Against the night sky set ablaze by Tendou Kisara's fires of vengeance, their arrival felt less like an intrusion and more like the final act of a grand opera finally falling into place.
As if the stage — already strewn with wreckage — had simply been waiting for these last performers to step into the light and take their bow.
Hiruko Kagetane was in no hurry to speak. He came to a stop first.
There, in the heat-warped air shimmering above the ruins, he reached up and slowly removed the iconic black top hat from his head.
The motion was unhurried. Elegant. Carrying with it the faint, irresistible air of old aristocracy.
And then.
Beneath Tendou Kisara's wary gaze. Beneath the stunned, horrified stare of Satomi Rentarou not far away.
This man — whose hands were stained with countless lives, whose very name had become a synonym for madness and villainy in this world — pressed his left hand to his chest. He bent at the waist. And toward the black-haired God standing at the center of the ruins, he executed a flawless, impeccable bow.
"How..."
"How magnificent a sight this is."
Hiruko Kagetane straightened. The white mask with its unsettling painted grin caught the firelight and gleamed with a cold, eerie luster. His voice trembled — just barely — with something close to rapture.
The clouded eyes behind that mask were locked onto Haimer. Unblinking. Devouring.
"I heard it," he said. "Just now."
Hiruko Kagetane spread both arms wide — as if embracing the sea of fire surrounding them, or perhaps saluting some invisible conductor who had just brought the orchestra to its thunderous crescendo.
"That roar."
"Hundreds of millions of roars."
"Those Gastrea — those primitive, single-celled abominations that have never known anything beyond eating and breeding —"
"They learned reverence."
"They learned to make a pilgrimage."
"This is nothing short of — a miracle."
At that, Hiruko Kagetane snapped his head around. The grinning face painted on his mask pointed directly at Haimer.
"No."
"More precisely — this is your masterpiece, isn't it?"
"Your Majesty... the Demon King whose name I do not yet know?"
Demon King.
It was the title Hiruko Kagetane had settled upon — the only one that felt adequate for the man standing before him.
A being who could bring the apex predators of this world to their knees. A being who could rewrite the laws of this planet on a whim.
If not a Demon King, then what?
And in this world — already rotted through with hypocrisy and hollow order — what could possibly excite him more than the arrival of a true Demon King?
"You seem very pleased," Haimer observed.
He studied the man capering before him like a clown, and felt not the slightest flicker of interest in the performance.
"Of course I am!"
"Of course!"
Hiruko Kagetane let out a low, resonant laugh — one that seemed to rumble up from somewhere deep in his chest.
"This world is insufferably dull."
"Crammed full of counterfeit justice. Populated by incompetent rulers. And those sheep — those pathetically weak creatures who write the rules specifically to protect themselves from anything stronger."
"It deserves to be destroyed."
"Or perhaps — reborn."
"And you..."
Hiruko Kagetane stepped forward, his voice rising to a sharp, electric pitch.
"You are the key that opens the door to a new age!"
"The eye of the storm that will turn this stagnant, dead-water world utterly upside down!"
"I have waited for this day!"
"I have waited for the moment when absolute power descends and grinds every last false order to powder beneath its heel!"
"And now — I have finally seen it with my own eyes!"
Mad.
Completely, utterly mad.
That was the unanimous verdict of every person present — everyone except Haimer.
At a moment when the entire world was gripped by fear and despair at the appearance of the Divine Eye.
This man alone.
Was laughing. Was celebrating. Was cheering for the catastrophe bearing down on them all.
That was Hiruko Kagetane.
A failed product of the original 「New Humanity Creation Plan.」 A wretched creature whose soul had been twisted beyond repair by war and surgical modification. And a radical Darwinist who believed in the jungle law of predator and prey with the fervor of a true believer.
In his view, destruction was never an ending. It was a filter.
Only through the baptism of annihilation could the truly strong emerge from the ashes.
"Are you finished?" Haimer asked, his voice flat.
He cut through Hiruko's long soliloquy without ceremony. Without the slightest reaction to the flattery.
Gods had seen far too many fanatics over the long ages.
Some had offered entire cities as sacrifices in exchange for power. Some had set themselves alight on altars just to catch a God's passing glance.
To a God, the praise of mortals and their curses were no different in substance.
Both were nothing but noise drifting past on the wind.
"I am finished."
"In that case," Haimer said evenly, "is there something you wish to ask of me, Demon King?"
Hiruko Kagetane was no fool. He read the room immediately, reining in his theatrical madness and sliding back into the mask of the perfectly composed gentleman.
"Since you put it that way — would you be willing to entrust that child to me?"
Haimer considered for a moment. He saw no reason to dance around it.
His gaze passed over Hiruko Kagetane entirely and settled on the small, silent figure standing behind him.
— Hiruko Kohina.
"...?"
The air went still for a single, suspended beat.
The expression behind Hiruko Kagetane's mask froze.
He turned his head instinctively, glancing back at his daughter where she lurked behind him.
That small girl with the short blue hair and eyes that carried a feral, knife-sharp edge.
"Kohina?"
For the first time, something like genuine uncertainty crept into Hiruko Kagetane's voice.
"I am deeply flattered, however..."
"Might I ask your reason?"
"I would argue that in terms of combat power and practical utility, I far surpass this child who has yet to reach her full potential."
"If you require a reliable blade to help you cleanse this world's filth..."
"Would I not be the superior choice?"
This was not arrogance. Not empty boasting.
As a former special forces operative who had since undergone extensive mechanical augmentation — and who possessed the 「Repulsion Field」 capable of deflecting any incoming attack — Hiruko Kagetane was, without question, one of the most formidable combat forces currently walking this world.
Compared to Kohina, who fought on pure instinct alone.
He had vastly greater experience. Sharper tactical cunning. A far more seasoned mind.
And yet.
"No."
Haimer shook his head.
"Why not?"
Hiruko Kagetane pressed, with no trace of anger — only clean, unadorned curiosity.
"Because you are too dirty."
It was an answer that no one present had seen coming.
"Dirty?"
Hiruko Kagetane glanced down at his own immaculately maintained tailcoat.
"I am not referring to your clothes," Haimer said.
"I am referring to your soul."
Haimer pressed two fingers to his own temple.
"This part of you is broken."
"You have been soaking in the malice of this world for far too long."
"From the 「New Humanity Creation Plan」 onward. To the abandonment. To the self-imposed exile that followed."
"The hatred. The madness. The warped philosophy. The contempt for every other living thing..."
"These things have plastered themselves across your soul like tar."
"You are already set."
"Like a piece of scrap iron that has already been smelted into a deformed shape — no amount of forging will ever make it a good blade again."
"If I were to bring you to that world," Haimer continued, "the most you could ever be is a stick for stirring up filth."
"A... stirring stick."
Something twitched inside Hiruko Kagetane's chest.
That metaphor was...
So vulgarly, irrefutably accurate.
"But that child is different from you."
Haimer's gaze shifted to Hiruko Kohina.
The small girl who stood there gripping her twin short swords, baring her teeth at him like a cornered wild animal.
"She is still a blank page."
"Though you have scrawled some rather chaotic colors across it. Though you have filled her head with a warped philosophy of killing."
"But at her core."
"She remains pure."
"When she swings a blade, it is instinct. It is the desire to protect you. Or simply the desire to obey you."
"Not like you — swinging a blade to validate some incoherent philosophy, or to satisfy a sick, insatiable hunger for destruction."
"That purity."
"Is precisely the 'aptitude' I require."
"A member of my Familia does not need to possess any particularly complex ideology. They do not need to have a grand, sweeping worldview."
"They only need to be pure."
"Purely driven to grow stronger. Purely driven to survive. Purely driven to protect something precious."
"That is the raw, uncut gemstone with infinite potential."
"Whereas you..."
"Are merely a weathered old rock that has long since crumbled past saving."
The words fell.
Complete silence swallowed the courtyard.
Those words had been utterly without mercy.
They were, in essence, a total repudiation of everything Hiruko Kagetane had lived for in the second half of his life.
If anyone else had dared say something like that.
Hiruko Kagetane would have put a bullet through their skull without hesitation, then strung the corpse up on the nearest lamppost to air-dry.
But now.
Standing before Haimer.
Standing before this Demon King who commanded absolute, incontestable power.
Hiruko Kagetane was silent for a long moment.
Then.
"Ha ha..."
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!"
He laughed again.
Laughing so hard his whole body rocked forward and back. Laughing hard enough that tears pressed at the edges of his mask.
"A weathered rock... scrap iron... a stirring stick..."
"Magnificent!"
"What a truly magnificent assessment!"
"In ten years, people have called me madman. Demon. Traitor."
"But this is the first time anyone has ever said..."
"That I am too dirty. That I have forfeited my right to be chosen."
Hiruko Kagetane raised one hand and wiped at the crack along the eye socket of his mask.
No anger.
Instead, there was something underneath the laughter — a strange, quiet relief. The relief of a man whose truest self has finally been seen clearly.
Ah. Yes.
He had broken long ago.
From the moment ten years ago when he had lain on that cold surgical table and watched his own organs be excavated one by one, replaced with pieces of frozen metal.
The Hiruko Kagetane who had been human — he had died on that table.
What had survived.
Was nothing more than a revenant driven by hatred and madness.
A revenant who had been willing to become a monster — to become the very thing this world despised — for the sake of his revenge against the world that had stripped him of everything.
He had no future.
He deserved no future.
His end had always been predestined — to go down in a blaze of magnificent annihilation, taking the world with him.
But Kohina...
Hiruko Kagetane turned around. He looked down.
At the daughter who had always shadowed him so closely. The one who could only mimic his speech, who could only follow his orders.
This child.
Carried within her a Mantis Factor even stronger than his own.
Carried a terrifying combat talent that, even at this age, could crush anyone who came before her.
If she continued to follow him.
There was only one ending waiting for her.
She would become just as mad as he was. And then she would be put down in some fight like a dog being slaughtered, her body left to rot in the open.
That was the tragic ending that belonged to the old humanity.
But if she were to follow this man instead...
If she were to follow this wrathful deity who could command every Gastrea on the planet. Whose single word could determine the life or death of nations...
"Father?"
As if sensing the shift in her father's emotions.
Kohina looked up. Those large, crimson eyes flickered with unease.
"Are you going to... give Kohina away?"
"Kohina doesn't want that."
"Kohina wants to stay with Father."
"Kohina can kill him."
"Just give the order, Father..."
This child.
Still talking about killing, even now.
He really had... raised her wrong.
"Silence! Kohina!"
Before Haimer could speak, Hiruko Kagetane's voice cracked out like a whip — sharper, more severe than she had ever heard it.
"You will not be insolent!"
"The one standing before you is the true sovereign of this world — the supreme existence capable of grinding into dust every rotten order we have ever despised!"
Scolded by her father, Kohina hunched her shoulders and shrank back. Reluctant, but obedient — she let her swords hang loose at her sides. Though her eyes never stopped watching Haimer with fierce, wary suspicion, and a low, almost inaudible whine was building in the back of her throat.
Then.
Hiruko Kagetane slowly crouched down.
He brought himself level with Kohina's eyes.
And it was the first time — truly the first time — he had ever spoken to this child in a tone this gentle. In a tone that actually sounded like a father.
"Listen to me."
"Look at that man."
Hiruko Kagetane pointed toward Haimer.
"He is stronger than Father."
"Much stronger."
"You have always wanted to cut something stronger, haven't you? You have always thought this world was too fragile — that it broke before you'd even properly tried, haven't you?"
"Follow him."
"You will see a world far wider than anything I could show you."
"You will encounter prey truly worth hunting."
"And perhaps..."
"You will even see what a true hell looks like."
"That is a landscape Father could never take you to. Not in a thousand years."
The words were clearly beyond the grasp of Kohina's still-undeveloped mind.
She only shook her head, instinctively.
Her small hands seized the hem of Hiruko Kagetane's tailcoat and held tight.
"No..."
"Kohina only wants Father..."
"Obey me."
Hiruko Kagetane's voice went stern again.
He took hold of Kohina's hand and, one by one, pried her small fingers loose from his coat.
"This is an order."
"My final order."
"And this is not abandonment."
"This is release."
The hand in its white glove moved gently across the top of his daughter's head.
"The only thing Father can teach you is how to struggle in this rotting mire."
"But this man..."
Hiruko Kagetane raised his eyes to Haimer. Something blazed in them — not madness this time, but a kind of fierce, unambiguous faith.
"He can take you to the clouds."
"To a world that is truly new."
"Go."
"Go to his side."
"Become his blade."
"Go and witness the landscapes Father will never reach."
"For a monster like us — this is the most perfect ending imaginable."
With that said.
Hiruko Kagetane rose to his feet. Without a moment's hesitation, he gave Kohina a single, firm push — sending her stumbling toward Haimer.
The motion was decisive. Not a single trace of reluctance in it.
Because he was a madman.
A madman who lived purely for a twisted ideal.
In his reckoning, letting Kohina walk beside an existence on Haimer's level was worth infinitely more than dragging her along through Tokyo Area's doomed game of cat and mouse — a city already hurtling toward its own annihilation.
As for the bonds of family?
Before the grand art of destruction, such things were nothing but a footnote. A minor decoration.
Kohina stumbled two steps forward and came to a halt in front of Haimer.
She turned to look back at her father.
Then at Haimer.
Her small face was written over entirely with confusion and distress. The twin swords that had never left her hands had, at some point, slipped from her grip and fallen to the ground.
Haimer watched this unfold. He made no immediate move to receive Kohina — instead, he turned his gaze back to Hiruko Kagetane.
"..."
For his part, Hiruko Kagetane had also stopped looking at the helpless, lost child in front of him.
He turned back to face Haimer.
And gave one final bow.
"I entrust Kohina to you."
"Your Majesty, the Demon King."
"I am very curious to see what color you will paint that blank page."
____
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