The steam from the rooftop tub was thick, smelling of the bitter medicinal salts Marla insisted on for "cellular recovery." It was a heavy, humid peace, a rare pocket of silence earned after three years of relentless, bone-breaking training and the jagged grief that had nearly torn them apart.
Ruy was submerged to his chest, nestled against Vitaliya. His canine tail gave an occasional, lazy twitch beneath the surface while her lynx ears flattened in content against his shoulder. A few feet away, Lila rested against T'Jadaka. Her breathing was a soft rhythm, syncing perfectly with the heavy, steady thud of his heart.
She reached out, her fingers tracing the faint, silvered lines where a monster's claw had once grazed his cheek. Her touch moved lower, hovering over the puckered skin where the hole in his chest used to be—a quiet, reverent map of what he'd survived.
"Yo," Ruy broke the silence, his voice echoing slightly against the night sky. "I still don't know how the hell you convinced the Stygian Clan to set this up."
T'Jadaka didn't open his eyes. "You're acting like the specifics matter."
"Fuck no, they don't!" Vitaliya chimed in, her voice muffled by Ruy's shoulder. "It's a hell of a lot better than going back to the hot springs and potentially getting killed again."
Lila's hand stilled on T'Jadaka's chest. "I still miss them... every day. They were the first of us to actually become a couple."
T'Jadaka finally opened his eyes, rubbing the top of her head. "I know. Not a single day goes by without them in my head." He shifted, his gaze narrowing as he stared out at the dark silhouette of the forest bordering the rooftop. "And since I'm way stronger now... I always drift off. Thinking about spinning back on that... Thing."
Lila moved, her hand cupping his cheek to force him to look at her. "No. Revenge won't bring them back, Jadaka. It'd be pointless to try after so long."
"She's got a point," Vitaliya added. "We just have to keep moving forward. Like Marla always tried to show us."
Ruy cleared his throat, his voice taking on a solemn, practiced cadence. "Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all."
Lila picked up the thread, her voice a soft whisper. "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.'"
Vitaliya finished the mantra, her eyes fixed on the rising steam. "To the contrary, 'if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by doing so you will heap burning coals on his head.' Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
T'Jadaka let out a long, slow breath. "Romans 12:17-21..." A ghost of a smile touched his lips, though it didn't reach his eyes. "Funny how that was her favorite line from that book... even though she broke that rule at one point."
"On God, she had us reading that thing two hours a day," Ruy said, a wry grin tugging at his mouth. "And if we got bored? 'Read it again.' I think I know the damn thing by heart now."
"Ten times. At least," Vitaliya added, her voice soft.
T'Jadaka let out a genuine laugh, the sound echoing off the rooftop ledge. "Man... moments like this make me wish they were here. Right now."
"Me too," Lila whispered. "But they're with us. Every time we think about them, they're here."
Ruy reached for the wine, filling the glasses with a steady hand before hoisting his own. "This one's for Kichirō. For being the big brother we all needed and dragging us through the dirt... even now, he's still helping." He took a long, slow sip.
Vitaliya raised her glass next. "For Matilda. Who could make a war zone feel like a party... and who still does hair better than me and Lila combined." She drank, the memory of Matilda's laughter lingering in the steam.
Lila's glass went up. "For Remigio... who isn't dead, but who's trying to fix the hole he left." A somber, collective nod went around the circle before she sipped.
T'Jadaka stood, the water cascading off his scarred chest. He bypassed the glass and grabbed the entire bottle. "For my mom, Farrah. And for Marla. They tried to give us lives better than the ones they had. They weren't perfect because they were flawless... they were perfect because they were broken and still tried to do better." He drained his cup, then tipped the bottle back for a long swig.
"Damn, bruh," Ruy muttered. "You ain't gonna leave none for the dead homies!?"
"They deserve a whole bottle," T'Jadaka countered.
Lila reached for a fresh bottle and tipped it over the side of the tub, the dark liquid splashing into the shadows below in a silent libation.
"Rest in peace," Vitaliya whispered. "We miss you all."
The silence that followed was heavy, a shared breath between the living and the dead. Then, it was shattered.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
T'Jadaka spun toward the sound, his muscles coiling instantly. Seok Kwan stood at the edge of the roof, his silhouette sharp against the moon, dressed in a pristine, all-white suit that seemed to glow in the dark.
"That was very touching, kids. Heartwarming, really." Seok Kwan wiped at his eye with a theatrical flourish. "Got me legit tearing up over here."
"Who the fuck are you!?" Ruy snarled, his tail bristling beneath the water. "Can we mourn our people without some random villain-looking-ass bitch fucking with us!?"
Seok Kwan looked genuinely offended. "Damn. I at least waited until you were done. Shit, I don't get any points for that?"
T'Jadaka didn't rise from the water, but his frame went rigid, his eyes locking onto the man in white. "What are you even here for?"
Seok Kwan leaned forward, getting a clear look at T'Jadaka's eyes. A slow, knowing grin spread across his face. "I'll be damned... He really did have a kid. Honestly, I'm shocked to see the great Mazoku having a child with a human, no less."
T'Jadaka didn't respond with words. He snapped a punch into the empty air.
A split second later, the derelict building twenty yards behind Seok Kwan detonated. Concrete pulverized into a gray cloud, the roar of the collapse shaking the rooftop. Seok Kwan didn't flinch, though the shockwave ruffled his pristine white hair. He glanced back at the rubble, his brow furrowing.
What the hell? Was that just air pressure from a punch? No... it was something I couldn't even see coming.
"Holy shit!" Vitaliya gasped, her lynx ears twitching violently. "Since when can you just casually destroy buildings!?"
"Is that the only thing shocking to you!?" Lila whispered, her eyes wide.
"I won't miss next time," T'Jadaka stated, his voice a flat, lethal promise.
"Well, you surely didn't get your dad's sense of humor, but alright." Seok Kwan straightened his suit, his expression turning sharp. "My name is Seok Kwan. I am the right hand of Osvaldo Magliana." He leveled a finger at T'Jadaka. "And your friend over there has been getting real active lately."
Lila turned to T'Jadaka, her hand dropping from his chest. "What is he talking about?"
"I was trying to make things better," T'Jadaka muttered, his gaze fixed on Seok Kwan.
"Say on god you ain't tell them?" Seok Kwan laughed, a dry, mocking sound.
"Tell us what!?" Vitaliya pressed, her voice rising. "Jadaka, what have you been doing?"
"Now is not the time for all this—"
"Six weeks ago," Seok Kwan interrupted, "your buddy here killed Osvaldo's nephew. Osvaldo, the head of the Magliana drug cartel. Then, not only that, he pisses off two other overlords and pins the whole thing on my boss's name."
Ruy's jaw dropped. He splashed back, staring at T'Jadaka in disbelief. "Hold the fuck up... YOU DID FUCKIN' WHAT!? Why!?"
"If I make them fight each other for power," T'Jadaka said, his voice cold and clinical, "then when they're all distracted, I can kill them during the chaos."
Seok Kwan pulled out a cigar and sparked a flame, the orange glow illuminating his sharp features. "Which, I have to say, was a solid plan. But you made one little fuck-up. When you attacked the Zhumo district specifically." He took a long drag, exhaling a cloud of blue smoke into the night air. "You told Seong-Ho that 'Xing Long is under Osvaldo's control.' Which is odd... since nobody wants this shit hole."
T'Jadaka narrowed his eyes. "So none of the overlords want Xing Long, and yet they keep running operations through here? Kidnapping people for slaves and sex work?"
Seok Kwan exhaled a long, gray plume and spread his arms wide, gesturing to the jagged, broken skyline. "Look around you, kid. This place is a literal shithole. No offense, but maybe twenty percent of this district is even livable. It would cost god-knows-how-much just to make it look halfway decent. And all those slaves you set free? They came running here like it was the promised land, not realizing they're just gonna be 'free' with nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat."
"And who the fuck decided that!?" Ruy snapped. The sudden venom in his voice took Seok Kwan off guard. Ruy stood up, the water sluicing off his fur. "This place might be lawless, but that doesn't mean we have to live like rats. We can make our own rules. We can live without eyes on us twenty-four-seven. It doesn't have to be like this."
Seok Kwan chuckled, shaking his head. "Even so... if we aren't the ones doing it, someone else will be. Crime never truly dies, kid. It just packs its bags and moves to a new neighborhood. You're just too young to know how the world works."
T'Jadaka rose from the water, the heat rolling off his scarred skin in thick waves of steam. He stepped onto the concrete ledge, dripping and silent. "So, I'm guessing you're here to kill me?"
Seok Kwan nodded simply. "Don't worry. I'll let you get your friends out of the way first. I only want you."
A few minutes later, they stood on the far edge of the district, a wasteland of collapsed rebar and scorched earth. The wind whistled through the hollowed-out shells of tenements.
"Pretty good spot," Seok Kwan noted, glancing around at the wreckage. "No need to worry about collateral damage here."
T'Jadaka said nothing. He began to move, his joints popping as he warmed up, his eyes never leaving the man in white.
"You know... I fought your dad once."
That stopped T'Jadaka mid-stretch. He went still, his gaze sharpening. Seok Kwan crossed his arms, leaning back against a piece of jagged masonry.
"Yeah. Fought him a few years back. He attacked the Magliana estate for some reason I never figured out. We went at it for a while, but he dogged me pretty quick. I thought he was gonna finish me, but then he said something... weird."
T'Jadaka's face remained a mask, but his eyes screamed for him to keep talking.
"He told me, 'One day, a child will come, and they will destroy everything here.' I asked him what the fuck he was talking about, but he just... left. Killed fifty thousand people on his way out and just walked away. Oh, and he took a few hundred pounds of our product with him."
T'Jadaka's lip curled. "So my dad was a junkie? Is that what you're telling me?"
"No," Seok Kwan corrected. "Your dad was just a dick. He took the drugs, yeah... but then he destroyed them right in front of us. Just to show us that all those people died for absolutely nothing."
Mom said he was a dick, T'Jadaka thought, but I'm starting to think he was a god-tier asshole to the rest of the world.
"But I wonder..." Seok Kwan unbuttoned his suit jacket and tossed it onto a nearby pile of rubble. He settled into a low, predatory stance, his eyes glowing with a sudden, sharp intensity. "Are you just as strong!? Or are you still just a shadow of him?"
T'Jadaka dropped into his own stance, the ground beneath his feet beginning to groan. "You'll see for yourself."
They stood in the wreckage, the air between them thick enough to choke on, waiting to see who would blink first.
Odd... Seok Kwan noted, his gaze tracking every micro-movement. He's not coming at me head-on like Raiken. He has the eyes, but he doesn't fight like a Mazoku.
I need to be careful, T'Jadaka countered internally. I don't know how strong he is, but I have a feeling he's not weak at all. Let's test him.
T'Jadaka ignited. He exploded forward, his boots carving deep grooves into the cracked concrete as he closed the gap in a blurred dash. He wound up for a heavy, telegraphed left roundhouse kick aimed squarely at Seok Kwan's jaw.
Seok Kwan's lip curled in disappointment. Does he really think I'll get hit by a simple kick? He's not even as fast as I thought.
His silver eyes tracked the arc of the strike. He shifted his weight, raising his left hand to swat the kick aside with a casual block. But as his palm came within inches of the impact, at the last possible microsecond, T'Jadaka didn't follow through.
Instead, he reached down with a snap of his wrist, snatching his own kicking leg mid-air to kill the momentum.
Seok Kwan's eyes went wide. A feint!? I can still—
Using the torque, T'Jadaka pushed off his right foot and launched into a vertical spiral. He flipped clean over Seok Kwan's outstretched arm, his free leg whipping around in a tight, vicious arc. It connected with a sickening thud against the back of Seok Kwan's skull.
"AH!"
The force of the blow drove Seok Kwan's face toward the gravel. He faceplanted hard, the momentum grinding his cheek into the dirt for several feet before he came to a stop.
T'Jadaka landed lightly, his breath steady. Guess he fell for Haneashi no Ugoki... the unreadable attack. Glad I kept that skill sharp.
Seok Kwan didn't stay down. With an explosive, sudden movement, he pushed himself off the gravel, standing upright in a single motion. His head hung at a sickening, ninety-degree angle, his neck clearly snapped from the impact of the kick.
"Holy shit, kid! Going for the kill shot right off the bat!?" Seok Kwan's voice was wet, distorted by the angle of his throat. "That's cold."
T'Jadaka's eyes narrowed, his pulse quickening. "Yeah... that's the whole fuckin' point. How are you even still... talking, let alone living!?"
"Oh, now you want to talk?" Seok Kwan reached up, his fingers digging into his own jaw and temples. "You can't just ask questions whenever you feel like it and..."
With a sharp, rhythmic CRACK-CRUNCH, he snapped his head back into its proper alignment. He did it as casually as a man adjusting a necktie in a mirror. "Expect me to answer yours and not mine." He rolled his shoulders, the sound of grinding bone fading into the wind.
"Ask me if I give a shit!" T'Jadaka didn't wait. He ignited again, dashing in for a follow-up strike.
Seok Kwan sighed. "You're one spoiled brat, you know that?"
He countered with a blindingly fast straight lead.
Huh!? T'Jadaka's mind barely registered the motion.
The punch connected flush with T'Jadaka's face. He didn't just fall; he rocketed backward, his body a blur as he cratered into the earth yards away. A massive plume of dust and pulverized concrete erupted into the night air.
Seok Kwan looked down at his knuckles, then back at the cloud where T'Jadaka was already pushing himself to his feet.
"That punch didn't feel right," Seok Kwan muttered, his silver eyes tracking T'Jadaka's silhouette. "You blocked it before it hit you fully... somehow."
T'Jadaka looked down at his hand. It was still throbbing, a deep, bone-deep ache that wouldn't quit.
My hand still hurts from blocking that... this guy is physically stronger than Kinjiro, he thought, his jaw tightening. I need to stop feeling him out.
Seok Kwan stood a few yards away, casually dusting off his sleeves. "So, you're done with the foreplay!? Or are you ready to fight for real?"
T'Jadaka didn't answer. He just stood there, unmoving, his gaze fixed on a point just past Seok Kwan's shoulder.
Why is he just standing—
POW!
A sickening CRACK echoed through the ruins. Seok Kwan's head was whipped clean off his shoulders, sent spinning into the darkness like a discarded ball. His headless torso swayed for a heartbeat, blood geysering from the stump of his neck, before the body collapsed into a widening crimson pool.
T'Jadaka stood where the head had been a second ago, his fist still extended. Had to use Kasumi Zanshin to catch him off guard. That afterimage kept him locked in place long enough for a kill shot.
He exhaled, the black energy around him flickering as he turned his back on the corpse. He started walking away, the adrenaline beginning to ebb. For a guy who fought my dad, he was pretty weak—
A wet, metallic cough tore from T'Jadaka's throat.
Four massive, jagged spikes erupted through his chest from behind, the tips glistening with his own blood.
"What the fuck!?" T'Jadaka gasped, his hands flying up to grab the slick, bone-like protrusions pinning him. Where did these things come from!? He felt the hot surge of blood filling his lungs. If I hadn't used Hiyori Gami to shift my vitals at the last second... he would have punched straight through my heart...
Behind him, Seok Kwan's headless body rose from the dirt.
The regeneration was a nightmare in motion. First, the white of the vertebrae knitted upward from the neck stump. Then came the wet slap of nerves and muscle fibers weaving themselves together, followed by the rapid-fire pulsing of veins and the stretching of pale skin. Finally, the silver eyes snapped open, and the carmine-black hair sprouted in a sudden, violent growth.
"Damn!" Seok Kwan cracked his newly formed neck, the sound like dry wood snapping. "That's a new trick. I've never seen that one before. If I were anyone else, I'd be a memory right now."
T'Jadaka twisted his head back, his face contorted in a mask of agony and disbelief. "What... what even are you!?"
Seok Kwan looked genuinely confused for a second. "Oh... so this is your first time seeing an Endolen Ghoul before? To be fair, my kind doesn't usually wander outside the Chongling district."
He tilted his head, eyeing the spikes buried in T'Jadaka's torso. "Guess my aim was off. I was trying to hit the heart. I really should have gone for the head."
T'Jadaka flared his bio-energy in a sudden, violent pulse. The shockwave rippled outward, slamming into Seok Kwan and shattering the blood-spikes buried in his torso like brittle glass.
Seok Kwan tumbled back, landing softly on his feet a few yards away. He smoothed his white shirt, looking entirely too impressed. "Ah... you have excellent bio-energy manipulation, too. Guess you inherited that from your pops, didn't you?"
T'Jadaka stood his ground, the jagged holes in his chest knitting back together with a wet, rhythmic squelch. He spat a glob of dark blood onto the concrete. "You really should invest in a helmet."
Seok Kwan tilted his head, looking genuinely confused. "Why the hell do I need a helmet?"
"For the amount of dick riding you're doing right now," T'Jadaka snapped. That hit a nerve; Seok Kwan's smug expression twitched. "You always say 'my dad this' or 'Raiken that,' like he didn't just slaughter your friends for sport. You're comparing us like we're the same person, but news flash: you don't know shit about me. So how about you shut the fuck up and just fight already!? This monologue shit is getting repetitive and cliché."
Seok Kwan's face went cold. His sclera bled into a deep, ink-black, and his silver irises shifted into a bruised shade of dark purple. The air around him began to vibrate with a predatory hum. "You give yourself too much credit, kid... because from where I'm standing, you two know how to piss me off just the same."
"Oh my God, just shut up and—"
Before T'Jadaka could finish the sentence, Seok Kwan vanished.
Shit, he's even faster than I thought!
A boot slammed into T'Jadaka's jaw with the force of a freight train. He was sent spiraling through the air, his body a human drill, before he managed to catch his momentum. He dug his heels into the dirt, skidding for twenty feet before coming to a dead halt on his feet.
Seok Kwan stood where T'Jadaka had been, his leg still extended. "How the hell are you doing that? I can tell you're rolling with my hits."
But T'Jadaka didn't answer. He just stood there, perfectly still, his gaze fixed on nothing. Seok Kwan's eyes narrowed, and he began to scan the shadows, his purple irises darting back and forth. Something was wrong.
T'Jadaka flickered out of existence, reappearing directly behind Seok Kwan's blind spot. He coiled for a strike, but a slick, wet sound tore through the air. A dark, corded tendril erupted from Seok Kwan's lower back, lashing out with predatory speed. It punched straight through T'Jadaka's sternum, the jagged tip bursting out his back in a spray of crimson.
T'Jadaka's breath hitched, a mouthful of hot blood spilling over his chin.
Seok Kwan didn't turn around; he simply flexed the tendril, hoisting T'Jadaka into the air to face him. "Yeah... didn't know we had these, did you? Exo-Organs. We craft them out of our own biomass using smart cells. Pretty cool, right?"
T'Jadaka's head hung low, but then a low, wet chuckle vibrated in his chest. He looked up, a devilish, blood-toothed grin splitting his face. Seok Kwan's smugness faltered.
"What's really cool," T'Jadaka wheezed, "is that not dodging... makes for a better counter-attack."
Seok Kwan's eyes narrowed. He tried to laugh it off, but his voice lacked conviction. "No way you're that crazy. You wouldn't just let yourself get—"
T'Jadaka's hands snapped shut around the tendril. With a guttural roar, he began to pull himself deeper onto the spike, sliding his body along the slick organ to close the gap.
He's fucking nuts! Seok Kwan's purple irises flared in panic.
He didn't hesitate. Seven more tendrils exploded from his back, a frantic nest of lashing black whips. They slammed into T'Jadaka's frame—five buried themselves in his torso, and two more punched through his skull. T'Jadaka's grip loosened. His head lolled back.
Seok Kwan exhaled, his chest heaving. This might be a little overkill, but you can't be too sure with a Mazoku. That should have—
"Wow," T'Jadaka's voice was a rasping shadow of itself, but the smile was still there. "You sure made sure I was dead, huh?"
Seok Kwan's face went pale. The blood drained from his cheeks as T'Jadaka's eyes snapped open.
"You hit my heart. Both lungs. Kidneys. Your aim is pretty good." The Mazoku marks on T'Jadaka's skin began to pulse with a violent, rhythmic light. He resumed his crawl, dragging his mangled body closer to Seok Kwan's throat. "And that blood manipulation? Cool trick. Good thing I know how to do it, too."
In a blind panic, Seok Kwan began to stab him over and over, the sound of tearing flesh filling the crater. But T'Jadaka didn't stop. He didn't even flinch. He just kept coming, a relentless, gore-slicked engine of spite.
How!? How is he even doing this!? He's half-human! He should only be half as strong as Raiken! Seok Kwan's mind fractured. He's just as much of a monster as his father!!
T'Jadaka's hand shot out, iron fingers clamping onto Seok Kwan's skull.
"Got yo stupid ass." T'Jadaka used his free hand to rip the tendrils from his own head, his eyes regrowing in a blur of knitting nerves. The black and white gaze locked onto Seok Kwan's trembling purple ones. "Maybe if you'd shut the fuck up and pulled my pops' dick out your throat, you would've just killed me already. You say I'm not as strong as him..."
He pulled his fist back, his entire arm suddenly encased in a blinding, swirling sphere of bio-energy. The air began to scream.
"But I'm still a far cry from being as weak as you. Now let's see how good your regen really is!"
"Wait, hold on—"
T'Jadaka's fist descended.
"Bio-Atomic Impact!"
The world turned white. A massive, localized shockwave vaporized the concrete, the trees, and the very air. A towering tornado of fire and debris erupted from the impact point, a pillar of destruction that could be seen from every corner of the district.
When the roar finally died and the dust settled, there was nothing left but a perfectly smooth, glass-lined crater.
T'Jadaka stood at the center, his chest heaving, steam rising from his healing wounds. He looked down into the empty pit. "I guess he can't come back from being turned into dust. That's good to know... but that was probably overkill."
"Good job, boy. You really are pretty strong."
T'Jadaka spun around, his muscles coiling for another fight. "Come on! I just killed one asshole, now I got—"
He stopped. His voice died in his throat.
Standing at the edge of the crater was a man of towering height. He wore a sharp suit and glasses, his body mapped with intricate tattoos that mirrored T'Jadaka's own. He looked like a reflection from a decade in the future.
"Wait... who are you?"
The stranger looked down at him, a calm, terrifying presence. He reached up, slowly removing his glasses to reveal eyes that didn't just glow—they held the light of distant, burning stars.
"Oh, come on," Raiken said, a faint, knowing smirk playing on his lips. "You look just like me. Besides... don't you know who your daddy is?"
T'Jadaka stood frozen, his heart hammering against his ribs in a way no injury could cause.
"Dad!?"