Novel Full Chapter 188 - 53
Chapter 188: Chapter 53
Kirei sat in his private office, the mahogany desk that once held balance sheets and corporate strategies now serving as a banquet table.
A variety of silver-domed dishes were laid out before him, the steam rising in aromatic, heavy curls that seemed to cling to the velvet curtains.
He moved slowly, his movements deliberate and almost rhythmic, as he cut into a thick slab of meat as he chewed with a lingering, visceral satisfaction, a faint, oily smile playing on his lips.
Ever since he had shared that first, transformative dinner with Mister and the rest of the inner circle, his palate had undergone a radical shift.
The bland, expensive steaks of the upper class no longer held any appeal as he had developed a specialized taste for fine, “sweet” meat—the kind that only came from those who had experienced the true peaks of hope followed by the crushing depths of despair.
Although he couldn’t yet slaughter those particular “pigs” he had captured—the women of his own bloodline were a sacred offering for Mister’s upcoming ritual—there were still plenty of “wild pigs” available in the city if one knew where to look and how to hunt.
He was currently enjoying a selection of meat from a failed businessman who had thought Kirei was his last chance at a loan.
The despair in the man’s eyes at the moment of the strike had made the marbling of the muscle exquisite.
Just then, his phone rang, the shrill digital chirp cutting through the heavy silence of the room.
Kirei paused, his fork hovering inches from his mouth before he decided to put down his utensils with a soft clink, wiped his mouth with a silk napkin, and retrieved the device from his pocket.
His eyes gleamed as he saw the caller ID: Akane.
He answered immediately, his voice thick with expectation. “How is it?”
Akane’s voice sounded on the other end, echoing slightly as if she were in a large, open space.
Her tone was flat, drained of its usual sharp intelligence, sounding like a recording of herself. “I’ve got her. Erina is with me. I will bring her back to the manor tonight.”
Kirei’s grin stretched wide, becoming a menacing, jagged line across his face as the silver earring in his ear pulsed with a faint, violet light, thrumming in time with his heartbeat. “Good job, Akane. You’ve served your purpose well. I knew you’d be a useful hound if I pulled the leash tight enough.”
Akane remained silent for a heartbeat, offering no retort, no plea, and no acknowledgment of the insul and simply hung up the call.
Kirei didn’t mind the coldness; in fact, he preferred it as it was proof that the artifact was doing its job, hollowing her out until only the shell remained to do his bidding.
He tucked the phone back into his pocket and resumed his meal with renewed vigor as he hummed a low, discordant tune as he ate.
’Hmm, next time,’ he thought, ’maybe I should try other methods to tenderize the meat according to the specific instrunsactions Mister mentioned. Perhaps I should let them see the sun one last time before the end…’
*
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*
Miles away, on the quiet, shadowed street outside the Kageyama household, Akane slowly lowered her phone and the blank, vacant look in her eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a sharp, calculating glint.
She turned around to face the group gathered behind her.
And although the night air was cold, but the atmosphere around Seijirou and his gang was searing with a different kind of heat.
Truthfully, Akane was experiencing a level of shock she rarely allowed herself to feel.
She had spent a lifetime navigating the hidden corridors of power, but she had never expected that everyone standing here—with the exceptions of the clearly mundane Yuko, Touka, and Rei—was actually deeply involved in the supernatural world.
Even more shocking was the realization that they weren’t just dabblers; they possessed that legendary, terrifying power known as Karyoku.
Akane had been a shrine maiden for many years at a small, forgotten shrine, and in all that time, the only “supernatural” things she had encountered were dormant cursed objects or minor talismans that held a faint, residual blessing.
To her, Karyoku Users—beings who could forge contracts with high-level spirits and borrow the raw elements of the universe—were myths, legends from dusty scrolls that had long since lost their relevance in the modern world of steel and glass.
Yet, as she looked at Suzune whose eyes held a faint, flickering amber glow, and Seijirou, whose presence felt like a crushing gravity well, she knew the myths were standing right in front of her.
“It’s done,” Akane said, her voice steady. “He believes the trap. He expects me to deliver Erina within the hour.”
“Good. Then we can proceed with the operation,” Seijirou replied as he adjusted his collar, his expression one of bored lethality. “I have already called Rindou. She has informed her father, and the 26th District Police Force has been placed on high alert. They will be dispatched to deal with the aftermath once we’ve cleared the primary threats.”
He knew the limitations of the law. Sending ordinary officers into a den of supernatural predators would be nothing short of a massacre.
So the police were there to handle the mundane logistics—the arrests of the human facilitators and the medical care for the victims—not to fight the “Mister.”
You might ask, what about the higher organizations? Shouldn’t the Grand Order or the Church be stepping in for something of this scale?
Well, according to Rindou, her father reached out to them and requested help from the Grand Order to dispatch a suppression team, given the potential threat level of this ’Mister.’ But for some reason… they refused.
Not only that, they are also actively preventing the Church from making any moves to assist.
They’ve pretty much locked down the jurisdictional permissions.
This kind of thing only means that someone in the high command wants this ’Mister’ to stay exactly where he is.
Or perhaps… they want to see what happens when they collide.
Akane stared at Seijirou, then at Suzune, Renji, and the others as a part of her was still trying to find the angle—the hidden motive.
Why are they doing this? she wondered. Is Erina truly so important to them that they would risk a war with a supernatural entity? Or is there some larger game at play that I haven’t seen yet?
Unknown to her, for Seijirou, his very origin “The Seeker” was rooted in the pursuit of a “Happy Ending.”
He viewed the world through the lens of a narrative he was determined to control, and he absolutely could not—and would not—allow any variables to exist that could threaten that conclusion.
This “Mister,” with his grotesque tastes and perception-warping items, was a variable, like a mistake in the ending Seijirou wanted to achieve, a threat that needed to be deleted with extreme prejudice.
As for why Suzune and the others followed suit? Well, their motivations are simpler but no less powerful.
They cared for Erina, yes, but more importantly, they would follow Seijirou into the heart of a sun if he asked them to.
“Shall we go?” Akane asked, her violet eyes glinting as she reached into her coat and pulled out a small, concealed dagger—the only physical weapon she trusted.
Seijirou looked at his friends, then at the night sky, thinking of what those people have done to the women of Kurosaki Family.
He felt the Ki within him beginning to swirl, like a cold, blue fire that yearned to be unleashed.
Without a single word of hesitation, the group nodded in unison.
“Let’s go,” Seijirou commanded. “We have a family to purge.”
*
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*
The cool night air bit at Taro’s lungs, but he welcomed the sting, after all it was a reminder that he was alive, that he was changing, and that the stagnant “mob” character he used to be was being burned away with every kilometer he clocked.
He was jogging through a quiet residential district, the rhythmic thud-thud-thud of his sneakers against the pavement providing a steady soundtrack to his thoughts.
He was dressed simply in a blue hoodie and black jogging pants, the fabric already damp with sweat.
It had become a habit—an obsession, really, where as he pushed his body to its limits, he felt a sense of clarity he had never known before.
He was confident that even if the System were to vanish tomorrow, he wouldn’t stop this routine.
After all, he had tasted growth, and the hunger for it was now part of his DNA.
But as he ran, the phantom image of that masked man in the shopping district flashed across his mind again.
He remembered the way the girl had looked—the sheer, hollow confusion in her eyes as her dignity was stripped away by a ghost.
Taro’s jaw tightened, and he couldn’t help but grit his teeth in a surge of righteous anger.
’I won’t let it happen again,’ he vowed.
He was not a good person, nor was he trying to be a hero who saves the day, but he simply couldn’t let those degenerate ruin other people’s lives!
He surged forward, his legs becoming a blur of motion as he moved with a speed that would have put the world’s fastest sprinters to shame, his body cutting through the air like a kinetic projectile.
For thirty seconds, the world around him became a distorted smear of streetlights and shadows.
Finally, he slowed down, his momentum carrying him for several meters before he came to a full stop.
He panted heavily, steam rising from his shoulders in the chilly air as he leaned over, hands on his knees.
Once his heart rate stabilized and his breathing calmed, he checked his watch. It was late. His mother and father would be expecting him soon, so he decided it was time to head home.
The walk back to his apartment complex was short, and it didn’t take him long to return.
The building where he lives was a modest, slightly weathered structure—a place for people who worked hard just to stay afloat.
It was a world away from the gleaming high-rises where people like Seijirou lived, but it was his.
He climbed the stairs to the third floor, his mind drifting toward the now finished exams and the strange alliance he had formed with the Student Council.
He reached his floor and walked toward his unit, but just as he was reaching for his keys to open the door of their apartment, the door to the unit directly next to his—the one where a single mother and two daughter lives—creaked open.
A man stepped out into the hallway, and he was wearing a plain, black facemask, and a black shirt and shorts.
Taro turned his head instinctively, and his entire body went rigid, his eyes widened as the realization hit him with the force of a physical blow.
The height, the posture, the oily sheen of the skin visible around the eyes… it was him.
The predator was his neighbor!?
“You!” Taro roared, the word echoing loudly in the narrow, quiet hallway.
The masked man froze, and for a heartbeat, time seemed to stand still.
His eyes, visible through the gaps in the mask, flared with a mixture of shock and recognition.
He looked at Taro—the boy who had thrown the rock, the boy who was the first to notice him, and the boy who had chased him.
Without a single word, be spun on his heel. He didn’t try to explain or fight; he bolted toward the stairs, his presence beginning to flicker as he desperately tried to activate the mask’s power while in a state of pure panic.
“Not so fast!” Taro shouted, his voice thick with the authority of someone who was no longer a victim.
He didn’t hesitate as he lunged forward, his newly awakened Ki flooding his limbs, turning the dingy apartment hallway into a hunt.