Gragg was in a location away from the ship. In a corner of a sparse forest, stars twinkled in the clear night sky. Even in the sky of this unexplored land, he could find the constellations he saw from his window at home. It was natural, yet somehow, it felt unreal.
He placed a rock of suitable size and stood a cross made of wood tied with rope nearby. It was a makeshift, clumsy grave marker, but forgive me, he apologized in his heart.
Katroi's body had been left near the Worm's habitat. He had become a decoy to let the remaining squad members escape and never returned. according to the report from Quinn who had gone to help, she successfully repelled the Worm, but Katroi died, and she didn't have the leeway to carry out his body.
At least, that was what Gragg had heard.
So, he built a grave marker as a token of mourning. However, that might have been nothing more than self-satisfaction to calm his own heart rather than for Katroi's sake.
In any case, it wasn't something to be doing in this situation. The surroundings were a night forest, and he had left the ship all alone. It was an action that made one doubt his sanity.
True, he might have gone mad. In reality, he hadn't come to this place for the purpose of making a grave.
He was waiting. In the forest where even the voices of insects had fallen silent, he waited while apologizing to his late comrade. The time for repentance was always long, and by suffering, he was healed.
Quietly, footsteps approached. The person he was waiting for finally arrived.
"Gragg!"
The girl who rushed over out of breath called his name. Gragg remained standing before the grave, not turning around. He opened the flask he took from his pocket and sprinkled the contents onto the cross. The smell of distilled liquor drifted through the area.
"Did you know? Despite how he looked, Katroi loved alcohol. usually, he was timid, but when he had a drink, he became cheerful as if he were a different person. recently, he had been abstaining to focus his mind, but I wanted to let him drink his fill at the very end."
Faced with Gragg suddenly beginning to speak, Quinn seemed unsure of what to say. From Quinn's perspective, everything he was doing right now was likely incomprehensible. For the time being, what she was concerned about was Gragg's safety.
"Are you... hurt?"
The reason Quinn was able to follow Gragg to this place was that he had left traces. Gragg had carved simple distress signals using Nen letters here and there.
Quinn surmised that Gragg had been caught up in some kind of battle inside the ship and separated from it. Having no leeway to contact his comrades, he had entered the forest leaving only distress signals. In some cases, she had anticipated severe injuries rendering him immobile, or even the worst-case scenario, but he was unharmed.
However, the anxiety did not disappear from Quinn's chest. She sensed a disturbing air in Gragg's presence. She was beginning to realize something was wrong.
That premonition was correct. It was a setup that Quinn would search for Gragg and locate this place. The calamity's attack on the ship was also part of the plan. In reality, not a single unexpected situation had occurred.
Everything had been smooth up to this point. That was precisely why he was tormented by unbearable anguish.
"Why did you lie?"
He spat out his emotions as if squeezing them out. It was not a question based on clear intent, but an impulse he could not stop, like a dam breaking.
"You ate Katroi, didn't you?"
After returning to the ship, Gragg learned everything. A hidden camera had been attached to Quinn's protective mask. Gragg was informed of this after returning to the ship. He was told the details by Commander Andarm.
The danger of an ability that had not been explained beforehand could not be ignored. It exceeded the level a single Nen user could realize. One had to say she herself was a calamity.
Even so, he was grateful that the power was used to save Katroi. In that situation, no one would have blamed her if she ran. She fought playing a hand she didn't have to show.
Undeniably, he felt she was a comrade with whom he had overcome a life-or-death crisis. Katroi would surely have been rewarded too. If she hadn't been there, he wouldn't have been able to exhibit movements that far exceeded his ability. They fought risking their lives to protect each other.
"Was that, all of it... a lie too?"
Quinn ate Katroi's corpse. Accurately, she made the red bug she possessed eat Katroi's brain. And she concealed it without telling anyone.
For what reason was that action taken? The views of the scientists on the ship were all too cruel to bear listening to.
And Gragg, while thinking Quinn was not the kind of person to do such a thing, could not deny the deductions the scientists lined up as they pleased. Those hypotheses all held persuasive power.
That is why, once more, he asked her true intent. The relationship between Quinn and the Chimera Ant. The secret of her extraordinary ability. All the reasons she tried to get close to humans.
"What are you! Quinn!"
Quinn did not answer. However, she showed an abnormal reaction.
She shook violently, crouched on the spot, and vomited. There was almost no vomit. Quinn hadn't ingested decent food for the past few days. Only stomach acid came out.
Gragg knew the sensation of uncontrollable nausea when there was nothing to throw up. He couldn't think it was acting. But if so, why did she take the action that caused it?
Gragg was severely shaken. Seeing Quinn upset, he felt moved. There was a thought that the psychology of wanting to protect her was working more than a little.
However, the reality was the exact opposite. Rather, he strengthened his apprehension toward Quinn showing human reactions. It was a problem that an existence unknown to them learned from humans and expressed those actions more emotionally.
Before being a comrade or a brother-in-arms to Quinn, Gragg was a soldier. The order imposed on him was to protect the safety of the hundreds of humans on the ship and to send it off so as not to bring a threat to his motherland.
Cooperating with Quinn out of personal emotion was not permitted. He was shaken by himself, who accepted that obvious logic as a matter of course.
The gears were out of sync, yet they continued to turn. The diverging emotions and actions would eventually destroy his inner self. He had to settle this before that happened.
"Quinn, I cannot let you on the ship."
The order given to him was to buy time until the ship escaped the coast and into the open sea. The ship had already set sail. He was entrusted with stalling Quinn so she couldn't pursue. That meant he, too, was left behind.
But he had no regrets. He didn't have a fragment of a thought of sacrificing his comrades to save his own life. He focused only on the single point of buying time until the ship escaped to the safety zone. He wiped away the unnecessary idle thoughts inside him. That process could be called blind.
Considering accomplishing the mission perfectly, there was no need to tell Quinn the truth. It would have been smarter to fabricate a suitable reason to keep her here without making her wary as much as possible.
However, the current Gragg had no leeway to perform that act. Even if his mind were in a calm state, Quinn would likely notice the unnaturalness of his behavior. She was not a dull opponent.
He dared not hide it and broached it head-on. The effect of his words appeared immediately. Quinn backed away while shaking her head. Her appearance was the very behavior of someone unable to accept reality. Just as her appearance suggested, she looked only like a young child throwing a tantrum.
"Please, Quinn. Stay here... I will stay here too. Afterward, I don't care what you do to me. So..."
Perhaps the shock was too great; Gragg's plea did not reach Quinn's ears. As if casting everything aside to run away, her feet retreated. She turned her back on the wall standing before her and tried to disappear somewhere.
From Gragg's perspective, he couldn't let her escape here. If she headed for the ship with those legs, the mission would end in failure. He had no confidence in winning a chase against her, who knew this forest inside out. That said, it was impossible to stop Quinn, who was seriously trying to flee, by force.
"If you run, I will tell everyone on the ship about this!"
Therefore, he had assumed this situation too. He threatened to expose what Quinn had done. This information was known only to the upper echelons, but it was a known fact. However, by using it as material for blackmail here, Quinn would misunderstand that this information was not yet widely known.
If this fact became public, there would be no place for her on the ship. No matter what destructive ability she possessed, she could not cross the sea all alone. In reality, the elimination plan was already underway, but there was no way for Quinn to know that.
"Together..."
Quinn stopped moving. There was no place to go forward or backward; the left-behind girl muttered as if seeking help.
"Everyone... let's go home, together...?"
That figure tried to awaken the monster sleeping in his depths. There was no fear toward Quinn. Rather, the emotions he had pushed down into his inner self were terrifying.
Regret, and recurrence. Would he repeat the same thing again? And this time, by his own hand.
Gragg bit his lip. Hard enough to crush the flesh and fill his mouth with the taste of blood. He stifled the passion that felt like it would drive him mad with pain, for if he didn't do so, he would lose his mind.
"Your place is here!"
'No Thoroughfare (Absolute No Retreat)'
Warning-colored long poles appeared in his hands. He materialized two simultaneously and held them in both hands. Barriers are devices that come in a pair. Faced with a divided territory, people unconsciously stop walking. With a stance of twin spears equivalent to a barrier, Gragg stood in Quinn's way.
He launched a fierce attack. A fighting style that thoroughly cornered the enemy and crushed openings was the tactic he excelled at most. Due to the ability 'No Thoroughfare' imbued in the weapons, attacks received from the enemy were nullified. However, the change in energy balance due to the ability and the attack power gained by enhancing the weapon with Nen were calculated separately.
In other words, he would invariably nullify the opponent's attack, and on top of that, add his own attack power to it. In a clash of power against power, no one surpassed Gragg. No matter how much the attack was enhanced by aura, only his attack would pass through unilaterally.
Since the base was plastic poles, he couldn't obtain reinforcement efficiency equal to pure weapons, but they were still weapons coated with aura by a first-rate Nen user's 'Shu'. If they hit, one wouldn't get off unscathed.
If possible, he considered the possibility of defeating Quinn. There was no need to take her life. He just needed to knock her out for a short while.
It had to be said that taking a point from the usual Quinn was difficult. Quinn was superior in ability as a Nen user. On the other hand, Gragg had skills polished through battles until now, and his experience was overwhelmingly superior. Looking only at skills as a warrior, they could be said to be evenly matched.
In addition, the current Quinn was mentally disturbed. It was clear from the exchange with Gragg so far that she had received a massive shock. Mental stability is an important combat element for a Nen user. While a firm single mind explosively boosts Nen ability, original strength cannot be displayed with a brittle, crumbled spirit.
Against Gragg, who had already entered a combat stance, Quinn took no stance and exposed a defenseless figure. Truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If he missed this, there was no chance of victory for Gragg.