The Private Gulfstream G550 sliced through the clouds, about to land at Fukuoka Airport, shrouded in twilight.
Inside the cabin, the atmosphere was heavy.
Koji Hattori sat by the window, his fingers digging into his palm.
“Brother… come back quickly! Dad… he’s gone mad! He’s holding a sword, the police… so many police have arrived, someone got hurt! He ran back to the dojo… wuwu… I’m so scared…”
A voice he hadn’t heard in years, his younger sister’s, echoed in Koji Hattori’s mind.
Jiang Jian Yue sat across from him, her long ash-gray hair loosely draped, blood-red eyes gazing through the window at the blurred lights of Kyushu below.
She appeared calm, but the low pressure radiating from her made the two Dark Crow Unit members beside her hold their breath, not daring to make a sound.
On the plane, she had already learned more details through Morita Aoya’s urgent report: Koji Hattori’s father, Kenichiro Hattori, suddenly awakened a Heart Worm today, with obvious parasitic side effects.
Manifested as uncontrollable, violent killing intent.
He wounded three neighbors who tried to stop him and two police officers who arrived first, using his cherished katana, then retreated to his dojo to resist.
The local police had surrounded the dojo.
But facing a berserk kendo master with unknown Heart Worm abilities, no one dared to rush in, leading to a tense standoff.
An emergency team from Tokushu Jishou Taiou Honbu had already departed from Fukuoka—but outside Tokyo, the mobilization speed of Tokushu Jishou Taiou Honbu was still relatively slow.
Jiang Jian Yue didn’t ask what he planned to do, nor did she doubt whether he could handle it.
She knew that in such situations, Koji Hattori must be feeling awful.
And as for herself… she wasn’t good at comforting others anyway, so it was better not to try and make things worse.
After disembarking, the four boarded a prearranged vehicle and quickly left the airport.
The car sped through the night, leaving Fukuoka’s neon behind and heading onto the winding coastal road toward a seaside town.
The salty, damp sea breeze brought a chill through the window, but it couldn’t dispel the nearly solidified air inside the car.
Koji Hattori remained silent, his eyes red as he stared out the window—not looking at the scenery, but muttering to himself, agitatedly clutching the seatbelt.
Jiang Jian Yue regretted not bringing Yuki Asahi along.
At least he might have eased Koji Hattori’s pain a little.
“Yuki Asahi would feel just as miserable swallowing this kind of anxiety, you know~ Moon, don’t you feel sorry for your little pet at times like this?”
“Shut up!”
***
By the time they reached the town’s edge, the flashing police lights illuminated the area like daylight.
The shrill wails of sirens, the shouts of police officers through loudspeakers demanding surrender, and the suppressed chatter of the onlooking crowd all mixed together.
“Stop!”
Koji Hattori barked, pushing open the door and leaping out before the car had fully stopped.
Jiang Jian Yue followed closely, with the two Dark Crow Unit members quickly getting out to secure the perimeter, communicating with the on-scene police and presenting DRG’s special authority credentials.
A cordon was drawn around the dojo.
Police stood ready for battle, handguns and riot shields aimed at the tightly shut door.
“Brother!”
A black-haired girl with a tear mole on her face burst from the crowd outside the cordon—it was his sister.
She threw herself into Koji Hattori’s arms, trembling.
“Dad… he became so scary… he… he hurt people! He locked himself inside…”
Koji Hattori hugged his sister tightly, patting her back hard, his voice hoarse.
“Kokoro, don’t be afraid… Where’s Mom?”
“Mom… Mom fainted from fright. Auntie next door took her to the clinic.”
“Take care of yourself. Stay back.”
Koji Hattori released his sister, turning his gaze to the tightly closed door.
At that moment, chaos erupted.
Boom!
With a deafening crash, the dojo’s heavy wooden door exploded inward under a violent force.
Amid flying splinters, a figure charged out like a wild beast.
Kenichiro Hattori.
His kendo uniform was soaked in dark red blood, filthy and tattered.
The face that once exuded authority was now twisted and ferocious, eyes blood-red, whites nearly drowned in crimson veins, pupils contracted to pinpricks, glowing with pure killing intent.
He gripped a gleaming katana, the blade and his hands smeared with sticky blood, radiating a suffocating stench.
He looked nothing like the stern, stoic middle-aged man from the OVA.
“Kill!”
A hoarse roar ripped from his throat, no longer human.
A suffocating aura of killing intent radiated from him, making even the nearest police freeze in terror, movements sluggish.
Even Jiang Jian Yue instinctively wanted to evade his onslaught, then realized this was Kenichiro Hattori’s parasitic ability.
Killing intent?
“Open fire! Stop him!”
The on-scene commander screamed in panic.
“No!”
Koji Hattori tried to intervene, but it was too late.
Several police, fighting off the oppressive feeling, pulled their triggers.
Perhaps it was the influence of the ability—or maybe the police weren’t skilled—the majority of bullets missed.
The few that struck his non-vital parts merely made him stagger, the bleeding wounds igniting a deeper savagery.
“Roar!”
He howled like a beast, swinging his Blood Katana and charging at the shielded officers.
The police… faced with overwhelming killing intent, actually retreated!
“Dad! Stop!”
Kokoro Hattori’s anguished scream pierced the chaos.
Kenichiro Hattori’s movements paused for a fraction of a second at the familiar cry, a fleeting struggle and confusion flickering in his eyes.
But that clarity, like a candle in the wind, was instantly snuffed out by the surging tide of killing intent.
He whipped his head around, bloodthirsty gaze locking onto the source of the voice—his daughter!
“Kokoro!”
Koji Hattori gritted his teeth, rushing forward without hesitation.
But someone moved faster.
A slender figure materialized before Kokoro Hattori like a ghost, shielding her completely.
Jiang Jian Yue’s blood-red eyes stared coldly at the berserk Kenichiro Hattori, unmoving.
Kenichiro Hattori’s charge faltered. His beastly instincts sensed a tremendous threat.
That icy, indifferent gaze made even the seething killing intent within him tremble with a primal… fear?
Yet the madness of the Heart Worm soon overwhelmed this fear.
“Die!”
He roared again, abandoning his daughter as a target, channeling all his killing intent and strength into his blade as he slashed at Jiang Jian Yue.
Jiang Jian Yue’s eyes sharpened—Elemental Skin, activate.
She bent her knees slightly, preparing to receive the lethal blow head-on, her right hand lifting, gray flames igniting in her palm.
“Young Miss! Let me handle this!”
Koji Hattori charged forward, resolutely placing himself between Jiang Jian Yue and the oncoming blade.
Jiang Jian Yue abruptly halted her movement, the flames at her fingertips extinguishing.
Meiguan let out a vague hum in her mind.
Koji Hattori faced the descending blade without a hint of retreat.
His ring sliced into his finger, a jet of scarlet blood bursting from his right hand.
In a blink, a Blood Katana glowing with ominous red light materialized in his grip.
Clang——
A violent shockwave erupted from the point of impact, sending dust and splinters swirling.
The ground beneath Koji Hattori’s feet cracked and sank, his arms shuddered, and the skin of his palms tore open.
Blood ran down the katana’s hilt, only to be eerily absorbed by the blade, making its crimson glow burn even fiercer.
A metallic taste welled in Koji Hattori’s throat, but he swallowed it back, his eyes burning with ferocity and determination.
A challenge he had never overcome, not once in his life… now he stood firm.
Kenichiro Hattori saw his attack blocked—by his own son—and a flood of rage drowned what little reason remained.
He hesitated no more, dragging his katana, killing intent roaring, charging at Koji Hattori with murderous fury!
“Father!”
Koji Hattori howled, tears streaming down his face.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
On the open ground before the dojo, a dazzling sword battle erupted in an instant.
Two figures collided at incredible speed, every clash of blades sparking blinding light and deafening howls.
Kenichiro Hattori’s sword style was wild and overwhelming, each strike packed with terrifying brute force and killing intent, the blade winds whipping up stones and dust.
He had abandoned the forms and etiquette of kendo, leaving only the most primal and violent slashing.
Koji Hattori was completely on the defensive.
His swordsmanship had its roots in his father’s Hattori-style kendo, but years of security work and life-and-death struggle had honed his swordplay into something more direct, a desperate exchange of wounds for wounds.
But the relentless killing intent battered Koji Hattori’s spirit, making his head spin and his reactions slow.
Gashes opened across his body from the fierce sword winds, his clothes soaked in blood.
“Urk!”
After a brutal clash, Kenichiro’s blade left a deep gouge, and Koji Hattori, unable to withstand the difference in strength, was sent flying, blood spraying from his mouth as he crashed at the dojo entrance.
“Brother!”
Kokoro Hattori tried to rush out, but a nearby police officer held her back.
Kenichiro Hattori let out a triumphant roar, eyes burning red, raising his blade to deliver the fatal blow.
“Enough.”
Jiang Jian Yue’s figure had already appeared in Kenichiro Hattori’s path, barely three steps away.
Her blood-red gaze locked onto him, a flicker of ash-gray flame dancing at her fingertips.
She wanted Koji Hattori to handle his family matters—but when his life was at stake, she couldn’t just watch any longer…
“Young Miss! Don’t!”
Koji Hattori struggled to rise, shouting hoarsely, his eyes full of desperate pleading.
“Give me… give him… the last chance!”
Jiang Jian Yue was momentarily stunned, her gaze sweeping over Koji Hattori’s bloodstained yet stubborn face.
Then she looked at Kenichiro Hattori, now lost to madness but instinctively wary of her overwhelming presence.
At that moment, Koji Hattori suddenly reversed his grip on the katana, plunging the tip deep into his left shoulder!
Squelch!
“Urgh!”
He groaned in agony, but a fierce light erupted in his eyes.
The blood pouring out didn’t fall to the ground, but was instantly absorbed by the Blood Katana in his right hand!
The entire blade blazed with unprecedented crimson light, thick blood pulsing across its surface like a living thing!
“Father! Look at me! I’m Koji!”
Clang——
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Seems she didn’t learn, in this world, hesitation means defeat