Solar Year 185 – Asakusa
The night changed.
One moment, Asakusa was still in the middle of battle, streets burning, orders being shouted, corpse-made Infernals falling beneath the fists and flames of its defenders.
The next—
Something else was born.
High above the district, the Demon Infernal finished taking shape atop the rooftop, its body towering and horned, wreathed in heat so dense the air around it bent and screamed. Fire poured from the cracks of its dark body like blood from a wound. Its eyes burned with animal fury, but there was something else there too.
Will, madness and devotion.
The rooftop beneath it cracked.
Then shattered.
Below, in the streets, Shinmon Hibachi stopped moving.
Around him, burning debris drifted through the air.
His grin vanished.
His eyes lifted.
"...Now that," he muttered, "is no normal Infernal."
The pressure of it rolled over Asakusa like a wave. Even the remaining corpse-made Infernals seemed lesser by comparison, reduced to nothing but twitching embers in the presence of something truly monstrous.
Hibachi's blood stirred.
A thrill crawled up his spine.
His lips slowly curled.
Then he kicked off the ground so hard the street beneath him cratered.
He launched skyward in a violent burst of flame, cloak snapping behind him as he shot toward the rooftop.
Straight at it.
Across the district, Konro felt it too.
He had just crushed an Infernal into the side of a storehouse when the new heat signature hit him. He froze, one eye narrowing as sweat gathered at his brow.
'What the hell is that?'
He looked up and saw it.
The horned silhouette.
The blazing mass of it.
And, already moving toward it like a fired arrow—
Hibachi.
Konro clicked his tongue.
"Boss..."
He turned immediately and ran, flames driving him forward as he leapt from roof to roof.
'That thing is dangerous.'
He knew Hibachi loved a good fight.
Knew the old man would throw himself at anything that looked strong enough to make his blood boil.
But this—
This felt different.
Konro increased his speed.
On the rooftop above the district, Haumea watched Hibachi rocket upward with amused interest.
"He noticed quickly."
Charon, standing beside her, remained silent.
Ritsu did not look up. Her gaze was fixed on the city below.
Haumea's eyes shifted toward her.
"Ritsu."
Ritsu gave a small nod.
Then she turned and disappeared down from the rooftop's edge, dropping into the darkness below without a sound.
Haumea watched her go, then looked back toward the district.
The corpse-made Infernals had done their job well enough.
They had spread confusion.
Forced response.
Pulled strength in different directions.
But Asakusa was still standing.
And that was getting annoying.
Down below, the battle had not stopped.
Benimaru tore through another corpse-made Infernal with a clean hand-sword chop, flames peeling off his arm in a savage arc. The creature came apart in the middle and collapsed into burning pieces.
Kidan stood a few paces away, controlling the flames from two shattered stalls at once, redirecting them into a spiraling wall that cut off another group of Infernals from fleeing civilians.
"Move!" Kidan shouted. "Get behind the shrine wall!"
The civilians obeyed.
A broad-shouldered man grabbed his daughter and ran where Kidan pointed.
As he passed, he looked back once.
At the white-haired boy.
At the marks under his eyes.
At the way the flames obeyed him.
His expression changed.
Respect.
Benimaru noticed it too, though he said nothing.
Kidan brought his hands down sharply and the wall of fire folded inward, crushing one of the Infernals against a post before Benimaru rushed in and ended the rest.
The brothers landed side by side.
Kidan looked up.
The heat in the sky above had become oppressive now, like a second sun hanging over the district.
"Big brother..."
Benimaru's gaze sharpened.
"I know."
Neither of them had felt anything like it before.
This presence made the skin crawl.
Before they could move, a shrill scream tore through the street behind them.
Both brothers turned.
A woman had fallen near the mouth of an alley, clutching at her chest as flames burst suddenly from her mouth.
Kidan froze.
Benimaru's eyes widened.
"No..."
The woman convulsed.
A man beside her shouted her name and reached out, but Benimaru grabbed him and threw him backward just as the woman's body ignited.
In seconds, she was gone.
An Infernal stood where she had been.
Kidan's face tightened.
"Another spontaneous one?!"
But Benimaru's expression darkened further.
"No."
He looked toward the alley's darkness.
"...Someone did that."
The newly-made Infernal shrieked and lurched forward.
Benimaru moved to kill it—
Then the alleyway behind it exploded.
Ash and bones.
Blackened remains from old fires and scattered dead surged together in a grotesque spiral, wrapping around the living Infernal's body. Its shape began to swell, expand, fuse, the flames from its core feeding the mass as it grew larger and larger.
Kidan stumbled back.
"What is that?!"
Benimaru stared hard.
The thing rose higher, taking a warped giant shape, stitched together from corpse matter, ash, and Infernal flame. It let out a guttural howl that shook windows and sent nearby civilians screaming into the streets.
A Giant Infernal.
Its burning arm came down and crushed an entire storefront in one swing.
"RUN!" Kidan shouted.
The street dissolved into panic.
Benimaru shoved Kidan back from the collapsing debris and raised one arm to block a wave of heat that crashed over them.
From the roofline above, Konro landed hard, having reversed direction the instant he sensed the new threat below.
His eyes locked on the giant creature.
"...Damn it."
For one moment, he looked upward toward where Hibachi had gone.
Then at the giant in front of him.
Then at the terrified civilians trapped in this part of the district.
He didn't have a choice.
Konro exhaled through his nose.
"Benimaru. Kidan."
Both boys looked at him.
"Get the civilians clear. I'll handle this."
Benimaru frowned immediately. "What about Boss Hibachi?"
Konro's gaze hardened.
"He'll have to handle his fight alone for now."
Then he launched himself at the Giant Infernal.
Elsewhere, Ritsu stood in the mouth of another alley, pale and still, her hand raised slightly as she manipulated the grotesque mass she had just made.
Her expression did not change.
The giant moved exactly as she wished.
It raised one immense leg and stomped, sending cracked stone and fire blasting across the road. Konro met it head-on, driving his flames into the giant's knee to divert the impact away from a cluster of fleeing civilians.
The collision boomed through the district.
Kidan stared at the scene.
Konro looked small against something that huge.
But he did not yield an inch.
Benimaru grabbed Kidan's shoulder.
"Move."
Kidan snapped back to focus and nodded.
Together, the brothers rushed to help evacuate the remaining civilians as Konro engaged the Giant Infernal in a brutal one-man battle, flame against colossal flesh and ash.
Back on the high rooftops, Haumea watched the separation happen exactly as intended.
Her smile returned.
"There. That's better."
Charon looked down toward the district below, his gaze eventually settling on Kidan.
Then he spoke.
"You once said this Pillar was strange."
Haumea glanced at him.
Charon continued in his usual flat tone.
"Why?"
Haumea stared at him for one long second.
Then smacked him upside the head.
THWACK.
Charon barely moved.
"Idiot," Haumea said.
Charon blinked once, expression unchanged.
Haumea placed one hand on her hip and sighed like she had been burdened by the stupidity of the world.
"It's because he isn't complete."
Charon remained silent.
Haumea continued, her voice sharp with smug certainty.
"Kidan is essentially one half of a Pillar."
That made even Charon's eyes narrow slightly.
Haumea pointed downward toward the district.
"His existence and the other half's are linked. They function as one."
She smiled.
"Two sides of the same flame."
Her eyes gleamed.
"Which means collecting only one would be pointless."
Charon looked back toward Kidan.
"...So we need both."
Haumea nodded.
"Exactly."
Then her smile sharpened further.
"And today, we start with this half."
Charon didn't ask anything else.
He simply stepped toward the edge of the rooftop.
Below, Kidan was helping a wounded man to his feet while Benimaru kept watch.
Haumea tilted her head.
"Bring him to me."
Charon gave a slight nod.
Then he jumped.
The rooftop cracked beneath the force of it.
His huge body dropped toward Asakusa like a meteor.
High above another section of the district, Hibachi closed in fast.
The Demon Infernal stood atop the shattered roofline, horned head turning toward him as if it had been waiting. Heat rolled off it in waves, each pulse violent enough to distort the surrounding night.
Hibachi landed on the opposite roof in a storm of fire.
The tiles beneath his feet fractured instantly.
He stared at the Demon Infernal.
The Demon Infernal stared back.
For a moment, neither moved.
Then Hibachi grinned.
"Oh, you're strong."
The Demon Infernal roared, flames bursting from its body in an explosion of pressure.
Hibachi's grin only widened.
"I can feel it."
His shoulders rolled once.
His fingers flexed.
The fire around his arms began to build.
Behind him, the skyline of Asakusa burned.
Below him, his district fought for its life.
But here—
On this rooftop—
There was only him.
And this monster.
Hibachi lowered his stance.
"Good."
His eyes gleamed with savage excitement.
"Let's do this."
And with that—
Shinmon Hibachi prepared to engage.
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