Chapter 12 «Kishou Arima (End)»

Ken's gaze became more and more serious.

Then, looking at Arima who moved the shield from in front of him used to protect himself from the attack from earlier, Ken told him.

"Now I'll be serious!" showing a smile.

Immediately after lifting his foot, he slammed it to the ground. From that point, huge cracks appeared that headed in all directions.

Arima narrowed his eyes slightly at what Ken was doing.

It is useless because it is only consumption of stamina, this is what Arima feels, but looking at the smile printed on the boy's face in front of him, he is not so sure of this anymore.

For this reason, as if by instinct that the situation will get dire if he keeps watching the boy do what he just did, he transformed his Quinque back into the third form. All the Rinkaku headed back in Ken's direction.

Ken, looking at all these Rinkaku directed towards him, did not change expression, always with a grin he raised his foot and slammed it on the ground for the third time.

The cracks that were present on the ground, with this third 'attack' intensified exponentially. Small stones sprouted from the cracks and subsequently fell to the ground.

Arima really can't understand what he's doing.

"You want to know why I'm doing this, right?" Ken said, looking at Arima who was there watching him doing this with a tangled forehead showing his inner unease and confusion.

"I'll show you!" Ken shouted in the direction of Arima. So, ignoring the tentacles that in the meantime came and started attacking him, he put his hand on the ground, right in the middle of all those cracks.

Arima immediately understood what Ken was trying to do doing this.

Ken, raised his hand again but this time with a massive stone on it. The size of the two was disproportionate, but Arima said nothing about this surreal scene.

Arima jumped to the side immediately. Immediately afterwards, he felt a wind impact against his body.

"boom ~."

A big sound came behind Arima, followed by a cloud of dust.

Seeing Arima on the ground, Ken, without wasting time, picked up pebbles from the ground that appeared for his attack. He immediately started throwing them at the investigator. Only that, before they left his hand, Ken began to apply vectors to remove the initial friction and increase acceleration.

The speed with which they were thrown by Ken impressed Arima so much that it seems that frozen water was thrown on him to wake him up. If even one of these "pebbles" lands on his body, Arima feels that even if he does not die directly, he will become severely injured and thus unable to continue fighting.

For this reason, he started to transform the Quinque into the shield, trying to block every single blow.

"Boom ~ Boom ~ Boom ~."

Every single blow made Arima's shield tremble slightly. Even though the stone disintegrated upon contact with the shield, the impact was still transmitted.

If Arima hasn't felt anything before when Ken has continued to attack him, it is because Ken has refrained from using too much force to consume as little stamina as possible. However, the longer this confrontation between the two lasts, the more urgent the feeling to end it as soon as possible is.

Arima's gaze got dark as he felt the shield was breaking due to all these 'bullets' crashing into the shield.

This cannot continue, Arima thought.

Although these blows made his hands that were holding the shield shake slightly, Arima started running towards Ken resisting this feeling.

Ken, on the other hand, seeing Arima coming towards him, showed a smile.

Without waiting for an answer from Arima, Ken immediately arrived in front of Arima's shield and without holding back, threw a punch with all the force he could exert with Accelerator's ability.

Arima's gaze in that split second when Ken threw his punch, condensed and then, with an absurd speed he was thrown backwards. In not even a second Arima arrived against the wall positioned several tens of meters behind him, bumping his back against it.

From behind Arima, on the wall where he was thrown, cracks appeared that expanded for a few meters until they stopped.

As soon as Arima reached the wall, he opened his mouth to take a breath of air. After being slammed into that wall, Arima felt as if his entire body was collapsing from the inside. He didn't expect the strength to increase so much in such a short time.

But this just made him realize that the white-haired boy in front of him is trying to finish this battle as soon as possible, which made him confirm his idea, which is that the ability can only be used if there is stamina.

Arima got to his feet, immediately changing the weapon from the second form now destroyed by that punch to the first form.

If he can't finish this fight quickly, it will be the end for him. He has seen that every single attack now damages every mode of his Quinque exponentially; this is absolutely a disadvantage for him.

After all, he only took the IXA for this mission.

For this reason, the winner of this fight will be the one who manages to destroy the last ounce of the strength of the other. Either Arima manages to get the last ounce of stamina from Ken's body or his weapon is destroyed, in any case, Arima has to admit that this was the biggest challenge he has ever had, even more so than the One-Eyed Owl.

Ken sprinted forward, spinning around, dodging Arima's attack that appears to have appeared out of nowhere.

Arima's eyes are more serious than ever. This is perhaps the only fight in which he has decided to go beyond his limit. Arima has thus begun to use a force beyond the limits granted by his half-ghoul half-human body.

If he doesn't start going with 200% of his strength, he feels like he won't be able to survive. A shortened life span is always better than being dead entirely without being able to see his wish come true; this is something he cannot afford.

Ken and Arima as if they were in sync, acted at the same time.

The fight seems to have returned to its beginnings, only that both know that this is the decisive moment.

Ken placed a vector under his foot and launched himself at Arima while the investigator moved to the side thus dodging that blow, attacking Ken's defenceless back at the same time with several thrusts.

Seeing that the shot didn't go well, Ken didn't stop. He charged again with his head down against Arima. Same result.

I can't believe he can keep dodging, Ken thought in his own mind.

In this way, Ken showed a small pebble in his hand, harmless but which in the eyes of Arima seems to have become a mountain.

This 'bullet,' as soon as it left Ken's hand, disappeared completely with impressive speed. Arima only felt a pain on his right leg. He clearly understood that the blow served to prevent him from moving thus dodging Ken's next charge.

In fact, Ken in the next instant like a shadow appeared in front of Arima and, with a simple movement, threw a punch straight in the face of the investigator who, in order to defend himself, placed his Quinque horizontally.

Arima understood that this is the end of this clash between the two.

Even though the blow was blocked, the force that possessed that punch sent the investigator flying a few meters while destroying his Quinque.

Just as Ken was about to attack again, as soon as he took a step, it's like his centre of balance was gone. If Ken hadn't stepped on the opposite side with his other leg, he would have fallen on the ground. What he felt was a hallucinating weakness pervading his entire body.

Ken understood that now is the end of this fight because as he was about to seek victory, several shouts reached his ears along with a continuous series of steps.

Ken's gaze changed immediately. He understood that the investigators are back from their hunt of the Clowns. Only that Ken wasn't expecting this timing at all, after all, the fight against Arima should have lasted about ten minutes or so.

"A bunch of garbage" cursed Ken in a shallow tone of voice.

Ken immediately understood as soon as he heard those voices that he cannot go and take his well-deserved victory.

So, with a complicated expression, he turned and jumped over the building and then completely disappeared in front of Arima who in the meantime remained silent watching all of this happen.

Arima's expression, like Ken's, is complicated. After a few seconds, he looked at the only remaining piece of his Quinque, the handle.

But at the same time, he is relieved that he still has the ability to change this society.

Then, looking at the other detectives who arrived, he nodded to them without saying anything else.

Even though Arima didn't say anything, the red mark on his pants precisely on the thigh is something too visible. The investigators' expression changed, but they didn't say anything since Arima himself didn't complain.

But internally they can't help but marvel at this, the strongest investigator in the CCG was injured, and along with that, his Quinque was also destroyed.

"Let's go ..." Arima said, seeing that no one said anything.

In this way, led by Arima, the other investigators went back after resolving this incident.