"So what do we do now?"
Listening to the restless footsteps and the blaring alarms outside the door, Tachibana Akane pressed her lips together tightly and looked uneasily at Chris.
"Guess we've got no choice but to leave…"
Chris thought for a moment, then casually yanked open the tightly locked door.
"As a Fixed Member, with my gear backing me up, I'm not afraid of the gas station outside blowing up. But you guys can't take that. And with zero margin for error, staying here would just be padding Death's kill count."
As he spoke, Chris turned toward Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, about to ask whether he needed a hand.
Only to find that Ayanokoji had produced a piece of wire from somewhere and was crouching in front of the door lock, clearly intending to pick it open himself.
But Death was still hard at work.
If it couldn't deal with a stats monster like Chris, surely it could handle an ordinary human like you?
And so, the very instant Ayanokoji slid the wire into the lock cylinder and was about to nudge the tumbler—
"Click."
A crisp snap.
The wire, as if suffering metal fatigue, simply broke into two pieces right inside the lock cylinder.
To the point where it could never be extracted without professional equipment.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka stared at the keyhole and fell silent for a brief moment.
"Need some help?"
Chris walked up to the door and said offhandedly:
"Even with the physical conditioning of someone who came out of the White Room, you're still human in the end. Bending a police station's solid-steel bars apart with your bare hands would be pretty tough, wouldn't it?"
"Hm… of course, if you've got some special skill like a bone-shrinking technique, then forget I said anything."
Hearing this, Ayanokoji shook his head:
"If I tried to shrink my bones, I have no doubt I'd get stuck, which would set off yet another chain reaction."
"You'd better handle it."
Inside the Black Sphere's exam, there was no shame in acknowledging another's strength.
Chris nodded.
He stepped forward and wrenched the steel door open in one go.
Then the group set off at a brisk pace, following the route from their memory.
The moment they reached the front hall, they found the police station already in an uproar.
The officers were either on the phone calling for backup or scrambling to gather up important files, and some were escorting convicted felons in preparation for transfer—looking for all the world like they were about to relocate their entire base.
Just then, the detective who had originally taken their statements happened to look up.
Spotting Chris and the others walking out, he waved and called loudly:
"Hey! Boy."
"I don't have time to deal with you lot right now!"
"Go home and stay put for now—we'll come back to follow up in a few days!"
"I'm warning you, don't do anything unnecessary—"
Before he could finish.
"BOOM——!!!"
Once again, with a thunderous roar, the entire police station building shook.
The chubby detective who'd just lost the key was so startled he cowered under his desk, clutching his head and shouting:
"Holy crap! Didn't they say there was no open flame on-site, just a slow leak from the fuel tank?!"
"Hey! You brats! There's no time to run—find a sturdy load-bearing corner and take cover!"
At this, Chris merely shook his head:
"I'm afraid we can't stay here."
"Otherwise, we'd probably end up dragging you all down with us."
In Final Destination, in non-essential situations, Death actually goes to great lengths to keep its "accidents" natural, and generally won't deliberately involve innocents.
But there was no helping it.
Who told Chris to look just a teensy-billion bit hard to kill?
Faced with such a "hard-to-kill target," its schemes would naturally keep escalating.
And the collateral damage caused along the way? Death didn't really care all that much about it.
This gas station explosion could only count as an appetizer-level warning.
There was a chance that, once they left and assumed they were safe, it would trigger a second explosion to ambush them and take a few lives;
but there was also a chance that, once these few "targets of Death" had left, the fire here would be swiftly put out due to some "coincidence."
At the end of the day, Death's only remaining targets now were them.
After all, this group had stepped into the lead roles of the original story.
So after pondering for a moment, Chris chose to take everyone and leave.
He couldn't very well punch the gas station to bits, after all…
Naturally, Ayanokoji and the others were in no position to refuse, and Tachibana Akane's group followed his lead as a matter of course.
However, just as they charged out of the police station.
Looking at the firefighters outside, surging against the flow of the crowd and rushing to the front lines at enormous risk.
Chris couldn't help but feel a pang of emotion.
America's firefighters, before the Twin Towers were struck, truly were the kind who took saving lives as their duty—counter-runners who placed no priority on their own safety.
Perhaps it was the last flourishing of humanity before that trust was completely used up…
As he was thinking this, they ran out onto the street and, by sheer coincidence, came across a family who—because of the traffic jam ahead and the panic from the explosion—had chosen to simply abandon their car and flee for their lives.
Looking at the black, stretched SUV whose doors hadn't even been closed in time.
Chris paused mid-step, turned his head, and said to the group behind him:
"All of you, get in."
"Traveling on two legs is too slow, and you might get hit by a falling sign or some other accident—I'll just carry you all out directly."
Kamuro Masumi was taken aback for a moment:
"This… the road ahead is completely jammed. How do you plan to carry us? Drive through it like bumper cars?"
Chris shot her a glance and said flatly:
"You'd rather walk and stay behind to get blown up? Fine, I won't force you."
At that, Kamuro Masumi hastily shook her head, waving both hands to signal there was no need, then smoothly slipped into the car right behind Tachibana Akane and the others.
Ayanokoji, meanwhile, climbed into the front seat with the White Room staff member.
Once he'd confirmed everyone was seated securely.
Chris drew out a longsword.
Under the dumbfounded gazes of the American citizens fleeing in panic all around.
"Demon Possession!"
A massive Danger Beast phantom flashed by, and silver-white heavy armor covered his entire body!
Chris took a step forward and bent down to grip the chassis.
Combining it with his long-since-mastered telekinesis to envelop the entire SUV.
And then.
Under the eyes of countless onlookers, Chris—lifting the immense weight as if it were nothing—together with the entire car.
Shot straight up off the ground.
Leaving only the cracked tracks in the asphalt as proof.
And the passersby still rooted in place were all so shaken by the sight that they forgot to run.
No one knew who reacted first, but they pulled out their phone and started snapping pictures:
"Oh my gawd!!!"
"I told you, the 1999 alien defense war was real!! The government really has been lying to us!!!"
"If they don't give me a five-figure hush-money payout, I'm absolutely gonna blow this wide open!!!"
.....
The Chainsaw Man world.
A certain dilapidated commercial district.
Santa Claus, being tormented by the combined assault of Chainsaw Man and Quanxi, kept regenerating from each round of damage thanks to the Darkness Devil's flesh.
"It's useless… ugh."
In the end, Santa Claus—realizing she couldn't gain the upper hand in a purely physical fight—changed her tactics.
She raised her hand and gave a wave.
The next second, the doll-puppets gathered all around regained their senses.
Their once-blank faces twisted into human expressions of terror, and from their mouths came the cries for help and wails of old people, children, and pregnant women.
"Save me… it hurts so much…"
"Don't kill me! I still have a child waiting for me at home!"
"Holy shit…"
This kind of soul-striking shock.
Made Denji, who'd been about to go on a killing spree, freeze in spite of himself.
No matter how heartless he was, hearing these clear human cries for help, he didn't dare swing his chainsaw so easily.
Seeing that this move worked.
Santa Claus pressed her advantage even further.
From the dim shadows, two shapely Fiend puppets slowly walked out.
They were precisely the ones she'd turned into puppets earlier.
Quanxi's two Fiend girlfriends, Long and Pingcui.
Seeing this, Quanxi too halted her movements.
"So it's this trick…"
She let out a sigh.
Though she knew in her heart she had to fight, when faced with the faces of her lovers, she still couldn't bring herself to strike a killing blow.
And it was this momentary stalemate.
The Fiend puppet successfully closed in and plunged a blade into Quanxi's belly.
"Squelch!"
Blood spilled out, but Quanxi merely embraced her in return.
Just as Denji was surrounded by ordinary human puppets, Quanxi was pinned down by her lover, and the situation was about to tip completely in Santa Claus's favor—
A beam of light so dazzling it was impossible to keep one's eyes open descended from the sky without warning!
Shining straight down onto Santa Claus!
And accompanying it was a cascading waterfall of blazing flames pouring down from above!
"How about a taste of the Black Sphere's technology!?"
Mid-air, Ryuuen Kakeru spread his arms wide, the launch ports on them fully open, and let out a sinister cackle:
"One hundred percent simulated sunlight! Plus high-temperature flames averaging a thousand degrees!"
"You old hag who absorbed the Darkness Devil's flesh—will you like this little gift?! Hahahaha!"
Under this double assault.
"AAAAH——hot hot hot hot HOT!!!"
Santa Claus let out a blood-curdling scream as her darkness-based enhancements were successfully weakened and large swaths of her skin were carbonized.
Roaring, she forced down the searing pain and prepared to bend her knees and leap into the air to shoot down that tin man.
But, though still pinned down by her own Fiend girlfriend.
Quanxi, on the ground, had not given up on counterattacking.
She raised her arm and drew the bowstring to full.
Two arrows flew from the string, precisely piercing the kneecaps of Santa Claus as she prepared to jump, forcibly interrupting her movement!
And Denji, off to the side, seeing this, followed suit.
He simply ran over, grabbed a bucket of gasoline, and dumped it over his own head.
Then, accompanied by the roar of the chainsaw.
Denji lunged straight onto Santa Claus and, using the flames Ryuuen Kakeru was spraying down, instantly set himself ablaze too!
Delighted at this, Ryuuen Kakeru decisively cut off the flame jets and instead funneled all the energy into the lighting system, lighting up the entire street with even higher-powered simulated sunlight!
At the same time, his back armor split open, revealing densely packed micro homing-missile barrels.
"Chainsaw kid! I really like your fighting style!"
Ryuuen Kakeru shouted loudly:
"But you've got to leave the final kill on Santa Claus to us! Otherwise we'll be in trouble!"
Engulfed in flames, Denji frantically sliced into Santa Claus's body while letting out screams of mingled pain and excitement:
"Got it!!!"
"Aaargh! It hurts, it hurts! This is burning me to death!"
"But… so this is the power of light!!!"
He drove the chainsaw deep into Santa Claus's chest and roared:
"You bunch of monsters… don't even think about stopping my trip to Enoshima with Miss Makima!!!"
At this—though she too was screaming her head off from the burns, her body surface continually crumbling.
Yet Santa Claus, even in her suppressed state, showed no near-death despair on her face.
She sneered offhandedly:
"How pitiful… I, who have been granted the power of darkness, truly cannot comprehend the thinking of fools like you."
"It's all wasted effort."
"I can transfer my sense of pain onto other dolls all over the world…"
Halfway through her words, Santa Claus suddenly realized something was wrong.
Under Ryuuen Kakeru's continuous simulated sunlight, the power of darkness within her was being heavily suppressed, and along with it, her self-healing speed had visibly weakened.
Sensing the danger, she summoned puppets to help while still putting on a brave front:
"It's useless. So what if you kill the current me?"
"I've signed a contract with the Doll Devil. My dolls are spread across the entire world, and a single touch can turn anyone into a Santa Claus assassin, evolving endlessly through the power of darkness… An endless stream of dolls will keep coming to take your lives."
She let out a cold laugh:
"Your struggle now is utterly meaningless!"
In response to this curse.
Denji, spitting blood, roared back:
"If they're gonna come… then please make it on a weekday!!!"
"Do NOT disturb my trip with Miss Makima on the weekend!!!"
What's more.
Because Santa Claus, in order to protect herself, had forcibly summoned all the surrounding puppets in an attempt to relieve her own siege by attacking elsewhere.
This left Ichinose Honami and Horikita Suzune, who had been tied down all this while, suddenly free.
The group didn't hesitate—they aimed straight at those below and began a one-sided slaughter.
Add to that the arrows Quanxi casually fired in to control the field.
Honestly, Denji figured the advantage was now on his side.
Was there even the slightest need for him to compromise or back down?! Absolutely not!
However.
Santa Claus's words, falling on Ryuuen Kakeru's ears, carried a bit of weight.
If things really were as she said, then this monster was more than just a thick-HP punching bag…
Of course, the arrow was already on the string—there was no choice but to loose it.
The pressing matter now was to secure the kill points first, then worry about how to completely eliminate any future trouble.
Ryuuen Kakeru's gaze hardened, and he shouted:
"Chainsaw kid! Get out of the way!"
"Hurry up, hurry up! I'm in agony here—you think I want to be hugging this old crone?!"
Denji didn't waste a moment.
Using a heavy punch Santa Claus swung at him, he rode the momentum and flew far away from the blast center like a baseball.
And Santa Claus, still left in place.
Could only raise her head in despair.
What greeted her was a torrential downpour of countless light beams and micro homing missiles.
"RUMBLE-BOOM——!!!"
Soon, under the absolute firepower coverage, more than half of Santa Claus's body was outright vaporized, leaving only half a charred head to drop into the rubble of the deep crater.
Ryuuen Kakeru slowly descended to the edge of the ruins.
But he didn't immediately step up to deliver the final blow.
Instead, he turned to look at Quanxi, who was slowly walking over.
"What this old hag just said… is there any way to stop her? One of our objectives this time is to completely kill 'Santa Claus'…"
If killing just a clone of her didn't count, that would be a problem.
But before he could finish asking, he found that Quanxi—now reverted to human form—had, at some unnoticed moment, flickered behind Denji, who had just climbed up from the ground.
"Swish!"
A blade rose and fell.
Denji's head rolled right off and tumbled to the ground.
Meeting Ryuuen Kakeru's gaze.
Quanxi explained in a flat tone:
"Don't misunderstand."
"My original mission in coming to Japan was to take Chainsaw Man's heart. Now that our cooperation is over, naturally there's no need for me to keep him alive any longer."
She turned her head and looked toward Horikita Suzune and the others atop the building:
"That said, I have no conflict of interest with you all."
"My deal with that girl still stands."
Ryuuen Kakeru nodded.
He simply ignored Denji's head on the ground, which seemed to be playing dead.
He steered the topic back on track and asked again:
"So, about what this old hag said—is there a way to resolve it?"
Quanxi thought it over.
She turned her head and spoke to the Fiend behind her.
"Time to work, Cosmo."
And the Cosmic Fiend wasted no time.
Hopping and bouncing, she made her way over to the half-headed Santa Claus.
She raised both hands and struck a bizarre pose as if channeling power to cast a spell:
"Hallo~ween~ Hallo~ween!"
"HALLOWEEN!!!"
Watching this ridiculous scene, Ryuuen Kakeru arched an eyebrow.
Quanxi, watching quietly, explained in a cold voice:
"Cosmo is the Cosmic Fiend. She can forcibly cram the knowledge of the entire universe into an enemy's brain in a single instant."
"It causes the target's mind to break down completely—turning them into a husk who can only shout 'Halloween' until their body dies."
Quanxi said indifferently: "I don't know what your criteria are. But all of her puppets right now have already synced up with her."
Ryuuen Kakeru turned his head and looked around.
Just as Quanxi had said, the puppets that had still been moving were now all like dementia patients, their mouths endlessly repeating the same phrase:
"Halloween… Halloween…"
And what's more.
After Ryuuen Kakeru personally witnessed Santa Claus's head crumble to ash and smoke—
The Black Sphere's notification chime sounded in his ears right on schedule.
[Target detected: Santa Claus has completely lost all threat and is brain-dead.]
[Kill confirmed.]
[Test accomplished.]
Hearing the system prompt, Ryuuen Kakeru let out a long breath of relief:
"OK. It's done."
"As a return favor, I can tell you this: Horikita really can turn Fiends that were made into puppets back to their normal forms."
But then, Ryuuen Kakeru's tone shifted:
"However, because their test target was 'Santa Claus.'"
"Now that she's been judged dead and the test is over—according to the Black Sphere's mechanics, Horikita Suzune will be teleported away any moment now."
"The time left to you… is thirty seconds at most."
"If you want to save someone, you'd better hurry."
With that, Ryuuen Kakeru had already shot up into the sky, flying toward where Horikita Suzune was.
He, too, was pressed for time.
He had to redeem that Super High School-Level Support Card before Horikita left!
Quanxi, remaining where she stood, was not flustered, though.
She turned to look at her two Fiend girlfriends not far behind her, still shouting "Halloween."
"Thirty seconds… there's enough time."
But.
Just as, earlier, her following Denji to Hell had led to her two Fiend girlfriends being turned into puppets by Santa Claus.
This time, fate seemed to once again show her no favor.
Before she could even set off.
Quanxi froze mid-motion.
She realized that, at some unknown point—
Makima had already appeared, together with the Angel Devil, on the path she'd have to take, not far ahead of her.
Just watching her with an expressionless face.
Quanxi fell silent for two seconds.
Then immediately raised both hands high and, racing against the clock, said:
"I surrender."
"If you're willing to spare us. Licking your shoes, being your dog—whatever you command, I'll do."
"If you're worried I'll run, just cut off my limbs right now. I only beg you… do not hurt my women."
"And if possible, please let me send them up first—turn Long and Pingcui back into their original Fiend forms"…
Before she could finish.
Makima merely tilted her cheek slightly.
"A corpse is talking."
The word-spirit took hold.
Quanxi, along with the heads of her Fiend girlfriends behind her.
All dropped from their necks in unison and tumbled to the ground.
Blood splattered everywhere, spraying onto the face of Kishibe standing off to the side.
Ryuuen Kakeru, having rushed back, had successfully redeemed the [Super High School-Level Support Card].
He watched as Kouenji Rokusuke redeemed the [Two-Star Ultimate Uniform];
Sakayanagi and Ichinose, too, had each scraped together enough points, each buying a [Magical Girl Blind Box] and toying with it in their hands.
Everything seemed to have come to a perfect conclusion.
But after silently calculating the time in her head.
It was already well past the Black Sphere's teleportation time marker.
Ichinose frowned and took the initiative to ask the Black Sphere wristwatch:
"GANTZ?"
"Horikita and the others' test target was 'Santa Claus,' right? Even if the rest of us still have to stay behind to deal with the Darkness Devil."
"But even you have already announced that the test is over!"
"So why is there… absolutely no sign that Horikita, Amikura, and the others are about to be teleported away?!"
____
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