Chapter 61: You and I are the Same! But Causing Trouble for Others is Not Okay!
Ema was basking in the afterglow of victory, but remembering that other super-giant Ibinoms still remained, he steeled himself once more.
“I must head out immediately!”
Just as he placed his hand on the control lever and was about to take off towards the next target, a communication came in.
Wondering who it was from, Ema accepted the call; it was from his secretary, Tsukimi.
“Has something happened?”
“I’m contacting you because it was finally defeated. I report that currently, super-giant Ibinoms are invading various cities. Thanks to the Gifted in each city and the anti-super-giant Ibinom robots, the damage is being brought under control.”
“Oh! That’s good to hear. Are there any super-giant Ibinoms still remaining?”
“There are, but they are currently being dealt with, so it’s only a matter of time before they are subjugated.”
“I see…”
Hearing Tsukimi’s report, Ema looked just a little bit lonely.
Noticing the clear drop in his tone of voice, Tsukimi scolded Ema over the communication line.
“With all due respect, perhaps you could show a little more joy?”
“Ugh…! You’re right! I must give rewards to the pilots!”
“I understand you might feel unfulfilled, but please consider your age and the extent of the damage.”
“…I don’t want to see it.”
The damage from the super-giant Ibinoms alone was enough to make one want to cover their eyes.
In addition to that, the damage from small to medium-sized Ibinoms was also significant.
The sin of the Ivera Church, for unleashing Ibinoms into the city, was far too great.
“I guess there’s no point dwelling on it… I’ll head back there now.”
“Understood. We’ll be waiting for you.”
Ema entrusted the remaining super-giant Ibinoms to the other pilots and returned to his original duties.
◇◇◇◇
Around the time Ema defeated the super-giant Ibinom in Japan, Kazuma was in a messy brawl with Masato.
Kazuma, possessing overwhelming firepower, didn’t consider Masato a threat, but Masato, with his Proliferation Gift, was increasing in number inexhaustibly; no matter how many Kazuma defeated, there was no end to them.
Even if Kazuma obliterated dozens of Masatos at a time, Masato would proliferate into hundreds, creating an infinite loop.
“Give me a break already!”
“As if I would. If anything, I wish you’d give it a rest. You’ve been attacking relentlessly since a while ago, yet you don’t seem tired at all. There’s a limit to being a stamina monster, you know.”
“Don’t underestimate me. I can fight without sleep or rest for nearly a month!”
In fact, Kazuma had once fought in a siege battle against a relentlessly attacking undead army in the other world for nearly a month without sleep or rest.
However, it wasn’t truly without sleep or rest.
He had taken turns napping, so he couldn’t fight completely without sleep or rest, but he could do something close to it.
“You’re troublesome~. To have so many Gifts and inexhaustible stamina on top of that is just too cheat-like~.”
“I don’t want to hear that from you, of all people!”
In response, Masato also possessed foul-play-level abilities, no less than Kazuma’s.
The Gifts he had taken with Snatch were innumerable.
If it were just by the number of Gifts, he would be number one in the world, and because of that ability, he was likely the most wicked Gifted.
“Immortality, Regeneration, Proliferation, Body Enhancement, Earth-Water-Fire-Wind, Mist, Protective Barrier, Explosion, Acid, Transformation, Flight—there’s no end if I start counting! Just how many Gifted have you Snatched from?!”
“Who knows? I stopped counting partway through, so I have no idea.”
“One thing’s for sure, it’s not just ten or twenty!”
Kazuma mowed down the swarm of Masatos lunging at him and bared his teeth.
It was annoying, of course, but thinking about all the Gifted he had Snatched from up until now made Kazuma feel sick to his stomach.
“Well, it can’t be helped, can it? My Gift is Snatch. If I don’t take someone’s Gift, I can’t do anything.”
“Even so, I think there could have been a better way! For example, Snatched only from villains! Or from people suffering because of their Gifts! I think you could have done things like that!”
“Why should I have to do something so troublesome~? It’s my business how I use my power, isn’t it~? Besides, if you’re going to say that, aren’t you the same? After all, with that much power, crushing the Ivera Church would have been easy for you, right~?”
Hit right on the mark, Kazuma fell silent.
Masato’s words were correct; Kazuma could have crushed the Ivera Church at any time.
However, he had left them alone for his own convenience, so he couldn’t say anything back to Masato’s words.
“Ah~! So your silence means I hit the mark~. Well then, I understand why you’re criticizing me. You’re feeling hatred for your own kind, aren’t you? Because both you and I are selfishly causing trouble for others.”
“Who said I’m the same as you!”
“We are. You and I are the same. There’s no difference.”
“Shut up!!!”
As if preaching a truth, Masato’s numerous copies surrounded Kazuma.
No matter how much anger he felt from having his sore spot hit, Kazuma wouldn’t fall behind Masato.
Kazuma wiped out the Masatos surrounding him with magic.
“Annoying!”
“You got angry because I hit the mark, didn’t you~. That’s why you neglect what’s at your feet.”
Masato used his Shadow Travel Gift and appeared from beneath Kazuma’s feet.
He immediately grabbed Kazuma’s leg and used two Gifts, Hardening and Restraint, to pin Kazuma’s foot to the ground.
Masato believed this would immobilize Kazuma, but for Kazuma, such restraints were as good as non-existent.
“Hmph!”
“No way…”
Despite it being as if his foot was set in cement, Kazuma forcefully moved his leg, shattering Masato’s Gift.
Masato had been shown Kazuma’s absurd strength since a while ago, but this left even him utterly dumbfounded.
Just how could he stop the monster before his eyes?
Masato knew he himself was quite something, but Kazuma was even worse, he thought, a dry smile on his face.
“Ahahaha… I can’t picture a vision where I win.”
Masato broke out in a cold sweat at the sheer absurdity.
At first, he had thought that even the Crimson Knight must have limits, but no matter how many of himself he sent, Kazuma showed no signs of fatigue and didn’t weaken at all, causing Masato to begin feeling a sense of awe and fear.
However, at the same time, he was truly looking forward to it.
Just what kind of Gift could he Snatch from the Crimson Knight?
He wanted to use his Appraisal Gift to lay the Crimson Knight bare, but he wanted to save the fun for later.
Therefore, Masato laughed gleefully while struggling to Snatch the Crimson Knight’s Gift.
“(Hmm. But I can’t make a dent in him at all~. Maybe a mental attack like before would be effective? He was angry, so it seems like it would work.)”
Since Kazuma had reacted with intense anger when Masato pointed out they were of the same kind, Masato judged that mental attacks would be effective and decided to change his approach.
“(For now, I’ll block his vision with dense fog and try to disrupt his thoughts with auditory and visual hallucinations.)”
To shake Kazuma’s spirit, Masato covered his vision with dense fog and tried to disrupt his thoughts with Gifts like Auditory Hallucination and Visual Hallucination.
“It’s your fault.”
“Why didn’t you save me?”
“You self-centered bastard.”
“Is that how you avert your eyes from your own sins?”
“I love you.”
“Someone like you should just die.”
“If only you weren’t here.”
“I love you.”
“Please die.”
“Why are you alive?”
“Disappear, just disappear.”
“It would have been better if you had died.”
Numerous auditory hallucinations reached Kazuma’s ears.
And at the same time, visual hallucinations assaulted him.
A massive number of corpses lay at his feet.
The people sacrificed because of him.
The people he couldn’t save.
The many enemies he had killed.
The sins Kazuma had accumulated up to now clung to him.
“Nonsense!”
Kazuma shook off the auditory hallucinations and dismissed the visual ones.
For Kazuma, who had been tormented by similar mental attacks many times in the other world, this was nothing new.
More important to Kazuma than that was the exchange from earlier.
“Yeah, that’s right. The reason I felt angry at you was because it was like looking in a mirror! Living selfishly, causing trouble for others. That’s you, and that’s me! You’re absolutely right! I’m not much different from you! Our essence is probably the same. But, that doesn’t mean it’s okay to cause trouble for others!”
How one uses their own power is for them to decide.
However, Kazuma’s firm belief was that this didn’t give anyone the right to cause trouble for others.
He wasn’t thinking about grand things like for the sake of the world or for the sake of people.
No matter how you looked at it, just like Masato, it was for his own sake.
In that, they were the same, and he could accept being called the same kind.
“In that sense, I still can’t stand you! You guys laid a hand on my family, on my friends—I’ll never forgive you! I’ll brush off any sparks that fall on me. That’s who I am! You’ve merely stepped on the tiger’s tail you shouldn’t have!”
In the end, the reason Kazuma decided to seriously crush the Ivera Church was because they had laid hands on his family and friends.
Otherwise, who would willingly take on a deranged organization like the Ivera Church?
Kazuma was simply brushing off the sparks that fell on him.
It just so happened that those sparks were the Ivera Church.
“Hmph. Well, I think I get what you’re saying. You and I, we’re cut from the same cloth. But since we’re enemies, it means there’s no need to play nice, huh?”
“That’s the gist of it. That’s why I’m going to crush you all, right here.”
Pointing at Mahito, Kazuma declared.
That today, right here, he would crush the Ivera Church.