Bang!
The Colt Python's signature blast cracked the room.
The Hunter shrieked—its right arm punched by the round, a geyser of red blooming—and skittered, panicked, toward the corner.
Utaha, who'd frozen in despair, blinked up to see Aiden and Yukino—when had they returned?—already moving.
Aiden's face was hard; the clutch moment shot had clipped a hyper-alert target mid-leap. Even with its eerie midair jukes, it couldn't escape Elite Marksmanship forever.
Yukino swept in as well, recurve drawn to a full moon, the arrowhead leveled at the turned Yuko chewing on a classmate's corpse.
Thwip!
Metal shaft punched clean through the skull. Red and white spattered the floor. Yuko twitched twice and collapsed beside Midori.
"Everyone down!"
Before Aiden's shout even finished, his muzzle tracked the zig-zagging Hunter and his finger tightened—
—but the creature snapped its head and launched at him with speed too fast for most eyes to follow. Breaths locked across the room.
"Not good!" Hayato's pupils pinholed.
Aiden didn't back up. His mouth twitched into a cold arc.
His palm rose. Mana surged. Circuits lit. Thunder gathered, snarling and bright.
The crackle of current swallowed every heartbeat.
"Is that…?!"
Hayato's eyes went wide at the swelling sun of lightning in Aiden's hand.
Within the glare, a three-inch Arc Lightning Arrow formed—
a crescent shaft sheathed in writhing plasma—
and the room went white.
Shff!
Aiden flicked; the bolt streaked like a shooting star and speared the Hunter in the chest.
Zzzzzzra—!
Lightning burst.
The Hunter convulsed, limbs snapping rigid as fine arcs webbed its skin.
Paralysis—proc'd at the perfect instant.
Half a heartbeat was all he needed.
Aiden snapped the AK-105 up. The hood gaped; he pressed the trigger.
Thump!
The round smashed the skull. The body hung in the air for a breath, then slammed to the tiles, spasmed twice, and stilled—faint sparks still crawling and hissing across it.
[Player "Aiden" felled Special Infected — Hunter. +500 points!]
Silence drowned the room,
broken only by ragged breathing.
Everyone stared at the corpse, pupils like pinpoints, disbelief flooding their faces.
So, in the end—
Aiden still came back and saved them.
Clack.
Aiden seated a fresh mag and turned to the pale, kneeling Hayato. "What happened here? You were sitting tight—how did you drag a Hunter to class?"
With adrenaline ebbing, Hayato finally found his voice. He looked over the carnage, swallowed. "A-Aiden-kun… if you hadn't come, we—"
Shame cinched his throat. Over twenty students, armed—nearly wiped.
If not for this boy's timing, that cat-like butcher would have erased them all.
"Deal with the bodies," Aiden cut him off, chin tipping at the floor. "Clean it now. The stink will draw more."
"…Okay."
Only then did he notice some bitten students already twitching toward a turn.
They worked. Hard.
At last the living sagged to a stop.
The room of limbs and ruin strangled every heart.
"Sob… Mom… Dad…"
The first wail broke, then spread like a fuse.
Even those who held back bent under the weight, heads low, the air thick with grief.
"Aiden-kun, I'm sorry. I was arrogant before."
Hayato's face was ashen. He clenched his fists, looked at Aiden—
and, to everyone's shock, dropped into a full dogeza.
"This is how I apologize. Because of my pride, I failed to keep everyone alive. That's on me."
"…"
"You really are a hopeless nice guy," Aiden muttered, rubbing his brow.
He had no words for someone who shouldered every death alone.
"Kneeling to me won't raise the dead. It means nothing."
"I know," Hayato said hoarsely. "But right now… it's all I can do to breathe."
He lifted his head, eyes raw. "I misread everything. Aiden-kun—about your offer. Do your terms still stand?"
"They do."
"Then I'm in. I'll follow your orders."
No hesitation this time.
Earlier he'd thought Aiden overconfident—
now he hated that he hadn't seen clearly sooner.
Maybe…
maybe more of them would still be here.
"Um… may I join too?"
"Me as well!"
"Aiden-kun, please take me!"
"We were wrong. From now on we'll obey—no backtalk."
"You say one—we won't say two!"
With Hayato breaking the ice, faces that had been too proud to ask now turned, one after another.
In the crowd, Kakeru hid,
blood to white to green,
as if slapped raw.
Regret crawled over him like ants.
He'd called Aiden a puffed-up show-off—
reality had slapped him instead.
Aiden's capability dwarfed anything he'd imagined.
"Aiden-kun… will he even let me in?"
Utaha watched Aiden's tall, straight back, heart tangled.
She'd thought he was just a boy putting on airs.
That crisp, surgical kill had shattered the picture.
She bit her lip,
ruby eyes misting,
regret and a nameless flutter steeping together under her ribs.
(End of Chapter)
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