CHAPTER 26: RODEM
5th Floor. Office.
Q-Taro's excitement was reaching its peak. He stood up and walked to the far wall of the office.
Hanging there was a human skull—not a resin replica, but a genuine, bleached human cranium.
"His name was Ryo Hojo..."
Q-Taro reached out and stroked the smooth bone, his breathing heavy and erratic. He turned to Yagyo. "He was a magnificent man. Until tonight, he was the only guest who ever truly allowed me to enjoy the full duration of a gamble."
SHING!
Q-Taro suddenly unsheathed the blade from his cane and cleaved the skull in two. The pieces clattered to the floor, forgotten.
"Hah... hahaha! Records are meant to be broken! It looks like I'll be hanging four new skulls in this room tomorrow morning. I can't wait!"
"But speaking of which, Referee Yagyo—"
Q-Taro narrowed his eyes, staring at the old gentleman. "You seem to know quite a bit about these guests. Why don't you enlighten me?"
"Madarame Baku and Shigeru Akagi," Yagyo replied calmly, unfazed by the desecration of the skull. "Those are the names of two of your guests. They are also known as the 'Lie Eater' and the 'Man of the Divine Realm.'"
"...?"
Q-Taro froze. "You mean... them?"
Suddenly, the pieces clicked together.
Even if he didn't know their faces, no one who moved in the shadows of the underworld was ignorant of those titles.
The "Lie Eater," Madarame Baku. A man who, at fifteen years old, had systematically dismantled Kakerou's elite members in a single afternoon. He possessed the intellect of a god and the cold ruthlessness of a demon. He was whispered to be the strongest gambler in the history of the club.
The "Man of the Divine Realm," Shigeru Akagi. A man much older than Baku, whose legend had begun even earlier. It was said that at thirteen, he had manifested as a peerless genius in the underground Mahjong dens, defeating every master in Japan without suffering a single loss.
"Hah... hahahaha! I'm lucky! I'm so damn lucky!"
Q-Taro laughed until he was gasping for air.
"I don't care about the Mahjong legend, but the Lie Eater—the ghost who vanished years ago—is my opponent tonight?!"
"Hahaha! They say Baku was the man closest to taking the seat of the Chief of Kakerou. If I win... if I can beat the Lie Eater..."
WHAM!
Q-Taro swung his cane-sword again, crushing the remains of the old skull into powder.
"If I win, I am the man who surpassed the Lie Eater!"
"I will climb to the very top of Kakerou! I will command the state-level 'Power' and 'Might' that the club possesses!"
His eyes turned bloodshot, his face a mask of manic greed. "Now that I know who they are, I'm done playing games. Kill them. I want them all dead right now!"
Twenty minutes had passed since the start of the gamble.
The situation on the sixth floor was settled. The four mercenaries were broken.
The one Ren had kicked in the back of the head was likely dead; his skull was caved in, his breathing shallow. The giant mercenary was a mess of gore, his face shattered and his groin destroyed. The third, the smallest of them, had a snapped neck and was paralyzed from the chest down, coughing weakly in the thinning smoke until he passed out.
Their condition was "Grim" at best. For men who lived by the gun, death would have been a mercy compared to the "Might" Ren had unleashed on them.
Even Kaji, who had never seen a dead body before, felt no pity. Men who kill for sport deserve no sympathy.
The fourth mercenary—the one with the slicked-back hair—realized he was outmatched. He had tried to play dead, but Ren had spotted the rhythmic twitch of his eyelid. Ren hauled him up by his tactical vest.
"We're heading down," Ren said, his voice dropping to a terrifying growl. "You're going to show us exactly where the traps are between five and one. If we trip a wire, I'm using you as a human shield. Understood?"
The mercenary nodded frantically.
The group stripped the fallen men of their usable gear—spare ammo, a few knives, and tactical flashlights. With their "Guide" in the lead, they began the descent from the sixth floor to the fifth.
The gamble had started on five. Q-Taro and his "Demon" were still there. Based on Fusui's warning, they knew they couldn't linger.
Strangely, as they passed the threshold of the fifth floor, there was no sound. The office door remained closed. They pushed forward, cutting the piano wires in the stairwell and moving toward the fourth floor.
5th Floor. Office.
Q-Taro pressed a hidden panel on the wall. A section of the mahogany paneling slid up to reveal a massive array of high-definition monitors.
The screens were dark, waiting for a signal.
"I will win this gamble at any cost. It's time for 'Him' to take the stage..."
Q-Taro walked over to the masked giant. He pulled a medical syringe from his pocket, drawing a small amount of clear saline into the chamber.
Yagyo, standing nearby, noticed something bizarre.
The masked man hadn't been standing still in a trance. He had been sleeping standing up. He could hear the faint, rhythmic whistle of a snore from behind the mask.
Q-Taro slapped the giant's shoulder.
"Oi! Marco! Wake up! Shift change!"
Strangely, Q-Taro used the name "Marco," not "Rodem."
The giant groaned. His eyes fluttered open behind the mask, and he began to look around with a look of confused, childlike innocence.
"Eh? Uh... uuuuh..."
He looked like a confused toddler in a monster's body. Yagyo let out a soft, amused chuckle. Q-Taro, however, was annoyed.
"This 'Marco' is useless. His IQ is too low to be a hunter. I need the other one..."
Without another word, Q-Taro plunged the needle into the giant's neck.
"Wake up, Rodem! It's time for your favorite game!"
"..."
Yagyo watched, his eyes narrowing.
He noticed that the man's hands weren't just held behind his back. His thumbs were locked in specialized Metal Thumb-Cuffs. These weren't standard police issue; they were reinforced industrial restraints designed to neutralize the leverage of a human hand.
As the saline hit the giant's bloodstream—a Pavlovian trigger—his entire physiology shifted. His eyes began to vibrate at a high frequency. His teeth ground together with a sound like a stone crusher.
The muscles in his back and arms swelled, turning his veins into thick, black cables. He pulled his hands apart.
CREAK... SNAP!
The reinforced steel of the thumb-cuffs didn't just break; it was torn apart. The metal "deformed" under the sheer, impossible physical pressure.
"Kill... kill..."
The giant let out a guttural, demonic roar. The childlike "Marco" was gone. In his place stood Rodem.
"KILL!"
Q-Taro beamed with pride. He clipped a high-speed body-camera and a comms unit to Rodem's harness. "Go, Rodem. Follow my voice. Hunt them down."
Q-Taro's smile was a jagged wound in the dim light.
"Go and slaughter everyone in this building."
"..."
BOOM!
The heavy oak door of the office was shredded into splinters.
Rodem exploded into the hallway. He clutched a heavy combat knife in one hand. Using his feet and free hand like a predatory insect, he slammed into the concrete wall.
CRACK!
Rodem's fingers dug two inches deep into the solid concrete. He clung to the wall like a demonic "Spider-Man," defying gravity as he crouched vertically, staring down the hallway with murderous intent.