Ta-daaa! The Shocking Truth, Revealed at Last!

"Miryu, we have to chase that creep out of here right now!"

Mi Soryeong seized Dan Miryu's sleeve and stamped her foot. Anxiety brimmed in her eyes, and her gaze darted helplessly from one place to the next.

It was a disaster she had never imagined. An intruder forcing his way in was headache enough, and now the relic their line had guarded since the days of distant ancestors had been taken right before her eyes.

The Stone of Resurrection. If that thing fell into the hands of the wicked, something dreadful would follow — dreadful enough to make even a family meaningless.

Unlike his frantic wife, Dan Miryu only stared past the collapsed wall.

Watching her husband stand there in a daze, making no move to give chase, Mi Soryeong could hardly bear it. The shock must have knocked him out of his right mind. She understood. He had poured his whole life into protecting that thing, and it had been stolen overnight. Calm, in a moment like this, would have been the stranger reaction.

His back, once broad as a mountain, looked painfully small. He had to be feeling the weight of it all.

"Miryu. Stay here. I'll go."

She made up her mind to move in his place, so he would not turn the blame on himself — and so she might see, once more, the man who had overflowed with confidence.

She was a breath from breaking into a run.

"No. You stay here."

Dan Miryu, who had been standing so still, stopped her. The silent man vanished, and the one who moved in his place made Mi Soryeong think, for an instant, that a mountain had begun to stir.

"Are you all right?"

The sharp, clear look of him eased her heart, but she could not help worrying all the same. Calm was a help, yet this was an emergency. They had to move.

"It's fine. Don't worry so much. Stay here and be ready, just in case."

Dan Miryu flashed her a grin. At the sight of that confidence, Mi Soryeong shook her unease off. Yes — what kind of man was he? Was he not the head of this house of Guardians? Was Dan Miryu not the man who never wavered, no matter the situation?

"Yes. Go on. You have to bring it back."

She saw him off. It stung that she could not go with him, but she was not as strong as he was, and she would only be in the way. Had it been nothing but the small fry, she could have caught them without trouble — but the small fry had followed their master and vanished beyond the garden long ago.

For now she would guard this house, and wait. That was her part to play.

Dan Miryu drew Mi Soryeong into his arms. His solid chest closed around her.

"When I get back, let's go on a trip. The house is like this anyway — we can wait out the repairs while we're at it."

"All right. Where would be nice? Guam? Britain? Or Hawaii?"

"We'll talk about it later, once Chuyeon's home too."

The situation was grave, and yet the two of them were as untroubled as flowers in an open field. Then a single name was spoken, and both of them went rigid.

"Wait. What about Chuyeon?"

"……Huh?"

Where on earth was the son who still had not come home? In a mess like this, could his being late really be a coincidence?

A chill prickled up Dan Miryu's back.

"Y-you— go to Chuyeon, right now!"

"What was I thinking! Where is that kid!"

Mi Soryeong snatched up her smartphone and ran for the garage. Dan Miryu took one thing from the house and went after the intruders.

"I wasn't going to scold you. Chuyeon, when you get home, you're dead."

He forced down the dread soaking cold along his back. He wanted to find Chuyeon this instant, but he could not leave a rampaging intruder to run loose.

Let them be safe…….

He prayed his wife would find their child unharmed.

In the bright moonlight, a necklace hung at the throat of the man who moved.

I bent at the waist and slipped the killing slash that came flying in from behind. The sensation of my fedora and my hair being sheared away by a hair's breadth was a brush with death I never wanted to feel again.

The slash I had dodged did not stop. It went on and split a building in half. The three-story structure was cut as cleanly as if it had always been that way, then crashed into the building beside it. Debris tumbling from the wreck struck trees, struck cars, and left them in ruins.

"This is insane……."

I had stood only a moment in the billowing dust before another slash came screaming in from behind and drove me from the spot. Behind me, the sound of a building coming down was horribly clear.

"This is Sword in his prime?"

Final boss of Part One or not, this was too much. The Sword the protagonist had faced was nothing like this. Over the course of his fight with Dan Miryu, the drug doping and the mortal wounds had left him a living corpse, pickled in chemicals just to keep drawing breath. In that state he had laid Seoul to waste, sucked down still more of the drug, and fought while throwing his life away. The protagonist had fought a Sword loaded with every nerf imaginable, and had nearly died.

There was a running joke that Sword in his prime was the strongest in the whole setting, but…….

That the thing carving a building up like a block of tofu was nothing but a basic attack was enough to drive me out of my mind. At that level, he would not lose in the slightest to the late-story Power inflation. And that monster was now aiming for my neck with everything he had.

"Hand over the Stone of Resurrection!!!!!!"

A sound you could no longer tell was a human voice or a monster's. The shout of killing intent did not end there.

My senses caught it. This time it was not a slash. The monster himself was coming.

"Already?! Are you kidding me!"

KRA-KRA-KRA-KOOM!

A wide bombardment fell from overhead. Every single blow carried a killing strike, and it sheared through whatever stood in its way.

I can't dodge this. The range is too wide!

With death closing in by the second, I set my mind racing. Among a Phantom Thief's abilities, was there anything I could use now?

There wasn't. A phantom thief is no fighter. He is a thief, good at stealing and getting out. Block, and my body would be carved to pieces along with the defense.

I had to escape, somehow.

"Escape? Right — escape!"

One of a Phantom Thief's defining traits is the grand escape that common sense calls impossible! Isn't a phantom thief the one who takes what he wants at his leisure, and smiles while making a fool of any net drawn around him?

The moment the thought reached that far, my body moved on its own. As if that were the true answer, I found a way through inside the bombardment falling from above.

At the same time, the merciless barrage swallowed the whole area.

KWAAAAAANG!!!

Sword looked around at what his wild barrage had reduced to a wasteland. The ground was heaved as if an earthquake had struck. A burst water main jetted water without pause, and whether the sewers had overflowed as well, a foul stench stabbed at his nose.

"I lost control."

At the sight of the devastation, the heat that had risen to his head went cold. Swept up in a moment's emotion, he had shown an ugly side unlike himself.

"Aaaah!!!"

"What was that, an earthquake?!"

"The police— ah, no, call an ambulance first!"

Wee-oo. Wee-oo.

"Tsk."

Sword clicked his tongue. A job he would have settled in silence had blown up on him. After a ruckus like that, there was no way the civilians wouldn't notice. The matter was surely already racing across the internet.

He had cut the buildings without mercy. More than a few lives inside them might already be gone, and secondary damage — fire, a collapse of the ground — might have followed as well. It had grown too large to cover up.

"Do you read? Do you read?"

Kshhh. Kssht.

He tapped his in-ear and called for the subordinates who were supposed to clean this up, but nothing came back but noise.

"Broken."

Sword pulled the earpiece free and threw it on the ground. The shockwave of a sword strike was nothing a fragile little machine could withstand.

"Then I'll have to search……."

A splitting ache went through his head. He had succeeded in catching the damned thief, but finding one shining stone in a mess like this was a hard problem even ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for him. And there was a time limit besides. Dan Miryu would come charging in here like a madman. He had to find it before then.

"The corpse first."

There probably wouldn't be anything left, but he had to start by searching around the body.

"Sir! What are you doing over there! It's dangerous. Please get out at once!"

"Tsk. Police."

At the voice behind him, Sword stopped his search and turned. He was ready to cut the man down if it came to that — but.

"A pleasure, Mr. Sword. Would this be the first time we've exchanged greetings?"

The thief he had thought dead was standing on top of a building.

Not a speck of dust clung to him from that bombardment. Cloak fluttering, bathed in moonlight, he looked as if he had only just made his entrance.

Sword stared at the thief — no, at the man one might as well start calling a phantom thief.

It had been an attack with everything he had. Even Sword had thought it impossible to dodge. To come through that without a single wound was proof the man was no amateur.

Sword's mind went cold and clear. The keen reason he prized as his greatest strength hauled him up to his full height. He was no longer a monkey thrashing in rage, but a man — a cold, ruthless martial artist.

"Mr. Sword, has your presence changed? My skin is prickling. How frightening."

As if he had felt the change, the phantom thief brushed a hand along his own arm. But for all his words, he did not look afraid in the least.

Sword gave no answer. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠The man was not worth one.

"Mr. Sword, if you insist on solving everything with violence, it will all show in how you raise your daughter. You really ought to fix that."

"……What?"

Sword wavered at the words leaving the phantom thief's mouth. Not like before — an agitation plain enough for the eye to see.

The phantom thief shrugged.

"Whatever is the matter? Didn't you have just the one daughter?"

Sword chewed his lip and swung his sword at him. It was the fastest attack he had ever made, and also the sloppiest.

The phantom thief avoided it with a slight tilt of his body.

"Isn't everything you're doing now for your daughter's sake? If she knew her father was doing things like this, do you really think she'd be pleased?"

"Graaah!"

As if he could not bear to hear another word, Sword charged the phantom thief in a straight line.

In the space of a blink he was at the man's nose, sword already swinging — and yet.

"You can't save anyone with a sword like that."

The phantom thief slipped the blade with ease. The phantom thief who dodged by running was gone. There was only Sword, desperate to land a hit.

"Violence has a way of seeping out when you aren't looking. Better to use less of it, solve your problems by talking, and apply that to a child's education."

The phantom thief's mask changed from the Smiling Mask into a teacher's mask. The bespectacled face set Sword's chest on fire.

Sword felt himself turning from a man into a monkey. Little by little, the phantom thief's words picked at the pain he had driven deep inside himself.

Anastasia…….

How the man knew about his daughter did not matter. Kill him, and there would be no need to know.

"Hup!"

With what reason he had left, Sword made a swift decision.

He thrashed the sword in a blind storm, leaving the phantom thief nowhere to dodge. Lines gathered and became a plane. A plane made of innumerable lines was a shredder.

The best the Sword of this moment could do. No one would be able to escape it. And the distance was the phantom thief's very nose. This would kill him.

"And here I told you violence isn't the answer. You still have some growing to do as a father."

The phantom thief snapped his cloak and hid behind it. Sword's attack tore the cloak to shreds and turned it to dust, and the building across the way was reduced past fragments into dust as well.

"Mr. Sword, you mustn't. Putting violence into that sword? What you placed in it was never something so small."

Cloakless, the phantom thief looked down at Sword from the top of another building.

Sword's gaze was stolen by the green stone in the phantom thief's hand.

If I just had that. If I just had that.

"You're a father, aren't you? Then shouldn't you be a father as steady as steel?"

The phantom thief tossed the stone back and forth, left hand to right.

Left to right. Up to down. Down to up.

"You mustn't sell your eyes to a stone like this. Mr. Sword, what matters to you isn't something like this, is it?"

At some point the phantom thief's hand held not one green stone, but several. The stones shifted this way and that between his fingers.

The bouncing stones were dizzying, but not half so dizzying as a certain man's heart.

"Mr. Sword, you are a father. Try to remember what truly matters to your daughter."

One by one, the stones gathered into the phantom thief's hands. There were more than any person's hands could hold, and when he laid one hand over the other, they became a single stone.

Bathed in moonlight, it shone brilliantly.

"In a state like that, do you really think you can bring your dead daughter back to life?"

"Shut uuuuuup!!!!"

A scream, and with it a tremendous killing slash. The building the phantom thief stood on collapsed in its entirety.

"Whoops! Oh, dear!"

The green stone slipped from the phantom thief's hand. Before it could fall into the ruined building, someone shot out like a ray of light and caught it.

"At last! At last!"

Sword cradled the green stone in his hands as if it were the most precious thing in the world.

The Stone of Resurrection. With this, he could save his daughter.

"Goodness me. To think I would blunder like this."

From the collapsed rubble came the voice of the man he ought to kill, but Sword ignored it. The objective was achieved. Now he had to withdraw.

"Setting that aside, Mr. Sword, it's lovely that you look so happy, but isn't it a little soon for that?"

Sword did not listen. He only cherished the stone against his chest.

He looked the Stone of Resurrection over. It did not carry as extraordinary an aura as he had expected, but its shape alone was more beautiful than anything.

Yes. With this power, he would be able to set his mistake right.

Then, as he turned the stone in his hands, his eye caught a slip of white paper stuck to it.

And on it…….

No.

"The truth is, I never stole the Stone of Resurrection at all!"

No!

"That thing is nothing but a toy from a stationery shop!"

"————————!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Ah ha ha ha!!!!!!!"

The monkey howled, and the phantom thief clutched his stomach and laughed.

The moon overhead was the only spectator that place had.