The first rays of dawn touched the Slaughterhouse District, but they brought no warmth. The grey light merely illuminated the scale of the butchery. Twisted metal, shattered concrete, and the broken bodies of twenty-three elite vampires lay scattered like discarded toys in a toddler's tantrum.
In the center of the ruin lay Jin. His transformation jutsu had faded, revealing his true face—young, scarred, and peaceful in unconsciousness.
A figure emerged from the shadows. The stranger moved without sound, the hem of her dress trailing over the blood-slicked pavement. She stopped beside the fallen human. Hovering above Jin's back, visible only to those with the Sight, was the spectral tether of Manager Silas—a screaming, clawing wisp of malice refusing to let go.
The stranger raised a hand glowing with a pale, distinct magic. With a single, sharp motion, she slashed the air.
Snap.
The tether was severed. She raised her hand to exorcise the spirit, to burn it into nothingness, but the laws of the Sephiroth Graal were absolute. Before she could strike, the soul was yanked backward into the void with the violence of a whip crack.
Deep beneath Castle Sant'Angelo, in the damp dark of the dungeon, Valerie Tepes gasped.
The golden chalice of the Sephiroth Graal flared. A screaming mist slammed into it, coalescing into the confused, terrified form of Manager Silas.
"I was there! I had him!" Silas shrieked, his composure shattered into hysteria. "Who pulled me back?!"
Valerie stared at the spirit. For months, her eyes had been dull, void of life. But now, a flicker of light returned. She had watched through Silas's eyes. She had seen a human tear apart the elite Daywalkers. She had seen a man defy her brother, Marius, and survive.
Terror gripped her, yes. But beneath it was a deep, burning fascination.
"I am sorry," Valerie said, her voice unused and raspy, yet commanding. "But I need to know."
She looked at the ghost. "Who is he? What created a human like that?"
Silas floated in the chalice, trembling. "He is a thief! A brigand! He came for the Manji Clan's money! Start there, Princess. Summon the one who owned the wealth he stole. I have the name of the Clan Head."
Valerie nodded. She reached into the void. "Come."
The mist above the Sephiroth Graal churned, curdling from a holy gold to a dark, angry grey. The air grew heavy, smelling of dried blood and old iron. From the roiling fog, an old man materialized. He wore traditional Japanese robes, sodden with phantom blood that seemed to weep endlessly from invisible wounds.
The Manji Patriarch
Valerie projected an image of Jin into the mist. "Do you know him?"
"Murderer... of my lineage..." the spirit spat, his voice grating like millstones grinding bone. "He killed us all. Every male of age. He wiped us out, root and stem."
Valerie leaned forward, the golden light of the Graal illuminating her pale face. "Why did he kill you all? What brought him to do such a thing?"
"I didn't even know his face before that night," the Patriarch raged, the mist around him vibrating. "To think a boy would bring our doom... He didn't come to talk to us. It was war the moment he stepped on our estate."
The spirit's face twisted in bitterness. "The reason... I could only guess at my last moment. He might be the one Oishi—our strongest—had gone to kill. He had killed our future, Zero. But we underestimated him. The boy was a calamity for me and my house. He came like a storm that did not stop until my legacy was ash."
The Patriarch sneered, looking down at Valerie. "To kill a whole clan when he himself was in the wrong in the first place... he is a monster. He would kill anyone who slighted him. A demon in human skin."
Patriarch seem to control himself " I don't have anything else to say, girl. Now let me go."
Valerie released the breath she was holding. She dismissed the Patriarch.
She frowned, but her mind was made up. She had to look further in. "Oishi. Bring him."
The mist swirled violently, condensing into a figure of quiet strength. A spirit—older, weathered, standing with a straight back and eyes that had seen a thousand battles. He was armed with phantom sword that glimmered in the gloom. A warrior.
Oishi
"Hello," Valerie said softly. "I talked to your Patriarch. He told me you might know him. Do you know him ?" She showed the image of Jin again.
"Hello, young girl," Oishi spoke. His voice was deep, resonant, and calm. "I fought him in my last battle." His tone was not angry; it held the quiet, grudging respect of a samurai for a worthy adversary.
"What would compel him," Valerie asked, pointing to Jin's picture, "to kill your whole clan?"
Oishi's eyes narrowed slightly. "Why? You ask, girl."
"Now he is fighting my clan," Valerie explained, her voice gaining strength. "So I am curious about this person. Who is he? What does he want? Could you tell me about him?"
Oishi stared into the middle distance, contemplating the memory. "He was... like a dog. Like a pitbull. If he sensed danger to himself, he would not back down. He would bite you."
Oishi looked back at her. "Once he bit down, he locked his jaw. He would not let go, no matter how much you beat him. To him, things only end when he is the only one standing, or the danger is gone."
"And to why?" Oishi continued, answering the unspoken question. "Well... we killed his mother. So of course he would. But our conflict had started way before that."
Valerie, having lost her own mother, spoke with sudden energy. "Why would you kill his mother?"
"We had a deal with a devil," Oishi explained calmly, stating it as a simple fact of their trade. "To kill a woman and those close to her. Jin's mother was close to the target. It was our deathbed, girl, that we laid... and now we are resting on it."
Valerie, looking at Oishi's solemn, unrepentant face, stopped questioning his motive. It was the way of their world.
"So his name is Jin," Valerie whispered. "How did he know?"
"Yes," Oishi said. "He got the information that we were the ones behind his mother's death from a man named Shukaku."
"So I have to call Shukaku next."
"In my guess, Shukaku won't be dead," Oishi replied with a distain.
"That means the trail ends here for the dead," Valerie whispered, frustrated. "I want to know more about him."
"So what was the start?" Valerie pressed. "You said your conflict started before this."
Oishi's form began to fade. "He is a broken man, girl," he warned, his voice grave. "Do not go after him. But if you must go further... you have to ask Zero."
"Zero," Valerie whispered to the Graal. "Come."
The mist turned turbulent, a violent mix of purple and black. A spirit formed—a man in a sharp, expensive haori, exuding the aura of a Yakuza prince who died reaching for a crown he never touched.
Zero
"Hello," Valerie said. "My name is Valerie. I want to know about Jin."
"Jin..." Zero spoke, steel in his voice. he sounded lamenting. "And why would I tell you?"
Valerie looked at Zero. Not many spirits denied her request when called by the Graal.
"Oishi-san told me to ask you."
Zero became silent at the name. He shifted his stance, acknowledging the weight of the recommendation.
"So," Zero sighed. "What do you want to know?"
"I want to know what started your conflict. What was he like?"
"It all started with the death of Muten," Zero said, his eyes darkening. "The bastard killed Muten-san. He was the elder who helped me get the Kuoh underworld under me. Even if he was dying and losing his sanity... I owed him. I couldn't have a bastard who killed him roam free without any consequences."
Zero gestured to his own forehead. "Then next, I have Jin in front of me, bleeding with a gunshot in the head. But the bastard survived that. He swore revenge on me. And then started our war."
"In a few months, he took what I built in years," Zero said, shaking his head with a grim smile. "He hunted my resources, beat the shit out of my men, but never killed them. Every night, he chipped away at my empire."
Zero paused, looking into the void. "Something changed. I guess he snapped, and he decided to end it all. And I had nearly killed him... if only I had been just a little bit more alert."
"So what compelled him to kill Muten and was he a killer always?"
"He was a normal guy, as far as I know, who killed Muten," Zero said. "Ask Muten. As he had him murder himself."
Valerie blinked. "Murder himself?"
"Don't ask me," Zero scoffed. "You use your magic and call him like you do me."
Valerie pulled the final thread. The mist thinned. A spirit formed. But unlike the others, he wasn't angry or respectful. He was looking curiously at the Graal, a twisted smile on his face.
"Look at this," Muten chuckled . "Didn't think I would come back to the living world again."
"Jin," Valerie asked, repulsed by the spirit's aura. "What did you do to him?"
"And why are you interested in him, girl?" Muten asked .
"He is coming after my clan."
"Liar," Muten sneered looking around . "Then where are your clan members? You are here alone, asking about him not for your clan, but for yourself." He leaned in, his ghostly face twisting. "What? He catch your eye?"
Valerie remained silent.
Muten grinned, his spectral face twisting. "So, you want to know why I made him kill me."
Valerie nodded once, her expression unreadable.
"I saw clay," Muten whispered, "hardening into a shape it didn't fit. Held back by the chains of false belief. I simply tried to break the mold... to let the clay find its true, shape."
"And I did it," Muten said, his grin widening into a rictus of pride. "What a novel thing I have done."
Valerie leaned forward, studying the ghost's face. "What did you see in him? Why did you think he needed to be changed?"
Muten chuckled darkly. "He... he was polite. He came to me to save a father and daughter I kidnapped over a debt. He didn't come to fight. He offered to repay the loan. He tried to do it the 'right' way after beating th shit out of a building of thugs.And then Tried to talk sense to a thug... at least, that is what he believed he wanted to do."
"What do you mean?"
"People lie, girl," Muten rasped. "Most people spend their entire lives hiding their true nature. They lie to themselves, they lie to others. They starve their own souls just to be 'liked.' Just to be part of the herd. They will do anything to remain comfortable, asleep in the lie."
Muten drifted closer, his voice dropping to a hiss. "But once in a lifetime, you come across an idea, a person, or an experience that burns the lie away. It forces you to look in the mirror and ask: Will I continue to pretend? Or will I wake up?"
Muten leaned over the edge of the Graal, his eyes burning with a jealous memory. "I saw it in his eyes. A plea for release. A desire to live free of constraint. A predator trying so hard to play the sheep."
He sighed, a sound of twisted satisfaction. "I was a dying man, girl. My body was failing. My glory was fading. And there stood this boy, gifted with the power to take anything he wanted, yet wasting it on politeness. It offended me. I couldn't die peacefully watching that waste. So... I decided to provide an opportunity."
Muten looked up, his ghostly eyes filled with perverse pleasure. "And I did. I opened the valve. And once it was open... it couldn't be closed. Once you taste what you truly desire, you can't go back. Going back is just lying to yourself again."
"So you pushed him," Valerie said, her voice cold. "Just for your own amusement?"
Muten looked at Valerie, his smile fading into something sharper, more knowing.
"The question isn't why I pushed him, Princess," Muten whispered as his form began to dissolve. "The question is... what lie was the boy telling himself that made him want to be pushed?"
Valerie severed the connection instantly. The spirits faded, sucked back into the ether with a final, echoing wail.
Valerie sat alone in the cold dungeon, the silence pressing in on her. The truth was heavier than the stone walls. Jin wasn't a demon born from the dark. He was a reflection—a human mirror that the supernatural world had shattered, and now, they were being cut by the shards.
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well this is a rewrite after a reader pointed previous drop in quality and i agreed with him .
so here it is , if you see any mistake , space for improvement tell me .