The piercing Ascetic

As if reading my thoughts, the Ascetic spoke abruptly.

“I can tell just by looking at your eyes. Are you, regrettably, planning to kick me out?”

A deep blue light flashed from the eyeholes of the iron mask.

The opponent I was facing was a terrorist who had suddenly risen to become Dusk City’s greatest public enemy.

It felt as though I could hear an unpleasant squirming noise from within those rag-like clothes.

I tried my best not to step back or avert my gaze, answering as calmly as possible.

“And if I am?”

If it felt like an intangible electric current sparked in the air for a moment, was it just my imagination?

In front of that masked face whose inner thoughts I couldn’t fathom at all, I was fiercely shouting in my head, “Go fuck yourself. Are you confident? Are you stronger than the Chrome Monster? I don’t think so.'

As if answering that, the Ascetic slowly parted his lips...