Hiro blacked out for a moment.
How strong is this guy?
He severed Matsamaru and nearly got me—all in one move? Just how fast was it? What about Akira and Shino…?
Reality hit harder now. Hiro's mind cleared as he stared at the man before him—finally recognizing him for what he truly was.
"I might've exchanged words with him like a fool… but I'm not even close to his level."
Hinami turned his cold gaze toward them both.
"There are more of you?.... I see, Instant abilities kills faster than you predict..."
"Eh... In-insta-stan-nt?".
Hiro's breath caught.
"In... instant abilities? You don't mean—"
HE INSTANTLY SENT OUT A KILL COMMAND TO ALL OUR POSITIONS BEFORE HE EVEN ARRIVED?!
Hinami didn't answer directly. Instead, he spoke flatly, like reciting facts.
"You kids are trained well. You warded off Ejin and his team. Killed Tanzegtsu. And somehow didn't die from death grave. I must say, I'm impressed."
Matsamaru sat slumped on the floor, shaking, blood trailing behind him. His eyes widened at a picture that he wasn't even seeing, his breath shaking as if he was losing his life already.
Hiro looked at him—and for a second, even he was shaken.
"Matsamaru... ended up like this?"
He faced Hanami, his face deadly serious and his voice was bold.
"What exactly is your objective?..."
"Uh,". Hinami not expecting the question.
"..... Why leave an eternal scar on them?..... You choose to torment ninjas just doing their jobs… all because of a ninja you know isn't even here…"
Hinami slowly raised one hand to the back of his neck, rubbing it in a calm, almost absent gesture. His pale face tilted, eyes half-lidded as though closing to a memory.
"My objective?" he murmured, voice low but echoing with weight. "As the leader of Nimo… it's simple. Protect the organization. Discipline the wrong."
He paused.
"Someone like me shouldn't be here. We were supposed to die with our eyes closed—quietly, in the palace. But… ambition," he said, almost with a tinge of disgust, "it dragged me out."
His eyes flickered open with cold gesture.
"Haru Iminaqo... is my ambition."
He paused again, the wind blowing through their midst.
"Because of him, I wasn't executed fifteen years ago. No—he didn't save me. But his value gave me value. His importance resurrected me."
He looked at the them, battered, broken, stunned.
he said, voice soft, deadly.
"He's my god."
Hiro's face frowned, his teeth clenched together.
"…god? Haru? Don't give me that! Such a lame excuse to kill!" he roared out of rage and pity for his partner, his face consumed by anger.
One of Hinami's men, consumed by rage as well, lunged forward.
"DON'T BELITTLE OUR LORD, BASTARD!!"
But before impact, before breath, before thought—
Time stopped and Everything froze.
The wind halted mid-whistle. Dust hung motionless in the air. The world itself held its breath.
Everyone and everything paused.
All forms of existence... In that area,
Except Hiro.
Hinami slowly turned toward the frozen attacker. His voice echoed in the stillness, calm and weightless.
"Not everyone can do this," he said. "But I'll allow you to witness it—just this once."
He walked towards Hiro slowly, unfazed by the suspended world.
"Only those faster than time itself… can notice what just happened."
He glanced back at Hiro, detached but clear.
"My strength… wasn't mine alone.
It became absolute—because of Haru-sama."
"No— not literally, but in a way that would make me worship that name."
" Don't move. If you do, your body will fracture—your honeki can't handle the speed, your pulse is at the normal rate because it believes it still the same with your environment, if the body feels no form of heat nor cold, no sweat secreted, no movement of the throat. Your pulse will race beyond control and tear you apart."
He turned to the demon that wanted to attack Hiro, and in an instant he scattered his body part into chunks, blood wetting Hiro's face.
Hiro was shaken to his core as time resumed. Everyone's eyes locked on the shattered demon, unaware of what unfolded. Matsamaru was dumbfounded completely, his mouth completely widened but no words were coming out. Hiro just stood there, his body soaked by blood completely
Suddenly, a chilling voice pierced the silence:
"I sense incoming Honeki, two kids your age are approaching... It Seems they survived the instant ability."
"No, this is bad— damn it!"
Hiro knew the danger all too well. Akira and Shino were dead meats, especially with one of them being Giyu.
"RUNN!! AKIRA, SHINO!!"
"RUUUN.... RU... N.."
Hinami had twisted his voice—rendering him mute, only groans escaping his lips. No matter how much he tried to call.. It was only a thought that was screaming.
Matsamaru turned to him, panic rising.
"Hiro, what's wrong?! Speak to me! Hiro!!"
Meanwhile, Shino and Akira neared the shelter, eyes catching the severed toes and blood splattered across the ground.
They wandered inside the shelter and there were suspecting something had happened..
Shocked, they heard Matsamaru's desperate calls for Hiro, they came out of the shelter and sprinted toward the scene.
Arriving at the scene, Shino and Akira froze.
What they saw wasn't a battlefield but devastation.
Hiro and Matsamaru lay on the ground, torn, bloodied, Hiro's eyes were hollow, unable to speak. Matsamaru barely moved, his breath shallow and erratic.
Shino's eyes widened, one of them nearly sealed shut with blood. Akira, untouched physically, still trembled.
Standing calmly amidst the wreckage… was Hinami.
He didn't turn to greet them. He simply asked, voice firm and fearless:
"Which one of you is Giyu… or Haru?"
The silence was thick. Akira's voice cracked as he answered, "who are you?...
The question came again, " Which one of you is Haru Iminaqo?"
You don't… know who Haru is?". Akira questioned again.
Hinami turned his eyes lazily, disinterested.
"So, none of you, I see. I don't sense a godly Honeki either. One of you four… is Giyu. No, you two who just arrived. They are likely to be Giyu."
Matsamaru's heart dropped.
He instantly knew... just by being there.
He remembered what Hiro said on how Haru found out days ago. It wasn't a theory anymore. It was fact.
But Matsamaru was fighting it. On his crouch, he placed his hands on the muddy floor.
"No! They can't be Giyu! You don't know them like I do! They're my friends… You ....don't know anything about them!"
His voice echoed—half fear, half denial.
Hiro looked at Matsamaru with pity in his eyes. Akira and Shino exchanged surprised glances, shocked by the words from their supposed mature teammate.
Hinami's pale, detached face remained unchanged as he said,
"I see… You still refuse to deny your friendship with them despite knowing too well..."
Matsamaru grinned his teeth in fear and anger, his face was facing the ground.
His voice dropped cold and final
"DIE.... You can just die if you don't believe.", he faced him with tears in his eyes.
Hinami breathed in heavily for a few seconds and then he let out his breath by commanding Matsamaru.
"Die"
Matsamaru's eyes widened in shock before he collapsed, dead with his eyes wide open.
For a few seconds there was silence, a shock that couldn't be expressed with a single word, their bodies couldn't react to such quick death.
Without hesitation, Hinami commanded again,
"Live."
Matsamaru suddenly sprang back to life, gasping for air. He turned to Hiro, trembling,
"Eh? I'm still here?... Wh—what? What time is this?....Has Edo fallen?...How many years have passed?"
Hinami cut in,
"Oi. You only died for three seconds, yet you spent over a trillion years in the afterlife. You couldn't pass on because you're bound by me, You died over a billion times there and gained immortality and then I brought you back because I willed it so. That's how one of those two feels right now, dead on the outside, but alive inside."
Matsamaru shuddered, clearly traumatized.
"This man is bad news... He must exceed S-rank, stronger than any hekai in the village. Only luck could save us now."
Hinami then closed his eyes and breath heavily again. His pallor face was giving off the death aura around them..
"If none of you is neither Haru, nor Giyu, Apologies, but I must end this here... for all of you."