As Night Abyss grew more active, the factions suffered increasingly heavy losses.
First, several veteran politicians died mysteriously in their own residences. Then key figures from several financial conglomerates met with "accidents" while traveling.
Every assassination was clean and precise. There were no witnesses, no trail of evidence, and even the cause of death was difficult to establish at first.
Public outrage put the police under intense pressure, but they could uncover nothing.
Panic spread through Nagatacho like a plague. The powerful figures who had once navigated the factions with ease, keeping everyone on their side, now hesitated even to appear in public.
Scheduled speeches were canceled, business receptions postponed at the last minute, and even routine parliamentary questioning saw widespread absences.
No one wanted to be next.
Even the prime minister's Miyako Family lost a member of its direct line to Night Abyss.
He was a young legislator from the Miyako Family, earmarked as a key figure to cultivate over the next decade.
But someone seized the opportunity to kill him during a trip to pay respects to his ancestors. Even the six bodyguards beside him, all trained by the Miyako Family and ready to give their lives for their master at any moment, failed to prevent it.
When the news broke, the Miyako Family's political plans fell apart. They had intended to groom him to contend for the next prime minister's position. Now their chances were slim.
Given the current situation, it was already difficult to groom their second-choice candidate in time.
But compared with them, the faction that truly suffered the most was the Naoe Faction.
The summit's failure had already left the Naoe Faction utterly disgraced.
The fall of the Cengfeng Family had torn a large chunk out of their power base, and that was only