Above Asakusa, the sky had become a battlefield.
Flames stained the dark in violent orange, smoke rolling in thick waves above the district as the festival streets below devolved into war. The laughter from earlier had long since died. In its place came the sounds of collapsing wood, battle cries, and the desperate crackle of fire consuming everything it touched.
And above it all—
A demon waited.
Shinmon Hibachi landed hard atop a roof ridge, his sandals grinding broken tile beneath his feet. Across from him, towering over the ruined structure like a living calamity, stood the Demon Infernal.
It was massive.
Horned.
Its body looked as though it had been forged from blackened iron and hatred, cracks in its flesh glowing with bright molten flame. Every breath it took made the air distort. Every shift of its frame made the rooftop groan.
Hibachi stared at it.
Then grinned.
"Oh, you're a damn good one."
The Demon Infernal answered with a roar that shook the surrounding buildings.
Hibachi's grin widened.
The old monster of Asakusa rolled his shoulders once, flames beginning to dance along his arms.
Then he shot forward.
The rooftop exploded under his first step.
He crossed the distance in an instant, right hand igniting into a blazing hand-sword as he swung for the Demon Infernal's torso.
The Demon moved too.
Fast.
Far too fast for something that large.
A clawed arm came down to intercept. Hibachi's strike crashed into it with a deafening burst of sparks and fire, the impact blasting apart half the roof beneath them.
Both were thrown back.
Both landed cleanly.
Hibachi's eyes sharpened.
'It's not just big.'
The Demon Infernal lunged.
Its fist came straight down like a meteor.
Hibachi jumped aside a split second before impact, the roof beneath him cratering into a shower of shattered tile and timber. He twisted in midair, flames surging from his feet and back as he kicked off the air itself and drove a blazing chop toward the Demon's neck.
The strike landed.
A long cut of fire tore across the Demon's shoulder and throat.
But not deep enough.
The Demon Infernal grabbed for him immediately, its burning hand closing with monstrous speed. Hibachi caught the wrist with both hands, muscles tensing as heat roared between them.
For a moment—
Man and monster held each other still.
Then the Demon Infernal pushed.
Hibachi's sandals slid across broken roof tile, furrows carving behind his heels.
Its raw strength was absurd.
He laughed.
Actually laughed.
"That's more like it!"
He twisted violently, redirected the arm with a burst of explosive flame, and used the opening to drive his knee into the Demon Infernal's ribs. The impact boomed through the rooftop.
The Demon answered with a headbutt.
Hibachi barely got his forearm up in time.
The blow sent him flying across three rooftops, crashing through one and skidding over another before he dug in and stopped, smoke curling from his blocking arm.
He looked down at it.
Bruised and burning.
He smiled again.
"High difficulty, huh?"
Then he vanished in another burst of fire.
---
Elsewhere in Asakusa, the Giant Infernal roared through the eastern district.
It was grotesque up close.
A towering fusion of flame, corpse matter, and dead ash, stitched together by Ritsu's Necro Pyro into something that should never have existed. Its swollen limbs dragged against the street, its mouth opening in a warped shriek as it tore through buildings with massive, clumsy swings.
Konro met it head-on.
He launched himself upward and slashed across its upper body with a burning strike, carving a bright line through its ash-black flesh. The giant staggered, then swung a house-sized arm toward him.
Konro spun away and landed atop a collapsed storefront.
'Tough,' he thought.
Its body was sluggish compared to the Demon Infernal above, but its sheer size and the density of corpse matter composing it made it a disaster for the narrow Asakusa streets. One wrong move and entire rows of homes would go with it.
The giant raised both arms and slammed downward.
Konro thrust out a hand.
A burst of flame met the impact, diverting part of the shockwave upward rather than outward. The street still shattered, but the nearby civilians got clear.
Three Asakusa fire soldiers rushed in from the rear.
"Vice-chief Konro!"
Konro did not turn. "Why are you here?"
"To help."
Another of them grinned despite the danger. "You think we'd leave you to have all the fun?"
The giant roared again and began to lurch forward.
Konro exhaled once through his nose.
"Fine."
He pointed sharply.
"You two, flank left and draw its attention. You get the civilians another street over. Keep them moving and don't let them freeze up."
"Right!"
The fire soldiers moved instantly.
That was Asakusa.
Rough, loud, and reckless.
But when orders came in battle, they moved.
Two of them split off and began harrying the giant with coordinated bursts of flame and hooked weapons, darting in and out just enough to make it turn. The third started dragging shouting civilians clear of the avenue.
Konro watched the giant pivot.
Then attacked from below.
His hand-sword style came up in a vicious rising arc, flames exploding along the giant's midsection and forcing it backward. One of the Asakusa men followed with a spear-thrust toward its knee joint. Another sent a burst of flame into its exposed side.
The giant howled and retaliated with a sweeping backhand.
One soldier barely ducked under it.
Another was clipped and thrown through a fence.
Konro's eyes hardened.
He leapt.
Caught the giant's descending wrist.
And blasted upward with enough force to force the limb off course.
The strike intended for the street instead tore the roof from an already-burning house.
Konro clicked his tongue.
"Ugly bastard."
The giant's head turned toward him fully now.
Good.
He wanted its focus.
Because the second its attention drifted to the civilians again, people would die.
Near the central square, Benimaru and Kidan had just finished helping clear another lane when the temperature shifted.
It was sudden.
Like a furnace door opening in the middle of the night.
Kidan stopped first.
Benimaru saw it instantly.
A figure was walking toward them through the smoke.
Massive.
Broad-shouldered and blindfolded.
He wore white.
Kidan's eyes narrowed. "Who is that?"
Benimaru didn't answer.
Because the stranger's presence alone made it obvious.
He was dangerous.
Charon came to a stop in the middle of the ruined street.
Behind him, sparks drifted through the night. Ahead of him stood the two brothers, one black-haired and burning with controlled menace, the other white-haired with marked eyes and a strange, bright heat around him.
For a few seconds, no one moved.
Charon tilted his head slightly.
Then, in a flat voice, he asked, "Which one is Kidan?"
Benimaru immediately stepped in front of his brother.
Kidan's brows drew together.
Benimaru spoke first.
"Who are you?"
Charon did not answer that question.
Instead, he repeated, just as bluntly, "Which one is Kidan?"
His tone was not loud.
He sounded like a man asking for the location of a package.
Benimaru's flames began to rise.
Kidan stared from behind him, unease curling in his chest.
'He came for me?'
Charon turned his face slightly toward Benimaru.
"You're the older brother."
Benimaru's eyes narrowed further. "And?"
Charon's expression did not change.
"You're in the way."
Kidan felt a chill go through him despite the heat.
There was no contempt in Charon's voice.
Benimaru took one step forward.
"No one's taking my brother."
Charon was quiet for a beat.
Then he sighed very faintly, like this had become inconvenient.
"I asked a question."
Benimaru's answer came with rising fire around his arms.
"And I gave you an answer."
Kidan looked between them, pulse quickening. This man didn't posture. Didn't rant. Didn't even seem interested in proving anything.
That made him feel worse than a loud enemy would have.
Charon finally shifted his attention past Benimaru and toward Kidan.
"There you are."
Benimaru moved instantly—
Above them, from another rooftop, Haumea's voice drifted lightly through the smoke.
"Try not to break him, Charon."
Kidan looked up and saw her silhouette.
Then another, thinner one nearby.
His stomach tightened.
Benimaru's face hardened. "There's more of them."
Charon answered without looking up, "Of course there are."
Then, after a pause, he added in that same blunt tone, "Do you want to make this difficult?"
Benimaru actually barked a humorless laugh.
"It already is."
Back above the rooftops, the fight between Hibachi and the Demon Infernal escalated.
Hibachi crashed through a smoking roof beam and landed in a crouch. The Demon Infernal came down after him immediately, its horned silhouette bursting through the flames like judgment itself.
Hibachi crossed both arms and caught its punch head-on.
The impact shattered the building beneath them.
Both dropped through the floor.
Then through another.
Then burst out the side of the collapsing house in a storm of timber, flame, and tile.
Hibachi hit the ground running.
The Demon followed.
They collided again in the street, shockwaves ripping outward and blowing fire from windows all along the block.
Hibachi drove fast hand-sword strikes into the Demon's side and chest, each one carrying enough firepower to obliterate fodder Infernals instantly.
The Demon Infernal took them.
Then grabbed him by the throat.
Hibachi's eyes widened—
Only slightly.
The Demon slammed him into the ground hard enough to cave the street in.
Stone cracked.
Flame exploded upward.
For a moment, the Demon leaned down, pressing with overwhelming force.
Hibachi's grin returned even through the pain.
"Oh, I like you."
Then his entire body ignited.
A burst of violent flame blew the Demon off him. Hibachi rolled up to his feet, one hand wiping blood from the corner of his mouth.
High difficulty.
For both of them.
Exactly the kind of battle he loved.
Konro's fight was no easier.
The Giant Infernal had adapted to the interference of the Asakusa soldiers and was now swinging in broader, more destructive patterns, forcing them all to keep moving. One wrong step meant being crushed. One delayed order meant civilians caught in the debris.
"Vice-chief!" one soldier shouted. "Its core keeps shifting!"
Konro saw it too.
The living Infernal fused inside the giant was moving through the corpse mass, relocating where the true center of function was. That meant simple brute damage wouldn't finish it quickly.
Annoying.
He landed beside the fallen soldier from earlier and hauled him up by the collar.
"Can you still move?"
The man coughed. "Yeah."
"Then stop lying there."
Konro shoved him toward cover and jumped again as the giant brought down another colossal strike.
Two more Asakusa fighters joined the fray from the side street, launching controlled fire bursts into the giant's flank to open space. It didn't do much damage, but it bought seconds.
And in battles like this—
Seconds mattered.
Konro used one of them.
He rushed up the giant's arm itself, flames blasting from his feet, and carved a burning line up toward its shoulder as the others shouted below and kept it occupied.
The giant bucked violently.
Konro kept climbing.
"This thing's going down," he muttered.
---
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