“You piece of shit! Just try it, if you can!” Brilliant golden hair stained with blood, yet Hayabusa still swung the metal baseball bat with reckless abandon.
Even just one hit. If he could land just a single blow, it would definitely cave the old man’s head in instantly. If the old man didn’t die, Aunt Keiko and all those people he’d so cruelly murdered would never find peace, and his younger sister, Kazue, would live forever in fear.
But the most fatal problem right now was that the old man’s arm, transformed into a blade, was far longer than Hayabusa’s bat. And in terms of footwork, Yuuta always gave off an elusive, wavering feeling. His movements were clearly very slow, yet no matter what, Hayabusa’s attacks simply could not hit him.
“That’s enough, Little Van Gogh. My patience has its limits. Under the performance of 《Piano Sonata in D Major》, you have no possibility of defeating me.” Yuuta hummed in the same tone as the piano. “Schubert’s sonata is recognized worldwide as one of the most difficult pieces to master.”
“So what?”
The bat smashed into an extremely expensive-looking painting of the Virgin Mary.
“In truth, every pianist who performs the 《Piano Sonata in D Major》will have obvious flaws. There are those who can play a single movement perfectly, but when all four movements are strung together, no pianist has ever completed the challenge, because it is a piece that is inherently imperfect.”
“No one wants to hear your views on music, you damn old man!”
“Please, calm yourself, my Little Van Gogh. Quietly appreciate it. Schumann called this piece a composition as long and tedious as the road to Heaven. This piece… is the human world.” Yuuta snapped his fingers. From rooms on all sides, countless people emerged, their gazes vacant, their movements as stiff as puppets.
Among these people, there were old and young, men and women. Each one wore a badge on their chest with a string of numbers written on it.
“Imperfection is perfection. Perfection is imperfection.”
Two identical twin sisters rushed towards Hayabusa, daggers clutched in their hands.
Hayabusa was confronting Yuuta head-on, with no room to deal with the attack from behind.
“Qingxue, lend a hand, won’t you?” Tsukiyuki Rio said, a faint smile gracing her face.
“Yes, Young Miss.”
Yu Qingxue grabbed her tachi and immediately positioned herself behind Katakura Hayabusa.
“Get lost! I don’t need your help! I said I would kill this old man myself!”
“If this continues, your willpower will be controlled, and you’ll become a tool for that Human Trafficker geezer. Would you be okay with that, even then?” Yu Qingxue swept her gaze across the surroundings. “Leave the Human Trafficker geezer for you to kill, but let me help clear out these grunt soldiers. Otherwise, I’m afraid you truly won’t be able to hold out.”
Yu Qingxue struck the twin sisters with the hilt of her sword, knocking them unconscious. A man built like a pro wrestler lunged with a bear hug but caught only air. Yu Qingxue easily circled behind him and slapped his back with the blunt edge of her blade, and the burly man collapsed to the ground just the same.
The consciousness-controlled crowd felt as densely packed as zombies, a full hundred strong. Gao Sijin noticed that Tsukiyuki Rio had been wearing an elusive, inscrutable smile from beginning to end.
“Gao-kun, don’t get any ideas about running away during this chaos. The moment you leave my side, you’ll be instantly torn to shreds by those people who’ve lost all reason. Only by staying beside me can I protect you from harm.”
“Rio…”
“What is it, Gao-kun?”
“Why do you look… like you’re enjoying yourself immensely?”
“Need you even ask? Because I’m a girl with a nasty personality.”
Tsukiyuki Rio admitted it with complete candor.
Gao Sijin looked to the other side. Bearing several new wounds, Katakura Hayabusa was panting heavily. If this went on much longer, he would undoubtedly collapse.
“That’s why I said from the start: you people, lacking in strength, brazenly barging into my Trading Company? You’re nothing but goods delivered right to my doorstep.”
As if identifying Tsukiyuki Rio and Gao Sijin as a breakthrough point, the brandishing crowd charged in their direction. Yu Qingxue immediately dashed in front of them, a whip kick sending the eight frontrunners sprawling to the floor.
“Qingxue, you don’t need to worry about me. I’d like to move my body a bit occasionally too.”
“With all due respect, Young Lady Tsukiyuki, if you ‘move your body,’ people will die, won’t they?” Yu Qingxue swallowed nervously. “These people are only being manipulated by that Human Trafficker geezer; their crimes don’t warrant death.”
“I will be careful.”
A moment ago, Tsukiyuki Rio’s hands were empty. With a flip of her wrist, a tachi appeared as if by magic. Her black kimono shielded Gao Sijin as she brandished the tachi, dancing like a geisha of ancient times. However, to avoid harming anyone, Tsukiyuki Rio’s tachi did not leave its sheath.
On the other side, Katakura Hayabusa continued swinging his bat. Yet even as his strength waned, he couldn’t land a single blow on Yuuta.
This fight for Katakura Hayabusa… seemed to be approaching its end.
“Die, die, die! Just die for me!” Katakura Hayabusa’s entire face was smeared with blood, a truly horrifying sight.
“Pain will gradually make you lose your reason, my Little Van Gogh. I have given you so many chances. If you were willing to return to my side as the Heir of the Katakura Trading Company, I would magnanimously welcome you back. But regrettably, you have exhausted my patience. From now on, you will simply remain as goods.”
Yuuta’s blade-arm struck the weakest point of the metal baseball bat, cleaving it cleanly in two. His other hand quietly began weaving a seal for a Secret Technique.
A flash of light shimmered at his fingertips.
Instantly, that light shone upon Hayabusa’s forehead. Katakura Hayabusa’s ferocious expression went blank in an instant, and his pupils rolled back into white.
Just as Yuuta had predicted: inflicting pain could easily shatter a person’s mental defenses, creating a gap to manipulate their consciousness with a Secret Technique.
“Katakura Hayabusa! Don’t let him control you!”
Gao Sijin roared in his direction, but Katakura Hayabusa acted as if he hadn’t heard a thing. Even his movements became as rigid as a puppet.
“Rio, Katakura, he’s…”
“It’s fine. Today is destined to be the day that Human Trafficker dies. Those who bear hatred for him… are not limited to Katakura Hayabusa alone.”
“What do you mean?”
“Gao-kun, look up at the next floor.”
Gao Sijin looked towards the Second Floor. Though a bit blurry, under the red light, he could see people with pale faces glaring down at Katakura Yuuta with gazes full of venomous hatred.
One translucent, semi-transparent figure drifted over to Katakura Hayabusa’s ear. It was a middle-aged woman with a gentle face. Her lips parted slightly, as if saying something, but no sound could be heard.
The gaze that had just been so vacant in Katakura Hayabusa’s eyes flickered with a faint glimmer of light.
“Hayabusa, put those goods who barged into the Trading Company back on the shelves.”
Believing he controlled Hayabusa, Yuuta walked behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder, directing him to attack Gao Sijin and the others.
