"Just what the hell is going on?! Are they seriously trying to cause a catastrophe right in the middle of all this?!"
"Calm down, Sera. Don't lose it yet."
Toshi Ishii grabbed the British girl's shoulder, grounding her with a firm grip. He then reached into his coat, pulled out a silenced pistol, and turned to Jody.
"Jody… how's your leg?"
"…I think I've got six minutes left before it gives out."
She answered coolly.
Toshi ran a rapid calculation in his head. Then he shouted toward the other side of the crashed car—toward Syd, Roxxy, and Sally.
"Syd! We'll meet by the river!"
"Yeah, got it! There's no way that was the only enemy! Stay sharp!"
Spoken like a true leader of the group.
Toshi was already thinking the same thing. He turned back to Jody and Sera.
"We'll split up from them and regroup at the riverbank. Move!"
Without another word, Toshi and the two girls took off at a sprint.
Cut to the assassins' side.
Soo-min, the Korean girl, was fuming.
"Goddamn it! What the hell were you aiming at, you idiot?!"
"I wasn't off," Fitz snapped. "The target landed exactly where I wanted. The problem was that damn Asian guy."
"?!"
His words cut through her frustration and forced her to calm down, reevaluate the situation.
"That blue-haired guy?"
"Yeah. I was watching the screen the whole time. He pulled those two girls out with his own hands."
"How the hell is that possible? That thing dropped from a kilometer up! The speed alone should've made it impossible to dodge. Even I couldn't have—"
"I don't know," Fitz interrupted. "But he's fast. Crazy fast. I couldn't keep up."
"…Tch. And who did it hit?"
"The two other kids—squashed. No chance they survived. But the target's still intact."
"…Well, that's something at least."
Just then, Fitz noticed something—an important shift.
"The enemy group… they're splitting up."
One group: the red-shirted teen, his little sister, and the target.
Another group: the blonde girl, the pink-haired one, and the blue-haired Asian guy.
"Soo-min! They're trying to scatter and run!"
"Yeah… looks like they're trying to throw us off."
She glanced toward the direction they were running—one path led into a wooded park near the Eiffel Tower, the other continued through a busy pedestrian street. Both eventually converged at the river bridge on the far side.
"They're going to regroup at the river," she concluded.
"Well, that's dumb. We just need to tail the one carrying the girl."
"No. It's not that simple."
Soo-min's voice was firm.
"If we ignore the other group, they'll loop around and flank us. Plus, we don't even know what kind of power each one of them has. For now, we've got the upper hand—they don't know your position."
"But if they get too far, they'll move out of range of my ability."
"Then maintain distance. Don't expose yourself. I'll handle the Asian guy myself. Whatever ability he's using seems to directly counter yours."
"Three of them? You sure you can handle it?"
"Absolutely. Those two girls don't seem like much. The real threat is that guy."
As she spoke, an orange aura flared around Soo-min—along with the mark of a "Parasite."
Back at the crash site, the crowd had thickened. Some onlookers had pulled out phones to record, others whispered to each other, and more cautious ones had already started backing away from the scene.
"Quit squirming or I swear to God, I'll punch you again, you damn brat!"
"Mmmph! Mmmf!"
Roxxy slapped tape across Sally's mouth, leaving her with no choice but to quietly observe the chaos.
"Bro! Y-Your hand!"
"I'm fine… I'll let that woman (Sera) fix it later."
"At least stop it from rotting first!"
Roxxy reached out and pressed her hand to Syd Barrett's injured palm. Almost instantly, a cold vapor formed around the hole in his hand, flash-freezing the wound to stop the bleeding. Blood crystallized mid-drip.
Wha—She's an ice-user?!
Ffffffssssssshhh...
"Huh?!"
"It's coming again!"
Syd looked up.
This time, a metallic blade was slicing through the air toward them—fast.
But it wasn't aiming for him.
It was going for Roxxy.
SLICE!
"?!"
The blade struck her shoulder—half the length buried into her flesh.
She hadn't been fast enough. Her instincts had created a thin layer of ice on her shoulder, but it wasn't enough to stop the sharp edge from cutting through.
"Roxxy!"
Despite the injury, the girl didn't stop running. The pain radiated throughout her body, threatening to collapse her at every step—but she gritted her teeth and pushed through.
"Ugh…"
She glanced up, grimacing.
"Bro… it's them…"
"Yeah… they're dropping that crap from above. Judging by the speed—it had to be from a kilometer up."
The two siblings veered off into the thick green wooded park nearby, out of the open.
Watching from afar, Fitz muttered to himself.
"They're running into the trees… Smart. The canopy will block my drops."
So he kept tailing them at a distance, calculating his next move.
Meanwhile, on the other side—chaos wasn't letting up.
Leading the charge was Seraphina Gilmore, sprinting like her life depended on it.
Jody followed behind, eyes scanning for the enemy. But in the open space, her enhanced hearing couldn't pick up anything useful.
Then, out of nowhere, someone burst from the bushes ahead, causing all three to skid to a halt.
It was an elderly man—white-haired, filthy, with a ragged coat and bandana. Unkempt beard. He looked like a homeless junkie at first glance.
"What the hell is that?"
"…A vagrant," Jody muttered.
But something was wrong. The man collapsed to the ground. His face and posture showed he'd been assaulted, and he tried to crawl toward them for help.
Sera instinctively stepped behind Jody. She wasn't touching that man. Not with how he looked.
"P-please… h-help…"
He croaked, twitching.
"…"
Jody and Toshi didn't respond.
"S-she… s-she's…"
Suddenly, all three froze in horror.
As the man dragged himself forward, his leg—his supporting leg—came loose. It didn't snap. It didn't break.
It peeled off. Like rotted meat being dragged too far.
"AAAAAHHHH! AAAAGGHHHH!!"
He shrieked in pure terror, scrambling to crawl away now—but as soon as he tried to stand…
SPLORCH.
Both arms came undone from their sockets in the same grotesque way. Like wet paper towels soaked through.
Sera nearly gagged.
"What… what the hell? His body—it's falling apart like decayed meat!"
Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
Suddenly, four compressed air bullets whooshed past Sera, heading straight for the man.
THUNK. THUNK. THUNK. THUNK.
All four struck true. The man collapsed, dead.
"Jody!"
Toshi stared at her, stunned. But Jody—walking up calmly beside him—wore a blank, emotionless expression. Her blue eyes were devoid of empathy.
"Jody! What did you just do?!"
"…He could've been an enemy."
She replied flatly.
"I thought he was faking it to lure us in. I guessed wrong. But now we know he wasn't the threat."
"…"
Toshi and Sera had no counterargument. Survival came first.
"Let's go."
"Wait—don't step in there!"
Toshi shouted, stopping both girls in their tracks.
"What? Why?"
"Look—his arm!"
They followed his finger and saw it too.
Something wasn't right.
There was no blood.
Not a single drop.
"…!?"
"No blood?!"
"…Because the blood's already been digested."
"Ugh..."
Sera nearly vomited, but she held it down—because what really mattered now was the figure stepping out from the same bushes that the man had crawled from.
An Asian woman in a suit, cloaked in a vibrant orange aura marked with the symbol of a parasite.
There was no doubt—this woman was the cause of everything.
The first to react were Toshi and Jody.
Both raised their weapons immediately—fingers and muzzles aimed at Soo-min. Jody's blue aura flared to life, the emblem of a storm glinting in front of her.
Ffft!
Silenced gunfire.
They didn't need a signal—they opened fire on Soo-min without hesitation.
But just as the bullets and air blasts shot toward her with speeds over hundreds of meters per second…
They were "digested" midair by something—right before their eyes.
"?!"
The bullet tips clattered to the ground—oxidized lead—already crumbling with rust, as if decomposed in an instant.
"Our bullets… they just dropped... and turned into rust?"
No way. That wasn't possible. Their ammo was pristine.
So how—
It wasn't just Toshi who was stunned.
Jody, too, was shocked. Her compressed air blasts hadn't made it either. She could feel it—the air masses had dispersed, evaporated into the atmosphere.
Soo-min finally spoke.
"You two..."
She pointed directly at Sera and Jody.
"You're nothing but amateurs."
Rrrrrrrnnnnn...
Ffft! Ffft! Ffft!
Toshi and Jody unloaded again. But once more...
The bullets dropped, deteriorating before even reaching Soo-min.
"Pointless."
She stepped beside the homeless man's dismembered corpse, where pus was now seeping from the body.
"You're helpless. So what's it going to be? Die cleanly… or end up like this?"
Her smug tone made Sera clench her fists so tightly it hurt. She wanted nothing more than to punch the smugness off this woman's face. But what stopped her—
Soo-min drew a black pistol and clicked off the safety.
BANG!
She fired.
"SERA!"
Toshi's head snapped toward the shot. A gray aura burst from him, his eyes lighting up in a matching hue.
And then—
Tick.
A clock began ticking in his mind. A high-frequency resonance echoed in his skull—like he had dropped into a trance or another dimension.
Everything around Toshi blurred. Jody. Sera. The tourists. Soo-min. Even the bullet itself.
All of it slowed down.
The only thing clear in his vision—sharpened into perfect focus—was Sera.
Tick... Tick... Tick... Ticktickticktickticktick!
The clock ticked faster and faster. The resonance intensified. The image of Sera blurred more and more. Reality itself began to elevate—a clear sign:
Time was about to run out.
Toshi reached forward.
In the span of a split-second, he pulled Sera out of the bullet's path—and just like that, the trance ended.
Time returned to normal.
"?!"
Both girls stood in shock at what had just happened.
To Toshi, it was simply his martial technique—pulling Sera out of the line of fire.
But to everyone else? It was a display of inhuman speed.
This was Toshi's martial art—"Dead Eye."
It didn't slow time.
It made him faster.
The core of his technique: enhancing his body's neural response speed.
Normally, the human nervous system processes signals at about 70–120 meters per second. In reflex terms, that's fast.
But martial artists like Toshi could push it up to 300 m/s—tripling their neural speed.
Of course, it came at a cost: massive adrenaline spikes, tunnel vision, strain on the retina, and short time limits before the body suffered severe damage.
It all happened in a split second.
Even Soo-min stood stunned for a moment.
"...H-Huh?!"
Sera suddenly realized she was in Toshi's arms.
"Wh-What was that? What just happened?!"
She checked herself—no injuries.
"You really are the problem child..."
Soo-min muttered.
Fitz really was thrown off by this guy. They couldn't afford to let him go.
Suddenly, Soo-min felt something whiz past the top of her head.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
"...?"
She turned toward Jody.
"Wind manipulation? I told you—useless."
But what Jody said next made Soo-min's eyes widen.
"Yeah. It's useless... if I'm only aiming at you."
CRACK. CRACK.
The sound came from above.
Soo-min looked up—just in time to see a massive tree branch plummeting toward her.
"—!!"
KRAAASH!
Soo-min leapt aside just in time.
"...She used her wind power... to hit the tree behind me?!"
It was the same tree from the bushes Soo-min had emerged from.
That falling branch? Just one of its limbs.
By the time she looked up again, the trio was already bolting away.
"YOU—!!"
Soo-min shot off after them.
"...She used her powers to blast the tree behind us?!"
The very same tree standing behind the bushes where Soo-min had appeared.
That massive chunk of wood—it was just one of its branches.
As she looked up, she saw the three of them—already making a run for it.
"You little—!"
Soo-min took off in pursuit.
.
.
Info : TheDead Eye
Toshi's martial art technique—Dead Eye—has an unknown origin, with no clear record of its lineage or foundational style.
Method of mastery: Undisclosed at this time.
This technique grants the user the ability to boost their neural processing speed and reaction time far beyond the limits of normal human capability, albeit for only a very brief period. In Toshi's case, the current limit is approximately five seconds.
Exceeding that time limit triggers a dangerous state, risking severe neural damage, including brain hemorrhaging and irreversible damage to the nervous system.
Difficulty to master: Extreme.