"No, you guys go. I'll catch up," Ren replied, flashing a brief, reassuring smirk to cut the tension. "Give me twenty minutes to sweep the perimeter and force the managers indoors. Just don't exorcise all the ugly ones before I get there."
Nanami considered the logic for a fraction of a second before giving a sharp nod. "Very well. Secure the perimeter, then rendezvous with us inside. Do not be late."
Ren watched the black veil ripple as Nanami, Ino, and Megumi stepped through. The relaxed smirk dropped from his face. He turned and sprinted down the Dogenzaka alleyway, his boots making zero sound on the asphalt.
He scanned the ambient cursed energy in the district. Two distinct signatures moved through the shadows near the main intersection.
One signature was erratic and malicious—Haruta Shigemo.
The second signature hovered a block away, feeling like a dormant, suffocating glacier. Uraume.
Ren checked his System. His residual cursed energy was still draining. He hadn't hit absolute zero yet. Engaging Uraume right now was guaranteed suicide.
A block over, Ijichi stood isolated by his black sedan, typing on his illuminated tablet.
From the opposite end of the street, Haruta skipped out of an alley. He spotted Ijichi's back and accelerated.
Ren crossed the street in a fraction of a second. He kept Nightfall sheathed to avoid a flare of energy. He clamped his hand over Ijichi's mouth and yanked the manager backward into the deep shadows of a parking garage.
Haruta's hand-sword sliced through empty air.
The blonde curse user blinked, looking around the empty street. "Huh? Where'd the suit go?" Haruta whined, kicking a tire. After a moment of pouting, he skipped away, following the distant, icy pull of his companion.
In the darkness of the garage, Ijichi thrashed until Ren pinned him to the concrete wall by his shoulders.
"Quiet," Ren whispered, his eyes locked on the street until Haruta's signature faded.
"Ren?" Ijichi gasped, his knees buckling slightly as the adrenaline spiked. "What—what was that?"
"Your executioner," Ren stated flatly, releasing his grip. "They have hunting dogs sweeping the perimeter. Their goal is to slaughter every auxiliary manager in Shibuya to blind the sorcerers inside."
Ren tapped the glowing screen of Ijichi's tablet. "Issue a mass directive right now."
Immediate Evacuation: Order every manager around the perimeter to abandon their posts immediately.
Relocation: Pull back and establish a new command center indoors, at least two miles away.
Radio Silence: Stay off the open streets and stick to highly populated civilian areas.
"But... we have standing orders," Ijichi stammered.
"Protocol is dead, Ijichi," Ren said, his voice dropping cold. "If you stay out here, you die. If the managers die, Nanami, Megumi and others have zero outside support. Send the fallback order."
Ijichi swallowed hard. His fingers flew across the tablet.
"Done. The retreat order is out," Ijichi breathed.
Ren grabbed Ijichi by the collar and hauled him out the back exit, blurring through the dark backstreets. He put a solid mile between them and the Dogenzaka perimeter before shoving the manager through the service doors of an empty office building.
"Stay here. Lock it down," Ren ordered, stepping backward. "I'm going after Kugisaki."
Ijichi sank to the concrete, clutching his tablet and gasping for air. He didn't ask questions. He just gave a tight, rapid nod.
Ren pulled the heavy steel door shut. The deadbolt engaged with a loud click.
Hitting the street at a dead sprint, he cleared the blocks between the safehouse and the Mark City entrance in record time, his eyes locked on the towering wall of the veil.
"Without Maki to run vanguard, Kugisaki's a dead woman," he muttered, his breath pluming in the chill air. Naobito wouldn't protect her. Nitta couldn't. With Maki being stuck in a Hokkaido blizzard, Ren had to fill the gap.
The edge of the curtain loomed. At the extreme corner of his vision, the translucent gold timer ticked down its final seconds.
0:04... 0:03...
Ren didn't brace himself. He hit the barrier at a full sprint.
The heavy, ink-like darkness washed over him. The ambient noise of the outside city severed instantly, replaced by the suffocating, oppressive silence of the trapped district.
0:02... 0:01...
Ren's boots slammed onto the station plaza asphalt.
0:00.
[ SYSTEM ALERT ]
Cursed Energy: 0
Condition Met.
Heavenly Restriction (Complete): Unlocked.
Ren stumbled, his momentum completely breaking. He caught himself, planting a hand on the hood of an abandoned taxi.
The metal crumpled like wet paper under his palm.
Ren froze. The last, lingering spark of cursed energy inside his body had just vanished, completely hollowed out by the System. But instead of feeling empty, the world around him violently snapped into focus.
The shift was completely overwhelming. He could suddenly hear the erratic, panicked heartbeats of civilians hiding inside a department store three blocks away. He could feel the minute shifts in air pressure and temperature density. The pavement beneath his boots no longer felt like solid ground—it felt brittle.
Fifty meters away, the glass front of a department store shattered outward.
Three grotesque, mismatched shapes were backing a group of office workers into a corner. Their limbs were stretched at unnatural angles, their faces melted, agonizing grins.
Transfigured humans.
One of the monsters lunged toward a crying woman.
The concrete cratered beneath Ren's boots as he closed the distance in a fraction of a second.
His hand snapped to his waist. Nightfall cleared its scabbard. The raw kinetic force of his swing sheared through the air, creating a localized shockwave that blew out the remaining window frames.
The monster's upper half slid off its waist and hit the floor with a wet thud.
The other two pivoted, letting out gurgling shrieks.
Ren stepped into their guard. To his newly tuned perception, they were moving through wet cement. He severed the second one's head with a casual flick of his wrist, pivoted, and drove the pitch-black katana straight through the third one's chest, pinning it to a concrete pillar.
The creature thrashed for a split second before going limp.
Ren flicked the blood off Nightfall and sheathed it. The terrified civilians huddled on the floor hadn't even registered his movements.
Before he could turn away, pale blue panels shattered into his vision.
[ SYSTEM ALERT ]
[ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: Merciful Release ]
Condition: Grant swift cessation to an irreversibly transfigured human soul.
Classification: Ex-Human / Aberration.
Reward: +1,500 SP
Note: Target does not contribute to standard Cursed Spirit eradication milestones.
[ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: The Butterfly Effect (Minor Anchor) ]
Condition: Prevented the predetermined assassination attempt of a key logistical asset (Kiyotaka Ijichi).
Impact: Auxiliary network preserved. Tactical blackout averted.
Reward: +5,000 SP
Note: The enemy's perimeter sweep has failed. The board shifts in Tokyo's favor.
Ren dismissed the screens with a sharp swipe of his hand.
He looked deeper into the station, feeling the dense malice pooling in the subterranean levels.