The story we started

[Thinking of something that is still buried under the soil around the Jiulangyue ruins, Gooma's gloomy face showed an almost greedy look, and his eyes were full of desire. ]

【A bold idea emerged in its brain driven by desire. 】

……

[“Yihui-kun, I have a guess as to why you couldn’t use the red form of elemental awakening before, but I don’t know if it’s accurate.”]

[“The reason why previous experiments have failed repeatedly may not be due to you, but to external factors.”]

[“For example, if the red form you are using is an old-fashioned lighter filled with flammable gas, then the elemental awakening is to make the lighter light up, but there is a flint missing between the trigger of the lighter and the tank of flammable gas. Each of your previous experiments is like pulling a lighter without a flint, which is why you fail every time.”]

[“In other words, you need to find a way to put a flint under the trigger, and use the sparks generated when the trigger rubs against the flint to ignite the combustible gas in the lighter. Perhaps this will enable the red form of the element awakening mode.”]

[“These are just speculations. I will continue to investigate the specific reasons. Before that, I hope these speculations can provide you with some useful help in this regard.”]

[“Thank you, Hime.”]

【“…”】

[Thinking of what Ebina Hime said to him on the phone, Zaimokuza closed his eyes and recalled the scene when he first activated his elemental awakening form. ]

[At that time, I was thrown into the swimming pool after being seriously injured by No. 6 in the battle, and then I realized the true meaning of the blue form in it and activated the elemental mode. ]

[At that time, I was in a swimming pool, surrounded by water, and my whole body was completely wrapped in water...]

[If my speculation is correct, then the "external conditions" required to activate the red form of elemental awakening may be——]

【Thinking of this, Zaimokuza took a deep breath, opened his eyes, and looked firmly at the gas station across the street.】

[“Waiter, I need to buy gasoline!”]

[He strode across the street and walked up to the waiter behind the counter, who was concentrating on his computer, and shouted.]

[“We finally got to this wonderful place! Which king is it——”]

[Using work time to slack off and watch TV series, the world-famous painting where the male and female protagonists are about to kiss in public at the airport and the second female protagonist arrives at this time, the waitress, whose face is flushed with excitement for the upcoming Shura scene, is interrupted by this shout, and she subconsciously raises her head with an unhappy face and wants to yell. ]

[As a result, when she looked up and saw a man with the temperament of Odagiri Joe, the maturity of Takeshi Kaneshiro, the handsomeness of Daniel Wu, and the facial features of Leonardo Dicaprio, the curse words she wanted to say got stuck in her throat. She stared blankly at Zaimokuza standing in front of her, like an art student visiting the Louvre to see Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, the Mona Lisa.]

[The waitress looked down at the Kitahara male protagonist who was kissing the female protagonist in front of the second female protagonist on the screen, then looked up at Zaimokuza's face and immediately made a judgment in her mind.]

[——This male protagonist is not as handsome as this client. ]

[“Welcome, sir. How much gasoline would you like to buy?”]

[The waitress who used to be known as the "bad queen" in school used the hand speed she had trained to avoid being discovered by the boss. Before Zaimokuza found out, she used the hand speed that left a residual image to press the alt+tab shortcut key to switch the TV series video in front of her to the payment interface. She asked in a soft and graceful tone, with a gentle and bright expression on her face like a graceful lady.]

【"all!"】

【Zaimokuza said with a firm look in his eyes.】

[“Okay! The total amount of gasoline is——Huh???”]

[The waitress smiled and tried to calculate the charge, but her fingers paused as soon as they touched the keyboard, and she realized what Zaimokuza meant by that.]

[“Uh… sir, how much gasoline did you want to buy?”]

[She raised her head and asked with dull eyes.]

【Snapped! 】

[“All! All the gasoline sold in this gas station, including those in stock, I want them all!”]

[Zaimokuza's expression remained unchanged. He slapped the credit card he had borrowed from Kousaka Kyousuke on the counter, and his firm words echoed throughout the gas station.]

[It has a lot of momentum like the lackey who shouted in the bar, "Mr. Zhao will pay for tonight's bill!" ]

……

【"?"】

[Kousaka Kyosuke, who borrowed a large truck from a driver after showing his police officer ID, suddenly felt an inexplicable chill on his back and shivered involuntarily.]

[“What’s going on? Do you have a cold?”]

[He frowned and stopped thinking about it.]

【boom--】

[Kousaka Kyosuke sat in the driver's seat and inserted the truck key into the seat and turned it. The whole truck shook and made a deafening roar, and the exhaust pipe at the rear began to discharge exhaust gas.]

【"call--"】

【Kousaka Kyosuke took a deep breath, then with a determined look in his eyes, he gripped the steering wheel, stepped on the accelerator, and pressed the truck horn at the same time. The entire truck drove towards the wilderness at a very fast speed amid the honking horn. There was a commotion along the way, and countless dogs barked and people cursed.】

[“Come on, No. 22, just follow this voice and chase me!”]

【Buzz.】

[Because the truck's horn was too loud, Kousaka Kyosuke didn't notice that his cell phone, which was set to vibrate in his windbreaker pocket, trembled slightly at this moment, and the light on the cell phone showed that a new message had been received.]

……

[“Hey~ whoosh!”]

【In a clearing in the forest, Zaimokuza threw the collected branches and fallen leaves on the ground and then carefully piled them together.】

[“Next, just pour gasoline on it.”]

[He looked up at the empty space filled with branches, fallen leaves, weeds, waste paper, cloth and other debris, and let out a long breath, then reached out to wipe the sweat from his forehead.]

[“I hope… Mr. Kosaka won’t be angry later.”]

【Thinking of the shocking amount calculated when swiping the credit card at the counter, and thinking of the expression on Kousaka Kyousuke's face when he found out about this, Zaimokuza couldn't help but shudder.】

[“I’m sorry, Mr. Kosaka, Miss Saki in my house doesn’t pay me at all, so I can only do this…”]

[“And this is also to defeat the unconfirmed life form and save ordinary citizens. It’s just a small sacrifice. I think you will be happy to accept this price... right?”]

[As he was talking, even Zaimokuza couldn't hold it anymore. He bowed to Kousaka Kyousuke who was in an unknown direction and shouted with apology.]

[“I’m so sorry! Mr. Kosaka, please forgive me!”]

"I forgive you watermelon! Is that why you maxed out my credit card!?"

"Why don't you borrow from others? Why from me? With your looks, you can sell yourself to any rich woman! You might even make some money!"

"You don't feel bad for selling your father's land, do you? I @＃$＃@%@%%＃@——"

When Kousaka Kyosuke saw the astonishing amount calculated by computer at the gas station counter through Zaimokuza's memories in the video, his face turned green, and the long string of zeros almost made him faint.

Although that was money that belonged to his future self, it originally originated from "Kousaka Kyosuke's" money. After he calculated how long he would have to work to earn this amount of money, the incomparable heartache almost suffocated Kyosaka, and his vision went dark.

Everyone watching the video in the health room turned their eyes to the bed covered by the curtain, and listened in confusion to the cursing coming from inside.

【boom. 】

[Zaimokuza unloaded a full truck of gasoline from the gas station owner's friendly loan to him, a rare "big customer", and then he unscrewed the lids of the gasoline barrels and poured the gasoline on the debris on the ground in the open space, leaving no corner of the open space untouched.]

[As the last barrel of gasoline was emptied, Zaimokuza threw the empty gasoline barrel far away, letting it fall on another pile of empty barrels, causing the pile of gasoline barrel blocks to collapse like an old and decaying castle.]

[After pulling out a match from a box of matches from his pocket, Zaimokuza looked at the empty space in front of him that he had doused with gasoline, and gently closed his eyes.]

[At first, when I used the blue form to activate the elemental mode, I was in a swimming pool full of water. The water surrounded me all around, and the elemental mode I activated happened to be the form that used the power of the water element——]

[Thinking about it now, it might not be a coincidence, but he met the requirements to open the elemental form by accident, so he was able to use it. ]

[Zaimokuza carefully reviewed every battle that started a new form after that. The Pegasus form that used the power of the wind element was on the beach, where the wind from the sea was continuous; the Titan form that used the power of the earth element was when he stood on the ground, and the surrounding buildings were all made of reinforced concrete, and the materials used were all stones and sand dug out of the ground...]

[The first time I turned into a red form was when I was in a burning church in Nagano Prefecture. The entire building was engulfed in flames, and boundless heat waves and temperatures filled the place.]

[This speculation is very crazy, and has not been subjected to any speculation or experiment, but Zaimokuza's intuition tells him that this should be the reason for his repeated failures before. ]

[The external condition required to awaken the red form element is fire, but the environment I was in before did not have the element of fire. ]

[What is needed is a raging fire that is strong enough to consume the entire person! ]

[If I transform in an area full of flames, can I activate this form? ]

[Zaimokuza didn't know, but he felt it was worth a try. Even if he failed, it didn't matter. After he transformed into the blue form and activated the element awakening mode, he could easily leave here and put out the flames to prevent the out-of-control flames from causing forest fires.]

[——Under normal circumstances, this is the case.]

[But the current situation is different, because Zaimokuza has already used the element awakening mode once in the battle with No. 22, and he can only use the element awakening twice a day. After using it, he will fall into a coma due to exhaustion and need to wait until the next day to recover. ]

[That is to say, if this attempt fails, the remaining element awakening mode will be the last trump card, and it must not be used lightly. ]

[Zaimokuza didn't want to choose a place like a river to conduct the experiment, but he was worried that the flowing river water there might hinder the awakening of the element in the almighty form, or even lead to another failure.]

[Because the inscription on the ancient Rindo stele translated by Yukinoshita Yukino in the almighty form is:]

["When an evil creature appears, he will be blessed with the Spirit Stone of Hope, and will transform into a blazing fire to defeat the evil warrior" and "The Warrior Who Controls Fire". ]

[…A form that uses fire, transforming in a place filled with water vapor, you can imagine what will happen.]

[So Zaimokuza had no choice but to try his best in uninhabited places. Those desolate places with few trees were far away from here. With the remaining time, it was not realistic to rush there before No. 22 committed another crime.]

[But if I fail... Thinking of this, he hesitated again as he was holding the match against the matchbox.]

[——Since you are so confident, I will still choose to bet on your success this time.]

[The words that Kousaka Kyousuke said before he left echoed in my mind at this moment, and also——]

[“It’s a promise. I’ll be waiting for you in the Service Club classroom at that time. Come to me and fulfill the promise!”]

[“You must keep your promise, Zaimokuza.”]

[——The female teacher in a white coat stood under the rain curtain that seemed to connect the world in front of her, and smiled and gave Zaimokuza a thumbs up.]

【“——!”】

[Thinking of that smiling face in his distant memory, Zaimokuza's originally hesitant look was immediately suppressed by his unwavering determination.]

[I will definitely keep my promise, so...]

【Snap.】

【call out--】

[He rubbed the match he had taken out against the box, and the flammable material wrapped at the end of the stick quickly ignited due to the flames generated by the friction. The burning flames were reflected in Zaimokuza's black eyes, and then Zaimokuza gently threw the lit match towards the sundries in front of him that were doused in gasoline.]

【Bear--!!!】

[When the match touched the cloth soaked in gasoline, the raging fire engulfed the cloth and spread rapidly to the entire open space in front of them, enveloping the entire open space in less than ten seconds.]

[The raging flames rushed to the sky, and the swaying flames were like a demon, turning into a wall of fire that trapped Zaimokuza in the center of the open space.]

【"--drink!"】

【Om—】

[Feeling the rapidly rising temperature around him and the touch of the fire licking his skin, Zaimokuza took a deep breath, feeling the scorching air circulating in his lungs, and quickly put his hands at his waist, and the scarlet spirit stone and belt quickly appeared on his waist.]

[Please wait for me, Mr. Hiratsuka! ]

【Zaimokuza suddenly opened his tightly closed eyes, and his black legs reflected the raging flames, as if they were made of the flames themselves.】

【“henshin!”】

72. The Eyes of the Inhuman Two-in-One

[Chiba Prefecture, Sobu Prefectural High School, former site of the Service Club. www.ykrsoft.com]

【02:13 p.m】

[It was almost three o'clock in the afternoon, and it was almost time for school to end. Although the bell had not yet rung, the unique aura of adolescent boys and girls was already stirring in the air of this school, waiting for the moment to be released.]

[“Jonan University… That school is one of the most prestigious schools in the country. In recent years, it has been almost on par with the University of Tokyo. The principal was so happy that you were able to be admitted to that university, Yukinoshita. Now you can even be recommended for graduate school. I have to admit that you have surpassed me, Yukinoshita.”]

[Hiratsuka Shizuka stood by the window and looked out at the empty campus. Her teacher's intuition made her keenly aware of many eyes scanning the direction of the school gate, and she was always ready to show her sprinting ability comparable to that of a track and field athlete.]

[The long-lost familiarity she felt in this school made her lips curl up slightly, and she turned to face Yukinoshita Yukino who was sitting in her original seat and said with a smile. 】

[“You are too modest. Mr. Hiratsuka, the school you graduated from was not bad either. I remember it was Waseda University, right?”]

[There was no pride or confidence on Yukinoshita Yukino's face that a student with outstanding achievements should have when meeting her former mentor. She just responded to Hiratsuka Shizuka's praise calmly and modestly.]

[“Even if it’s Waseda, I didn’t qualify for guaranteed admission to graduate school while I was still studying. Being humble is a good thing, but being too humble will make people think you’re the kind of person who deliberately shows off, Yukinoshita.”]

[Hiratsuka Shizuka walked behind Yukinoshita Yukino and patted her exposed white shoulders with both hands.]

[“Although I think as long as you don’t have such thoughts in your heart, it doesn’t matter what others say.”]

[“But, I have learned my lesson, teacher. I will pay attention next time.”]

[“…You really have grown up, Yukinoshita.”]