February 6th, 2026
At the Tokyo University - 9:59 PM
The cool night air in Tokyo had a bite to it, brushing lightly against Ray's face as he sat on the stone steps outside the university's gymnasium.
The sounds of the reunion party still echoed faintly from within - music, chatter, laughter - but they were all a muffled blur to him. In his hand, a half-empty bottle of beer. His once -pristine blazer was slightly creased from the earlier scuffle, but he looked unfazed.
The door opened, and Keito stepped out, limping slightly, a swollen purple bruise forming over his right temple. In one hand, he clutched a bag of ice cubes wrapped in a towel; in the other, two cold beers.
"You alright?" Keito grunted, sitting down next to Ray and handing him a fresh bottle.
Ray nodded once. "You?"
Keito winced, pressing the ice against his temple. "I'll live. You really fucked Ryuji up, bro. That scream is gonna haunt me."
Ray sipped his beer, the taste bitter and dry. "He asked for it."
"I know. And..." Keito paused, looking at him. "What was that about earlier? You just stormed off chasing those three guys. Who were they?"
Ray chuckled lowly, the kind of dark amusement only he understood. "Same clowns from earlier. Sloppy bastards. Didn't learn their lesson."
Keito stared at him. "What did you do to them?"
"Doesn't matter. They're out of the picture now," Ray said casually. His voice was calm, but there was steel beneath it.
Keito's eyes suddenly widened. "Did you kill them?"
"Not worth my time." Ray said coldly.
They sat in silence for a while, sipping their drinks. Finally, Ray spoke.
"When did it start? The cheating."
Keito sighed, his shoulders slumping. "I think it started when Angela invited Ryuji to their church."
Ray raised an eyebrow. "Church? I don't remember her being religious."
"Yeah, that's what threw me off. She started going like every Sunday. Said it made her feel 'pure.'" Keito mimicked air quotes. "So I tagged along. Just once."
Ray stared at him, eyes narrowing. "And?"
"And it felt...wrong, man." Keito shook his head. "Like, I don't even know what they were worshipping. The place was decorated with weird symbols. Everyone was wearing black and red. No crosses. No Jesus. No hymns."
Ray's body tensed. The way Keito described it sent shivers up his spine.
"Did they say the name of their god?"
Keito hesitated. "Nah. It was always just 'Her' or 'Our Matriarch.' Angela started acting weird after that. Cold. Secretive. Her phone was always off. That's when I started to feel something is going on between her and Ryuji."
"Matriarch?," Ray muttered, the beer bottle pausing mid-air.
This was none other than a Matriarch's cult. It seems her influence had already reached Japan.
"Huh?"
"It's nothing, Keito."
Then..
"I think I'm gonna visit that church one of these days." Ray said.
Keito turned to him slowly. "You're serious? You'll get burned in there."
"Burned? You don't even know what kind of belief they're believing."
"Fair enough." Keito then took a sip from his bottle.
At Reina's strip club, Rose Cage - 10:34 PM
Meanwhile, across the city, Reina sat in her private office above her strip club, the Rose Cage.
The room was thick with smoke and the murmur of flirtatious conversation. Her circle of friends - some dancers, some patrons - were lounging around on velvet sofas with their boyfriends, drunk on sake and high on lust.
But Reina wasn't part of the chaos. She sat alone, her sharp eyes glued to her phone screen. Her katana lay across her lap, glinting ominously under the neon light.
She had expected a message from the three men she sent to follow Ray. But silence.
Her fingers tapped the wooden desk. Once. Twice. Three times.
Then the door burst open.
A group of towering, tattooed Yakuza stormed in. They were dragging three broken, bloodied, and beaten figures - her failed stalkers.
Reina rose from her seat.
The music below muted into nothing. Time slowed.
The three men were thrown to the floor, groveling, blood seeping from their lips.
"Himura-sama! Please! Mercy!" one cried.
"We tried - we really did! He saw us again - like he had eyes in the back of his head!"
Reina walked toward them slowly, barefoot. Each step an omen.
"Twice now," she whispered. "You failed me twice."
They wept harder.
"I trusted you to watch over my man," she hissed. "And instead, you let him see you. Twice."
Her katana sang as she unsheathed it.
"Please! Reina-sama! He had really hawk-eyes."
"We were blending in. Then suddenly his foreign eyes were on us."
"We didn't know -"
Then...
One clean sweep.
All three heads fell, blood spraying across the marble floor.
Her friends screamed in horror. The boyfriends shouted in shock.
"What the fuck, Reina?!"
"Holy shit!"
"Oh my god!!"
But Reina said nothing. She stood amidst the blood, unbothered, staring at her blade. Her eyes darkened.
"Worthless imbeciles." Reina muttered, staring at the three headless corpses.
Sankai Private Medical - 11:08 PM
Back at a pristine hospital in Tokyo, the fluorescent lights hummed softly.
Sakura sat quietly in a leather chair beside her husband Shinjo's hospital bed. He looked pale but calm, hooked up to several machines.
"How are you really feeling these days?" Sakura asked.
"Alive," Shinjo muttered. "Barely."
She sat silently, folding her hands on her lap. "I wanted to ask you something."
He turned his head toward her. One eye open.
"What was your son like? During his childhood?"
A pause.
Then Shinjo chuckled bitterly. "Ray?Trouble."
"Trouble?"
"Yeah. The kind of kid who punched a bully for stealing someone else's lunch. Got into fights almost every week in middle school. But he was smart. Real smart. Could've gone to a top school if..." Shinjo stopped.
"If what?"
"If I hadn't been such a cold and firm bastard," Shinjo admitted, bitterness in his voice.
Sakura stared. This wasn't the man she knew. Not exactly.
"He wasn't close to you, was he?"
"No. I made sure of that. I thought discipline meant fear. Thought tough love would make him a man. But all I did was make him distant."
Sakura looked down at her lap. "When he was speaking to you, he doesn't even call you father anymore."
"I don't blame him. I don't deserve the title."
She looked up, her eyes soft. "Do you still care about him?"
"More than I ever let on."
"Then help me understand something."
"What?"
"What kind of man did you create in that boy?"
Shinjo looked at her. A mix of pride, regret, and fear glinted in his eyes.
"A storm in a suit. That's what he is. Looks calm. Polished. But inside? Fire and thunder. He doesn't start fights - but he always finishes them."
Sakura said. "And now he's back. In a world where he grew up in, but doesn't know what were the changes during his absence."
"He'll survive. He always does. But not without scars."
She stood, walking slowly to the window. The city lights shimmered below.
"I admit. I don't why I worry about him. Even thought we're still, in fact, strangers, I couldn't help but to worry for his safety."
She didn't know if it's her sudden attraction to Ray or her maternal instincts was speaking to her. One thing was for sure, she won't let Ray be alone forever.
"If that's true," Shinjo said, coughing, "then they better pray to whatever god they believe in. Because if they come for Ray... they won't live to tell the tale."