2:14
The smell of perfume; that of heavy flowers and sweet incense was so thick it became foul stench which poorly hid the smell of sweat and lust. The walls which lined the hallway that Beniise walked down were decorated with the most grotesque of erotica. Oil paintings from the likes of Takatsubaki Masahiro, Hokusai Tokitaro and Mada Tojō all hung up as if works of fine art in great glass cases with golden plaques underneath each one. Trying not to snort at the sight in fear of the smell further assaulting his nose, Beniise settled with a curl of his lip and narrowed brow.
I’m going to kill someone.
Rang through his head, something which had his hands clenched so tight the tendons almost felt like rubber bands ready to snap at any moment. Veins thick and pumping hot blood ran along his powerful arms and up to his scared face which looked far too boyish for the deep gashes permanently etched into it.
The woman he was going to fight was arguably one who deserved to be killed, no definitely deserved to be killed. And he feared her, feared her most out of all the Toumeikan. Not for her magic, strength or intelligence but her vile sense of lust of pleasure.
With a deep breath he slid open the Shoji door softly and took a single step into the room, the stench hitting him immediately almost made him gag but he forced his face to be as hard as stone even if his stomach churned like a centrifuge.
Men, young and old, fat and thin or with muscle so fine and ones you’d think they’d been skilled alive all formed a bizarre formation. Each of them quivering with their limbs trembling and teeth grit, sweat in a literal pool from under their naked bodies.
Behind the strange formation and resting atop the canopy bead shaped like a heart but colored black with silk sheets was the woman who Akatora had ordered his son to kill. A golden chalice shaped into a strange phallic yet breast-like shape swishing with red wine.
“Masunga Mako.” Beniise muttered upon seeing her, something which the women grinned at gleefully. Her thin blood red lips curled up to reveal black stained teeth which clacked with her laughter.
“In the irresistible flesh.” She laughed, her voice like a bag of bones being rattled from decades of smoking. Pulling her Kimono back some she revealed her bare body, wrinkled and covered in loose swirling veins like noodles colored blue and purple. “Have you finally come to try and claim me for yourself like so many others like yourself have before? Even men as robust and thick with veins as you are fell to my touch you know?”
Beniise frowned at her dialogue, first he wasn’t quite sure which part of her was supposed to be irresistible. She was cold and thin, so much so it looked like if she fell wrong on the carpet it would be enough to kill her. Deep wrinkles covered her body as well as the aforementioned swirling dark veins. Ash white make up was caked on her face as it tried desperately to hide the sunken in skeletal contours it showed. “All of you, get out of here please.” He said looking at the pyramid of men.
“...”
But the men didn’t move, they didn’t even react, they only held their forms, looking as if they were ready to faint at any moment, some even had blood ripping from their noses.
“Trying to boss around my toys already?” Mako hummed, setting her chalice of wine down onto her ebony black bed side table. “You’re young so it makes sense you’re hasty, quick to the point and always wanting to finish early, but never knowing how to enjoy the journey and experience.” Standing up from her bed, she tied her red obi around her waist tightly and snuggled the black kimono over her shoulders. Bone thin toes wiggling into grey slippers she pulled a cigarette from her bedside dress and lit it with a match. “If you wanna boss them around you, you’ll have to conquer me first. But if you fail, you’ll end up just like them. Another body in the trench.” She grinned with a puff of smoke; shaped like a heart which drifted towards Beniise.
“Disgusting.” Beniise growled as he smacked away the puff of smoke which burst through the air in a cloud of grey. “As if I’d ever let a nasty old thing like you even touch me.”
“!”
There was a sudden burst of aura, followed by the sound of a scream- no many screams. The men who formed the pyramid of flesh crumbled to the ground in a bone snapping pile landing atop one another as they gasped for air. Hands reaching for their throat as if it grabbed a collar which choked them.
“Nasty old thing!?” Mako growled, crushing the cigarette in the palm of her bone thin hand Mako’s neck turned into a mass of wires and cables. Veins sprouting across the wrinkles as it trembled with a sound.
“Stop!” Beniise barked, clapping his hands together a piece of paper appeared before him which he grabbed and quickly ripped in half.
[Debt Collection: Exorcism!]
With a flash of blinding light suddenly the mass of men gasped for air in unison, groaning in pain they felt at their necks where a deep red and purple mark now lay. As if hung by a noose they sniffled and whined with tears.
“Go now!” Beniise roared at them, the men quickly obeying; they nearly trampled over one another to get out the door as if the devil himself was on their heels.
“A crafty one aren’t you?” Mako snapped with a harsh laugh, black teeth clacking loudly. Her bright red face looked more skeleton than human anymore. Beads of sweat wiping away the makeup. “I’ll have fun breaking you!” She screamed.
Beniise gave no reaction- other than a slight chuckle, staring down at his large hand, one which could fit her entire head in its palm and crush like a soda can he spoke. “I’ve never taken a life before.”
“?” Mako snarled with a raised brow, head tilting to the side.
“I think I get why father picked you, I wasn’t quite sure at first but I think it was to teach me a lesson.”
“What the hell are you blabbering abou-”
“And I think you’re the perfect person to teach me it.” Beniise sighed, cutting Mako off and looking down at her. Eyes narrowed and full of fire.
2:25 PM
Kenji soared through the sky, leaping from building top to building top you’d think he was weightless. Something like this would have been pure fantasy to him only a few days prior but now it was as easy as jumping over a pothole.
With his Katana drawn and using Observation he searched everywhere. Of course this wasn’t a conscious choice, it was something he did naturally. His slanted black eyes flicked around at every shape and his long pointed nose sniffed every scent in the air. His ears strained so every sound sent a shiver down his spine he couldn’t find who he was looking for.
It wasn’t any particular person exactly- more so an idea of a person, someone strong enough to challenge him. To make him test himself properly. The fight to the point where he bled and felt death's door only a single misstep away. To face a foe so much stronger than him that it seemed impossible to defeat them; but when he did a feeling almost orgasmic washed down his body. Pain turned into ecstasy as he was their corpse at his feet, their life taken by his Katana, someone he shouldn’t have been able to defeat by his own power.
To Tatakayaiba Kenji T, the Last Samurai, that was the purest form of joy. Below him swarms of battles between Yakuza and Venators alike occurred. People fighting with fists, bats, pipes and swords. Some cast magic throwing balls of fire, stones conjured from thin air or bolts of electricity, some seemed to send shockwaves across the floor hitting someone far away and others controlled the foe into fighting their own allies.
But not a single person down there is interested in Kenji. They were like ants, what joy could a hunter find it stepping on ants one by one when you could shoot an arrow through the heart of a bear?
“!”
Then as if hearing a sharp whistle assault his ears he sensed it, no he FELT it. The whistle which nearly hurt his ears was so sharp and loud it caused his body to twist mid air as he came down upon the ledge of a six story building balcony. Pumping enhancement into his legs he leapt in the direction that sensation had come from. The balcony caving in and crumbling into a fall of rubble to the street below as he did so, the windows across the entire building's front shattering, shards of glass raining down joined the rubble in a deadly storm of destruction.
He chased that sound, that scent, that sensation, like a starving man would a rabbit he saw the days old tracks of.
Then he found it, the source hiding inside a sky scraped made of steel, concrete and glass, piercing the heavens; the thought of using the front door didn’t even cross his mind. With a single leap he smashed straight into the 9th story window, glass flying everywhere a swarm of men inside the building, hundreds instantly whipped around to see who had dared assault their hideout.
Only to see Tatakayiba Kenji standing there, sword drawn, eyes to near slits and mouth pulled into such a wide inhuman grin it seemed as if his cheeks should have been torn open.
“Hey-”
A single reaction wasn’t permitted before Kenji began the carnage. As if the Yakuza had been put into a human blender there was a tsunami of blood and gore, screams dulled out by death rattles and the sound of squelching innards.
Slipping on each other and their own entrails, bones shattering and organs bursting, all sixty men who had been stationed on that floor were reduced to a pile of black and red in seconds.
Instantly Kenji sprinted up the stairwell, into the next floor. What was once a simple office for software development had now become a castle for him to storm. And as he emerged onto the next floor to see another mass of people shocked to see him there drenched in blood the blender spun again.
# # #
2:14
“What a hot mess you’ve gotten us into, boss.” Kakune Toru sighed, looking to Kuroyama. The hachibuto was short and fat, standing 4 '11 yet weighing nearly 300lbs his eyes were somewhat round with a heavy thick unibrow above them. His nose was long and somewhat crooked, curving down into a beak-like shape just above the many chins which sat where his neck should have been.
Kuroyama didn’t even hear what Kakune had said, his thick sausage like fingers running through his oily blading map of slicked back hair he ground his stained and rotten teeth. “Impossible, impossible, it's impossible!” He screamed. “How could this happen!? Domushi swore to me that it was safe, that we were secured!” He screamed out, spit flying as his fat jiggled.
“I told ya not to trust him ya know. Scum can spot scum and let me tell ya what. That guy is the worst damn glob of trash I’ve ever met.” Kakune shrugged. To call him handsome wouldn’t have been far off, he was on the taller side with a tan complexion as if having tanned for a summer. His yellow eyes were sharp and above them lay smooth blonde hair parted perfectly down the middle into curtains. “Right Heifuu?” He asked, turning to the man who sat on in a rolling chair before an office desk a few cubicles down.
“Domushi is bad news, he should've been taken care of a long time ago.” Hyuga sniffed. Also known by the title "Surgeon of Horror” his hands were like scalpels and with them he could warp one’s body in a number of ways. Under Kuroyama's direction the spell was normally used to enhance a woman's profitable features however it could also be used as a deadly weapon. He’d ended many fights with a simple graze of one's flesh with a finger tip. He was of an aged appearance with deep set blue eyes with long wrinkles and a squared brow. His nose jumped in the middle; he had messily spiked white hair. His face which looked somewhat youthful, perhaps allowing him to pass for being in his late 40s contrasted greatly with the deep wrinkled neck which sat below it. His hands alike withered and gnarled were more like a man on death's door.
“Where are my other Joshin, where are Masuke and Yodan?!” Kuroyama snapped, ignoring what Kakune and Hyuga said, his throat giggling with each vowel.
“Dunno.” Kakune answered, lighting a cigarette. “Masuke didn’t show up at all, said he would later but he probably got carried away straightening out his girls.” Frowning he scratched his brow. “He was in a pretty bad mood so you might have to clean them up afterwards.” He nodded to Heifuu.
“And Yodan!?”
“Ran off earlier, something about finding the love of his life. I keep telling him that the only way for girls is to treat me like trash but he won’t listen. Always something about true love and commitment. He’ll never get how girls really are until he gets broken by one, I was tryna prevent it but looks like I just gotta let the car crash play out.”
“I didn’t ask for your opinion on Yodan or the dick he can’t even see over his stomach or Masuke beating street girls! I want them here protecting me now! I am your top priority! Without met you’re nothing, nothing more then more Johns on the road side! If anything happens I’ll have your dick and balls cut off and put you in a brothel!” Kuroyam screamed, his hand grew to the size of roughly a car tire. Swinging it into a concrete pillar next to him in the office it was blown apart into bits of dust, reverberations sent throughout the room.
“Calm down boss it’s fine, as long as we’re here no is gonna mess with ya.” Kakun sighed, waving his hands through the air. “Just go up there to the top floor, watch some videos and relax. We got this.”
“Tch.” Kuroyama spat a loogie at Kakune who side stepped the dark green blob. His thick greasy lips smacking loudly he turned away from the two Joshin and waddled up the staircase with a penguin-like stride. Jiggling with each step and cursing under his breath. “If someone so much as comes near this building I want them dead! I don’t care if it’s Kobe himself, bring me their heads!”
“Aye aye sir.” Kakune laughed with a half hearted salute to Kuroyama's back. “I wouldn't worry too much about it though.” He muttered, “Who’s crazy enough to raid a tower guarded with this many Kasu and Hikari anyways?” He smirked.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
# # #
2:27 PM
It was a horrific sigh, corpses lay in chunks at every corner reduced to blobs of flesh and gore. Enough blood to fill a pool and swim in it was kicked up in a splash with every step Kenji took.
The silver color of his Katana dyed black from flesh and dried blood he walked up the stairs to the next floor, the twelfth one he’d cleared so far, hundreds head by his hands. But it still wasn’t enough to satiate him, not challenging enough to draw anything out. It didn’t matter who it was, they all had fallen to the same with a single slash so far. Whether it be their neck, chest, stomach or torso it took but one flick of his Katana and they were killed, no hesitation or remorse behind that blade.
More Yakuza had come from both above and below, running up the stairwells only to be added to the blender as well. But now the rooms were empty, five simple and plain offices. Rows of cubicles, filling cabinets stacked atop on another and whiteboards covered in charts and graphs made Kenji feel something deep down in the pit of his stomach, a curling pain emotion which he shrugged away.
Moving up the next set of stairs, blood still dripping and paying no mind to how loud the clacking of his footsteps was, with a wet squelch at each one he came upon the next story where two men were. Two men worth his time and effort grinned widely, cheeks nearly tearing open.
The first man spun around to greet Kenji, eyes wide and the cigarette he had in his mouth falling to the floor as his jaw slacked. His skin tan with blonde hair split down the middle and a pale white shirt on he let out a yelp. “H-how the hell-”
Before he could even finish his sentence Kenji lunged forwards, his Katana making a perfect arch through the air with a hiss of wind snapping; he didn't even need a form to slay the man. His chest cleaved open with a tidal wave of blood turning his shirt pink and maroon; the first Joshin Kakune Tooru was killed.
Just barely having time to react, the second man, with white hair and a blue button up shirt like a school child would wear lunged at Kenji. His hands outstretched and radiating danger Kenji could sense off instinct alone that even being grazed by a fingers tip could be nasty.
The spell's name was [Tijuana Surgeon], Heifuu himself enjoyed to target the places one least expected. Tendons, vocal cords, joints and the like. He would mangle you slowly, warp you, mutilate you until you were beyond repair all for his own joy.
SLICE!
Yet those cruel hands flew from the wrists of Heifuu with a spray of blood. He’d not even come close to Kenji before it happened, he never even had a chance to try and touch him before he’d lost his hands. Left now with only stumps which sprayed blood he couldn’t let a scream escape his throat before Kenji's foot slammed into stomach, sending him flying backwards and crashing through the window which shattered upon impact. The man Hyuga Heifuu was sent falling over 27 stories to his death on the street below.
“Next.” Kenji muttered, flicking the blood from his Katana. The hands of Heifuu, still twitching on the ground.
“H-hold on there!” Kakune coughed wetly.
“?”
Rising from the ground, his shirt still stained red but the giant gash across his chest and Kakune wiped the blood from his mouth. “You’re a-”
Before he could finish his sentence he was one more sliced down by Kenji. This time his neck severed nearly to the point of falling from his body only a thin piece of flesh holding together. Choking on his blood in his throat as he still tried to speak it gushed from his mouth and neck like a geyser.
Then with a flash of light Kakunes neck seemed to be back to normal, but before he could even rise from the ground he was once more cut down by Kenji's blade. This time in two places, his chest carved open wide enough to see through it the floor below and his head split down the middle so his brains sprayed out across the floor in a portrait of gore.
“...” Kenji watched silently and waited for something to happen, without fail there was a flash of light and the man came back from the dead gasping for air.
“W-wait-!”
SLICE!
This time it was in three pieces, from his groin to the crown of his head, across his neck and from his right shoulder to left hip. Blood gushing out again it seemed never ending.
Kenji watched the sight with a grin, “Let’s see how many times it takes to kill ya.”
# # #
2:27 PM
Sanu Mikata was a woman of average appearance, a woman engaged to one Takebu Satoru. Her personality could be described as plain and almost boring, she rarely talked, ate whatever was on sale at the local convenience store and drank the cheapest beer. If you asked her what her goal in life was she would answer something akin to “To work and have a family.” A simple yet admirable goal.
However hidden behind her averageness was a secret, one she wanted to keep hidden as best she could, a thing she could never forget and always kept locked up inside her deepest darkest parts of her consciousness.
She’d cheated on her partner, but she couldn’t help it! He was not charming, so cool and suave with tan skin and blonde hair. His eyes narrow and sharp like a predator he whispered the most foul but enticing things into her ear and she felt nothing but lust take over. And who had the right to blame her? It wasn’t her fault, he was so charming, it was just a simple mistake she told herself.
But she couldn’t hide the regret, the shame and remorse the morning after. Waking up in a hotel room, soaking wet with sweat and smelling pungent with no one lying next to her. The bill in her name. The man hadn’t even left a note for her.
She felt horrible of course, guilt racking her but she couldn’t confess. It would ruin everything, she did what she was supposed to be. Married a man she loved, got a higher education and worked for a somewhat important office, why should one mistake define her even if it was such a terrible one?
She buried it deep down, hiding it away, not letting even the memories caress her. But she couldn’t deny her dreams. It was always of him every night his tan glistening skin shining under the moonlight atop her. The things he said to her which seemed to press the buttons she needed just right. He just filled her lust in ways her fiance could never.
On August 1st at 2:27 PM in Sarutou prefecture Takanu ward of Samichi city as she was inside a filing closet Mikata felt something strange. A warm feeling as if someone had poured liquid across her chest she looked down to see blood. No, not just blood but a gash. One so large and deep you’d think a Katana had been taken to her chest.
“Wha-”
But before she could do so little as to question it she fell over. Vision blurring the only thing she could think of in her last moments was not of Satoru but that man Kakune Tooru, for some reason his face burned itself into her mind before everything went black.
# # #
2:27 PM
Kudo Eika was a girl you knew was bad news from the mere sigh of her. Wearing a dress so short you saw more than you didn’t with ripped fishnet leggings and a crop top which nearly exposed her breasts she screamed obscenities at the passersbies on their way home from work. Her smeared make-up smeared and a bottle of cheap liquid in hand which sloshed around and spilt as he swung her arms around as she screamed out from the street corner.
Her vileness only increased when she saw a woman with a man, the two clearly in a romantic relationship. She threw the bottle of liquor at them, nearly hitting the girl in the head if not for her partner smacking it out of the air.
“What hell is your problem bitch!?” The girl yelled at Eika who slurred an incomprehensible sling of insults and curses, tears running down her face while she did so.
With an awkward expression the man guided his partner away quickly putting himself between her and Eika until they could get our of her range.
Watching them leave Eika fell to her knees with a wail, she hated that. Seeing two people happy, a man and a woman in love, it wasn’t fair, she had that once too, but it had been taken by her! She was married, had a child, was a stay at home mom with a near infinite budget to buy whatever she wanted but it had been taken from her in a single moment.
No, not one moment but many, days, weeks, how many times had she met that man? How many times while her husband was at work and her child asleep or in school did she call him over? The man with predator- like eyes, tank skin and flat blonde hair he always came. No matter the weather, hour or day he would be there in a moment's notice. And he did everything she could have asked for, it was amazing, if felt so wrong but so good. She knew she couldn’t stop, she couldn’t let go of him. She had to keep him, he was her dirty little secret, something she deserved.
But that is what led to her downfall, her husband had come home from work early one day, or maybe she’d just lost track of the time but he found them. Her in bed, naked with another man.
Kakune left so quickly you’d think he teleported, one moment he was in bed and the next he’d flown out the window with some kind of Yokai with his belt already pulled back on like some kind of yokai.
And oh how her husband cried, and begged to know why, why she would do such a thing, and she could only feel disgust. Kakune never cried, Kakune never begged, Kaknune never had responsibilities, Kakune never- It was endless, when had she stopped loving her husband? When had that love been given to Kakune instead?
She felt hatred for her husband, why had he come home? Why had he found her like that? It was his fault, he shouldn’t have stuck his nose where it didn’t belong. If only he’d kept himself to his own lane she’d still have it all!
And now here she was years later, her daughter old enough to be in high school and wanting nothing to do with her. Her ex-husband married a new woman who he had another two children with. And who was Eika but a woman of the night.
She was a house wife! Why should she be forced to get a job? That’s when men did, no she was far too valuable to slave over a fax machine or printer, to get arthritis from signing documents for decades.
“!”
Pain, it was the feeling of pain which assaulted her randomly. Her neck feeling as though someone had taken a hot knife to it she reached up and felt blood, warm thick blood pouring out of her neck she suddenly was looking up at the sky. Trying to straighten her neck again she found it impossible, of course there was no way she could. After all, her neck was only hanging on by a thread.
# # #
2:27
Uchiyama Satoko dies
# # #
2:28
Murakami Kaori dies.
# # #
2:28
Konaki Chuko Dies
# # #
2:28
Tougawa Ryuko Dies
# # #
2:28
Nishimori Marin Dies
# # #
2:28
Sunami Reina Dies…
# # #
2:28
Tochiki…. Dies
# # #
2:28
Dies
# # #
2:28
Dies
# # #
2:2x
DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES
DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES
DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES
DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES
DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES
DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES
DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES
DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES
DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES
DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES
DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES
DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES…
DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES…
DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES…
DIES DIES DIES DIES…
DIES DIES DIES…
DIES DIES…
Dies…
She Dies
# # #
2:31 PM
“I- I already said you can’t kill me!” Kakune screamed, tears running down his face as he laughed, not in joy but madness. Insanity, how many times had he died? How many lives had he lost? How many months, maybe even years worth of work had been ripped away from him by the man who stood over him. A man soaked in his blood with eyes not that of a human. A grin only a devil could wear and his katana like the scythe of death herself.
“428 times!” Kenji roared with laughter. “How many more times until you give out!?” He asked before once more slicing the man apart. This time into pieces so small you could fit them all into a pickle jar.
Without fail and with a flash of light Kakune was brought back to life, looking as he just had a moment before.
“O-okayu I give, I give god damnit! Stop, just stop!” He screamed out, crying as his nose dripped with snot down into his mouth. He wanted it to end, he needed it to end, please just let it end.
[Eye for Eye Tooth For Tooth] was the spell of Kakune Tooru, one which granted the man extra lives as if in a video game. Though unlike those lives which were earned through collecting 100 coins or eating a green mushroom in this world he earned so by sleeping with women. But not any women no, only certain women could fulfill the condition of the spell.
Only those who had chosen betrayal, who had broken the vow to their lever, they let their selfish desires take hold. The rules were simple, they could not be tricked, contrived or black mailed, no mind games could be done to them as per the condition. Only willingly breaking that trust, that vow and that promise could Kakune gain their morality.
Then when Kakune would take severe damage or die through [Clairvoyance] he would transfer that damage to those women. It was genius, fun for everyone and Kakune would never die. No one had ever gotten to kill him more than twice, he wasn’t the strongest Joshin ever of course, but he still could stand his ground. So he never imagined anyone could make him run out of lives like this- especially such a nobody. He shouldn’t be able to die, he was immortal!
At least that’s what he thought, in truth he’d just yet to encounter an opponent stronger than him. Someone who viewed him not as superior or a threat but a toy. Like a cat finding a mouse to play with.
“They’re people! Real women are dying because of-!”
SLICE!
Once more Kakune was killed.
“429!” Kenji cackled, titling his head back and drawing his blade above him to strike down the moment Kakune revived. “How many more will it take!?” He asked.
“You’re not human! I’m a sick bastard but you, you’re inhuman!” Kakune screamed, blood flying from his mouth like spit. “What are you!?”
At that question Kenji's mouth curled, lips ear to ear and turned upwards, his teeth shined white and his eyes narrowed to slits. “A Samurai!” Kenji yelled, swinging his Katana down once more, splitting the head of the Kakune clear in half down to the shoulders. “430!” He cackled.
With a flash of light Kakune returned, his hands grasping at his head feeling to make sure it was still there. “Help, Kuroyama! Help me damn it!” Kakune screamed out, he tried to crawl away from Kenji but with a series of whip-like sounds and spray of blood Kakune was turned to mush.
“431!”
“I give! I give! Stop, please this is my last life! I swear, I swear I’ll do anything! I’ll do anything for you!” Kakune cried out.
Kenji gave no response, his face stuck in that same cruel curved smile and hand wrapped around the guard of his Katana [Ikazou] he let a chuckle escape his throat. “400-”
“Stop damnit you beast! Kuroyama come do it, come kill him!”
“43-”
“Kuroyama damn you!” Kakune screamed out as hard as he could with a howl.
“432!”
With a final slash which cleaved Kakune straight in half the man had finally died, his two separate sections of his body flying in either direction, his entrails acting at the only form of connection between the two.
“That makes 469.” Kenji muttered, flicking the blood off his katana. “That’s how many lives I’ve taken.” Nodding in satisfaction at the number he turned his head towards the stair case which upwards towards the top floors with a wide smile “Kuroyama huh? He was important wasn’t he?”
2:32
[椿政博: Takatsubaki Masahiro] A reference to Suehiro Maruo, someone who I would consider the more dark Junji Ito. I’ve read quite a bit of his manga and I wouldn’t say I’m a fan- but I’m certainly intrigued by what he draws. He is known most for his manga Shojou Tsubaki.
[北西秋太郎: Hokusai Tokitarou] A reference to Hokusai Tokitarou and a quite on the nose one though I used different Kanji. He is most known for his wood art such as “The Great Wave of Kanagawa” as well as more… interesting pieces such as “The Dream Of The Fisherman’s Wife.”
[間駄登状: Mada Tōjou] Refrence to the Creator of Urotsukidōji as well as other infamous works he’s on my list to read one day. But I thought he would be a nice 3rd person to reference. Was this all a way for me to indulge in my Otaku knowledge? Yes, Absolutely!
[覚音亨: Kakune Tooru] The two kanji for his surname are “Memories Sound” and his first name Tooru is for “Passing through.” But it doesn’t mean much in that regard, ya see the pun is in the syllables. Ne To Ru, NTR, which if you don’t know… is a very infamous kind of romantic trope in Japanese fiction involving cheating and cuckoldry, something which for some reason is very popular in Japanese media despite many people's objection to it. So that was my inspiration for Kakune Toorus name and design. Also Kaku sounds like Cuck in Japanese. So Cuck Ntr, I thought it was funny. With his spell I also wanted to make it clear that the women who are part of it are not victims in the traditional sense, did they deserve to die? Of course not, but they also weren’t black mailed, convinced or mind controlled. They willfully cheated on their partner committing one of the biggest sins a human could commit against another human.
[白向弊富: Hyuga Heifuu] - The surname is means “White Facing.” means nothing really, his first name Heifuu is from “Abuse” and “Wealth.” Just kinda fits the theme of a man abusing women through plastic surgery and exploitation.
[佐挺味方: Sanu Mikata] The Kanji are “Left, Counter of Guns, and Friend” No real meaning on my part.
[久戸英花: Kudo Eika] The Kanji are Long Time, Door, English and flower. No real meaning on my part.
[内山悟子: Uchiyama Satoko] The Kanji are for “Mountain Opening.’ and “Wisdom child.” No real meaning on my part.
[村神香利: Murakami Kaori] The Kanji are for “Village God.” and “Perfume benefit.” No real meaning on my part.
[粉木衷子: Konaki Chuko] The Kanji are for “Flour tree” and “Heart child.” No real meaning on my part.
[東川留子: Tougawa Ryuko] The Kanji are for “East River.” and “Residing Child.” No real meaning on my part.
[西森真凛: Nishimori Marin] The Kanji are for “Western Forest.” and “Cold Truth” No real meaning on my part.
[崇波冷奈: Sunami Reina] The kanji are for “Adoring Waves” and “Cold.” While “奈” as a Kanji is used often for the sound “Na” not a real meaning, but it means “What.” basically. No real meaning on my part.
[栃木日子: Tochiki Nichiko] The Kanji are for “Horse Chestnut Tree.” and “Sun Child.” No real meaning on my part.
