Chapter 152

Pierced by Nagumo's unseen blade, Gaku stiffens up for a moment. Nagumo concedes he cannot win a straight fist-to-fist bout and had to lean on a trick, warning that the wound could kill Gaku if left untended. The warning does nothing to slow him. Treating the whole thing like a game, Gaku attacks it as a speedrun toward the kill, battering Nagumo backward with every blow. Nagumo, a fighter who normally scripts his battles carefully, finds himself helpless against Gaku's sheer force.

A crushing hammer strike smashes Nagumo's weapon apart, forcing him to pull his backup sword. Before the duel can resolve, the focus moves to Sakamoto up in the second-floor lobby, where he and Toramaru run into Shin and the others.

Once everyone grasps the situation, they settle on an approach, with Natsuki and Mafuyu leading the bystanders, Toramaru, and Sakamoto to safety while Shin engages the enemy. Racing toward the fighting, Shin relays what he knows of Uzuki's people to Sakamoto, who reasons that, given the Order's strength, they have probably already thinned out the attackers by this point. Shin agrees, pointing to Sakamoto's own role in the fight, which draws an awkward silence from him. Far off, Nagumo lies motionless, his chest run through by every one of his blades.

Gaku shrugs off the wound from Nagumo's invisible blade and attacks relentlessly like a speedrun. He shatters Nagumo's weapon, forcing him to draw a backup sword. Sakamoto and Toramaru reunite with Shin and the group in the second-floor lobby. They plan for Natsuki and Mafuyu to evacuate the bystanders while Shin fights, and Shin shares intelligence on Uzuki's people with Sakamoto. The chapter closes on Nagumo lying lifeless, impaled by all of his own blades.

The first chapter of Volume 18 within the Assassin Exhibition of the Century Arc, this installment carries the Japanese title Aru-Ti-E, styled in English as Speedrun to match Gaku's gaming mindset. Its final image of Nagumo run through by his own blades leaves his fate in grim doubt heading into the following chapters.