Location: The 100-Step Stairway (The Hillside)
Time: 12:00 AM (Midnight)
The bamboo forest was silent, save for the wind rattling the leaves like dry bones. The stone steps stretched up into the darkness, lit only by the torches of the Matsuzaki Clan Thralls lining the path.
At the top, Kenjiro Matsuzaki waited. He stood under the ancient Torii gate, his white hakama glowing in the moonlight. His blood-katana hummed with a low, menacing vibration.
At the bottom step, GiGi cracked her neck.
She wasn't wearing traditional robes. She was wearing her bomber jacket, her shorts, and her combat boots. Her hair was pulled back with Dante's titanium clip.
"Remember," Sora said, leaning against the minivan. "One on one. If I step in, the truce breaks. If Dante steps in, we all die."
"I know," GiGi said. She spat her gum onto the first step. "Don't blink."
She charged.
She didn't run up the stairs. She ran up the trees.
GiGi leaped onto a bamboo stalk, using her claws to grip the wood. She vaulted from tree to tree, a blur of motion, bypassing the stairs entirely.
"Predictable," Matsuzaki said.
He didn't move his feet. He simply swung his katana.
SLASH.
A wave of pressurized blood—Type-Ferro: Crescent Moon—sliced through the air. It cut three bamboo trees in half instantly.
GiGi was mid-air. She couldn't dodge.
"Gotcha!" she yelled.
She didn't dodge. She threw a handful of... marbles.
CLACK-CLACK-CLACK.
The marbles (stolen from Benji's collection) hit the stone steps, bouncing erratically. Matsuzaki frowned, distracted for a microsecond by the noise.
In that microsecond, GiGi threw a blood-wire. It wrapped around the falling bamboo tree. She yanked, riding the falling tree down like a zip-line, swinging directly at her brother's head.
"Crude," Matsuzaki scoffed.
He raised his free hand. The blood in his veins hardened, creating a geometric, hexagonal shield in the air.
CLANG.
GiGi's boot slammed into the shield. The impact shook the Torii gate.
She flipped back, landing on the top step. She was panting. Her brother hadn't even broken a sweat.
"You fight like a rat," Matsuzaki said, dusting off his shield. "Tricks. Toys. Where is your honor, Gin?"
"Honor is heavy," GiGi grinned, baring her fangs. "I travel light."
She snapped her fingers.
Behind Matsuzaki, a tiny sound beeped.
Beep. Beep.
Matsuzaki turned. Stuck to the back of his pristine white hakama was a sticky-bomb (a modified drone battery Benji had rigged). GiGi had slapped it on him when she kicked the shield.
"Boom," GiGi whispered.
BANG.
The small explosion wasn't enough to kill a Highborn, but the force blasted Matsuzaki forward. He stumbled, his perfect posture broken. Soot stained his white robes.
"YOU INSOLENT—" Matsuzaki roared, turning around, his eyes glowing with rage.
GiGi didn't wait. She dropped to the ground and swept his legs with a wire.
Matsuzaki jumped over the wire—but GiGi anticipated it. She wasn't aiming for his legs. She was aiming for the torches.
The wire sliced through three wooden torch stands. They fell, setting the dry bamboo leaves on the ground on fire.
Smoke billowed up instantly. Thick, grey smoke.
"I can't see!" one of the Thralls shouted.
"I don't need to see," Matsuzaki growled. He swung his katana, clearing the smoke with a gust of wind pressure.
But GiGi was gone.
"Where are you?!" Matsuzaki yelled.
"Up here, bro!"
He looked up. GiGi was standing on top of the Torii gate. She was silhouetted against the moon.
"You wanted Gin Matsuzaki?" she shouted. "She's dead! I'm GiGi! And this is MY city!"
She jumped. But she didn't attack with a weapon. She bit her own tongue, filling her mouth with blood.
As she fell, she spat a mist of blood into the air.
Type-Ferro: Iron Rain.
The droplets hardened into hundreds of tiny needles. They rained down on Matsuzaki like a shotgun blast.
Matsuzaki raised his shield again—but the needles were too small, too many. They pinged off his shield, but dozens found the gaps. They tore through his robes. They grazed his cheek. One embedded itself in his shoulder.
He staggered back, bleeding. His white suit was ruined.
GiGi landed in front of him, her knife at his throat.
Matsuzaki froze. The knife was pressing against his jugular.
"Yield," GiGi panted. Her eyes were wild.
Matsuzaki looked at the knife. Then he looked at his sister. He saw the dirt on her face. The cheap clothes. The titanium hair clip made by a half-breed.
He laughed. A cold, bitter laugh.
"You have won the duel," Matsuzaki said softly. "But you have lost your way."
He dropped his katana. It dissolved back into liquid blood.
"The Matsuzaki Clan will withdraw from the docks," he said. "But know this, Gin. The Dominion is not just a clan. It is a tide. You may have stopped a wave... but you cannot stop the ocean."
He turned and walked away, descending the stairs into the smoke. His Thralls followed him, disappearing into the night.
GiGi stood alone at the top of the stairs. Her adrenaline crashed. Her knees buckled.
But before she hit the ground, a black umbrella caught her.
Dante was there. He didn't say anything. He just held her up.
"Did you... get it on camera?" GiGi wheezed.
"Benji recorded the whole thing," Dante said. "Even the part where you threw marbles."
"Good," GiGi smiled, closing her eyes. "Send it to the group chat."