The first remnant fell before the other three even understood that Kato had moved.
One instant earlier, he had been standing at the entrance to the corridor.
The next, his fist had already broken through the creature's defense and struck the center of its torso.
The impact folded the remnant inward.
Kato did not wait to watch it fall.
He pivoted on his right foot, avoided a claw that passed within centimeters of his neck, and caught the second enemy by the arm.
The mana running through its body reacted the moment they made contact.
Kato felt it immediately.
Hot.
Unstable.
Abundant.
He pulled.
The creature lost its balance.
A knee drove beneath its ribs.
A small amount of mana broke away from the remnant's body.
Kato absorbed it before it could disperse.
He did not need to think about it.
By now, the process was almost as natural as breathing.
The third enemy came from behind.
Kato released the one in front of him and lowered his body.
The claws passed overhead.
He activated Combat Mode.
For an instant, everything became slower.
Not because the world had changed.
He had.
His muscles responded sooner.
Strength surged through his legs.
Distance stopped mattering.
Kato took one step.
Then another.
The remnant tried to turn.
Too late.
Kato's fist struck its jaw.
The neck twisted.
The creature flew backward and slammed into the wall.
Kato deactivated the mode.
The change was immediate.
The acceleration vanished.
His pulse remained high.
He breathed once.
Twice.
The fourth remnant did not attack.
It backed away.
Kato watched it.
The creature turned.
And ran.
Not toward an exit.
Deeper into headquarters.
Kato frowned.
The second remnant, still on the floor, tried to get up.
Kato placed one hand against its chest.
Mana flowed toward him.
The creature trembled.
Its resistance lasted only a few seconds.
Then it stopped moving.
Kato raised his head.
The one that had fled had already disappeared beyond the next intersection.
He could chase it.
He did not.
He looked around.
Three remnant bodies.
Residual mana still hanging in the air.
Traces of techniques used before he had arrived.
The entire facility was saturated.
Kato inhaled slowly.
The energy began to draw toward him.
Not all at once.
Not like an explosion.
Small amounts.
Fragments.
Traces that normally would have faded into the environment.
He absorbed them.
The mana inside his body began to rise again.
Not completely.
It did not need to.
He had been doing the same thing ever since entering the eastern corridor.
Fight.
Spend.
Absorb.
Continue.
It allowed him to maintain a pace most hunters could not sustain.
But his body was not mana.
Kato closed one hand.
His fingers responded.
More slowly than they should have.
He rolled his shoulder.
It hurt.
His legs still had strength, though the muscles were starting to feel heavy.
He could restore fuel.
He could not replace muscle fibers.
He could not erase every impact he had taken.
He could not force his body to forget how many times he had activated Combat Mode.
He looked back toward the intersection.
The remnant had chosen to run.
It was not the first time.
That was what bothered him.
The eastern corridor divided into several secondary routes.
Some connected to internal offices.
Others led to minor storage rooms, technical areas, and passages used by security personnel.
Under normal circumstances, it was a boring section.
Kato had walked through it dozens of times without paying much attention.
Now it looked like a different headquarters.
A door torn off.
Emergency lights.
Dried blood on a wall.
A broken communicator.
An impact mark in the ceiling.
Kato moved forward without lowering his guard.
He had learned quickly that silence did not mean an area was clear.
Around the next turn, he found two remnants.
They were not attacking anyone.
They were trying to open a door.
One had both hands pressed against the lock.
The other was watching the inner corridor.
Kato did not need to ask what was behind it.
He attacked.
The first turned.
Combat Mode activated again.
An instant.
Acceleration surged through his body.
Kato appeared between them.
An elbow to the face.
The remnant crashed into the door.
The second extended one arm.
A mass of mana gathered in front of its palm.
Kato felt it before it had fully formed.
He absorbed part of it.
The technique lost density.
The remnant released it anyway.
Kato moved aside.
The discharge struck the floor.
The enemy tried to gather mana again.
It did not have time.
Kato grabbed its wrist.
The absorption intensified.
Mana began leaking irregularly from the creature's body.
It tried to break free.
Kato twisted the arm.
The body followed.
He slammed it into the wall.
Once.
Then again.
The first remnant had recovered.
Kato heard it approaching.
He did not turn.
He released the enemy in his hand and stepped sideways.
The creature rushed past him.
Kato struck the back of its head.
It fell face-first.
He deactivated the mode.
His breathing accelerated again.
The other remnant tried to rise.
Kato ended the fight before it could.
Then he turned toward the door.
There were knocks from the other side.
"Anyone in there?"
Silence.
Kato brought one hand closer to the lock.
"It's Kato."
This time, a response came.
"We're here!"
A male voice.
Then another.
"We're here!"
Kato examined the mechanism.
It had not been destroyed.
The remnants had been trying to force it open.
That meant whoever was inside had managed to secure it from the other side.
"Move away from the door."
He waited.
"Clear!"
Kato slipped his fingers into the warped gap between the door and the frame.
He pulled.
The metal resisted.
He activated Combat Mode for only a couple of seconds.
His muscles responded.
The frame groaned.
The door opened just enough.
Kato deactivated it.
Two hunters emerged.
One had an improvised bandage around his arm.
The other had dried blood across his forehead.
Neither looked capable of continuing the fight.
The first looked at the bodies in the corridor.
Then at Kato.
"I thought they were going to get in."
"Almost."
Kato looked into the room.
There was another man sitting against the wall.
One leg injured.
"How many of you?"
"There were five of us."
The answer came too quickly.
Kato understood what it meant.
"The other two?"
The hunter lowered his gaze.
"They didn't make it."
Kato did not ask anything else.
He went inside.
Crouched in front of the wounded man.
The leg had a deep cut, but the bleeding was under control.
"Can you walk?"
"With help."
Kato stood.
"There's a cleared route two intersections back. Take the north passage, then turn toward the service stairs. I marked the entrance."
The hunter with the bandaged arm nodded.
"Is it completely safe?"
"It was when I passed through."
"How long ago was that?"
Kato looked toward the corridor.
"Too long."
The man understood.
He helped the wounded hunter stand.
The third moved to the other side.
Kato was about to leave when the hunter with blood on his forehead spoke.
"Kato."
He stopped.
"What?"
"The ones outside…"
He looked at the two bodies.
"They weren't all of them."
Kato waited.
"There were more."
"How many?"
"Five at the start."
"And the other three?"
The hunter pointed deeper into the sector.
"They kept going."
Kato frowned.
"While you were in here?"
"Yes."
"They didn't try to get in?"
"They didn't even stop."
The man swallowed.
"Two stayed behind. The other three just kept running."
Kato looked in the direction he indicated.
"You followed them?"
"At first."
The hunter let out a short laugh with no humor in it.
"Then we realized that was a bad idea."
Kato looked back at the two remnant bodies.
Two had stayed.
Three had continued.
Exactly what he had been seeing since entering the sector.
Some fought.
Others advanced.
It was not disorganization.
It was division of roles.
"Go."
The three hunters started moving.
The one with blood on his forehead took two steps and looked back at Kato.
"You're continuing?"
"Yes."
"Alone."
It was not a question.
Kato watched one of them take part of the wounded man's weight.
"It works better that way."
The man looked at the remains of the remnants.
Then nodded.
He probably did not fully understand.
He did not need to.
Kato waited until all three disappeared down the route he had indicated.
Only then did he continue deeper inside.
The first chain was embedded in a wall.
It was not real.
At least not entirely.
Most of it had already broken apart.
Only dark segments of mana remained attached to the concrete, slowly disappearing like heavy smoke.
Kato stopped.
He did not need to get closer.
He knew that sensation.
He had felt it before.
The corridor was destroyed.
A door had been ripped away from two different points.
There were long marks across the floor.
Gouges.
As if something had been dragged with brutal force.
A column had a horizontal line around its center.
Not a cut.
A pressure mark.
Kato approached.
Ran two fingers over it.
The residual mana responded.
His absorption tried to pull it in.
Kato stopped it almost immediately.
He did not need anything else to know.
"Zanshō."
The name remained alone in the corridor.
He remembered their previous encounter.
The chains.
The way that remnant sought direct confrontation.
The violence.
The obvious enjoyment it took in extending a fight when it found someone capable of answering back.
Kato looked at the destruction.
Something did not fit.
There were signs of combat.
But not of a long fight.
Zanshō had passed through here.
He had defeated whoever stood in his way.
And kept moving.
Kato advanced.
He found the first body twenty meters farther down.
A hunter against the wall.
Dead.
The mark around the torso was too clear.
Chain.
Another hunter lay beside a door.
Still breathing.
Kato moved quickly.
"Hey."
The man opened his eyes.
His breathing came short.
Kato checked the wound.
It did not look fatal.
Fortunately.
"Can you talk?"
The hunter nodded.
"The one with the chains…"
"I know."
"He went that way."
He raised one arm with difficulty.
Pointed down the passage.
Kato followed the direction.
"Was he alone?"
"No."
The man breathed.
"Two others."
"Lesser remnants?"
"Yes."
"All three stayed together?"
"No."
Kato looked at him again.
"What happened?"
"The others…"
The hunter closed his eyes for a moment.
"They split up."
"Where?"
"One took the inner corridor. The other went down through maintenance."
"And Zanshō?"
"Straight ahead."
Kato remained still.
Three routes.
Three enemies.
Not an uncontrolled charge.
Deliberate separation.
"You followed them?"
The hunter let out a difficult breath.
"There were four of us."
He looked toward the body against the wall.
"Then there were two."
Kato placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't move."
He pulled out the communicator.
Only static.
He moved a few meters.
Nothing.
Returned.
"There's an evacuation route behind me. Can you walk?"
"I think so."
Kato helped him up.
The man almost fell.
Kato caught him.
Normally, he would have escorted the wounded hunter all the way to safety.
But every minute that passed increased the distance between him and the remnants moving deeper inside.
He looked toward the corridor.
Then at the hunter.
Decided.
He lifted him.
The man protested.
"I can—"
"No."
Kato adjusted him over one shoulder.
"Save your strength."
He went back the way he had come.
He did not activate Combat Mode.
There was no need.
The body was heavy.
So were his legs.
But he could still carry him.
He reached the intersection where he had found the earlier survivors and left the wounded man near the marked route.
This time, he managed to get a brief signal.
"Kato to command."
Static.
"I have one wounded at the eastern entrance, Junction Four. Need evacuation."
Noise.
Then a broken voice.
"…received…"
Kato waited.
Nothing else came.
It was enough.
He left the hunter resting against a wall.
"They're coming."
"And you?"
Kato was already standing.
"I have to go back."
The man looked at him.
"That guy with the chains…"
Kato stopped.
"What?"
"He could have killed all of us."
Kato did not answer.
"But after opening the corridor, he left."
The hunter looked directly at him.
"He wasn't looking for a fight."
That made Kato remain still for one more second.
Zanshō.
Not looking for a fight.
Kato stood fully.
"Right."
He returned toward the inner sector.
As he moved, the memory appeared without permission.
Another structure.
Another corridor.
A long time ago.
It was not the same building.
Not the same walls.
But the feeling was.
Kato had been younger.
Too young to understand why veteran hunters were arguing while smoke filled the passage.
They had been attacked at the front.
Then somewhere opposite.
Teams had split.
Someone shouted to protect an exit.
Someone else ordered reinforcements to another area.
Remnants attacked.
Retreated.
Appeared again.
It looked like chaos.
For hours, Kato had believed it was chaos.
Until they understood that several of those fights did not matter.
They never had.
They had been forced to look where the remnants wanted.
Spend strength where the remnants wanted.
Move people.
Leave openings.
Kato remembered an open door.
An empty corridor.
The face of a hunter who had just realized they had defended the wrong place.
The memory broke.
The present returned.
The passage ahead of him was empty.
It should not have felt familiar.
But it did.
Far too much.
Kato found a barricade several minutes later.
Hunters had built it.
Metal tables.
Two security panels.
A containment structure.
Everything piled together to close an intersection.
The remnants had not broken through it.
They had moved it.
Kato approached.
Half the objects had been dragged into the left corridor.
The center path was open.
The right was completely blocked.
No bodies.
No signs of a major fight.
Kato looked at each route.
Left.
Center.
Right.
He approached the blocked corridor.
Nothing.
Then the left.
Blood.
Not much.
Signs of pursuit.
The center was almost clean.
Kato stood still.
One route turned into an obstacle.
Another with enough signs to draw attention.
And a third nearly untouched.
He looked down the center.
"Bastards."
It was not an ambush.
It had already happened.
Someone had wanted the hunters to choose wrong.
Kato took the central corridor.
A hundred meters farther ahead, he found a destroyed door.
Not an important one.
A secondary control room.
He entered.
Two terminals were broken.
The third was still running.
Connection errors filled the screen.
Routes.
Locks.
Internal systems.
Kato understood.
They were not attacking only important facilities.
They were also disabling points that affected movement inside headquarters.
They did not need to destroy everything.
Only enough.
A sound behind him.
Kato turned.
A lesser remnant stood in the entrance.
It did not attack.
When it saw him, it stopped.
They looked at each other.
The creature backed away.
Kato went after it.
The remnant ran.
Kato activated Combat Mode.
Pain stabbed through his body.
He ignored it.
Accelerated.
The enemy turned a corner.
Kato followed.
A second.
Then a third.
The remnant was not fleeing randomly.
It had a destination.
Kato understood too late.
The creature jumped over a fallen structure.
Kato followed.
When he landed, he saw the chains.
Three.
Stretched across the corridor.
No one was holding them.
They were remnants.
Placed there earlier.
Kato stopped.
The first chain tightened.
Not because of him.
An improvised mechanism.
A side door dropped.
Kato jumped backward.
The structure slammed into the floor.
The lesser remnant kept running.
Kato could have pursued.
He did not.
He looked at the chains.
Then the door.
Zanshō had prepared the passage.
Not necessarily for Kato.
For anyone who followed that route.
That was worse.
The last time Kato had fought Zanshō, the remnant had seemed like someone who solved everything by destroying whatever was in front of him.
Now he was leaving traps.
Covering retreats.
Opening routes for others.
Working inside a plan.
Kato fully deactivated Combat Mode.
He had not realized he was still maintaining it.
His heart was beating too fast.
He placed one hand against the wall.
Breathed.
The mana was still there.
He had enough.
More than enough to continue.
His body was starting to disagree.
He waited ten seconds.
Then fifteen.
The trembling in his legs eased.
Not completely.
Enough.
He pulled out the communicator.
"Kato to command."
Static.
He walked toward a shallower section.
"Kato to command. Eastern sector."
Nothing.
He continued.
The device crackled.
"…Kato…"
Tatsu's voice.
"I hear you."
"Your signal is bad."
"Yours isn't winning any awards either."
A brief silence.
Tatsu did not respond to the comment.
"Report."
Kato looked toward the corridor where the remnant had disappeared.
"The eastern route is partially open. I found several survivors and sent wounded toward evacuation. Remnants are advancing into internal sectors."
"That matches other reports."
"They're not fighting if they don't have to."
There was a pause on the other end.
Kato continued.
"Some stay behind to block. Others keep moving. They're splitting routes. They're also hitting secondary controls."
"We know."
Tatsu's response came more seriously.
"Kasumi confirmed activity in internal storage."
Kato rested his back against a wall.
"Confirmed?"
Another pause.
This time, a second voice answered.
Kana.
"They got there before she did."
Kato straightened.
"What did they take?"
"The barrier relic."
Kato stopped breathing for a second.
He knew the object.
Not in detail.
Enough.
"The dome one?"
"Yes."
"Can they use it?"
"Not immediately. It requires a considerable amount of mana."
Kato looked at the residual energy still floating through the corridor.
The entire headquarters was full of mana.
Hunters.
Remnants.
Techniques.
Fights.
He did not like the conclusion.
"I don't think that's going to slow them down much."
"Neither do I."
Kato closed his eyes for a moment.
"I also found traces of Zanshō."
Kana took barely a second to respond.
"Confirmed?"
"Chains. His mana. Survivors saw him."
"Is he with you?"
"No."
Kato looked deeper inside.
"That's the strange part."
Kana said nothing.
"Last time, he wanted to fight," Kato continued. "Here, he broke through a defensive line, left traps, and kept going. One hunter told me he had the chance to kill them and didn't."
Tatsu cut in.
"Then he has an objective too."
"Yes."
Kato ran a hand across his face.
"Kana."
"What?"
"This looks too familiar."
He did not need to explain what he meant.
The communication fell silent for several seconds.
Kana had been there.
She had seen the same war.
"I know."
Nothing more.
Kato looked at his hand.
His fingers were trembling slightly.
He closed them.
Opened them.
Tatsu spoke.
"How much mana do you have left?"
Kato almost laughed.
"That isn't the problem."
Kana answered before he could continue.
"I didn't ask about your mana."
Kato stopped looking at his hand.
"I'm fine."
"Ginjiro."
The use of his given name changed the tone slightly.
Kato rested the back of his head against the wall.
"I can still keep going."
"That isn't what I said either."
Kato remained silent.
Kana continued.
"Absorbing mana doesn't repair muscle. Or bone. Or exhaustion."
"I know."
"Then act like you know."
Kato looked down the corridor.
"You want me to come back?"
A pause.
"No."
The answer was immediate.
"I need the eastern route open."
"Then we agree."
"I need the eastern route open. I don't need you breaking yourself to get it open five minutes sooner."
Kato closed his eyes.
"Understood."
"Report if you find another strong presence."
"Yeah."
"And Kato."
"What?"
"Don't chase Zanshō if he tries to pull you off your route."
Kato opened his eyes.
"That sounded personal."
"Because I know you."
The communication cut.
Kato looked at the device.
"What trust."
He put it away.
The comment never became a smile.
He continued more slowly.
Not because he wanted to.
Because Kana was right.
The eastern sector was still full of mana.
He could feel it.
If he extended his absorption, small amounts started responding from everywhere.
Residual techniques.
Fragments released by dead enemies.
Energy still clinging to walls.
His reserves could continue growing.
The problem was underneath all of that.
His legs felt heavy.
His left shoulder was starting to stiffen.
His breathing took longer to return to normal after every activation.
He could force Combat Mode.
He should not.
That difference had taken years to learn.
Kato continued without activating it.
He found another body.
Then two dead remnants.
A collapsed wall.
A chain almost completely dissolved.
Zanshō was still ahead.
But Kato no longer tried to catch him at any cost.
He watched.
That was what Kana had asked without saying it.
And the more he watched, the worse it felt.
The attack did not have the shape of a conventional invasion.
There was no front line.
No single point of entry.
The remnants had appeared inside headquarters, separated groups, blocked communications, struck specific facilities, and left fighters behind to keep hunters occupied.
Even the most violent among them were following routes.
Kato reached another intersection.
The left corridor was full of damage.
The right was almost untouched.
The center descended.
He stopped.
Something pulled at a memory.
Not a complete image.
A voice.
Many years ago.
His father walking a few steps ahead of him.
There was blood on Hiroshi's sleeve.
It was not his.
They had spent hours chasing remnants through destroyed buildings.
Ginjiro had been too young.
Too angry.
He had wanted to chase one that had just escaped.
Hiroshi stopped him with one arm.
"Leave it."
"It's getting away!"
"Yes."
"Then we have to follow it."
His father had looked somewhere else.
Not toward the enemy.
Toward the place the enemy was moving away from.
"When they stop chasing you, start worrying about what they're chasing."
The memory disappeared.
Kato remained still in the intersection.
For years, he had thought the worst part of that war was the things he could not forget.
The screams.
The dead.
The wrong decisions.
His father.
It had taken him a long time to stop seeing them every time he closed his eyes.
Now he did not need to close them.
The corridor in front of him was enough.
The pattern of destruction.
The blocked routes.
Enemies that stopped fighting once there was no longer a reason to.
Groups advancing toward specific places.
It was all there.
It was not the same.
But it looked far too similar.
Kato tightened his grip on the handle of his weapon.
And kept walking.
For the first time since the attack had begun, he stopped thinking of it as an invasion.
It was something else.
Something he knew.
Something he had hoped never to see again.
The first war had ended years ago.
The eastern corridor was telling him otherwise.