The Breath of the Empty Corridors
After the fall of the Fifth Seal, Edenfall didn't allow itself to rest. The streets seemed to have swallowed sound, as if the city itself were holding its breath. Akihiko, Naeya, and Lirea found themselves on the outskirts of the Eastern District, an area devastated by the loss of urban arterial flow. Literally: the power, data, and transportation conduits were dry. Edenfall was bleeding from within.
"This city has more organs than people," Lirea murmured. "And they're all collapsing."
On the ground, the remains of arterial cables sparked faintly. Among the ruins, rumors spoke of a figure advancing unseen, but always leaving marks: identical, precise cuts, made with a weapon so fine the human eye could barely detect it.
The Legend of Kurozai
The enemy soon appeared. His name was Kurozai , a figure covered in a black medical kimono, crisscrossed by white stitches like scars. His eyes were like scalpel blades: they cut even while standing still.
Kurozai was one of the personal enforcers of this saga's new supervillain: he didn't belong to the Seals, but to a mafia that predated even the Throne. His power was surgical: he knew exactly the weakest point of any body, structure, or emotion , and could exploit it with a single move.
"I didn't come to kill," he said in a neutral voice. "I came to disarm."
III. The Precognitive Cutting Technique
Kurozai didn't attack directly. His blows appeared seconds before his body moved. It was as if the air received the command before the muscle.
Naeya was the first to confront him, but he fell with a single blow: his shoulder blade fragmented without apparent contact. Lirea attempted an indirect assault with sonic waves, but Kurozai had already "severed" the frequency of her attack.
"You fight with intention. I fight with precision."
Akihiko understood that the fight wouldn't be physical in the classic sense. The enemy was operating on a plane where preconceived notions were already a weakness.
Vacuum vs. Scalpel
Akihiko summoned his newest technique: Hemodynamic Severing , a refined version of the Void, which flowed through his bloodstream and could transform his heart rate into a combat trajectory. Each beat was an armed pulse.
Kurozai didn't back down. He watched Akihiko's movements and muttered:
"Your heart fights before you."
During the duel, both combatants became reflexive. The fight was so silent that not even the wind dared to blow. Every cut was a conversation. Every evasion, a confession.
The Thousand Invisible Scars
The fight lasted exactly fourteen minutes, though no one knew how long it actually was. By the end, Akihiko was still standing, bleeding from wounds he hadn't seen coming, but with his determination intact.
Kurozai fell to his knees, clutching his chest.
"You have wounded the only thing that should not be touched: the will of the blade."
Akihiko didn't respond. He just put away his katana and walked over to the still unconscious Naeya.
The Echoes of the Veiled Clan
With Kurozai's fall, a secret was revealed. Sealed on his kimono was a rune: the symbol of the Veiled Clan , an ancient mafia group thought to be extinct. Authorities discovered, in the executioner's final coded words, that they were not only surviving… but were reconstructing the map of Edenfall's mafia power from the shadows.
Shoen Rikudō had foreseen it. And he was worried.
"There are wounds that heal with violence. The Veiled Clan is one of them."
VII. Preparations for the Siege of the Eight Vertices
Akihiko and Lirea took refuge with Naeya in the subsoil of the Shrine of Friction. Meanwhile, multiple strategic points in Edenfall began to emit an alert signal: the Eight Vertices , fundamental nodes of territorial stability, were being activated one by one.
"It won't be a war," Lirea said. "It will be a dissection."
Edenfall was preparing for a new kind of combat: one in which the enemy doesn't seek to dominate... but to separate.