“Hah~! Hah~! Hah~!”

It was approaching dusk in the Newgate Country. The all-out war was still going strong hours after it started. A girl in her late teens was running while the sun slowly set behind her. Her golden hair was cut short was above the shoulders. She had a pair of green eyes that showed obvious distress. This was Hana.

“Don’t do it…”

She muttered. She was running through a burning city that had corpses fill the streets. Even so, Hana was focused on moving forward. She ignored the cries of pain and agony around her and ran with everything she had. In her eyes, the only thing there was a path that led to the retreating back that she was desperately chasing it. She clenched her teeth.

“Don’t do it, Shòuxíng….”

Earlier.

The Red Light District was still under siege by the forces of Bloom and the Four Pillars. With the likes of Edward “Code Breaker” Akabe and the siblings of Bella and Yota guarding it, the city had yet to fall despite the overwhelming amount targeting it.

“Dammit! It’s like trying to stop a river with a stick! These bastards won’t stop no matter how many we kill!”

Bella complained while firing missiles into a swarm of enemies in the distance.

(Well, what can you do? Our side is the ones in the lead, so they’ll naturally take us out first.)

Edward’s voice came from the earpiece she was wearing.

“Just how long do we need to hold out? Until the Don defeats everybody? Just so you know, the soldiers don’t always stop attacking once their commanders are killed. Sometimes they start attacking more aggressively because of the grief and anger they feel.”

(Then there’s only one thing we can do then. Kill every single one of them.)

She heard loud explosions come from Edward’s position and immediately knew that he took it up a notch.

“Tsk.”

Bella mounted a Gatling gun on a roof and made bullets rain down on the enemies below.

“It’s kill or be killed, huh?”

She had an irritated look on her face.

“I’ve been fighting for over 8 hours now. I’m beyond the state of being tired.”

The Gatling gun stopped because it ran out of bullets. Bella kicked it off the ledge and it crushed someone below. She spoke into her earpiece.

“Code Breaker, I’ve officially run out of guns. I’ll have to switch back to using my daggers and poison.”

She took out her jambiya daggers and stood on the ledge.

(Alright, I’ll expand the area I’ll cover…. What the hell?)

“What’s wrong?”

(….My suit is detecting something traveling towards this city with incredible speed.)

“Could it be a missile?)

(No, it’s a person….They stopped just outside the city.)

At that moment, Bella heard a loud explosion to her right. She turned and saw a huge smoke cloud and a bright golden light. She didn’t know why but she got a bad feeling when she looked at it.

(Bella…. He’s coming.)

*BAM!*

The earth shook and Bella saw a building tumbling over. Seconds later, she saw another one tumble over followed by another.

“It’s like a storm is coming.”

Bella saw a dust cloud in the distance and prepare herself.

“Code Breaker, just who is making the city shake this much?”

(…Well, he’s someone we expected to come here. It’s just that he’s like a completely different person….Or should I say beast?)

The force of nature blowing through the city made itself clear to Bella seconds later. With his white hair fluttering in the wind and a body overflowing with savage power, Shòuxíng made his appearance.

“It’s Shòuxíng!”

“Alright, the tides have turned!”

The Pillars’ forces started cheering when their reinforcements arrived.

“………”

Shòuxíng said nothing to them and continued his charge.

“Go get them, Shoux-”

Shòuxíng lariat a soldier and separated his torso from his hips.

“?!”

This shocked soldiers from all sides. Shòuxíng kept his silence and continued to move forward.

“H-He’s betraying the Pillars!”

The pillar forces instantly rushed to block his path. Shòuxíng drew his arm back and through a simple punch. A deafening sound rang out and the soldiers were blown out of his way with broken bodies and blood spraying in the air.

“…….”

His steps didn’t pause for a second. He continued to mow down whoever entered his path without batting an eye.

“Doesn’t he have any allies?”

Bella muttered as Shòuxíng quickly approached the building she was on. She instantly ran to the opposite side of the building and leaped off. A thunderous sound reached her ears and the building she was on started tumbling over while she fell from the sky. She heard an explosion below and saw Shòuxíng burst through the wall. She gripped her daggers tight and stabbed at him when she was directly above him. Shòuxíng stopped and lifted his hand and caught a dagger. Bella instantly released it and narrowly avoided getting a hole punched through her. She landed on the ground and aimed for his neck with her only dagger.

“?!”

Her eyes widened when Shòuxíng swung his leg up. He slammed his leg into her and blast her into the air.

“Argh!”

She groaned with one of her arms flapping in the air. It was so badly disfigured.

(I moved my arm in the way to prevent my organs from being damaged, but I’m down an arm.)

“I need to plan my next-”

Shòuxíng popped up in front of her and cut her short. He pulled his arm back and clenched his fist to throw a punch.

“Ahhh!”

Edward flew at him from the right and punched him on the side of his head creating a dull sound. Bella was relieved by the backup, but that relief instantly disappeared when she saw that Shòuxíng was unaffected by Edward’s sneak attack. He threw a punch at her head which she barely dodges by moving her head to the side.

*BAM!*

Despite dodging it, she was hit by an overwhelming force that flung her into a building over 100m away. Her body fused with the wall and her head dangled down with blood flowing from it.

(Just the brute force behind it alone?!)

Edward felt like he lost his mind after what he saw. Warning alerts went off in his suits. It was telling him that his life was in danger. Especially, with Shòuxíng having his sights set on him. He activated the boosters in his boots and created distance between them. Shòuxíng fell back on the ground with a loud thud but his eyes didn’t divert from Edward the whole time.

“…….”

He silently lowered his center of gravity and blast off the ground like a rocket. He instantly reached Edward, whose armor bulked up several times his size.

*BAM!*

Shòuxíng rocked him with a punch and forced him to the ground.

“Ugh!”

Edward felt pain all over his body but he didn’t complain. He knew that he was even lucky to be alive. Warnings went off again, telling him that he was still in danger.

“My suit wasn’t built to take a monster like this in a fistfight.”

He sprung to his feet and his bulky armor dismantled and formed several cannons on him.

“But it was built to blow everything to kingdom come, just in case!”

He aimed the cannons at the charging Shòuxíng and they lit up.

“It’s a good thing that the don moved all the non-combatants to a safe location before this!”

Energy started gathering at the nozzles.

“Because I’m gonna blow this fucking city up!”

The cannons fired gigantic beams at Shòuxíng. The roaring sound and bright light dominated the area. Shòuxíng saw a blinding light rush towards him. All he could see was white.

“Come, Behemoth.”

An enormous red beast appeared behind him. Popping sounds came from his body as he pulled his arm all the way back and dug his feet into the ground. He clenched his fist and took a step forward and threw a punch with his whole body. A thundering explosion erupted in the center of the city. Buildings, people, vehicles, everything was blown away without discrimination. The explosion shook the very core of the city and made one think that it was hit by a world-ending earthquake. It took a long time before everything could settle down.

“Cough! Cough!...”

When Edward came to he was buried under rubble and dirt. He lifted himself out and stood up. He looked around and the smoke covered the land. He focused his vision and saw a huge crater in front of him and two large trenches beside it.

“No way….”

He fell to his knees with disbelief painted on his face. It wasn’t the destruction in front of him that made him speechless. It was the figure he saw standing on the edge of the huge crater and in-between the two trenches. It goes without saying that this was Shòuxíng.

“Don’t tell me he deflected the blast with a punch?”

He shook his head.

“The trenches beside him is proof that he cut the blast down the middle and it split because it couldn’t move or devour him.”

He fell on his back and looked up at the sky.

“Haha…Hahaha! This is just too ridiculous!”

He started laughing with his hand over his face.

“This isn’t something a human is capable of that! He’s a monster! A true monster!”

He looked up and saw Shòuxíng looking down on him with cold eyes. Edward looked at him with disgust and then ridicule.

“What, Monster? Came to finish me off?”

“Tell me where’s your boss.”

Edward’s eyes widened. He once again burst out laughing.

“Kill me if you want but don’t expect me to sell out. Despite what you think, there’s honor among us low lives.”

“…Honor, huh. Then take your honor to the grave.”

“I will, eventually. But that won’t be today.”

At that moment, Yota appeared beside Shòuxíng. He kicked him away, grabbed Edward, took off in an instant. Shòuxíng landed softly on the ground and looked for the two men.

“They sure ran away fast for someone talking about honor.”

He looked down at his arm and saw a small bruise.

“That guy was pretty strong.”

He turned away and continued to move.

“More importantly, I need to find Hana.”

Meanwhile, Yota was running with both Edward and an unconscious Bella under his arm.

“We’re abandoning this city, Code Breaker. We can’t take on that thing.”

He said.

“I have no complaints. As long as we’re alive we can reclaim it in the future.”

Edward became silent for a bit before asking a question.

“Do you think you could fight Shòuxíng?”

“The old one, yes. This one, no. I’ll be killed in less than five minutes if he uses his full strength.”

“I figured as much.”

“….The Don said that Natasa Kingsley will be his biggest obstacle in this war. After witnessing what just happened, I think he’s mistaken. I can’t think of anyone beating that thing.”

”Hahahaha.”

“What’s funny?”

“I understand where you’re coming from but I think the Don expected this from him. Considering his personality, that must have been his reason for not killing him.”

His helmet crumbled and fell off his head but he didn’t seem to care. He had a smile on his face.

“Besides, he’s definitely a monster but even a monster pales in comparison to our Don.”

Shòuxíng continued to mow his way through the Red Light District. He showed no discrimination towards anyone, he slaughtered anyone that crossed his path. He left a trail filled with corpses, blood, and destruction. He only stopped when he was in front of an old building.

“Hana’s scent.”

He moved towards the building.

“Stop, Kaido.”

Hana burst out of the door and walked towards him. She looked behind him and grimaced when she saw his trail of destruction.

“Leave this place alone.”

Shòuxíng became silent and stared at her.

“I came to get you, Hana.”

He shook his head and stretched his hand out.

“Camellia.”

“My name is Hana. It’s the name Bloom gave me, Kaido.”

“Your name is Camellia the beautiful flower, and mine is Shòuxíng, the mad beast. There’s no denying that.”

He spoke sternly.

“Come with me. I’ll protect you.”

“No. I don’t want to go with you. I want to go with Kaido Khan, not Shòuxíng.”

“We’re one and the same.”

“No, you’re not. Kaido would never cause this much destruction and he would never direct killing intent at me like you’re doing now.”

Shòuxíng’s eyes widened.

“You didn’t realize, did you? You’re overflowing with a murderous aura. You’re like a blade dying to taste blood. I won’t go with such a person.”

“You won’t go…?”

He gnashed his teeth.

“Don’t fuck with me!”

His sudden roar frightened Hana and caused her to back away. Shòuxíng instantly cut the distance between them and grabbed her shoulders.

“You have no right to complain when you’re the reason why I became like this! I couldn’t protect you as I was before! That bastard made it blatantly clear! He forced me to throw it all away and I did it all because I could-”

“K-Kaido!”

Hana’s shout made him look at her face. He saw her grimacing in pain.

“You’re hurting me.”

It was only then that he realized that he was sinking his claws into Hana’s flesh.

“?!”

He released her and moved several meters away from her.

“I..I…”

Hana could see his body trembling.

“I…I…I…”

“Kai-”

“Don’t call me that!”

He gasped and quickly put his hand over his mouth and started backing away.

“Don’t come near me….For me to hurt you…I must’ve lost my mind…”

(Not good. His emotions are all over the place.)

Hana, who was sensitive to the emotions of others could feeling a cluster of negative emotions from Shòuxing. She knew that if left alone it would cause a disaster.

“Kai…Shòuxíng. Look at me, I’m fine really. It’s not your fault.”

“Not my fault? Everything is my fault. your kidnapping, the wound on your shoulder, this hell around us…It’s all my fault….Something must be wrong with me.”

He pointed at her.

“You didn’t want me to go in that building because there are women and children there, right? I can smell them. I knew that they were there but I didn’t mind slaughtering them all if it meant getting you back. That’s the way I am right now. And you say that it’s not my fault.”

He mockingly chuckled.

“………”

Hana said nothing and just kept staring at him. He stared back at her for a bit and then turned his back on her.

“Where are you going, Shòuxíng?”

“It’s too early for me to return to your side, I realize that now. I must first get rid of all of my pent up frustrations or I’ll just end up taking it out on you again.”

He clenched his fist tightly.

“I gotta settle some old scores first!”

“You don’t mean…”

“Miko and Jin. Until I rid those two from my life the man you love won’t return to you.”

“Kai-”

Shòuxíng ran off without listening to what Hana had to say. He disappeared from her sight in an instant. Even so, she ran off right behind him.

“Don’t do it, Shòuxíng!”

She ran as fast as she could out of the burning city.

“You can’t fight Miko!”

At the same time, Miko was sitting on the mountain of corpses he created with his head in his lap.

“……..”

He slowly lifted his head and smiled when he saw someone looking up at him from the foot of the mountain. He stood up and spread his arms in a welcoming manner.

“So you’ve come, Shòuxíng.”

“…..Yeah…I’ve come to settle the score, Miko.”

“So in other words, you can’t move on until we fight.”

He jumped down from the top and landed in front of him.

“Very well. I’ll gladly entertain your pathetic struggles.”

His smile turned into a mocking sneer.

“We’re friends, aren’t we?”