Chapter 192 Forty-eight Vigilantes

The location of the flower shop was originally considered to be the edge of Tokyo, but after the great earthquake seven years ago, Tokyo became an island and the back of the shop became sea level.

Looking out from the second-floor window, you can easily see the waves on the sea and the sea surface glittering in the sun.

But unfortunately, the two people on the second floor have no interest in looking at the sea view outside.

Bang!

Wuming dodged a shot that Asa fired casually, nimbly moved past the mess on the ground and rushed forward, engaging in a fight with Asa in the narrow corridor.

The two men fought fiercely. Wuming tried his best to restrain himself from hitting fatal points with every punch, but the uncontrollable smile that appeared on his face from time to time made him unable to dodge a few times. When the fists landed on Asa, the red-haired young man's face became even paler.

They made full use of everything they could get their hands on around them as their weapons, including broken vase pieces, ballpoint pens, wood scraps and books, turning everything into weapons to attack each other.

Until Wuming pressed Asa to the ground with one hand, and with the other hand he tightly grasped the pen, ready to poke it into Asa's eye socket.

The tip of the pen stopped a few millimeters in front of his eyeball. The breeze brought by the movement made Asa blink, and tears of rationality flowed from his eyes.

Asa lay there, no longer resisting, as if he had gladly accepted his fate.

"Why stop? Kill me, Little Moon, you can do it, right?" Asa said in a coaxing tone, "Just a little bit lower, stab it into my eyes, pierce my brain, and then leave me here to die... You are very good at this, aren't you?"

The explosion on the first floor stirred up a burst of flames. Especially since this was a flower shop, there were hardly any flammable materials near the flames, and soon the downstairs was burned into a ball. The flames burned the stairwell and crawled inch by inch towards the corridor on the second floor where they were. Thick smoke floated over their heads. In just a few moments, this place would be burned down as well.

Wuming's hand was steady. He did not remove the tip of the pen, nor did he continue to poke it down. He just stopped moving.

"I won't kill you." He was silent for a moment and said in a hoarse voice.

"Don't you hate me? I created your hope, and then destroyed it with my own hands." Asa smiled sullenly, his eyes almost moving towards the tip of the pen again.

“…”

Wuming looked as if he had let go of some shackles. He no longer suppressed the deep green in his eyes and the smile on his face that was not caused by himself. He shook his head: "I found that I don't think I have ever hated you."

On the contrary, he was grateful to Asa. Even though that period of time was actually false happiness, Asa did ignite the hope in Wuming's heart and gave him the courage to resist.

So, he couldn't really hate this person.

"What about Tokyo? Don't you love this city and want to protect it?" Asa didn't seem to have any special reaction, but raised his eyebrows and asked with a smile, "If I get out alive, I will definitely continue to play games with you here. Is it okay if your city is destroyed by me?"

Wuming pondered, without retracting his hand: "It's true that I love Tokyo deeply, but I protect it not because I love it, but only for atonement. Only without me can Tokyo truly return to its past state. This city doesn't need vigilantes in the first place."

The black-haired vigilante pursed his lips. The mask he had taken off long ago could not hide his facial expression. Under the burning flames around him, he looked a little distorted, but his tone could be heard to be very calm and relieved: "I can be a rescue measure when Tokyo is trapped, but I cannot be a hindrance to the order of Tokyo in peacetime."

Vigilantes like him are essentially illegal in the final analysis. It's hard to say what will happen in the past, but there will be no place for him in Tokyo of the future.

Others are worried that Wuming won't be able to accept it, and they still fantasize that Wuming can coexist with the police...but Wuming knows that this is impossible.

Wuming knew it from the very beginning, that he would be "abandoned" by reality after everything was over.

But he still stood up without hesitation, became a vigilante, and unswervingly pushed the city into the light.

"Besides, you can no longer destroy Tokyo. This city now has countless defenders. They will become Tokyo's barrier and protect their own city." At this point, Wuming's expression softened a little, obviously thinking of what Ida Kou said to him.

Asa wrinkled his nose and complained, "That sounds really annoying. I thought you hated them. Where were they when you were making this city a better place?"

"This cannot be generalized." Wuming sighed, and seemed to have completely calmed down his originally fluctuating emotions. Afterwards, he even threw away the pen and stood up.

"I can't judge your crimes. This is not something I can do, even though, in a sense, I am indeed your 'victim'." The black-uniformed policeman stretched out his hand to the criminal on the ground and said calmly, "So I won't kill you. I will hand you over to the real defenders of this city for judgment."

"Get out of here, Asa, and we'll go look at the moon together."

Asa knew Wuming better than Wuming himself. That was why he could hear and see that Wuming was serious this time.

Huh? Want to save him? Want to save him like he did ten years ago when he pretended to be the other party's hope? Asa almost laughed again.

I don’t want it. I’m tired of this world. I don’t want to look at the moon.

Asa opened his mouth and was horrified to hear himself say to Wuming, "Okay."

Asa always regarded everything beautiful and precious in the eyes of ordinary people as dirt. He was tired of the world, tired of living, tired of hope, and tired of being saved.

But at this moment he couldn't help himself and placed his hand on Wuming's palm.

"Well, if you won't regret it after you get out of here." Asa exaggeratedly imitated Wuming's sigh, "Brother Asa is not someone who can be judged by everyone, Little Moon."

The flames had spread to the second floor during their conversation. The two did not say anything more. They had an unspeakable tacit understanding that getting down to the first floor from the fire was a piece of cake. Except for Asa's suit being burnt to tatters, Wuming's uniform still looked brand new.

In fact, they could have jumped from the second floor, which was not too high and was the most convenient and safest way. However, the window on the second floor of the flower shop was overlooking the sea. If they jumped from this height, they would probably suffer from amputation or paralysis, if not comminuted fractures. So for them, the only way out was the front door of the flower shop.

Asa had intentionally left a way out for Wuming. He imagined that he would face a second death here as a loser and gain a second happiness. However, as the exit got closer and closer, he suddenly had a new fantasy that time should stop at this moment.

...For a second he actually wanted to put aside his boredom and go look at the moon with Wuming.

Asa suddenly felt an irresistible push from behind, and he was pushed out unexpectedly just one step away from the exit. The next second, the overturned flower stands collapsed layer by layer and piled up, blocking the exit, and Wuming had not come out yet.

Wuming hasn't come out yet?

Asa's fantasy burst like a bubble.

He turned around and looked at Wuming through the gap in the flower stand.

The criminal genius immediately understood why the vigilante said he would take him away and why he pushed him out in the end.

“Pfft…Hahahahaha! Why are you looking at me like that? Isn’t this what you wanted?”

In the sea of ​​fire behind the flower stand, Wuming, who was supposed to be silent, was laughing. He laughed louder and louder, saying intermittently while laughing: "I will die before my soul has fallen, and there will never be a day when I will fall - isn't this what you want?"

Then he suddenly lowered his voice and called out the name compassionately: "Asa - no, Chaoyue."

"I don't think I've told you yet... The day I met you was the best day of my life."

"Did you see it? The moon is really beautiful."

Wuming stared at him through the burning fire wall and flower stand. The surrounding air was deformed by the high temperature, the branches and plants were burned into charcoal, and gray-black smoke rose. However, the face was extremely clear in Asa's eyes.

Wuming smiled at him and said, "Until the moment of my death, I will be the 'unsung hero' of this city."

"Now, I will never be you, Asa."

The burned beams and ceiling fell with a crackling sound, hitting the flames between them, giving rise to an even more intense fire, completely erasing the nameless figure from Asa's sight.

"No Name!!"

Conan, who had just arrived at this moment, stumbled out of the police car, his hands slipped from his uniform cape, and he looked at Asa, who was standing outside the sea of ​​fire and covered in dust, with disbelief. He saw an expression of despair and collapse on the face that had been smiling all the time.

If he wasn't in such a bad shape, he would have gone forward and punched Asa in the face.

Conan's teeth trembled. He didn't dare to believe the most likely guess in his mind. Instead, he stared at the criminal and asked, "Asa, where is Wuming?!"

Asa seemed to have just realized that Conan had arrived. He kept a distorted expression and slowly lowered his head to look over.

Even though he was standing in front of the burning greenhouse, Conan felt a chill deep in his lungs - Asa wanted to kill him.

At this moment, this thought lingered in his mind.

"No, no, no, no!" Asa came to his senses before he could dodge cautiously, "I won't kill you, little bird."

"As long as you are alive, Little Moon will never let you fly alone outside for a single day."

Asa muttered to himself, his eyes gradually brightened up, looking very charming: "He won't die here so easily, right? Just to irritate me and take revenge on me..."

"Hmm? Oh! You're asking me about Wuming?" Asa finally answered Conan's question, and in a creepy tone, he opened his arms towards the burning greenhouse, "He's in here... No, he's not here either, he will definitely escape from inside."

But when Conan looked at the greenhouse that was almost burned to ruins, the calmness he had forced himself to maintain suddenly collapsed. He took a step forward and subconsciously wanted to rush in to save Wuming, but was stopped by the quick-eyed and quick-handed Date Kou.

"...It's too late." Idahang shook his head heavily, "It's too late to go in now."

Would Conan not know? He just couldn't accept it. He stood there, clenching his teeth tightly. The feeling of falling into an icy cave made him dizzy.

Will Wuming die?

Conan had never thought about this problem - please, that was Wuming, the Wuming who carried this city alone and pulled Tokyo out of its fall, his mentor!

Wuming will die.

Because Wuming is also a human being, and as long as one is a human being, he or she has weaknesses, and as long as one is a human being... he or she will die.

The young vigilante stared at the fire scene with a blank face, his eyes dry.

If he was faster, wouldn't Wuming have—?

Asa looked up at the sky. It was noon and the sunlight was a little dazzling. A string of crystal-like things emerged from the corners of Asa's eyes.

The criminal blinked away the natural tears.

"Ah, I got fooled."

In a trance, Conan seemed to hear Asa muttering -

"I can't see the moon now."

【END】

"Either you die a hero... or you live and watch yourself become a villain."

BadEnding【Imaginary Moon】