Chapter Twenty-One: An Unprecedented Realm

The morning sun hung high in the sky.

Saeko, whose daily routine was as disciplined as ever, began her day just as she always did. The beautiful woman with violet hair, pinned up elegantly, first completed her daily swordsmanship practice in the front dojo. Sweat soaked her loose kendo uniform, clinging to her splendid curves and valleys. Afterward, she returned to the back hall to shower, change clothes, prepare breakfast, and rouse her adorable yet formidable junior.

Saeko, the very image of a gentle and capable wife, stirred the pot of soup before her, a satisfied smile gracing her lips. Suddenly, her arm paused ever so slightly.

Hmm... Now that the delinquent who dropped out also lives in the room upstairs, but he certainly doesn’t count as a junior! There’s only one junior!

Her movements in the kitchen soon regained their previous fluidity. Though they’d been living together for less than a year, their compatibility was so natural that it almost felt like an old married couple.

With her violet hair pinned up, Saeko glanced at the nearly-complete dishes and covered the pot. It was time to wake the junior upstairs.

Ascending the stairs, Saeko let down her hair. She knew well that when she wore her hair loose, Kyou Shirodo would glance at her—just a little more frequently, though he tried to make it seem unintentional.

But as she reached that all-too-familiar bedroom door, her eyes suddenly flashed with an illusory red glow! Her brows knit tightly. In her delicate, veined hand appeared, as if from nowhere, a short dagger.

Her lips moved soundlessly, and her heart sank.

“The scent of blood?!”

As a practitioner of an ancient murderous sword style, while modern times had no use for human targets, she was no stranger to cutting through animals. And before Kyou Shirodo had moved in to help restrain her murderous impulses, she had actively hunted delinquents.

The scent of blood was unmistakable to her.

A fiendish killing intent began to seethe within her.

“...Just yesterday we spoke of the conflict with Tokyo Electric, and now there’s a scent of blood this morning!”

Saeko didn’t want to, nor dared to, imagine what she might find inside. She knew Kyou Shirodo was strong, but assassinations had little to do with the strength of martial artists. Drugs, sonic weapons, firearms… These were not things mere humans could withstand. In the world of assassins, they were hardly new.

At that thought, a strange pang struck her heart. A sudden, acute terror of losing something precious washed over her.

Some people lose their wits in panic.

But others... their killing intent erupts!

The murderous aura she’d suppressed for a year surged forth uncontrollably, as the life or death of the one who held her back hung in the balance.

Saeko adjusted her stance, stepping with the secret footwork of the Todo School. In the dim light before the door, the red gleam in her eyes grew even more pronounced. She silently drew her dagger, and under the influence of her murderous aura, it seemed as if not only steel but also fresh blood leaped from the scabbard!

On the other side of the wall, Taichi Zenaga, sleeping like a dead pig, suddenly jerked awake as if pricked by a needle, flailing on the bed and even tumbling to the floor from the violent motion.

“Ugh... Ah! What’s happening?!”

A nameless thrill made his heart seize painfully—enough to make him wonder if he was experiencing a sudden heart attack! As his gaze landed on his bedroom door, a massive, inexplicable dread seemed to press in from outside, leaving him slumped helplessly on the floor. His legs felt boneless and weak, and, driven by instinct, he could only prop himself up with his hands, shrinking into a corner and staring at the door—like poultry faced with a blade.

Out in the hallway, the door to Kyou Shirodo’s room slowly opened from within.

“Hey, good morning.”

The moment that familiar voice emerged, the murderous aura that had pervaded the corridor vanished like snow under sunlight.

To Saeko, already bracing for the worst, that voice was nothing short of a divine blessing!

She let out a breath of relief, her face lighting up with joy.

But as the door swung fully open and the figure within was revealed, her delight turned to shock.

“Kyou! Your body!”

Behind the door stood Kyou Shirodo, his previously balanced body fat and streamlined muscle now shrunken as if he’d undergone some brutal dehydration regimen—his entire frame reduced by a full size! His cheeks were sunken, the outlines of joints and bones visible beneath his skin! Though still around six feet tall, he seemed to be held up by bones alone.

Saeko rushed forward to support what to her eyes looked like a man hovering between life and death. In her hurried glance, she caught sight of a large pool of blood on the floor.

Had he suffered a training mishap?

Saeko could only guess. After a year of living together, she was well aware Kyou Shirodo trained at night. But to her, these sessions seemed no different from conventional breathing exercises or meditation.

Kyou Shirodo shook his head lightly, unconcerned about his current physical state.

Last night’s battle with the will inside the folding knife, and the opening of his energy points, had been exhausting in both mind and body. After his overwhelming victory, repairing his ravaged, almost nonfunctional organs had become the top priority.

It wasn’t that he looked down on this world’s doctors, or refused to go to a hospital. He simply knew that, even if he were sent to the University of Tokyo Medical School, his injuries would have been beyond saving.

Stomach acid and blood had flowed into his chest cavity, the bleeding in his organs was spreading, and he could feel the pain of his blood vessels and intestines being slowly corroded by acid. Had he waited for medical help, his chest and abdomen would have become nothing but a pool of mush.

Thankfully, he possessed extraordinary power—dragon blood inner energy! This supreme technique from the immortal and demonic martial world coursed through his meridians, nourishing and repairing every broken part of his body. But meager inner strength could not defy the law of conservation of mass; the “flesh” needed to heal his organs could only come from his own body.

So, by dawn, his fat and muscle were completely consumed, but he had survived. With his inner energy accelerating digestion, a hundred pounds of high-energy food would suffice to restore him. And... he had gained something more.

“Stop, Saeko.”

A weak yet even voice slipped from Kyou Shirodo’s now emaciated lips, as calm as a casual morning conversation.

But as the worried Saeko, hand nearly on his shoulder, heard the words, she felt as if something erupted from his frail body—a formless force, deadly to the touch, pushing her away!

Acting on pure instinct, Saeko recoiled as if dodging a blade swung straight at her!

Crack!

The fragile floor, unable to withstand the full force of a classical swordsman’s step, splintered and bore a dainty footprint.

It wasn’t until she landed, hand already gripping her sword’s hilt, that Saeko realized what she’d done.

She stared in astonishment at Kyou Shirodo standing in the doorway.

On his gaunt face was a faint smile of satisfaction.

“No, it wasn’t a training mishap, Saeko. I simply reached... a realm no one else has ever touched!”

His thin, almost translucent finger lifted. At its tip pulsed a wave of psychic energy that only Kyou Shirodo could see.

He gazed in wonder at this energy—transcending the mundane, unbound by the environment—and an inexplicable emotion welled up within him.

Perhaps it was the realization that...

From today onward, he would, as a matter of course, become—the strongest among all humankind!