Chapter 352: The Bullet Flick
Inside the narrow alleyway.
Doyle stood with absolute focus, facing the assassin from IDEAL—[THE CARACAL]
Billy Greco.
Inspector Morio Sonoda drew his service pistol from his waist and retreated to
the cover of a utility pole, quickly tapping out an SOS on his phone. The honest
officer knew exactly what was happening: this wasn't a mere street brawl. This
was a high-level criminal operation orchestrated by IDEAL.
The international crime syndicate had infiltrated Tokyo alongside the Five Death
Row Convicts. They had even entered the Kengan Annihilation Street Brawl, but
they had remained in the shadows, clearly pursuing a much larger prize.
Now, Billy Greco—the right-hand man of the IDEAL leader—had tracked down the
former British operative, Doyle, specifically to ask about "The Inside."
Sonoda had seen the classified files. The Inside, also known as "The Ward" or
"The Dark Zone."
Located in the heart of Tokyo, its land area rivaled the Edogawa or Koto Wards.
It even contained vast underground spaces, yet the government had long since
abandoned it. Legend says it originated at the end of the Edo period, built by
remnants of the defeated Shogunate army and social outcasts.
Over decades of uncontrolled growth, it had become a sanctuary for the world's
most dangerous elements: international gangs, Yakuza, mercenaries,
self-proclaimed revolutionaries, high-profile fugitives, and illegal immigrants.
They formed a unique, brutal ecosystem, separated from the rest of the world by
massive, reinforced walls. The Inside was their paradise—a total lawless zone.
It was also whispered that legendary martial artists lived there in seclusion.
Because of this, even the top brass of the MPD knew very little about it and
avoided provoking the "Ward" unless absolutely necessary.
IDEAL was hunting Doyle for information on The Inside? They were already making
moves against the Kengan Association—what did they want with the lawless Ward?
Sonoda couldn't fathom their intent, so he signaled Doyle to stall for time.
Doyle gave a sharp, subtle nod.
Billy, the man they called "The Caracal," remained polite, a sinister smirk
never leaving his face. "Wow! Was my question too sudden? Or did you not hear
me, Mr. Doyle?"
"The Inside—that city-within-a-city. The Ward." Billy's eyes darted as he
recalled his briefing. "One-Dragon, Two-Tigers, Three-Wolves, Four-Turtles,
Five-Bears, Six-Insects, Seven-Ohma, Eight-Hawks, Nine-Spiders, Ten-Tokita...
those are the districts that compose it."
"The black market only knows the surface level. We are currently scouting the
specific power structures and military distributions within those walls."
Billy gave a mocking bow, his gaze flickering toward Sonoda. "If you help us,
IDEAL can guarantee your freedom."
"Freedom...?" Doyle offered a thin smile. "Sorry. I don't have much use for that
anymore."
The answer didn't surprise Billy.
"You've gone soft," the Caracal sneered. "Helpless against your enemies, making
peace with your hunters, playing 'pilgrim' games... how pathetic."
Doyle relaxed his shoulders, pulling a cigarette from his pocket and lighting it
with a plastic lighter. "Heh. I've never traded blows with IDEAL before. I
didn't realize your recruitment methods were so... 'friendly'."
Billy's ten fingers spread wide, curving into predatory claws. The veins on the
backs of his hands bulged, and a visible heat seemed to radiate from his breath.
"DIE, YOBBO!"
The bloody slang—roughly meaning "Die, weakling"—was the Caracal's signature
catchphrase.
The next instant—Flash!
Doyle suddenly hurled his lighter at Billy's face. At the same time, Billy
lunged, smashing the lighter aside with his forehead. But Doyle had anticipated
it; he threw a handful of crushed tobacco directly into Billy's eyes.
Fwhoosh!
Billy's vision was briefly obscured. Doyle dropped his weight, and with a
metallic clack, he triggered the blade in his elbow, slashing toward Billy's
throat.
Shick!
Billy reacted with predatory instinct, raising his right arm to intercept the
blade with his wrist.
TING!
It didn't sound like a blade cutting flesh. It sounded like metal striking
metal.
"–?!"
Doyle gasped. As he slid past Billy, he spun around to see the truth. Inside
Billy's tailored suit sleeves, a specialized dagger was strapped to his forearm.
He had used the hilt of the weapon to parry Doyle's hidden blade.
"Hmph!"
Billy grunted, clenching his right fist and driving his elbow backward.
Zip!
The concealed dagger was whipped backward by a internal mechanism, sliding from
his wrist to his elbow and piercing through the suit fabric to extend outward.
"DIE!"
Billy pivoted toward Doyle, unleashed a flurry of elbow-strikes using the
protruding blade. Each move targeted a vital point with terrifying economy of
motion. Doyle parried with the blades in his own wrists, the alley filling with
a rapid staccato of ting-ting-ting, but Doyle's built-in blades were shorter
than Billy's tactical dagger. He was being pushed back.
Slash-slash!
Doyle's right forearm was opened in several places, blood beginning to slick his
skin.
THWACK!
Billy twisted his hips, delivering a spinning back-kick that buried itself in
Doyle's midsection.
POW!
The force of the blow sent Doyle reeling. He hacked up a spray of blood, his
body doubling over in agony. Billy lunged forward, his hand snapping around
Doyle's throat. His eyes were shot through with manic, bloody veins.
"Had enough of the parlor tricks, Mr. Doyle?"
Doyle was being throttled, his air supply cut off. In the micro-second before he
lost consciousness, he pressed the four fingers of his left hand together and
drove his arm horizontally toward Billy's throat with every ounce of back
strength he had.
This was the move Jun Sekibayashi had taught him—the signature Pro-Wrestling
[REVERSE HORIZONTAL CHOP]!
CLAP!
Billy was prepared for hidden blades, but he didn't expect a blunt-force "Chop"
in a life-or-death struggle. The blow slammed into his windpipe.
ACK!
Billy coughed up blood, his grip on Doyle's throat involuntarily loosening. As
his airway spasmed, a sense of suffocation washed over him.
"Shit...!" Billy hissed, his neck veins pulsing with the effort to stay upright.
He looked demonic.
Doyle wasn't doing much better. He clutched his gut and throat, gasping for air
as he frantically scanned the alley for an exit. Against the Caracal, Sonoda's
small-caliber pistol was useless, but he needed to get the Inspector out of
here.
But the next second—Whish!
A steel ball the size of a marble streaked through the air, aimed directly for
Doyle's throat.
Doyle tried to evade, throwing himself into a back-dash, but the projectile
grazed his jaw. The skin was instantly torn open, blood spraying across the
pavement.
"Tsk..."
Doyle looked toward the source. Standing in a dark corner at the end of the
alley was an old man in a white suit. He had a long, thin goatee and snow-white
hair, but his physique was unnaturally robust.
"—?!"
Doyle's blood ran cold. He recognized that face. It was the legendary veteran
hitman—[THE KILLING FIELD] Bai Long!
The rumors said Bai Long had retired to a life of seclusion. To think IDEAL had
managed to hire him back! No wonder Doyle hadn't sensed his presence—the man was
a master of his craft.
Bai Long's right hand was partially closed, his index finger hooked into a tight
loop against his thumb. It was a "Flicking" posture. He had launched that steel
ball using nothing but the torque of his finger.
One of the legendary techniques of "The Killing Field"—The Lethal Bullet Flick.
"The rumors were true... a flick as accurate and deadly as a sniper rifle..."
Doyle's escape route was cut off by Bai Long. The situation had reached a
stalemate. Sonoda chambered a round, desperate to provide cover, but IDEAL had a
clear objective.
Billy provided the distraction while Bai Long prepared to move in and finish the
job.
But before Bai Long could step out from the shadows, he stopped dead. Someone
else had arrived. A new figure stood beside Doyle.
It was Ren Shiroki.
He had directly hopped over the alley wall, dropping into the middle of the
chaos.
"Hmm... a lot of familiar faces. And a few new ones." Ren glanced back. "Thanks
for the tip, Sonoda-aniki. Looks like I was closer than the MPD reinforcements."
Sonoda was about to warn him when he shrieked, "WATCH OUT!"
"DIE!"
Voom!
Billy lunged forward, unleashing a series of heavy haymakers. Driven by his
monstrous physical stats, each blow carried enough weight to shatter bone.
Ren pivoted into a side-facing guard, parrying the heavy blows with his left
hand and wrist. He moved with a technical flow that made Billy's power look
clumsy.
Thud-thud-thud!
Seeing his punches neutralized, Billy increased his speed, attempting to smother
Ren with volume. Ren sensed the shift and executed a rhythmic sway into a
back-dash.
[DEE JAY: KEEP IT COOL]!
Zip!
As Ren retreated, Billy flicked his right wrist, the tactical dagger strapped to
his elbow whistling through the air in a lethal arc. But Ren had seen through
the feint, his retreat putting him just out of range of the steel.
"—!!"
Billy didn't stop. He slapped his left hand onto his right shoulder, sliding it
down toward his wrist in a lightning-fast motion. As it passed his elbow, he
struck the pommel of the dagger, launching the entire blade from his sleeve like
a projectile.
Whish!
The dagger became a throwing knife, streaking toward Ren's chest.
Ren's right leg snapped upward in a perfect vertical split.
[RYU: KAKATO OTOSHI] (Heel Drop)!
CLANG!
Ren's heel caught the flat of the dagger mid-air, pinning it into the pavement
with a heavy thud.
Billy's eyes widened. "So fast...!"
Before he could even process the parry, Ren used the momentum of the kick to
skip forward. His right leg, still raised, descended like a crescent moon, his
heel aiming to crush Billy's skull.
Whoosh!
Billy threw himself backward. Ren's heel grazed the tip of Billy's nose, peeling
away a sliver of skin and drawing blood.
"Tsk...!"
Billy scrambled back, his composure slipping. He could feel it—Ren Shiroki was
significantly more powerful than the last time they had clashed. His "frames"
were tighter, and his experience was visibly deeper.
Ren was about to pursue when he suddenly snapped his upper body backward. Whish!
Another steel marble tore through the air where his head had been a micro-second
before.
Bai Long had fired again.
"Haha! IDEAL really brought the whole crew, didn't they?" Ren laughed, his eyes
beginning to shimmer with Combat Aura. The air around him began to take on a
jagged, heavy quality.
He looked at Billy and then glanced toward Bai Long. "I believe the Caracal and
I still have an unfinished Kengan match, don't we?"
Billy raised a hand, dabbing the blood from his nose. His expression was
serious. "Mr. Shiroki. I forfeited that match, remember? I have no malice toward
martial artists."
"Speck murdered my partners. My Boss decided that fighting martial artists was
bad for business. We're just here for information on The Inside. We want to make
some money off that lawless city, that's all."
"Mr. Doyle is your friend? That's strange. I recall you two were enemies not
long ago." Billy shrugged. "Are you really going to protect him? This is quite a
headache..."
"Enough talk, Billy," Bai Long interrupted. "This kid is the type you can't talk
down."
"Hmph. I know. The Inside mission takes priority." Billy's tone dropped,
becoming cold. "So, I suppose we settle this with the thing I hate
most—'Physical Force'?"
Billy and Bai Long took up positions on either side of Ren, calculating their
next move. Against a master of Ren's caliber, a 1-vs-2 was actually more
efficient if they didn't try to sync their attacks, but rather focused on one
being the "Aggressor" and the other the "Cover."
Bai Long palmed several more steel marbles, preparing for a blind-side flick.
Suddenly, from the other side of the alley wall, a relaxed, baritone voice
echoed.
"Hmm. I can hear voices. It seems Sonoda-kun's SOS location was right on the
other side of this masonry. I've actually missed that guy."
A female voice responded, "Should we hop over?"
"Spare me, Iori-san. Jumping around like a grasshopper isn't my style. It lacks
elegance~!"
The man chuckled, then went silent.
"Hey! Don't damage public property—" the woman started to protest.
Before she could finish, a thunderous BOOM rocked the alley. A massive section
of the reinforced brick wall was blasted inward, reduced to rubble by a single
punch.
A colossal figure stepped through the dust and debris. The entrance was the
definition of "Overwhelming."
It was an old acquaintance of the underground world—[MR. UNCHAINED] Biscuit
Oliva.
Accompanying him was the MPD officer, Ichika Iori. The sharp-toothed,
perpetually irritable policewoman was a partner in the Valkyrie circuit and had
been assigned to escort Oliva during his time in Tokyo.
Iori looked at the ruined wall with a face full of dread. "Ugh... more
paperwork. I'm going to be writing reports until Christmas..."
"Hmm~~"
Oliva, dressed in a garish Hawaiian shirt, put his hands on his hips. His gaze
swept the alley, taking in Billy, Bai Long, and finally settling on Doyle.
"Good afternoon, gentlemen. I'm here to help my friend Sonoda-kun."
Oliva raised an eyebrow and flashed a brilliant, white-toothed smile. "But as
fate would have it, I also have a few questions for Mr. Doyle... regarding the
most 'Free' city in the world: The Inside."
☆☆☆
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