The main hall of the Tokyo central headquarters was no longer what it had been that morning.
The walls had cracks that were not from age but from impact, the kind that mana leaves when it is concentrated in a point and released with enough force for the material receiving the wave to not know what to do with it.
The floor had marks.
The tall windows at the far end had lost their glass.
And in the corridors that reached that hall from different points of the compound, the sounds of what was still happening in other parts could still be heard.
Shouts.
Strikes.
Explosions.
The specific noise of something that should not be happening and was happening anyway.
From one of those corridors came a remnant that did not have the appearance of something that had been fighting for the last hour. Or, if it did, it did not show it in the way things that feel the cost of what they do tend to show it.
It was tall. Over two metres. Its body had a build that was somewhere between muscular and something harder to classify, as though the human form had been only a starting point and not a final result. The skin had a dark, greyish tone, with areas that seemed deeper than others, as though beneath there were layers that should not be there. The eyes were white. Without pupils.
Its name was Zetsuen.
It stood in the centre of the hall.
Facing it were Hiroshi Kato and Inoue Ryuichi.
Hiroshi had a wound on his right side that had stopped bleeding actively, but which every movement made a point of reminding him of.
Ryuichi was still standing with his back straight, with that specific composure of someone who has decided that posture is information he is not going to give away to the enemy.
Zetsuen looked at both of them.
"I expected more from the last line of defence."
"We're still standing," said Ryuichi.
Zetsuen tilted its head just slightly.
"That can also be corrected."
Hiroshi went in first.
His style was not that of someone who fights to intimidate before connecting.
It was that of someone who has already calculated the result of every movement before making it and, therefore, wastes none of them on display.
The steps were direct.
The angle of the fist was correct.
The distance, exact.
When the strike reached Zetsuen's chest with the mana fully active, what happened was not what happens when a blow collides with the surface of something.
Zetsuen's body shook from within.
First a brief tremor.
Then a dry sound.
Then cracks appeared in its skin.
Not deep.
Not definitive.
But visible.
Zetsuen stepped back one pace.
It looked at its chest.
That was the beginning of Hiroshi's Compressed Impact.
It did not seek to destroy the surface. It concentrated the mana into a tiny point and released it at the exact moment of contact so that all the force travelled inward. Against dense skin. Against natural armour. Against resistant bodies.
It did not matter very much how much the exterior could withstand if the strike found what was beneath.
Zetsuen raised its gaze.
"Interesting."
Hiroshi smiled barely.
"You haven't seen anything yet."
Ryuichi went in.
The mana emanating from him did not concentrate in a single point.
It divided.
First into two fragments.
Then four.
Then eight.
Small masses of mana floated around the field of battle, each with its own density, each moving according to a different intention.
That was the problem and the advantage of Ryuichi's Mana Fragmentation.
The more fragments he created, the more space he could control. The fewer he maintained, the more power each one had.
One fragment went for Zetsuen's face.
Another for its legs.
Another sought the back.
One stayed close to Hiroshi.
Two floated above.
The rest waited.
Zetsuen dodged the ones it could.
Destroyed the ones it could not.
Ryuichi divided again.
Hiroshi glanced at him.
"You always want to be everywhere."
"Someone has to be."
"My son says things like that."
Ryuichi barely looked at him.
"He's ten years old."
"Exactly."
Ryuichi almost smiled.
Almost.
Zetsuen watched them.
"You talk too much for two men who still haven't understood what they're fighting."
Hiroshi repositioned himself.
"Then explain it."
Zetsuen looked at him.
"What?"
"What you are."
Silence.
"What you want."
Ryuichi held the fragments in position around them.
"And why you attacked the headquarters."
Zetsuen did not respond immediately.
It looked at the hall.
The bodies.
The walls.
The destroyed place.
Then it looked back at them.
"That question again."
Hiroshi narrowed his eyes.
"Was it asked before?"
"All humans ask the same thing when they feel they are losing."
"Then answer it," said Ryuichi.
Zetsuen smiled.
"Why? So you can believe that understanding us gives you some kind of advantage?"
"No," said Hiroshi. "So we know why we have to kill you."
Zetsuen looked at him.
And the smile changed.
It was not the smile of something that enjoys cruelty.
It was the smile of something that finds the question has such a simple answer that the simplicity itself becomes offensive.
"Because I exist."
Silence.
"That should be enough for you."
Hiroshi charged.
Compressed Impact.
Same point on the chest.
The cracks opened a little more.
Zetsuen stepped back.
Ryuichi launched six fragments from different angles.
Two from above.
Two from the flanks.
One from below.
One waiting.
Zetsuen raised a hand.
And the fragments went out.
They did not explode.
They were not destroyed by force.
They simply stopped responding.
As though the bond between them and Ryuichi had been severed.
Ryuichi stopped.
"What...?"
Zetsuen barely moved its fingers.
The fragments drifted without direction.
Dead.
Zetsuen's Bond Severance did not destroy mana.
It cut the connection between a technique and whoever controlled it. Between a limb and its mana centre. Between a flow and the source it depended on. Anything that needed to remain connected could be interrupted.
"Everything that is joined," said Zetsuen, "can be broken."
Ryuichi looked at the extinguished fragments.
Zetsuen continued:
"And you depend too much on keeping too many things together."
Ryuichi exhaled.
Then he reduced.
He did not try to recover everything.
Four fragments.
Only four.
Denser.
Stronger.
One blocked.
One attacked.
One served as a platform.
One waited.
Zetsuen destroyed the one that attacked.
Ryuichi used the hidden one.
The fragment arrived from behind.
It connected.
Zetsuen was sent forward.
Hiroshi was already there.
Fist to the torso.
Compressed Impact.
Zetsuen's body was sent flying into the far wall.
Dust.
Stone.
Silence.
Hiroshi looked at it.
"We're not so easy to break."
Zetsuen came out of the rubble slowly.
"Yet."
Ryuichi divided his mana again.
Zetsuen watched him.
"How curious."
"What?"
"Your power weakens every time you try to save someone."
Ryuichi did not respond.
Hiroshi did.
"Don't listen to it."
Zetsuen continued:
"The more you try to cover, the less force you have in each part."
It looked at the fragments.
"And yet you keep dividing."
Ryuichi gritted his teeth.
"Because there are still people alive."
Zetsuen tilted its head.
"Then run."
Silence.
"Go and save them."
Ryuichi did not move.
"But if you go..."
Zetsuen looked at Hiroshi.
"He dies."
Hiroshi exhaled through his nose.
"How dramatic."
Zetsuen looked at him.
"Every bond ends the same way."
Neither spoke for a moment.
Then Hiroshi took a step.
"You may be right about one thing."
Zetsuen looked at him.
"Not all remnants are the same."
Ryuichi looked at him too.
Hiroshi continued:
"Maybe some have not killed anyone. Maybe some remember things. Maybe they have names."
Zetsuen did not move.
"But you came here with others and filled this headquarters with bodies."
Hiroshi raised his fists.
"So don't ask me to treat you like a victim."
Zetsuen smiled.
"I'm not asking you to."
The fight erupted again.
Ryuichi launched four fragments.
Hiroshi went in from the front.
Zetsuen blocked one.
Disconnected another.
Took the third.
Hiroshi struck.
Zetsuen responded.
The impact sent Hiroshi back two steps.
Zetsuen spoke while fighting.
"You call us monsters."
It blocked another fragment.
"You pursue us."
It deflected a strike from Hiroshi.
"You hunt us."
Ryuichi tried to recover a connection.
Zetsuen severed it.
"You destroy us."
Hiroshi attacked the chest again.
Zetsuen barely dodged.
"Not because we have all killed."
Ryuichi changed angle.
"Not because we are all the same."
Another fragment.
Another severance.
"But because we exist."
Hiroshi paused for a second.
Zetsuen saw it.
"And then you call yourselves hunters."
Silence.
"As though giving a cleaner name to an execution changes what it is."
Ryuichi spoke.
"Not all remnants are innocent."
Zetsuen looked at him.
"Not all humans are either."
Ryuichi fell silent.
"And yet you didn't build an entire organisation to exterminate your whole species for the crimes of a few."
Hiroshi took a step.
"There are remnants that kill people."
"And there are humans who do the same."
"The difference is that when we arrive, there are usually already dead."
Zetsuen smiled.
"And when you arrive, there always are afterwards."
Hiroshi did not respond.
Ryuichi did.
"Then what do you want?"
Zetsuen looked at both of them.
"For hunters to disappear."
Silence.
"You should not exist."
Ryuichi narrowed his eyes.
"And remnants should?"
"Remnants exist because something remained."
Zetsuen's voice changed.
Not louder.
Deeper.
"Pain."
A promise.
Fear.
A name.
A life that did not finish leaving.
It extended a hand.
"And you appear afterwards to decide that all of that must disappear."
Hiroshi looked at it.
"It's not always like that."
"For us it is."
"You can't speak for all remnants."
"And you can decide for all of them?"
Silence.
That one touched something.
Not because Hiroshi agreed.
Because the question was not as simple as he would have liked.
Zetsuen saw it.
"That is your problem."
It looked at Ryuichi.
"You believe that protecting gives you the right to decide."
It looked at Hiroshi.
"You believe that killing something dangerous makes you just."
Hiroshi tightened his fist.
"And you believe that killing humans makes you superior."
"No."
Zetsuen smiled.
"I believe it makes us equal."
An explosion came from the east.
Not seen.
Felt.
The building vibrated.
Ryuichi turned his head towards the corridor.
"There are hunters to the east."
Hiroshi looked at him.
"Focus here."
"They need help."
"And we are fighting the leader."
Ryuichi created two more fragments.
Sent them towards the corridor.
Hiroshi looked at him.
"Ryuichi."
"I can handle it."
"I didn't ask if you could."
"I'm not going to let them die if I can do something."
Hiroshi held his eyes on him for a second.
"That's what my son says before doing something stupid."
Ryuichi looked at him.
"Your son is ten years old."
"Exactly."
Hiroshi gestured with his chin at the fragments moving away.
"You're not."
Ryuichi did not respond.
Hiroshi lowered his voice slightly.
"And by wanting to do something for everyone, you're going to end up unable to do anything for anyone."
Zetsuen watched them.
It did not smile.
It did not need to.
It had just understood something.
In another sector of the headquarters, Kana kept advancing.
The hand she had used the Flow Cut against Gareki was still trembling.
Not much.
Enough.
There were too many hunters on the floor.
She did not count them.
She had no time.
She kept going.
A cough.
From a half-open door.
Kana went in.
The man was leaning against the wall.
Grey hair.
Wounds on the torso.
One arm almost useless.
And in the hand that could still move he held a box.
Small.
Dark.
Covered in symbols.
Kana recognised it before she had fully processed the face.
"Daigo."
Daigo Arakawa opened his eyes.
"You're late."
Kana knelt.
"You're still alive."
Daigo let out a minimal laugh.
"I was always bad at knowing when to give up."
Kana began to check his wounds.
Daigo took her wrist.
"Don't waste time."
He held up the box.
Kana's expression changed.
"No."
"Kana."
"No."
"Listen to me."
"That thing is forbidden."
Daigo looked at the box.
"So is letting Zetsuen destroy the headquarters."
Kana went still.
"Zetsuen?"
"That's what the other remnants called it."
He paused to breathe.
"The one leading this."
Kana looked at the box again.
The Utsuro no Hako.
The Box of the Void.
An object that should not have left wherever it was kept.
An object that existed precisely because there were things that could not be killed the ordinary way.
"We don't know what would happen if we used it," said Kana.
"I know what happens if we don't."
Silence.
"Everyone dies."
Kana did not respond.
Daigo continued:
"It can seal an entity if it has been sufficiently weakened."
He breathed with difficulty.
"But it needs mana."
Proximity.
Time.
And someone willing to hold the seal open during the process.
Kana looked at him.
"Who brought it here?"
"I did."
"Then you knew this could happen."
Daigo barely smiled.
"I knew that someday something would be too strong to kill."
Kana looked at the box.
"And you kept this waiting for that day."
"Waiting to never see it."
Silence.
Kana took the Utsuro no Hako.
Daigo watched her.
"If you're going to use it..."
"I didn't say I was going to."
Daigo smiled.
"Then you wouldn't have picked it up."
An explosion shook the building.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Kana felt a presence.
Not a sound.
Not a movement.
A presence.
Heavy.
Wide.
Something moving through the space like a pressure.
Zetsuen.
Kana stood.
"Kana."
She turned.
Daigo looked at her.
"Don't try to kill it."
Kana did not respond.
"You can't."
Silence.
"You can only contain it."
Kana tightened her grip on the box.
In the main hall, Zetsuen had changed.
Not physically.
In how it used its mana.
It was no longer looking for a point.
It extended.
Wide.
As though it were trying to read all the existing connections within the space.
Ryuichi was breathing faster.
Hiroshi was bleeding.
The fragments were fewer than before.
Some destroyed.
Others disconnected.
Others sent far away.
Zetsuen looked around.
"How many are dying right now?"
Ryuichi did not respond.
"Ten?"
Silence.
"Twenty?"
Ryuichi launched two fragments.
Zetsuen severed them.
"You could go and help them."
"Don't listen to it," said Hiroshi.
Zetsuen continued:
"But if you stay here, they die."
Ryuichi gritted his teeth.
"And if you go..."
Zetsuen looked at Hiroshi.
"Perhaps he dies."
Hiroshi exhaled.
"You already tried that line."
"It still works."
Ryuichi heard another explosion.
Another zone.
More hunters.
More presence.
More mana going out.
Hiroshi saw it.
"No."
Ryuichi did not respond.
"Ryuichi."
He created more fragments.
"There are people alive."
"And Zetsuen is here."
"I can do both."
Hiroshi looked at him.
"That's your problem."
Ryuichi sent the fragments out.
Zetsuen smiled.
Not like someone satisfied.
Like someone confirming a theory.
"How curious."
Ryuichi looked at it.
"Every time you try to save someone, you become easier to kill."
Ryuichi tightened his fists.
"Be quiet."
Zetsuen opened its arms.
"No."
The mana extended.
The connections vibrated.
Ryuichi's fragments.
Hiroshi's flow.
Everything.
Zetsuen raised its gaze.
"Now."
It looked at both of them.
"Let's see what breaks first."