The Raven Dark Hero 34

Chapter 34 : Boss is Scary as Heck

TL:SummerPeanut

Gracias for the patron Rodolfo! Cheers for the peanuts Aeginleif

Author’s note:

※This is the second time to talk about gifts so it will be longer than the usual chapter

TL: Et tu brute?

-Saturday.

Kouki hadn't been to Kuroyume headquarters for about a week.

As usual, there were frequent invitations for joint missions on his terminal, but he ignored them all.

"Oh? Another email."

He opened the terminal. The sender seemed to be Rumi, so he checked it carefully. In fact, he had promised to take on a mission with her today.

『From: Teaser

Have you arrived yet? I can't wait to see you!』

He has been seeing Rumi almost every day, but not as Teaser since his last mission to the Nerima branch.

(If I talk too much, I'll get found out, so I think I'll stick to my cool character. But considering that I might be interacting with her often here...)

Kouki thought about it. It's true that the more people who know who he is, the more likely it is that his identity will be leaked. However, it would be easier to spend time with at least one person who knows who he is, whether in private or in Kuroyume.

(Depending on the situation, I might confess the truth to her when we meet today...) Yeah, I don’t feel good deceiving Rumi like this.)

The meeting place was Cid's store an hour later.

(Well then, what should I do with this one hour... Hmm? A phone call? It's rare to get a call on Kuroyume's terminal...)

"Yes, it's Bright.”

“It's Kiryuu.”

The caller was Kiryu, the boss of Kuroyume.

(Oh right, I haven’t given a direct report about the assault at the Nerima branch... The boss was out of somewhere at that time.)

"What can I do for you?"

"You know what I want, don't you? Come to my room right now."

Kiryu said nonchalantly and hung up the phone.

(..what an impatient boss. But the boss's orders are absolute, and I had something to report, so it's convenient.)

"Excuse me…”

Kouki came to the boss's room.

In case you're wondering, he left his jet-black birdman suit with Cid, so he's hiding his face with sunglasses and a scarf today.

“You're here. Sit down.”

We sat down on the sofa, facing each other as usual.

"First of all, thank you for your last mission. Thanks to you, I was able to achieve my aim. Well, that Lieutenant known as Saejima was a bit of a nuisance, so it’s a windfall for us.

I'm sure the reward has been paid. If you want, you can check your account from the terminal, look at it."

As he did what he was told, Kouki opened his account from the terminal. Then...

"Oh... so much!?"

"You killed two lieutenants, including that Saejima, and almost a hundred other soldiers. That much is only natural."

To be honest, it was an unbelievable reward for Kouki, who was still a student. It would not be long before he would be able to pay off his debts.

"But... I never thought that my first mission would be so hard. I even lost comrades..."

"We are a criminal organization in the eyes of the world. As long as it’s for the sake of our goal, I won’t blame you for whenever sacrifice is made. Besides, you know that the mission was originally a very difficult one. Originally, if it was just the three of them, they wouldn't have gotten the permission. But since you will be joining them, I especially gave the permission."

It's true that the mission would have been impossible for the three of them when Saejima was there. He felt a sense of guilt when he thought about the fact that his participation resulted in Yoger and Mist losing their lives. And more than anything, he thought the problem was that those three didn't know that Saejima was there.

"Boss, you deliberately hid the information about Saejima from the mission details, didn’t you? ...To test me..."

If that was the case, Kouki would be angry at the boss. Because that is basically the same as treating the other three as disposable pawns.

"I know what you're trying to say. That's one of the reasons why I wanted to test you. But the main goal of that mission was to reduce the strength of the NDF and kill the lieutenant. You were just an extra objective. The conditions for receiving that mission were set at a minimum of four to the maximum of ten people. At that point, Yogar and Mist must have known that it would not be an easy mission and resolved themselves. It's nothing for you to worry about.

Above all, we didn't know in advance that the lieutenant stationed there was Saejima. If we had known, we would have at least sent in one of our own Numbers."

Kuroyume didn't grasp that it was Saejima who was at the scene. Kouki doubted so but stopped himself from digging too deep.

"...It's not so easy to accept the two’s death though."

The deaths of Yoger and Mist were a shock to Kouki as well. But if Teaser, who has now become even closer to him, were meet the same end, he has no confidence that he could easily accept the reality of it.

"I suppose so. Losing a comrade is rough, even for me. But to continue to look down and do nothing would be a disservice to the people who died."

Towards Kiryu who said so, Kouki felt impressed by the unexpected fellowship by Kiryu and also curious about his real aim.

"Putting that aside, I've done my own research on the Revived Hunter. As a result, there was one confirmed case in the past where that gift could ‘revive the holder from dead’. It was called "Revived Shift".

However, the person who manifested this gift died during an experiment. In addition, he died in the early stages. That's why it was never clarified in detail.... This was a top-secret experiment by the NDF, so it will never be on a book."

Die and be revived....with the same activation requirement as Revived Hunter yet that gift holder died early. As expected there is some form of limitations to his gift, maybe?

"Why did the person who is supposed to revive die? Only God knows. The person who manifested this ability was turned into a research material by the NDF.

In the same sense with the gift that copies others’ gift, Copy Hunter, I mentioned before, it’s assumed that being killed by someone with a different ability changes(shifts) the holder’s gift. However, after the third death, he did not revive. Apparently the gifted on the killing side was the one who killed him in the first round."

Kouki has already been revived four times. And when he was killed by Kurosaki for the first time and by Saejima for the second time, he was killed in a relatively short interval. So the limitation where he can not activate his gift within a short interval can be ruled out. Hence possibly another theory that if he is killed twice by the same person, he will not be revived.

To summarize...

Revived Shift. Gift Rank X (X means unknown or unclear).

• When you die, you can be revived.
• When you are revived, you learn the ability that killed you, and it is overwritten by the new ability when you are killed by another person.
• When you are killed by the same person, you will not be revived.

(Does this mean that if I had died in the battle with Saejima, the Revived Hunter wouldn't have been triggered? ...on rather that’s the case even when I fought that Kurosaki...)

The battle with Saejima was a close fight where either of them could have died. Even remembering it now, he can feel a chill running down his spine.

But more than that, that time with Kurosaki's was very dangerous. Because he had no idea how to activate his ability at that time. His Speed Star got activated just in time, saving his life.

"In any case, it's probably best not to rely on Revived Hunter to revive you in the future. Now that Saejima is dead, the only person who has killed you and still alive is... me?"

"Yeah.... But it's fine because I know I'll never win against the boss, so I'll never try my luck."

"Heh, that phrasing. Meaning once you feel like you can win, you would try?"

"Oh...let me correct myself! I'm not going to fight boss. I also feel indebted to you after all..."

Kurosaki, Saejima, Iori.... With the exception of Kiryu, all of them were dead so it’s not weird for him to be wary. However, Kouki has no intention of fighting Kiryu.

At this moment, Kiryu as if he remembered something, asked Kouki.

"......By the way, you didn't die in the last mission, did you?"

He lost his timing to say it himself, but now that he was suddenly asked, Kouki became flustered.

"Don’t tell me you died?"

Kouki nodded his head resignedly.

"..it was a clean stab through the heart."

"...the opponent was Saejima so that couldn’t be helped. In that case, I suppose we can rule out that the same killer will not activate your gift?"

"Ah, I was killed by the lieutenant known as Iori. I was caught off guard after defeating Saejima."

"..To think you could be killed by someone other than Saejima, it might be fortunate that Iori named lieutenant got eliminated this time. ...so you have a new gift?"

To be honest, it wasn't that he didn't trust Kiryu, but now that he knew that Kiryu was the only one capable of killing him, he felt that it would be dangerous to inform him of all his gifts.

"Are you reluctant to tell the only one who might be able to kill you about your gifts? Don't worry. If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it now. I could kill you any time I wanted to in fact."

For Kiryu, it's probably just a little bit. He let out just a little bit of his bloodlust towards Kouki.

The next moment, Kouki realized how foolish it is to go against Kiryu.

(That’s the wrong way to ease others’ worries though!)

"Hahaha...I guess that’s true. The gift I got this time is called Silent Stealth, which is the ability to become nearly invisible and to void any noises when moving."

"...hmm, that's quite the gift. All right, let me see what you can do."

"Now? ...I still haven't gotten used to it yet........here it goes!"

Kouki activated Silent Stealth.

"...I see. Although it’s as if you have become invisible, there are some vague distortions in the space you are standing at. Since I knew you are here from the start, I can recognize your presence even if you activate the gift. But if you had activated it when no one is aware of your existence from the beginning... it would have been difficult for ordinary people to catch you. All right, I'll leave the infiltration and assassination missions to you from now on."

"Ehh? Putting aside infiltration mission, I don't really like assassinating..."

"What are you talking about now, after killing a hundred men? We're the filths, it’s either kill or be killed. You know that, don't you? That's why you took my offer, isn't it?"

"That’s true but...huh?"

Kouki felt vague discomfort from Kiryu’s previous words.

"Boss, did you investigate about me?"

"Yeah. We have skilled information-type gifted among us. But even without using that gift, I could have guessed most of it.

First of all, when you first met me, you had already manifested Speed Star. And if you combine that with the information from the Revived Hunters, it's not hard to figure out that Kurosaki is a former member of the NDF who was discharged due to his behaviour problems.

You were killed by Kurosaki that day for some reason, but your gift manifested and you came back to life. And you killed Kurosaki. If you didn't kill him, he would have killed you. Am I right?"

"Boss...are you a great detective?"

"I've talked to you directly and also heard a lot about you so it’s simple to reach such a conclusion. However, there are plenty of people who have better head than me. Don't ever tell anyone who you are. Not even Teaser."

When he heard the word ‘Teaser’ Kouki realized. The boss knows his identity completely.

"Even my identity..."

"That's right. As long as there’s even the slightest hint, for example, did you drop a hair or two during some kind of action (the play pretend as an ally of justice)? Even with just that...it's possible to connect that Suou Kouki equals Bright."

Now that he thought about it, putting aside his hair, he might have left traces of his fingerprints and purchase history...and many more.

"...I understand."

He looked at my watch and realized that a lot of time had passed.

(I suppose it’s better not telling Rumi the truth...)

It's not that Kouki distrusted Kiryu. However, he reaffirmed that the boss is scary as heck as he left the room.

...after Kouki left the room. Kiryu knew that the fact Kouki knowing he had been fully investigated would make Kouki hold some form of distrust to himself.

(But at least he still seems to trust me.)

It is true that Kouki was a little dissatisfied, but even so, he did not seem to harbour any definite hostility.

Suou Kouki...Darkflash Bright’s Revived Hunter is an abnormally for Kiryu. There was an element of coincidence, but he was also lucky that the gifts he had acquired were all quite powerful. No...maybe it’s too much to simplify it like that. The more powerful the person who killed him, the higher the risk of being killed again.

Considering that, Kurosaki was probably the first death trial. If the theory that you can't be killed twice by the same opponent is correct, then the probability that Kurosaki would have killed Kouki again, who had just gotten his gift, would have been much higher.

(In any case, it's only a matter of time before the entire NDF finds out about Bright's identity...)

Kiryu thought of the face of the man who was in the NDF.

"The question is how will he who has already know Bright’s identity move?....hmm."

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