The Raven Dark Hero 96

Chapter 96 : The Other Revived Hunter

TL:SummerPeanut

Author’s Note:

※I'm sorry for the delay in the updates. The official book is scheduled to be released on June 2nd by Ichijinsha. Also, although it's not finished yet, 真空-sama will be drawing the illustrations. It's going to be a really cool illustration, so please keep your eyes peeled![1]

“Because….. I am a Revived Hunter too.”

The mysterious man revealed to Kouki that he too was a Revived Hunter.

“ …………Revived Hunter? What’s that?”

Kouki had never admitted to Strohm that he was a Revived Hunter until the very end. So, he decided that he wasn't going to bother sympathizing with this guy either, and so he feigned ignorance…….

“For the record, it's been five years since my Revived Hunter manifested. It's been two years since I escaped from that laboratory after being subjected to various experiments, but even after I escaped, I had access to all of the experiments that were being conducted there and I was able to use my gift to understand what was going on in that laboratory. I know that you killed the Revived Hunter Exideth…… Darkflash Bright.”

At first, Kouki thought this man revealed himself because he found out that Kouki is the same as him but apparently he was wrong. He realized that the man was only aware that Kouki was Bright and that he was the one who killed Exideth.

“……Then there's no point in hiding it. I am Bright, the person who killed that Exideth guy. But that's because he was a piece of shit who deserved to be killed.”

They had the same Revived Hunter gift. If Exideth was a decent person, Kouki would have rescued him and made him one of his comrades. But Exideth was the kind of person who despised human life and a fool who didn't think twice. That's why he chose to kill him instead.

“ ……He used to be a mild-mannered guy. But the hellish experiments changed that. Anyone would go crazy if they were killed every day. That's why I escaped from the lab in the first place.”

A Revived Hunter who escaped that laboratory. Indeed, Kouki recalled that Strohm had also said that one of the experimental subjects had escaped.

“Hell, huh. Then why'd you run off by yourself? Shouldn't you have taken that idiot with you?”

“I couldn't do it, gift-wise. That's why I was looking for an opportunity. I've been looking for an opportunity to kill Strohm and…… my fellow Revived Hunters, the changed Exideth, with my own hands. ……It was supposed to happen tomorrow. And then you ruined everything.”

“I don't care what you say. If that's the case, why didn't you just go ahead and do it right away when you could? That's just venting at the wrong person. I mean, you were going to kill him anyway, so isn’t it fine result-wise?”

The man's expression changed. It was as if he genuinely recognized Kouki as a deeply hated enemy.

“Venting is fine. Not like I’ve got anything left. I lost my family while I was being held in the lab and all of my comrades, even if they were rotten, are already dead. I wanted to at least bury Exideth with my own hand as the sole escapee from that lab. So… I'm sorry for you to be my venting target, but I'm going to have you die.”

The bloodthirst that overflowed from the man again became the gong for the battle.

“I don't want to have to deal with your unreasonable obsession…… You know I'm Bright, and you're still challenging me to a fight. I'm not sure if you're just an idiot or a suicidal maniac.”

“Only two choices? Unfortunately, I choose the third option……”

The man jumped right in front of Kouki’s bosom with a step that surprised even him, and unleashed a sharp punch at Kouki's face. He barely had time to guard it but the impact on his guard arm made him realize that he had misjudged the man's capabilities.

“The choice that honors me is to be the one that will slaughter the Darkflash Bright.”

“Heh~, you are stronger than expected. I rarely ask but I'll take your name just in case.”

“Kazur……. That’s the name of the person who will kill you!”

Both sides kept their distance and waited for the other to make a move.

(He's not a Speed Star or Flash user, but he has acceleration-type gift. And if he's a Revived Hunter, then he definitely has more than one gift……. It's a shame we're both the users of the same gift, but I guess I'll have to kill him……)

In a battle between the same user of a gift, the stronger one doesn't always win. In the past, Kouki himself has experienced many painful experiences due to his conceit, so he had developed a habit of killing without hesitation if he can.

Kouki activated Silent Stealth. From here, he can either use Invisible Slash or activate Flash and use Lonsdaleite to stop him. In fact, no one has ever been able to escape this combination of attack.

This time, Kouki felt something unpredictable about the man and chose to attack with Invisible Slash, a pattern that would be safer for him.

(If he's a Revived Hunter, I'll have to kill him twice. Let's kill him with a long range attack first!)

An Invisible Slash slash appeared on Kazur's body.

……But Kazur did not avoid it. The slash did indeed cut through his body. However, his body was unharmed.

(What happened? I'm sure the slash overlapped with his body. And yet, it's as if it slipped through his body…… is that also another one of his gifts?)

“What’s wrong? With an attack like that, you won't even scratch me, you know?”

Kazur said so while smiling wryly in a strange direction.

(I don't know what kind of gift that is, but I'm guessing he can’t recognize me while I’m in Silent Stealth. Then……)

He activated Flash. He started to move to kill him at once with another of his solid combo, an attack with the Lonsdaleite in close proximity, but then……

“You fool!”

Kouki was about to attack Kazur from behind, but suddenly Kazur turned around and intercepted Kouki's attack with his arm that turned into a blade!

“Tsk, He must have seen through me!?”

A ringing metallic sound. Kazur's blade and his arm, hardened by the glittering Lonsdaleite, collided with each other.

“I've got you fooled. I've got no blind spot!”

(The gift that disabled Invisible Slash, the gift that turned his arm into a blade, and that blade that is hard enough to block a blow from Lonsdaleite, and the gift that detects presence? It seems that this guy is not like that idiot(Exideth)...)

“What’s the matter? Darkflash. Is that all you're capable of? Apparently, you're not as strong as your reputation it seems.”

The first time that Kouki was not able to fight freely against human opponents was back in the day when he fought Hiro, Fuuka and etcs. After that fight, there was no one who could resist his overwhelming strength. In other words, Kouki hadn’t been fighting death match that risked both sides’ lives.

But this time, he showed no carelessness nor hesitance. It was simply that Kazur was a strong foe.

“Don't get carried away just because you blocked two of my attacks.”

Once he cooled down, he focused all his attention on the fight. Then, he reaffirmed Kazur as a powerful enemy in the class of Kiryu and Onijima.

“The show from hell for you starts here……”

Flash activated. If Kazur could detect his presence, Silent Stealth was no longer useful so he deactivated the gift.

Fast and strong. Kouki chose to fight head on.

“GURGH!!”

It was a very unremarkable strategy, but every single one of Kouki's blows was an attack that could be fatal. Kazur could only barely cope with the rush.

There are three different gifts that Kazur had used so far.

First, the gift that disabled Invisible Slash, ‘Trans Parency’[1]. This gift is ranked at B+ that makes one's body invisible for a few seconds. It looks like the same type of gift as Silent Stealth but it is actually a different kind of gift.

The difference is that Silent Stealth makes your body and sounds disappear but only visually, and others can still touch the user even when it's activated, while Trans Parency doesn't just make the user disappear visually but actually makes the body transparent and allows the user to pass through all materials.

The duration of the effect is short, only about three seconds, but using this gift, Kazur escaped the laboratory.

Next, the gift that sensed the presence ‘Precursory Radar’. This is ranked at B that allows the user to detect any sign of life within a five meter radius.

And the gift ‘Madder Arm’ that intercepted Kouki. It's a gift ranked at B- ability that turns one’s arm into a hard blade. It is very similar to the blade that Kouki uses in Lonsdaleite, but Madder Arm is a gift that turns only the arm into a blade.

All of them have a gift rank of less than A. However, due to Revived Hunter's characteristic of proficiency correction by killing the original gift holder, all of his gifts are at high proficiency and have grown to be gifts that are comparable to normal gift of rank A by themselves.

“Don’t you look down on me!”

Suddenly, a green mist was generated from Kazur's body. Bright reacted to the mist and took some distance from it however he inhaled a little of the mist.

“GUH!? GAHARGH…… Poison!?”

Kouki vomited blood and fell to his knees.

It's a rank C gift but with high proficiency, its deadliness and range of effects have increased, and once inhaled, it can paralyze the opponent and if exposed to the poisonous fog for a long period of time, it can cause death, making it Kazur's trump card.

“A gift that uses poison……!? A…… A gift with this much toxicity, it never existed in this world before…… GAHARGH!”

Kazur approached Kouki who was on his knees and muttering in pain.

“This is a characteristic of the Revived Hunter. The proficiency of the gifts you gain will increase many times faster than normal! You were a bit disappointing but it's over now, Bright!!”

The Madder Arm was swung down……but, at that moment, Kouki laughed.

“ …… Now you’re the one being duped.”

The blade of Lonsdaleite pierced through Kazur's abdomen……but just before it reached his organs, he barely activated his Trans Parency and Kazur jumped back significantly.

“GUH…… You fucker, is the poison not effective!?”

Kouki’s blade did not reach Kazur's organs, but it still caused significant damage to his abdomen.

In contrast, Kouki stood up as if he hadn't been damaged by the poison.

“My body is able to forcibly burn away all wounds and foreign objects. Nevertheless, you managed to survive that attack with just a paper-thin margin……You're quite the strong foe after all. I'm impressed.”

“A restorative gift, you said……Hey, wait a minute. How many gifts do you have…… Could it be, are you a Revived Hunter, too?”

Kouki kept his cool and assessed Kazur. And then……

“ ……Hmm, it’s not like I’ll be troubled if you know about it. Exactly, I'm also a Revived Hunter. You got a problem with that?”

If Kazur was right, Exideth was already drowning in his own power as far as Kouki concerned; regardless if he was originally a good man or not.

However, Kazur didn't seem to be drowning in that power despite the fact that he had obtained power that was incomparable to Exideth.

He is also a Revived Hunter, so wouldn’t it be alright to talk with him. That's what Kouki thought. If Kazur was also a scoundrel like Exideth, he decided that he could just kill him.

“……Then why didn't you just say so in the first place?”

“You didn't ask me about it. Well, even if you had asked me in the first place, I wouldn't have admitted to it.”

The murderous energy that had been pouring out of Kazur dissipated. The expression on his face changed from one of avenger’s to one of relief at having found a new comrade.

“ ……what a unreasonable person. If you're a Revived Hunter like me, you're a comrade to me. There's no reason to fight anymore…… At least not on my part.”

With that, Kazur looked at Kouki with a somewhat pleased expression.

“What the hell? Don't you want me to kill you for taking away your purpose?"

“……I'm one who thinks a living comrade worth more than a dead one. Let me introduce myself again. My name is Kazur. I'm one of the four Revived Hunters manifested from Strohm's experiments. Now that you've killed Exideth, you and I are the only two Revived Hunters left, as far as I know.”

“……even if you were going to kill him anyway, don’t you think you are being a little too indifferent? What a heartless bastard. Also, when I’m in this form, you can call me Kouki.”

Kouki also released the aura of battle mode from his body.

“Kouki, huh, got it. About Exideth, to be honest, I wasn't sure whether to kill him or rescue him, because he was so drunk with power that he changed. That's why I delayed my decision.”

“I see. It's true that no one would benefit from a fool like that being released into the world. Originally, I would have liked to get to know him as fellow Revived Hunter, but there’s no way with that idiot.”

As he said this, Kouki placed his palm on Kazur's injured stomach. Then, before anyone noticed it, the wound closed up and the injury was healed.

“How the hell did you even learn the healing-type gift? Isn’t it physically impossible to be killed by healing-type gift?”

“This gift can be used for restoration and killing. In a sense, this gift is like a curse.”

After the treatment was finished and the wound was completely gone, Kazur sat down on a nearby bench with a gesture of relief.

“Kouki…… How long has it been since you manifested Revived Hunter?”

“Since I manifested…… I’d say it's been about a year and a half.”

“What the hell!? You're telling me that you've gained that much strength in just a year and a half? I'm honestly surprised. So much so that when I see the gifts you've mastered, I could imagine just how close to death you’ve been.”

Kazur's words came from someone who experienced death. It was something that only he understood alone until now.

“A comrade……. You're right. Only someone who's been there can understand the pain.”

Kouki also sat down next to Kazur.

“During the battle, you have used at least five gifts. If you don't want to tell me, that's fine, but how many gifts have you obtained?”

There is a big difference between knowing the performance of the gift and not knowing the performance of the gift when actually fighting. It would have been an unthinkable action to tell others about matters that would risk his life-and-death, but……

“I'm not going to go into details, but there are seven in total, not including the Revived Hunter. All of them are gift rank of A or higher……or rather, most of them are S.”

“All are higher than A…… what’s more, S ranks!?”

Knowing well the nature of Revived Hunter, Kazur thought it was a miracle that Kouki had been able to survive until now. As Strohm had said, Revived Hunter is an ability with really strict conditions and restrictions.

“ ……No wonder you're so strong. You’ve been through so many battles with so many powerful people. In the end, it was only with Strohm's support that I was able to survive. To have that much power without anyone's support……the odds are truly miraculous, you know?”

“Well, maybe it was indeed a miracle. Now that I think about it, it wouldn’t have been weird if I died in any of the past happenings. So, how many gifts do you have?”

“Mine, huh……. I haven't obtained as many high-ranked gifts as you. However, I have 29 gifts of various ranks.”

Twenty-nine. It meant that Kazur had about four times the gift of Kouki.

This surprised Kouki inwardly. In fact, even with seven of them, there are still times when he didn’t use them effectively. He wondered if he would be able to even use twenty-nine of them properly.

“Of course, some of the gifts aren't as useful as others, so usually I end up with a limited number of gifts to use as my main cards. But at least it proves that Revived Hunter can get up to twenty-nine new gifts. Isn’t it great that you learned one more thing about this gift?”

“Twenty nine……. Then, it would mean that you had died and revived twenty nine times……”

For Kouki, the number of deaths Kazur had experienced was too frightening to imagine. This is because the phenomenon of dying is so painful that it cannot be expressed in words.

“Now then I want to ask something, just in case. You have to kill the gifted that killed you. Are you aware of this information?”

Suddenly, Kazur waved the information that Kouki wanted to know the most.

“You have to kill the person who killed you. Killing them will increase the speed at which your gift proficiency increases, right?”

“That's right. You don't happen to have anyone that killed you but you have yet to off’ed them, do you?”

Kouki stayed quiet. That in itself answered the question.

“You dumbass! ......how long has it been since that guy killed you?”

Suddenly, Kazur closed in on Kouki with a tremendous momentum.

“……What are you on so suddenly. Fine, it's been over a year and a half……”

“What…… that is…… How is that even possible?”

A year and a half. The words stunned Kazur, and as he searched for his next words……

“‘I'll be right there’…… Partner, I hurried over as soon as I heard it and I found two guys chatting on a bench instead.”

Just right then, Takahiko arrived out of breath.

Author’s Note:

With the appearance of new comrade Kazur, the information that Takahiko hid from Kouki is in danger of being exposed.

……And so, the decision made by Kouki is……

Next chapter: ‘The Real Peril’

“I……will retire from Kuroyume.”

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TL’s note:

1. Amazon link to author’s raw book.
2. The name of the gift is literally 2 words Trans Parency. So I think it’s the author’s mistake. Should be Transparency or something similar.