The rain overhead had begun to taper off.
Though the sky remained cloaked in heavy clouds, the downpour had largely subsided.
As quickly as it came, the sudden shower passed—barely lasting half an hour.
"We should head back, yeah?"
Eiji stepped out of the cave. Not feeling any more raindrops, he turned and called into the cave.
Without a word, Kanata emerged, still wearing his jacket. Then, without warning, she leaned forward and flopped onto his back.
Eiji winced slightly as her weight pressed on the back of his knees.
Pretending not to notice, he adjusted her on his back and started walking down the mountain trail.
Kanata had some thoughts.
Though she clearly had opinions, she kept them to herself. Instead, she gave a small pouty kick to his side in protest.
Unlike Touka, Kanata was the other woman. She knew she had no real moral high ground here. She had no right to scold Eiji.
If Touka ever found out, it wouldn't be surprising if she struck Eiji down with Raikiri.
But Kanata figured Touka would never do it. She was far too soft on her junior. Almost like spoiling him had become a part of her daily routine.
That kind of over-the-top maternal instinct was exactly how she was.
That said...
Kanata wasn't planning on giving up.
She was already the homewrecker. She'd set out to steal her best friend's man—what did she have left to lose?
What else could she do?
Keep stealing him, obviously.
"I just hope I don't fall for him too hard in the end…"
Lying against his back, Kanata felt a flicker of self-doubt.
The more time she spent with Eiji, the more she uncovered new facets of him. And every new layer just made her more smitten. He checked every box she'd ever dreamed of.
He could flirt shamelessly but still carry himself seriously when it mattered.
He made her laugh with ease, yet knew exactly how to touch her heart with sincerity.
She never thought she'd fall this hopelessly in love with someone.
If only he were a bit more loyal.
No—if he were loyal, she probably never would've had a shot with him in the first place.
That realization tied her thoughts in a new knot, and Kanata found herself spiraling again.
And so...
She gave up thinking.
No point dwelling on things she couldn't figure out. Might as well enjoy the moment.
A peacefully detached smile spread across her face—zen, serene, thoroughly "whatever."
Smack!
Deep in the forest—
Eiji's right foot abruptly struck a rock.
He stopped in his tracks, his expression suddenly tensing.
"What's wrong?"
Kanata lifted her head from his back, looking confused.
"…I feel like we're being watched."
Eiji narrowed his eyes, a dangerous glint flashing through them.
Being watched?
"Want me to get down?"
Given their previous encounter—where they were ambushed while out—Kanata had come to trust Eiji's intuition completely.
"…Actually, no. Stay where you are. Hold on tight. Wrap your legs, too."
He had originally planned to let her down—but something didn't sit right with him. He immediately changed his mind.
Kanata didn't question it. She nodded seriously and clung to him tightly, arms and legs wrapped around him like an octopus. It was... not a very ladylike pose.
"Come out already!"
Eiji summoned his Device and shouted fiercely into the surrounding woods.
"Huh? You actually sensed me?"
The voice that replied was distorted—digitally scrambled and indistinct.
But the direction was clear.
It came from deep within the forest, roughly fifty meters away!
RUMBLE—!
Eiji had been ready to attack.
But suddenly, the ground beneath them trembled violently—like an earthquake.
He immediately leapt backward, putting ten-plus meters between them and the disturbance. Only then did the shaking finally ease.
But what followed next...
Was a scene even more astonishing than before.
The earth, rocks, and trees—everything around them—began lifting from the ground as if pulled by an invisible force. They floated into the air and gradually clustered together...
Forming the shape of a giant humanoid.
Most of the giant's body was made of rock, like armor encasing its entire frame. Its limbs, on the other hand, were sharp tree trunks. It had no face, no features—no trace of humanity.
Its height was well over ten meters.
"A giant?" Kanata blurted out in shock.
Were the legendary giants… actually real?
No. Something was off—
"Is this the work of a Blazer?"
Kanata quickly noticed that the giant didn't seem sentient. It just stood there like a statue, motionless and empty—devoid of any reaction typical of an intelligent being.
The ground beneath them also showed signs of excavation. Could this be the doing of an Blazer with the power to manipulate the earth?
"They're actually using cameras and speakers to communicate?"
Eiji's sharp eyes picked out several surveillance cameras embedded in the center of the giant's chest—along with a pair of speakers. The distorted voice from before must have come from there.
"Heeheehee… well, we can't exactly meet you face-to-face right now, can we? Not yet, anyway."
Sure enough, the teasing voice came again through the speakers—digitally altered but unmistakably male, with a hint of smugness.
"…Huh? I didn't think such a perfect specimen actually existed in the world."
The camera lenses zoomed in, adjusting focus until Eiji filled the view.
The voice on the other end went silent for a beat—clearly stunned.
Then he muttered, as if to himself:
"It just makes me want to crush you with my own hands… The thrill of it must be unforgettable. Heehee!"
"Freak."
Eiji spat on the ground, his disgust plain.
There were always people like this in the world—twisted minds who found joy in the despair of others, who treated screams of pain like music, who regarded scattered blood and mangled organs as nothing more than "art."
And among terrorists, such lunatics were particularly common.
Especially internationally—many Blazer operatives with psychopathic tendencies had committed atrocities on an unimaginable scale: wiping out villages, razing entire cities, turning peaceful towns into bloody nightmares.
He hadn't expected to meet one today.
"Heehee! The more righteous someone is… the more valuable they are to destroy!"
The speaker blared with the man's excited rant, as if destruction itself were his ultimate life pursuit.
"I've had enough—!"
Eiji didn't bother replying. He raised his Device to strike.
But in that instant, a powerful sense of danger surged through him.
Driven purely by instinct, Eiji sprang away like a monkey, leaping clear of where he'd just been standing.
"What's wrong?" Kanata asked, tense.
"Just now… I felt something dangerous," Eiji muttered, frowning. He glanced behind him.
There was nothing there.
So where had that sense of danger come from?
"You dodged…?"
From the speaker, the attacker's voice returned—this time genuinely surprised.
"You're not a magic-type Blazer, are you? Then how did you sense my Hell Spider Silk?"
Hell Spider Silk?
Wires?
"Wait… Could it be—the Wire Puppeteer?!" Kanata's face darkened instantly.
"A puppeteer…" Eiji's expression hardened as well.
This just got much worse.
***
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