Pepper stared at the man who'd just been flung into the air, totally bewildered. He'd lunged for her like a predator—until three figures materialized in her cell and kicked him skyward. Nice entrance. Ryuuto landed like he'd been dropped in by a cinematic stunt team and dusted his hands off.
"Earth Shift — Core!" Ryuuto barked. A slab of floor outside the cell door rose and slammed into the frame, sealing the corridor in stone. The stunned guard on patrol tried to move it, but that chunk of concrete was heavier than a small car. Not his day.
Susan lifted the group's invisibility. The man, bleeding and bewildered, rattled off nonsense about "murderous demons" and "Mutant conspiracies," trying to bait them. Ryuuto strolled up, casually hooked the guy by the throat and pinned him against the wall with one hand like this was no big deal. "Two kinds of civilians," Ryuuto said coldly. "Allies or enemies. You picked your side."
When the snotty coward tried to shout for help, Ryuuto's eyes went flat. He started gathering chakra at the palm—small, dangerous whorls of power spinning blue and tight. "You trying to bully Pepper?" Ryuuto asked. The man's legs kicked like a trapped beetle. Ryuuto didn't hesitate. He pressed a concentrated Rasengan under the man. There was a single, clean crack of pain and the awful part of the man's anatomy was dust before anyone could blink. The man collapsed, a trembling, shredded mess on the floor.
Susan's face didn't twitch. "Finish him," Ryuuto said.
She didn't hesitate. A force-field formed inside the man, and she ripped it apart with both hands like she was opening a rotten can. Blood and gore sprayed. Pepper—who'd been stiff with terror—saw the brutality and passed out.
Katie Dee stood frozen, an awkward mixture of shock and fury on her face. "I'm not scared," she whispered, a little too loudly. Ryuuto shot her a look. "She lives a different life than we do. CEO, office world—she hasn't seen this."
Ryuuto didn't waste time with soul-searching. They couldn't leave Pepper in prison or they'd be back for more. But he also saw a wider problem: guards who sold inmates, a rotten system that let predators roam inside a cellblock. "We free everyone," he said. "Let the law take care of the rest."
Susan raised an eyebrow. "You sure?"
"Absolutely." Ryuuto summoned the Severing Blade—dark, heavy, summoned from the summoning world with a clean, hungry ring. He swiped it; stone and iron gates split like paper. Guards trying to pry away the concrete were cleaved in half; messy, brutal, quick. Susan used her force-field to blast open the remaining doors. In less than ten minutes the entire block was open and a frantic flood of prisoners poured out. Ryuuto didn't wait to see where they ran; his priority was Pepper.
They got her on the ship. Pepper slept like the trauma had finally crashed her system. Ryuuto stood over her for a moment, then nudged her awake. She blinked blearily, wiping drool from the corner of her mouth. "Can I… eat?" she asked weakly, like the world still made sense if she could have breakfast.
Ryuuto snorted and offered a crooked smile. "First coffee. Then we figure out who's buying prison guards and why."