Regret - Hero's Lies Arc

In that moment, Hiroshi regretted everything.

He knew that the heroes were much stronger than him, but he was confident that he could take them by himself, through anger and sheer willpower. However, the manna that was building up in Grant made him stop in his tracks. He couldn’t move.

Was he scared?

“Touma! Run in and get the Love Crystal! I’ll hold him off!” Grant smirked at Touma Schulz, who gave him a small smile back and ran deeper into the cave.

The cave walls began to turn a strange brown colour and began crumbling at an alarming rate. Hiroshi’s breathing became raspy as he struggled to speak.

“How…are you…doing that?” Hiroshi gasped for air. Eve, who was also standing beside Grant, put her hand over her mouth, and began gasping in slow, deep breaths.

“Oh, that’s right, weak people can’t do this!” Grant laughed to himself. “This is a Carte Blanche, a power that uses the imagination to create whatever power you want!”

Hiroshi cursed himself. He knew that already. His breathing became even more raspy, and he put a hand around his throat.

“With my Carte Blanche…,” Grant continued, “I can rust any element in the entire world, metal or non-metal. That includes gases too. I can rust gold, silver, hydrogen…even oxygen.”

Hiroshi put a hand over his mouth. So, that’s why he couldn’t breathe. He could feel his muscles tightening and his movements becoming slower again. Even if he unleashed the darkness to negate the rusting effects, he still needed to breathe. He gasped quickly into his hand, finding a pocket of air.

At that moment, a long vine reached out and yanked his hand away from his mouth. He gasped for air once more, looking up at where the attack came from. Eve was standing there, as she used her other hand to cover her mouth, her strong hand shot out a vine from an abyss that opened up inside of her palm.

“Take that, you sick son of a bitch!” she yelled out.

“Well done, Eve!” Grant smiled. “And also, my Carte Blanche doesn’t affect me. You’re as good as dead, Hiroshi. Thank you. I learned a lot from you.”

Hiroshi closed his eyes. The world was going dark. Was he going to die? Was this it?

Weak.

He hated that word so much.

He couldn’t die here!

“Hiroshi.”

“Hiroshi get up.”

“The world needs you, Hiroshi.”

Hiroshi’s eyes bulged open, bloodshot and red, stinging badly. It was those voices again! There were at least five of them, if not more, chanting in his ear. He heard them after the Great Encounter Battle Tournament too. Who were they? What did they want?

“Do you need me?” Hiroshi asked aloud. Grant raised an eyebrow. He could not hear the conversation currently taking place inside of Hiroshi’s head.

“The world does, badly.”

“We believe in you.”

“Get up, it’s not over.”

Slowly but surely, Hiroshi began to get his strength back. He yanked the vine forward, causing Eve to stumble and fall over. He ran over to the cave walk as fast as he could.

“Aim for a weak spot and put my power into this attack!” he screamed loudly.

Hiroshi leaned back, and using all of his remaining strength, punched the wall. Grant stood back. He understood what Hiroshi was doing. The rust made the cave really unstable. All that was needed, was a little push.

The cave ceiling fell in, crushing Hiroshi, Grant, Eve and Touma Schulz underneath the rubble. Dust was kicked up for miles. Most of the drones were destroyed, minus one that Kuro-Yami’s darkness protected. The crowd in the capital stayed silent. Even Alexander, who was a great presenter, was stunned speechless.

Just as though it seemed everyone was dead; a hand came up from the rubble. It was Grant’s. He struggled to pull himself free and eventually managed to stand. He felt sick. Even though it was a Grade One Carte Blanche, the weakest kind, it was so overwhelming to handle its power. He grabbed his arm and trudged his way through the debris of the cave, looking for any signs of life. The crowd stayed silent. People could hardly look away from their television screens.

“Stop moving!”

“Ow! Please stop!”

“Shut up!”

Grant’s eyes watered. The dust had just about cleared, and he could see two figures emerging. Eve was on the floor, currently looking directly at Grant, and Hiroshi was above her, his foot on her head.

“Step any closer, and I’ll kill her!” he yelled at Grant. “Is that what you want?!”

“No! Look, Hiroshi, just stop!” Grant exclaimed.

“Oh please, Grant…I…I care about you,” Eve whimpered, struggling to free herself.

“Nothing bad is going to happen, Eve, I promise,” Grant reassured his friend, before looking up at Hiroshi. “Why did you do this? You had no reason to get involved! We weren’t interfering in your life!”

“What you did to Wisteria was…”

“No, stop lying!” Grant interrupted Hiroshi, and Hiroshi once more put his foot down harder in pure rage. “This was personal! I know what a personal attack is like better than anyone! You call us liars, and yet you lie yourself! Why did you do this? Please…and I will do whatever you want…just…please let Eve go.”

Grant got on his knees, putting his hands together, looking at the ground. Hiroshi noticed the rocks he was looking down on had gained a few water molecules.

He was crying.

“I…I don’t know why,” Hiroshi said honestly, lifting his foot ever so slightly. Eve gasped for breath.

“What do you mean, don’t know why?!” Grant yelled, pure rage taking over. “You did all this because, what, you didn’t know? You just felt like it?!”

“No…but…you just confirmed one thing for me…” Hiroshi looked deeply into his opponent’s eyes. Grant gasped. Hiroshi was crying too.

“I’m only good at hurting people.”

At almost lightspeed, Hiroshi was gone. Eve lifted up her head and ran over to Grant, hugging him tightly.

“Oh Grant! Wahhhh!” she cried, and Grant rubbed her hair to comfort her. He had no idea what Hiroshi meant by those words, but he felt his pain and suffering in his very own soul.

Tomokazu currently had Hiroshi grabbed by his waist. He flung him into a mountain face, to which Hiroshi slammed against the side and was curled in a heap.

“Hiroshi! Do you have any idea how much you hurt Wisteria?!” Tomokazu yelled in anger. “I think I need to smack some sense into you!”

Hiroshi got to his feet slowly and stumbled. He was so tired. He just wanted to give up and die.

“Come get me then,” he hissed, looking up at Tomokazu, who was flying about him, ready to strike.