"Don't you think that request is a little excessive, Your Excellency?"
Tendo Kikunojo's face had gone rigid.
"Excessive? More excessive than what you've done to those children?"
"Children?"
Seitenshi looked genuinely puzzled. Kaito glanced at her briefly, then turned back.
"You've been pushing a protection bill for the Cursed Children. You want to know why it's gone nowhere?"
Seitenshi leaned forward slightly.
"Why?"
Kaito kept his eyes fixed on Tendo Kikunojo.
"Because this old man has been quietly killing it from behind the scenes."
"That's impossible. Tendo has always supported my proposals. He would never..."
"His wife died in the war against the Gastrea."
Kaito cut her off without looking at her.
"He's hated the Cursed Children ever since. Supporting you? He's using you. You're a face for the public and nothing more. Hiruko Kagetane had the right read on you."
Seitenshi turned to look at Tendo Kikunojo. The color had left her face.
"Is that true, Tendo?"
"Your Highness, you cannot seriously take the word of an intruder over mine." Tendo Kikunojo's voice was measured, firm. "I have served you faithfully. I would never do such a thing."
"How dare you slander Tendo, you scoundrel!"
Kaito looked toward the voice. A man in a lieutenant's uniform and glasses was on his feet, face red, staring at him with barely contained fury.
"Ah. I forgot about you."
Kaito tilted his head.
"No offense. There's just a lot of trash in this room. Hard to keep track of every individual piece."
Takuto Yasuwaki. Captain of Seitenshi's guard. In the original story, a man who styled himself a crusader for humanity while taking personal pleasure in shooting Cursed Children. The kind of person whose convictions were really just a cover for cruelty.
"Even talking to you feels like a waste. Die."
Kaito snapped his fingers.
The impact hit Yasuwaki like a wall. He flew backward and crashed to the floor, coughing blood, and didn't move again.
"Bang!"
"He killed him!"
"Guards! Get the guards in here!"
"Call Civil Security! The guards can't stop him!"
Kaito looked out at the erupting chaos with mild contempt.
"So you're all afraid to die. Funny. Did you ever stop to think about that when you were going after those children?"
"You..."
Kazumitsu Tendo, Vice Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, was on his feet and pointing, too furious to finish a sentence.
Kaito ignored him. His gaze had already settled back on Tendo Kikunojo, and it had gone very quiet.
"I'm done talking."
"Tendo Kikunojo."
"It's time."
He vanished.
When he reappeared, he had Tendo Kikunojo by the collar and was dragging him across the floor.
"Release Tendo! Please, Your Excellency, show mercy!"
Seitenshi was on her feet. Kaito paid her no attention.
He put his foot down on Tendo Kikunojo's head and pressed.
"How does that feel? Those children get walked on like this all the time."
"Aaagh! Let go of me! Someone get him off, what are you all doing?!"
"Guards, open fire!"
"Da da da da da!"
Every shot stopped cold against the golden shield.
"Still nothing! Where is Civil Security?! Where are the Cursed Children?! Get them here now!"
"Aaaaaagh!"
Kaito ground his foot down harder. Tendo Kikunojo's screams tore through the room.
"Already? We've barely started."
"Snap."
One quiet snap of his fingers. Tendo Kikunojo's eyes burst.
"Aaaaaagh! Kill me! Please, just kill me!"
Kaito looked down at him.
"I said we've barely started. Every bit of pain those children went through, you're going to feel it. All of it."
He reached out. A rifle pulled free from a guard's hands and flew into his grip.
Four shots. One for each limb.
"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"
"Aaagh... please... please..."
Kaito stepped back. Tendo Kikunojo lay there, bloodied, face destroyed, barely breathing.
Kaito aimed at his head.
"Please what?"
"Bang."
Tendo Kikunojo, the man who had pulled the strings behind everything, died in front of the entire room.
"Aaaaaah!"
Seitenshi screamed.
"Wah! He killed Grandpa!"
"Is he going to kill us too?!"
"I don't want to die!"
"I swear I'll stop, I'll never go after the Cursed Children again, I swear!"
Some of them were sick. Some were furious. Most were simply terrified and trying not to show it.
Kaito looked around at all of them, and something shifted in his expression. The coldness cracked open into something wilder.
"I'm not killing you yet. I want you to watch. I want you to see everything you've built come apart piece by piece."
"Hahahahaha! Every person in this city is going to answer for what they've done! Not just this city. Everyone in the world who deserves it. Every last one!"
"Hehehehe!"
"He's insane!"
"What kind of person is this?!"
"Aren't you afraid of going to hell?!"
Kaito stopped laughing. He looked at the official who'd spoken, slow and level.
"None of you have gone to hell yet. So how would I end up there before you?"
He paused.
"And even if I did, Satan would bow and show me the door back out."
Another pause.
"But since you brought it up."
He raised one finger and pointed.
"You go first."
A beam of golden light punched clean through the official's chest.
"Thud."
Kaito looked at the body, then slowly swept his gaze across every face remaining in the room. A small, unhurried smile settled on his face.
"So. Who's next?"