Giyu didn't look worried. He walked back to the wreckage of his throne and pulled a heavy silver suitcase from the shadows. He clicked the latches open, revealing a pair of thick, silver gauntlets etched with jagged runes. He slid them on, the metal locking around his forearms with a series of heavy clicks.
"You're making a mistake, Yukari," Giyu said, his voice echoing in the hollow warehouse. "Siding with a failure like Yuki... he's a ghost of a child. Join me. I am your father. Together, we can take what the Kinatarou denied us."
Yukari didn't even flinch. She stood over the bleeding Yuki like a guardian deity, her blue hair swaying in the draft from the broken windows. Then, she laughed. It was a cold, mocking sound.
"Father?" she repeated. "You were never a father. You were just a man who lived in Satoshi's shadow until it drove you mad."
She stepped forward, her katana humming. "Satoshi-niisan is the head of the family for a reason. He could kill you with a glance. Even Haruki—who is only fourteen—would have finished this fight in minutes. You claim the Kinatarou name, but we all know the truth, Giyu."
She pointed her blade at his heart. "Aside from Yuki, who was broken by your hand, you are the weakest Kinatarou to ever live."
Giyu's face turned a violent shade of purple. The air around him began to distort with heat.
He lunged.
The floor beneath his feet exploded as he propelled himself forward, a silver fist aimed squarely at Yukari's face. She didn't dodge. She raised the flat of her blade.
BOOM.
The impact created a massive shockwave that rippled through the warehouse, shattering the remaining crates and turning the floor beneath them into a crater of spider-webbed concrete.
Yukari didn't budge an inch. With a flick of her wrist, she parried the punch and swung her sword downward in a graceful arc. As the blade moved, a trail of shimmering, aesthetic blue water followed the steel. It wasn't just moisture; she was creating pure, high-pressure water from nothing—a feat of legendary Kizo control.
Giyu barked a curse and threw himself backward. He was fast, but the water was faster. The liquid edge of the strike whistled past his chest, slicing through his suit and leaving a clean, shallow red line across his skin.
She didn't give him a second to breathe.
Yukari was a blur of white silk and blue water. She appeared in front of him instantly, her katana aiming for his throat. Giyu crossed his gauntlets just in time.
CLANG.
Sparks flew as the blue steel met the silver gauntlets. The water from her blade sprayed into Giyu's eyes, blinding him for a fraction of a second. Yukari didn't miss the opening. She spun, her leg coated in a swirling vortex of high-pressure water.
THUD.
The "Water Kick" connected squarely with Giyu's solar plexus. The sound of the impact was like a wave crashing against a cliff. Giyu was lifted off his feet and sent flying fifty feet through the air, crashing through a pile of steel beams with a deafening roar.
The docks were a scene of apocalyptic destruction.
Derek was gasping, blood dripping from his nose and staining his teeth. His light Kizo was flickering, his shirt scorched and torn. Opposite him, the Prodigy was in a state of drug-fueled mania. His skin was covered in weeping burns from Derek's solar beams, and his eyes were completely bloodshot.
"Die! Die! Die!" the Prodigy screamed, his voice raw.
He charged. Derek met him halfway.
The Prodigy swung the stolen ice dagger, but Derek caught the man's wrist, his palm glowing with the heat of a miniature sun. The ice sizzled and hissed. Derek drove a knee into the Prodigy's ribs, but the man didn't even flinch—the red pills had turned off his ability to feel pain.
The Prodigy headbutted Derek, the impact cracking Derek's brow. As Derek stumbled, the Prodigy unleashed a flurry of punches, each one enhanced by his flickering red aura. Derek blocked most of them, his arms glowing to absorb the impact, but the sheer force pushed him back toward the edge of the pier.
"You're done, Light-show!" the Prodigy howled, raising his fist for a final blow.
Derek spat a glob of blood and smirked, his eyes suddenly turning a blinding, pure gold. "I'm just getting started, you junkie."
A pillar of pure solar light erupted from Derek, engulfing both of them in a blinding strobe that lit up the entire harbor.
A blinding strobe of solar light erupted from his palms, point-blank. The Prodigy screamed, his dilated pupils unable to process the sheer intensity. He swung blindly, but Derek was already moving. Derek slipped under the jagged blade, his fist glowing with a white-hot radiance.
BOOM.
Derek delivered a rising solar uppercut that caught the Prodigy flush under the jaw. The impact sent a shockwave of heat through the man's skull. The Prodigy's head snapped back, his body lifting off the ground before slamming into the concrete with a sickening thud. The ice dagger clattered away, melting instantly.
Derek stood over him, chest heaving, wiping blood from his mouth. "Stay down, junkie."
Suddenly, a sound like a mountain splitting apart echoed from the warehouse.
Derek spun around just as the entire roof of the building exploded upward in a rain of splintered wood and twisted steel. Two silhouettes rocketed into the night sky, bathed in the moonlight. They weren't flying; the sheer force of their leg muscles had launched them hundreds of feet into the air.
In the silence of the high atmosphere, the blue shimmer of Yukari's water-blade clashed against the sparking silver of Giyu's gauntlets.
CLANG—WHOOSH.
They hit the ground a second later, landing exactly where Derek had been standing. The impact created a crater that sent Derek stumbling back.
Derek's eyes struggled to keep up. One moment, Yukari was a blur of white silk; the next, she was a vortex of high-pressure blue water. Giyu was a juggernaut, his gauntlets leaving trails of ozone in the air as he swung with enough force to shatter tanks.
Clang. Rip. Splash.
Yukari moved with a lethal, rhythmic grace. She spun her blade, the aesthetic blue water forming a crescent moon that sliced through a stack of steel pipes as if they were butter. Giyu roared, parrying a strike that would have decapitated him, the sparks from his silver gauntlets mixing with the spray of her water Kizo.
Giyu saw an opening and lunged, his right fist glowing with a dull, heavy light. Yukari tilted her head by a hair's breadth.
The punch missed her, but it struck a massive shipping container behind her.
BAM.
The multi-ton steel box didn't just dent—it was launched into the air, spinning like a discarded soda can before crushing a crane fifty yards away.
Derek stood frozen, his mind reeling. He had thought he was strong. He had thought he knew what Kizo was. But this? This was something else. Their speed was so absolute that they seemed to teleport; their precision was so sharp it felt like the air itself was being dissected.
"So this is the power of a Kinatarou..." Derek whispered, his voice trembling with a mix of fear and reverence. "They aren't just fighters. They're unreal."
The heavy industrial doors of the warehouse groaned as Yuki emerged. He looked like a ghost—skin pale from blood loss, his clothes tattered. On his back, he carried the unconscious Seri, her head lolling against his shoulder.
He stopped, his breath catching as he saw the sky. Above the docks, the air was a chaotic swirl of blue water and silver sparks. He saw Yukari moving with the speed of a lightning strike, her blade a constant, shimmering crescent.
Yuki shifted Seri's weight, his hand instinctively reaching for the empty space where his dagger should be. He took a step toward the crater.
"Don't," Derek said, appearing beside him. He put a firm, heavy hand on Yuki's shoulder. "Look at them, Yuki. You're a monster when it comes to natural strength, but they... they're playing a different game right now. You'll just get in her way."
Yuki watched, his blue eyes reflecting the violent beauty of Yukari's Kizo. Derek was right. He could barely stand, let alone track the micro-movements of their high-speed duel.
In the center of the docks, Giyu was screaming. His silver gauntlets were scarred with deep, jagged gashes.
"Die! You ungrateful brat!" Giyu roared, swinging a desperate, heavy haymaker.
Yukari didn't dodge this time. She leaned into the strike, her katana spinning in her hand until the blade was reversed. She moved like a river—fluid, unstoppable, and cold.
SHING. SHING.
Two flashes of blue water cut through the dark.
Giyu's scream reached a glass-shattering pitch. His silver gauntlets hit the concrete first, still containing his hands. Blood sprayed the rain-slicked ground as Giyu collapsed to his knees, his stumps clutched to his chest.
Yukari stood over him, her white silk dress somehow still spotless. She didn't look triumphant; she looked disgusted.
Yuki slowly walked toward them, his shoes splashing in the puddles of salt water and blood. He looked down at the man who had haunted his nightmares for years.
The salt spray of the ocean felt like needles against Yuki's open wounds. He stood over the broken Giyu, the name echoing in his mind with a heavy, sickening weight.
"Why?" Yuki's voice was a ragged whisper. "Why kidnap Luna? Why start this?"
Giyu looked up, his face twisted in a mask of agony and bitter laughter. "Why? Because I'm a mercenary, Yuki. Exiles don't get Royal stipends. I was hired by the Crimson Hawks Club."
"The Crimson Hawks..." Yuki repeated, his voice barely a breath. "They're the elite strike force of the Zenith Vanguard. You're telling me the Vanguard ordered you to kidnap Luna. And her parents? Were you ordered to kill them?"
Giyu let out a wet, hacking laugh, clutching his bloody stumps to his chest. "Order? No. They sanctioned it. The Crimson Hawks doesn't care about morality, Yuki. They care about assets. Luna... that little girl is an asset they couldn't allow anyone else to have. I was just the blade they hired to do the dirty work."
The silence that followed Giyu's confession was broken not by a siren, but by a soft, familiar ping in Yuki's ear.
"Recording complete," Kira's voice whispered, clearer than it had been all night. "Audio and visual data successfully transmitted to Satoshi-sama and the Zenith Vanguard Oversight Committee."
Yuki's head snapped up, staring into the empty air. "Kira? You... you were talking to Satoshi this whole time?"
Yukari sheathed her katana with a sharp click, the blue water residue evaporating into a fine mist. She looked at her cousin, her expression softening for the first time.
"Kira didn't just find you, Yuki," Yukari explained, stepping away from the bleeding Giyu. "She alerted the entire family the moment you left the apartment. Satoshi-niisan has been tracking this warehouse since you stepped foot inside. He's the Captain of the Number One Club in the Vanguard—did you really think he'd let a splinter group like the Crimson Hawks move against his own blood?"
Yuki swayed on his feet, the weight of the unconscious Seri feeling heavier as the shock set in. "So... you're here because of him?"
"He wanted to come himself," Yukari said, looking toward the city skyline where the Vanguard HQ glowed like a mountain of glass. "But he's currently at the High Table, 'straightening things out.' With Giyu's confession and Kira's recording, he has enough evidence to dismantle the Crimson Hawks by sunrise. Every member, from the grunts to the Captain, is being flagged for immediate custody."
Giyu let out a dry, rattling laugh from the ground. "Satoshi... that perfect, cold-blooded bastard. He used me as bait to fish out the Hawks."
Yukari looked down at Giyu with zero pity. "You were a Kinatarou once, Giyu. You should have known we don't play games we can't win."
Derek walked over, rubbing his sore neck, looking between them. "So, let me get this straight. We just did the legwork for a federal sting operation?" He looked at the unconscious Prodigy and the broken mercenaries. "I hope your brother is planning on giving us extra credit."
Yukari ignored Derek's joke and walked to Yuki, placing a hand on his cheek. "It's over, Yuki. The Vanguard isn't coming for you. They're coming for the people who hurt you. Satoshi-niisan is making sure of it."
He looked at Seri, who was beginning to stir, her face pale but her breathing steadying.