He struggled to prop himself up.
In his field of vision, the devil strolled over casually. Its severed left hand instantly repaired. In its right hand, it dragged Kobeni Higashiyama, her joints locked by solid ice.
It stopped ten meters in front of Hoshino.
"Hoshino-kun!!!" Kobeni struggled to lift her head toward Hoshino.
"..." Hoshino opened his mouth, instinctively wanting to say 'I'm fine,' but forgot he had no tongue.
The floating space rings simultaneously reflected both their figures. The assembled lip line curved into an inscrutable smile.
Its pale finger pointed at Kobeni.
"Bang!" The muscles in Hoshino's mouth snapped, mimicking a tongue striking his palate—a trigger for the attack that blasted straight at the Devil.
A drifting snowflake in front of the devil suddenly enlarged and shattered.
Unsurprisingly, the attack was blocked.
"..."
Hoshino gritted his teeth.
If it's not unexpected like before, I can't hurt it at all!
He glanced anxiously at the monster.
Silent as always.
A massive sense of powerlessness swallowed him.
Right now, he couldn't possibly defeat the primal devil.
He could only wait for his fixed destiny to arrive like any ordinary person.
At the same time, two beams of blue light shot from the primal devil's fingertips and crashed into Kobeni's body.
In an instant, a strange emotion flooded every corner of Kobeni's body. Memories with Hoshino from the past began to flicker.
The cave, the shrine, the onsen inn, the snowy field, the proposal, the hospital, the confession, the first kiss.
Not all of it was good, but good definitely made up the majority.
Right and wrong were hard to distinguish, but she'd felt very happy.
Feelings couldn't lie.
But now.
The feeling... was completely different.
Good emotions were stripped away. Bad emotions were infinitely amplified.
Disgust.
Such disgust.
Extreme disgust.
Kill him!
No, don't!
Kill him!
No!
Kobeni used every ounce of strength to resist this surging emotion, like a small boat on a stormy sea at night. Capsizing was inevitable.
She screamed in agony, but it was useless.
Her eyes were like the broken TV from childhood. The Hoshino in her pupils split into countless irregular colored bars on both sides, becoming more and more blurred.
Until he disappeared.
The ice locking her joints cracked open.
"..."
"..."
Kobeni stood up, her face turned to the side as if shy, but her eyes fixed on Hoshino.
"It's you, isn't it, Hoshino?"
The dagger in her hand was reversed.
Not far away, a drop of ice-blue blood fell into Hoshino's mouth. His injuries quickly healed completely.
So they patched me up just to watch me throw hands with my girl?
Hoshino climbed to his feet and looked around.
The primal devil had already retreated to a small platform several hundred meters away. It sat cross-legged, head propped on its hand, watching this way.
The four people and two devils also watched with interest, occasionally laughing and chatting.
Kobeni gripped the dagger in reverse and closed in at extreme speed.
This scene felt like a lifetime ago.
I need to survive!
A voice rang out.
Then thousands upon thousands of voices followed.
And then get revenge!!!
Hoshino raised his hand and pointed at Kobeni.
It trembled.
"Tch."
He lowered it again.
Kobeni rushed within five meters.
Hoshino retreated. A giant arm burst from his back.
She easily dodged it.
The gleaming blade reflected an expression Hoshino had never seen before.
Two more giant arms burst out.
But they were always one step behind Kobeni.
Can she predict the future?
Kobeni was already in front of him. The dagger thrust out.
Bang!
Snow flew.
Hoshino stomped the ground hard. His speed suddenly increased several times. He dodged with a flash, and two giant arms from his back simultaneously rushed toward Kobeni.
She easily dodged again with a flip.
She can dodge that too?
Kobeni yanked the giant arm, stepped onto it, and closed in with strange movements.
Light gray muscle fibers grew from Hoshino's forearms. They twisted and wove, rapidly extending until they covered both his left and right hands.
[Current Amplification: 10.5%]
The Silkworm Devil's first molt gave a 3% overall enhancement in addition to the 7 days of lifespan, calculated by the system.
This was the effect of 10% overall enhancement. No longer confined to giant arm form, with slightly reduced strength but countless times lighter, with significantly improved explosive power.
The fiber glove covering his hands had helped him dodge the dagger just now.
Kobeni's dagger stabbed again.
Hoshino caught it between his palms.
He exerted force from his wrists. The muscle fibers locked tight.
Crack crack.
The dagger broke.
A new dagger traced a crescent arc toward Hoshino's carotid artery.
Hoshino leaned back while raising his right hand to block.
Blood spurted. Half a hand flew off.
The blade grazed past his Adam's apple.
Hoshino shaped his left hand like a gun and pressed it against Kobeni's abdomen.
"Bang."
The two broke apart—Hoshino had no interest in trading blows up close anymore.
Kobeni didn't dodge. No large hole appeared in her abdomen.
Just as I thought.
Hoshino hadn't called on his power or paid its price—he hadn't used his ability at all.
But only he knew that. Kobeni couldn't possibly know.
Yet she didn't dodge.
But she'd predicted and dodged all his previous attacks.
Predicting the future, or... luck?
Judging from the past few days' experiences, it seemed more like the latter.
Hard to imagine the word "lucky" would someday describe Kobeni Higashiyama.
If not for these past few days, Hoshino definitely wouldn't have thought of that word.
Getting lost in a blizzard and being rescued.
Fainting in the hot spring and being rescued.
Sleepwalking at night and being rescued.
And the black heart's temptation—She'd avoided disaster thanks to Hoshino's quick thinking..
Everyone else died, but she survived.
What seemed like bad luck—wasn't that also a kind of good luck?
Hoshino thought about Kobeni saying "I won't let you die," about tripping over her own feet twice.
Perhaps from a very young age, she'd unknowingly contracted with the luck devil.
The price was everyday luck.
What she gained was life-or-death luck.
A kind of luck that disappears the moment you talk about it—like making a birthday wish.
Perhaps there was a way to actively trigger it, but it required a price—a predictable price.
And there was a limit.
And her current abnormal state...
Hoshino accelerated, dodging the stab again.
Excited yet calm.
More like the dual-natured stress response of a shy, timid person under the influence of some emotion that breaks through the psychological threshold.