Thud.
After settling the dogs, Reze returned to her room and locked the door behind her.
She let out a long breath and stared at the stuffed bear in her hand, her expression complicated.
"So it finally came."
From the moment she refused the mission and betrayed the KGB, she had known this day would come. The Soviet Union had trained her for years. They would never let her go that easily.
Waiting for retaliation was always worse than the retaliation itself.
Now that the package had finally arrived, the weight on her chest strangely felt lighter instead of heavier.
"Heh, let's see what kind of bullshit trick you prepared."
She cleared the table in her room and placed the stuffed bear in the middle. Then she dragged a messy set of tools from under the bed.
A signal jammer.
Gas mask.
Anti corrosion gloves.
Tiny tweezers.
Her movements were calm and precise, like a surgeon preparing for an operation. Slowly, she began taking the bear apart piece by piece.
Soon, the stuffed toy was completely dismantled.
No bomb. No poison gas. No hidden blades.
After digging through the cotton stuffing, Reze finally found something.
A blood stained fingernail that smelled horrible, thirty four small photo fragments, and a recording pen.
Her eyebrows tightened slightly. Reassembling something like this was nothing to her.
Less than a minute later, the photo was complete.
It was a family picture.
A middle aged man, a woman with gray hair, and a small purple haired girl who was barely over one meter tall.
It was eight year old Reze and her foster parents, Alexei and Sofia.
She pressed the button on the recording pen.
The recording lasted only a few seconds.
First came the sound of metal tools clashing together.
Then a wet tearing sound.
A woman's muffled scream followed.
Someone's fingernail was being pulled out while she was still alive.
Reze closed her eyes for a moment.
As a former agent, she had trained herself never to react emotionally first. No matter how bad the situation was, the most important thing was to stay calm. Anger only made people stupid.
She turned the photo over.
Several lines of messy handwriting were written on the back.
If you want more gifts, come to SHIBUYA SKY at 3 AM.
3 AM.
Shibuya.
The observation deck on the forty seventh floor of Shibuya Scramble Square.
Under the neon lights, a tall man with a ponytail leaned casually against the railing while eating tamagoyaki from a paper bag.
Tap. Tap.
Reze stepped out of the shadows and sneered.
"What the hell is this? I thought the KGB would send someone important. Instead they sent trash like you."
Baleam smiled and raised the food bag in his hand.
"This is called tamagoyaki. It's kind of like egg rolls, but sweeter and softer."
Reze tilted her head slightly and looked at him as if he were an idiot.
"Really? I think your brain is probably softer than that."
Baleam burst out laughing, crumbs flying everywhere.
"Pomu, it's been so long and you're still sharp tongued. By the way, did you like the gift I sent you?"
Reze rubbed her forehead in annoyance.
"So you killed Alexei and Sofia?"
"Killed them?" Baleam looked surprised. "I'd love to turn those two old people into meat paste, but if I killed them I wouldn't be able to threaten you anymore."
"Tch."
Reze smiled coldly and grabbed the ring on her neck.
"You're fucking useless. You really think you can blackmail me?"
Baleam wiped his mouth with his sleeve and threw the unfinished tamagoyaki over the edge of the building.
"I can. The fact that you came here already proves you still care about them. It actually took me a long time to find those two."
Boom.
Reze pulled the ring.
A blinding flash exploded from her body.
She transformed instantly into the Bomb Devil.
The heat wave from the explosion twisted the air around her.
In the blink of an eye, she was already in front of him.
Her hand grabbed his throat so hard his face turned red instantly.
The black devil mask on her head glowed faintly in the neon light.
"You idiot," she said coldly. "I didn't come here to talk. I came here to kill you."
Even with his throat crushed, Baleam was still smiling.
"You're really violent. Transforming into a devil doesn't make you prettier, you know. Why don't we calm down and talk properly first?"
Boom.
A deafening explosion echoed across the night sky.
His head was blown clean off and fell toward the ground below.
The body collapsed.
Reze returned to her human form and clicked her tongue in disgust.
"Who the hell are you to comment on how I look?"
She pulled a dagger from her boot and sliced open his chest.
Like her, Baleam was a weapon human. The only way to stop him from regenerating was to remove his heart.
Ten years ago, the Soviet military had planned to fuse the Bomb Devil with a human body.
The original candidate had been Baleam.
Everything had been prepared, the surgery was ready, and then Reze appeared.
Her compatibility was far beyond his.
At the last moment, she took the Bomb Devil from him.
Baleam had never forgotten that humiliation.
Later, he fused with the Flamethrower Devil instead, but it was never the same. Compared to the Bomb Devil, it felt like a cheap replacement.
Reze dug deeper into his chest, then suddenly stopped.
"...Huh?"
It was empty.
At the same moment, a loud explosion erupted in midair outside the building.
Baleam had already predicted what she would do.
Before coming here, he had moved his heart to his neck.
The tamagoyaki he threw earlier actually contained a piece of strong magnetic metal. When he threw it, it stuck to the edge of the floor. A nearly invisible thread was tied to it, and the other end was connected to a loose molar inside his mouth.
That tooth was his transformation switch.
The moment his head was blown off and fell, the thread tightened and pulled the tooth out.
He transformed into the Flamethrower Man in midair and regenerated instantly.
Flames burst across the sky.
Baleam really wanted to rush back and fight her properly, but he knew he would lose.
Not yet.
He was still weaker than Reze.
Running was the only smart choice.
More importantly, his identity had already been exposed. If Makima noticed him, he would be dead for sure.
He needed to disappear immediately.
The first thing he had to do now was change his face.
^_________^
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