Amidst the settling dust and rubble of the basement, Kagetane Hiruko stared at Haruki through his cracked mask.

  "Haruki Aizawa," the young man replied coldly, offering no further expnation of his origins or his power.

  Haruki raised his bde once more. His instincts told him that letting a man this dangerous walk away would be a grave mistake. He intended to end the threat of the Hiruko family right here.

  However, just as he was about to step forward, a primal arm went off in his mind. He instinctively leaned back.

  Two silver fshes hissed through the air where his eyes had been a millisecond before. To an observer, it looked like a near-miss, but to a swordsman of Haruki's caliber, it was a calcuted evasion of a strike that was never going to nd.

  "Papa!"

  The attacker was Kohina Hiruko. Gripping her dual short katanas, she moved with the predatory speed unique to an Initiator. She pced herself firmly between her father and Haruki, her eyes wide with a manic, protective light.

  With his Initiator shielding him, Kagetane allowed himself a moment to breathe. The physical capabilities of a Cursed Child were leagues beyond a normal human; in most cases, an Initiator could sughter a dozen Promoters before they could even draw their weapons.

  But Kagetane knew better. Facing a "Sword Ghost" who defied logic, he couldn't guarantee Kohina would win.

  "Retreat, Kohina! We're leaving!" Kagetane barked.

  "Understood... Papa!" Although she radiated murderous intent toward the man who had wounded her father, she obeyed instantly.

  The pair moved to vanish into the shadows of the wreckage, but Haruki wasn't about to let his prey slip away.

  Whoosh!

  Haruki's bde tore through the air as he lunged, aiming to bypass the girl and finish the heavily wounded Kagetane. Kohina, however, was a whirlwind of steel. She met his strike with her dual bdes, the force of the collision ringing through the basement.

  The physical stats of an Initiator were indeed monstrous. In terms of raw speed and power, she was comparable to a high-level Bzer. For a few seconds, it was a stalemate of pure physical prowess.

  Haruki decided to stop pying. He closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, and when he opened them, the world changed.

  [Eyes of Absolute Perception]

  Every twitch of Kohina's muscles, every beat of her heart, and the very flow of the virus in her cells became a roadmap for Haruki. He saw her next three moves before she even thought of them.

  Cng! Cng! Cng!

  The moment Haruki engaged as a true master, Kohina's "monstrous" strength looked like the filing of a toddler. Within three exchanges, Haruki's bde flickered in a pattern she couldn't track, sending both of her katanas flying into the darkness.

  Puchi!

  Haruki's Varanium bde, Onikiri, drove straight through the girl's shoulder, pinning her to a concrete pilr. The Varanium immediately began suppressing the Gastrea cells in her body, paralyzing her.

  "Kohina!" Kagetane screamed, his composure finally shattering. He was powerless to help.

  The Promoters watching from the hole above were paralyzed. They had expected a csh of titans, but what they were seeing was a sughter. Haruki Aizawa didn't look like a hero; he looked like a Demon King, effortlessly dismantling a high-tier threat as if he were bored.

  Upstairs, on the government monitors, Kikunojo Tendo watched Haruki with a look of profound unease. He wasn't looking at a useful tool anymore. He was looking at a variable—a man far too powerful to be controlled.

  Seeing his daughter pinned, Kagetane Hiruko surged with a final, desperate burst of energy. He lunged forward, his remaining arm outstretched.

  "Maximum Pain—CRUSH!!!"

  A concentrated wave of repulsive force erupted from his palm, a tide of invisible pressure smming toward Haruki.

  Having used Blood Burst earlier, Haruki was wary of overextending his stamina. He chose to leap back, letting the shockwave dissipate against the rubble. This was exactly what Kagetane wanted.

  In the brief moment Haruki was mid-air, Kohina—dispying the terrifying tenacity of her kind—ripped herself off the Varanium bde. Ignoring the massive hole in her shoulder, she snatched up her father and blurred toward an escape tunnel.

  "Don't let them go!"

  Kayo Senju suddenly appeared in the wreckage, having followed Haruki down. She had picked up a discarded handgun from a fallen Promoter.

  Bang! Bang!

  Her aim was clinical and precise. Both rounds hit Kohina in the back, but Kagetane managed to fre his shield one st time, deflecting the follow-up shots. Under the cover of a smoke grenade, the two terrorists vanished.

  "Something's not right..." Haruki muttered, staring at the empty tunnel.

  He was bothered by the fact that throughout the entire fight, the Tokyo Government hadn't sent a single squad of soldiers or specialized police to assist. The Promoters were one thing, but a massive government shouldn't have been this paralyzed unless... they didn't want to interfere yet.

  Politics. Haruki felt a cold disgust rising in his chest. If someone was using Kagetane as a pawn to stir up chaos for their own gain, they were pying a dangerous game.

  "Why are you here?" Haruki looked at Kayo. "I told you to stay out of the fighting. Your erosion rate is already high."

  "I was... worried," Kayo said, her voice small. "I was more worried about your safety than my own. Is that... wrong?"

  Looking at the confusion and genuine concern on the girl's face, Haruki's cold expression softened. He reached out and ruffled her hair.

  "I get it. From now on, you stay with me. But you stay in support. No frontline combat. Understand?"

  "Yes." A tiny, genuine smile touched Kayo's lips.

  Haruki led Kayo back to the top floor. He stood before the massive screen, ignoring the awestruck stares of the other Promoters, and addressed the Seitenshi.

  "Now. Expin it. What exactly is the 'Seven Stars Legacy'?"

  The Seitenshi looked defeated. She sighed, her silver hair shimmering under the lights. "Very well. I can no longer hide it. The suitcase contains a catalyst. It is the only thing in existence capable of summoning a Stage V Gastrea—and effectively colpsing the magnetic field of the Monoliths. If Kagetane uses it, Tokyo will be erased from the map."

  The room went deathly silent.

  Haruki accepted the mission. Not because he cared about the government, but because he didn't want to see the world he lived in—and the few people he tolerated—turned into Gastrea feed.

  But for the next week, the trail went cold. Both Kagetane and the infection-source Gastrea remained hidden. Haruki returned to his routine: training in his room and taking minor hunting jobs to pass the time.

  The only real change was his retionship with Kayo. They were now a true pair. He took her everywhere. Her 210 IQ proved invaluable, helping him navigate the city's red tape and tracking Gastrea movements with frightening efficiency.

  In just seven days, Haruki's rank climbed again, reaching IP Rank 1085. He was on the verge of breaking into the triple digits—a tier where the IISO granted "Special Executive" status and high-level Varanium gear.

  One afternoon, Haruki and Kayo were walking through a bustling shopping district after a mission.

  "Hey! Catch that brat!"

  A shout rang out. A young girl in tattered clothes burst through the crowd, clutching a basket of stolen food.

  Haruki watched, but didn't move. He had a sense of w and order, but his intuition told him something was off. The girl was fast—too fast for a normal human.

  Her escape was cut short when a familiar face stepped into her path: Rentaro Satomi.

  Because Rentaro "blocked" her for a split second, the pursuing adults caught up. They tackled the girl to the ground with unnecessary violence, screaming insults. Rentaro just stood there, looking conflicted and useless.

  Then, Haruki heard it. The slur whispered by the crowd.

  "Cursed Child."

  Haruki had been so focused on climbing the ranks to reach his target—Aldebaran—that he hadn't fully processed the day-to-day reality of this world.

  He knew "Cursed Children" were treated poorly, but seeing it in broad daylight was different. The crowd wasn't just angry about the theft; they were looking at the girl with a subhuman disgust that made Haruki's blood run cold.

  He walked toward the center of the commotion. Kayo followed closely, her eyes regaining that old, hollow nihilism as she watched the "normal" humans treat a girl who looked just like her as if she were a pgue rat.

  Haruki pushed through the crowd. He saw an obese man raising a boot to kick the girl while she was pinned down.

  "Die, you monster! How dare you steal from us humans!"

  Haruki didn't say a word. He simply stepped into the man's space. Before the boot could descend, Haruki's hand shot out, gripping the man's ankle. With a casual flick of his wrist, he sent the three-hundred-pound man sprawling into a stack of crates.

  The crowd went silent. Rentaro Satomi blinked, finally noticing Haruki.

  "A-Aizawa-san?"

  Haruki ignored him. He looked down at the girl on the ground. She was shaking, her eyes wide with a mixture of hunger and terror. He then looked at the crowd, his gaze as sharp and cold as a winter bde.

  "She's just a kid," Haruki said, his voice low and dangerous.

  "She's a Cursed Child!" someone yelled from the back. "They aren't kids, they're Gastrea in skin suits! They shouldn't even be allowed in the city!"

  Haruki's hand rested on the hilt of Onikiri. The air around him seemed to drop ten degrees.

  "I'm going to say this once," Haruki announced, his voice carrying to every corner of the street. "Anyone who says another word against this child... anyone who so much as breathes a slur in my presence... I will consider you an enemy. And I don't leave my enemies alive."

  The killing intent he released was so thick the nearest civilians actually stumbled back, their faces turning pale. They were looking at the "Sword Ghost," a man who killed monsters for a living, and they realized that to him, they weren't much different.

  Haruki reached down and offered a hand to the trembling girl.

  ***********************************************

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