In the area of abandoned buildings and underground passages, inside the White King Skull gang's headquarters, and within one of the side rooms branching from the main hall behind the red throne, there was a large empty chamber. Its walls were eroded, and its solid floor looked like stone. Inside it, Yamikaji lay unconscious, his severed hand freshly bandaged. Beside him stood Fard and Goso, worry clear on their faces.
Suddenly, Yamikaji opened his eyes, the pain still carved into his expression. The moment Fard and Goso saw him awake, the weight crushing their hearts eased slightly.
Yamikaji glanced to his right and realized he was now one-handed after Renzako had cut it off. At first, he couldn't process what had happened, until the memories struck him. He tried to stand, but exhaustion held him down, so he asked Fard and Goso:
"What happened after I passed out?"
Both stayed silent, turning their gaze away, which angered Yamikaji.
"Did that bastard cut your tongues off? What happened!?"
After a long hesitation, Fard finally turned toward Yamikaji and said:
"He took the sword…"
In the main hall, the gang leader Rasten sat on his throne. Before him, his deputy Graide and the gang's highest-bounty member, Garmond, were kneeling in silence. That silence was shattered by a furious scream from behind the throne.
"I'm going to kill that bastard!!"
Yamikaji burst out from behind the throne, ignoring the unbearable pain from his severed arm, ignoring the boss, and ignoring Fard and Goso desperately trying to hold him back. He shouted in rage:
"Where is my cloak!?"
Several brown wooden branches burst from the floor of the lavish hall. They moved wildly, attacking anything in their path. A single strike was enough to shatter a thick solid wall.
As one of the branches neared Graide and Garmond, it suddenly froze in place, then crumbled into icy fragments falling like snow. The rest of the branches heading toward Rasten and toward Fard and Goso stopped before even reaching the throne steps, as if a solid barrier had blocked them.
"That was reckless of you, Rudy Yamikaji."
Suddenly, Yamikaji and his moving branches were surrounded from all four sides by a transparent barrier that suppressed every movement. This was Garmond's ability, allowing him to create solid, nearly unbreakable barriers.
The ground trembled beneath the raging Yamikaji. A silver metallic pillar erupted upward with tremendous speed, striking Yamikaji's jaw, slamming him into Garmond's invisible barrier and snapping him back to his senses.
He collapsed to his knees after the blow, spitting blood from its sheer force. His jaw barely managed to stay intact. Garmond raised his hand, making the barrier disappear.
Yamikaji shifted his gaze and saw his boss, Rasten, standing and approaching with heavy steps that shook the ground, his eyes radiating sharp fury from behind the mask. Yamikaji adjusted himself, kneeling before his boss, realizing what he had just done.
"I'm sorry, boss… I lost control for a moment—"
"You have committed several errors, Yamikaji."
The leader's voice was deep and burning with anger as he stood tall before him.
"You allowed the sword I entrusted to you to be stolen. You were utterly defeated. And on top of that, you raise your voice and unleash your ability recklessly in my presence?"
Yamikaji felt the crushing pressure radiating from Rasten, sending a shiver through him. But it still wasn't as terrifying as the pressure he felt from Renzako.
He drew a painful breath and said:
"I promise, boss, I will get the sword back soon—"
Before he could finish, the shadow beneath the throne rippled with gray waves. From it emerged Shido, the wielder of the Shadow Ability, holding a severed hand impaled by a katana-like sword. It was Takeshi's sword.
Yamikaji's eyes widened as he stared at the pierced hand. He immediately realized it was his own hand — and that the sword was Takeshi's.
A faint smirk appeared on Shido's face as he spoke:
"I found this masterpiece outside the gang's entrance. We still don't know why the culprit stole our prize only to return it—"
Garmond stood, scratching the back of his head.
"But leaving without fighting means he probably isn't the one committing the murders. You're lucky, Rudy Yamikaji—"
Yamikaji cut him off with a furious growl.
"Don't call me by my full name!"
Then he turned toward Fard and Goso at the edge of the hall.
"Tell me what that person told you!?"
Goso, sweating heavily, swallowed hard before answering:
"We didn't understand what happened… he just vanished without a trace…"
They couldn't tell Yamikaji the truth because of their agreement with Graide. Yamikaji believed them—he trusted his two subordinates more than anything. And since he outranked them, he assumed all the blame.
"I will assign you a special mission…"
The leader spoke, drawing all eyes toward him.
"The sword will be kept in the treasure chamber. You will guard the hall and stop the Calamity from taking it, even if you must kill him."
Shock spread across the faces of Yamikaji, Fard, and Goso. They had all assumed Takeshi was dead because of Yamikaji's plan.
Shido bent slightly to look Yamikaji in the eyes and said mockingly:
"Your little plan to kill him indirectly failed. He's wandering the city right now, looking for his precious sword…"
Yamikaji was assigned the mission of retrieving the source of the aura in the Great Pine Forest — Takeshi's sword — without killing its owner. At the same time, Shido was tasked with monitoring him to ensure the job was done.
Yamikaji realized Rasten had assigned someone to oversee him. So he decided he wouldn't kill Takeshi with his own hands.
Rasten walked past the kneeling Yamikaji with steady steps toward the exit, saying:
"This mission will determine your future, Yamikaji…"
Graide followed the leader, Rasten, toward the exit. Garmond left right after them. Shido pulled Takeshi's sword out of Yamikaji's severed hand and threw the hand aside, then took the sword to the treasure chamber.
This left only Fard and Goso in the hall, staring at Yamikaji — who now had no choice but to obey the leader's orders.