F Grade Healer Becomes Strongest Biomancer-Chapter 31: Tongue Guy

Kagami

The van pulled out. Kagami was already walking the other direction.

Babysitting duty. Segawa’s idea of a joke.

"Where are they going?"

The little brat was at his elbow before the van cleared the gate.

He almost forgot she was there.

"Work."

"What kind of work?"

"The killing kind."

She didn’t flinch. Just nodded, like that was a reasonable answer. Then she tried a different angle.

"Who’s Nami?"

His hand stopped halfway to his keys.

"Do not say that name."

"Nami Nami Nami Nami Nami—"

"Brat." The word came out harder than he meant. "Shut it."

She shut it. For three seconds.

"You got really mad."

He didn’t answer. Walked toward the second van. She followed, half-jogging to keep pace.

"Is she your girlfriend?"

"No."

"Your wife?"

"No."

"Your—"

"Get in the van."

She got in. Buckled herself without being told. Looked at him with those brown eyes that didn’t match the white hair.

The engine started. He pulled out of the garage.

He could drive blindfolded if he wanted, but her kicking against the seat required a different kind of focus.

"Stop that."

"Tell me who Nami issss!"

"No."

Kagami watched the little girl slump into her seat. Watched her energy deflate.

The silence came. Blessed silence. For almost two minutes.

But he knew he had to break it.

"She hurt many people."

The words he could live with.

Nana’s head tilted. "So? So did my sister."

He looked at her. She looked back. Victory washed across her face.

"Hey tongue guy, eyes on the road or you’ll kill the both of us."

The little brat reminded him of her.

The muscles in his jaw locked. He stared straight ahead, refusing to look at the passenger seat.

"Do you ever shut up?"

"Nope!"

He tightened his grip on the wheel until the leather creaked. Traffic thinned as they left the city center. Ten minutes. That was the only math that mattered. Ten minutes, and she would no longer be his problem.

"Tongue guy." Nana raised her hand.

"Do not call me that." He exhaled. "What?"

"Were you really going to hurt onee-san?"

Kagami pulled off the main road. The van bounced over a curb, tires crunching on loose gravel as they rolled into a lot filled with rusting car carcasses.

He killed the engine.

"Let’s go."

Kagami scanned the street. Rusted fire escapes. Laundry hanging between buildings. A vending machine flickering on the corner. The kind of neighborhood where people learned not to look twice.

Clear.

Nana was already out of the van, bouncing toward the entrance.

"Wait."

She didn’t wait.

He followed. Up three flights of stairs. Down a hallway that smelled like mildew and old cooking oil. She stopped at a door, or what was left of one. The frame was splintered. Hinges ripped clean off. Someone had nailed a tarp over the gap.

"Can did that," Nana said. No shame.

She ducked under the tarp. Kagami followed.

The kitchen was right there. Small table, two chairs. One still pushed back like someone had left in a hurry. A cup of cold tea sat untouched. From the reports, Mio would have sat right there when she said "Gaian." And Mori, who never reacted to anything, had shifted her posture.

Beyond it: chaos. Cabinets thrown open, cleaning supplies dumped across the counter, instant ramen cups stacked into a tower that had collapsed onto the stove. Trash bags piled in the corner. Clothes everywhere. A school uniform wadded by the bathroom door. Chip crumbs ground into the carpet.

Whatever the girl and that knight had done while the sister was gone, cleaning wasn’t part of it.

A hoodie draped over one of the kitchen chairs. Still held the shape of whoever wore it last.

Nana moved through it like she owned the place. Because she did.

"Balcony first."

She was already through the sliding door. Kagami stayed in the kitchen. Scanned the exits. Window, door, balcony. Three ways in. Two ways out if you counted the fire escape.

Old habits.

The balcony was barely four feet wide. Cracked concrete. A rusted railing. And there, in a chipped ceramic pot: three tiny green tips poking through dead soil, catching the last of the afternoon light.

Nana crouched beside them. Her fingers brushed the soil around the tiny green tips. Gentle. Like they might break.

"I planted them," she said. "Before onee-san met you people. She said they’d bloom by spring."

Kagami said nothing.

"I have to water them every day. She made me promise."

She lifted the pot carefully. Cradled it against her chest. Walked back through the apartment, grabbing a few clothes, a stuffed rabbit, a photo frame she shoved into her bag without looking at.

"Ready," she announced.

The sunset bled through the kitchen window. Orange light on the cold tea. On the hoodie. On Nana’s white hair. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

He saw her throat work. Dry swallow.

Kagami saw the invisible shadows immediately. Clever, but their forms were sloppy.

Sloppy was subjective to him, though.

"4 seconds." He spoke to no one. "That’s all it’ll take to spill your guts on the cement."

Nana looked up. "Huh?"

The tarp didn’t move. Not until they wanted it to.

Then it ripped aside like paper.

"You noticed our [Still Movement]." A gravel voice. The first figure stepped through, had to turn sideways to fit. "Most people don’t. Not until their head’s already rolling."

Massive. Marks covered every inch of visible skin. Symmetrical lines, deliberate. A sumo wrestler’s build, if not for the exposed chest.

Where flesh should be, there was nothing. A hole. Perfectly circular. Through it, Kagami could see the hallway behind him.

"You could have knocked," Nana said.

The fat one ignored her.

"Rumor was true." He scratched his greasy chin. "Japan’s got its own monster now."

A girl squeezed past his bulk. Slim, red hair falling over her forehead to her shoulders. A cloth wrapped tight around her head, covering her eyes. Her neck showed the same geometry etching under her robe.

"Reminds me of the American."

"Which?"

"The one you ate."

"Still don’t recall."

"You’re as fat as you are dense."

Kagami’s eyes tracked the marks. The geometry. The same kind Mio had used in Sublevel Three. He’d put down monsters with those lines before.

This would be no different.

"No matter." Skinny tilted her head. "He’s just a boy. Besides, we’re here for the girl."

Kagami stepped forward.

They did the same.

"Fattie, careful of his right arm." She tilted her head toward Kagami. "It’s nasty."

"Shut the fuck up, Skinny. I’m not stupid."

"You are, incredibly."

"Bitch."

The girl stepped another breath closer. The large man stayed behind. He grinned.

Kagami looked at the fat man. The hole in his chest. Then the bony girl. The blindfold. Then the fat man again.

Segawa was right after all. Not that Kagami had doubted it. He hadn’t wanted to ruin the suit. He’d just had it tailored. And it docked his pay.

"Huh." Kagami rolled his shoulders. "Maybe 9 seconds. 10?"

The fat man had no organs. If anything, this would be a battle of the faster engage.

For once, Kagami straightened his posture.

"Found the girl." The blindfolded one spoke. "Snow-white hair. Brown eyes. Boring."

"Thought you couldn’t see through your stupid blindfold."

"I can’t."

"Hoh! Skinny, look at what she’s holding. Moonpetals."

"Don’t make me homesick."

"Hey... Tongue Guy?" Nana’s voice had shrunk. Her fingers clutched the pot through sheer will.

He pulled her behind him.

The geometry on the fat man’s skin began to glow.

The girl’s hand rose, fingers teasing the cloth over her eyes, eager to see who’d get first blood.

Kagami’s right arm twitched.

"Little brat."

Nana looked up at him. He was already moving.

"Hold your breath."