9:25 AM— Yama district, Monastery stairs.
The morning sun cut through the mountain mist, casting shadows down the winding stone staircase that led away from the monastery.
Kaito, Rika, and Ayame descended— boots tapping against the ancient steps. Trees rustled on either side of the stairs. A crow cawed somewhere above.
They were nearly at the bottom when Kaito, who was carrying a black sword bag strapped on his shoulder… slowed, narrowing his eyes.
To the right side of the staircase — just near the final stretch — sat a cluster of beggars on the stone stairs. Bald heads. Overgrown beards. Dirty robes. Blank, hollow stares.
Kaito whispered, "...stay close."
As the group slowed down their pace a bit to walk down more cautiously, slowly descending down the stairs passing right next to the group of beggars on their right.
Pressing themselves at the far left border of the steps.
Something wasn't right. Too many of them. Too still.
The kind of stillness that watched.
And then—
FLASH.
One of the beggars sprang to life, pulling a rusty pocket knife from beneath his robe and lunging straight for Ayame.
Kaito moved first.
He stepped in, left hand snapping forward — just in time to take the blade into his arm before the blade reached Ayame's stomach. His other hand came up fast — CRACK! — a sharp headbutt to the man's face, knocking him flat against the stone.
Kaito gritted his teeth. "Damn it... it's been fifteen minutes, and we're already facing the Beggar Clan?"
Behind him, robes dropped to the ground like old curtains — the remaining four attackers rising to full height, pulling out pipes, rusted rods, drainage lids, and makeshift clubs.
They weren't beggars.
They were bounty hunters.
Caption:
[ { BEGGAR CLAN}
"One of the oldest bounty-hunting sects. Masters of ambush and poverty disguise." ]
One of them rushed. Kaito greeted him with a spinning kick to the ribs, followed by a clean smack into his face.stair.
Every move was fast, sharp, and precise.
Rika grabbed Ayame by the wrist. "Move."They bolted down the last steps toward the parked black sedan,
Meanwhile Kaito faced the clan members.One of them tried swinging a crowbar — Kaito ducked low, drove his leg into the attacker's making him trip and drove his face into the stairs, the attacker's face landed on the stair's corner with mouth open breaking a few of his teeth.
Kaito took the opportunity to perform a curb stomp, slowly kicking his face into the monastery step.
Kaito followed behind after dropping the final attacker with swinging the same crowbar used on him into the attacker's head, blood splurted out of the skull.
Kaito reaches the bottom of the stairs panting, he pauses for a while and yanks out the lodged knife in his left forearm, blood pours out making a little puddle on the stone floor of the lower complex then kaito proceeds to discard the knife by throwing in away onto the floor, he walks his way to the car's door, sitting in and slamming it shut.
The moment the car doors slammed, Rika turned the ignition. The tires screeched as the vehicle moved towards the monastery's front gates.
The black sedan swerved right into the roads of the inner city of yama district.
Kaito, while tying a piece of his torn monk robe around his knife wound,notices blood leaking out of his torso "dammit, the wounds are opening up." he thinks to himself.
His eyes roll up as he gets dizzy from blood loss, he rests his head onto the seat, resting such that his sight was on the rearview mirror.
The last thing he saw before blacking out was a green van.
Kaito suddenly woke up at a gas station, a few hippies nearby singing. The sun hung directly overhead.
2:41 PM — Outskirts of Yama District
The sound of speeding vehicles cut through the music every now and then.
"When the sun shines on the mountainsAnd the night is on the runIt's a new day, it's a new wayAnd I fly up to the sun…"
The hippies sang as Kaito stirred awake, brows furrowed, eyes dull and heavy.
Nearby, Rika spoke to the gas station attendant."—how much would that be?"
Their conversation faded into the background.
Kaito's gaze drifted—and then snapped into focus.
The same van.
Parked just outside the station.
His body tensed.
"Rika," he said sharply, already pushing himself up, "get in the car. Now."
She turned, confused, but something in his tone made her move without question.
They got into the black sedan.
The engine roared to life.
As soon as they pulled out of the station—
—the green van's engine started.
It rolled forward.
Followed.
Kaito looked back, jaw tightening.
"That van… it's been tailing us since Yama."
Rika's grip on the wheel stiffened. "What?"
"Where are we?" he asked quickly.
"We're about to enter the next city," she replied. "Just a few minutes out."
"Damn it… we need to lose them somehow." He glanced at the rearview mirror again. "Speed up."
The highway stretched ahead—long, empty, remote.
In the distance, massive buildings began to rise, cutting into the horizon.
The city.
Rika pressed harder on the accelerator.
The engine growled.
The van stayed on them.
Relentless.
Just as they crossed into the city—
The man inside the van with a beanie a black toothpick in his mouth and rugged stubble, reached out to his walkie talkie and said firmly " move."
So more pursuers on bikes with helmets begin to add on tailing behind the car with the van.
Kaito notices that.
" We have pursuers," he says. Then Rika on the driver's seat replies " yeah I have noticed."
As she takes a look at them through the rearview mirror, while ayame tries to take a look at them by turning around and looking at them through the back windshield.
Kaito notices that the few more bikers have added to the gang
As kaito keeps looking at the pursuers through the rearview mirror, the bikers pull out uzi kind of guns out, before they click the trigger, kaito turns back and makes ayame who was looking out of the window, duck.
then-BANG BANG BANG!!
The bikers begin to rain bullets onto the car.
Rika turned the car left onto the next major road.
The bikers and the green van followed, still in pursuit. Rika shifted into higher gears, weaving between traffic, cutting through the crowded lane with precision.
Bullets continued to rain from behind.
Tires screeched. Horns blared. The black sedan zigzagged through the inner-city chaos of the Yama District and took a sharp turn right into a quiet empty street, compared to all the traffic in the previous one.
The bikers were still persistent, but the van didn't follow them into that street.
While escaping from the bikers, rika suddenly spoke
"I hope you know how to drive." she said.
"Pretty much." Kaito replied hesitantly.
Then screech, the car suddenly jolted to a stop. The bikers rode past the car.
Back in the car, kaito now in driver's seat hunched down a little to look at the gear lever.
"This is first gear, where is gear 5th???." he said.
Screams erupted in the car as rika and ayame panicked
From the back seat, Ayame shouted:
"You said you can drive!"
Kaito replied
"Relax. I've got two days of driving school experience." as he kept messing with the gear lever.
"Two—?!" both ayame and rika exclaimed in unison.
Before they could say anything else, Kaito threw the sedan into reverse, tires screeching as he backed up at full speed. The bikers ahead slowed, turning their handlebars back towards the car.
Kaito smirked. "See? All part of the plan."
The "plan" apparently being to barrel backwards on the road while bikers with guns try to put them down.
Rika gritted her teeth. "Dammit!!."
Saying so..
Click.
Rika popped a round, tablet-shaped gum into her mouth.
Kaito glanced at her with a raised brow.
"This really the time for gum, lady?"
No answer.
Ayame from the back seat spoke amidst the gun shots, " It's her Nero ability."
Suddenly—Rika slid halfway out of the passenger window, gun in hand.
One of the bikers narrowed his eyes.
"...What the hell?"
BANG!
One biker's skull snapped back — a clean shot between the eyes. His bike crashed into the pavement.
Then another.
BANG.
Another rider dropped, bullets ripping through his helmet.
Ayame, watching from the back seat, spoke.
"Those gums... they push her brain into overdrive. 200% activity. Reflexes, calculation, aim — all off the charts."
Kaito in the driver's seat sighed saying "Such a show off ."
Rika, half-dangling from the passenger window, lined up another shot.
BANG.
Another clean hit. The chase thinned.
Caption :
Nero ability: "Cognition Gum"