The elevator descended deep beneath the nondescript office building in Kuoh, the tal doors sliding open with a soft, hydraulic hiss.
Valerie stepped out behind Jin and imdiately froze.
Her entire life had been confined to damp stone walls, flickering torches, and the archaic, blood-soaked politics of dieval vampires. Now, she was standing in the nerve center of Jin's operations. It was a sprawling, subterranean cavern illuminated by the cold, blue light of dozens of massive monitors. Rows of servers humd with a low, vibrating frequency that she could feel in her teeth. Dozens of human agents and their fingers flying across glowing keyboards as data cascaded across the screens like digital waterfalls.
It was like a temple, but not to any god she knew.
"Jin..." Valerie whispered, her eyes wide as she took in the dizzying scale of the room. She was bursting with an overwhelming, childlike curiosity. "What are all these things?"
Shukaku, walking beside them with his hands casually in his pockets, offered a proud, slightly smug smile. "This is the future, princess. Even I was baffled when Jin first brought the blueprints and the setup to . In our old world, we relied on street whispers and people worlds. But analytics... analytics is truly the future."
"Analytics?" Valerie tested the foreign word on her tongue. She pointed a pale finger toward a massive heat-map tracking live coverage across of nation poll. "There are so many terms and equipnt in here that I didn't even know existed."
Jin stopped walking and looked back at her."Don't worry," Jin said quietly. "We will teach you."
Valerie nodded, but her mind snagged on the most baffling contradiction of the day. She looked at the heavy canvas bag slung over Jin's shoulder—the bag that held the dismantled sniper rifle.
"But I still don't understand your thods," she pressed, her brow furrowing. "You have the power to slaughter an Evil Dragon. You have that terrifying white aura and those black claws. Why did you use a piece of human tal to kill that king? Why not just use your magic or your Touki?"
Jin set the bag down on a nearby tal table. He unzipped it, revealing the cold, oiled steel of the rifle barrel.
"Because of anonymity," Jin explained, his voice low . "If I used Touki or magic, the Shinto faction in the country could sense the residue and death of a human leader, which is a grave thing; they will try to solve this. They would track the magical signature right back to . But a bullet? It makes them confuse and lead to belief a human might have done this. A really good human as things like that happen."
He looked up at the main monitor, where news stations were replaying the chaotic aftermath of the Pri Minister's death. "Now, the authorities won't know who did it or why. They will chase shadows. They have nothing supernatural to go on, and in the end, they will be forced to file it away as a mortal tragedy. We remain risk-free."
Shukaku picked up a tablet, swiping through the encrypted intelligence reports pouring in from the capital.
Shukaku reported, his eyes gleaming with ambition. "The conservative party is in complete disarray. The Pri Minister's cabinet is turning on each other, and the Hijima-backed politicians are scrambling like rats on a sinking ship. There's a massive power vacuum beinf ford."
Valrie leaned against the tal table. "And the next phase?"
"I step into the light," Shukaku said smoothly. "The Labor Party is desperate for a stabilizing force. I will present myself as their savior. Using the funds we secured from the ro, we have more than enough capital to buy out the remaining opposition in party. Within a month, I will have the majority of the human governnt eating out of my hand."
Jin turned to Valerie, gesturing to the glowing screens detailing the political takeover.
Jin emphasized, his eyes locking onto hers. "To survive in the supernatural world, you cannot just be strong. As there will be always soone stronger than you ."
Jin "You have to have so kind of backing. A shield that either can keep them at bay or at least deflect."
Vakrie " Not defend."
Jin " there not a shield in this world that can't be destroyed , this world is full of monsters."
Jin "The Devils, the Angels —they underestimate The human world influence . Human world should remain firmly under our control. It will act as a foot in door to bring the God on my side."
Kyoto. Miles away from the hum of servers, the air slled of burning sage and ancient cedar. Inside the deepest, most heavily warded sanctum of a high-end Shinto shrine, the atmosphere was suffocatingly tense.
The Clan Head of the Hijima family—one of the Five Principal Clans of Japan—sat rigidly on a tatami mat. Kneeling before him, his head bowed in deep sha, was the Head Guard who had failed to protect the Pri Minister.
"It was not a standard political hit, my Lord," the guard reported, his voice tight. "It was the work of a professional, the precision, the timing, the complete lack of a magical footprint....
The Clan Head's eyes narrowed. "We are also professional."
The guard head start shaking "But I saw his reflection. He moved with a physical density and speed that no normal human possesses."
"Kuoh"
"Yes," the guard confird. "This happened when that upstart, Shukaku start rising. He erged from Kuoh—a territory supposedly managed by the Gremory Devils—and the human who killed manji clan . He is starting to move and now he is looking at the capital."
The Clan Head ,spoke "They cannot keep standing in our shadows. Shukaku has shown his hand. He is being aggressive, and has wiped out our political pawn. We must strike back, or at the very least, expose the enemy who has started baring its fangs at us."
He looked toward the sliding shoji doors. "Gather the elites. We are sending a group of our highest-ranking Shinto exorcists and guards to Kuoh. I want to know exactly who this Shukaku is, and more importantly, I want the head of the mysterious backer holding his leash."
The United States.
Hidden within the jagged peaks of a remote mountain range stood a grand, brutalist temple carved entirely from black marble and obsidian. It was a monunt to conflict, bathed in the flickering, eternal light of massive braziers.
The air inside was heavy with the tallic tang of blood and the crushing weight of divine pressure.
On a massive stone altar, a high priest with muscular arms knelt in absolute reverence. Placed carefully upon the velvet cloth before him were the shattered, blood-stained remains of Kalon's .
From the altar, a towering figure shadow was watching the remains.
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