The group returned to the headquarters early in the morning. Rembrandt walked up to the gate and looked at the road heading towards Osaka, “Should we start?” he asked. “Well, what’s stopping us?” Kazuo asked in return. “Say, shouldn’t we check who cleaned up the crime scene yesterday?” Yuko inquired.

“Oh yeah,” Rembrandt realized, “we should check that too.” Rembrandt used his Talent once more and checked, a single mannequin appeared wearing clothes. Rembrandt looked at the person again, “It’s uhh. It’s Kyōsai again.”

“Really?” Saburo asked, “People call me daft, but I wouldn’t return to a crime scene, is this guy okay in the head?”

“At least that makes things more convenient for us.” Rembrandt mentioned. He started up his Talent, the mannequin of Kyōsai already standing in place. “Well, let us start. Shall we?” Rembrandt focused his talents and used the mannequin to trace where he left to. The trail eventually leads to a dilapidated building, across the convenience store that the group often visits.

“Hey, isn’t that the haunted building those kids talked about when we were still in school?” Yuko wondered.

“Well a murderer is probably in there, it’s actually worse than those rumors.” Jiro joked.

“Alright kids, tell me what your Talents can do so I can try to make plans on how to ambush this guy.” Rembrandt started, “Well, everyone except Ōi. I’ve known her Talent for a long while.”

“I can draw on air, does that help?” Jiro wondered.

“I can manipulate paper, origami and all that. I guess I can change its weight and sharpness too.” Saburo added.

“I can control paint, not really useful here I presume.” Kazuo continued.

“I can redirect things. Not sure if it would help.” Yuko chimed in as well.

“Hmm.” Rembrandt talked to himself, “maybe I should grab some food first, my stomach feels empty after using my Talent for a long time.”

“I also need to get some paper; I can probably get myself a stack of mangas to use.” Saburo added.

“No problem, I’ll pay.” Rembrandt replied.

The group entered the convenience store to prepare themselves for the attack. Rembrandt had his hearty breakfast of some beef panini while Saburo grabbed stacks of manga to use and hid it in a small bag. After Rembrandt finished his meal, the group stood in front of the door to the abandoned building.

“Here’s the plan. Me and Saburo will storm in and talk to Kyōsai. Jiro and Ōi can stand by the door to keep guard. Yuko and Kazuo, stay outside and watch the area.” Rembrandt briefed, “If that’s clear, let’s head in.”

Rembrandt opened the old metal door, the creaking echoing through the empty building. The floor has puddles from leaks and the greying walls were decorated with moss growing throughout the building. The group faces a hallway with a stairwell heading up and a door next to it.

Rembrandt approached the door and tried opening it, but it wouldn’t budge. “Jiro, Ōi. Saburo and I are heading up, please watch behind us.” Rembrandt stated. The two of them slowly crept up to a more open area with broken windows. There a tall man stood in the middle of the room wearing [update after illustration is done].

“I’ve been expecting you, Dutch Maestro.” The man said, pointing his finger to Rembrandt.

Rembrandt’s usually calm expression now looked more heated, “Still not done with your life of crime huh, Kyōsai”

“Aww, look at you. You got a little friend tagging along with you now.” Kyōsai teased. “I remember when I first met you two years ago.”

“143 murders weren’t enough?” Rembrandt questioned him.

Kyōsai giggled, then he let out a hearty laugh. “143? That’s awfully generous of you Mr. Dutch Maestro. It’s 188 now, I wanna make that number a solid 190. Will you two be kind enough to be my latest victims?”

“Fair enough, I’m not going to go down without a fight.” Rembrandt slowly moved backwards letting Saburo faced the crazed criminal. Somehow in Saburo’s eyes, he did not look normal. He looked like a demon; his face was filled with euphoria looking at his next victims. Saburo slowly began to fold the pages of the manga he bought to paper planes and knives.

“Is the Maestro going to make the first move, or is it going to be his four eyed sidekick?” taunted Kyōsai. Kyōsai activated his Talent, Dance of a Pair of Lions, to prepare for an attack. Two lions appeared next to Kyōsai snarling at the duo.

Saburo turned his head to Rembrandt who gave him the go signal. Saburo threw his bag, paper planes rained from the ceiling swirling about the area.

“That’s it? Paper? How would you fare against my Lions!” Shouted Kyōsai from the other side of the room.

The paper planes slowly found its target and started diving towards Kyōsai. Kyōsai laughed at what looks like a futile attempt to attack, but as the planes fly towards his lions, the lions roared in pain as the wings of the paper plane cut through the lion’s skin easily. Some of the paper planes also cut easily through Kyōsai’s clothing and even cutting a small part of his cheek.

Saburo ran away while Rembrandt activated his Talent to swarm the room with Saburo’s paper airplanes. Saburo had somehow managed to throw a paper knife to one of the lions, injuring part of its body. Rembrandt himself had no problem staving off the lions, summoning a mannequin of himself for the lion to maul.

“I’m tired of playing games, Kyōsai.” Rembrandt spoke as he pulls out a gun from his pocket and fired towards Kyōsai. Kyōsai himself didn’t come unarmed and pulled out a gun of his own and fired back.

“You feel it don’t you Mr. Maestro. The blood coursing through your body is red hot, you long for violence too don’t you.” Kyōsai tried provoking Rembrandt.

“If it’s to get rid of this world from people such as you, then I’ll gladly pull the trigger.” Rembrandt stated.

Saburo somehow managed to turn the leftover paper airplanes to a long rod. “If I change the density of the paper on each end of the rod, I can somewhat use this as a weapon.” Saburo flailed around with the heavy staff trying to knock out the lions.

“Rembrandt, behind you!” shouted Saburo. Rembrandt summoned another mannequin for the lion to maul.

“Hah, so this is why they call you ‘Immortal’.” Kyōsai scoffed.

“I just have good spatial awareness.” Rembrandt commented on that statement.

“Can we have one minute off?!” Saburo shouted from the back, holding back one of the two lions

The lion holding back Saburo disappeared into thin air. “Now what do you want to do?” asked Kyōsai, “Its not fun to murder with my own bare hands, it leaves fingerprints everywhere.”

“How about just stopping, you sick bastard?” Rembrandt shouted.

“Stop? Killing? Don’t make me laugh Mr. Maestro.” Kyōsai chuckled, “Some people do deserve death. They just don’t know about it yet.” Kyōsai then summoned the lion he got rid from Saburo. “You see Mr. Maestro, some non-Talent users see themselves as above us street rats and stray dogs, ordering us to do as they please. They should understand that in this world, the strong will triumph over the weak.”

Rembrandt looked furious now. “I was one of those stray dogs you talked about. That does not disqualify me from anything. If the weak deserve to die, then I would have died years ago.”

Saburo folded one of the manga pages into a dagger and handed it to Rembrandt, Rembrandt then started walking towards Kyōsai with knife in hand.

“Hmm, that’s very brave of you approaching me” Kyōsai taunted Rembrandt.

“I can’t beat the hell out of you from that distance. Saburo, stand back.” Rembrandt continued.

The two of them are now in front of each other, both of Kyōsai’s lions were continuing to roar but Rembrandt seemed unfazed. Saburo himself was starting to get intimidated by the two lions, shaping a sword out of paper.

“If you want to fight, let’s do it one on one.” Rembrandt spoke.

“Well that wouldn’t be fun.” Kyōsai remarked.

“That’s because you’re afraid, aren’t you?”

“You’d like to try?”

Rembrandt was about to attack but suddenly fainted, falling to the hard-concrete floor face first.

“REMBRANDT!” Saburo shouted.

“The world’s greatest detective isn’t so great after all.” Kyōsai laughed at the knocked-out Rembrandt, “What are you gonna do now, Sidekick? Run?”

“I’M GONNA KILL YOU!” Saburo screamed, charging at Kyōsai. Just as he was attacking, Ōi and Jiro came scrambling through the stairs, the two of them tried calming down Saburo but he lunged headfirst towards combat with only his paper sword in hand, through the fight he managed to injure one of the lions badly.

“Jiro you moron, take that knife and help me with the lions!” Saburo commanded.

Jiro took up one of the knives and helped fighting the Lion that was fighting with Saburo. At this point Saburo was in a complete rage trying to kill one of the lions.

Yuko went upstairs after hearing the commotion from upstairs, Kyōsai commanded one of the lions to attack her. But Yuko changed its direction, slamming the lion into the wall killing it upon impact.

“If you try that again with that other lion, I’ll do the same.” Yuko sternly spoke.

Kyōsai for once genuinely felt afraid, “You . . . you killed one of my lions.”

The lion attacking Saburo and Jiro suddenly stopped. Ōi ran over to Rembrandt and covered him with her indestructible cloth. The five of them stared down at Kyōsai.

“Do I need to humble you down even more, bastard. Call me a sidekick one more time I dare you.” Saburo coldly told him off.

“You’re just lucky, you can’t do anything.” Kyōsai tried holding his ground despite being in the losing position. Saburo was not deterred, he took a deep breath and stabbed Kyōsai’s right palm using one of his paper knives, pinning him onto the floor.

“Talk like that one more time and I’ll do the same thing to your left palm.”

“You wouldn’t da-“

Just before Kyōsai could finish his sentence, Saburo stabbed his other palm. Kyōsai screamed in pain.

“I’m not anyone’s sidekick, I can handle things myself. Jiro, you can do the rest, I need to clean my glasses.” Saburo told the rest.

Jiro took over and looked at Kyōsai who was trapped on the floor, if he tried to move his arms the knives would only make the wound bigger. He didn’t want to attack with his lions either, in fear of having the only remaining lion getting killed as well.

“So, you’re the person who committed the murder?” asked Jiro.

“And why is that a problem?” Kyōsai returned the question

“You’re lucky I’m not as easily angered as Saburo. You better comply with us before you do anything stupid.” Jiro continued.

“Try me, you little shits.” Kyōsai spat onto Jiro’s foot.