Gimol shrank back, his spine shivering as Ryuga leveled his katana at him with a piercing gaze.
His allies had been wiped out, leaving him as the sole survivor standing amidst the carnage. Desperate to believe this was all just a fever dream, he suddenly remembered his last ace in the hole.
"D-don’t move! We have... we have hostages!"
It was the spare Birdcage Regen had entrusted to him. The captured children were still inside.
Gimol had forgotten about them in the sheer shock of witnessing Ryuga’s demonic display of power, but now he saw a flicker of hope. Surely, he could turn the tables if he used them as shields.
"Hostages, you say?" Ryuga asked calmly. "And where exactly are they?"
"Heh... hehehe! Inside this Magic Item! The children are—wait, what?"
Gimol tried to brandish the Birdcage, but his face drained of color when he realized the item was no longer in his hand.
As he looked around in a frantic dither, Ryuga let out a mocking whistle and pointed his thumb over his shoulder. Gimol followed the gesture, looking past the swordsman to see a flock of paper dolls—shikigami—carrying the all-too-familiar Magic Item away.
"Aaaah! The... the Birdcage! Since when!?"
"You were a little too preoccupied cheering for that Sea Urchin Man. I intentionally made it look like I was struggling just to give her the opening."
"Intentionally...!? You mean, from the very beginning...!?"
"I’m honestly glad you didn’t think to use them as shields until the very last second," Ryuga said. "It gave us just enough time to coordinate the rescue."
Before Ryuga had stepped out of the hospital alone, he had entrusted Raiha with more than just guarding the patients. He had asked her to find a way to rescue the children while he provided a distraction. Raiha had grasped his intent instantly and fulfilled her role to perfection.
While Gimol’s attention was fixed on the duel between Ryuga and Gabejin, she had deployed her shikigami to stealthily secure the Birdcage. Now, she held the device before the gathered crowd and shattered it.
A brilliant flash of light erupted as the children were released. Seeing them safe, Raiha looked up and shouted toward Ryuga.
"Ryuga-san! I have retrieved the captured children! There is nothing left to hold you back!"
"Give him hell, Big Brother!" Yui added with a cheer.
"There you have it," Ryuga said, turning back to his foe. "Are you ready?"
"Hi-hiiiieeeee!"
With his subordinates defeated and his leverage gone, Gimol was utterly powerless. Ryuga channeled his Magic Power into Ryuo-ga and thrust the blade toward the sky. As he swung the katana in a slow, deliberate arc, bolts of lightning crashed down around them, sealing off every possible escape route.
『Hey, Gimol! I don't care who it is! Just grab someone and kill them slowly! Make these fools understand their place!』
"A-aaah...! B-Boss! Lord Regen!"
『Gimol? What's going on? Do you hear me?』
The voice of his boss, Regen, crackled through the communication device—the only thing Gimol had left. He clung to it like a lifeline. Hemmed in by lightning on all sides, Gimol scrambled away from Ryuga in a state of near-insanity.
"H-help me! Send reinforcements! Now! Please! Save me!!"
『What happened!? Report! Has the Security Force arrived already!?』
"It's a monster! There's a monster here! He took us all out alone...! H-help—!"
Gimol’s arrogant composure from just minutes ago had vanished, replaced by a pathetic, raving panic. He tried to bolt through the hospital gates, but a group of newcomers blocked his path.
"Alright, we're finally here! You villains, that's enough! From here on, you're dealing with—wait, what?"
"Out of my way! Get lost!"
Cyan and his party had finally reached the hospital, only to be met with a scene they hadn't expected. Finding his path blocked, Gimol decided that these teenagers were a far better alternative than the monster behind him. He tried to shove his way past them to escape.
Cyan, Woz, and Torin stood frozen in confusion. They saw the heaps of defeated thugs and the hysterical Gimol charging at them, and as the lightning-scorched earth closed in on their position, they felt a sudden, sickening premonition.
"Storm Dragon Swordsmanship: Thunder Style—"
Ryuga watched Gimol’s retreating back with cold, quiet focus. He lowered his blade into a drawing stance and kicked off the ground. In a move that was less a run and more a blurring displacement of space, he erased the gap between them. He swung his lightning-imbued katana in a single, horizontal stroke.
"—North Star Flash!!"
"Gyaaaaaaaaaah!"
"Gueeeeeeeh!?"
"Wha—!? Uggyaaah!"
"Why is this happen—Ngaah!"
Ryuga clicked his katana back into its sheath. As if on cue, a violent explosion erupted behind him. Gimol’s death-defying shriek merged with the pathetic yelps of Cyan and his two companions.
The four of them collapsed into a heap. A moment later, Peewee and the rest of Cyan's party arrived, their eyes wide as they took in the carnage.
"Um... what exactly is going on here?" Peewee asked.
"My apologies," Ryuga said, slipping back into the mask of a polite, affable young man. "I was dealing with the group that attacked the hospital. I’m afraid I caught them in the blast when I was finishing off the last one."
"The group that attacked...? You took down this many by yourself!?"
"It was nothing special. They were just a disorganized mob of thugs."
Ryuga gave her a gentle, disarming smile. He neglected to mention that he had seen Cyan and the others perfectly clearly before unleashing the North Star Flash, and had simply decided that hitting them too was a fair price to pay.
As Peewee and the others stood there in a daze, Ryuga made a polite request.
"I’m sorry to ask this of you, but could you help me restrain these criminals? It would be quite a hassle if they woke up and started causing trouble again."
"O-oh! Right! Leave it to us!" Verda replied.
"I appreciate it. Truly, thank you."
"Don't worry about it," Peewee said with a sigh. "It's not like we have much else to do now anyway. And... sorry about our leader. We’re the ones who jumped into the middle of your fight, so don't let it bother you."
As Verda and Peewee began the tedious work of tying up the unconscious thugs, Ryuga let out a breath and considered resting for a moment. Just then, a familiar voice crackled from the ground.
『Heeey, Ryuga! Can you hear me?』
Ryuga looked down and saw Gimol’s dropped communication device. He picked it up and hit the receiver.
"I hear you. I've just finished up on my end."
『Oh, good! You really saved our necks. Thanks, Partner! So... just to be safe, I assume you're alright?』
Ryuga chuckled. He could hear the absolute trust in Yugo’s voice—the casual certainty that failure wasn't even a possibility.
Amused by the setup, Ryuga responded with his usual catchphrase.
"Don't ask me questions, partner."