Chapter 185
The blade of the sharp silver metal hook and a human arm collided. Normally, the arm would normally be sliced right off.
CLANG - !
But I was wearing the Nanotech Suit. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I was clad in iron armor instead of fabric over my skin!
I don’t even know how many times this gift from Chairman Isiho has saved my life.
Long live the Chairman! Cursing the company back then wasn’t my true intention!
“Kyaaaak!”
Was she startled by the woman’s relentless attack, or was she freaked out that I blocked it with my arm? Hina screamed from behind me.
Honestly, I was a little surprised too.
Hina had made a little noise squirming around, but even so, we had been perfectly hidden. It was astonishing that she pinpointed our exact location in a single strike.
It seemed she had some related cyberware. Her eyes were shining peculiarly; it might be an eye implant.
“…Hina?”
The woman recognized Hina and momentarily made a puzzled expression.
Of course, apart from that, her body below her face continued its fierce onslaught against me.
As soon as her hook arm was blocked, she immediately used her other arm to pull needles from her chest, slot them between her fingers, and throw them.
As if they had a built-in tracking device, the tiny daggers shot out in different trajectories, aiming for my head, chest, testicles… my vital spots.
Responding wasn’t all that difficult.
The bloody battle I had with the cyborg ninja, who was practically the pinnacle of this field, was still fresh in my mind. Compared to the shurikens that the ninja threw, this was nothing!
While wearing the suit, I only needed to be careful of my externally exposed face.
I hastily reached out my arm to deflect the sharp needle shooting toward my face, and took the rest on my body.
Then, as if waiting for this, the opponent used her arm that had turned into a hook to pull me in while launching herself into the air.
In an instant, her legs swooped in like a leopard. She planned to mount my body and use jujutsu or whatever to finish me off at ultra-close range!
[Combat Mode activation. Kinetic Drive activated.]
This woman was the real deal. I had expected it given the circumstances, but unlike me, she was a true industry person.
Even at a glance, her fighting skill was extraordinary. I couldn’t face her without the suit’s special abilities.
SMACK - !
Guided by the suit, I shoved away the inside of her swinging leg with a solid fist.
Normally, one would back off if only because of the pain, but the opponent didn’t care and instead tightened her legs to grab my arm.
If I let her do as she pleased, my arm would be snapped in an instant and I’d be slammed to the ground. The Kinetic Drive wasn’t invincible.
Suddenly, the memory came to mind of rolling around while receiving training at the gym President Dragon introduced me to.
The director had used a martial art similar to jujutsu to flip my body this way and that with his small limbs, saying something in passing.
“When fighting someone whose specialty is a Joint Lock, you must never give up your territory.”
Back then, I was too busy getting beaten up and screaming to understand what it meant, but now I think I get it a little.
She was such a beautiful woman, but grappling with her at such close quarters was a hard pass from me! It’s a bit too much pressure!
SWISH -
I twisted my arm out from her legs that were coiling around me like a boa constrictor.
I shoved away the tip of her foot that tried to apply rotational force to my shoulder by spinning once in the air as if to use even that momentum, and focused all my concentration on completely escaping her other leg, which persistently hooked the back of its knee over my elbow, refusing to let go.
Her lower body muscles and flexibility were incomparably superior to mine, making it incredibly difficult to shake her off - but that was only if you excluded my Nanotech Suit, which was practically a cheat code!
SSSST -
The cutting-edge Nanofiber that freely changed its appearance trembled. The surface material transformed into a much smoother form than before, allowing me to slip right out.
Perhaps intuiting in that brief moment that it wouldn’t work, the woman swung an electrified Kubotan she had exquisitely hidden behind her back at me, and I barely leaned back to dodge that fatal trajectory aimed at the nape of my neck while extending my foot.
“…”
As a result of the fierce offense and defense, we glared at each other tensely after stepping back about one step from each other.
Through that brief clash, both she and I realized that the opponent in front of us was by no means an easy target.
“Of course, strictly speaking, I did use a foul.”
If we only looked at pure physical ability or fighting skill, I would be hopelessly outmatched.
It was only thanks to the fraudulent performance of the Nanotech Suit, and the fact that my brain spun exceptionally fast in these urgent situations - perhaps because I had adapted to the microchip - that I was able to hold out somehow. If it came to a long battle, I couldn’t win.
Furthermore… it seemed the opponent hadn’t gone all out either.
'She definitely must have had at least one firearm or other dangerous weapon, but she didn’t use it.'
Why?
The way I see it, it’s because of the girl behind me.
She probably didn’t care whether I died or not, but she seemed to hesitate because of the risk of Hina getting hit as well.
“Hina… and hand butcher?”
The woman saying that was Angela.
From her perspective, was this a situation where she suffered an attack from club members out of nowhere? Or did she already know this would happen?
What was the reason she was trying not to harm Hina?
Because she wasn’t the culprit? Or because, having already killed Chainsaw Man, killing even Hina, whom he cherished, was something that pricked her conscience even as a heinous assassin?
“Ms. Angela.”
I put my thoughts aside and answered while staying on guard for now.
We had somehow entered a lull, but I couldn’t let go of my tension for even a moment.
We both had a Trump Card left.
I had not yet triggered the activation of the microchip.
If I flipped the switch and unleashed my superpowers, I might be able to subdue Angela in an instant, no matter how great an assassin she was.
However, I couldn’t throw my winning move first because it felt like the opponent would have something hidden, befitting a true “industry person”.
If I hastily used the microchip and failed to settle the match within the Time Limit, it wouldn’t be strange for me to be defeated just like that.
Knowing how many deadly weapons that suspicious assassin might have hidden, how could I recklessly rush in?
Conversely, from Angela’s perspective, she would similarly be reluctant to fight due to my bizarre combat ability, the Secret Technique of my suit that looked extraordinary even at a glance, and the notorious name of “hand butcher”.
Was that why she decided to change her strategy?
She relaxed the chilling expression that looked like she could chew up a person or two whole, and parted her cherry-colored lips while looking at me with somewhat moist eyes.
“Honey, I think there’s some misunderstanding. What you saw was just…”
Was she talking about the man she had taken during a kidnapping outside? I was about to listen, if only out of curiosity about what kind of excuse she would make.
BANG - !
Ah, fuck!
I knew it. Even though I hadn’t let my guard down at all, I almost died from a bullet hole drilled into me.
Was she pretending to explain the situation like a pitiful tragic female protagonist, only to suddenly fire a gun out of nowhere?
She was truly wicked, without blood or tears!
To think she would aim exactly for my head in that moment.
Pulling out the pistol and firing was ridiculously stealthy and natural. If I had been even a little late in covering my face with my arm, it would have been instant death.
It was definitely that Russian-made Tech pistol I saw during the weapon inspection back then.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t taken a pistol bullet or two while wearing the suit, but this hurt the most out of all of them.
The firepower itself felt like it was on another level! The moment I was hit, the impact sent my body flying backward to slam into the wall, so that said it all.
“Ughhh…”
As I groaned and raised my body, Hina shouted from the side, urging me on.
“What are you doing! Get up quickly! She’s running away! We have to catch her!”
Running away?
Hina was right.
When I lifted my dizzy head, I saw Angela, who had leaped away at an astonishing speed like she was doing parkour and had already reached the entrance.
No, why is she so fast?
I think I know what she was thinking.
Having clashed once, she realized that even though I was tricky, I was much slower than her.
Besides, from Angela’s perspective, there was no need to fight me head-on. Wouldn’t it be enough to just run away like this?
Unlike Hina and me, who wanted to catch and interrogate her, she had absolutely no need to see things to the end here!
“Hina, I’m disappointed. Do you trust that man more than me? I thought we were close as fellow women… this makes me a bit sad.”
“Sad my ass! You damn Hitman! I’m going to kill you!”
Was it because she had peeked at Angela 'working' along with me? Hina seemed convinced that she was the culprit.
At the hatred-laced shout, Angela sighed and opened the door.
“…Let’s talk later. It seems we can’t communicate right now.”
And with that, she leisurely stepped outside.
Hina shouted at me to chase her with veins popping in her neck, but I stayed still, sitting on the floor.
“Hey, keep it down.”
My head is ringing because of you.
I’m not an idiot; there’s no way I’d just let her go like this!
I’m still pretty smart, after all.
Would I not have calculated the possibility of Angela ignoring me and running away like that?
It wasn’t like I actually deluded myself into thinking I was the “unidentified master thief from Neo Tokyo” like the rumors spreading in the world said. Would I have tried to fight alone without something to rely on when I might be facing the hitman who might have killed Chainsaw Man?
I wasn’t that thoughtless.
I had called someone to help, and that person is waiting outside right now.
To add one more thing, he was one of the most powerful cards I could call upon.
CLACK - !
What Angela encountered as she dashed out was a round titanium shape that looked alien even at a glance.
An unknown smile beamed from beneath a smoothly shining chrome bald head and profound glass eyes looking down gently.
A traditional coat and monastic robes were fluttering in the wind.
The Machine Monk flicked his prayer beads and spoke.
[Oho, female patron, where are you going in such a hurry?]
“…!”