Gragg's attack thrust out sharply. Against the current Quinn, who couldn't even perform 'Ken' properly, he could at least knock her unconscious. It seemed there was enough possibility to win.
However, it was dodged. Just before the attack hit, it was avoided as if she had remembered to do so. It was an almost reflexive movement. It seemed to be the result of natural intuition, dynamic vision, agility, and such talents being drawn out instantaneously.
But even the second and third arrows of attacks unleashed were entirely avoided by Quinn. It could no longer be explained by words like coincidence or intuition. She was taking refined evasive actions based on solid technique.
Until just a few days ago, she was as good as an amateur regarding martial arts premised on person-to-person combat. There were traces of her thinking and training in her own way, but techniques one could pursue through self-study were limited. That had now grown to the point where she could avoid Gragg's fierce attacks at an unconscious level.
No matter how much instruction she had from Katroi and other squad members, this growth speed could only be described as abnormal.
Gragg felt a strong sense of déjà vu in Quinn's carriage. That body movement was undoubtedly based on Shingen-ryu. It was not a level that could be reproduced with knowledge merely heard from Katroi. That movement was Katroi himself.
Gragg, who had sparred with him countless times, knew. Quinn had mastered exactly the same techniques as Katroi. The techniques of the man called the 'Instructor of Avoidance Arts' dwelt in Quinn's body.
Witnessing the techniques of his former comrade, Gragg felt indignation. He couldn't think it was unrelated to what Quinn did to Katroi's corpse. Depending on the view, one could interpret it as Quinn scavenging the corpse to steal Katroi's techniques.
But on the other hand, it was also a fact that Quantum succeeded in exploring the Dark Continent with her support. Whatever intentions Quinn might have had, it was something they could not have accomplished without her help.
And perhaps Katroi did not resent Quinn that much. Of course, there was no way to know what the dead thought, but if Gragg were in Katroi's position, he thought he wouldn't have despised Quinn's actions.
If assuming Quinn had an ability to gain something from a corpse, and if one could entrust their own ability to her at the end of inevitable death. If she would inherit the techniques trained and raised over a lifetime and make them useful for the exploration of the Dark Continent, it was by no means a bad choice.
They had come to a point where they could understand each other with just a little more. A future where they crossed the sea with Quinn and returned to their hometown together was not an impossible possibility.
A tiny discrepancy changed the ending. Before he knew it, he had come to a point of no return, tumbling down. It wasn't a story of who was wrong. Being correct did not necessarily produce the best result.
Gragg did not stop. Driven by the tiny correctness smoldering within him, the attacks unleashed continued to cut the air.
In matches, Gragg had never landed a single blow on Katroi. Either attack at ultra-high speed exceeding reaction, perform a wide-range annihilation attack that couldn't be avoided, or attack with a Nen ability possessing a sure-hit characteristic. Unless it was one of those, Katroi could not be caught, and Gragg did not have those means.
Still, he did not stop his hands. Just pinning Quinn down like this and keeping her in this place had meaning for him. The operation was continuing.
"Stop it..."
Quinn did not attack. Like Katroi, she was devoted solely to dodging.
She should be able to strike if she wanted to. Being able to dodge meant knowing where the attack was coming from, and that meant she could easily know the opportunity for a counterattack. Although maneuvering to prevent counterattacks was Gragg's true worth, he wasn't conceited enough to think he could continue attacking unilaterally forever.
She had no hostility. No intention to harm Gragg. for Gragg, that was an anticipated development. The arrogant conviction that Quinn would not attack him.
So to speak, their duel continued upon her goodness. While treating her as an enemy, fundamentally, he believed in her kindness. He was trampling on that trust and using it for the operation.
Quinn was hurt. Gragg's attacks didn't even graze her, but his actions were steadily cornering her mind. Unable to do anything, not knowing what to do. In the confusion, the evasion skills stained into her body were merely operating passively.
And Gragg's mind was suffering more serious effects than Quinn's. Every time he showered her with a thrust, his heart was whittled away. There were two absolute rules within him he had to protect, and complying with one was equivalent to discarding the other.
The flow of objective time and the feeling of subjective time are different. Fun times pass in a flash, and unpleasant times feel long. Gragg was trapped in a cage of time stretched to the utmost. He had never felt spending a single second to be so filthy.
His heart had broken long ago. The misaligned gears burned out from friction, spreading destruction while involving the surrounding mechanisms. His expression was rigid, forgetting even to blink, and tears spilled from his dry eyes. As if shamelessly asserting that he was a human with blood running through him, he loathed the warmth running down his cheeks.
Despite being in such a state, his body functioned normally without a minute of error. The precision of his techniques did not decay. Like a machine, accurately and honestly, he continued to protect the given order.
He was no longer even able to accept reality properly. Just as Quinn was fighting with her mind elsewhere, he too did not understand why he was fighting.
If he searched, there was a reason. There was a reason grave enough without thinking, for the sake of human peace. However, that was a coercive force, not an answer he had derived himself.
Why must I fight?
Losing sight of the purpose, and even the reason, still, he did not stop. The hollow justice continued to move his limbs like a puppet.
"—gg!? Your eyes—! —t!"
His consciousness faded vaguely, and the world he sensed was terribly dull. However, only information regarding combat entered clearly. For the first time, Quinn was trying to shift to the offense. Without thinking about the reason why Quinn's attitude suddenly changed, Gragg immediately solidified his defenses.
Against Gragg swinging long weapons reaching 8 meters, Quinn was unarmed. She carried the red bug on her right hand like a gauntlet, but the difference in reach was overwhelmingly wide.
However, Gragg knew the red bug fired bullets from its tail stinger. Against bullets with the speed of a handgun, Gragg's unwieldy long poles worked disadvantageously.
Gragg immediately snapped one of the poles. He made it the optimal length to catch bullets. Since they were materialized weapons, even if damaged, they could be repaired immediately if he wished. He waited with the other pole as is, two lengths, long and short.
Even if he could block the bullets, their effect was unknown. He hadn't forgotten the power that neutralized the Worm in a single blow. He acted thinking he would die if hit. He was no longer in a mental state where fear of death would hinder his movements.
Gragg thought only of suppressing Quinn with the maximum performance he was capable of now. Life and death were nothing more than issues of necessity for the progression of the operation.
Prioritizing evasion, she added movement so as not to let him fix a target. Matching that, Quinn leaped out. She jumped into Gragg's range of her own accord.
Her silver hair shining in the moonlight was like a white wind. She ran through the range of the long poles that pierced, warped, and mowed down, as if sliding. Running on the ground as if crawling, flipping and dodging, her figure possessed the beauty of a wildcat that had incorporated the majesty of the wild into one body.
In a single beat, the distance was closed. Quinn had swung her right hand back. Gragg had been penetrated deep into his guard, but his interception made it in time. If it was just a punch, blocking it was easy. The aura put into that fist was mighty, but power had no meaning before his ability.
But Quinn also knew Gragg's ability. Quinn's left hand was charged with an aura even more powerful than the right, and held in a stance. It was an attack made knowing it would be blocked. In other words, the right punch was merely a feint, and the real aim was the left. She likely intended to launch a continuous attack.
Gragg saw the movement of aura defense power gathering in Quinn's hands and saw through her intent. That movement of defense power was a crude work relying on brute force. Contrary to the evasion arts that radiated brilliance, regarding attacks, she was as good as an amateur.
Just because the distance was closed didn't mean Gragg was at a disadvantage. Rather, by resorting to a clumsy attack, an opening should be created for Quinn. Before this unparalleled opportunity, Gragg mustered his spirit to intercept Quinn.
"Graaaagg!!"
"...Qu...inn...!"
A distance where their gazes crossed and breathing could be heard. Quinn's unleashed right arm clashed with Gragg's weapon.
There was no stalemate. There was not even resistance. Quinn's fist twisted the pole like paper, and while obliterating it, pushed forward. The red bug's robust exoskeleton displayed its performance as a weapon without regret, and gouged out Gragg's chest.
Why did the attack go through? In his fading consciousness, he thought. Undoubtedly, the defense made it in time. However, his ability 'No Thoroughfare' ended in a misfire.
He thought perhaps Quinn had used some special ability to nullify Gragg's defense, but even that Quinn was standing there with a dumbfounded expression. Her reaction was one that had not anticipated this situation at all.
The impact of the blow churned his internal organs. Defense by 'Ken' did not work, and he had received the attack in an almost defenseless state. The place the fist captured was the center of his chest. Broken ribs stabbed into his crushed lungs.
He knew the sensation of his heartbeat stopping. He realized his own death. But there was no suffering there.
He finally realized. Why his ability didn't function. Quinn hadn't done anything special. The cause was in himself.
'No Thoroughfare' forbade running away from the enemy by Covenant. When Gragg performed an action like 'showing his back' or 'retreating' against an opponent he had decided to fight once, the effect was lost, and he would never be able to use Nen abilities again.
He had broken the Covenant. He withdrew before the enemy. The moment he received the attack from Quinn, he had retreated just a little bit. It wasn't even enough to call a step; it was a slight movement where his shoe sole slipped slightly on the sand, but he had certainly 'backed away'.
He hadn't been afraid. Then, was it careless inadvertence? He had imprinted and beaten his fighting style into his body so as not to break the Covenant in any case. Was it that he committed such a careless mistake at this crucial moment?
The only thing he could say was that he did not regret this result. He felt that the act, which should have been a blunder in the execution of the operation, was fine as it was.
If the battle had dragged on like this, Gragg's will would have completely disappeared. Unable to think anything, he would have turned into a machine just to execute the operation and attacked Quinn. Without feeling the shameful battle as shame, he would have turned into a puppet fighting as ordered.
He was relieved that he could end it while leaving a human heart behind. No matter how much he viewed her as an enemy, he couldn't hate Quinn to the bottom of his heart.
Even if she were a threat to all mankind, to him, Quinn was a comrade. The leg that stepped back unconsciously might have been a manifestation of such true feelings of his. It was the last resistance against the curse that bound him.