Yuhida and her gang's mission had just begun.
As always, she played her part to perfection: lying on the dusty road, one arm folded against her chest, feigning the distress of an exhausted traveler.
A few meters away, hidden behind trees and rocks, Juty and the others waited, holding their breath.
The rumble of an engine was heard. A white van was approaching, bumping along the path. When the driver spotted Yuhida's motionless silhouette, he slammed on the brakes.
"Hey!" he shouted as he got out of the vehicle. "Miss? Are you alright?"
A second man came to join him, looking worried.
Yuhida slowly raised her head, eyes half-closed, then let out a small enigmatic smile.
"Oh… it's nothing at all."
The driver barely had time to frown.
The sharp crack of gunshots sounded immediately.
Shadows emerged from the bushes, faces masked, weapons in hand. In a second, the van was surrounded. The men raised their hands, stunned.
"Nobody move!" Juty barked in a hoarse voice.
Everything happened quickly. The two drivers were subdued, tied up, while the rest of the group opened the van's doors. The interior literally shone under the sun: entire crates of screens, delicate stone statues, art objects, a whole treasure in transit.
Juty burst out laughing as he looked at the loot.
"Hahaha! Look at this! We're going to be rich when all this goes to auction!"
He gave Yuhida, still crouching next to the crates, a friendly pat on the shoulder.
"You really nailed it again, princess. Your little act is always a treat to watch."
Yuhida smiled faintly without replying, her eyes drifting for a moment toward the horizon.
An intuition, like a shiver, passed through her.
Something, somewhere, was wrong.
But she swallowed that premonition.
For the moment, everything seemed under control.
Night was barely falling when Yuhida pushed open her door.
The silence of the living room struck her immediately. The stranger was still there, lying on the couch, exactly as she had left him.
She sighed deeply, leaned briefly against the wall, then slipped toward her bedroom to change. Her clothes still bore the dust and sweat of the day.
A few minutes later, back in the living room, she froze.
The stranger was moving. Not really awake — no — he was struggling, trapped in a nightmare. His muscles twitched under the bandages, his breath ragged.
Yuhida cautiously approached.
She dipped a towel into the warm water of a bowl resting on the table, wringing it with her fingertips.
"Calm down…" she murmured, drawing closer.
But just as she was about to lay the cloth on his forehead, his eyes suddenly opened.
Two dark, deep, almost inhuman pupils stared back at her.
Yuhida jumped, stepping back, towel still in hand.
"You… you're finally waking up!" she said, voice trembling.
The stranger remained silent, his gaze wandering around the room. He tried to move, feeling the ropes tight at his wrists and ankles.
"Where am I?" he asked in a rough voice. "And who are you?"
Yuhida tried to keep her composure.
"You should rest. Your wounds were deep… you have to take care of yourself."
But no sooner had she finished speaking than a sharp crack resounded.
The ropes, thick and doubled, tore as if they had never existed.
Yuhida's eyes widened.
"What… how…?"
The stranger slowly sat up on the couch. His body seemed to vibrate.
A strange glow was born around him, an almost living breath, purple and dark, pulsing like a heart of darkness.
Yuhida felt the air charged with electricity, her hair rising under the invisible pressure. The floor vibrated faintly.
And before her eyes, all the wounds, all the cuts, sealed shut, leaving broad blackened scars, as if burned by something ancient.
The towel slipped from Yuhida's hands and fell to the floor with a dull thud.
She stepped back, breathless.
"Who… who are you?!"
The stranger slowly raised his eyes to her.
An almost bestial gleam crossed his gaze.
Silence grew heavy.
Only the crackling mana in the air dared to remain.
The stranger stared at her for a long moment before answering with a deep, hoarse but steady voice:
"I was the one who asked who you were first… it doesn't matter."
He straightened up slowly, each movement steeped in strange heaviness — as if the world itself weighed on his shoulders.
"You tried to heal me, even though you knew nothing about me," he murmured. "It's… admirable."
He turned his gaze to the window where a moonbeam filtered in.
"I only needed rest, that's all."
Then he locked eyes with hers.
"My name is Bakuzan. Bakuzan Satsujin Otoko."
Yuhida froze, then replied almost in a whisper:
"Nice to meet you… Bakuzan. I'm Yuhida."
A silence passed between them.
Bakuzan frowned slightly.
"Yuhida… who? Don't you have a last name?"
Yuhida lowered her eyes, a bitter smile on her lips.
"No. I don't have one. And now that you're healed, you could leave my place."
Bakuzan looked around the room, then at the young woman.
"Strange, indeed," he said calmly. "A girl without a name, but with a heart purer than most men I've met."
He paused, and his tone grew heavier.
"I'm sorry, but I can't leave. Not yet."
"What? Why?" Yuhida asked, defensive.
Bakuzan stayed silent a moment, as if searching for words.
"…I still have something to settle."
Yuhida frowned, trying to guess if he meant a score to settle.
"I hope it's not gang business. If it is, I warn you, I don't want to get involved. So, leave."
Bakuzan didn't answer.
He simply looked away and then walked toward the door.
Yuhida, confused, watched him before following him outside.
The night was clear, scattered with stars. The cold wind made the trees shiver.
Bakuzan stopped in the middle of the path, staring at the sky with troubling intensity.
"What are you doing?" Yuhida asked, voice trembling.
Bakuzan stretched out his hand.
A vibration rose in the air, deep, almost dull.
A purple glow burst from his palm, spreading in the darkness like living ink.
"What…?" Yuhida murmured, petrified.
The light transformed into moving shadows. And from those shadows, a roar tore the silence.
A colossal, reptilian shape rose — a serpent dragon of darkness, its eyes blazing with ancestral hatred.
Yuhida fell to her knees, fear cutting off her breath.
Her mind refused to believe it. What she saw… could not exist.
"Let me go!" growled the creature. "I will never bow to a fool like you!"
Bakuzan's mana intensified, the air vibrated around him.
Without a word, he raised his hand, and chains of violet energy sprang from the void, wrapping around the roaring dragon.
"I have already defeated you, Nihlorgue," Bakuzan said in a steely voice.
"You can roar, struggle, curse my name… but you will remain on your knees before me."
The chains tightened, crackling like thunder.
The dragon let out one last roar before being absorbed into the purple light, slowly dissolving into Bakuzan's mana.
Silence returned, heavy, almost unreal.
Bakuzan let his hand fall, exhausted, then sighed:
"It's settled…"
He closed his eyes for a moment.
"When you leave this prison of mana, Nihlorgue… you will finally remember your true master."
The wind rose, carrying the last trace of that magic into the night.
Yuhida, still on the ground, watched him as one would behold an apparition.
She then understood… that the man she had saved was not a simple wounded man,
but something much older. And much more dangerous.