【Adam and Chuuya were speaking quickly as they walked along a road at a fast pace.

When they had reached the top of a hill, Chuuya looked as if he had given up. "Alright, alright. I get that this mission is important to you, but I'm busy. So, why don't we do this?" Chuuya rested his hand on a guardrail.

"And 'this' is...?"】

"This."

Right as he said that, Chuuya jumped over the guardrail and plunged to the bottom of a cliff.

"Ah!"

Adam looked down in a panic. Chuuya had landed about four meters down on a highway, and he waved his hand before running off.

"He escaped!"

Adam chased after him. He jumped over the guardrail and landed on the road below, leaving radial cracks beneath him.

"Wait, Chuuya-san!"

Chuuya had run on ahead into a dim tunnel. It was long and dark, making it difficult to see where Chuuya ran off to.

"You can't run from me!"

Adam lowered his body and got into a position that reduced the air resistance he got from dashing. It was a calculated position that was optimized based on hydrodynamics. He ended up overtaking a moving car in the blink of an eye.

Adam's figure got smaller and smaller until finally, he disappeared.

"Or so you say."

Chuuya said as he clung to the roof of the tunnel. He had used his gravity to hide in the darkness of the tunnel's roof.

He waited two more minutes before releasing his gravity and gently landing on the ground. He dusted off his clothes before walking at a leisurely pace.

"An English investigator, huh?" Chuuya said, staring at the exit of the tunnel. "Things sure are getting strange around here."

Just then, a luxurious car stopped next to Chuuya.

Chuuya looked at the black car. The inside of the car couldn't be seen because of the tinted windows, and everything from the tires to the car body to the glass looked bulletproof. It was one of the mafia's cars.

A man wearing black clothes appeared from the driver's seat and said only a few words. "You've been summoned by the boss."

"A mailman?" Chuuya said.

Mailman was the nickname given to those who dealt with a specific role in the organization. They were the communicators. When someone wanted information that couldn't be conveyed by letter or telephone, but they were too busy to meet in person or couldn't be seen in public, the mailmen came into play. They relayed messages no matter the place. The mailmen were uncommunicative, unsociable, and rich. Just by delivering a simple message, there was quite a large sum awarded to them. However, the high reward for their messages wasn't unreasonable. If the police or enemy organizations tried to get in contact with them, they'd have to drive them away and if that wasn't possible, commit suicide and take their secrets to the grave.

The man was tall, with a black hat and sunglasses meant to hide his face. With that, he truly looked like a mailman. He didn't say anything unnecessary as he waited for Chuuya's reaction.

"Do you know why?"

"About the same as you do." The man in the black hat shook his head. "Just that Pianoman, Albatross, Doc, Lippmann, and Iceman have all been called for the same reason. Everyone is already waiting at a different location."

"Those guys, too?" Chuuya furrowed his eyebrows. "Come to think of it, he did say that a mailman had arrived while on the phone. Is that all?"

"One more thing." The mailman dropped his voice. "It's about Arahabaki."

Chuuya frowned.

He stared at the man for several seconds before nodding. "Got it. Take me there."

Chuuya opened the door to the passenger seat.

The mailman adjusted his hat a little bit before nodding and getting into the driver's seat.

When Chuuya was just about to enter the car, he calmly looked behind him.

And was shocked.

"Crap..."

There was a person running towards them.

It was impossible for any normal human to run that fast.

"Please wait, Chuuya-san!"

Adam was sprinting at a high speed, taking long strides and not looking fatigued whatsoever since he started running.

"That damn toy robot!" Chuuya shouted, jumping into the passenger's seat. "Step on it!"

Once he had shut the door, Chuuya quickly turned his head around. Just then, he heard a bit of troubling news.

"Chuuya-san! Get out of the car now!" It was the loudest Adam had ever shouted. "That's Verlaine!"

Chuuya turned to the driver's seat almost reflexively.

At about the same time, the mailman let out a weak laugh and slammed his foot on the gas pedal. The car took off fast as a bullet.

"You...!"

"Fasten your seatbelt, or you'll bite your tongue."

The man spoke in a carefree voice as he drove.

"Stop the car!"

Chuuya shouted as he practically threw his right fist to grab the steering wheel. He was as fast as a flying swallow. For any regular person, the attack would've been faster than the naked eye could follow. But—he was different. Before Chuuya's fist even touched him, he countered with his own attack, slamming his knuckles into Chuuya's chin.

"Gah!"

Chuuya flew across the car and smashed his head on the rear windshield, causing countless white cracks to run through it.

"Woah, my bad." The man said, one hand still on the steering wheel. "You're lighter than I thought. Are you eating properly? As your older brother, I'm a little bit worried."

"You bastard..."

Chuuya's face was burning with rage.

In less than a second, Chuuya regained his composure and pulled his fist back to attack, almost like he was playing billiards. He threw a right hook using all the strength he had in his upper body. His fist held the weight of an iron ball and, with the murderous intention of decapitating him, hit the man. The speed and weight of his attack was incomparable to the first one.

The man caught it in one hand like a baseball.

"What...?"

"This one was also light." The man kept his eyes on the road. "It'll be easy to kill you in a state like this."

Despite the man stopping attacks that could completely destroy an iron pole, Chuuya tugged his lips into a grin.

"Is that so? Then that means you're pretty heavy, right?"

The next thing he knew, his seat was starting to sink.

"Wha—"

The man's body fell into the seat as if he were sinking in a swamp. The metal and leather of the seats couldn't withstand the strenuous burden the gravity placed on them and with a screaming-like sound, began to collapse. Parts of the car began to scatter in the air.

Gravitational waves were radiating off Chuuya's hand, wrapping themselves around the man.

Because of the high gravity, the man's sunglasses fell off his face. However, the sunglasses didn't just fall to the floor with a little bounce, they pierced through it.

The man's body weight, which was more than ten times what it should be, caused the car to make a groaning noise.

"Who's getting assassinated by you? As things are, you'll be crushed."

Chuuya didn't stop his ability. Instead he increased the gravity more, and more, and more.

But—at some point, Chuuya narrowed his eyes.

"What...?"

The man wasn't getting any heavier.

It had capped off.

More and more gravitational waves were emitted from Chuuya's fist, but the bent seat was quiet. It wasn't being destroyed any further than it already was.

"Are you done?"

The man who should be suffering under the weight of gravity spoke with a calm voice. He grabbed Chuuya's fist.

Then, the impossible happened.

Chuuya sank back even further.

"Gah?!"

Chuuya's seat started to bend, causing the internal frames to pop out. The seat adjuster broke and the unsupported back fell against the backseat. Chuuya's body was pressed against the seat as an unknown force kept him down. He couldn't even raise his arms or legs.

The chair's inner frames popped out one after the other, piercing the inside of the car.

"I told you, didn't I? I'm your older brother."

The man narrowed his rustic brown eyes as he said that. They were the same color as Chuuya's.

Chuuya couldn't reply. He couldn't even breathe. It felt like his lungs were about to collapse at any moment from the pressure of the gravity.

While clinging to the sides of his seat, Chuuya turned his confused gaze towards the man.

"Listen to me." The man spoke with a smooth voice while he continued to drive with one hand. "I didn't come here to assassinate you. Why would I? You're my only brother in the entire world."

Even though his whole body was practically creaking under the force of gravity, Chuuya grit his teeth together and forced the words to come out from the bottom of his throat.

"I don't remember... having a European brother..."

"That's a mistake." The man coldly declared. "I'm not European. No, I'm not even human. Just like you."

"What...?"

"Have you ever felt that the world was cruel?" His voice was gentle as a lullaby, and his eyes held the sadness of the sea at night. "Why am I, me? And why are you, you? These are things no one can explain to us. I didn't come here to kill you, I came here for the opposite—to save you."

"Haha...ha... I don't... need to be saved..." While fighting against the gravity, Chuuya wore a carnivorous smile. "I don't know about you... but I'm human."

"You're wrong."

His declaration was cold and dry, like a hollowed out skeleton.

"You are not human. Your true form is that of 2,383 lines."

Those words reverberated throughout the car with a strange weight, like a violent nuclear explosion had just gone off in a distant country.

"What do you mean...?"

The depths of the man's eyes held a deep, rotten sadness.

"A military researcher tried to only take out the ability from an ability user and put it in an artificial lifeform. That attempt was only partly successful. Naturally, an ability can't be controlled by a machine. Only a human soul can control it. But at the same time, that meant the limits to each ability was regulated by the human spirit. From there, the researchers came up with the idea to cheat abilities. They wanted to make an ability think that there was a human there to control it. In order to do that, they created a formula for personality; a fake human that disguised a soul. To deceive the ability, they only had to put together a simple string of emotional equations and laws on behavioral principles. That string's length is 2,383 lines. —Do you get it, Chuuya? Your soul is nothing more than a program of 2,383 that some researchers had come up with."

"You're lying." Chuuya squeezed his voice out of his throat. "That's impossible."

"It's true."

"You're lying!" Chuuya shouted. "I'm a kid who was born in a beachside rural town! My friends proved it! There was a photo!"

"That was fabricated information from the military to cover up the truth."

Chuuya tried to stand up, but the ever increasing gravity placed a strain on his body. He couldn't even open his mouth, much less speak.

"Rest for a while, Chuuya." The man's voice was frighteningly gentle. "When you open your eyes, you'll be overseas in a different country and in a year, you will surely be thankful for this incident."

Chuuya tried to retort, but that was no longer possible. His face was pale as the gravity forced his blood to flow below his head. It had successfully robbed his brain of blood it needed.

The conscious light faded from Chuuya's eyes.

But then.

"I don't think so." An electronic voice echoed from the car's audio system. "I think Chuuya-san will get mad at me... I'm not very good at driving."

The car's steering wheel started to turn to the left even though no one was touching it.

"What?"

The car made a huge turn, driving outside of the lane. It crashed into the sidewalk as it accelerated on its own.

The man let go of Chuuya to gain control of the car again, causing the gravitational pull to disappear from Chuuya's body.

At the same time, the passenger door opened up by itself. A hand pulled the barely conscious Chuuya through the gap in the door.

The owner of the hand was Adam.

Adam was clinging to the side of the car as he pulled Chuuya out. He then used his entire body to protect Chuuya's head while they spun on the road.

Inside the runaway car, the man gave a single glance towards Adam.

"You again?" The corners of his mouth formed into a smile. "Was that plane crash not enough for you?"

Adam quietly took the sneer with cool eyes.

The man tried to stop the car by slamming his foot on the brake pedal, but the car continued on. It drove over the sidewalk and into a wide intersection of oncoming traffic.

A semi-truck crashed into the car at full speed.

It's impact was on par with a meteorite's.

The two cars that crashed rolled around like spinning tops on the road as chunks of metal and glass rained down below. Those on the sidewalks turned their heads in astonishment.

The fuel tank being carried around by the semi-truck ignited, causing a huge explosion.

In less than a second, the tranquil city landscape became a battlefield raining with glass and metal.

"Please wake up, Chuuya-san." Adam's face was illuminated by the flames while he shook Chuuya. "The truck hit him. Now's our chance to escape!"

"Damn... it..."

Chuuya shakily shook his head and groaned as he tried to stand up.

Adam didn't wait. He picked Chuuya up and started to run with him in his arms, like an herbivore running from a terrifying beast.

He jumped over a median and grabbed on to a sign to accelerate his speed until he was running side by side with regular cars. In order to review the situation, Adam glanced behind him.

There, he saw something horrifying.

In the middle of the intersection, where the semi-truck burned with rising black flames, stood a man. He looked like he was appearing from a battlefield.

That man in a black suit—was Verlaine.

He closed his eyes as if he were dozing. He didn't look to have a scratch on him. Even though he had just been hit by a semi-truck weighing more than ten tons, his clothes didn't have a single tear in them.

The flames born from the explosion swayed around the surrounding area. Both of Verlaine's legs were planted into the ground with radial cracks running along the asphalt.

The moment he saw two equal parts of the semi-truck from where it had rolled over, Adam immediately understood the situation.

When the vehicles had collided, Verlaine had stealthily applied gravity to his body and placed his feet onto the ground. And then, he had simply stood up and endured the crash. As a result, the truck was cut in half the minute it hit him, like using his finger to tear through youkan[2].

Verlaine opened his eyes and looked at Adam.

Adam's caution levels immediately rose.

He decided that wide areas would put them at a disadvantage, so he changed his path to a narrow alleyway. Adam brought up a map of the vicinity in his digital brain to calculate the most optimal escape route. He ran like a cannonball as he tried to find the quickest route with the highest rate of survival.

He ran through alleys, kicked the walls, and turned sharply at intersections. When he was trying to gain even more speed on a straight road, his sensors let out a danger warning.

"Behind you!"

Chuuya, who was still being carried, shouted.

Without turning back, Adam threw Chuuya to the ground and rolled out of the way.

A huge black mass flew by where Adam's head was just a moment ago.

The mass pierced into the wall of a building in front of them.

It was a car.

The car that was used by Verlaine as "mailman", which weighed more than a ton, overtook them.

The moment Adam understood that it was a weapon thrown by Verlaine, he rolled on his back and turned around. He pulled out the pistol issued to him by Europole and pointed it in the direction the car was thrown from.

However, no one was there.

A voice came from the opposite direction he had predicted.

"I think—humans throw around the word 'loneliness' too much."

Adam quickly turned around.

He was over there, on top of the car stuck in the building.

He was sitting comfortably on the trunk of the car that was halfway into the wall, like a prince sitting on his throne. A slight breeze fluttered the hem of his suit.

"People don't know anything about true loneliness. They just think they're in a state of loneliness because they don't have family, or they have no one to talk to."

Adam analyzed the situation. Verlaine had thrown the vehicle while he himself sat in it. That was how he had managed to pass both Adam and Chuuya.

Adam ran through a number of calculated outcomes, all of which resulted in hopelessness. Since he could stick himself to any object and throw it, there was no escaping his pursuit.

"True loneliness—" Verlaine's voice was as graceful as a violin solo. "—is a comet flying through space. It stays in absolute zero while being surrounded by nothing. There's no possibility of anyone seeing it, and there's no possibility of anyone approaching it. It continues on for tens of thousands of years in a chilly silence. What do you think that's like? No one knows—except for you, Chuuya."

Chuuya used both of his hands to try and stand up his wobbling body.

"What is it... that you want to say?"

"I only want to say a few words." Verlaine spoke with a clear look on his face. "But I'll only say them once."

Verlaine smiled softly. The scent of danger around him seemed to disappear.

And he said those few words.

"Come with me, Chuuya."

Neither Adam nor Chuuya replied to that. They didn't move.

Verlaine's words weren't sugar coated. It was a pure and transparent proposition.

Or maybe, they were instructions.

"My little brother, you aren't human, only a string of calculations. Your soul is a simple equation. That is loneliness in the truest sense there is. There isn't a person out there who can heal your eternal loneliness... But, even a lonely comet that has no hope of being healed can fly side by side with another cold, lonely comet."

The tone of his voice was reminiscent of a poet reciting poetry. Deep in his eyes was a waterway of affection one could only have for blood relatives.

"Is that your goal?" Chuuya stood up. "Is that why you went to the trouble to try and take me to such a place?"

"It's not just today. Ever since that day nine years ago—from the day I shot my best friend and stole you, I've dreamed of going on a journey with you."

Verlaine closed his eyes. The power that had been swirling around him continued to fade. Now, he was like a young man absentmindedly sitting on the street, just like any other person on a street corner.

"Two brothers on a journey of assassination. We were only given this meaningless life. If that's the case, then we'll give something similar to those who created us: a meaningless death. That balances it out a little. Whether you're good or bad, death doesn't discriminate. Only by doing that, can we..."

Verlaine closed his eyes while he spoke. His voice didn't sound like that of a transcendental assassin. He sounded like a proper young man, his voice laced with sadness, grief, and a naive sense of hope.

"Only by doing that can we accept this meaningless life we've been given."

Verlaine jumped off the car and held his hand out to Chuuya.

Chuuya stared at it, his face expressionless.

"Don't go, Chuuya-san." Adam aimed his pistol. "If you take that man's hand, the whole world will become your enemy."

Adam went through as many possibilities as he could. However, no matter where he shot his pistol, Verlaine's ability would nullify it.

"Shut your mouth."

It wasn't Verlaine who had said that, but Chuuya.

Verlaine looked at Chuuya with a surprised look on his face.

"You're right, I do understand what you're talking about." Chuuya tilted his head ever so slightly and looked at Verlaine with a sharp look in his eyes. "But before I give you my answer, let me ask you one thing."

"Anything." Verlaine said with a smile.

"I got a call from Pianoman a little bit ago. Back then, he said that they had been contacted for a job from one of the errand boys of the mafia. —Answer me. What did you do to the five of them?"

The smile on Verlaine's face disappeared.

Then, after a bit of time had passed, he brandished a different kind of smile on his face, like a black flower had bloomed.

It was an unsettling smile.

Then he said, "Surely you don't have any use for old friends, right?"

Verlaine hit the trunk of the car stuck in the wall next to him. When the trunk opened, something came rolling out of it. It made a wet sound.

That thing was instantly recognizable to Chuuya.

Chuuya's pupils became as narrow as a needle.

It was Lippmann's corpse.

Chuuya screamed.

It wasn't a scream made from any human. It was the roar of a beast so angry words couldn't even begin to describe it. With that alone, the windows on the surrounding buildings cracked.

And he threw his fist back.

It was a simple attack. He threw his fist forward in a horizontal motion. However, this attack was faster than the speed of sound.

Around the same time as the explosive sound of Chuuya's fist slicing through the air was heard, Verlaine was blown away.

Verlaine flew through the air and sank into the wall behind him.

When Verlaine opened his eyes after groaning in pain, Chuuya was already in full view.

Chuuya's face wasn't distorted with emotion. On the contrary, his face was almost expressionless.

His face held true, clear, overwhelming murderous intent.

His right fist hit Verlaine's lower shoulder, the impact causing the building to break even more.

His left fist moved faster than the debris falling to the ground. A blow that violently hit against Verlaine's torso sank him further into the building.

Hit, after hit, after hit. Chuuya's continuous attacks were followed up by roars of anger. Verlaine's body was already buried deep inside the building so he was no longer visible. But even so, Chuuya didn't stop.

"You're just like a beast."

As if his voice was a signal, Chuuya suddenly stopped.

His fist was gripped in Verlaine's hand. Then, he offered his own counterattack.

If Chuuya's fist was like a bullet, Verlaine's fist was like a cannonball.

The shock of the first attack twisted and tore Chuuya's clothes. However, it wasn't because of the direct hit to his abdomen. A shock wave itself had gone through Chuuya and tore through the clothes on his back.

Chuuya let out a cry of pain. But, because Verlaine was holding on to Chuuya's fist, he couldn't even be blown away.

"It's ok to get mad like a beast. At least this shows who you really are, even if you don't like it."

Verlaine crawled out of the wall and stood on the ground. He let go of Chuuya's fist and grabbed his neck instead.

With his neck being grabbed like that, Chuuya hung like a sandbag.

He couldn't move even if he wanted to. An absurd amount of gravity was applied to his entire body. He couldn't lift up his arms, much less deliver a counterblow.

"In the end, Chuuya, these kinds of human emotions are what hold you back." Verlaine spoke in a gentle voice as he held Chuuya. "I understand your feelings, but they're dangerous. It's not good to stay there for very long."

As he said that, he brought his free hand up to Chuuya's chest.

Gravity radiated from his fingertips like a metal detector as he hovered around his chest, and he quickly found what he was looking for.

"Is this the picture that your 'friends' gave you?"

He then took a picture out of Chuuya's breast pocket. It was the picture of the kid on a beach.

"I understand why you took it and how you feel whenever you see it, and that you trust the guys that gave it to you. Really, I do. But it's because of that trust that you're suffering. They're constantly reinforcing the idea that, 'You're human', or, 'Have hope', and, 'That guy is downright lying'. By saying that, they continue to feed you the poison."

Verlaine tossed the photo behind him.

The photo flew at a high speed towards Adam, who was waiting for an opportunity to shoot, and pierced his shoulder like a knife. Adam let out a cry of pain as he dropped his pistol.

"Why do you think they lied?" Verlaine continued to speak to Chuuya, as if he hadn't even intended to aim it at Adam. "It's because your strength was convenient. They wanted to utilize it. I know this from experience."

The hanging Chuuya, who couldn't protect himself against any counterattacks, could do nothing but gasp out.

"You must know... That I won't forgive you..."

"What a troublesome guy." Verlaine let out a sigh. He then started speaking with an overly punctual tone, as if he were talking to a baby. "Well, I didn't think my soft, weak little brother would be persuaded by words. So I'll show you with actions. I'll cut the threads that tie you down one by one, like marionettes. And only then will you have your freedom. That will be the token of appreciation my brotherly love has for you."

He threw out the next words as if they were natural.

"I will assassinate anyone who is close to you."