Chapter 122: Two Stand Users Battle Until the Very "Great Dao" is Ground Away
The whispers leading to death continued their rhythmic incantation.
"And when you fall because of a sprained ankle, your center of gravity becomes uncontrollable, leaving you unable to move. This is very reasonable. And at the exact spot where you fall, right where your neck will land, there is a protruding sharp stone. This is also very reasonable. Finally..."
Just as Shinichi Kudo whispered, at that very moment, Gin's ankle indeed buckled. He stumbled backward. In the process of falling, he saw it: a sharp stone protruding abruptly from the ground that, while not perfectly flat, wasn't originally this broken.
How sharp was it? The stone was a narrow triangle, its tip looking as if it had been artificially honed. Though it was mere stone, it possessed the texture of a metallic blade.
"Death by excessive blood loss from a pierced throat... is also a very, very reasonable thing."
Boosted by the authority of Moriarty's Left Hand, the whispers of death transformed into countless invisible dark threads. They coiled around Gin, pressing him down, forcing him toward the predetermined result of death.
Despite facing a mortal crisis, Gin remained icy calm. He had personally experienced this "death trap" composed of a series of "reasonable" coincidences when facing Mo Yu. Now, he keenly perceived a decisive difference between Mo Yu and Shinichi Kudo, even when using the same ability.
The death Mo Yu created was more whimsical, yet grander. With a casual word, Mo Yu made Gin feel the sheer pressure of the Grim Reaper driving a "Fate Dump Truck" at Mach 300. Recalling it later always gave Gin a lingering fear; he was glad he had retreated decisively then. He sensed that Mo Yu had been holding back—if they had continued, it wouldn't have been just "playful accidents."
In contrast, the death Shinichi Kudo created lacked that massive weight of fate's wheel. It was colder, more eerie, like a poisoned dagger thrusting out from the shadows.
This difference wasn't just in temperament; it manifested in power. Against Mo Yu, Gin needed every ounce of strength to earn a sliver of life. Against Shinichi, Gin's Stand—the Black Dragon—merely roared, lashed its tail, and broke free from the dark threads.
In the next instant, just as his neck was about to hit the stone, Gin frame-skipped away!
"Because of your professional killer instincts, you would choose an angle I find hard to react to. This is reasonable. And as a detective, since I knew this beforehand, being able to react is also very reasonable..."
In the whisper, the dark threads continued to coil toward Gin at the speed of thought. Gin's heart sank. It wasn't just the fact that Shinichi could "finish" a long sentence during a split-second frame-skip; it was that his movement was being interfered with—no, it was being forcibly directed.
When Gin reappeared in reality, he found himself standing in a position Shinichi deemed "reasonable."
Shinichi had already turned to face him, slowly raising his right hand.
The arm, which no longer showed human skin or flesh, had turned into a blackness deeper than shadow. In this right hand, he held a simple tree branch.
He pressed the branch against Gin's forehead.
But in Gin's perception, this wasn't a laughable twig; it was the cold, lethal muzzle of a handgun. And indeed, the branch was changing under a bizarre power, its shape and structure shifting toward that of a pistol.
If Moriarty's Left Hand governed the process to death, then the Right Hand governed the methods of manufacturing death!
If Mo Yu could turn a trash can into a poisoned crossbow, Shinichi using a branch as a gun was perfectly feasible.
"And as it happens, I have a gun in my hand. So, with the position being just right, it is reasonable that you are hit!"
Dark threads suppressed Gin to make him bow before death. Then, the "gun" barked.
But the Black Dragon remained defiant. Scales bristling and pupils glowing, it roared and shattered its shackles. This allowed Gin to jerk his head at the last microsecond. The "Branch Gun" missed a headshot, only grazing a bloody furrow across his cheek. But Gin felt no joy in the dodge.
Because he saw Shinichi's "face."
It had lost all human likeness, infected entirely by darkness until it was just a shifting, shadowy outline. Those eyes were like Antarctic icebergs colliding—announcing the arrival of destruction in a silent roar.
Shinichi was becoming increasingly non-human, and increasingly terrifying.
Gin's heart continued to sink. As a veteran, his combat intuition was sharp. Shinichi's "Death Manifestation" wasn't as crushing as Mo Yu's, but it required effort to break. Every use acted as a form of powerful crowd control and interference—deadly enough on its own.
His prediction was soon verified. After the missed shot, Shinichi loosened his grip, letting the branch fall.
Suddenly, a "tick-tock" sound echoed from the twig.
"Because of a leg cramp or any other reason, it is very reasonable that you cannot avoid an explosion in time!"
Infected by the boundless killing intent of heaven and earth, a manic smile appeared on Shinichi's shadowy face. The deaths he created were beginning to ignore basic logic, emphasizing pure whim. Yet, the dark threads from his left hand still carried out his will upon Gin.
Instinct told Gin to retreat. He couldn't keep fighting like this.
But staring at the manically laughing Shinichi, Gin suppressed his instinct. His pupils filled with cold resolve. This monster cannot be allowed to live.
The ticking grew frantic. Gin made a split-second decision: if he couldn't avoid it, he wouldn't!
He crouched slightly and performed a standing backflip. As the fire bloomed from the branch, Gin was suspended in mid-air, back facing the explosion.
In the past, Gin had noticed something—be it strange or normal—that if an explosion happened behind him, as long as he didn't look back, no matter how fierce the blast or flying debris, he remained unharmed. He had never pondered why, but now he utilized it perfectly.
The fire swallowed Gin's silhouette at point-blank range, but did zero damage.
Mo Yu, observing from the sidelines, felt his eyes light up. A change had occurred in Gin.
The trope of "Real men don't look at explosions" is common in movies and anime. The Conan world-bubble, being obsessive about details, faithfully implemented this. For named characters with high fortune, a blast near them wouldn't kill them; it might bruise or knock them out, but never kill.
However, taking a bomb to the face at zero distance was a different story. That wasn't "aftermath"; it was a direct hit. The world usually wouldn't protect you from that unless you were a "Xiao Hei" in shadow-form.
But in this moment, Gin had leveraged his fortune to manually add a setting to himself.
The law of [Immune to Explosions while Facing Away] had landed on Gin. This wasn't just a temporary buff; it was a permanent effect anchored to his existence—a "Character Passive."
Mo Yu was impressed. The ability to add Law-tier settings to oneself was a game-changer. He had joked about having a "Seraphim Tom Cat" to defeat Archangel Gabriel. Now, seeing Gin, he saw the technical path to creating "Tom and Jerry" logic in this world.
Gin finished his flip with a fierce axe-kick aimed at Shinichi!
It wasn't just a physical strike. The Black Dragon shrank and coiled around Gin's leg, turning the kick into a Black Dragon Axe-Claw Strike.
Shinichi tried to frame-skip, but when he stepped back, he found himself still in the same spot. His manic eyes flickered, but he reacted instantly. Nine muscular humanoid Stands emerged behind him.
The goons Shinichi had conquered rarely had complex abilities; most were simple buffs like [Super Strength] or [Destruction Up]. Shinichi used them now, forming a physical "Damage Dealer Array."
Nine Stands, eighteen hands, a hail of punches, and the sound of "Ora Ora Ora!" filled the air. If these hit, even steel would be pulverized.
But Gin's kick was unstoppable. A dragon's roar erupted alongside black winds and mists!
The kick was like a demon dragon's claw. It tore through the "Ora" punches and the Stands themselves. This strike was a masterwork; the laws of "Guaranteed Hit" and "Guaranteed Kill" were contained within it, even without a gun.
Gin had achieved a breakthrough in the heat of battle. His Stand power had reached a state of "fluid mastery." He didn't need a gun; his leg was the gun.
The kick locked Shinichi in place with the "Guaranteed Hit" law, preventing his superior frame-skipping, and sought to execute him with "Guaranteed Kill."
The nine physical Stands were annihilated. Shinichi, fearless, raised his right hand to block the leg!
He stopped the kick, but the ground beneath him shattered, leaving two deep footprints. Gin let out a grunt. He looked down and saw his shoe—which Shinichi had touched—suddenly mutate into a bear trap. The sharp teeth snapped shut, embedding themselves into Gin's foot bones.
This damage was real. Gin's "HP Lock" had been bypassed by Moriarty's Right Hand.
But the pain didn't break Gin. It fueled his killing intent. He was ready to sacrifice himself to end this monster.
Gin spun, unleashing a second kick wreathed in the dragon's aura. This time, Shinichi was caught off guard. Since Gin's raw combat skills were superior, the "Black Dragon Strike" slammed into Shinichi's chest. The "Guaranteed Kill" law poured in manically, damaging the pitch-black shadowy body.
Gin pressed the advantage. Fists and feet flew, with the Black Dragon coiling and striking in sync with his movements. Every hit was a matchless Stand attack.
Shinichi, though less skilled in martial arts, was becoming more "Xiao Hei." His mastery over Perfect Crime was growing by the second, allowing him to trade blows evenly.
In original lore, a "Xiao Hei" whose identity is unrevealed might get beat up by Ran or others, but they never die on the spot. This Conan-Science law allowed Shinichi to fight Gin to a standstill.
The laws collided. "Guaranteed Hit" locked "Frame-Skip." Gin's "HP Lock" was pierced multiple times. Shinichi's "Xiao Hei Body" was covered in wounds.
They were in the heat of slaughter when a shout broke Shinichi's focus.
"SHINICHI!!!"
Shinichi, having just taken several heavy hits, couldn't help but look. A crowd of cars was approaching. In the lead vehicle, Kogoro Mouri was driving, and Ran was leaning out of the passenger window, calling his name.
Shinichi panicked. He instinctively didn't want Ran to see him in this evil, terrifying form. After taking a heavy haymaker from Gin due to the distraction, Shinichi grabbed Gin and forcibly frame-skipped them both away.
In a blink, they were hundreds of meters away. A second later, they vanished even further!
The arriving crowd stared in stunned silence. But Kogoro, watching them disappear, suddenly felt a strange sensation. He felt... like he could do that too.
He stepped on the gas. The entire car vanished!
"Wait... where did Mouri-kun go? Did he vanish too?" Inspector Megure was bewildered.
The policewoman driving his car looked thoughtful. "It seems... quite easy to do..."
In the next instant, Megure's police car vanished. This was only the beginning; one by one, the vehicles of the arriving crowd began to teleport.
In the now-quiet battlefield, Mo Yu rubbed his chin.
"The barrier between the backend and reality is getting fragile. It seems the 'Universal Settings' of the backend are starting to manifest for everyone."
End of Chapter
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