"We need to talk."
The quiet voice drifted through the monastery corridor, stopping Levi just as he was about to leave the meeting behind. He turned toward its source and found the Second Blade standing alone at the opposite end of the hallway, his black haori hanging motionless despite the breeze flowing through the open corridors. It was Levi's first real interaction with the Second Blade. He had seen Amon around the headquarters before and heard enough about him through the Yakuza to know who he was, yet standing before him now felt entirely different from merely knowing his name.
Strangely enough, none of those stories had prepared him for the man himself.
People often mistook overwhelming presence for overwhelming power, but Amon possessed neither. There was no crushing Stardust pressing against the senses, no killing intent leaking into the air, not even the subtle confidence expected from someone who stood as the Second Blade. What surrounded him instead was an unsettling stillness, the kind found only in abandoned temples and forgotten graves, where even the wind seemed reluctant to linger. Looking at him felt less like facing another human being and more like staring at something that had long since accepted death without ever lying down.
Levi couldn't help but let out a quiet laugh.
So this is the guy.
Truthfully, he had expected this conversation from the moment the Yakuza fell under his control. Whether it happened a day later or a month later hardly mattered. Men like Amon were never the type to leave unfinished business unattended.
"Took you long enough..." Levi said, the corner of his mouth curling into a crooked grin. "...The Yakuza's doing just fine, in case you were wondering."
The words were little more than bait tossed into still water, yet the ripples never came. Amon neither frowned nor argued. The insult simply dissolved somewhere between them, leaving his expression exactly as it had been before.
"You're not even going to deny it," he observed with surprising calm. "I suppose honesty is one of your few redeemable qualities."
His voice carried no accusation, no anger, and perhaps that made it all the more difficult to read.
"I'll cut to the chase and only ask you once." His eyes remained fixed on Levi's. "Surrender the Yakuza back to me."
For a brief moment, the corridor fell silent once more.
Levi's smile never disappeared.
"...Or what?"
The question carried no trace of curiosity. It was a challenge disguised as one, yet Amon answered it as though the outcome had already been decided.
"We both know the answer to that."
His hand came to rest around the handle of one of the twin blades at his waist. The gesture was unhurried, almost casual, but there was no mistaking what it meant.
Levi answered with a faint scoff.
"I won't."
He closed the distance between them by a single step, meeting Amon without the slightest hesitation.
"The Yakuza's doing better under me than it ever did under your pathetic leadership."
The corridor fell into a brief silence.
Then steel answered where words had ended.
The blade left its sheath with frightening speed, so fast that even the sound seemed to trail behind it. Only Levi's reflexes spared him from losing more than a few strands of hair, his body bending backward at the final instant as the edge swept across his face.
...Damn. The bastard wasn't kidding.
His eyes remained fixed on Amon.
The smug grin that had accompanied him throughout the conversation was nowhere to be found.
Amon's fingers tightened around the hilt of his second blade. The first strike had failed to take Levi's head, and there was little doubt the next one would aim to finish what the first had started. Yet before the steel could leave its sheath, Levi spoke again.
"I'm telling the truth."
The words carried enough conviction to give Amon pause. His hand remained on the weapon, but the blade never left its scabbard.
"The operations you built had a solid foundation," Levi continued. "That was never the problem. Their true potential was simply being held back."
The remark drew a faint crease to Amon's brow. Curiosity, however slight, had replaced the immediate urge to strike.
"What are you saying, brat?"
Levi slowly straightened himself. The motion pulled at the wounds left behind by the battle in Nitchtron, sending a dull ache through his body, but he ignored it as though pain had long since become another inconvenience.
"I'm saying the Yakuza was missing one important aspect for growth." His eyes never left Amon's. "Expansion."
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth before he continued, his voice carrying the confidence of someone speaking from experience rather than imagination.
"C'mon. I know you're not stupid enough to overlook it. Hinode alone isn't enough to create lasting profit or global influence. If we want control over the underworld, we have to stop thinking within the borders of a single country."
Amon listened without interruption, though the disappointment in his eyes became increasingly difficult to hide.
"You don't understand how things work," he replied. "You're just a cocky brat with a big ego. Expanding our influence throughout the underworld comes with risks that outweigh the rewards. Those organizations don't operate under us directly, nor do they possess our discipline, our resources, or our training. The farther we spread, the greater the chance that someone makes a mistake, gets caught, and leads the authorities straight back to us."
His gaze settled firmly on Levi.
"And even if expansion were worth considering... what does a child like yourself know about the underworld?"
Levi answered without the slightest hesitation, almost as though he had been waiting for the question from the very beginning.
"I know enough. I've lived there my whole life. The underworld is my home. I know its ways inside and out—the highs, the lows, the people who truly hold power, the ones worth trusting, and the ones who'll sell you for the right price. There's no one here more capable than me of managing an operation on that scale."
A small grin returned to his face.
"And before you dismiss me as some stubborn little shit... I've always believed that the greatest rewards come from the risks everyone else is too afraid to take."
Levi turned away and resumed his walk, continuing down the corridor toward the training grounds. To him, the conversation had already reached its conclusion. There was nothing more to gain from lingering over words that neither of them intended to take back.
The morning sun greeted him as he stepped beyond the monastery halls, its light washing over the stone courtyard.
"Let's see what the Shogun and the Elders have to say about that."
Amon's voice followed him from behind, calm as ever.
The remark was meant to plant doubt, to remind Levi that the matter had yet to be decided by those who stood above them. Yet if there was one thing Levi had never lacked, it was conviction. Once he chose a path, he walked it without looking back.
"Yeah," he answered, his pace never slowing. "Let's see what they'll do when they find out your operation's doing better under me... the foreigner."
He walked away without another glance, leaving the Second Blade alone with a reality he could neither deny nor overturn. The Yakuza had been taken from him by strength, conviction, and the will to seize what another man could no longer hold. Such was the nature of leadership. Followers did not always choose their leaders. Sometimes, their leaders chose them.