familiar voice, Tachibana Akane's taut nerves instantly relaxed.
Clearly, it was Kushida Kikyo's voice.
Although Kushida now technically had a Combat Suit, because the Stone Mask didn't work in this environment, the only self-defense item she had left available was the Detonation Talisman.
So after thinking it over again and again, Kushida had decided to go along with Horikita Suzune and the others to carry out the "find people" mission.
Anyway, Kouenji Rokusuke and the others were off fighting puppets while she handled finding people—it was all contributing to the group, after all!
Once Chris and the others descended and lured away the strongest monsters, it wouldn't be too late for her to make her move.
Kushida Kikyo, while inwardly giving her own "plan" a thumbs-up, couldn't help humming softly.
However.
What she failed to notice was that, just as Tachibana Akane tentatively pushed the door open a crack, about to poke her head out.
Tachibana Akane, along with the space around her, seemed to undergo some kind of change.
The originally modern mall corridor peeled away and vanished like a shattered mirror.
In its place was an endless, desolate grassland.
Not only the startled Tachibana Akane and Kushida Kikyo, but even Horikita, who possessed a Stand, was so jolted by this sudden spatial displacement that she stopped in her tracks.
The original brightness vanished, and a thick darkness joined together into a single wall.
Viscous as asphalt.
Just as Horikita Suzune, hearing a noise coming from she-knew-not-whom, instinctively turned her head to look around.
At the same time.
The Black Sphere's notification tone suddenly rang out:
[Due to the success of 'Santa Claus's' conspiracy, the exam environment has shifted.]
[Special Exam commencing.]
Gazing at this utterly bizarre scene.
Kushida Kikyo's legs went weak.
Her voice distorting with fear:
"Wha... what on earth is going on?!"
"Have we... fallen into hell?!"
——End of Chapter——
Note ①—Kishibe: The master of Denji and Power, Public Safety's strongest devil hunter, and once Quanxi's partner. He likes Quanxi and has proposed dating her many times, but Quanxi isn't interested in men. Later, Quanxi came to Japan to assassinate Denji, and the two met again. Although he proposed that Quanxi cooperate with him against Makima, she refused.
Note ②—Santa Claus: Normally acts in the form of a puppet-ified old man; her true body has long black hair and three moles on the right cheek.
On the surface, she was commissioned by the German government to assassinate the protagonist Denji, but in reality she aims to thwart Makima's doomsday plan, with the adoption of four children as the agreed reward.
In the battle to hunt Denji, she created a massive horde of puppets to attack, and in the burger shop she used the Curse Devil's power to stab Denji three times—the last time having her disciple Toriga deliver the thrust. After Denji was killed, he was revived by pulling his chainsaw starter cord. Later, by summoning the Devil of Hell, she dragged everyone in the department store down to Hell, the price for which was paid entirely by the old man—an exquisite puppet—and the children she had just adopted.
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