"Five times?!"
The villagers stared in disbelief, jaws slack with shock.
"Sir! Five times… aren't you trying to kill us?"
"Life?"
The man known as the Wolf sneered. "Your lives are worthless. If you have money, pay money. If not, pay with food. If you don't have either, then bring your belongings—and yourselves."
The incident at Mirage City had spread far and wide. Even the remote Luoxue Village had heard about the human trafficking operation. Someone shouted in horror:
"You're selling us off?!"
The second brother strode over and kicked the speaker in the stomach.
"Don't say 'you.' Are you trying to stir up trouble? No sense of decorum at all."
The Wolf waved his hand and smiled with practiced kindness. "Don't be like that. As Lord Morimura says, you're simply 'means of production.'
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not selling you. I'm offering you the chance to work somewhere you can earn more. This village has stunted your potential—you can't even pay a small tax. I'll send you to a place where your value can be appreciated."
He gave a sharp smile.
"Like a coal mine, for instance."
He tapped the scabbard at his waist with lazy satisfaction. "You have one night to raise the money. Get to it."
The villagers scattered, running back to their homes. At first, there was crying and arguing. But soon, chaos broke out—snatching, beatings, looting.
The ones who couldn't gather the money resorted to robbing those who could.
Years of friendship and shared hardships evaporated in the face of a real life-or-death crisis.
The evil Wolf reclined in his carriage, squinting as he drank. The screams, curses, and wails of the villagers became a melody to his ears. He tapped the scabbard, humming a song to himself.
His four subordinates blocked every possible exit, making sure not even a bird could fly out of Luoxue Village.
The chaos raged from dusk until early morning.
Some people paid with food or coin.
Some gave up and accepted their fate.
Some… died.
The Wolf finished his last sip of wine and tossed the jug aside.
"Old Five, Old Four, take the villagers back to the county. I'll stay here two more days. If that 'Doctor Logan' doesn't return, I'll head back."
"Yes, Brother!"
Old Five cracked his whip, herding the villagers like livestock.
Among them were the Bai family of three, clearly visible among the desperate group.
Just then, a carrier pigeon swooped down and landed on the Wolf's arm. He took the secret letter and skimmed it. His brow lifted slightly.
"Hold on."
"What is it, Brother?"
"I'll take the group back myself," the Wolf said, licking his lips. "Lord Morimura says two members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen have arrived. I need to return and entertain our guests."
Thoughts raced through his mind—Yagura's deal with the Daimyo of the Land of Water, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen's status, Lord Morimura's political rise...
He could feel it.
The time had come for Lord Morimura to rise like a phoenix.
He had to be there to witness it.
As for Logan?
The Wolf scoffed. With one Jōnin and three Chūnin still here, he had no worries.
Three horses pulled the carriage. The Wolf rode off on one, taking forty or fifty villagers with him toward the county.
Fewer than twenty people remained in Luoxue Village. Some had paid enough to avoid being taken. Others were left behind—elderly, infirm, disabled. Worthless in the eyes of the collectors.
Dao Ye stood by his window, looking over the desolate village. He clutched a blacksmith's hammer in one trembling hand, veins bulging.
If only his arm weren't injured.
If only he were thirty years younger.
He'd crush those bastards' skulls with his bare hands.
Knock knock—
There was a knock at the door.
Dao Ye opened it to see the crippled man kneeling at his threshold.
His wife had been taken away again. This time, with no Logan to help, he could only watch helplessly as the Wolf lashed her and dragged her away like livestock.
"Master Dao," the cripple said quietly. "Please… lend me a weapon."
Thin and delicate-looking, he had always been mocked—called a coward, a sissy hiding behind his wife.
But today, there was something different in his eyes.
Determination.
"You planning to fight them to the death?" Dao Ye asked.
"I want to bring my wife back."
Dao Ye sighed. Not even an able-bodied man could defeat a ninja, let alone a cripple.
After a long silence, he drew a short sword from his belt and tossed it at the man's feet.
"Leave the village. Head north. Find Logan and bring him back—before the cold or a bear kills you. That's the only way you fight for your life."
"Me? But—" The man looked at his crippled leg. "Wouldn't it make more sense for you to go?"
Dao Ye tightened his grip on the hammer and lit his forge again.
"I have a blade to finish—so that when Logan returns, he can start killing."
The man understood.
He picked up the sword, limped out, and disappeared into the snowy wilderness.
The blockade had already been lifted. All the valuable people and property had been taken. Whether the rest stayed or fled no longer mattered to their captors.
The lame man's figure faded into the snowy landscape, accompanied by the rhythmic hammering of Dao Ye's forge.
---
Terumi Mei sat on the shore, grilling fish.
Nearby, Sasuke and Momo giggled as they practiced close-quarters combat. With their breathing techniques, each punch and kick sparked a faint glow of power.
Meanwhile…
Terumi Mei glanced at the frozen lake. She turned to Sasuke.
"That guy's been underwater for twenty minutes. Isn't he going to suffocate?"
After over ten days of observation, she had come to understand a bit about the power called Ripple—the energy generated between breaths.
But Logan had sunk into an icy lake. How could he breathe down there?
"I believe in Logan-nii!" Sasuke chirped.
Terumi Mei rolled her eyes. Blind devotion, this kid…
Boom—
A thunderous sound echoed.
She looked up. The sky was overcast, but lightning during a snowy winter?
Impossible.
Then she realized—it wasn't coming from the sky.
It was coming from beneath the lake.
Golden lightning surged across the thick ice. Another rumble. The ice cracked, shattered, and the lake erupted.
Sasuke and Momo rushed to her side.
The turbulent water parted. A staircase of water rose from the lake.
Logan emerged, walking up the liquid steps, completely dry.
Terumi Mei handed him a grilled fish. "Finished your 'magic technique'?"
"Magic technique? Where'd you learn that phrase?"
She pointed at Sasuke.
"Just a little more," Logan said, accepting the food.
He was already proficient in the crimson, green, and silver ripple transformations. But the ultimate yamabuki-colored ripple still eluded him.
To reach that level, he'd come to this freezing lake, immersing himself in cold water day after day, trying to tune into the breath within his body rather than the air outside.
It wasn't a pleasant process.
Logan had suffocated repeatedly, seeking that final spark of transformation.
But something was still missing.
He bit into the grilled fish, restoring his depleted energy.
"Why push yourself so hard?" Terumi Mei asked.
"Do I need a reason to become stronger?" Logan replied.
In his experience, most ninjas trained constantly—either preparing for missions or recovering from them. Few ever stopped.
"Of course you need a reason," Terumi Mei argued. "Ninjas train to protect, to earn, to climb ranks. There's always a reason to endure pain. What's yours?"
Logan wasn't from any village. He didn't lack money. And if he wanted fame, his power alone could place him in any daimyo's court.
Terumi Mei had watched him long enough to know—Logan was simple. Direct. One was one, two was two.
But it was precisely that simplicity that made him unreadable.
"My goal…" Logan stared at the lake. "Maybe it's to make sure I—and the people around me—always have the power to choose, no matter the situation."
The opposite of "choice" is "submission."
Logan didn't want a world where:
— A friend is captured and resigns to fate because he can't win.
— A loved one is sick, but with no money, you just accept it.
"You're driven by fear, then," Terumi Mei said softly.
"There are only two forces that push people—fear and desire. I thought you were someone with strong desires. But Logan… have you ever thought that some people don't want to choose?
Some panic when given a choice. They'd rather be whipped like cattle—told what to do, with no responsibility. It brings them peace."
Logan blinked. "That's… not some twisted sexual metaphor, is it?"
"Pervert!" Terumi Mei blushed furiously, but quickly regained composure.
"When you saved those people in Mirage City, you told them to 'stand up, don't kneel.' Isn't that also stripping them of the right to kneel?"
Logan was quiet for a long time. Just when Terumi Mei thought he wouldn't answer, he said:
"People should stand and face the world as humans. After that, they can choose to kneel or even die if they want.
What I can't stand… is when something always presses people down. I want to tear that thing down."
Terumi Mei smiled faintly. "So you want to overturn the entire ninja world?"
Logan didn't smile.
"Who knows?"
They fell into silence, the only sound being the fire crackling and twigs snapping.
Terumi Mei hugged her knees, studying Logan's face.
He's different from everyone I've ever met…
If it's him… maybe it's possible.
"Logan, I—"
"Doctor Logan!"
A voice cut through the trees.
Logan stood and turned. The crippled man stumbled toward them, one arm missing, a deep bear claw mark across his chest.
His coat was gone. Only a thin shirt covered his frozen body.
He had walked eighty miles to get here.
Seeing Logan, the man collapsed into the snow.
Logan rushed over and channeled ripples into him, trying to restore his vitality.
But it was too late.
The man had burned through every ounce of life force just to get here.
"Doctor Logan… please… save the village…"
"I will," Logan replied.
Hearing those words, the cripple smiled and closed his eyes.
People had mocked him his whole life. A coward. A man who hid behind his wife.
But today, he fulfilled his duty.
He died a real man.
Logan stood up.
And he knew—
He wasn't the only one who died today.
pàtreøn (Gk31)