CHAPTER 99: THE MAN WHO DESCENDED
The roar that announced the victory was truly deafening.
Hearing that sound, for reasons he couldn't quite explain, the man named Kaiji Itou opened his mouth and let out a sob, hot tears streaming down his face.
"Ah... ahh..."
He, too, had once had dreams. He wanted to make something of himself, to become strong. He had come to Tokyo with those hopes, only to watch four years of his life wither away.
In that time, Kaiji had been beaten down by "Reality."
He was bullied by superiors, cheated by colleagues, blamed by customers, and preyed upon by thugs. Eventually, Kaiji accepted his lot as a "Loser." After losing his job, he spent his days wandering aimlessly, drinking alone and gambling his remaining yen on desperate longshots.
He had abandoned his path. He had stopped reaching for those difficult dreams.
But tonight, Kaiji had witnessed the "Deathmatch" of two true warriors.
They were the truly strong. Men who refused to give up no matter the cost, swinging until the final second, pouring their souls into one last punch.
"THE MATCH... IS... DECIDED!!!"
The Referee dropped his arm, his voice a thunderous proclamation.
"THE FINAL WEAPON, KATSUMI OROCHI, HAS REACHED HIS LIMIT!"
"THE WINNER... REN SHIROKI!!!"
The instant the verdict was delivered, Fusui Kure and Atsushi Suedo sprinted into the ring. They were already carrying emergency medical supplies, heading straight for the two bloodied men leaning against the shipping container.
They pressed portable oxygen masks over Ren and Katsumi's faces, helping them stabilize after the extreme hypoxia of the high-intensity exchange.
Gradually, their breathing slowed. Ren and Katsumi both regained a sliver of consciousness, lying flat on the steel deck to let the world stop spinning.
Yukio Tonegawa immediately signaled the ship's medical team to move in. He wanted a full diagnostic and temporary stabilization for both fighters. Tonight, they were the most valuable assets on the vessel.
One by one, the spectators from the sidelines drifted toward the center of the deck. They moved slowly, as if drawn by a magnetic force.
They looked at the two broken, blood-stained bodies. Their eyes held a mixture of admiration, terror, shock, and—for some—a faint, stinging sense of "Envy."
Madarame Baku strolled forward, his hands in his pockets. He looked down at Ren's fluttering eyelids and let out a soft, appreciative chuckle.
"Truly... a magnificent struggle."
The Lie Eater, a man who had dismantled a thousand deceivers, couldn't find a single microsecond of "Falsehood" in the match he had just seen.
The purity of that struggle gave Baku a rare sense of security. It was a truth that couldn't be manipulated.
He knelt beside Ren, still chewing a pickled plum. "Take it easy, Ren-chin. You've done the heavy lifting. I'll handle the negotiations for the stakes."
Ren, lying with his head on Fusui's lap while inhaling pure oxygen, was too exhausted to speak. He simply gave a single, slow blink of agreement.
Shigeru Akagi had no interest in corporate paperwork, and Baku was a shark in a suit. Leaving the "Aftermath" to the Lie Eater was the most efficient choice.
"No... problem!"
Baku slapped his thighs and stood up. He turned toward the Leader of Kakerou, his eyes sparkling with a predatory hunger.
"My life might still be in your pocket, Souichi, but Ren-chin worked too hard for me to back down now. I'm going to squeeze every cent of value out of this win for him."
"You said you were 'Guaranteed to Win,' but... you were lying, weren't you?"
Baku walked up to the Leader, tearing open a fresh pack of plums. He stared directly into Souichi's dark eyes.
"Let's run the numbers. You owe Ren-chin a 'Favor.' You've lost the purchasing rights to the Espoir. And then there's the matter of the missiles on that smuggling ship."
"With this many 'Witnesses' in the room, you can't exactly make those weapons disappear quietly, can you? Ren-chin still holds the master keys. They're useless to him, but they're essential to you. I wonder... what are you willing to 'Pay' for them?"
Baku tilted his head. "Let's have a high-stakes corporate negotiation, 'Prince.'"
"..."
Souichi Kiruma narrowed his eyes, his Rubik's Cube clicking in the silence. Finally, he let out a weary sigh. "Haggling is such a tedious exercise. Before we settle the 'Ren Shiroki' problem, we must conclude the Kakerou gamble of the night."
Baku paused. He had almost forgotten.
Akagi vs. Sadakuni. It had been a total victory for the Man of the Divine Realm.
In Kakerou terms, that meant Sadakuni was to be executed by hanging. The Kengan match had merely been a commercial break in the man's final moments.
"Fine, fine," Baku shrugged. He looked at Sadakuni. The revolutionary didn't look scared; he looked like a man who had already accepted his grave.
"What's wrong, little ghost? Did you think I'd be afraid?"
Sadakuni let out a derisive snort. "I wanted more death. I wanted to trample more lives. That was enough for me!"
"My death is simply my Destiny. I do not fear the void!"
Baku's expression went flat.
To him, Sadakuni wasn't a hero; he was just a liar who used the word "Revolution" to mask a basic thirst for murder. His death wasn't "Destiny"; it was just "Trash Disposal."
But as Baku prepared to tear down the man's final defense, a strange sound echoed over the deck.
Thwump-thwump-thwump-thwump!
Another helicopter.
"!?!"
Everyone looked up. Approaching from the seaward side was a second chopper—a heavy-lift military model, painted in dull olive drab.
Baku frowned, glancing at Souichi. "Yours?"
"No," the Leader replied, his brow furrowing. "And it isn't Sadakuni's backup. Then who...?"
The military chopper flared above the deck. It didn't land. The side door slid open, a rappelling line dropped, and a silhouette plummeted toward the deck with a perfect tactical "Fast-Rope" transition.
SHING!
The man landed in a disciplined three-point stance. He rose slowly.
He was a Westerner in desert camouflage fatigues and a red beret. He was older, his face a map of combat scars, with a neatly groomed mustache on his upper lip. His rank insignia identified him as a Colonel.
The soldier looked around, his gaze settling on the arms-smuggling ship anchored alongside the Espoir. He let out a weary sigh.
"My, my. This is a significant amount of hardware for a harbor cruise. Lucky we caught it in time."
"OI!"
The Colonel barked at the group on the deck. "Who's the C.O. of this outfit?"
"..."
Most people were confused, but Souichi stepped forward. "Are you with the US Forces Japan?"
The Colonel shook his head. "Negative. But I received a request from their command while en route to Tokyo. They asked me to 'Neutralize' this terror threat as a courtesy. A tedious distraction, to be honest."
He put his hands on his hips, ignoring the dozens of armed enforcers surrounding him. "The politics don't interest me. A specialist team is inbound to seize the missiles. Consider them off the board."
"Oh, and I haven't introduced myself. Colonel Stryker."
The sudden arrival of a foreign military officer turned the atmosphere bizarre.
A Teiai security captain, emboldened by his SMG, stepped forward. "Oi! You can't just—"
Before the guard could finish his sentence, Stryker moved. He executed a lightning-fast shoulder throw, launching the armed guard ten feet across the deck.
It was a move of absolute efficiency—pure, refined battlefield violence.
"This isn't a negotiation," Stryker noted with a sigh. "I'm here to prevent a catastrophe. The rest of your games are your own business, though I have more important duties to attend to."
The group stared at him. The logic of the situation was becoming impossible to parse.
Most were lost in confusion. A few, like Ren and Kyara, were processing the man's "Might."
But then, a voice erupted from inside the hovering military chopper.
It wasn't a human shout. It was a roar that sounded like a Nuclear Detonation.
"STRYKER! ARE YOU DONE WITH YOUR PETTY ERRANDS YET?!"
The raw volume and pressure of the voice caused everyone's mind to freeze. Enforcers dropped their guns. Debtors collapsed to their knees, their hearts fluttering in terror. A cold sweat broke out on every person on the deck.
The warriors—Ren, Katsumi, Kyara—all looked up at the chopper simultaneously.
Who is in that cabin?
...No.
What Monster is in that cabin?!
☆☆☆
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