NOVPUB"You did well," he said with a forced laugh, and signaled his men to swarm in.
Faced with this situation, Sugimoto immediately started running, soon surrounded by a faint blue mist that decreased the resistance as he moved.
He dashed up the stairwell, kicked off the wall to change direction, and continued upwards. In mere seconds, he burst out of the underground concert hall into the mouth of the alley.
Two members of the Ghost Face Gang were standing guard outside. Seeing him rush out and hearing the urgent shouts from behind, they moved to intercept him.
[Dekelor Equation: Caelum Eleven]
Two baseball bats, trailing dark red streaks, swung towards 'Sugimoto', blocking his escape route. He collided with one of the men, his arm meeting the bat amidst blue shards of Magic Power. A hard barrier flashed as if it were made of steel plates, clear and crisp, and then the Ghost Face Gang member in front of him swung his fist, sending out dark red circles spreading from his wrist.
Facing the same attack, Sugimoto didn't resist like before; instead, he fiercely swept his leg towards the assailant. As they touched, a blue shockwave erupted, throwing the assailant off balance and snapping his bones, causing him to kneel to the ground.
With this brief respite, Sugimoto leaped into the air; several magic power-formed circular rotary wings materialized at his side, pulling him into the sky.
He was adept at calculation and magic power projection for the construction of the Spirit Particle Sequence, not close combat. He was safer at a distance.
"Get down here!" A deep red meteor streaked across the night sky, hitting the boy in the air and bringing him crashing down to the ground with it.
Unfortunately, the Ghost Face Gang members were professional thugs. Sugimoto's tactics weren't sharp enough. If he had turned the corner instead of taking to the skies and left their line of sight, it would have been easier to escape.
Racing towards where Sugimoto had fallen, the alley was in chaos. The injured Sugimoto covered his chest, struggling to stand and continue running.
His blood wouldn't stop flowing. Each step tore the wound inside him open a bit more, sending waves of intense pain. Sugimoto felt like he was dying, but there was no time to think about that. He simply ran towards the main street where lights shone bright and surveillance was everywhere. There, the gang members would probably hesitate and not dare to act recklessly.
But as he stumbled towards the intersection, a high school girl happened to pass by, carrying a square backpack.
With his pursuers closing in relentlessly, the sound of the baseball bats was like a nightmare. If he slowed down now, it meant they could catch up, and his fate would be uncertain. But if he crashed into her, the girl would likely not escape unharmed either.
"Out of the way!" he shouted, and she seemed to notice, turning around.
Regrettably, she just stood there, seemingly oblivious to Sugimoto charging towards her, leaving him no choice but to try and slow down as he braced for impact.
However, the expected collision never happened. He passed through her figure as if it were a mirage and then made it to the street, narrowly dodging an oncoming truck.
When he looked back, the girl from the alley had disappeared, but the pursuing thugs had terrifyingly caught up.
"Big brother is so kind," a somewhat immature voice rang in his ear, making Sugimoto forcefully turn his head.
The girl from before was now standing beside him, unhurriedly taking off her backpack and placing it on the ground.
"Aren't you running?" Sugimoto had intended to leave immediately, but he couldn't help asking when he saw the girl next to him.
"If it were before, I would have run, because not long ago, I ended up in the hospital from being hit just like that," the girl shook her head slightly.
"Although I don't remember why I was hit by the truck, I've never forgotten these people's faces," she said.
"Actually, big brother, you have Talent too," she remarked, pulling out a black card with a boiling, burning 'Z' symbol on it.
The lemon-yellow 'Z' split through the black background like lightning. When the girl placed the card in front of her, it immediately diffused into a square phantom.
[Connector, synchronization begins]
What is this? Sugimoto was still pondering what kind of special transcendent artifact this was when he saw the girl walk through the square phantom and emerge another completely different figure. The 'her' at this moment had pallid hair, a gaunt figure, as though she had swapped with another person.
Facing the members of the Ghost Face Gang rushing towards her, the girl with pallid hair raised her hand, colorless flames igniting in her pupils, and then her mouth slightly opened. A silent wail rippled out, and like falling dominoes, every affected member of the Ghost Face Gang collapsed one by one, unconscious on the ground.
Withering Secret Art: Lamenting Howl
This kind of secret technique that directly attacked the soul consciousness was hard to defend against for most transcendent beings; they could only endure it. But obviously, these gang members had no strength to resist.
After ending the spell, the girl with pallid hair turned her head, glanced at Sugimoto, and then her figure became blurry. After several changes, she solidified back into the appearance of the girl she'd been before.
"Huff, huff—"
The brief transformation had left the girl thoroughly exhausted, but looking at the people who had collapsed in front of her, her eyes were full of excitement.
"This power is indeed the miracle that will revolutionize everything."
Then she turned around and looked at Sugimoto, who stood somewhat uneasily at the corner of the wall.
"Can you feel what just happened to me?" she asked, gazing at Sugimoto, her eyes seeming to swirl with numerous symbols like an instrument of great precision.
"On you..." Sugimoto's brow furrowed at this moment, indeed sensing something. The one who had just cast the spell wasn't the girl in front of him; it was as if someone else had temporarily taken over from within her.
"The one who cast the spell just now was someone else."
"Indeed, I knew from the moment I first saw you that you were also a person with Talent," the girl said, the symbols in her eyes seemingly becoming brighter.
"You must have had similar experiences, like seeing something that seems both real and unreal, as if you're another person, or perhaps when you first made contact, you vaguely felt a shift in perspective, as if you were seeing yourself from another person's viewpoint."
"That..." Sugimoto was reluctant to admit it, but he seemed to have indeed had similar experiences.
The 'Ling' who died that day, the mother next door who lost consciousness in her sleep, gasping for life, and the blue-haired girl he saw on the first day of school had all given him such a sensation.
"Indeed, I have."
"Correct, so do you want to join us? Like the secret technique I just used, to have such a special Ability."
"Who are you?" He didn't quite understand, but he also faintly sensed that the girl in front of him was not alone, but a member of some secret organization, and the peculiar secret technique just performed was unique to that group.
"We are the last group fighting to end this increasingly divided era, to defy all Songstresses and giant corporations, the 'Z' Circle!"
"Or, you could call us 'Connectors'."
As these words were spoken, it wasn't just the girl in front of him; Sugimoto felt as if countless voices echoed in his mind, men and women, old and young, millions upon millions, spanning the stars.
