Chapter 18: Reluctant

CLICK!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The unknown assassin had shot P in the chest three times. He was wearing a hat that completely covered his face in the darkness of the shelves.

"Huh," the assassin muttered, completely stunned.

P immediately reacted after being shot by aggressively grabbing the assassin's right wrist, which held the gun. He quickly pulled the man's hand down toward the floor, and with a tight grip on the wrist, violently sprained it.

BANG!

The gun discharged directly into the concrete floor.

"Arrrggh..!" the assassin moaned in pure agony, completely losing his grip on the weapon.

Despite the sudden burst of pain, the assassin let go of P's neck, giving himself an ounce of movement to violently raise his left foot, attempting to stomp down on P's right knee to disable it.

P reacted instantly, fluidly weaving his right foot and body slightly to the left side.

STOMP!

The assassin completely missed. Before he could recover, his vision went entirely dark for a moment, followed by an excruciating, ringing pain exploding across his forehead.

P had countered the missed stomp with a brutal headbutt. The impact sent the assassin staggering backward to his left, slamming into a library shelf. Several heavy books fell off the shelf upon the hard impact of his back.

The assassin struggled to pull himself up from the shelf, knocking a few more books loose in the process.

P, who had fully regained his balance, used his left leg to kick the dropped gun across the floor, sending it sliding against the wall behind him. He then started walking slowly toward the assassin.

STEP... STEP... STEP...

P's eyes locked in deadly serious. He stopped walking, calmly glancing down at the assassin, who still had his hat covering his face in the dark.

The man stood before him, tightly holding a dagger in his left hand, keeping it close to his body with his legs widely spaced out in a defensive stance.

"Why were you following me? Who sent you?" P asked in a cold, commanding voice.

"Huff... huff..." the assassin panted in heavy silence.

It must be that he was sent by the cult of Kalbē Mōṯ that I accidentally got involved with. It was only just last night and they are already on the move....... kinda good, P noted subconsciously.

"What does the cult you work for want?" P questioned sharply.

"Your head.... and your heart plucked clean out of your chest," the assassin said coldly.

He immediately charged forward, lunging at P with his dagger.

At that exact moment, P let out a tiresome sigh.

He intended to end this fight as quickly as possible since they were inside a public cafe and he didn't want any casualties—mostly concerning his fresh back injury. If he dragged out this fight, things would only go downhill for him, even if he survived.

The assassin came jumping in at P, driving his left knee straight toward P's chest. P quickly adjusted his posture, tapping down the incoming knee with his left hand. The assassin, holding the dagger in his left hand, brought it down in a fierce vertical arc to slice P’s chest wide open.

But P had already seen completely through the attack from the exact moment the man jumped into the air. He raised his right arm, blocking the hand holding the dagger upward.

The assassin's eyes widened in pure shock the instant P blocked the strike, but it was already far too late.

In the same seamless movement that P raised his right arm to block, he transitioned into a brutal counter. He twisted his right arm, tightly clenching his fist around the assassin's left hand. He spun his own body to the right to face backward.

In the process, he forcefully pulled the assassin through midair before the man's feet could even touch the ground. Grabbing the hand again with his left arm for leverage, P forcefully slammed the assassin's body over his shoulder and straight onto the floor.

SLAM!

P slammed the assassin flat onto his back against the tile floor. A spray of blood coughed out of the assassin's wide-open mouth. P had effortlessly countered the flying knee strike with a simple, devastating grappling technique.

"Argghhh..!" the assassin shouted in pure agony.

The sudden noise briefly alerted a few people on the bright side of the cafe, but they quickly ignored it, assuming it came from the busy road outside.

P looked down. The assassin's left hand was still tightly gripping the dagger. P casually snatched the dagger from his fingers, tossing it away behind him while firmly planting his right foot directly onto the assassin's neck.

"Hukh... hu--ergk... erk... eerk!"

The assassin choked in pain, desperately struggling and grabbing at P's leg, trying with all his might to pry it off.

P stared down at the assassin's face with a cold, lifeless death stare, gradually pressing his Nike shoe down onto the man's throat even harder.

"Now, you will answer my questions... if you don't want to die. How were you able to find me?" P questioned.

He lifted his leg slightly, shifting the heavy pressure directly onto the man's chest.

The assassin started to cough in pure agony, desperately gasping for air.

"Talk before I resume," P said coldly.

"I... erh.... wi..ll never ta--talk! Over my dead body!" the assassin grunted defiantly.

He looks determined, P noted mentally.

He removed his foot from the assassin's chest, placed it right back onto his neck, and started twisting his foot brutally as the assassin struggled beneath him.

"Hukh... hu--ergk... erk... eerk!" the assassin thrashed.

When P saw that the assassin was reaching his absolute limit, he removed his foot and stepped back down onto his chest.

"I will ask you, one last time.... how did you find me?" P said, his voice deadly serious.

I will never tell him anything, I'd rather die! the assassin thought subconsciously.

Suddenly, the assassin's eyes widened in a wave of terrifying realization.

No, I shouldn't. This man is dangerous... he wasn't someone I could handle from the very start. The effortless way he handled me, it was like I was a mere child. And when I even attempted that knee strike... the assassin's subconscious thoughts were abruptly disrupted.

"You're wasting my time. Bye-bye," P said calmly, raising his leg to stomp directly on his neck.

"Wait....!" the assassin shouted in pure fright.

P stopped his foot. "So, you will talk," P said.

"Yes.. I will cooperate," the assassin gasped out.

Even with the flying knee strike and the simultaneous dagger attack, the best choice for an elite fighter would be to block my knee with their hands while dodging backward or sideways. Some get severely injured in the process or luckily don't get a scratch at all. And since I'm among the top ranks, my attacks are always accurate. This is logical, the assassin thought to himself in complete awe.

But this man is just built entirely different. Instead of behaving as expected, he played a flawless defensive counterattack. He used a simple grappling technique... he can switch and adjust to any fighting style at any given moment. His instinct and reaction rate are incredibly fast, all while remaining so perfectly calm.

This man is dangerous. He's no ordinary agent.

His eyes have something... but at the same time, they are completely empty. I must warn the higher-ups about this guy. They literally won't know what they are getting themselves into.... we have absolutely zero information on him. I must cooperate to survive and flee, but will he even let me live.....?

"Anytime now.." P said, completely losing his patience.

"I actually don't even have information about you! Just a photo!" the assassin squealed, shaking in fright.

"How did you find me with just a photo?" P questioned, genuinely curious.

"It was entirely by chance that I found you walking by the street! It was only just by pure luck..! I was only going after a girl... not you, I swear!" the assassin yelled, terrified.

After a girl... they are already closing in on

Hanabi.... and she lives right around here. At least there's a police station nearby, but these guys are highly dangerous. I was only able to defeat this guy because I am me, of course. But if it were anyone else, tsk.. what a huge pain in the ass.

This guy managed to sneak up on me and shoot me in the chest three times. If I hadn't put that hard, huge library book inside my shirt to shield my chest and zipped up my Lakers jacket, I would have been dead right now. I guess I was lucky... well, luck is also a part of the game.. KEKEKEKEKEKEKE, P chuckled darkly in his mind.

By the way, I thought I shot him directly... how is he even alive? Now, will he kill me? No, he can't.... if he does, how would he be able to handle my dead body? This is a busy city. If my corpse is found, he could easily be traced, and it's impossible to hide a dead body inside a cafe. He would be quickly suspected. He knows these things... but those look in his eyes... the assassin panicked internally, staring up into P's dark gold eyes, which were giving off a terrifying death stare.

The assassin swallowed his saliva hard.

Only God knows what he could do... the assassin thought subconsciously.

They remained in a heavy silence for a few moments while P gazed blankly and lifelessly down at the assassin. Suddenly, P raised his heavy foot. The assassin looked up in absolute horror.

The very last thing the assassin saw was the bottom of P's Nike shoe coming down at his face.

"Say hi to Valhalla," P said coldly.

STOMP!

Everything went completely dark.

Later That Day, in the Evening:

The Amusement Park

EEEEEEE! YAAH! YEEEEEEE!

People screamed at the top of their lungs on the massive rollercoaster, surrounding the park with wild sounds of fun and excitement. Everyone was having the time of their life—except for one specific person.

Sitting flat on a public park bench with a pink cotton candy store right behind her, a girl sat completely frozen. Her eyes were blank white and her mouth hung wide open. She looked entirely lifeless, as if she was about to give up the ghost right then and there... it was Hanabi.

"Hey, Hanabi.. what the hell are you doing?"

Yuki shouted, holding a cold bottle of beer.

The rest of Hanabi's friends were following close behind her, all approaching the bench from Hanabi's right side. They clearly looked like they had just had an absolute blast.

"Heh..?"

Hanabi's eyeballs suddenly snapped back into reality upon hearing Yuki's voice.

"Hey..." Hanabi said, sounding incredibly tiresome.

"What's wrong with you? You look completely lifeless. We all came here to hang out and have fun!" Yuki complained.

"That's exactly how she always behaves all the time, whenever she's inside an amusement park," Mio stated bluntly.

"She's terrified of amusement parks," Min-seo smiled.

"I ain't scared of amusement parks!" Hanabi roared right back at Min-seo, her face flushing.

"Then why don't you come have fun with us? It won't kill you!" Yu-na laughed.

Hanabi slowly raised a single finger on her right hand, her expression turning into a dark, warning face. "Have any of you actually watched Final Destination from part one to five?"

"Uh.. yeah, what about it?" Yuki asked nonchalantly.

"Well, I don't want any of that stuff to happen to me in real life, so I won't be doing anything," Hanabi stated firmly.

"Then at least go get us some snacks.." Min-seo pouted.

"Yeah, right..." Hanabi muttered reluctantly.

"Hey, how about we just force her onto a rollercoaster anyway?" Yuki grinned evilly.

"Yeah..! That's a great idea!" Yu-na cheered.

"Rollercoaster.." Hanabi whispered.

An intense imagination instantly flashed through her mind: she saw herself falling out of a looping rollercoaster car, her body hitting the ground with a loud SPLAT while nearby park-goers screamed in absolute shock.

"N-no.... I'm absolutely not getting on that thing!" Hanabi yelled, terrified.

"Then get us snacks, woman.....!" they all said in unison.

They glared fiercely down at Hanabi, literal fires burning in their eyes. Min-seo felt a bit left out, so she tried copying their intense glares, but it only made her look incredibly cute and like she was about to burst into tears.

"Tsk.. fine! This is literal human abuse...." Hanabi yearned at her friends.

She stood up from the bench and started walking away to locate a snack stall.

"Don't forget to add a bottle of Heineken!" Yuki yelled out behind her.

"Yeah, yeah!" Hanabi called back.

STEP... STEP... STEP...

Hanabi ended up walking onto the streets just outside the amusement park to buy the bottle of beer for Yuki, since the park stalls didn't sell any alcohol.

"One bottle of beer, please," Hanabi ordered, standing in front of a small convenience store.

"Which brand, miss?" the clerk asked.

"Heineken," Hanabi said.

She was handed the cold green bottle, paid the clerk in cash, and took her change.

She continued her journey back toward the amusement park gates. She walked along the side of the road, close to a wide sea shore on her right side. A calm, freezing wind blew heavily through the night air.

Hanabi adjusted her scarf tightly because of the sudden cold, but a sudden gust of wind violently blew the scarf right off her neck.

"Harrrh.... not again...!" Hanabi complained as the scarf went flying.

She chased frantically after it, jumping up to try and catch the fabric, but the wind just blew it farther and farther away. Finally, she stopped, unable to chase it down any longer.

"Hergh... hergh... herh..." Hanabi panted heavily. "Darn you, scarf...!"

Hanabi cursed her luck. But suddenly, her heart skipped a heavy beat. She glanced up.

In the middle of the quiet roadside, with a few passersby walking calmly by under the streetlights, a hand had reached out and caught the flying scarf perfectly out of the air.

Hanabi stood in absolute, breathless silence.

Her gaze slowly traveled up from the hand holding her scarf, tracking up the sleeve, until she was looking directly at his face...

It was P.

They both stood in complete silence for a long moment, locking eyes under the bright moonlight, while the waves of the sea shore crashed softly in the background.

"You again," they both said in unison.

But P's eyes locked in immediately he spotted a person far behind her..

"They're here" said P