The room was a battlefield between tow figures.
One was a tall woman in a flowing red dress, her face hidden behind a black veil. Twin tessen fans spun in her hands like glinting silver storms.
Daniel froze. He didn't need to see her face to know who it was.
'Elektra!'
The split in her dress rose daringly high, nearly to her waist, giving her legs a deadly freedom. Each step, each kick, was a blur of precision. But one misstep, one distraction, and the pointed heels she wore — sharpened like daggers — could betray her.
Those were weapons.
Daniel found himself almost impressed. Most women couldn't even walk in such heels for long, but Elektra wielded them as part of her arsenal, her movements honed by years of brutal training. The old man who'd raised her — trained her — had made her into something terrifying.
Every kick was a flash of steel. Every sweep of her tessen sent sparks against the blade of her opponent.
Her opponent was no amateur.
A Japanese man, tall and broad-shouldered — unusually tall, easily seven feet — with the sharp, predatory calm of a killer. His weapon was a long sword, an imitation Tang blade, but he handled it with such speed and precision that every slash grazed the space near Elektra's neck.
When she ducked low, he shifted seamlessly, his blade sweeping down toward her thighs with ruthless disregard for anything but victory.
This was a fight to kill.
In battles like this, strength wasn't everything. Reflex, muscle memory, and relentless training — these decided who walked away.
And while Elektra's style was lethal and clever, Daniel could see the truth.
She was losing.
Her opponent wasn't worried. Not one bit. His stance, his measured movements, he was simply holding her there, waiting for backup.
Backup that was already on its way.
Within half a minute, Daniel knew, the hall would be flooded with more ninjas, more killers. Elektra wouldn't survive that.
He leaned back from the glass window, listening. Footsteps — quiet but unmistakable — echoed from the hallway beyond.
'How the hell did she even get here?'
Daniel had barely made it to the 13th floor himself, and only by brute-forcing the elevator codes. For Elektra to sneak in without setting off the building's alarms…
He glanced at her gown again.
'A banquet?'
Perhaps she'd charmed her way into someone's pocket, walked off with an access card and password. It was the kind of thing Elektra excelled at.
The first wave of ninjas reached the hallway, moving like shadows, their steps soundless. Elektra didn't notice — her attention was locked on the giant with the sword.
Daniel's jaw tightened. If he waited any longer, she'd be dead.
He lifted a hand, murmuring a faint incantation. A pulse of invisible energy shot forward, snaring the Japanese man's ankle like a vice.
The man faltered.
In a duel this tight, one slip meant death.
Elektra's heel lashed out, the sharpened tip cutting across his throat like a blade. He gurgled once, collapsed, and went still.
Without hesitation, Elektra snatched a thick ledger from the desk, tossed a pellet to the floor, and vanished in a sudden plume of smoke.
By the time the first wave of ninjas stormed in, she was gone.
Daniel followed her movements from the shadows. Elektra's access card granted her a swift escape down the elevator shaft, but not all the way to the ground floor. She dropped out at the 12th floor, seconds before the system went into lockdown. Any later, and she'd have been trapped.
The building's entire security network flared to life. Traps triggered, doors sealed.
Elektra sprinted down the stairwell, pursued by waves of Hand assassins.
Daniel didn't chase her.
He remained in the Japanese man's office, crouched low, watching.
The ninjas barely glanced at their fallen leader. His corpse was swiftly wrapped in a white shroud and carried away. Their lack of mourning was chilling.
'So, this is how they bring them back…'
Daniel's eyes narrowed as he watched the last of them leave. Once the office was empty, he moved.
A lion-shaped statue on a side shelf rotated silently beneath his touch, and a hidden pulley system clicked into motion. The wall's screen slid upward, revealing a secret room tucked behind.
The room was small — barely ten square meters — but packed with wealth and secrets. Artifacts from across the globe gleamed in the dim light. A single auctioned piece here could fetch millions.
But Daniel's focus wasn't on the gold, nor the jewelry stashed in the safe.
It was on the ledgers.
Dozens of them, neatly arranged in a cabinet. Each was a detailed record of Roxxon Energy's dealings — vast sums, illicit transactions, names, dates, places.
Daniel skimmed them, then picked up only one, the newest ledger, covering the past six months. It was enough. With this, he could uncover the Hand's recent operations in New York.
The others he left deliberately. Let the Hand think Elektra had taken them. The longer they misdirected their suspicions, the better.
The codes in the ledger were complex, layered in a cryptic language that would take time to decipher. But Daniel wasn't worried. He could always come back for the rest.
If he remembered correctly, the Hand had five leaders. Only two were active in New York. The rest were hidden. Even Daniel didn't know where.
One thing was certain: the Japanese swordsman Elektra killed wasn't one of them. His strength, though formidable, wasn't at the level of the Hand's true masters.
Daniel exhaled sharply. Elektra would be fine. The Hand would hunt her, but she wasn't alone, not with Stick and Daredevil backing her. And, of course, she was still tied to Kingpin.
The night air was sharp as Daniel appeared at the edge of a derelict chemical plant in Queens, tracking the ninjas who had taken the corpse of the swordsman.
The place reeked of decay and chemicals. Most of it was abandoned, but that was precisely why the Hand had chosen it.
Here, Daniel saw them preparing their most chilling ritual — resurrection.
He tightened his grip on the ledger.
'The secret between life and death… they've mastered it. But how?'
'And, more importantly... can I turn that power against them?'