The man in the black suit, with well-kept hair and sharp glasses, was none other than Kazuki. He gripped a terrifying Great Scythe, its blade a sinister blend of crimson and obsidian black, as he traded blows with the massive giant before him.
"Yeeh! Mori! What the hell are you just sitting there for?!" Kazuki roared, swinging his massive weapon with lethal precision.
The man watching from the sidelines replied with a bored yawn, "Oi yee... my name is Kasksu, you know."
"Kasksu! You little brat!" Kazuki snapped back.
"Oi ye... aren't you going to help me fight?!"
"The sealing paper for the Yonokaji is right here," Kasksu replied calmly, holding up the mysterious talisman. "Besides, you can handle this on your own."
Suddenly, a chaotic vibration echoed through the cavern.
"Wait... what is that sound?" Kasksu muttered, his expression shifting as he sensed the disturbance.
At that exact moment, Gyau and his group burst out from the darkness, running at full speed.
"Traitors! Every man for himself!" Gyau screamed, gasping for air as he bolted past the mysterious duo.
"You son of a... Gyau! I'm exhausted!" Tochi barked from behind, struggling to keep his pace. "Wait, is that the sound of motorbikes?!"
Kasksu remarked coolly, "We didn't hear a single thing when we first came in..."Oi yee... are there people up ahead too?!"
Gyau shouted in surprise. Rio, unfazed as usual, simply wiped a few beads of sweat from his forehead, regaining his composure after the long sprint.
Kasksu frowned as he looked them over. "Who are these kids?" he muttered. But a split second later, his gaze shifted toward the darkness behind them. "Wait... what exactly did they bring with them?"
The roar of motorbike engines shook the very walls of the cavern, growing louder by the second. "Oi yee... wait! With all those engine sounds... is that a biker gang?!"
Kazuki readjusted his grip on his massive scythe and pushed up his glasses. "Nuhh... are you serious? Did these brats actually lure them all the way here?"
Kasksu merely shook his head, looking disinterested. "Nuhh... how should I know?"A man stepped out from the crowd of white-clad bikers. He sported a perfectly styled Pompadour, looking every bit like a high-ranking gang leader.
"Oi... you punks actually have the nerve to trespass on our gang's turf," he growled, his eyes narrowing. "What's the matter? You looking down on us?!"
Gyau darted a quick, nervous glance toward Rio, sensing the situation was about to turn ugly. Without warning, the Pompadour leader swung the heavy iron pipe in his hand directly at Rio's head!
Whoosh!
Rio, caught off guard, barely managed to leap sideways in a frantic dodge. The force of the blow was so immense that when the pipe slammed into the ground, it buried itself deep into the earth, shattering the stone around it.
When Rio saw the crater left behind, his eyes nearly popped out of his head in sheer terror.Gyau couldn't take it anymore and yelled at the top of his lungs,
"Hey! You guys are already dead!"
The Pompadour leader froze, looking utterly confused. "What? How could we possibly be dead?!"
"Man... how do you not know? This was such a famous incident!" Gyau retorted. The entire biker gang fell into a stunned silence, exchanging blank stares. "Huh...?"
The leader with the Pompadour started scratching his head, thinking as hard as he possibly could. "Wait... how did we die?"
After a long moment of intense contemplation, he smacked his fist into his palm as if he'd just had a breakthrough. "Oh, right! We are dead!"
His followers behind him gasped in unison. "Wait, for real?!" Their shoulders slumped instantly as the realization hit, and their fighting spirit completely evaporated.
Gyau leaned in close to Tochi and whispered, "Do these guys seriously not remember that they're already dead?"Watching the situation from the sidelines, Kazuki, still gripping his great scythe, suddenly gasped in realization.
"Wait... Kasksu! Look at shirt!"
Kasksu looked down and saw the Yonokaji sealing paper stuck to his clothes. Overhearing this, the Pompadour leader shook his hair forward and roared, "Oi oi! What exactly is on my shirt, huh?!"
With a surge of rage, he swung his heavy iron pipe downward with crushing force. The impact was so massive that it sent a visible shockwave rippling through the air. Kazuki reacted instantly, swinging his massive scythe in a wide arc to meet the blow.
Clangggg!
The collision of their two immense powers created a deafening roar that echoed through the tunnel. The resulting gale-force wind blew Tochi's fringe straight back and caused Kawsoki's clothes to flutter violently against the pressure.
Amidst the chaotic clash, Rio slowly closed his eyes, perfectly calm. He reached up, smoothing his wind-swept hair back into place with a steady hand before letting it fall.