The story we started

【Puff.】

[After the two high school girls ran away, a white foot walked out from under the bridge slowly, leaving a wet footprint on the ground.]

[A strange creature dressed in white, with a dark silver belt around his waist and scarlet eyes, and his overall appearance is like a squid, walked out from under the bridge. The sunlight shone on his silvery white body. This scene was like an evil ghost coming to the human world from the hell.]

【"Ah."】

[me-giiga-gi looked at the two high school girls who had already run at least a hundred meters away and laughed mockingly.]

[“That’s so sweet, Lindos.”]

[“Be proud of yourself, you will be my first pair of sacrifices leading to the “Game of White and Darkness”!”]

[Giga's silver-white palm moved, then opened and raised to its mouth. Its scarlet eyes reflected the two high school girls who had run quite a distance while it was speaking. A transparent heat wave rose between its palms, and the surrounding images changed and distorted in the scorching air, and gradually turned red as time went on.]

【"drink!"】

[About ten seconds later, Giiga suddenly lowered his palm, and a dark ball spurted out of his open mouth, shooting at the two people who were running away at an extremely fast speed.]

【call out--】

[The pitch-black sphere emits a sharp whistling sound in the air due to its extremely fast speed. If time is slowed down, one can see that the sphere is not completely pitch-black. There are dense dark red cracks distributed on the round black surface, and an ominous red light is faintly visible from them.]

[In less than three seconds, the ball touched the back of one of the fleeing girls...]

……

[On the elevated road, a truck was driving at a constant speed. The driver was humming a piece of music while driving, and it was obvious that he was in a good mood.]

[He was in a really good mood because today he met a generous customer who not only bought his cargo at nearly three times the usual price, but also said that he was very satisfied with his cargo and hoped to have more cooperation in the future.]

[The driver has sold the goods and made a good customer base. How can he not be in a good mood? 】

[——However, his good mood fell apart the next moment and turned into boundless fear.]

【boom--!!!!!!】

【“!?”】

[A deafening explosion sounded from the front, and the driver subconsciously stepped on the brakes. The truck left a long trail on the road, and finally stopped just before it was about to overturn.]

【“What, what’s going on!?”】

[The driver, still in shock, immediately turned his head to look in a certain direction outside the car window. That direction was exactly where the explosion had just occurred. At the same time, many people who had stopped their cars on the elevated road due to the explosion also looked out of their car windows and looked in that direction.]

[As a result, this glance immediately made everyone who saw it hold their breath, and then their expressions became dumbfounded.]

[All the windows of the vehicles facing the direction of the explosion reflected the scene ahead, where an extremely horrifying scene was taking place at this moment.]

[About a kilometer ahead, a huge black mushroom cloud was slowly rising from there, with dazzling flames flashing in the cloud, and the scorching flames were blowing through here with the air. ]

[The air was clearly warmer due to the heat wave, but everyone who witnessed this scene felt icy cold, as if they were in the Arctic Circle where the temperature starts below zero.]

45. No remains left

Chiba Prefecture, Sobu High School, Service Club.

"Hey, hey, hey, this is really too exaggerated, this kind of destructive power is comparable to a missile!"

Shizuka Hiratsuka looked at the mushroom cloud rising up on the screen of her mobile phone. It was clearly visible even across a kilometer of road. A certain fear hidden in her genes was aroused. Her pupils contracted and she couldn't help but smack her lips.

"The strength of these Gurongis is beyond imagination, especially the squid monster that appeared this time. Apart from other things, its destructive power is unprecedented. It can be said to be a human-shaped missile launcher."

Hayato Hayama also frowned. The horrifying scene before him made him feel a little frightened. He had no idea how to defeat this monster.

"This time, the Gurongi number should be number 21, right? This number 21 is the same as the number 14 and number 6 that appeared before. Their strengths far exceed their own kind."

"According to the information revealed before, the reason why these guys are so powerful seems to be related to the power left in their bodies when the previous Kuuga sealed them. They reached a certain symbiotic relationship with that power while dormant, and turned it into their own strength."

"In other words, the power they use is essentially the same as the source of Kuuga, who was transformed by Zaimokuza. It can be said that they are enemies and we are of the same origin."

Hikigaya Hachiman analyzed everything shown in the previous video, thinking about how both No. 6 and No. 14 were able to increase their strength by changing their own forms, and turn everything they touched into weapons similar to Zaimokuza's various forms, as well as the tattoos that appeared on their chests that were exactly the same as the one Zaimokuza used when he launched his special move. His eyelids sank, covering half of his dead fish eyes, and he looked at the blue-faced Zaimokuza with some sympathy and pity.

"So... all of this is a mess left to me by my 'predecessors'?"

As Zaimokuza listened to Hikigaya Hachiman's analysis, he felt a bitter taste in his mouth, as bitter as if he had drunk a cup of high-concentration black coffee without sugar.

"My dear senior whose name I don't know - you backstabbed my future self so badly!"

[Tokyo City, Sumida River Basin. 】

【12:45 a.m】

【Crash.】

[A hand wearing a white glove lifts the white cloth on the tray, revealing what is underneath.]

[Under the white cloth was a dark hand. Judging from the size and length of the hand, it was a female hand. The skin and flesh of the hand were burned black by the fire. The broken part of the hand was as black as a piece of charcoal. The original light blue nail polish was also burned by half. The silver ring on the middle finger was burnt yellow. The texture of the whole hand looked like a burnt bread. If the color was not too dark, it would give people the illusion of burnt yellow and crispy.]

[This severed hand was the only thing found at the crime scene of No. 21, and the only remaining remains of the two victims.]

【Besides this, there is nothing.】

【“…”】

【Looking at this severed palm whose owner was obviously a high school girl, Kousaka Kyousuke and Zaimokuza Yoshiki fell silent.】

[“Is this the only remains of the victims?”]

[Zaimokuza lowered his eyes and asked in a low voice. The wind blowing from the river surface blew his bangs and covered his eyes at that moment, making it impossible to see the thoughts in his eyes.]

[“This kind of thing…”]

[Kousaka Kyosuke gently covered the severed hand with a white cloth and asked the on-site investigators to take it away. He looked up at the tragic scene and said.]

[“…You can tell without me telling you.”]

[Amid the sirens of police cars, many people gathered on the river. From time to time, there were flashes of cameras and the sound of filming. It was obvious that the reporters mixed in the crowd came here to smell the scent of headlines.]

[But they could only squeeze in the river and could not get up or down. Many police officers and long cordons completely surrounded the river area of ​​at least 200 meters, preventing people from entering.]

[This scene is not surprising at all, because the scene before us is indeed worthy of a blockade of this scale. ]

[——A pitch-black pit with a diameter of nearly 50 meters appeared on this concrete brick road next to the river. A large floor tile in the center of the pit was "hollowed out" by the explosion. The cold water of the Sumida River poured in from the gap created by the explosion, filling the center of the sunken pit.]

[White smoke was looming from the pit, and there were many dark red cracks on the ground outside the pit. Those were all tiny flames that were burning silently and had not yet been extinguished. Many people who were surveying the pit wore gas masks because they did not know whether the smoke rising from the pit contained toxins.]

[Everyone close to the pit could clearly feel that the temperature near the pit was significantly higher than that outside the pit. The residual temperature was still there dozens of minutes after the explosion, which shows how terrifying the power and temperature of the explosion were.]

[This severed hand was found at the edge of the pit. It is incredible that a part of the body could still be left after such a tragic attack.]

[“According to the eyewitness, he happened to witness the entire crime scene while walking his dog on the river. He said that a monster with silver-white skin sprayed something at the two fleeing high school students, and then an explosion occurred in the direction of the two fleeing high school students, causing this tragic scene…”]

[“The Alaskan dog he was walking was so frightened by the explosion that it dragged him for nearly a kilometer, and no matter how hard he tried to pull it back, it wouldn’t stop. It must be said that the dog’s actions helped the witness escape, because the monster then killed several people who were fishing near the river in the same direction as he ran, using the same method, but the power was not as exaggerated as this time.”]

[Kousaka Kyosuke looked back at the river behind him and saw several police cars and policemen setting up a cordon around a small area in the distance.]

[“There is no doubt that the unidentified life form No. 21 has appeared, and its destructive power far exceeds that of all the unidentified life forms that have appeared before. Even the No. 14, which was determined by the police to have the strongest wide-area destructive power, cannot match it.”]

[Talking about the fourteenth person who had pierced his shoulder with a needle, Kousaka Kyosuke couldn't help but cover his right shoulder with his hand, and the wound that had not yet fully healed felt a faint pain. ]

[“But this level of destructive power… Zaimokuza, I’m afraid we have to prepare for the worst. This No. 21 should be the same as the previous No. 6 and No. 14. They all have the power similar to your ability to change form and greatly enhance it.”]

【Zaimokuza nodded silently. He had expected this situation.】

[Besides these few special cases, as the battle progressed, Zaimoku could clearly feel that the strength of these monsters was gradually increasing, from being able to deal with them without activating elemental awakening to being unable to cope with them in their normal form.]

[For example, if the newly acquired purple form was not strong enough when dealing with No. 20 last time, he would have been forced to activate the blue form's elemental awakening mode to deal with the opponent. Each time an elemental awakening is activated, a lot of physical strength is consumed. This is still the case even though Zaimokuza has been specially trained in this regard. According to his inference and experience, he can only activate elemental awakening twice a day at most, and then he will no longer have the extra strength to transform.]

【“I need stronger power.”】

[Zaimokuza clenched his fists while muttering to himself as he looked at the tragic scene in front of him. When he thought about how heartbroken the family of the person whose hand was broken would be when they saw that their daughter only had this one hand left, he could not help but close his eyes and slowly clenched his fists.]

[At this moment, he thought of the blue and green forms that could already activate the element awakening mode, and then thought of the purple form that had not yet been activated and the red form that had been obtained the longest but had not made any progress so far, and each attempt to activate the element awakening ended in failure. His eyes gradually became firm and he made up his mind.]

[I want to become stronger, until I am strong enough to activate all forms of elemental modes at will! ]

[In this way, it should be easier to prevent these tragedies from happening, and protect everyone's smiles from the clutches of unidentified life forms, right? Zaimokuza couldn't help but pray. ]

[Beep, beep, beep—]

[Kousaka Kyosuke's cell phone in his windbreaker rang, and he and Zaimokuza stared at the scene before them, took out his phone, answered it, and put it to his ear.]

[“This is Kousaka Kyousuke, who is this?”]

[The next moment, his face changed drastically and he shouted out loud. What he said made Zaimokuza, who was standing beside him, turn his head suddenly and look at Kousaka Kyousuke with sharp eyes.]

[“What!? Have you found the gathering place of these unidentified life forms?”]

46. ​​The Wail That Resounds Across the Sky

【Tokyo, Shinagawa, Warehouse District. mijiashe.com】

【More than an hour ago. 】

[After me-giiga-gi, the player of "Kikiru" this time, went out to play, the rest of the Gurongi, who were not allowed to move or kill according to the rules of the game, stayed in this warehouse to relieve stress through their own activities and suppress their desire to kill. Therefore, apart from various sounds, no Gurongi spoke, and the atmosphere was filled with dullness. ]

[The warehouse manager's body had been dragged out by the gooma who was responsible for doing hard labor and thrown outside. At this time, it was squatting in the place where the body had been before, with ragged clothes. The burns on its body had healed due to its recovery ability far exceeding that of humans, but it was still disheveled and silent, with its hands tightly clenched, and blue veins bulged and jumped on its overly pale skin. From this, it can be seen that its mood at this moment is probably not as dull as its appearance. ]

[Baruba is still sitting on the chair. From last night till now, her posture has never changed. She is cold, aloof and distant from everything. Even people of her own kind cannot attract her extra attention. Her hand with purple nails is holding a glass of red wine and shaking it. She occasionally raises it to take a sip.]

[All the Gurongis did not make any sound. Time just passed in the dull and boring air until the news of the success or failure of the giiga game came. At that time, the contestants of the next game would be decided. This is the daily life of the Gurongis. ]

[Until an unexpected visitor interrupted the dullness and drew all Gurongi's attention to the warehouse door. ]

[Swipe la la la——]

[“Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!”]

[A pair of hands reached in from under the warehouse sliding door, and then the large industrial sliding door was forcibly pulled up by the hands. A heavy gasp accompanied by the sunlight outside the warehouse shone in, causing all the Gurongi to squint their eyes.]

[“Wow, this is truly a distinguished guest whom I haven’t seen for a long time.”]

[Me-garume-re, who originally belonged to the "zu" group but recently secretly promoted to "me" through the game without anyone noticing, shielded his eyes from the sunlight with one hand, raised his eyebrows at the sturdy figure that appeared at the door, and said with interest. ]

【Snapped! 】

[The man stepped into the warehouse, his footsteps making a dull sound every time he took a step. He was only wearing a short coat, and his expression seemed to be in anger all the time, and his eyes were red.]

[The person who came was the leader of the "zu" group, the rhino Gurongi, zu-zain-da, who had been missing for a long time since the Gurongi of the "zu" group was disqualified from the game. 】

[It scanned the surroundings with its bloodshot eyes, and after finding its target, it walked towards Baruba, who was sitting on a chair without turning her head. Its tall figure blocked out all the light when it walked in front of her. The shadow cast by the person in the backlight completely covered the "petite" Baruba.]

[Zain looked at Baruba who still didn't look up at him and spoke, his rough voice full of urgency.]

[“Please! Please let me participate in the game! I want to participate in "Kikiru"! ”]

[After it said this, Baruba still didn't turn her head, but she had stopped shaking the glass unconsciously.]

[“…Didn’t you understand what I said last time, Zain?”]

[The cold and beautiful woman with a white rose totem on her forehead finally raised her head and looked at the strong man in front of her. There was no trace of fear in her eyes, only her voice was as calm as a well. ]

[“You ‘zu’ have long lost the qualification to continue to participate in the game. If you want to daydream, I suggest you find Gooma to be your partner.”]

[After Baruba finished speaking, he pointed his thumb at Gooma, who had to run to a dark corner of the warehouse and curl up because his leader suddenly opened the door and was killed. Then he looked down at the red wine in the glass, as if the shaking surface of the wine contained some secret that scientists had not yet solved.]

[Her indifferent attitude immediately irritated Zain, who had the same bad temper and weird look as himself. He lost his mind and immediately reached out to grab the collar of the sitting Baruba and pulled her up. The red wine in Baruba's hand also fell to the ground because of his sudden action.]

[Snap! ]

[“I don’t care! Let me participate in the game! Quick! Otherwise I will kill you, you ■■!”]

【Amid the sound of broken wine glasses and spilled red wine, Zain's furious roar resounded throughout the warehouse, and many Gurongi immediately showed expressions of watching a good show. Only the "me" leader, Me-Garima-Ba, who was also a woman like Baruba, raised her eyebrows unhappily after seeing it. With a cold look in her eyes, she immediately walked over quickly to stop its barbaric and rude behavior.】

[But she stopped just as she took a step, stopped by a slender arm wearing white lace gloves.]

[Baruba, who was pulled up by Zain by the collar, still had no expression on her face. She slowly withdrew her arm from holding Garima, and she didn't look angry at all, even though the other party's action allowed all the Gurongi to see through her collar that the large white bra under the collar couldn't cover her snow-white towering breasts and slender butterfly bones.]

[“…What a pity! I really like this glass of red wine. According to Linduo of this era, this red wine seems to be called Lafite 1982, and it seems to be very expensive.”]

[Baruba lowered her eyes to look at the red wine spilled on the ground. The sunlight shining on it made the color of the red wine as red as blood. Her slender eyelashes drooped and her voice was neither salty nor bland.]

[“You——Hmm!?”]

[Zain saw that Baruba was still so nonchalant and felt even more furious. He wanted to speak again but suddenly stopped.]

【Because two hands wearing white lace gloves grabbed its hands that were holding Baruba's collar. Obviously, these hands, in terms of skin color and size, were only "tender" compared to Zain's bronze arms full of strong muscles, but in its eyes, the arms that were like toothpicks that would break at a touch actually produced a force far beyond that. Even if Zain's face turned red, he couldn't stop his hands from being separated by these slender arms holding his wrists.】

[It was shocked and even felt absurd. It was the leader of the "zu" group with its unparalleled strength, but it was actually not as strong as a referee who seemed to have nothing special except for being mysterious???]

[After performing this feat, Baruba slowly raised his graceful neck and looked up at Zain. His calm eyes at this moment revealed an emotion that he was unwilling to admit flowing out from the deepest part of his heart.]

[That was an emotion that was very unfamiliar to Gurongi. The name of that emotion was fear.]