Three days ago.
Hasegawa Kaede's soul fragments drifted on the wind—one hun, one po—like two minnows swimming through an endless ocean.
They swam past countless mountains and rivers, past rolling wheat fields, past the ceaseless flow of traffic. Like spawning pufferfish tracing their way upstream, they finally returned to their origin.
A dark basement.
The candlelight was dim. Damp moss crept up the already-molding wallpaper. A barrier covered the entrance, blocking all outside observation. No one could detect it.
At the center of the basement sat an enormous crystal coffin, its floor lined with pure-white carnations.
Atop that sea of flowers lay a silver-haired girl. Her features were delicate, her expression serene, her pale hands folded neatly over her lower abdomen.
She lay in the crystal coffin as if merely sleeping—like a porcelain doll preserved behind glass.
Everything was peaceful. Until her blood-red eyes snapped open.
"Ahhh!!!"
The girl's agonized scream echoed through the hollow basement.
She smashed through the coffin lid, her face contorted, her fine eyebrows knotted together. The pain was so severe that she tore at her own hair, ripping out strand after strand of silver.
"Kira... Nanami, Nanami Kira!"
The agony of shattered soul fragments was something no ordinary person could comprehend. Her fingernails dug deep into her own flesh, blood welling up, her pupils trembling violently.
"Kill you, kill you, kill you, kill you..."
The next day.
The rain was fading, its last drops pattering across the streets of Kyoto, but the sun had already emerged.
Jun Handa glanced at his watch and cursed under his breath—late again.
He was an ordinary office worker. Every day he toiled and labored just to put food on the table. The endless rain and sudden wave of terrorist attacks had put everyone on edge, his boss included.
Just recently, he'd been late, and his hair-trigger boss had chewed him out viciously.
For the sake of his livelihood, he'd swallowed it. But today he absolutely could not be late.
His emotions had been wildly unstable lately. If his boss singled him out again, he didn't know what he might do.
He'd already missed his bus. Holding his briefcase over his head, he jogged down the puddle-covered streets.
As he rounded a corner, his footsteps began to slow—slower and slower—until he crumpled into a puddle, sending up a spray of blood-tinged water.
"An office worker. I hate office workers more than anything..."
Hasegawa Kaede—or rather, Kaede Hase was more fitting now.
Kaede's bare foot stomped down on Handa's skull, driving his face into the pavement. Blood seeped through the cracked stone.
"What a revolting soul. Dead on the inside."
Slender fingers plunged into Handa's brain, extracting something—or perhaps nothing at all. She licked her fingers. Saliva trailed from the corner of her mouth and dripped to the ground.
"Mm..." Her cheeks flushed faintly.
"Tch. Disgusting."
Her finger parted from her lips, trailing a thin silver thread. Kaede wrinkled her nose in distaste.
"This isn't nearly enough. I need more, more—mm... more!"
This meager soul wasn't enough to rebuild her shattered fragments, let alone sustain her.
All because of that bastard Nanami Kira!
The mere thought of his name made her sick with loathing. Someday she would drain Kira's soul dry.
Kaede Hase. Special Grade curse user. Due to her Heavenly Restriction, her body was born critically frail—she could only survive by devouring souls.
She was meticulous, and she always kept a fallback. One of her Three Hun—Shuang Ling—had remained in her true body all along, never sent out for Kira to wipe out in one sweep.
Shuang Ling, also known as the Corpse-Guarding Soul, possessed an Innate Technique that could rebuild other destroyed soul fragments. So even if every fragment riding Gakuganji's body that night had been annihilated, Kaede could still come back.
Impossible to kill for good. That was why Kaede Hase held the rank of Special Grade curse user.
Better yet, one hun and one po had escaped and made it home: Ming Hun and Feidu.
This accelerated her recovery considerably.
Kaede pressed her hand to the top of Handa's head and murmured:
"Feidu."
Handa's blank white eyes snapped into focus. Feidu seized control of the body in an instant, rolling its eyes toward Kaede.
"What?"
"Any word from Yu Po?"
Silence.
"She defected."
Yu Po—also known as Chou Fei—was the most uncontrollable of all the soul fragments. She'd never been obedient. True to form, after the Seven Po had jointly deployed the curse plague, she'd vanished without a trace.
As her name implied: desire, unchecked. No one knew what she was thinking, because no one could master their own desires.
The second day.
Kaede released her grip. Two sorcerers' corpses lay crumpled at her feet.
From the fragments of memory she'd just devoured, she knew: the entire jujutsu world had placed a bounty on her head.
She also knew that Kira had pinned the whole thing on her.
Kill you! I will kill you! You'll learn how miserable it is to provoke a Special Grade curse user!
I'll take over the bodies of everyone around you. I'll turn everyone you know into walking corpses!
She crushed a sorcerer's skull underfoot. The blood that splattered was thick and cold. She walked barefoot across the pool of blood, face dark, heading toward her hideout.
Thanks to these sorcerers, she gorged on their souls. Her shattered fragments received nourishment. The annihilated soul pieces began to regenerate.
In just this short time, one of her Three Hun—Tai Guang—was already showing signs of revival, and three of her Seven Po had recovered.
Given enough time, she would regain her full strength.
You think these sorcerers can stop me? Quite the opposite—they've become fuel for my resurrection...
She thought this as she released the barrier and descended into the basement.
On the damp, cold walls, crammed edge to edge in red ink, the same name had been scrawled over and over in tiny characters:
Nanami Kira, Nanami Kira, Nanami Kira...
The third day. Morning.
The rain had finally stopped. Sunlight returned to the earth.
Kaede lay in the crystal coffin, her long lashes trembling faintly.
At last, she opened her scarlet eyes, propped herself up, and stretched luxuriously. White petals cascaded from her body, revealing swathes of pale skin.
The Tai Guang po had revived.
With that, all Three Hun were restored.
Kaede's beautiful eyes fixed on the wall—on the name written there a thousand times over—and she sighed with an almost innocent sweetness:
"Not coming to kill me while I was wounded? That's the worst decision you'll ever make."
In a flash, that sweetness curdled into something dark. Madness flickered in her irises, her whole body trembling:
"Kill you, kill you, kill you—Nanami Kira, Nanami Kira!"
At that very moment, on the other side of the city, Nanami Kira set down his cup, switched off the radio, walked to the window, and drew back the curtains, letting the warm morning light pour in.
Watching the crowds laughing in the streets below, he thought:
Just about time.
A dark-gold arrow still lay on his desk.
He'd pinned the blame on Kaede, but the risk remained.
If the sorcerers caught her and didn't find the Arrow, they'd likely use soul-searching techniques—and Kira would be exposed.
If Kaede escaped, having a Special Grade curse user as an enemy would cost him sleep.
That left only one option: make Hasegawa Kaede vanish without a trace. A quiet, invisible death.
That way the sorcerers would never find her, never have anyone to interrogate about the Arrow's whereabouts, and he wouldn't have an enemy keeping him up at night.
Eight o'clock. Time for work.
He drew the curtains. Gray shadow fell over him.
He switched the radio back on. The host's voice rang out:
"Morning, morning, morning—Kyoto Video!"
"Welcome back! It's still your friendly neighborhood Kai Harada. Let's have another soothing number."
It was a piano piece—gentle and lovely, the notes crisp and clear, like this very morning: sky washed clean after rain, as transparent as glass.
What a gorgeous morning. Today would be a peaceful day.
Amid the gentle melody, Nanami Kira raised his left hand. Four fingers curled inward. His thumb rose high—
—and pressed down.
Three days ago, when Kaede had split into three soul fragments and fled, Killer Queen had touched two of them—Ming Hun and Tai Guang—but only one had detonated. Ming Hun had escaped unscathed.
A dud?
No. Kira had done it on purpose. He knew one more soul fragment was hiding in Kaede's true body.
And he had no idea where that body was. Even if he destroyed every fragment present that night, she could still come back.
He hadn't spent these days searching for her body. Instead, he'd let her soul find its own way home—because only one's own soul knows where one's flesh resides.
Nanami Kira had turned Ming Hun into a bomb but never detonated it. He let it go.
He waited for it to return to her body. Waited for all the soul fragments to gather in one place. Then—flip the switch—and destroy every last fragment along with the flesh.
At the peak of her joy, take everything from her.
Click—
"Kill you, kill you, kill you—Nanami Kira, Nanami Kira!"
Kaede braced herself on the coffin's edge, laughing with manic glee. A feverish flush colored her lovely face as she babbled:
"Kill you! Just the thought of killing you makes me so excited I can hardly stand it! Ha ha ha, ha, ha..."
The girl's voice echoed through the empty basement for a long, long time before fading.
Once the last reverberations died, the entire basement fell silent.
A terrible silence.
The crystal coffin was still pristine and beautiful. The carnation petals were still pure and immaculate.
As if nothing had happened at all. Everything serene and lovely.
A beautiful hand lay quietly among the flowers—slender, graceful, resting in the crystal coffin like a princess waiting for a prince's kiss.
Sunlight fell upon it. So still. So beautiful.
Another dusk.
The basement door opened. Nanami Kira walked in, picked up the hand resting among the flowers, and stroked it gently, feeling a peace he hadn't known in a long while.
He placed the hand carefully into his briefcase, laying it alongside the Arrow.
A glance at his watch: five o'clock. He could leave early today.
From here, a thirty-minute bus ride to the bullet-train station. Dinner at a nearby restaurant—caviar—one hour. Then the bullet train back to Tokyo, home before eight. A glass of warm milk, twenty minutes of stretching, then a full eight hours of sleep.
That was today's plan.
He stepped out of the basement and walked to the bus stop. The dusk draped its silhouette over him. Plenty of people were already waiting—dressed much like Kira, briefcases in hand, pressed suits on their backs. Office workers heading home.
For them, it had been an ordinary day. For Nanami Kira, it had been an ordinary day too.
He loved this ordinariness. It made him feel at ease.
No overtime meant nothing had gone wrong. Kira hated mistakes. Every office worker hated mistakes.
So clocking out at five was a kind of happiness—proof that the day had passed without error. People so often overlooked that small, precious happiness.
Kira boarded the bus and joined the homeward tide. The setting sun blazed across them all, so bright it was impossible to tell one person from another.
His business trip was over.
Time to go home.
★ End of Volume 1 ★
★ Volume 2: Heavenly Restriction ★