บท 54: Chapter 87&88
Chapter 87: The Reason for the Pursuit of the Combination Members
In the face of destruction, the three major ability organizations of Yokohama put aside their past grievances and united together. They were Yokohama's last line of defense.
Dazai Osamu and Edogawa Ranpo's reasoning had been correct, but unfortunately, it came too late, leaving them unprepared for the sudden attack by Tokisaki Kurumi.
Fortunately, Tokisaki Kurumi was not standing against any particular organization, but rather against Yokohama itself.
This gave the possibility of cooperation between the Ability Special Agents, the Port Mafia, and the Armed Detective Agency.
With the three organizations pooling their strength, they did indeed have a glimmer of hope to turn the situation around.
"Now, I need to know the location of Miss Tokisaki," Ogai Mori said. "A single clone isn't very powerful, but over five hundred clones is a force we can't underestimate. What's more, they are scattered all over Yokohama, making it nearly impossible to eliminate them."
"Are you planning to directly eliminate the main body? With all due respect, the main body's abilities are far stronger than a thousand clones combined," Sakaguchi Ango shook his head. "The twelve abilities of Nightmare, as I shared with you before, make it nearly impossible to destroy that kind of monster."
"That's why I brought Chūya-kun here."
"Not enough."
"Hah? What gives you the right to say that?" Chūya Nakahara raised an eyebrow. "Across all of Yokohama, no, all of Japan, can you find a stronger ability user than me?"
"With all due respect, even if you activate your 'Dirty', you won't be able to defeat Nightmare."
"I don't need to defeat her. I just need to disrupt her plan, don't I?"
"Hmm... If our goal isn't to defeat Nightmare, but to block her plan, then we might have a chance."
The "Dirty" form was Chūya Nakahara's true power, released when he fully unleashed his potential.
Endowed with emotions and intelligence, he was qualified to be called human. But human strength was inherently limited. To break through that limit, he had to revert to becoming a monster once more.
That was the "Dirty" form.
By discarding reason, letting instinct and savagery take control, he became a walking destroyer.
Both his power and physical attributes were greatly enhanced, and even his methods of attack changed fundamentally. From controlling gravity to evolving into a black hole that devoured everything, Chūya Nakahara in his "Dirty" form could certainly be considered a strategic weapon.
However, there were obvious weaknesses: by abandoning reason, his "Dirty" self became a monster that couldn't differentiate between friend and foe, turning everything it saw into nothingness beneath the black hole.
Even Chūya Nakahara could not easily activate this form.
The only opportunity to release this power was when the Port Mafia and the Armed Detective Agency worked together.
The only way to free Chūya from the negative effects of the "Dirty" form was Dazai Osamu's "No Longer Human" ability.
By using "No Longer Human" to nullify abilities, Chūya Nakahara could unleash his full power without any mental burden.
Before Dazai betrayed the Port Mafia, the two of them had been known as the "Double Black", a duo feared across Yokohama. Now, with the Armed Detective Agency and the Port Mafia putting aside their differences and cooperating, "Double Black" was back in action, making them the greatest weapon to stop Nightmare.
"But the problem is, we only know Nightmare's goal. The full scope of her plan is still unknown."
Sakaguchi Ango rubbed his chin and pondered. "Her ultimate goal is to drain the time of all the citizens of Yokohama and use the Twelve Bullets to go back in time. But if that's the case, why did she wait until the combination arrived to start her plan? If she wanted to collect time, she could have done it at any time."
"According to the information from the traitor clone Tokisaki Shōsan, the boundary she uses to absorb time, 'City of Time', has a maximum range of only the size of a standard soccer field. Expanding it to cover all of Yokohama is obviously impossible," Dazai Osamu speculated. "Perhaps the reason she lured the combination to Yokohama is that one of the members has an ability that can assist her in completing her plan?"
"An auxiliary ability user?"
"Possible. Otherwise, there's no reason for her to target the combination."
"But according to the intelligence we've gathered, none of the eleven ability users in the combination have an ability that enhances others' abilities."
"Maybe the intelligence you have isn't completely accurate?" Dazai said. "Bring up all the information on the combination's members. I want to review it again."
Sakaguchi Ango nodded and accessed the data on the console. The screen displayed the personal profiles of all the combination members.
The profiles of the eleven ability users in the combination were now in front of them.
Tokisaki Kurumi's ultimate goal was to take the time from all the citizens of Yokohama, and to achieve this, she couldn't do it alone.
Shōsan had confirmed this earlier.
Therefore, Tokisaki Kurumi's urgent desire to bring the combination to Yokohama had to be for a reason, and the most reasonable speculation was that this reason had a strong connection to her plan to steal the citizens' time.
Otherwise, there would be no reason for her to target the combination.
Because her plan was related to the combination, she launched her pursuit of them.
Her true purpose wasn't to defeat the combination, but to use the abilities of one of their members to help her complete her grand scheme.
So the question remained: which ability user had she targeted?
Dazai Osamu's gaze was deep and contemplative, even though he had tried his best, he still couldn't see through Nightmare's plan.
"Sakaguchi, give this information to Ranpo-san and let him try to deduce something." In the end, Dazai Osamu could not make any progress and had to abandon further meaningless speculation.
"Give it to Ranpo? Maybe he'll find something," Fukuzawa Yukichi suggested.
"It's worth a try, but I don't have high hopes," Dazai sighed. "Even Ranpo-san, without enough intelligence, can't do much. The information we have on the combination's ability users is still insufficient."
"So what should we do?" Chūya Nakahara asked impatiently.
"We'll go find the leader of the combination, Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald."
"You plan to directly ask him for the intelligence on the combination's ability users?"
"Exactly. It's the fastest way."
"Don't joke. Although the combination is in disarray due to Nightmare, don't forget that they came to Yokohama because of your agency's Nakajima Atsushi. How could Fitzgerald possibly cooperate willingly?"
"We don't need him to cooperate willingly." Dazai Osamu smiled. "We just need to beat him until he talks."
"Eh..." Chūya Nakahara looked at Dazai with interest. "I thought you'd reformed."
"I've of course reformed and become a good citizen of Yokohama, but you, you haven't reformed, have you?"
"You want to use me as a laborer?"
"Though you can't beat Nightmare, don't tell me you can't beat Fitzgerald."
"Such an annoying joke, as usual."
Chūya Nakahara snorted coldly, but his expression was still proud and confident.
"If you've forgotten how strong I am, let me help you remember."
Chapter 88: The Fall of the White Whale
On the White Whale.
Louisa, the strategic planner of the organization, locked herself in her room, completely focused on revising the plan for the upcoming operation.
Even she hadn't anticipated how powerful and insane the ability user named Tokisaki Kurumi would be. After James's assassination attempt failed, Tokisaki Kurumi launched a full-scale pursuit of the organization, disregarding the dignity an ability user should have, and completely ignoring the chaos she had caused in Yokohama.
The panic she caused alone was far greater than that of the entire organization combined!
Did the Port Mafia not manage their own members? After this event reaches the Japanese government, even the Port Mafia can't escape responsibility!
Louisa didn't know whether Tokisaki Kurumi's actions were driven by anger from the assassination attempt or if she had always harbored ill intentions toward the organization. She also didn't understand why the Port Mafia allowed their members to wreak havoc in their own city, with the Japanese government seemingly doing nothing as though they were ignoring the events in Yokohama altogether.
The only thing Louisa needed to focus on now was quickly regrouping the remaining forces and re-deploying the capture plan.
As the strategic planner of the organization, failing to do her job would mean betraying the expectations of the President. That was something she could never accept.
Currently, four members of the organization responsible for the Port Mafia side James, Edgar, Nathaniel, and Margaret had lost contact. One was confirmed dead, and the remaining three were missing.
Since the organization's operation plan had already been exposed, Louisa had already moved the three ability users responsible for the Armed Detective Agency to other locations, places where Tokisaki Kurumi would never find them, waiting for further orders.
With a third of their combat power gone, the organization could no longer afford to act recklessly. To accomplish the mission in Yokohama, Louisa had to make perfect use of the remaining seven ability users, with no room for error.
"No matter what, Tokisaki Kurumi must be restrained before the capture plan can continue. But her current power far exceeds our expectations, and only two people in the organization have the ability to do that."
Numbers were insignificant in the face of absolute power.
Although Tokisaki Kurumi's clones seemed overwhelming, they were not impossible to deal with.
If ordinary ability users couldn't handle them, then they could use extraordinary ones.
In the organization, two ability users could be considered extraordinary.
One was the President of the organization, Fitzgerald, and the other was a temporary member, Lovecraft.
Fitzgerald's ability, "Glamorous Fitzgerald," was simple and brutal by consuming his own wealth, he could enhance his abilities. The more wealth he consumed, the greater the enhancement.
Undoubtedly, he was a "pay-to-win" player.
Considering Fitzgerald's current wealth, it might be difficult to eliminate all the clones, but it was certainly possible to restrain them.
Lovecraft's ability, "Great Old One," was something Louisa didn't fully understand, even though he was a temporary member. Even Fitzgerald, who had some knowledge of Lovecraft, was cautious around him.
Anyone who experienced even a fraction of his power would be left trembling.
After all, Lovecraft was the second line of defense against Chuya Nakahara.
If Edward had failed to complete the task of sealing Nakahara in a detective novel, Lovecraft would take on the responsibility of confronting him.
From this, one could gauge just how powerful he was.
Louisa's thoughts raced, and with the help of her time manipulation ability, "Little Woman," she had plenty of time to perfect the new strategic plan.
"The President's safety must not be compromised, and the task of restraining Tokisaki Kurumi and her clones should be given to Mr. Lovecraft. Afterward, the President will force his way into the Armed Detective Agency and take Nakahara Atsushi." Louisa thought to herself, "Although this will cause significant diplomatic issues, we have no other options now."
"Click... click... click..."
However, just as she was thinking about revising the plan, the sound of a ticking clock reached her ears.
Louisa looked toward the clock on her desk. The second hand was moving normally, ticking once per second.
But because of that, it was also highly unusual.
Louisa's "Little Woman" ability allowed her to stretch time when alone in a locked room, extending it to one eight-thousandth of normal speed.
This meant the second hand should take eight thousand seconds to tick once, not once per second.
So... that meant...
Someone had entered her room!
Without her noticing!
Once she realized this, Louisa's breathing quickened, and her pupils contracted in fear.
Her neck stiffened like stone, and she turned her head to see a stunning young girl in a black-red dress standing silently behind her.
An overwhelming sense of terror engulfed her in an instant, and she frantically stood up.
The chair she had been sitting in fell to the ground with a loud crash, drowning out the sound of Louisa's frantic heartbeat.
Her mind was in disarray, and countless thoughts twisted into an unmanageable mess, leaving her unable to think clearly.
"Nice to meet you, Miss Louisa."
Tokisaki Kurumi stood still, smiling like an old friend, and asked without any hostility, "Are you surprised to see me here?"
Surprised? Of course, she was surprised.
As a completely mechanized ability user, the White Whale was equipped with the most advanced radar, which could detect any flying objects or creatures nearby.
Even if the radar couldn't detect them, another ability user stationed for aerial combat on the White Whale could spot anything flying nearby.
Yet, Tokisaki Kurumi had still managed to board the White Whale.
Without triggering any traps or alarms, as if taking a leisurely stroll through her own home.
"Where are Mr. Mark and Mr. Herman?" Louisa forced herself to suppress her fear and asked, "What have you done to them?"
"You mean the young boy on gunner duty and that middle-aged gentleman?" Tokisaki Kurumi said, "If you're talking about them, they're already asleep."
"I see... looks like I'm next then," Louisa said, reaching into her pocket. The handgun Fitzgerald had given her for self-defense gave her a tiny sliver of security. "But I won't surrender."
As she braced herself in fear of the impending doom, Tokisaki Kurumi's smile only widened. She looked at Louisa, trembling yet still trying to appear strong, like a rabbit cornered by a cat.
"An ability user with no combat power what can you do in this situation?" Tokisaki Kurumi asked with a playful glint in her eye. "Even if you have a gun, do you really have the courage to kill?"
"If it's for self-defense and to avenge Mr. Mark and Mr. Herman..." Louisa said, opening the safety of the gun and pointing it at Tokisaki Kurumi. "If you come any closer, I really will shoot."
"Is that so? Maybe I've underestimated you," Tokisaki Kurumi said, looking surprised.
Although Louisa was trembling, her eyes held a firm resolve, indicating that she was indeed prepared to kill.
But Tokisaki Kurumi's smile didn't fade. It only grew more delighted.
"Let's not talk about whether your trembling arms can even aim properly... Even if you're willing to kill..."
Before Tokisaki Kurumi finished her sentence, another identical voice echoed from behind Louisa.
It was so close, seductive and alluring, but it froze Louisa's body from the inside out.
A soft whisper, accompanied by warm breath, reached Louisa's ear from behind.
"So... which one of me are you planning to kill this time?"
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