It’s remarkable, I reflect now, how much hurt and pain a human being can go through if the alternative is death. I’d already been hit by a train – I’d been killed before. It was not fun. And I would be lying if I claimed temptation at the possibility of being smashed like a watermelon by Omaeda.

Death at the hands of this man was not on my list of priorities. That was why, instead of gaping at his action like a braindead fish, I moved to escape as fast as possible. If dodging left or right was out, all that was left was up. So I jumped. I jumped as high as I could. Was it stupid? Well, yes.

But going left or right would have killed me all the same. Ducking would have made a smaller target, but that wouldn’t have let me survive.

For the briefest moment, there was this weightlessness. It felt like I was never going to fall. But when gravity reasserted itself, my feet touched the ground faster than should have been possible. I stood and shut my eyes only to hear the impact of Gogetsuburi striking through another I-beam.

I opened my eyes.

Either I had grown taller by several feet, or I was standing on air.

Bullshit. I was standing on air, now.

“Bullshit,” I whispered to myself in a voice barely audible.