SSS-RANK ASSASSIN: REBORN FROM HELL

Bando Takeshi was the North Saki clan's deadliest weapon. Eighteen years of perfect contracts. Zero failures. A reputation that made grown men lower their voices when they said his name. He had one rule above all others: finish the job, come home to his family. Then one night, the Tsushiguta clan — hired by the very man Takeshi had served loyally for a decade — came for his home. They killed his daughter. They killed his son. They killed his wife. And they beat Takeshi until his body gave out and left him for dead beside their corpses. But he didn't die. Not yet. He buried his family with broken hands. He trained until his body became something beyond human. He hunted the Tsushiguta clan camp by camp, kill by kill — leaving one man alive each time to point him toward the next. And when he finally found Tsutsumi Yasuo — the man who had signed his family's death warrant like a business transaction — he tore through hundreds of assassins to reach him. He didn't make it. Overwhelmed, beaten to nothing, he spent seven days being tortured before they slit his throat. Most men would have stayed dead. Takeshi walked through hell instead. In the dark realm of Meikoku, where the dead dissolve slowly into nothing, he fought his way to the Throne of Ash and struck a bargain with Tunechi — the god of death himself. Resurrection. Power. A second chance at the life that was stolen from him. The price? A fragment of Tunechi's death essence fused into his soul — and an obligation to compete in the Meichi Rite, a cosmic tournament held in Kakuriyo, the realm between the living and the dead, where the winner earns one Divine Concession. One wish that even gods must honor. Tunechi wants his wish. Takeshi wants his family's souls freed. Only one wish gets granted. Bando Takeshi claws out of his own grave with death in his chest and revenge still burning in his throat. He is not the man he was. He is colder. Darker. Harder. Every kill feeds the power inside him. Every step forward costs him something human. But Tsutsumi Yasuo is still alive. And Takeshi didn't make a deal with the god of hell just to forgive.