Chapter 29: Hell

In Taichi’s hospital room, fluorescent lights hummed softly overhead, casting a sterile glow across white walls and polished tile floors.

Under the blinding lights, Meguri stared as her lightning unraveled in midair.

The bolt never reached the headmaster. It dissolved the instant it touched Taichi, mana breaking apart into harmless sparks that fizzled and vanished, leaving the room smelling faintly of mana.

“Taichi…” Meguri said, her voice shaking. “What are you doing?”

Taichi didn’t look at her.

He reached up and pulled the syringe from his arm in one clean motion, the clear fluid that negated the anesthetic he was under dripping briefly onto the floor.

“Good,” Kishimoto said mildly, hands folded behind his back. “Very good, Subject 745.”

Meguri flinched.

“Subject…?” Her fingers tightened around the hilt of her sword. “Taichi, what is he talking about?”

Taichi turned his head slowly, eyes settling on her face with no recognition at all.

“You’re… still in there, right?” Meguri said, her voice cracking. “You have to be…”

Taichi then looked back at the headmaster.

“Should I kill her?”

The word echoed louder than the monitor’s steady beep.

“Kill…” Meguri whispered, stepping back half a pace. “Taichi, stop. It’s me. You know me. You have to…”

“No, you don’t need to kill her,” Kishimoto said calmly. “Just restrain her. I’ll handle the rest.”

Taichi nodded once.

Then he rushed forward.

The air seemed to compress upon itself as he rushed forward. Meguri barely had time to react before his fist was already in motion. She threw herself sideways on instinct, lightning exploding beneath her feet—but his strike still clipped her shoulder, sending her skidding hard across the floor, her back slamming into a rolling medical cart that tipped over with a metallic crash.

“Taichi…” she said, pushing herself upright, legs shaking. “Please…”

“I don’t know who that is,” Taichi responded, cracking his neck. “Do you surrender?”

Her vision blurred.

“I…” Meguri clenched her fist, lightning crackling weakly around her arm, flickering like a dying filament. “…No. I won’t give up yet.”

She moved again, her sword flashing as she lunged past Taichi, aiming straight for Kishimoto.

She never reached him.

Taichi stepped in smoothly, catching her wrist, twisting, and ripping the sword from her grasp before she could even register the contact. The weapon clattered uselessly across the floor as he shoved her backward, forcing distance between her and the headmaster.

“I cannot allow you to harm him,” Taichi said flatly.

Meguri staggered, nearly falling, palms scraping against the wall to steady herself.

She then planted her feet and fired another bolt of lightning at Kishimoto.

Taichi intercepted.

Lightning tore through the room in rapid bursts – wide arcs that scorched the walls, shockwaves that rattled equipment, compressed strikes that shattered ceiling tiles and sent dust drifting down like ash; anything to create an opening.

Taichi didn’t let it happen.

Every bolt dissolved the instant it touched him, mana unraveling against his skin in a constant haze. The air screamed, lights flickered, and monitors shrieked warnings as mana saturated the room.

Meguri fired again. And again.

She pressed harder, lightning surging in thicker waves, forcing him to nullify continuously. The room shook under the strain as all the monitors surged and exploded from the electricity flowing through the air.

Taichi took a step forward.

Another.

His breath was heavier now.

Meguri’s arms burned. Her lungs screamed for air.

They stood there, both panting, the floor scorched and cracked between them.

“May I increase force?” Taichi asked, voice even.

Kishimoto nodded.

Taichi rushed forward.

He walked straight through the lightning, nullification flaring constantly around him as Meguri poured everything she had into stopping him. His steps weren’t slowed.

Within less than a second, his hand was at her neck.

It went through.

No pressure. No resistance. Like air.

The Meguri in front of him dissolved into shimmering mana, dispersing harmlessly into the light-filled room.

Outside the room, hurried footsteps echoed down the no longer sterile hall.

“Kodaka…” Kishimoto scowled. “He’s just gonna keep being a pain, huh?”

“Should I pursue?” Taichi asked.

“Yes.”

Taichi vanished into the corridor, continuing to chase the sound of footsteps.

The corridor beyond was chaos – overturned carts, flickering lights, doors left ajar. Taichi struck again, only for his fist to pass through another illusion. Then another. And another. Each decoy shattered into mana, forcing him to nullify reflexively, his breathing growing heavier with every miss.

Various sets of footsteps appeared around him.

Meanwhile, the real Meguri was being whisked away by Kodaka – completely silently.

“Let me go!” Meguri struggled.

“You’ll lose,” Kodaka said bluntly, not loosening his grip on her. “Asumi isn’t in her room anymore – I saw a door that was tampered with. The suits aren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the shed because all of them got their minds wiped, so they probably won’t find her there. We’re regrouping.”

“I can’t leave Taichi like that!” Meguri yelled.

“I’m muting your noises to Taichi right now and creating decoys. If you keep yelling, you’re just gonna sap more of my mana. I’m certain Kishimoto’s using him as an attack dog right now, so the longer we can keep him occupied with my illusions, the longer we have to regroup, and the longer he’s outside of Kishimoto’s hands, so in other words, SHUT UP!”

Meguri quickly silenced as Kodaka continued whisking her away.

They slipped through the corridors unseen, reaching a narrow filing room stacked with towering shelves and loose documents scattered across the floor.

“Asumi, it’s me and Kodaka – let us in.”

The door opened, and Asumi pulled them inside, slamming it shut behind them.

“Did you find Taichi?” Asumi asked immediately.

“Well…” Meguri trailed off.

“He needs to be found,” Asumi said urgently. “He’s going to be turned into a mindless weapon. I read everything in this room – everything he’s done. It’s awful.”

“Asumi…” Meguri interrupted, clenching her fist.

“No…” Asumi muttered, shaking her head. “No, no, no… it didn’t happen. I don’t believe you.”

“It happened,” Kodaka confirmed. “We were too late.”

“It did,” Kodaka said quietly. “We were too late.”

Asumi collapsed to her knees, papers crinkling beneath her hands as tears spilled freely.

“What…? But…” Asumi quivered. “I don’t… we were… after all of this, I was supposed to… we were supposed to… we had plans. We agreed to wait for each other at the end of all of this.”

Meguri knelt and wrapped her arms around her.

“Asumi…” Meguri said softly. “Taichi isn’t dead – he might not be the same person he was right now, but if we beat the headmaster, then maybe–”

“Isshiki…” Kodaka said gently but firmly. “You shouldn’t give false hope like that. It’s not productive. Besides, beating the headmaster while he’s using Taichi as a shield probably won’t be possible. We needed him on our side to eliminate him, and now there’s no way to do it. Besides, even if we did, there’s no guarantee that’ll restore his memories.”

Asumi looked up suddenly, eyes burning.

“No,” she said. “Meguri’s right.”

She stood, grabbing a handful of the papers scattered across the floor and flipping across them.

“It is possible to bring Taichi back.”

“How?” Kodaka asked.

“...I don’t sure,” Asumi admitted, still flipping through the papers. “But I know it’s possible, because…”

Asumi slammed down one of the logs in front of Meguri and Kodaka.

“His dad did it when he was brainwashed by the headmaster. If his dad can do it, I choose to believe Taichi can do it too.”

“What was the stimulus then?” Kodaka asked, flipping through the pages.

“The logs hypothesized that it was some type of strong emotion – some type of grief or something,” Asumi explained. “Quite often when Hayato Rintaro saw a dead body, his memories would be restored.”

Meguri shivered. “So… one of us has to die?”

“No,” Kodaka said, smirking faintly. “I see what you’re plotting, Yuki. It might work, but I’m already running low on mana. I’ll need help. What are the chances that she’s here? In this building?”

“High,” Asumi said. “This site seems to be where they do all their experiments. Tadokoro Shoko should be here. But…”

“Then it’s settled,” Kodaka interrupted. “First we find my daughter, then we bring Hayato Taichi’s memories back.”

“And then…” Meguri said quietly. “We burn this project building to the ground with the headmaster in it.”