Sirens wailed through Reflynne's Central Security as if the entire city suddenly realized it had made a terrible mistake.
Masaboru didn't hurry.
He stepped over Kouki's unconscious form, pushed aside shattered stone, and walked toward the main exit with the lazy confidence of someone leaving a bathhouse… not a high-security prison. His hand brushed the door.
The metal buckled.
The hinges screamed.
The reinforced frame snapped like damp driftwood.
The doors of Central Security swung open.
And Reflynne's nightmare walked out.
Alarms screeched overhead. Mana-seals ripped apart in showers of pale sparks. Guards scrambled into defensive formations—but the Suicidal Division was already moving.
Masaboru paused in the doorway.
"I forgot something."
The others turned.
Masaboru casually walked back into the prison bathroom, closed the door, and—far too audibly—handled his business.
Zentake covered his face. "Bro… seriously? Now?"
Gaikotsu blinked very slowly—one long, glacial blink that took an entire second.
Nogare sighed. "Just let him finish. He fights better after he unloads."
From behind the wooden door:
"Shut up, Nogare. It's called routine."
A flush.
A door swing.
Masaboru rejoined them as if nothing happened.
"Alright," he said. "Let's go destroy something."
Outside, the corridor was already in chaos.
The first guard lunged forward with a spear.
Nogare stepped once.
The guard fell without understanding how.
The second guard tried to cast a barrier.
Zentake inhaled sharply, then exhaled a whisper of hazy black vapor. The corridor walls sagged, liquefying like melting wax. Metal armor drooped. Swords curled. The smell of scorched mana filled the air.
A third guard ran.
Gaikotsu—moving about as fast as a moss-covered sloth with joint problems—raised a hand. His fingers twitched in slow motion, each movement taking an eternity.
A corpse on the floor twitched in return.
Then it rose.
Then another.
And another.
By the time Gaikotsu's hand finished its sluggish arc, five skeletons stood at attention.
Zentake clapped. "He's speedrunning today."
Gaikotsu turned his head at a glacial angle. "I sped up."
Nogare scoffed. "If that's your 'sped up,' then my grandma's a thunder god."
"I heard that," Gaikotsu said, 0.3 seconds later than expected.
Further down the corridor, a quiet cell door remained intact.
Shinjitsu stopped in front of it.
Inside, Kaito Mugenrei sat cross-legged, eyes half-open, pretending that he was simply meditating and not avoiding responsibility.
Shinjitsu didn't reach for the door. He didn't need to.
"Kaito," he whispered. "Enough pretending."
Kaito's breath caught.
"Walk with us."
The cell bars liquefied like ink under the pressure of Shinjitsu's sealed presence. Kaito hesitated for one heartbeat.
Then he stood.
No chains.
No hesitation.
He stepped into the hall and the group—mad, broken, terrifying—became whole again.
Masaboru grinned. "Family reunion complete."
Zentake nodded. "Let's go make the city regret locking us up."
Across Reflynne, the first burst of chaotic mana shattered windows from the market district to the skybridge spires.
Omina stopped mid-drill, one blade pointed toward the horizon. "Yoshiya… that aura…"
Yoshiya's eyes widened. "That's not an enemy."
A second pulse struck the ground, cracking the cobblestone under their feet.
Yoshiya whispered through clenched teeth.
"…The Suicidal Division just woke up."
Omina grinned in horrified awe. "Finally… something interesting."
The third pulse hit.
Reflynne began to burn.