Chapter 324: Awakening! General Ikazuki!
Rei pursued Faun to the entrance of the hideout but stopped in her tracks. Four or five gang members were standing guard at the door.
"This looks troublesome," Rei muttered. She was still just an ordinary person in her own eyes; handling one or two thugs was fine, but five armed men at the door? What could she possibly do against them?
Her only weapon was Deadpool's katana. While it felt balanced in her hand, the opposition had guns. How was she supposed to fight that?
"Forget it." Rei decided to back off. Unless she could deflect bullets like Deadpool, taking down Faun was a suicide mission. Besides, this wasn't really her fight. She had no obligation to finish it.
Standing atop a high building, Rei turned to leave.
"Are you also a Shadow General?" a voice suddenly spoke beside her.
Rei jumped, spinning around and dropping into a combat stance with the katana gripped tight. Her eyes were cold. "Who are you?"
"Me? You can call me John, or by my title: Captain John." John faced her with a calm smile.
For some reason, Rei could sense no malice from him. She slowly lowered the sword. "What is this 'Shadow General' you just mentioned?"
"It seems you've only recently become one and don't understand your situation." As John spoke, black mist swirled over his face, forming a mask strikingly similar in style to the one Rei wore.
"That mask?!" Rei was stunned. It was clearly from the same "set."
"It's called a Shadow Mask." Unlike Rei, John reached up and easily pulled the mask off to show her.
"A Shadow Mask... how did you take it off?" Rei had dreamed of removing hers; wearing it constantly was ruining any semblance of a normal life.
"By gaining its approval, you become a Shadow General. You gain the power to summon the Shadow Khan from the Shadow Kingdom." With a thought, a Razor Shadow Ninja rose from John's shadow.
"This!" Rei's eyes widened. She felt a surge of familiarity in her chest.
"Every General has a different tribe of Shadow Khan. You can summon yours too," John said as his ninja sank back into the darkness.
"I can?" Rei pointed to herself.
"That's right, Sis Rei!" The mischievous Jenny appeared out of thin air beside her.
Rei was startled again. It seemed everyone except her could move like a ghost.
"Don't be nervous, I'm a Shadow General too." Jenny held up her own mask.
"Then why can you both take yours off while I can't?" Rei asked. If she was one of them, why was she stuck?
"It's simple," John explained. "You have to master the power of the Shadow General first."
"Master the power?" Rei looked at her hands. How was she supposed to do that?
John and Jenny shared a knowing glance. John stepped closer. "Close your eyes. Feel the power within your heart."
Rei followed his instructions, but her mind was racing; she couldn't find a moment of peace.
"I feel like—" Rei opened her eyes to say she couldn't do it, only to find John had moved behind her.
Without a word, John maintained his smile and gave her a violent shove.
Rei plummeted from the rooftop. As she fell, her heart hammered against her ribs. She couldn't believe it—why would he do this?
CRASH!
Rei slammed into the ground. Before she could even process the pain, the back of her head hit the pavement hard. Blood began to pool, and her life force ebbed away rapidly.
"Is this a suicide?" The guards at the door were drawn by the noise. they approached cautiously and found a dead woman.
"Hot body, though. Wonder what she looks like under the mask..." One thug smirked, reaching down to peel the mask off Rei's "corpse."
Snap!
Rei's hand shot up, her grip like iron around the thug's wrist.
"What the—!" The thug yelled in terror. His companions immediately raised their weapons.
Thump!
Rei sprang up with a kip-up, swinging the thug by his arm and slamming him into a thick concrete wall.
"I'm... not dead..." Rei stared at her hands in disbelief. Her mind was suddenly flooded with new information and instincts.
"Open fire!" Seeing the woman was hostile, the thugs didn't hesitate.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Rei snapped her head up. Her body moved like a butterfly dancing through a storm. Bullets whizzed past her on both sides; her movements were a blend of terrifying risk and elegant grace.
"Hah... why does it feel like the bullets have slowed down?" Rei scanned the area. She could actually track the trajectories of the projectiles in mid-air.
"And one more thing..." Rei swept her arms out.
Shing! Shing!
Two ninjas clad in heavy samurai armor rose from the shadows. Their eyes were glowing red V-shaped slits.
"Cut them down!" Rei commanded.
"Hah!" The two Samurai Ninjas moved instantly, slicing through oncoming bullets and cleaving the gang members in two with single strikes. They were massive, standing two meters tall in black armor, each wielding a heavy nodachi.
"Your General Ika has arrived!" Rei said, the words slipping out naturally.
Black mist coalesced in her hand, forming a pitch-black katana nearly two meters long.
"This feels... right." Rei swung the blade, feeling as though she could slice through the very air. She named the blade the Muramasa Demon Blade!
"I understand now." Rei rested the Demon Blade on her shoulder. She had fully absorbed the knowledge of the Shadow General.
It turned out the best way to awaken the power was a near-death experience. While she was annoyed at John for the "push," she couldn't deny the results.
She turned her gaze toward the hideout. She was going to get that Pink Lion. If everyone was fighting for it, she might as well join in—eighty million dollars was too much to ignore.
On the Rooftop
"What's the plan now, Captain John?" Jenny asked.
"I've already dealt with the men who killed that pregnant woman. Now, we retrieve the Pink Lion and return it to the government so it can go back to the museum," John said.
"But there are a lot of people after it tonight," Jenny noted. She was interested in the diamond too—mainly to see if it was as sparkly as they said. Little girls always did love shiny things.
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