The Heroic Tale of the Weakest Ability User ~The F-Ranker with the Dual Pistols~ - Chapter 1: Episode 5

“This is the grand finale!! You, A-Rank!!”

I shouted, ready to take his head. Then, I charged at the shadow at full speed where he was hiding.

Then, suddenly, like a cornered animal resigning itself to its fate, he stepped out from his hiding spot.

“You’re strong, I’ll give you that. But in the end, the one who will win… is me. Consider this as my gratitude for pushing me this far—I’ll show you my ultimate move, the one I can only use once per day.”

He took his stance. But this time, it was different. There was a weight to it, a stability I hadn’t seen before.

The adrenaline surging through my veins made me reckless. I let my guard down, bared my teeth like a wild beast, and roared:

“Shut the hell up, you damn narcissist!!”

I pulled the trigger. Again. And again. And again. Bullet after bullet, all aimed at him.

“Zan—Shigure Kama Itachi—”

It happened in an instant.

I had no idea what just happened but there was one thing I knew for certain.

He had cut me.

W-what…? What just happened…?

My mind failed to process reality, yet my instincts forced my left hand to raise my gun.

Then, I heard something drop from my right side. My arm… suddenly felt so light.

The moment I locked eyes on my target again, pain—searing, unbearable pain—flooded my senses.

A fountain of bl00d gushed from the deep wound slashed across my chest and stomach.

A scorching heat radiated from my abdomen. A piercing, splitting agony surged through my right arm.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaghhhhhh!!”

Every nerve in my body screamed, telling me—this was not a pain I could endure and remain conscious.

“Now, you’ll never be mocked as a powerless nobody, nor despised as one of us ability users. With your right arm gone, you are finally… just an ordinary person.”

A voice came from behind me. He stood there, at just the right angle to slice my throat at any moment.

“This was never a fair fight. A battle between an ability user and a powerless fighter is meaningless from the start. But, I was generous. I gave myself a handicap… by choosing not to use my trump card.”

Darkness began creeping into my vision.

With the last shreds of my reason, I reflected on my own arrogance.

(After all that training… after all the effort… even after learning under Ken-sensei with one single mistake, and I—)

Regret and consciousness slipped away, as memories of the past flickered like a dying flame.

***

I remembered the time I was training with Ken-sensei

“Let me tell you a story from my past.”

During one of our one-on-one training sessions, as we took a break, Ken-sensei suddenly spoke.

“I’d like to hear it.”

At that time, the only things I knew about Ken-sensei were her three sizes and where she lived.

“Alright then… I’ll tell you about when I first became a mercenary.”

She gazed into the distance, as if reminiscing about a distant past.

“Before I became a mercenary, I worked as a cop, keeping the peace. But back then, I needed a lot of money, more than I could ever earn in law enforcement. So I quit. Not that I ever intended to stay in that corrupt institution for long anyway.”

She paused for a moment before continuing.

“I left the police force and became a mercenary.”

Her voice was calm, yet there was a weight to it, as if she were recalling something distant yet inescapable.

“Back then, I had no skills—no combat experience, no strategy. I was just a rookie with nothing but desperation and a gun. But there’s something funny about mercenaries. It doesn’t matter how inexperienced you are; as long as you have a weapon and the will to pull the trigger, you’re already qualified.”

She let out a dry chuckle before continuing.

“But in that world, only the strong survive. The weak get trampled, used, discarded. And I… I refused to be one of them.”

Master Ken looked at me, her usual composed demeanor unshaken.

“So I trained. I studied. I fought. I killed. Because in that world, kindness and hesitation get you killed first.”

She leaned back, staring at the sky.

“But there was one lesson I learned that mattered more than anything else.”

I swallowed hard, unable to look away.

“No matter how strong you think you are… No matter how much you train… There will always be someone stronger. Someone faster, Someone crueler. If you ever forget that, you’ll end up dead.”

She then turned to me with a faint smirk.

“So, what do you think? Do you still want to keep training under me?”

Despite the heaviness of her words, I found myself grinning.

“Of course. I have no intention of dying just yet.”

She let out a small laugh before standing up.

“Good. Then let’s continue.”

The memory faded and was replaced by the reality of my current situation.

Lying in a pool of my own bl00d, my body barely responding, I could only think of one thing.

(I forgot… the most important lesson.)

Darkness swallowed me whole.

“Getting paid millions upfront as a mercenary… It suited me just fine. That was my reason for becoming one. I’m the kind of person who can kill for money.”

It sounded less like she was telling me and more like she was reaffirming it to herself.

Even though she had left behind countless legends, at the end of the day, she was still just a person.

“That was in the past, right? I don’t know how you feel now, but… the past is the past, shyu!”

I had meant to comfort her, but I completely fumbled my words. My heart pounded as I wondered if the message had even gotten through.

“Haha, you? Trying to cheer me up? Now that’s a surprise.”

A rare smile spread across her face. Was that… because I messed up my words?

“My first real battle was insane. Bullets flying everywhere, the fight only ending when one side was completely wiped out or forced to retreat. It was the ultimate thrill. Honestly? I had fun.”

She spoke with a smile. It must’ve been one hell of a memory.

“Before I even set foot on the battlefield, I had to deal with people looking down on me just for being a woman. Every time, I made sure to crush them all.”

Another smile. Who in the world could possibly stand a chance against this woman?

“Now, here’s where it gets interesting. This is about my third deployment.”

Her expression suddenly turned serious. Something must have happened back then.

“February 14, 2003. The world calls it the Bloody Valentine.”

“That was the first great war between ability users, right? The first battle was in Canada, the second in Hokkaido, Japan… I forgot where the others took place.”

“Tch… Pay more attention in class. Anyway, I was deployed there as part of the Tricksters’ decoy unit. Back then, people thought psychics were just a fantasy, something out of anime or delusions. We didn’t know any better—we were thrown into a slaughterhouse of ESP battles.”

Her face darkened.

“It was absurd. A tsunami appearing out of nowhere. The sky suddenly turning to night in an instant. One of my squad mates even joked, ‘Is this heaven?’ I actually laughed… before he died.”

She kept going.

“Back then, we had no intel on ESP users. My team was massacred. Yet, for better or worse, I was the only one who survived. I couldn’t run. I had no allies left. Can you even imagine that?”

She looked at me with hollow eyes. I never expected to hear such a harrowing story.

“I was in despair. The battlefield was a mess—flooded with illusions of tsunamis, the front lines completely chaotic. I didn’t know what was happening. Retreating only meant getting shot in the back.”

“The gunfire… it started to sound like my old man yelling, ‘Grow a damn spine!!’ That’s what kept me going.”

“That was my death zone. With those words in my heart, I killed every last enemy. Now, they call it a legend, but honestly? It was just dumb luck.”

Her gaze drifted far into the distance.

I looked at the massive scar on her arm. The pain must’ve stripped away the illusions, forcing her back to reality.

I couldn’t even begin to fathom what she had been through.

But at that moment, there was only one thing I wanted to say.

“Sensei… uh, where’s the restroom?”

“YOU IDIOT! I’M POURING MY HEART OUT HERE!”

She beat the crap out of me after that.

The reality pulled me back with the opponent’s words.

“Most people who take my finishing move don’t survive. That’s why I rarely use it. The fact that I had to resort to it against someone like you… shows how careless I was. But let’s be real—even if I hadn’t, I still would’ve won. You’re powerless.”

Through the fog of my consciousness, I could only think of one thing.

Yeah. No argument there. I don’t have any special powers.

But… was the gap really this vast?

Even so, someone refused to give up on me.

“YUUUUU! WHERE’S YOUR DAMN GUTS?! STAND UP, DAMN YOUUUUUUU!!”

A voice boomed through the arena’s microphone.

Only one person would pull something like that.

Sensei.

Her words sparked something deep within me. My fading soul, lingering in the brink of unconsciousness, forced my broken body back to life.

My cells screamed awake, flooding me with strength I shouldn’t have had.

With everything I had left, I got to my feet.

“That’s right… Until my last drop of bl00d… I will—!”

Sensei didn’t just teach me how to fight.

She taught me how to never give up. I couldn’t give up here.

The pain from my wounds, the gaping hole in my chest—it all disappeared.

I clenched the fallen knife between my teeth.

Then, I charged at Banjo Oya with everything I had.

“Stop! If you keep going, you’ll die from bl00d loss! Referee! Stop the match!”

He turned to the referee in frustration. But the referee had already been knocked out—by my Master Ken.

“Tch, that damn teacher! But you… Ha… You’re something else.”

Clicking his tongue, he raised his massive scythe.

His face twisted in determination.

“You monster!!”

Here it comes.

He swung his scythe wide to the right, a deadly arc that could cleave through anything.

I recalled his pattern. Once I got close, he would vanish—only to reappear to my right.

And just as I expected, he teleported right into my predicted spot.

Too predictable.

I crouched low, sweeping his ungrounded foot with my right leg.

Pain exploded through my body, but I didn’t care. I used my severed arm to support my weight.

I saw him tumble, his head slamming into the ground.

Like a cat, I pounced onto his fallen body with the knife still gripped between my teeth.

And then—

I drove it into his throat.

BWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

The signal echoed across the arena.

The match was over.

And just like that—

I lost consciousness.