Ayase Origami put down the collection of haikus, and a page flew out from her sleeve with a pre-drawn Gomoku grid. A pencil was stuck in the paper.
Xia Pingzhou looked at the Gomoku grid on the page, feeling a touch of emotion in his heart. In four hours, they were going to take action, yet these people were so relaxed. It was as if they weren’t planning to wreak havoc at the auction but were instead planning to find a hot spring to soak in and chat.
He took Ayase Origami’s pencil and drew an X in the center of the Gomoku grid.
Meanwhile, in another corner of Tokyo, not far from the Yugong Building.
Heavy rain poured down, and a Maybach drove along a severely waterlogged avenue, its headlights cutting through the hazy rain and illuminating the road ahead.
Ahead, under the traffic lights, hung a giant, pitch-black cocoon upside down.
The driver of the Maybach was a young man with a crew cut, wearing sunglasses and a suit; the elderly man in the back seat had an elegant posture, donning a bright yellow kimono adorned with cornflowers, his hair slicked back.
The Maybach stopped at the red light.
The driver’s foot lifted off the brake pedal. He looked up, frowning as he gazed ahead.
Staring at the bizarre object hanging under the traffic lights, he said to the elderly man behind him:
The elderly man squinted, slightly rolled down the window, and glanced ahead.
The waterfall-like rain cascaded over the massive cocoon, streaming down its surface. In the rain, the traffic light exuded a misty red glow, and the crossroads were eerily deserted with no other cars in sight.
The elderly man was suddenly shocked and immediately ordered: "Go!"
In that instant, the pitch-black cocoon abruptly opened, and a figure wholly wrapped in restraint bands emerged, a restraint band tugging at the Maybach’s headlight, bringing the black cocoon figure down onto the Maybach’s roof.
He used a restraint band to probe inside the window’s gap, pressing the car window control button.
The window slowly opened, the wind and rain rushing inside. The elderly man moved back in shock, only to see a black head wearing sunglasses slightly poking in, waving at the two of them with a restraint band and saying softly:
"Good evening, gentlemen."
The driver abruptly turned back, picking up the Nambu pocket pistol from the seat and firing several shots at the black cocoon’s head.
Bam! Bam! Bam! When the gunfire spluttered out, the black cocoon figure was no longer inside the car.
Instead, a restraint band stretched into the car, swiftly opened the door, and the black cocoon leisurely sat inside, slowly closing the door. He also extended a finger, gently pressed the window control button, making the window softly rise up.
The wind and rain stopped beating on their faces, the world seemed to quiet down, but the back seat was already soaked.
The black cocoon glanced at the elderly man, then turned to look at the driver, murmuring: "Hmm... the rain is really heavy, don’t you think? Letting me take shelter from the rain isn’t too much, right?" He said, wiping the rain off his face.
The driver and the elderly man were simultaneously stunned, thinking why the hell could he get on the car so naturally, speaking with such casual tone to us?!
The driver’s finger rested on the trigger, but in that second, two restraint bands extended from the black cocoon’s body, one tying up the driver’s left hand and the other seizing the elderly man’s neck.
While exerting force to suffocate the elderly man, the black cocoon used the other restraint band to pry the gun from the driver’s hand, causing it to drop onto the seat.
"Mr. Fujimoto, extend your hand!" the driver shouted at the elderly man.
The driver’s superpower is that upon contact with a human being, he can simultaneously transport himself and that person to a place 50 meters from the original point. As long as he holds Mr. Fujimoto’s hand, he can take him out of the Maybach!
The elderly man trembled as he extended his right hand, but the moment their palms were about to touch, the black cocoon suddenly wrapped the driver’s waist with a restraint band, tying him up tightly.
At the same time, he activated Superpower Stealing.
[Passive skill "Restraint Suppression" is activated: During the period of being tied up by your restraint band, the opponent cannot use any extraordinary abilities.]
[Active skill "Superpower Stealing" is activated: Your restraint band has stolen the superpower from Superpower User "Ryukawa Yamato", which you can release within 24 hours ("Skill Release" or "Exceed Time Limit" will cause the stored superpower to automatically disappear).]
"Have a nap. I will attend the auction on your behalf."
The black cocoon slightly intensified the force of the two restraint bands, simultaneously wrapped around the elderly man and the driver’s mouth and nose. They soon fainted due to lack of oxygen.
He used the restraint band to pile them on the backseat floor, then personally sat in the driver’s seat, shedding the restraint bands off his body, wearing the driver’s sunglasses that fell in the car, and drove the Maybach toward the Yugong Building.
Meanwhile, pieces of restraint bands peeled off from his sleeves.
The restraint bands slowly assembled into a humanoid form, the pitch-black incarnation in the car formed, gradually imitating the elderly man’s appearance in the kimono, and then got up.
The black cocoon hummed a tune, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, pressed the pedal, driving the Maybach forward; the restraint band incarnation sat in the back seat, wearing the unconscious elderly man’s full kimono.
Before long, the Maybach stopped in front of the Yugong Building, the black cocoon took an umbrella from the car and disembarked, opened it to shield himself from the rain, then opened the backseat door, allowing his restraint band incarnation to exit, and they walked together toward the Yugong Building.