Chapter 148: Kazumi’s Condition
“You mean you saw yourself before you fought with the enemy?”
Seated in the empty hospital room, Hamano Tsukasa crossed his arms and listened with a frown as Sato Shinichi recounted his past encounter.
“Yes, at first I saw Mr. Kimura and myself running away in the distance. I couldn’t tell if they were real or fake, either by their appearance or aura. After fighting with [Kimori Kage], a girl wielding Black Mist emerged from the shattered shell.”
“Her abilities were very strange, I couldn’t even hurt her. After being exposed, she opened a black teleportation gate and left.”
Sato Shinichi recalled the scene he encountered while looking for Kazumi, answering with a serious expression.
“Was your identity not exposed?”
“No, I went to find them directly in this form.”
Hamano Tsukasa nodded and looked at the Sticky Hetuan beside him. Years of tacit understanding allowed Hetuan to immediately understand his meaning. He pulled out a tablet from his body and said.
“It should be [Cloud Mist]. Both the trace evidence at the scene and the aura detected by my clone point to her, but we can’t find any trace of [Shell]. That guy’s ability is too terrifying.”
“However, according to the accounts of young Shinichi and several other survivors, they all saw people they knew who shouldn’t have been in that place. So, it’s also highly probable that [Shell] made a move.”
“Then what was the motive? The reason why they did that?”
Hamano Tsukasa took the tablet handed to him by Hetuan and carefully read through the police records of the incident and the accounts of some victims before asking.
“I don’t know. Preliminary estimates suggest it was to target Shikoku, but the academy hasn’t suffered any losses yet. As for the motive behind these actions.”
“From what I know of that guy, it’s probably personal preference…”
Sticky Hetuan’s face looked a bit grim. Judging from the feedback from the scene and the survivors’ accounts, he, as that guy’s old opponent, knew all too well what had happened.
That pervert who liked to feed on human despair would always conduct some small tests of humanity that sounded incredibly despair-inducing.
“Moreover, the autopsy reports from the psychiatric department all showed that the victims suffered extremely strong mental shocks before their deaths. That guy’s games are still so excessive…”
Stretching out a tentacle to slide the autopsy report to Hamano Tsukasa, Sticky Hetuan couldn’t help but sigh.
No matter what, these were his students. As the head of the academy, he had failed to protect his students properly. This was his dereliction of duty.
In fact, when all the heroes in the training ground were attacked, Hetuan reacted immediately. However, at that time, he needed to protect all the students still in the training ground, so he couldn’t pay attention to the small space that had been hidden by someone’s ability.
“Shinichi, that… how is little Kazumi doing?”
Seeing Sato Shinichi’s constantly changing expression after hearing the news, Hamano Tsukasa, who had a slight understanding of the current situation, also looked up and asked him.
“Not good…”
The old man’s low voice echoed in the room for a long time, but all he received was the boy’s dimming eyes and a sentence spoken after a long silence.
As if recalling some scene, the boy’s previously relaxed body tensed up, and his bandaged fists clenched tightly, not even realizing that blood was seeping out from the torn wounds.
“Teacher, I… I failed to protect her, Kazumi she…”
The man sitting on the hospital bed lowered his head, his robust body appearing exceptionally dejected. His perpetually uplifted tone finally lowered, and his voice became tinged with a fearful tremor.
Indeed, no matter how powerful his abilities were, no matter how precocious he was, he was still just a fifteen-year-old child after all…
Looking at the boy in front of him who was afraid because his beloved was in danger, Hamano Tsukasa felt a pang of sympathy in his heart. He understood the feeling of a beloved person disappearing before one’s eyes better than anyone. However, the difference was that the boy still had a chance to see her, while he…
“She’ll be fine.”
A rough hand gently patted his head, and a low but firm voice rang in his ears.
Sato Shinichi looked up, and saw the old man’s serious, even somewhat scary expression, but the light in his eyes was as gentle as it was on the day the old man took him from the orphanage.
“Okay!”
Sato Shinichi bit his lip tightly, suppressing the faint tears at the corner of his eyes, and nodded heavily. The gloom that had been lingering in his heart seemed to have been dispelled by the old man’s words.
“Mei has also replied. She’s free recently and is already on her way. Young Shinichi, you must have heard of her abilities. Your little girlfriend will surely be fine.”
Hetuan, on the other hand, was busy processing the news on the tablet. With this incident in Shikoku, as the head of the academy, even with the help of many people, he received a lot of information.
With more than a dozen tentacles rapidly tapping on the screen, Sticky Hetuan looked up and spoke to the deeply affectionate master and disciple.
“En en, thank you, Uncle Hetuan.”
Hearing that the powerful healer known as [Sacred Hand] was also coming because of this matter, a glimmer of hope flashed in Sato Shinichi’s eyes. He stood up and earnestly bowed ninety degrees to Sticky Hetuan.
“Ah, no need for that, no need for that. It’s not entirely for you either. With this kind of incident at the school, we definitely have to give everyone an explanation. At least the few people undergoing surgery now cannot die again, otherwise, I really can’t continue to be the head of the academy.”
“And it’s also my apology. I discovered the abnormality in that place, but I could only send you a message to go there yourself.”
Hetuan looked helplessly at the boy bowing to him, waving a tentacle in the air. If he had paid more attention to the anomaly here, perhaps the girl the boy cared about would not have encountered such danger.
“But if it weren’t for the message from Uncle Hetuan, I might have…”
“Alright, alright, we’re family, don’t be so polite. Let’s go.”
Hitting the overly serious blond boy’s head with a walking stick, Hamano Tsukasa stood up and walked out without looking back.
“Teacher, where are we going?”
Sato Shinichi looked at Hamano Tsukasa, who had only spoken half the sentence, with some confusion, and reached out to scratch the spot where the walking stick had hit him, asking.
“Third floor.”
“Okay!”
…
Outside the sterile operating room on the third floor, two people in special clothing were led into the observation room by a doctor.
And in the boy’s incredibly astonished eyes, he saw: on the other side of the glass, a black-haired girl lay quietly on the operating table, covered with all sorts of instruments…
(ps: Happy National Day, give me your monthly votes at the beginning of the month, brothers. There should be another update in the evening~)
