5. The Sister I Haven't Seen in a Long Time
5. The Sister I Haven't Seen in a Long Time
At their core, guys who belong to an organization are just corpses if you strip away their swagger.
Whether they have strength or not, whether their opponent is strong or weak, they put on airs and bluster, refusing to back down.
But what happens when they witness overwhelming power?
When they are truly in mortal danger and death is staring them right in the face—can they maintain those things even in that moment?
The answer that follows is no.
"W-What the hell...!"
"Awakened, an Awakened! A hunter is attacking!!!"
These guys, having witnessed a being that transcended humanity right before their eyes, fell to pieces, unable to even keep their own bodies upright properly.
They were such feeble existences, one didn't even need to draw a sword.
They were the current members of the Doksahoe.
"Well, you're all trash anyway, so I won't be showing any mercy with my hands."
With those words, things happened in an instant.
The moment Shingen lightly clenched his fist and began to strike.
Pabababababababak!!!
Along with the sound of heavily tearing through the air, at a speed not even visible to the eye, he started taking down the Doksahoe bastards.
"Guh, uuurgh...!"
"Hurk, my a-arm!!!"
Bones break and shatter from a single punch.
A hit to the head means instant death. Even a hit to the torso, including the heart, meant it was hard to avoid death without good luck.
Dozens of men were instantly knocked down by the fist and slammed into the walls.
Kwaggwagwagwagwang!
Except for those whose only arms and legs were crushed, they all lost their lives.
It was a result too unrealistic to have been achieved with just one fist.
But it was reality.
The screams of the guys twitching in agony, turned into bloody pulps, proved it.
'These guys must be just lackeys. Causing this much of a ruckus, someone higher up will come down directly.'
Soon enough, as expected, other guys appeared.
"Haaaam. What bastards with balls of steel came to raid us?"
A woman walked forward unsteadily, yawning with her mouth wide open.
"You couldn't even stop one guy, so you had to get us moving? You sons of bitches are all gonna die later, you know that."
And a giant, muscular man who came down in an utterly furious state.
'...Awakened, are they.'
To be precise, Villains would be the right term, but he could feel an unprecedented power seeping from both of their bodies.
That unprecedented power might be the medium granting them superhuman abilities.
"Hey, Mister. Whose family are you from? Even if we hate seeing each other's faces on the same floor, don't you know there are rules and decorum you should keep?"
The muscular man slowly approached and pushed Shingen's chest with his hand.
Of course, that touch didn't feel like anything, but whether the man didn't know that or not, he continued tapping Shingen's body and kept up the provocation.
"You're not a mute bastard, if you have a mouth, say something—"
"You need to be perceptive to survive on this floor."
Cutting off the man's words, Shingen silently said what he had to say.
"And when you're killing others, you need to recognize that you could die too."
"What the hell are you talking about, you crazy—"
Puhuk!
Before his words could even finish, with his hand still formed into a knife-hand, he pierced straight through the giant's abdomen.
It went in smoothly, like piercing tofu with a fork, but the sound of muscle and organs being skewered was horrifying.
"You lack that resolve. So you die here."
Saying this as if teaching a young child, he pulled his knife-hand out of the abdomen.
Puhok!
The moment the knife-hand was pulled out, blood and guts poured out as the man's body collapsed.
Shingen roughly shook off his hand, now drenched in blood, stepped over the bastard's corpse, and walked past.
"...!!!"
The woman, having seen her companion taken down in an instant, drew a dagger from her waist and charged in a flash.
She swung with all her might from the start, without letting her guard down.
She hadn't let her guard down.
Kkwaak!
"Ghk, urk...!"
It was just that her opponent was too strong.
Her neck caught in a ferocious grip, she flailed as she was lifted up, but couldn't break free.
"I don't have the bad taste of breaking a slender woman's neck, but since you've become an enemy, I can't help it."
"P-Please, spare...!"
Ududuk!
Before her words could even be completed, he exerted force with his grip, and with the sound of crushing bone, she met her death.
Her body went limp, proving her breath had been cut off.
He casually threw the corpses aside somewhere, then took the elevator to go up to the higher floors.
He judged that no more would come down.
'Two presences I can sense.'
He couldn't tell if A-young was here or not, but if he turned this organization upside down, wouldn't he find her someday?
Ding.
After getting off the elevator, he moved forward.
There was no one left on the top floor of the building.
'There's no way there are only this many organization members. Are they all scattered?'
It seemed they were caught off guard by the sudden attack.
Of course, even if all the organization members rushed him at once, Shingen was confident he would win, so it didn't matter.
Walking to the end of the corridor, he opened the door to the office.
Opening the door revealed an old-fashioned office and a man sitting in the seat.
And next to him was...
"Choi A-young...."
It was his younger sister, A-young.
Her black hair had turned white, and her pupils had also become cloudy, but the face he knew definitely still remained.
"Who...?"
Suddenly having her name called, she was bewildered and cocked her head in confusion, but in that instant,
"It seems we're acquainted."
The man sunk deep in his chair opened his mouth.
Dressed neatly in a suit, he looked like a decent office worker, but Shingen knew he wasn't that kind of guy.
"Let's talk slowly. Before you die, shouldn't people who know each other at least have a chat?"
His voice oozed with leisure, as if he were the predator.
"No need to be considerate. We can talk after the job's done. That's plenty."
"After? Keh-heh, you think there'll be a 'next' for you?"
As if finding it absurd, he laughed and slowly rose from his seat.
"A-young. You'll have to take care of this."
"...Understood."
At the man's command, she drew the sword from her waist without hesitation.
Shingen watched his younger sister like that for a moment, then tapped the scabbard with his fingers before clenching his fist.
"My pretty little sister seems to not remember her brother, so I guess I have no choice but to fight."
"...Brother?"
A-young flinched slightly at the word 'brother,' but then steeled herself and aimed her sword.
"You're impersonating someone who disappeared for ten years, someone we didn't even know was dead or alive?"
"No, it's that there were circumstances—"
"Besides, you don't look anything like my brother? If you're going to lie, at least do it properly."
Was it that she truly didn't believe it, or was she desperately denying it?
There was no way to know until she heard the full story.
Tap!
Lightly leaping as if a feather were floating upward, she brought her sword down from above in a slash.
But Shingen didn't draw his sword until the very end.
Instead, he spread two fingers and precisely moved them toward the tip of her blade.
Kang!
A sound as if blades were clashing rang out, and her sword was subdued by two fingers.
"Ugh...!"
"Unnecessary movements are too big, and your overall skill is lacking."
Though they were clearly fighting, Shingen was admonishing her and applied pressure with his fingers.
Chang-grang!!!
Instantly, the sword shattered into pieces, and she lost her balance, falling to the floor.
Of course, with her basic abilities, she managed to land without looking pathetic, but she had lost her weapon in an instant.
"How... with just two fingers...!"
"If you grasp the flow of the sword, breaking a weapon with a little force is a piece of cake."
Everything in existence has a flow, and if you can break that flow, nothing in this world is unbreakable.
"Close your eyes for a moment. We'll unpack the unfinished story later."
"Who says you can—!"
Just as she was about to charge bare-handed this time,
Shingen moved as well.
But his movement was so light and mysterious that A-young couldn't even perceive it.
Pak!
"Guh...!"
With a simple strike to the back of her neck to knock her out, she collapsed without being able to offer any resistance.
"Then... one left now."
After carefully laying her down so she wouldn't fall, he looked toward his next target.
"Ha, so it seems you aren't completely talentless."
Though he still appeared composed, Shingen noticed his expression had stiffened slightly.
Certainly, the man before his eyes was strong.
Perhaps strong enough to have no equal around here.
But before Shingen, it was all useless.
A man who had piled up eons of killing and a petty criminal from a tiny peninsula.
Though one couldn't gauge an opponent's strength by evil deeds alone, Shingen knew for sure.
That he was definitely beneath him.
"If you had just run, you could have at least preserved your life... Yet you insist on staining this old man's hands with blood."
"Old man? What old man, you look younger than me just by a glance...!"
Kwang!
Creating a dent in the floor, the man charged at Shingen with all his might.
But Shingen took no stance at all, merely watching him.
'What's this? Why isn't he doing anyth—'
Feeling something strange about his reaction, the man felt a chill run down his spine, but it was already far too late.
Peo-beo-beo-beo-beo-bung!!!
"Keuh-hk...!"
He couldn't even see the punch being thrown.
All he could feel was the immense pain as if his entire body had been pierced through by a fist.
As if his body had been shredded by a blade, it was torn to tatters by just a fist.
"From now on, make sure you size up your opponent before charging. Not that I think there'll be a next time for you."
"You, mothe—"
With that final curse, the man met his death as his head burst from the punch.
The blood flowing from the limp corpse stained the floor and carpet, but that wasn't something he needed to concern himself with.
"......"
In silence, Shingen left the room, carrying Choi A-young, whom he had laid on the floor, over his shoulder.