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"5...!"

He widened his eyes as his gaze flickered between the knife in his hand, me, and the detonator I held.

I had confidence that he would listen to such an unreasonable command.

For such a justice-ridden and steadfast individual, something on that level is nothing if it means he can prevent me from pressing the detonator.

Whether or not the detonator is fake, he will only be able to find out once I press it.

He cannot take that risk.

Should the detonator turn out to not be a bluff, he would be shrouded in regret for the rest of his life.

Sure, there might be no casualties, but for someone like him, the destruction of a school and the consequential ruination of hundreds of innocent adolescents\' lives would infest his mind.

He has the option to prevent that possibility now, even if it\'s nothing more than that.

If he didn\'t take it, and that was what resulted because of his action, it would be his fault.

The overbearing guilt he would feel would be deterrent enough, but this guy was something else entirely; he would never forgive himself if he left even the slightest shred of a chance for his actions to bring damage to an innocent.

That was exactly why I had no qualms about giving my opponent a free weapon.

"4...!"

Before I counted down any further, he moved.

Stab-!

"Gah...!"

Blood splattered as he powerfully stabbed the palm of his left hand without hesitation.

...Are you stupid? Why the hell would you stab there...?

"Mmng...!"

Azaki Kiryuuin gritted his teeth, enduring the pain and grunting while trying to not scream.

This guy is an idiot for real, but he\'s sure as hell dedicated to his cause.

He could have simply paused time and gone to look for bombs, but being under the pressure of my five-second time limit must have limited such thoughts.

...No, he could have just paused time to buy more time, to begin with.

Did he not do it because he thought it was the only way for me to not press the detonator?

「Yes」

Ah.

Desperation, then.

Well, I suppose even if he had the idea of searching for bombs, he would never get the reassurance that every bomb had been found, and that\'s something which would be impossible to know unless either I tell him directly or the detonator is pressed.

He can\'t take the detonator from my hands while time is paused, either; the moment he touches someone under frozen time, it will immediately resume its flow.

"Zack...!"

Having just watched Azaki Kiryuuin inflict a severe wound on himself at my order, Avon Laura shrieked.

She has a nickname for him, huh? They have matching character traits, so I suppose it makes sense that they\'re close.

Deep concern evident on her face, she worriedly rushed over to him and tried to support him.

"How could you listen to that man...?! You know how devilish he is!"

She called for medical professionals from the subordinates all around us, who quickly began running around the place.

In the meantime, seemingly having gathered some of his composure, Kiryuuin slowly raised his head towards her to reveal his now pallid, sweaty face that looked like it could pass out at any moment and forced a great, toothy smile.

"A-ahaha, d-don\'t worry...! See...! This much is nothing...!"

His body quaking, he held his left arm with his right, blood leaking and dripping to the ground. The knife remained stuck penetrating the entirety of his hand, which would ordinarily be a smart thing to do to prevent the blood from flowing like a waterfall.

However...

Thud-!

Rather abruptly, his form collapsed.

"Ugh...!? E-euuuugh...!!"

Having fallen to his knees, Kiryuuin began to retch with his neck bent towards the ground.

"Zack...! You bastard, what the hell did you do to him?!"

Taken aback by the sudden development, Avon Laura\'s eyes trembled in shock as she roared at me, unsheathing her sword in a single menacing motion.

"Are you talking to me?"

"Who else would I be talking to?! Answer my question!"

"Huh? I don\'t know. Isn\'t he just ill? Maybe he ate something bad."

She thrust the sword towards me.

"Shut your mouth! We both know this isn\'t just some sickness!"

"..."

I tried to jest, but she seemed unwilling to entertain even the slightest quip in the current situation.

Well, she was correct, though.

It wasn\'t something like a simple stomach bug, or gastroenteritis.

"I feel like you have some bias in your beliefs here. Would you be satisfied if I said he was poisoned or something?"

Glaring at me with unending frustration, she suddenly turned away and crouched down by Kiryuuin\'s side.

"Zack, you need to listen to me for a moment, okay? Take a deep breath in and clench your teeth. I\'m going to take the knife out."

"Heuuuuuuugghh...!"

It was clearly not a proper response to her words, but with a shaky nod, it seems he had heard her well enough to understand what the problem was.

In the next moment, he held his breath, tried not to vomit his intestines out, and Avon Laura ripped the knife out of his hands in a single pull.

"Ghh...!"

Kiryuuin grunted heavily, but the end was yet far away.

Copious amounts of blood began to gush forth from the open wound, surging like a wave after the dam that was the knife had been removed. As it poured over both him and the ground below in an unbroken stream, it rapidly darkened and gave rise to the thick stench of iron.

"Hurry up! Someone get a first-aid kit!"

Avon Laura and her underlings gathered towels and other first-aid supplies to patch him up quickly, which helped stop the bleeding fairly soon.

"L-Laura... I can still--"

"No... Go back to the facility, I\'ll send some guys with you."

The situation eventually stabilised and she said a few things to convince him to return to the Playground or wherever it was to get professionally checked out for medical help.

Watching that diabetic scene, I wanted to shove my fingers into my throat and throw up.

Seriously, this fucking idiot.

Did he still want to do his job through death?

"You should take a rest for now."

As she finished wrapping a densely-layered bandage over his hand, she took one last worrisome look at his languished face and stood up to confront me yet again.

Slowly, she called me by how she knew me.

"...Truth."

Her voice was cold.

"I will give you one chance and one chance only to tell me what you did to him."

Her face was blank as could be, with only those piercing, sapphire eyes of hers to prove the sheer intensity of the emotions she was experiencing.

Regulating her breathing so as to not snap and slay me where I stood, she stayed with her white sword pointed at me and her eyes glued to my own.

Looking at that intimidating image of her, I first put my hand up to signal Sophie Asanami to not do anything rash.

I was not confident in Sophie\'s reaction speed to act faster than Avon Laura, especially when she stood a mere couple of metres in front of my face.

I witnessed with my own eyes the type of speed she can reach with no kind of enhancements back during Sona\'s debut. It would be foolish of me to believe that Sophie, a normal person with no training, could react and protect me in time.

Wanting to sigh, a brief moment of silence passed between us before I opened my mouth.

"Um... Are you both idiots? Is it not obvious that I poisoned him?"

Tak-!

Before I could even blink, I felt a sting on my face and a warm sensation.

"Keep acting tongue in cheek and it won\'t just be a small cut like that next time."

"..."

...Hm. Maybe that was the wrong answer. It was the truth, though...

"What type of poison?"

I smiled proudly.

"Homebrew."

"Antidote?"

"Didn\'t make one."

Her expression crunched and distorted at my answer. Her furrowed brows having bent angrily and her mouth deeply frowning in a single line, the sharpness of her eyes seemed to pierce me through.

Before she struck me down in a fit of rage, I laughed.

"Haha, I\'m just kidding. I would never make a poison without also making an antidote for it in case I accidentally poisoned myself, of course. Isn\'t it common sense?"

Although she didn\'t appreciate my jokes, she seemed more relieved by the fact there was actually an antidote as was proven by how she lowered her sword.

"Where is it?"

I pointed at my mouth, to which her expression froze in confusion.

"Ampoule in here. Aside from injecting it directly into my blood, swallowing it is the fastest and easiest way to intake it. I can take it without needing my arms or legs, too."

Hearing my explanation, she subconsciously nodded in understanding and took a step towards me.

I put out a hand to stop her.

"Ah, ah! What are you doing?"

Glaring at me, she stated frankly.

"...I\'m getting the antidote."

Like that, she took another step in my direction.

Haa. This woman.

Realising that she would actually force my mouth open and take it from me otherwise, I quickly swallowed it before she could.

"...What the hell did you just do?"

"There\'s no antidote anymore, sorry."

She knew what I had done, but she didn\'t want to believe it. Without an antidote, her beloved Azaki Kiryuuin might die, after all, and I had just taken away their last remaining hope.

"..."

She stared at me with an almost vacant gaze for a second.

Her next thought would naturally be to force me to make a new antidote for her, but I suppose she was too overwhelmed by the rapid, turbulent and utterly confusing flow of events to even think straight.

"...Why...?"

She muttered something under her breath. Hearing that, I couldn\'t help but laugh.

"Hah. Are you crazy? Why would I want to give an antidote to my enemy?"

You must be in another realm of stupidity if you think I\'d do something foolish like that.