Yamikaji crawled backward, moving away from Takeshi's sword, and stood up as a wide grin split his wrinkled face.
"The tables have turned once again, you pest."
Takeshi tried to move, but he could only tilt his head toward Yamikaji, struggling and growling:
"Don't you dare call me by that title ever again!"
Yamikaji raised his finger and tapped Takeshi's forehead.
"If you had just handed over your sword from the beginning, none of this would have happened."
Takeshi inhaled with great difficulty, as if his lungs were failing his exhausted body, then spat back:
"Curse you… Curse all of you bastards!"
Yamikaji ignored him and stepped into the cabin with measured strides, dismissed everything that had happened. He headed toward the pile of tattered books Takeshi owned, picked one up, and turned back toward the outside, saying:
"You said something to me earlier, while you were threatening me, about possessions..."
He held up the book, The First Generation, and a foul smile spread across his face as he mocked:
"Do you mean these possessions? A piece of scrap metal and a pile of torn paper?!"
A hysterical laugh erupted from his throat, followed by forced laughter from Joso and Fard—laughs that sounded fake, as if they were mandatory.
Takeshi's eyes turned blood-red, and blood seeped from his mouth from the sheer force of clenching his teeth. The poison had spread through his body, yet he continued to struggle—fighting just to move.
When Yamikaji saw Takeshi's will to move, he stopped laughing, tossed the book aside, and returned to his usual tone.
"I have poisoned many bodies before you—some died, and others were permanently paralyzed. But you are the only victim who managed to move even an inch."
He took a step toward the helpless Takeshi, staring at the sword he had come for. He stood over him, then moved his foot and kicked the blade, forcing it to slip from Takeshi's hand.
All Takeshi could do was watch his sword fall from his grip to the ground.
"Because of your attachment to that trash out of love, you stayed clung to it. If you hadn't dropped it, I would have cut off your hand. You are lucky."
Takeshi would have preferred his hand be severed over leaving his sword to those who came to mock him directly; in fact, he would have preferred death, and his sharp eyes, which never left Yamikaji, were the best proof of that.
Struggling against the poison, Takeshi gasped:
"Why?"
No answer came, only a deadly silence, causing Takeshi to explode in rage.
"Why!!? Why do you want my sword? Why does a gang like yours want to destroy my life further and further? Why are you taking the last thing I own?!"
Takeshi screamed with everything he had left while the poison burned his throat. Silence returned once more after Takeshi stopped speaking and screaming, but this time Yamikaji broke it:
"You are incredibly ignorant…"
Yamikaji stepped on the book, The First Generation, and continued:
"You own many things, Takeshi, and I will prove this to you…"
Yamikaji turned his back to Takeshi and spoke, directing his words to Fard:
"Bring me that sword now."
Fard placed the cage on the ground and approached Takeshi to carry out Yamikaji's order without objection.
Takeshi raised his eyes to see Fard coming toward him while he struggled to move.
'I feel my muscles contracting and shrinking—I must move now! I must fight! I must struggle! I must respond to what is happening right now!'
Fard stood before Takeshi, leaned down, and reached his hand slowly toward the sword.
Despite the immense pain, Takeshi suddenly lunged, thrusting his hand toward Fard's face. He gathered all his strength and gripped Fard's face cruelly, twisted his head, and slammed him into the ground.
Takeshi did not stop there; he raised his fist to crush Fard's skull with a final blow, but his hand froze in the air for two reasons:
The poison causing temporary paralysis, which had exhausted all his energy.
And a brown root that had seized his hand.
Behind him, Yamikaji stood tall until he was certain Takeshi's muscles had fully relaxed. He raised his hand quickly, and the root that held Takeshi's hand—along with all the branches and roots he had summoned so far—turned into pale black ash, blowing away with the wind and vanishing into the darkness of the forest.
Yamikaji closed his eyes and walked beside Takeshi, saying:
"So far, I have shown you three types of my roots out of four: the Black is solid, good for defense but inflexible; the Green is fast and poisonous but has a slow strike; the Brown is fast and flexible but weak and easy to break. Few have seen this much of my ability, and you are one of them."
As soon as he finished speaking, Joso stepped forward, raising his hand and addressing Fard:
"Get up and carry out our leader's order, Fard."
Fard stood up, his hands trembling and blood slowly dripping from his head, his face stained with dirt and blood.
"What happened?"
From the intensity of the blow Takeshi dealt Fard, it could be said that his mind was damaged, and he had momentarily forgotten where he was.
Takeshi fell to his knees and tried to catch his breath, but it required an immense effort because of the poison.
Yamikaji frowned as he looked at Takeshi, thinking to himself:
'Despite the poison spreading in his body, he dealt a near-fatal blow to Fard… Damn! What is wrong with this bastard's physical ability?'
Fard realized everything around him, why they had come, and what he had been ordered to do. He slowly approached Takeshi's sword, reached out, and this time, he grabbed it.
"Here it is!"
The moment Fard grasped the sword and stood up, he felt his energy being drained; sweat poured down his cheeks, and his breathing accelerated sharply. He said:
"Master! This sword is drawing my Aura!"
Yamikaji's expression shifted from a frown to sudden delight. He smiled and said:
"Drop it on the ground."
Fard obeyed Yamikaji's command and threw Takeshi's sword down.
Yamikaji pulled out a durable black glove studded with pale yellow crystals that never shimmered from his white robe and put it on. He stepped toward Takeshi's sword with excitement, then grasped it.
The moment the glove touched the hilt, the crystals ignited with a brilliant yellow light—as bright as the sun at its highest peak.
Everyone stared at that overwhelming light. After a moment, its brilliance dimmed and settled at a certain level.
"Heh… heh heh… Hahahaha!!"
Yamikaji burst out laughing, his laughter echoing in the dark forest. Behind him, Joso and the injured Fard let out forced, hollow laughs, as if they had completed a mission seven years in the making.
"What are you laughing at? Is the glow of that glove that entertaining?"
Takeshi asked in a hollow voice full of despair.
Joso stopped laughing, turned his gaze to Takeshi, and said:
"Mockery of your condition aside, these are the laughs of victory."
Yamikaji raised the sword high until the golden sunlight reflected off it, and said coldly:
"Joso, Fard… throw the boy to the Revarge."
"Huh?"
Takeshi's mouth opened involuntarily—he had not expected such a thing. Whether that boy was alive or dead, feeding him to a savage beast was an inhumane act from someone lacking any mercy in their heart.
Fard moved the cage, carried it toward the boy lying beside Joso, and opened it.
But the Revarge beast did not wake; Revarge creatures begin their day at night and sleep during the day, and there is no way to wake them unless a fire is nearby.
Takeshi coughed, unable to do anything but strike the ground with force and speak:
"Do you have a single shred of feeling in your hearts? Answer me, you bastards!!"
The poison had spread throughout his entire body, asserting control over him; soon he would not be able to speak for a while. Therefore, all Takeshi could do at the moment was scream and rage.
Fard, the fat man, stepped forward and spoke in a thick voice addressing Takeshi:
"You do not know why our master abandoned these stupid feelings… For anyone to achieve their higher goals, they need to get rid of their so-called humanity. For glory, and for rule, the Leader will do everything, and we will do the same to support him—"
Yamikaji raised his hand, stopping Fard, then changed the subject and said mockingly:
"Oh, right! This beast won't wake up unless there is a fire nearby…"
He spread his hands, and pale red trunks shot toward Takeshi's cabin, slowly surrounding it from the entrance to the crumbling roof before everyone's eyes.
"This is the final type of my power: the Red trunks. Joso, strike a spark now."
Joso stepped toward the red trunks, reached out his hand, and snapped his fingers to create a small spark. The red trunks exploded into flames, and the three quickly moved as far as possible from the fire.
"You bastard!"
Takeshi could only watch what was happening, feeling the heat emitted by the fire directly. The flames crawled along the red trunks and extended to his cabin, which became fully engulfed.
Black smoke rose from the pile of burning wood, and ash scattered. The light of the fire reflected in Takeshi's trembling eyes, mixed with anger, sadness, longing, and the many emotions that tore his heart apart.
Takeshi surrendered for a moment, lowering his head under the weight of both physical and psychological pain. Yamikaji stood beside him; his usual features vanished, and seriousness appeared for the last time.
"You said earlier that your sword was the last thing you owned? Perhaps now you realize that you owned much more… and you will lose much more… I am forbidden from killing you. If you survive, though that is impossible, then you have gained a new day to live, you fool…"
Buried feelings woke up inside Takeshi; his heart filled with hatred, and it possessed his body as if he were an empty vessel filling with negative emotions.
He raised his head, staring at Yamikaji with hollow, dead eyes. He clenched his teeth until blood ran from his lips and said:
"Remember this face! Remember this moment well, Yamikaji! Your end—no, the end of your foolish gang—will be by my hand! I will hang your heads before the crowds for everyone to see! I will never forget what happened today as long as I live!"
Yamikaji looked away from Takeshi and walked past Joso and Fard, who followed him. They walked… and walked… until their shadows vanished into the forest, leaving behind a fire, a struggle, and a child before a beast.
The flames woke the Revarge beast. It raised its pale head and saw free prey before it. Without warning, it struck the boy's head with its first claw and his entrails with the second, tearing him apart. Then, it sank its sharp fangs into Takeshi's shoulder as the latter screamed in pain.
In a faint, inaudible voice, accompanied by the sound of the blazing fire and the sound of flesh tearing, Takeshi said after the flame of rage within him was extinguished and turned into deep despair:
"I have failed miserably..."