Bsd meets beast Bsd

Chapter 33 (Chapter 3 part 8 in the novel)

Akutagawa and the tiger were falling from the sky. 

"Tsk...!" 

"I'm pretty sure Akutagawa is the only one in the world who reacts with "tch" when falling from the sky. Tanizaki said

Akutagawa unleashed Rashomon's cloth in midair. They were thirty stories high. A direct impact against the ground would be too much for even the strongest body. Akutagawa's only option was to pierce the building with Rashomon's blades to support his weight. However, he was thrown out the window with significant momentum, so he was a few yards away from the outer wall. Akutagawa shot every blade he had at the building's exterior...but it was still slightly out of reach. All of a sudden, the tiger kicked off the wall and slammed into him. 

"Are you trying to get both of yourselves killed?" Chuuya asked scoffing.

 "Gwah...!"Akutagawa coughed up blood, and his bones creaked. The white tiger, which weighed close to ten times more than him, had knocked him even farther away from the wall. The building was now but a distant mirage to Akutagawa. He looked in every direction, but there was nothing left for him to grab onto. 

"I'm surprised he could even maintain calm in this situation." Yosano noted. 

 All that was left was air. It was evening as Akutagawa fell under the burning twilight sky. Rashomon was a powerful skill, but its range was limited, since he could only change the shape of the clothes he was wearing. Putting every thing into his skill and stretching his overcoat as far as it would go would be a gamble, but he had no other choice. He decided to give it a try. But the tiger's fangs dug into his shoulder, preventing him from doing just that."Gwaaaaaah!"Its massive jaw bit into Akutagawa's flesh. 

"Oh my Atsushi, don't you have anything better to eat. Like chicken?" Dazai asked.

Blood shot into the air as bones crunched in its mouth. Vital blood vessels snapped. 

Nikolai was ecstatic as he watched the scene unravel in front of his eyes.

The tiger could easily rip his shoulder off if it shook its head with a little force. Akutagawa slipped his skill's fabric under his skin to create some spur-of-the-moment armor. The tiger's extraordinary masseter strength and Akutagawa's skill, which could even cut through space itself, vied for dominance as the two boys continued to free-fall to the surface. They had under twenty stories left until they reached the bottom. 

"Damn it!" Akutagawa cursed. 

The tiger—Atsushi—would probably survive if he hit the ground because of his tough body and regenerative abilities, but Akutagawa would undoubtedly die.

"Ah now I see his objective. It is quite smart indeed." Mori said.

 Rashomon could tear through space and prevent the impact from colliding into the ground, but that didn't change the incredible speed at which Akutagawa's body would crash-land. Such a sudden change in speed would be too much for his brain or organs to handle. The result would belike dropping a sturdy box with a cake inside onto the floor. It seemed his only choice was to hook a fabric blade into the wall before landing...but he couldn't do that, either. The tiger would snap his shoulder right off if Akutagawa removed his only line of defense for even a single moment. He'd be dead before he even hit the ground. In conclusion...death was the only answer. 

"Like hell...," growled Akutagawa with blood in his throat. "Like hell...! I refuse to die! I refuse! I'm going to live and save my—"

"The reason why I never went to see you was because you're not capable of having loved ones in your life." 

"That's clearly wrong." Beast Atsushi said scoffing.

Akutagawa paused midsentence. "Save my—"

"You'll never be a good person. It's clear as day."

 "You're wrong." 

"A man who took a girl hostage to threaten someone and only cares about what benefits him... A man who doesn't even realize his mission has transformed into nothing more than an appetite for destruction... That's you." 

"Oh my are they talking about me?" Dazai asked trying to acted flattered. 

" No, the wall." Chuuya deadpanned making the the other pout.

"No, no, no! You're wrong!" 

"You just wanted revenge? Even if it killed you? Did you not even think of what would happen to your little sister if you left her all alone in a place like this?"

 "I—"

"Because you were born to do evil. "Akutagawa whispered as if he were gasping for breath, "I..."

Oh. It finally all makes sense. So this was what Gin was trying to tell me. This was why she couldn't be with me anymore. The tension vanished from Akutagawa's expression. His fingers gripping the tiger's fur loosened. A man and a beast continued to fall, approaching the eternal abyss.

"Pathetic. Giving up at the first sign of trouble. That's cowardice." Chuuya spat out but everyone can tell that he was clearly worried.

 A swift turbulence in the air broke the silence. A steel beam shot right past Akutagawa's side and pierced the Mafia headquarters.

"The hell?" Tachihara asked

 "What...?!"Akutagawa stared at the beam with evident bewilderment. It was just any ordinary steel beam, but unless he was seeing things, it looked like it came from the opposite direction of the building. But how could something like that—?Wait. There was someone standing on one of the middle floors of a high-rise building being built a few streets back, and they were holding a steel beam under their arm.

"Is that-" Oh my god it is." the detectives murmured among themselves.

" Please...! Grab—on—to—thiiis!"

 they shouted. It was Kenji Miyazawa from the detective agency. 

"Yayy." Kenji said in a childish manner.

After raising the steel beam into the air, he rested it on his shoulder like a javelin thrower, then broke into a run. 

"Don't tell me he—" Akutagawa's eyes bulged from their sockets." From that far away?" "Haaaaaah!"Kenji hurled the steel beam. 

"Damn that kid is strong. His ability really is useful." Chuuya said.

The hunk of metal, around the size of two adults, sliced through the air and across the street. It flew like a speeding bullet before slipping right under Akutagawa's legs and piercing the Mafia headquarters' exterior. The impact sent concrete flying, and the entire building shook. I...should be able to reach that. 

"That's actually really smart." Gin said.

Akutagawa focused his hazy mind and extended his overcoat toward the beam. By using every last fiber his clothes had, he managed to just barely reach the tip. Bending the fabric like a set of claws, he latched onto the beam and anchored himself, then swung his entire body. His skill started pulling him toward the wall. 

The tiger roared. It opened its jaws and aimed for Akutagawa's neck to keep him from getting away. "Rashomon: Ibara."Numerous thorns immediately emerged from Akutagawa's overcoat, which he was using for defense, and crawled into the tiger's mouth. They rapidly multiplied until they pierced its face from the inside of its jaw. The beast roared in agony. After Akutagawa grabbed onto the steel beam, he swung himself like a pendulum before landing on the exterior wall. He used his overcoat like cushioning to absorb most of the impact while piercing the wall with his blade to anchor his body in. 

"That looked really cool. Wow." Tanizaki marveled.

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